Silence fell over this group of campers as they trudged on towards their shared destination. Their uneasiness over each other's presence was felt by the little white terrier, which was staring at them and once again, wore that exasperated look. Sheesh, can't they just get straight to the damn point?

Sensing the impending draft of awkwardness that loomed over them, Tsumugi decided to bring it upon herself to break the ice. "Since we still have a long way to go, we might as well talk about our plans, right guys?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Mio said uneasily, as a passing breeze blew her and Tsumugi's long hair. "But we don't have that much to do, right? Aside from the usual trekking, fishing and barbecue, that is."

"Speaking of which," said Ritsu, "Hey, Yui-chan! Have you brought the charcoal? We need it, since the lodge doesn't provide us with charcoal for the barbecue pits."

"Don't worry!" Yui chirped in her usual lively manner. "They're all here in my bag!"

"Are you sure that's what we need, sempai?" asked Azusa, as she wore a sceptical look.

"Of course!"  Yui replied in an affirmative tone, but was abruptly replaced by an uncertain expression, as she said, "At least, I think so."

"That's what I'm afraid of," the four other girls interjected.

"Well, at least not having the right charcoal is far less bad than her lugging Giita all the way here in the wilderness of Southern Japan," Ritsu remarked, "Boy, am I glad I convinced her not to."

"But I HAVE to spend more time with Giita!" Yui grumbled. "After all, we won't go far as a band without him!"

"Um, excuse me," Tintin finally spoke up after his long silence, "but who's Giita?"

"Oh, that's the name that Yui here gave her guitar," Tsumugi explained, "It's a bit hard to explain, though."

"Yeah, like, she's treating that guitar like a person or a pet. It's a borderline fetish!" Ritsu spoke up.

"Stop making Yui look bad in front of strangers!!" Mio yelled indignantly as she gave Ritsu her trademark hand chop.

"OW! But that's the truth!"

"You're all so mean," Yui pouted, but she, along with the other girls, changed into a surprised expression when they saw the young man gave out a polite, yet heartfelt laugh.

"I'm sorry," he said, as he tried to control his laughter, "It's just that...that you're very interesting to watch. I don't mean any offence, ladies."

There was something in Tintin's eyes that that made Captain Haddock do a double take and make a quick, thoughtful glance at him. But he remained silent and wordlessly walked on.

"Oh no, don't worry," Tsumugi assured him, "I'm glad that you don't find us bothersome to be with."

"Oh no, not at all. By the way, I heard you mention that you ladies are in a band or something."

"Well yes, kind of," said Tsumugi, "but we're just starting out, professionally speaking. A talent agency had just taken us in, and we're just learning the ropes in how we should go around in the recording artists business. But they're kind enough to send us on a camping trip like this and even set us up for a free week-long stay!"

"Sounds interesting," Tintin remarked, "I'd like to hear you play, if we get the chance."

"Why thank you! I do hope that we get that chance, though," said Tsumugi, "Oh, here we are!"

As they arrived at the lodge, the girls marvelled at the sight of Kichioji Lodge, its cabins neatly arranged and homey-looking. It may not have been as grand as the villas that were owned by Tsumugi's family, but they were more than inviting enough to make anyone feel comfortable. The group headed straight to the central pavilion where the registry was, and as they walked in, the girls took in the sight of the gentle ambience that exuded from the lights that bounced off the tasteful decors that made up the interior of the central office.

"Souichi sure has good taste," Ritsu remarked. "He may suck at getting us gigs, but he more than makes up for it with this."

"Show some consideration and respect for our manager," Mio scolded her. "You can't deny that he's working just as hard, perhaps even more than us, just to get us through the industry."

"Whatever, old lady," Ritsu grumbled.

"Oh, by the way," Tsumugi said to the two men, "this might be where we'll part ways for tonight. I do hope we get to see you tomorrow, Mr. Tintin?"

"H-how did you know my name?!" The young man said, surprised.

"Well, I heard your friend call you by that name a while ago at the cliff side."

