Not counting the two elementary school students and Hiratsuka, there were a total of 11 students participating in the volunteer activity this time.
Originally, Komachi was also excluded from the drawing of lots by Hiratsuka, but the girl herself was highly interested in the activity and actively requested to participate in the draw.
Thus, after a round of tense and thrilling drawing of lots, the Hikigaya siblings, Totsuka Saika, Tobe Kakeru, Ebina Hina, and Yui were assigned to the shopping team, while the remaining ones were left at the campsite as the harvesting team.
When Yui was hauled away by Hiratsuka, she still had a face full of resentment as she looked at Asakura—from the moment she arrived at the campsite until her departure just now, the girl hadn't managed to say a single word to Asakura.
Asakura pulled a handkerchief out from who-knows-where, waving it toward the other party with an appearance that looked exactly like he was seeing off a relative on a long journey.
( ´•ω•)ノ~
Consequently, the girl's expression looked even more full of resentment.
"You will absolutely get stabbed by a girl in the future." Yukino said from the side, delivering a cold, sudden evaluation.
"It's fine, I will keep a magazine stuffed inside my clothes at all times."
Asakura said in a deadpan manner.
Though possessing the spell [Scale], it made no difference whether he carried a magazine or not anyway.
"Aren't you going to deny the fact that you're a scumbag?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"..."
Yukino shot a glance at the completely unapologetic youth, walking toward the patch with a face full of speechlessness.
Not far away, Hayama looked at the interaction between the two, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately gave up in the end and said nothing at all.
Meanwhile, Miura clung to his side, speaking in a tone that sounded like acting spoiled: "There shouldn't happen to be bugs and things like that here, right? Hayato, I'm a little scared~"
"Yumiko, you and Yukino's group can just be responsible for harvesting the mini tomatoes and cucumbers over there. Leave the potatoes that require digging up soil to us guys." Hayama said in a clear voice: "That shouldn't be a problem, right, Asakura-san?"
Asakura gave him an OK hand gesture.
"As a side note, what's planted in the patch actually aren't mini tomatoes; it's just that due to a lack of sufficient care and nutrients, the fruits that grew ended up looking very small, that's all."
"Harvesting is harvesting, there's no need to specifically go out of your way to correct Hayato's words." Miura defended him against the perceived injustice.
"This tomato looks like it's going to be very sour..."
Yukihira Itsuka, one of the elementary school students who had been brought over to the edge of the patch, looked at the miniature tomatoes and said in a small voice.
"It's fine, it only looks that way," Asakura plucked a few tomatoes, wiped them slightly, and handed them to the girl: "As long as you eat it..."
"Is it okay?"
Yukihira Itsuka hesitated for a moment, then split half of them with Tsurumi Rumi beside her, picking up one herself and taking a bite.
"You will find out that it is actually far more sour than you imagined." Asakura then followed up, speaking with the calm composure of an old master.
"Awm..."
The girl's face was completely distorted from the sourness. After finally managing to recover, the little creature glared at Asakura in a fit of rage: "Why didn't you say so earlier... you villain!"
"Because I have to teach you about the sinister nature of the human heart! When away from home, the only one you can trust is yourself!" Asakura said with a straight face and solemn gravity.
"What kind of foolish chuunibyou nonsense are you talking about?" Miura knitted her brows: "Don't corrupt little children!"
"How can this be considered corrupting little children? Don't tell me Student Miura believes the world is entirely full of good people?" Asakura said with a beaming smile, "Our worldview isn't exactly Pretty Cure, you know."
"No, even in Pretty Cure there are villains..."
Miura complained.
"You actually watch that too?" Asakura was surprised.
"I-I only watched it a bit when I was little!" Miura replied in a somewhat flustered manner.
Presumably afraid that Asakura would pry into this question to the absolute root, Miura didn't intend to continue tangling with him, directly pulling a bitterly smiling Hayama along as she ran off to the patch on the other side.
"Then what are Ichika-chan and your friend going to do? If you don't want to help, you can go play in the clearing in front of the campsite, but don't run off too far." Asakura said to the two girls.
"Don't look down on me, I am perfectly capable of doing this kind of work too!"
Ichika said earnestly, then cast a glance at Tsurumi Rumi beside her: "Furthermore, Tsurumi and I aren't friends, you know. We aren't even in the same class, we were just coincidentally brought along by that teacher, that's all."
Tsurumi Rumi stared at the tomato in her hand and did not refute the statement.
"There's no need to be so strict. For an existence like a friend, if you think it is, then it already is!" Asakura said.
"That's just a one-sided force-feeding of a concept..." Ichika complained.
"A friend isn't a commodity that cheap."
Even Tsurumi Rumi, who had barely spoken a word the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
"Although I indeed spoke just now without giving it much thought, do elementary school students nowadays really view the word 'friend' with that much weight?..."
Asakura couldn't help but scratch his head.
In his impression, back when he himself was still a little kid, even if it was a kid he didn't know at all, as long as they played together for about ten minutes, they could put their arms around each other's shoulders and call each other friends.
"It's precisely because your way of speaking is too careless and casual, onii-chan, that it lacks any persuasiveness."
Yukihira Itsuka spoke in a thoroughly mature tone, behaving just like a miniature adult: "Well, but it's true that a friendship also has to be built from scratch, bit by bit."
As she spoke, she extended her hand toward Tsurumi Rumi: "My name is Yukihira Itsuka, let's be friends starting from right now~"
Tsurumi Rumi looked at the hand Ichika extended, shaking her head expressionlessly: "No need." Then she walked away.
Leaving behind only a slightly flushed Yukihira Itsuka, and Asakura, who was watching the little girl with a wicked grin.
"Wow." Asakura said in a meaningful tone.
"Ahem." Yukihira Itsuka withdrew her hand, looking at Asakura with dissatisfaction: "Isn't onii-chan going to work yet? That blue-haired older sister over there has already harvested a massive pile."
She was referring to Sakiko, who hadn't participated in any dialogue since the beginning and was simply burying her head entirely in her work.
"As long as I want to, I can complete the entire harvest in a single instant, you know." Asakura said boastfully: "So it's completely fine for the progress to be a bit slow right now."
"Braggart."
Yukihira Itsuka rolled her eyes at him, then also ran off to harvest tomatoes.
Asakura shook his head helplessly.
He found a patch of land where potatoes were growing and squatted down, lightly snapping his fingers, then extended his hand toward the ground.
In the next moment, snakes emerged from underground, swimming tamely into his hand, immediately after which their slender serpentine bodies rapidly shrank and shortened, transforming into potatoes that looked slightly malnourished.
The entire process took less than five seconds; compared to the other side where Hayama was thumping and digging pits, the efficiency was higher by more than just a fraction.
It was exactly as Asakura had said: as long as he wanted to, he could complete the harvesting of crops in a single instant.
However, considering that among the people present, only Yukino knew a fraction of his true colors, there was no way to do it too openly, that's all.
At the other end of the patch, Miura started screaming and shouting.
It looked as though she had been frightened by a caterpillar on the cucumber vines while harvesting cucumbers.
Honestly, Asakura felt that those chubby little caterpillars looked rather cute and were far more harmless than slug caterpillars, but for a young girl who had lived her entire life in the city, this kind of squishy insect truly crossed the baseline of what she could accept. Even though the insect hadn't actually done anything except wiggle its body on the vine, the girl was already frightened out of her wits, her face turning completely pale.
Of course, with Hayama there, there was no need for Asakura to run over and play the hero saving the damsel in distress.
But just as Asakura withdrew his gaze, he heard an suppressed yet terror-filled wail from not too far away by his side.
"Eek—"
Asakura looked toward the source of the sound and discovered it was that Stock Market God Girl who never gave him a good face.
Unlike Miura who had only encountered a harmless soft grub, what was currently flailing its legs in front of this girl was a centipede nearly as long as a chopstick.
It wasn't any special species, just the extremely common type of centipede.
In Asakura's experience, even if one were bitten by a centipede of this caliber, as long as there were no allergic symptoms, it wouldn't be life-threatening; it would just be incredibly painful.
—The kind of intense, severe pain that would make even an adult burst into tears in spite of themselves.
Asakura instinctively wanted to go over and help.
When dealing with bugs, the best method is simply to crush them to death with a single stomp. As long as their body size hasn't broken past normal conventions, the sole of a human shoe will always be the ultimate anti-bug weapon.
It was just that he very quickly recalled the young girl's attitude toward him a moment ago: cold, dissatisfied, and carrying a hint of aversion.
Well, admittedly, there was the element of him leading a whole crowd of people to worship her, which had put her in a thoroughly tight spot, but that vibe of keeping people a thousand miles away was definitely not an illusion.
Toward this kind of person, Asakura could never be bothered to actively press his warm face against their cold shoulder.
Yukino back then had been like this, and the current Sakiko was just the same.
