Chapter 30: Preparations
Summer break was officially started. Unfortunately, with things the way they are for Arata, this was going to be far from a vacation. It was his fault anyway, taking that job to help Hine and the other elderly folks.
Ever since the incident at the park, he was going to make extra sure that things wouldn't go wrong. They might not be children, but they are on the older side. Arata was writing down important numbers and notes about certain medical issues if it should ever come to that.
A knock at the door drew his attention, not what he was expecting. After all, he told everyone to meet him at the bus station, where they would take the bus to their location. Everyone in this case being Yogi and the gang. Matsu and her club actually had their own field trip in relation to gardening that they were taking elsewhere.
When he opened the door, it was Erina that greeted him. She didn't say what she was going to do, but he would've expected her to go to Yogi's place to walk to the bus with him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, looking at her confused. She returned a look that made it seem like he was the crazy one here.
"Well I thought you'd want someone to walk with you." She answered. Letting herself in, something that he still didn't like about her.
"I'm probably the last person that'd need a partner." Despite his words, he was a little glad to have her with him. Arata would never admit this to her face. "By the way, I'm sorry about that whole deal with me and Misei." He apologized. All that time spent with Misie, he hadn't been very helpful with supporting her with Yogi. Considering the fact that he was being blackmailed, probably not a good idea.
"Oh no worries about that." She brushed it off, like nothing. "Just gotta work twice as hard me for this time, right?" He wished he could take that smug look she had at him right this moment. He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in response to her.
"Whatever, sure." He said. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the dirt you've got on me." She giggled, and at this point it was time to depart. Arata doubled checked, and hoped that everything was in order. It would be a shame to forget something now.
"You look pretty happy." As they were walking, Erina couldn't help, but notice the glow that emitted from him. It was pretty rare seeing how joyful he was feeling.
"I do, I guess you could say I'm pretty excited for this trip."
"You of all people? That's a surprise."
"I would've thought you of all people would know what I'm talking about. After all, it's why we even know each other in the first place." He was pointing to the fact that he was an otaku. Something that wasn't initially clear to her.
"The reason? My blackmail… Wait a second, you're kidding me. You can't honestly be talking about those types of episodes."
"Ha! You know it." He laughed. Normally, there would be no way he'd talked about this to anyone else, but she was in on his secret, so what was there to lose? "Every protagonist gets that opportunity to live a beach episode. So what are the odds that some background guy like me gets that in real life." He may not have been the center of this harem, but he was certain to enjoy this.
"For someone that likes to avoid people, you sure are enjoying that idea." Erina couldn't believe what she was hearing. Of course, given most of the girls' status at school, this was most likely a dream for a lot of boys at school.
"Just because I don't care for being with people, doesn't mean I don't like to look at some of them." He replied. Then he remembered someone else. "Oh I gotta tell them about this."
"Tell who about what?"
"Oh sorry, I mean my online friend. They're a pretty big fan of anime too." He had been chatting with them for a while now. Shortly after the Summer seasonal anime began, that was when he met them in a forum for a currently running show.
"Sounds odd to hear that you made a friend."
"Oh I'd hardly call something like this friendship." he denied her belief. "I mean, it's just online stuff. We don't even know what the other looks likes. All I know is that they're from the United States."
"The United States? I didn't realize how good you're English was."
"Oh no, they say they're half-Japanese. Even if that's not the case, they certainly understand Japanese very well." He shot off a message to them, hoping that they'd read it soon. Unlikely due to time zones.
At this point, that had reached their destination. They were met with the rest of the elderly folks that Arata was responsible for. At this point, it was still a little early for the agreed upon time, so the teens were yet to arrive.
"Ah. You're on time." Hine said to them as they walked up.
"On time? Aren't we a little early?"
"Well for her at least. I was hoping you'd get before the others, I have something to give you." She handed him a piece of paper. On it was the bus layout, with some of the seats marked with an 'X'. "We've already gotten the seats for everyone reserved."
"Wow, I guess I'll just tell the others…" Taking a closer look at the paper, he noticed that there was nothing actually marked for who was sitting where. "Uh, where actually is everyone sitting at?"
"There was another thing I wanted to say." She replied. "You, Arata Kashimura, are taking full control of this vacation."
"What?! Me?" He was awestruck, looking over to Erina, she was feeling the same way. "Why? Isn't this your vacation?"
"Oh, of course it's your responsibility to make sure we have a good time." She responded. "But we're a bit old, don't you think that it'll take too much energy for us to properly enjoy this time." That was a good point she brought up. Could he handle that responsibility though?
"We ain't that old yet." One of them said. "But she's right, and you better not mess anything up!" It was a little scary hearing that. He didn't want to disappoint them, that would cut into his bottom line.
