Aomori Prefecture's Yōchin Town lay in the mountains on the eastern side of Honshu. It had a permanent population of ten thousand, and its main industry was apples, with numerous orchards and processing plants. It was an obscure little place—remote, isolated from the outside world, and a typical rural town.
This was also Duanmu Huai's destination.
"Rumble, rumble...!"
Duanmu Huai parked the car by the roadside, opened the door, and stepped out. He silently studied the buildings before him, which were filled with rustic charm. Just then, another voice came from beside him.
"Huh? This is the place...? It looks so boring..."
Minme Satori climbed out of the passenger seat and glanced around listlessly.
"If you knew it would be boring, you shouldn't have come."
Duanmu Huai glanced silently at Minme Satori. He hadn't planned on bringing her along in the first place, but somehow, she had managed to hide in his trunk...
"Don't you have anything else to do? Sakuya and the others went to the beach. Aren't you going home during Golden Week?"
"Huh? But Satori thinks being with Teacher would be more fun~~~ Besides... even if I went home, there wouldn't be anything fun to do. Daddy and Mommy are both so boring~~~"
They were clearly her parents, but there wasn't the slightest trace of emotion in Satori's voice. She sounded as if she were talking about things that had absolutely nothing to do with her. Well... that was within Duanmu Huai's expectations. After all, generally speaking, someone with a SAN Value of zero had either witnessed something indescribable or suffered through plenty of things from a young age. Satori didn't seem like the former, so it was probably mostly because of her family.
But he had no intention of looking into it further.
"Forget it. It