The B.G.S.'s part 13

5th July 2025

 

Hi Kiki, yesterday my friends and I started going to other cities of Japan to look for more B.G.S’s. It all started yesterday morning right after we had breakfast. Shizuyo, Yuko and I were getting ready for our first trips in our room. We each had a small back pack to carry around with us because we were going to take a B.G.S. each with us. As I already told you before Kiki, the B.G.G.’s are able to find each other by squeaking.

“This is going to be fun” said Yuko. She was looking forward going to places.

“This isn’t a field trip you know Yuko” said Shizuyo.

“I know, but it is still exciting” said Yuko. There was no point arguing with Yuko there.

Just then there was a knock at the door. It was Hiroshi. It was time for us to go. The boys, the girls and I all made our way to Prof Largos’s lab. Prof Largos and Mr Yashiro were waiting for us.

“Get ready children,” said Prof Largos “I have the machine ready to teleport you to other cities”.

Mr Yashiro handed the boys a remote control each that we needed to teleport back to the house. Yuko, Shizuyo and I placed a B.G.S. each into our small back packs. The boys had back packs to carry things in too.        

“Now children remember this;” said Mr Yashiro “don’t lose your remote controls, don’t let anybody see the B.G.S.’s and come straight back here after you’ve found another B.G.S.”.

“Yes sir” my friends and I said altogether.

The teleporter was now ready to teleport us somewhere in Japan. Yuko and Kouhei went onto the platform first and they were teleported to Iya Valley in Tokushima Prefecture. Shizuyo and Tatsuya were next and they went to Niihama City of Ehime Prefecture. Then it was Hiroshi and my turn to go onto the platform and we got teleported to Kiso Valley in Nagano Prefecture.

I will tell you what happened to all of us, one by one Kiki. I learned from Shizuyo, Tatsuya, Yuko and Kouhei of what had happened to them when they came back from the cities.

I’ll start off with Yuko and Kouhei’s day. Yuko was completely awestruck once she and Kouhei was teleported to Iya Valley. Not to mention she found the teleporting thing amazing. Iya Valley is a mountain valley just to let you know Kiki. Yuko and Kouhei were on a hill at the top of the village, and Yuko couldn’t stop admiring the beautiful view. Kouhei had to remind her about their quest on looking for a B.G.S.

“Good thing the teleporter teleported us to this village; it’s a perfect place to look for the B.G.S.s” said Kouhei.

Yuko took out a blue B.G.S. from her back pack. “Okay B.G.S.” she said “we are going to start looking for any of your friends in this village. So remember what Prof Largos said yesterday; you must squeak quietly while we’re looking around the village, okay?” The B.G.S. squeaked yes.

Yuko and Kouhei started to walk through the village. But after only just walking in the village for a few minutes, they heard something that captured their ears. A group of people were talking about some strange squeaking noises they heard in the wood. Kouhei and Yuko went over to the group of people and asked them what noise they were talking about. The people explained they heard the squeaking noises after they crossed the Kazura Rope Bridge of Iya valley. They reckoned there were rats about, so none of them wanted to look because they didn’t like rats.

Kouhei had a funny feeling the squeaks maybe from a B.G.S. So he suggested he and Yuko should go to the Kazura Rope Bridge and Yuko agreed. They asked the group where the bridge was and the people gave them directions to a river where the bridge was. Thanks to the directions they were given, Yuko and Kouhei made it to the river and the bridge.

“Wow look at that bridge and that river” said Yuko, in surprise.

“Since the people said they heard the squeaking noises after crossing the bridge, that means we’ll have the cross the bridge too” said Kouhei.

“Oh dear” sighed Yuko.

Truth is Kiki the thought of crossing the rope bridge sounded scary to Yuko. But thanks to some squeaking of encouragement from the blue B.G.S., Yuko understood she had to if she wanted to find any more B.G.S.’s.

And so Yuko and Kouhei slowly and bravely started to walk across the bridge. Yuko kept on holding to the sides of the rope bridge for balance.

