"Why haven't they come back yet..."
In the campsite, Hiratsuka was pacing in circles on the clearing out of anxiety. She took out her phone and tried to dial Asakura's number.
But no one answered.
This caused her mindset to become even more irritable and uneasy.
She suddenly stopped her pacing and walked toward the woods: "No way, as I thought, I still have to go over and look!"
Hachiman hurriedly stopped her.
"I already told you that Asakura is on his way back. If he brings Miura and that whoever-it-is back..." he reasoned, "Plus, it's so dark in the forest right now that the visibility is pitifully low. Even if you go, you won't be able to find anyone, right?"
"This isn't a question of whether they can be found or not, but a question of me having to go look because I am a teacher!"
Hiratsuka said earnestly.
At this exact moment, Hachiman felt that this aging, unmarried teacher was truly cool, but her trait of refusing to listen to others was also truly a refusal to listen, which left him feeling quite distressed.
"Well then, what if you get lost yourself, Hiratsuka-sensei?" At this time, Yukino out of nowhere spoke up: "Don't tell me you want to trouble Asakura-kun to go look for you too?"
"How could that be possible—"
Hiratsuka first counter-argued subconsciously, but when she looked at that pitch-black forest, the thought of 'what if I really get lost' couldn't stop popping up in her mind.
No way, Hiratsuka, oh Hiratsuka, your goal is to be a great, spicy-hot teacher like Onizuka Eikichi. How can you back down over a small matter like this!
"Yukinoshita is right. Hiratsuka-sensei, just stop looking for trouble where there is none and adding to Asakura's burdens." Hachiman, who failed to notice that Hiratsuka's complexion was shifting constantly like an amoeba, chimed in to support the statement.
As a result, right after he finished speaking, he discovered Hiratsuka staring at him with an unfriendly expression.
"I won't say anything about Yukino believing in Asakura so much—originally, the relationship between those two has been mysteriously bundled up like a lump of sticky paste anyway—but Hikigaya, haven't you only known Asakura for a single day? Why do you trust that guy so much too?"
Hiratsuka narrowed her eyes and questioned Hachiman suspiciously.
"What do you mean we've only known each other for a day? Asakura and I are classmates in the same class, okay?" Hachiman quickly glossed it over.
"Well then, aside from Asakura, name three more of your classmates' names." Hiratsuka pressed.
"Hayama, and also... Yu-Yuigahama!" Hachiman said while trying hard to recall.
"They are all members of this volunteer activity... fine, even so, you're still missing one."
"Oh right, there's also Nukumizu!" Hikigaya remembered Asakura's previous words in a flash of wits and spoke up hurriedly.
"Tch, I'll count that as a pass."
Hiratsuka irritably reached her hand into her pocket, but found absolutely nothing.
Right, she had left her cigarettes back in the wooden cabin.
Furthermore, under the current circumstances, it wasn't the time to smoke either.
Hayama also rarely revealed a somewhat anxious expression. After all, Asakura had merely run off to find people, but Miura and Tobe by his side were genuinely missing. Even if Asakura said he had found them, finding the way back through such a pitch-black forest was not going to be that simple.
The campsite was tightly enveloped by the night colors which grew increasingly dense as time progressed. The light of the newly rekindled bonfire flickered and shifted in the wind, casting the shadows of several people to lengthen and shorten like a funhouse mirror in an amusement park.
In reality, at the current moment when the light pole had been turned on, a bonfire was no longer needed. It was just that having a bonfire provided a bit more atmosphere, so Hiratsuka did not force everyone to put it out.
Time seemed to be deliberately slowed down; every sound of a popping spark made people subconsciously tense up their nerves.
Asakura and the three missing individuals delayed their return for a long time. The side of the forest was abnormally quiet, as if all sounds had been intentionally gathered away, leaving behind only an unsettling blankness.
Yui could not help but begin to look toward the direction of the forest frequently. Sharing a connection of minds with Napoleon, she could vaguely sense that Asakura was already very close; the other party had no intention of concealing his presence.
Yet the darkness blanketing the woods was like an un-see-through wall, the shadows of trees stacking layer upon layer. Glancing over, it even gave off a feeling that even the edge of the forest clearing, which was illuminated by the bonfire and the light pole, had sunk into the night color at this moment, just like rocks beneath the water of a shallow beach, cold and unyielding.
Right within this suffocating silence, a shrill and miserable scream suddenly ripped through the night, bursting forth from the depths of the forest.
The sound was short-lived yet sharp, as if it had been forcefully cut off by something, the residual sound echoing repeatedly among the trees.
