I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

"What the hell is that...?"

After squinting and straining to look in the direction Tenon was pointing, Kiryuin's expression immediately turned ugly.

A dark line on the horizon was slowly approaching, but both Tianyin and Guilongyuan recognized it as a dark cloud.

"Damn it! I didn't hear that it was going to rain today. No wonder we haven't seen a single hiker along the way. The weather forecast is really unreliable. Tianyin, let's hurry up and get up here. It's risky to stay here any longer."

Just a moment ago, Guilongyuan was trying to win Tianyin's sympathy by throwing a tantrum and acting cute so she could rest. Now, with a serious expression, he picked up his bags and began to climb faster towards the summit.

Only the summit of the small snow mountain is relatively flat. They only need to set up their tents before the heavy rain arrives to effectively avoid the onslaught of the rain. Conversely, if they encounter heavy rain halfway up the mountain, they may also encounter dangerous situations such as landslides.

So even for the sake of his own life, Kiryuin couldn't keep dawdling.

With its engine at full power, Kiryuin's speed suddenly increased three or four times. Seeing this, Amane also increased its speed and continued to walk ahead of Kiryuin to guide her.

The three people, who were originally scheduled to climb to the summit in the afternoon, actually reached the top in less than two hours.

Upon reaching the summit, before Sakayanagi could even speak, Kiryuin and Amane tacitly began setting up the tent, first stuffing blankets into sleeping bags, and then stuffing the already limp Sakayanagi into the sleeping bag.

Despite the latter's protests, offering to help set up the campsite, Kiryuin and Amane ignored them. With their combined efforts, they successfully pitched the tent, secured it, and used heavy objects to weigh down the four corners to prevent it from being blown away by strong winds later.

"Maple Flower, go and gather some dry branches. I'll start a fire here."

Tianyin raised her head and glanced at the dark clouds that were now less than ten kilometers away from them. She quickly spoke to Guilongyuan.

Are you sure there are dry branches here?

Kiryuin frowned and his nose twitched slightly. The stuffy and humid air made Kiryuin think that it would be difficult to find dry branches on the mountaintop.

Looking at the unmelted snow and ice everywhere, Tianyin knew that finding dry branches in this environment was almost wishful thinking. But how were they going to start a fire without branches?

Tianyin turned her gaze toward Guilongyuan.

"Even if you look at me like that, Tianyin, I still can't conjure up dry branches. The air here is so humid that you could squeeze water out of it. In this kind of environment, isn't it just making things difficult for me to find dry grass or dry branches?"

Kiryuin shrugged helplessly.

She possesses certain wilderness survival skills, but finding dry branches as a means of survival on the summit of a snow-capped mountain is beyond her professional capabilities. After all, she is just an ordinary person, not a magician who can conjure up whatever she wants.

"Actually, you still have something on you that can start a fire."

"Huh? Really? I didn't know that. Let me look around... Hmm... tissues, lollipops, chewing gum, wet wipes, sunscreen, flashlight... Can these really start a fire? Wait, you're not going to use my clothes to start a fire, are you? Ta-me! Absolutely not! This is my favorite piece of clothing. I will never agree to such an outrageous request from you, Tianyin!"

Kiryuin hugged her arms and turned to crawl into the tent. Seeing this, Amane quickly grabbed Kiryuin's waist and slowly dragged her out of the tent to prevent the only fire starter from escaping.

"Arisu! Help! Please help me! Amane is trying to use my clothes to start a fire! Help me..."

In a daze, Sakayanagi looked at Kiryuin, who was calling out to her for help, and subconsciously thought that Kiryuin was trying to coax her. She instinctively reached out and shook Kiryuin's desperately outstretched hand.

This action completely shut down Kiryuin's brain.

Taking advantage of Kiryuin's mental lapse, Tenon successfully dragged Kiryuin out of the tent.

"You can't escape, Maple Flower, hand it over now."

Looking at Tenon, who stood in front of her with a blank expression and arms crossed, Kiryuin bit her lip in grievance.

Tianyin is a jerk! She clearly knew this was her favorite dress, yet she still burned it like a tree branch. When we get back, I'll make Tianyin pay for a hundred more dresses to vent my anger!!

"You don't need to do it, I can take it off myself! Humph."

Kiryuin snorted coldly, grabbed the edges of his short-sleeved shirt with both hands, and pulled it upwards forcefully.

