Hearing this, Miyuri breathed a sigh of relief and seemed to have made a certain decision.
"That's good, then we can go home without worry. But before we go back, Hikari-kun, come with me for a moment."
"Huh? Where to?", Seeing Miyuri pulling him towards a hidden clump of bushes nearby, Hikari was puzzled.
"You'll know when you come with your auntie," Miyuri's face was slightly red, but she didn't say more, just kept tugging at Hikari's arm with her fair, delicate hand.
Hikari had no choice but to follow her.
After arriving together at a rather secluded area in the middle of some grass tall enough to hide half a person, Miyuri suddenly said to Hikari, her cheeks flushed pink, "Hikari-kun, I really want to thank you for saving your auntie again. If I had been caught by those guys, I really might have wished I were dead."
"It's nothing," Hikari waved his hand, about to speak.
But he was directly interrupted by Miyuri, "Hikari-kun, you also went into the water earlier to save auntie, so your body must be cold too now, right? Let auntie... help warm you up..."
Saying this, Miyuri suddenly hugged Hikari, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then suddenly crouched down.
"Aunt Miyuri, you're," before Hikari could say anything, his belt suddenly fell to the ground.
———
Just as Miyuri was earnestly expressing her gratitude to Hikari orally.
On the other side of the Hisagi Ridge, the group including Natsuki Akito, Natsuki Kazuto, Sayoko, and Jinno Ai had also arrived at the end of the test of courage.
With everyone gathered, the test of courage came to an end.
After the six of them assembled, they prepared to descend the mountain.
However, just as they were walking down the mountain path.
Sayoko suddenly frowned slightly and spoke to the group, "Do you guys hear any sounds?"
"No," Natsuki Akito shook his head.
Sakai Yutaka, who was very attentive to his widowed sister-in-law Sayoko, listened carefully for a moment and then nodded, "It seems like there is some strange sound..."
Hearing Sakai Yutaka say this too, the others also pricked up their ears and listened intently.
Faint sounds reached their ears, and Jinno Ai also spoke up, "I hear it too! It sounds like... someone screaming?"
"Yeah, it sounds like screams," Natsuki Kazuto nodded.
The others chimed in agreement.
"The test of courage is over, why are there still strange sounds," Sayoko, whose courage wasn't very great, frowned.
"I'm not too sure either," Jinno Ai was also somewhat confused.
"These screams... seem to come from more than one person."
"And they sound quite realistic, as if they're enduring some great pain."
"Could it be there really are ghosts or monsters on the mountain?"
After a brief discussion, even the males like Natsuki Akito started to feel a bit scared.
Thinking that something strange might be happening, and that their group seemed to have fewer people than when they came up, Natsuki Akito glanced around and immediately asked, "By the way, Sayoko, where did Sister Miyuri go?"
"And Hikari-kun, isn't he missing too?"
Hearing Natsuki Akito's words, the others also realized that Miyuri, who should have been in Sayoko's group, wasn't here now, and neither was Hikari.
Seeing everyone's puzzled looks, Jinno Ai, who was nearby, helped explain, "Aunt Miyuri said earlier that she wasn't feeling well, so she went back first, and then Hikari-kun said he would see her off."
Hearing this news, Natsuki Kazuto and Natsuki Akito were relieved.
However, Nozaki Hakuya, who had an obsession with Miyuri, vaguely felt something was not quite right.
He took out his phone and sent a message to Miyuri, but received no reply.
He immediately made a call, but again, no one answered.
Nozaki Hakuya promptly told Natsuki Kazuto and the others about this.
Hearing this, the others also became worried.
Having just heard the eerie screams, and after trying to message Miyuri and Hikari again without getting any response, everyone grew more concerned.
"Maybe we should look for Miyuri and the others," Sayoko suggested.
The others all agreed.
The six of them immediately split up in several directions to search for the seemingly disappeared Hikari and Miyuri.
———
In the thick grass, Hikari stood upright, his back straight.
His legs feeling somewhat weak, he could only rest his hands on Miyuri's head to avoid slipping.
And Miyuri, wanting to thank Hikari for his earlier help, had no objections to this.
But just as the two were seriously communicating, Hikari saw a figure suddenly appear nearby.
The other person seemed to have also noticed someone in Hikari's vicinity and was quickly walking towards them.
Under these circumstances, Hikari naturally didn't want the other person to approach.
So when the person was still about five or six meters away, Hikari was the first to call out, "Natsuki Akito?"
Natsuki Akito, who had been about to approach to take a look, immediately stopped and replied, "It's me. Hikari-kun? What are you doing here? Have you seen Miyuri-nee?"
"Aunt Miyuri?", Hikari pressed down slightly with his hands, his expression calm as he said, "Hmm... Aunt Miyuri went home first, uh... yeah."
Natsuki Akito didn't notice anything unusual about Hikari, only feeling a bit puzzled. "Is that so? Just now, Sayoko and Jinno Ai also said Miyuri-nee went home first. But we messaged her, and she hasn't replied. We're all a bit worried, wondering if something happened..."
Hikari said casually, "I think Aunt Miyuri's phone ran out of battery. She's probably fine."
Hearing this, Natsuki Akito nodded. "That's good. By the way, Hikari-kun, why are you standing in this place?"
Facing Natsuki Akito's puzzlement, Hikari pressed down on the head again with his hand and casually explained, "Aunt Miyuri said she might have dropped her necklace or something on the way back, so she asked me to help look for it around here."
Natsuki Akito understood and nodded. "So that's how it is. Then let me help you look too."
Saying this, Natsuki Akito immediately prepared to continue walking towards Hikari.