"Is that so..." said Tintin, but was cut off when the Captain pulled him closer and hissed in a gruff tone, "Hey, are you sure that you're willing to just give out our names like that?"

"Captain, why would you be so concerned about that? It's not like anyone in this era would still remember us. Besides, if we're too caught up in protecting our present identities, they might get suspicious and things will get harder for us."

"Um, excuse me?" asked Tsumugi.

"Yes?" replied Tintin, as he and the Captain faced her.

"Since we'll be seeing each other in the next few days, it would be just fair if we introduce ourselves to one another, right, guys?" asked Tsumugi, as the other girls voiced their agreement.

"Okay, I'll start. I'm Tsumugi Kotobuki."

"Yui Hirasawa! Nyan!"

"Do you really have to do that, sempai?" Azusa muttered, and then faced the men. "I'm Azusa Nakano."

"I'm...I'm...M...Mio....Akiyama," Mio stammered shyly, "n-nice to meet you!"

"Ritsu Tainaka. Yo!"
"Okay, it's my turn now. I'm Tintin."

"And your last name...?" Ritsu asked.

"That's my only name, actually."

"What a weird name!" Yui remarked, "Tintin, Tantan, Tan-tan-tanuki!"

"Sempai!" Azusa scolded her. Turning again to the others, she said, "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Tintin assured her, "don't worry." Nudging his companion, he whispered, "C'mon."

Sighing, the old sea salt fell silent before finally saying, "Haddock. Archibald Haddock."

A sharp bark broke through the air and startled them. Looking down, they saw his pouting visage of Snowy the dog, who wasn't pleased with the fact that he was ignored throughout the humans' exchange.

"Oh, sorry boy," Picking Snowy up, Tintin faced the girls and said, "And this is Snowy."

"Aw, how cute!" said Yui, as she went near the dog to pat him.

"Wait sempai!" Said Azusa, "You can't just pet him like that...." she broke off when she saw that Snowy was enjoying Yui's pats and affectionate babbling. "I can't believe it!"

"No surprise there," said Tintin, as he cast a fond look at his pet. "Snowy's a sharp lad. He knows that you mean no harm."

"He sure is a good judge of character," Ritsu commented, as she bemusedly watched her friend pet the little white terrier. Yui was too caught up in fawning over the dog's cuteness that it took all of her friends to drag her away and remind her that they should get the key to their assigned cabin. As they walked towards the check-in counter with a protesting Yui in tow, Tintin gazed at them with a part-bemused, part-wistful look before the Captain reminded him that they have to get the keys to their cabin as well.
Once they were all at the counter, they gave their names, and the receptionist promptly checked their reservations in the computer. Soon enough, the receptionist punched a magnetic card in the validation machine and handed it to them.

"Uh...whose card would that be?" asked Tsumugi.

"What do you mean, miss?" asked the receptionist. "Isn't this supposed to be a group?"

"A group?" asked Tsumugi, unsure that she heard it right.

"Miss, there must be some mistake," said Tintin, "we're not..."

"But your names are registered under Cabin 17," said the receptionist, as she turned the monitor around to face them. "Here, see for yourselves."

All seven of them stared long and hard at the monitor before freaking out and yelling in unison, "No way!!"

"There's definitely a mistake here!!" Ritsu protested, as she leaned in the counter and startled the other staff members seated at it. "There's no way that we're sharing a cabin with these guys!!"

"Can't you do something about it?" asked Tsumugi, "Like put us in a different cabin or something?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," said the receptionist, "All of our cabins are booked. And the next scheduled check-out is within a week."

"Where's the manager?" asked Azusa, "Can't we talk about this, at least?"

"I'm sorry, but our manager won't be here for another two days."

"Ritsu! Where are you going?!" asked Mio, as she saw the aforementioned making her way out of the pavilion.

"I'll ask the people in the bigger cabins if they're willing to swap with us!"

"Ritsu, you idiot! That's completely uncalled for! Besides, the ones with the bigger cabins might be foreigners, and how would you know that they can speak and understand Japanese as well as these two guys?!"

