Silent.

The room fell silent again.

Whether it was Harushi Shirakawa, Selena, or the so-called "transparent girl" sitting in front of them, they didn't speak.

It seems to be as heavy and oppressive as a quagmire.

"How..... Will this happen? ”

Xiao Hori Mai spoke slowly, but at this time, her tone had long since lost the firmness she had just now, but became more and more sluggish and hesitant.

It was as if there was mud wrapped around her, viscously wrapped, pulling downward, into the bottomless abyss.

An extremely strong feeling of suffocation came at the same time, so much so that she couldn't even speak.

The more I tried to recall what happened during this time, the pictures that should have been particularly clear became more and more blurry.

Let Kobori Mai not see the real scene.

Mai Kobori turned her head to look at the kitchen, and in her impression, she had only made two bento boxes this morning, and planned to eat them at noon and evening.

On the kitchen table, there are indeed two lunch boxes, one of which is open, and the other is properly sealed.

Mai Hori can still remember vividly that this was the bento she had prepared, which should have a fried egg, a few pieces of tempura, and a small octopus sausage — which was her favorite dish — and thought that it would be nice to eat it hot at night. 】

The thought was so real, the memories were so clear, it was supposed to be that.

But......

She opened the lunch box.

It was empty, there was nothing.

No cold rice, no omelette, no tempura, and no those cute and delicious octopus sausages.

If there's anything left in the box, it's "air".

In the other bento box, there was no trace of any food debris either.

Mai Kobori froze in place again.

Still unwilling to give up, she poured a glass of water and picked it up to drink.

But she couldn't, the glass of water was placed to her mouth, and her whole body was ...... They all seemed to resist the water entering her body.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it.

"Tick ..... Tick ....."

The water cup is poured in mid-air, and the water flows under the force of gravity.

But not a single drop entered her body.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Hori Mai was completely stunned in place, and now, she really realized-

It turned out that after that day, she really didn't eat or drink anymore.....

"But..... I..... Why can I still move, I can still talk, and I can still take other people's things? ”

In Mai Kohori's voice, there was already a trill, and a thick overwhelm appeared in her words.

Anyone would be overwhelmed when they encounter this situation like Kohori Mai, right?

It was not easy to escape from the mountains and forests, and it was not easy to adapt to the current life, but he was suddenly told that he had already died.

Who can accept this kind of thing?

But if that's really the case, there's no need for Harukawa to puncture the false bubble directly.

According to Shirakawa Haru's character, if he had determined that Mai Kobori was harmless and weird, he might not care about it anymore, just like he did with the smiling cat.

Out of some gentle consideration, he didn't need to tell Kohori Mai such a cruel truth.

Even if it's all an illusory bubble, isn't it a good choice for this poor girl to live in a bubble?

And here's the problem......

Is it really that simple?

Mai Kohori is a poor girl who has been killed by a strange person, and the only person who escapes from the mountains and returns home is just a ghost, but she has been deceiving herself that she is not dead.

But as Mai Hori herself said, how can there be a normal ghost like her, who can speak normally, touch others, and be touched by others?

Not to mention being able to take other people's things.

Otherwise, Kohori Mai would not have become a fairly famous urban monster.

It's not that such ghosts don't exist, it's just that according to Bai Chuanqing's understanding, the only ones that can have an impact on reality are often resentful spirits with extremely strong resentment and yin energy.

Where are the spirits so well born?

If it weren't for the great resentment that arose during his lifetime, such as the extremely cruel torture he suffered during his lifetime, he would not have turned into a resentful spirit at all.

Otherwise, wouldn't the world have been in chaos a long time ago?

As far as the spirits that Shirakawa Haru is in contact with now are concerned, most of them are ghosts with little self-consciousness and no memories, and then remnant souls with some memories.

Kobori Mai is supposed to belong to this kind of existence, but she has her own memories and can even affect the things around her.

And the breath on her body, but it doesn't look like a ghost at all......

- Otherwise, Harukawa Shirakawa would have found this out in the first place.

It is precisely because of these particularities of Mai Kohori that Harukawa Shirakawa has a deeper level of suspicion.

[I just hope, that kind of conjecture..... It's not going to come true, is it? 】

Shirakawa Harushi looked at Mai Kohori with special eyes for a while, and then said.

"Let's go."

“...... Well? ”

Mai Kohori's reaction was noticeably half a beat slower, presumably in shock and disbelief.

"Go...... Where? ”

"Gunma Prefecture."

————————————

The next afternoon.

Gunma Prefecture.

Not far away, there are mountains and forests, lush and green, which makes people feel quite refreshed when they look at it.

The reason why Gunma Prefecture suffers from "regional blackness" is not without reason.

The mountainous area occupies a large area – most famously known as the "Mt. Akina" – and is also home to a lot of green resources, namely forestry and agriculture.

Once there are more mountains and forests, it will inevitably give people a sense of remoteness and backwardness.

Because it is autumn, the sky also presents a very refreshing feeling, and the so-called "autumn high and refreshing" is nothing more than this.

The autumn breeze blows, bringing a burst of coolness.

This kind of coolness is undoubtedly more obvious and intense when walking in the mountains and forests.

But fortunately, Haruru Shirakawa, Selena, and Mai Kohori in front of them are not normal people, so they will not be affected by this coolness.

"The hostel we stayed at before..... There it is. ”

Mai Kohori spoke in a muffled voice and pointed to the house in front of her.

Since yesterday when Harukawa Shirakawa pointed out that "she is dead", Kobori Mai has been in such a state.

Not everyone can quickly recover from this kind of thing.

It's just that she also clearly realized that she couldn't eat, drink, or have a body temperature, otherwise, the subtle deception might have deceived herself, thinking that she would still feel cold.

