Tsurumi Rumi did not notice any change occurring in the dark, deep woods behind her; she simply continued walking through the forest.
Different from the situation Miura observed from behind, the little girl herself was actually walking with great difficulty, and it was not easy at all.
In front of her chest, she carefully cradled a slender twig. The branch was still very fresh, its bark carrying a moist green tint, and its tip bulged with an unblossomed flower bud, appearing excessively pale under the moonlight.
As the girl walked, she lowered her head, as if listening to some extremely faint response.
There was no wind in the depths of the woods, yet the twig trembled gently in her palm, making a rustling sound that was almost negligible, as if leaves were rubbing against each other, or as if something in the soil was slowly turning over.
"Is that so... Should we go this way?"
Tsurumi Rumi uttered a murmur that was barely perceptible, and her footsteps changed direction accordingly.
She traversed through the intricate and complex forest, but guided by someone unknown, she never once hesitated, as if the path ahead had already been marked out.
The shadows of the trees receded past her sides, and the low-hanging branches and leaves no longer obstructed her. She even had the sensation—though she wondered if it was just her imagination—that these tree branches were actively parting to make a gap for her.
The twig cradled in her arms would occasionally sway gently, its rustling sound exceptionally clear in the silence, and she understood its meaning without any hesitation, delving deeper and deeper along the guided direction.
"As long as I reach that place..." the girl murmured softly in a barely audible voice, as if talking in her sleep.
Just then, the air suddenly changed.
The damp and cold breath of the summer night was violently and brutally ripped open, and a low, continuous rumbling sound spread from behind.
A heatwave rolled in hugging the ground; fallen leaves were dried of their moisture in the blink of an eye, quickly curling and turning yellow, while the tree bark emitted fine, crackling popping sounds.
That was no ordinary fire; it was more like darkness itself burning, swallowing the shadows along with it.
Tsurumi Rumi stumbled, subconsciously stopping her steps to look back behind her.
She saw that the patch of woods behind her, which should have been dense and impenetrable, was currently burned through by a certain eerie fire.
The fire did not spread outward; instead, it burned steadily along the edges, outlining a nearly perfect doorway shape, like a path that had been prepared there long ago.
The inside of the doorway was not firelight, but a deeper dark red; heat surged out from within, yet there was no smoke.
Subsequently, a figure emerged from between that distorted light and darkness.
The flames crouched low at his sides, as if suppressed by an invisible weight, not daring to approach.
His silhouette appeared exceptionally clear against the blazing background, with the eyepatch on his face and that signature grizzled, short hair clearly reflecting in the girl's pupils.
As that person walked through the doorway of fire, the woods silently gave way ahead of him, and the branches bent, as if enduring some irresistible pressure.
His existence itself made the air turn stagnant, time seemed to stretch, and even the crackling sound of the fire appeared slow and heavy.
He walked toward Tsurumi Rumi with a leisurely, strolling pace, his shadow dragging very long on the ground, almost reaching the girl's feet, while the surrounding darkness quietly gathered, silently waiting for the next thing to happen.
The girl recognized him.
It was that high school boy who always mixed around with Yukihira Itsuka back at the camp; at noon, he had even come along with Yukihira Itsuka to persuade her to go out and play.
She had overheard the casual chatter among other high school students, and in their words, they seemed to secretly refer to him as 'Chuunibyou'—in today's society, even as a primary school student, Tsurumi Rumi knew what so-called Chuunibyou meant; it referred to those childish and ridiculous fellows who were clearly already adults but still roleplayed as their fantasy selves.
In fact, up until just a moment ago, the girl had thought so too.
She understood that the other party was not a bad person, but she looked down somewhat on someone so old yet still so childish.
But the current reality made the girl unable to help swallowing her saliva: it seemed this person wasn't some childish, ridiculous delusional patient at all, was he?
"I don't want to repeat myself a second time," the high school boy wearing the eyepatch held out his hand toward her: "Hand over the thing in your hand to me."
Facing this kind of situation, Tsurumi Rumi naturally couldn't say something like, 'If you want it, you'll have to come and take it yourself.'
She could clearly feel that the slender twig in her hand, which was not much longer than her own finger, was trembling slightly, seemingly very afraid of the man in front of her.
So she gritted her teeth, shouted "No!" at him, turned around, and ran!
