When Kirino Akane called, Soya and Asagiri Suzu had already boarded the Tohoku Shinkansen train and left Ibaraki.
"Kirino?"
He answered the call, and the voice on the other end had a hint of crying: "Zong Gu..."
"What's wrong?" Zonggu was stunned for a moment and asked immediately.
Chao Wuling, who was sitting next to her, was looking out the window at the fading sunset, but now she also looked over and listened.
Her sniffling sound came from the phone, and after a while, she answered: "It's okay..."
"Are you crying?"
She sniffed again and said, "No."
Soya didn't know why, and could only shake his head in response to Asagiri Suzu's questioning look.
"So, what happened?"
The inexplicable low mood when she first woke up dissipated after hearing his voice, and Akane Kirino didn't know how to answer.
It was completely dark now. She got up and turned on the light in the living room and stood by the door for a while.
"Um...Is Soya still in Chiba?"
"What time is it now? Suzu and I have already boarded the Shinkansen and are on the way to Sendai." She avoided answering, so Soya could only guess, "Did you have a fight with Miss Keiko?"
"Eh? No, no..."
Kirino Akane had no choice but to confess, "I just felt a little depressed after waking up..."
"wake?"
"Um……"
Zong Gu breathed a sigh of relief unconsciously and leaned back on the chair again, "Aren't you doing your homework?"
"...I've finished my work today, I want to take a rest, and then I fell asleep."
"Are you still there at the old house?"
"yes."
"Go home."
"good!"
Akane Kirino immediately agreed, "Then wait until I get home, then hang up the phone."
"Yeah." He didn't have anything else to do.
Then, the sound from the other side of the phone was her closing the door and closing the window.
"It's nothing," Soya said to Asagiri Suzu.
She nodded and looked out the window again. The sunset faded, twilight came in like a tide, and lights near and far were lit up.
"What?" Kirino Akane suddenly asked.
"It's okay...I didn't tell you."
"Oh." Her voice became farther away, "Alpine - come here. Ah, I didn't take Alpine out for a walk today."
Holding the phone, Sogu's eyes fell on Asagiri Suzu's profile, "Let's make up for it tomorrow."
"All right."
After calling the Shiba Inu back into the house and closing the door, Akane Kirino walked quickly home before it was completely dark.
"Mom and dad should have already gone to the store."
"After all, it's already this time. What are you going to do with your dinner? Are you going over there?"
"The family should have left some food for me."
"Um."
The sound of her footsteps continued to come from the microphone, and when she spoke, her breathing was a little quick.
She didn't speak, so Sogu remained silent, sometimes looking out the window, sometimes looking at Asagiri Suzu.
"Soya."
"Um."
"Thanks."
"What did you say suddenly?"
Akane Kirino shook the keys in her hand, "Because as soon as I called, Soya answered the call immediately. I'm so happy."
"...I dare not not answer the call from the landlady."
"Hahaha, what are you talking about?"
She raised her head, and as night fell, the stars were faintly visible in the sky.
"The stars have already come out..."
"Um."
"Did Soya see it too?"
The lights in the car were already on, and they were reflected on the window glass. He moved closer, pressed against the car window, and looked at the sky outside. The stars were three or two o'clock in the sky.
"Saw it."
Chao Wu Ling looked at his side face, and he quickly sat back down.
"Will Soya come back tomorrow?"
"Won't."
"What about the day after tomorrow?"
"The day after tomorrow...no."
"The day after tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
Kirino Akane looked up at the starry sky and blurted out the words in her heart: "I want to see you as soon as possible."
"..."
Zonggu pursed his lower lip, and after a while he said, "Are you getting home?"
"Soon."
Akane Kirino walked on the stone path, looking at her house at the top, "There are still a minute or two."
"Um."
"Where's Soya? How long will it take to get to Sendai?"
"The whole journey takes more than four hours, and there are still about two hours left."
She was slightly startled, "Hey...it's so far..."
"Yeah." Zonggu responded, raising his eyes to look at the light on the top of the carriage, "The northeast is a far away place."
