A comic book, but a librarian

She answered the phone, patted her brother's head and walked back to her room. She relaxed and lay down on the bed, looking as if she was spreading herself out on the bed. It must be said that since she learned knowledge and skills beyond imagination and common sense from Uesugi Cheng, every time she lay down on the bed, she would feel relieved and wished she could fall asleep immediately.

"Are you free tomorrow? I have something to ask you."

"Ah, let me see... I am free, how come there is finally something I can help you with?"

Saki Kawasaki thought that there was finally something she could do. After all, so far it was only Uesugi Sumire who had been helping her unilaterally, and if this kind of thing happened more and more, it would only make her more and more uneasy. After all, no matter how she looked at it, if she continued to owe Uesugi Sumire money, she would not be able to pay it off even if she sold herself.

"Ah, just come find me later. It's at the old place, the Family Restaurant. If there are too many people, there's a Saizeriya not too far away. We can meet there."

Uesugi Sumire told Kawasaki Saki the address. He is now out purchasing supplies. After all, the refrigerator at home is almost empty. There are also some daily necessities. After the final exams in two weeks, he will not have to go out for a long time. After all, Baoyue Night Snack said that Hotarou needs to extend his rest time appropriately. For some reason, his body is still in a weak state.

"Oh, what a coincidence! How come I meet you here too?"

Uesugi Cheng touched his forehead and naturally put a can of seasoning into his shopping cart. The pink-haired girl standing opposite him seemed more surprised than Uesugi Cheng.

"Ah... Uesugi-san... um... I'm here to take a walk with my mom. Uesugi-san, are you here...?"

It was obvious that Yuigahama Yui was not prepared to meet Uesugi Sumire in such a place. In the last half day, she could only utter a question about Uesugi Sumire.

"As you can see, the refrigerator is getting a little empty, so buy some food and bring it back for a rainy day. How are you doing recently? Hikigaya Hachiman and Yukinoshita Yukino are sometimes not very considerate of other people's feelings."

Uesugi Sumiko asked casually, the pursuit of these two people might make them ignore other people's feelings and thoughts when they really make up their minds, so Yuigahama Yui, who is caught in the middle, would probably feel very embarrassed.

"Ah... Actually... It's okay. Um, does Uesugi-san live alone?"

Yuigahama Yui's face turned a little red. She didn't expect that Uesugi Sumire would express concern for her at this time. The girl's heart began to beat restlessly.

"Yes, living alone has its share of troubles, but it saves me from a whole host of other troubles."

The two chatted for a while. Uesugi Cheng remembered this cute pink-haired girl. After all, the cookies were still fresh in his memory. Not everyone can make food taste like poison under normal cooking conditions.

"Is that your mother? She seems to be looking for you."

Uesugi Sumiko pointed behind Yuigahama Yui and greeted her. A gentle and beautiful woman nodded in response, then called Yuigahama Yui back.

This chance encounter did not disrupt anyone's rhythm, except Yuigahama Yui. After discussing so many things with the boy she liked, and even getting his approval and response for some of them, she patted her head again, trying to calm her brain.

"Really? Why are you so impatient?"

She blamed herself like this.

293

Chapter 293: The investigation journey of Saki Kawasaki and Sumire Uesugi.

"So what are we doing here? I feel like we shouldn't be here right now."

Saki Kawasaki complained a little and changed into a sack-like sportswear. Although it was not very good-looking, it did provide her with a very good effect of keeping out the cold, and she could even hide some treasures inside the clothes.

This was told to her by Uesugi Cheng. At least she had hidden a small baton inside her large coat in case of emergency.

They were walking on a path that was almost half deserted, sitting in a taxi that definitely did not look like a normal vehicle to Saki Kawasaki. The strangeness of this matter had made Saki Kawasaki even suspect that Uesugi Sumire was selling her off for money.

"I didn't want to come to this kind of place, but to be honest... I really didn't want to come to this place, but suddenly something small happened, so I suddenly decided to get off the car. Kawasaki, get ready to fight."

"Eh?"

Saki Kawasaki was stunned for a moment. A strange thing was stuffed into her hand by Uesugi Sumire. She tried the feel and found that it was just right for her to wield as a weapon. It was much heavier than her baton, but also much more convenient to use. It was as if it was made specially for her.

"How does it feel? Do you need any fine-tuning?"