The ground beneath her feet was uneven in the darkness. The little girl subconsciously recalled the movies she had seen before; in times like this, the female protagonist would usually be tripped to the ground by exposed tree roots on the ground, and then immediately struggle to get back up, stumbling and crashing into the deeper forest to be proper.
But in reality, she didn't encounter any such thing; not only were there no tree roots on the ground, but even the fallen leaves had become scarce, completely devoid of any elements to hinder her escape. The girl flew through the forest at a speed that almost defied common sense, the tree shadows flashing past her eyes.
The girl tightly clutched that tiny twig; the flower bud gently tapped against her wrist during the run, its rustling sound rapid and chaotic, as if urging her to quicken her pace.
However, even so, Tsurumi Rumi was still just a primary school girl; her tender lungs throbbed faintly due to the rapid breathing, and her feet gradually grew heavy as if they had been poured with lead.
And from an angle the girl couldn't see, the boy wearing the eyepatch seemed slightly taken aback by her sudden choice to flee, but he also immediately decided to catch her.
Yet at the very instant he prepared to make his move, the woods suddenly underwent a change.
The first thing to experience an abnormality was the ground.
The originally scattered dead leaves seemed to be overturned by an invisible force, piling up thickly beneath the boy's feet, collapsing into a soft, deep pit the moment he stepped on them.
Possessing a reaction capacity far exceeding that of ordinary people, the boy easily avoided it, but the mud at his landing spot was also cold, wet, and viscous, dragging his pace.
Immediately following that, tree roots surged up from beneath the earth's surface, twisting and boring out of the soil layer like thick blood vessels, wrapping around his ankles and continuously tightening in the darkness.
Before he could break free, the low-hanging branches violently pressed downward.
Those slender twigs that should have been fragile now became hard and full of resilience, sweeping across his shoulders and neck in an interlocking manner, layering up to organize into a swaying barrier.
The friction of the leaves produced a piercing sound, obscuring the line of sight and also cutting off the road ahead.
The tree trunks further away emitted low creaking sounds, as if slowly adjusting their positions.
A few tall trees tilted slightly, drawing close to each other, compressing the originally wide gaps into narrow crevices, seemingly intending to force him to abandon his plan of pursuit.
Green-tinted shadows continuously overlapped upon the boy's body, as if wanting to swallow him up into the woods filled with the night color as well.
However, the next moment.
"[Snake]"
The dead leaves, soil, tree roots, branches, and even the trees themselves crumbled apart in a split second, transforming into countless hissing snakes.
Not only that.
The power of the curse spread out, enveloping the back of the girl who was gradually running further away.
Only at the absolute critical juncture did the abruptly awakened woods close up behind her; by the time the obstructing thickets had also turned into ground-crawlers, the little girl's back had already vanished without a trace.
"I don't know what kind of thing you are... but if you think she can get away, you are sorely mistaken."
The boy let out a cold snort.
As if they had received an order, the snakes covering the ground surged like a tide in the direction the little girl had fled.
However, the boy frowned slightly.
Possessing the ability to command snakes, he could clearly feel that although these snakes were still loyally executing his orders under the drive of his curse, beneath this, a certain power was attempting to obstruct them.
That was likely a certain power akin to magic, remaining in the vegetation before those plants were turned into snakes.
The might of this power was far from being a match for the curse and was completely unable to overturn its power; it could only make the movements of these snakes appear slightly sluggish—in fact, if the boy did not control snakes frequently and have an adequate understanding of their mobility, he probably wouldn't even have detected the subtle change within it.
"I have no need for things that are not entirely under my control." The boy's voice was filled with a chilling coldness, as if loudly issuing a declaration of war against that natural force opposing him from somewhere unknown: "[Candle]"
The movements of all the snakes abruptly froze; in the next instant, a flash of fire erupted, and they turned into flying ash, just as if a storm of grayish-black snow had suddenly fallen in the center of the forest clearing.
The boy's expression did not change in the slightest; it was only that within his intact eye, a faint, glimmering light overflowed, as if even the grand power of time was encompassed within it.
Subsequently, he turned his head to look in a certain direction: "Haven't I found it now?"
Meanwhile, on the other side of things.