“You alright Yuko?” Kouhei asked.

“I will be once we get to the other side” said Yuko.

“Just continue hanging on Yuko, we’ll be on the other side soon” said Kouhei.

A few minutes later Yuko and Kouhei reached the other side of the bridge safely.   

“Phew, that was nerve wrecking,” sighed Yuko “I’m happy that’s over”.

“I thought that was exciting really” said Kouhei. Truth is he finds anything that looks scary exciting; whether it would be climbing a very tall tree, riding a scary roller-coaster or jumping off a high diving board.

Yuko had a quick look around to check if the coast was clear and it was. Then she took out the blue B.G.S. from her back pack and held it in her arms.

“B.G.S. we need to check around here for any of your friends,” she said “so go ahead and squeak please”.

The blue B.G.S. started to squeak out while Yuko and Kouhei started to walk along the path, taking great care that no one else heard the blue B.G.S.’s squeaking.

“This is nice,” said Yuko, who was enjoying the walk, “I feel like staying here for the rest of the day, walking around this wood and the village again”.

“Yes but Mr Yashiro probably wouldn’t like it if we ended up staying here all day” said Kouhei.

Suddenly Kouhei made Yuko stop walking.

“Shh do you hear that?” he asked.

Yuko perked up her ears and heard some squeaking noises. “I do hear that,” she said “we’re close to the strange noises those people told us about”.

Yuko and Kouhei followed the sounds of the squeaks to some trees a bit far from the path. And there, to Yuko and Hiroshi’s surprise, were five B.G.S.’s playing hide and seek amongst the trees. There was a tan coloured B.G.S., a pine green B.G.S., a raspberry coloured B.G.S., a lilac B.G.S. and a lavender B.G.S. The blue B.G.S. jumped out of Yuko’s arms to join the other five.

“Wow what a find!” gasped Yuko.        

“This makes our task easier” said Kouhei.

Yuko gathered up the B.G.S.’s into her arms and on her shoulders, while Kouhei got out the remote from his backpack and pressed the button. They got teleported back to Prof Largos’s house.

I won’t tell you yet about what happened when Yuko and Kouhei got back Kiki. I want to tell you about what happened to me and the others first.

Shizuyo and Tatsuya ended up at the Besshi copper mine of Niihama, an old mine that produced copper from 1690 to 1973.

“Wow fancy arriving at an old mine” said Tatsuya.

“If Yuko was here she would say it would be like being in an Indiana Jones movie” said Shizuyo.  

“So would Kouhei, he loves those movies” said Tatsuya. He took a good look around the area.

“What are you thinking Tatsuya?” asked Shizuyo.

“Well to be honest;” said Tatsuya “there is a possibility that a B.G.S. is either hiding around this mine, or inside the mine. We better look around here first before going into the mine”.

Shizuyo agreed to Tatsuya’s plan and took out a yellow B.G.S. from her back pack. Then they started to look around the outside area of the mine. The yellow B.G.S. squeaked a lot while in Shizuyo’s arms, hoping another B.G.S. would answer. But there was nothing, not one trace of a B.G.S. around.

“Well then it looks like we will have to go inside the mine” said Tatsuya.

“Wait a minute though,” said Shizuyo, worriedly, “we haven’t got any protection helmets with us. And we can’t just go into an abandoned mine without a helmet, that’s dangerous you know”.

“It may be dangerous but we’ve got no choice here;” said Tatsuya “either we face the danger of going into the mine, or return to Prof Largos’s house without any B.G.S.’s”.

Before Shizuyo said anything the yellow B.G.S. jumped out of Shizuyo’s arms and bounced to the entrance of the mine.

“Ha our friend clearly wants to go into the mine and we should too” said Tatsuya.

Shizuyo saw she was outnumbered and finally agreed to go into the mine. Tatsuya took out his mobile from his back pack to use its light, as the mine was dark inside. Shizuyo took out her mobile for light too and held the yellow B.G.S. in her other arm. Then she and Tatsuya started to walk into the mine.

