Chapter 39
Title: A Time Well Spent?
You guys can support me by donating powerstones on this book
Anyways, Let's begin!
◆━━━◆━━━◆
Third Person POV. -- 28th of December -- 2415
[ Fujikawaguchiko Town ]
Adaptation, the process of overcoming adversity of a higher magnitude than one's capabilities.
What a beautiful thing it is, to be able to adapt and overcome problems both physical and mental.
It's a capability that allows in the establishment of the current human race and their status as apex predators.
Adaptation has many facets, many ways in which it can happen. It can even occur to one's mindset, their very emotions and way of thinking can adapt in a situation.
Truly, what a blessed capability of the human race.
.
..
...
It is the morning of the third day of their vacation, and Benihana Retsu along with her two friends have just finished with their breakfast, and are slowly starting to begin with their day.
.
..
...
Shing!
Two blades flash in the open air before clashing with one another, before they are pushed back from each other, the holder of these said blades moving a few feet back.
After breakfast, a spar was initiated in the open space outside and before the room's balcony, the fighters being one Benihana Retsu, and the one and only Himiko Toga.
Holding her two blood daggers in a reverse grip while giving her opponent a wide smirk, Himiko stands ready for their next exchange of blows. "Wow~ this is so exhilarating! We've never fought this seriously before have we Re-re! "
"Hm, true. We've always sparred in the past with your strength's upper cap on, and me with no augmentation and limiting my own normal physical strength.
It is nice to let loose for once in a while, and it also seems that you've adapted to your enhanced physiology the past two days. " Retsu replies.
In the past, Retsu had always kept a limiter on Himiko's physiology, for fear of suddenly exposing her to her fully enhanced state would result in an accident, but it seems she's underestimated her best friend's adaptive instincts in regards to that.
'I should have never put a limiter on her, she's a very adaptive girl who can overcome these things with no problem it seems. '
"Ne-ne! Let's take it up another notch! " Himiko says, leading to Retsu just shrugging and getting into her sword stance. "Fine by me. "
Himiko is Retsu's first and fully perfected enhanced sapien, being the first one that she has safely elevated past her human limits.
Himiko can currently operate on up to 8 times the strength of a normal human athlete, making her truly out to be 'super human'.
She has also learned the art of holding back these last two days, her enhanced mind and ability to multitask in real time allowing her such a capability. Himiko had mostly been following her instincts in regards to learning how to hold back, so her ability to cap her own now enhanced strength did come off as a little surprising to Retsu.
Instinct, truly a formidable arsenal, and especially in the hands of competent people.
Anyways, after the tiny break, Retsu and Himiko once more moved closer to engage, this time putting a little more strength behind their blows.
As they were sparring, their third friend was sitting to the side and on one of the balcony stools.
Mina just sits there and watches them, she watches as her two best friends spar, as they become stronger together, as they advance to much higher heights.
She watches, and she involuntarily gets a feeling in her chest. A feeling of wrongness, a feeling that her young mind doesn't quite comprehend. A feeling as if her chest is compressing on itself.
To Ashido Mina, Benihana Retsu is a hero, a shining beacon in her vision that she follows, like a moth following a flame. This has been established as fact so far.
And her second best friend Toga Himiko? She is to Mina what a normal best friend would be to another. She likes Himiko's company, and despite her weird tendencies to talk about unhinged stuff like blood and gore, Mina doesn't discriminate against her.
Everyone likes something in their life, so what if her friend's tastes are a little... Unique.
It doesn't change the fact that Mina likes Himiko's company.
But that company, Mina is slowly starting to feel, That company is slowly moving away from her, both her first, and her second friend's.
The mind of the eleven years old girl cannot quite catch up with the implications, it cannot quite understand the meaning of it, but the uncomfortable feeling she is getting while watching her two friends spar, that is something Mina can feel and understand.
Mina is the only girl among this trio who is normal, the only one who acts and thinks like a normal 11 years old girl should. In her place, she can't quite as easily find a solution to her discomfort as someone like Retsu could, and she doesn't even fully understand why she's feeling discomforted either.
But at the end of the day, Ashido Mina is a human. And what is the specialty of the human race?
It's adaptation.
In that moment, while watching her two friends spar and have fun with each other, Ashido Mina will adapt to the situation.
She will adapt, and instead of letting ugly emotions like envy take root in her pure heart, she adapts her emotions in order to get out of this situation, starting by;
'Wow, their moves are so cool looking. It's as if they are dancing. I wonder if I could do that too. '
.
..
...
A little later into the day and right around 11 am, Retsu had gotten a call from her mother from the next door.
"Sweety, did you guys have breakfast yet? " Benihana Kie asks from the other side.
