As a traitor, I should raise the banner of rebellion

"The 'it' this person is referring to is naturally the remains of the child."

"No one in the same industry took it seriously and just thought it was a case of his eyesight being blurry."

“He himself has grudgingly accepted that.”

"But on this night, something happened that no one expected—"

Having said that, Morikami Nozomi paused slightly and licked her slightly dry red lips with her tongue.

“It rained heavily that night.”

"Amid the rumbling thunder, a bolt of lightning struck Okada Yuichi's residence, turning the huge wooden house into a huge fireball that even a heavy rain could not put out. Okada Yuichi, who lived inside, naturally died tragically on the spot."

"During the subsequent on-site investigation, the police found remains of burnt human tissue, but did not find the remains of Okada Yuichi himself."

"Not only that, the remains of the child also disappeared in the fire. Maybe they were washed away to an unknown place by the rain?"

"Luckily, he is a bachelor, with neither a wife nor children."

"Apart from him, there were no other casualties in the accident."

"If this incident ends here, it would not be considered a miraculous event."

"But almost a week after this incident, Yuichi Okada, who had been confirmed dead, reappeared."

"No, to be exact, a young man who calls himself [Okada Yuichi] has appeared again."

"A young man who claims to be Okada Yuichi?" Yuanhui emphasized these two words.

"That's right, young man." Morikami Nozomi affirmed Yuanhui's statement. To this day, the magical nature of this incident still makes her marvel.

"Okada Yuichi is a 40-year-old man in his prime."

"But this [Okada Yuichi] who suddenly appeared seems to be less than 30 years old."

"Apart from this, this [Okada Yuichi] and the photo of that uncle when he was 30 years old are exactly the same, as if they were carved from the same mold."

"Okada Yuichi himself is a bachelor and has no children."

"Even if there is an illegitimate child, it is impossible for him to be so similar."

"When the police asked the young man who called himself [Okada Yuichi] how he escaped from the fire, he gave an extremely surprising answer."

"He said he was awakened by the thunder and got up to close the window."

"Unexpectedly, at this moment, a bolt of thunder split the sky and struck him squarely on the body."

"And the reason he survived is because—"

"He shed his skin."

"Shedding skin?" Even Yuan Hui couldn't help but be a little surprised at this moment.

Thinking about the strange "cemetery" before, Yuanhui now showed a thoughtful expression.

And Nozomi Morikami's story continues.

"Yes, he claimed that he had died after being struck by lightning, but almost a minute later, he opened his eyes again."

"He felt very uncomfortable at the time, his whole body was itchy and it seemed like he was tied up by something."

“When he broke free from the restraints, it was discovered that it was actually a layer of his skin that had been completely charred.”

"After discovering this, he was surprised and frightened, but escaping was the most important thing at the moment."

"And when he jumped from the second floor where he was and fell into the courtyard, he saw what he looked like through the glowing glass—"

"Although it was very embarrassing, that was indeed what he looked like when he was 30 years old."

"He seems...rejuvenated."

“This is the story of [The Shedding Man].”

21. Is this a date request?

It is not uncommon for animals to sacrifice part of themselves in order to survive.

Geckos cut off their tails, sea cucumbers vomited bile, lizards had their limbs amputated...

All of these can be counted as such behavior.

In the biological world, there is a professional term for this behavior, namely——

【Self-cut】

[Self-resection] is an ability that only creatures with extremely strong regenerative abilities can possess, which naturally does not include humans.

Unless, he has been entangled by [weirdness].

"After that, did the man who called himself [Okada Yuichi] prove that he was [him]?" Yuanhui asked.

He himself is not very optimistic about this.

In today's society, how can we prove that "you are you"?

The easiest and quickest way is naturally fingerprint.

But the incident happened eight years ago, and at that time, Sakurajima did not have such a complete fingerprint recognition system.

Moreover, Okada Yuichi's own residence was also destroyed in the accident and became a complete ruin.

After a week of exposure to wind and sun, it is estimated that there will be no fingerprints left inside for collection and comparison.

Of course, these are just unimportant details.

Even if fingerprint comparison is not possible, other methods are still available.

But the question now is -

Does the official want this young [Yuichi Okada] to be Yuichi Okada himself?

I guess he is unwilling.

If that really happens, it would be tantamount to admitting that there are supernatural powers in this world. Judging from the official handling of the previous "Lika Doll" incident, this is obviously contrary to their policy.

Although it may be a bit unfair to Yuichi Okada, the best way to deal with this matter is probably...

"No." Morikami Nozomi's answer was not unexpected by Yuan Hui. "The police believe that such a statement is too absurd. There is no need to spend police resources to investigate such a fictitious thing."

"Compared to the resurrection of the dead, they prefer another theory, which is——"

"This young man is actually a person who looks very similar to Okada Yuichi when he was young. He made up this story in order to seize Okada Yuichi's inheritance."

