"You ......"

"Narumi, my last name."

"Does Narumi have a younger brother?" The gloomy face of the owner of the Bird Village did not last long, and his tone slowly calmed down, staring at Narumi and asked.

"Ten and a half villages, I'll be with him, you will decide the place of the game, and tell me tomorrow."

But Narumi Yu's purpose of coming to their Bird Village this time has been achieved.

In the dim Bird Village, the high school students who came to write the war book stood up calmly, patted the shoulder of the owner of the Bird Village, and walked out of the mahjong room.

Leaving the owner of the Bird Village standing in place, staring at the end of the game on the mahjong table.

"Is he ...... Didn't ask for our money? ”

"Shh......h Didn't you see that the boss was still around? ”

The boss of the Jinchuan Group came back to his senses and took a deep breath, "You settle the game, that kid will come back tomorrow, and I will hand it over to him then." ”

"White ......"

"Just say don't talk too much!"

The three of them honestly paid the money, lost the interest in playing cards, and left the village in a dull manner.

The owner of the finch village sat in the position of Narumi Yu just now, and while studying the cut cards in the game, he reported the situation with the leader of the Jinchuan group by text message.

[The team leader is wise, that kid is really here.] ]

[But are you really sure that the "younger brother" next to that kid is Yayoi disguised as a man?] ]

[……]

[I see.] ]

Two games of mahjong, plus the time to hurry, by the time he returned to the hotel, it was already past twelve o'clock in the night.

By the light of his phone's screen, he walked through the hallway in the dark and opened the door to his temporary room.

Facing the door, on the side facing the courtyard, the lower part of the paper window was pulled up. The bright moonlight shines through the glass panes outside the paper window on the tatami mats in the room on a clear night.

Teenage girl in warm white nightdress, sitting in front of the window, looking at the view of the courtyard.

He heard the door open and turned his head.

"Yayoi-san? Why are you ...... in my room" Narumi turned on the light.

The eerie mood of the Japanese-style room, the courtyard, the paper windows, the moonlight, and the long-haired girl in a white nightdress is dissipated by the bright interior lighting.

Although he knew that it must be Yayoi Akizao, he was still startled the moment he opened the door.

"Isn't Narumi going to say something?"

The girl turned around and continued to enjoy the night view in the courtyard. Narumi walked over and sat cross-legged beside the girl.

Such a scene is like he went out to cheat at night and was caught by his wife who pretended to be asleep.

"I didn't go out in the middle of the night to find other women!"

In his view, this point must be clarified in the first place.

“……”

Yayoi Aki didn't respond, so quiet that he could only hear the cries of various insects that appeared in the yard from time to time.

'Who is going to hear you say this!' ’

Narumi Yu helped the girl make up the lines in her heart and entertained herself.

"I went to the Bird Village in the Nishikawa Group."

At the end of the joke session, he figured out how to explain.

"Hmm." The girl nodded, not at all, as if she had known that he would go.

"Everything went well with the plan. I pretended to be 'Miss Yayoi entrusted the Toyono Group to settle the debt', and I succeeded in bluffing the owner of the Bird Village. ”

Narumi said as he checked the paper window for holes.

He suspected that Yayoi Aki might have come every day to peek if he was asleep.

"They, they should still be in contact with the Toyono group."

"The Toyono Group is now co-opted by the Ichijo family, where do you still have the courage to continue to contact this side, and the current Nishikawa Group is isolated."

“……”

"So, they will definitely agree to my offer."

Yayoi Aki nodded, "They thought that only they knew about the fact that I was dressed as a man and had been discovered. ”

The Nishikawa group, who got this information through an unexpected channel, will think that they are in the shadows.

It's the head snake of Nai Echo again, and he feels that he has taken the lead, so he naturally won't be in a hurry to make a move.

The long-term game of ten and a half villages, in their opinion, is also creating advantages for them.

"The game is ten and a half villages, if they can bear it, they may have to play until the second half of the night, remember to rest in advance......"

"Understood."

You can just keep the tea and snacks in the game untouched, and the only thing to guard against is the drug that is sprinkled in the air.

In order to ensure that this drug will only faint Narumi Yu and Yayoi Akiha, they will definitely choose the type of antidote they have.

There will also be such a drug in the Kan 40,000 group, and it will be necessary to bring the antidote in advance.

