There is only one snow-covered road from the hot spring inn located halfway up the mountain, and the group follows the road to the thicker the trees.

"It's really deserted, it feels like it's just us." Sonoko Suzuki looked around at the surroundings and sighed, "It's around such a well-known resort, but there are so few guests." ”

"Maybe it's because we don't have anything else to do here other than hot springs and snow? The nearest ski resort is a long drive away, and it's really not much to see compared to the resorts that are convenient for doing anything. ”

Kashiwagi Takao, the owner of the inn, replied, "I didn't tell you anything, but I was shocked to see so many of you coming!" ”

"Are there very few people coming?" Ikekawa Na opened her mouth to follow the topic down.

It's no wonder that I chose this place, not only because there are people who can be used as memories of the past, but it is also sparsely populated and not easy to go wrong......

However, if the business is so bleak, there is no risk of bankruptcy, and the Ikekawa zaibatsu is rarely involved in tourism-related industries, and it is impossible to invest directly in this hotel.

"Except for a few friends of mine who come over every once in a while, there are hardly any people who come to party, and even though the rent here is cheap compared to the rest of the resort, it's so bleak that it's going to go bankrupt......

Be careful with your feet, the snow is very thick in this patch, there is no road ahead, and the group of children who came with you should play there at the top of the mountain. ”

Kashiwagi Kadao bent down to pick up a few broken branches and threw them in a place where it was not easy to trip people, and continued.

"Because my dad likes it very much, we have been supporting it, but fortunately, before it was about to go out of business, the company that contracted the entire resort actually gave us financial support, saying that he hoped that we would continue to persevere.

After that, although the business was not booming, it was much better than before, and at least it could continue to open. ”

"The company behind it?"

When Mao Lilan asked, Ikekawa Na had already taken out the room card from his pocket that had been issued earlier.

On the front is the room number and the name of the hot spring inn, and on the back is the name of the resort where the hotel is located, and in the upper right corner is a small logo, the pattern is three swinging lines, and it is impossible to tell whether it is the wind or something else.

Looking down, he saw another English word underneath the pattern.

Aurora......

"I think it's Aurora, right?"

Interrupted by the girl's clear voice, Ikekawa retracted her gaze and put away the key card, looking up at the source of the sound.

"Look, this is the company's logo, and I can't really tell it's Aurora." Sonoko Suzuki also took out the room card in her arms and gestured to her friend.

"I remember my uncle talking about a new company that was founded just a few years ago and became a world-famous business giant in just one year.

Although the resorts here are its investments, the company's focus is not on tourism, but on many high-tech industries. I was also very impressed by my mother's learning about their business methods. ”

"Although it has a monopoly position in many fields, because it has been committed to philanthropy since its inception, it has a good reputation at both the official and non-governmental levels."

Reciting what she was forced to learn in a small class with her eyes closed, Sonoko Suzuki rubbed her arms and shook her head vigorously.

"Woo, I still won't talk about this! As soon as I said this, I remembered what I learned at the time, obviously I was out to play, but I couldn't be bound by something I hated. Let's quicken our pace, I think I've heard the voices of those little ghosts. ”

"That's right, it should be almost there." Kashiwagi Takao laughed, "Sounds like they're playing some game." When I was a child, I also liked to go to the mountains with my friends and younger siblings, and I often played until sunset before being dragged back by my father, who would scold us every time he saw us playing in the mountains. ”

"It's so strict." Mao Lilan frowned, "I was greedy when I was a child

It should be normal to play...? ”

"My dad doesn't care what time we play, he scolds us just because we go up the mountain to play."

The young boss swept away the snow in front of him, smiling heartily, and didn't seem to take these scolded experiences to heart at all.

"Because the mountain is someone else's private property, the foot of the mountain is fenced off all around, so children don't care if it's fenced off or not, they will climb over the wall to see it if they want to go in."

