"...Your thighs are covered in tally marks."
Natsuki pointed with his hand.
Hearing these words, everyone looked toward the female vengeful spirit. Even the vengeful spirit passengers who'd been keeping their heads down raised them. Only the last two vengeful spirit passengers didn't lift their heads.
"Impossible, you're lying!"
The female vengeful spirit released the blonde gyaru and stepped back half a step. "There are no tally marks on my legs."
"You're panicking."
Natsuki spoke methodically: "If there are no tally marks, why are you panicking?"
"Slandering others should have limits." The female vengeful spirit's expression became ferocious as she reached out to lift her skirt bit by bit. "I'll prove myself right now."
Chika quickly covered her face with both hands, spreading her fingers to peek through curiously.
"Why are you covering your face?" Natsuki said helplessly. "She's not a man."
"Oh right." Chika nodded, then suddenly stood on tiptoes and reached up to cover Natsuki's eyes. "Natsuki, don't look. See no evil."
It's just looking at thighs—that's nothing at all!
The next moment, the blonde gyaru's cry of surprise suddenly rang out.
"Eh-eh-eh, there really are tally marks!"
"So many tally marks!"
Hearing this, Chika's curiosity blazed fiercely. She quickly turned to look, her eyes widening: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... so many tally marks."
Natsuki tilted his head to look at the female vengeful spirit. She'd already lifted her skirt up. Between the stockings and hem was skin deathly pale and without luster—her thighs.
At this very moment, the female vengeful spirit passenger's thighs were clearly covered in tally marks. Each tally mark was exactly the same size, as if printed, super standardized.
"What respectable person writes tally marks on their thighs?" Natsuki stepped forward, speaking with righteous conviction. "You really are the train pervert girl."
"Impossible!"
The female vengeful spirit's mind was in chaos, her pair of eyes streaming bloody tears turning frantically. "How could there be tally marks on my legs? Human, you must have done something to me!"
"Don't tarnish my good name." Natsuki raised both hands to show his innocence. "Everyone can see I never even touched you."
"..."
The female vengeful spirit suffered a major blow. Her entire being was flustered and panicked, as if fearing something, completely letting go of the blonde gyaru Marin.
"Phew..."
Marin breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Natsuki curiously. She couldn't help but whisper:
"What's the deal with those tally marks?"
The other short-haired girl also looked up, her face full of curiosity.
Without a doubt, the tally marks on the vengeful spirit's thighs must be related to Natsuki.
Not only was he unafraid of the vengeful spirit, he'd actually framed her and made her doubt her own existence. Had she encountered an expert player?
Natsuki shrugged. "Anyway, I didn't write those tally marks."
Only Chika noticed the truth. The pink-haired girl's eyes sparkled brightly, but realizing now wasn't the time to acknowledge it, she swallowed the words at the tip of her tongue.
After walking continuously for so long, Natsuki was already somewhat tired. Just as he was about to sit down and rest, his brow suddenly furrowed.
[After careful observation, you discover that no one is sitting down. You decide to stand with everyone else]
Bang.
The blonde gyaru had already sat down on a seat, bending slightly at the waist and rubbing her heel: "Walking in high heels is so uncomfortable, my heel hurts so much..."
"Get up quickly." Natsuki said in a low voice.
"Eh?"
Marin froze.
"Marin, listen to Natsuki." Chika quickly said, "Hurry and get up."
Since the Ghost Academy, Natsuki's judgment had almost never been wrong. Chika trusted him extraordinarily. While pulling the blonde gyaru up, she looked toward Natsuki, saying quietly:
"Natsuki, what's wrong?"
"This is the midnight subway..." Natsuki's voice was low. "But none of the passengers are sitting down."
The three female players froze, quickly looking toward the vengeful spirit passengers. They soon discovered this was indeed the case.
The vengeful spirit passengers on the midnight subway weren't numerous—only seven or eight people, plus the corpse lying by the subway door. There were both men and women. Every vengeful spirit passenger's expression was fatigued and tense, but all the vengeful spirit passengers stood in corners—not a single one dared sit on a seat to rest.
"It really is... Why won't these vengeful spirits sit down?" Chika was puzzled. "There's nothing on the seats either."
"Um..." The short-haired female player analyzed, "Could it be that sitting on the chairs would cause something terrible to happen?"
Hearing this, the blonde gyaru's face paled as she nervously looked at the seats.
