This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 183 - 168: Calm Despair

Chapter 183: Chapter 168: Calm Despair

Anyone who saw this face in the dead of night would probably be startled.

But just as well, the pale-faced owner of that countenance was also startled upon seeing Beichuan Si, her body instinctively shivering, the thing she was carrying dropping to the ground.

This was a perfectly normal woman—

The woman’s name was Nishizaka Maya, a local resident from the nearby Ogao Mountain Area, who had come to the Sanmu Doll Abandoned Factory to mourn her family members.

Only local residents knew about this small path leading to the Sanmu Doll Abandoned Factory, which is why she could avoid the crowd gathered here for a live broadcast.

"My father was one of the workers who disappeared from the Sanmu Doll Abandoned Factory..." Nishizaka Maya explained to Beichuan Si by her side while lighting a long incense stick.

"After my father disappeared, my mother endured hardships and single-handedly raised my brother and me. Those were truly unbearable times."

A hint of memory glistened in her eyes, and her voice seemed ethereal under the night wind.

"Having little education, my mother had to toil in the fields every day ... cough, cough, cough..."

Nishizaka Maya suddenly coughed violently, wiping the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, her tone heavy with a strong sense of helplessness.

"Life had finally gotten back on track, and time had also healed the wounds caused by the puppet factory..."

"But my brother, Ming... left me a letter and went to the Sanmu Puppet Factory alone. In the letter, he told me he felt there was something fishy about our father’s disappearance, and it must be related to the Sanmu Puppet Factory..."

A shade of melancholy appeared in Nishizaka Maya’s eyes:

"After that, Ming also disappeared in the Sanmu Puppet Factory. Mother, having overworked in the early years and suffered such a blow later in life, passed away from illness..."

"This is an unhappy story."

Beichuan Si, who had been silent all along, chimed in.

The words spoken by Nishizaka Maya, every word was tinged with a bloody resignation.

"I’ve now moved back to my ancestral home, hoping to watch over these ruins."

Nishizaka Maya’s expression was solemn, wanting to smile, but incapable of doing so:

"Buried beneath these ruins are two of my relatives."

Her speaking manner was light, the sentences sounding faint, yet the weighty significance made Beichuan Si involuntarily lift his head.

Beichuan Si felt that facing such a woman, he should reveal all the truths to her.

She deserved to know where her family members were.

But Nishizaka Maya seemed to sense Beichuan Si’s intentions and shook her head:

"The past... is no longer important."

A plainness in her words accumulated an indescribable despair.

Yes, it’s no longer important.

At this point, she no longer cared whether the truth mattered.

The passage of time, like a river, erodes, settles, and brings a silent despair.

So what if the truth was known?

The events of the past had all been swept away by the wind, and the hollow Sanmu Doll Abandoned Factory still had many tourists coming and going today, in a steady stream.

The truth, tinged with bloody cruelty, marked its end with the complete disappearance of the puppet workshops.

Beichuan Si observed silently as Nishizaka Maya carefully, bit by bit, stacked oranges from the convenience bag together, then, she took out pale paper flowers, one by one, from a small handbag on the side.

"Ming once said he loved to see the ingenuity in my hands... so I’ve never bought real flowers..."

Nishizaka Maya didn’t cry or make a fuss; she watched the puppet factory listlessly, speaking in an unnaturally calm tone.

Her eyes were hollow, gazing quietly on her own.

"Ming... Dad... Mother..."

I really want to see you all...

I really, really... want to see you again.

Tears emerged unconsciously from the edges of her eyes, forming a string like pearls.

Beichuan Si didn’t speak.

From the beginning to the end, there was no need for him to speak.

In his sight, two shiny soul fires had already stationed themselves in front of Nishizaka Maya.

They faintly emitted a mysterious and exquisite color, the twinkling soul flakes seeming to reminisce, or perhaps to comfort Nishizaka Maya.

Within those two soul fires, Beichuan Si seemed to see a youthful figure in simple attire and a young, strong man wearing a worker’s cap...

Their faces were pale as they looked at Nishizaka Maya, with dark tears hanging at the corners of their eyes.

But all of this was invisible.

Nishizaka Maya was living, they were the dead, and without Beichuan Si’s ability, no one could see them.

Nishizaka Maya covered her mouth, crying silently.

It’s so lonely to be by oneself in this world...

It’s so painful... Mom...

Ming... Your sister misses you.

Through her tear-blurred vision, Nishizaka Maya seemed to see the scenes of years past.

She and her brother playing in the fields, being scolded with ears pinched by her mother when they got home, and her father, on the other side, holding a cup of clear liquor, smiling and smoothing things over—

After Nishizaka Maya had set up all the offerings for the ritual.

Her hands clasped together in devotion, her body trembling slightly, from her pale lips she muttered phrases, occasionally interspersed with violent coughing.

Blood streaked her handkerchief.

But even so, she knelt on the ground like on a pilgrimage, reciting all of the phrases to the end.

Beichuan Si realized she was simply praying for her relatives to live better in heaven.

But does heaven really exist in this world?

"Perhaps... it exists."

Beichuan Si slightly lifted his head.

In another part of the sky, two soul fires tore through the heavens, drifting off toward an unknown direction—