This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame-Chapter 593 - 372: Nobody is There (4000 words)

"But I expected as much," Beichuan Si muttered to himself as he stepped out of the longhouse again.

Indeed, how could there be so many haunted places in the world?

So...

It must be just as he thought, right?

Lost in thought, Beichuan Si walked down the narrow path of the longhouse.

It was already seven o’clock in the evening, and the little girl had apparently gone home early, no longer staying around as at the beginning.

His gaze flickered ambiguously, and then he made a phone call.

After a brief negotiation with the other party, Beichuan Si called Tsukishima Risa.

"Hello, Beichuan? Are you alright?"

Tsukishima Risa seemed to have been waiting by the phone; she answered as soon as he called.

Because initially, Tsukishima Risa and Qian Xia Chiyuki had also wanted to come to this longhouse with Beichuan Si to investigate, but after Beichuan Si casually mentioned, "We might encounter those things, and I might not be able to protect you," they blushed and obediently went home.

But obedient as they were, she was still very worried about the situation with Beichuan Si.

"I’m fine," Beichuan Si answered her question, then continued, "I’ve checked the environment here in the longhouse, and everything seems normal. You and your friends can come and explore tomorrow."

"That’s good to hear..." Tsukishima Risa also breathed a sigh of relief.

As she sighed in relief, Beichuan Si’s voice came through again:

"Of course, just to be safe, I’ll come with you tomorrow. There’s something else here that concerns me."

This statement from Beichuan Si moved Tsukishima Risa.

In her view, since Beichuan Si had already confirmed there was no problem, there should indeed be no problem.

But still, he said, "Just to be safe, I’ll come with you."

He must consider himself a friend, right?

As for the "there’s something else here that concerns me" that Beichuan Si mentioned, that was ignored by Tsukishima Risa.

With that thought, Tsukishima Risa, regardless of whether Beichuan Si could see or not, nodded repeatedly, "Then we’ll be troubling you tomorrow, Beichuan."

"Mm, that’s it."

Beichuan Si decisively hung up the phone, then turned his head to glance once more at the fallen pillar.

He hoped his suspicions were merely wild guesses.

Beichuan Si shook his head and moved on, leaving the longhouse behind and headed towards the nearest bus station.

...

The next afternoon.

As someone known as the Demon King, naturally, no one dared to ask Beichuan Si to help prepare for the Kyubei Festival.

The remaining classmates watched his departing figure as soon as class ended, feeling somewhat desolate.

But Beichuan Si didn’t mind these.

He quickly left Kyubei and went to the CURE café.

Today, the CURE café was busier than usual.

The reason was the two male and two female friends that Tsukishima Risa brought along.

"Beichuan," Tsukishima Risa greeted him with a wave and a smile as soon as she saw Beichuan Si.

Seeing Tsukishima Risa wave, her university classmates also looked over with curiosity.

Was this the Beichuan Si that Tsukishima Risa had been talking about?

Tsukishima Risa had mentioned his name a lot these past days.

The guy who was so dearly cared about by Tsukishima Risa, what kind of extraordinary person was he, they couldn’t help but wonder?

While they were sizing up Beichuan Si, he was also observing them.

"Male A, Male B, Female A, Female B." Beichuan Si muttered softly to himself.

The guy with glasses was Male A, the tall guy was Male B. The girl with long hair was Female A, the one with short hair was Female B.

Beichuan Si’s categorization was as simple as ever.

"Did you just say something, Beichuan?" Tsukishima Risa, having just come over, looked at Beichuan Si with a puzzled expression.

She thought she had heard Beichuan Si muttering.

Could it have been her imagination?

"Nothing. Let’s get going," Beichuan Si said calmly.

With that, Beichuan Si walked away, planning to head towards Inagaki’s longhouse.

The looks on the faces of a few people behind Tsukishima Risa were full of astonishment, and after a while, someone among them spoke up, "Wait a minute, this classmate... we haven’t introduced ourselves yet."

"..." Beichuan Si.

Beichuan Si glanced at the man with glasses, A, but shook his head internally. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Truthfully, he didn’t care about these people’s names at all. Even if they introduced themselves, Beichuan Si would still refer to them internally as Man A, Man B.

After all, it was these people who had forcibly suggested going on an adventure to "Inagaki’s Longhouse."

Although there were no supernatural or strange phenomena at this destination, Beichuan Si was still not keen on accompanying these people who seemed to have a death wish.

Thus, introducing themselves was completely unnecessary.

However, in the presence of Tsukishima Risa, Beichuan Si naturally wouldn’t voice such thoughts.

So here, Beichuan Si could only patiently listen to their introductions.

After they had introduced themselves, Beichuan Si led them by car towards the longhouse.

About twenty minutes later, under the guidance of Beichuan Si, they arrived in front of Inagaki’s Longhouse.

The building, as sinister-looking as the day before, lay before them.

And by the side of the path,

stood a little girl with a ponytail, wearing a somewhat tattered red and white cotton jacket.

She stood there as usual, looking around, seemingly waiting for someone.

Beichuan Si’s expression shifted slightly, and he was about to approach.

But the next moment, he was stopped by the glasses-wearing Man A standing beside him.

He cheerfully looked at Beichuan Si:

"I heard from Risa that Mr. Beichuan should have some spirit exorcism skills, right? We’ll be relying on you for this trip to Inagaki’s Longhouse."

Hearing Man A’s words, Beichuan Si halted in his tracks and shook his head as he responded, "I won’t go inside."

"Huh?" The people around him were all stunned.

Beichuan Si replied:

"You can explore separately. If you encounter any situation, just shout loudly, and that should be enough. Having too many people entering the longhouse at once might lessen the creepy atmosphere, right?"

His words indeed made sense.

After all, Inagaki’s Longhouse was only so big, and suddenly cramming five people inside

would disperse any eerie atmosphere with their noise as expected.

Then add Beichuan Si to the mix.

Soon, they would bump into each other when exploring a room, giggling and chuckling, eliminating any sense of adventure.

That Beichuan Si would consider this... was unexpectedly something Tsukishima Risa’s classmates hadn’t anticipated.

"Mr. Beichuan... we..." the glasses-wearing Man A was somewhat moved, just about to express his gratitude—

But before he could finish, Beichuan Si had already pulled him aside with a hand.

"..." Beichuan Si.

Where the little girl had been standing was now empty, without a trace of anyone.

It seemed like so many people approaching her had triggered her timid, fearful nature, and she had slipped away.

"Never mind."

Since she couldn’t be seen now, there was no use forcing it.

Beichuan Si withdrew his gaze and then whispered to Tsukishima Risa, "Senior Tsukishima, I explored this longhouse architecture yesterday already, and there is no resentment present. Of course, if you really do discover something, don’t panic, just call for me. I’ll handle it."

If something was discovered...?

Beichuan Si’s words made the usually confident Tsukishima Risa somewhat hesitant.

"Beichuan..."

"Don’t worry, there won’t be any trouble." Beichuan casually waved his hand, though his gaze was already scanning the surroundings.

His demeanor made Tsukishima Risa feel puzzled and slightly anxious.

She followed Beichuan Si’s line of sight but didn’t discover anything.

After all...

From the beginning,

in the area around Inagaki’s Longhouse,

apart from them, there shouldn’t have been anyone else—