Hayato couldn't figure out the reason, but something in his gut twisted hard enough that he broke into a run without thinking. His shoes hit the pavement in rhythm with his racing pulse as he followed the cherry-haired nurse who'd just bolted past him.
"Don't let them get away!"
"Hurry up!"
Behind him, one delinquent hauled his buddy off the ground while shouting after them, and the sound of multiple footsteps told Hayato they were giving chase.
Route 18 had already stopped at the curb ahead, engine rumbling in that distinctive way city buses did when idling. Hydraulics hissed as the doors folded open with mechanical precision.
Three people who'd been waiting at the stop boarded one after another, their silhouettes disappearing into the dimly lit interior. The nurse, Nanase Ren according to the name tag he'd glimpsed earlier, quickly followed them up the steps. She dropped her coin into the fare box with a metallic clink, then hurried down the aisle without looking back.
Hayato got on right after her, fishing out exact change from his pocket.
"You two aren't getting away!"
The delinquents boarded as well, their heavy breathing and muttered curses filling the space near the entrance.
Nanase Ren's mind was racing as she gripped the overhead rail for balance. That stalker had followed her onto the bus, had actually dared to board right behind her, which meant he was seriously targeting her now. The police reports she'd read at the hospital flashed through her memory, young women abducted in Chiba, last seen near public transit.
Could he be connected to those cases?
Her fingers found her phone in her jacket pocket, thumb hovering over the emergency call button. But something made her pause before dialing. The temperature on this bus felt wrong, noticeably colder than it should be even with the door having just opened to let in the night air.
She looked around slowly, trying not to make it obvious.
The bus wasn't particularly crowded, maybe a dozen passengers scattered throughout the seats in ones and twos. But there was something off about them, something that made the space feel darker than the overhead lights could account for. The passengers sat in shadows that seemed too deep, their faces impossible to make out clearly even when Nanase Ren squinted directly at them.
A chill that had nothing to do with temperature crawled up her spine.
The people in front of her had stopped moving, blocking the aisle.
"Kid, get off with us."
"We were careless earlier, got caught off guard. Now we'll teach you a proper lesson."
"You dare lay hands on us? We'll make you regret it."
The delinquents kept talking, voices getting louder as their courage built from having backup. One of them cracked his knuckles in a way that was probably meant to be threatening.
Hayato completely ignored them, his attention fixed on cataloging details most people wouldn't notice. He'd already spotted the problem with this bus the moment he'd stepped on board.
Anomalies.
A lot of them.
Besides the seven people who'd just boarded, including himself, the bus had one driver and six passengers sitting in various seats throughout the vehicle. Those passengers were completely silent in a way that went beyond just being quiet, and they gave off a faint sensation that prickled against his awareness like static electricity.
Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an anomaly and a regular human at first glance. But Hayato had been playing the Death Game long enough that he'd developed a sense for it, an instinct that whispered warnings when something wasn't quite right.
The danger the nurse faced was this bus.
"Hey, kid, give us an answer. We're getting off now, so you better—"
The driver's voice cut through the delinquent's threats, cold and penetrating in a way that made Hayato's teeth ache.
"All passengers, please take your seats immediately."
"This bus is about to depart."
The words carried weight beyond their literal meaning, pressing down on the space like a physical force. Hayato felt it in his bones, that sense of a rule being stated rather than a request being made.
"Wait for us a second, we're getting off right now, just need to—"
The delinquent reached out to grab Hayato's shoulder, probably planning to drag him off the bus bodily. His fingers had just made contact with fabric when something happened.
Splat.
The sound was wet and final, like a melon dropped from a great height onto concrete. The delinquent's head simply ceased to exist in the space between one heartbeat and the next, replaced by an explosion of red that painted the ceiling in arterial patterns. His body stood there for one impossible moment, hand still extended in mid-grab, before his knees buckled and he collapsed straight down.
