Blackout

Dear readers, this is the final chapter of the main story. From here onwards, I'll write about different routes of the girl Takuya will end up with. At the end of this chapter is a poll where you get to vote your favourites. Each of you are given three votes. PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR THE SAME GIRL. I'll write routes of the three girls with the highest results. The poll will last for 2 months. I'll come back to look at the results then.

   Day two of the field trip. Nitta has arrived from Tokyo early in the morning just so she could have her breakfast with us.

   ‘Nice job at the live.’ I tell her at the dining table.

   ‘Thanks. Did you see it live online?’

   ‘Sadly, no. I was still outside. I had to watch the recorded version.’

   ‘At lease you watched it. How was the first day of the trip, by the way?’

   ‘It was boring. I’m better off staying at my house.’ I tell her bluntly.

   ‘Yup yup~. You could know anything from the internet nowadays, so there isn’t much point in going to field trips anymore~.’ Suzu agrees.

   Sensei shakes her head while letting out a sigh. ‘The two of you really need to go out more often.’

   ‘No, thank you. I prefer the indoors.’

   ‘Me too~.’

   ‘What time does the seminar starts again, sensei?’ Nitta asks.

   ‘At 11. we could take our time with our breakfast, then get ready to go there at 10.’

   And that’s exactly what we did. Nitta especially took her time by taking lots of pictures of the food she’s eating.

   ‘...And I’ve uploaded them to Tw**ter. Now to log in to my In***gram account.’

   ‘I don’t want to sound like a nagging mother, but you really shouldn’t mess with your phone during meal time.’ I tell her.

   ‘I know I know. But an idol has to share her daily routine with her fans, you know?’

   ‘I hope, for peace’s sake, you didn’t mention anything about our location. The last thing I want is your crazed fans coming here and screaming to see you.’

   ‘Don’t you worry. I’m not that stupid.’

   After we finished our food, we head back to our respective rooms to get ready to go outside. Well, everyone except sensei and Futaki, since this is their room.

   Sensei got a van which is a seven-seater, so everyone could still fit inside even though Nitta is joining us. The only issue is the person sitting at the very back will hardly gets any cold air from the air-conditioners.

   ‘I’m sorry, this van is an old model, so there aren’t any air-conditioners installed at the furthest seat.’ sensei apologizes.

   ‘It’s okay, sensei. It’s not that far anyway.’ Nagano tells her.

   ‘Let’s draw lots for the privilege of sitting there.’ I suggest.

   Nitta stares at me.

   ‘You mean you’re not going to volunteer?’ she asks.

   ‘Why should I? I support gender equality.’

   Futaki slowly raises up her hand.

   ‘Since I’m the one with the least seniority here, maybe I should sit at the back.’

   ‘That won’t be fair to you, Futaki. Let’s just draw lots. It’s the fairest method, after all.’

   ‘And since we’ll be doing this anyway, we might as well draw lots for the front seat too.’ Nagano adds.

   This suggestion even made Suzu of all people excited.

   ‘Now I have a chance to have a seat all by myself~!’ she exclaims.

   Nagano ended up sitting at the back. Once again, the shotgun seat belonged to me.

   ‘It’s so hot back here~.’ she complains for the dozenth time.

   ‘Stop complaining. All of us agreed to do this.’ I tell her.

   ‘I know that, but still~.’

   ‘Say Takkun, can I have your seat when we’re going back?’ Suzu asks.

   ‘We’ll be drawing lots again for that.’

   ‘Aww~!’

   The venue of the seminar is located at the mall where the huge G****m Unicorn is. Thankfully, we arrived there with plenty of time to spare before it transforms.

   ‘All of you head inside first. I want to take a video of the G****m first.’ I tell them once we got down from the van.

   ‘You’re not going to run off and skip the seminar, are you?’ Nagano asks me suspiciously.

   ‘I won’t do that, okay? Just because I don’t want to be here it doesn’t mean that I’ll run off somewhere.’

   ‘The venue is at the Lower Ground floor. Come find us once you’re done.’ sensei tells me.

   ‘Got it.’