"Then when Soya arrives in Sendai, will he be closer to me or Anko?"
"It's hard to say...she must be in Furano today."
"Yes, you know very well." Kirino Akane said casually, taking another step up, "Okay, I'm home."
"Um."
"I'm going to see if there's any dinner left for me in the kitchen...if not, I'll go to the store."
"Um."
The sound of a key being inserted, the door opening, shoes being changed, and then brisk footsteps.
"Keep it!"
Zonggu smiled and said, "Congratulations."
"Okay, that's it, I'll contact you later."
"Well, bye."
As soon as she hung up the phone, a message was sent to her, which was about her dinner today.
Zonggu opened it and looked at it twice, then looked at Asagiri Suzu, "Are Suzu hungry?"
The train is almost at the next stop. If necessary, you can get off the train and buy lunch at the station.
She shook her head.
"I'm not too hungry either."
Soya looked at the time and said, "We should be able to arrive in Sendai before nine o'clock, and then we can find a place to eat."
"Um."
"Then there's the question of where to stay tonight... The hotels near the station may not have rooms, so you may have to stay somewhere further away."
Sendai is not a particularly popular tourist city. Even the hotels near the station are usually not full, but these days may be an exception.
"The Chinese Valentine's Day Festival has already begun."
As one of the most grand festivals in Tohoku, the Sendai Tanabata Festival starts on August 6 and lasts for three days. Today is the second day of the festival.
Tourists were coming in droves, and Zongya just hoped that a hotel with vacancies wouldn't be too far away.
He checked on his mobile phone and found that the hotel's occupancy situation was not as popular as he expected. At least he could still book a room near the station.
"It seems that the enthusiasm for the festival has faded a lot by the second day..."
It may also be that past memories have unintentionally exaggerated the grandeur of the festival - he has not been back for more than two years.
Soya looked through it, picked a hotel very close to the station, and then called to inquire and reserve a room.
"...Yes, I want to book a room...for two people, um, two single rooms."
Chaogiri Ling suddenly pulled him.
"..."
The two looked at each other for a long time, and he was defeated and changed his words: "I'm sorry, please change me to a standard room."
Only then did she let go.
After the hotel confirmed the information and booked the room, Soya hung up the phone and the train began to slow down.
"It's time to make a pit stop."
"Um."
More than half a minute later, the train stopped at the platform, and several figures in the carriage got off.
Zonggu also got up, got out of the car and bought two bottles of juice, and quickly returned to the carriage.
"Give."
After stopping for a few minutes, the train restarted and headed to the next station.
After sunset, it gets dark very quickly.
The night outside the window gets darker, the sky changes from dull blue to complete darkness, and the distant stars light up.
Zonggu leaned back on his seat and closed his eyes to rest.
Chao Wuling looked out of the car window, his eyes sometimes far and sometimes near, looking both outside and at him.
The train moved forward rapidly, making regular sounds.
Not long after, she closed her eyes and saw a long white train speeding through her mind, passing through the night and flying into the Milky Way and the sea of stars...
"bell--"
After an unknown amount of time, Chao Wuling opened his eyes, looked at Sogu who was standing up, and then looked out the window.
The train has stopped.
He stretched out his hand and said, "We have arrived in Sendai."
"Yeah." She grabbed his hand, got up and got out of the car.
Settling on the land of his hometown again, Zong Gu looked around on the platform, trying to find familiar fragments from distant memories.
"I don't seem to have been anywhere from here... I didn't catch up on the school trip for the third grade, so I don't know where they will go."
He basically spent the first half of his life in this city. Because he lived in a children's welfare home, he didn't have much chance to travel far.
"Aomori." Asagiri Suzu suddenly said.
Zonggu was startled for a moment, then realized that she was talking about his grandmother's house.
"Aomori... You really have to take the Shinkansen to get there. But I can't remember things before I was seven years old."
Many people choose to get off at Sendai.
Following the passengers in twos and threes, the two people left the platform and walked out of the station.
“It’s so lively.”
