Chapter 269 Kamuro Masumi Capture Guide

Stepping out of the dormitory building, the crisp mountain air brushed against his face, drawn through his nose into his lungs, lifting Fuyuji Mikage’s spirits.

The sky was clear, as if washed by water, or perhaps frozen solid. A few wisps of pale cloud drifted like gossamer, lazily floating in the sky, faint and elusive, hanging leisurely in the cold air, slowly and unhurriedly stretching out.

On the clearing by the forest edge, a few sparrows paced leisurely with measured steps, pecking for food in the gradually brightening sunlight.

Following a forest path, Fuyuji stepped on the morning dew. After several twists and turns, per the meeting spot agreed upon at dinner last night, he arrived at a quiet forest trail.

The thin mist dispersed. Four beautiful girls of different bearings bathed in the rising morning light, some standing, some sitting, waiting quietly there.

Morishita Ai crouched on the ground, her big eyes fixed unblinkingly on an insect in the grass. She drew a circle around it with a stick. When it ran out of the circle, she coldly pulled it back with the stick, over and over, never tiring of it.

Shiraishi Asuka sat elegantly on a stone bench, legs together at an angle. Her violet eyes looked through the treetops toward the sun lazily poking half its head out in the azure sky. Her long lashes fluttered with each blink, like a classical beauty stepped out of a painting.

Kamuro Masumi, her purple side ponytail tied back, stood with arms crossed, her fair fingers tapping impatiently on her arm. Her gaze kept landing on the end of the surrounding forest paths, seemingly a little impatient.

Yamamura Miki sat close beside Shiraishi, pulling a speech manuscript from her off-white ladies’ bag, reciting softly with a flushed face. It seemed that speaking in front of a crowd was still too much for her.

A clear breeze swept past, lifting even Fuyuji’s originally relaxed mood. He suddenly spread both arms, closed his eyes, and, like a long-separated lover in a movie reuniting at last, ran toward them.

“Beautiful ladies, long time no see~ I’ve missed you so much~ Did any of you miss—smack!”

Before the words could finish, a fair little hand came with a rush of wind and pressed precisely onto Fuyuji’s face, instantly blocking all his movements and words.

Kamuro, who had been acting utterly indifferent but was in fact looking around, was the first to spot Fuyuji. Her eyes half-lidded, she sneered.

“What kind of daydream are you having? We just met last night. You forgot already today? As expected, a heartless scumb—”

“Chu~”

Accompanied by a warm sensation from her palm, the sound of lips meeting skin abruptly rang out in the forest.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Fuyuji smacked his lips a few times, with a trace of lingering savor, and commented with great solemnity. “No taste at all. And here it smelled so nice…”

“…”

With a whoosh, a burning sensation shot from the soles of Kamuro’s feet straight up to her face, dyeing her whole face red.

“Maybe I kissed too fast just now and couldn’t taste it…”

“You…” Kamuro lowered her head, trembling all over, murmuring under her breath.

“Hm? Bro, what are you saying?”

“A lewd pervert thinking about dirty things first thing in the morning!”

Her flushed face lifted. Her purple side ponytail flew through the air. Her long, firm thighs suddenly surged with power. Her pure white sneaker traced a beautiful semicircle in midair.

“Go die!”

“Ow!”

Half a second later, a scream exploded in the forest, startling the birds that had been chirping in the trees into flapping away in all directions.

“Snapped out of it yet, idiot?” Kamuro’s chest heaved as she ground out.

“…”

Seeing his pal was in a temper, Fuyuji, having taken a kick to the rear, immediately switched targets. Shamelessly, he ran over to the stone bench to tattle.

“Miki, Shiraishi-mama, Bro is bullying me!”

“Cut it out. I barely used any force, you pervert trying to take advantage of a girl!”

Kamuro glared at Fuyuji in a huff, but when she saw the shoe print on his rear, she felt both annoyed and amused. She could only curse, laugh, and turn her head away to look at the distant scenery.

“Is that so…”

Setting down the speech manuscript, Yamamura slowly reached out and picked off, one by one, the spider silk that had accidentally gotten tangled in Fuyuji’s hair as he passed through the forest. She placed it in her palm.

“But Fuyuji, I can’t beat Kamuro.” A serene smile appeared on her face.

“It’s fine. I’ll beat her for you.” Fuyuji was deeply moved.

