“All right, let’s get this started!”
Ichika was raring to go, but Tatenashi blasely corrected him, “Actually, don’t worry about it. You may as well see the sights today.”
“Huh?”
“I’m still waiting on our informant. I haven’t been able to get in touch with her since yesterday. I’m going to go look for her. She’s likely in Kyoto, so I expect that she’ll try to find me.”
“Eh?”
Tatenashi winked at the confused Ichika and said, “Just have your fun. Leave it to me, it’ll be fine.”
“O-Okay...”
“And aren’t there some pictures you’d like to take?”
“Well... Yeah.” Ichika had barely touched the camera since he entered IS Academy, but it was the first thing Chifuyu had ever bought for him, so it was still very special. It had captured memory after memory—almost described their relationship.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it.”
“Yeah, I guess...”
“Well, get going then!”
Ichika reluctantly nodded. But he wasn’t one to dwell on things, and soon enough, he was heading out to the tourist attractions with the girls, looking forward to a day of photography.
“All right, Ichika! Why don’t we walk around together?” That was, of course, Ling. The others, though, had been waiting with bated breath for someone to broach the subject, and quickly staked their own claims.
“No fair, Ling! He should come with me instead!”
“Now wait right there! Was it not my idea to begin with?”
“No, it was mine. I can’t let my bride wander off alone.” Laura nodded to punctuate her insistence. Above the insistent demand, though, one person came up with a compromise.
“Why don’t we all go to different places? I mean, we were supposed to split up into groups of two anyway,” Charlotte suggested.
“I guess? I don’t mind.”
Charlotte chuckled, “If it’s fine with you, Mr. Cameraman.”
“I just hope I do my subjects justice.” Their banter, though, was cut short by another round of ‘Me! Me!’
“You can take a picture of me, Ichika.”
“Get me, Ichika!”
“You know I was a model in England.”
“Ah, Ichika. I’m sure whatever you choose will be wonderful.”
“Ichika... Don’t forget me...”
The pressure of hearing his own name over and over was beginning to get to him.
“Okay, okay, fine, I get it! Just pair up!”
As Kanzashi frowned, Charlotte wrapped an arm around her.
“I’ll go with Kanzashi.”
“Ah... Thanks...”
Everyone was impressed by her concern for Kanzashi’s difficulty in pairing up.
“Then I’ll go with Ling.”
“The childhood friends team, huh. Works for me.”
Houki and Ling.
“Which would leave myself and Laura.”
“Looks like it. Let’s enjoy ourselves.”
Last but not least, Cecilia and Laura.
“Anyway, we’ll head out after we decide on our spots. Ichika, you can go ahead, we’ll text you.”
“Got it. See you later, then.”
As Charlotte and the others waved goodbye, Ichika ambled down the road. This being autumn in Kyoto, there were throngs of sightseers around.
“Well, this is a mess. Guess I should take a detour.” Ducking down an alleyway between two houses, Ichika spotted a white cat staring at him. “......?”
It mewed as if beckoning him to follow, and he did, almost as if entranced. I wonder where it’s going to lead me. Passing out of the alley, he found himself following a narrow back street, then climbing a flight of stairs. Before he’d noticed, 30 minutes had passed.
Okay, that’s about enough. Charl should be texting me any minute. Just then, the cat leapt into the air.
“There you are, Shiny.” A woman, who must have been the cat’s owner, called out what must have been its name.
Her appearance was striking. Over one eye, she wore the handguard of a katana in the same way as Date Masamune. Her kimono was peeled back from her shoulders, open so low as to be nearly indecent. And attached to her right shoulder was nothing but a scarred stump. The one-armed, one-eyed woman puffed from a long pipe.
✦ ✦ ✦
She’s not Japanese, is she? Not with hair that red. That much was obvious. Her height, which would have been unbelievable for a Japanese woman, was only accentuated by the stiletto heels which provided a counterpoint to her kimono.
“Well, well. You look like trouble.”
“Huh?”
Another deep puff, purple smoke swirling around the mature beauty. Ichika was at a loss, having never been in a situation like this.
“Mmm. How should I put it? Woman trouble, usually. With a chance of bullets. It’s written all over your face.”
“...Huh?”
“Take care of yourself, you hear? Anyway—”
The cat perched on her shoulder, she spun around her kimono, as red as her hair, and made her exit.
“What the heck was that?” The sound of an incoming text stirred Ichika from his reverie.
[Ichika, we found a patisserie and it looks absolutely scrumptious. See you there!]
The included map, complete with ‘Here!’ circled in red, was definitely a Charl touch.
