I started off in the direction he’d pointed towards. The road curved west, so I turned left down a back road instead. Jujo should be southeast from Akabane. So if I basically headed south towards the sun and turned left occasionally, I should make it. At least, that’s what I thought.
“Ughh...” But suddenly I arrived at a steep hill that must’ve had a thirty degree slope. I didn’t think I could make it up there even if I put it in the highest gear and pedaled lightly. I knew I’d been beaten, so I got off my bike and started pushing it uphill. Jeez, he’s sure making it tough right from the start!
I was panting a bit when I got to the top of the hill, but I got right back on my bike and started pedaling towards the sun. I came to a crossroad and turned left. Huh? But for some reason, the road began to curve in a U-shape. Wait, won’t this take me back the same way I came? I wondered, but if I backtracked and tried a different path, I would have to go down that hill I worked so hard to climb. Then I’d end up coming to stairs I couldn’t get down with my bike, and a bunch of other places that would lead me in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.
What the heck is going on?
There weren’t any houses or any other distinguishable buildings around, and all the roads crisscrossed at various elevations. It was like I was in the middle of a maze. I finally saw the road I needed to go on—below netting designed to prevent falling rocks. Just how in the world was I supposed to get down there?
At last, I realized the reason behind Yashiro’s smirk. He knew this was going to happen! He knew I was going to get lost. And I was lost. I was totally lost. Of course, at any time I could just pull up the GPS on my phone to figure out where I was. It wasn’t like I was up in the mountains somewhere with no cell phone signal. I was somewhere inside the twenty-third ward of Tokyo. But here I was, a high schooler, feeling like a lost little kid.
So I wasn’t actually lost, because I could look at a map on my phone and figure out where to go. I could stop being “lost” anytime I wanted. I was in this weird, pseudo-lost state.
“Oh, and make sure to take in the scenery as much as possible.” I remembered what Yashiro said, and started looking around to find out how to get to that road. I wondered if this was how Alice felt when she was in Wonderland. All kinds of thoughts popped into my head, like how it felt like I was in a dream, or I’d wandered into another strange world or fairytale or fantasy. I wasn’t usually a girly kind of person, but for some reason now that I was lost, I half expected the Cheshire Cat to materialize out of thin air at any moment.
Although the only animals that pop up out of nowhere around here are tanuki, I thought as I spotted one crossing the road. ...Wait, what? “Huh?! Tanuki?!” I squinted, not believing my own eyes. But it was definitely a tanuki. It wasn’t a dog or a masked palm civet. Huh? I am still in the twenty-third ward of Tokyo, right? It looks really healthy too. I just saw a tanuki in the middle of the city. Was someone pranking me? I gotta take a pic!
I went to take out my phone, but the tanuki plodded off into a hedge and disappeared right at the last moment. Darn it, I missed it! I was totally bummed. Just then, my phone vibrated. I checked the display. Kanon was calling?
“Hello?”
“Oh, Chi-chan? I was just wondering what you were doing.”
“I just saw a tanuki.”
“Huh? Are you in the mountains?”
“No! I swear I saw one!” I tried to convince her, but she didn’t seem to be buying it. (Later, I looked it up and discovered this was a popular place for tanuki sightings.)
“Well? Are you enjoying cycling alone?”
“I guess? I’m lost right now, though.”
“Uhh, are you okay?”
“It’s strangely thrilling.”
When you’re lost, you feel super anxious, but at the same time, it was exciting to be in unfamiliar territory. But again—I was just pseudo-lost. I could pull up a map and find my way at any time, so I was mostly just feeling excited.
Suddenly I heard Kanon giggling on the other end. “Well, I’m glad you’re having fun, Chi-chan.”
“I-I didn’t say I was having fun yet.”
“Yeah, yeah. See you at school tomorrow,” Kanon said, and she hung up. Honestly, that girl...
I put my phone away. I didn’t think I’d be able to find my way even from this high up, so I gave up and decided to go back down the hill. Once I was at the bottom, I went out onto the road. Looking around, I saw a sign for the department store in front of the train station.
Huh? After all that, I never even got that far away?! Feeling bummed, I decided to take the lower road that stretched out to the side. The scenery there was basically the same as it had been on top of the hill, but this path seemed to go a lot straighter to the southeast than the other one. I kept following it until I finally ended up at the intersection of the Kanjo number seven line.
Finally, a place I recognize...
Now I was close to my first destination. Yashiro had told me to avoid major roads, so I crossed the intersection and arrived at the Shakujii River near the hospital. I decided to call him with voice chat. “Yashiro, I’m at the Shakujii River.”
“Great job. Now can you follow the river upstream? If you keep going you should see a bridge called the Ita Bridge. Cross it and then head out onto a road called Nakajuku-dori.”
“Cross the Ita Bridge and go to Nakajuku-dori. Are you sure I’m not gonna get lost again?”
“Ha ha. You sound like you just fought your way through Inatsuki’s labyrinth.” He sounded incredibly amused. Yep, he did it on purpose. “Don’t worry. You’re not gonna get lost there.”
“If you say so.”
“But wasn’t it fun getting lost?”
“Well...yeah.” I hated to admit it, but I did have a lot of fun.
“It’s really sunny today, so I think you’ll like Nakajuku-dori at this time of day.”
“Hm? What’s the time of day have to do with anything?”
“You’ll see. Call me back when you get to Nakasendo Highway.” He hung up on me.
I decided to follow his instructions, and rode my bike upstream along the river. It was easy to ride through the vegetation there, and it felt nice too. After a while, I came to an old wooden bridge—the Ita Bridge—and then saw a sign for Nakajuku.
“So I guess I just gotta go along that road?” I pedaled across the bridge and arrived at the road. It was long and rolling, with easy slopes. With a sports bike, you could switch gears a little and make it up the hills with no problem. There were cars going up the road as well, but they were going slow since there were shops on either side, and lots of people were milling about.
I took my time and went slowly up the hill. The white afternoon sun was almost blinding. But just then... Huh? What’s going on? All of a sudden I experienced a strange feeling. With the white sunlight and feeling of weightlessness thanks to my bike carrying me effortlessly up the hill, I suddenly felt like I was floating. Like I had wandered into the world of daydreams. Suddenly I heard the melody from a song Yashiro had let me borrow start to stream through my head. I was pretty sure it was called “Chorale VI Cantus - Song of Aeolus.”