He and Yayoi played a mahjong game indoors with each other in the morning, and the members of the Kan 40,000 group slowly came in from the outside.

Five or six hours is definitely enough.

"Remember that if you encounter danger, you can change your bed and come out immediately, don't worry about me."

“……”

The girl stood up in silence and slowly walked to the door, before nodding slightly,

"Hmm."

After the door closed, Narumi Yu looked up at the night sky, and the moon was bent like a piece of fluorite, and a surround circle of light appeared around it.

There were almost no stars in the night sky, only a lonely moon hanging.

The opponent's home field.

You can't bring guns.

Even if they knew Yayoi Akiha's identity in advance, they wouldn't be able to search their bodies, and it would be a bit too ostentatious to want to bring something like a pistol.

It's just that the other party's means are everywhere, and it's still not enough insurance.

So he also contacted the leader of the Kan 40,000 group and asked him to prepare two drugs and the corresponding antidote.

Carry it with him, and if the other party uses it, he will find an opportunity to volatilize different drugs......

It's shameful to use drugs, but it works.

Moreover, he is a backhand, which belongs to legitimate defense, and there is no psychological burden to use it.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with using it directly.

It's just that you need to take into account Yayoi Akiza's thoughts.

He's here to save the beautiful girl...... Instead of pulling the girl out of the quagmire of one side and pushing the other into the mire in the name of helping.

Mental problems are far more troublesome than real problems......

The next day,

Narumi Yu accompanied Yayoi Aki for a walk around the town early in the morning, did not go to the Bird Village, did not practice guns, just relaxed, like a tourist, wandering aimlessly in Nai Echo.

Mahjong pairs were decided to start at six o'clock in the evening three days later and play until midnight.

The location of the game is a hotel in the Nishikawa group, and it will be closed for a few days and will continue to operate after the game ends.

The preparations required for the plan were almost completed the week before.

Only the core members of the Kan 40,000 group participated in the project, and they were those from the same faction as the group leader.

And only they know that the Ichijo family promised them completely irresistible conditions.

The human heart is selfish.

In the face of such huge interests, they naturally only want to let the people who are with them share the cake, but they don't want to let people who have nothing to do or even have personal grievances get it.

The exclusion within the group naturally occurred.

It is not ruled out that the Jinchuan group was aware of their movements, but from beginning to end, there were only two people who came into contact with Narumi Yu and Yayoi Akizao, the leader of the Kan Shiman's group and the young man who picked up the bullet casings.

It had been negotiated before he came to Naie Town.

In the past three days, Narumi Yu and Yayoi Aki ran to the mountains near Nai E-cho again.

I went to see Mt. Niwa, where the story begins in "Autumn Rain on the Nai River".

The waterfall cascades down the mountain stream, churning with the white spray.

The village at the foot of the mountain, and the village where Yayoi lived in the early morning, are only separated by a small hill, half an hour's walk away.

"We lived here before the floods." Yayoi Autumn led Narumi Yu on the compacted dirt road in the village, pointed to a completely collapsed house not far away, and whispered to him.

On the outside of the dirt road, on the side near the field, there was a canal, and the side walls of the canal were stones piled up, and the surface was washed and polished smooth by the current.

"It's not demolished......"

"After all, after the flood, there are very few people still living here."

Large fields were deserted and overgrown with all kinds of weeds.

Narumi Yu saw that there was a dogtail grass, so he ran and plucked one and put it in his mouth.

“……”

Yayoi Aki glanced at him early and didn't think he was naïve. Or thinking in the heart, just not saying it.

"Do you see the tallest building in the distance?"

She raised her hand and pointed at Narumi in the distance.

"I saw ......"

The roof of the house was thatched, which gave him a familiar feeling.

"When the flood came, it was not flooded, otherwise it would have ...... It's no longer visible. ”

The two walked slowly in the direction of the thatched hut.

Not far away, a tanuki cat sprang out, glanced at them, crossed the dirt road, and hid behind a house.

Narumi looked into the courtyard where there were still people, waist-high wooden fences, and a lot of dry firewood piled up in the corners.

You can see the chimney on the roof, and there must be a fire inside.

Even though it's summer, Narumi can still imagine the family gathering around the fire to keep warm when it snows in winter.

These dry firewood, in winter, will sacrifice themselves in exchange for the warmth of their family throughout the winter.

