I was taking pictures of a sandcastle with the camera, and before I knew it, the kids who were playing ball came running over to make peace signs in front of the camera.
What a group of cute girls striking poses in front of a well-made sandcastle. Thank goodness I didn’t bring Sasaki over. That lucky guy doesn’t even need to show off such a sight.
By now, he’s probably filming love comedy scenes with his harem members. I just hope Hagiwara and Nakahara haven’t taken over his place.
At least Tsuneda is here, so that’s a relief.
“Koto Ne, come here quickly!”
As I was busy snapping pictures, Yuka waved her hand.
Um…
“I’ll take the picture for you!”
The one who dashed out saying that was Koko.
I passed the camera to Koko and dashed over to strike a pose.
Click!
It wasn’t until after the picture was taken that I realized, does it really matter that Koko and I switched places? After all, we look exactly the same, right?
Well, we do have different swimsuits, though.
Yuka chose a black one-piece swimsuit for Koko, but for some reason, she picked a bikini for me. It’s not too revealing, but with the lace, it’s a bit embarrassing to be honest.
But then again, everyone around was wearing swimsuits too, so I just went with it.
For now, we both know which swimsuits we wore, so I could probably tell apart from just looking at the photos, but after a few years of this gathering, my memories might start to fade.
Which one of us is Koko… Hmm, maybe if I look closely at the expressions, I might distinguish between us… or maybe not. Still, my expressions have become quite varied these days.
After Koko, Yuka brought the camera to take a picture of the two of us together. At that moment, the trio of Mako rushed over to join us for a photo.
Izumi, Kaoru, Tsuneda, and Shii also took plenty of pictures.
Ah, youth.
The season when fresh green sprouts emerge—springtime of life.
Usually, such days never come back, but I feel incredibly lucky to sprout new growth under this blue sky.
“Oh, right, there’s watermelon in the fridge! Who brought it?”
“I-I did…”
“Oooh, good job, junior!”
As Kaoru exclaimed, Tsuneda’s cheeks blushed slightly. Hehe, Tsuneda chuckled with a little blunder.
“Can we break the watermelon? It just feels like we should do that upon seeing it.”
“Y-Yeah, that’s why I brought it.”
“Well done, Tsuneda junior! The literature club’s future looks bright!”
Having a prepared person in the club does make things easier in various ways.
Though Tsuneda’s preparedness seems to be a different kind from sheer thoroughness, does it really matter? The result was fun anyway.
Breaking the watermelon that Tsuneda eagerly awaited turned out to be surprisingly entertaining.
It wasn’t a game where everyone took turns; instead, one person had to blindfold themselves while listening to the others, trying to find the watermelon to smash it with a bat. The atmosphere felt unexpectedly festive.
With the most excited expression, Tsuneda held the bat and successfully smashed the watermelon.
For a moment, I pondered what to do next with the broken watermelon, but in the end, it just turned out to be eating.
Since we had spread out a pretty big mat, sand didn’t end up on it much, but holding a lumpy broken watermelon shell and eating the insides felt rather strange.
If I hadn’t seen so many corpses, it might have felt a little less strange.
…There’s no need to have those thoughts even in a setting like this, right?
*
Lunchtime.
Yesterday, I rushed to finish lunch and was eagerly looking forward to going out to play, but today felt more relaxed.
Having played hard in the morning made me hungry, and my body felt a bit tired.
Since it was excessively hot from noon until around one, we took our time eating and resting.
And surprisingly, Kaoru brought a shaved ice machine.
It wasn’t a particularly large item; it was just a hand-cranked machine for shaving ice. By the way, we froze a lot of ice in the fridge yesterday.
“Wahhhh—!”
Kaoru spun the machine with vigor, shaving the ice, while Izumi prepared syrup to drizzle over it, handing out the servings.
It’s not exactly red bean shaved ice… it was just flavored syrup on ice. This is apparently called “kakigōri” (かき氷).