“All right, now to type that into Maps...” With cell phones what they were now, all he had to do was feed it the address and it would find the quickest route. Watching the projection display out of the corner of his eye, Ichika set off.
“Hmm... Ah, that’s some beautiful foliage.”
Snap. As he made his way there, Ichika snapped landscape after landscape on his film camera.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hey, Ichika! Over here!” Charlotte waved her arm energetically. Next to her, Kanzashi tentatively raised her hand.
“Oh, wow!”
What caught Ichika’s eye was their kimono— Charl’s a bright orange, Kanzashi’s a cool, relaxing pale blue. Each was printed with the crimson leaves of autumn, Charl’s hanging from branches as Kanzashi’s floated on the ‘water’ of her outfit. Each had a matching, calming beige belt.
“Ahaha, awesome! The guy selling candy was giving out free samples to girls wearing kimono! Thanks so much for picking one for me, and doing my hair to match.”
“I... I mean, everyone probably knows that much...” That kind of self-deprecation definitely marked her as just as much a Sarashiki as Tatenashi was.
“Really, though. I can’t believe how well it works on me. Mind if we get a picture?” Charl giggled. “Mr. Cameraman. If you don’t mind.”
“I’ll do my best...” Embarrassedly, Ichika raised his camera. “All right, here I go. Say cheese!”
Charl looked confused as the shutter snapped and said, “Cheese?”
“Huh?”
“Why is it cheese, anyway?”
“Why? I dunno, but she probably does.” Even Kanzashi was a little confused when Ichika made her think about it.
“I’m not sure. A tradition, I guess?” she replied.
“I thought the Japanese didn’t really like cheese though.”
“I mean, uhhh...” Charlotte didn’t mean anything offensive by it, but that was still a pretty awkward comment for Ichika and Kanzashi. If only because it had them wondering about why, exactly, ‘cheese’ was the word.
“I mean, I guess since you’re French, you’d know more about cheese, but...”
“Wait, really? I mean, I’ve made it before, but...” Charlotte cupped her chin in a palm.
“Wait, Charl, you know how to make cheese?”
“That’s amazing!”
As the Japanese duo lit up, she awkwardly tried to wave them off.
“No, no, it’s not like you think! I just did something in Home Ec, it’s not like I’m an expert or anything!” Charlotte just couldn’t stand both Ichika and Kanzashi looking up at her, their eyes twinkling, and she tried to change the subject. “What’s that compared to being able to tell which fish are good? I guess all Japanese people can do that.”
“Eh?!”
Their sweetfish skewers must have given her the wrong idea.
“N-No way! We can’t really do that, right, Kanzashi?”
“Well, umm... I mean, I can...” Kanzashi awkwardly flashed a V-sign. “Can’t you, Ichika?”
“Uh, I mean, I can’t do it like an expert, but I guess I can pick out good things for dinner.”
“What do you mean ‘like an expert,’ Ichika?”
“Umm... Like, blowfish and stuff?” Ichika was just waiting for the ‘oh, you mean someone who literally needs a license’ from Charlotte or Kanzashi.
“Anyway, why don’t we try out some of the desserts? The mochi dumplings look great.”
“They looked absolutely mouthwatering.” All else aside, Kanzashi couldn’t be wrong about something like that, and Ichika ducked under the red curtain of the cart selling them before sitting down.
“Hey, let me get a picture of the two of you eating them.”
“Really? Of that?”
“Yes, Charlotte. It’ll be a way to remember our trip.” It was rare for Kanzashi to be so insistent, and Charlotte nodded.
“Well, what if I said ‘please,’ Mr. Cameraman?”
“Okay!” Ichika lined up the two of them in front of a grove of bamboo in the viewfinder, then looked up.
“Wait, what’s wrong?” Charlotte looked at him quizzically.
“I... I just think it could be more striking.”
“Striking?”
“Like, you mean...” She tilted her head as she waited for Ichika’s answer.
“I know! Why don’t you feed each other? It’d be really cute!” Charlotte and Kanzashi weren’t quite sure what he meant, but the implications were enough to make them blush.
“Oh, really, you’re into that, Ichika?”
“Are you sure we’re not overthinking this?”
“Nah, it’ll be perfect!” Ichika tried to distract them from what they were thinking about his motivations with a pair of dumpling skewers, dripping with sauce.
“Ichika, you pervert...”
“You’re a creep. Not that I mind.”
Blushes from both sides.
“Okay, here goes.”
“Hold on a sec!”
“Charlotte, if you keep waving that around you’re going to get sauce—eek!”
The sauce from Charl’s dumplings went flying onto Kanzashi’s face. Seeing his chance, Ichika hit the shutter.