Chapter 219

Chapter 219

Suffice to say, snowboard training wasn't going well. For all of us. Hacchan was doing her damned best to instruct us how to ride properly. Starting at the kiddie slope was for our safety, and thank god we relented to it. Because...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—"

Kana and I watched Hana blow past us at high speeds. People dove out of the way to avoid getting hit, and she slammed into a tree. The impact shook snow loose from the branches and buried her underneath a mound. A group of kids gathered around, laughing and pointing.

"Hana!" Hacchan slid next to the speedster and deftly grinded to a halt to start excavating her out. "Is she okay?!"

"Hana's a succubus, too. She can take a bit of pain," I explained.

We helped Hacchan dig Hana out. Like I expected, she was perfectly fine. Her eyes were spinning and looking a bit wobbly.

"Uwaahhh... I think I lost some brain cells..." Hana said.

"Ah, you didn't have any to begin with!" Mio, who still had the snowboard attached to her feet, gingerly flew to the ground using her wings.

"Mio, what did I say about cheating?" Hacchan scolded her.

"Crashing hurts! If I have wings, why can't I use 'em?" she asked, throwing her arms out in exasperation.

"Hmm. It's just that if you rely on them that much, it you won't really be learning... Look at Kana. He's getting the hang of it." Hacchan pointed to Kana who was gliding down to us with amateur ease.

"You're giving me too much credit. I'm still making a lot of mistakes!" Kana rubbed the back of his head.

"I think it helps that you used to skate between elementary and middle school. No surprise you're picking up faster than us," I said.

We went up the slopes to try again, leaving Hana to recover from dazed state alone. Most of the afternoon was spent gliding down short distances. Hacchan was a great teacher, it's just... We weren't good students.

"Awawawa! Me and snow don't really mix—!" Kaede flailed her arms wildly before faceplanting.

"Kahaha! At this rate, we're just making snow angels!" Mio cackled.

"Come on, Mio. Try coming to me!" I was able to slide with some control as long as the slope wasn't steep.

Mio hesitated, like she was afraid of making a fool of herself. Hacchan offered some words of encouragement and seemed to get through to her. I waited as my girlfriend psyched herself up, then slowly slid down the slope towards me.

"You're doing it!" I cheered.

"I am! I'm doing it! Ahah! Holy shit. Alright, how do I stop though?" Mio asked on the way down.

"Bend your knees and come around on it! Toes facing the direction you're sliding!" Hacchan instructed from the top.

Mio started swerving left and right, picking up speed instead of slowing down.

"It ain't working! I'm going faster— aahhhhh!" She was on a crash course towards me.

"M-Mio? You're going to crash into me! Mi— oof!"

Mio slammed into me, and we both hit the snow. My head was spinning. I was pretty sure I saw heaven over the horizon, too.

"You two okay?" Hacchan asked as she slid up to us.

"I didn't use my wings..." Mio replied with her face in my chest.

"Don't worry. We still have the next three days." She pulled out her phone to snap a picture of our unfortunate position. "For now, it looks like everyone's pooped. Wanna take a dip in the hot springs?"

Everyone began to pack their things to return our equipment.

"Mama, what's that?" a child asked their mother.

I glanced back to see a kid kneeling in front of a small pool of blackish water, like someone spilled a bottle to the ground. It looked weird in the sea of white snow. Someone was probably just playing a joke on them. I ignored it and followed after Hacchan and Mio, who were both shouting for me to hurry up.

Farther down along the boulevard that our hotel was on, was a family-run bath house that had been operating for over a century and a half. We got in before the early evening rush to enjoy a much needed soak, with the added bonus view of two of Rusutsu's snowy mountains.

"Ahhh. Hot springs feel the best after being in the cold for so long," Kaede said, sinking into the water until only the upper half of her head remained.

"You said it..." Hana floated past us on her back.

"Hana, was it really okay for you to leave school? You're also the student council president, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah! I already delegated most of the work to my underlings. That's what presidents do after all! Even Prez said so!" she explained, although I was unconvinced.

"If you say so... Don't go complaining when you find a pile of workload waiting when you get back."

Hana waved a dismissive hand my way, clearly unconvinced. Some people just needed to learn the hard way.

"Ufufu~ Hana has the right idea, you know? While you're on vacation, work should be the last thing on your mind. You especially, Saeko. How has college been treating you and Mio?" Yumi asked.

"School sucks!" Mio shouted, then dunked Hana into the water as she passed her.

"Second." I nodded in agreement. "It's a lot harder because I had to open my trap about being independent to my parents. We had to get part-time jobs to pay ourselves through. Honestly... I hate it. I feel like I have a lot more freedom and a lot less freedom. It's hard to explain. Things felt a lot easier when I was a kid."

The water shifted. Yumi scooted behind me and started massaging my shoulders. They kneaded all the right places, and I turned to puddy in mere seconds.

"There, there. I know it's diffcult as the succubus queen, university student, and part-time worker, but I know you're more than capable. When it becomes too overwhelming, a little rest to unwind like this is your just reward," Yumi cooed.

"You really should quit being a school nurse and be a counselor instead..." I was about to fall asleep due to the combined assault of her massage and hot springs water.