   And so I wait patiently in front of the majestic statue with a lot of other people just to see it transform right in front of my eyes. Ten minutes later, it finally happened. They actually have the sound and everything. A shame it’s not nighttime yet, or you can see lights coming out of it. I don’t really like the series, but there’s just something about a giant robot that awakens the supposedly dead flame inside me. Satisfied, I leave the plaza and head inside the mall.

   As per instruction, I head to the Lower Ground floor so that I could attend the seminar. When I found it, I immediately found out the reason sensei wanted to come here. In actuality, the seminar’s part of a wedding fair.

   There are all sorts of stalls being se up inside for matchmaking, studios that take wedding photos, Travelling agencies to promote honeymoon packages, and other love and wedding related stuffs. All the men I see inside are either an employee of some sort, or the boyfriend who accompanied his girlfriend to come here. The expressions of the latter were a mixture of dread and intense boredom. Honestly, I don’t blame them. I would rather spent ten hours standing right in front of the statue outside than one minute inside this boring place.

   After asking for the directions, I managed to find the place where the seminar takes place. It’s in front of a huge screen, and lots of chairs were lined up in front of it. I see the gang and sits down next to Futaki.

   ‘Has the seminar ended yet?’ I ask hopefully.

   ‘Actually, it hasn’t even started yet.’

   ‘Drat. I should have skipped, after all.’

   ‘I was about to apologize to you for doubting you just now, but I don’t feel like doing that anymore.’ Nagano tells me.

   ‘You don’t have to. i don’t really care.’

   I look at Suzu. She has the look of someone who’s about to fall asleep.

   ‘Do you think you can hang in there until this is over, Suzu?’ I ask her.

   ‘I hope so~. I just hope I won’t end up snoring~.’

   ‘What you shouldn’t end up is not falling asleep at all, Yoshinaga-san.’ sensei chides her.

   ‘I told you to not play game until late at night.’ Nagano chides next.

   ‘I couldn’t help it~. There was a limited time event~.’

   ‘Don’t worry, Suzu. We’ll use this time to master the art of sleeping without closing our eyes.’ I tell her.

   ‘Alright~! Let’s do this~!’

   ‘Don’t you two dare!’

   I don’t know how long I waited, but the seminar has finally begin. The one who’s doing the presentation and speech is supposedly a famous matchmaker. She starts by giving out advises on how to choose your other half and things. Naturally, we’re supposed to learn from her and give adequate advise during our consultations.

   Thankfully, the seminar only lasted for 30 minutes. With a round of applause form the audience, the matchmaker takes a bow and leaves the stage. I’m barely awake from the informative but still boring talk. Suzu has already fallen asleep. Sensei and Nagano has already gave up on her and let her enjoy her sleep. Futaki has taken down some notes like the diligent girl that she is. Nitta was polite enough, but she looked at her phone every once in a while.

   ‘Now that the seminar’s over, why don’t we spent some time at this fair?’ sensei asks us.

   ‘Do we really have to?’ I ask her with a dreaded tone. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, sensei, you’re the only one among us who’s old enough to get married.’

   She got all flustered.

   ‘I-I-It doesn’t matter, does it? Just take your time and walk around or something!’

   I look at the others. From their expressions, they probably figured out the real purpose sensei wanted to brought us here as well. Even so, none of them made a fuss. I guess I should follow their lead every once in a while. I get up reluctantly.

   ‘Fine, but please make your business here quick, sensei.’ I tell sensei.

   ‘Whatever you’re saying, Bandou-kun? It’s not like I wanted to come here, you know?’ she asks while averting her gaze from me.

   ‘Sure, sure.’

   She says to take my time and walk around, but that’s really difficult since there’s nothing much to do around here. I’m not interested in matchmaking, and I certainly have no interest in taking wedding pictures. And it’s really awkward to walk around here all by myself. As I said, literally every other guy here is either one of the staffs or accompanying his girlfriend or wife.

   ‘Having fun so far?’

   I turn to look who spoke. It’s Nagano.

   ‘Does it look like I am?’ I ask her.

