Evil Spirit Consultant

Chapter 255 The Gathering of Deaths

The automatic door of the bento shop slid open with a "ding," and Koizumi Rin, without looking up, called out, "Welcome!"

The lunchbox shop has been bustling with customers since 6 p.m.

Koizumi Rin rubbed her sore shoulders and glanced at the clock on the wall—8:20 p.m., forty minutes until the shift ended.

Feeling the soreness in her body, she couldn't help but regret covering for Nagai Miko.

Three hours ago, Koizumi Rin and Yoru had arranged to visit the bento shop where Nagai Miko worked after school today.

However, because a meeting suddenly had to be held at the school and it was unclear how long it would last, Koizumi Rin could only regretfully come to find the school by herself.

Unexpectedly, I had bad luck today, with one setback after another.

Miko Nagai looked a little unwell and sickly.

However, this bento shop was originally run by only one old lady. She was looking for Nagai Miko because her grandson had gone to another city recently and she hadn't hired any other employees. As a result, Nagai Miko suddenly realized that she couldn't ask for leave even if she wanted to.

Unable to bear seeing her friend working while sick, Suzuko Koizumi volunteered to cover for her.

Since it was just a small, privately owned shop without any strict rules, Nagai Miko thanked the old lady profusely and left.

When there were few people at first, under the old lady's guidance, Koizumi Rin didn't find the work too tiring.

Unexpectedly, once night fell and the crowds increased, it was a completely different experience.

"What am I doing...?"

With a dejected groan, Koizumi Rin rallied her spirits and continued working.

Now is not the time for regret and frustration, and her personality won't allow her to give up because of this.

"Hello, that's two thousand three hundred yen in total." She skillfully scanned the barcode and bagged the item, but her pupils suddenly contracted when she looked up at the customer in front of her.

The middle-aged driver in front of me was shrouded in thick, inky black mist that seemed to writhe like a living thing, constantly seeping out of his mouth and nose and then back into his ears.

Even more frightening was that the concentration of the fog was far greater than she had ever seen before.

"Young lady?" The driver waved his hand in confusion. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Koizumi Rin hurriedly took the money and forced herself to give him change while enduring her discomfort.

She was all too familiar with this black mist; it represented death, but usually it would only shroud the dying like a thin veil. Such a dense mist meant that the person before her would die soon.

While I was thinking about whether to ask for leave to stop that customer, the driver had just left when another customer walked up to the cashier.

Koizumi Rin's hand trembled, and the barcode scanner almost fell to the ground—the young man in the freight uniform was also shrouded in thick black mist!
After stiffly finishing the payment for the other party, Koizumi Rin's expression became even more horrified as he pushed the door open to leave.

Because in her field of vision, there were three other cars in the parking lot outside the store, and the drivers of those cars were all shrouded in the same black mist!
Moreover, the black mist surrounding everyone was both dense and remarkably uniform, indicating that their deaths all occurred at the same time!
Just as I was about to take off my apron and jump out from behind the counter, the automatic door opened again, and a tall figure walked in.

When Koizumi Rin looked up and saw Yoru's sharply defined face, she almost burst into tears.

“Teacher!” Yang Liu raised an eyebrow after seeing Koizumi Rin’s expression.

He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, and his two-meter-tall frame almost blocked the light from the entire entrance. Even inside the lunchbox shop, he had to duck slightly to avoid touching the light tubes on the ceiling.

But now, this imposing figure brings Koizumi Rin an unexpected sense of security.

"What's wrong?" Yang Liu's voice was low. "You look terrible. Didn't you say you were just filling in for Nagai? Did something go wrong? Or... did someone bully you?!"

As if she had found her pillar of support, Koizumi Rin grabbed his sleeve and whispered, "Something terrible has happened! I just saw that all five drivers were covered in very thick black fog, and it looks like it happened tonight!"

Yang Liu's eyes sharpened instantly.

He put down the lunchbox in his hand, his voice frighteningly calm: "Tell me in detail."

“The death emanating from them is quite intense, but the concentration is almost the same, and it’s all concentrated on their heads…” Koizumi Rin said quickly. “Also… it seems like they all work for the same company.”

Yang Liu seemed thoughtful: "If it's just one company, it's much easier to confirm. Something unusual must have happened on some stretch of road, causing all the trucks traveling together to have an accident. A landslide... no, a landslide wouldn't just affect heads, it would affect everyone's heads..."

Yang Liu looked up at Xiao Quanling: "Are there any security cameras here?"

"There shouldn't be any..." Koizumi Rin looked up at the simple shop, her face full of helplessness.

"In that case, we can only wait for the next victim... Hopefully, there will be another victim."

"Teacher, what you're saying sounds very strange..."

Just as Koizumi Rin was about to sigh, her expression immediately turned serious as she looked at another truck driver entering the store.

Yang Liu immediately understood when she saw her expression. It seemed that the two of them were lucky, or rather... these drivers were just too unlucky!
Yang Liu turned around and walked to the shelf next to her, pretending to pick out a bento box, but her eyes were always watching the young driver out of the corner of her eye.

The other person quickly selected two bento boxes and went to the counter to pay. Seeing the thick black mist above his head, Koizumi Rin felt her throat tighten, but she quickly composed herself.
"Hello, the total is 1,100 yen."

Watching the young driver pay and leave Yangliu, she gave Xiaoquan Ling a wink to reassure her and then quietly followed him.

Before long, Yang Liu followed the other person to a parking lot. She watched as he handed one of the bento boxes to another middle-aged driver, and then stood in the darkness to hide herself.

"Um, will the national highway be open tonight?" the young man asked the middle-aged driver. "I heard a typhoon is coming."

The middle-aged driver replied without looking up, "Don't even think about it. It's just a small typhoon, and I heard it won't make landfall directly. At most, it'll just bring some heavy rain. There's no way you'll get a day off."

"I was just thinking about it..." The young man awkwardly opened his bento box and started eating.

"If you want to rest, wait until this shipment is delivered, but it's urgent and needs to arrive first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!"

Yang Liu didn't listen any further, but instead took out her phone and started searching.

Based on the typhoon forecast issued by the Meteorological Agency and after comparing the typhoon's path on a map, he quickly located the national highway the other party had mentioned:
"This is it, National Highway 114!"

(End of this chapter)