The sound of him hitting the floor was surprisingly soft, almost anticlimactic after the violence of what had just happened.
Complete silence filled the bus interior.
Everyone froze. Hayato's mind was already processing, cataloging the death, analyzing the trigger. The blue-haired delinquent at the back had gone completely still, eyes wide enough that the whites showed all around his irises. His mouth worked soundlessly, trying to form words that wouldn't come.
His buddy was dead. Just like that. No warning, no visible cause, just dead.
Nanase Ren's eyes went wide as her brain struggled to process what she'd just witnessed. Terror rushed up from her stomach to her head in a dizzying wave that made the bus lights blur at the edges. A scream built up in her throat, pressure increasing as her lungs filled with air to give it voice.
"Mmph mmph..."
Hayato's hand clamped firmly over her mouth before the sound could escape, his other arm wrapping around her shoulders to keep her from thrashing. He pulled her back against him, using his body weight to keep her steady.
"Don't make noise if you don't want to die," he said quietly, his lips close enough to her ear that the words were for her alone.
He'd spotted the notice posted above the front of the bus during his initial scan of the interior. Please refrain from loud noise during the ride. The kind of sign that looked like a polite request but was clearly a rule that would be enforced.
Swoosh!
The middle-aged woman who'd boarded at the very back completely ignored Hayato's warning, her scream ripping through the silence with enough force to hurt ears. The sound was high and piercing, fueled by pure terror at having just watched a man's head explode less than two meters away from her.
Splat.
Her head went the same way as the delinquent's, there one second and gone the next in a spray of crimson. Her body dropped like someone had cut her strings, hitting the floor in a heap of limbs that bent at wrong angles. Within seconds, something started happening to the corpse. The edges blurred, colors running together like watercolors left in the rain, and then the whole thing melted away into nothing.
No blood on the floor. No body. Just empty space where a living woman had been standing moments before.
The blue-haired delinquent spun toward the exit, every survival instinct screaming at him to run. His legs pumped, carrying him toward the open door in desperate strides, but he couldn't take that final step. His foot hit something invisible right at the threshold, an unseen barrier that might as well have been a concrete wall for all the give it had.
He pushed against it with both hands, face contorting with effort, but the barrier held firm.
"All passengers, please take your seats immediately."
"The bus is about to depart."
The driver's voice carried that same cold quality, final and absolute. This wasn't a suggestion. This wasn't a request. This was the only option.
Under the threat of two deaths happening right in front of them, no one dared question the order anymore. The two people up front, the ones who'd boarded before Nanase Ren, moved quickly to find the nearest empty seats and dropped into them without protest.
Hayato's mind was working rapidly, analyzing the seating pattern of the original passengers in the short time he had before the bus started moving. The anomalies were distributed in a specific way, two in some rows and one in others, and that pattern mattered.
"Two people sit in the double seats, one person sits alone," he said quietly but clearly, making sure his voice carried to the others without being loud enough to potentially trigger another death.
After delivering that warning, he pulled Nanase Ren toward a double seat near the back of the bus. She came willingly, too shocked to do anything but follow his lead. He could feel her trembling through the contact where his hand gripped her arm.
Right in front of them, two anomalies sat side by side, their dark forms barely distinguishable in the dim lighting.
The middle-aged man and young guy who'd boarded together immediately switched their seating arrangement, moving to sit together in a double seat on the left side. The blue-haired delinquent, showing more intelligence than Hayato would've given him credit for, wisely took a single seat on the right side of the bus.
All three of them were operating on pure instinct now, trusting that Hayato's warning had just saved their lives the same way his earlier command to stay quiet had.
Hiss...
The bus doors closed slowly, the hydraulic system engaging with that familiar pressurized sound.
"Rumble rumble..."
The engine's vibration increased as the bus pulled away from the stop, wheels rolling forward to carry them into the night.