In the distance, there are various vegetables growing in the field, and what you can see from a distance is a tomato stand that has been propped up. The one who was working in the fields seemed to be the owner of the yard where he had stopped to observe.

He beckoned to the boy, who waved his hand and left his courtyard with his companions.

"How many people are still living here?"

He turned around and asked Yayoi Akiza.

"After the flood subsided, there were about 50 people, and now it seems that there should be more, almost 20 families."

The two walked up the hill to the thatched hut.

Narumi finally recognized where he had seen it.

Isn't this the shrine he saw in his dream two days ago......

Next to the thatched hut, there is a shrine that is left unattended, and even spiders have webs on it.

"This is where Neko used to live."

The girl's crisp voice was flat and melodious, like a green lantern telling a story, and the wind blew next to it, blowing the wind chimes in the corridor.

“……”

Narumi bent over, carefully burrowing under the collapsed door frame and looking up.

The thatched roof has been eroded by rain, and the "skylight" is exactly as in the dream.

I don't know if it's because he has special abilities or if it's caused by the abnormality in Neko's body.

That night, it is also possible that Neko was there at the beginning, in order to make him dream of this shrine.

It's just that his personal consciousness is too strong, which leads to the disobedience of Yayoi Aki stabbing him with a knife.

"It must be early."

The shrine looks even more dilapidated than the houses in the village that were destroyed by flooding eight or nine years ago.

"Hmm...... I hadn't seen her until Neko possessed me. ”

To put it another way.

Other words...... Neko had left this world before Yayoi Aki was born......

"That's, Neko"

"The day I got on the train to Tokyo." The girl knew what he was thinking, and answered in advance, looking at the long-abandoned shrine with a dazed look.

Waiting for the obsession of the owner of the shrine......

Is it so deep?

Until today, a decade or two later, there is no body anymore, and even if he already knows that his master should have died, he is still waiting.

"It seems that Neko is a great cat." Narumi sighed.

Then Yayoi Akihaya also bent down into the shrine, walked up to Narumi Yu, raised his foot, and stepped on it symbolically.

“……”

"Neko said I'll beat you." Yayoi Aki took two steps back early, and turned his face away as if nothing had happened.

“…… Let's go out first, in case this place collapses and hits us, it's a bit dangerous. ”

"Neko said, if you say one more word, she will run out and scratch your face."

"I was wrong."

"......" walked out of the shrine, the girl closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned, with a hint of a smile, and repeated the words of Neko in a subdued tone, "This kind of perfunctory attitude, I don't want to get her forgiveness in this life." ”

"When I have the money, can I help her repair the shrine?"

"If he doesn't come back, it doesn't make sense if the shrine is repaired."

"So, give her fish every day?"

"Ben Meow will not be tempted by this low-level appetite, Ben Meow can exist without eating."

"......" Narumi Yu couldn't think of other conditions for bribery.

What a hateful cat, you have to inch in.

He just praised her for being amazing.

"Neko said...... "Yayoi Akizao suddenly hesitated, looking at Narumi Yu with a strange look in her eyes, "Narumi said that the night she was fat, she was very interested in the dream. ”

"I hope you can have more dreams like this, maybe you can help her dream about the people she wants to see."

"As long as I see it, I will forgive you."

……

Narumi Yu has nothing to say at all,

"Dreams, does she think I can control them?"

"Neko said she didn't care about that."

It seems that a certain black cat not only has to make inches, but also is quite unreasonable.

“…… I'll try my best. ”

In the forest behind the shrine, the cicadas chirp noisily and tirelessly.

Before leaving, Narumi Yu looked back at the dilapidated shrine with a thatched roof.

Although it has been confirmed that it is the same as the shrine in the dream.

That sense of familiarity still lingers in my heart.

It's like the fireworks he and Shiina watched in their dreams.

It is as if in a fragment in the depths of memory, there is still the shadow of the thing in front of you.

But the fireworks were actually seen together by the two of them when they were in first grade, and they had that feeling just because he had amnesia at the time.

This time he had regained his memory, and he couldn't remember when he had been here and seen this shrine.

"Let's go, it's time to go back."

The girl subconsciously stretched out her hand to him, her eyes flickered, and she took it back and whispered.

"Well, it's time to go back."

……

……