“Hee hee~”

Shiraishi seemed to be in a very good mood today. She solemnly extended a slender index finger and admonished. “That’s because Fuyuji hasn’t given Kamuro any orders in too long. She’s a bit lonely. Always treating Kamuro like a bro won’t do, you know.”

Hearing this, Kamuro, who had her back to the three with her arms crossed, stiffened abruptly. Pretending to be utterly indifferent, she quietly pricked up her ears, shifted her feet, and noiselessly drew closer to the three.

“Please teach me, Shiraishi-mama!” Fuyuji, taking the hint, threw himself at Shiraishi’s red tracksuit pants.

Back when Kamuro first joined Fuyuji’s ranks and racked up countless achievements for him (read: grinding dungeons every day), it was thanks to Military Advisor Shiraishi’s careful planning and endless clever schemes that she was finally brought to heel.

Now, he—the mastermind Ryuen dreamed of, Advanced Nurturing’s Moriarty, the true power-holder of first-year Class A, Fuyuji Mikage—once again humbly sought knowledge, in pursuit of the true way of longevity.

“Then…”

Hooking a falling strand of pale golden hair with her little finger, Shiraishi’s brows and eyes curved slightly. She gently bent down, her moist red lips parting.

“Tonight, Fuyuji can do it like this…”

“Hm?” Fuyuji’s eyes widened unconsciously. “Will that work?”

“That kind of thing, Fuyuji can do it, right?” Her violet eyes flickered. Shiraishi’s water-soft voice seeped into his eardrums.

“I can, but if I get caught…”

“It’s fine. Leave that to me.”

Shiraishi raised a hand to cover the corner of her mouth and spoke with a smile.

“In that case…” Fuyuji puffed out his chest and smiled confidently. “Tonight at witching hour, just watch me—”

Before the words could finish, Fuyuji froze. He turned his head helplessly to look at the three who had all leaned in with their ears pricked. He said, a little hesitantly, “What… are you all doing?”

“Please don’t worry about that!”

Hurriedly pushing Fuyuji, Morishita said with sparkling eyes, “Boyfriend, hurry up and tell us. What’s the method to capture Kamuro Masumi?”

“…” Why do you seem more anxious than me?

Yamamura covered the lower half of her face with the speech manuscript and quietly edged closer to Fuyuji. Kamuro kept her head turned away, but her earlobes were already red as if ripe.

“I can’t say. If I say it, it won’t work.” Fuyuji refused with perfect righteousness.

“Tch, stingy boyfriend!”

Ten minutes later.

Having assembled, the group began today’s outing. They hadn’t made any particular plan, just following the forest path forward, walking and stopping as they went.

Morishita took the lead with a stick, pushing aside the brush in front with a “heave-ho, heave-ho.” Fuyuji walked shoulder to shoulder with Yamamura and Shiraishi behind her. Kamuro walked at the very back with a stiff face, occasionally staring at Fuyuji with a grave expression, no one knew what she was thinking.

“Huh? Miki, your assigned speech topic is ‘The Future’?”

Fuyuji spread open the clean white paper. Yamamura’s neat handwriting came into view. Her writing was top-notch too.

“Mm.” Yamamura gave a soft acknowledgment and reached out to pinch the hem of Fuyuji’s red tracksuit jacket. “But it’s so hard. There’ll be so many people below. A couple of days ago in the big group, no one even paid attention to me.”

“That really is a headache.” Fuyuji was rather helpless about it too.

In his eyes, Yamamura was one of the top beauties, virtuous and gentle, and very easy to talk to. Yet her presence was just that mysterious. If you didn’t seriously commit her to memory, one blink and you’d forget where she was.

Fortunately, the speech wasn’t judged by the audience’s reaction. The “volume” criterion was basically hopeless given Yamamura’s soft-spoken nature, but “deportment,” “content,” and “delivery” were still areas she could work on.

“Then later, want to read it to me first? Or give the speech to the forest once. Maybe you’ll get used to it a bit.” Fuyuji scanned the content of the speech.

“That’s what I was planning too.”

“Huh…” Suddenly, Fuyuji’s stepping foot slowed.

“What’s wrong?” Yamamura tilted her face adorably.

“Miki… has this speech been revised by someone?” Fuyuji raised a hand to rub his chin.

The speech was still overall in Yamamura’s style, but some of the wording was clearly not written by the shy-natured Yamamura. A lot of vibrant, energetic content had been added, lending the piece considerably more persuasive power.

