Chapter 81: The Post Office
For Yukinoshita, this should have been a wonderful day.
She had established the Service Club, gained her own members, completed her first request, received a limited-edition Pan-san, and even took the first photo with a member of the opposite sex in her life. This photo currently sat tucked into Pan-san's pocket by Yukino Yukinoshita's bedside. One could say that today was an exceptionally beautiful day, even compared to the grey years of her past.
Yukino Yukinoshita thought she would sleep soundly tonight. However, just as she was gathering her change of clothes for a shower, she suddenly saw something in the living room that should not have been in her home.
"Who's playing this prank?"
Yukinoshita discovered a line of numbers, appearing as if written in blood, upon the snow-white wall of the living room.
[2 hours 42 minutes]
The crimson numbers against the white wall were jarring. Just looking at them sent a chill through one's heart—it felt profoundly ominous. Yukinoshita felt a sudden tightness in her chest. She realized something was wrong; the numbers were actually pulsing, like a countdown, steadily growing smaller.
In the next instant, Yukinoshita's vision plunged into total darkness.
When Yukino Yukinoshita snapped her eyes open, she found herself in a completely foreign environment. For some reason, she was standing on a frigid street, facing a dilapidated building that looked like an old structure from the last century. Yukinoshita was entirely alone here; the atmosphere was incredibly bleak and desolate.
Dim, yellowish lights flickered on and off. She could vaguely make out a sign that read "Post Office."
Yukinoshita could only clearly see this five-story post office; every other building on the street was swallowed by a vast, unending darkness. That darkness was so deep it seemed bottomless. After watching for only a moment, Yukinoshita realized a black fog was spreading toward her at an extreme speed.
If it were just this, it might not have been enough to terrify her. What truly made Yukinoshita's skin crawl was that something unknown seemed to be hidden within that darkness. She could hear the occasional roar of beasts and the sound of sharp claws scraping against the ground.
In other words, the black fog was herding Yukinoshita into the building before her. She had a premonition that if she didn't enter and was swallowed by that fog, something even more horrific would occur.
As Yukinoshita inadvertently looked up, she saw a pale, burly figure in a room on the top floor of the post office, looking down at her. It vanished in a flash, and Yukinoshita dismissed it as a hallucination. The figure didn't look like something to be trifled with, but entering the post office was currently the optimal solution.
Apprehensively, Yukinoshita entered the post office. The moment she pushed open the door and stepped into the eerie building, she heard a heavy "thud" as the door slammed shut behind her, completely cutting her off from the outside world.
The interior of the post office was far more dilapidated than Yukinoshita had imagined. It was pitch black inside, with only the area near the exterior neon lights providing a meager amount of illumination. It was terrifyingly quiet; Yukinoshita could even hear the sound of her own heartbeat.
Once Yukinoshita had fully entered the post office, the scenery outside was completely engulfed by the thick black fog. Through the glass connecting to the outside, Yukinoshita finally saw clearly the monsters hidden within the fog.
Many human-like monsters stood in the darkness. These creatures had no skin on their bodies, only bloody muscle. Their facial features were sewn shut with dense black stitches (X-X-X), but their mouths could open, revealing sharp teeth coated in bloody slime beneath the threads.
These terrifying monsters pressed against the door, their tightly sewn eyes widening as they tried to peer inside. Their hands clawed at the ruined door, making the sound of sharp metal scraping against wood. Fortunately, the door was sturdy enough to prevent these monsters from entering the post office.
Yukinoshita swallowed hard.
As a "noble daughter" of Chiba, she knew a bit about the hidden world. Had she fallen into a Cursed Spirit attack—an event with an extremely low survival rate for ordinary people?
Cursed Spirits: existences that ordinary humans cannot resist. They are invisible and unknowable; once marked as a target, death is the only outcome.
Yukinoshita took out the charm hanging around her neck. When she looked at it, the pale gold charm had already rotted into black.
The good news: the item was real.
The bad news: its effect was too weak.
Fortunately, Yukinoshita was temporarily safe. She scanned her surroundings and suddenly found another row of blood-colored paint on the wall behind the front desk, resembling a countdown. The time was getting shorter; perhaps she could find something on the counter.
Yukinoshita emboldened herself and walked forward. On the post office counter, she saw several items in a row.
A small brown clay jar that looked quite antique, its mouth sealed with waterproof oil paper. For some reason, Yukinoshita felt this was meant for holding ashes. Near this jar was a blood-red, unopened letter; the entire envelope was red, giving the impression it had been dyed with fresh blood. Beside it was a note, a ticket, and a candle.
