Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

In the evening, Natsume suddenly took the thick Book of Friends and went out, saying he was going to the mountains to return something.

The cat teacher, who had been dozing in the corridor, immediately got up upon hearing this and followed after him, muttering to himself.

Gojo Satoru was sitting in the corridor eating strawberry daifuku.

Suddenly, he stopped chewing.

In Liu Yan's field of vision, a faint but clear energy fluctuation rippled through the deep mountains and forests in the distance.

It wasn't a repulsive cursed spirit, but an ancient, pure demonic power.

Gojo Satoru put down the daifuku he was holding and casually made up an excuse: "Sumi, I'm a little full from eating daifuku, I'm going out for a walk."

"Don't go too far, it's easy to get lost in the mountains," Sumire Kichikawa gently advised.

As Gojo Satoru left, Sumi Kiseki stopped tidying up her yarn.

He also sensed that immense power, that ancient pressure emanating from the deep mountains, which, though gentle, was terrifyingly vast.

Wu just now... went in that direction.

Sumi Kichikawa's brows furrowed slightly.

Wu was just an ordinary physical education teacher who was too weak to even kill a chicken. He liked to join in on any excitement he saw.

What if his curiosity gets the better of him and he accidentally wanders into some dangerous alien territory?

The things in these mountains can't be dealt with just by calling the police.

"Auntie Touko," Sumi Kikawa stood up and smiled as usual, "I'm going to check on Satoru. He doesn't have a good sense of direction, and I'm afraid he'll get lost."

"Go on, go on. There are many forks in the road in the mountains. Come back early for dinner."

After stepping out of the courtyard and confirming that no one was around, Kikawa Sumi transformed into an extremely light afterimage and silently disappeared into the forest.

Deep in the mountains, on a vast, open grassland.

Gojo Satoru stood silently atop an extremely tall tree canopy, suppressing all his presence to zero.

Behind another ancient tree not far away, Sumi Kichikawa also blended perfectly into the shadows.

The two stood on top of each other, dozens of meters apart, neither of them noticing the other, yet their gazes simultaneously fell on the center of the grass.

Before Natsume stood an extremely tall monster that looked like it was formed from mountain mist.

Natsume held a page from the Book of Friends between his lips, clasped his hands together, and blew a strong breath.

A name radiating a soft light floated out and merged into the demon's brow.

The moment the name was returned, an extremely faint fluctuation, resonating with the demonic power, rippled outwards like a gentle breeze.

It was an extremely ordinary, even somewhat absurd, memory.

In my memory, it was a sweltering summer afternoon.

The tall monster crouched under the eaves of a dilapidated shrine to take shelter from the downpour.

Beside it sat a human girl dressed in a sailor uniform with scratches on her face—Natsume Reiko.

The girl was eating a wild peach that she had picked from who-knows-where, completely without any regard for her image.

"Humans are such fragile creatures," the monster in the memory murmured, looking at the heavy rain outside.

"Getting caught in the rain will make you sick, falling will make you bleed, and you'll die in a few decades. Since you're so fragile, why bother making friends with other vulnerable humans? Won't the other person be very sad when they die?"

The girl swallowed the peach in her mouth and casually wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You silly monster." Reiko chuckled softly, looking at the lines of raindrops hanging from the eaves.

"Who would stay out of today's sunshine just because they're afraid of tomorrow's rain?"

She stuffed the remaining half of the peach into the monster's enormous claw.

"Besides, even if I die tomorrow, at least in my memory, on this rainy afternoon, someone shared a very sweet peach with me. Isn't that enough?"

The memory, at this point, shattered like a bubble with a "pop," dissipating in the early summer night breeze.

On the grass, the tall monster slowly opened its eyes. It looked at Natsume before it, its aged face showing no sadness, only a calm sense of relief.

"Thank you, Prince Natsume." The yokai's voice was like an evening breeze passing through a pine forest. "I always thought I stayed in this mountain because I couldn't bear to be forgotten by her. But it wasn't until I received her name that I remembered..."

The monster smiled, and its enormous body began to turn into silvery-white specks of light, gradually dissipating.

"The sound of rain that afternoon was beautiful, and the peaches were sweet. I've only lived this long because I wanted to remember that taste."

Sparks of light flew everywhere, and the monster vanished completely into the night.

In Liu Yan's vision, that vast and ancient energy had completely vanished into nothingness.

Gojo Satoru remained motionless for a long time, his azure eyes appearing exceptionally deep in the moonlight.

In the shadows of the trees below, Sumi Kikawa also leaned against a tree trunk, looking up at the moonlight streaming down, her eyelashes lowered quietly.

To avoid being discovered, the two tacitly chose different routes and quietly withdrew from the forest.

Nighttime, on the outer porch of the Fujiwara family home.

A cool night breeze blew, and the chirping of insects rose and fell in the courtyard. Gojo Satoru and Sumi Kikawa sat side by side on the wooden floor, with a pot of freshly brewed hot tea between them.

Gojo Satoru, holding his teacup, gazed at the fence in the courtyard that they had repaired together during the day, and suddenly spoke: "Sumi."

