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When Asakura woke up, he found that there seemed to be some commotion at the campsite.
He crawled out of his tent and saw Kagamihara Nadeshiko crawling out of the tent next to him, yawning.
"What happened?"
The girl rubbed her sleepy eyes and asked groggily.
"I'm not sure... I'll go take a look."
Asakura said and quickly walked towards the source of the commotion.
When he got closer, he saw a male hiker grabbing the campsite owner by the collar and loudly questioning him about something.
After listening carefully for a while, he realized that the man had come camping with his girlfriend, but this morning, his girlfriend went to the restroom and disappeared, and still hadn't been found.
So the man went to confront the owner, but the owner said he had never seen his girlfriend. The two argued more and more fiercely, almost coming to blows.
Seeing that no one around seemed to have any intention of stopping them, Asakura could only step forward and separate the two first.
Although the male hiker initially refused to let go of the owner easily, when Asakura squeezed his tiger's mouth, the man instinctively let go as if he had been burned.
Asakura urged the owner to go back and call the police, while comforting the male hiker and asking about what happened.
"I shouldn't have let her go to the restroom alone. I should have gone with her. There are too many snakes around here. I should have noticed something was wrong from the beginning."
The male hiker was extremely remorseful.
"I don't think it has anything to do with snakes..."
Asakura said dryly.
However, for those who don't know, suddenly finding many snakes around—even if their actual number is more than ten times higher than those discovered—is clearly a very ominous thing, probably second only to waking up and finding the surrounding trees full of crows waiting for a meal.
The male hiker clutched his head in pain.
"What if she ran into Orochimaru!"
"Is that what's troubling you? Are you serious?"
"Stepping back, what if she ran into Boa Hancock!"
"So that's just an anime character! Shouldn't there be more pressing things to worry about right now?"
"Damn it, I really want to meet Boa Hancock too!"
"I'm completely confused about whether you even like your girlfriend anymore."
"Anyway, let's find a time machine first..."
"You're too agitated, calm down quickly!"
"Yes, yes, you're right, sorry, my mind is a mess right now."
The male hiker took a deep breath, his expression looking a bit calmer.
"No matter what happens, staying calm is always the best option."
Asakura nodded, encouraging him.
"That's right, don't worry, I've completely calmed down,"
The other person did seem much calmer. He continued with a serious face: "In this situation, we should look for a Anywhere Door first..."
"He hasn't calmed down at all!"
Asakura, who hadn't gotten any information from the confused hiker except for his sexual preferences, first avoided others and went into the woods to communicate with the snakes, confirming that they hadn't found anything unusual. Only then did he return to his tent.
"Welcome back, what happened over there?"
Kagamihara Nadeshiko was almost fully awake by this time. Although she still had a bunch of bed hair sticking up, at least she wasn't as incoherent as before.
Asakura concisely told her what had happened over there.
"Something like that actually happened..."
Kagamihara Nadeshiko said in surprise, blinking her sapphire-like clear eyes.
"Speaking of which, there are already bad rumors about Mount Kumotori, right? Why did you still come camping in the mountains, Kagamihara-san?"
Asakura asked curiously.
"Because the mountain is there?"
The girl responded uncertainly.
"That's a mountaineer's line."
"Ahaha... Actually, before the holidays, when Shima Rin was telling me about camping precautions, I accidentally fell asleep and only heard 'Mount Kumotori' or something, so I thought she highly recommended camping here."
The girl said with an embarrassed smile.
Before the two could finish talking, the campsite owner had already returned from his convenience store.
He held a megaphone and conveyed the police station's notice to everyone present.
Although it was unknown whether the missing woman was simply lost or had unfortunately met with an accident, considering that if the latter truly happened, there was a high possibility that a dangerous criminal who committed the act was among the campers present.
The owner said that to prevent the culprit from escaping, the police requested that everyone temporarily be prohibited from leaving the campsite until they arrived.
Some campers who had other plans for the day immediately booed in protest, but the owner said he couldn't help. Perhaps fearing the anger of dissatisfied travelers, he quickly slipped back into his convenience store and did not reappear after muttering that those who left would do so at their own risk.
"Oh dear, this is troublesome. I was planning to go down the mountain today..."
Kagamihara Nadeshiko said, pulling out her phone in distress: "Anyway, I'll notify my sister first... Huh, why is it out of range?"
At her words, Asakura also took out his phone and found that his phone also showed 'out of range', with no signal at all.
If it were deep in the mountains, that would be one thing, but Mount Kumotori is in the suburbs of Tokyo. Even in the mountains, as long as it's not too far from the mountain path, there shouldn't be a lack of signal.
"Tsk, this really is a standard horror movie setup now."
Asakura glanced at the somewhat gloomy sky and couldn't help but mutter.
However, unlike an isolated blizzard-stricken mansion, the mountain path here on Mount Kumotori was well-maintained.
Driving from the foot of the mountain, even if you can't drive too fast on the mountain road—after all, not everyone is Fujiwara Takumi, who can drift on a five-bend mountain pass—it would only take about an hour to reach. Adding the time it takes for the police to dispatch from the nearest station, at most two hours, they should be able to wait for the police.
At this moment, Asakura suddenly noticed that the girl beside him seemed to be acting a bit strangely.
A faint cherry color appeared on her pretty little face. Although she didn't do anything, the girl leaned slightly forward, her legs in black leggings pressed together, and her body trembled imperceptibly, giving off a shy and hesitant feeling.
"What's wrong? Is there anything uncomfortable?"
Asakura asked kindly.
"No, it's not..."
The girl's voice trembled slightly, giving off an unexpectedly suggestive feeling for some reason.
"I brought a medical kit with most common medicines. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything," Asakura continued.
"Th-that..."
The girl raised her small face, her expression looking a bit conflicted and shy, her teary eyes as if she might cry at any moment: "Maybe I drank too much dumpling soup yesterday. Could you accompany me to the restroom...? Because of the story just now, I'm a bit scared to go alone now..."
"..."
"Why did Asakura-kun silently switch his uncommunicative phone to recording mode without saying a word?!"
"Accidentally... Ah, I mean, just in case, I need to always keep evidence of environmental changes around."
Asakura said, his tone righteous.
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