Miss Planeswalker, are you free for romance?

It's a case involving the supernatural.

Chapter 23 Shield

Sakai Takashi repeated the case to Usami Reiko and Shirata.

The deceased were several female students from a high school.

Before that, they held some unknown ceremony at a certain location.

Afterwards, they died one after another.

——Fortunately, they had publicly announced the matter in school, so Sakai Takashi was able to investigate them one by one based on the information he had obtained and restore their original appearance.

The 'regular' local police station doesn't have much of a solution for this case.

“Because it’s an empty shell.”

Sakai Takashi flipped through the folder and showed a certain page to the two. Usami Reiko glanced at it and then looked away.

The body of the deceased and photos of the scene.

In fact, the problem was discovered when the body was being restrained, and it was not confirmed until the forensic autopsy.

Inside the corpse...

Nothing.

"What does nothing mean?" Bai Ju frowned.

"That's it. Nothing."

Takashi Sakai turned a page and saw the whole page was filled with photos.

"The organs, flesh, bones, and brain have all disappeared, and instead they are filled with a large amount of gas - just ordinary air. After analysis, there is nothing special about it."

Next page.

"This is the body of another victim from before."

Still so.

They are like big, life-size dolls, but filled with air.

"Start from the beginning and tell me the results of the police investigation."

Sakai Takashi put down the documents and spread his hands: "The result is - there is no result."

First of all, we have ruled out an "ordinary" homicide. Whether from the time or the evidence collection at the scene, it is not something an "ordinary" person can do.

Secondly, after investigating the networks involved in several victims, the possibility that they were committed by the ritualists is very small - of course, the possibility of ritualists killing people randomly cannot be ruled out.

Sakai Takashi muttered: "But I am more inclined to believe that these kids won the lucky jackpot by their own fault."

"Sakai!"

Bai Ju is like this. He doesn't like his men making jokes about dead people. After all, they have already paid the price.

"Hi hi..." Sakai Takashi continued.

Some kind of ceremony was performed for the deceased.

He picked up the folder, lowered his head, and turned to the next few pages: "I collected all the urban legends about "Peaches" - the information that the girl left through the police call."

He dusted off the plastic clip and turned it around to show it.

Densely packed text.

"These are all of them. I removed the duplicates and this is all that's left."

"Call your own number from your own phone"

"Ask a question"

This is the most important part.

"What I don't understand is..."

Sakai Takashi handed the folder to Bai Ju, a little puzzled: "According to the setting of the urban legend, after calling Taozi, it should be safe as long as you ask it questions..."

Still dead.

Sakai Takashi joked: "One of the girls asked their math teacher, who is in his 50s, if he had an affair and got a positive answer - now the whole school knows about this."

Usami Reiko: ...

These kids are really...

"So, urban legends have changed." Bai Ju did not say there were any errors or omissions because these legends have been more or less actively or passively modified by humans during the process of dissemination, and their original appearance has long been lost in time.

"Make the call, ask the question, get killed."

"Dial the phone, don't ask questions, and get killed, too."

Is that right?

Making that call is a dead end.

"It's worthy of the name of an urban legend." Usami Reiko interrupted and asked Sakai Takashi: "What will happen if the other party can't answer the question you ask?"

perhaps…

Killed out of anger?

"The point is to kill people."

Bai Ju pressed his forehead, feeling a little headache: "I remember that one of the items in the project file for supporting special cultural industries is to erase all information about rituals and summons on the Internet."

Sakai Takashi shrugged. "I asked, and the students said it was spread by word of mouth. Before the incident, there were people who wanted to meet the slit-mouthed woman in the middle of the night."

Even though he had seen so much tragedy, Bai Ju didn't know what to say at this moment.

"Have you checked the cell phone that the deceased used to talk to the other party before he died?"

"No...don't glare at me. I didn't find a phone at the scene. I called it but it was turned off."

Takashi Sakai said he would not take the blame.

The cell phone...disappeared?

Well, part of the problem lies with the phone, too.

"Sakai, you take the third team. I will communicate with the local police station and assign you some personnel." Bai Ju ordered: "Since surveillance is useless, we will investigate them one by one. The missing phone is crucial to the direction of the entire case."

Whether it is human-caused or not, mobile phones are the most important entry point.

Bai Ju even thought of a more serious possibility:

Suppose that these phones are picked up by ordinary people, and by chance, the unknown monster on the other side can call in through the phone that summoned it...

Sakai Takashi stood up straight.

"I understand."

The man turned to Usami Reiko and said, "Come with me to the research institute. Now that we have figured out the general situation, let's see if we can try to restore the ritual."

Usami Reiko understood.

"You want to perform a ceremony that the dead performed."

Sakai Takashi was surprised: "What do you mean - Bai Ju you..."

Bai Ju nodded.

This is the simplest and fastest way.

No matter how hard you try to hide it, it is ultimately a weird story of killing people through phone calls and rules. If the source is eliminated, there is no need to worry about those lost phones.

"Don't worry." He patted Sakai Takashi's shoulder, his muscles pulling the corners of his mouth, revealing a not-so-good smile: "That's the last resort - before that, it's up to you."

Once this "haunted telephone conversation" is reconstructed by them, those who participated in the ritual will be in danger.

——If more deaths continue to occur, this is what they will have to do.

They have to protect the people.

People are outside, on the streets, in buildings and subways.

But not at the ceremony place.

Inside the ritual hall, there were only shields protecting the people and humble travelers trying to see through the thick fog.

…………

……

Beep…beep…

Click.

He answered coldly: "Who is it?"

The person on the other end of the receiver blew a breath in a pretentious manner, lowering the thin voice:

"I am——"

"…Mori Yuesha, only a demon king who is tens of thousands of years old would speak like this."

"Tsk... I was thinking of asking you to guess who I am..."

"Interesting."

"Cold ghost, you were obviously very happy just now."

"Do you want me to ask, 'Hey, how did you know I was so happy just now' and 'Are you spying on me' - or something like that?"

"Just a little more panic."

"You can't do that. What on earth do you want to do?"

"You don't want to know—"

"Mori Yuesha," the voice was slow and measured: "Tell me, is there a possibility that when you were lying on the wall and looking at me, I could also see you from inside the wall?"

The girl, with her little head exposed and holding a mobile phone, cleverly made eye contact with the girl squatting on the lawn inside the fence and playing with a cat.

Mori Tsukisa: Hi.

Wave, wave.

Yukinoshita Yukino raised her phone expressionlessly and put it back to her ear: "For a game like 'Guess Who I Am', you first need to call from another number. Not your own."

"Ah... I forgot about caller ID!!" Mori Yuesa slapped her forehead.

"Tsk, it would be better if you were blind."

——Take that 'tsk' back, you who curses others so casually.

Chapter 24 Let’s start the treasure hunt, Grandma

Unfortunately, Miss Yukino, who was not blind, watched in silence as the head of the family climbed over the wall and entered.

"I want to confirm - is this your house?"

"Yes."

"Isn't there a front door?"

Mori Yuesha brushed off her clothes and said, "Yeah...yes."

"Your 'um...' is a hesitation?"

"No, climbing over a wall is so cool. Maybe I can even scare you."

Yukinoshita Yukino raised her hand in disgust and wiped away a streak of dust on the other person's face.

"I didn't say hello. This time I came to see Grandma Arya." She explained to Mori Yuesha that although grandma and the children lived here, it was Mori Yuesha's house after all.