Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 251 Landing in the Land of Fire

The giant steel bird on the gray earth began to accelerate, and Maki Yamami felt the fuselage tremble.

Jun Matsue stared blankly at the seat in front of him, his peripheral vision catching a glimpse of the girl's gently waving hand.

"Is the senior a little uneasy?" He looked at the girl by the porthole. "A sip of water might make her feel better."

"It's alright." Yami Maki picked up her water glass and took a sip. "It just feels a bit novel."

"You must have flown more times than me, right?" Jun Matsue asked, somewhat puzzled. "Including Hokkaido, this is only my second time flying."

“I wasn’t talking about taking a plane.” Maki Yami looked out the window at the Tokyo Skytree. “This is the first time I’ve traveled far from home without my parents.”

"Wait a minute?" Jun Matsueda's good memory reminded him, "Didn't we just go to Hakone together recently?"

"There was a teacher with us in Hakone, right?" The girl looked away and took out two candies from her pocket. They were the same matcha milk flavor that Jun Matsueda had eaten last time.

"Back then, I was still a minister, and I was always thinking about taking care of everyone. I didn't really feel like I was going on a long trip."

“Unlike now, I’m just Yamami Maki.” She placed a candy on Matsueda Jun’s lap.

She was neither the well-educated daughter of the Yami family nor the minister who led everyone forward; she was simply Yami Maki.

The boy picked up the green candy, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth, while the girl observed his expression.

"Last time, it seemed like Songzhi really liked this candy, so I brought a lot more this time."

Matsueda Jun clasped his hands together and bowed to the girl, meaning "thank you very much." Yami Maki smiled and squinted her eyes.

As the plane ascended, a sea of ​​low-hanging clouds could be seen through the window. The two people, who had been sucking on candy, quieted down. After a morning of experiments, they were feeling somewhat tired.

Jun Matsueda, who was resting with his eyes closed, felt the gentle touch of Maki Yami's fingers. He took off his blindfold and looked into the eyes of the girl who had approached him.

"Is there something you need, senior?"

"Ah, you're asleep?" The girl's face was slightly flushed.

"No, I was just resting with my eyes closed." He placed the eye mask on the table. "Are you bored, senior?"

"No, no," the girl patted his shoulder again, "Look out the window—"

Matsueda Jun looked out the porthole to his left. The bottom of the sky was a vast, magnificent sea of ​​white clouds, with some clouds rising high like smoke from a volcanic eruption.

However, what stands out abruptly from the sea of ​​clouds is the dome of Mount Fuji. Under the sunlight, only the black of the peak can be seen, creating a strange contrast between black and white.

"It's breathtakingly beautiful." Jun Matsueda felt as if his eyes had been purified.

“Right?” Yami Maki was also delighted. “Matsueda-kun said that the last time you took a plane was to Hokkaido. I think you probably haven’t seen Mount Fuji in the sky.”

“There really isn’t.” Jun Matsueda stared at the mountain peaks in the sea of ​​clouds. He took out his camera from his bag, and the equipment that Natsumi Imokawa had entrusted to him came in handy.

The shutter clicked, and Yamami Maki moved closer, looking at the image on the camera. "Professional equipment really makes a difference!"

I wonder how well the portrait photos will turn out. The girl's tongue lingers with a hint of matcha milk candy sweetness. It takes six and a half hours to get from Tokyo to Kumamoto by Shinkansen, but thankfully the two of them took a plane. Even after circling around the sea of ​​Japan, they only spent two hours landing at Kumamoto Airport.

At 3:30 p.m., the two-person team consisting of Maki Yami and Jun Matsueda had left Tokyo and successfully arrived in Kumamoto, the "Land of Fire".

"Why is Kumamoto called the 'Land of Fire'?" Maki Yami asked as she stepped off the plane, looking at the boy beside her.

"Kumamoto Prefecture is home to Mount Aso, the world's largest superimposed volcano, which was formed by the successive eruptions of more than fifty volcanoes." This was something he had read in a geography book.

Matsueda Jun walked towards the terminal building, seemingly feeling the heat of the Land of Fire, while Yamami Maki took off her small shawl and draped it over her hand.

"There are two other theories. One is that flames appear in the Ariake Sea off Kumamoto on autumn nights, and it is said that Emperor Keiko saw them. The other is that when Emperor Sujin came to Kumamoto to subdue Tsuchigumo, flames suddenly rose in the night sky over Shirakake Mountain in Yatsushiro District and slowly fell to the top of the mountain and burned. Therefore, the emperor named this place the Land of Fire."

After Mr. Matsueda finished his explanation, the nearby passengers all moved closer to the two of them, probably thinking he was a tour guide or something similar. Yamami Maki secretly smiled.

After collecting their luggage, the two arrived at the arrival hall and quickly found the person holding a sign that read "Japan Biology Olympiad" in the crowd. They then got into a car heading to Kumamoto City.

"Is this your first time in Kumamoto?" The staff member in the driver's seat turned around at the red light, while the boy and girl in the back seat looked out the car window at the Kumamon statues that could be seen everywhere.

"Yes," Jun Matsue replied with the same smile he uses to greet customers at a convenience store. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Hearing his cheerful voice, Yamami Maki turned her head with curiosity to observe Matsueda Jun's business model.

"You two have come at just the right time." The bearded man chuckled. "The cherry blossoms are flying everywhere in the city, and the grass in Aso is lush and green. It's the best season to see them."

"I can already feel it." Jun Matsueda looked out the window. The cherry blossom trees on both sides of the road swayed in the spring breeze. Looking up, the sky at four o'clock in the afternoon looked like the Sea of ​​Japan seen from an airplane, dotted with pink petals that were swept into the air.

The car stopped in front of a building by the river, and the middle-aged man helped the two of them take their luggage out of the trunk.

"This is the hotel provided for the participants. It's a ten-minute walk west to the competition venue at Kumamoto University, and 700 meters east to the subway station. My contact number is on the business card I just gave you. I wish you both the best of luck in the competition and a great time."

Jun Matsue and Maki Yami pulled their suitcases into the hotel to check in. Their room was on the eighth floor. The elevator's exterior wall was made of transparent glass, offering a view of the winding Shirakawa River and the green spaces on both banks behind the hotel. As the elevator ascended, it seemed to lie prostrate at their feet.

"The scenery is quite nice~" Yamami Maki said, looking at the bright yellow sun in the distance.

"Let's pack our luggage first, and then have dinner?" Jun Matsuoka was a pragmatist; he had eaten a rather rushed lunch and was already feeling hungry.

"OK~" The girl winked playfully.

Jun Matsue's room was neither too big nor too small, and there was a separate balcony outside the window. The railings were gilded by the sunlight. After packing his luggage, Jun Matsue gently jumped up and lay down on the big bed.

Feeling pretty good, he let out a comfortable groan. His desire to go out suddenly vanished, and it was quite nice to just stay curled up in bed.

Unfortunately, the knocking on the door shattered his illusions. Jun Matsue opened the door to greet his neighbor of the past three days.

Yamami Maki changed into a sleeveless light green dress, revealing her long, smooth arms. The girl's smile was like the gentle spring breeze outside the window.

"Let's go, Matsueda-kun, let's explore Kumamoto together!"

(End of this chapter)