I am only one world away from Yukinoshita.

“I’ve finished eating, Nakagawa-senpai. Let’s find somewhere else to talk.”

Nakagawa immediately fell silent, and Kiyoyori followed suit, preparing to leave his seat.

"Tachibana!"

“Thank you, Yoshikawa-senpai. I know what I’m doing,” Kiyoyori paused, “I’m entrusting Mizore-senpai to you.”

"Tachibana, you..."

Yoshikawa opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. He then took Mizore's hand and walked in the opposite direction from Kiyori and Nakagawa.

"You'd better know what you're doing."

Watching the two figures leave, Kiyoyori turned back, waved to Mizore, and sighed.

This is such a hassle.

P.S.: If you see chapters 32 and 33 that are the same, it's probably because the page hasn't refreshed. I accidentally posted chapter 32 by mistake; it's been replaced with the original content. Refreshing or logging in again should fix it. I really can't think of any chapter titles... my mind is completely blank. Work is so tiring.

Chapter 35, Section 196: The Sun Through My Eyes

"Nakagawa-senpai, about the matter you asked me to do last time."

To avoid the other members of the wind band, the two deliberately went to a place far away from the campfire, at the edge of a dark forest, where only a street lamp flickered.

Completely different from the lively atmosphere around the campfire, it was very quiet here. You could hear the wind rustling through the leaves, and even the occasional passerby was rarely seen.

“Today I noticed that you and Asuka-senpai didn’t leave with the others, and you didn’t come to eat for a long time, so I guessed that you might have asked Asuka-senpai about that matter,” Nakagawa said nervously, crossing his arms. “So, what did Asuka-senpai say?”

Seeing Nakagawa's eager eyes, Kiyoyori answered without hesitation, "Asuka won't tell me."

Her tone was sincere, as if it were true, and her voice was completely calm, just like always. She successfully fooled Nakagawa, and almost fooled herself as well.

"I see..." Nakagawa sighed, her disappointment clearly visible, but she quickly cheered up and smiled, "Thank you for your help, Tachibana-san."

As if pricked by something, Qinglai felt a sharp pain in his chest, but the pain quickly disappeared. "I just did what I needed to do."

"Tachibana-san, do you think I'm being a bit nosy?" Nakagawa asked Kiyoyori with a mischievous look.

“No,” Kiyoyori’s deep voice was like a cool night breeze, “No matter what Nakagawa-senpai’s reasons were for wanting to help Kasaki-senpai, it can’t be summed up with just ‘meddling.’ Besides, Nakagawa-senpai considers Kasaki-senpai a friend, so it’s even less of a matter of meddling.”

Nakagawa looked at Kiyoyori in surprise, "I thought Tachibana-san wouldn't say something like that."

"I do have a few friends, though."

Kiyoshi answered half-jokingly.

"Haha, now I know why Yuko looks at you differently," Nakagawa teased, glancing at the puzzled Kiyoyori. "Yuko really likes you. After all, there aren't many people who can make her say 'I'll leave Mizore to you.'"

Is this referring to something that happened before the regional tournament? Kiyoyori simply assumed that Yoshikawa was leaving a message because his future actions might lead to him being asked to leave the club.

"I met Nozomi when we were still in Nanchong High School. Back then, she was the radiant captain of the brass band. She was gentle and unpretentious, and her smile was as warm as the sun. I admired her a lot. But she didn't know me back then; it was just me who wanted to understand her."

It sounds like the clichéd beginning of a romantic love story, but Kiyoshi can sense that Nakagawa doesn't have any feelings for Kasaki beyond friendship.

Aspiration, the sun.

A figure appeared in Kiyoshi's mind.

“The year we graduated, the brass band at Nanchong High School suffered a huge blow. The members seemed to be depressed for a long time, including Nozomi,” Nakagawa paused. “The next time I saw her was at Soubu High School. She had joined the brass band again, and this time, I signed up too.” Suddenly remembering how he had joined the band without knowing anything and was unwittingly dragged into the bass section by Asuka-senpai, Nakagawa chuckled softly. “I originally thought I could get closer to Nozomi, but I didn’t expect the brass band to have another big problem last year.”

Those were probably dark days that were hard to forget. Although she wasn't the one who was directly hurt, and because Asuka's bass part was different from the other parts, Nakagawa still remembered that incident vividly.

Too many people have been hurt, whether it's Nozomi and her group who insisted on leaving the club, or people like Yuko who still persevered, or Kaori who sacrificed so much for them.

“I couldn’t help Nozomi, and I even made things worse,” Nakagawa said with a bitter smile, recalling his naive and reckless self a year ago. “In the end, things still turned out the worst. We did nothing but watch everything happen and wait for it to end.”

Kiyoshi didn't speak, he just listened quietly.

"So this time, I want to be a source of strength for Hime. She loves music so much, she loves the flute so much. Someone like her deserves to be here more than I do."

After a moment of silence, Kiyoyori offered no comment on Nakagawa's words. "Are Nakagawa-senpai and Kasaki-senpai in the same class?"

"Oh, why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"Senior Mizore too?"

"Yes, Mizore is also in our class, but she doesn't talk to others much."

A strange feeling welled up in Kiyoyori's heart. "He doesn't even speak to Kasaki-senpai?"

"Huh?" Nakagawa thought about it seriously for a moment, "It seems that I don't talk much..."

They almost never even bump into each other.

Nakagawa didn't know much about Mizore. Although they were members of the same club, they weren't in the same vocal part and didn't talk often, so she didn't know much about her. She only knew that Yuko cared about Mizore a lot and was even a little overprotective.

"Is that so..."

Kiyoshi tapped his arm lightly with his fingers, seemingly lost in thought.

Is there a problem?

