Chapter 20 Twenty Ghosts Behind

The forest was gloomy after nightfall. No matter where I looked, I could only see the same trees and could not tell which direction I was in.

But for Chijiang Nayue, who was temporarily no longer a human, the scene in his eyes was not blurred at all, but was as clear as ever, so he also saw the traces left on the hillside and the footprints of a third person before he was dragged away by the pulling force.

It is not difficult to guess that it was Tsuda Atsushi who was attacked by the third person first, and then slipped and fell while dodging. Amuro Toru, who was rushing over, had limited vision and was dragged down the gentle slope.

...What kind of luck is this?

The corners of Chijiang Nayue's mouth twitched, and finally she couldn't help it, she held onto the tree trunk beside her and laughed until tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

As expected, it’s so much fun to follow Zero-kun no matter which world he is from!

Because her mood suddenly became very good, when she was pulled by that mysterious connection, Chijiang Nayue was not as unhappy as expected. She was even a little happy and spontaneously floated to the other end of the connection.

His good friend Ogen is a thick-skinned gorilla who can beat ten Tsuda Atsushis alone. Others may break their arms and legs, but he usually only suffers scratches. Therefore, Akajinazuki is not worried at all that such a small attack will hurt Amuro Toru.

Instead of worrying about Amuro Toru, you should worry about whether Tsuda Atsushi's head, which contains little secrets, has been broken.

In fact, the so-called connection between him and Amuro Toru, just like his identity of "18-year-old Akae Nazuki", did not exist at the beginning. It was not until Amuro Toru, the anchor, identified with him from the bottom of his heart that they were truly bound together.

That is to say, after returning from Manhattan, Akae Nazuki, who is still the ghost behind the scenes, can no longer maintain a distance of more than 20 meters in radius from Amuro Toru, and this distance may continue to shorten.

Although he can usually find a reference object and fix himself to it as he did before, once he is separated too far like today, he will...well, hill drifting is actually quite fun.

Akae Nayue hummed the familiar tune again, her eyes scanning the grass, and soon she caught sight of Amuro Toru's golden hair in a clump of small bushes.

Toru Amuro seemed to be dizzy from the tumbling just now. He closed his eyes tightly and fell on his back on the grass to relieve his headache. He didn't notice that he was watching them in mid-air not far away.

As he watched, a sweet smile suddenly appeared on the little devil's face - this expression usually appeared when he was about to play a trick on someone. If the main world's Fūya Rei was here, he would have run away immediately.

Akae Nayue disappeared from the spot in an instant, and the next second, she appeared in front of Amuro Toru.

If the spirit behind them also had senses, then the closeness between the two people at this moment, which had broken the social distance, was enough for them to feel each other's breath.

The hot breath symbolizes the continued existence of life.

Amuro Toru's consciousness dilated due to fear, and all the muscles in his body tensed up for a moment. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he recognized who the figure floating above him belonged to.

Immediately afterwards, Toru Amuro was completely struck by the strong emotions in those watery red eyes.

He discerned the meaning of those emotions, and was even more shocked.

The moon over the red river is filled with fear.

Toru Amuro suddenly realized how much he looked like a corpse when he was lying in the bushes with his eyes closed.

This conclusion appeared in his mind in less than a second, but it made Amuro Toru a little confused.

They had only known each other for a week, so how could the carefree little devil be scared because he mistakenly thought he was dead? Not to mention that with Chi Jiang's ability, it was not difficult to see that he was not injured at all... This shouldn't be the case.

Before he could react, the spirit behind him had distanced himself from him. When Amuro Toru looked over again, the spirit's face had regained its usual light smile, and he said in a gloating tone, "What a pity, Mr. Amuro, you look really bad now."

Toru Amuro closed his eyes and was about to pretend that he didn't notice the other party's obvious intentions as he did before, when he heard the boy's voice again, which seemed to be teasing him.

"I thought you were going to just stay here. That would be terrible." The boy said briskly, his pronunciation was full of a special rhythm. "I don't have a key, so I'll be locked out when I get home."

"…If only you remembered to go through the front door whenever you enter my bedroom to scare people." Amuro Toru reflexively complained.

After saying this, he subconsciously widened his eyes and looked at Chijiang Nayue beside him.

Toru Amuro suddenly understood Akae Nazuki's fear.

They were very similar, both living alone in this crowded world, with no one around to accompany them - that was originally the case, but when I was in Manhattan, I had promised him that I would take him home.

What a luxurious word for an undercover agent. Amuro Toru was suddenly surprised that he had used the word "home" to describe the once unpopular safe house in just one week.

"Even if you have a key, you won't use it much, after all, you always like to walk through walls." Amuro Toru said seriously, shrugging his shoulders, "So in order to prevent the door from becoming a decoration in the house, let me be the one to open the door with the key."

The reason why he spoke directly was because he checked Tsuda Atsushi's condition after coming down. The other party did not have his experience and did not protect any vital parts when rolling down. If Tsuda Atsushi had not been lucky enough and only hit his forehead lightly when he stopped, Amuro Toru suspected that he might have to call an ambulance quickly.

Therefore, Tsuda Atsushi currently does not have the energy nor the ability to hear him 'talking to himself' here.

Listening to his words, the little devil not far away crossed his legs and dangled, propped up his chin and snorted, "You're the best."

