A comic book, but a librarian

"Excuse me, both of you. I think the situation today is even more difficult than last time. Last time we had an incident as a starting point for the investigation. This time we can only find possible clues through guesswork and trial and error."

Uesugi Cheng shook his head. This kind of rescue requires time the most, and this kind of needle-in-a-haystack investigation uses up the most time. Now they can only race against death.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

A childish female voice came from Uesugi Sumire's cell phone. Kawasaki Saki was stunned for a moment, and in the end she didn't even know how she came up with a joke.

"You will be arrested if you employ child labor."

"Don't worry, it's not child labor, midnight snack... where are you now?"

Uesugi Sumire hung the map on the wall and circled with a red pen the place where Hikigaya Hachiman and Yukinoshita Yukino last lost contact.

"We are on our way now... Let's go to the one closer to your place first, the place where the boy named Hikigaya Hachiman disappeared."

Hozuki Eiko interrupted. She was driving and looking at the address sent from Uesugi Sumire's phone. Compared with Yukinoshita Yukino who went to Himeno Mikoto's house, Hikigaya Hachiman who had appeared at home before his disappearance would obviously be a better breakthrough. At least he might have left some information at home.

"We'll start looking for possible information here... I'll leave that to you guys."

Uesugi Cheng took a deep breath, and the power of soul began to seep out of his body, flipping through all the information.

"Okay, we're almost there now..."

Baoyue Yexiao hugged the puppet in her arms. After learning from the last lesson, the combat power she brought this time was particularly sufficient. One reconnaissance and two combat evil spirits were enough to deal with most situations.

~~~~~

154

Chapter 154: The situation of the missing persons.

"To be honest, I'm not really suited to this kind of work..."

Saki Kawasaki rubbed her eyes helplessly. The information that could be found in the materials in front of her was nothing more than vague legends, hearsay stories, and even events that might have been processed by the author himself. God knows whether this pile of books as thick as a mountain will contain what they want.

"Special death incident... suicide incident. Nothing of value was found near where the two of them disappeared. But then again, if there was something like that near where they lived, the place would have been empty long ago."

Yotsuya Miko also put down the information helplessly. She didn't know how Uesugi Sumire got the information on the number and location of suicides, but it was obvious that these things should have nothing to do with the missing persons.

"There are traces of spiritual power reaction near Hikigaya Hachiman's home, but there is no direction, it is too messy, and the spiritual power characteristics of Hikigaya Hachiman himself are also quite obvious. However, it and I can only feel that the trace is very abruptly cut off."

Baoyue Yexiao was standing at the door of Hikigaya's house at this moment. His parents seemed to only return home on weekends, so they had not yet realized that their child was missing.

"By the way, has anyone seen Hikigaya Komachi? Did she come to school?"

Uesugi Cheng asked the two girls, and they both shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, we don't know his sister very well, and we don't have any contact information..."

"Let's find someone to ask, in case something happens to his sister and we don't know about it..."

Uesugi Sumire looked through the phone book, trying to find someone who could talk to Hikigaya Komachi, but of course he found nothing.

"Well, how about letting Yuigahama Yui go, and I can ask her to help ask around?"

Kawasaki Saki took out her cell phone and Uesugi Sumire thought about it for a moment.

"Try not to let people who are familiar with Hikigaya ask, otherwise they may all realize that Hikigaya is missing, and the situation may become more difficult to control. I don't think Hikigaya would want to face the embarrassing scene of his classmates' funerals being held for him when he returns. And Hiratsuka Shizuka-sensei is also trying her best to suppress the spread of news. We can't have multiple disappearances in a short period of time."

Saki Kawasaki thought about it, nodded, and then prepared to change the way she phrased it and make a more indirect attack.

"We are now heading towards the last remaining traces of his spiritual power. What do you think of this place?"

Baoyue Yongzi shared the coordinates. It was just an ordinary commercial street and there didn't seem to be anything strange about it.

-

"Where am I?"

Under the dim sky, Hikigaya Hachiman rubbed his head and stood up. He only remembered walking on the street, and then...

He came back to his senses and saw that the street was still crowded with people. It seemed as if he had just been distracted, but the air around him made him feel uncomfortable. The commercial street, which had been normal just a moment ago, seemed to have suddenly become strange.

"Ah, I really should find a place to change my luck, right..."

Hikigaya Hachiman took out his cell phone, which clearly showed that he was outside the service area. At that moment, the people coming and going around him became extremely dangerous in his eyes. The entire commercial street looked a little too dilapidated. Although it was obviously a recently built building from the design, the surface of the wall looked as if it had been there for more than ten years.

"Have you heard..."

"You mean the new family that moved in? What a pity... your husband is still so young."

"That's right, everyone is saying that the Feng Shui here is not very good."

Hikigaya Hachiman leaned against the wall as if he was playing with his phone, listening to the chatter of several housewives around him. Are there so many people committing suicide near this commercial street? He was confused for a moment.

"This is not a coincidence... Someone died yesterday. It was said that he was vomiting blood at home, and no one found him and he fell to the ground and died."

Suddenly, a housewife dressed in black came over and added a not-so-pleasant color to the discussion with her heavy tone.

"Eh...wait, could it be?"

"Yes, that's right, it's the Suno family that just moved in to the east."

The women were silent for a while, and finally left the corner quickly, looking as if they were afraid of something that did not exist.

"Everyone who moved here died mysteriously, and the phone calls were all unreachable... These women all looked normal. Where on earth is this place?"

What Hikigaya Hachiman could not have expected was that on this street that looked so strange, the people standing, walking, and even the shop assistants were all normal people. His spiritual detection did not detect any strange movements at all.

However, more realistic problems faced him.

"Wait, it's getting nighttime. If I can't find a way to get out... Damn, I don't even have much change with me."

Hikigaya Hachiman cursed. If he couldn't find a way out, he would most likely face the dead end of being a homeless person in such a strange place.

As he was thinking this, he walked and came to a small park. Although the park looked newly built, it gave Hikigaya Hachiman a dull and decayed feeling.

"What's going on here?"

Although they were still in the block on the map, it was as if they had come to a different world. This strange feeling lingered in Hikigaya Hachiman's heart.

This forced him to move forward and seek the answer.

-

"Run, run faster!"

Yukinoshita Yukino was supporting Himeno Mikoto as they were escaping in a deserted factory.

"No... no, what on earth is that thing?"

Himeno Mikoto was panting, she raised her head tiredly, and a 'person' in white clothes was approaching not far away. To be honest, it was hard to call it a person, after all, its head looked like a cracked watermelon, and its body was covered with its own brains and blood. But it was still a ghost that could move. It didn't look like something that should appear normally in this world.

"I finally understand why they all told me this kind of thing is so dangerous..."

Yukinoshita Yukino gave a bitter smile. She seldom showed such an expression, but it was obvious that they had provoked the vengeful spirit of the person who died by jumping off the building, and it just so happened that... they didn't even have the means to deal with the evil spirit, and could only seek a chance of survival by constantly running away.

