Splash, splash.
In the men's restroom, Keitaro Gentoga thoroughly washed both his hands. Staring into the mirror, he carefully examined his right hand, which now looked no different from a normal person's, and for a long while, his heart refused to settle.
"The pain is gone too... I... really am back to normal?"
He had imagined this scene in his dreams countless times, yet now it had appeared in reality so easily that he couldn't help wondering whether he was dreaming again.
"This is all thanks to Xu Fu-chan..."
The moment he thought of the person most responsible for it, an unconscious smile spread across Keitaro's face.
At the same time, he also remembered Xu Fu's earlier warning...
"Quiet~! Quiet~! Don't get happy too soon. The curse hasn't disappeared. It's only being suppressed by a tool I made, so this is just treating the symptoms, not the root cause." Xu Fu's gaze swept over everyone present as she spoke in a serious, solemn tone. "If you want to resolve this curse completely, you'll still have to deal with the source. So my personal suggestion is that you stick with your original plan and go find the evil spirit that placed the curse on you, then get rid of it."
Eiko Hozuki and the others had all carefully inspected the gold bracelet on Keitaro's wrist, but none of them could make heads or tails of it.
"To think this bracelet can directly suppress such a terrifying curse." Eiko sounded both excited and puzzled. "How exactly does it do that?"
"Hmph~!" Xu Fu lifted her chin proudly. "Didn't you all remember who I am?"
At that, Yayoi Hozuki shot a hand into the air in excitement, like a student in class desperately hoping to be called on.
"I know! The cutest beautiful girl in the world!"
"Wah-ha-ha~! Correct, correct! Very good answer. Out of a hundred points, Xu Fu-chan gives you ten thousand." Xu Fu smiled faintly. "But! Besides being the cutest beautiful girl in the world, I'm also an extremely capable Taoist! The kinds of unsolvable mysteries that stump you are child's play to me. Nothing to be afraid of at all!"
Yayoi's eyes shone as she clapped like the most devoted audience member imaginable.
"Oh! Xu Fu is amazing!"
"Wah-ha-ha~!"
Xu Fu's laughter only grew happier.
Even now, that exaggerated laugh still seemed to be echoing in his ears, and Keitaro's smile gained a trace of helplessness.
He looked down at the gold bracelet on his wrist, his heart full of mixed emotions.
He wanted to break this curse—not just for himself, but for his childhood friend, Eiko Hozuki.
Eiko had been afflicted with the same curse as him. His was on his right hand, while hers covered both hands.
Ever since she was little, Eiko had loved horror and the paranormal. Bright, popular, and an excellent student from childhood onward, she was fascinated by things that couldn't be explained by science or bound by common sense. More than that, she loved the rush brought on by evil spirits, and the pounding heartbeat born from that thrill intertwined with her love for Keitaro.
As the saying went, if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet.
Eventually, the two of them crashed and burned. In their third year of middle school, both of them were struck by a vicious and terrifying curse, one that even Keitaro's grandmother, the head priest of a shrine, had been powerless to do anything about.
Eiko had always felt it was her fault Keitaro got caught up in it, because she had been the one insisting they go there on an adventure, dragging him along with her.
Meanwhile, Keitaro had always felt it was his fault Eiko had been cursed, because the evil spirit there had targeted them both because of his constitution.
Each of them believed it was their own fault. After that, Keitaro became even more withdrawn, terrified that more people would be harmed because of his constitution, while Eiko did everything she could to help him make friends and return to society.
If not for Eiko's efforts, Keitaro might still have been shut up in his room even now.
Truthfully, Keitaro felt from the bottom of his heart that Eiko needed this bracelet more than he did, but Eiko had shaken her head and refused. Her reasoning was simple: both of her hands were cursed, so logically she would need two bracelets.
And Xu Fu had only given them one.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry—what's the rush? If you really want one, then pay for the materials!" Xu Fu had snapped. "The crafting process for this bracelet isn't that complicated, but the materials are hard to find, okay? I only have this one on hand right now, and I've already given it to you. Use it on whoever you want."
