The four seasons in Towada are full of changes, with dense beech trees, pine trees, etc. growing neatly. Hakkoda in winter is an ideal ski resort, where you can shuttle among the natural tree clusters and experience the highest level of mountain skiing.
In addition to the ski resort, the most famous hot spring here is the sour soup hot spring. This hot spring is acidic and is mainly a weak salt spring. It has a sour taste similar to lemon when you taste it. Although this hot spring is located deep in the mountains, it is rich in water
The amount of spring water and various functions have made it used as a hot spring resort since ancient times.
Therefore, Aomori Towada has always been a popular winter tourist destination.
As for Xiaolu’s good friend Akimichi Nahiro, her family runs a sour soup hotel here.
Long before Ochanaka's vacation, Akimichi had promised Kanoya to take a hot spring bath at his family's hotel during the winter vacation.
The deer did not refuse.
Now that the two girls have returned to Aomori, playing together is of course on the agenda.
The second floor of the Akimichi Inn.
The rooms in the back corner are not open to guests and are used by the Akimichi family for their own living.
The living room is covered with tatami mats, and there is a warm kotatsu table with a plate of yellow oranges on it.
"Hehe, Yukino said he would come the day after tomorrow."
Akimichi Nahiro held the phone in both hands and put it on her chest, with a smile on her face.
I even couldn't help but lie down and roll around twice.
The girl's bare feet were still stretched out under the kotatsu table, and the lazy heat was transferred to her body along her thighs, making her body feel warm comfortably.
very nice!
I want to play with my best friend!
That is the cutest Yukino-chan in the world!
After having fun for a while, Akimichi reluctantly got out from under the kotatsu table.
It's better to check out the room that is going to be used to entertain Yukino.
Wrapped in a red plush scarf, Akimichi walked out of the main building of his hotel.
When I came out, I saw a bus coming in from the hotel gate.
The headlights pierced through the flying snowflakes.
"It seems that many guests are coming again. Business at home seems to be very good every winter. Fortunately, I told my parents in advance to leave a room for Yukino."
Akimichi thought like this, turned around and walked through a wooden corridor beside the main building and came to an elegant small courtyard.
There are four independent cabins distributed here, which are the best rooms in the hotel.
For example, it costs 60,000 yen to stay a night during the peak season.
Akimichi Nahiro took out the key card and opened one of the vacant reserved cabins without lights.
Turn on the light.
The warm yellow light falls on the exquisite decoration of logs and various modern home furnishings that are simple, elegant and convenient.
The room is very spacious and divided into three parts: lobby, bedroom, and hot spring pool.
Yes, this cabin has its own sour hot spring pool that can be enjoyed exclusively, is very private, and is quite large.
This is also the main reason for its high price.
Moreover, the living room faces Lake Towada, with a large floor-to-ceiling sliding door and a large terrace outside. You can have an unobstructed view of the snow-covered mountains and forests, as well as the snowy scenery in the middle of the lake.
"When Yukino comes, the two of us can make sour soup together, watch the snow scene and eat warm sukiyaki together. Yukino will also like it, right?"
After checking the room again, Akimichi Nahiro closed the door and left with satisfaction.
The cold winter, the cold snow, coupled with the warm hot springs and warm hot pot, everyone will not love it.
While she was imagining the fun times she had when visiting Kanoya, she wandered aimlessly around the hotel at home.
Akimichi's hotel is quite big.
In addition to the main three-story building, there are other buildings in the courtyard at the back.
"You and Yukino can also go to the hot spring street outside. It's very beautiful there and has a lot of delicious food."
The soft snow underfoot made a squeaking sound.
When Akimichi came to her senses, she found herself standing in front of a low cement-walled building dozens of meters away from the hotel building.
This is also part of her hotel.
There's nothing much to say, it's just a warehouse at home, where I usually just pile some unused sundries.
Akimichi Nahiro was about to turn around and go back to the hotel building, but suddenly stopped.
Because she saw that the big lock on the iron door of the utility room at home was open.
"Dad, are you in there?"
Akimichi shouted casually, but received no response.
Only the cold wind at night blew a little stronger, causing snowflakes to rise on the ground.
"strangeness."
She took off the lock and pushed the door open.
