But...
"Shimanaga and the others on the first floor... Why has their noise suddenly ceased?"
Tsukishima Risa rembered it vividly.
At first, the noise from Shimanaga’s group was loud.
Thud, thud, thud—the sounds seed as if they were tearing the house down.
Now, everything had quieted down.
To be precise, other than the sound of her footsteps pattering now, she couldn’t hear anything else.
Not a trace of miscellaneous noise.
"What on earth was happening?"
This unsettling feeling made Tsukishima Risa’s limbs feel cold.
She swallowed hard, hurriedly running back the way she ca.
But—
The mont Tsukishima Risa took a step, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from behind her!
Tsukishima Risa’s arms trembled as she turned her flashlight around.
Behind her was the corridor, where the only thing visible was the wall.
Yes... completely empty.
As if the sound of the footsteps had been a trick.
Under these circumstances, Tsukishima Risa took another couple of nerve-wracking steps.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sounds ca from behind her again!
Tsukishima Risa tensed up, turning her flashlight around once more.
Behind her, still nothing.
The dilapidated corridor seed to mock Tsukishima Risa with a sharp, whining sound.
But this ti, Tsukishima Risa didn’t dare to make any rash moves.
There was sothing behind her!
There definitely was sothing behind her!
Her heart raced, her face pale, she shuddered.
But staying frozen like this was not a solution.
Tsukishima Risa took a deep breath, kept walking backward, and continued to gaze intently ahead.
This ti, the footsteps didn’t sound.
Was it effective... did it work?
A sliver of hope washed over Tsukishima Risa.
Maintaining this feeling, she continued to retreat.
Then—
She bumped into sothing behind her.
Tsukishima Risa’s body tensed up like a drawn bow.
There was sothing behind her...
It was not in front, but behind...
As this thought struck her, a smile more unsightly than tears spread across her face.
Finally, she turned slowly—
Under this stiff and gradual movent, Tsukishima Risa only saw a face.
A cold, handso face.
The person’s black eyes gazed calmly at her.
"Beichuan, Beichuan?!"
Tsukishima Risa exclaid in a stunned voice, and then tightly hugged Beichuan Si, her body shaking as she cried pathetically.
To et the strongest ally at such a desperate ti.
How truly—
Just as Tsukishima Risa had this thought, a voice suddenly ca from behind her.
It was a very familiar voice.
"Did you call ?"
Under Tsukishima Risa’s incredulous gaze, Beichuan Si, wrapped in a chilling black aura, walked out from the long corridor behind her.
Two, two Beichuan Sis?
Double the joy?
Tsukishima Risa’s mind went blank for a mont.
And in that instant of ntal blankness, the Beichuan Si shrouded in a chilling black aura had already sprinted to her side and reached out to grab the Beichuan Si she was embracing.
As sothing was thrown down, Tsukishima Risa felt her hands loosen, and the other Beichuan Si disappeared, leaving only the one enveloped in black aura standing beside her.
This sudden change finally snapped Tsukishima Risa’s short-circuited brain back to reality.
She opened her mouth, uncertainly addressing the newly erged Beichuan Si, "Beichuan, Beichuan classmate?"
"It’s ." Beichuan Si nonchalantly stuffed sothing into his pocket, then turned to Tsukishima Risa and said, "It’s about ti to leave, they’re still waiting for you."
"Oh... Oh."
Tsukishima Risa nodded vigorously, then regulated her breathing, waiting until the weakness in her legs had sowhat subsided before following Beichuan Si’s lead.
She jogged up to Beichuan Si and asked, "Beichuan classmate, Yonai and the others are alright?"
Faced with Tsukishima Risa’s question, Beichuan Si thought for a mont before responding in an indistinct tone, "For now, it seems there’s nothing wrong."
Tsukishima Risa and the others had been in the long house for almost half an hour.
During this ti, Beichuan Si had made another circuit around the long house.
Afterward, he heard the screams of Yokomaku Mitomo and his girlfriend and directly charged in.
"I didn’t do anything."
Beichuan Si made that announcent first.
Then, pointing to the faint Yokomaku Mitomo and his girlfriend at the entrance, as well as another couple exploring the first floor, he shook his head and said, "By the ti I arrived, they had already lost consciousness. Yokomaku Mitomo was out cold in a small room in the second-floor corridor, and his girlfriend had collapsed directly in the stairwell, with no wounds on her. Looking at them, they seem to have fainted from fright."
As for the other man and woman exploring the first floor...
By the ti Beichuan Si got there, they too had been scared into unconsciousness on the ground, the reason being the sa: excessive shock.
"Just as I had expected."
Looking at the two n and two won on the ground, Beichuan Si said with certainty, "There are no resentful spirits in this long house."
"..." Hearing this, Tsukishima Risa couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of her mouth.
No resentful spirits?
Could they be scared into this state without any resentful spirits?
Tsukishima Risa looked like she wanted to retort, but didn’t know where to start.
And Beichuan Si, with his sharp senses, noticed her disposition.
Without second thoughts, he asked, "Senior Tsukishima, apart from being scared, have you suffered any other trauma? Anything physical?"
"This... No."
Tsukishima Risa shook her head.
The situation was indeed strange.
She clearly had entered the attack range of the fake Beichuan Si, so why didn’t the person kill her directly but just watched her?
"Other people were the sa, they each encountered a scare but weren’t hard."
Beichuan Si continued with a frown, "Rather than wanting to harm you, the other party seed more inclined to..."
"More inclined to what?" Tsukishima Risa couldn’t help but follow up.
Beichuan Si’s frown eased slightly, and after a while, he said, "Never mind, it might not be what I was thinking."
"... Right."
Since Beichuan Si didn’t want to talk about it, Tsukishima Risa wouldn’t press the issue.
After all, a significant part of their safe exit this ti was thanks to Beichuan Si.
Besides, there were more urgent matters at hand for her to address.
Tsukishima Risa couldn’t help but rub her temples.
Waking everyone up and leaving this place of trouble was the right thing to do...
Looking at the contorted faces of her schoolmates lying on the ground, she couldn’t help but sigh.
She had told them not to participate in this kind of ’thrilling’ adventure.
And now, look what happened.
You’ve all fainted from fear here, and in the end, she still had to clean up the ss.
Even Tsukishima Risa, who was always known for her good temper, was sowhat overwheld.
After all, she had repeatedly tried to talk these schoolmates out of it.
"This experience might not be a bad thing for them."
Beichuan Si suddenly spoke up.
He seed to understand what Tsukishima Risa was thinking, "Instead of courting death by encountering a real angry spirit, this experience would suffice to deter them from seeking such thrills in their lives again."
"... You do speak the truth, Beichuan classmate," Tsukishima Risa said helplessly, spreading her palms, "It’s just seeing them, and thinking of my past self. I can’t help but feel conflicted."
She used to take Qian Xia Chiyuki to the Sanmu Puppet Factory in search of the nonexistent ’Wall of Nas,’ causing trouble for many.
Now, seeing her schoolmates in such sorry states, she was inevitably reminded of her past self.
"Let’s not bring up what’s already passed," Beichuan Si said simply.
And...
He half-pulled the object from his pocket.
With the help of the moonlight, he saw it clearly.
It was a battered and tattered ’Hyakunin Isshu’ playing card.
"Not to kill... just to scare people away, huh?"
Beichuan Si stared at the playing card, recalling the content of his earlier phone conversation with Gangye Yoshiko, and slipped it back into his pocket.
It seed like this whole affair was going to require digging deeper.
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