In the old house of the Kirino family, Soya sat alone in the Japanese room that served as the living room. There were middle school textbooks and corresponding notes spread out on the low table in front of him. He was studying by himself.
During this period, he studied at home during the day and worked in an izakaya from evening to late at night. Except for the first day when he was familiar with the environment, Akane Kirino never went to the store again. She was at home preparing for the exam, and the two of them lived a good life.
Very regular.
Most of the time, Sogu stayed alone.
The advantage of being alone is that it is easy to calm down. Perhaps because of his good foundation, the review progress is much faster than he expected;
The disadvantage is that if you are too immersed in studying, you will ignore the passage of time if you are not careful.
Fortunately, at a certain time in the past two days, someone will come to "disturb" him.
"Soya——"
"..."
Zong Gu came to his senses and looked up at the yard outside, only to find that the sun was already setting in the west.
After a while, footsteps sounded from the entrance and came closer to the living room. Akane Kirino put down her schoolbag and sat down on the sofa behind him.
"Thanks for your hard work."
After turning around and saying hello, Sogu put the two bookmarks into the book and notebook respectively, and cleared the table.
Her coming here after school also meant that it was almost his working time.
"Is that a bookmark?"
Akane Kirino had sharp eyes and quickly noticed something unusual.
"Um."
"When did you buy it?"
"self-made."
"Hey... show me."
Zonggu casually picked up the notebook and handed it behind him with the bookmarks.
She opened it and looked at it, "Have Zonggu already studied by yourself this far? It's so fast."
"Math is easier."
"If I had escaped from hell earlier, I might have been able to catch up with this year's high school entrance examination."
He smiled and said nothing.
Turning his attention from his study progress to his bookmarks, Akane Kirino also smiled.
"what……"
The light blue cardboard is cut just right, with straight lines and no flaws;
It seems that she borrowed the pen and ink she left here. The same sentence is written in beautiful Chinese characters on both sides of the bookmark:
"'The son does not speak strange powers and confuses the gods'."
"From The Analects of Confucius..."
"——I know."
After clearing the table, Sogu stood up and said, "That's what Kirino knew."
"Sogu is really resistant to this kind of thing."
Following her eyes, when he was about to walk out of the living room, Kirino Akane suddenly stopped him.
"Soya."
He turned around and looked at the girl on the sofa with only her head exposed.
"Um... do you want to visit Danhai University?"
Zong Gu was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
"Can."
In two days, it will be the day when she goes to Danhai University to take the entrance exam.
"I have to stay there all day, and I won't come back until I finish the exam in the afternoon. I will prepare Soya's lunch."
"Thanks."
Seeing that she had nothing to say, Zonggu went to the bathroom. Taking a shower before going to work was a habit he had developed in the past few days.
Just as he was thinking about accompanying him for the exam two days later, her voice sounded again outside the bathroom.
"anyway……"
"..."
Pulling down his half-dressed shirt, Zonggu opened the door to the dressing room and looked outside without saying a word.
After staring at his chest for a few times, Akane Kirino hesitated to speak, and finally just smiled.
"Feel sorry."
She picked up the bag on her hand and said, "It's okay. I have to go back. You can continue to take a shower."
"Really? Be careful on the road."
"Um."
Listening to the footsteps getting further away outside the bathroom, Zonggu thought for a moment and followed him out.
The girl didn't notice. She lowered her head and quickly passed under the snarling dead branches on both sides of the front yard, her back slightly flinching.
"..."
He frowned.
...
The feasting and feasting gradually faded away, and the night grew late.
"Sotani-kun——"
In the izakaya, Kirino Keiko waved at the bar and asked Soya to come over.
"That's it for today."
"..."
There were still many customers in the store. Although he was surprised, he still responded.
"OK."
Just as he was about to go to the locker room to change out of his uniform, he realized that it was still very early, not even ten o'clock at night.
Kirino Keiko read the confusion on his face and took out a packaged midnight snack from the bar.
"Akane said she was a little hungry. Could you please send this over, Sotani-kun? Thank you for your hard work... By the way, Sotani-kun's share is also included. It's my treat. But I will count it as overtime for running errands."
"I understand." Zonggu accepted the midnight snack, "Thank you."
"You are welcome."
Kirino Keiko looked at him, "Speaking of which, do Sotani-kun and Akane talk a lot these days?"
He was startled, "It's not too much."
"Yeah."
She looked a little troubled, "I'm here too."
"I thought it was because I talked so much with Sotani-kun that Akane didn't have anything to say to her mother."
Zong Gu shook his head, "Maybe it's because the entrance exam is coming soon and she's a little nervous."
"It's also possible."
Kirino Keiko smiled at him, "Then I'll ask Soya-kun to enlighten her while she's having supper."
"..."
He is soft-spoken when eating people, but short-handed when taking advantage of others. Soya himself was a little concerned about Kirino Akane's unusual behavior in the past few days, so he agreed.
"I'm going."
"Be careful on the road~"
Carrying a heavy midnight snack, Zonggu was walking alone on the road and suddenly looked at the sky.
He remembered that when he went out in the afternoon, it was still a cloudless sunny day, but now he could only see gaps illuminated by the moonlight among the dense clouds;
There was no wind, but he felt a chill creeping into his clothes.
"Is it going to snow?"
The last ray of moonlight was hidden in the thick clouds, and the chill between heaven and earth became more intense. Zonggu couldn't help but tremble, and had to speed up his pace.
After walking for a moment on the cold street, he caught a glimpse of a bright figure on the side of the road, and he subconsciously looked over there.
"..."
The white-sleeved hakama was a primary school miko he had met a few days ago. He remembered that her name seemed to be Tamago.
At this time, she was huddled in the shadows, holding a wooden sword in her hand, and looking at him nervously.
Zonggu felt vaguely that something was not right.
Looking further ahead and looking around, he realized that he was already surrounded by women dressed the same way... all witches.
——Hunting.
Such thoughts immediately flashed through his mind.
Following this thought, he quickly realized that the other party's target was not him.
In fact, from the time he broke into the "encirclement" until now, these witches have stayed in place and have not revealed the slightest intention to target him;
If Yuzi hadn't been poor at hiding traces, he might not even have noticed their presence from the time he broke in to the time he left.
Now it seems that her nervousness comes more from being discovered than from recognizing him.
"Okja."
Not far ahead, another miko suddenly spoke.
"Calm down."
"yes……"
Zong Gu also looked over.
Their eyes met and he nodded. To his slight surprise, the other party responded in the same way.
But that was all, the response was just out of courtesy. Sugawara Kyoko quickly looked away, obviously not intending to communicate too much with him.
Sure enough, just like Kirino Akane said, she is an overly serious person.
Zong Gu didn't care either, he was just a little concerned about their target, and while guessing, he walked through the encirclement that was too cold to concentrate.
At a time when manpower is so scarce, dozens of shrine maidens from different shrines have been gathered together, so the plan must be quite big...
A touch of coldness fell across his cheek. He stopped and looked up at the sky.
"..."
One after another, the white elves danced and fell quietly.
The night snow finally fell.
"Oops."
Touching the bag containing late night snacks, Soya quickened his pace and hurried towards Kirino's house.
It wasn't until his figure disappeared at the end of the street that Sugawara Kyoko withdrew his gaze and looked at the empty street in his eyes.
Only ordinary people who can't see anything can pass through the underworld army's array without changing their expressions, right?