"But...... Soon after, even the town where our family lived seemed to be sold, and our family received a large amount of demolition money, so we moved closer to the city and with convenient transportation. ”

"I'm sorry." Originally, he was just looking at the scenery along the way and didn't participate in the chat, and suddenly asked, "May I ask when it happened?" ”

"Demolition?" Kashiwagi Takao thought for a moment before speaking, "It seems to be six... No, it was seven years ago, I had just graduated from high school at that time, and I remember very well that I moved in the spring. ”

Seven years ago, when he was seventeen.

Ikekawa Na frowned, and suddenly remembered something that happened at the age of seventeen.

It is the scene I just recalled a short time ago when I confronted my husband in the study, and the scene I saw through the window in the back seat of the car was related to this scene before.

A question that had been ignored resurfaced in my mind.

How did I go out at that time? As far back as he could remember, he had been in the villa until he was eighteen years old, and it was almost impossible to get out, whether it was a fence or a hilltop villa that took more than an hour to reach by car......

So the scene in the study at that time was because he secretly ran out and was discovered? What happened after that, I couldn't see what was inside the secret passage at all.

In the midst of her complicated thoughts, Ikekawa Na suddenly smelled a faint sweetness, which was difficult to describe, not like the sweetness of baked sweet bread artificially made because of the sugar, nor like cream or juice.

It is the sweetness of ripe fruit, with an indescribable fragrance, and it is the purest and most happy taste.

The further you go, the more pronounced the sweetness becomes, and where the sweetness is at its strongest, a child in a down jacket wraps himself in a plush dumpling huddled together and is chattering about something.

"Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Brother Midorikawa." Kojima Motota carefully counted the three people in front of him, then stood up and cheered himself, "Okay! So you've found three people! It's just Conan's guy. ”

"There's six minutes left and we're sure we'll win!" Ayumi Yoshida was very confident in the boy who had not yet been found, and after finishing speaking, she turned her head to look at the tall man next to her, "Brother Midorikawa was actually the first to be found by Yuantai, obviously people thought you would be the last." ”

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, because I saw a beautiful bird in the tree and took pictures."

Midorikawa Jing stretched out his hand and waved helplessly, with a gentle smile on his face, he was about to say something more, but after hearing footsteps in the distance, he still looked up first, and the smile on his face faded when he saw the black-haired man following behind a group of people.

Columbai, how could he ...... here?

Subconsciously had some complicated vigilance towards the other party, and when he thought that he didn't have any organizational tasks at the moment, it was only because of this identity that he wanted to know more about the glasses boy who he was very concerned about when he was young and he agreed to invite him, and the expression on the face of Midorikawa did not change.

"It's Sister Xiaolan!" Ayumi Yoshida's eyes lit up, "Sister Xiaolan and Sister Sonoko will also come to play hide and seek with us in a while!" And the Pleiades brother ......"

The girl ran in a few steps to the two people who came over, and after seeing an unfamiliar figure behind her, she immediately tightened the clothes of the person in front of her, and looked at the girl who was tall enough for a child, looking a little embarrassed, "Is this brother also a guest at the hotel?" ”

"Yes, this is Mr. Ikekawa."

Ikekawa Na, who came with them, introduced several people

After going through it, several children obviously relaxed a lot, and Ayumi Yoshida simply went out from behind Mao Lilan and ran in front of the black-haired man, "Hello, I'm Ayumi Yoshida, please advise." ”

"Please advise—" x2

After saying this sentence with their friends, the two boys also talked about their names, introduced the Junior Detective Group, and invited the black-haired man who had just met in front of them for less than a minute to join their game team.

Ina, Chikawa, looked at a few pairs of sparkling eyes, and subconsciously took half a step back.

He is the least likely to deal with children, especially this lively and active type, without a bit of malice, which makes people not know how to respond.

"Sorry, I won't play this game."

He refused the invitation with the attitude of refusing the invitation to the dinner party, and he really didn't say this kind of thing to the children, and he didn't know whether to put on the gentle and polite mask that had been criticized by Gin for a long time, or the tone was softer, and the effect in the end was not very good, even the original softness had faded a little, and it looked a little cold.