A pair of dazzling things, unable to contain themselves, sprang out from inside the clothes.

Tianyin's gaze lingered on it for a few seconds before she looked away, her face slightly flushed.

"Who said I was going to burn your clothes! Put these clothes on right now!"

While urging Kiryuin to hurry up and put on his clothes, Tenon couldn't help but glance at Kiryuin a couple more times.

Kiryuin's face flushed red when he realized that there was something else in Tenon's gaze.

"No, didn't you tell me to take off my clothes? Besides, I don't have any fire starter on me."

Kiryuin quickly pulled down his clothes and said awkwardly to Amane.

"Didn't you prepare a lot of sanitary napkins because you had your period a few days ago?"

"..."

Kiryuin's face turned bright red instantly.

"Tian, ​​Tianyin, how did you know..."

"I saw it when I was packing my luggage."

"Oh."

Both fell into an awkward silence, too shy to look each other in the eye, and lowered their heads, staring at their toes, lost in thought.

suddenly!

Rumble!!!

A sudden clap of thunder snapped them back to reality, forcing them to take immediate action as they realized they could no longer hesitate.

Kiryuin gritted his teeth and put his hand inside his pants...

"You idiot, Maple! What are you doing?!"

"No, didn't you want this? Take it, take it and use it!!"

With her eyes closed and cheeks flushed, Kiryuin Kaede shouted loudly at Amane, as if doing so could dispel the shyness in her heart.

"But don't you still have some useless things?"

"..."

Kiryuin was taken aback.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

Kiryuin squatted down, holding his head in his hands.

Seeing that she could no longer rely on Guilongyuan, Tenon quickly retrieved Guilongyuan's personal belongings. After finding the materials she needed, she tore them open, exposing the white cotton material inside, which could be used to fuel combustion, to the air.

Tianyin first twisted a strand of cotton into a thin strip, then slowly lit it. The purpose of doing this was to slow down the burning speed of the cotton and buy Tianyin some time.

Before long, Tianyin disassembled the dozen or so sanitary products in the two bags into raw materials. She even kept some for the next fire. In addition, she spread the rest in the pit she had dug in advance so that the fire rope could ignite the cotton materials on its own later.

After doing all this, Tianyin quickly tied and secured the supports with ropes, then took out a water bottle from her luggage, poured the drinking water she had received earlier into the bottle, and started heating it.

The drinking water is indeed safe to drink directly, but you'll need hot water to cook noodles. You can also fill a hot water bottle for Sakayanagi.

Glug glug.

Rumble—!

The sound of boiling water in the kettle contrasted sharply with the deafening thunder in the sky.

Kiryuin, who had been forcibly turned back on by Amane, was processing ingredients at a small table set up in the tent with a look of despair. These included sausages, eggs, canned beef, and Amane planned to make a simple noodle dish. In addition, she had specially prepared instant miso soup mix, as well as a small amount of kelp, tofu, bonito flakes, and shrimp.

Kiryuin first put the instant noodles in three bowls, then squeezed in the sauce and added the chopped sausage and beef cubes. Then Amane carefully poured the hot water from the kettle into the three bowls. In this way, the incredibly simple noodle dish was ready. In fact, compared to regular instant noodles, it was just that the ingredients were slightly better.

Then each person was given a soft-boiled egg that had been cooked before departure. Although Kiryuin and Sakayanagi both expressed doubts about whether the egg was soft-boiled, Amane insisted on bringing it along.

Finally, put the cooked miso soup ingredients into another small bowl, squeeze in the miso soup powder, and then pour boiling water over it. In just a few minutes, you can enjoy a bowl of steaming hot miso soup.

How much water do we have left?

Just as she was about to enjoy her lunch, Sakayanagi suddenly asked Amane about the drinking water usage.

Since both instant noodles and miso soup require a lot of drinking water, and they didn't carry a lot of water for this hike due to their weight, everyone already knew that they still had a lot left after using so much.

"Each person has about 1000 ml left."

Tianyin's words silenced the tent.

1000 ml is roughly the amount of two bottles of mineral water per person. It sounds like a lot, but they are staying overnight until tomorrow before going down the mountain, which means that this amount of water will last for about a day.

"Don't worry, I checked the snow nearby while boiling the water and found no contamination. I've already collected some snow and put it in the water bottle. If you don't have enough water later, I can give you drinking water. I can drink the snow water, or I can just endure it for a day."