"The police originally wanted to detain this young man for attempted fraud, but after hearing the police's verdict, this young man actually showed extremely strong suicidal tendencies."

"[Since you don't believe me, let me shed my skin right in front of you and let you see if I really have the ability to come back to life!]"

"He let out a somewhat crazy shout, and then without hesitation, he banged his forehead against the corner of the table, but before he could commit suicide, he was arrested by the police."

"Eventually, the man who called himself [Okada Yuichi] was diagnosed with a serious mental illness and was taken to a mental hospital for treatment."

“The whole incident came to an end just like that.”

"Somewhere?" Yuan Hui asked.

"Yes, it's a certain hospital." Morikami nodded on the other end of the phone. "According to the report, this is to prevent people from harassing the patient out of curiosity about the incident, so as to protect the patient's privacy."

After hearing this, Yuan Hui couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Tsk, that's some official language.

"So, does that mean we have no way of finding this [Okada Yuichi]?"

Unlike the [Lika Doll] who can be found whenever you call, it is obviously not that convenient to find the [Shedding Man].

Moreover, even if the [Shedding Man] is found, the possibility that this ghost story is still an ownerless ghost story like the [Lika Doll] is actually almost zero.

Even if you die, you can be resurrected through [shedding skin], and the price you pay is just [becoming younger].

This may be the most coveted ability for those who know the truth about this world, especially those powerful people who are afraid of death.

The humans in this world are also able to capture weirdness, but it is not an easy task.

Death energy is an energy filled with hatred and despair, and is poison to all living things.

And the monster born in the sea of ​​death is naturally as poisonous as thrush to the soul.

If it is not weakened and is introduced into one's soul, it will be no different from committing suicide by taking poison.

It must be weakened to a certain extent, at least [Crane's Beak] must be diluted to a level close to that of [Croton], so that it can be restrained by the human soul.

But even if all the work is done to perfection, this kind of restraint is actually very dependent on appearance.

So far, even the most advanced secret methods cannot increase this probability to more than 25%.

For one person to succeed, at least three people must die.

This seems to be the iron law engraved in the rules of this world.

But if the ability of the [Shedding Man] is really so incredible, no matter how low the probability is, there is absolutely no way to stop people's enthusiasm for it.

unless……

[Shedding Skin Man] This monster has a huge flaw that even 'resurrection from the dead' cannot cover up.

Thinking about the story of Okada Yuichi who was struck by lightning and died once, Yuan Hui had some vague guesses -

This is the only time [Death] occurs in the story just now.

"However, although we cannot find the whereabouts of Okada Yuichi himself, his ranch in Chiba Prefecture, where the funeral site was first discovered, was mentioned in the initial report."

The diligent Morikami Nozomi continued to provide his information about the incident to Genki.

"That ranch is still there?" Yuan Hui seemed a little surprised.

"To be exact, it should be gone."

"After Okada Yuichi was officially declared dead, the ranch was handed over as an inheritance to a distant relative of Okada Yuichi himself."

"Because of Okada Yuichi's personal destruction, the quality of this ranch has already declined, and this lucky distant relative is also a layman in ranch management."

"After years of losses, he simply abandoned it and walked away because he couldn't find a buyer for it."

"When I visited Chiba a few years ago, I went there to have a look and found that the original pasture had turned into a desolate hillside."

"I wandered around for quite a while but couldn't find the legendary big pit. It should have been filled up."

Morikami Nozomi's tone was full of regret.

However, she is an ordinary person without any power, so it is normal that she cannot find anything unusual.

If it was Yuanhui, he might be able to sense the extraordinary things buried deep underground.

"Yuan-kun, if you have time..."

"Would you like to go to Chiba with me this weekend?"

22. Ah? A repayment system?

Tuesday, April 2nd.

After the second day of school, high school life officially got on track and the study of various courses began one after another.

Yuanhui is currently taking a Chinese language class.

On the podium, the teacher with a childish face and a big [meow——] face was writing on the blackboard with chalk, stroke by stroke, making a slight "crunching" sound.

That’s right, Kana Mizukami is not only the homeroom teacher of Class A of Grade 1, but also their Chinese teacher.

The lesson we are going to study today is a short story by the great writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa: "Orange".

Although he turned to that page in the textbook like everyone else, Yuanhui's mind was not on the class at all.

because--

That 'Suzuki Shin' has already started to move.

Yuanhui was monitoring this suspected [weird] existence.

To be more precise, it was Lika who was watching him.

This surveillance actually started last night.

After asking for Suzuki Nobuyuki's phone number, Yuanhui directly dialed the number on the pretext of "checking if there was any mistake in the recording", and heard the ringtone coming from Suzuki Nishi.