She'd just sat down—didn't that mean something terrible would happen to her soon?
"Human, you sat on something you shouldn't have." The female vengeful spirit still struggling with the tally marks on her thighs raised her head, her face showing a gloating cold smile. "I'll be waiting for you. Soon we'll become the same kind."
The blonde gyaru's face grew even paler. Her right hand tightly gripped her left wrist as she bit her lower lip without speaking.
At the same time, the subway once again emitted a strange humming vibration, as if electrical currents were surging. Then the subway began slowly decelerating, and the lights rapidly dimmed.
"Natsuki." Chika suddenly spoke, her expression serious. "What would happen if we used our combination technique on Marin?"
Natsuki quickly said: "I don't know, but we can try."
Previously, the targets of eliminating evil and purging darkness had all been vengeful spirits—they really hadn't tested it on humans before.
"Lawless madman Zhang San." Chika's expression turned solemn as she pointed at the blonde gyaru. "If I call you once, do you dare answer?"
The blonde gyaru's expression was blank. A question mark had just appeared above her head when her mouth moved beyond her control:
"...Zhang San is here!"
It really works.
Natsuki reached out and pressed his hand on the blonde gyaru's shoulder, immediately feeling powerful again: "Lawless madman Zhang San, you're under arrest."
"Wait, what are you saying? Who's Zhang San?"
The blonde gyaru Marin's eyes widened. She wanted to struggle, but quickly discovered that except for her mouth and eyes which could still move, the rest of her body couldn't move at all. "I'm not called Zhang... I-I'm Zhang San!"
"Marin, don't be nervous. This is mine and Natsuki's combination technique." Chika quickly explained. "We hope it'll work."
Just as she finished speaking, pitch-black darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face once again enveloped the subway.
"There-there's a vengeful spirit grabbing my foot!"
The blonde gyaru's voice was panicked and helpless.
Natsuki held his breath and concentrated, firmly gripping the blonde gyaru's shoulder. He indeed felt a pulling force, but... it was completely useless.
As long as you're Zhang San, even if you're a god, don't think about breaking free from his capture!
Facts proved that external assistance didn't work either.
The evil spirit attacking the blonde gyaru in the darkness was clearly considered "external force helping to break free," so it had absolutely no ability to snatch Zhang San away from Natsuki.
A moment later, the darkness dispersed again, and lights came back on in the subway.
"You should be fine now."
Seeing the blonde gyaru who hadn't disappeared, Natsuki gently released her shoulder.
"My-my foot hurts so much."
The blonde gyaru's eyes brimmed with tears as she tightly clutched Natsuki's arm.
Natsuki looked down to see two purplish-blue handprints clearly visible on the blonde gyaru's ankle.
One could imagine that if Natsuki hadn't grabbed her just now, this blonde gyaru would have been one hundred percent dragged away by the existence in the darkness.
"You're actually fine?" The female vengeful spirit looked over in surprise, but her face soon showed a cold smile again. "There are still two stations left. The terminal station will arrive soon, and you'll still die then."
Natsuki's gaze was disdainful: "Train pervert girl, don't talk."
"Detestable humans!"
"I already know the truth." Natsuki pressed his finger to his brow. "Shimizu-nee, you can come over now."
"Roger."
A pleasant voice suddenly sounded behind the female vengeful spirit.
The female vengeful spirit with thighs covered in tally marks turned around in surprise to see one of the passengers behind her suddenly brush aside the bangs covering her face, revealing an extraordinarily beautiful face. She then took a tally marker and came to Natsuki's side, then looked at the female vengeful spirit and smiled:
"I'm sorry, I'm an undercover agent."
"Three years and then three more years—I finally have a chance to flip sides."
"Who are you?" The pervert vengeful spirit said incredulously. "I've never seen you before."
Chika's smile was radiant: "Atake-neesan, good evening."
The vengeful spirit passenger who'd just switched sides was naturally Mrs. Kaguya.
Natsuki had discovered that Mrs. Kaguya was unexpectedly useful. Unlike the evil spirit repelling aura which could only be used in reality, she could enter the game together with him, similar to pets in normal online games.
Besides that, he could share equipment use with Mrs. Kaguya—the tally marker that could only write tally marks was an example.
Finally, he could communicate mentally with Mrs. Kaguya. The confidentiality effect was first-rate, but as the price, Mrs. Kaguya's stamina would rapidly deplete... She hadn't been fully charged before, and now her body was even more transparent.