Chapter 53: A Little Sightseeing
We looked out the windows while chatting.
“The ocean is beautiful.”
“Yeah.”
Since we were driving along the coast, the sea stretched out endlessly to our left.
“When we lived in Tokyo, we didn’t get many chances to see the ocean, so this feels refreshing.”
“It was nothing but buildings everywhere, after all.”
“There’s so much nature here. I like it, I like it.”
“It feels different from the other world, too.”
Yeah. It really was beautiful.
“Everyone, we’ll soon reach a place where you can get an even better view of the ocean.”
Our lewd chaperone announced it.
“Are we going somewhere?”
“There’s a sightseeing spot along the way. Let me see… How was it pronounced again? Kakushima? Tsunoshima?”
“I’ve never heard either of those.”
“It’s Tsunoshima. This one, right?”
Elvis showed Linda the tablet.
“Ah, yes, that’s it. Tsunoshima.”
Please look at the road.
“Ayaka, do you know it?”
“Hmm? Not really. Are we going to an island?”
“I don’t know.”
Something like Enoshima?
I’d never been to Enoshima, though.
“It’ll be a surprise when we get there. How about we play dirty-word shiritori until then? It might turn into a one-on-one match between you and me, Yuu. Ayaka will probably be eliminated immediately.”
Ignore her. Ignore her.
“Linda, around what time will we arrive in Nagato?”
“I think we’ll arrive before noon. We’ll take a break there today. Elvis and I’ll investigate the area while the rest of you relax and enjoy the hot springs.”
So we would have the afternoon off.
“Are you investigating Riku and Shimane?”
“Yes. Riku was in Hagi. There’s still a possibility that he moved to Nagato, so we need to investigate. And, as you said, there’s also the matter of Shimane. Anyway, leave the demon town to us. Ah, we’re almost there.”
As Linda spoke, she turned left.
Ahead of us was a long bridge stretching into the distance, with a beautiful blue ocean on both sides.
“Whoa, amazing.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“The sunlight is sparkling on the water.”
“I didn’t know Japan had places like this.”
This place must normally have been quite popular.
Although there wasn’t a single person around.
“Pretty amazing, huh? Apparently, it gets unbelievably crowded during Golden Week.”
“There’s no one here, though.”
Wasn’t it Golden Week right now?
“Demons aren’t particularly fond of places like this. Well, then, let’s…”
Linda stopped the car around the middle of the bridge.
“Are we allowed to stop here?”
“There’s no one around, is there? Since we’re here anyway, get out and enjoy yourselves. We have plenty of time.”
“Oh, okay.”
I got out with growing excitement, and Ayaka and the others followed.
“Whoa, the ocean!”
“The breeze feels so nice.”
“Wow…”
“We have the whole ocean to ourselves.”
Nice.
“Does anyone live on that island?”
“Who knows? It would be pretty inconvenient. The residents are probably mostly sahagin fishermen.”
Apparently, the two demons weren’t interested in the ocean.
“Let’s take some pictures.”
“Oh, good idea. We couldn’t get a picture of the Kanmon Bridge.”
The Kanmon Bridge connected Kyushu and Yamaguchi.
The previous day, Ayaka and I had looked it up and learned that it was called the Kanmon Bridge because it connected Shimonoseki and Moji.
“Takanashi, let me take it. I’ll take one of you and Ayaka together. You can use it as your phone wallpaper or something.”
Since Takamiya offered, I handed her my smartphone.
“Peace!” we said together.
Ayaka and I stood side by side and held up peace signs.
“You two even synchronized those painfully ordinary peace signs.”
Takamiya said that, but she still took the picture for us.
“Seriously, you two are so proper. I’ll teach you what a picture that would get me flamed online looks like.”
Kitaura said that as she handed me her smartphone, so I got ready to take a picture.
Then Kitaura climbed onto the bridge’s railing.
Yeah, that would definitely get her flamed.
“Don’t fall.”
“I won’t. I’m an Assassin, said to be the strongest of all Rogue-type Jobs. I’m different from you.”
That was the first time I had heard that Assassin was the strongest Rogue-type Job.
Then again, I didn’t know much about other people’s higher-tier Jobs.
“Hina, try jumping.”
“Leave it to me.”
Kitaura, who was standing on top of the railing, jumped.
She easily soared several meters into the air.
I took a picture of her like that and looked at it afterward.
Somehow, it looked like a photoshopped image.
“Ayaka, can you do it?”
“I can jump, but I might slip when I land and fall into the ocean.”
Kitaura landed on the railing without any trouble.
“Takamiya.”
“Nope, I’m not doing that. More importantly, take our picture. The three best friends are taking one together.”
Takamiya handed me her smartphone, so I took a picture of the three of them.
Ayaka was holding up a proper peace sign, while the other two were fooling around.
I figured I’d ask them to send it to me later.
After that, we continued enjoying the ocean and taking pictures, but after about thirty minutes, we eventually got back into the car.
“Did you enjoy yourselves?”
Linda asked us.
“Yeah. It was really nice. Smartphones are wonderful. In the other world, their batteries died almost immediately, so we couldn’t take many pictures.”
“Definitely. I remember how quickly the battery ran out at first because we were using it as a flashlight and stuff.”
Same here.
The battery had drained rapidly on our first night there and died before we knew it.
The despair I had felt when my smartphone died was incredible.
It had already been out of range, but at that moment, it felt as though my connection to Japan had been completely severed.
“I’m glad to hear that. Make lots of memories like this, okay? Now then, we’re off to Nagato.”
“Linda, I’m hungry.”
“Me too. I got carried away and overdid it.”
Kitaura really had been pretty acrobatic.
I had even recorded a video, and I thought that one might genuinely go viral rather than get her flamed online.
“We’ll arrive in Nagato in about thirty minutes, so hang in there.”
We retraced the road we had taken, returned to the main route, and continued toward Nagato.