Chapter 201: Yūmi Island (Part 7)
Chapter 201: Yūmi Island (Part 7)
The sun had already set in the west, and the sky was covered with dark clouds.
Suddenly, a seabird resting by the beach felt something cold, and then raindrops began to fall around it.
It flapped its wings and flew swiftly toward the dense forest.
The rain grew heavier, turning from a light drizzle into a downpour, and the ground became muddy.
After helping to collect the items from the archaeological site, Fang Jing trudged through the mud back to the dormitory.
He saw the seabird on the island flying over the beach, soaring high and heading toward the lush forest on the island.
“Another person has gone missing.”
The first person to disappear was Osawa Kyotaro.
The second person to disappear was a young man named Azasa.
Fang Jing, who had blended into the archaeology team, had long since figured out the entire team’s situation.
He naturally knew that there were twelve people in the team.
Moreover, Fang Jing was very clear about the names and identities of these twelve people.
However, on the other hand, he was different from the others from Yamaryo University; at the very least, he could clearly sense when someone went missing.
For the others, it was as if they had unconsciously lost all “information” about the missing person.
Fang Jing was certain that the information related to the missing person had been erased from their minds.
“Erased might not be the right word—it felt more like their memories had been artificially tampered with.”
Human memory is a complex synchronization of neural and brain activity, and erasing someone’s memory is extremely difficult.
What was happening on the island was bizarre and strange, and even Fang Jing couldn’t come up with an explanation.
“I still can’t act recklessly. I know absolutely nothing about the abnormal phenomena caused by the Strange Phenomenon.”
The Strange Phenomenon was indeed spreading across the island, and he hadn’t yet grasped any information about it.
“The situation isn’t looking too good…”
Fang Jing muttered to himself.
Shusu Yuki didn’t seem to be making any progress either.
He appeared to be gathering “evidence of crimes” about Shinzaki Tenrikyo under the guidance of Hayasaka Muko.
Fang Jing didn’t think that merely collecting evidence would be enough to take down the cult, but it wasn’t his concern anyway. He wasn’t particularly invested in Shusu Yuki’s affairs.
“Could it be… I need to find another lead?”
Come to think of it, that college student named Yuki Ham had been acting sneaky and very strange lately.
This person might be worth paying attention to.
Yuki Ham and Ato Shiho sat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. The two had recently noticed a series of abnormal events and, after some investigation, finally realized there was something wrong on the island.
“I’ve checked again and again, and I’m sure of one thing: when we landed on the island, there were twelve of us. But something must have happened along the way, and the twelve became ten.”
Yuki Ham picked up his phone, which had a photo downloaded from his laptop.
“Look at this picture—it’s our group photo when we landed on the island…”
“Is that so?”
Ato Shiho wore a completely suspicious expression.
“There really are twelve people in the photo.”
Yuki Ham was very certain about this.
He firmly believed he hadn’t mistaken it.
As for Ato Shiho, her expression wasn’t as confident because she couldn’t see the two additional people in the photo.
Yuki Ham let out a long sigh.
To confirm this, he had also asked other companions who had landed on the island about the photo, but no one else could see the two extra people like he could.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but based on my deduction, if my mind isn’t playing tricks on me, then there were originally twelve of us when we landed. For some reason, we’ve forgotten these two people.”
“But how could that happen? They were two living people… And why is it only you, senior, who noticed this?”
“I don’t know either, but I don’t think my mind is playing tricks on me. My logic is still quite clear…”
Yuki Ham gave a bitter smile and whispered, “I found extra luggage in Associate Professor Tomatsu’s room, and in my own room, I found belongings that must have belonged to someone else.”
It was then that he realized one of the two missing people had shared a room with him.
Because of this, an inexplicable fear welled up in his heart.
The person who had lived in the same room as him had disappeared so mysteriously.
And after he disappeared, everyone had completely forgotten about him. Would he be the next to disappear?
“Don’t worry, senior.”
Ato Shiho pressed his slightly trembling hand and said softly, “Let’s figure this out together.”
Hearing Ato Shiho’s comforting words, Yuki Ham felt a bit relieved. He nodded and replied,
“Alright, let’s work together!”
————————
Late at night.
The rain still hadn’t let up.
In the damp rain, the night air grew increasingly cold. Yuki Ham had to take a deep breath to calm his nerves.
“Thank you, Shiho.”
“It’s nothing, senior. I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
Ato Shiho held a coffee cup with both hands as she and Yuki Ham hid together in a room on the second floor.
The two of them were hiding in the room, monitoring the movements upstairs and downstairs. Yuki Ham had carefully installed several cameras on the floor. These cameras were originally for the archaeological site but had been repurposed by Yuki Ham for private use.
He had a reason for doing this: everyone who had landed on the island was staying in this dormitory. Considering that everyone would be resting here at night, it was highly likely that something would happen here.