"Address: Fuxian Garden, Grave No. 3."
"Task: Carry the jar and take Bus 414 to Fuxian Garden. Place the jar and the envelope before the main grave, then use the candle to light the envelope."
"Deadline: End of the countdown."
The contents of the note made Yukinoshita's brow furrow completely, and a chill ran through her heart.
"Failure to arrive and complete the requirements within the specified time will result in task failure."
"Failure Penalty: Haruno Yukinoshita will be involved in a car accident."
"The severity of the injury depends on the degree of task completion; it may result in death."
"What is this?"
Seeing these words, Yukinoshita thought of how the driver had been in an accident because she wanted to go to school early. Although he was fine, she had still felt guilty. Now, the target was her sister, with a penalty that could lead to death. Yukinoshita was truly angry.
Even if she had seen her own name on the paper, she wouldn't have felt this level of rage. At the very least, one shouldn't bring misfortune upon someone's family.
That ghostly thing had brought Yukinoshita into this eerie world just to give her a task.
Facing the penalty of "her sister might die," Yukinoshita didn't dare to gamble.
Yukinoshita summarized the task: take Bus 414 to [Fuxian Garden], place this ash jar near Grave No. 3, and light that eerie letter. The time limit for this task was only two hours and ten minutes. Looking at the countdown on the wall, Yukinoshita felt the pressure of time. It meant her sister's life might only have two hours left.
Yukinoshita picked up the jar. It looked like the kind of urn used for burials, usually containing the ashes of the deceased. The eerie sensation the moment she picked it up almost made her throw it away in fright, but her strong will managed to stop her.
Yukinoshita could clearly feel that the unknown thing inside the jar was alive, constantly thumping against the clay wall, trying to escape. This bizarre feeling was even more pronounced when holding it in her hand.
Enduring her fear, Yukinoshita collected all the items on the table. But a question appeared in her mind: how was she supposed to get to the so-called Bus 414?
The things outside the post office were still scraping at the door; she obviously couldn't leave through the main entrance.
"..."
A door in the hallway opened silently, making Yukinoshita's heart jump into her throat. According to the plot of a horror movie, something terrifying should be crawling out of that door. Fortunately, nothing did; instead, a blood-red marking appeared on the floor—a guide.
The scene Yukinoshita saw through the door led to another world entirely.
"Is that... the street?"
Yukinoshita even saw a bus stop sign. Beside it, an electronic sign was scrolling with news, forming a sharp contrast with the dilapidated, last-century interior of the post office. The scrolling news showed that Bus 414 had met with an accident; due to heavy rain in City A, part of the road had collapsed, and the bus had plunged into the river in the collapse zone. None of the 35 people on the bus survived; they had all drowned.
"So, I have to board a vehicle that everyone believes is full of dead people and go to a cemetery?"
Yukinoshita suddenly realized this. And it was the middle of the night? It was getting more and more macabre, but Yukinoshita had no choice. Mortals are so powerless before supernatural forces.
Yukinoshita walked through the door and onto the platform. She felt the skin-crawling sensation of being watched disappear. She realized this platform didn't exist on any map; she had no idea where she was. The surroundings were pitch black. It was still late at night; according to the time on the scrolling news, it was about an hour earlier than her original time. Approximately 9:12 PM.
Yukinoshita clutched the urn with both hands, her expression shifting between light and shadow. This jar concerned her sister's life; she couldn't lose it no matter what. And who knew how far the destination was? Yukinoshita could only pray she could finish the task before the time ran out.
Suddenly, two beams of light pierced the darkness in the distance. As the light drew closer, she saw a white-and-green bus approaching. The sign above the bus read "414."
"It's here."
Watching the 414 bus—the one reported to have killed everyone on board—pull up beside her, Yukinoshita's heart sank. Fortunately, the exterior of the bus didn't look like the wreck she had imagined. While it showed signs of wear, it was relatively clean.
With a "hiss," the bus doors opened, and a nauseating smell of rotting corpses hit her directly. Yukinoshita almost vomited. The temperature inside the bus was bone-chillingly cold, making her feel as if she were submerged in icy river water in the middle of winter.
Truly cursed. But Yukinoshita could only hold the urn and steel herself to walk on. Fortunately, the dead people on the bus still looked like ordinary humans on the outside, not the nauseating forms of Cursed Spirits.
"Ticket."
