Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 30 - Reiko's Summer

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Mount Fuji Subashiri 5th Station.

It was the end of the winding road from Gotemba City, Shizuoka Prefecture, passing in front of the JGSDF Fuji School.

Reiko was in the parking lot that served as the halfway point of the Subashiri Trail.

She was wearing work pants, a T-shirt, a towel around her neck, and her long black hair was tied back.

At the 5th station in the early morning, which was much cooler than the city even in the middle of summer, she was sweating as she carried a heavy cardboard box.

A vehicle with continuous tracks, looking like a tank, came out of the garage that was next to the store at the trailhead. An elderly man wearing the same work pants as Reiko steered the car and parked in front of her.

Reiko began to load the cargo into the vehicle, which had a driver’s seat and cargo bed like a light pickup.

Reiko finished loading the cargo, which was heavier than it looked and consisted mainly of cardboard boxes of drinks and food, then looked in the direction of the trailhead.

Even though the physical labor was a bit tough for a high school girl, she seemed to be distracted.

Reiko checked the load one more time with a slip in hand, and then spoke to the man in the driver’s seat.

“It matches the fixed number. Then, I’ll be checking the trail, sir.”

“There’s still time. Go ahead and take your time.”

Reiko nodded once and returned to the store, then went to push the moped parked next to the store over. She kicked it and started the engine.

It was a moped, but the sound was as low and heavy as a large motorcycle. Reiko carefully checked the sound, color, and smell of the exhaust as she stepped on the gas pedal.

Reiko, wearing a T-shirt, blue-gray work pants, and a matching jumper, put on her helmet and gloves and straddled her red moped.

After stepping on the shift pedal with her black leather safety shoes, which were used both for work and riding, she put the gear into low and looked up at the slightly misty mountain top before taking off.

Next to the early morning mountain trail, which didn’t have any climbers yet, there was a path where Reiko was going to ride her moped to check the condition of the trail.

Mount Fuji’s bulldozer road.

Commonly known as the bull road, it was a zig-zagging climbing route that ran parallel to the foot trail.

As the name suggested, the road was built to transport supplies to the top of Mount Fuji, and only bulldozers or vehicles with continuous tracks could travel on it.

Reiko rode her moped on the rough gravel surface. Of course, the incline was steep.

The trail was a bulldozer trail that had many straight parts and near one-eighty degree turns. Reiko’s moped, a Honda Super Cub with postal service specifications, went smoothly from the 5th Station, the starting point, to the 6th Station.

Reiko’s part-time job here during her summer vacation was to load the trucks that carried supplies up the bulldozer trail and to check the route.

Even though she was checking a road only vehicles with continuous tracks could drive on, it was just a formality to see the road and weather conditions up to the 6th Station. Reiko’s work was done once she reached the first signpost.

After she passed through the 6th Station, she continued to climb further on her Postal Cub.

The bulldozer trail gradually increased in slope angle. The gravel was much coarser and sharper than the forest roads in the southern alps and Tanzawa, and it caught her tires.

When Reiko reached the 7th Station, she made several turns with one foot on the ground. She immediately revved the engine and kept it at a high rpm as she tried to push through the harsh trail.

When she could no longer see the 7th Station in the back mirror, her climb came to an abrupt halt.

Her front wheel, which had been replaced with an off-road wheel that had a bigger diameter than that of a Postal Cub, seemed to float in the air, and then the vehicle lost its balance. Though she tried to shift the load, her Postal Cub tipped over, with the technique she had learned on flat ground not working.

After a few falls on the steep gravel road, Reiko punched the ground with her fist before making sure that her Cub was okay and that she was only slightly injured.

“Damn it!”

Still sitting on her backside, unable to get up because of the pain in her body, Reiko looked up at the top of the mountain where the fog was getting thicker and thicker.

The summer of her second year of high school.

Reiko was climbing Mount Fuji on her Super Cub.

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