This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 264 - 208: Closer to the Truth (Reached 8000 words!)

Chapter 264: Chapter 208: Closer to the Truth (Reached 8000 words!)

Ibaraki Prefecture Second Mental Hospital had both outdoor and indoor activity areas. After bidding farewell to Suzuki Fumi, Beichuan Si went there to observe the situation.

After all, the places haunted by the restless shovel spirit might not be limited to those captured in the surveillance videos, and he naturally wanted to investigate everywhere.

Perhaps the locations where the shovel spirit appeared held significant meaning?

First, Beichuan Si went to the mixed-use area with indoor basketball and badminton courts.

From his point of view, he could see a few patients playing basketball in groups of two or three.

Generally speaking, only patients whose conditions had stabilized were allowed to use these specialized areas, and they still had to be scheduled. Plus, considering it was dinner time, it was expected that there weren’t many people around.

Beichuan Si glanced around and then turned to go to the outdoor area.

There were no traces of souls here, and he guessed the clues would be found in the outdoor area.

To get from the indoor basketball court to the outdoor activity area, one had to walk up a slope.

The slope was narrow and climbed upward, with a towering cold wall on the right side.

Just the thought of patients walking up this seemingly endless slope every day evoked a feeling of being swallowed whole by the dense, cold hospital buildings.

Although the environment here was peaceful, it was excessively so, giving one an inexplicable sense of goosebumps.

Step by step, he finally reached the end of the slope.

The scenery of the outdoor activity area unfolded before Beichuan Si’s eyes.

The mental patients who had been taking a breath of fresh air in the outdoor activity area hadn’t dispersed.

In the setting sun, groups of two or three patients stood confusedly on the muddy ground, swaying their bodies like living corpses.

These patients occasionally let out a sneer and then repeated some meaningless actions.

The blue and white striped clothes on their bodies resembled funeral attire, and there was no sense of life visible on their faces.

According to the hospital’s nurses, Suzuki Fumi had taken in many homeless mental patients, and his good deeds had been reported by numerous media outlets.

But that was irrelevant to Beichuan Si; a black current of energy flashed through his eyes.

Under a vision shrouded in the aura of death, Beichuan Si could clearly see faint spirits diffusing in the air.

It seemed that because some time had passed, the spirits appeared to be quite thin.

Beichuan Si blended in with the patients, following the lingering spirits in the air to a corner.

He looked up to see a towering, chilly fir tree.

At Beichuan Si’s feet, the soil around the fir tree was a different color from the surrounding ground, as if it had been recently turned over.

"This must be the place," Beichuan Si muttered to himself as he crouched down, caressing the patch of soil. After a moment of contemplation, he took a folding entrenching tool from his backpack.

After all, the amount of death energy required for using Jian Ding was astonishing, and in situations where it wasn’t necessary to waste it, Beichuan Si thought it was better to conserve.

Besides, there was nothing wrong with an entrenching tool. Beichuan Si figured that with death energy attached, he could easily smash or slice off the spirit’s head with one swing of the shovel.

One shovel.

Then another.

And another.

Beichuan Si calmly dug downward.

The turned-over soil was continuously excavated, slowly forming a small pit.

Click—

The shovel made a clear sound, as if it had collided with something hard.

Beichuan Si’s spirits lifted, and he immediately moved, placing the entrenching tool down and using his hands to clear away the clumps of earth.

Beneath his gaze, a complete stone appeared before him.

The stone seemed to mock Beichuan Si’s wasted effort.

"Just a wild goose chase?"

Beichuan Si murmured to himself, then packed up the entrenching tool and casually filled in the dirt pile.

His gaze fluctuated, and after standing in place and contemplating for a while, he spoke again with a seemingly nonsensical remark, "Perhaps it wasn’t a complete waste of time."

Behind him, the seductive sunset had completely sunk, and a hint of cold dark blue emerged in the sky.

Night fell—

...

At nine o’clock in the evening, at Ibaraki Prefecture Second Mental Hospital.

"Give this earpiece to Beichuan Mage. If the security in the surveillance room notices any other disturbances, they’ll inform you immediately. The person in charge of security is carefully selected from our hospital staff, the bravest one. When he heard about this matter, he volunteered to help."

Suzuki Fumi handed a small, in-ear headset to Beichuan Si.

"Okay," Beichuan Si responded without fuss. He had been paid to solve the hospital’s issues, so he would naturally deal with those of the Second Mental Hospital.

"If Beichuan Mage gets bored, you might also wander around the hospital... Of course, it might be a bit frightening to stroll around the hospital at night," Suzuki Fumi joked with a smile.

"That’s fine, I can take a look around."

"Then I’ll leave it to the confident Beichuan Mage! I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave," Suzuki Fumi laughed cheerfully.

Beichuan Si stood silently behind Suzuki Fumi, watching him leave.

Once he was almost out of sight, Beichuan Si began to meander through the hospital.

The pitter-patter of footsteps echoed.

The vast hospital felt as though only Beichuan Si was present at this time, eerily quiet.

As the saying goes, schools and hospitals are the most terrifying places at night.

The horror of a school lies in its contrast; bustling with people in daylight, its quietness at night gives a tremendous sense of fear.

Hospitals are terrifying because they are close to death. Whether day or night, there are always one or two places within a hospital that are ominously quiet. By nightfall, this fear is magnified to the extreme, and even if you know that patients are lying in the wards and nurses are at their stations, you can’t suppress the fear of the dark inside your heart.