This convinced him to take command. Of course, while she wasn't lying about their age. It wasn't like they were some decrepit fossils. However, Hine was hoping he'd use this opportunity to his advantage with his situation, or perhaps for himself. It technically didn't matter.
With his first task, he studied the seats that they had. He knew it would be best to keep the elderly and the youth separate. The two groups would probably rather sit with someone they at least knew. Especially since this trip was going to be roughly two hours.
He divided the groups with him and his friends being on the back half of the reserved seats. That way, he could minimize the walking that the older folks would have to do, as well as put himself in a place where he could keep an eye on everyone.
With the important aspects taken care of, he knew that pairing up the seats was going to be something that mattered. Not for any reason other than the love game he was stuck in.
He couldn't just put Erina and Yogi together. That would just be too obvious, and the others were going to let him have it. There had to be a better way to set this up, while racking his brain, the others were making their entrances.
"Hello everyone." Misei and Misao were the first to arrive. Not unexpected, they were always very punctual. Shortly followed by Akaki, Akiba, and Yogi as a trio. Yuriko was the last to show up, which given that she lived close to Arata, meant that she left home a lot later than him.
"Hello to you all." Hine welcomed each and every one of them. "So you must all be Arata's friends. I've known him for a while now, so I'm sure you're all wonderful people." This was a partial lie, since she knew he was only with them for one reason. At the same time, from what he had said about them, she was fairly sure that they were indeed good people.
"It's an honor to meet you." Misei lead the conversation for everyone. "I believe you're the lady that Arata gardens for? Forgive us, but I don't believe he's talked much about you?"
"Oh he hasn't, has he?" She shot a glare at him, sending a chill up his spine. Given how desperate he was to keep his secret, combined with trying to work with Erina to succeed in their plans. There wasn't much he actually talked about that concerned his personal self.
"S-sorry." He said to her, not that she was that upset about it.
"Anyway, for this trip. I'd like to inform everyone that I've given Arata full control. So he gets the final say on the things we're doing." She received some protest for this, mainly in the same vein that he said to her. "Don't worry, I'm sure that he'll do a wonderful job. Like I said, I've known him for a while now and he's always been so hard working." That may have been the case, at least with money involved. However, he was concerned that he might not have the competence to handle this.
"Yeah, and his first job is giving us our seating arrangement. It's like we're kids or something." The same lady that spoke up complained again. He understood her issue, but it was also making him more stressed out in making sure he was doing a good job.
"Oh please Monju, you'll scare our guide." Hine was not that concerned about her, like she was used to this by now.
"If he's scared, then he's not fit to lead us." She replied. "And that's Akata to you." She directed this to the youth, mainly Arata.
"R-right… Akata." He answered her as politely as possible.
"Looks like the bus is rolling up now." Akaki pointed them to where their vehicle was heading.
"Ah. Looks like it is." Hine continued. "So, Arata have you finished the seating arrangement?"
"Yeah… Did you?" The looks he got from everyone not named Yogi really put him in the spotlight. At this moment, he just wanted to run away. This arrangement he came up while talking, he was certain this would be perfect. It was time to sell it.
"Ha. I've been finished for a while now." He turned the page over for them all to see. Trying his best to keep cool.
"Not too bad." Said the grumpy Monju. The rest of the elderly agreed and made their way once they saw their spots.
"So… What do you guys think?" He asked, hoping to get minimal resistance.
"I love it." Said Yogi. "I get to sit by my best friend." He gave Akaki a fist rub over his head. "Plus I get an aisle spot, so that's cool with me too." He was glad that someone liked it, would it work with everyone else?
"I guess it's fine with me." Yuriko commented as she looked. The rest felt the same way as they saw their spots. As they filed in, Erina pulled him aside before they entered.
"What's wrong with you? Why did you put me next to Yogi?" She asked him, feeling a little upset. After seeing everyone else being okay with this, she didn't want to speak up against him.
"Maybe you should take a closer look at this." He opened up the paper again. While it may be true that he put the two best friends together. There was more to seating than the pairs per seat. After all, he made sure that Erina was sitting on the aisle across from him, allowing her to converse easily.
On the other hand, Misei had the window seat next to Erina. For the row behind the first, Arata had placed himself and Misao on the aisle half, with Akiba and Yuriko respectively on the window half.
"Don't you see? There's a natural barrier between the other girls and Yogi that you don't have." Once he explained it to her, she glowed up again in excitement. She leaped up onto him in a hug.
"Oh thank you, thank you…" She repeated that phrase a few more time before letting go.
"It's no problem, let's just get on before it's too late." She nodded in agreement and hopped on.
With all their luggage packed, everything should be in order for this vacation. Arata was the last to get on, finding his spot behind Erina, which was also next to Akiba. He may not talk to her often, but she always seemed so sweet. This should be a good bus trip. At least... that was the idea.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone