"Is that child really going to be okay?"
Yukino couldn't help but ask Asakura, who was carrying potatoes beside her, on her way to deliver the onions to the kitchen counter.
As a side note, the onions were discovered by accident by Hayama next to the ridges of the field after his failure at digging up potatoes.
"True, it feels like that fellow Itsuka has been getting more and more fresh as she's gotten comfortable with us." Asakura set the potatoes down, finally straightening his body to punch his slightly aching lower back, and muttered.
"I am talking about the other one."
Yukino said.
She glanced at Asakura, discovering that the corner of his mouth had curled into a tiny arc, and instantly realized that he actually knew exactly what she was talking about, but was simply pretending not to understand on purpose.
Therefore, the young girl let out a sigh: "Is this very amusing?"
"Don't you think that child looks a bit like a certain someone?" Asakura said meaningfully.
"No."
Yukino replied flatly.
"Actually, I think there's no need to care too much about many things; hasn't that child gone into the wooden cabin to rest very obediently upon Hayama's words now?" Asakura scanned the surroundings to make sure everyone else was still busy in the patch and not paying attention to this side. Then, he snapped his fingers, and the heaps of potatoes instantly turned into a multitude of little snakes.
That densely crawling appearance caused even Yukino, who had grown somewhat accustomed to snakes, to uncontrollably shudder.
After the swarm of snakes crawled over to the kitchen counter, Asakura casually lifted the spell, turning them back into thin, small potatoes one by one.
"It is precisely because she, who is usually taciturn, behaves so obediently that I feel worried..." Yukino said in a soft voice.
"She hasn't said anything herself, so that means the time hasn't come yet, right?" Asakura turned the faucet next to the kitchen counter, but no water came out: "Huh, is this thing broken?"
"When a person doesn't call for help, besides them feeling that they don't need to call for help, it's also possible that they have already fallen into such utter despair that they can't even make a sound anymore."
Yukino looked at Asakura, who was still tinkering with the faucet.
Asakura stopped the movements of his hands and looked toward the young girl.
Yukino's expression was cold and detached as always, yet a slightly incomprehensible, complex look leaked out from her eyes.
"Even if you say this to me... who do you take me for? A savior who can rescue everyone?" Asakura stared at her, enunciating each word with absolute gravity, and then stood up, looking down at the young girl with an absolute height advantage, hands on his hips: "That's right! I am!"
"---It hasn't quite reached that point."
The young girl averted her gaze from him.
"Be that as it may, carelessly meddling in someone else's life when I don't understand the specific circumstances isn't my style; at least I have to understand the general situation first."
Asakura stroked his chin: "Student Yukinoshita, I am giving you a mission."
"To go and find out about the past of that child from Yukihira?" Yukino understood instantly.
"No, that's way too roundabout; you go straight there and battle that child face-to-face!"
Asakura waved his hand grandly, making the decision.
Yukino let out a sigh.
"Fine... then what is Lord Savior going to do?" she asked.
"Peel potatoes, of course, what else?" Asakura answered as if it were a matter of course.
"..." Yukino stared at Asakura with a sharp gaze.
"Alright, I will also go ask Itsuka about that child's matters, and we can cross-check our answers after it's over. After all, depending on the starting point, there can be huge discrepancies between the subjective and the objective. You catch my drift, right?"
"Do not treat me like a child."
"Do you understand (said in English)?"
"Even if you swap it to English, there's no difference at all!"
☆
Tsurumi Rumi was always alone.
Of course, it wasn't because she liked it.
Although living in solitude could make the girl feel at ease a lot of the time, she was just an ordinary girl after all, and would also harbor the passing thought of playing together with other girls.
However, whether one should say the girl was a bit deadpan, or that her emotional fluctuations were relatively minor, in short, her expression looked a bit cold compared to little girls of this age.
Those who do not fit in will be isolated; this is an unshakeable truth in Japan, where people generally love to read the atmosphere.
Thus, without knowing exactly when it started, Tsurumi Rumi was always left completely on her own.
Even if she cast aside her personal self-esteem and put in the effort to improve her own character, wanting to blend into the group, it still remained nothing but an exercise in futility.
From the very moment her image as a 'lone wolf character' became firmly established within the children's peer group, everything had already become impossible to alter.
People evaluate others based on inherent biases and impressions; a person who is all alone will be required to remain all alone. If one puts in the effort to do something that makes them stand out, it will only be treated as a target for attacks.
It was precisely because of this that she ended up being sent here, serving as the one who was 'left over after everyone else was picked' during the summer camp.
Therefore, Tsurumi Rumi gave up too.
Nothing mattered anymore.
As long as one doesn't harbor any expectations toward others, they will never get hurt; as long as one doesn't have any friends right from the absolute beginning, they will never suffer a betrayal.
The girl said this to herself in her heart.
Consequently, even though that fellow named Yukihira Itsuka frequently huddled around her side and loitered right in front of her eyes, Tsurumi Rumi paid it no mind.
The other party was different from herself; she was isolated and left over after the selection, whereas the other party was considerably popular at school, doted on by teachers and classmates alike, and had merely ended up reduced to such a plight out of absolute necessity due to family reasons.
Once the summer camp concluded, the other party would smoothly go back to being that honor student loved by everyone, while she herself would still remain the ugly duckling drifting on the outside, unseen by a single soul.
The girl cautioned herself this way in her heart, continuing to work in silence.
Although she had been startled by the large spider that flashed past, Tsurumi Rumi still didn't listen to the persuasions of the others saying 'why don't you go play for a bit?', remaining stubbornly out on the patch of land, harvesting the crops with meticulous care.
Afterward, terrifying bugs unexpectedly failed to appear again, and that older brother named Hayama even discovered onions at the outermost edge of the patch, bringing together the raw ingredients for the curry, which got him flattered for a good long while by the big sister with the blonde ringlets.
Tsurumi Rumi didn't particularly like that older brother named Hayama.
Admittedly, the other party was a good person in the literal sense; he was thoroughly gentle even toward her, whom he had never set eyes on before, and would actively show concern for her, but this sort of half-baked gentleness that feigned to be like sunlight shining upon the whole earth felt much more like a fluorescent lamp to the perceptive girl.
Bright and gentle, yet entirely devoid of warmth, merely carrying out an act named 'goodwill'.
Therefore, the girl merely played along on the surface, acting out a well-behaved facade, and followed instructions to head to the wooden cabin to rest.
She curled up into a tiny ball on the rock-hard bedboards, clutching her knees close.
Even though darkness had clearly not fallen on tomorrow yet, the interior of the cabin was bleak and gloomy to the extreme, the lighting being just as dreadful as the girl's mood.
At the mere thought that there were still two days left of this kind of life, Tsurumi Rumi felt that her days were becoming even more unbearable.
Right at this moment, a faint, barely perceptible sound drifted into her ears.
Initially, the girl assumed it was the breathing sound of that big sister lying on the other side of the wooden bed, the one who had been scared unconscious by the snake, but listening carefully revealed that this was not the case.
It was a bizarre sound, clicking and scraping, as if some slender twigs were scratching against a hard object.
No, it wasn't 'twigs', but rather 'arthropod limbs'.
Although the girl truly didn't want to think this way, the more she listened to that bizarre sound, the more it sounded like the commotion of a massive insect crawling across the wooden boards.
For a moment, Tsurumi Rumi subconsciously recalled that massive spider she had laid eyes on out in the patch.
No, was that entity truly a spider?
To be perfectly honest, the girl herself wasn't entirely certain either; after all, it had been a mere instantaneous glimpse, and the time she had to look at that thing was considerably limited, but in the little creature's not-too-long life, the only thing that resembled that flashing dark silhouette was a spider.
She crawled down from the bed with meticulous care, doing her utmost to restrain the terror in her heart, and checked under the bed as well as other spots where the sound could potentially be coming from, yet she failed to see the anticipated 'massive spider'.
However, that bizarre sound didn't vanish; on the contrary, it actually became even more frequent and a fraction louder.
"Ugh..."
Just as Tsurumi Rumi was at a bit of a loss as to what to do, Sakiko, who had been scared unconscious by the snake just a moment ago, let out a soft groan, appearing as though she was about to wake up.
"Huh... where is this?..."
Opening her eyes, the young girl blanked after catching sight of a ceiling so unfamiliar it bordered on decayed.
"You're awake, the work has already finished." Tsurumi Rumi remarked.
"Eh-eh-eh?! Did I skip work?! Oh no, the daily-paid wages—"
The young girl initially fell into a instinctive panic for a brief spell, her entire being nearly tumbling off the wooden bed, before she immediately realized that she wasn't currently in the middle of her part-time job, letting out an instant sigh of relief.
Right after that, she laid eyes on the little girl right beside her.
Sakiko remembered that the other party seemed to be called Tsurumi Rumi.
Although this child looked ice-cold and wore a complete keep-out facade while working in the patch, right now she was acting a fraction cuter than she did back then.
Her little face was completely flushed, drawing close to her in a posture that bordered on nestling.
"Um..." The little creature said in a small voice.
Could she be trying to act spoiled? She is just a little kid after all...
Sakiko lamented in her heart.
"Did you hear any strange sounds, Big Sister?" Tsurumi Rumi continued.
Sakiko blanked for a moment: How come it's completely different from what she had guessed?
Nevertheless, she also subconsciously tilted her ear to listen closely for a brief spell, before answering: "It's probably the sound of the cicadas outside; they get exceptionally noisy during the summer."
"No, I mean... are there any strange sounds inside the room?"
Tsurumi Rumi said hurriedly.
"None at all? It might just be the wind."
Sakiko spoke with an air of appearing highly experienced for some reason: "Some houses that are way too old will have holes that are incredibly difficult to spot with the naked eye. Once the wind passes through, it will generate some thoroughly hair-raising sounds. So if you hear a scary noise in an old house, eighty percent of the time it's just the wind."
Tsurumi Rumi fell into silence.
That clicking and scraping noise was definitively not a sound that the wind could produce.
It was happening again; nobody would care about her thoughts, nor would anyone believe the words she spoke.
She should have been psychologically prepared for this a long time ago.
Although Sakiko didn't understand the human heart, catching sight of Tsurumi Rumi's expression, she could still more or less sense the little creature's low atmospheric pressure.
Could it be that she had truly misunderstood something?
She attempted to continue tilting her ear to listen closely, and what she heard next was...
'Growl~~~~'
Tsurumi Rumi cast her eyes sideways, staring dead at the big sister in front of her, while Sakiko's pretty face turned crimson: "Ah... well, Sister came here in a bit of a rush today and didn't have time to eat breakfast..."
"I have chocolate."
"I haven't quite fallen to the point where I need to eat a little kid's chocolate."
'Rumble rumble rumble~~~~~~'
"Stare—"
"Ugh..."
"Here."
"...Thank you."
The free chocolate was so sweet, yet why did her heart feel so thoroughly bitter?... Sakiko gazed into the distance out the window.
Right at this juncture, it suddenly grew lively outside; by the looks of it, the members responsible for the shopping team had returned.
"Let's get outside quickly too!"
Sakiko said hurriedly to Tsurumi Rumi.
She had already missed out on the work in the patch, and if she failed to even catch up with the cooking portion of the work, wouldn't she truly turn into a freeloader?
The proud and arrogant Sakiko simply could not accept that kind of thing, so no matter what, she wanted to win back a round during the subsequent cooking segment.
Having finished speaking, the young girl put on her shoes and left the room in a hurry.
Tsurumi Rumi originally wanted to say something more, but because Sakiko's movements were far too swift, she wasn't even able to voice anything by the time she knew the other party had stepped out the door.
The little girl let out a soft sigh, just about to follow the other party outside together, when right at this moment, she suddenly felt that strange noise become a fraction clearer.
In the next instant, something abruptly plummeted from the roof, dropping right in front of her—
☆
Along with the return of the shopping team, the campsite which had still been rather desolate a moment ago instantly turned noisy and clamorous.
"Why does Yukinon look like she has a face full of dissatisfaction?" Yui finally seized this opportunity when Miura wasn't around, running over to Asakura and Yukino's side, only to see Yukino wearing a thoroughly sour face, causing her to speculatively guess in utter shock: "Could it be that you feel I've disrupted your alone time with Takuma-tan, Yukinon?"
"No such thing."
Yukinoshita shook her head: "My face was originally grown this way."
"Liar! Even though Yukinon always looks like she has barely any expression, once you get familiar, it's incredibly easy to guess! The current Yukinon is definitively angry!" Yui stated.
Yukino wore a shocked expression that practically screamed 'Nani? Am I that easy to read?'
Meanwhile, Asakura defended her, explaining: "You're overthinking it. Yukinoshita simply wanted to go spend some alone time with that child named Tsurumi to build a good relationship, but before she could even take action, you guys just happened to return, that's all."
"Huh? Is Yukinon fond of children?" Yui asked in surprise.
"Not that into it," Yukinoshita answered honestly.
"Then what if it were Takuma-tan's child?" Yui asked next, failing to use her brain much before speaking, driven by who-knows-what thought.
"Not. That. Into. It." Yukino's eye corner twitched a fraction: "More importantly than that, Yui, please chop these onions for me."
"No problem...... Uwah! Tears! My tears are spurting out!"