Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 45 - Helping Someone

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With a full tank of gas, Koguma headed southeast on Route 20.

She rode along a road she had traveled along many times for her part-time job and turned right at the border between Koufu and Katsunuma to take Route 137 south along Misaka-michi.

She still knew the roads around here from riding around on holidays and after school. As she recalled, she ran out of time before the Misaka Pass and had to turn around.

Koguma wasn’t worried about taking on an unknown road. It was a weekday afternoon, there were neither too many nor too few cars on the road, and she was riding while enjoying the scenery she had never seen before.

The Cub, which could run close to 70 kilometers on the meter on level ground, was weak on uphill slopes, stalling to about 40 kilometers on steep inclines. She was a little worried about crossing Misaka Pass, but the new road through the pass via a tunnel didn’t put much strain on her Cub.

As she headed south, with the snowboard slopes of Kamui Misaka on her right, she began to see the huge foot of Mount Fuji, of which only the white summit could be seen from afar.

So Reiko tried to climb to the top of this mountain, which I can’t see even if I looked up. While thinking that, she rode along the north side of Mount Fuji and reached Lake Yamanaka via the city of Fujiyoshida.

She wanted to take a break and enjoy the view of the lake, but she ended up just taking a sip of tea from the bottle case hanging from the convenience store bag hook on her Cub while waiting at the traffic light.

She rode along the east side of Mount Fuji and reached Gotenba by following a slow-moving SDF truck like a suckerfish on Kagosaka Pass, which was more difficult than Misaka. It took her less than an hour and a half to get to this point. There was still time to spare. 

At Gotenba, Koguma hesitated a little over her choice of path.

If she kept going straight south, she would have to cross the Hakone mountains and run into Route 1 in Odawara. If she turned left there, she would enter Kanagawa. She would reach Kamakura via Shonan.

If she turned left here instead of going straight, she would reach Route 246. It was a little bit of a detour, but as far as the map showed, she could get to Odawara without having to go over too many mountains.

She rode through Gotenba, thinking of stopping somewhere for a break and looking at her map to think about which route to take.

She saw a Cub parked at the side of the road. A boy, who looked like a high school student like herself, was sitting next to a blue Cub with a flat tire.

After passing by without feeling any particular emotion, Koguma looked for a place to take a rest, but couldn’t find a good place.

She turned into a roadside store’s parking lot briefly, then turned back the way she had been riding and parked her Cub on the shoulder of the road.

“You got a flat tire?”

The boy, who looked like he was about to cry next to the blue Cub, looked up at Koguma. 

“Um, when I was riding, it suddenly started shaking and wouldn’t move even when I pushed it.”

The boy looked much younger than Koguma. He was probably sixteen or older since he was riding a moped, but the thin lines of his body gave her that impression.

She knew from several punctures that a punctured Cub could be very difficult to push and walk due to the resistance of the flat tire.

“Let me take a look.”

The boy was riding a brand-new Cub. The tires and brakes were a size larger than Koguma’s Cub.

It was a Press Cub for newspaper delivery. The engine was black. The fuel injection system was newer than the one on Koguma’s Cub. 

After lifting up the side stand and putting the center stand down, Koguma looked at the punctured rear wheel and saw that it was completely flat. A small metal head was visible on the tread surface.

Still wearing her gloves, she pulled on the piece of metal and it came loose. A thin wood screw. Mopeds, which were often ridden on the side of the road, sometimes ran over these things.

When Koguma saw the completely deflated and flat tire, she asked the boy who was looking on with concern.

“Has this tire been punctured before?”

The Cub’s tires used Tuff-up tubes that sealed punctures with a chemical solution that was sealed inside. A hole made from a wood screw should have been fixed. 

When there was a hole in the Tuff-up tube, some kind of glue-like liquid should splatter all over the tire, but there was no sign of that either.

“Um, I had a flat tire in front of my house right after I bought it, and my dad fixed it for me.”

Koguma understood. He probably didn’t use a Tuff-up tube at that time and replaced it with a regular tube that cost a quarter of the price. That was what she did. The punctured tire was deflated, but the brand new tire was still fitted on the rim.

After briefly looking over the tire, Koguma spoke to the boy.

“There’s a bike shop a little over a kilometer away. I’ll ride there and you can follow me on my Cub.”

That was all Koguma said, and then she kicked the boy’s blue Cub and started the engine. Reiko said that electronically controlled Cubs were garbage, but it idled quieter than Koguma’s Cub.

After seeing the boy nervously getting onto her Cub and starting the engine, Koguma slowly rode off on the blue Cub.

If you got a flat tire on your Cub, you couldn’t even push it around, but if you decided to replace the tube instead of repairing it and rode at a low speed so that the tire wouldn’t come off, you could ride for quite a distance.

Koguma rode along the edge of the road, paying attention to both the tire and the rearview mirror. The boy followed on her Cub. Even though it was the same Cub, just with travel luggage in the back, it was wobbling. 

After spending about five minutes trying not to put a burden on the tires, Koguma arrived at the bike shop, glanced at the Cub parked at the back that looked like it was for soba shop deliveries, and then entered the shop.

It was probably a shop that took care of work Cubs in this neighborhood.

“Excuse me. This Cub’s got a flat tire.”

The owner glanced at the Cub and frowned.

“Sorry, we don’t have any tubes in stock right now. We usually only have Cub ones.” 

Koguma thought that if the bike shop was trying to get rid of her as a nuisance, she would quickly leave and find another shop, but she persisted when she realized that the bike shop, which seemed to sell and repair mopeds, was truly sorry that they were out of stock.

