Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 44 - Something Dangerous

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On a weekday morning at an unmanned self-service station with no other customers, Koguma borrowed the air tank provided by the station to check the tire pressure.

The air pressure was normal for both front and rear tires. She had her first puncture a while ago, and since then she’d had a series of punctures, but it seemed that her bad luck had gone away, and she hadn’t had a puncture recently.

If she got a puncture on the road, she would be able to handle it because she had a replacement tube and instant puncture repair material in the rear box.

Next, she checked the oil. She recently changed the oil, so both quantity and viscosity were satisfactory.

Koguma thought that this overly cautious check might be due to fear and nervousness about her upcoming ride, but then another source of anxiety came to mind that had nothing to do with the condition of her Cub.

She hadn’t let anyone know about her upcoming ride.

When she was working part-time delivering documents, both the sender and receiver knew she was delivering them on a Cub, so they worried about her when she was late.

She wondered if she should inform the school of her plan to ride her Cub to the school trip’s destination, meet up with her class, and have dinner at the inn. 

Koguma took off her helmet and pulled out her cell phone from her waist pouch, but decided not to call.

She had to stay home because she was sick with a fever, and later, she was chasing after the school trip bus on a moped. They would probably tell her to stop and rest at home.

As Koguma was about to put her phone back in her bag, she recalled something she had heard recently.

Whenever I ride my motorcycle, adults always tell me to stop because it’s dangerous. Even though I can’t stop because it’s dangerous.

When Koguma had heard those words, she thought that they were both right and wrong, but at least the owner of those words wouldn’t try to stop Koguma from doing what she was going to do.

Koguma pressed the buttons on her phone and called one of the few numbers in her address book.

“It’s dangerous, so you shouldn’t do it.”

That was the first thing Reiko said.

“It really is dangerous, huh?”

Reiko thought about Koguma’s words for a moment before answering.

“If I told you to stop, would you stop?”

A longer silence than Reiko’s. She heard the sound of the bus and the noise of their classmates talking from the phone. 

“Hmm, maybe I’ll stop next time.”

She could hear Reiko laugh. She heard a classmate in a nearby seat asking her who she was on the phone with, but Reiko just brushed them off. 

“You’re starting to think like a biker. Okay. I won’t tell the teachers, but I’ll plead your case with you when you get there. Be careful. If in doubt, don’t go. If anything goes wrong, don’t hesitate to stop and turn around.”

Koguma’s fear of long-distance riding seemed to have faded a little. For now, it didn’t seem like she was going to miss a meal. Koguma’s anxiety was not only about the possibility of an accident or something happening, but also about the possibility that this trip would end in vain.

“Thanks, Reiko.”

With that, she hung up and put her phone back in her bag. She put her helmet back on.

Motorcycles were dangerous. Just running was dangerous. Even if you say that, the world was full of dangerous things, even when you were just walking or sitting in a room.

She was dependent on scholarships and part-time jobs, so even her daily life was in danger. Even so, she had been able to get through it by thinking of ways to deal with it and making choices about what to do. It was no big deal for her to go somewhere far away on a Cub. 

As she started off on her Cub after refueling, a shadow of anxiety passed over her mind again.

What would happen if she wasn’t allowed to join in the middle of the trip after she arrived at the trip’s destination? What if she had planned to eat a meal at the ryokan, but wasn’t allowed to even have her own table?

The image of herself trudging home on her Cub with the gas tank empty came to mind, and she couldn’t help but think that she should stop everything, turn around, and go home.

She was also worried about the road. Until now, she had been riding a Cub, and she had never had an accident or a major breakdown because she had been lucky. She didn’t know when that luck would run out. 

Koguma thought about it. Rather than being at a loss as to what to do if that happened, thinking about what to do if that happened would open up a path.

If she couldn’t get around on her Cub due to an accident or a breakdown, she could have the used bike shop she bought her Cub from pick it up by truck and take the train home. She could think about repairing the Cub afterward.

If when she got there, she was told that there was no food for her, then there was no need to ask for food at the ryokan. I can just bluff that I came to eat Kamakura’s delicious cuisine, stomp out of there, and go to any nice-looking restaurant.

At that time, I’ll make Reiko come with me.

Anxiety would never go away no matter what. It was better to enjoy it as a slight bitterness that was savored along with the fun of riding a motorcycle.

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