"What is this? It's much heavier than a baton, but it seems to be just right for my strength..."

Saki Kawasaki looked up at Uesugi Sumire, and she suddenly felt the chill on her back again. Uesugi Sumire had only practiced with her a few times, and most of the time he was the one-sided teaching Saki Kawasaki fighting skills, but... but even so, Uesugi Sumire still made a most convenient weapon for her, and after only two practice sessions he figured out her habits and strength, which made her very uncomfortable.

"Oh, that metal is a relatively advanced and special alloy that can cause damage to spirits. So I let you use it for self-defense and to test the feasibility of the equipment."

Uesugi Sumire's words made Kawasaki Saki feel like she was a tester for a big company, but she had to admit that this baton with a golden luster and a wooden handle wrapped with cloth strips did make her feel very comfortable. She even couldn't control her desire to hit something.

"Come on, drink this, and then we'll go in."

Uesugi Sumire took out a small cup of milk. Kawasaki Saki didn't know what the milk was made of, but her trust in Uesugi Sumire made her drink it without thinking too much.

"Hiss, what is this...it tastes weird, but it tastes pretty good."

"Oh, we usually call this thing [snake milk], but don't worry, it's not real milk."

Uesugi Sumire's words confused Kawasaki Saki. Why does her name contain the word "乳" (rice) but not "milk"? What is the meaning of this name?

[Snake Milk]: It looks almost like breast milk, and it is drinkable. But don't give it to cats or babies. (6 Blades, 3 Scales, 2 Enlightenment)

In fact, even Uesugi Sumiya only had one bottle of this in stock, so Uesugi Sumiya was not satisfied with letting Kawasaki Saki drink this cup of snake milk just to open the door to the third treasure house, he wanted to do something more.

"Do you feel the cold? We have almost reached the location, the kind of location that is watched by many spirits."

Uesugi Sumiya's words made Kawasaki Saki shudder subconsciously. She looked at Uesugi Sumiya's gradually illusory figure in a daze, and immediately tightened her weapon and began to look around, preparing to deal with enemies that might appear at any time.

"Didn't you notice that the fog got thicker as we walked in? Although it's winter, this kind of fog is obviously abnormal, isn't it? So let's find out what happened here, is it spiritual power at work, or is it... a natural phenomenon."

When talking about the word "natural phenomenon", Saki Kawasaki couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth. It was not uncommon for such thick fog to appear in the deep mountains, but she remembered very clearly that the road they took was just a little remote, and they definitely did not enter the mountains. In addition, it was a sunny day just now, but now it was suddenly covered by thick fog. She almost subconsciously ruled out the possibility of normal situation from the options.

"Hey!!!"

There were shouting sounds coming from afar. Kawasaki Saki subconsciously moved closer to a tree and stared at the direction where the shouting came from. She had a hunch that the other party was probably harboring bad intentions. Although her intuition was not as outrageous as Hikigaya Hachiman's who guessed correctly ten times out of ten, her feeling was always correct at this time.

Of course, she didn't completely plan to handle the problem on her own, so she just spoke up.

"Uesugi, you didn't bring me here just to let me fight against an enemy whose location I don't know in the fog, did you? You should know what the situation is on the other side. I remember you saw it more clearly than Miko."

"Of course not. In fact, the thing on the other side... is an afterimage. It is the kind of shadow of the past that remains due to the power overflowing from the special earth veins. It occasionally interferes with our judgment."

"So, that is just a remnant of the past..."

Saki Kawasaki slowly put down the stick, but her eyes were still alert. She really didn't understand why Uesugi Sumika brought her here alone.

"Yes, wait for me to take a picture of it, using a camera."

Uesugi Sumi appeared from somewhere and appeared behind Kawasaki Saki, which scared her, but what surprised her even more was the antique-like camera in Uesugi Sumi's hand.

"No, where did you find this thing? And why can it take pictures of evil spirits? Wouldn't it become some kind of spiritual portrait?"

Saki Kawasaki looked at the camera speechlessly. The incompatible equipment appeared here and the originally tense atmosphere instantly became cheerful.

"Look at this photo. It's pretty clear, right? It doesn't take a lot of effort for me to find these things."

Uesugi Cheng picked up the camera, and Kawasaki Saki saw it clearly. She could see clearly where the lens was pointed, and she could clearly see that the 'person' in the fog on the opposite side was not a human being at all.

