164 The Tour On Southern Higashiyama

※~・Arc 12: An Eccentric Toontopus・~※

Hey, Shun here!

Have you ever experienced going to a place for a serious business but then you ended up touring the whole place because… Why not?

I remember going to a friend's hometown to make a project but then, we ended up going to different local attractions. That day, we didn't manage to finish the project in time.

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(Shun's POV)

While I was looking at the students, who doesn't seem to be too far away from my and Mutsuko-san's age group, the petite girl who's walking from behind the group of six she is in looked at my direction. She's wearing a pair of glasses, with her black colored hair styled into twin braids that reach just below her shoulder and dark purple eyes.

Since it might be weird if I hold the eye contact for far too long, I just looked at her briefly before smiling slightly. She seemingly became a little embarrassed about it so she immediately looked down.

Her friends seems to have noticed her weird behavior but I already removed my gaze from them and concentrated my eyes at the guys who seems to be trailing behind them. There's even a car parked just a few ways away from them with a few of the students occupying it.

"Hmm…" Whilst I was deep in thought, someone suddenly tugged on my shirt. When I looked to see who it was, I found that it was Tama and also Rokuko who seems to be slightly curious.

"[Admin-sensei]~? Tummy hurt~?"

"Are you okay Shun? You haven't talked since we arrived here you know?"

"Is something wrong Shun-kun?"

I smiled at their worried gazes before saying.

"I'm fine guys. I was just thinking about something…"

To reassure the still worried Pochi and Tama, I patted their heads to calm them down.

"So it was nothing. Then, what do we do now Shun?" Rokuko inquired while tilting her head.

"Do you have any plans, Shun-kun? I was thinking of looking around for a bit. I already have an idea where we are but I also wanna go around and look at the place thoroughly… Yep." Mutsuko-san, you… Aren't you just excited to go on a field trip yourself?

*Sigh*… Nevermind.

"Well, I was thinking of doing exactly the same. First, why don't we go to that cafe over there?"

When I said so while pointing at the cafe that's just beside the building we're currently in, Pochi, Tama, and Rokuko immediately showed a look of curiosity.

"A ka-fey nodesu? Does it have meat nanodesu?"

"Tama likes meat too, you know~?"

"Yeah Shun. What's a cafe?

"A cafe is where you can eat many different drinks like tea and coffee, as well as many desserts." They didn't seem to be so interested when I said drinks, but their curiosity was immediately piqued as soon as I said 'desserts'.

"That sounds like a good idea Shun-kun. But, how will we do that when we don't have money?"

"Ah, that? I always bring some pocket money with me. Did you forget about that already, Mutsuko-san?" I gestured at the extra traveling bag that I have on my left, separate from the traveling bag that I have on my right.

Mutsuko-san looked at the traveling bag that's as large as the traveling bag that contains my clothes.

"You brought money with you? Also, by pocket money… You don't mean…"

"Yeah. I brought a few million of yen, euro, and dollars…" I hid the traveling bag behind the girls before casting [Storage] and hiding them inside it. I already have many clothes hiding inside my [Storage], as well as money hiding inside my [Wallet], but I felt like bringing some more with me.

The nuance in this quest suggests that we will atleast need to stay at this dimension for a year or so since we needed to graduate. Thus, I felt like bringing more money with me will help me secure a pretty stable life in this dimension, given how there are five of us here.

I can't have them starving now, can I? I'm the only guy in this group so I should do my best to keep them safe and healthy.

"You… What kind of pocket money is that?"

"Ah well, it's just the fruits of investing here and there. Want me to help you when the [Dimensional Train] opens up?" I said, seriously considering whether or not I should help everyone one way or another. Just giving them money doesn't sit well with me after all.

"Sure! That sounds great! With it, I could make more… *mumble* *mumble*…" I'm beginning to reconsider whether it would be a great idea to help her gain more money. It sounds like a huge red flag for her dimension's Earth.

"Anyway, let's go?"

"Ou~!"

"Let's go, nanodesu!"

"Yup! Let's go immediately, Shun!"

And so, we entered inside the cafe, the cafe where the group of six students entered. I want to see what will happen if I follow them.

What Mutsuko-san said is bothering me quite a bit so I think I'll follow just that…

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Entering inside the cafe, as soon as we ordered many desserts, it was immediately consumed by Pochi, Tama, Rokuko, and Mutsuko-san who really likes the taste of the food that was being served to us. Meanwhile, I myself only tried a few of them before leaving the majority to these girls. There's still many opportunities for me to try them out.

While sipping at my coffee, I glanced at the outside of this restaurant and found the men waiting outside from a hidden spot if you look at them from this restaurant. Speaking of restaurants, it seems like majority of the more popular ones wouldn't let us in since we need to book a reservation a day before.

"Mmm… Yum~!"

"This is yummy nanodesu! But, hamburg-sensei is still more powerful nanodesu!"

"Yeah, Shun's cooking is still more delicious…"

The three seems to be in agreement about that while eating the food on the table non stop. It would've been more convincing if you aren't eating so fast, girls.

