V2C1

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First bone - Sleeping bones

Chapter 1

When I open my eyes in the morning, the moment I see the blue sky, it makes me feel great the whole day. Even though people say summer in Asahikawa is extremely hot, I still love summer, especially when the weather is fine. While cloudy days, rainy days and snowy days each have their own advantages, whenever it’s a fine summer day, especially one on which the morning sky is devoid of clouds, I get especially excited and cannot resist going out to play. Furthermore, today is the weekend after completing my exams! How could I stay at home?

I had furiously saved up, and recently bought a Bianchi mountain bike (it’s Italian!). Cycling alone is a little boring, plus I wanted to go someplace a little further, so I immediately thought of Sakurako-san, and decided to call and ask her.

Gran was in a good mood like me. After chatting with me for a bit, she passed the phone to Sakurako-san, and it seemed that she was about to head out, how lucky.

“I’m going to Toma, do you want to come?”

“Eh? Toma?”

The town of Toma is in the middle of Kamikawa subprefecture in Hokkaido, just next to Asahikawa, and the local specialty is the top grade ‘densuke watermelon’ with a black rind, red flesh, and refreshing sweet juice, and some of the best rice in Hokkaido. Anyone who has lived in Hokkaido will have seen the word 'Toma’ on produce at the supermarket, but Toma itself is just a sleepy rural village, with only an expanse of fields for scenery.

So hearing her say that she was going to Toma, my reaction was obviously: why?

“Oh, I’m going to pick roses. The roses at Ms. Shouko’s place are already past their season, but a rose farmer in Toma that she knows says that there are good quality roses that we can have for free.” Sakurako-san explained.

“Toma has roses?”

“Toma’s summer roses are a national treasure, you don’t even know this 'common knowledge’?”

You don’t have to say it like that, I’m not familiar with flowers.

“Toma, huh…”

Getting roses doesn’t sound too bad, but the trip sounds a little boring and doesn’t interest me as much as a leisurely cycle… Oh right! Other than watermelons, Toma has another attraction worth seeing!

“Can we go to the stalactite caves on the way?”

“Stalactite caves?”

“Yeah, there are some stalactite caves on the way, legend has it that they’re home to a dragon goddess. I went there when I was little.”

There, one can see the rare natural stalactites of Hokkaido (also called macaroni stalactites), that are tube-like from base to tip. When I went there, I was very young, and do not remember much of the experience, so I hoped to visit there again.

“…Well, that’s fine. There’s also somewhere I want to go on the way.” Sakurako-san pondered for a moment, before cheerfully replying.

“I’ll fetch you in 15 minutes.”

–Click.

“Eh? Ah…”

She’d hung up before I could reply.

“15 minutes!”

I was sweating heavily, and rushed to shower and change as fast as possible. With some difficulty, I hurried to our usual meeting place within 15 minutes - a fast food shop near the Twin Harp bridge. However, Sakurako-san had no sense of time, and arrived 20 minutes later than the arranged meeting time. I was left waiting in an airconditioned room with my still-wet hair, and nearly caught a cold.