Sitting on the balcony's wooden stools and gazing outside, Retsu replies while having her black phone on her right ear, "yes, me and the girls had breakfast already. What about you guys? "
"Oh, we've just woken up and ordered some. It should get here in a few moments.
Dear listen, about the new schedule of our stay here. Me and your dad talked about it, and at first we just wanted to extend our stay for one more day because of yesterday's inactivity, but we thought it would stretch for too much, so we instead came up with another idea.
We wanted to cut some parts of the trip short, so we can be on schedule. What do you think? "
"That's fine by me. And I'm sure Mina-san and Himi-chan would understand too. " Retsu replies, though what is left unsaid is her own slight relief regarding the new plans.
If she had to stay one more day on this vacation, then she is sure her emotions could have gotten the better of her at some point, which would result in the slowly coming back vacational spirits of her friends and family to plummet once again.
Benihana Retsu doesn't like bothering others with her trivial problems, instead she prefers to solve them on her own, so that she can get back to her normal spirits and mentality.
She has already inconvenienced her friends and family by going and getting herself possessed by a wannabe ancestor, –someone who by their behavior sounds like a completely obsessed man, she doesn't plan on repeating that a second time.
"Very well then. You guys get ready for today's agenda, while me and your father eat something before we go out, okay sweety? "
"Okay, I'll be waiting for your call then. "
"Okay dear, see you soon. "
Beep!
Bringing down the phone, Retsu continues with her observation while her mind thinks of the current predicament and problems.
'I should try and relax in this trip, it would do me no good to always be so on edge.
Sigh...
A good spar would help my current mood by a lot right about now. Maybe I should ask father later? ' Retsu thinks, before she is reminded of the events of two days ago where she got manhandled by Tetsuya.
'On second thought, maybe not a good idea. He would be too uncomfortable with the suggestion considering what happened that day. '
Regardless of her fruitless non-efforts in regards to finding distractions to her problems, Retsu still has a day she will need to pass, and friends who can hopefully distract her mind from her more irritating thoughts. Though she isn't counting on that too much considering her understanding of herself.
.
..
...
"okay! Is everyone ready? " Kie asks as she and Tetsuya enter Retsu's room while wearing another white winter dress, with her husband wearing it's opposite color to compliment them both.
Retsu turns around to greet them, while having winter clothings of herself, though missing the scarf and hand gloves.
"Yeah, we'll be out in a minute." She simply answers. And as if on cue, the door leading to the bedroom opens, and out walks the duo of Himiko and Mina, both wearing thick winter clothes of their own.
"We're ready! " Himiko announces, bouncing forth with a light brown winter coat and a tigh length skirt, under it having a long sleeved sweater of white color with a red scarf and a little white winter hat.
Following her is the already excited girl number two, Mina.
Mina is wearing a similar outfit, though with the colors differing and instead of a skirt, she's wearing a full on pants.
Turning her gaze from her two arrived and ready friends, Retsu looks to her parents with a little light sheen to her eyes, not quite excitement but trying to make it as if she is.
"We're ready, let's go. "
.
..
...
Lake Yamanaka,
Situated towards the northern region of the great Mt. Fuji just like it's fellow other four lakes, it is famous for being the largest of the five, while also being quite populated in its own right.
Most tourists visit this place in order to get a nice feel of its watery activities, mainly swan boats and other water sports. But that mostly happens in warmer seasons. In winter, most of these activities come to a halt due to problems concerning the cold atmosphere that make most of these sports inactive, though swan boats and other cruising ships can still be available even in winter.
The atmosphere here is very clear due to the geographical positioning of the lake itself, making the view and atmosphere of Mt. Fuji and the lake itself very clear and beautifully scenic.
Originally planning on visiting this touristic attraction for a full day, and enjoy every part of its fun activities that one could find, the recent incident involving Retsu turned this one full day stay into a half one, the other half of the day reserved for the tour of the third famous lake of the great fuji five.
.
..
...
Around 12 am, a sleek, silver lexus car arrived and came to a stop in a large parking lot, it's occupants exiting the vehicle with varying degrees of enthusiasm in regards to the upcoming tour.
"Wow! This is so exciting! My family and I had visited this place in the past, but I was too little to remember it, so technically this would be my first time visiting this place! " Mina says while standing beside Retsu, looking at the breathtaking landscape and the observable Yamanaka lake in the far distance.
The parking lot here is elevated on top of a hill, and from the iron railings that seperate its space and over the hill, one is able to see the sizable and visibly bigger Yamanaka Lake compared to Kawaguchi.
Despite being the second most populated sight, its size far outshines that of Kawaguchi, and it has many touristic attractions of its own to boast.
