dusk.
Crows covered in the dim light of the setting sun landed on the wall on the street, tilting their heads and gazing at passers-by.
This is a corner convenience store not too far from Karin High School.
It was also the place where Kamiyagawa worked part-time when he was still in decline.
I think after graduating from high school, I may not have the opportunity to come here again. Taking advantage of today's free time to attend the graduation ceremony and finish all the things in school, Kamiya came here.
At this time, by coincidence, store manager Kawai Ikumi and former colleague Okamura are both there.
The two of them were very happy when they saw Kamiya walking into the store.
Manager Kawai invited Kamiya to eat oden, and the three of them started casually chatting about recent developments.
From the store manager and Okamura, Kamiyagawa heard a little bit about Masao, the little flat-headed Nagatomo.
Since the last incident at Kisaragi Station, Nagatomo has been given the opportunity to join the countermeasures room.
Later, during the transitional period of life, I lived in the low-rent apartment where Kamiyagawa lived before, and when I had time, I would work in the convenience store owned by Store Manager Kawai.
The store manager and veteran employee Okamura spoke highly of Nagatomo, who is very serious about his work.
And I heard from them that Changyou has ended his part-time job now.
Well, that's normal.
Kamiya knew that Nagatomo had already gone to practice with Uncle Yuuki, and had received a fixed salary from the countermeasures room, so he no longer needed to work in a convenience store.
Moreover, because of the existence of a special "spirit behind" brought from the other world, Xiaopingtou performed quite well under Yuuki.
Okamura is not working the night shift today. At this time, he has changed out of his uniform and put on his regular clothes.
The employees responsible for the subsequent period have also arrived at the store.
Because Kamiyagawa came, Okamura did not leave, but still stood chatting: "Speaking of Nagatomo, that guy's girlfriend is so cute. Damn it, I'm so envious. When can I get a girl like that? friend."
"I advise you not to think about it. Working hard is more practical than anything else."
Kamiya chewed the radish in the oden and mercilessly poured cold water on him.
The store manager Kawai next to him also nodded in agreement.
"Hey, you don't have to be so heartless, right? At this time, shouldn't you cooperate to comfort me and say, 'Come on, you can definitely find it' or something." Okamura muttered dissatisfied.
As soon as he finished speaking, his cell phone rang in his pocket.
Because it was no longer working time, Okamura answered the phone naturally: "Ah, Narita, I know, I know... I'm already off work. Come back later. You guys can go ahead."
"Another call from those strange friends of yours?" Store manager Kawai placed one hand on his waist and glanced at Okamura helplessly.
"What do you mean by a strange friend? They are obviously fellow ghost hunters." Okamura retorted.
"Detect... spirit?"
When Kamiyagawa heard this word, he put down the bunch of fish balls he just picked up again.
"Yes, yes, this circle is quite popular recently. Kamiya-kun, let me tell you, there is a very beautiful girl among my friends, hehe."
Speaking of this, Okamura seemed to get excited all of a sudden.
"Is it hot? Why?"
Okamura shook his head with a mysterious expression: "Because of what happened to Yumeo before. Such weird things happened, don't you think the 'spirit' should be real?"
"Didn't some experts refute the rumors before? It is said that Mengnan is a rare group psychological suggestion incident." Store manager Kawai interjected.
"You can't believe what those experts say."
Store manager Kawai: "It's better that you don't get involved in this kind of thing, Okamura. Things like gods and ghosts are so illusory."
Okamura didn't take this seriously: "Hey, store manager, if you really think that 'spirits' don't exist, why are you so hesitant about this kind of thing?"
"Oh, I can't persuade you. Wouldn't it be better to put your interests and energy elsewhere?" Store manager Kajing was even more helpless and didn't say anything more.
Kamiya, on the other hand, has never expressed his position on this, and just frowned.
Okamura glanced at him and suddenly thought of something: "By the way, Kamiya-kun, didn't you say that you were going to major in monster studies in college? You must be interested in this kind of thing, right? Look, look at this."
With that said, Okamura clicked on his phone and showed it to Kamiya.
"My research is folklore, folklore."
Kamiyagawa shrugged, but still looked at Okamura's phone screen.
There is a photo on the phone. It looks blurry and a little out of focus.
The shooting location seemed to be a somewhat deserted indoor corridor.
Nothing special at first glance.
But if you look closely, it seems like something strange was captured at the end of the corridor.
