Chapter 59

Ye Chun?

Twenty years have passed; how could the other party still be this young... No, judging from her words, it seems the Ye Chun before me has only just arrived at Kisaragi Station not long ago.

Uesugi Toru subconsciously wanted to draw his sword, because no matter how he looked at it, this situation was a hundred percent wrong.

"Uh, seems I was a bit too abrupt." Seeing his vigilant look, Ye Chun stepped back two steps, forced a smile with both hands raised before her chest, then scratched her head, "Nice to meet you, I'm Ye Chun. I was originally riding the Shizuoka Prefecture Private Railway train departing from Shin-Hamamatsu..."

She sighed in distress: "But for some reason, today the train's route seems different from the original. I was too scared so I got off at this station first."

"But there doesn't seem to be anyone here..."

Upon seeing Adult Erchi, Ye Chun's eyes brightened: "May I ask if that person beside you is your younger sister, classmate? She's very cute."

Trying to close the distance through conversation.

Still, wait first.

Uesugi Toru withdrew his hand from the sword hilt.

Although this Ye Chun is eight or nine times out of ten not human, for the sake of his Main Quest Two, he still decided to observe a bit more before deciding.

So Uesugi Toru slowly nodded: "Thanks for the praise, just call her Erchi."

Adult Erchi smiled at Ye Chun.

"I'm Uesugi Toru, just arrived not long ago."

"As for the train situation you mentioned, I encountered the same problem, so I decided to get off at this station too."

Smoothly admitting all of Ye Chun's guesses, Uesugi Toru then patted the sword at his waist, draping a layer of reasonable persona over himself: "I was originally taking my younger sister to participate in the Tokyo Kendo Tournament; now it looks like we probably won't make it."

"The Kendo Tournament held in Tokyo, ah, Uesugi-kun is really amazing."

After confirming the two before her had no issues, Ye Chun breathed a sigh of relief — after all, urban monster stories often say some monsters disguise themselves as humans!

"Then Uesugi-kun." She proposed, "How about we act together? This place is a bit strange; I posted on the forum but no one knows where this is."

"But the phone can still dial out."

Ye Chun shook the flip phone in her hand; after seeing a second person with the same experience, she visibly relaxed quite a bit: "So this is probably some remote platform."

Forum? Phone?

Ghost forum, ghost phone would be more like it; Chang Shi and Genjitsu cannot connect, let alone the fact that this Ye Chun posted on the 2ch Forum in 2004.

Holding this mindset, Uesugi Toru actively walked up to Ye Chun.

Then, he actually saw the comments on her phone screen constantly refreshing.

Uesugi Toru froze.

No way, how could living people be replying?

But if they're ghosts, the number of comments is too excessive, and the vast majority of comments are giving Ye Chun advice, the rest are in shock, disbelief...

It looks completely like a harmonious scene of mutual help on a 2004 forum.

Uesugi Toru looked further up at the top of Ye Chun's phone screen — 2004/5/1.

He suddenly felt a bit chaotic.

Is this a monster story's trick to deceive the eyes and ears, or did this instance really send him back to the day Ye Chun entered Kisaragi Station in 2004?

After silently seeing Ye Chun post a message on the forum about encountering him, Uesugi Toru spoke:

"Waiting here forever isn't a solution. Let's go to the convenience store to get some food and water, then walk along the railway and see."

Ye Chun stopped her movements, pondered a bit, then nodded: "Uesugi-kun is right. Let's see if we can run into local residents first."

Then, Ye Chun ran into the convenience store, grabbed some high-calorie food and water, and put them into the small backpack behind her.

Before setting off, under Uesugi Toru's gaze, she called the police station, and was then scolded and lectured by the other side, saying there is no such place as Kisaragi Station at all.

Police station...

If the police station exists, does that mean the Special Affairs Division also exists?

Let's try.

"Classmate Ye Chun, can I borrow your phone?" Uesugi Toru patted Adult Erchi's hat brim, "My own phone was lost in the car by this guy."

Adult Erchi understood instantly: "No, not lost! Next time just go to the Railway Bureau's lost and found to claim it!"

"Oh! Sure, but my phone looks like it'll run out of battery before long."

Mentioning the battery dying, Ye Chun's tone couldn't help but fall; after all, the phone was their only way to contact the outside world.

"I'll dial quickly."

Taking the phone, Uesugi Toru walked aside and dialed the police station again.

After a wait, the phone was picked up by an operator, a middle-aged uncle's voice came through,

"Little girl, it's you again..."

Uesugi Toru interrupted: "I am Special Affairs Division Action Specialist Uesugi Toru, currently caught up in a monster story event."

The uncle laughed: "Now another person comes to make up stories?"

"My superior is Kondo Tomoya. If you don't know him, you can tell your bureau chief; he will recognize the severity of the matter."

The reason he didn't say Nanjo Ai is because twenty years ago, Nanjo Sister was probably just a seven or eight-year-old child.

This calm tone made the uncle silent for a moment, then reply: "Then wait a moment."

The phone was hung up.

Uesugi Toru knew, this wait probably wouldn't end.

Because no one knows how long this ball game of passing the buck can be kicked.

He returned the phone to Ye Chun, thinking that indeed it was because spiritual events have been frequent in the past two years, that when Shizuku called the police station that day, the operator immediately contacted the Special Affairs Division to dispatch Nanjo Sister and the others.

But until now Uesugi Toru still hasn't figured out whether the other end of the phone was human or ghost...

Forget it, this isn't important for now.

"Classmate Ye Chun, let's go."

"Oh oh."

In the night, the three followed the railway toward the right side of Kisaragi Station.

Uesugi Toru sent Adult and Ye Chun to chat, while he himself lagged slightly behind by a body's length, from time to time sizing up Ye Chun walking ahead with the corner of his eye, trying to find the flaw that she was not human.

It was a pity that after walking for half an hour, Uesugi Toru discovered nothing unusual.

If not for knowing Ye Chun was the protagonist of the mononoke from twenty years ago, Uesugi Toru would only have taken her for an ordinary girl who had mistakenly entered Chang Shi.

Walking beside the railway, Uesugi Toru suddenly narrowed his eyes: "Ye Chun classmate, wait a moment."

Ye Chun, who had already taken Adult's hand, looked back: "What's wrong, Uesugi-kun?"

"There's something ahead."

Uesugi Toru drew his sword, the snow-bright sword prow illuminating Ye Chun's startled face.

—A real one?

Ye Chun jumped in fright; aren't swordsmanship matches generally fought with bamboo swords?

Fortunately Adult was clever and smart, quickly adding in a low voice: "Don't look at my brother being so young, after all he's an exorcist."

Ex, exorcist?

Ye Chun's thoughts were in chaos; could it be that so many urban mononoke were real?

But Uesugi Toru had already walked forward, seeing clearly the status windows above the heads of several drifting figures not far away—

【Chi (Zero Star)】

【Chi (Half Star)】

Several yokai of the same name, zero-star and half-star, should be like the farmer workers of Arakawa Village, small fry of the Kisaragi Station map.

"But yokai I've never seen before……"

Uesugi Toru, once again deeply feeling his lack of knowledge, decided that once the situation stabilized, he would cram hard on yokai and mononoke knowledge.

"Adult, you protect Ye Chun classmate here."

After saying that, Uesugi Toru, activating the Kiai Technique, charged into the wandering Chi swarm like a shell from a cannon.

End of Chapter