As soon as you leave the platform, you can see the colorful Tanabata Festival decorations in the station. Paper flowers, colorful balls or paper cranes are dotted everywhere. Long streamers hang down and flutter in the wind, especially after walking out of the station.
In the shopping street, the decorations for the Tanabata Festival are even more grand and gorgeous, with lanterns lighting up the night sky, hanging ribbons like colorful waterfalls, young men and women in yukata or a family of three walking underneath...it's all what Soya remembers about the Tanabata Festival.
"It's so nostalgic." He pulled Chao Wuling, "Go to the hotel to put down your luggage, and let's come over and hang out."
But she shook her head and said, "We'll go shopping tomorrow."
"Then let's just visit the snack stalls tonight..."
"--tomorrow."
"..."
Zong Gu was a little surprised and didn't quite understand her persistence.
Chao Wu Ling looked up at him, "This is a date."
"so……"
"You have to come here wearing a yukata."
"..."
Zonggu was a little helpless, "Let's go to the hotel first."
The hotel we booked is right near the station, and it only takes a few minutes to walk there.
After checking in at the front desk, the staff handed over a room card and leaned slightly to guide them in the direction of the elevator.
The room is on the third floor. When you open the door and turn on the light, you can see the huge floor-to-ceiling windows at a glance.
Putting down his luggage and walking past the two beds, Zonggu came to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the street below.
There are lights, trees, and flowers, and pedestrians everywhere. There is a group of people dancing in the middle of the street, and the sound of piccolo and taiko drum can be faintly heard.
Chaogiri Ling also walked beside him and stood looking at him for a while.
"Awa dance."
"Um."
The dance was strange, and in the middle there was a person dressed out of place who was clumsily imitating it. After a while, Soya recognized that it was Masamune Indatsu, the founder of the Sendai clan in the Edo period.
"Go down and have something to eat."
He touched his stomach, turned around and walked out, "I'm almost starving."
Chao Wuling followed up and held his arm.
After going downstairs, Sogu went to the front desk and asked if he could recommend any places to eat nearby.
"Aren't guests attending the festival? There are many food stalls on the streets."
He glanced at Chao Wuling, who was silent next to him, and said with a smile, "It's not very convenient today."
Following the instructions of the front desk lady, the two of them walked out of the hotel and walked to the block on the right.
Although he has lived in Sendai for more than ten years, it is not a place he often visits, and he could not afford it before. Most areas near the station feel familiar yet unfamiliar to him.
While searching, they watched the festival on the street. After five or six minutes, the two came to another shopping street, turned around and walked in.
There are many izakayas and restaurants on both sides, and even though the festival is in full swing outside, the place is still full of people.
Soya and Suzu Asagiri were walking and searching, but because they didn't want to wait in line, they finally chose a self-service hot pot restaurant that still had space.
"Two people."
"Okay. If you choose 'all kinds of meat', it will be 1,700 yen per person."
After paying and going in, the clerk led the two of them to find a seat and sat down, and then asked some questions about the soup base.
"If you eat at the buffet in the middle of the night, you will definitely gain weight..."
Having said that, Souya got up for the first time and brought several plates of meat over, and then made a dipping sauce for herself and Asagiri Suzu. She went to pour two drinks.
The bottom of the pot was served quickly, with clear soup on one side and tomato pot on the other.
When the soup base gradually boiled, the two added meat to it and began to enjoy their belated dinner.
The cooked beef was soaked in the soup from the tomato pot. It tasted sour and sweet. When you took a bite, the aroma of the meat came out, making you want to stop. Zonggu picked up a few slices of raw meat and put it in.
In addition to beef, he also brought back two plates of black pork belly.
"In addition to beef, pork and chicken, there seem to be other types of meat, but I didn't go over and couldn't see what kind of meat they were."
He stuffed a piece of pork belly into his mouth, nodded to Wu Ling, and responded with a sigh.
After swallowing it, she said, "I also want vegetables."
"I'll get it."
Sogu got up and went to get some plates of vegetables.
"Well, maybe I took too much..."