To prove that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him and to prove that people really had gone missing, he had to uncover the truth.
“Even if you can’t sleep, we still have work tomorrow. Getting enough rest is important. How about this?”
Yuki Ham also put down his mug.
“You sleep for a while, and I’ll wake you up later in the night. Since we’re just watching the camera feed, one person keeping an eye on the videos is enough.”
After Yuki Ham insisted, Ato Shiho had no choice but to nod. She wrapped herself in a blanket and climbed onto the bed, intending to take a short nap.
However, Yuki Ham didn’t plan to wake her up later in the night.
He was already grateful that Ato Shiho trusted him and was willing to work with him. It wouldn’t be right to make her stay up all night with him.
“She fell asleep so fast…”
Ato Shiho, lying on the bed, quickly fell into a deep sleep, softly snoring.
Yuki Ham, watching her sleeping face, smiled slightly. He turned his attention back to the computer screen displaying the camera feeds.
The cameras showed no changes.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before Yuki Ham started dozing off.
No, he couldn’t fall asleep now.
He struggled to open his eyes and stared at the camera again. At that very moment, he saw a figure push the door open and come out.
“…Who… who is that?”
Yuki Ham widened his eyes and finally saw clearly from the blurry camera video that the person coming out should be a woman.
“Could it be Kanno?”
It should be Kanno. He remembered this woman; she was also one of the archaeology team members.
However, Yuki had never had much interaction with Kanno and didn’t know this female student very well.
“She probably just got up to use the bathroom!”
That was what Yuki Ham originally thought, but he soon realized that Kanno’s direction seemed off—it wasn’t the way to the bathroom.
Kanno’s route clearly showed she intended to leave the residence.
The problem was, it was the middle of the night, and it was raining outside—where could she be trying to go?
Realizing something was wrong, Yuki Ham woke up Ato Shiho.
“What… what is it? Senior, what time is it?”
“Shiho, stop sleeping. Something’s happened.”
Yuki gazed at her confused, sleepy eyes, which seemed a bit uneasy. He let out a deep breath. “For some reason, Kanno wants to leave the residence in the middle of the night. We need to follow her quickly.”
“Kanno?”
Ato Shiho looked completely puzzled, but urged by Yuki, she still went out of the room with him.
“Kanno’s behavior is strange. Where could she be going in the middle of the night…”
Yuki Ham spoke anxiously, but at that moment, Ato Shiho still couldn’t quite figure out who Yuki was talking about. Following behind him, she muttered to herself, “By the way, senior, who is Kanno?”
What?!
Yuki Ham hadn’t expected the abnormality to happen so quickly.
“This is bad, I have to catch up.”
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Yuki patted her shoulder.
“Shiho, you wake everyone up. I’ll go out first to catch up with Kanno.”
“Okay.”
Ato Shiho thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
The next second, Yuki Ham quickly rushed downstairs.
“What happened—?”
Fang Jing came out from another room. He hadn’t been sleeping much either and had come out to investigate after hearing noise outside.
Ato Shiho briefly explained the situation.
“Senior Yuki went outside. He said someone left the house.”
“Someone left in the middle of the night?”
Fang Jing quickly understood what it meant. He whispered, “The roads outside aren’t easy to walk on at night. I’ll go out too.”
After saying that, he rushed downstairs, intending to follow Yuki Ham’s trail.
It was truly unexpected that Yuki Ham could sense someone was missing.
It seems the “Strange Phenomenon” we encountered this time isn’t as powerful as I thought.
He sped up, sprinting forward on the muddy, puddle-filled path. It wouldn’t be hard to catch up with Yuki Ham ahead, but Fang Jing had no intention of doing so.
He just followed behind Yuki Ham, trailing after him.
Yuki Ham was soaked all over, panting heavily. Having rushed out wearing only flip-flops, he couldn’t run fast on the muddy mountain path, and moving wasn’t easy at all.
Splashes of water flew up from his feet from time to time, and his pants were stained with mud.
But he paid no attention to that, just desperately pressing forward.
Suddenly, he came to an abrupt stop.
Yuki Ham had been following Kanno’s trail all along; he could still see the woman in white up ahead.
But after Kanno entered the forest, her trail became faint and unclear.
The rain and trees blocked the view, making it hard to clearly see the figure in white.
After winding around the mountain path a few times, he almost lost sight of that figure.
“She’s gone!”
After taking another turn, he lost Kanno’s trail on the mountain path. At that very moment, as he stopped, he saw something unexpected.
A deep blue fireball shot up from deep within the mountain forest, emitting a dazzling, brilliant light even in the rain.
The next second, the deep blue glowing object vanished before his eyes like an illusion, as if it had shot up into the sky and disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, the trail of their fellow student Kanno also vanished along with the deep blue glowing object.
To Yuki Ham, it felt as if… Kanno had been abducted by a UFO.