Chapter 13. If melancholy is a gift...

Yukimura Mio squeezed out a broken and strange, faint gurgling sound from her throat.

Once the physical pain exceeded a certain limit, the fear she initially felt upon encountering something incomprehensible faded considerably—now, only thoughts like "it hurts so much," "it's so uncomfortable," and "I'm going to die" occupied her mind.

Her vision blurred in waves, and her thoughts gradually became sluggish. She was simply drowning in the torment of suffocation. Apart from the pain, the surrounding darkness and silence... the whole world seemed to be gradually drifting away from her.

Until the door was suddenly pushed open.

Along with the opening of the door came a blinding beam of light from a flashlight shining directly in his direction.

Accustomed to the darkness, Yukimura Mio's already bloodshot and red eyes were suddenly exposed to overly bright light, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

Then, just before her consciousness faded, in her blurred vision, she vaguely saw the sudden approach of a blade.

*******

There was more than one room on the second floor, all of which were closed, and the gaps between the doors were completely dark, making it impossible to tell where anyone was by which room had a light on.

The surroundings were completely silent. In order to rescue the person as soon as possible, although the three of them did not communicate much, they all tacitly chose different rooms.

Tsukino and Chiya were quite lucky.

He made the right choice.

*******

"Drawing...for..."

"Praise...compliment...praise me..."

"If it's not a corpse... that won't do!! If it won't work, who will?!"

"Who will praise me?!"

The ghost painter let out an angry roar.

That is... at first glance, it looks similar to a human.

It also has a body and limbs, and stands on two legs. Its body is still a human body, but its face... no, its head is not a normal human head.

A white canvas completely covered its head, and on that canvas, there were countless facial features, except for the ears, that looked like they had been painted on, crammed together indiscriminately.

Countless facial features crowded together on the same face from different directions, all revealing an expression of anger.

The rope that had been strangling Yukimura Mio was cut swiftly and precisely. Losing her strength, she immediately collapsed to the ground, letting out a weak and hoarse cough.

She's still alive, that's good. But shouldn't we get her to the hospital first?

"Ugh...!!"

Tsukino and Chiya suddenly let out a muffled groan, their foreheads instantly covered in cold sweat from the intense pain.

arm……

Tsukino and Chiya's arms were pierced by a spear that suddenly appeared.

He had originally intended to reach out and check on Yukimura Mio while the strange creature was engrossed in its own emotions, but his outstretched hand gesture seemed to suddenly draw the strange creature's attention back.

And so the spear appeared out of nowhere.

The skin on his right arm first felt a faint stinging sensation, as if something was churning restlessly beneath his flesh, and then... the spear that had appeared inside his body suddenly pierced through his skin and emerged.

Tsukino and Chiya reacted quickly. The moment they noticed the abnormality in their arms, they turned their heads sharply, narrowly and precisely avoiding the spear tip that was about to pierce their heads.

"Are you alright?!...What happened...?!"

In a house that was already eerily quiet, the noise coming from the bedroom where Tsukino and Chiya were located quickly attracted the attention of the people in the rest of the house.

Even Matsuda Jinpei, who was used to remaining calm in dangerous situations and had mentally prepared himself for the situation, couldn't help but momentarily lose his composure when he saw the illogical scene in the bedroom.

"Officer Matsuda, I'll leave the first aid and hospital transport for that person to you. I'll lure the strange creature away first."

"Huh? But you..."

Before Matsuda Jinpei could finish speaking, his body instinctively made the right move—making way for Tsukino and Chiya, who were rushing toward the bedroom door.

Although Yukimura Mio was rescued, her condition seemed rather bad. However, with such a strange and undeniable presence in the bedroom, and the strange being so close to Yukimura Mio, it was almost impossible to carefully check on her condition and get her away.

Under these circumstances, Tsukino and Chiya's decision to "lure the monster away first" was undoubtedly correct.

Putting aside what Tsukino and Chiya did to anger the monster and make it fixate its hatred on him... In this situation, even if the boy didn't leave, the monster would probably still chase after him and beat him up. It would be better to take advantage of this situation to successfully lure that thing away.

Of course, the minimum premise for Matsuda Jinpei to agree to such an arrangement is that... Tsukino and Chiya actually possess the ability to successfully lure away the monster and escape unscathed.

And the penetrating wound on his arm that, even to the naked eye, would make anyone feel pain for him...

Matsuda Jinpei has always had excellent eyesight.

As Tsukino and Chiya made their decision, stood up, and ran towards the door where he was, he clearly saw it—

The black-haired boy's right arm was unharmed. The blood that had been gushing from the wound and even dripping onto the floor had vanished, and the spear that had pierced through his arm had also disappeared without a trace.

Just like the previous tragic scene was all an illusion and a deception, in reality... nothing happened.

*******

The hatred was well-intentioned; the strange creature completely ignored Matsuda Jinpei, who had just arrived at the bedroom, and was completely focused on destroying Tsukino and Chiya, who had witnessed the birth of the corpse.

"No forgiveness... No forgiveness...!!"

"A corpse...I need a corpse...Kill him!!"

"To this extent... but why, why... is no one..."

"Praise me!!!"

...It's so noisy.

The strange creature following closely behind wasn't slow, but it was still within the human realm. Compared to some of the incredibly fast strange creatures that Tsukino and Chiya had heard of before, it was nothing. At least for now, Chiya was confident that she could outrun it for a while.

It just means enduring continuous sonic attacks.

The artist's hands were concealed within the long sleeves of his robe, from which red liquid dripped continuously. In the dim light, it was difficult to discern with the naked eye whether it was blood, paint… or both?

However, there's no time to observe carefully now.

The current goal is to buy Matsuda Jinpei and the others enough time to leave. During this time, all I need to do is maintain a distance that is neither too close nor too far from the strange creature... As for the strange creature chasing after me and then deciding to turn back because it realized something was wrong halfway through?

That's unlikely. After all, most strange beings born from obsession or resentment are simply stubborn and inflexible.

Speaking of which, Ohma hasn't shown up at all... Could it be that he discovered something?

The thought flashed through their minds, and the next second, Tsukino and Chiya, who had originally planned to break the window to leave because the door was closed, calculated the angle and jumped down the stairs to the first floor. Then, following the moonlight, they saw the person they had been thinking about not long ago.

The mansion's main door had been reopened at some point, and the moonlight he had just seen was pouring in unrestrainedly from there.

The purple-haired boy, who most likely picked the lock and opened the door, was leaning casually against the doorframe, his elongated shadow falling to the ground. The night cast a soft, pale glow on his silhouette, but his profile remained hidden in shadow.

Although they couldn't see clearly, Tsukino and Chiya were inexplicably certain that the person's expression was perhaps even calmer than they had imagined. In the tranquil moonlight, he... even seemed to exude a fleeting sense of loneliness?

The moment a strange thought popped into Qianye's mind, Wangma Xiaoji keenly noticed the commotion and immediately turned to look at Qianye. He stretched out his hand and waved vigorously to indicate that he was there, his purple eyes full of interest.

"Oh~ a real-life version of tag?! That looks really interesting, hey, I want to play too!"

A note from the author:

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