The story we started

Hikigaya's eyes turned back to their previous dead fish eyes, and he even picked his nose with his right little finger with a look of disdain, tilted his head and pouted his lips and said.

"That's the love that a perfect person should show to a disabled person. You don't need to thank me so much. You can repay this insignificant favor by working like a slave for me."

"...You, woman, are really——"

The two of them started arguing again, refusing to admit defeat, and finally each of them snorted coldly and turned to look in opposite directions.

But perhaps neither of them noticed that a smile had inadvertently climbed onto the corners of their mouths.

““Great? Huh?””

Zaimokuza and Yuigahama Yui both breathed a sigh of relief, then were stunned at the same time and turned to look at each other.

The next moment, they laughed happily together, and the invisible barrier that had always stood between the four of them disappeared at this moment.

Looking at them like this, Hayato Hayama couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth, but after sweeping his eyes over Yukinoshita Yukino, his eyes couldn't help but dim, and his smile slowly disappeared.

Looking at the four noisy people, somehow, he felt a rare sense of envy at this moment.

At the same time, another thought came to Hayato Hayama's mind.

“…My future self.”

Thinking of "himself" who has never appeared in any video or on the screen, Hayato Hayama suddenly felt anxious and worried. He wanted to know how he would live in the future, but he couldn't help feeling a little fear and uneasiness about the unknown in his heart.

What kind of person will I be in the future?

Have I finally become someone who can face my own heart and no longer need to live as a coward wearing a mask like I do now?

……

[When I stepped into the open door, the light was still as bright as before. ]

【But Zaimokuza already had experience, he placed his arms across his eyes to block the white light that stung his eyeballs, and only lowered his raised hands slowly after the light faded.】

[The scene that appeared this time was very different from the previous two times. ]

[He was now in a dark forest. Tall, dense and endless trees covered everything he could see. The intertwined shadows of the trees cast on the ground under the cold moonlight were like some kind of demon stretching its limbs. The leaves dancing in the wind made a whirring sound, which was the demon's breath.]

[A full moon hangs high in the sky, casting a desolate and cold light on the earth. ]

[“Here, I remember it was… in the forest of Chiba Village?”]

[Zaimokuza looked at the cold and dim forest, thinking about searching his memory, and then his expression suddenly froze. ]

[“Chiba Village? Is that the summer camp? I remember that time——”]

[“——Really? How did you come to such a remote place by yourself?”]

[A helpless and complaining voice interrupted Zaimokuza's thoughts, causing him to look back subconsciously. ]

……

[Snap! ]

[Zaimokuza stretched out his hand and waved away the trees that were blocking the road ahead. He couldn't help swallowing his saliva as he looked at the still dark forest. He couldn't help but feel a little scared and nervous in his heart.]

[It is hard for people who have not experienced the feeling of being lost in a dark and uninhabited forest to understand.]

[In this extreme silence, your ears will have some kind of perverse illusion, and you will feel that there seems to be some strange sound echoing in the dark forest. If you stay there for a long time, you may even feel that there is some kind of sight hiding in the dark and spying on you. ]

[Finally, the lost will feel as if there are multiple black shadows walking silently around them in the darkness, as if countless predators are treating them as prey, with scarlet eyes filled with endless malice and greed.]

[This is a fear engraved deep in human genes. It is the innate fear that our ancestors inherited through DNA after witnessing their companions being brutally devoured by predators hidden in the jungle. It is simply unavoidable.]

[If a person gets lost in the forest for a long time, he will eventually go crazy, or at worst be left with some kind of psychological trauma.]

【Fortunately, Zaimokuza is not alone. 】

[“Are you sure you took this road before? Did you see it correctly?”]

[A pair of small arms wrapped around his neck made it difficult for him to breathe. Zaimokuza couldn't help but twist his neck. The arms seemed to sense what he meant and relaxed the hug.]

【“…It should be here.”】

[A dull and weak voice came from behind Zaimokuza, with a hint of sobs still lingering in the voice.]

【"should?"】

[“I was so scared at the time that I didn’t look at the road…”]

[Zaimokuza's face suddenly fell, and he felt that he might not be able to walk out of this forest tonight.]

[But in order not to let his negative emotions affect the person behind him, he slowed down his tone and spoke softly.]

