Alice, stunned, looked at Shiori, who had said: "Can you hold me?"
"I'll do it." Takumi noticed the footsteps getting closer and closer and said: "Alice, if you don't want to stay, let me carry you and run."
"You?" Alice turned her head to look at Takumi and nodded: "Okay."
The footsteps approached, Takumi squatted down, carried Alice on his back, and ran forward with Shiori, who was pouting.
However, after walking a few hundred meters, Alice couldn't bear it anymore. "Forget it, it's very difficult, put me down quickly." She asked Takumi to put her down and stepped aside with some embarrassment: "You should run with Shiori, I'll stay, they won't be interested in me."
"Then be careful."
Takumi nodded; he also felt that those people wouldn't embarrass Alice, so he continued running with Shiori.
"..." Alice stayed behind and watched them run farther and farther away. She touched her chest and smiled bitterly: "It's a sin...".
In the distance, Shiori, who was running all the way, looked at Takumi with admiration.
"You have a lot of stamina!"
Takumi, who had been running for so long, had no difficulty breathing, which surprised Shiori.
The boys in her class didn't excel in sports performance, but Takumi's stamina was better than his classmates'. But, as a mangaka who worked from home, how could he have so much stamina? "I usually practice running at home,"
Takumi replied, half-truthfully. He used to practice running at home. If he hadn't been in good health, he would have been exhausted from work and travel in recent months. However, the most important reason was the airflow in his head. When he ran, he used the airflow to penetrate his body and exercised with half the effort. His physical condition is now better than that of ordinary people.
Of course, in front of Shiori. He couldn't stand ten...
"This guy is a pervert." Takumi "praised" Shiori's physical condition in his mind. However, in the blink of an eye, the girl shouted "Ouch!" and fell to the ground.
"I twisted my ankle, Takumi..."
Shiori crouched down pitifully. Hearing this, Takumi looked back, stopped, and immediately continued running.
"Hey, hey!" accompanied by a gust of wind. Shiori caught up with him, her face flushed with embarrassment: "Why can Alice run and I can't?"
"Because she really can't run, you're an imposter...". Takumi felt a severe headache. The two of them were delayed like this, and the crowd following them had already caught up in a hurry.
"Wait, Mirai-sensei, give me an autograph!"
"Shiori, if you have guts, don't run!"
Most of the crowd were young women, and there were also some men. Takumi was a little surprised to hear their shouts. Could it be that the mother and daughter had already revealed his identity?
He looked back. He didn't find them.
"Shiori... Do they have any relation to you?"
Takumi felt that something was wrong. It was normal for these people to know him, but why did they know Shiori's name? Could it be that they weren't looking for him?
"Oh, haha... What are you talking about? The haunted house is almost here, let's run fast!"
Shiori smiled awkwardly. A haunted house appeared in front of them, but they didn't see the path Alice mentioned. That path was probably very secret. Shiori frowned slightly. In that situation, she couldn't hesitate. It would be easy to get caught if she looked for a small path and took a detour. Perhaps it would be faster to go through the haunted house.
"Those people don't seem to have bad intentions. Let's stay and talk to them..."
Takumi ignored Shiori's mindset. He observed the crowd following him and thought that he could stay and chat with these readers as he did in the Tokyo region. They should get along well.
Thinking this, Takumi was about to stop, but just as he slowed down, Shiori grabbed his hand and ran towards the haunted house like a fly.
"Ah, ah, ah! Mirai-sensei was going to stop just now!"
"Older sister is right, it was Shiori who stole Mirai-sensei!"
The readers who followed him were enraged when they saw the scene. They fiercely pursued them, but Shiori had already run towards the haunted house's entrance. The staff wanted to stop her, but she suddenly took out 2000 yen, deposited it directly at the ticket booth, and ran in.
"No need for change!"
she replied and pulled Takumi into the dark haunted house.
"..."
The readers who caught up were stunned. Some brave ones paid for tickets, while the timid ones asked for the route to bypass the haunted house.
Takumi was inexplicably dragged into the haunted house. Upon entering, not only did his vision darken, but the sound and temperature also changed. The haunted house was terrifying and gloomy, and even the wind felt like a dead hand, brushing his face and making people shiver.
Shiori bravely pushed him forward. She seemed unable to see the surrounding scene, but Takumi found many strange things in that dark passage: a corpse floating in the air, a female ghost with disheveled hair and red eyes, and a two-headed baby chasing them from behind.
This baby was only 30 centimeters tall. Takumi couldn't imagine who could pretend to be him. Its face was a boy's on one side and a girl's on the other. Both eyes were full of blood and tears. Its arms were outstretched and it almost brushed Takumi's feet several times.
To be honest, Takumi was a little scared. After being reborn once, he thought he wouldn't be afraid of ghosts, but this kind of thing that he didn't understand the principle of was truly terrifying.
After running out of the haunted house, Takumi started sweating cold and his face paled slightly. However, Shiori, who was pushing him forward, had a rosy face and wasn't scared at all. Upon exiting, she looked around and didn't see their pursuers, but she saw two tourists walking away ahead.
"Wow, how scary! Kenji, sleep with me tonight..."
The two tourists had just come out of the haunted house. The girl, holding the young man's hand, was crying, while he comforted her with tender words.
"Yes!" Shiori had an idea and clapped her hands: "Takumi, let's play the haunted house again!"
"I don't want to!" Takumi refused. He knew exactly what Shiori was thinking. This girl wasn't scared by the haunted house atmosphere, and it was useless to pretend.
"What a shame!" Shiori lamented, having missed a unique opportunity. She twitched her ears and her face changed: "We have to leave quickly, the people inside will come out soon!"
She pulled Takumi's hand and tried to run, but hurried footsteps were heard around the corner.
"Are there people there too? It's too late...". The people surrounding the haunted house ran forward. Shiori made a quick decision. She pulled Takumi's hand and ran towards the jungle.
After they left, some pale and trembling readers emerged from the haunted house.
"How scary! What's that baby?"
"I don't know, hurry up! Where is Mirai-sensei?!"
They looked around with weak legs and feet, and soon met the readers running ahead, and were stunned to discover that they had lost the person.
"He can't have run far, keep looking."
The crowd quickly left, and Shiori and Takumi hid. Both breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the crowd leave. They didn't dare to come out, so they rested where they were and sent messages to inquire about the two roommates and Alice.
They weren't harassed, and the two roommates quietly went out to wait for Takumi and the others, and Alice also returned safely with her companions.
"Who is that man?" Shiori thought of Alice's companion and asked curiously: "He's not my husband, but Alice is so well dressed and comes to the amusement park. He doesn't seem like an ordinary friend."
Takumi shook his head: "Don't overthink it. She dresses wonderfully every holiday, and Alice is not a frivolous woman. I guess she came here for other things."
"How do you know she's not a frivolous woman?" Shiori narrowed her eyes: "You seem to know her very well and always favor her."
"I've been with her for a long time,"
Takumi replied lightly. He said nothing more, but took out "Weekly Boutique" and started reading.
Shiori looked at him in profile as he read silently, a little disappointed. The blonde editor seemed to be more liked by Takumi, and they had been together for much longer.
"I'll surpass her!" With a little encouragement, Shiori cheered up again, moved her body, leaned on Takumi, and they read the magazine together.
- - - - - - - - -
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