"Oh, right. I didn't think about that."
  
"You're as careless as always!" said Mio, as she gave Ritsu another hand chop.

As the girls chatted amongst themselves, the two men took their turn in talking with the receptionist about the matter at hand.

"Isn't there something you could do, miss?" asked Tintin, "We really need some privacy, and it would be hard to have that if we have to share our space with five more people."

"We're having some confidential business, and we won't be able to do that if we're marooned with these lasses," the Captain added.

"I'm sorry gentlemen; but there's nothing I could do about it," said the receptionist, "but if it's any consolation, the layout of your assigned cabin has its bedrooms in the farthest wings of either side, so you could still have as much privacy as you need. Here," as she said this, the receptionist typed a few commands into the computer and soon enough, the cabin's floor plans appeared on the monitor.

"What do you think?" asked the Captain.

"Well, we can take the room in the right wing, and they can take the larger room in the left," said Tintin, as he studied the floor plan. And the distance between the rooms is just enough for the sound-proofers to be used to their fullest effect. But still... it's as if we've been given this cabin with us in mind, given that there are an exact number of beds for each of us. Now that I think about it, it seems too much of a coincidence that we've been put in with these people. Could they be... oh, stop it, Tintin! You're over-thinking things again. There's no way that they'd be a part of this. They don't look and act like they do, for starters!

"Excuse me, sir?"


"Huh?!" Startled from his deep thought, the young man stared at the receptionist and said, "I'm sorry. What was it again?"

"Do you want to join the weekly night buffet?" asked the receptionist.

At the sound of the word "buffet", Yui promptly ran towards the receptionist and yelled, "Oh yes! I want to! I want to!!"

"I'm so sorry," said Azusa, as she ran towards Yui and the startled men, "She loses it when food is mentioned. Yui-sempai! For the last time, stop acting like that!"

"We're having the weekly buffet tonight," said the receptionist, "If you want, you can have dinner there first before retiring to your cabin."

"Wait, we haven't decided yet on whether or not we're gonna stay here!" said Azusa.

"Give it up, Azu-nyan," said Ritsu, "Obviously, we'll be stuck with them for the whole week."

"But..."

"I understand how you feel," said Tsumugi, "but we can't exactly go back to the bus station and look for another lodge. Besides, I don't think these men would be the type that could do anything unpleasant to us. What we should be worried about is if it's us who would be invading their private space."

"Oh no, don't worry about us," said Tintin, "Besides, it's camping season today. Something like this is bound to happen, right, Captain?" The old sea dog could only reply with a grunt of resignation.

"Captain?" asked Tsumugi, her curiosity piqued, "Are you from the navy or something? That's cool?"

"I'm a merchant ship captain," the Captain corrected her, "semi-retired, but still effective. What gave you the idea that I'm from the military, by the way?"

"Well, you have this dignified air around you," Tsumugi replied, "and the full beard seems to emphasize that."

"He does look the part of the battle-hardened seadog," said Ritsu, as she surveyed the Captain's face up close.

"B-blistering barnacles!" the Captain sputtered, overwhelmed by the sudden barrage of attention. "It's rude to stare at people, you know!"

Giggling inwardly, Tintin wore that half-amused, half-wistful look again. Our stay here won't be boring that's for sure. "Okay, since we have decided, let's go to the buffet together."

"Yes! Food! Food!" Yui cheered, as her friends tried in vain to get her to calm down, as they saw how she was getting too much attention from the people around them.

"Are you sure about this, Tintin?" the Captain whispered, "That Yui lass is louder than a raging walrus. She's attracting too much attention!"

"That's exactly the point," Tintin whispered back, "They can easily divert attention and act as a cover for us..."

"Excuse me, gentlemen?"

Startled, the two men quickly turned to where the voice came from. It was the receptionist, who was handing them their card key. "Your card key, sir..."

