This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 260 - 206. The Patient (8000-word target achieved)

Chapter 260: Chapter 206. The Patient (8000-word target achieved)

Hearing the answers from the two nurses, Beichuan Si already had an idea.

The shovel-carrying man who appeared in the mental hospital had to be a vengeful spirit, but what was strange—

"I would like to ask Nurse Uesato and Nurse Takashiro, did the silhouette with the shovel not do anything else?"

"Anything else?" Nurse Uesato and Nurse Takashiro looked at each other, both displaying confusion in their eyes.

After thinking for a while, they asked, "What do you mean, Beichuan Master, what ’anything else’?"

"Did the silhouette not show any tendency to attack you? Was it just looking at you?" Beichuan Si countered.

Indeed, if it was a vengeful spirit harboring resentment towards the living, it should certainly attack the living, but according to what Nurse Uesato and Nurse Takashiro said, the dark silhouette had not made any moves to attack them.

"No... After Nurse Uesato and I saw it, we immediately ran to the nursing station and called the security staff, but by the time they arrived, the dark silhouette was nowhere to be seen," Nurse Takashiro recalled.

"I see," Beichuan Si nodded and then turned to look at the three mental patients.

The first was a man in a straitjacket with severe self-harm tendencies and dissociative identity disorder, the next was a woman with delusion disorder, and the last was a young girl with severe hallucinations.

Their faces were pale, and their gazes flickered, clearly showing that their minds were still somewhat unclear.

Beichuan Si approached the first man, dressed in a straitjacket. Before he could speak, this middle-aged man in a straitjacket began to laugh hysterically, his gaze on Beichuan Si also showing a trace of self-mockery:

"Hehehe... I was startled when I saw him, but soon I realized it was my chance. I really wanted to see what it would look like when the shovel smashed into my head. But no matter how loudly I called out, the shovel-man completely ignored me. It seemed like he was searching for something."

Searching for something?

Beichuan Si’s expression shifted.

Could this be the reason why the shovel spirit did not attack the living? What was it looking for? Was something hidden in this hospital?

"Ino! What Beichuan Master wants to know isn’t that! He wants to know exactly where you saw that dark figure..."

Ugetsu Ka furrowed her brow and addressed the patient straightforwardly.

Beichuan Si waved his hand and responded, "It’s alright, Director Shangyue."

He looked at Ino, asking gently, "Mr. Ino, do you know what that person was looking for? Or did you get a clear look at his clothes?"

"Identity?" Ino’s expression changed, his bound body trembling.

He screamed hoarsely, "I don’t know! I didn’t see anything clearly! I don’t want medication... I don’t want injections..."

Seeing his state, Ugetsu Ka shook her head in resignation and called upon two security guards stationed by the door to restrain the struggling Ino.

"As I’ve said before, interrogation requires skill, Beichuan Master. Ino has severe resistance to medication and forced sedation; your question just now might have triggered some unpleasant memories for him."

"I’m sorry," Beichuan Si apologized sincerely.

But at the same time, a flicker of confusion passed through his mind.

None of his recent questions should have reminded Ino of doctors or medication.

Clothes... Doctors... Searching...

Beichuan Si murmured to himself, dwelling on his earlier words, a spark of realization flashing in his eyes.

Could it be?

The man with the shovel was wearing the clothes of a doctor or a male nurse, which is why Ino reacted to Beichuan Si’s questions?

The possibility was there.

Beichuan Si approached the second mental patient.

This was a middle-aged woman suffering from delusional mania, drool sliding from the corner of her mouth, her gaze vacant as she muttered gruesome words.

"Tear off the jaw... Cut out the tongue... Remove the organs... Hehehe..."

"Can you hear me speaking, ma’am?" Beichuan Si greeted.

"You... you...?"

The middle-aged woman stood up from her chair, her hands still firmly cuffed together, her head tilted as though pondering something, then she shook her head, "I don’t know, I don’t understand anything. The gates of heaven are inscribed with a Janus statue... Hehehe..."

The woman continued to chant incoherent lyrics, her behavior mad.

However, she did not act out like Ino, and this allowed Ugetsu Ka, behind, to relax significantly. She explained to Beichuan Si, "She is Ms. Ishikawa, who has been inside the institution for five or six months now. She lost her husband and children in a major traffic accident and couldn’t bear the shock, thus she became like this. She seems to have no other relatives, and it was Dean Suzuki who kept her here out of pity."

Nurse Takashiro chimed in from the side, "Ms. Ishikawa is actually quite normal on a regular basis, a very gentle person. Maybe you just didn’t have good timing today, Beichuan Master, meeting her in this state."

"Is that so? Then my luck isn’t very good." Beichuan Si didn’t seem to mind; he approached the third little girl, but before he could speak, the girl abruptly pounced forward, tightly gripping the hem of Beichuan Si’s robe, and shrieked, "He’s right there in the ward! I know it! He’s looking at me in there! Right here!"

Right here?

Observing the genuine terror on the girl’s face, Beichuan Si’s eyes flared with dark energy, casting his gaze around.