"Is that really just an afterimage or something like that? I really think that's an evil spirit?"

Saki Kawasaki exhaled. The spirit in the distance was still waving, but it was obvious that the words he uttered had changed from "Hello" to something more fragmented.

"Let's move on, this is just the beginning."

Uesugi Cheng did not answer, but just said this.

294

Chapter 294: Hunters and the Hunted

"I remember we encountered this situation in the back mountain during the summer..."

Saki Kawasaki finally remembered that they had encountered this kind of strange situation before in the back mountain of Tonghe. The behavior of the deceased before his death was recorded by this strange place and played repeatedly, which looked very creepy.

"Yes, and to a certain extent we can reconstruct what happened at that time to cause it to become like this. Let's go forward. Judging from the situation of that figure, he should be calling his friends to come over together."

Uesugi Cheng nodded and put away the camera. The Kujo family's connections in supernatural props and the Uesugi family's financial resources allowed him to acquire this antique camera that was said to have been used by "Aso Kunihiko". It is unknown what kind of genius this Aso Kunihiko is, but his camera can indeed capture images of spirits and residual spiritual power.

Uesugi Cheng twisted the lens. The lens was specially ground by him to target evil spirits. [Glass and Forged Light] and [Silent Contemplation of the Dawn] provided him with considerable help in this regard.

"Are they... running away? What on earth did they encounter?"

Saki Kawasaki felt a little creepy. From the walking at the beginning to the acceleration later, she saw the things shown in the image of the residual spiritual power. It seemed that this person had begun to flee in panic, and even made a move to throw something away in the end, almost crawling on the ground using both hands and feet.

"Can't we really walk faster? Or can't you really do me a favor and tell me the answer in advance? This kind of scene makes me feel creepy no matter how I look at it."

Saki Kawasaki rubbed the ground with her feet. The dirt was much more solid than she had imagined, but also much more slippery. She was a little afraid that she might miss the opportunity because of the slippery ground when exerting force.

"No, there's no need. You've already seen the answer... their ending."

Uesugi Sumire stopped, and Kawasaki Saki's eyes bypassed Uesugi Sumire and looked into the grass in front. In this woods that was completely covered by fog, her eyes overlapped with the empty eye sockets of the skull. The human bones hanging on the tree and still shaking at this moment seemed to have completed a mission. They fell off the branches and turned into scattered bones on the ground. The trees began to shake, even though there was no wind or anything else.

"Wait, Uesugi, what is going on? Don't tell me you don't know!! Tell me quickly!!"

Saki Kawasaki felt a sense of irritation for no reason. From the moment she walked into this place, Uesugi Sumika didn't tell her anything. This was different from what he had done in the past, or rather, Uesugi Sumika seemed particularly strange today.

"Haven't you noticed yet? That thing has been following us for a long time. If it wasn't afraid of the weapons in our hands, it would have attacked us long ago. But even so, it was unwilling to give up the two of us, so it used the remaining images of this place and its minions to lure us here."

Before Uesugi Sumiya could finish her words, Kawasaki Saki's hearing was shocked by a deafening roar. She subconsciously swung her weapon in the direction where the sound came from.

However, there was nothing there. She vaguely saw a person looking at her with a mocking expression... No, was that a person?

Saki Kawasaki's breathing became heavy, and she finally saw clearly what it was. It was a human head with a human-like mocking expression. Under the human head was a bear that was even smaller than a normal size.

'Is that a bear with a human head?'

She rubbed her eyes. This scene was too weird no matter how you looked at it. She felt that if she told other people about this, they would definitely think it was nonsense.

"Kawasaki, trust your instincts... our dear prey has made its debut."

I don’t know if it’s because Saki Kawasaki was still immersed in that strange feeling, but she actually felt that Uesugi Sumika’s voice had a bit of fanaticism, just like a hunter seeing his prey. She also felt this feeling on the human head on the bear’s head just now.

"That bear looks more like a human, right? That cunning beast is indeed responsible for the disappearances here..."

The corners of Uesugi Sumire's mouth were stretched into a grin. She had never seen Uesugi Sumire look like this, with that kind of fanatical feeling.

"After tasting humans, this beast finally got addicted. Coupled with the special topography and the power of the earth veins in this place, it gradually developed the same thinking as its prey. In the big country further west, we would call such things 'human bears'. I didn't expect there would be one here too..."