And the grass beside Hikari also suddenly swayed a bit.
Seeing this, Hikari quickly refused, "Forget it, I'll look by myself. If you want to help, Natsuki-san, why don't you search another area? I'll handle this part."
"Alright then." Hearing this, Natsuki Akito didn't think much of it either. He nodded in agreement and then turned and left.
His offer was actually just polite, as he didn't have much goodwill towards Hikari.
This high school student from the city was quite favored by Miyuri at home, and the two seemed closer than he was with her, which naturally made Natsuki Akito, who had always had designs on Miyuri, very unhappy.
So after mentally cursing Hikari a few times, even wishing he would trip and fall a few more times on the mountain, Natsuki Akito simply turned and left.
After Natsuki Akito left, the thick grass only then swayed slightly again.
Miyuri, whose heart had almost jumped to her throat just moments ago, finally felt it settle back down. But soon, her throat was blocked again.
"Hikari-kun?" A figure approached the grass where Hikari was from another direction.
Hikari turned his head to look and immediately responded, "Kazuto-san? Hiroya-san?"
It turned out that shortly after Natsuki Akito left, Natsuki Kazuto and Nozaki Hakuya had also found their way to this area.
"Hikari-kun, have you seen Miyuri?", Like Natsuki Akito, Natsuki Kazuto and Nozaki Hakuya also asked Hikari about Miyuri's whereabouts.
"Aunt Miyuri said she went home first. I'm helping her look for a necklace she accidentally lost," Pressing down on the restless Miyuri, Hikari answered as he had to Natsuki Akito earlier.
And after a series of questions and answers similar to before, Nozaki Hakuya and Natsuki Kazuto were also sent away by Hikari.
———
Not long after Nozaki Hakuya and Natsuki Kazuto were sent away, Sayoko and Jinno Ai also found their way to this area.
Facing the inquiries and concern from the two women, Hikari similarly answered that Miyuri had already gone home first and that he was helping Miyuri look for her necklace.
And he declined their offer to help.
After hearing Hikari's answer, everyone who had been searching for Miyuri gradually felt relieved and left, slowly heading towards the shrine at the foot of the mountain.
After everyone had gone far away, several minutes passed.
Only then did Miyuri emerge from the grass.
Her mouth and cheeks still feeling sore and numb, she looked at Hikari with a resentful gaze.
"Hikari-kun, you almost choked your auntie to death just now!"
"Your auntie wanted to thank you and help you out of kindness, and this is how you repay your auntie's gratitude?"
Hearing Miyuri's complaint, Hikari couldn't help but laugh, "Sorry, it was really unavoidable just now. And with people coming and going, it's inevitable to be a bit tense."
"Hmph! This time, your auntie will forgive you, but next time... you can't do this again!"
Miyuri didn't blame Hikari too much, as she also knew that it was indeed an unexpected situation.
And it was she who had taken the initiative to thank Hikari orally.
Several times during her most critical moments, neither her fiancé Natsuki Kazuto nor Natsuki Akito, who always talked about how good he would be to her, had appeared. Each time, it was Hikari who saved her.
Miyuri was extremely grateful for this and had already developed a vague feeling of affection for this nephew. So she wasn't truly angry at Hikari's boldness.
While Miyuri, her cheeks sore and her whole body weak, was tidying up the mess left from earlier.
Hikari quickly left for a while, using the Corpse Incineration Technique to burn all the dead gang members that the Four Legendary Gays had killed, and then returned to the grassy area.
While waiting for Miyuri to clean up by the stream, a system notification sounded in Hikari's mind.
[Ding! Detected that the host successfully thwarted the evil deeds of the delinquent gang members including Fujimoto Shiki, saving Miyuri, successfully promoting the spirit of pure love!]
[Ding! Detected that the host successfully tortured and incinerated the delinquent gang members including Fujimoto Shiki, successfully promoting the spirit of pure love!]
[Reward obtained: Pure Love Points +200!]
While Hikari checked the system notifications, Miyuri, her mouth sore and tired, had already gone to the stream to wash her face and mouth.
Worried about parasites, she didn't dare rinse her mouth with the stream water, only forcefully swallowing and wiping her mouth clean.
Seeing Miyuri return all cleaned up, the two decided to hurry down the mountain.
After all, Hikari had just said Miyuri had gone home first. If Natsuki Kazuto and the others returned home and found Miyuri not there, wouldn't that be awkward?
Although they would probably stay near the shrine festival for a while longer, their earlier exchange had taken some time, so they needed to pick up the pace.
Watching Miyuri rubbing her mouth as she walked, Hikari proactively said, "Aunt, let me carry you down the mountain."
Hearing Hikari's words, Miyuri, whose legs were indeed weak and who was moving slowly, immediately smiled, her willow-leaf eyebrows curving, "You're quite considerate. It's not in vain that your auntie dotes on you so much."
Seeing Hikari squat down halfway, Miyuri unhesitatingly wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned on his back.
Having already acted and communicated orally.
So Miyuri didn't hold back at all, pressing her entire body against Hikari's back, not caring even if her chest was pressed tightly against him.
And feeling the enormous softness pressing against his back, Hikari just smiled slightly and quickly walked down the mountain.
With Hikari's leg strength, he could easily take some shortcuts down the mountain, so the two soon reached the foot of the Hisagi Ridge.
And bypassing the festival, he brought Miyuri back to her home.
After having Hikari sit on the sofa first, Miyuri quickly went back to her room and immediately changed out of her completely wet clothes.
After waiting a short while, seeing Miyuri come out wearing a beautiful white dress....
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