A comic book, but a librarian

Chapter 27: Reunion

Uesugi Sumiko was not really afraid of this disheveled female ghost. After all, apart from the fact that she turned her hair into a ball of thorns and stabbed them around like Jiraiya, which might be a bit threatening to him, her other moves were probably weaker than a fight between street thugs.

But at the same time, it was not so easy for him to deal with the female ghost, because she flashed around everywhere as if she could teleport, making Uesugi Cheng's close combat skills basically ineffective. As a result, the entire battlefield fell into an awkward stalemate, and neither side could deal with the other for a while, so they could only waste time in the fields.

At this moment, the female ghost and Uesugi Cheng both heard a creaking sound from the iron gate of Queque Runhui being opened. Upon hearing this sound, the female ghost went crazy and left Uesugi Cheng alone, and rushed towards the door quickly.

Uesugi Sumire also hurried after him. No matter what, he couldn't let anything happen to the person who had Yotsuya Miko's cell phone. If even the cell phone was gone, he would have no clue at all.

However, when Uesugi Sumiya walked towards the bottom of the mountain along the fork in the mountain road, he saw the corpse of a dead woman lying on the ground, as if she had jumped off the cliff and died.

"Hello, big brother."

The little blonde girl stood in front of the female corpse and turned around to greet him. Uesugi Cheng rushed forward to protect the little girl. The female ghost slowly emerged in the darkness behind the corpse, and her remaining eye was staring at the little girl.

"It's fine......"

The little girl spoke to herself, and the female ghost indeed suddenly lost her hostility. She just stared at Uesugi Cheng silently, as if she was thinking about something.

Suddenly, the little girl trotted behind Uesugi Cheng, and Uesugi Cheng thought she was trying to run away and wanted to stop her.

"That sister, she must be lonely too."

"You have your phone, right? I'll call you later, so you have to pick up the phone."

Uesugi Cheng gently patted the little girl's head and made way. He and the female ghost watched the little girl leave and then stared at each other.

"You were pushed down..."

Hearing this, the ghost girl's originally relatively stable mood suddenly became irritable again. She looked at Uesugi Cheng, her black hair looking like a steel needle that could pierce out at any time.

"Can you tell me who did this?"

The ghost girl was silent. Perhaps her remaining rationality no longer allowed her to utter complete words, or perhaps she simply did not want to recall her own death.

"There is a mountain god here, did you know?"

Seeing that the female ghost was silent, Uesugi Cheng simply changed the subject. There was a wonderful rhythm in his voice that calmed the female ghost down unconsciously.

"......"

Although the female ghost remained silent, she nodded.

"Do you know where it is?"

The female ghost pondered for a long time, and finally pointed behind Uesugi Cheng. He turned his head and became alert, ensuring that if the female ghost rushed over, he could kill this guy with one knife.

However, the other party did not move. Instead, the little girl ran back with a small red flower. She first bowed slightly to Uesugi Cheng, and then placed the flower next to the corpse. Unexpectedly, the corpse did not emit a bad smell.

"Feel sorry......"

The little girl finally said this to the female ghost, and then took Uesugi Cheng's hand, as if she wanted to take him somewhere. Of course, the female ghost did not stop them, but just watched them leave.

"This is Yotsuya's cell phone. She and her sister asked me to hide in the bushes, and then we disappeared, but the phone fell on the floor."

The little girl carefully took out the phone from her arms and handed it to Uesugi Sumika. Yotsuya Miko and Uesugi Sumika had told each other the lock screen passwords of their phones, so he could easily see the contents of the phone.

Apart from the bulletin board with ominous notices posted around it that she had taken a photo of, there was only a recording left. In the recording was a conversation between her and another girl, followed by hurried footsteps and exclamations. The only word that Uesugi Cheng could hear clearly in this chaotic recording was one.

"Yehui-sama!"

"Where do you think your sister is?"