We continued to eat and relax for an hour or so until the group I was planning to follow around got up from their seats. However, since there was just too many things that we ordered, we were stuck there for a few minutes before we could finally go out.

Good thing I could still see them.

As we walked around, I finally recognized exactly where we were. The reason why was because of the pagoda that I could see from a distance.

It looks like Mutsuko-san also recognized the place.

"Isn't that the Yasaka Pagoda? As expected, we're at the Southern Higashiyama huh…"

Anyone who did some research about Kyoto would probably be able to recognize this place due to how popular picturesque it is. The narrow lanes, the stone paved pathways, the numerous and well preserved houses made out of wood, and the many lanterns decorating them, all of it reminded us of the many pictures that was taken on this place.

The Yasaka Pagoda is also a dead giveaway since it's a pretty huge landmark here after all.

Although it wasn't that crowded yet, we had a pretty hard time navigating through the crowd still due to the narrow pathways. Many of the people around here are wearing rented kimonos, even the tourists, which really gave the place this sort of traditional Japanese vibe.

"Ah, look, Master [Admin-sensei], desu! A person is pulling a carriage nodesu!"

"There's a passenger wearing weird clothes~?"

"Hey, what are those weird clothes that everyone is wearing, Shun?"

The three girls who are new to this sight was of course very curious about everything as they asked me and Mutsuko-san many questions. We of course answered their questions patiently as we go while I myself looked at that certain group of students from time to time.

We continued to travel through the streets and, at some point, Mutsuko-san decided to pull the girls with her to rent some kimonos themselves. Since Mutsuko-san said that it will be a surprise, I waited for them outside patiently.

Whilst I waited for them, I thought about the group of students that we were trailing earlier. Ah, correction, 'I' was trying to trail earlier…

We lost them already but I'm pretty sure I heard them talk about where they're going to back when we were at the cafe.

"If I'm not wrong, they said something about going to Gion next…"

There's many places in Gion where we could go to but, when I looked at my phone for some locations, I saw that there's some parts of it where there's no shops or any tourist attractions listed. Man, it's already pretty hard to search for them even when they're still near.

I have this gut feeling that they're a key to something regarding our quest. Well, I just sort of hope that they are connected to it in some way since it will be a looong search if they aren't.

I'm definitely just not relying on Mutsuko-san's words… Nope.

As I was thinking about such stupid things, my wait is finally over. Yes, the girls finally came out wearing their own kimonos.

Mutsuko-san was wearing a black kimono with white roses as its design, and a white colored obi with a flowery motif. Meanwhile, Rokuko is wearing a white colored kimono that changes into a slightly auburn color at the bottom with, of course, flower in its design, as well as a purple colored obi with the same design, except that the color of the flower is purely auburn.

"How is it Shun-kun? Do you like how I look?" Mutsuko-san said while twirling on the spot.

"Yeah, the black kimono matches your long and black hair Mutsuko-san. Did you choose it yourself?" Looks like she's also enjoying herself in this impromptu tour that we're having.

"Well, the woman who helped us wear this suggested this one to me and I thought, why not?"

After talking with Mutsuko-san, I turned towards Rokuko who was looking a little embarrassed but is still happily checking out her new outfit. I thought she'd feel a little uncomfortable by the new outfit but it looks like she adjusted just fine.

"Looks like you like your new dress Rokuko. I thought about it before coming here to rent these but white kimonos does suit you." Yeah, that's my honest thought. Rokuko's really pure, similar to Miu, that's why white suit them both.

I should take note to buy this one if I could later on. No, I'll buy the kimonos that everyone is wearing and then gift it to them later.

As if Rokuko was just waiting for me to say something, she bounced like a little kid as she happily took the compliment.

"Hehehe, thank you Shun! This feels a little restricting but it's good that you like it too!"

"Now, where are the two, Pochi and Tama?" I've been looking for them since Mutsuko-san and Rokuko came out but it looks like they didn't come out at the same time.

The moment I finished asking that question, two blurry shadows, one pink and one blue, came out of the premises before hugging me on both sides. It was Pochi and Tama who's wearing a blue and pink colored short kimonos respectively that reaches until their knees.

I thought Pochi would choose to wear a kimono with her most favorite color, which is yellow, as its main color but I guess she chose to wear a blue one which is her second most favorite color. Yellow would have suited Pochi's energetic and radiant personality but I guess blue also suits her well due to her blue eyes.

"Master [Admin-sensei] nodesu! Look, Pochi is wearing your color nanodesu!"

"[Admin-sensei], is Tama cute~?"

Wow, Tama is very straightforward right now, isn't she?

"Haha, yeah, you are very very cute right now. Pochi too. Also, I'm very happy that you chose to wear something that's similar to my and your iris's color."

The two just giggled at my compliments. Since we were basically done here, we continued to tour around Southern Higashiyama, taking many pictures along the way.

If you ask me, we definitely don't look like we're out on a quest to assassinate someone.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ First chapter of Arc 12 done! I got the announcement wrong on the previous chapter since this is just the third arc for this volume! XD.