The house in front of me looks a little old, but it is not the old decay, but the feeling of precipitation over time.

The road under your feet is indeed a bit bumpy and unpaved.

This is also a very normal thing, after all, not every country's infrastructure construction can spread all over the country like the country of flowers.

"Then you wait here for a moment."

Harukawa said to Selena and Mai Kohori, and then walked into the hotel.

After a while, he walked out of it again, and the expression on his face did not change in the slightest, but his voice carried an imperceptible coldness.

"Let's go, go the way you went up the mountain."

There is actually only one way to the top of the mountain.

And when Mai Kobori was walking on this road, her state immediately became very wrong.

The breath that represented her trembled violently.

"No...... No..... I don't want to come here....."

Mai Kobori said with great fear.

"I don't want to remember what happened! Terrible...... It's really scary! ”

Speaking of which, Kohori Mai almost always had a pleading tone.

"No, come with me!"

Harukawa coldly refused, and even grabbed Mai Kohori and dragged her towards the mountain.

"No, no! Woohoo......"

Mai Kohori cried out in fear.

In Selena's opinion, she was probably scared to the extreme.

But the silver-haired girl is also a little puzzled, Qing's personality, but it has never been so rough, right?

In other words, for Selena, Bai Chuanqing has always been very gentle, and she will only be very cold when dealing with enemies, but for this poor little girl, she doesn't seem to see his warmth at all......

Harukawa Shirakawa completely ignored Mai Kohori's pleading, and almost carried her towards the mountain.

- If anyone could see their state at this time, I'm afraid they would think that Harukawa Shirakawa is a villain who coerces high school girls to do some special things, right?

Until.....

I came under a street lamp.

It's still daytime, and the street lights are naturally turned off.

But when she got here, Mai Kobori stopped all her voices and stared blankly at the street lamp that had not yet been lit.

But even if it didn't light up, in her mind, the street lamp full of flying insects slowly overlapped with it.

[Yes, that's where .....]

Mai Kohori thought so and looked ahead.

The girl in red ...... so suddenly. Appeared in that location, right?

The three classmates left themselves behind and fled, and then they were taken into the woods, where the incident took place.......

"This is it....."

Mai Kobori muttered, and deep down, a very strange emotion suddenly emerged.

"Is this here?"

Harukawa said to herself.

"But can you be sure of the truth of the matter...... Is it really what you remember? ”

The cold voice sounded again.

A pair of cold eyes have already stared at Mai Kohori.

"What do you mean?"

In my memory, the picture that should never be forgotten no matter what, because of this sentence, blurred again.

"I've thought about it before, since you can even lie to yourself about drinking water or not, why ...... Can't you cheat on things like 'sharing a dormitory' and 'being abandoned by classmates'? ”

Shirakawa said flatly.

"I just asked the owner of the inn, and three months ago, not a single class of students came to stay here!"

"Huh?"

Selena couldn't help but exclaim when she heard this.

"But the boss said that he was very concerned about a high school girl who came alone, 'I suddenly said I was going out for a walk on the big night, and I also brought my accommodation luggage', the boss said so, and the girl's name was Mai Kohori!"

Selena's eyes couldn't help but widen, and she suddenly understood the reason why Haru was so rough with Mai Kohori.

"You..... Not killed by the weird, but ..... Suicidal, right? ”

Bai Chuanqing said slowly, his tone extremely heavy.

"I ......"

[This can't be...... That's impossible...... That's impossible...... That's impossible...... That's impossible...... It can't be ......]

Mai Kobori repeated the same words frantically in her mind.

A sharp pain struck her mind.

"Ahh!!h

She screamed in pain.

But in front of her eyes, the scene of that day also appeared in a trance.

The dark night, without stars and moon, the light of flashlights and street lamps, was so dim. The chilling cold wind hissed through, startling the harmony of leaves one after another.

The street lamp is full of bugs, and it is very disgusting.

It's all the same as I remember.

But!

But beside her, the figures of the three classmates who should have existed were blurred, until a gust of wind blew and finally disappeared.

[Yes, around me, it's always been empty.....]

Even if it's a dormitory, they won't invite a transparent person from a class to go, right? Even if she did, no one would be in a group with her.

From elementary school to high school, isn't she used to this?

That's why sometimes she thinks- [Ah..... If only I had really become a transparent person, no one would care about me anyway, and I could steal something without any scruples. 】

It was at this time that a little girl in red appeared under the disgusting street lamp.

She said, "Big sister, you want to ..... with me Do you want to play together? ”

It's obviously a very weird situation, but I'm not scared at all, after all, I came here to end my life at that time, right?

So he replied, "Okay." ”

He followed the girl in red towards the mountains and forests......

I don't know how long I walked.

I don't know when, she collapsed between the mountains and forests, losing her breath.....

Then a transparent figure stood up from its dead shell.

"Original...... Is that so? ”

She said suddenly, in her tone, in addition to the suddenness, the abnormal feeling became more and more obvious.

But at this moment, Harukawa Shirakawa asked again.

"I have one last question, can you be sure..... Are you really still Mai Kohori!? ”

“...... Well!? ”

For a moment, Selena was like a clay sculpture, and she really couldn't understand the meaning of Bai Chuanqing's words.

But after a little understanding, even she is a little creepy.

The murmuring of the Kobori dance also ended in an instant.

"Hee-hee...... Hee-hee-hee-hee......"

In its place, there was a chilling laugh.

"So happy, so happy, so happy! Long..... I'm not so happy anymore! ”

The place where the invisible Kohori Mai was located finally slowly revealed a shape, and it quickly became clear.

A small, red-clothed girl appeared in front of Harukawa Shirakawa.

"Congratulations, you're right!"