"Oh, thank you," said Tintin, as he got the card from her. But as he did so, he noticed that the receptionist was giving them a strange look. "Is there something wrong, miss?"

The receptionist fell silent for a few moments as she appeared to be scrutinizing both Tintin and the Captain. Finally, she spoke up, "Are you two related?"

"No," Tintin replied, as he mentally poised himself for a possible interrogation attack. Could she be...?

Another moment of silence passed before the receptionist said, "Whatever confidential business you're planning to carry out, I trust that you have the discretion to not let those young ladies catch you in the act, if you know what I mean."

"PARDON?!" The two men asked, as their mid-20th century mindsets tried to make sense of what she just said.

"Oh, nothing. Forget what I said," said the receptionist, "We hope that you enjoy our buffet and your stay here."

"Wait! What are you talking about?!" the Captain demanded. "Discretion? Catch us in the act? What's this you're giving us?!?"

"Just let her be, Captain," said Tintin, as he tugged at his friend's arm, "Remember that those girls can't get into their cabin without us, so we have to catch up with them."

The Captain let out a reluctant grunt before he finally joined his friend in saying, "Please excuse us," and left the reception area to join their new cabin mates.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Right after filling themselves up in the lodge's sumptuous buffet, the group walked on towards their assigned cabin, their conversation dominated by the food that they just ate, and the sheer heft of Yui's appetite. When the girls went on with their merry little conversation, Tintin and the Captain barely said anything other than a question or two about their conversation. As they stopped in front of their assigned cabin's door, Tintin handed the card key to Tsumugi and said, "Here. You better keep this."

Surprised, Tsumugi said, "Are you sure? I mean, you won't be able to get into the cabin without this, right?"

"Well, it's not that we think you don't trust us, but this is the best way that I could think of to keep people from thinking that we're taking advantage of you. Besides, I don't think you ladies will stay outside the lodge after dark, while we might. We don't want you to be stuck outside while you wait for us."

"That's a good point," said Tsumugi, as she took the card key from Tintin, "Thank you. That's very considerate of you."

"Now that you mentioned it," said Azusa, "we told the receptionist that we're not a group. Why didn't she give us separate cards?"

"They can only assign one card per cabin, Azusa-chan," Tsumugi explained, as she punched the card into the security mechanism, "It's for security."

As soon as the door opened, the group went inside, as the automatic lighting system illuminated the main room and revealed its sight to them. The small, yet clean and comfortable-looking furniture and the spotless kitchen counter, equipped with the basic appliances that anyone who would be cooking their own meals would need; all of them seemed out of place with the basic-looking construction setup of the cabin's log walls, but they also emphasized the fact that this was a cabin in the wilderness, albeit a slightly more upgraded one.

"So this is what a commoner's lodge looks like!" Tsumugi swooned, as she marvelled at the place with adoring eyes.

"Uh..." Tintin stared dumbfounded at the other girls as he pointed at Tsumugi.

"Oh, Mugi-chan's always like that," Ritsu explained, "You see, she came from a filthy rich family. I mean FILTHY rich. She ended up having a thing for anything having to do with 'commoner things'. You should see the lodges that her family own. They're practically five-star resort-hotels!"

"Is that so," said Tintin, but noticed that something was amiss. Finally realizing that his canine companion was no longer at his feet, he called him out and looked around, slightly alarmed; but his worry was quickly replaced by amusement when he saw Snowy on the couch, lying on his back and enjoying Yui's belly rub.

"Hey, don't tell me that you're planning to betray your master, you little rascal?" the Captain said jokingly, as he leaned over Snowy with an equally amused look.

"Let him go, Yui-sempai!" Azusa said in a scolding manner, "that's not your dog!!"

"But he's so cute!" Yui protested.

"SEMPAI!!"

The people in the room laughed. They may be complete strangers practically forced to live under one roof for a week, but if they would have a common pint of interest, it would be this fluffy little terrier. The thought had somehow managed to bring some form of comfort and ease in the potentially awkward situation that they're in now. They stayed together and talked for a few more minutes, with the girls taking their turns in petting Snowy, before they finally decided to retire for the night.

