Itomori Mountain.
Once again, climbing the mountain.
From amidst the orange-red maple leaves and the thick white snow, Yukima Azuma looked up and gazed downward.
The town that once glead with lights, full of human presence—
Had completely disappeared.
In its place, a deep blue lake quietly stretched out.
From the mountaintop, looking down—
It was a breathtaking sight.
Especially when knowing that the beautiful lake had only recently ford.
It was caused by a streak of light that had been seen falling here.
It made the scene even more shocking.
The fall of a teorite was a natural disaster that had existed since ancient tis.
It was ranked alongside tsunamis and earthquakes.
And Yukima Azuma had also once witnessed a tsunami.
Although he possessed a few supernatural abilities,
Compared to a sight as striking as this, the powers he personally held seed insignificant.
Both of the twin gods residing in his chest
Also seed to beco mundane.
Abilities to control probability and human desires—
It seed that was all there was to it.
And such a force, comparable to a natural disaster, was sothing that humans had already mastered.
Though it was unknown just how powerful the so-called gods and spiritual energy could be once they reached their limits,
Yukima Azuma felt that trying to use that to overthrow modern human society seed sowhat unrealistic.
"There's a squirrel."
₍ᐢ◌•ㅅ•◌ᐢ₎
Suou Yuki's voice ca from beside him.
Yukima Azuma followed the direction of her voice.
He saw that Suou Yuki was standing under a large pine tree.
And on the pine branch, there was indeed a gray squirrel, staring directly at Suou Yuki.
"Do you want to follow it and try to find where it stores its food?"
Yukima Azuma smiled and asked.
Hearing this, Suou Yuki tilted her head and curiously asked:
"Even if we find it, there probably wouldn't be much, it wouldn't even be enough to eat a few bites."
( • ᴖ • ｡)
The size of the squirrel had misled Suou Yuki.
After she raised her hand to estimate the size of the squirrel,
It, which had been staring at Suou Yuki, suddenly darted up the tree.
Then, on the upper part of the tree, where the branches and leaves obscured it, it jumped a few tis and disappeared from view.
"Squirrels are small animals with a very serious habit of storing food."
"A single squirrel usually has four to six places to store food."
"One storage spot of seeds can roughly et the food needs of an adult for three to seven days."
Yukima Azuma shared so knowledge.
In Australia, squirrels had spread like a plague.
Many tis, the power of farms in Australia would suddenly be cut off.
Mostly due to these squirrels.
These small creatures could stuff pine seeds into hollow electric poles that two people couldn't even wrap their arms around.
When workers cleaned up, the amount of pine seeds that fell out was enough to fill an excavator.
After being inford,
Suou Yuki widened her eyes. She turned her head to look for traces of the squirrel.
Σ(°ロ°)
After searching for a long while, she couldn't find it anywhere.
Suou Yuki showed a look of regret.
"A windfall has slipped away!"
(╥‸╥)
Yukima Azuma reached out and pinched Suou Yuki's cheek.
The young lady Suou seed to be bothered by the squirrel's food storage.
"Even if there are many pine seeds, that's not really a windfall from the heavens, is it?"
After pinching her cheek,
Yukima Azuma felt that Suou Yuki's cheek was sowhat cold.
After all, it was winter, and they were on a high mountain.
So, his fingers naturally opened and rested on Suou Yuki's cheek.
He gently rubbed her soft cheek with his fingers, warming her up.
"Ehehe~."
( ∩´͈ ᐜ `͈∩)
Feeling the warmth from Azuma's hand on her cheek,
Suou Yuki let out a silly laugh.
These two didn't seem like they were on the mountain for a serious purpose.
Rather, they seed more like a couple out for a leisure hike.
...
Half a day passed.
They walked and stopped, and eventually reached the top of Itomori Mountain.
From the mountaintop, looking around,
Except for the scenery in the direction of Itomori Town, everything else was vastly different.
On Itomori Mountain, it seed that nothing had changed in the past three years.
The snow covering the mountaintop made it a bit more difficult to determine the direction.
But Yukima Azuma had an intelligence status of eight.
Though his mory wasn't quite as extraordinary as being able to rember everything at a glance,
It was almost that good.
Moreover, for Yukima Azuma, the previous mountain climb wasn't that long ago.
It didn't take long before Yukima Azuma could distinguish the direction where the shrine was located.
Leaving a trail of footprints on the snow-covered ground,
The two of them followed the direction in mory and arrived at the cave where the Itomori god's shrine was placed.
Inside the cave, there was almost no dust.
The snow that had settled only reached the entrance, not spilling inside even a little.
After entering,
Yukima Azuma imdiately saw, next to the shrine, the familiar Kumihimo Itomori knots.
Moreover, the newest ones, which had almost no dust on them, radiated brilliant colors.
Seeing Yukima Azuma's gaze linger on the Kumihimo knots,
Suou Yuki quickly spoke up:
"This year, Miyamizu-san, just like in previous years, has co here."
"Miyamizu-san's grandmother didn't co, after all, she's quite old…"
"Moreover, they've moved down to the town outside Itomori Mountain, going back and forth would be tiring."
Yukima Azuma nodded slightly.
He then lowered his gaze.
Regarding the young girl he knew but had never t,
Yukima Azuma felt sowhat complex emotions.
"Also… it seems like Miyamizu-san doesn't rember anything about you anymore."
(｡•́︿•̀｡)
Suou Yuki hesitated and added.
After their swapper end,
She had t Miyamizu Mitsuha a few tis as a friend and had so conversations.
But she noticed that Miyamizu Mitsuha seed to have forgotten everything related to Yukima Azuma.
As for this, Yukima Azuma wasn't too surprised.
In the original setup, the Itomori god would erase all mories related to the person after the swap ended.
It was just that he had previously negotiated terms with the Itomori god.
As an outsider coming to help, the Itomori god had little to no impact on Yukima Azuma aside from swapping identities with Mitsuha.
The two of them approached the shrine.
Yukima Azuma raised his hand and tapped on the stone shrine.
He was thinking about how to communicate with the Itomori god.
Then, suddenly, a brilliant streak of colorful light shot out from the shrine.
Suou Yuki's eyes widened in surprise.
This was the second ti she had witnessed such an extraordinary sight.
Clearly, the last ti they were here, no matter how they prayed, the Itomori god did not respond at all.
The seven-colored light, right before the shrine, transford into the familiar multicolored butterfly that Yukima Azuma knew.
Yukima Azuma extended his hand.
The multicolored butterfly gently landed on his finger.
Seeing that the Itomori god seed very approachable,
Yukima Azuma felt that his perception might have been a bit off.
During the previous swapper, the Itomori god was basically soone who valued words like gold.
Yukima Azuma had once thought that this was a arrogant and cold god.
Or rather, at that ti, he thought all gods were like that.
Until he t Star and Lumine—two gods with completely different personalities.
Yukima Azuma realized that gods, too, had personalities not much different from humans.
"Hello, it's a pleasure to et you again."
"Thank you so much for your help. Thanks to you, everyone in Itomori was able to turn their fate around."
"May I ask, is there anything you need my help with this ti?"
The voice of the Itomori god was still clear and ethereal as before.
However, this ti, it no longer felt distant.
It had even beco quite open.
In each word, there was a deep sense of gratitude.
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