Chapter 219: End of the Line
Chapter 219: End of the Line
Could it be… the most dangerous “Third Category” among all Strange Phenomena?
Hearing this, Fang Jing’s heart also jolted in shock. If it really was that, then the situation was quite precarious.
“Of course, that’s just my and that old lady Usa’s speculation for now. No one can be sure what the real situation is.”
Grandma Usa was a “Medium” who had helped Karasawa many times since he was a child.
Unlike a half-baked medium like him, Grandma Usa was an experienced Mikanko.
“Mikanko” referred to the group of spirit channelers active among the people. Of course, nearly ninety percent of them were frauds, but occasionally there were genuine mediums like Grandma Usa.
She had unusual abilities from birth, knew deeply about the existence of another “world,” and, more importantly, had experienced many abnormal incidents, giving the old lady a lot of related experience.
“Wait, so that means… this ‘Strange Phenomenon’ is something spread by people.”
“There are traces of being ‘woven together.’ This ‘Strange Phenomenon’ has some hidden origin, but it also pieced together some other elements. More importantly, we still can’t find out who is spreading these emails.”
The source of this chain email was hard to pin down because such chain letters spread very quickly, and there were countless threads regarding the source, making it difficult to find clues.
He and Grandma Usa were hired by the parents of the unconscious little girl resolution, but so far, they hadn’t found any good solutions.
“Could it be, there really isn’t any clue at all?”
Hearing Karasawa Meisuke say this, Fang Jing also felt troubled.
He wasn’t some famous detective skilled at digging up “clues.” When faced with problems requiring mental effort and brainpower, he naturally found it a bit of a headache.
“By the way, about clues… it’s not like there are none at all. In an area called Fubian outside the city, there’s a small town called Naomori Town, which was the earliest place where ‘Hunterghost’ appeared.”
“A location? Could it be… this thing’s true form isn’t just a rumor?”
“Ha… I said it earlier! It’s a genuine ‘Strange Phenomenon.’ However, what’s appearing now might not be the real ‘Hunterghost,’ because that thing was completely sealed around the middle of the Meiji period.”
“Naomori Town”… Karasawa mentioned such a place. It was a town not far from the city, said to be the true origin place of the Strange Phenomenon “Hunterghost,” but information related to “Hunterghost” was artificially sealed.
“I have a question. This so-called ‘Hunterghost’ must be quite a troublesome Strange Phenomenon, right!”
Fang Jing pretended to be curious and asked deliberately.
“Could it be, there were some powerful mediums in the past who could deal with this kind of Strange Phenomenon?”
“Hey! How could that be!”
Karasawa Meisuke said with a self-mocking tone, unhurriedly: “Humans… how could they have the ability to fight ‘Strange Phenomena’? Even spirit channelers only know some ways to avoid them. The only thing we can do is try to make ourselves inconspicuous, not let them target us.”
“Sounds like the worst way to deal with being bothered by delinquents.”
“The chance for ordinary people to encounter a ‘Strange Phenomenon’ is like one in ten thousand. Probability-wise, it’s even lower than winning the lottery… And even if you encounter a ‘Strange Phenomenon,’ the possibility of facing the most dangerous situation is fifty-fifty. That means there’s a fifty percent chance to survive, which is much lower than getting punched by a delinquent.”
“That’s just like the official statement about low crime rates.”
“I’m not talking nonsense either. You should know very well that against those abnormal things, a mortal body is completely useless. Mediums are essentially helpless in such situations too.”
Karasawa Meisuke paused before continuing: “In the past, it wasn’t mediums who sealed that thing. The only ones that can fight monsters are other monsters. The rumor I heard was… the one who resolved that Strange Phenomenon was an Esper from the ‘Clan.'”
“Esper?”
“They’re different from spirit channelers like us; they’re the ‘real deal.’ But from another perspective, they are also a group of abnormal beings.”
Karasawa pondered how to describe those “Clans.” He curled his lip: “If I had to describe them, it’s like a super robot suddenly appearing in a Disney cartoon world—completely out of place. In short, they have a different style.”
Yes, the “Clan” had a completely different “style” from ours; you could even say they were from a different dimension.
The Clan were indeed human, but only in a literal sense. Essentially, they were decisively different from ordinary people.
“But we sent people to investigate Naomori Town as well, and we didn’t find anything…”
Karasawa sighed: “There hasn’t been much progress on the matter yet. If we find anything on our end, we’ll let you know.”
After saying that, the other end of the phone hung up.
“Naomori Town—?”
Fang Jing wondered if he should go there to investigate.
————————
After delivering a meal to her mother Motoko, as soon as she walked out onto the street, she suddenly encountered a heavy rain.