~~~~~

155

Chapter 155: Passing by.

"I will die... I will definitely die if I continue like this."

Although Yukinoshita Yukino has never encountered such a situation, her brain has told her that if they continue like this, they will be caught up by the bloody guy because of exhaustion. She doesn't know what will happen next, but she thinks that nothing good will happen.

"Mikoto! Hold on."

She didn't know if the evil spirit behind her was really tireless. Time seemed to have no meaning in this strange space. She felt that she had been running for at least an hour, but the time on her phone had not even passed a minute.

"Wow wow wow!!!"

The accident still happened. They fled from the factory to an adjacent empty building in a panic. As a result, when going downstairs, Himeno Mikoto sprained her ankle and rolled directly down the stairs. Her knee rubbed against the floor, and dust mixed with the wound. Yukinoshita Yukino had already seen a little red spot appearing on her knee.

Himeno Mikoto gritted her teeth and tried to stand up, but she couldn't. Perhaps she was too exhausted, and her knee was injured, so she had no ability to stand up. She could only force a smile.

"Sister Yukino, please go first. I can't run anymore."

"Don't be silly, these evil spirits won't let me go... There must be a way... There must be."

Yukinoshita Yukino simply stood in front of Himeno Mikoto. She knew of course that doing so would be of no use at all, but running away was not right. It was clearly she who took the initiative to take on the task of looking for Himeno Mikoto. When she and Himeno Mikoto set out together, they walked into this place. It was she who caused the current situation. Yukinoshita Yukino would never allow herself to leave like this.

"No, Sister Yukino... It was like this when I was playing hide-and-seek alone. They won't stop unless they catch us. Let's go quickly. Maybe you can find a way to escape..."

Himeno Mikoto leaned against the wall with relief, she felt that her destined death seemed to have finally come to find her. Out of curiosity, she played 'hide and seek' alone, but ended up attracting the evil spirit and truly experienced the feeling of being chased by a ghost. If she hadn't set fire to the house along with the possessed doll, she would have probably turned into minced meat.

And then Yuan Meng was even more so. If it weren't for the divine soldiers who came down from heaven to deal with those clown evil spirits, she would most likely have ended up being turned into minced meat. But it was obvious that her luck seemed to have run out now, and the god of death was whispering in her ear again.