"I... I don't know... The same goes for Yotsuya-sister, and sister too, they disappeared in an instant..." The little girl's eyes were filled with crystal tears at some point, as if she had finally found someone she could rely on. She leaned gently against Uesugi Sumika, as if she was exhausted.

"That's...it's watching you."

The little girl looked up and saw a cute white puppy wagging its tail at her. When it saw her looking at it, it barked twice.

"Paul!! Hey, wait a minute, Paul!"

When Uesugi Cheng saw that the little blonde girl seemed to know the dog, he sighed slightly. He saw clearly that the dog was a spirit like those evil spirits, which meant that the Paul she mentioned was probably dead.

"Big brother!! I'm going to chase Paul!! It...it suddenly rushed out and was hit by a car and disappeared somewhere. My sister also disappeared while trying to find it...it must know..."

The little girl slowly lowered her head. She hoped that the big brother in front of her, who made her feel safe, would accompany her, but she knew that this big brother was going to look for that big sister Yotsuya.

"Paul, he likes you very much, right?"

Uesugi Cheng could feel that the dog's soul was still wandering nearby, as if to protect the little girl in front of him.

"Yeah! It has always been a very good puppy, but... it just suddenly rushed out for some reason just now."

"Maybe it's to protect you. Then go find it. I can't let you run around the town alone at night, but you have to answer my questions truthfully, okay?"

"Ok!"

The little girl nodded vigorously. She watched Uesugi Cheng's movements, and finally climbed onto his back carefully, with her face resting on Uesugi Cheng's shoulder.

"That's the tunnel where Paul and you separated, right?"

"Yes......"

"I see... Let's go find Paul first. I have a rough idea of ​​where it is."

Uesugi Cheng held the little girl behind him with one hand, and took out his mobile phone with the other hand. He easily found the location of the blood-stained road he saw when he first arrived, and the area below it.

"Paul...why doesn't it want to wait for me?" The little girl seemed a little self-blaming.

"Maybe it's because it truly loves you."

"Eh......."

"You can't understand this now, but you will understand when you grow up. I'll take you to see it now..." Uesugi Cheng knew that the little girl probably didn't have the concept of death, otherwise she wouldn't have regarded the female ghost as a monster, and she wouldn't have failed to understand the meaning of the pool of blood.

"Thank you, big brother."

Chapter 28 Commercial Street at Night

With the help of Uesugi Cheng, the little girl quickly found Paul, or rather the remains of the dog. It was lying quietly on a pile of earth, looking as if it was asleep.

"Paul..."

The moment she saw Paul, she realized that Paul would never stand up and leave with her. In the end, she could only ask Uesugi Cheng to help her dig a small hole to bury Paul on the spot.

"I saw some notices about missing children on Yotsuya's phone. Do you know anything related?" Uesugi Sumire looked at the map and Yotsuya Miko's phone, feeling helpless. The fact that Yotsuya Miko threw her phone away in a panic had a great impact on their investigation, and now Yotsuya Miko is very likely to be in danger. Uesugi Sumire can only try to find clues from the details.

"I don't know... My sister said that Master Yami took them away, but she didn't say where they were taken."

"Lord Ye Hui? Can you tell me more about it?"

Uesugi Cheng held the little girl's hand and walked on the road at night. The whole journey was peaceful, as if the evil spirits and monsters hiding in the shadows had never appeared. Whether it was the stones that would riot at the sight of light or the wandering evil spirits with disheveled hair, they all stayed away from Uesugi Cheng.

"My sister only said that you were protecting those people...but you didn't think that human life is so fragile..."

"Is it a tragedy caused by a different perspective? The child is missing..."

Uesugi Cheng began to write and draw on the map. If a child would be declared missing, then they must have been searched for. There didn't seem to be many places in the whole town where someone could be hidden.

"Abandoned shopping streets... Abandoned factories, there are really too many abandoned things in this town... Do you want to take a break?"

In front of me is a silent group of buildings. The breeze blowing through the streets makes a strange sound, as if it is the unwilling cry of this land that is about to be forgotten.