Keitaro's and Eiko's urgency had reminded Xu Fu of the time she had worked under Qin Shi Huang—people who gave absolutely no thought to the feelings of those working for them, who refused to hear any excuses and only cared about results.
Mm...
Though admittedly, sneaking research funds away from Qin Shi Huang to search for a way to kill Yu Mei-ren permanently had in fact also been her fault...
Soooorry~!
Keitaro and the others said that if it could suppress the curse, they were more than willing to pay Xu Fu for both the materials and her labor so she could make more bracelets for them. For Xu Fu, this was a golden opportunity to line her own pockets a little, since only she knew the true cost of the materials anyway.
That said, if it could free Eiko and Keitaro from the torment of the curse, then even if Xu Fu really did plan to skim a little profit off the top and tuck some money into her own pocket, they would still gladly accept it.
After discussing it at length, the bracelet ultimately went to Keitaro. Once they returned and paid for the materials, Xu Fu could begin making a new bracelet for Eiko.
After wiping the water off his hands with a paper towel, Keitaro sighed.
"When I had to wear gloves and bandages, even washing my hands every day was a huge hassle. Now that it's this easy, I almost can't get used to it... haha."
By chance, Keitaro glanced up at the mirror—and saw a little girl standing silently behind him.
"!!!"
Startled out of his wits, Keitaro spun around at once, but there was no little girl there at all.
When he looked back at the mirror, he saw only his own reflection.
"That's strange... was I seeing things?" Keitaro rubbed his eyes and gave a wry smile. "Then again, this is the men's restroom. There's no way a little girl would be in here."
He pushed the thought out of his mind and left the restroom alone.
But after he was gone, the restroom lights suddenly began flickering on and off, and in the mirror he had just used, the blurry figure of a little girl slowly emerged.
Her face was obscured beneath her hair, impossible to make out clearly. The only thing that stood out was a hideous mouth stretched almost to the roots of her ears.
...
"Chew chew chew chew..."
Xu Fu sat on a chair in the hospital lobby, nibbling bit by bit at the senbei in her hand while looking around and observing the state of the hospital.
As expected of a hospital, there were far more Wandering Ghosts drifting about here than outside, and many of them were still wearing patient gowns. Clearly, they were patients who had died in this hospital.
Still, there was no need to worry that the sheer number of Wandering Ghosts would affect the living world. Ordinary Wandering Ghosts couldn't last past forty-nine days. Even if they still had regrets left unresolved, on the forty-ninth day they would inevitably pass on and ascend when their energy ran out. The only way to remain in this world longer was to become an evil spirit and replenish that expended energy by devouring other spirits.
"If we want to catch a ghost, first we have to make the ghost show itself." Holding the senbei Xu Fu had given her, Yayoi said expressionlessly, "So let's use Keitaro as bait and lure it out."
Their little three-person team had long since developed a clear division of labor. Yayoi provided the combat power and battle experience needed to kill evil spirits, Keitaro served as bait to draw them out, and Eiko handled all other support.
"The fact that I've somehow gotten used to this job assignment without even realizing it..." Keitaro covered his face, his feelings complicated.
"Keitaro, don't lose heart." In what seemed to be an attempt at comfort, Yayoi patted him on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs-up. "You're extremely talented at being bait."
"Yayoi-chan, if you don't know how to comfort people, you really don't have to try..."
That was not the kind of comfort he wanted!
Xu Fu had sent Yoshida Saori and Yoshida Kotaro home. What came next would be dangerous for two ordinary people like them, and they knew that staying behind wouldn't help at all. They would only become a burden.
In the blink of an eye, it was deep into the night.
There were two benefits to launching a ghost-hunting operation at this hour.
First, evil spirits generally preferred to act at night, so the odds of encountering one would increase significantly.
Second, compared to daytime, there were far fewer people still active in the hospital at night, which meant the operation would have the least impact on everyone else.
Normally, visitors weren't allowed into the inpatient ward at this hour so as not to disturb the patients' rest, but with the talismans Xu Fu provided, the four of them still slipped inside.
"The nurses really didn't notice us." Yayoi stared excitedly at the talisman paper in her hand, then lowered her voice to ask Xu Fu beside her, "This is a really convenient tool. Can you give me a few more?"