"Well, I can bear with it for a while, anyway I don't like drinking water."

Kiryuin's physical fitness is second only to Amane. Although she has not received any training, it is not difficult for her to go a day without drinking water.

As she watched Tenon and Kiryuin vie to give up their share of drinking water, Sakayanagi's eyes reddened and she fell silent.

Sensing that the atmosphere was a bit oppressive, Tianyin quickly picked up her bowl.

"The noodles won't taste good if they get cold!"

"That's right! Forget about the water! Let's eat quickly, I'm starving!"

"Ah."

Sakayanagi nodded slightly, forcing a smile, and then laboriously picked up his bowl with both hands.

The three of them picked up their bowls, looked at each other, and then laughed.

"I'm starting to eat!!!"

……

The streets in the town, which should have been bustling, were now deserted.

Occasionally, when you see pedestrians passing by on the road, they all look hurried, with anxious and worried expressions on their faces.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew by, causing the tree trunks on both sides of the road to shake violently, and a street lamp in the distance collapsed with a crash, eliciting screams.

The sky gradually darkened, as if someone had dyed the entire sky black with pitch-black ink.

Pedestrians on the road quickened their pace to get home, and the shop windows along the road reflected the panicked figures of people running around.

All residents and tourists staying in the town received the latest disaster information.

An unprecedented torrential rainstorm is about to hit this unassuming town.

The news instantly triggered panic among tourists, who rushed to the parking lot and sped off in their cars to the next city, trying to escape the disaster.

At this moment, in the only ramen shop in town that was still lit up, several tourists were calmly enjoying their ramen.

The ramen shop's doors were already closed. After serving all the customers, the owner grabbed his wife and children and ran towards the two-story building behind the ramen shop.

Before leaving, he reminded everyone that the second floor of the ramen shop could also be used to avoid the downpour, and that they could go to the back to get the key to open the door after the rain stopped.

The few remaining diners in the room thanked the owner for his hospitality and kind reminder, and then calmly continued to enjoy their ramen.

"The ramen here tastes completely different from what I've had in Kyushu."

The mature woman spoke first, breaking the somewhat dull atmosphere in the store.

"That's natural. Every place has its unique ingredients and local cooking methods, so theoretically, you should be able to taste the local ramen in every place you go. Xue and Lingyin, why aren't you eating any? Is it because it's too salty?"

The man glanced at the untouched ramen in front of the two men with concern, then gently stroked Horikita Manabu and Horikita Suzune's hair.

"My brother has gone a bit mad. Yesterday he lost to a girl named Aya."

"She actually lost to a girl? Aya... what a lovely name. Did she say what her last name is? Is she pretty?"

The mature woman who had spoken earlier immediately crowded around when she heard gossip about Horikita Manabu.

"That girl named Aya is very strong, overwhelmingly strong. I have a feeling that we might see her on TV someday... By the way, Rinne lost too, didn't she?"

Horikita Suzune, who was secretly chuckling to herself, couldn't help but blush slightly upon hearing this.

"I... I was just careless. I'll beat her next time! Let's eat our noodles quickly, they won't taste good if they get cold. I'm starting now!"

Chapter 126: Hurriedly Walking in the Rain

Thick, black cumulus clouds blanketed the entire sky, as if night had fallen upon the mountaintop.

Unlike what the townspeople saw, the pitch-black cumulus clouds in front of them were nothing more than a signal that a storm was about to break; just a large dark cloud with nothing to worry about.

However, only those atop Mount Fuji can truly feel the oppressive atmosphere brought about by the dark cumulus clouds.

Tianyin frowned as she looked at the endless black cumulus clouds hanging overhead.

With such dense cumulus clouds, it's easy to imagine that a torrential downpour awaits them. Their tents are made of waterproof material, but that's only for ordinary rain. Judging from the density of the cloud layer above them, a heavy rain is definitely inevitable.

Rumble!!

A muffled rumble of thunder suddenly erupted from the clouds.

Tianyin tapped her ears expressionlessly; the enormous roar at such close range almost caused her to temporarily lose her hearing.

Immediately afterward, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating everything around it. The deafening thunder was like a drummer rapidly and forcefully striking the drumhead with his drumsticks. As the thunder grew more and more intense, a suffocating sense of oppression filled the air, as if something terrible was about to happen.