“If you could just lend me some tools.”

The boy on Koguma’s Cub arrived a little later in front of the shop. Koguma pulled out the spare tube from the back of her Cub, which she had stored in the rear box in case of a puncture along the way.

The tube used for the standard Cub that Koguma rode was compatible with the tires of the Press Cub, which was one size larger.

The shop owner saw the tube, nodded, and went to the back of the shop to get the tools. Koguma spoke to the boy who was still straddling her Cub. 

“Eight hundred yen.”

It was the price for the tube that Koguma bought at her nearby home improvement center. The boy looked at Koguma, then the shop owner, then Koguma again. He seemed to have realized that she wasn’t kidding and pulled out his wallet to hand over eight hundred yen. He looked as though he got shaken down.

The owner spoke as he grabbed a toolbox marked for loaning.

“We charge three-thousand yen just for a flat tire.”

Koguma thanked him for the tools and borrowed the eaves of the bike shop to begin removing the boy’s Cub’s rear tire.

Koguma stepped on the wrench with her foot to loosen the nuts on the rear wheel of the Press Cub, which was larger than a regular Cub and tightened tightly, and then tilted the bike to remove the rear wheel, which couldn’t be removed by simply putting the bike on the center stand. The shop owner, who was watching her, remarked,

“You’re used to this kind of work, aren’t you, young lady.”

Koguma replied with a slightly wry smile as she concentrated on the work.

“It’s because it’s happened to me several times.”

That was enough to convince the bike shop owner, and he withdrew to the back of the shop while nodding.

When Koguma put her hands on the heavy tire to lift it, the boy reached out his hand to hold it with her. Without even looking at the boy, Koguma said,

“Don’t do anything. Just watch from there.” 

“Sorry,” the boy said in a small voice and moved away from Koguma.

And then the boy began to talk.

“Cubs are great, aren’t they? I saw a video of a Cub durability test online and wanted one, so my dad bought me one, but it’s different from other scooters, it’s kinda like a living thing. And a Press Cub looks more professional than a regular Cub.”

Koguma replied to the boy’s words.

“Be quiet, you’re distracting me.”

After removing the bolts around the tire and brakes, she placed the tire on the ground and stepped on the edge of the tire, called the bead, to remove it from the rim. The tire was removed from the wheel with a ladle-shaped tire lever she carried on her Cub.

The tubes of Cub tires, like other bikes, would be torn if you used the pointed tire levers used on cars. Koguma knew she wouldn’t be able to borrow this much on the road, so she kept a ladle-shaped tire lever in the space for in-vehicle tools.

She removed the tube from the removed tire, installed a new tube, aligned the markings on the tire with the valve hole on the wheel rim, and then fitted the tire back on. She then inflated the tire and checked for leaks.

Then she mounted the wheel on the body again and tightened the bolts around the axle and brakes. 

She checked the tire again for leaks and made sure all the bolts were tightened.

The work was done. After wiping the tools clean with a rag and putting them back in the toolbox, Koguma washed her hands with soap at the waterworks in front of the shop, thanked the owner, and returned the tools.

“You work fast and carefully. Thought about working here?”

“If I move here, I’ll definitely take you up on that offer.”

They weren’t polite smiles. They were smiles that came from the joyful feelings of fellow human beings who knew and shared the same hardships.

After thanking the shop owner once more, Koguma put her hand on the shoulder of the boy who had been sitting on her Cub watching her work, grabbed it and pulled him down.

The boy was dragged off the Cub and his legs got tangled up in a heap. His legs wouldn’t be able to hold on if the tires of his Cub slipped on a rough or snowy road.

Koguma straddled her own Cub and spoke as she started the engine.

“The flat tire’s fixed. Bye.”

As Koguma was about to ride off on her Cub, her arm was grabbed. The force was no stronger than a cat’s front paw. As he put his hand on Koguma’s arm, he said,

“Thank you, miss. I want to thank you in some way.”

Koguma brushed his hand away. 

“If you’re talking about paying for the tube, I already got it earlier.”

The boy leaned closer to her.

“I want to talk to a fellow Cub rider. I can buy you lunch if you like?”

Koguma lowered the side stand of the Cub with the engine still running and got off the seat.

She gave the boy in front of her, who was revealing his tedious and dull lecherous intentions even though he couldn’t do anything about his punctured Cub, a much less polite look than usual.

“About Cubs. There’s one thing I can tell you about the Cub.”

Koguma sharply kicked the boy in the knee with the toe of her short leather boot.

The boy let out a cry like a little kid. Koguma got back on her Cub, raised the stand, and put it in first gear.

“It’ll hurt more when you fall over on your Cub.”

Leaving behind the boy who was moaning with sobs mixed in, Koguma rode off on her Cub.

She didn’t know why she did that. It wasn’t being unnecessarily touched or being held back when she was in a hurry to go on, but being called fellow Cub riders made her feel intensely for some reason.

She was able to keep riding the Cub with the help of so many people. So, when she saw someone in trouble with a flat tire, she helped them as much as she could, but she didn’t want to be lumped together with a kid who thought a Cub was just a toy to play with in his room. 

Operating a machine that could kill people, and being a part of the people who rode on public roads, was different from playing with toys.

Koguma left the town of Gotemba. She returned to Route 228 and rode south, and decided to cross the mountains of Hakone she had decided to avoid earlier.

Kanagawa Prefecture was beyond that point. Her destination, Kamakura, was just a stone’s throw away. 

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