"It should be... right around here, right?"
Togawa Sakiko looked at the text message on her phone, then at the road sign, muttering with a bit of uncertainty.
In front of her was a dense grove of trees; though it hadn't quite reached the extent of a "forest," to someone who had lived in the city from childhood to adulthood, it could already be considered ultimate high-school-level desolation.
"Ugh... I'm starting to doubt whether it was actually worth taking time off from my part-time job just to come out here..."
The girl let out a soft sigh, stuffed her phone back into her pocket, and her gaze grew resolute once more: "But for the sake of extra credit and scholarships... I have to do my best."
As she spoke, she followed the arrow on the road sign, walking along the small path between the trees into the woods, which looked subtly gloomy and bleak even during the daytime.
Probably because the ecosystem was very well-preserved (or, of course, it might simply be that it hadn't been developed much), while walking on the forest path, strange rustling sounds could be heard from time to time, keeping Togawa Sakiko on edge, terribly afraid that a wild Pokémon would suddenly spring out from the grass by the roadside and plunge them directly into a battle sequence.
Fortunately, there were no Pokémon in reality, nor were there any bears roaming around the vicinity; the young girl arrived at the campsite completely safe and sound.
The mountain air in early July already carried the humidity and temperature unique to midsummer; the campsite sat on a gentle slope surrounded by woods, and the ground was hard dirt that had been repeatedly trampled, mixed with fine gravel and withered pine needles, its color bleached white by the sun.
Several dilapidated wooden cabins were scattered along the slope, their exterior wooden planks warping slightly due to long years of neglect; between the cabins lay an open clearing with a white assembly line drawn on the ground, its edges already blurred and indistinct.
A row of folding tables and long benches had been pushed neatly to one side, though one could tell from their mottled surfaces that their age was probably not much younger than the girl's.
Not far away, a makeshift rain shelter stood over the cooking area, and the iron sink retained water stains that couldn't be washed clean; following the path through the trees, one could see neatly stacked firewood and a slightly tilted bonfire platform, the stones blackened by smoke and fire, yet revealing a dry and coarse texture under the intense summer sunlight.
The sky was azure and distant, a few white clouds moving sluggishly, and heatwaves warped subtly above the camp; the entire campsite lay quietly in the midst of midsummer.
This was exactly the scene that met the young girl as she emerged from the dark path between the trees.
As an honor student with excellent character and academics, although she wasn't exceptionally proficient, Togawa Sakiko possessed some accomplishments in Chinese—of course, she wasn't so formidable that she could speak Mandarin fluently, but she still knew a thing or two about certain Chinese characters and literary works.
Such as The Peach Blossom Spring or things of that nature.
The so-called "suddenly opening up into a wide, bright valley"—this was probably what that felt like.
The girl's mood grew a bit brighter along with it.
Right then, the sound of human voices came from a short distance away.
"Having to repair the cabins ourselves is uncalled for no matter how you look at it, right? For us students, this environment is frankly way too grueling, hey!"
"Actually, I think it's fine if we don't repair them."
"Right, right? Asakura, you think so too, don't you!"
"However, Hachiman, you'd better pray that it doesn't rain within these three days."
"The weather forecast says it's going to rain tomorrow, you know."
"Uwah, Komachi, you don't need to douse your brother's wishful thinking at a time like this, do you?"
"Well, Brother wouldn't just stand by and watch Komachi sleep in a leaky cabin, shivering from the cold, right?"
"...At this point, I have no choice but to bring out my manly mettle as an older brother!"
"Though I've been wanting to ask this for a while... could this dead-fish-eyed guy by any chance be a siscon?"
"Your Ladyship the Snow Woman over there, please refer to it as sibling love."
"No, it hasn't quite reached that point."
"Komachi?!"
Accompanied by voices that one couldn't quite tell were arguing or just making a racket, several people turned out from behind a wooden cabin and appeared in front of Togawa Sakiko.
"Oh? Big Sister, are you also a student here to participate in the volunteer activity?" Among them, the smallest girl (in the sense of not including her chest) with a snaggletooth was the first to notice Togawa Sakiko standing at the entrance of the path, and she waved her hand to greet her: "But Hiratsuka-sensei went outside to grab the sleeping bags just now, so she's not here right now."
"...It's that one from the Toyokawa family." The long, straight black-haired girl standing beside her, who was the smallest (in the sense of her chest), took a look and then spoke softly to the person next to her: "The one from that request of Hiratsuka-sensei's that still hasn't been resolved up until now."
Togawa Sakiko, who was sensitive to a certain degree regarding her own surname, immediately looked toward her and felt that the other party seemed somewhat familiar—only then did she remember that this was the second young lady of the Yukinoshita family, the one who had run up to preach a whole bunch of grand principles to her while she was working her part-time job before, only to be completely refuted by her in turn.
Why is this person here too?
"Oh, oh," at this moment, the white-haired youth walking in the middle, who looked like the leader among these few people and was still wearing an eyepatch, suddenly let out a surprised cry: "Isn't this Stock Market God Girl!"
"What kind of bizarre title is that..." the other dead-fish-eyed boy complained.
"You don't understand," the eyepatch youth shook his head, then pressed his palms together and began to worship the bewildered Togawa Sakiko in a thoroughly standard posture: "I just happened to buy a new one recently... bless me, bless me..."
His movements were earnest, his tone pious.
"Even you are being this serious, Asakura... could she really be some kind of Kami?" The dead-fish-eyed youth blanked for a moment, and he scrutinized the girl closely but couldn't spot any flaws whatsoever; after a moment's hesitation, he also began to worship the girl quite seriously: "I hope I can keep living a peaceful, safe, quiet, and ordinary life..."
"Even though I don't know what's going on, since Asakura-senpai and Brother have both worshiped..."
Seeing this, the smallest snaggletoothed girl merrily copied their actions, clapping her hands and bowing toward Togawa Sakiko.
Only that seemingly quite rational second young lady of the Yukinoshita family knitted her brows, appearing somewhat dissatisfied with their behavior.
'Thank goodness, it looks like there's still a sane person left,' Togawa Sakiko, who was boundlessly embarrassed by being worshiped out of nowhere, thought to herself.
Just as she was about to strike up a conversation with her to get her help in stopping the others' bizarre actions, the second young lady of the Yukinoshita family also let out a sigh.
"...Since Asakura-kun is doing this, there must be some kind of reason for it."
She muttered a sentence to herself and also began to copy the eyepatch youth's movements, worshiping along.
Togawa Sakiko, who was being worshiped like some kind of idol by a whole crowd of people: "..."
Hiratsuka, who had just returned to the campsite holding a pile of sleeping bags: "...?"
What on earth is the situation right now? Why is it that I only left for a little while, and the volunteer activity has turned into a bizarre religious scene?
Since things have come to this, I can only beat up Hikigaya (the older brother) first to make him confess everything honestly.
Thinking up to this point, Hiratsuka set down the sleeping bags and put on her brass knuckles.