Wait... Himeno Mikoto suddenly looked up. She seemed to have really heard a voice. At the last moment of her life, she chose to close her eyes. The voice existed. Although she could not understand its meaning, but...

"Sister Yukino, can you hear me? What's that sound..."

Mikoto Himeno realized where the sense of incongruity came from. Why hadn't she died yet? The evil spirit had clearly been hanging not far behind her, and if she had run a little slower she would have been caught up. But she had clearly already rolled down the stairs for more than ten seconds, so why hadn't the evil spirit killed her yet?

"It... stopped?"

Yukinoshita Yukino looked at the evil spirit that seemed to be suddenly getting anxious and wandering above the stairs and felt a little unbelievable. She casually said that there must be a way, and the evil spirit actually stopped chasing her?

"What is it... something must have forced it to stop. What is it?"

Yukinoshita Yukino's joy lasted only a few seconds. She understood very well that they were still far from out of danger. She had to find out why the evil spirit became eager to try but hesitated.

While thinking, Yukinoshita Yukino helped Himeno Mikoto stand up. Her knee was scraped on the stairs and blood was even flowing out. The stairs, which seemed to have been vacant for a long time, were covered with dust, which had mixed into the wound. It would be very troublesome if it was not disinfected in time.

"Well...it seems like it doesn't dare to come over."

Himeno Mikoto suddenly had an idea and spoke.

"Yes, but we don't know what stopped it. Is there something special here or something else? Wait!!"

Yukinoshita Yukino replied casually. She was still thinking, but it was obvious that this was not what Himeno Mikoto was talking about.

Mikoto Himeno dipped her hand in some blood and stepped forward. As Yukinoshita Yukino's expression gradually became dazed, the evil spirit actually began to slowly retreat.

"It's ok... Sister Yukino, let's go... It's afraid of my blood. I don't know why, but we have a chance to go together now."

A smile appeared on Himeno Mikoto's lips, and both of them looked like they had survived a disaster.

So they supported each other and left the building. Looking back, they saw that the evil spirit had reached the rooftop at some point. Its blood, which had not yet coagulated, was still dripping down and landing at the door of the building, which looked chilling. The eyeballs hanging on its split head were staring at the two people who were about to leave, as if it was waiting for something.

They did not dare to hesitate and left the building immediately. When they reached the corner, the sound of flesh hitting the ground was heard. Yukinoshita Yukino didn't want to look back. She knew what that sound was. The first time they met the evil spirit was when that sound was heard. It was the sound of someone jumping off the building falling to the ground.

"Go away! Go away! How can you walk here!"

Walking on the depressing street, Yukinoshita Yukino saw a middle-aged man who looked normal. When she was about to talk to him, she heard these words. She looked at the frightened middle-aged man in confusion, and he left as if he was running away.

"Let's go too, Sister Yukino... We can't stay here any longer, that person also said so."

Himeno Mikoto frowned. Her movements were restricted and she could only move slowly.

-

At the same time, Baoyue Yexiao picked up the puppet, and the restless puppet pointed to the roof of a building. She looked up and saw a ghost repeating its last actions before death. Resentment was surrounding it, but it seemed that it had not harmed anyone.

With a thud, the undead fell to the ground, and the splattered brain matter and blood were all transformed by spiritual power. She looked at it for a long time and shook her head.

"There is nothing unusual here. Apart from the fact that there are too many evil spirits and people with weak spiritual power, there is nothing unusual."

~~~~~

156

Chapter 156: Area S.

"Is that area all normal? Nothing unusual?"

Uesugi Cheng confirmed once again that the area on the map in front of them was a relatively suspicious location, but Baoyue Yexiao and Baoyue Yongzi's special screening did not seem to find anything.

"What does it mean except that there are more people with weak spiritual power on their bodies?"

Kawasaki Saki was a little confused. Isn't being contaminated by spiritual power just encountering ghosts? But what exactly does this more mean?

"Well, there are many people with traces of contact with spirits. It seems that everyone in this area has had some contact with spirits, even if they can't see them. And there seem to be a lot of spirits in this area, whether they are evil or not. I want to capture some of them first."

Baoyue Yexiao was obviously eager to try it out, and if she wanted to understand the weirdness of this place, she felt that forcing some information out of these evil spirits would be a good choice.

"Here are the relevant materials about Kamikakushi, but is this author really reliable? I can't seem to find any specific information about him."

The signatures on this pile of papers and materials all point to the same person, his name is Kunihiko Aso, who is said to be a figure from the late Edo period. These works were even copied from his manuscripts, and are said to be very valuable materials.

"We don't know whether he is reliable or not, but as for the concept of disappearance, I don't think people like us know much about it, so using this information as a basis for investigation is at least much better than making random guesses."