Chapter 59: Ye Chun From Twenty Years Ago
Ye Chun?
Twenty years have passed, how could she possibly still look so young… No, from her words, it seems the Ye Chun in front of him had only just arrived at Kisaragi Station not long ago.
Shangshan Che instinctively wanted to draw his sword, because no matter how you looked at the situation in front of him, it was one hundred percent off.
“Uh, it seems I was a bit abrupt.” Ye Chun saw his vigilant expression, so she took two steps back, awkwardly smiling as she raised her hands in front of her chest, then scratched her head. “Nice to meet you, my name is Ye Chun. I was originally on a Shizuoka Prefecture private railway train departing from New Hamamatsu…”
She sighed in distress: “But for some reason, today’s train route seems different from the original one. I was so scared that I got off at this station first.”
“But this place doesn’t seem to have anyone around…”
Ye Chun’s eyes lit up when she saw Two-Foot Adult: “Excuse me, is the one next to you your sister, classmate? She’s so cute.”
Pulling in distance through conversation, huh.
Better to wait and see for now.
Shangshan Che removed his hand from the hilt.
Although this Ye Chun was most likely not human, for the sake of his Main Quest Two, he decided to observe for a bit before making a decision.
So Shangshan Che slowly nodded: “Thanks for the compliment. You can call her Nishaku.”
Two-Foot Adult smiled at Ye Chun.
“I’m Shangshan Che. I 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.”
After smoothly acknowledging all of Ye Chun’s guesses, Shangshan Che patted the sword at his waist, giving himself a reasonable persona: “I was originally taking my sister to participate in the Tokyo kendo tournament, but now it looks like we’re probably not going to make it.”
“The kendo tournament in Tokyo, huh? Shangshan Jun, you’re amazing.”
Ye Chun breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the two in front of her had no issues—after all, urban legends often say that some yokai disguise themselves as humans!
“So, Shangshan Jun.” She suggested, “How about we travel together? This place feels a bit strange, and no one on the forum knows where this is even after I posted.”
“But the phone calls can still get through.”
Ye Chun shook the flip phone in her hand. After meeting a second person with the same experience, she clearly relaxed a lot: “So this is probably some remote platform.”
Forum? Phone?
Ghost forum and ghost phone, more like. The Eternal World can’t connect to the Mortal Realm, let alone that this Ye Chun posted on the 2004 2ch forum.
With this in mind, Shangshan Che proactively walked over to Ye Chun’s side.
Then, he actually saw comments continuously refreshing on her phone screen.
Shangshan Che was stunned.
No way, how could there be living people replying?
But if they were ghosts, the number of comments was way too many, and most of them were giving Ye Chun advice, with the rest expressing shock and disbelief…
It looked completely like the harmonious scene of mutual help on a 2004 forum.
Shangshan Che looked toward the top of Ye Chun’s phone screen—2004/5/5.
He suddenly felt a bit confused.
Was this a trick by the supernatural phenomenon to cover things up, or did this instance really send him back to the day in 2004 when Ye Chun entered Kisaragi Station?
After silently watching Ye Chun post on the forum about encountering him, Shangshan Che spoke up,
“Waiting here forever isn’t a solution. Let’s grab some food and water from the convenience store, then walk along the railroad track and see.”
Ye Chun stopped her actions, thought for a moment, and nodded: “Shangshan Jun is right. Let’s first see if we can run into any locals.”
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 Shangshan Che’s gaze, she called the police station and was then criticized and lectured by the person on the other end, saying there was no such place as Kisaragi Station.
Police station…
If the police station exists, does that mean the Special Affairs Office exists too?
Let’s give it a try.
“Ye Chun classmate, can I borrow your phone for a bit?” Shangshan Che patted the brim of Two-Foot Adult’s hat. “My own phone was lost on the train by this guy.”
Two-Foot Adult caught on: “No, it wasn’t lost! We can just go to the lost and found at the railway bureau next time!”
“Oh! True, but my phone is about to run out of battery soon.”
Mentioning the battery, Ye Chun’s tone also dropped, after all, the phone was their only way to contact the outside world.
“I’ll make it quick.”
Taking the phone, Shangshan Che walked to the side and dialed the police station again.
After a moment of waiting, the call was picked up by the operator, and a middle-aged man’s voice came through,
“Little girl, it’s you again…”
Shangshan Che interrupted: “I’m Operations Specialist Shangshan Che from the Special Affairs Office. I’m currently caught up in a supernatural event.”
The man laughed: “Now someone else is making up stories?”
“My superior is Kondo Yuya. If you don’t know him, you can tell your chief; he’ll realize the seriousness of the matter.”
The reason he didn’t mention Nanjo Emi was because twenty years ago, Sister Nanjo was probably just a seven- or eight-year-old child.
This calm tone made the man pause for a moment before replying, “Then wait a bit.”
The call was hung up.
Shangshan Che knew this wait probably wouldn’t lead anywhere.
Because no one knows how long this game of passing the buck can go on.
He returned the phone to Ye Chun, thinking to himself that it was indeed because supernatural events were frequent in recent years that when Lili Zi called the police station that day, the operator immediately contacted the Special Affairs Office to send Sister Nanjo and the others.
But even now, Shangshan Che still hadn’t figured out whether the person on the other end of the phone was human or ghost…
Whatever, that’s not important for now.
“Ye Chun classmate, let’s go.”
“Oh, okay.”
In the night, the three walked along the railroad track toward the right side of Kisaragi Station.
Shangshan Che had Two-Foot Adult chat with Ye Chun while he lagged a body length behind, occasionally glancing at Ye Chun walking ahead with his peripheral vision, trying to find an opening that proved she wasn’t human.
Unfortunately, after walking for half an hour, Shangshan Che found nothing unusual.
If he didn’t know that Ye Chun was the protagonist of the supernatural phenomenon twenty years ago, Shangshan Che would only see her as an ordinary girl who had accidentally entered the Eternal World.
Walking beside the railroad track, Shangshan Che suddenly narrowed his eyes: “Ye Chun classmate, wait a moment.”
Ye Chun, who was already holding hands with Two-Foot Adult, turned back: “What’s wrong, Shangshan Jun?”
“There’s something ahead.”
Shangshan Che drew his sword, the snowy blade illuminating Ye Chun’s astonished face.
—The real thing?
Ye Chun was startled. Don’t kendo matches usually use bamboo swords?
Fortunately, Two-Foot Adult was quick-witted and hurriedly whispered: “Don’t let my brother’s young appearance fool you; he’s an exorcist, after all.”
Ex, exorcist?
Ye Chun’s mind was in chaos. Could all those urban legends be real?
Shangshan Che had already stepped forward and clearly saw the markers above the heads of several drifting shadowy figures not far away—
【Chi（Zero-Star）】
【Chi（Half-Star）】
Several Zero-Star and Half-Star demons of the same name, probably like the farm workers in Arakawa Village, minibosses on the Kisaragi Station map.
“But demons I’ve never seen before…”
Feeling his knowledge lacking once again, Shangshan Che decided to thoroughly study up on demons and supernatural phenomena once the situation stabilized.
“Nishaku, you stay here and protect Ye Chun classmate.”
After saying that, Shangshan Che, channeling his Ki-Gong Technique, charged into the wandering group of Chi like a cannonball fired from its barrel.