"Ding-ling-ling-ling-ling!!!"

Suddenly, the phone rang, followed by evil spirits slowly approaching from all directions. For some unknown reason, they suddenly appeared and began to march towards this once glorious commercial street.

"Roar... Hiss..." The irrational evil spirits and monsters exuded unnatural black air and moved forward slowly.

"Big Brother, look at that!!"

Uesugi Cheng turned his head and saw a sneaky hand-shaped monster appearing next to a plate of white salt in the shopping street. There was a round eyeball on the wrist. It slyly pushed the salt in the plate to disperse and tried to escape.

Uesugi Cheng made a prompt decision and threw his dagger out. His trained and strengthened body easily controlled the force. Before his hand could react, it was pierced by the dagger that whizzed past and stabbed into the ground. After struggling for a few times, it turned into a puff of black smoke and dissipated.

The phone rang as loudly as ever, and Uesugi Cheng felt something huge appearing dimly and abruptly in his field of vision, but since it had no ill intentions and was not staring at him, he had no way of seeing what it was.

"The salt pile has been pushed apart... Big brother, I'll go answer the phone, trust me." The little girl's confident look made Uesugi Cheng frown, but when he thought about how she was not surprised by these evil spirits and monsters, it seemed that he was the one who was making a fuss.

The little girl disappeared into the phone booth, as if she had walked into another space. Uesugi Cheng picked up his short knife. He could feel that something huge was hovering on the commercial street and was even moving.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the entire space turned purple-red. A huge centipede head was hanging towards him, as if it had just noticed this unexpected guest.

"It's the guardian angel..."

Without any ill intention, Uesugi Cheng remembered what he mentioned when chatting with the little girl. There used to be a guardian angel on the commercial street. Perhaps this was the guardian angel she was talking about.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?!"

Uesugi Cheng asked. He wanted to talk to these beings that went against human common sense, but they seemed to have no common language. At least this giant centipede did not respond to his words.

"Night Return..."

The centipede seemed to understand the word. It raised its huge head and looked into the distance. Uesugi Cheng looked in the direction of its head and saw the abandoned factory. In the silent night, the factory was like a huge tomb, burying the last glory of this town.

"Mountain God... do you know?"

The centipede coiled its body, and one of its huge legs moved, as if pointing at the scattered salt piles.

"I see. She is helping you do this, right?"

Uesugi Cheng picked up the dagger and closed his eyes again. He returned to the real world. The little girl was trying her best to avoid the attacks of the monsters and trying to put the salt into the plate.

"Just go ahead and release them. I'll take care of them."

As the monster screamed, Uesugi Cheng held the dagger and blocked the little girl behind him. She seemed to have a special connection with the giant centipede. Perhaps it could even be said that she was the centipede's priestess.

The monster's sharp roar became more shrill as an invisible glow appeared. Even the centipede seemed to be startled. He gently drew a few times on a locked iron door, and instantly a new lock appeared on the iron door. Uesugi Cheng twisted the door lightly, and the door opened. The little girl took the opportunity to rush out and placed the last pile of salt.

The entire commercial street seemed to have reopened some kind of barrier, driving the monsters out.

"Well, Master Centipede thanked us... He also said that if we want to look for my sister... we have to go to the tunnel."

Uesugi Sumiko looked as if he understood everything. As expected, he was kicked off the car not because the mountain god was bored, but because the mountain god had no intention of meeting him and that was a deliberate trick.

"In that case... I have to go to the factory to rescue Yotsuya first. Can you wait here or at home for a while..." Uesugi Sumiya said to the little girl. This time the little girl listened to Uesugi Sumiya's advice. She also knew that it was too difficult to bring her sister back by herself.

At this moment, a flare suddenly appeared in the air, exploded, and burst into red fireworks. Uesugi Sumiko was shocked. This was the last insurance he gave to Yotsuya Miko. If her life was in danger, he would fire a flare into the sky and rush over as quickly as possible.