Zooming in on the photo, you can see two pale and twisted human hands hanging from the ceiling at the end of the corridor, seemingly out of thin air.
But because it's so blurry, I can't actually see it clearly.
It's hard to say whether it's really two human hands or something else.
"Isn't this picture of yours all stained? I can take the picture more clearly than you with a landline phone." Kamiya said this, but his brows furrowed a little tighter, and then he asked, "Where was it taken? ?”
"It wasn't taken by me, it was posted by my colleagues. The shooting location was a remote and abandoned hut near Takenozuka in Adachi District. They asked me to go explore there together tonight."
"Do we have to go at night?"
"Don't you always choose to explore ghosts at night? Everyone has their own things to do during the day. And the point is not this, but the girl in my group, she is super cute." Okamura showed a longing expression.
Kamiyagawa was unable to complain.
I think these ghost-detection enthusiasts are really hard-nosed.
How is this different from forming a group to deliver food to possible ghost stories?
If you really want to hit the spirit, you might as well come to me directly.
There are all kinds of strange stories around me, and I guarantee that you will never have unnecessary curiosity about such things again after just one glance.
Kamiya put down the oden in his hand and patted Okamura's thick shoulder: "Come here with me."
Although Okamura was confused, he followed Kamiyagawa out of the convenience store door and came to the trash can behind the door near the alley.
There is no one here.
Employees at the convenience store used to come here occasionally to smoke.
"What's the matter, mysterious? Do you want to smoke too?" Okamura still looked suspicious.
"No." Kamiya shook his head, "Show me the specific address of the place you want to explore tonight."
"Ha, I said you must be interested." Okamura enthusiastically opened a discussion group on Line and showed Kamiyagawa a position:
"How about it, do you want to join us later? But let's talk first. Kamiya-kun, you are so good-looking, there will definitely be no shortage of girls to like you. That cute girl in the same hobby, you can't..."
"Okamura."
Kamiyagawa did not let Okamura continue speaking, and interrupted him with cold eyes.
"Yo."
Beside Kamiya, a red deer with a long horse face and a pair of huge antlers appeared.
"YoYo."
The red deer shook its big horns, and an aura of stupidity and ignorance immediately enveloped Okamura.
The latter could not see the presence of the red deer at all, and his expression was slightly dull: "Huh?"
"Listen." Kamiya spoke with the [Thousand Silver Needles·Change] in his hand. In the palm of his hand, the silver threads slid, and the depraved eyes emerged, "You are completely indifferent to the matter of detecting spirits. I am interested and will never participate in such boring activities in the future.”
"Oh, oh, yes. Who would go to such a boring thing..."
Okamura's expression was dazed, and his eyes unconsciously met Ma Lu's pair of pupils that were constantly spinning.
"Very well, hold on."
After doing all this, Kamiyakawa patted Okamura on the shoulder again: "Let's go, the store manager is still waiting for us."
The latter finally came back to consciousness from his dazed state, and was a little confused for a while.
"Eh? I just...Eh?"
But he was sober again. Kamiyakawa's words just now had been "planted" deep in his mind.
In Ma Lu's [Stupid] state, the effect of [Thousand Silver Needles·Change] is outstanding. In addition, Kamiya has become extremely skilled in the use of the small silver stick. Even the originally powerful or intelligent Kaitan cannot resist this arrogance. Combination punches.
Not to mention ordinary people.
In this case, it would not be an exaggeration to simply change the name of [Thousand Silver Needles] to "Hypnosis Silver Needles".
Okamura probably won't be able to wake up from the "psychological hint" planted by Kamiyagawa for a long time.
Or, he may always be influenced by this suggestion that it does not harm his personal interests, and thus stay away from supernatural things.
It just occurred to Kamiyagawa that this boy Okamura seems to have an inexplicable spirit-colliding physique, or he may simply be unlucky.
I still remember that Okamura just told himself the story of "Mary's Urban Legend" when he was working part-time a long time ago.
On the way home that day, he bumped into Mary head-on.
There was also the matter of Kabuki and Pink Fairy. I first got the news from Okamura.
It is definitely a good thing for this guy not to come into contact with ghosts and ghosts in the future.
As for Takenotsuka in Adachi Ward, Kamiyagawa planned to say goodbye to store manager Kawai now and go there.
The photos Okamura showed were too blurry, so I’m not sure if they are truly supernatural photos.
But what if it's true...
