"Tohru, you and Kanna stay home and watch the restaurant. I'm heading out."
Standing at the entrance, Yuto smiled and waved goodbye to the two dragons.
Breakfast was finished, Kanna had finally cheered up, and now it was time for him to meet Utaha as promised.
There was still a little while before their agreed meeting time, more than enough for him to reach the station without rushing.
"Mm. Have a good trip, Boss."
Tohru obediently bowed, while Kanna stood beside her and gave a small nod.
"Tohru, don't forget what I told you earlier. If anything happens, contact me immediately."
Just before stepping outside, Yuto reminded her one final time.
Only after seeing the dragon girl nod with unusual seriousness did he finally leave the restaurant with peace of mind.
Outside, the day was already bright, with a handful of white clouds drifting lazily across a clear blue sky.
Yuto looked upward and drew in a long breath, unable to keep a faint smile from appearing.
What a great weather~
...
By the time Yuto arrived at the station, Utaha still had not appeared.
He checked the time and saw that there were five minutes remaining before they were supposed to meet.
After glancing around and finding no sign of her, he walked over to the fountain in front of the station and sat down.
The instant he did, someone suddenly tapped him from behind.
Yuto turned around in surprise and found Utaha standing directly behind him with a radiant smile.
A sun hat rested neatly atop her head, while her smooth dark hair spilled all the way down her back to her waist.
The hem of her skirt fluttered gently in the breeze, and for a moment she seemed almost perfectly suited to the bright summer scenery surrounding the station.
"Oh, so you were deliberately hiding from me?"
Yuto immediately saw through what she had been doing.
"I simply didn't expect Kamisaka-kun to be careless enough not to notice me."
Utaha gave him a brilliant smile, her eyes seeming to sparkle beneath the sunlight.
There was a subtly different charm in her tone today, and Yuto gave a small snort before the corner of his mouth curved upward as well.
Utaha laughed softly, and under the occasional curious gazes of passing pedestrians, the two entered the station together.
Since Utaha was the one taking the lead on today's outing, Yuto simply followed and watched as she bought two tickets for a train heading away from the city.
That immediately caught his attention.
"Aren't we supposed to be going shopping today?"
"Mm, but today I'm taking Kamisaka-kun somewhere secret."
Utaha held up the tickets and teasingly waved them in front of him.
The sly smile on her face made her resemble a little fox that had just thought of some private trick.
Yuto paused briefly before smiling. "All right. I'll leave it to you."
The two boarded the train together.
By this point, the morning rush hour had already passed, so there were relatively few passengers inside the carriage, and Yuto and Utaha found seats facing each other without difficulty.
With the sharp hiss of the air brakes releasing, the train gradually began moving away from the platform.
Yuto leaned lightly against the window and watched the scenery outside.
As the train traveled farther from central Tokyo, the tightly packed skyscrapers slowly became less frequent, giving way to low houses and increasingly wide stretches of open land.
There was something about watching the crowded urban landscape gradually open up that seemed to loosen a person's mood as well, and before long, a faint smile had appeared on his lips as he quietly watched the passing scenery.
Utaha, however, was considerably less relaxed.
Sitting opposite him, she had been trying for some time to decide how she should start a conversation.
'Isn't the boy usually supposed to speak first in situations like this? How did everything somehow end up reversed?'
Utaha sighed inwardly.
After traveling for a while, the train stopped at another station and a fresh group of passengers boarded.
The carriage, which had seemed fairly empty only moments earlier, quickly became much more crowded.
An elderly couple happened to stop beside Utaha.
The old woman leaned on a cane, and from the way she carefully favored one leg, it was obvious that walking was difficult for her.
Utaha immediately stood. "Please, take my seat."
The elderly couple initially tried to refuse, but after Yuto mentioned that Utaha could simply sit beside him instead, they eventually accepted her offer.
Once the two elders sat down, Utaha took the newly opened place beside Yuto.
The elderly woman looked at the two of them with a warm, kindly expression before suddenly smiling.
"You two are a couple, aren't you?"
Yuto and Utaha both froze.
Compared with him, however, Utaha was clearly much more nervous.
"Actually... we're not," Yuto answered with slight embarrassment.
