After being pushed by Rokushi for no apparent reason, Nino nearly fell. Fortunately, there was a streetlamp behind her, and she leaned against it, narrowly avoiding the fate of collapsing onto the ground.
However, watching Rokushi's retreating back, Nino pursed her lips, felt a chill, but did not give it much thought. Right now, she only wanted to get home as quickly as possible.
As for the distant Rokushi, after turning into an alley, her frantic footsteps suddenly stopped, and her breathing became labored.
"Pffft!"
Following a sharp sound, something exploded, and then Rokushi's body heavily fell to the ground.
The white fog slowly dispersed. Under the faint moonlight, Rokushi's face was filled with terror, as if she had seen something extremely horrifying.
And on her face were blood and burst eyeballs.
And those two dark, eerie eye sockets.
…
"Honestly, that Rokushi is completely neurotic, telling scary ghost stories and even saying 'you're next.'"
"She's listened to too many ghost stories, she's really strange."
Walking down the street, Nino muttered to herself, but since she was the only person on the entire street, naturally no one could complain back at her.
"Ding-a-ling~ Ding-a-ling~"
After walking for an unknown amount of time, a series of bell sounds suddenly rang out behind Nino.
This time, the sound of the copper bells was extremely ethereal, their clear ringing seeming to have the power to pierce the soul, making it impossible for Nino not to stop.
"Is that… a cat?"
Turning to look behind her, confusion appeared on Nino's face.
At this moment, she was no longer that afraid. After all the previous twists and turns, Nino had firmly reinforced her materialist stance; in this world, there were definitely no demons or ghosts, it was all just her imagination!
Yes! That must be it!
Comforting herself, Nino forcibly gathered her courage, stood there observing for a while, and after failing to find the source of the sound, she frowned, feeling a chill in her heart, but still pretended to remain calm.
"Don't follow me, there's nothing to eat in the box I'm carrying, go home quickly."
Subconsciously thinking that the owner of the bell was the little cat from earlier, Nino forced a smile and waved her hand behind her as she spoke, as if she truly saw a cat and was telling it to go home.
But behind Nino, there was not a single living being.
Seeing that nothing behind her was moving, Nino dropped her smile, cold sweat appeared on her forehead, and she swallowed hard.
Not planning to linger, Nino immediately turned to leave.
But the moment Nino's footsteps sounded on the quiet street, the sound of copper bells rang out simultaneously.
"Clop, clop."
"Ding-a-ling~ Ding-a-ling~"
With every step Nino took forward in her leather shoes, the sound of the copper bells drew a little closer.
But every time Nino turned around, she saw only the streetlamp and the inexplicably omnipresent white fog behind her.
"Strange…"
Murmuring to herself, Nino thought she was mistaken and turned to quicken her pace.
Her once steady footsteps grew faster and faster, accompanied by the increasingly urgent sound of copper bells echoing in her ears, and Nino gradually began to run.
"Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling~"
The sound of the bells grew clearer and clearer, from barely audible to the point where Nino could now clearly hear the copper bells resounding through the night sky!
"Huff, huff~"
Gasping for air, Nino was overwhelmed by fear; usually weak when it came to physical exertion, she was unexpectedly running very fast while holding the box of desserts.
After running for an unknown amount of time, the sound echoing in her ears suddenly disappeared, as if it had never existed at all.
"W-what was that just now?"
Swallowing hard, Nino asked herself breathlessly, and after confirming that the surroundings were safe, she leaned against a wall and stopped.
Nino was certain that the owner of that bell sound was definitely not the little cat from earlier!
Nino did not dare to think about it any further, only daring to empty her mind.
Rokushi's strange behavior earlier had already frightened Nino quite a bit, and now, with all of this added on, Nino's nerves constantly wavered between relaxation and tension, almost on the verge of collapse.
After some time, Nino had not heard the sound of copper bells for a long while, and her body gradually relaxed.
Standing beneath the streetlamp, Nino once again observed her surroundings; the night was now free of white fog and copper bells, but it was just as quiet as before, which instilled fear.
At that moment, something shimmering under the streetlamp suddenly entered Nino's peripheral vision.
Driven by curiosity, Nino looked down and saw a round crystal bead lying near her feet.
Bending down to pick up the crystal bead, Nino examined it carefully, and suddenly, the girl's face turned deathly pale, her sapphire eyes filled with terror!
"T-this is… Rokushi's, Rokushi's bracelet!"
Staring at the crystal bead in her hand, Nino clenched her teeth, trying to appear calm, but her halting words completely betrayed her inner turmoil!
As if still unable to believe it, Nino tossed the crystal bead aside and scanned the ground with her gaze.
A coincidence! This had to be a coincidence!
Rokushi had just broken her entire bracelet earlier; it couldn't be just a single bead, it had to be that someone had dropped something here!
Nino did her utmost to convince herself, but a small pile of identical crystal beads not far away completely shattered Nino's illusion, her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
She had run so far, and yet… she had returned back!
Just as Nino was in despair and didn't know what to do, Nakano Yu's words suddenly came to her mind.
Even though she felt those were just words of comfort, at this moment, Nino had no other options.
She opened her mouth, and just as Nino was about to call out Nakano Yu's name, the eerie sound of copper bells interrupted her:
"Ding-a-ling~ Ding-a-ling~"
Hearing the bell, Nino suddenly came to her senses and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
She saw a figure dressed in a red robe slowly emerging from the darkness ahead, arms stretched forward, palms bound together with red thread, and at the end of that red thread hung a copper bell that rang incessantly!
Upon seeing the familiar attire, the word "Shirai" suddenly appeared in Nino's mind.
When the dark figure fully emerged from the darkness, the ashen face revealed beneath the streetlamp was precisely that dried, ghastly face with black holes instead of eyes, without pupils and without whites!
"Aaaaaaa!"
The moment she saw that ghastly face, Nino screamed, and her desire to survive forced her to quickly struggle up and drag her exhausted body to flee.
However, no matter how fast Nino ran, inexplicably, she would always return to that streetlamp, while Shirai calmly stood there, her empty eye sockets appearing to Nino as if they were mocking her, as if… Nino were merely a toy of that monster.
As if she had watched enough of Nino's panicked state, Shirai slowly began to walk toward Nino, and at that moment, Nino also stopped running.
Nino had broken down; she wanted to escape, but her legs were stiff, unable to take even a single step, let alone run.
At that moment, Nino could only wait for this eerie being to approach and take her life.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration passed through Nino's mind; she remembered that in that story, as long as one stared at Shirai, Shirai could not move.
With the mindset of trying even the hopeless, Nino forced herself to open her eyes and directly face that terrifying being.
At the moment Nino's gaze fell upon Shirai, that eerie being truly stopped its steps.
Seeing that the method from the story actually worked, the long-lost trace of joy returned to Nino's face.
Just as the girl steeled herself to face that eerie being, a gentle voice she had not heard in decades sounded from behind Nino, shattering the fragile trace of hope that had just appeared in her heart:
"Nino, it's been a long time since we last met, you… have really grown up, mama is very happy!"