   ‘Nope. You look bored out of your mind.’

   ‘I’m glad that you noticed. Now please stay away from me. The last thing I want is people mistaking us as couples.’

   ‘Excuse me! The couple over there! Would you like to take a trip to the Maldives?’

   ‘Our promotion for wedding photo shoots are really cheap right now! Would you like to come and take a look?’

   ‘Aaaaaaand it’s already too late.’

   Nagano giggles. ‘I guess it’s bound to happen when a boy and a girl are walking together in a place like this.’

   ‘Oh, whatever. I’ll go walk around at the mall. Call me when you girls are done.’

   ‘Sure.’

   On my way out, I see sensei standing in front of a matchmaking booth. She’s filling out a form of some sort. I sneak up on her to see what is it. It’s a registration form. And she wrote her age as 20.

   ‘You’re supposed to write your real age there, sensei.’ I tell her before I could stop myself.

   She flinches and turns to look at me.

   ‘Don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on someone, Bandou-kun?’ she demands.

   ‘I’d say it’s ruder to lie about your age.’

   ‘I’m not lying! I was this young too! A few years ago!’

   ‘I’m sorry miss, but he’s right. You have to be honest about your age.’ the female staff who was tending to sensei joins in the conversations.

   ‘...Yes, I’m sorry.’ sensei mumbles in shame.

   She cancels off the number 20 and replaces with a 23, her real age. She turns to glare at me.

   ‘Happy now?’ she demands.

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Good, now leave me alone!’

   ‘As you wish.’

   I bump into Nitta next. She’s looking at a pamphlet. She probably wasn’t that engrossed with it since she noticed me right away.

   ‘Hey there Bandou-kun. You’re leaving already?’ she asks while waving at me.

   ‘Yup. There isn’t much to see here, anyway. What about you? Looking for a vacation spot or something?’

   ‘Not really. I was looking for places that might be suitable for my job.’

   ‘Your job? Ah, you mean to take music videos.’

   ‘Yup. And make new songs too. Japan is beautiful and all, but one must always broaden her horizon when possible. Who knows? Maybe I can get some new ideas while travelling.’

   Obviously, I can’t say out loud that she’s an idol and everything. It’ll definitely cause an uproar if people found out about her true identity.

   ‘Got any ideal locations so far?’ I ask.

   ‘I’m thinking of Australia and Paris.’

   ‘Can you even speak English and French?’

   She smiles like I’m a small kid who asked a stupid question.

   ‘Bandou-kun, oh Bandou-kun. Haven’t you ever heard of a tour guide? Besides, it’s not like I’ll ever be alone. My production team will never allow it.’

   ‘Things happen, you know? What will you do if you got lost and have to rely on the locals?’

   Her face suddenly goes pale.

   ‘I, um, I’ll start to polish up on my foreign language.’

   ‘I’m glad that you’re motivated. Well, I’m leaving this fair. See you outside.’

   ‘Yeah. See you outside.’

   I was wondering where did Futaki and Suzu went. Turns out the two of them were walking all over the place and look for food and snacks. When I caught up to them, they’re eating some crepes. To be more exact, Suzu is. Futaki is just accompanying her.

   ‘This crepe is so delicious~.’ Suzu munches down a crepe with a blissful look.

   ‘Um, Yoshinaga-senpai? We’re having lunch soon. Are you sure it’s a good idea to have that?’ Futaki asks. ‘You just had a parfait and three chocolate bananas too.’

   ‘Wait a second. She had what?’ I ask.

   ‘It’s true. We went inside a cafe and she ordered all those things. All of them were gone in less than three minutes.’

   ‘It’s fine it’s fine~. You know what they say, we have a separate stomachs for our normal food and desserts. Would you like to try some, Takkun and Ha-chan?’

   ‘No thanks. Like Futaki said, we’ll be having lunch soon.’ I decline.

   ‘Me too. My appetites aren’t that big, so-’

   Her eyes widen.

   ‘Pardon me, Yoshinaga-senpai. What did you just call me?’ she asks Suzu.