The girls said their respective good-nights, and all of them save for Azusa hurriedly ran towards the bedroom in the left wing. Approaching the two men, Azusa said, "Uh, wait!"

"Yes?" said Tintin, as he and the Captain faced her.

"Well...uh..." unsure about whether or not they will accept her words or not, Azusa fidgeted and uttered filler words before finally giving up about thinking of the right words to say. With a slight blush, she blurted out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry...that we made you go through all this trouble! And also...thank you...for saving my life."

"Don't mention it," said Tintin, "It's not your fault. It's simply a matter of crazy things happening one after the other. Don't worry... I'll make sure that you don't lose anything from this."

There was something in the young man's eyes that made Azusa stare at him with a thoughtful look. But she didn't have time to think about it when her friends started making loud noises in their room.

"By thunder!" the Captain exclaimed, "it sounds like a fraternity house party in there!"

"I'm so sorry! They're having a pillow fight right now. They're always doing this whenever they're out on a camping trip like this!" Azusa hurriedly bowed down and excused herself, and she ran towards the room where her friends were; and the two men could hear her as she loudly reprimanded them.

"Our sound proof-ers sure are useful in more ways than one," Tintin remarked with another amused expression.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

As the two men and the little white terrier settled in their room for the night, they activated the soundproofing function installed in their watches as a precautionary measure to keep the confidentiality of any of their discussions that were related to their mission.

"I see that you're always as focused with the main objective as ever," the Captain remarked, speaking in his native Walloon French, as he noted how the young man was all too eager to turn on the soundproofing function.

"We don't have much time, Captain," said Tintin, "I can feel a great deal of Exceed energy around here. You should feel it too, being an Exceed yourself."

"Well, there IS something fishy about the air around here," said the Captain, "But you know that I don't know this whole Exceed business as much as you do."

"Well, you have a point, since I've been doing research on the subject as a journalist even before that fateful day. But just keep our only objective in mind: to find the source of the Exceed particles before they do."

Once again, they fell silent from the gravity of what was just said. They both knew that their mission was not only of utmost importance, but there were also lives potentially at stake in this whole affair. And that included their all too innocent and unknowing cabin-mates.

"We can't involve anyone in this. Especially not those girls," the young man said with a tone of conviction in his voice.

"You know," said the Captain, "I can't help but notice how those girls made quite an impression on you."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't give me that, laddie. I can see from the look in your eyes when you're talking to them. Tell me: you like them, don't you?"

"Of course not!" Tintin said, as an awkward expression ran across his face. "Now where were we? Oh, about the Exceed particles..."

"Tut-tut! Don't change the subject," said the Captain with a knowing smirk, "Admit it: you like them. Because I never saw your eyes sparkle like that in all these years that we've been together."

"You're...you're just imagining things," Tintin sputtered, as he flipped his blanket over himself. "Now let's go to sleep. We still have a long day ahead of us."

"You know, my boy...it's not bad to have friends your age. Especially female ones..."

"I don't have the luxury for that. Besides...history has proven time and again that women had always been bad news for men."

There was something in Tintin's voice that made the Captain wonder if there was something in his past experiences that made him say something like that. But out of respect, he deemed it best not to ask his young friend about it. "Tintin...except perhaps for the Catastrafiore, women aren't always bad news, you know."

Later on, as the two men had finally settled in for the night, Tintin had let Snowy crawl under his blanket and snuggle beside him. As he stared at the night sky outside the window, he said, "I don't need female friends. You, the Captain, the Professor...you're all I need. And that's all that matters. I don't need anyone else. Just you guys."

Snowy stared silently at his master, as he had always done as a silent witness to his master's inner workings throughout the years that they've been together. And he had known his master so much that he knew that the latter was lying to himself. You're hopeless, thought Snowy, as he snuggled closer to his master.

And so they all fell asleep, carrying with them the anxiety over what tomorrow may bring.