At those words, the light in Utaha's expression inevitably dimmed for the briefest instant, though she quickly returned to normal.
The elderly woman immediately looked embarrassed. "Oh, I'm sorry. It seems I misunderstood."
"Honestly, you old woman, you're always sticking your nose into other people's business," her husband muttered in exasperation.
The old woman merely gave an awkward laugh before looking at Yuto and Utaha again.
"But the two of you really do look good together."
That casual remark left both of them slightly embarrassed.
Utaha quietly glanced toward Yuto, and although the look lasted only a moment, there were feelings hidden within it that she kept entirely to herself.
"That's enough, old woman. Why do you get more talkative the older you get?"
"What? I'm not even allowed to speak now? Honestly!"
The elderly woman immediately snapped back.
Her husband gave a stubborn snort, lifted his chin, and stopped talking.
"Stubborn old fool." She clicked her tongue before turning back toward Yuto and Utaha with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about him. My husband has always been terribly stubborn. I hope you'll excuse us."
"It's fine, really. Please don't apologize."
After exchanging a few more polite words, the situation gradually settled down.
The elderly couple returned to quietly chatting with each other, while Yuto and Utaha also resumed their own conversation.
Even so, a certain thought continued lingering in Utaha's mind.
'If Kamisaka-kun and I really were a couple... then sitting like this, I could probably rest my head against his shoulder without needing to think so much about it.'
Several stops later, the elderly couple finally reached their destination and got off. Utaha hesitated and was just about to stand and return to the seat opposite him when Yuto spoke.
"You can just stay here."
That single sentence was enough to make Utaha's heart bloom with happiness.
Happy. (^▽^)
...
After more than two hours on the train, they finally reached their destination.
By then, they were already deep in the countryside, far from Tokyo.
Compared with the capital, where towering buildings filled the skyline in every direction, this place still preserved the atmosphere and layout of a rural village.
Because of the country's restrictions on land development, much of the surrounding landscape had retained a fresh, rustic quality.
Outside the station was a slightly raised stretch of land, and when Yuto looked into the distance, he saw several modest hills rising beyond the village.
It was midsummer, the season when vegetation flourished most intensely and humidity hung heavily in the air, leaving the hills blanketed in lush greenery and wrapped in a faint layer of mist that made them look as though someone had draped a translucent veil across them.
A long, slightly narrow road stretched away from the station and connected the outside world to the village farther ahead.
Square fields spread out on either side, vivid green beneath the summer sunlight, while farmers wearing straw hats could be seen working diligently among the crops.
Yuto drew in a deep breath and immediately noticed how different the air felt compared with the city.
It was lighter and fresher, without the same oppressive weight that seemed to cling to Tokyo during summer.
"Is this the place?"
He turned toward Utaha.
"Not yet. We have to walk the rest of the way."
"All right."
With Utaha leading, the two followed the narrow road toward the distant hills.
A gentle breeze brushed past them as they walked, and even the sunlight seemed softer here, warm without carrying the same suffocating heat of the city.
They chatted casually along the way until they eventually reached a shrine built on one of the smaller hills.
By the time they finished climbing the long staircase, Utaha's breathing had become noticeably quicker.
Fortunately, she had brought water with her, and judging from how thoroughly prepared she was, this clearly was not her first time visiting.
"This is...?"
Yuto looked over the shrine in front of them.
It was neither rundown nor particularly grand, but simply an ordinary rural shrine quietly worshipped by the people living in the surrounding village.
Several torii gates stood around the grounds, while a respectable number of offerings could be seen inside, suggesting that the shrine still received plenty of visitors.
"I originally wanted to take Kamisaka-kun somewhere fancy and spend the whole day having fun, but this month's royalties haven't arrived yet, so I'm temporarily broke."
Utaha smiled without seeming particularly embarrassed by the admission.
"I thought about it for quite a while, and this was the best place I could come up with. You're the first person I've ever brought here, so in other words, Kamisaka-kun just took my 'first time'~"
She folded her arms proudly and tilted her head. "That should make this a pretty valuable 'gift,' don't you think?"
Yuto immediately gave her a light chop on the head.
"Don't phrase it in a way that's so easy to misunderstand."
