Am I being simulated by their love affair.

Chapter 255 The world outside the shrine is also quietly changing.
The seven-minute flight ended quickly, and Jun Matsueda and Maki Yamami stepped off the helicopter.

Even after returning from the sky to the earth, they remain silent, which does not represent estrangement or awkwardness.

It was just because the girl's unintentional action was the closest the two had ever been since they met.

"The helicopter is so noisy." Yami Maki touched her burning earlobe, a blush spreading across the girl's cheeks. "My ears still feel so bad."

“It was really noisy.” Jun Matsueda nodded, his expression unchanged, or rather, he hid it well. “I couldn’t hear a single word of the pilot’s explanation.”

When the girl gently hugged him on the plane, Jun Matsue didn't think much of it at first, since it was just a fleeting touch. However, the girl's subsequent shy silence made him feel strange.

It felt like sitting by Lake Ashi in the afternoon sun, and as the ripples on the shore stirred, the leaf that touched my heart had long since fallen.

The blush on Yamami Maki's cheeks faded a little. Behind them, the helicopter took off again, and she gathered her long hair that was being blown by the wind.

"I was a little flustered on the helicopter just now, sorry."

She was too shy to mention what she had done at that time.

“It’s nothing.” Jun Matsueda shook his head. “I panicked a bit when the crosswind came, and I even had the urge to jump out of the plane.”

He deliberately exaggerated, and Yamami Maki chuckled softly. In fact, when the wind picked up, his only action was to make eye contact with the girl.

"Where to next? Should we hike to the crater or go to Kusanagi?" The boy started to change the subject as the two left the helipad.

"Let's go to the crater." The girl's thought was brief. "I feel like I haven't had enough."

“The time is still too short.” Jun Matsue walked up the road leading to the top of the mountain. “Seven minutes costs twelve thousand yen. I might as well become a pilot in the future.”

“That won’t do~” Yamami Maki’s smile was firm. “A lot of people will worry about Matsueda-kun if it’s such a high-risk job.”

As they approached the crater, the towering plumes of thick smoke billowed even more violently, as if echoing the girl's words.

Upon reaching the summit, a strong smell of sulfur assaulted their senses. Both of them had put on masks, and the girl gripped the edge of the railing with one hand, leaning out to look down.

The crater resembled a large gray bowl containing a small pool of steaming water, its color close to the Tiffany blue that the designer loved. The two stood there for a long time, watching it quietly release gas without causing a ripple, both captivating and dangerous.

Only after the loudspeaker at the mountaintop broadcast a warning that toxic gases might be exceeding safe levels did the two slowly leave this terrifying furnace that could destroy the neon lights.

"Where to next?" Jun Matsue asked the girl beside him as they walked through the crowd.

“Hmm,” Yamami Maki gazed at the distant grassland, “Actually, I want to go to Kamishimi Kumanozha Shrine.”

He thought for a moment, "The shrine from Hotarubi no Mori e and Natsume's Book of Friends?"

The girl nodded. "I watched 'Hotarubi no Mori e' with my friends before, and I want to visit the filming locations."

Jun Matsue took out his phone and looked at it. "It'll take two hours to walk there."

"Yes," that's why she hesitated, "the transportation around Mount Aso isn't very convenient."

"How about we walk to the highway and see if we can hitch a ride?" Jun Matsue suggested, when the girl walking on his other side spoke up.

"Um, if you don't mind, you can ride in our car."

The two turned to look at the girl, who shyly shrank back and gripped her mother's hand tightly.

"My daughter seems to really like you guys," the woman said with a smile. "We live in Shangsejian, would you like a ride?"

Sitting in the SUV, Yamami Maki watched the grassland rushing past the window. A plump white horse lay fast asleep in the middle of the grassland. What would have been a two-hour hike had been reduced to a fifty-minute sightseeing trip in the car. Upon arriving at the Iromi Post Office, the two opened the car door.

"How lucky I am," the girl exclaimed, looking at the woman in the driver's seat. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing." The woman looked at the little girl beside her. "If you want to thank someone, thank my Sakura. She's been watching you ever since you climbed the volcano."

"Thank you, Sakura~" Matsueda Jun and Yamami Maki said together to the little girl sitting in the passenger seat, and the girl took out a candy from her pocket and handed it to her.

"I didn't bring anything suitable to express my gratitude, so please have a candy~"

The girl named Sakura blushed, took the candy, and waved goodbye to the two of them.

After the sound of the car gradually faded away, they turned around and looked at the torii gate leading into the depths of the forest. On the right was a stone tablet that read "Kamishikimi Kumanozha Shrine".

"So you've gotten what you wanted?"

Jun Matsue looked at the girl beside him, smiled, stepped over the stone steps, and entered the Forest of Fireflies' Home.

The shrine has a very simple structure: long stone steps leading to a wooden worship hall at the end, and that's it. The only noteworthy feature is the towering trees on both sides.

"Is this the torii gate from the movie?" Yami Maki looked up at the shimenawa (straw rope) woven from straw on the stone torii gate.

Jun Matsue stood at a distance, took out his camera, and photographed the girl's back. Today, she was wearing a white dress and stood in the deep forest like a phantom, beautiful but not tragic.

"I always seem to visit shrines with my senior." He walked up to the girl.

Yamami Maki thought about it seriously for a while. They had already visited four shrines together. "It's probably because of my family's influence. My parents are very interested in Shintoism, so I also like to look for all kinds of shrines."

"Could it be that in some parallel universe, my senior will also become a shrine maiden at some shrine?" Jun Matsue imagined the girl wearing a red and white shrine maiden outfit.

“A shrine maiden?” Yami Maki’s smile was faint. “I’m not really interested in serving the gods; I just enjoy the scenery of the shrine.”

Serving the gods and serving one's family were not much different in her eyes.

After reaching the end of the stone steps and offering a brief prayer, the two began their journey back.

"Is this all right?" Jun Matsue put away his camera. "Would you like to stay a little longer? There's still plenty of time."

Yamami Maki shook her head. "It's just to fulfill a childhood dream. It's enough that I've been here."

"And aren't there photos taken by Matsue-san too?"

The girl who emerged from the forest smiled as if she had returned from the realm of the gods to the mortal world.

The two breathed a sigh of relief as they boarded the train at Takamori Station. It had taken them an hour to walk from Kamishimi to the station, and now all they had to do was ride the train back to the hotel.

The train from Takamori to Kumamoto passes through canyons, grasslands, forests, and mountains, attracting many tourists. However, Yamami Maki had no heart to appreciate it. The girl, who had been traveling all day, was a little tired. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Her sleeping posture made the passenger sitting opposite her think that she had entered a fairy tale.

The train jolted a little as it pulled into the station. Yamami Maki rested her chin lightly on the boy's shoulder. Matsueda Jun didn't move; he didn't want to wake her, but simply observed the girl's sleeping face out of the corner of his eye.

As the train started moving again, Jun Matsueda's phone trembled in his pocket. He carefully took it out without disturbing the sleeping girl.

The cat avatar, which hadn't appeared for a long time, started flashing, and a wild rabbit leaping outside the car window brought news from Mochizuki Haruka.

"There is hope that my aunt will wake up within a month."

(End of this chapter)