Hayato had positioned himself in the window seat, which put Nanase Ren on the aisle side. She'd calmed down slightly by now, the initial shock wearing off enough that higher brain functions were starting to come back online. She struggled slightly against his grip, and Hayato loosened his hand over her mouth in response.
Even though he'd helped her, even though he'd probably just saved her life, the impression of him as a stalker hadn't completely faded from her mind. She still maintained her guard, body language closed off despite their proximity.
She glanced at him and noticed that his attention was completely focused on observing their surroundings rather than on her. That put her somewhat at ease, at least enough that she started doing the same thing he was, looking around and trying to understand what the hell was happening.
The first thing she looked at was the view outside the window.
Pitch black. Nothing visible beyond the glass except darkness so complete it seemed to swallow light.
The bright lights of Chiba City that should've been visible in every direction simply didn't exist. No streetlights, no building windows, no passing cars with headlights. Just void.
A thought formed in her mind, vague at first but gaining clarity as the pieces clicked together.
She'd encountered a supernatural anomaly incident. Simply put, she'd run into something that shouldn't exist, something that operated outside normal reality.
A ghost bus.
Ugh.
Her heart, which had barely managed to calm down for less than a minute, started pounding violently again. Fear crashed over her in waves that made her hands shake and her breathing go shallow. Nanase Ren just wanted to cry, wanted to curl up and make this all go away.
She wanted to go home. She missed her mom and dad with an intensity that was almost physical. Someone please save her. Anyone.
A firm, warm hand grasped her trembling fingers, the contact unexpected enough that it cut through her spiral. Nanase Ren froze as Hayato's other hand moved between them, passing over his phone. The screen's glow illuminated text that came into view as he angled it for her to read.
Follow the rules and you'll be fine.
Don't make loud noise, don't initiate conversation with the driver.
I'll get you out of here safely. Trust me.
The message ended with a kaomoji emoticon that looked absurdly out of place given the circumstances. A little face with raised arms like it was trying to be reassuring.
Something about that stupid emoticon broke through the terror. In an instant, the crushing weight pressing down on her chest lifted just enough that she could breathe properly again. Her racing heartbeat slowed to something closer to normal.
He was clearly a suspicious person who might've been stalking her, someone she should logically be afraid of. A dangerous individual by any reasonable measure. Yet right now, in this impossible situation, Nanase Ren felt a strong sense of security radiating from him.
Trust him, something inside her whispered. Trust him and you can survive this.
She took the phone from his hand, her trembling fingers struggling with the touchscreen keyboard as she typed out a response.
Why are you helping me?
His reply came quickly, text appearing almost as fast as she could read.
Does saving someone need a reason?
But you were following me, right?
Yeah, because you're cute.
Hayato had ultimately chosen this simple, direct reason that people could accept and understand. He couldn't exactly tell Nanase Ren the truth, that he was doing this because of a Death Game mission. That would require explanations he didn't have time to give and she probably wouldn't believe anyway.
The cute nurse bit her lip as she read his response, clearly thinking it over. After a moment's consideration, her fingers moved across the screen again.
Can we... really get off this bus alive?
Hayato gave her a thumbs up, the gesture confident and certain in a way that probably wasn't entirely justified but that she needed to see right now.
Nanase Ren nodded lightly, the motion small but deliberate. She was making a choice, giving him her preliminary trust even though every rational part of her brain was screaming that this was insane.
The other three passengers were in worse shape than Nanase Ren, their bodies trembling continuously from shock and fear. They'd also discovered the true nature of those dark-bodied passengers sitting near them by now. The realization had hit them with the force of cold water, washing away any remaining doubt.
Not human. Definitely not human. All monsters.
The blue-haired delinquent kept looking toward Hayato at the back left, his eyes wide and desperate as he tried to signal for help. His head tilted slightly, eyebrows raised in an exaggerated questioning expression. Please, his body language screamed, give us some kind of hint about what to do.
Hayato simply pointed at the notices posted throughout the bus interior, the ones that laid out rules in simple text.