Tatsuya was impressed with the mine and couldn’t stop admiring it. “This is quite exciting,” he said “kind of makes you wish you got out more in the past hey Shizuyo?”

“Well I could have done if my parents had let me go out” said Shizuyo, reminding Tatsuya of her overprotective parents.

“It’s a shame this mine doesn’t have copper in it anymore” said Tatsuya.

“That’s what happens with mines;” said Shizuyo “you find a mine filled with coal, copper or something else. Then you mine it till there’s nothing left. And once the mine is empty it’s useless. Even if coal or copper mines produce more coal or copper they are still useless now”.

“That is true;” said Tatsuya “the only mines that are valuable now are gold, silver and diamond mines”. 

Shizuyo and Tatsuya continued walking in the mine, but there was still no sign of any B.G.S.’s. “Tatsuya we seem to have been walking for a while and we still haven’t found any B.G.S.’s” said Shizuyo.

“We’ll find some, we just haven’t walked through the whole mine yet” said Tatsuya.

Suddenly Shizuyo stopped walking. “Look over there” she said. She noticed a faint glow coming from down a tunnel.

“Ha looks like we’ve found something at last” said Tatsuya.

Tatsuya and Shizuyo ran towards to where the glow was coming from. Just around a corner, there were three B.G.S.’s jumping around. There was an opal coloured one, a pearl coloured one and a copper coloured one. The yellow B.G.S. jumped out of Shizuyo’s arm and joined the three B.G.S.’s.

“See Shizuyo?” said Tatsuya “I told you we would find them in this mine”.

“Okay, okay you were right,” Shizuyo admitted “but how are we going to get out of this mine without getting lost? We’ve walked a long way in this mine; I fear it’s going to be difficult to find our way out again”.

“Ah no need to worry about that,” said Tatsuya “Prof Largos said his remote control for his teleporter could teleport us back to his lab no matter where we are. Even if we were in a very deep cave or in the deep underground the remote could still teleport us”.

“Really? That’s clever” said Shizuyo.

So Shizuyo and Tatsuya gathered up the four B.G.S.’s, then Tatsuya pressed the button on the remote control and they got back to Prof Largos’s lab.

Now I will tell you about what happened to me and Hiroshi, Kiki. Hiroshi and I ended up at a village called Tsumago in Kiso Valley. I felt like we had been transported to the past like in the 1600’s, because the village was one of those old wooden house built villages.

“This place feels lonely,” said Hiroshi “I wonder why there are people who still live here?”

“Well people do have their own sense of taste of where they want to live,” I said “you get those who like living in a town and city, those who like living in the countryside and village, and there are those who like living near the coats and mountains”.

“Point taken,” said Hiroshi “now the big question is, where or how shall we find the B.G.S’s?”

I took a look of the village and had a think. “Well we could try looking for them in the woods, but it wouldn’t hurt to look for them in the village either” I said.

“Okay so let’s do this then,” said Hiroshi “we’ll look around the village. But we’ll split up so we can cover more grounds”.

I agreed with Hiroshi’s idea so splitting up is what we did. I had the red B.G.S. with me and I carried it around with me while I walked around the village. After walking around the village for about half an hour, I found no trace of any B.G.S.’s. I was afraid there may not be any B.G.S.’s in Tsumago at all.

Just then Hiroshi ran up to me. “Did you find any B.G.S.’s?” I asked him.

“No but I have found a hunch of where there might be some,” said Hiroshi “I overheard some people saying there is a haunted tree in the woods”.

“Haunted tree?” I said “what on earth are you talking about?”

“Well the people said that the tree had been making strange noises, which they thought was just squirrels or birds,” said Hiroshi “but at night time people have seen the tree glow like a lantern”.

“But trees don’t do that” I said.  

