The snow carried by the wind was so harsh that they could barely keep their eyes open; even if they opened their mouths, the wind would blow directly into their throats. Consequently, they could only make their way toward the cable car by identifying the silhouettes of those around them and listening for the leader's whistle.
But as they walked, someone suddenly felt that something was wrong. Why did the leader's whistle seem to come from the left one moment and the right the next? Could there be other climbing teams that, just like them, were only preparing to leave at this time?
The snow was getting heavier and the cold was setting in, but no one could afford to worry about that; as long as they could just get out, it didn't matter, since everyone was supposed to gather in front of the cable car eventually anyway.
With this thought in mind, the netizens and the three people beside them moved toward the source of the whistling, heading in the direction of the nearest one.
In their snow-blurred vision, they saw a tall figure standing there, whistling and waving at them, seemingly signaling for them to hurry over.
Hara Kenji paused for a moment. He took a sip of the ice water on the table, only after moistening his throat did he continue. "Because we wanted to leave as quickly as possible, none of the four of us thought much at the time. We just subconsciously quickened our pace and ran toward that leader, but after only a few steps, that netizen suddenly felt someone grab his arm tightly from behind. The strength was so great that the netizen felt as if his arm was about to be torn off."
Don't go over there," his friend said, his voice trembling, "we need to run, quickly.
The netizen asked his friend in confusion, why were they running? But he noticed his friend's face was deathly pale and his entire body was trembling, as if he had seen something terrifying.
Run!
A friend shouted loudly and grabbed his arm, pulling him back as they ran. At the same time, a scream echoed from behind; the netizen wanted to look back but was scolded by his friend. Although he didn't know exactly what had happened, he knew that following his friend was the right thing to do.
After running for about ten minutes, they had almost taken the wrong path because they were unfamiliar with the surroundings, but they eventually managed to safely regroup with their group's leader.
When they saw them running over, the leader was conducting a head count.
"Two are still missing," the leader said, his brows furrowed deeply. The netizen told the leader while panting that there were two others behind them who might not have followed, in his urgency, the netizen recounted what had just happened to the leader.
The leader's expression instantly turned grim as he told the netizen that they were the only climbing team left on the summit.
"Could some perverted killer be taking advantage of this opportunity to intentionally disguise themselves as another group leader?" The netizens thought suspiciously, yet they also felt this guess was somewhat unfounded; after all, their group consisted of four people, the opponent was vastly outnumbered, unless they had some way to take them all out at once.
Just as the netizens were speculating, a person came crawling back, wailing loudly the moment he saw the leader.
"Bears, bears, someone was eaten by a bear!" he said incoherently.
Only at this moment did netizens realize what their friend had been so afraid of back then; the one whistling and waving at them simply wasn't human.
*
“That's the story.” Hara Kenji took another sip of water, his gaze sweeping over the strange expressions on the two people's faces as he asked Kisaragi and Matsuda for their thoughts after hearing the story.
"It's even scarier than a ghost story." Kisaragi Chiyo took a deep breath and slowly exhaled; the answer was right there on the surface, as Hara Kenji had prepared them from the very beginning.
So, when she heard two whistles, Kisaragi Chiyo felt that something was wrong. But even with her preparations, she still felt a chill run down her spine when she finally heard the truth behind the story.
That was the natural fear of death inherent in humans.
"What happened to that bear in the end?" This was what Matsuda Jinpei was particularly concerned about.
“Don't worry,” Hara Kenji's expression relaxed slightly, “the day after the incident occurred, the snowy mountains were temporarily closed off. All the mountaineering team leaders joined forces and hired the old hunters from town to help. In the end, they killed the bear that had eaten the person with guns.”
Once a bear has eaten a human, it absolutely cannot be allowed to continue living; otherwise, after tasting the deliciousness of abundant human fat, they would soon commit a second crime.
"That's good then." Matsuda Jinpei's expression softened slightly.
So ever since then, there has been a rule for the snowy mountains. Any climbing party in winter must return before five-thirty.
"What if someone is unwilling to cooperate?" Kisaragi Chiyo asked curiously. After all, not everyone possessed a sense of danger, some people, in particular, felt they were beyond harm and acted without any restraint.
Didn't you mention before that the cable car is one-way?" Hara Kenji said with a wink and a smile. "It's different from the situation in the Frost Forest; the number of climbers on the snowy mountain is spontaneously restricted by the guides, so the number of tourists going up the mountain each day is exactly equal to the total capacity of the cable car.
"So that's how it is." Kisaragi Chiyo nodded in understanding.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing at the distant snow-capped mountains through the glass. A layer of pure white snow covered the black mountain body, looking so peaceful and beautiful under the blue sky.
