Chapter Ninety-Three: Watching the Sunrise!

The next day.

A sharp alarm rang out inside the tent.

Roused from sleep, An He groped sleepily out of his sleeping bag and, after some fumbling around, found the phone that would not stop vibrating.

He held it up to his face and checked the time: 4:50 in the morning. Not even five yet.

Since they still had to go see the sunrise today, he gave up on sleeping in, yawned once, and, once his mind had properly come online, climbed out of the sleeping bag.

Because there was no lamp on, the tent was swallowed in darkness.

Two distinctly different feminine fragrances drifted through the air.

He turned on his phone, and by the faint glow of the screen could just make out the outlines of two sleeping bags lying on either side of him.

The one on the right was slightly smaller, and a half-spill of golden hair slipped out from the mouth of the bag. It was obviously Saori Amamiya.

An He nudged her lightly with his foot, but she only mumbled sleepily, turned over, and stopped reacting altogether.

She slept very deeply, though that was understandable; after all, she had not fallen asleep until after one in the morning last night.

Of course, before that, An He and she had only gone as far as hugging, kissing, and touching. They had not taken the final step.

During that time, Saori Amamiya had taken out the discarded umbrella that An He had thrown aside several times, but each time he had firmly refused.

It was not that he was putting on a saintly front. It was simply that Saori Amamiya was still too young.

Too young in every sense.

Whether in age, or in...

An He did not want to leave her with irreversible harm just because of a bit of his own desire.

Of course, what would happen when she was grown and ready for that would be another matter.

He shook his head, flinging those messy thoughts away, and moved the light of his phone toward the left.

There, too, was a sleeping bag, except this one was noticeably larger.

In the dim glow, an exquisite, sweet sleeping face lay openly exposed before him.

Perhaps sensing something, the eyelashes of Shizuku Amamiya fluttered faintly, and then she opened her eyes.

Just awake, her gaze was still a little dazed. Only after she made out the figure standing beside her did she fully stir.

"It’s me."

An He reminded her first.

He was afraid she would be startled and cry out, waking Saori Amamiya beside them.

To his surprise, however, she remained perfectly calm from beginning to end.

"I know it’s you."

Speaking softly, Shizuku Amamiya slowly crawled out of her sleeping bag and sat up. Her slightly disheveled hair spilled loosely down her back.

Beside her delicate collarbone, the loose sleepwear had slid from her shoulder, revealing a large patch of pale skin and a faint curve of softness.

She clearly did not care whether she was exposed. Under the dim light from An He’s phone, she scanned the tent once more. Seeing that Saori Amamiya was still asleep, she looked back at him and asked curiously,

"What time is it now?"

"Not quite five yet," An He said in a low voice.

He sat down in front of Shizuku Amamiya and, with a caring hand, tugged the fallen hem of her clothes back into place.

"Want to sleep a little longer?"

"No need. I went to sleep very early yesterday."

Shizuku Amamiya shook her head. She had fallen asleep after dinner yesterday and had slept until now, though she had been awakened several times by strange noises during the night...

Thinking of that, a peculiar expression crossed her face. She stared straight at An He until his breathing grew slower, then finally spoke.

"Weren’t we supposed to go watch the sunrise today?"

"Huh?"

Her words made An He freeze for a moment. At the same time, a voice rang in his mind.

[She has already noticed something, but she has not said it outright. Clearly, she is harboring some unspeakable scheme. In that case, why not strike first and take both sisters at once? After opening their hearts to one another, the two of them surely would no longer mind each other’s existence.]

"That’s so you, you perverted narration voice. Everything you say sounds like it should get you arrested!"

Though what the narration said was maddeningly tempting, An He was of course not bold enough to actually do that.

At the very least, not before Saori Amamiya grew up...

He gave two embarrassed laughs, then pointed toward the dull gray sky outside the tent’s clear window and explained, "It’s still early. I was planning to let you both sleep a little longer."

At that, Shizuku Amamiya’s lips curved faintly. Her gaze turned to Saori Amamiya, still curled up in her sleeping bag, and then she suddenly lifted a leg and slipped her pale foot, tinged with a hint of pink, into the opening of Saori’s sleeping bag.

Her intention was simply to wake Saori Amamiya up. But to her complete surprise, the moment her foot entered the bag, it was seized by two small hands.