"If there are human hands hanging down from the ceiling for no reason, it should be regarded as a weird story about 'hand abnormality', right?"
Kamitani thought this in his mind.
A long time ago, his ghost hand caretaker, the foot saleswoman, told him that he wanted to use the special materials of his hands or unusual ghost stories to make specific oils to further awaken the [Ghost's remnant]. arm】.
If there is indeed such a strange story in Takenotsuka, I just go there to collect materials.
I just don’t know if any spiritual masters are keeping an eye on it before tonight.
However, although the Tokyo metropolitan area is one of the active bases of spiritual slayers, the hidden ghost stories are not immediately discovered.
According to the process, it is usually when there is a strange disappearance or murder that the official ghost exterminator is attracted. Or if someone gives a commission, private spiritual masters will be dispatched.
"Anyway, let's go take a look first."
…
Tokyo, Adachi Ward.
Among the 23 wards in Tokyo, it is recognized as the ward with the worst public safety situation and the largest number of poor people.
It gives the impression that this area is full of weird atmosphere, which makes people feel bad. The crime rate is also relatively high, and many Japanese people don't like it here.
Takenotsuka is Adachi City and the northernmost commercial district in Tokyo. It is known as the "Kabukicho of Adachi City".
Because it was already dark, the lights were already on in the Takenotsuka shopping district.
But the streets still looked deserted and depressed.
A group of three young men and women, two men and one woman, were walking on the street, two of them carrying cameras.
The streets of the shopping district are crowded with pinball machine shops and special sex toy shops with red lights.
Other than that, just some Filipino bars.
The lights inside were dim, and exotic songs and ditties were playing, which sounded whimpering on the street.
The bar here is different from the one in Kita Senju on the other side of Adachi City. It doesn't feel bright and lively, but rather eerie.
Occasionally, one or two drunk men can be seen sitting at the door of the bar, looking at passers-by with drunken eyes.
This group of young men and women walked through the door of one of the bars, and encountered a shopkeeper with a strange accent who tried to pull them into the store.
It was only after the two boys in the group tried their best to stop them that the three of them finally broke free and walked away quickly in a panic.
The girl among the three of them looks to be in her early 20s, her name is Sahashi Kazuha, and she looks more like a petite girl next door.
"Really." Sahashi tugged at his stretched sleeves with a resentful look on his face, "That's why I don't like Adachi City... Everyone says that even if you live in Saitama Prefecture, which is further away, it's better than living in Saitama Prefecture. The Takenotsuka here is better.”
"Hurry up and walk through this block. There will be no one on the residential road ahead."
One of the three men, a boy named Ryota Narita, replied like this.
"No one is actually scarier, right?"
The remaining boy's name was Uchimura Koji. At this time, he pretended to be relaxed and interjected: "Then isn't this what we are pursuing?"
"That's right."
Once we left the commercial area, the surrounding scene became even more depressing. All we could see were low shacks with only scattered lights on.
"How far away is that residence?"
"Looking at the map, it's about one kilometer, right?"
"Where are Kasahara and Okamura? Where are they?"
"Kasa originally lives here in Adachi and has already arrived first." Narita Ryota said while replying to the message on his mobile phone, "Okamura, he didn't reply to me...ah, Okamura called."
Narita answered the phone and hung up after only two minutes of talking. At the same time, he rolled his eyes with disdain.
Sahashi: "What's wrong?"
Narita: "That guy Okamura said he won't come. There's no point in searching for spirits. At this point, I should watch Mari-chan's live broadcast. You should also be like me, prepare snacks and stay at home. Just relax and look at the cute VTuber, this is life,' that's what the guy said on the phone."
"Eh? Haha, he is actually afraid, right?"
"It must be. It's so big, it's surprisingly useless."
"Forget it, leave him alone, and don't call him that in the future. That guy is so boring! I'll live with the Paper Man for the rest of my life."
The three of them were talking as they walked.
Not far ahead is a low, two-story, one-family building, standing alone in a secluded place at the end of the street.
The whole house looked completely shrouded in darkness, desolate and dilapidated. It must have been that no one had lived in it for a long time.
This is the destination to explore tonight.
The three of them stopped on the side of the road.
The only street lamp around them was flickering on and off, either because it was old or in disrepair or something.
Several unknown spring insects buzzed and flew, hitting the lampshade from time to time, making a dull thumping sound.
(End of chapter)