An absolute silence befell the campsite in an instant; the sound of heartbeats seemed to be infinitely magnified, and everyone subconsciously held their breath.
Yukino subconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes tightly. Hiratsuka, who had just sat down under Hachiman's persuasion, stood back up once again, her gaze locked dead onto the direction from which the sound originated. Yui's eyes were resolute; in a corner unseen by others, the golem large snake Napoleon had already coiled into a battle array, standing erect like a human.
There was no follow-up scream, but the forest—which was quiet to the point that even the chirping of insects had completely vanished—instead possessed a different kind of oppressive force, causing fear to rapidly spread.
The wind blew past the bushes, making rustling sounds that left people unable to distinguish whether it was reality or an illusion.
Not long after, the bushes at the edge of the forest clearing began to sway slightly.
The rustling sound of leaves rubbing together was deliberately drawn out, every single movement seeming to tread upon everyone's tightened nerves.
Something seemed to be drawing close within the darkness. The light of the bonfire halted its reach in front of that patch of bushes, failing to illuminate clearly what exactly was hidden inside.
Just when everyone was nearly unable to endure this suspended, unresolved tension any longer, a head suddenly poked out from between the bushes.
His grizzled hair appeared exceptionally prominent in the firelight, and the eyepatch over his right eye was something people could recognize with a single glance.
At that exact instant, it felt as if something snapped open with a pa sound.
The tightened air abruptly loosened, and long sighs of relief rang out almost simultaneously from all the people who still remained out in the clearing of the campsite. The anxiety that was previously pressing down on their hearts was easily blown away by the cool breeze of the summer night the moment the newcomer's identity was confirmed.
Immediately after, the figures of several more people drilled out from within the bushes.
"Brat!" "Asakura!" "Takuma-tan!" "Asakura-kun!" "Yumiko! Kakeru!"
Everyone shouted out in unison.
Then, they subconsciously looked toward Hayama. The latter's expression froze for a moment, but he did not change his form of address.
He did not share much of an acquaintance with Asakura, so he couldn't exactly call him that at this time, right? Furthermore, with Ebina still lying down like a corpse at the moment, the fact that no one was welcoming Yumiko and Kakeru back was also a bit pitiful...
"Asakura, what was that miserable scream just now about? Could there be other people in the woods?" Hiratsuka asked Asakura hurriedly.
"Oh, that."
Asakura scratched his head in embarrassment: "The forest was too dark, and I accidentally stepped on Tobe's foot. When Tobe let out a miserable scream, he startled Miura, so they started screaming together."
"So that's how it is."
Hiratsuka nodded. With the subsequent appearance of Tobe, Miura, and Tsurumi Rumi walking at the very back, her heart, which had been suspended for a long time, could finally land smoothly.
"Tobe, you look like..." Hayama couldn't help but look dumbfounded as he stared at his friend's wretched appearance: "You couldn't have rolled down some slope, right?"
"I wasn't that unlucky." Tobe waved his hand wearily: "I just accidentally started a fire, and then I used my own body to put out the fire. As a result, I almost ended up burning myself up too, that's all!"
As if to validate his words, a subtle aroma of roasted meat was still uniquely wafting from Tobe's body at this moment.
Hayama: ...
No, no matter how you look at it, your actual situation is even more unlucky, right?
"Takuma-tan!" Yui ran up to Asakura like a little deer, her eyes shining brightly as she said, "I stayed properly in the camp, you know!"
Her underlying meaning was that she and Napoleon had protected the camp well, but she just couldn't say it in front of Hayama's group and Hiratsuka.
"Good job."
Asakura rubbed her head, receiving a sweet smile from the girl in return.
Yukino watched this scene and stood up expressionlessly, seemingly planning to return to her own wooden cabin to rest.
Only, the young girl subconsciously cast a glance at the little tail following right in Asakura's footsteps, and couldn't help but knit her brows: "Asakura-kun... though I hope it's just my own illusion... you couldn't have laid your hands on a child, right?"
Asakura said triumphantly: "On this point, I must grandly introduce her to you all!"
Saying that, Asakura gently pushed Tsurumi Rumi, who was by his side, forward a little bit: "This is Tsurumi Rumi, a reserve member of the 'Ministry of Magic'~"
Yui stared at Tsurumi Rumi in shock, then couldn't resist glancing at Yukino beside her, and then looked back at Tsurumi Rumi, wearing an expression of wanting to speak but holding back.
But even if she said nothing, Asakura could more or less see the astonishment of 'How can they look so much alike!' from her face.