[“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You don’t have to feel guilty.”]

【“…”】

[The person behind him didn't say anything, but Zaimokuza's eyes couldn't help but twitch. He felt a sticky and wet feeling coming from his neck.]

【According to his experience, it was either tears or snot. 】

[…Zaimokuza could only pray that it wasn't the latter, and continued to comfort the other party.]

[“Okay, stop crying. If you continue crying you will turn into a little cat.”]

[“I promise you, if we can get out safely, we can find those bad guys and make them apologize to you!”]

【"suck?"】

[A long snorting sound came from behind him, and Zaimokuza's face began to turn green this time. He felt that he would have to wash his beloved windbreaker again when he returned.]

【"……real?"】

[A small head wearing a pink flannel hat popped out from behind him, and a pair of large eyes with red corners looked at Zaimokuza's profile, and then spoke dully.]

……

[“That child——”]

【Zaimokuza stood aside, looking at the little girl carried on his past self's back, his eyes slightly widened.】

[——A lot of time has passed. The girl who used to be shorter than his waist has now grown into a beautiful and slender girl. Even Zaimokuza has gotten used to her current posture and tone.]

[But this also made him almost forget what she looked like when he first met her. ]

【“——Stay in the United States?”】

16. The Door of Memory: The Promise Witnessed by the Full Moon 6K

"Eh? I..."

Because of the stunning dormitory environment of her future "self", she was privately teased and talked about by her classmates, and she was socially dead, which caused her whole body to turn pale. When she saw her "self" who was exactly the same as her present self appear on the screen, she was stunned at first, and then her big eyes were immediately filled with surprise.

Tsurumi Rumi, who had a precocious and cold personality, pretended to be calm, but her cold little face had already turned red with excitement, and her eyes were shining brightly.

After all, she is still a child. No matter how precocious she is, it doesn't mean that she doesn't have the same emotions as her peers.

"——It's me now, I'm here!"

[“Really? I promise you.”]

[Faced with the little girl's question, Zaimokuza forced a smile and nodded, trying his best not to focus on the sticky feeling on the back of his neck.]

[“I’m sorry… I asked you to come here to find me, but now you’re lost too.”]

“It’s not your fault.”

【Tsurumi Rumi said this dejectedly, to which Zaimokuza just shook his head and said softly with a guilty look on his face.】

[“It’s our fault this time. If we hadn’t taken the initiative to help you get rid of the bullying and ended up messing things up in the end... you wouldn’t have been separated from your classmates who were running away in a panic, and ended up getting lost and running to such a remote place alone.”]

[Speaking of this, Zaimokuza could not help but grit his teeth, with an expression of resentment that was difficult to conceal flowing in his eyes.]

[“…And I really can’t agree with this. Even if it was originally well-intentioned, this time it’s really too much!”]

[“I really didn’t expect that Ye Shan and the others would do something so outrageous this time! And Buchou and the others, why didn’t they even tell me about this plan? Is it necessary to exclude me?”]

[“They actually used the excuse of moving wood to get me out of the way, and then a group of people secretly made such an extreme action plan, and then they just started to act without saying a word afterwards!?”]

[Zaimokuza's round face turned redder as he spoke, and he directed his words and the anger in his heart toward the group of people who were not there. The dissatisfaction between his eyebrows spread like materialized resentment.]

[He should be angry, not only because his best friend made such an outrageous plan, but also because they completely excluded him from the plan. He didn't know about it until a student got lost accidentally and couldn't keep it secret anymore.]

[“The worst person is the one who made this plan! Now that this has happened, he should bear at least half of the responsibility!”]

【“That guy is really! Eight——I really——Ah…”】

[When talking about his best friend, Zaimokuza's face turned red for a while. He wanted to say his name but couldn't utter a single word. In the end, he could only sigh in vain. ]

[In fact, Zaimokuza knew in his heart that his best friend's method could not be said to be the most effective method, but it was undoubtedly the fastest method. He just didn't want to admit it.]

[——Since the problem cannot be solved, solve the person who raised the problem, or solve the person who caused the problem. ]

[Hikigaya Hachiman chose the latter in this regard. Although Zaimokuza hoped to change the current situation of the girl behind him being treated coldly in a gentle way, even if there was some improvement when they were together, it would only be temporary.]

