Chapter 428

Himemiya Chihaya, holding her phone, couldn't help but take a picture of her.

"Snap!"

The shutter button and flash startled the beauty on the mountain, who hurriedly looked over. "Hey! What are you taking pictures of!"

"Scenery~"

"You're lying! You're filming me, aren't you!"

She put her hands on her hips, pointed at him, and said with absolute certainty, "Hand over your phone!"

In an instant, she transformed from a taciturn fairy into a vibrant young woman.

"Beauty is also scenery."

He chuckled and put his phone away, ignoring her request.

Her expression froze for a moment, a faint blush rising to her cheeks, barely visible in the darkness of the night. Her deep eyes trembled for a few seconds before returning to normal.

"... That's the kind of talk you'd use to pick up hot girls in Tokyo! Delete the photos right now!"

"No way! You can hit me if you want!"

"What would I need your photos for? If Mom finds out, she'll scold me for dating and it affecting my studies!"

"Your mom... well, her thinking is... nothing special."

He moved his lips, his gaze complex, hesitant to speak, but ultimately suppressed the urge.

Seeing that he was unwilling to hand it over, she had no choice but to lean against the fence again. "Ha... I don't have to delete it, but you can't use it for anything bad, understand?"

"For example?"

He countered with a joking retort.

"Did you know? The urban legend of Uji, Mount Daikichi at night, has accumulated countless spirits over thousands of years?"

"I promise I won't use it for anything bad!"

"Good to know."

Chapter 397 The band name and the girl playing the Oboe.

"Ha~ Ah..."

After enjoying the cool mountain breeze for a while, which relieved the heat, she glanced sideways and asked, "Looking at the city below, do you feel like shouting it out?"

"Yes, but I'm shy and embarrassed to say it."

"Ha~ You're still embarrassed?"

Just kidding.

He took in the brightly lit, semi-ancient city below, and his expression gradually calmed.

The Uji Bridge, not far from here, is clearly visible, and you can even faintly see the ancient buildings on the opposite bank illuminated by the light.

After thinking for a moment, he still felt at a loss for words. "To be honest, I don't think I have anything to shout out."

"Um?"

"The act of climbing to a high place to declare one's existence is somewhat tinged with Chūnibyō, or perhaps it's simply an attempt to vent pent-up emotions, right?"

He wagged his finger. "But apart from one thing, I have almost no other worries."

"Even with that one thing, whether I'm truly dissatisfied is another question—after all, life has to have some flaws; a life without regrets isn't perfect."

A life without flaws or failures is like a piece of glass—beautiful but fragile.

"So I've been thinking about it, and maybe I'm not actually that opposed to the current situation."

"That is, if I can survive," he silently added in his mind.

Even he himself is very satisfied with his current life. Apart from the constant threat and pain of death, he has almost no problems that can be considered troubling.

But if this lifelong problem were removed immediately, he had a premonition that he would experience an additional emptiness—this was definitely not masochism or Stockholm syndrome!

However... an overly idealistic situation can also raise another kind of crisis for him, a sense of crisis that worries his perfect life will be gradually broken and damaged.

Water overflows when it is full, and the moon wanes after it is full.

That's probably what they mean by this kind of mentality.

In his past life, he longed for the ordinary but could not attain it; in the past, he yearned for perfection; and now, he has begun to appreciate that imperfection can also be a form of beauty.

Of course, it's not impossible to say that he had no choice but to accept his fate.

Although he didn't believe at all that this was some kind of punishment from heaven, it was precisely because of this body that he could enjoy everything he had now with a clear conscience.

Thinking about how he would eventually resolve this matter Mirai, he felt a strange sense of loneliness...

"..."

Tanaka Asuka looked over in surprise, then quickly looked back down at the vast land below, closed her eyes with a relieved expression, and raised the corners of her mouth, her voice calm.

"Really? Is that how you understand it? Maybe that's true..."

Twenty seconds later.

"Ughh..."

She took a deep breath, mustered all her strength, cupped her hands together like a megaphone, and shouted it out loud.

"Phew! That feels great! You really have to shout it out when you're hiking!"

After shouting, she quickly returned to her previous playful demeanor, grinning and giving him a peace sign with her hands on her hips.

"Then I'll too... Aaaaaaah--!!!"

He shouted down in a moderate, measured way.

It's unclear whether the sound can penetrate the urban white noise permeating the air and the obstruction of the terrain to reach the ears of the three people resting below.

"You really do have a very androgynous voice..."

Tanaka Asuka retorted with disdain.

"It's just how it is."

"Yes, it's something you're born with, there's nothing you can do about it."

"..."

Tsk, so that's why you clever people always like to use metaphors and double entendres when you speak...

