One Hundred Tales?

Jiang Ji couldn't help but look at the "Hyaku Monogatari" in his hand. It looked like a comic book confiscated from a student.

Hyakumonogatari is a traditional custom among the people of the island nation, a ritual for the group to summon ghosts.

This ceremony was popular during the Edo period.

As soon as the sun sets, darkness will cover the city and the village. For the people at that time, darkness made people fearful and uneasy. People watched the fire pit or the oil-burning lanterns, but the light was not bright. The lanterns hanging under the eaves flickered in the wind, and there was occasionally a crackling sound of burning flames.

More often than not, people allow silence and darkness to cover every dark corner, and the ghost stories that are widely circulated in the island country were also born in this era.

Hyakumonogatari usually takes place on summer nights.

All participants wore green clothes, gathered together, lit a hundred candles, and took turns telling ghost stories. After each person finished telling a ghost story, they would blow out the candle in front of them.

As the stories were told one by one, the seat was gradually covered by darkness. There was only the dim shadow of a candle floating in front of me, flickering in the darkness, and I couldn't see whether the people around me were still there.

After telling ninety-nine stories, when only the last candle was left, people dared not continue telling the story. It is said that when the last candle was extinguished, the ghost in the story would be summoned.

These students from Aoki High School play this game?

Jiang Ji frowned slightly. What was he trying to summon?

Her gaze returned to the comic book. She always felt that the secret was hidden there, and the papers rustled under her fingertips.

Suddenly I had the illusion that I was reading "Night Watch Rules".

When searching for the first time, Jiang Ji didn't pay much attention to the catalog.

There are only ninety-nine stories in "Hyakumonogatari", and the author did not touch the taboo of the hundredth story. The content of the stories is not very related, but the name of each story...

Star Well, in the suitcase, the hometown of Ye, eating human flesh...

It looks like a coincidence, but there is some kind of invisible connection.

The world of ghost stories is extreme, twisted, and dark, but it is also the embodiment of many pains and delusions buried deep in the heart.

Freshmen may refer to the catalogue for their ideas on investigating ghost stories.

The office was very quiet. Both of them focused their attention on the comic book. They soon found clues in the black and white comic.

A female character who appears in several stories is a bystander of the times and witnesses many absurd and strange stories.

The content of the dialogue bubble related to her was erased with a wet eraser, and new content was written in the dialog box with a black pen with ink similar to the color of comic ink. It is easy to overlook it if you don't look carefully.

In the last few days, most of the teachers and students were contaminated, but there must have been students like Yangcai who were not contaminated.

When the familiar environment becomes unfamiliar and everything around them is no longer safe, these students carefully cover up and survive in fear.

Afraid of being discovered by the contaminated teachers and classmates, the owner of the book could only convey the message through the comic characters, but it was still confiscated.

Jiang Ji looked at the handwritten content:

[Can people with guilty consciences see the ghosts of the deceased?]

[Nagazuko escaped from the school and her body appeared in the cafeteria...]

[I think we can’t escape… We still have a chance, but we need more people… Please be present on August 13th! ]

[Hope everything goes well.]

[I hope everything can go back to the beginning!!!]

[It’s over, we might have been discovered…]

The handwriting is sometimes sloppy and messy, and sometimes neat and elegant.

The person who delivered the message was ready to give it a try on that day.

Turning the page, Jiang Ji's hand paused slightly, and he saw the last place where this character appeared. There was a name hidden in the corner of the black clothes.

——Aishi Kamipira.

Sounds familiar, I've seen it somewhere.

If she remembered correctly, this should be the name on the school badge of the deputy director of the [Summoning Ex-Boyfriend Club] that Jiang Langyue joined.

It is said that his family runs a shrine and is quite familiar with various sacrifices.

This society is a small one, with only more than forty members.

It is far from enough to organize a [Hyakumonogatari] ceremony.

Jiang Ji quickly recalled in his mind that the classes that other teachers in this office were in charge of did not include Ping Aishu's class.

The comics should have been confiscated from the recipient of the message.

Aiki Kamipira’s position is deputy minister, and his equivalent should also be the minister or deputy minister of a society.

"Handstand Walking Club." Before Jiang Ji could match up, Ying Huai had already said the other party's name calmly, "Director, Akihiro Mitsuka."

He was responsible for school discipline and stayed for a longer period of time, and he became quite familiar with the network of relationships between teachers, students and various clubs.

Isn't that Jin's club? What a coincidence.

Ying Huai pinched his earlobe, "That club does handstands every day, claiming that only by doing so can one see the truth. Get rid of distracting thoughts and see for yourself."

Only by removing distracting thoughts can you avoid being affected by the dark and huge obsessions and resentments in school; seeing is believing, and not letting your brain tamper with your cognition.

Jiang Ji originally thought it was just a new art form of the island country's chuunibyou boys, but who knew it had this meaning.

——Summon the Ex-Boyfriends Club.

——Handstand Walking Club.

These two strangest societies, the least understood, were able to stay sober in the end and did not give up on saving themselves on this isolated island.

The ceremony is initiated by the former and responded by the latter.

These students did not succeed.

The final effort ended in failure.

Jiang Ji pointed his fingertips at the mentioned date, "August 13th, August 13th of that year... Is there anything special about it?"

“Obon Festival.”

Ying Huai naturally saw the date in the conversation bubble and said without much thought, "It starts on August 13th and ends on the 15th."

Jiang Ji stretched out his tone: "Ah..."

The Buddhist ritual introduced to China in the sixth century AD was called "Zhongyuan Festival" in China, and was later spread from China to Fuso at that time.

China's Ghost Festival is on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. After the Meiji Restoration, the island country abolished the lunar calendar and the date of the Ullambana Festival was changed to around August 15th.

The first day is for welcoming the soul and calling back the souls.

On the third day, the souls are sent back to the grave with lanterns.

These students set the date of the Hyakumonogatari ceremony on August 13th in order to summon the departed souls back.

From Jiang Langyue's perspective, every time the curfew time came, the dormitory manager of the girls' dormitory would start patrolling layer by layer.

They would roam the corridors all night long and enter dormitories to check on students' sleep. Students who were not asleep would be dragged away from the dormitory.