The weather was truly unpredictable; Satsuki hadn’t expected the rain to be this heavy.
She didn’t think too much about it, only wanting to get home as quickly as possible. So, she decided to take a bus.
“My clothes are soaked too, how terrible!”
Remembering that the laundry at home hadn’t been taken in, she felt a bit regretful. She sighed softly and, sitting in the back seat of the bus, turned her gaze out the window.
The rain shrouded the street scene in mist.
Unconsciously, she felt a strong sense of fatigue.
So sleepy!
For some reason, Satsuki felt very drowsy. She leaned against the bus seat, her eyelids heavy, and gradually began to doze off.
Drowsiness washed over her.
Unable to stay awake, she fell asleep.
…
“Hey! Miss… wake up.”
Someone nudged her right shoulder, and Satsuki jolted awake.
She opened her eyes and found the bus empty.
A driver wearing a cap smiled and said: “Sorry, we’ve reached the end of the line, miss. Please get off.”
“End of the line—?”
Satsuki looked around with sleepy eyes and found herself in an unfamiliar place.
“Excuse me, where is this?!”
She hadn’t expected at all that she had overshot her stop. Outside were lush trees, clearly no longer in the city.
“Oh! Did you ride past your stop?”
The driver pressed his cap with a white-gloved hand. Realizing something, he asked further.
“Sorry.”
Satsuki bowed her head, apologizing out of habit.
“It’s fine.”
The driver waved a hand and said sternly: “This place is south of the city, called Fubian. But it’s almost six or seven now, and there are no more buses going back. If you took the wrong bus, it’ll be quite troublesome to return to the city…”
“Huh?”
Satsuki hadn’t expected to face such a crisis either.
The driver kindly told her some very unlucky news. There were very few buses in this area, and the one she took was already the last bus running between the city and Fubian.
“Because of road repairs near the city recently, no taxis come here either. If you want to go back, you can only take the last bus on another route, which goes the long way around!”
The driver also gave a bitter laugh.
“This bus stop still has the last bus, number 146. You can take this last bus, pass through Naomori Town, then transfer to another bus to return. Even if you miss the town bus, once you’re there, asking locals or taking a taxi back to the city shouldn’t be a problem.”
That’s what the driver told her.
“Thank you very much.”
She had no other choice but to wait at the bus stop.
The rain had lightened a lot, and the sky was gray.
Naturally, Satsuki’s mood was just like the sky, not very good.
She didn’t know how long it had been when the last bus, number 146, finally appeared—it was an old bus, even the number on the front window had turned yellow from daily exposure to wind and sun.
The bus slowly pulled up to the stop.
Satsuki secretly looked over the bus and found that besides the driver, the bus was empty.
…This really was the last bus!
Satsuki didn’t think too deeply about it; she directly got on the bus.
After boarding, she looked left and right, confirming the bus was indeed very old, and the model was a bit smaller than usual buses.
The bus slowly traveled on a remote road, surrounded by sparse tree belts.
Outside the window, rain fell, “pitter-pattering” on the glass.
She just rested her chin in her hand, staring at the scenery outside the window.
After half an hour, the bus stopped.
Have we arrived?
She looked out the window. Unconsciously, Satsuki noticed the bus had arrived at a small town enveloped in night.
“Naomori Town—”
She muttered to herself, then took her phone from her pocket. She checked the time; it showed around eight o’clock.
————————
The “Hunterghost” incident stirred waves in Fang Jing’s heart.
After returning from Yūmi Island, he had been constantly on the move, bustling about to resolve the situation.
The Sunao-gumi, the Iwamoto Group, and the power of the Information Broker were all mobilized to collect some peripheral information for him.
As for more direct personal involvement, Fang Jing didn’t plan to leave it to others.
The reason was simple: ordinary people didn’t have his insight, let alone his abnormal abilities. If they faced the “Third Category,” they wouldn’t be much help, could get involved and die, and worst of all, become a burden and mess up his plans.
Fang Jing’s first stop wasn’t directly to “Naomori Town,” but to the southern district of the city, the area called “Fubian.”
“According to news from Hatakena Gensai, there’s a Literature and History Archives Hall nearby, and this Literature and History Archives Hall also had some connection with that Elder Jinno.”
Elder Jinno was also an eccentric person known to Fang Jing.
What happened at Ichinose Apartment had some strange connection with this old gentleman. The mysteries involved were something even Fang Jing didn’t know about.
The only information he could gather through investigation was that aside from being the owner of the antique shop “Kyogado,” Elder Jinno was also a somewhat notable figure in the city’s cultural circles.