—

When Tsuda Atsushi woke up, he found himself being carried on someone's back. Every time he moved, his ankles ached, his forehead felt hot, and he felt dizzy.

In the moonlight, Tsuda Atsushi could vaguely see that the person carrying him had short light blond hair, and he suddenly realized who this person was.

So, it must be because he fell and injured himself that Mr. Amuro carried him back.

Amuro Toru and Akae Nazuki noticed it a few seconds before Tsuda Atsushi woke up. The former waited patiently until Tsuda Atsushi woke up a little before briefly explaining what had happened.

"Anyway, we still don't know who attacked us, so for safety's sake we can only go back to the hotel and make plans later."

Tsuda Atsushi had a terrible headache, and he knew that he couldn't walk alone in his condition, so he had to continue to trouble the guest from Tokyo for help. Hearing this, he nodded in agreement with the idea.

"It's very dangerous on the mountain after dark." Tsuda Atsushi seemed to regret that he was too anxious before, and suggested that everyone go to look for He Lailing without hesitation, "Let's do it."

Afterwards, perhaps to ease the atmosphere, the detective took the initiative to bring up a few topics, and the two of them started chatting idly.

"I heard from Hanada-kun before that Dana (boss) and the others were high school classmates..." Amuro Toru asked suddenly, "Boss Tsuda also knows Nazuki-kun, right?"

Amuro Toru noticed that the person on his back tensed up instantly after hearing the name, and even his breathing subconsciously slowed down.

Akae Nazuki Honrei was stroking his chin beside him, protesting against being called by his name suddenly: "You didn't call me like that before, Mr. Amuro." A few years ago, the person who called him 'Natsuki-kun' the most was his teacher Dazai Osamu. As for now, they either call him 'aka-chan (Xiaohong)' or just 'aka'.

Suddenly hearing the long-lost way of calling from the mouth of his friend's peer, Chi Jiang Na Yue was still a little uncomfortable.

Toru Amuro couldn't reply now, so he had to pretend not to hear it.

They were so busy fighting the eye contact that they didn't realize something was wrong until Tsuda Atsushi spoke.

From Akae Nazuki's angle, he could see Tsuda Atsushi's face. His expression was very ugly at that moment, as if he heard Amuro Toru asking what the name Akae Nazuki was, which was incredible and scary.

Tsuda Atsushi's voice came out of his throat, his teeth chattering. He did not answer the question directly, but asked in return: "So you came here for Akae-kun in the first place?"

"Hmm? How could that be? I just have some curiosity that every detective has, and I just happen to know Nazuki-kun from eight years ago." Amuro Toru responded with a gentle smile, "That's all."

Tsuda Atsushi was merciless, coldly and bluntly saying: "Then give up. I can't use Akae-kun's affairs to satisfy your curiosity, Amuro-san."

Amuro Toru couldn't see it, but Akae Nazuki could see that when Tsuda Atsushi said this, his eyes darkened and he seemed to have lost interest in the conversation. At the same time, the guilt he felt when the other party mentioned his name became even deeper.

Chi Jiang Nayue felt as if his heart was being pinched by a cat's claws. He hadn't felt this kind of excitement about facing a mystery for a long time. When you live in a world where everything is open to you, sometimes you have to become like a madman in the eyes of others.

After all, life requires the unknown and passion, which is one of the reasons why Chijiang Nayue accepted the task without hesitation.

"But you have to know that sometimes not everyone is qualified to keep a secret, right?"

Amuro Toru's voice was still gentle, but his words were as cold as a knife. He even changed the way he addressed me: "Tsuda-san, secrets can kill people."

Tsuda Atsushi could tell that this was a threat. He took a breath and was silent for a long time. Then he said calmly, "I set up a timed email before I came out with you. If I don't cancel it later, all the contacts in my phone will know that you killed me."

This was beyond Amuro Toru's expectations. The information gap between him and Tsuda Atsushi made him never expect that Tsuda Atsushi would choose to do this.

Is he not just an ordinary tourist in Tsuda Atsushi's eyes? Even if it is suspicious, there is no need to do this. The corners of Amuro Toru's mouth twitched.

How on earth did Mr. Tsuda come up with this paranoid-like operation?

"What are you talking about, Tsuda-san? I'm just curious about 'that thing' that happened eight years ago." Amuro Toru continued to play dumb and said nonchalantly, "If you don't want to talk about this topic, why don't we talk about Na Yue-kun in your eyes?"

Akajiang Nayue on the side sneered, and his eyes instantly flew towards Amuro Toru like a knife.

What are you doing?

However, since he had no physical body, he could not stop Tsuda Atsushi from speaking.

"In my eyes...Akae-kun?" The wolf-like young man murmured, as if he was asking himself, or as if he was asking Amuro Toru, "Why?"

"Why are the people who suffer the most in this world good people? Why is the world so cruel to Chijiang-kun?" He seemed to be lost in memory, his voice gradually became sharper, he clenched his teeth, and asked with red eyes, "Why... why are you unwilling to let him go even after eight years?"

"What detectives...you are all liars! You are all lying!"

As Tsuda Atsushi spoke, the muscles on his face trembled with anger.

Chijiang Nayue saw the same guilt and flames of hatred in his eyes as always.

I just don't know where that hatred comes from?