Chapter 31 Fujiharu's Offensive - Part 2

It was Saturday morning.

There was a knock at my front door.

"Ayato~"

I walked over and opened the door.

"Hey, Fujiharu."

"You ready to go?" She asked.

"Yeah."

I had already gotten dressed in some casual clothes and done my morning routine. Still, she arrived slightly earlier than I expected. I was planning on packing some lunch for the trip, but I guess it'd be fine—I'd just buy some food there.

Fujiharu was wearing a short beige dress with a light blue jean coat; she also had a small handbag. Her outfit was rather aesthetically pleasing—I guess she must have some decent fashion knowledge. I was just wearing jeans and a dark green shirt which was usually my go-to when it came to casual clothes.

She walked by my side as we made our way out of the dormitory. We were planning to take the train to the next city where the biggest aquarium in the country was.

"Do you like going to aquariums?" She asked me.

"I haven't been to one before."

"Seriously? You've never been to an aquarium?"

"Yeah."

It was true that I hadn't been to an aquarium. It was mostly because I never had the opportunity to visit one. However, I had a decent amount of knowledge on marine biology regardless, not that I was going to make it obvious.

"So Ayato's first visit to the aquarium will be with me~"

"It seems so."

She smiled and walked closer to me; I could feel her shoulder nudging against mine.

Just walking down the street, people constantly turned their heads to look over at us. Fujiharu's presence was magical in a way, being able to lead the eyes of passers-by to us. Although it was to be expected, in her outfit and in general—she really was cute. I could smell her light perfume as she walked through a light breeze.

Eventually, we arrived at the train station.

The two of us took a seat on one of the benches as we waited for the train to arrive. The station was quite packed; there were people everywhere, all standing around waiting for the same train.

"It's pretty busy today," Fujiharu commented

"Yeah."

"Do you want to have lunch before we go to the aquarium?"

"I guess that'd be good."

"Okay then! I've got a nice restaurant we should go to, do you like rice bowls?"

"I don't mind them."

"There's a store called OMI which my friends said was really good."

"Sounds good."

A few moments later, the train arrived and the two of us got on. The entire train was quite crowded, it was nearly impossible to find two free seats but luckily at the very back, there was perfectly a free row of two seats.

We sat down next to each other as Fujiharu placed her handbag on her lap.

The train ride was going to be a pretty long one so I decided to get comfortable.

As the train got moving, I looked over at Fujiharu who appeared to be quite sleepy.

"Ah, I didn't get much sleep last night..."

"Oh, that's fine, you can sleep here if you want, I don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

I guess she was worried that I'd get bored. Granted, I didn't bring any entertainment with me on this trip aside from my phone. It didn't really matter though, I didn't mind just sitting in silence either.

Slowly, Fujiharu's eyes closed as she fell asleep on this gently shaking train.

I was looking out the window when I suddenly felt something on my shoulder. Her body was leaning to the side and her hair was drooped along my body. I could hear the sound of her gentle breathing as her head lay on my shoulder.

This wasn't too bad, I suppose.

*

Over an hour later, I looked outside and noticed that we had arrived at our stop.

"Fujiharu."

She nudged me a little bit before her eyes gradually opened.

"We're here."

"Ah... already?"

"Yep."

She moved her head off of my shoulder and stretched her arms upwards. Her hair shook a little as she patted down her clothes. After a few moments, she seemed to have gained all of her energy back.

"Alright, let's go, Ayato!"

The of us got up and made our way off of the train. We joined in with the big group of passengers who had also just left. The station we stopped at was one of the biggest in the area so there were very many different trains which were just stopping. It was a very large building, almost like a small airport, there were restaurants all around the area from fast food to cafes.

"Let's go get lunch!"

She took out her phone and began searching for the address of the restaurant we were going to. A few moments later, with the sound of a robotic voice, the navigation was set up and we began making our way to OMI.

"Ayato, the others are going to the pool again tomorrow, do you want to come with us?"

"Um, yeah that sounds good."

"Yay~ The pool was so much fun last time!"

"It was pretty enjoyable."

"Also... Ayato, you should call me by my first name as well..."

Huh.

"Come on~ just try it..." she insisted.

"Um... okay, Sara."

Suddenly, her face turned red as she quickly looked away.

"Hehe, that was more embarrassing than I thought."

We slowly made our way down the busy foreign street as the navigation led us.

"It shouldn't be too far from here."

Fujiharu was looking around the street at the various different stores. It was a quite densely populated and modern city, slightly more than the city we came from. There were a very large number of people walking down the same relatively narrow footpath so it was a bit awkward having to constantly manoeuvre around other people.

A few minutes later, we arrived at a small restaurant which served rice bowls.

'Your destination is on the right.'

"Ah, we're finally here!"

"Let's go in."

I pushed open the door, which rang a jingling bell. We were immediately greeted by a server who passed us each a menu and led us to our seats.

We sat opposite each other and had a look at the menu.

The food was actually quite cheap, contrary to what I expected Fujiharu would want to eat.

"Are you guys ready to order?" The server asked.

"Yes."