With a creak, the door opened.
Akimichi turned on the light. Inside the warehouse were some damaged or obsolete furniture from the hotel, as well as some agricultural machinery and equipment that were of unknown age and might have been placed here since his grandfather's time.
There is a faint stale smell in the air.
No one was seen.
"It seems that dad forgot to lock the door." Akimichi didn't think much and continued to look at the warehouse, "Well... this place is still the same as when I was a child. However, when I was a child, I always felt that the debris here was piled as high as a mountain, but
Looking at it now, it doesn’t seem to be that high, haha.”
Akimichi Nahiro often played in the warehouse with her brother when she was a child.
For children, a warehouse filled with various miscellaneous items is like a small treasure house where all kinds of strange and strange objects can be found.
She still remembers that she and her brother once rummaged through the junk pile and found two old magazines with scantily clad women on their covers.
Brother Akimichi didn't want to show his sister those two magazines.
Later, my brother quietly took it back to his own room...
"Well, boys."
Akimichi Naixun burst into laughter.
Speaking of which, Akimichi's elder brother has a stable job in Tokyo and already has a fiancée. When Akimichi Nahiro lived at his brother's house, he could see that his brother and his sister-in-law had a very good relationship.
The stupid brother who used to hide in his room and quietly read pornographic magazines has become a reliable adult.
However, I am still a little disappointed.
Although the relationship between the Akimichi brothers and sisters has always been very good, when they grow up, they are not as close as they were when they were children.
This is also something that can't be helped.
Like this year, my brother did not come back to Aomori due to work commitments, but will spend the New Year in Tokyo with his fiancée.
After briefly reminiscing about her childhood, Akimichi Nahiro was about to leave the warehouse.
At this time, she caught a glimpse of a strange large box out of the corner of her eye.
The box was placed on an old chest of drawers, dark red, with exquisite Maki-e lacquer and gold decorations on it.
The golden patterns depict hounds, vines, cherry blossoms and other patterns, which are particularly eye-catching on the dark red background, exuding a strange attraction.
It makes people look twice.
"What's this?"
Akimichi Nahiro didn't remember that there was such a thing in the warehouse, but she hadn't been here for a long time, and she also went to Tokyo to study this year. It was normal for there to be some unseen things in the warehouse.
She walked forward, stared at the box for a few seconds, and then opened the lid of the wooden box by accident.
But what's inside is a little disappointing.
The wooden box contains a box of the same style but one size smaller.
The same dark red paint color, the same exquisite maki-e lacquer gold.
Akimichi Nahiro took out the smaller box inside and opened the lid again.
It is still a smaller dark red wooden box.
"What, a Russian matryoshka doll?"
Continue to open the box.
But when the wooden lid is opened, it is still a wooden box, a wooden box, a wooden box...
Wooden boxes of decreasing size are arranged on the ground. Thousands of birds, vines, and cherry blossoms are painted on the dark red surface of the boxes, and the gold reflects the shimmer.
But for some reason, Akimichi Nahiro's desire to completely open this strange combination box became stronger and stronger.
Another box was opened, and inside was still a smaller wooden box.
Akimichi Nahiro took out the small box. Only then did she notice that there seemed to be inconspicuous words engraved on the bottom of the slightly larger box -
[nose]
Turn around and look at the other wooden boxes that have been opened.
The bottoms of all the boxes are engraved with different body organs.
Akimichi Nahiro instinctively felt a chill.
However, the thought of continuing to open the boxes lingered. The Maki-e gold paint on each wooden box seemed to swallow her completely.
Continue to open the box——
[Liver],[Lung],[Kidney],[Heart]……
The incised text gradually turns into internal organs.
In the end, what Akimichi Nahiro got was a small wooden box with only one centimeter in length and width.
She had a feeling that this was the last one.
The lid of the wooden box is opened, and what is engraved on the bottom of the box is - [Bone]
Then it was gone, the box was empty.
"What is this? It makes absolutely no sense."
Akimichi Nahiro seemed to have finally regained some composure.
She looked at the rows of dark red wooden boxes of the same style on the ground and felt a little nauseous.
I don't want to stay in the warehouse anymore.
Akimichi repackaged the boxes on the floor and placed them next to the chest of drawers.
