‘Good morning, Akira-kun.’

   I wake up with Assaf-sensei lying down right next to me. She’s softly caressing my hair with her hand. The next thing I notice is the smell. I look tawards the kitchen and sees Kuromi standing in front of the stove. And she’s wearing nothing but a black apron with white frills. I think it’s supposed to be a replacement for her usual maid uniforms.

   ‘Good morning, Assaf-sensei. Good morning Kuromi.’

   Kuromi hears my voice and turns around.

   ‘Good morning, master.’ she greets back while flashing me a smile. ‘Breakfast will be ready soon, so please wait for a while.’

   ‘Got it. Thanks for the trouble.’

   I slowly get up and sits on my bed. Assaf-sensei does the same.

   ‘How did the mission with capturing the extremists go?’ sensei asks me.

   I proceed to tell her everything that had happened right after the rest of us has departed .

   ‘I’m not trying to rain on your parade, but this is far from over.’ she cautions me once I’m done. ‘After all, not all their leaders are caught yet.’

   ‘I understand. It’s suicidal to think otherwise.’

   ‘Still, all of you did a good job. I reckon that the extremists are pulling apart their hairs in frustration after losing two of their most important members.’

   ‘I just hope that they’ll stop thinking of doing things like trying to corrupt foreign Gods.’

   ‘Let’s face it. There’s no way that they won’t.’

   I let out a sigh. She’s absolutely right. I just hope that all of them can be caught before they succeed.

   ‘Breakfast is ready.’ Kuromi calls.

   I crawl out of my bed and go to Kuromi so that I could give her a kiss on the lips. She fidgets around bashfully before continuing with her cooking.

   While waiting for her to be done, I sit down at the small dining table right opposite the kitchen. It’s so small I have to sit cross-legged to be comfortable. Assaf-sensei sits down right next to me. Once Kuromi is done, she puts down a plate full of food and a pair of cutleries on it. Today’s menu for breakfast is omelette, bacon and baked beans. I then realize that I’m the only one with a plate full of food.

   ‘Have the two of you eaten already?’ I ask them.

   ‘Yes master. We already have.’ Kuromi answers.

   ‘It’s already kind of late, after all.’ Assaf-sensei adds.

   Upon hearing those words, I take out my phone to look at the time. It’s already 11.34.

   ‘Blimey.’ I mumble.

   I pick up the fork and knife and cut a tiny piece of omelette apart. I then put in inside my mouth. It’s cooked just right, so it’s not too solid or too watery.

   ‘Your cooking skills have improved yet again, Kuromi.’ I compliment.

   Kuromi bows. ‘I thank you for your kind words.’

   ‘By the way, where are the others?’ I ask them.

   ‘Considering that they haven’t knock on the door, I take it that they’re still sleeping.’ Assaf-sensei tells me. ‘Those poor things must be really tired. Maybe we should take things slow today. It’s not like we’re in a hurry.’

   ‘Agreed. And speaking of haven’t knock on the door, how did the two of you managed to come in?’

   Assaf-sensei flashes me a plastic card. It looks a lot like the key card I was given when I paid for this room.

   ‘A little gift that I received from Kojima-san.’

   ‘One of these days, I really need to have a talk with her.’

   ‘By the way, master. How do you find my outfit?’ Kuromi asks me all of a sudden.

   ‘I have so many things to say and ask that I don’t even know where to start.’

   Kuromi looks at Assaf-sensei.

   ‘What should I do, Assaf-sama? Contrary to your assurance, master is not getting excited at all.’ she asks her.

   ‘Strange. I thought all boys love naked aprons.’

   Oh, I love it all right. My crotch is certainly honest enough. I’m just glad that the table is blocking the view to my pants, or the two of them would definitely have seen the bulge.

   ‘At least give her a compliment or two. She went through all this just for you, you know?’ sensei chides me.

   ‘Oh, all right.’

   I look at Kuromi up and down. The usually calm-looking Goddess is being all fidgety and waits for my comment expectantly.

   ‘Well, you’ve combined naked apron and maid uniform into one, so I guess you get an excellent mark for effort. And you look really nice in it.’ I tell her.

   ‘Your kind words are wasted on the likes of me. Even so, thank you very much.’

   Kuromi may sounds calm, but she looks absolutely ecstatic on the fact that I have just complimented her.