He could eat a few plates of vegetables, after all, Asagiri Suzu was there, but meat was the focus.
"Forget it, that's it."
When vegetables and meat are put into the pot together, they can be cooked in a few seconds and divided quickly.
The last meal the two of them had was lunch in Kawasaki eight or nine hours ago. Their stomachs were already empty, so they ate for a while before slowing down.
Picking up a piece of beef, slowly cooking it, tossing it in the dipping sauce a few times, and then putting it into his mouth. Zonggu looked outside, remembering the past for no reason.
"I remember the day I graduated from elementary school, my teacher took Ling and I to have a barbecue here at the station."
Chao Wuling looked up at him and said, "Yeah."
"Obviously it was just a few years ago, but it's really nostalgic... The teacher even said that barbecue meal cost her a week's salary."
This may be true, because the salary in the children's welfare home is very average, even though Tachibana does not actually need this salary.
Asaguri Suzu stopped to think about that time. She also missed that time.
Pulling away from the memories, Zonggu stood up and said, "I'll get some more plates of meat."
"Um."
The meat slices and vegetable leaves were tumbling in the soup. Except for the first moment, the two of them didn't eat very fast and spent a lot of time reminiscing.
After almost an hour and a half, they finished eating and left.
"Let's walk outside for a while and then go back to the hotel."
Although there is the factor of night, the temperature in Sendai is obviously much lower than that in the Kinki area of Kyoto. The festivals on the streets are not stopping, and the enthusiasm is as hot as fire, but the coolness is already very obvious.
The two walked out from the other side of the shopping street and made a large circle along the nearby blocks.
The decorations of the Chinese Valentine's Day Festival decorated the night. After wandering for more than 20 minutes, they returned to the hotel from another direction.
"You wash up first."
"Um."
Back in the room, Asagiri Suzu went to take a shower first. Soya stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and sent a message to Tsukuyomi to inquire about the situation.
After the two separated from his wife, except for Tsukuyomi who sent him a message when he returned to Chiba, there was no further contact. He didn't know whether the god was playing games, being played, or had been driven away.
Out.
Tsukuyomi:[Picture]
He sent a photo of a slender white machine.
Soya: What is this?
Monthly reading: PS5.
"...It's really fast."
Soya:Has Hanada-san already played tricks on Tsukuyomi-sama?
Tsukuyomi: That’s really ugly to say.
Tsukuyomi: We are playing games together.
He didn't reveal it, and Zonggu couldn't guess anything else. He only knew that the eldest lady had no plans to evict him at the moment.
Soya: That's good. We have arrived in Sendai, and we will inform Tsukuyomi-sama when we come back.
Tsukuyomi:[OK]
After chatting with the god who was busy playing games, Soya sent another greeting to Kyoko.
And she made a phone call.
"Yangming-san..."
"Kyoko."
It's past ten o'clock at night, and for Kyoko who is used to going to bed early and getting up early, it's almost time to rest.
The two talked about the situation on their side, asked about each other, chatted for a while and then said good night to each other.
Putting down his cell phone, Sogu saw Asagiri Suzu walking out of the bathroom from the floor-to-ceiling window.
"..."
After closing the curtains, he went into the bathroom, took out the bathrobe, and put it on her.
"It's my turn to wash up."
The hotel bathtub was a bit too small for Soya to stretch out as much as he wanted, so he got out of it after a short soak.
Chaogiri Ling sat on the bed by the window, wrapped in an oversized bathrobe. He sat on the other bed, wiped his hair, and talked about tomorrow's arrangements.
"I'll go to the Children's Welfare Home tomorrow morning, stay there until three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and then go to the festival in the evening."
She thought for a while and then nodded after a while.
"Is there any problem?"
"I need time to pick out a yukata."
"Yukata... then come back early."
"Um."
He didn't ask her where she planned to buy a yukata. She knew much more about Sendai than he did.
"Turn out the lights."
"Um."
After drying his hair, Soya turned off the light and lay down.
The room suddenly became dark.
Before he could close his eyes, she put her hand on his arm and said, "Come over a little bit."