Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 42 - Route Selection

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After getting dressed, Koguma spread out the maps on her bed.

She put aside the road map of Japan that she had bought at a used bookstore a while ago and followed the maps from a service area on the highway with her finger.

Cubs couldn’t go on the highway, but in recent years, there had been an increase in service areas that were open to the nearby residents, not just motorists on the highways. Before, when Koguma went to a service area on the Chuo Expressway out of curiosity, she had gotten several maps.

The maps, which covered most of the major roads in Yamanashi and neighboring prefectures, were useful for route selection, and best of all, they were free.

As far as she could see from the maps, there were two routes to get from her house near Hinoharu Station to the accommodations for the school trip in Kamakura.

The first was to turn south on the Koushuu Kaidou between Koufu and Katsunuma and take Route 137, which also called Misaka-michi, to reach Route 1 via Gotenba and Hakone, and then to Kamakura through Odawara and Shonan.

The second was to take the Koushuu Kaidou to Lake Sagami in Kanagawa Prefecture, and then take Route 412 south. After passing through Miyagase and Atsugi, the road turns into Route 1 at Hiratsuka and leads to Kamakura. 

She measured the distance between the two roads with her fingers and found that they were both about the same distance. For Koguma, who had never ridden in the area close to Kanagawa Prefecture in Yamanashi Prefecture, both routes weren’t very familiar to her.

In order to choose a route with fewer uphill slopes, which were the weakness of Cubs, she had to look at the roads, contour lines, and place names on a flat map. The first route, via Misaka-michi, crossed the Misaka Pass, while the latter crossed the Sasago Pass.

She didn’t know which one was the best choice. She was thinking of tossing a coin to decide, but then she spotted a place name on the map and picked up a three-color ballpen from her desk.

Using the red pen, she traced the route from Koushuu to Misaka via Gotenba, and then drew a line to Kamakura at the edge of the map.

She didn’t have any particular reason to choose this route. However, the beginning of Mount Fuji’s Subashiri Trail was in the middle of this route.

This was the mountain Reiko climbed with her Postal Cub this summer. In the end, she couldn’t make it to the top, and fell off past the 9th Station.

Koguma had boasted that her Cub could climb the mountain, but she thought that if that was the case, it would be a good idea to take a look first. If she had time, she could go up to the 5th Station where the roadway was open. Then she could also claim that she was someone who rode halfway up Mount Fuji, like Reiko. 

She also traced the route that went through Lake Sagami and Miyagase to Kamakura with a blue pen as insurance in case the first route couldn’t be used for some reason.

Koguma put the road map with a zoomed-in map of the area around Kamakura in her school trip bag, fold the map where she had drawn the entire route into a small square, and put it in her waist pouch that hung diagonally from her shoulder so she could take it out immediately. After checking the water and gas taps in her apartment, she grabbed her bag, gloves, and helmet and headed for the door.

She chose her shoes as she looked at the hundred-yen rack that stood in for a shoe cupboard.

Although she didn’t have a lot of shoes to wear. Loafers and sneakers for school. And the high-cut cloth basketball shoes she bought for when she rode her Cub.

On top of the several pairs of basketball shoes she bought in bulk because they were being sold at a discount, there was a pair of shoes she had recently bought.

She had found those short black leather boots at a major bookstore-type second-hand shop in Koufu.

The ankle boots, which were inexpensive for an unused pair, were old skates that had the blades removed from them.

Although there were screw holes in the soles from blade marks, the flat rubber soles were easy to walk and run on, and most importantly, they were perfect for riding the Cub in. 

After putting on the almost-new, still slightly stiff short boots and tying the laces tightly, Koguma opened the front door with her bags in hand.

This might be the first time she would be away from her apartment for several days since she lost her parents. Even if she could join up with the school trip, would she be able to return home safely by evening the day after tomorrow?

She looked back at her apartment from the door, took another good look at the place where she lived, then closed the door and locked it.

I’ll come back safely. With this thought in mind, Koguma walked up to the Cub she would be traveling with.

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