"It's very simple, the person who draws the 'ghost' is responsible for finding someone, and the rest of the people have to hide in the specified room, if everyone is found within the specified time, then the 'ghost' wins, if not, someone else wins!"

Fortunately, the child didn't notice the cold color on his face, and Ayumi Yoshida raised his head and introduced seriously, "For example, now it's Motota who is looking for someone, and Conan hasn't been found out yet...... That's right! ”

Speaking of this, she looked down at the watch in her hand, silently counted down to three, and then jumped up and let out a small cheer, "It's time!" We won, and the next one is still Yuantai, you will be a 'ghost'. ”

"What! Obviously, I was delayed because I was chatting with my big brother, otherwise I would definitely find Conan. ”

Kojima Motota's eyebrows fell instantly, "I don't want to be a ghost!" Conan's guy hides in a place he can't find every time, and he'll be the next one! ”

While the two were talking, Mao Lilan, who was not far away, suddenly raised his voice, and his tone was full of excitement, "So here, I found Conan-"

As she spoke, the long-haired girl directly picked up the boy behind a very inconspicuous snowdrift, and walked back to the group with a smile.

"Look, I'll just say that Conan will definitely take advantage of the environment and hide in a very close place, just like Shinichi."

"Shinichi ......?" A name that wasn't the first time I'd heard it, but I hadn't known much about it, suddenly appeared, and Ikekawa Na paused for a moment and quickly turned her gaze to the short-haired girl beside her.

"It's Xiaolan's boyfriend." Sonoko Suzuki blinked and said in an exaggerated tone, "It's a very powerful high school detective, but it's been a long time since I saw him." ”

"It's a detective at such a young age, it's amazing." The black-haired man smiled and left a word of approval, turning his head to look back at the boy who was being held in his arms by the long-haired girl, and blushed after only a few words.

Conan Edogawa, an overly intelligent and precocious child, is a character who always appears in the manga on the forum...... There is also Shinichi Kudo, who has the same habits as him.

&

nbsp; He touched his chin.

And Shirley, who was able to escape from a ventilation duct that was completely impossible for adults to pass through, the genius daughter of his parents' friend, and the younger sister of Akemi Miyano, who was introduced to the organization by Shuichi Akai.

Although the intelligence said that the other party had died on the Suzuki Express train, Shuichi Akai, who was shot with a gun in the forehead, could be resurrected, let alone the person who disappeared in the explosion and did not even find the body.

"Brother, do you want to play with us?" The girl's voice came from the side again, interrupting the idea in his mind, "This game is very interesting, and it will definitely be more lively if so many people play it." ”

"I'm sorry." Ikekawa Nai reached out and touched her head, half-squatting down like a teacher, and regained a gentle smile, "I want to take a look around, I'm afraid I won't be able to join you... Play the game too. ”

He still didn't understand why the others were hiding, and it would be a fun game to send someone to find them all. With this kind of plot configuration, you can even write a book of horror

。

Anyway, his memories of hiding and being found are not something worth recalling.

It won't be as sweet as the smell in the air.

The girl lowered her eyes in some disappointment, and then turned to Okiya and Midorikawa next to her, "Then Brother Pleiades is playing with us?" ”

"I'm sorry, but I want to look around in the mountains first." Okiya shook his head, compared to the little master next to him, he obviously knew how to get along with children.

He squatted down and looked at the other party at eye level, "But I'll come back and play with you after watching it, you can take this opportunity to find a suitable place to hide first, and it will increase the difficulty of hiding after there are more people." ”

This promise made Ayumi Yoshida's eyes bend, she nodded, and answered loudly, "Hmm! ”

"Then if my brother wants to come and play with us after watching the scenery, he must come to us!"

The girl turned her head and looked at the man next to her, and after seeing the other party's rare heterochromic pupils at such a close distance, she let out a small interjection and said subconsciously.