Tsurumi Rumi ran through the forest for an unknown amount of time; she felt the edges of her vision begin to darken, and the silhouettes of the trees swayed and overlapped in her eyes, as if they might come crashing down at any moment.
If it were not for the slender twig in her hand occasionally passing a strand of warm power to her, the girl felt she would have been unable to hold out long ago.
At the very least, her lungs were definitely ruined.
It's okay.
It's okay.
The girl repeatedly kept telling herself in her heart, cheering herself on.
Don't be afraid, I will definitely help you.
She gently cradled the twig that passed information and warmth to her once more, refortifying the intent in her heart.
Yet the human body ultimately has its limits, and the power of the small twig was also extremely limited; it could not truly help Tsurumi Rumi break through the limits of the human body to become a superhuman.
Just at the moment she was almost dragged down by exhaustion, a gentle and low-paced will suddenly surfaced in her mind, like a bell at dusk bringing a relaxing rhythm, smoothing away her fear bit by bit.
That guidance was not a command, but resembled more of a patient pulling.
It was guiding Tsurumi Rumi with a clearer and gentler will than the small twig from just now, allowing the girl to distinctly know how she ought to go.
Once again, the girl had the illusion that the entire forest had come alive and was clearing a path for her.
Well, perhaps it wasn't just an illusion, since there were even leaves along the way rolled into the shape of a horn—just like a cup—filled with sweet tree sap for her to quench her thirst and replenish her physical strength.
Under the guidance of that gentle will, Tsurumi Rumi subconsciously changed direction, avoiding the densest shrubs, and moved forward toward a path that appeared open yet increasingly deep.
Her pace was still hurried, but it was no longer that wretched; danger seemed to have already been thrown far behind her.
The twig trembled gently in her palm, the rustling sound becoming clear and steady once more, echoing back and forth with that kind existence.
The originally cluttered dead leaves were brushed to both sides, revealing a soft and stable dirt path; when stepping on it, it was neither slippery nor would she be tripped up by tree roots.
Several steep slopes grew gentle as she approached; the ground seemed to softly cradle her feet, letting her slide down smoothly rather than fall.
The branches and leaves overhead also appeared exceptionally considerate. The low-hanging branches would automatically raise themselves before she ran close, their leaves rustling apart to clear a just-right space for her; occasionally there were vines horizontally blocking the way ahead, but before they even had time to form an obstacle, they were gently pulled away by the neighboring tree trunks, hanging neatly to the side.
Cradling the small twig, Tsurumi Rumi jogged all the way forward, as if she were not escaping, but instead being tenderly delivered to some safe place by this forest.
Yet in the midst of this brief tranquility, the running girl suddenly felt a pain on her small face, and her whole person was like crashing into an invisible wall, falling to a sitting position on the ground due to the counterforce.
Do... do air walls exist in reality too?
Before Tsurumi Rumi could even react, her wrist was grabbed by a powerful force, and her body was violently pulled back; that tiny twig slipped from between her fingers and was snatched away with total ease, the flower bud swaying for a moment in mid-air.
"Ah..." The girl let out a small cry of grief; she subconsciously extended her fingers, wanting to take the twig back, but it was obviously already too late.
Tsurumi Rumi turned her head and found that the boy had appeared behind her at some unknown point, holding the partner he had snatched from her side in his hand, staring at her icily with a gaze that seemed to be discerning whether what was in front of him was trash or cargo.
Even though he looked like just an ordinary person, at this instant, his silhouette weighed down over the night color, weighed down over the pitch-blackness of the forest, and even weighed down over the entire woods; it was just like a monster clad in human skin, filled with a terrifying presence.
Fear abruptly magnified at this moment; the forest seemed to fall back into silence, and the previous protection no longer existed.
Tsurumi Rumi desperately told herself in her heart that she must be strong and brave, but the human instinct for survival caused her tears to pour uncontrollably out of her eyes anyway, tracing across the little one's small face—which had become a bit messy from groping and rolling around in the pitch-black forest—and falling patter-patter down.
Just when that sense of oppression was about to completely envelope her, that gentle, elderly voice no longer remained confined within her consciousness; instead, it spread out like the night color, echoing over the airspace of the entire woods.
"Strong one of mankind, please stop. I have no intention of making an enemy of you."
The leaves moved without wind, and the tree trunks gave a low response, as if some ancient and broad-minded will had descended upon this place.