After all, during the volunteer work in the daytime, Tsurumi Rumi had always hidden inside the wooden cabin to build up her relationship with the little wood thing. Even when she was outside the cabin, she kept her head lowered most of the time, giving off an introverted and timid impression. But now that the little one was no longer keeping her head lowered all the time, and her inner self had become more confident, her appearance and temperament became subtly and extremely similar to Yukino's.
Meanwhile, Yukino let out a sigh.
"Leaving aside Gokou being a middle school student for the moment, now there's even an elementary school reserve member..." She looked sideways at Asakura: "The next reserve member of the Ministry of Magic down the line couldn't be someone you kidnapped from a kindergarten, right?"
"Silence! How can you use the rules of the Service Club to restrain the Ministry of Magic!" Asakura said with absolute righteousness: "To be able to continuously cultivate people who inherit one's own spirit and will—so that even if I graduate, the club will not disappear but will instead keep being passed down—this is true strength! Aside from yourself, there is only Yui as a single member. How can a Service Club President who is completely a lone soul understand my grand ambition! How can a night heron know the grand will of a penguin!"
"There isn't much of a difference between those two birds either," Yukino countered.
"Takuma-tan... likes them small?" Meanwhile, Yui stared at Asakura listlessly, her pupils vibrating in shock.
"There is no such thing."
Asakura stated categorically.
Although he always felt that he didn't have a particularly obvious preference, after squeezing Hitori dry (in the sense of magic power) and then being squeezed dry by Asagumo (in the sense of energy), he felt that he probably still preferred them larger.
The mouthfeel is better.
Feeling that simply saying this might not be persuasive enough, he added.
"Aside from loli mothers, I don't have a particular interest in children."
"No, no, no, this is already extremely perverted, okay!"
Perhaps Hiratsuka was too overly emotional upon seeing that her students had all returned without a single one missing, or perhaps it was simply because the light pole was too bright; in short, Yukihira Itsuka, who had already fallen asleep, also walked out of the wooden cabin, swaying unsteadily at this moment.
Her hair was a messy nest from sleep, and a clump of cowlicks stood straight up. The little one rubbed her sleepy eyes while muttering something as she paced outward, until she saw Tsurumi Rumi standing beside Asakura, whose attitude was much closer than it had been in the wooden cabin during the afternoon. At that moment, the sleepy bubble over her head seemed to burst with a pop, giving the little one's spirits a sudden jolt.
"Tsurumi? Were you not in the campsite just now?" She asked curiously: "I heard Hiratsuka-sensei say that a lot of people were looking for you..."
Only, the moment the words left her mouth, Yukihira Itsuka regretted it a bit.
Because after spending a period of time together, Yukihira Itsuka felt that Tsurumi Rumi's personality was indeed very cold—not that she harbored any prejudice against her, it was just a pure conclusion based on results, because even if she had the thick skin to initiate seven or eight sentences with her, the other party wouldn't necessarily reply with even one.
This made Yukihira Itsuka feel a bit dejected, even though she felt she was quite good at ice-breaking.
This time would be the same; the question asked would surely sink like a stone into the ocean again, the little girl grumbled in her heart.
"Because of some matters, I left for a little while."
As it turned out, Tsurumi Rumi answered in a crisp, clear voice.
Because the reply was too fluent, to the point that Yukihira Itsuka couldn't even react in time, and after ravings nonsensically for a brief moment, she pointed at Tsurumi Rumi in amazement and said: "So you can speak!"
Tsurumi Rumi rolled her eyes, feeling that this classmate of hers was a bit silly.
It wasn't as if she hadn't spoken in front of her before.
"Ah, no, I didn't mean it that way."
Yukihira Itsuka explained hurriedly.
After all, she had pressed her warm face against someone else's cold backside several times before, but the responses she managed to get were few and far between.
Except because she completely hadn't anticipated having this dialogue, and under the circumstance of completely failing to draft a mental script—Yukihira Itsuka, who wasn't exactly eloquent to begin with—the more she explained, the messier the impression she gave off became.
"Alright, the truth of the matter is roughly like this—Rumi entered the woods due to some personal reasons, and then accidentally got lost inside just like those two older siblings. Because I caught sight of her figure, I specifically ran over to bring her back along with those two. After experiencing a series of magnificent and soul-stirring adventures, Rumi felt that she could no longer continue to be so isolated, which is why she opened up her heart a little bit, turning into the way she is now."
Asakura explained to Yukihira Itsuka with a perfectly straight face: "With this catalyst, she will quickly get better and better, just like the way it plays out in many cartoons."
Yukihira Itsuka stared at Asakura with a contemptuous gaze that read 'Do you think I'll believe that?'.
Asakura gave her a thumbs-up.
This made Yukihira Itsuka helplessly press her palm to her forehead and shake her head once again.