Then came the sensation of something slick, moist, and faintly warm.

Like sucking on a pacifier as a child.

Shizuku Amamiya was startled and hurriedly pulled her foot back.

When she looked more closely, the tips of her pink toes were wet.

That brat had put them in her mouth!

Shizuku Amamiya’s pretty face instantly flushed red with embarrassed fury.

An He, too, was furious.

"Just look at that. I haven’t even licked my own wife’s feet yet, and Saori Amamiya already snatched the chance away. Outrageous!"

"Wait, why am I even thinking about licking feet?"

Suddenly, An He frowned, feeling that something about him might be a little off.

As though...

He was starting to resemble the narration voice.

"Hiss... can perversion be contagious?"

He could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

[You seem a little confused by the thought that just arose in you. Strange. Isn’t licking the lovely feet of a high school girl exactly the sort of thing you have always dreamed of?]

The narration that suddenly rang out was like a ruthless brute, yanking away the fig leaf standing before An He.

"Dammit, that was only in my past life!"

He defended himself desperately, but the narration gave no response at all, carrying a distinctly heartless, post-pleasure-disowns-everything kind of scum-man attitude.

While An He was arguing one-on-one with the narration, Shizuku Amamiya made a new move.

She stood up first, then groped her way to the ceiling lamp and switched it on.

A warm yellow light chased away the darkness.

She looked again toward Saori Amamiya. The girl was still curled up inside her sleeping bag, with only two golden twin tails showing outside.

The tent fell silent. Faintly, they could still hear the steady rhythm of breathing coming from within the bag.

It was obvious Saori Amamiya was still fast asleep.

It was as though biting Shizuku Amamiya’s foot had been no more significant to her than eating jelly in a dream.

At the sight, Shizuku Amamiya’s chest ached with anger. She strode to the side of Saori Amamiya’s sleeping bag and shoved a hand inside.

Before the other girl could use the same trick again, Shizuku Amamiya had already pinched Saori Amamiya’s cheeks and pulled them hard apart.

Pain shot through her, and after struggling for a while, Saori Amamiya finally woke from her sleep.

At first she thrashed a little, and only after finally shaking free of the two hands pinching her face did she poke out half her head from the sleeping bag.

"Huh?"

Letting out a confused sound, Saori Amamiya tilted her head and squinted around blankly. She only stopped when she saw Shizuku Amamiya’s red, embarrassed face.

"What’s wrong, sis?"

As she spoke, she rubbed her slightly sore cheek and muttered, "I just dreamed that I turned into a cat, but some bad person caught me and pulled out my whiskers one by one."

At that, Shizuku Amamiya raised an eyebrow, then put on a gentle expression and bent down with her hands on her knees to ask,

"And what else? Before the whiskers, what else did you dream about?"

Saori Amamiya did not realize what that smile meant. After hearing the question, she thought for a moment, and her face gradually showed a disappointed look.

"I dreamed about candied hawthorn sticks too, but before I could even take two bites, someone snatched them away."

"..."

Shizuku Amamiya was clearly left speechless by that answer.

Almost unconsciously, she looked down. The two toes that had been bitten earlier were wet and glistening, catching the light with a faint crystal sheen.

Seeing that her sister said nothing, Saori Amamiya was still wondering when An He’s voice suddenly rang out.

"Could it be... that the candied hawthorn stick you’re talking about was actually Shizuku-chan’s foot?"

As he spoke, An He forcibly held back his laughter and pointed toward Shizuku Amamiya’s foot.

"Huh?"

Saori Amamiya clearly did not believe it. But when she followed the direction of An He’s finger and saw her sister’s two damp toes, she fell silent.

She had not noticed it before, but thinking back on it now, the candied hawthorn stick she had just eaten did seem a little too soft.

...

After that little episode, no one felt sleepy anymore.

After washing up and eating a simple breakfast, the three of them set off right on time at 5:20. Their camping gear was entrusted to a nearby inn for safekeeping.

After spending more than ten minutes, they arrived at a mountaineering shop and rented three sets of climbing equipment.

On the road leading to the shrine opposite Mount Fuji, An He gradually edged closer to Saori Amamiya and asked in a low voice,

"Tell me honestly, what exactly does Shizuku’s foot taste like?"

"Huh?"

Saori Amamiya froze. She thought she must have misheard, but when she saw An He’s serious expression, she still instinctively shook her head.