Kisaragi and the others' purpose for this trip was not the mountain peak; they would later set out directly from another path, bypassing more than half of the mountain to head into the dense forest in the snow.
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Author's Note: Thanks to all the little angels for your support, mwah 030
Chapter 147
Before setting off, Kisaragi Chiyo and the others made another trip to the town's supermarket to restock on food such as chocolate, nuts, bread, compressed biscuits.
While preparing to check out, Matsuda Jinpei also grabbed some disposable toiletries from the shelf. They might need them for a day or two on this trip, according to Kisaragi Chiyo's habits, it was better to bring some along.
“Chiyo-chan, I want to buy this,” Hara Kenji shouted, pointing at the bag charms on the other side.
Kisaragi Chiyo turned her head and looked in the direction the man pointed, only to find a collection of plush charms shaped like various marine creatures.
"I heard this kind of fish is only found in Hokkaido." Hara Kenji picked up one of the charms and waved it smilingly in front of Kisaragi Chiyo.
Kisaragi Chiyo reached out and grabbed the uniquely shaped fish, which had a body like a scimitar, a head somewhat like a seahorse, fins like butterfly wings.
Octopus fish." Kisaragi Chiyo lowered her eyes, looking at the notes on the tag and murmuring softly, "Cold-water benthic fish that lives on the cold seabed sand and mud all year round. To resist the cold, it has very plump fat.. the flesh is full and sweet, perfect for sashimi or being served as gunkanmaki.
".. How thoughtful." Kisaragi Chiyo subconsciously squeezed the plush pendant in her hand, finding that it actually felt quite nice.
"They're afraid tourists won't understand, so they even wrote the instructions on how to eat it.. If you like it, then buy it." Kisaragi Chiyo was quite interested in these things; otherwise, where else would she have gotten so many strange and unique plushies at home?
It was all thanks to the long-term searching accumulated by Kisaragi and Hara.
Matsuda Jinpei had no interest in this. He had originally been considering whether to buy another bottle of sunscreen to prevent the sun in the snowy mountains from giving Kisaragi Chiyo a sunburn. As a result, the two of them had forced him to pick out a charm under the pretext of fitting in.
It was a black sea urchin charm, its fuzzy appearance made it difficult for Matsuda Jinpei to associate it with a sea urchin covered in spines. He felt that the reason Hara Kenji and Kisaragi Chiyo had picked this for him was simply because the part where the sea urchin's eyes were embroidered featured sunglasses.
"It's not just because of that." Hara Kenji proudly showed his discovery to Matsuda Jinpei.
On the side of the hairy sea urchin's body, there was a small zipper; once unzipped, one could see the bright yellow sea urchin meat inside, which had the same fuzzy texture.
Delicious Hokkaido sea urchin. It's perfect served in its shell as sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi, or paired with salmon or sweet shrimp to make a seafood platter.
It suits you perfectly, Matsuda," Kisaragi Chiyo said with a smile, lifting the sea urchin in front of Matsuda Jinpei. "Isn't it just adorable?
"Whatever you say.." Matsuda Jinpei glanced at that sea urchin before turning his head away.
Behind his back, Kisaragi Chiyo and Hara Kenji silently high-fived.
"What did Chiyo-chan choose?" After putting both the octopus and sea urchin charms into the shopping basket, Hara Kenji turned around to find the young woman still standing before the shelf, hesitating.
"I'll take this one," Kisaragi Chiyo thought for a moment, ultimately chose the one closest to her hand.
A fish with a very festive and eye-catching appearance and color.
The Kanekichi fish, also known as Kinmedai, is one of the three famous fish of Japan.
Kanekichi fish, also known as Kinmedai, is a deep-sea fish. Its entire body is orange-red; because it consumes crustaceans rich in astaxanthin year-round, its color is vibrant, earning it the nickname the ruby of the deep sea.
"Why did you choose this one?" Hara Kenji asked curiously, tilting his head.
Because of the description," Kisaragi Chiyo said, lifting the Kanekichi fish charm and shaking it slightly, "it looks absolutely delicious.
"That certainly sounds like something you would say." Hara Kenji laughed. After confirming that everything everyone needed had been bought, he picked up the shopping basket and went to check out.
*
The snow on the snowy mountains was even thicker; a single step would cause one to sink up to the calves. However, because of this, one could use the power of the snow to assist when climbing steep slopes.
Can you hold on?" Hara Kenji turned back and shouted to Kisaragi Chiyo, who was a few steps away. "How about we take a rest right here?