"Go downstairs, or they'll get impatient. You've finished reading, haven't you?"

She turned and walked back up the steps she had come from, then looked back and asked tentatively.

"Okay, let's go. I still need to book a hotel later... Any recommendations?"

"Don't ask me that. Do you think locals would stay in local hotels?"

"That's true..."

"However, as for famous hot spring inns..."

"..."

After descending the mountain, she returned to the parking spot with the others. After giving them a final snack as payment, she parted ways with them. Himemiya Chihaya checked into a well-known inn recommended by Tanaka Asuka.

The name is Uji Hanayashiki Ukifune-en, which sounds expensive, but it is actually a 4-star hotel. The rooms have panoramic views of the Uji River, and the owner provides yukatas and Uji matcha.

This is on the other side of the river, a five-minute walk from Byōdō-in.

The trip was for two nights. According to his plan, he only intended to stay in Uji for two days before heading to other places.

After soaking in his room, which had a private hot spring bath, to relieve the fatigue of the day, he began to process the backlog of information accumulated throughout the day.

After a quick change of clothes and some padding under his yukata, he began to remotely instruct his "disciples," Chihaya Aine, on musical techniques.

Oh dear, there's never a moment's rest! Is this the price of becoming Master of Time Management?

While others travel with their girlfriends and do naughty things together at night, I, in order to complete my mission and cut back on time, am left alone in this huge hotel room. It's so frustrating...

"Huh~ Why is Asahi- senpai wearing a yukata? The background looks like a hotel room, hmm... are you traveling?"

Hearing that familiar Sugar Tone, even his slightly dazed mind, still a bit confused from soaking in the hot spring, cleared up.

"Yes, I'm taking advantage of Golden Week to relax. I'm in Kyoto now!"

Ogura Asahi smiled faintly and replied, "I just finished a run in the hot springs."

"Wow, Kyoto! I want to go out and have fun too! I want to soak in a hot spring..."

Chihaya Aine's enthusiasm for studying instantly dropped by ninety percent, her eyes filled with longing to go on a trip.

"No, you need to practice your guitar to a certain level first. Do you want your teammates to call you a burden?"

Ogura Asahi remained expressionless.

"Uh... they didn't say that! But they're right, out of them, my skills are the worst..."

Chihaya Aine slumped against the sofa in her room, her large, bespectacled eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Her house is a beautiful two-story detached villa. One side of the house has a pitched roof, and a ceiling is inserted between the two pitched roofs, which is then divided in half by the wall.

Chihaya Aine's room is one of the two halves.

It features both standard horizontal windows and sloping windows on the pitched roof, allowing for ample natural light and making it quite unique.

The space is also quite spacious, with not only desks, bookshelves, and wardrobes, but also sofas, storage cabinets, and other furniture.

The bed, of normal size, with screens on two sides and walls on the other two, only occupied a tiny corner of the room... which shows just how big her bedroom was.

It's a private space that could make some people cry their eyes out.

At this moment, she was sitting on the sofa, holding a guitar, with her phone mounted on a stand in front of her.

"Yoshi!"

After her initial disappointment, she mustered her strength and sat up again, her fighting spirit rekindled. "Please train me hard, Senior Asahi! I beg you!"

"I can do it without you telling me. So, first play the chords I had you practice before, and then play the few simple songs I gave you..."

"Good!"

"..."

"..."

Twenty minutes later, the guitar music gradually stopped.

"How is it?"

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she nervously watched the stunning beauty on the screen, fearing she might utter some cruel words.

On the other end of the call, Ogura Asahi tugged at his skin, unsure of what to say.

He remembered that only two or three days had passed since he last taught her, not two or three weeks or two or three months... How could she have become so proficient so quickly?

Tsk! So that's what you guys from the Bang Dream!

"Very good! I didn't expect you to improve so quickly. It seems you'll soon reach an average level. Keep it up... keep it up!"

He coughed lightly, picked up Uji Kintoki from the side and started eating to calm his agitated emotions.

"Real?!"

Chihaya Aine cupped her cheeks, her face beaming with joy, then proudly put her hands on her hips.

"Well, as long as I'm willing to practice, this is nothing at all!"

"Good, good, it seems the band-aid you applied wasn't a waste of time."

Ogura Asahi expressed his helplessness at her smugness.

"Ah, this..."

She covered her Hands, her face flushed with embarrassment, and awkwardly hid them behind her back with a forced laugh.

Her rapid progress is certainly due to her exceptional talent, but it is also related to her tireless practice over the past few days.

"By the way, what is Senior Asahi eating? It looks delicious!"

She quickly put the topic out of her mind, leaned forward, and stared at what he was holding, drooling.