"Um?"

"You said before that you came to Hachihara because of some things." Gojo Satoru turned to look at him, his azure eyes appearing exceptionally deep in the night. "Why did you come here back then?"

Sumire Kichikawa paused slightly in the hand holding the teacup.

He lowered his eyelashes and looked at the clear tea in the cup.

"Because there's something I can't understand," Sumi Kikawa said softly.

"Back then, I was thinking, if all bonds will eventually end due to various unexpected events... then why bother building them in the first place?"

Gojo Satoru was slightly taken aback.

"I've witnessed many partings and the sadness they bring. So I always feel that since we're all going to face the pain of loss in the end, it's better not to have it in the first place."

Sumire Kichikawa raised her head and looked at the night sky.

"However, during my time in Yahara, I looked at Natsume and changed my mind."

"Natsume?"

"Yes." Sumi Kikawa nodded. "In Yahara, I saw how Natsume and his friends got along. Human life is short, but it is precisely because it is short that we understand how precious it is to meet someone. Natsume is such a person."

The image of the enormous figure that had just vanished in the moonlight flashed through Sumire's mind.

"He remembers the stories, obsessions, and regrets of every friend. He never treats the time spent with someone casually just because they are a fleeting passerby."

"He cherishes every relationship with care and responds to every act of kindness with sincerity."

"It was because I saw him like that that I suddenly realized how foolish and regrettable it would be to reject the warmth of meeting someone just to avoid the pain of loss. It was at that moment that I suddenly had an impulse..."

At this point, Sumire Kichikawa's voice trembled slightly. He turned around and looked intently at Satoru Gojo, his eyes bright and focused.

"I want to find that bond that belongs to me."

"Even if it's just being there for you, or if one day I really have to lose you, at least I had that time, which is enough for me to cherish for a very long time."

Gojo Satoru quietly looked at the black-haired youth sitting next to him.

For some reason, the relieved smile on the face of the monster in the forest and the expression on the face of Kikawa Sumi in front of him seemed to overlap.

Gojo Satoru suddenly felt a sour and swollen feeling in his heart.

That idiot.

Despite how much she longed for him, and how reluctant she was to let go during their occasional embraces, she always had to pretend to be calm and composed.

If you like him so much, why should you compromise yourself and just be someone standing on the sidelines?

And what gives them the right to assume that the bond between them will disappear?

He was slightly dissatisfied, but deep down he felt a pang of bitterness because of Kikawa Sumi's confession and the emotions she had just revealed.

"Xiao Cheng," he suddenly said.

Sumire Kichikawa turned to look at him: "What's wrong?"

Gojo Satoru looked him in the eyes, and without any preamble or hesitation, bluntly uttered a sentence:

"Do you want to be with me?"

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Kikawa Sumi's eyes widened slightly, and her hand holding the teacup froze in mid-air.

His brain went blank for several seconds.

He had actually heard every single word Gojo Satoru said, but the sentences they formed together were so unbelievable that he couldn't believe them for a moment.

"...What did you say?" Sumi's voice was hoarse, with a hint of trepidation that even he himself didn't realize.

"I said," Gojo Satoru's azure eyes shone with an unprecedented fervor and determination, "Do you want to be with me?"

This is not a test, nor is it a joke.

He was really asking himself that question.

Sumire Kikawa's pupils suddenly contracted.

He had secretly imagined this scene countless times in the past, but when the words actually came out of Gojo Satoru's mouth, the enormous, almost overwhelming joy still made him dizzy for a moment.

He looked into those pale blue eyes so close to his own, and saw his reflection in them.

Reason told him that he should remain calm and answer "okay" in the gentlest tone.

But to hell with reason.

Kikawa Sumi suddenly reached out and grabbed Gojo Satoru's waist, forcefully pulling him into her arms.

It was an unreserved, even somewhat fierce, embrace.

His arm was so tight and the force was astonishing that Gojo Satoru was knocked backward by him, but then, following the force of Kikkawa Sumi, he obediently and gently leaned against his shoulder.

"Enlightenment..."

Sumire Kikawa buried her face deeply in the crook of Satoru Gojo's neck.

The moment he uttered that name, his voice was already hoarse, filled with undisguised sobs and violent trembling.

All that composure and calmness that one usually displays when strategizing and planning crumbled completely at that moment.

A scalding tear fell unexpectedly onto the skin of Gojo Satoru's neck, making his heart tremble.

"I'll treat you even better..." Sumire Kikawa's arms were wrapped tightly around Satoru Gojo's lower back. He was incoherent, only repeating this sentence.

"I swear, I will treat you better from now on... better than you are now, better than everyone else combined."

As long as you stay by my side.

Gojo Satoru leaned on his shoulder, feeling the hot tear on his neck, and listening to the incoherent promise in his ear. Suddenly, his eyes also welled up with tears.

"Yes, I know." He hugged the slightly trembling person in front of him and said softly.

He never doubted Xiaocheng's kindness towards him.

No one knows this better than him.