   ‘Ha-chan. You’re Futaki Haruka, so you’re Ha-chan? Is the name too lame?’

   ‘No, not at all…Suzu-senpai.’

   Suzu’s eyes sparkles like a pair of sapphires.

   ‘Did you hear that, Takkun? She called me by my nickname!’ she asks me.

   ‘Yes. I heard her. You don’t have to be so excited about it.’

   ‘Well she’s such a far cry from you. You only used my nickname after I insisted.’

   ‘Hey, I’m not a girl, okay? I’m not comfortable with using nicknames!’

   ‘You said all that, but you had been calling me Suzu for almost a year now~.’ she says smugly.

   ‘Well I figured that you won’t stop bugging me if I don’t.’

   ‘Oh, you know me so well~.’

   It took sensei another half an hour to get her business done. And right on time too as it’s lunchtime. We are to have lunch at the cafeteria inside the mall.

   ‘Now don’t be too crazy. Whatever you order, make sur it costs less than 1,500 yen.’ sensei warns us before we look for food.

   I got a tendon set. Everyone else got cheap and affordable food so that the budget is not blown. And yes, Suzu still managed to finish her Indian chicken curry rice like she didn’t eat all those things earlier. After we ate our lunch, we leave the mall.

   Once again, we draw lots for the seats. Once again, lucky little me get to sit at the front. Suzu, on the other hand, has to sit at the very back. She has the look of despair on her the moment all of us pull the lots from Nagano’s hand.

   ‘I predict that my luck for the rest of the year will be terrible~.’ Suzu sobs as she gets inside the van.

   ‘You’re exaggerating, Suzu.’ Nagano tells her.

   Suzu puffs up her cheeks.

   ‘No I’m not~! You sat here just now too Aiai, you of all people should know how I feel!’

   ‘All right, I’m sorry. Just calm down, okay? I’ll buy you an ice cream or something when we reach our next stop if there’s a convenience store around.’

   That made Suzu happy in an instant.

   Our next stop is the Museum of Maritime Science. It’s a fancy word for a place where they keep ancient boats, ships and submarines and everything related to the sea.

   ‘Don’t boys usually get excited when they see warships and stuffs like that?’ Nitta asks me.

   ‘I would if they let me fire a shell or two, or at least a torpedo.’ I reply.

   ‘People like you are the exact reason gun laws are so strict in some part of the world.’

   Even though I said that, it wasn’t that bad at all compared to the Miraikan we went without Nitta on the previous day. They have the models of all kind of ships used for wards, fishing and much more, not to mention models of submarines too. We spent a good two hours for the tour to be over.

   Once we’re done here, we head to the Takoyaki museum. It’s called a museum, but it’s more like a huge restaurant with multiple takoyaki stalls inside. There was a convenience store right next to this place, so Nagano bought Suzu the ice cream she promised. Even after eating the ice cream, Suzu is nowhere near satisfied. She ordered takoyki from at least half the stalls in here and finished them all in less than fifteen minutes. Her appetite really scares me sometimes.

   Next stop, the Tokyo Trick Art Museum. There’s honestly nothing much to this place either. Inside are just some cleverly placed objects and pictures for you to take photos in. I’m not into this kind of stuff, so all I did was walk one round and wait outside while the others are having fun.

   The last stop for the day is the Ferris wheel. Each of the Ferris wheel is big enough to contain eight people. Being a party of six, all of us could easily fit inside.

   ‘Our field trip has already ended, huh? Time sure flies fast. I only had one day to enjoy it, so I’m far from satisfied.’ Nitta says as we’re slowly ascending.

   ‘That’s because you were working yesterday.’ I tell her.

   ‘I know that. Still, I wish we could have done this longer.’

   ‘No need to worry, Nitta-san. We could do this again next year.’ Nagano says.

   ‘Exactly. This time, we’ll make sure your schedule is completely free before deciding on where to go.’ sensei adds.

   Suzu and I, on the other hand, are less than enthusiastic at the thought. Unfortunately, the two of us are in the minority, so we have to follow their lead and brace ourselves for the next trip.