That night, Touta pulled on a black tracksuit, adjusted his mask, and stared at his reflection for a
long moment. Silent. Focused.
Then he stepped out of the bathroom.
"Kaion, I'm going to check out a school tonight with Zizhen. You stay home, okay?"
Kaion waved lazily, eyes glued to her game.
Touta sighed — she was impossible when she got into that mode.
"It's your school, actually," he added.
That got her attention. Her controller slipped from her hand, her on-screen character let out a
cartoonish defeat scream — but she didn't even care.
"I don't mind, big brother. Go ahead," she said, still smiling.
Touta nodded once, slipped on his shoes, and stepped into the hallway.
The corridor was narrow — but then again, that was just Japan.
Here, every square meter screamed scarcity.
He crouched, pulled a small blue bean-shaped candy from his pocket, and tucked it neatly
beneath the doormat.
Then he started down the stairs, passing doors that hummed faintly with late-night
conversation. The threadbare carpet underfoot was damp, the air heavy with mildew. Four
flights down, he crossed the dim lobby, swiped his keycard, and stepped into the cool night air.
"Yo, finally decided to show."
The casual greeting came from nearby.
Japan was a nation obsessed with politeness — sometimes to the point of pathology.
But Touta wasn't that type.
And neither was Lu Zizhen, who, like him, hailed from Huaxia.
Maybe that's why they got along so well.
Lu Zizhen stood there in her usual striking style — 169 centimeters tall, black heeled boots
making her look even taller. A cropped black shirt peeked beneath a translucent baseball jacket,
and loose slitted pants revealed flashes of long, athletic legs.
Metallic chains caught the streetlight, and she wore her confidence like armor.
In short — she was cool as hell.
She flicked the brim of her limited-edition YN cap and grinned. Her sharp brows and bare face
carried the natural kind of edge that didn't need makeup.
Around her neck hung silver chains — and her ever-present GoPro strap.
Touta's eyes narrowed as he spotted the blond guy beside her. Puffy streetwear, gold chains,
crooked grin — pure trouble.
"Friend of yours?" he asked, voice flat.
Lu Zizhen shrugged. "Some guy hitting on me. If you'd been a minute later, I might've punched
him."
She said it in Chinese, so the blond didn't catch a word. He leaned closer, trying to charm her,
but Zizhen sidestepped, slipped an arm through Touta's, and said sweetly — still in Chinese —
"Sorry, if you want to ask me out, you'll have to beat him first."
Touta rolled his eyes and took a step forward. "Scram," he said coldly.
The blond froze. His lips parted, maybe to talk back.
Bang!
Air cracked. Touta's fist shot forward, stopping just short of the man's face. The shockwave
alone sent the guy's hair flying back and his knees shaking.
Lu Zizhen gave an impressed whistle and clapped. "Woo! Nice one. Warm-up round complete."
"You call that a warm-up?" Touta sighed. "He was just some random guy trying to flirt."
"He flirted with me. Doesn't that piss you off?"
Touta could practically see the imaginary devil's tail wagging behind her.
This girl was fine in every way — except her mouth and her appetite for chaos.
"Cut the nonsense. Let's move. Fill me in on the way."
"Roger that."
They walked side by side — one tall, radiant, and reckless; the other silent and dangerous.
People on the sidewalk instinctively moved aside, though they probably couldn't have said why.
"Yiyan Private Academy," Zizhen said, balancing on the edge of a flowerbed as she scrolled her
phone. "The name's kind of Huaxia-style, don't you think?"
Her translucent sleeve caught the lamplight as she gestured animatedly. Touta kept half an eye
on her footing — with her track record, falling was a very real possibility.
"Yiyan Academy," she continued, "is the same school your sister went to before the accident.
You both left about a year ago. She's still technically enrolled; you transferred out. Hm…"
She jumped down, landing lightly. "You really don't remember any of the rumors from back
then?"
Touta shook his head. "No recollection."
(If he'd had the original Touta's memories, he'd have realized the girl he saved yesterday —
Kume Chinatsu — had once been his classmate.)
Zizhen smirked. "Then allow me to enlighten you!"
She puffed out her chest proudly and began narrating, her voice full of dramatic flair.
"Twelve years ago, Yiyan tore down its old campus and rebuilt it. During construction, students
studied off-site. But when the new building opened… weird things started happening."
"Students reported human-shaped stains on walls, eerie moans at night, and desks covered in
some… sticky substance."
Touta raised a brow. "Everything after the first one just sounds like horny students caught after
curfew."
Zizhen blinked innocently. "Indecent? Whatever could you mean?"
Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
Touta gave her a frosty look.
She coughed. "Anyway! My research says some of those incidents were real. Paranormal,
even."
"Like what?"
"The humanoid stains. The skeleton model that walks at night. And there's an old sealed well
behind the gym — from the Shōwa era. People say a tengu lives down there."
Touta tilted his head. "A tengu? In a well?"
"That's what I said!" Zizhen exclaimed, spreading her hands. "You're a flying yokai, right? So
why live in a hole in the ground? What's the point? You gonna hang from the wall? Nap
upside-down? What if someone drops a bucket on your face? Or worse — pukes on you?!" She
shuddered theatrically. "That's tragic!"
Touta stared.
You know what? She… kind of had a point.
They kept walking, chatting idly until the city lights thinned and shadows thickened around them.
Before long, the red stone gates of Yiyan Private Academy came into view.
The iron bars gleamed faintly under the streetlamps. Beyond them, the gray school building
loomed, cold and hollow. The glass facade reflected nothing — not even the night sky. The
silence there was heavier than air itself.
Touta stopped. His eyes narrowed.
There it was — that faint, unmistakable taste in the air.
Malice.
A thin smile curved across his lips.
"Bingo," he whispered. "There's a spirit here."