Kyōto Again?

【POV: Tetsuya】

Class 2-A was always as noisy as a busted market. This morning, the zoo had a brand-new center of attention.

The eye of the storm was Ōtsuka Riku's desk. My buddy, a guy who normally turtles into his signature gamer hunchback, was strutting his stuff today like a prized fighting cock that just won a match.

Resting on his nose bridge was a sleek pair of black-rimmed smart glasses with chunky frames. The Orion logo gave off a dim neon-blue glow, making him look equally badass and ridiculous against his sleep-deprived face.

「This baby has dual 8K Micro-LED screens!」 Riku swiped his hand through the air, he was actually stroking virtual interfaces only he could see. 「I even managed to install the Developer build of Proxima, it's...」

「Yoink. Let me borrow these for a sec.」 He didn't even get to finish before a slender hand reached out and ripped the glasses right off his face.

Kanda Yuria. The concept of "asking permission" simply didn't exist in this girl's dictionary. She put the glasses on, flipped her messy hair over her shoulder, and squinted around the room. The silver cross around her neck swung back and forth.

「Hey! Watch it!」 Riku yelped.

I sighed, dumped my schoolbag on my desk, and stepped over to give my panicking buddy a pat on the shoulder.

「Which organ did you sell this time, Riku? Liver or kidney? Or did you just sign your personal data away to some mega-corp? Those glasses probably cost three months of my lunch budget.」

A smug look plastered across his face. 「Hell no. Emi-nee just landed a killer contract over in Shinjuku, so she treated me for... well, stayed home and behaved.」

「So you literally got paid to be societal trash in your own home? Truly admirable.」

「You've got a real talent for pissing people off, Tetsuya!」

Yuria had already grown tired of the UI. She took the glasses off, twirling them in her hand like a cheap toy before turning to the adjacent desk where my little Mari was swiping her phone.

「Hey Mari-chan, give it a try. It has X-ray vision.」

「The hell it does! Give it back!」 Riku lunged forward snatching the glasses back from Yuria's hand. He immediately started buffing the lenses with the hem of his uniform. 「Great, now it's smeared fingerprints!」

「Yo.」 Suzuki Akari—our homeroom teacher—breezed into the classroom like a gust of wind. There was no standard "Class, stand!" protocol. She would deduct our conduct grades for putting on a show if we even tried. Wearing a skirt that was slightly too snug by teaching standards, the impatient clack-clack of her heels echoed across the floor.

She reached for the thickest black marker available, and popped the cap off with a practiced one-handed flick.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.

《修学旅行》

A trip!

Akari-sensei crossed her arms. 「The good news: We're heading out next week. The budget is fat, the hotel is high-class, and the bus has 6G Wi-Fi.」

A wave of excited murmurs swept through the room. Next to me, Riku was already putting his smart glasses to the test, his fingers gliding through the air. Mari propped up her chin, eyes shining with hype.

But the grin on Akari-sensei's face died instantly.

「Bad news: The destination... is Kyōto.」

The classroom immediately devolved into a riot of complaints.

「Huh?!」

「Kyōto again?!」

「Sensei, we just went there last year!」

「Are we just gonna gawk at shrines and eat crusty mochi again?」

Akari-sensei hastily waved her hands to do some damage control. 「Whoa, whoa, back off! Don't shoot me!」 She pointed out the window toward the faraway building where the principal's office was. 「It was Principal Nishi! The old man chose it! I submitted proposals for snowboarding in Hokkaidō or diving in Okinawa! But he insisted that Kyōto has "profound traditional cultural value"! I have no power here!」

She brushed her short hair back. 「Listen. I know it sucks. But...」

She lowered her voice, sounding exactly like a ringleader pitching a bad idea to her crew. 「...we are Class 2-A. We don't do excursions like regular folks. We're gonna turn this trip into... what's that thing you guys say? Oh, yeah!」

Snap.

「Absolute Cinnamon!」

She punched her fist high into the air. 「You hear me? No shuffling around like braindead tourists. Let's raise hell our own way!」

Alright then... Even if she completely butchered a meme that's been dead for ages, betting on Akari-sensei still felt like a fairly solid wager.