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The night passed without incident.
The next day.
Friday.
"A week is over in the blink of an eye…"
Kitahara Makoto woke up on time, walked to the window, and pulled open the curtains. Outside, a drizzling rain had started again at some point.
The plum rain season is indeed annoying.
Opening the life System, today's four daily tasks had already refreshed:
[Daily Task 1: Two Thousand Squats]
[Task Description: Omitted]
[Daily Task 2: One Thousand One-Handed Push-ups]
[Task Description: Omitted]
[Daily Task 3: Decompression Time]
[Task Description: Please watch pimple popping videos during meals]
[Daily Task 4: Warm Embrace]
[Task Description: The world is so cold, only embraces can warm people's hearts. Please hug any member of the opposite sex for five minutes]
"What the heck?"
The other tasks were fine, but only the third daily task left Kitahara Makoto speechless.
"Watch pimple popping videos during meals?"
"That's not decompression, that's clearly stress-inducing!"
As for the fourth hug task, Kitahara Makoto didn't take it to heart. Although Nijika, Kita, and Bocchi-chan wouldn't agree, don't forget, there's also Yamada Ryo, who gets happy when called a weirdo. The universal redemption coupon hasn't been used yet, so the five-minute hug task can be easily completed.
"…"
After washing up.
Kitahara Makoto quickly finished breakfast and left for school.
School life was calm. Kita, aside from delivering lunch at noon, gave him no opportunity to tease her. Bocchi-chan, although she would come out to eat lunch at noon, was always elusive, hiding in some dark corner, and today's search was again unsuccessful.
In the blink of an eye, it was time for school to end.
Club activity room.
The continuous drizzle had been falling since morning and hadn't stopped all day. It was naturally impossible to observe celestial phenomena in such weather, so Kitahara Makoto and Tomori could only hide in the activity room and play Monopoly.
Thump thump thump.
An urgent knocking sound suddenly rang out.
"Please come in…"
Whoosh.
Before the words were finished, the door was quickly pulled open, and a pink-haired girl rushed in, panting.
"Eh?" Takamatsu Tomori looked over in confusion, "Didn't Anon say she was going shopping with friends today?"
"There's something super urgent…"
Chihaya Anon, panting, quickly walked up to Kitahara Makoto, grabbed his right hand, and anxiously started to pull him out:
"Kitahara-kun, help!"
"Wait." Kitahara Makoto said helplessly, "At least tell me what's going on first."
Crying for help as soon as you show up, I'm not a doctor who saves lives and helps the injured. You should go to the hospital!
Chihaya Anon bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, and said with a worried tone:
"It's Karin-chan…"
"Karin?"
Kitahara Makoto felt the name sounded familiar, but for a moment, he couldn't recall who it was.
Takamatsu Tomori tilted her head and said:
"Is it the girl who was absent from the onsen inn that day?"
"That's right, it's her." Chihaya Anon bit her lip, nervously saying, "That day, Karin-chan's grandmother passed away, and Karin-chan went back to her hometown with her father and mother, so she didn't go to the onsen inn for the exorcism."
"I originally planned to ask Kitahara-kun to help peel off the curse after Karin-chan returned, but who knew that I suddenly received a message from a friend just now that Karin-chan fainted for no reason. She's in the hospital and hasn't woken up yet."
Kitahara Makoto raised his eyebrows:
"Anon-san thinks it's because of the nightmare curse?"
"It must be." Chihaya Anon's voice was worried, "Karin-chan used to be very healthy. In middle school, she was even the main player of the girls' volleyball team. How could she suddenly faint for no reason?"
"There might be other possibilities…"
Kitahara Makoto said as he took out the answer book: "Let's ask the answer book."
"Eh?"
Chihaya Anon's eyes suddenly brightened: "I'll ask, I'll ask! Kitahara-kun actually carries the answer book with him. It's come in handy."
"Here you go."
Kitahara Makoto handed the book over.
He spends most of his day outside, and there's basically no place to use the answer book at home. Carrying it with him might come in handy at a critical moment.
Like now.
"What is the reason my friend Karin-chan is unconscious?"
Chihaya Anon placed her right hand on the cover of the answer book and quickly asked.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The answer book began to flip rapidly.
As the 'cutscene' ended, a line of text quietly appeared on the blank page.
[Curse-ridden, harming the soul]
Chihaya Anon quickly said:
"It's really because of that nightmare curse!"
Kitahara Makoto, however, raised an eyebrow slightly, more concerned about the phrase "harming the soul."
Do humans really have souls?
Well, it seems they do now.
However, if the soul is injured, simply stripping away the curse from the body, it's hard to say if it can make a person recover normally…
Kitahara Makoto had a feeling it wouldn't be as simple as the onsen inn before.
"Kitahara-kun, please help save Karin-chan." Chihaya Anon clasped her hands in front of her chest, looking over pitifully, pleading, "As long as you can help Karin-chan peel off the curse, it doesn't matter what you make me do."
Although this pink-haired girl was a bit vain and liked to be admired, it must be said that she was truly sincere towards her friends.
"Helping is naturally no problem." Human lives are at stake. If he could save someone easily, Kitahara Makoto naturally wouldn't stand by, "However… give me a few more special exchange tickets."
Chihaya Anon's pretty face flushed slightly: "I'll definitely give them to you."
Kitahara Makoto asked:
"Where is your friend?"
"She should still be in the countryside. I'll ask…"
Chihaya Anon quickly took out her phone and started dialing.
Having more friends is indeed effective; it wasn't long before Chihaya Anon got precise news:
"Karin-chan's grandmother lives in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Currently, Karin-chan is receiving treatment at Shonan Kamakura General Hospital… Kitahara-kun, should we go directly to Kamakura?"
Kamakura City is only an hour's drive from Tokyo, so the distance is not far. Many office workers choose to live in Kamakura, returning there to rest at night and then taking the train to Tokyo for work during the day.
Of course, these are not important.
What is important is that, if Kitahara Makoto remembered correctly, Mai seemed to live in Kamakura…
Will he happen to run into her this time?
It shouldn't be that coincidental.
Let alone a city, even in a small neighborhood, if two people don't specifically arrange to meet, it's actually very difficult to encounter each other in daily life.
"Let's go." Kitahara Makoto nodded lightly, "We'll make a trip."
Takamatsu Tomori stood up with him, calmly saying:
"I want to go help too."
Chihaya Anon hesitated:
"But we don't know when we'll be able to come back. If it's too late, Tomori's parents will worry, right?"
"It's fine." Takamatsu Tomori whispered, "If it's too late, then I'll come back tomorrow. My parents usually come home very late, and I usually go to bed early, so as long as I don't say anything, they won't know I'm not home."
"…"
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