He barely used any force, simply tapping the top of her head, but Utaha immediately cried out anyway.
"Ow!"
"Stop pretending. I barely touched you."
Yuto gave her an exasperated look.
Utaha folded her arms and huffed. "What an unromantic man!"
"Whatever you say."
Yuto shrugged indifferently, which only made Utaha grit her teeth in frustration.
"Want to go inside?"
He pointed toward the shrine.
"Of course. We came all this way, so obviously we're going in!"
"Then let's go."
Yuto headed inside, with Utaha following closely beside him.
From outside, only some of the offerings had been visible, but once they entered the shrine grounds properly, they finally saw what lay beyond them.
Beneath the offerings hung a thick chain covered in countless small padlocks, each one carrying a strip of red paper with a pair of names written across it.
The purpose of the shrine immediately became obvious.
This was a place primarily devoted to prayers for love and marriage.
Yuto said nothing. He merely turned his eyes slightly toward Utaha beside him.
Her expression had already become distinctly unnatural.
Her cheeks were faintly flushed, and her eyes kept drifting elsewhere whenever she noticed him looking.
"Are the two of you here to pray for love?"
An elderly shrine maiden emerged from the side and smiled warmly at them.
"Would you like to buy a love lock? The locks from our shrine are said to be very effective."
Both Yuto and Utaha fell silent.
After a slightly awkward pause, Yuto was the first to answer.
"Um... not for now."
"All right. If you need one, just let me know."
The shrine maiden continued smiling before quietly withdrawing to the side.
Yuto remained silent for another moment, then glanced toward Utaha.
"Want to pray?"
"Ah! Yes! Of course..."
Utaha reacted as though she had suddenly been startled.
Her answer came out much too quickly at first, before her voice gradually fell quieter toward the end.
So the two stood together before the shrine and offered a prayer.
Truthfully, Yuto did not particularly believe in whichever deity was enshrined here.
He had already met far too many actual gods, and after encountering enough of them in person, the idea of divinity stopped feeling quite as extraordinary as it once might have.
Still, there was no reason to be disrespectful. Remaining quiet and courteous was enough.
Once they finished, Utaha led him around to the back of the shrine, where a well-maintained open space overlooked the village below.
Because the shrine stood on a hill, the fields, houses, narrow roads, and villagers moving through the rhythm of their daily lives could all be seen from above, blending together into something resembling a peaceful countryside painting.
Yuto and Utaha stood side by side and looked out over the view.
There was no one else around.
The surroundings were quiet, with only the occasional rustling of leaves and the distant sounds of the village below.
To Yuto, it was simply peaceful.
To Utaha, however, every second of that silence seemed to make the tension inside her grow heavier.
She slowly clenched one hand.
This was why she had brought him here.
She had spent so much time thinking about what she wanted to say, rehearsing the words in her mind and convincing herself that once they were alone, she would finally tell him everything.
Yet now that the moment had actually arrived, those carefully prepared words refused to leave her mouth.
Utaha drew in a breath and tried again, only for her courage to disappear the instant she turned toward him.
'Say it. You already came all the way here.'
Her fingers tightened.
'Utaha, just say it.'
Her heartbeat grew faster, until it felt impossible to ignore.
She was nervous.
She was afraid of being rejected, afraid that everything between them might become awkward afterward, and afraid that the comfortable relationship she had slowly built with him might disappear the moment she crossed this line.
But beneath all of those fears was another thought that frightened her even more.
If she remained silent now, after bringing him all the way here and finally creating the opportunity she had wanted...
She might regret it forever.
Utaha closed her eyes for a brief moment and took another deep breath.
'Tell him how you feel.'
When she opened her eyes again, the hesitation was still there, but she finally forced herself to stop running from it.
Her fist remained tightly clenched beside her.
Then she turned toward Yuto.
"Kamisaka-kun, I like you!"
The words finally left her mouth.
For that single moment, everything around Utaha seemed to disappear.
The breeze continued to move through the trees and the village remained spread peacefully beneath the hill, but she could no longer hear any of it.
Her attention had narrowed completely to the person standing beside her and the terrifying realization that there was no taking those words back now.
The only sound she could still hear clearly was her own heartbeat pounding against her chest.
Thump... thump... thump...