The ticket inspector was an old woman with short black hair and a hunched back, who occasionally glanced at Yukinoshita while swallowing her saliva. Her eyes were filled with a greed like that of a hungry wolf. It was safe to say that if something on Yukinoshita didn't make them wary, they would have pounced long ago.
Yukinoshita handed the ticket she had gotten from the post office to the inspector. The wary look of these creatures allowed Yukinoshita to breathe a massive sigh of relief. She realized the spirits seemed to fear the urn in her hands, so they made no aggressive moves.
Facing a collective of over thirty vengeful spirits, Yukinoshita wasn't brave enough to sit among them. Instead, she stood near the entrance, leaning against the side panel. Yukinoshita's gaze inadvertently flicked upward, and she shook her head helplessly.
The display above showed that the actual number of passengers had changed from 0 to 1. Good grief, she really was the only living person on board. Yukinoshita felt the surrounding stares were incredibly cold. Feeling the abnormality, Yukinoshita held up the urn to intimidate them, and the restless spirits grew silent once more.
"This stop is XXX."
There were nearly five stops left until "Fushou Garden." She didn't know if two hours would be enough. Clutching the urn, Yukinoshita kept one eye on the spirits inside and the other on the scenery outside.
For the first two stops, the bus drove from the outskirts toward the city. As the vehicle stopped along the way, Yukinoshita saw many ordinary people. Fortunately, this bus was completely invisible to them; they couldn't even see Yukinoshita on the bus. None of the spirits got off, as if the bus was a cage firmly imprisoning all thirty-odd of them. Being inside this cage, Yukinoshita felt she was also being restricted. Like a lonely ghost, she even began to fear she might never be able to go back.
"..."
Yukinoshita opened her phone, but there was still no signal. She looked at the photo of herself and Hikigaya-kun on the screen.
"I must return alive."
No one boarded at the first two stops. But at the third stop, Yukinoshita noticed a black-haired girl about her age, looking down at her phone. The girl was likely so focused on her phone that upon hearing the announcement for Bus 414, she actually moved to board this ghost bus full of dead people.
At that moment, the spirits on the bus became frenzied. Yukinoshita felt it first; a chill ran down her spine so sharp she couldn't help but shiver. She knew very well that she was only safe because of the urn. If that ordinary high school girl boarded this bus, there would be only one end: being torn apart alive by these starving spirits.
Yet, she was walking up, completely unaware. This was a death wish.
"Don't come up!"
Yukinoshita frowned and shouted a stern reprimand.
The girl with black hair and golden eyes was startled by the sudden, inexplicable shout. She subconsciously looked up at the scene before her, and her legs went weak, nearly causing her to collapse.
The bus, which had looked perfectly fine, now appeared rusted and rotten, as if it had been submerged in water for years, its surface covered in weeds and moss. It was a major accident vehicle with shattered glass, a twisted frame, and a missing windshield.
Yotsuya Miko had only stayed late for a movie with friends and wanted to take the bus home. How could she have encountered such a thing?
"..."
Yotsuya Miko was instantly terrified to the point of tears. In her sight, the bus had completely transformed into a ghostly, sinister wreck. What made her cry even more was that the kindly driver and ticket inspector had become spirits, their faces rotting and distorted like corpses that had been soaking in water for days. It was nauseating. Not only them, but all the passengers on the bus had also turned into highly decomposed corpses. These rotting, disgusting things all had their eyes wide open, staring at her greedily while swallowing saliva.
Miko knew very well that if not for that timely warning, she would have been a goner the moment she stepped on.
But what Miko found even more terrifying and absurd was that among this group of ghosts and monsters, there was a genuine human. And it was a very beautiful girl, holding an antique-looking jar. It was she who had warned her not to board this "dark bus."
Miko's heart was full of relief and sympathy for the girl, but there was nothing she could do. When she realized Miko wanted to say something, Yukinoshita simply shook her head. She could feel at least thirty pairs of spiteful eyes behind her. Those things were likely exasperated—rightfully so, as she had interrupted their meal.
Until she left, Yukinoshita could see Yotsuya Miko watching her with concern. Yukinoshita had spoken up because she didn't want to involve ordinary people.
Fortunately, for the rest of the journey, Yukinoshita didn't encounter anyone else who could see the ghost bus. The vehicle drove from the city into a pitch-black mountainous area without streetlights. Yukinoshita looked back. In the dark cabin, there were only dozens of glowing red eyes staring fixedly at her.
The time was 11:27 PM. There was only half an hour left until midnight—the critical point of the task.
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