[Once this summer camp is over and they leave, Tsurumi Rumi will undoubtedly fall into the same predicament as before.]

[Reality cannot give them that much time, so Hikigaya's approach can be regarded as solving this problem fundamentally - by destroying all the interpersonal relationships that caused this situation, the soil for bullying to grow no longer exists. ]

[It is like a skilled doctor using a scalpel to precisely remove a lesion. It is not only efficient and sharp, but also leaves people speechless and completely feasible.]

【But this is where the problem lies. 】

[Because Hikigaya's method only removes the lesion, but does not consider how to suture the surgical wound afterwards, or even prevent possible infection.]

【This is also the main reason for the current situation. 】

[When all the children ran away in panic, they were so frightened that their running routes were completely disorganized, and they kept speeding up their pace in fear. As a result, all the children were lost in the forest.]

[When Zaimokuza found out, he felt resentful towards his best friend for the first time because of this incident, and it was also the first time he was so angry.]

[At that time, he directly pulled up Hikigaya's collar and pressed him against the tree, staring into his guilty and determined eyes for a long time. The atmosphere between the two of them was so tense for the first time since they met.]

[Just when the onlookers thought that the two of them were going to fight and were about to intervene, Zaimokuza wordlessly released his grip on Hikigaya's collar, turned around and followed the adults who were preparing to search under his gaze, and together they entered the woods to look for the children.]

[Zaimokuza searched for several hours in the woods, following the faint sound of crying, and finally found Tsurumi Rumi squatting under a big tree crying, but just when he wanted to take her back, he found that he had lost his way. ]

[To make matters worse, his cell phone ran out of battery, so he couldn't even call for help, so Zaimokuza could only helplessly carry Tsurumi Rumi on his back and walk through the woods, hoping to run into someone who came to search for him.]

[When Zaimokuza felt the girl on his back still sobbing from time to time and the arm around his neck trembling, he knew that she was probably frightened and had not yet come out of the shadow. ]

[This is also normal. A little girl who is still in elementary school, lost in such a gloomy forest for so long, even if she looks precocious and cold, she is very strong inside that she did not have a mental breakdown. ]

[We have to think of a way to divert her attention... Zaimokuza's eyes moved around, thinking about how to talk to the little girl who was mentally traumatized.]

[“——Hey, what is your dream?”]

[Zaimokuza turned his head and said to Tsurumi Rumi behind him with a smile, and after hearing his words, the little girl raised her big eyes, which still had tears in them, and looked at him, and said softly.]

【"……dream?"】

[“Yes, that’s your dream. Since we can’t leave for a while, why don’t we take this opportunity to talk about our respective dreams!”]

【Zaimokuza said this with great excitement, and Tsurumi Rumi was silent for a while, then spoke.】

【“I don’t have a dream?”】

[“Huh? You don’t have a dream? Isn’t your dream to be a painter or something like that? I remember that you always stayed alone in a deserted place with a drawing board, sketching, and your paintings were pretty good!?”]

[His expression was extremely shocked, as if he had heard something incredible, and even his eyes were filled with corresponding surprise.]

[When Tsurumi Rumi found out that Zaimokuza had seen her drawing alone in a corner, her fair cheeks flushed a little and she whispered in embarrassment.]

[“I just like drawing and taking pictures. It’s just one of my hobbies when I’m bored…”]

[“Oh? So you don’t have a dream now?”]

【"……Um."】

[“Then I’m different from you. I have my own dream, which is to become a light novel painter in the future, and I’m working hard towards this goal now.”]

[“I hope that one day I can write a story that will make everyone cry and be amazed by it!”]

[“Then you should be good at writing, right?”]

[“Uh…hahaha?”]

[Hearing this, Zaimokuza remembered the last time his best friend foamed at the mouth and was sent to the infirmary after reading his newly written "masterpiece". Facing the curious gaze of the little girl, he couldn't help but laugh awkwardly. ]

[“Well, I’m still working on it… but I believe that I will become a writer like that one day!”]

[Zaimokuza turned his head and looked up at the sky. The lenses of his glasses were like two glass balls, reflecting the full moon and scattered stars hanging high in the sky. His voice was filled with determination and persistence in pursuing his dreams.]

[“Then you… are amazing.”]