Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 22 - Koufu

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The road trip from Hokuto to Koufu went better than expected.

It was the first time she was riding a Cub for work, but when she rode along with the traffic on the Koushuu Kaidou, the distance meter was moving forward.

Koguma actually rode this route before she accepted the job, but the condition in the morning right now was better than the fast flow of traffic she experienced in the early morning on the way there, and the return trip that was beginning to become congested with the morning commute.

The current flow of cars with many trucks and business vehicles was about the same speed that Koguma considered the most comfortable cruising speed for the Cub. If she followed the car in front of her, she wouldn’t be agitated by the car behind her, and she wouldn’t feel stressed by her slowness.

She passed through the city of Nirasaki, where just a few days ago she had thought that she came such a long way, and approached her destination, Koufu.

After splitting off onto Prefectural Road No.17 on the way, Koguma headed for Koufu, the capital of Yamanashi Prefecture.

She arrived at the high school that was her destination while looking around at the largest city in the prefecture with its large department stores and shopping districts she couldn’t see in her hometown, feeling out of place in her tracksuit and Cub.

She was a little confused about where to park her motorbike, but she sternly told herself that she was here on business and parked her Cub in a corner of the visitor parking lot.

She looked at her digital watch. It took a little less than fifty minutes to get here from the school where she had received her cargo.

This was her first journey riding for work, so she was very careful, but she thought she could shorten her time a bit after a few runs.

She turned off the Cub’s engine, took off her helmet, unlocked the steel rear box and took out the bag of documents. She remembered that she was a student of another school as well as an outsider, so she went around to the main gate of the school, just to be on the safe side. She told the guard that she had come to deliver the documents for the joint staff training.

The old guard, who seemed bored to be at the university-affiliated high school during summer break, didn’t even take out the visitor’s list and told her that she could enter directly through the staff room entrance next time. Koguma bowed and went to the staff room as she was told.

The teacher in charge of the joint training who was in the staff room was a young female teacher.

A tanned face and short hair. Jeans and a T-shirt. A teacher who looked like she might be an advisor for a sports club.

When Koguma knocked on the staff room door, she said in a loud voice, “Come in!” Koguma opened the door and bowed before entering, and then repeated her exchange with the old guard, lowering the document bag that was hanging from her shoulder and telling her that she had come to deliver the training documents.

To be honest, going to an unfamiliar school and talking to a teacher she didn’t know was more nerve-wracking for her than riding a Cub. But the interaction with the old guard seemed to be a good rehearsal, and the job went more smoothly than she expected. 

The female teacher took the document bag and told her “Thank you very much” with a cheerful smile. Thinking that her job was done, Koguma was about to leave when the teacher said,

“Stay here until I finish checking the documents.”

Feeling as though she had done her job irresponsibly, Koguma hurriedly turned back.

The teacher hummed as she opened the bag and took out the documents and tossed them onto her desk. 

“I see a student worker has come to deliver it again this year.”

Koguma just said, “Yes,” and looked down. This was one of the reasons why she had avoided part-time jobs until now. She wondered if she would have to do something like small talk, which she wasn’t very good at.

The teacher, who didn’t seem to like things with a lot of words written on them, continued to talk while looking through the papers one by one. According to her, last year’s part-timer came here every day by bicycle.

Apparently, they wore biking clothes and a messenger bag, but they rode a five-gear granny bike made to look like a cross bike as best it could and looked like it was bought at a home improvement store. They wanted a new bike, so they started working part time, riding twenty kilometers here and back every day. At the end of summer vacation, they got the road racer of their dreams and thighs strong enough to ride it.

The teacher continued to talk, as though she was starving for someone to talk to in the empty staff room. Apparently, the part-timer the year before had come by car.

They had bought a car beyond their means as a student and started the part-time job that used the car in order to raise money for the maintenance costs, but right when they had saved up a certain amount of money from their job, they wrecked the car’s engine and ended up having to scrap it.

While Koguma simply responded to her with one-word answers, the teacher finished checking the documents and stood from her chair.

“I have received them safely. I can make you some tea now, so why don’t you take a break?”

“I’m sorry, I have to return to school now,” Koguma declined.

“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, take care on your way back.”

Koguma bowed once more, took the empty document bag and left the staff room.

She had just walked out of the staff room entrance and started the Cub’s engine in the parking lot when she heard a voice.

“Wait wait wait~! You forgot these~!”

The teacher from earlier came running after her, shouting loudly. She was holding several clear files with documents in her hands.

It was then that Koguma realized. Her job was not just to deliver documents from her school, but also to receive the return documents and bring them back.

The teacher apologized profusely, saying that she had been careless, but it was Koguma who had forgotten. She almost lost her confidence.

After putting the bag of documents to be returned in the Cub’s rear box, she left the Koufu school and headed back. The flow of cars on the way back was the same as when she was arriving there.

Contrary to being able to ride without feeling much nervousness or excitement, her earlier mistake was still fresh in her mind.

Back at the school in Hokuto City, she handed the document bag to the old teacher in the Academic Affairs office.

The old teacher spoke as they checked the contents.

“You’ll be going back and forth twice a day as summer vacation gets into full swing, but that’s it for today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Also, here.”

An envelope was handed to Koguma. It was the pay for today’s work. As instructed, she checked the two-thousand yen inside, filled out the withdrawal slip, and handed it over.

Having obtained money for her labor for the very first time, Koguma bowed deeply for who knows how many times today and left the staff room.

It was only two thousand yen, but her pocket was warm. Koguma went to the parking lot and touched the engine of her Cub, which was still hot.

It had once left Koguma almost penniless, and now it brought her her earnings. Koguma patted the Cub as though to confirm that it was important to her, mounted it, and went home.

Her first paycheck. Thinking about whether or not she should eat something a little fancy or buy something she needed for her work tomorrow, Koguma ended up going straight home to her apartment.

It was still about halfway between mid-morning and noon. She was more exhausted than deeply moved by the fact that she had made it through her first day of work successfully, even though it felt like she had failed. She finished an early lunch of cold soba noodles with dipping sauce and took a nap until evening.

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