"Keep going." Kisaragi Chiyo leaned on her trekking poles, feeling as if her sensory systems had gone completely haywire; one moment she felt the snow was freezing, the next she felt as though she were breaking into a sweat from the climb, but the exhaustion in her body was undeniable.
"You should take a rest for a while." Matsuda Jinpei followed behind, looking completely effortless, not even breathing heavily.
"Damn non-humans." Kisaragi Chiyo gave Matsuda Jinpei an envious look and stopped insisting.
He pulled off his scarf and sat directly on the snow. Above his head was a vast expanse of azure sky, the sun, which was normally warm in winter, now seemed excessively dazzling.
"Don't look." Seeing Kisaragi Chiyo tilt his head back, Matsuda Jinpei hurried forward and used his palm to cover his eyes.
The sun is most harsh at this time of day, combined with the vast reflections from the snow-capped mountains, one could suffer from snow blindness if they were to look at it for too long without caution.
So cold." Kisaragi Chiyo obediently closed her eyes, she rubbed her cheek against Matsuda Jinpei's palm, "It feels so good, the temperature is just right.
The brushing of eyelashes against his palm brought a slight itch. Matsuda Jinpei withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened. He half-squatted in front of Kisaragi Chiyo and pulled the sunscreen they had bought earlier out of his backpack.
“Do you want to do it yourself? Or should I help you?” Matsuda Jinpei asked, holding the sunscreen.
"I'll leave it to you," Kisaragi Chiyo said, her eyes still closed. Even with her scarf on, some of the exposed skin had already turned slightly red from the sun.
White cream was squeezed into his palm. It was Matsuda Jinpei's first time applying sunscreen to someone, for a moment, he didn't know where to start. In the end, under the guidance of Hara Kenji, who watched the clumsy and frantic scene from the side, Matsuda managed to barely complete this first time in his life.
"Your technique is terrible," Kisaragi Chiyo said, opening her eyes and complaining.
Matsuda Jinpei squatted in front of him, staring at him with those beautiful teal eyes without saying a word.
"Well, actually, being able to achieve this much the first time is already quite good," the young man added, feeling a bit self-conscious under the intense stare.
Alright," Hara Kenji said with a smile, looking down at the two people on the snow as he clapped his hands together. "Break time is over; it's time for us to head out again.
When they first started climbing, traces of the mountaineering team's activities could still be seen both in the distance and nearby. By the time Kisaragi Chiyo and the others had completely looped around to the other side of the route, looking back, they could only see the footprints they had left behind.
"We have to hurry." Hara Kenji narrowed his eyes, glancing at the height of the sun in the sky, then pulled out the map to check their overnight destination for tonight.
It'll take at least two hours from here to the nearest cabin," Hara Kenji explained to the two of them, pointing to the green dot marked on the map. "To make it there before dark, I'm afraid we won't have much time for rest from now on.
"I'm fine." Kisaragi Chiyo had already wrapped the scarf back around her neck, with a piece of chocolate in her mouth, her voice sounded somewhat muffled through the fabric.
Then let's continue our journey now!" Hara Kenji raised his trekking pole and pointed into the distance. "Our destination is the Forest Cabin.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hara Kenji let out a very excited and high-spirited sound.
Then he found that the two people behind him had no reaction at all, both staring at him with expressionless faces.
“Play along?" Hara Kenji asked, tilting his head as he looked at Kisaragi Chiyo and Matsuda Jinpei.
The two exchanged a silent glance, then, with expressions that were clearly reluctant yet forced by necessity, let out a lifeless "woah."
"How embarrassing." Kisaragi Chiyo held a trekking pole in one hand and covered her face with the other, feeling immensely grateful that there wasn't anyone within several kilometers.
.. Forget it, you'll get used to it, you'll get used to it." Matsuda Jinpei patted Kisaragi Chiyo's shoulder to comfort both her and himself. "Even though sometimes I think Hagi's behavior is a bit foolish.
"Hey," Hara Kenji turned around dissatisfied, pointing his trekking pole at the two conspirators.
I heard that, too. Is this how you speak ill of the leader behind his back?
We weren't talking behind your back at all," Kisaragi Chiyo patiently corrected Hara Kenji's choice of words. "It was to your face.
"Isn't that even more unforgivable?" The little puppy flared up in anger, his expression looking somewhat heartbroken.
"And since when did you become the leader?" Matsuda Jinpei focused on those two words.
"Haven't I always been?" Facing his friend's question, Hara Kenji blinked and looked back innocently.
"Look." The Evil Spirit rummaged through his coat pocket and pulled out a blue whistle. Then he continued rummaging and pulled out a small red flag as well.