"I'm leaving first. Be careful and don't get caught by the mountain god. Perhaps you and your sister... are the sacrifices that the mountain god is targeting."

Chapter 29 Solomon's Room

When Yotsuya Miko opened her eyes and woke up, she felt that she was lying in a spacious room, a little too spacious. The whole room was surprisingly cold, so she had to wrap herself tightly in the quilt.

She took a look at the quilt on her body and felt relieved. It was not the kind of quilt made of strange things that is common in horror movies. It was just a quilt, a soft, warm and attractive black and brown quilt.

Only then did she notice that the room seemed a little too old. There was no electrical equipment and even the light in the room was provided by candles.

She turned sideways and saw a huge curtain. A huge white bull was woven on the huge red cloth that almost covered the entire wall. The craftsmanship of the maker was unexpectedly excellent. Although it was clearly a woven fabric, she could feel that the white bull was lifelike.

"Where is this...?"

Yotsuya Miko was a little confused. Was she dead? After she woke up in the factory, she didn't see the giant monster that had captured her. There were only the vengeful spirits of the dead in the factory and the bodies of different dead people in different places. She even suspected that the abandoned factory with no people was a huge cemetery, and there were more dead people than the cemetery marked on the map.

When she woke up and tried to find a way out, she encountered a huge meatball monster with its bloody mouth opened towards the sky. She didn't dare to think about whether she would be torn to pieces instantly if she was bitten by that thing.

But what you fear will come to you. The meatball monster still targeted Yotsuya Miko. When she had nowhere to hide, she found a high place and launched a flare. It was called a flare, but it was just a small red firework, but it looked so dazzling under the boundless night... and short-lived.

Yotsuya Miko didn't hold on until the moment she saw Uesugi Sumire. When the meatball monster was about to rush over, she chose to close her eyes and tried to jump over the broken bridge in front of her. Judging from the feeling of weightlessness she felt, she might have fallen to her death.

A light and cold voice came over, and Yotsuya Miko was startled when she was pulled out of her chaotic thoughts. She saw a curious spirit, and the mist began to spread in the room like its tendrils. The coldness gradually dragged her out of her sleepiness. The spirit with no malice but only curiosity seemed to recognize her, but she didn't remember seeing such a strange spirit. It could clearly see her but had no kindness or malice.

"Wake up..."

The voice came from far away, and Yotsuya Miko felt her eyelids suddenly become heavy. She saw a glass of water on the bedside cabinet, so she got out of bed and staggered over, picked up the glass of water and drank it all in one gulp. The taste was unexpectedly sweet, and there was a hint of coolness in it. She could feel that this was not tap water or something, perhaps it was more valuable water.

Her eyelids became heavier, and Yotsuya Miko staggered, put down the empty cup, apologized to the owner of the room in her heart, and then lay back on the bed. Her eyes could no longer support her eyes and slowly closed, and in the empty and overly cold room, she fell asleep again under the silent and soft light of the white candles.

"Wake up."

Yotsuya Miko gradually opened her eyes and found that she seemed to be leaning on a broad and reliable back, and someone was carrying her forward.

"You're finally awake. I thought you were going to sleep until dawn."

The familiar voice woke Yotsuya Miko up. She realized that she did not seem to be dead, but was lying on Uesugi Sumire's back. She subconsciously hugged Uesugi Sumire's neck tightly.

"Stop, stop, stop. If it gets any tighter I'll suffocate. It's okay."

"Hmm..." Tears welled up in the corners of Yotsuya Miko's eyes. The disgusting big mouth of that huge meatball monster and the smell that did not belong to humans were too stimulating for a little high school student like her. If it was not for the need to survive, Yotsuya Miko might have gone weak in the legs and knelt on the ground waiting to die the first second she saw it.

"Have a good rest. I will take you back to find that little guy now... You are such a worry. We promised that if we lose contact, remember to find a safe place and don't wander around to protect yourself."