"Your eyes are so beautiful."

She was very happy when she received the compliment, so she also subconsciously learned to praise the things she liked very much, but she didn't expect that after this sentence, the movement of the person opposite paused for a moment, and the smile on his face remained the same, but there was something inexplicably different.

"I also want to go to the mountains and take some photos of the scenery first." Midorikawa Jing raised the camera in his hand, scratched his side face embarrassedly, and said, "I'll come back and reconcile with you later." ”

"Then I'm going to look for those friends who haven't come back yet." Kashiwagi Takao also walked in the other direction, "I'll build the biggest snowman for you when you come back!" ”

"Okay!" This promise drew a burst of cheers from the real children except Conan Edogawa, and after the other people who didn't participate in the games had left, Moriran looked at Ayumi Yoshida, who was a little worried, and asked, "Ayumi, is something wrong?" ”

"Hmm... Sister Xiaolan. She frowned, using the radar that belonged only to children to keenly detect the emotions of the black-haired man just now, "Did I say the wrong thing, I feel that brother is not very happy." ”

"Huh?" Unexpectedly, what the other party was worried about was this, and before Mao Lilan could speak, Motota Kojima next to him spoke.

"I think he just doesn't want to play games with kids, right? How can anyone not play hide and seek, obviously it is a game that everyone would definitely play when they were young. After he finished speaking, he quickly skipped the topic, "Let's continue to draw lots, I will definitely not draw 'ghosts' this time!" ”

This sentence quickly caused others to turn their attention to the game.

——

The woods are so large that it's easy to get lost if you wander around them, and at the behest of Kashiwagi Takao, the few people who left the top of the mountain followed the trajectory of the highway and naturally gathered together.

There were no other people's voices distracting them, and there was an eerie tranquility to the whole scene.

I don't know how long it took, Midorikawa was one step behind the two of them, pretending to be interested in the scenery, looking up and seriously photographing the scenery above the trees, but even if they were so far behind, because of the exceptionally quiet air on the snow, the occasional chatter between the two could reach their ears.

When he heard the content, the man's eyebrows, which were already slightly furrowed, furrowed a little tighter.

In the distance, the two walked side by side on a road that had been cleared of snow.

“... Haven't played it? Okiya suddenly opened his mouth and asked the man next to him.

This was the first conversation between the two after meeting this time, and after a moment of surprise, Ikekawa frowned, "...... It's also kind of played. That's why I'm confused.

Smelling the sweet smell in the air, which had become so faint that it was impossible to catch because of the distance, he didn't say any more.

He still doesn't understand why the sound of approaching footsteps, the panic of not being found within the time limit, and the risk of being caught if you move after choosing a location are funny to children.

Especially when you already know that the other party has walked in, but you can only wait in place to be discovered.

It's like being kept in a slaughterhouse, hiding in a barn

Cover yourself with weeds underneath, knowing that if you catch it, you will be caught and killed, and the rabbit that will be brought to the table.

...... It has nothing to do with fun and fun.

“...... It's not so much horror. Strange people... Kids' play. He paused, unaware of the vampire buff, and he always automatically distinguished himself from humans when he spoke, "I thought you would understand this feeling of having nowhere to escape?" ”

After saying this, he was a little strange, he could really talk to the FBI who didn't know what he was planning, after all, the identities of the two were incompatible.

However, after deciding to put aside his actions against the other party for the time being, and then decide what action to take in the future after executing his plan and recovering all his memories, he really has no need to do anything to the other party now, or to test it.

Okiya exhaled softly, "Because it's different." ”

"What?" Ikekawa turned her head to look at him.

"Hide and seek is a game, not like a quest or anything else. Because the game will only be played with trusted friends. "The man accentuated the words 'trust' and 'friend', as if emphasizing something, and turned his head to look at each other with a calm emotion in his eyes.

"So it's completely different. For example, you will want to be found, because even if you do, nothing bad will happen. ”

The brunette man frowned.