“I know, and that’s why I’m suggesting that B.G.S.’s might be in the tree” said Hiroshi.

I agreed with Hiroshi’s suggestion and asked him where the tree was.   

“Well I asked the people and they said it was in the woods outside the village and they said it’s one of the biggest trees in that wood” said Hiroshi.

So Hiroshi and I headed for woods to search for this haunted tree. It took us about half an hour to find the tree we were looking for Kiki because lots of trees in the wood were huge. But then we finally found it. You won’t believe this Kiki but the tree was so tall and big it was like the tree was touching the sky.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a tree this big before” I said.

“Me neither,” said Hiroshi “I think this tree could go up to the heavens if it kept on growing”.

The red B.G.S. started squeaking and some squeaking replied back.

“How do you like that?” said Hiroshi “my idea of the B.G.S.’s being here was right”.

“I wonder how they got themselves in this tree” I said.

“They probably landed on this tree after they fell out of Prof Largos’s spaceship,” said Hiroshi “I can’t imagine the B.G.S.’s climbing up or bouncing up this tree”.

The red B.G.S. squeaked again and the squeaking noises from the tree replied again.

“Do you think the B.G.S.’s are stuck?” I asked Hiroshi.

“I think they might be,” answered Hiroshi “leave this to me Kyoko. I’ll climb up there and get them myself. I’ve climbed up trees loads of times”.

“But you haven’t climbed up trees like this tree before Hiroshi,” I said “you’ll never be able to climb a ginormous tree like this”.

“I can with these” said Hiroshi. He took out a pair of shoes which had spikes on the sides and front from his back pack.

“What are those?” I asked.

“These are special shoes for climbing trees with,” Hiroshi answered “Professor Largos had a feeling we may have to climb trees while looking for the B.G.S.’s here. So he created these shoes with his machine for me. With them I can climb this tree with no trouble at all”.     

I still didn’t like the idea of Hiroshi climbing up the very big tree, but there was no point in arguing to make him change his mind Kiki. Boys are too stubborn. Anyway Hiroshi took off his shoes and placed the spiked shoes on his feet. Then he began to climb the tree. I kept on holding my breath and letting it out again, while Hiroshi climbed and climbed and climbed.

“Have you found any B.G.S.’s yet?!” I called out.

“No not yet!” Hiroshi called back. He went back to climbing, and then he suddenly shouted. “I found them!”

“Are they okay?!” I called out.

“Yes they’re fine, we’re coming down now!” Hiroshi called out.

I prayed for Hiroshi’s safety while he started to climb down the tree. It really frightened me watching Hiroshi do this because he could’ve been seriously hurt or died from climbing up and down the tree. But in the end he got out of the tree safely, to my relief, and he had four B.G.S.’s clinging to him. There was a light-orange one, a hazel-brown one, a maroon-purple one and a magenta one.

“I can’t believe you really climbed up and down this tree without getting hurt” I said.

“Remember what I said, I’ve climbed up and down trees lots and lots of times” said Hiroshi.    

The red B.G.S. started to squeak out and the four B.G.S.’s Hiroshi found joined it. I was happy we found more B.G.S’s.

“Well there doesn’t seem to be any more B.G.S.’s around here, so I think we better get back to Professor Largos’s place” said Hiroshi.

“Good idea, I think we have done enough for one day mainly you Hiroshi” I said.

So Hiroshi got out his remote control from his back pack and pushed the button. Then we got teleported back to the house.

Once we all got back to Professor Largos’s house, we told all of our stories to each other and to Professor Largos and Mr Yashiro.

“Well, well, well, it seems all of you had bits of excitements today” said Mr Yashiro.

“We sure did” said Yuko.

“Well you children go up for a hot bath or shower and we’ll have something to eat afterwards” said Mr Yashiro.

My friends and I were happy to be back at the house because we were tired and hungry after searching for the B.G.S.’s today.

This really was a start of an adventure for my friends and I Kiki, and there’s no doubt there may be more adventures to come.