“Ah, this.” Hearing that, Yamamura was first taken aback, then a warm smile appeared on her face. “Because Ichinose-san helped me revise it.”

“Ichinose?” Fuyuji was slightly startled.

Ichinose, who loved helping others, was indeed the kind of girl who would do this. But he felt something was off.

“Yes, Ichinose-san.”

At this moment, Shiraishi, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, cut in. She looked at Fuyuji with a half-smile.

“She seems to be a little concerned about Yamamura. Does Fuyuji know what that’s about?”

“Concerned?” Fuyuji was also a bit lost. “Miki, did you know Ichinose before?”

“Mm, no…” Yamamura shook her head. “No. After the uninhabited island, I haven’t spoken to Ichinose-san. Should I stay away from her?”

“No need for that.”

Ichinose Honami having designs on Miki… No matter how you thought about it, it was impossible. At most, she wanted something from Miki and was hoping Miki would help her with something.

But Fuyuji thought it over and over and really couldn’t figure out what about Yamamura was worth Ichinose’s attention. As the leader of first-year Class B and the school’s super-popular beauty, at least among the girls, he couldn’t think of anything Ichinose didn’t have.

“Strange…”

However, before Fuyuji could figure out the reason, a splish-splash sound came from the end of the forest. Passing through the somewhat dim woods, they reached the end of the forest path. The view suddenly opened up. The sky brightened. A stream babbled past at the edge of the mountain forest.

“Heh heh~”

Tossing the stick in her hand aside with a clatter, Morishita’s eyes lit up with a swoosh. She set off at a brisk pace toward the stream. “Ai-sama has successfully reached the dream sea at the end of the world!”

‘Forget it. Next time I’ll just ask her directly…’

Wiping the question from his mind, Fuyuji quickly waved and hurried after her.

“Don’t run so fast. It’ll be trouble if you fall into the stream. Also, last time I saw a battle-scarred wild boar nearby.”

“Not scared!”

Her two dark blue braids streaming behind her, Morishita ran while looking back, full of confidence.

“Ai-sama has the blood of a forest druid—eek!”

The figure that a second ago had been by the stream vanished from view the next.

“I told you not to run so fast…”

Fuyuji sped up again. In the blink of an eye, he reached the gentle slope where the woods met the stream. There were no stones around, just a few stubborn clumps of withered yellow grass stems and dark green moss patches wedged in the crevices, like faded patches. Morishita lay motionless on the ground by the stream.

“Ai, how are you?” He came down the slope to Morishita’s side and bent over to look.

“Boyfriend-kun, it hurts…” Morishita didn’t look up right away. A muffled voice came from her arm. Her usually emotionless voice now carried a hint of pitifulness.

Fuyuji leaned closer to Morishita’s body. The familiar peachy fragrance lingered faintly around his nose. “Where did you hit? Let me see.”

“Just kidding!”

In an instant, the suppressed voice turned cheerful. Morishita turned her body with a whoosh and, quick as a flash, stuffed the hand she’d been hiding against her side, soaked in the icy stream water, precisely into the back of Fuyuji’s neck!

“Hiss!”

Fuyuji sharply sucked in a breath of cold air. His body instantly went rigid. A piercing chill stabbed through his skin and shot straight to his brain, then rapidly spread out from the point of contact. It carried a strange, burning ache, as if seared by an invisible flame.

“Girlfriend!” Fuyuji grabbed Morishita’s wrist. Her wet little hand, in the sunlight, was fair and delicate. “You actually dared to ambush me!”

“Heh heh, serves you right for not talking to me this whole time, boyfriend.” Ai-sama was smug.

“Don’t get cocky!” Fuyuji stretched out an arm, rinsed his palm in the clear stream a few times, then pulled it out with a splash. Stream water dripped from his wrist to the ground. “Watch me repay you in kind!”

“Mmph!”

Seeing trouble, Morishita quickly stood up from the ground, silently stepped back two paces, turned, and ran.

“Stingy boyfriend, not letting Ai-sama have anything!”

“Serves you right for never listening to your boyfriend. Stop right there!” Fuyuji immediately gave chase. “When I catch you, don’t you dare beg for mercy!”

“There’s no ‘beg for mercy’ in the Morishita family dictionary!”

Watching the two run further and further away, Yamamura, who had just been worrying softly about her speech, rose on her tiptoes, cupped a hand to her mouth like a megaphone.

“You two, don’t run too far!”

“Okay!” x2