He felt that the way Okiya was talking to himself now, like a brother trying to guide something, it was a strange feeling.

The last person to talk to him like this was Mr. He always likes to ask his housekeeper in terms of health preservation, but they don't feel the same way when they say this.

In short, it was difficult for him to see what the mood of the guy wearing the mask on the other side was, the smell in the air was a very faint smell of sea salt, which reminded people of the sea, because it was so light that he couldn't even analyze the source of this emotion.

Trusted friends.

It seems that he will never participate in the game, after all, he has no friends, and the guy who can serve the word trust just unabashedly revealed his ** to himself two days ago, and also attacked him from behind, so that he directly changed the password of the secret passage after going back, and temporarily turned the other party away.

Now even the last person who could trust him so much was kicked out of the realm.

But...... Why the hell are you chatting with this guy in this place?

Originally, this kind of endless woods, familiar enough to make people sick to the stomach, will only bring negative emotions, and even after the layer of warm filters brought by the drops of eye drops into the eyes without organized research, the negative emotions are deeper than in the past.

“...... Let's go back first. Now he'd rather play hide and seek with those kids than walk alone with this guy and focus on his surroundings.

Okiya shrugged his shoulders slightly, not responding to the words, but still returned to the woods with him.

There, the children's games had come to an end, and several people were building snowmen around the snow, accompanied by a couple of men and women who looked like a couple, the former covering most of their faces and hair with a windproof mask and hat, revealing only a pair of eyes.

"It's Sister Hoonami!" Ayumi Yoshida put down the small snowman sleigh in her hand and waved at the other party, "We're here, why did Sister Suinami come back, didn't you say before that she wasn't feeling well, so she had to go down first?" ”

"I'm not Hoonami." The woman walking in front was stunned for a moment, then she took off her mask and revealed her whole face, "I'm Keiko, haha it seems that you also recognize me as Hoonami, they all say that the eyes of the two of us are very similar." ”

"I'm sorry!" The girl's face flushed, and then she looked at each other's eyes seriously, "It's really like it, but after taking off the mask, it doesn't look like it, Sister Honami is very quiet, and it's completely different from my sister." ”

"Because she's a well-known editor, she's a lot quieter, and she's much better than me, who goes around modeling people to make a little money!"

The woman stuck out her tongue at the children, obviously the same as the calm face she had passed before

The hair woman is different, "Are you building a snowman?" Add me one plus me, my skills in building a snowman are nothing to say! ”

"Keiko......" The man behind her with glasses and a camera around her neck looked helpless, "Don't forget what we're going to do in a while." ”

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I forgot about it as soon as I was happy." Keiko turned to the other party and smiled.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be okay and make sure your plan goes smoothly. But it's still early, so it doesn't matter if I build a snowman first, right? ”

"You guy...... Okay, let's rest for a while. The man shook his head and led the photographer to photograph the tree trunk next to him.

Like the young store manager, he changed color when he saw the two people coming, especially the black-haired man in the back, but compared to the surprise attitude of the other party, his emotions were more complicated, and many emotions were squeezed in the air, becoming an indescribable taste.

I wanted to go up and say something to the other party, but when I turned my head and saw my friend Kashiwagi Takao shaking his head, the words he was about to say were stuck in his throat.

Chikawa Nai narrowed her eyes, seeing that the other party obviously didn't want to communicate directly with her at this time, she could only suppress the doubts in her heart for the time being, and walked to the others casually, standing by and watching them build a snowman.

This is a relatively familiar game, and at the child's warm invitation, he can only reach out and skillfully pinch a small snowman, which is immediately praised after it is formed.

Kojima Motota looked at the snowman's round head, then at his own, bent his half-moon eyes and muttered, "How the hell did you make it so round, big brother, you don't pinch the snowman every winter, you're too skilled......"

You guessed it.

Ikekawa smiled in response and didn't speak.

That's why he hates this place where there is nothing but annoying snow. ：，，.