"Nope~!" Xu Fu refused without hesitation.
Yayoi didn't give up so easily.
"I can have Keitaro buy you another twenty braised pork hocks."
"Yayoi-chan! What about my opinion?!" Keitaro hurriedly protested, only to be ignored just as expected.
Xu Fu shook her head. "Even if you buy me another twenty braised pork hocks, the answer is still no. A no is a no~!"
"Mm..." Yayoi puffed out her cheeks in frustration. "Xu Fu is stingy."
"All right, all right, don't be upset, Yayoi-chan. If Xu Fu won't give you any, she must have her reasons." Eiko stepped in with a smile to play peacemaker. "Still, the talismans Xu Fu-chan brought out really are useful. I thought we'd have to disguise ourselves as nurses to get in."
Yayoi: "Then what about Keitaro?"
Eiko: "Kei-kun would obviously have to dress as a nurse too! I've wanted to see Kei-kun in girls' clothes for ages!"
Keitaro: "I-I... I could just dress as a doctor!"
"If you two are dressing up as a doctor and a nurse, then what about me and Yayoi?" Xu Fu asked with a strange expression. "Dress up as corpses?"
"Oh!" Yayoi said expressionlessly. "That sounds fun."
In the dim hospital corridor, the group used some light banter to ease the tension before the operation.
"Earlier in the daytime, I asked around with the doctors and nurses here."
Eiko took a small notebook out of her pocket and said, "According to what I found, the earliest group of victims started having nightmares three days ago. In other words, the evil spirit causing this should be someone who died before that. Using that as a clue, I managed to narrow down a few suspicious targets."
"Eiko, good work." Yayoi gave her a thumbs-up.
"Hehehe, since I don't have any spiritual sensitivity, this is about the only way I can help you guys." Eiko scratched the back of her head shyly.
She had made full use of her extraordinary social skills, collecting a great deal of information from the hospital staff and then passing it all on to Xu Fu and the others.
Since they still didn't know where the evil spirit was, the only thing they could do was wander the hospital with Keitaro in tow and wait for it to show itself and attack.
A method like that was simply far too inefficient.
"Ah, here's a hospital map. Lucky, lucky~"
At a corner on the fourth floor, Xu Fu spotted a map posted on the wall and quickly walked over to it.
Even if it was only a map of a single floor, it was enough. Presumably every floor had one, to keep people from getting lost. If they couldn't find the evil spirit on the fourth floor, then they could go check the maps on the other floors.
"When I removed the curse from Kotaro-sensei, I memorized the residual aura of that evil spirit. If that thing has been active on this floor, I should be able to divine its location from this map..."
Xu Fu suddenly stopped mid-step, her eyes faintly glinting in the darkness as though she had noticed something.
It seemed... they wouldn't need divination after all.
A long "rope" suddenly shot out from the shadows and wrapped itself around Keitaro's ankle.
"Huh?"
I feel like something almost exactly like this happened not long ago...
The moment that thought flashed through Keitaro's head, the "rope" around his ankle gave a vicious yank, throwing him off balance and sending him crashing hard to the floor.
"—!"
The "rope" tugged fiercely at Keitaro's leg, dragging him toward the depths of the shadows. He instinctively reached out to claw at the floor, but the smooth hospital tiles were polished enough to reflect light and offered nothing at all to grip.
The change came far too suddenly, and the surrounding corridor was too dark. By the time Keitaro was dragged away, Yayoi and Eiko had done little more than turn their heads.
Only Xu Fu, who had already noticed something, reacted without hesitation and hurled out the Red Hood doll.
The doll began swelling larger in midair, growing and growing until it transformed into a blonde little girl in a red cloak. Like a hunter, she concealed herself beneath the cover of the shadows, and then a single cold blade-flash cut through the dark.
The shadows split apart like torn cloth beneath that moon-pale slash.
And along with the shadow, the "rope" wrapped around Keitaro's ankle was severed as well.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh—!!"
From the source of the "rope," from the deepest part of the shadows, came a shrill scream filled with intense pain.