She turned around and walked quickly to the door of the warehouse and turned off the light.
After coming out of the iron gate, I bumped into a tall black figure.
"babble!"
Akimichi exclaimed in surprise.
Then I heard a familiar voice: "Naixun, what are you doing here? You're not even answering the phone."
The girl looked up and saw her father's face.
"I……"
"Mom is still waiting for you to eat."
"Oh, that...Dad, that box in the warehouse..."
"What box?"
"Dark red with golden patterns on it."
"Well, I found it in a hotel room before. It may have been left behind by a certain guest. But at that time, I called the previous guest who stayed in that room, and the other person was confused. Then because the owner never came to claim it, I put it in
It seems to have been stored in the warehouse for a long time. I opened it and looked at it, but there was nothing inside."
It sounds like Akimichi's father has opened that box before.
"Ah, yes, there is nothing." Akimichi Naixun nodded, "It's just the words in the box..."
"What word?"
"It says some organs."
"Have it?"
"Um……"
"I see, it is indeed a strange thing. No one has claimed it anyway. I can just throw it away later."
"Uh-huh."
In fact, as Akimichi's father said, there was indeed nothing in that set of boxes.
After Akimichi Na opened it, she didn't have any special feelings. She just felt that the meaning was unclear, and she also felt that the words "organ" written on the bottom of the box were a bit disgusting.
Maybe I had installed something before...
It's even more disgusting to think about it this way.
But since dad said to throw it away, that’s fine.
What's more, dad said he had opened it before.
"Let's go, Naixun, let's have dinner together, mom is still waiting for you."
"good."
Akimichi walked back towards his hotel building.
Akimichi's father took out the key and locked the warehouse door again.
"Strange, have I opened the warehouse door recently? Or did I forget to lock it last time until now?"
There are a lot of things going on in the hotel during the peak season, and it is indeed difficult to remember such trivial things.
After locking the door, Akimichi's father caught up with his daughter.
The backs of the father and daughter were shrouded in the night and blurred by the flying snowflakes.
I don’t know how long it took for the Akimichi family and his daughter to leave.
The wind and snow became heavier at night.
Inside the dark warehouse, you can even hear the howling wind outside.
At the same time, there were some strange noises——
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
It's the dark red wooden box for matryoshka dolls.
It is like a heavy tombstone, standing black and heavy.
Weird sounds kept coming from it.
The sound became louder and louder, and the box began to vibrate. The amplitude of the vibration gradually became stronger, and finally it began to hit the chest of drawers next to it, as if something was struggling inside the wooden box.
All the boxes inside the wooden box were shaking, but the smallest wooden box at the bottom was shaking.
On the four walls of the box, bright red words began to seep out——
[Girl, suitable.]
[All of the above will be collected in the near future.]
However, this small box was covered in layers of box walls and could not see the light of day.
These small words appearing in it may not be noticed by others.
…
Two days later.
Today is the day that Kanoya agreed to go to Towada to find Akimichi Na.
Deer will depart from Oguri Island, first take a boat to Shimokita County in Aomori Prefecture, and then take the train to Towada.
Akimichi Nahiro's hotel is in the Hakkoda area of JuHT City.
The two girls had already agreed on a time. Xiaolu set off from the island in the afternoon and arrived at the station on the Hakkoda side, almost in the evening.
You can just visit the hot spring street there.
That street is very beautiful, Akimichi highly recommends it.
She said that in the winter evenings now, the place is like the hidden place in "Spirited Away". You can walk there first and have something to eat. When you are done playing, Akimichi's father will drive over.
Pick them up and take them to Akimichi's sour soup hotel.
Because the Akimichi family's hotel is on the edge of Lake Towada and in the mountains, it takes a long drive from Hakkoda to get there.
It is indeed much colder on Ourishima Island in winter than in Tokyo.
Kanoya wore a long black coat, a thick red scarf, and trousers today.
You still have to listen to what Master says.
In fact, even if you don’t show your legs, you don’t necessarily look too bulky.
Fashion and warmth are not completely incompatible.
Of course, to achieve this, the taste in clothing must be good, and the wearer must be good-looking.
"I'm going out!"
After finishing packing, Xiaolu said hello to his father and dragged his small suitcase out of the house.