   ‘Please know that I am always available to be the instrument which you release your carnal desires at all times.’ she tells me next.

   ‘That’s it. The two of you are not allowed to be alone with each other anymore.’

   ‘Come now, that’s not fair.’ Assaf-sensei complains. ‘Do you know how long it took me to teach her all the sexual knowledge I’ve gathered over these past centuries?’

   For those of you with short memories, no, she’s not exaggerating when she said centuries. On a random occasion, I’ve asked her how long had she been living out of curiosity. She told me that it was so long she couldn’t even remember it, but she did remember that people around the world has started using telephones when she was more than one hundred years old. In other words, Maria Assaf has been living way before the first telephones were invented, which is like at least two hundred years ago.

   ‘I’m going to regret asking this, but where and how did you even got all those knowledge from?’

   She shrugs like it’s no big deal. ‘When you get to live as long as I did, you get to meet all kinds of people, and I mean all kinds. I mingled with them and obtained as much knowledge from them as I could. That’s one way to pass the time when you’re pretty much immortal.’

   ‘You must have been very bored.’

   She shrugs again. ‘When you have too much time, literally anything can amuse you. While I was not out there torturing people or reanimating corpses, I mingled among the normal people and tried to learn something from them.’

   I finish eating my breakfast. Kuromi helps me clear the plate and the cutleries away. I take out my phone again as it starts to vibrate. It’s probably one of the girls.

   ‘Good morning everyone~! Anyone awake yet?’ Sakuya

   ‘I am. Assaf-sensei and Kuromi are here with me.’ me

   ‘I see that sensei has used my gift.’ Madoka

   ‘You and I are going to have words later, young lady.’ me

   ‘I don’t remember doing anything wrong that’s worth being lectured.’ Madoka

   ‘More importantly, are we going out today? Honnō-ji awaits!’ Ichika

   ‘Exactly! I’ve been waiting too long to miss this part of the trip!’ Kaoru

   Wow. They’re really excited to go there.

   ‘I don’t mind. I’m still kind of sleepy, but I can at least take a stroll.’ Saya

   ‘Same here.’ Yui

   ‘Mashiro too.’ Mashiro

   ‘Your big sister doesn’t mind as well.’ Sakuya

   ‘I guess it’s decided then. We’re be heading out in 5 minutes, so get ready.’ me

   ‘Remember to wear something warm. The temperature out there is kind of cold today.’ Assaf-sensei

   ‘We sall see all of u later.’ Kuromi

   ‘You’re still not used to typing, huh?’ I ask Kuromi.

   ‘My apologies, master. I promise that I will get better so that I would not put shame on you.’ Kuromi apologizes while blushing.

   ‘Just take your time. Pretty much everything requires practice, after all. Even this.’

   ‘He’s right, Kuromi-san. Remember to practice what I taught you as well.’ Assaf-sensei adds.

   ‘...Let’s just wait for them at the entrance.’ I tell them. ‘And Kuromi? Please change into something decent before you head out.’

   ‘I shall do as you commanded, master.’

   With that, her apron transforms into a casual wear suitable to be worn during cold weathers.

   The rest of the girls arrived at the entrance right on time. Most of them are yawning and look kind of sleepy, but otherwise all of them look prepared to head out.

   ‘Do you girls want to have some breakfast before heading to the temple?’ I ask them.

   ‘Absolutely! I’m starving!’ Saya replies.

   Those who haven’t eaten yet nod in agreement.

   ‘All right, then. Let’s go eat first.’ I say to them.

   After a five minutes walk, we found a restaurant that serves Chinese food. It’s not very crowded, so we went inside for our lunch. I was still kind of full from the breakfast just now, so I just ordered some dumplings and called them a lunch. Everyone minus Kaoru is ordering a modest portion of food.

   ‘It’s still amazing no matter how many times t look at it.’ Sakuya says in awe after Kaoru devoured her mountains of food enough to feed ten persons not even five minutes after they were served.

   Kaoru blushes at that.

   ‘I’m sorry for showing you my embarrassing side once again, senpai.’ she tells Sakuya.

   ‘No no. There’s nothing to apologize about. I just thought that it’s amazing. Isn’t that right, Akira-kun?’

   ‘That’s right. Just eat as much as you want with your head held high.’

   ‘Got it, aniki.’