The taste? Hmm, it was like a less melted slushy than the shaved ice I had before. Still, it was nice and cool to eat under the air conditioning.
I scooped up a spoonful of the blue Hawaii syrup-covered ice and while checking the pictures I took earlier, I accidentally scrolled back to the pictures taken last night.
It was then I remembered having taken some spirit photos.
“……”
Goosebumps formed on my back. It wasn’t the exciting goosebumps from encountering a yōkai; it was merely a gut instinct.
Well…
“I’ll go to the room for a bit.”
Just then, Yuka stood up and mentioned that. As everyone lazily replied with “Yeah~,” holding their shaved ice, I decided to follow her.
“Koto Ne?”
As I got up following Yuka, Koko reacted.
“I’ll go grab something from my bag. I think my memory’s full.”
“Wuh?”
Koko tilted her head, not quite understanding what “memory” meant.
She then stuck close to me.
Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
Koko won’t say anything if I ask her to keep quiet.
For some reason, I feel like I shouldn’t let Kaoru find out about this. Otherwise, she’d be the type to rush over and insist we head out right away.
When I entered the room, Yuka was rummaging through her bag.
I pulled out an SD card from my bag and glanced over at Yuka.
“What’s up?”
Yuka asked without even turning around. It wasn’t a particularly sharp question, just a casual tone. She was merely looking for something in her bag when she sensed my gaze.
“Well…”
I hesitated a little.
It felt a bit funny to be cautious now, but still, saying something like “I’m scared of ghosts” feels a bit off, doesn’t it?
Of course, I’ve fought yōkai as well.
I’ve summoned Kokuri-san, and I’ve seen those who crossed over from the afterlife.
I even fought against a being called God.
The issue is that “ghosts” and such are slightly different experiences.
I’m the sort of person who finds spiritual ghosts terrifying, twisted in a way that they can’t be harmed by any physical attack. It’s terrifying if they suddenly pop up in my room at midnight, or in my dreams.
With zombies, you just need to avoid being nearby, and it’s the same with other monsters. Honestly, it’s absurd to be afraid of something that can be affected by physical laws like this flesh body.
The corpses I saw then, it was the same when I encountered a Nue.
The existence that answered during the Kokuri-san summoning wasn’t even a ghost.
So, um, I’m still afraid of ghosts. This hasn’t changed from when Yuka said there seemed to be a ghost in that apartment until now.
“What’s wrong?”
As I hesitated, Yuka turned around with a quite serious voice.
In her hand, she held a thin shirt. It seems she felt a bit cold as we were eating shaved ice with the air conditioning set to 18 degrees.
I tilted my head, ultimately steeling myself.
“There’s a chance a spirit photo was taken among the pictures from yesterday.”
“……”
Yuka looked at me intently for a moment.
If I were to interpret that expression… it feels like she’s thinking, “Why?”
…Isn’t it a bit strange to dismiss the idea of a spirit photo entirely?
Yuka stared at me for a moment before quickly covering her mouth.
My face tinged slightly red.
“Wuh?”
Koko tilted her head again, still not grasping the situation.
Yuka seemed to be suppressing a laugh as she took a few deep breaths, finally managing to speak.
“So, you mean, a spirit photo came out—huh.”
What’s that?
I could see her stomach and chest jiggling. It looked like she was holding back laughter.
Feeling my face heat up, I looked up at Yuka.
“Look.”
As I handed over the camera, Yuka received it with slightly trembling hands.
While holding the camera, she was trying not to laugh, glancing at the camera screen. After a few deep breaths, she finally managed to speak.
“Well, Koto Ne.”
“……”
When I looked up at her with a slightly displeased expression, Yuka lowered her eyebrows, giving me an apologetic look.
But her careful tone made it feel like she was trying to comfort a little kid, which was mildly irritating.
“Most spirit photos that circulate in society are generally cases of misperception.”
Oh really…
No, it could very well happen, but still!
“For instance, look. This here.”
