Tsunagari

Chapter LXXIII.

'A meteor shower?' I asked Tsubasa-sama, as we were taking breakfast together the next morning, together with the boys.

'Don't you ever watch the news?!' Gōjun muttered at me. 'It was on the news during the whole week!'

I giggled in embarrassment.

'Yes,' the blonde woman told me, excitedly. 'There's going to be one tonight and I'm impatient to see this!'

'Me, too!' I declared, with great eagerness, clasping my hands in front of myself. 'I'm sure that it's going to be absolutely magnificent!'

'And do you know what would be even more magnificent?' she asked, as she got out of her seat and moved to place herself behind me, putting her hands down onto my shoulders. 'It is to watch the meteor shower from the mountains!'

My eyes widened at her, and I held my breath, absolutely mesmerized just by the idea.

'As such, we're all leaving for Ichibangase on the spot!' she exclaimed, ecstatically, putting her forefinger up. 'And this time, we're taking my car! My bags are already in the boot! We're going to spend the whole weekend there!'

'Yosh!' Shunsui exclaimed, jumping to his feet, with the same enthusiasm. 'Let's go for it!'

Gōjun was grinning widely too, absolutely in for it. And so was I.

I didn't wait to hurry up to do my bags, but just as we were about to leave, suddenly, I remembered my mother and I hesitated.

'Don't worry!' Tsubasa-sama told me, with a gentle look, taking hold of my shoulders again. 'I spoke to Katsura this morning. She told me that she would visit her every day during our absence, so as to keep her company.'

Oh Katsura-san...

I felt extremely touched by the brown-haired woman's solicitude.

'I had called to ask Kenren and her to accompany us, but they won't be able to make it as they're going to be very busy due to the wedding. But, they do intend to watch the meteor shower tonight from the roof of their house together.'

We both blushed at the thought. It's going to be so romantic!

It was on this that we took the road for Ichibangase.

The region of Ichibangase was only plain wilderness for kilometers and kilometers round, with a chain of mountains in the middle. It was very far away from Kokubunji, but we were sure to arrive there by dusk even if we made a few stops. There exists a small Ryokan on top of one of the mountains and this was where we were headed.

By noon, we had made through half of our journey to our destination and we decided to make a stop at a small village named Jinmei to take lunch there. It was the first time that we were hearing of this village. The Village of Jinmei was very big and modern, and it was full of animation.

'Look! Apparently, they have a public aquarium!' Tsubasa-sama exclaimed, pointing at the board just outside of the door of the restaurant as we came out of it. 'Since we're here, let's go have a look!'

I nodded, eagerly. It was the very first time that I was going to have the chance to visit a public aquarium, and none of us was disappointed. The building was very large. It was like walking in a tunnel. The walls and the roof were made of glass, and through them, we could see several different aquatic animals, many of whom, I had only seen on television. It was like being under water.

'Oh my god! There's a live show with seals over there!' I heard Tsubasa-sama exclaim, at one point, and I looked at her over my shoulder where she was standing in the distance with Shunsui. She was pointing at the hall at the end of the corridor. They began to make for it together, and Gōjun- who was holding himself a few feet away from me- called out to me, 'Are you coming, Princess?!'