   Now that our stomach is filled, we head to probably the most famous temple in all of Japan. It was quite close to the bunker we were staying at, which is why it only took us ten more minutes to reach there.

   Mind, this isn’t the real Honnō-ji. The original one was burned down in 1582 during the infamous Honnō-ji incident. A rebuilt was eventually ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but he had the temple reconstructed on a different site. After that, it was constantly being renovated for maintenance reasons. To be honest, I doubt it can still be called Honnō-ji after the relocation and all the renovations, but I’ll just keep my opinion to myself since I might offend history fans.

   Both Ichika and Kaoru are absolutely ecstatic to be here. Even the usually calm and collected Ichika is looking around with sparkling eyes.

   ‘Don’t get too excited and bother other people, okay?’ Sakuya cautions them.

   ‘Understood!’

   ‘Yes!’

   I can’t believe that there would be a day when Sakuya is the one who’s telling Ichika not to get too excited. I think it’s going to rain spears later.

   Other than us, there are a few groups of tourists wandering around the temple as well. I immediately went full alert mode.

   ‘Say, they wouldn’t be you-know-who, would they?’ I ask Madoka in a soft voice.

   ‘I don’t think so. I could more or less tell when someone is being suspicious, but none of those people are acting like they’re here for reasons other than sight-seeing.’

   ‘I hope you’re right.’

   We follow those two from behind while looking around leisurely. When we reach the entrance to the temple, which regretfully cannot be entered, I go to Yui.

   ‘Do you think the spirit of Oda Nobunaga is in there?’ I ask her.

   ‘No, Akira-kun. I don’t detect any form of spirits in there at all.’ she replies.

   ‘Aww, bummer.’

   ‘Seriously, you too Akira-kun?’ Saya asks while looking a little fed up. ‘The boys at our class asked her the same question to Yui when we were here during our grade school school trip.’

   ‘Hey, can you blame us? Oda Nobunaga’s the only reason we’re here, you know. Can’t exactly blame us if we want to get a glimpse of him.’

   ‘It’s practically impossible for his soul to be bound at this temple anyway. Generally, earthbound spirits can only remain at this world so long as the location which they die at remains. Since the real Honnō-ji was burned to the ground, he would have ascended to Heavens. Or went down to Hell.’ Yui explains.

   ‘Again, bummer.’

   The rest of us wait patiently for Ichika and Kaoru to be done with this place. Out of respect, they didn’t take a single picture of the temple. They had to make do with burning every single corner of it into their mind.

   After we got out, the two of them look extremely satisfied.

   ‘That was extremely fun.’ Kaoru says.

   ‘Indeed. I would love to come back again one day.’ Ichika agrees.

   I would definitely want to pass as there’s no way I want to come back here for the fourth time, but what can I say? Two of my beloved girlfriends like this place a lot, so I guess it’s inevitable.

   ‘So what next? Any suggestions?’ I ask the girls.

   ‘We could walk around the streets while being dressed by in kimonos and stuff.’ Sakuya suggests.

   ‘That sounds nice.’ Assaf-sensei agrees. ‘We could all dressed up as something that would make Akira-kun excited.’

   ‘Um-’

   ‘But Akira-kun likes maids. Won’t we look out of place if we dress up as Western maids in the streets of Kyoto?’ Saya asks.

   ‘Hey-’

   ‘Not at all. There’s such a thing as Eastern maids, remember?’

   ‘Oh, right.’

   ‘Girls-’

   Madoka’s phone is in her hands in a flash. ‘No need to worry. He has other fetishes besides maids.’

   ‘Madoka, did you go through my computer again?’

   ‘I needed to borrow your computer since mine was broken.’ she tells me in a monotonous tone.

   ‘That’s a lie and you know it!’

   ‘Now now, it’s fine right? It’s not like she’s going through your computer with malicious intent.’ Sakuya tells me.

   ‘Still doesn’t justify the fact that she did something that’s basically illegal.’

   Meanwhile, Madoka’s phone is being passed around.

   ‘Wow, so this is what Akira-kun likes.’ Saya comments while staring intently at the phone.

   ‘I don’t think I have the courage to dress up in some of these costumes.’ Yui says while blushing.

   ‘Me too.’ Kaoru agrees.

   ‘Neither could I.’ Ichika says as well.

   ‘Really? These are really tame though.’ Assaf-sensei says. ‘At least, compared to what I’ve seen some women wear.’