Yuka showed me the camera screen. Koko had stuck close to me, looking at the screen together.
“There are actually quite a few cases where things appear white and faint like this. Something could have just passed by nearby, right?”
“That might be true, but…”
It certainly doesn’t seem too strange. Something might have passed by. No matter how much you turn on the lights inside, it will still be darker than the bright outside, and naturally, the shutter speed slows down.
To put it simply, it means there’s a high chance ghosting occurs on the photo. You know how sometimes, fast-moving people’s faces look strange in a picture?
“If a moth or something flew by outside, it would naturally capture like this. Though it’s near a mountain, it might actually be quite close. The photo doesn’t give a sense of perspective, does it?”
“……”
My face turned increasingly red.
Yuka looked like she felt guilty for almost laughing and handed the camera back to me, placing her hand gently on my shoulder and bowing slightly.
“Still, just in case, let’s bring the talismans. Ghosts or vengeful spirits tend to linger around abandoned places, after all. Right?”
Okay, I get it.
I understand…
But can you stop making that expression like you’re comforting a younger sibling?
I mean, I surely should be much older than you in terms of actual age.
However, Yuka didn’t stop there.
“But Koto Ne.”
Yuka said, smiling gently.
“Were you really that scared of ghosts?”
“……”
I bit my lip, trying to withstand the embarrassment.
As I turned sharply and stomped out of the room, Yuka followed me, saying she was sorry, but there was laughter in her voice, which was incredibly annoying.
What does she think I am, a small cute animal?!
Even though I may look like that! I’m shorter than the new junior member, but still!
I felt annoyed but had no words to deny it.
“Wuh?”
Only Koko seemed to be confused, tilting her head again.
*
In the afternoon, we went out and played for another three hours.
This time, I joined in the fun and enjoyed some ball games. I wasn’t oblivious to the spirit photos in the back of my mind, but running around really lifted my spirits a little.
Yuka seemed relieved when she saw my face. Maybe she thought it was too excessive to play around given how upset I was for an hour, so she looked genuinely sorry.
After a fun time, we came back, washed up, and had another literature club meeting.
We decided to take it easy and write draft essays, but surprisingly everyone had made decent progress. The quality of the writing doesn’t matter since we can just fix it up anyway, and it seems like Harumi didn’t just come to play around.
Izumi looked at everyone’s progress with a slight smile.
The drafts everyone wrote were carefully collected and placed in Izumi’s bag.
“Okay.”
Kaoru stretched and let out a sound of relief.
“After dinner, we’ll have a courage training session.”
Kaoru’s signature ‘evil smile’ flickered across her face.
“So be ready for it.”
“I’ll say it again, but I checked for safety beforehand. It seems there aren’t any dangerous items around the house.”
She must have stepped out for a short moment while we were washing.
I see, that’s why she was the last to wash up. Even though it’s a low place, a mountain is still a mountain. If she went out, she must have been sweating.
“Also, the partners climbing will be drawn by lottery. It won’t matter if you’ve made plans to be paired.”
What’s the point of that?
Is pairing up going to solve the fear issue?
Well, I admit being with Koko or Yuka could lessen the fear a bit.
I glanced at Yuka, and she smiled at me.
I looked over at Koko, who seemed surprisingly unfazed. Koko had grown quite a bit over the last six months. She has learned it’s okay to not stick by my side all the time.
Of course, her favorite place is still next to me, and these days, she generally tries to stay close, but it seems she knows that sometimes it’s better not to cling depending on the time and place.
…Looking at Koko like that, I felt a mixed emotion of joy and a bit of sadness.
“Well, we need to make sure we’re ready then. Shall we draw for partners ahead of time?”
Isn’t that more of a desire to see something interesting that came to mind?
It probably just seemed that way to me, but Izumi seemed to think so as well. But it seems Kaoru wasn’t the only one hoping to see something interesting; the other members did too, so we just went ahead and drew lots.
And I ended up partnered with Mako.
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