"No, I just remembered that Senior Mizore was originally from the Minami-Chū brass band."

"Those two don't seem to interact much, but actually Nozomi cares about Mizore quite a bit. Nozomi really likes Mizore's oboe; I've heard her talk about it a lot before." Nakagawa shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah……"

Suddenly, the tranquility of the grove was broken by a series of hurried footsteps, accompanied by heavy and rapid breathing, as if someone was fleeing from pursuit.

"what happened?"

The woods at night, unlit by any lights, were somewhat unsettling. Nakagawa and Kiyoyori, like two bows drawn taut, both turned toward the direction of the sound.

All they could see was darkness. The only thing they could hear was the sound of hurried, chaotic footsteps approaching. They realized that someone was getting closer, and upon closer listening, they could hear that there were several people.

Kiyoshi stopped Nakagawa from reflexively turning on the flashlight on his phone, indicating that it was best not to alert him and not to reveal himself since he couldn't predict what he would see next.

At Qinglai's instruction, the two retreated to the streetlight and stared intently at the edge of the woods.

A few short girls rushed out of the path, clearly still elementary school students. As their faces became clearer under the light, Kiyoyori recognized the girl standing at the front as Tsurumi Rumi, whom he had met some time ago.

Nakagawa, who was standing beside him, breathed a sigh of relief and slowly walked to the children. The children were clearly frightened and stood there, panting. Some of them had tears on their faces.

"Tsurumi, what happened?"

Upon finally seeing familiar faces, Tsurumi suddenly threw herself into Kiyori's arms, her small hands clutching Kiyori's clothes, still trembling.

Kiyoshi patted the other person's head, looking slightly flustered, but he noticed something in the girl who, despite being together, was standing separately, seemingly not wanting to stand with the others.

He understood; it seemed the Service Department had adopted Hikigaya's idea.

P.S.: Regarding whether the Little Angel and Umbrella Brother are in the same class... because in the school festival in the anime, the Little Angel, Umbrella Brother, and Natsuki all wore maid outfits as waitresses, so I set it up that way. However... it's really strange that they never talk to each other even though they're in the same class. It can only be assumed that the Little Angel is always avoiding Umbrella Brother. While writing this chapter, I suddenly realized that the Umbrella Brother and Natsuki pairing, this unorthodox CP, is actually kind of appealing.

Chapter 36, Section 197: A Glance That Lasts a Lifetime

After sending Nakagawa back, Kiyoyori led the silent elementary school students back to the camp.

The camp was roughly divided into two groups of children: those who had already participated in the courage test and those who hadn't. Apart from a few girls around me, the other children didn't show any obvious fear on their faces. Instead, they were laughing and joking, and some were even having a lively discussion about whether the courage test was really scary.

After looking around and not seeing anyone familiar, Kiyoyori was about to leave when a small hand grabbed the hem of his clothes.

"Ching Lai."

The small obstacle could not stop Kiyori from leaving, but she still turned around and looked at Tsurumi Rumi.

"what happened?"

Kiyoshi bent down slightly to shorten the height difference between himself and the little girl.

Are you leaving now?

"It's almost time for practice."

Kiyoshi tapped her wristwatch with her fingers. Actually, there was still some time before the practice started, but there was a small fireworks display coming up. She had previously made an appointment with Reina and the others to set off fireworks together, and she didn't want to break her promise.

"The person we were in the woods just now, was he Kiyoyori's friend?"

Kiyoyori didn't realize it at first, thinking the other person was talking about Nakagawa, before she realized that she was probably talking about someone who was acting with the Service Club.

"Not friends, just seniors from school."

Although she didn't know exactly who the bad cops were, Kiyoyori couldn't help but laugh whenever she thought of Yukinoshita with a straight face, deliberately acting like a delinquent.

Seemingly noticing Kiyori's suppressed laughter, Tsurumi sighed with feigned maturity, "That was just to scare us, wasn't it?"

"Why do you say that?"

Kiyoshi looked at the unusually sensitive little girl in front of him with great interest.

“Because the others obviously didn’t encounter this kind of thing,” Tsurumi looked back at the girl who was with her and still looked scared, as well as the other classmates who were completely unaware of this, “They deliberately chose our group from the beginning.”

"Maybe they specifically chose your group because it's all girls and easy to bully?"

“The contrast is too great,” Tsurumi said after calming down, and then he realized the many loopholes in his previous statements. “Although it is a big shock compared to their usual gentle demeanor, it is very sudden when you think about it carefully. Moreover, after we escaped, they did not seem to care about us at all. It seems that they are not afraid of us telling others.”

Perhaps it was the forest at night, already imbued with elements of horror, that amplified their fear, or perhaps it was the earnest acting of those people that made it difficult for them to think for a moment. But after calming down and thinking carefully, Tsurumi realized the intentions of the Service Club and the others. She lowered her head and gripped the camera that had just made such a great contribution.

“Just as you guessed, it was all an act to deceive you,” Kiyoyori straightened up and distanced himself from Tsurumi. “They should come to apologize to you soon.”

"However, I think you should know why they did this. Now the opportunity is in your hands, and whether you succeed or not depends on yourself."

Kiyoshi took a step back, then turned and walked towards the hotel.

"Tachibana-san."

Turning his head in response, Kiyoyori saw a face dressed in a pure white yukata, with half of it rotting.

Completely unprepared, Qinglai's heart skipped a beat, and he stood frozen in place, his eyes almost losing their sparkle.

But why does this voice sound so familiar?

"Yukinoshita, senpai?"

As if oblivious to Kiyoshiro's unease, Yukinoshita slowly walked to the streetlight. The stark white light made her heavily made-up face appear even more terrifying. Kiyoshiro instinctively wanted to back away, but she managed to restrain herself.