"I don’t know. I was asleep by then. But it probably didn’t smell bad."

"I see."

An He nodded.

Seeing his disappointed expression, Saori Amamiya’s eyes flickered. She suddenly leaned closer to him, brought her mouth near his ear, and whispered,

"If, if you want to lick them, An He, you can lick mine too..."

After saying that, she hurriedly added,

"Don’t worry, my feet don’t stink at all."

...

The snow-covered scenery in the early morning was quiet and beautiful. The world was blanketed beneath a layer of pure white, everything hushed and serene.

Snowflakes drifted down, landing softly on branches, rooftops, and the ground. The whole world seemed to have become a silver sea.

Above, the moon and stars were reflected in the snow, shining with a gentle light.

The air was filled with a fresh, clean scent, mingled with the crisp patter of shoes crunching through packed snow. It always made one feel calm and at peace.

After more than an hour, the three of them crossed the residential district of Yamanashi Prefecture and came to the foot of a mountain far from the county seat yet still facing Mount Fuji in the distance.

The destination lay up the mountain: Blessing Shrine.

When people think of a shrine, many of them first picture a place steeped in history, formal and solemn. But in truth, Japan also has many shrines with very distinctive characteristics.

Among them, Blessing Shrine in Yamanashi Prefecture is especially famous for its architecture and the kind of visitors it attracts.

If one had to choose the color that best embodied a girl’s heart, it would surely be pink.

And Blessing Shrine seemed to carry that ideal to the very end; the entire shrine was pink from top to bottom, practically a shrine built around a single pink theme.

It was also the only shrine in the country dedicated to the deity of love.

The shrine’s name came from an old legend about a love tree, built to comfort Sugawara no Michizane after his exile to Dazaifu and to soothe his longing for his wife and children far away in the capital.

Since ancient times, it had been widely worshiped as a shrine of love, and people would come here to pray for romance, marriage, and a happy family life.

It was largely for this reason that Shizuku Amamiya had chosen this place.

Following the snow-covered road upward, and passing through several torii gates, the three of them stopped halfway up the mountain.

From here, the towering silhouette of Mount Fuji spread out perfectly before their eyes.

"Let’s stop here. We can take a break too."

As An He spoke, he set down his pack.

Inside were emergency supplies and food. Though not much, together they weighed nearly forty jin, and carrying that much by oneself, along with climbing gear, made the ascent fairly tiring.

Noticing this, Shizuku Amamiya, who had already sat down in the snow, stood up and walked slowly to An He’s side. In a soft voice, she said,

"Let me knead your shoulders."

At that, An He did not stand on ceremony. He leaned his head back and let it rest against Shizuku Amamiya’s stomach.

As time passed, a faint blush slowly appeared along the eastern edge of the sky.

The sun gradually rose into view. Its light was still gentle, warm upon the body, yet enough to illuminate the whole sky.

In the distance, a stretch of snow glittered in the sunlight, as though draped in a veil of gold. At this moment, the trees and shrubs in the snow also began to reveal their outlines little by little, their branches hung with a thin layer of frost, sparkling with translucent brilliance.

"So beautiful!"

Saori Amamiya could not help exclaiming as she bounced back and forth in the snow.

Because she had not slept well, she had been rather listless the whole way, but the moment she saw the scene before her, she instantly perked up.

Behind her, Shizuku Amamiya also stopped kneading his shoulders. She wrapped her arms around An He’s neck and quietly watched the sun rise with him.

No matter how bitter the winter, the appearance of the sun always brought warmth and hope.

As the sun climbed higher, the sky kept changing color—from deep blue to pale blue, then to gold, and finally back to blue again.

Daylight fully broke.

Stretching, An He stood up from the snow.

He brushed the snow from his clothes and looked at Shizuku Amamiya with a soft smile.

"See? Going out for a walk does make you feel a lot better, doesn’t it?"

At his words, Shizuku Amamiya smiled and nodded. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Saori Amamiya, still running around happily in the distance, before she looked back at An He again and stepped forward on tiptoe.

In the first light of dawn, the two of them embraced, feeling the warmth of each other’s body.

After a long while, their lips parted, and a thread of shimmering silver light between them broke away.

At the sight, a faint blush rose to Shizuku Amamiya’s lovely face.