This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 71: The Fear of Sudden Silence in the Air

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: The Fear of Sudden Silence in the Air

The storage locker was overall a pale blue, and under the flashlight’s illumination, the paint at the edges had already begun to peel, revealing a light rust. It had two tiers: the upper tier was divided into four small compartments, while the lower tier was one large compartment.

Mr. Beichuan expressionlessly opened the cabinet door of the lower compartment.

Inside, a pale-skinned young man sat huddled, his face full of terror, as if he’d sensed Mr. Beichuan’s movements, he frighteningly lifted his head. The youth’s eyes showed only the whites, and a blackish liquid spilled from his wide-open mouth.

The specter of the young man suddenly screamed,

"No! Nakajima!!!"

Mr. Beichuan seemed to sense something; he abruptly turned his head!

Out of nowhere, a figure had appeared behind him!

The fire axe in the figure’s grip gleamed with a chilling cold light as it brutally smashed down towards his head!

Since when had it approached?!

Mr. Beichuan instinctively tried to dodge, but then, as though remembering something, he raised an eyebrow, the deathly presence faded away, and he calmly watched the fire axe come down.

The blood-red axe, flickering with a sinister cold light, passed right through Mr. Beichuan’s body as if it were made of air and smashed viciously into the young man’s head in the cabinet.

The fire axe, designed to break windows and obstacles to escape from fire scenes, was not sharp; thus, using the word ’slice’ would not be quite appropriate.

The axe brutally cracked open the young man’s head!

Can you imagine such a scene?

The youth’s bones were so deformed by the blow that his fingers and thighs twitched slightly due to reflexive nerve action.

The pale-skinned youth’s body was instantly cleft nearly in half, reflecting the immense strength used by the assailant.

Mr. Beichuan could even clearly hear the sound of the wrist of the man wielding the fire axe dislocating.

"...It’s alright, it’s all just afterimages." Mr. Beichuan said calmly as he touched Nishijou Kurenai’s hand that was unconsciously grasping tightly at his collar.

Nishijou Kurenai was still just a child. Even if she, as a ’spirit,’ could sense that the other was merely the afterimage of a person’s longing, the brutish, murderous feeling of the figure behind her still filled her with immense fear, and she trembled, clinging tightly to Mr. Beichuan’s neck.

Having been reassured by Mr. Beichuan, Nishijou Kurenai relaxed and returned to lying on Mr. Beichuan’s shoulder, lifting her little head as if wanting to see what this ’afterimage’ would do next.

But Mr. Beichuan promptly covered her eyes, disregarding her attempts to reach out and struggle.

Under Mr. Beichuan’s watch, the male afterimage holding the fire axe first chopped the pale-skinned youth until he was a blur of blood and flesh, then the figure wavered as it slowly stood up.

Only then did Mr. Beichuan clearly see the full appearance of the man with the fire axe.

This was a young man, presumably the ’Nakajima’ written about in the victim’s diary.

His white summer shirt was drenched in a large stain of blood, which dripped down drip by drip. With a dazed expression, a raspy, inhuman howl squeezed from his throat, his eyes bloodshot, limbs hanging, and a terrifying black shadow swirling around his head.

After killing the last survivor, Nakajima dragged the body out and smashed through the window, plummeting down headfirst like a falling leek.

With a ’thud’ of a dull sound, Mr. Beichuan came back to his senses.

He looked back.

He hadn’t seen clearly when he had entered the studio that the window beside the storage locker had been shattered, but the ivy climbing over it filled in the gap densely, which was why Mr. Beichuan had not realized it sooner.

Mr. Beichuan brushed away the dust with his foot, revealing the clearly visible dried stains of blood on the floor.

The lowermost compartment in front of him was dyed through with splattered blood, with dried little pieces of flesh scattered about.

Among them, a bloodstained diary half stuck together by blood was particularly conspicuous.

Mr. Beichuan picked it up and flipped it open.

The cover of this diary had been torn off, revealing its contents.

In twisted handwriting marred by bloodstains, it read:

How did Nakajima know I was here?!

I can’t make calls on my cell phone! The signal seems to be blocked! Damn it! Aren’t we near Yashan City?

Nakajima... He’s caught up to us! No, I can’t just sit here and wait to die, I have to block off the entrance on the right now, I have to flee.

The rest of the diary was completely blurred by blood, and the writing could no longer be seen clearly.

Beichuan Si flipped through the earlier entries in the diary.

The owner of the diary was named Suzuki, a logistics officer for a spiritual exploration team accustomed to making records. Nakajima was the leader of their team, which, in addition to Suzuki and Nakajima, included Koyama who was in charge of procurement, and Yoshida who was Nakajima’s girlfriend.

They explored many spiritual sites, but their last visit to Xucha High School ended disastrously.

Seeing the fearful bloodstained handprint Suzuki left on the diary, Beichuan Si took out his phone and snapped a photo using the flashlight.

But there was something odd.

Beichuan Si raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

The phone didn’t capture the image; with sufficient light, it only captured eerie shadows.

"Shouldn’t be broken, right?" Beichuan Si tested some other functions and then logged onto a webpage.

There was something wrong here.

Looking at the scene on his phone, Beichuan Si’s eyes narrowed, his brow furrowing tightly.

...

It didn’t take long for Beichuan Si to meet up with Yamakou Hideyasu and Tanaka Takashi.

Yamakou Hideyasu was on one side, holding his phone, looking at the white barrage of comments scrolling across the screen, and asked Tanaka Takashi standing on the other side.

When they saw Beichuan Si approaching from the corridor, both of their eyes lit up, and they came over to greet him:

"How did it go, Mr. Beichuan? Did you find anything?"

"Not much," Beichuan Si glanced at them both and then shook his head, pointing towards the pitch-black stairwell, "Let’s go to the fourth floor now."

"Ok," the two ghost forum hosts didn’t engage in small talk.

The entire Xucha High School live streaming event had only just begun; they couldn’t afford to waste time here.

Yamakou Hideyasu put away his phone, and the group, holding their flashlights tightly, walked wordlessly towards the upper floors.

For a while, only the sound of breathing and the orderly footsteps of four people could be heard on the stairs.

Both Tanaka Takashi and Yamakou Hideyasu were aware of the extra set of footsteps.

This was their final arrangement for the event block, the real actor had taken the stage.

Hearing the footsteps not far behind them, Tanaka Takashi and Yamakou Hideyasu, who were leading the way, had a twitch at the corner of their mouths, but remained silent.

Wouldn’t this scare the life out of Mr. Beichuan?

Just as they were feeling secretly satisfied with the dedication of the backstage staff, a sudden beeping emitted from Yamakou Hideyasu’s phone.

This was the special ringtone used for communication with the staff.

Yamakou Hideyasu was also a bit puzzled.

Why would they send me a message at this time?

He pulled out his phone and stopped in his tracks.

The content of the message appeared.

’Run! Hideyasu, Takashi! There really is something in that building! The staff have already evacuated urgently! The broadcast has also been cut off for some unknown reason!’

The message was sent at ten forty.

That was an hour ago. They hadn’t entered the event building at that time.

The atmosphere – suddenly fell dead silent!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.