He lightly hooked his finger.
Within the young girl's field of vision, the centipede that had still been flaunting its power a moment ago was instantly swallowed whole by a massive snake.
Immediately after, the large snake's bright red eyes looked right toward her.
Consequently, the young girl grew even more terrified; her body trembled subtly, and her muscles were so stiff that she couldn't even move a single finger.
Right at this moment.
"There's a snake! There's a snake!" Ichika discovered the anomaly on this side, the little creature shouting loudly as she rapidly ran toward Sakiko, seemingly wanting to help.
Asakura, who had originally only intended to let the snake leave on its own, saw the situation and could only let out a sigh.
He quickened his pace and stepped forward, grasping the snake firmly by its neck. Amidst the snake's innocent gaze, he hurled it high into the air, tossing it toward the woods: "Go back to where you belong!"
The silhouette of the snake plunged into the woods, very quickly vanishing from sight.
"Oh, oh! Incredible! Although onii-chan talks a bit weirdly, you are very brave, not even afraid of snakes!"
Ichika clapped her hands for Asakura in amazement, giving his vanity a massive boost of satisfaction. He raised his head, wearing a smug expression that practically screamed 'as expected of me.'
Though the look sent over from Yukino on the side made Asakura's conscience feel a tiny, piercing pang.
"Ah? Why is that big sister still completely motionless?" Ichika looked toward Sakiko again in bewilderment.
Asakura also subconsciously looked over at her, only to discover that she was still maintaining that exact duck-sitting posture from when she had been frightened by the centipede and fallen to the ground, entirely motionless.
"Ah, this girl..." Asakura remarked, "Unexpectedly, she was actually scared unconscious just like that."
"Eh..."
Ultimately, the unconscious Sakiko was sent to a wooden cabin to rest by Yukino and Miura.
It was just that the current cabins, including the beddings inside, had not undergone any repairs, so sleeping there probably wouldn't feel very comfortable either.
After this minor interlude, presumably out of fear of running into snakes or something similar again, the speed at which the others harvested vegetables in the patch became even slower; only Asakura and Yukino could still maintain their original pace.
"Ugh... there are so many bugs..."
Miura complained.
In reality, Asakura had originally thought she would very quickly throw a tantrum and abandon the work like a spoiled, coddled young lady. Yet, despite her non-stop complaints, she was still honestly doing the hard labor, and had even developed a certain level of immunity toward those wiggling, disco-dancing grubs, now only occasionally getting startled by dense clusters of aphids or some formidable-looking beetles.
"Doesn't this also prove from another angle that the agricultural crops in this patch are entirely free of pesticides?"
Asakura said cheerfully, "If these were taken to the outside market, they would absolutely be slapped with a fine by the agricultural association. Even though they constantly claim that the fruits and vegetables imported have pesticide residues, in reality, the products of the domestic agricultural association utilize six times the amount of pesticides."
"Is this kind of knowledge good for anything other than making me feel disgusted when eating vegetables and fruits in the future?..."
Miura muttered under her breath.
"If you have the mood to speak such pointless words, you'd be better off getting your hands moving quickly. At least harvest everything we need before the shopping team returns." Yukino said in a chilly voice.
"Actually, we don't need to harvest all of it, right? Maybe it would be better to leave a little bit for the seniors on the school trip?"
Hayama suggested.
He was also getting a bit tired of this business of digging pits to harvest potatoes—under the premise of having no tools, doing this constantly gave him the illusion that he was training in the Master Roshi style...
He cast a glance over at Asakura's side, only to discover that the pile of potatoes heaped behind the other party was already nearly five times larger than his own, causing him to instantly fall into self-doubt: Why had he harvested so little? Could it be that I am truly this bad?
"How could a school trip be as miserable as us? All living provisions will definitively be fully stocked. They just need to plant whatever randomly in the patch before leaving to go through the motions." Asakura said, "In other words, even if we don't harvest them, these crops will ultimately be cleared out from the patch anyway."
"What a waste." Ichika looked at the tomatoes in the patch, speaking in a low voice.
She picked up another mini tomato, wiped it clean, and took a bite.
Then her little face twisted into a ball once more.
"Ah!"
Right then, Tsurumi Rumi suddenly let out a small cry of alarm.
"What's wrong?" Asakura straightened his waist and asked.
"...A spider, there was a really huge spider just now!"
The little girl said, still visibly shaken, completely forgetting to maintain her usual iceberg face.
Asakura looked toward the patch of land in front of the girl, but discovered nothing at all.