The camera in Uesugi Sumiko's hand had disappeared, and instead there was a one-handed axe. The axe blade flashing with cold light made Kawasaki Saki have no doubt about its power.

"Kawasaki, be careful, the beast knows more than that. It looks no different from a human."

Following Uesugi Sumiya's words, the malicious gaze suddenly disappeared. Kawasaki Saki leaned against the tree and slowly approached the place where the bear had just been.

"Is there no way for you to find where it is? And then use your spell to get rid of it once and for all?"

Saki Kawasaki asked. Although Uesugi Sumire had never shown his fighting ability in front of her, the feat of Uesugi Sumire breaking a door between the two worlds with one hand during the rescue operation in Area S was still firmly engraved in her mind. Couldn't such a powerful wizard end the battle directly with magic?

"I can... but I want to... fight it more. To be honest, I didn't expect that after so long, my hunter instincts still remain in my body..."

Uesugi Cheng's demeanor was completely different from the nonchalant look he had just shown when he led her into the mist; he looked as if he was enjoying something.

The attack was launched silently. The bear, whose body was still huge compared to humans, attacked silently from the side and rear. The bear tried many angles of attack, but this angle was almost impossible for humans to defend against.

Its huge bear paw felt the "pain" for the first time in a long time. For some reason, the petite woman suddenly turned around and hit its palm with her weapon, making its attack miss.

295

Chapter 2: Hunters and the Hunted ()

It doesn't matter, it has plenty of opportunities. These two humans have been lost in the fog, or maybe they came here just to hunt it. It doesn't matter, humans have never had the possibility of defeating it in this fog.

As the black bear thought this, it swiftly returned to the fog. It had thrown the man's head somewhere long ago. It now wanted the man's head even more. It knew that once it obtained that thing, it would definitely gain more powerful strength and more abundant food.

Like a seasoned hunter, it hid in the mist, waiting for the next opportunity to attack, just as it had done countless times.

"Uesugi... that thing, is it really a bear?"

Saki Kawasaki rubbed her wrist, shocked by the bear's choice to hide immediately after missing the attack. She had never seen such wisdom in animals before.

"That's why it's called 'Man-Bear'. In some ways, it's no different from humans... Kawasaki, I'm so excited. Not only is my comic material actually appearing in front of me... but... I want to chop off the beast's head with my own hands, just like we did before, and hunt down the 'monster' completely."

Saki Kawasaki was very keenly aware that the so-called 'past' was probably heavier and more mysterious than she could have imagined, but it didn't matter, she didn't care about these things. She adjusted her breathing. The forest shrouded in fog was full of threats. The bear might attack from all directions at any time. She was the passive one, being stared at by a hunter like a prey.

"I told you, just trust your instincts... Intuition is also a very important part of combat."

As Uesugi Sumiko spoke, she patted Kawasaki Saki on the shoulder. She was stunned for a moment because she really felt it, that wonderful intuition, her whole body was urging her to move forward, telling her how to win.

[Invincible and Brave]: "A general said: When I make the right choice, I can win. And the lighting scientist would say: When I win, I can determine which choice is right."

——Natalia Brulov (6 blades, 3 castings, 3 lamps)

Some people call this spirit the seventh fragment of the sword that the Lion Craftsman crushed when he was promoted to Sichen. Of course, this is only an informal statement. In fact, no one can clearly say what the seven pieces of sword that the Lion Craftsman broke should be called, but [Invincible Bravery] is indeed a way to make people stronger in a short period of time.

[Winning Move] + [Contemplation of the Dawn] + 15 Blades = [Invincible Bravery]

As long as enough 'edge' and special skills are provided, this power will burst out from the winning move.

【‘临时猎人’川崎沙希】:她正在完成一场异常的狩猎，她接受完全不应该属于她的力量。（18刃5铸3灯3鳞2心2启）

[Invincible Brave] (6 blades) + [Snake Milk] (6 blades) + [Orichalcum Staff] (3 blades) + [Kawasaki Saki] (3 blades)

It didn't take Saki Kawasaki very long to figure out where she should go. She took a step forward and felt her body was so light, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. The stick in her hand was now as easy to use as her arm. In the bear's frightened eyes that were so humanized that they were almost human, she accurately exposed its disguise and hit it hard with the stick.