"Ara. You think so? But I rather like being a faculty member at school. I was thinking of applying to the city's elementary school," she said thoughtfully.

"Please, don't..."

Someone snuck up on us like a shark, but without the fine. Kaede popped her head out of the water. Just the eyes though, and stared at me and Yumi.

"Aha... Think on the bright side. We can take a dip in the bath house again!" Hana flashed a thumbs up.

"THE BATH HOUSE IS LEAKING BLACK WATER REMEMBER?!" I yelled.

My echo traveled much farther than I expected. The ground started rumbling. Hana and I turned our attention to the mountain as a tsunami of snow came rushing down to us. We took flight but heard someone screaming for help. Three hikers were running for their lives.

"Hana!" I pointed to them.

"Got it! Got it!"

We beelined toward them. I picked up two, and Hana got the other. We lifted the three up as the avalanche consumed the ground where they were in a split second.

"Thank god. You're an angel— Oh, god! You're not an angel?! Wait, you're a succubus!" one of the men cried.

Fortunately, the avalanche didn't travel far. We brought them down to a road some ways from it just in case.

"Is this the part where we get to have sex with you?" the other guy asked, only to get elbowed by the girl in the group.

"Sorry about them," she said. "Thanks for saving our hide. We was hunting for a deer when the avalanche started rolling."

"You were hunting for deer? This late at night?" I asked.

"Well, not hunt per se. More like tracking it. Some of the locals reported that it got covered in some black goo. We wanted to investigate. Anyway, we don't wanna tempt fate any longer."

The hunters made their way down the mountain after expressing their thanks.

"We might be getting close. Wanna keep looking?" Hana asked me.

I checked my phone. It was getting close to the reservation time.

"No, let's regroup with Mio and Yumi. We'll mark this area as a place of interest on the map. We don't want to miss our reservation," I said.

Apparently, those two didn't have any luck finding the shrine either. Once we regrouped, Mio couldn't stop laughing at how dirty we were. Hana and I took a quick shower back at the hotel to rinse off the dirt, then went with the group to the korean barbecue place.

Nothing could be better than meat sizzling on the grill, warm food in my stomach, and being surrounded by friends. The only person on this table allowed to drink was Yumi, who was enjoying herself a nice cold beer.

"What the fak, Yumi. I'm older than you! Where's my drink! Where is it?!" Hana wailed.

"Ufufu~ You heard the cute waitress, Hana. You're too young to drink." Yumi giggled at her expense.

Kana turned away and coughed. It sounded like he had a bug or something.

"Did you catch a cold?" I asked.

"God, I hope not. It's onlly the first day. Did you two make any headway in finding that shrine?" Kana lifted a napkin to his mouth to cover the next cough.

"Nope." I shook my head. "The only thing that seems to connect is the black stuff for some reason—"

"Get your chops off that last piece of spicy brisket, Hana!" Mio snarled.

"Yer gonna hafta fight me for it, varmant!" Hana challenged with similar fury.

A war had started on the only piece of brisket left on the grill. Both of them started battling it out with their chopsticks.

"Guys, we can order more. It's an all you can eat! We already paid a premium to keep getting meat— stop it, you idiots!" I cried as their war reached maximum insanity.

They managed to fling the piece of brisket, and it flew straight into Kaede's throat. Her eyes went wide. She turned to us mortified, pounding at her own chest.

"KAEDE?!" Everyone scrambled to help.

"Move!" Kana pushed us away and performed the Heimlich maneuver.

Once... twice... Kaede expelled the brisket back onto the grill, where Hana snatched it up and into her mouth. The pink-haired helion pumped both fists in triumph.

I clocked Mio over the head, and Yumi did the same of Hana. Both them clutched their bumps in agony.

"Oh, god... it's was the spicy brisket, too..." Kaede croaked, reaching for the water.

We got home around eleven at night with full bellies and cheeks sore from laughing so much. Mio was still brimming with energy. She wanted to get a round in with me and Kana, but our boyfriend was already tuckered out and needed to sleep.

"So, you enjoying Hokkaido? We pretty much went to the polar opposite sides of the country in two years," I said.

"You know I'd be having more fun between your legs, toots. Where do we wanna go next year? Or next summer!" Mio embraced me while we were in bed and Kana asleep next to us.

"You're already thinking of next year? This vacation isn't even over yet."

Our lips connected, still tasting traces of the barbecue we had earlier.

While we were making out, a knock came to the door.

"Saeko, Mio? Did we still want to investigate Nobori?" Yumi's voice reached us from the other side. "Or perhaps, you two would like some privacy? Ufufu~"

"W-We're coming!" I quickly pushed Mio off.

We went out one more time. The four of us flew out to Nobori where we rescued the hunters, but instead of the blanket of white snow... everywhere was covered in black.

"Eh? This place was whiter than a bleached pussy before we left it, right? Saeko?" Hana gaped at the sight before us.

"Y-You guys are sure this was the place? Maybe you got it wrong. I mean, it's dark as fuck. The light's probably off!" Mio insisted.

"No... Night has nothing to do with it. The whole mountain really is covered black!" I gasped.

"Gaaahhh! Are you fucking serious? I just wanted a nice vacation without having to worry about shit!" she shouted into the night.

You and me both, Mio. Hopefully, this was something we could solve soon...