"Don't wander off too much, Himiko-chan!" Kie voices out, spotting the girl already at the iron railings and excitedly jumping in place while gazing ahead.
"Alright, let's get going guys, we'll have to get back here by nightfall, otherwise we're going to miss the phenomenon. " Tetsuya reminds, leading to the others nodding and for Himiko to have turned around and rejoined the group, placing herself in her favorite spot of right beside her best friend.
"Alright, let's head out. " Kie says, before they begin heading outside of the parking lot and towards the unique attractions this place offers.
.
..
...
"Finding active ones in this season was kind of hard but it's worth it, right honey? " Kie says, her smile big as she gazes outside to the enchanting lake they are moving through.
One of the most sought after activities that a tourist would want to try when visiting lake Yamanaka, is using boats to either petal or rowboat inside the lake.
"It's because of the current climate. Usually in other seasons you would find plenty of rental boats around the lake itself, but since it's freezing temperatures and the lake is almost incased in ice, there is little space for boats to surf through. But yeah, there are unfrozen spots of the lake like here that one can still enjoy. " Tetsuya informs, smiling as he and his whole family plus his daughter's two friends are currently inside a family sized swan themed boat, moving at a steady pace through the cold waters of the lake.
Standing near the edge and slowly dipping her hand inside the lake, the curious cat that Himiko is quickly pulls her hand back up, shaking it as if it's been burned or something while making a hissing sound, "yeah, that's cold alright. "
"If you know it's cold then why do you try and touch it, silly. " Mina giggles lightly while commenting.
"One should always sample things themselves, in order to understand the value of its contents. " Himiko closes her eyes while commenting, bringing a hand up and rubbing her chin in a mocking, wisened like expression while her grin is wide open.
"What? " Mina is left confused, tilting her head in quiet wonder as to the meaning of what she just heard and it's correlation to the topic.
"Pay her no mind, she's just messing around with fancy words. " From the side, Retsu comments, her right elbow supported on the cushioning armrest of her seat, with her hand under her chin and her eyes closed in a dramatic way, she herself acting all wise and knowing while chiding her friend.
"Look who's talking! " Himiko cheerfully comments.
"... Why are they acting as if they're wise young masters who see Mt. Tai? " Tetsuya can't help himself from asking, turning his amused gaze from the children to his wife, which leaves him speechless.
"Huhu~" Grinning with her eyes closed, her cheek also resting on her fisted right hand and in a similar pose to her daughter, her leg crossed over the other in a dramatic way, Kie is also roleplaying in a dramatic way.
"You wouldn't understand it dear, after all, few can have the nerve and resolve to see Mt. Tai from their mortally coils~ and those that do are transcendent beings beyond measure, huhuhu~"
"... " Externally Tetsuya is deadpannin, while internally...
'What the hell? Why is that kind of hot? '
.
..
...
While the group are having fun activities, roleplaying and acting all dramatic inside the swan boat, time will await no one, and its clockworks continue to click on forth.
By the time they are done, the day has moved on and gotten to around 2 pm, marking it as them getting off the boat and continue with other activities.
Eating launch before continuing on their tour, the family plus Retsu's two friends go around exploring other touristic attractions, but it's not as much as one would expect.
For one, sightseeing in on itself is a one single activity one can enjoy on these soils, the sight of the snow covered trees and other greenery enchanting in their own rights, but the family had already seen these types of scenery in Kawaguchi.
A cruising ship that moves around within the lake? They've already tried it on Kawaguchi too.
Other season friendly activities like snow surfing? They've reserved that for another, special day of its own.
All around there wasn't much else aside from just sightseeing and appreciating the beautiful landscape ahead of them, so by the time it got to 3 pm, the family got back on their luxury vehicle and got on their way to the third destination of today's agenda.
They were headed to the third lake, Lake Sai, which is famous for its scenic views and forest influenced landscapes that would leave a photographer breathless. And among the currently headed visitors, who among them is the most photography enthusiast?
"I can't wait to finally visit it! I'm gonna take so many pictures! "
The forever glowing woman, the Benihana Matriarch, Benihana Kie voices out.
.
..
...
Author's Note/ and so, the vacation continues on, with the only looming threat being the second group and their presumed readied trap for our protagonist.
Where could this laid out trap even be? Here is a tip, I've hinted at it, though very minorly -is that even a word?-- on a previous chapter.
Also, I know I didn't mention it but Retsu's mood continues to sour the more she delays from solving her problem, I just didn't mention it in this chapter much so I thought I'd remind you guys of it.
Anyways! Thank you for reading my story, have a great day/night, bye!