   ‘Mashiro cannot even wear some of those since her body is underdeveloped.’ Mashiro says while looking dejected.

   ‘Don’t worry, Mashiro-chan. I’m pretty sure that there’s something that you can wear.’ Sakuya comforts her.

   I raise up my hands and give up. ‘Let’s just go find one of those costume rental shops, yeah?’

   Madoka points towards a direction. ‘There’s one that way.’

   The costume shop is just a three minutes walk away from where we were. The girls start to choose their costume excitedly right away.

   ‘Aren’t you going to choose an outfit as well, Akira-kun?’ Sakuya asks me when she noticed that I’m just standing at my spot.

   ‘Nope. Not interested.’

   ‘I vaguely remember that you promised to wear a hakama at the festival.’

   ‘Exactly. I promised to do that during a summer festival. It’s not even spring now.’

   My conversation with Sakuya caught the attention of Saya and Kaoru.

   ‘Wait a second.’ Saya begins.

   ‘You’re wearing a hakama, aniki?’ Kaoru ends with a question.

   ‘Yeah, but during summer festival.’

   ‘Why not now?’

   ‘We have lots of different styles of hakamas. If you don’t fancy them, we have other traditional clothes for men as well.’ a staff that appears out of nowhere shows me two varieties of hakamas.

   I was about to politely decline when I notice Saya, Kaoru and even Ichika is holding their phone while drooling for a bit. I sigh in defeat and take the gray one the staff is holding on her right hand before going inside the changing room.

   I hear the camera sounds all around me the moment I step outside. None of the girls are in their costumes. They were probably waiting for me to come out.

   ‘Yes, the hakama fits you perfectly.’ the staff tells me after going one round around me.

   ‘Thank you. By the way, aren’t you girls getting changed?’ I ask them.

   ‘Right after I got three more picture.’ Assaf-sensei tells me. ‘No, make it five.’

   ‘Dear me, I could never get used to this.’ Kuromi mumbles while struggling to get a picture of me.

   ‘Here Kuromi-san, let me help you.’ Sakuya offers.

   Sakuya patiently teaches the maid on how to take a picture with her phone.

   ‘I thank you for your assistance.’

   ‘You’re welcome.’

   After they had enough of taking my picture, they finally go inside the changing room to get changed. When they come out, it’s my turn to take pictures.

   Sakuya is wearing a black kimono that has a slit on the right side of her skirt that starts at her thigh. Her beautiful blonde hair is tied to a bun.

   Assaf-sensei is wearing a red kimono. She has slightly shifted the top of her kimono so that her shoulders and half of her breasts are revealed.

   Madoka is dressed up as a female ninja. Her whole outfit is kind of skimpy with fish-net shirt in the inside, a short-sleeved black shirt on the outside, and a pair of black shorts and a pair of fish-net stockings. Her hair that reached to her neck is tied up behind her head as a ponytail.

   Yui and Saya are wearing matching shrine maiden outfits. They’re quite similar to the shrine maiden uniform that Yui wore at Okumiya shrine, Mount Fuji. The only obvious difference is that the skirt for the ones they’re wearing right now reach until their knees instead of their ankles.

   I was half-expecting Kaoru to dress up as a samurai, but she came up wearing a green kimono. Her hair has been set like a geisha’s with multiple hairpins stuck to it.

   Mashiro is wearing a pure white kimono with puffy sleeves. I noticed that she’s slightly pouting. Maybe the staff treated her like a little kid.

   Ichika is wearing a purple kimono. Even though the design of hers is pretty similar to the others, but somehow it looks extremely good on her, probably due to the fact that she looks like a classic Japanese beauty.

   Instead of her usual Western maid outfit, Kuromi is wearing the uniform worn by the waitresses working at Japanese Sweets shop. It consists of a green long sleeved kimono with a skirt that only reaches until her thigh and a pair of thigh-high socks. She also has a white frilly hairband on her head.

   ‘All of you look very nice.’ I compliment.

   The reaction the girls have is a mixture of bashfulness and smugness.

   Before we leave the shop, we stored our clothes inside the provided lockers. For the rest of the afternoon, we spent the time walking around the streets and eating taiyaki, dangos and other Japanese sweets at the stalls we stumbled upon. We also took quite a lot of pictures.