This Japanese Slice-of-Life Isn’t Lame - Chapter 24 Notepad

On the evil ghost’s bare head were tens of different human faces squeezed together. Not only the front, but the top, back, and left and right sides of the head all had different faces scattered across it.

From their appearances, they were all young women in their teens and twenties. The most notable among them was Hoshino Nana at the chest. She was one of the more complete souls left here in the past few days. With her at the center, the wraith’s white faces were full of monstrous resentment and struck with the impact of tearing everything in front of it into pieces of flesh.

This was also the main reason why Kamiya Mirai could not analyze any information in her brain.

It was just too close!

Kamiya Mirai held the phone and watched Kitagawa Tera’s movements without blinking.

She was so scared that she stood on the same spot, unable to move. Even if she could move her legs, Kamiya Mirai did not think that she could escape from its horrifying speed.

Therefore, she could only leave everything to Kitagawa Tera standing in front of her!

If Kitagawa Tera’s action of taking out the grudges was a challenge to Kamiya Mirai’s cognition, then his actions that followed subverted the views that Kamiya Mirai had painstakingly built in the past sixteen years.

Under Kamiya Mirai’s dazed expression, Kitagawa Tera changed from his horse stance position to a forward charging movement!

He’s even charging over and fighting head-on with the other party?!

Kamiya Mirai was dumbfounded.

In her impression, shouldn’t onmyojis[1] and shrine maidens take out things like talismans and peachwood swords? How did it turn into melee combat when it came to Kitagawa Tera?

The wraith was less than two meters away. Like a thin fan, the palm of a hand aimed heavily at Kitagawa Tera’s head.

That force that fell from the air made Kamiya Mirai believe that even a stone wall would be smashed into pieces.

But Kitagawa Tera could not stop his steps now!

Kamiya Mirai only felt the sound of her rapid heartbeat melting into one with Kitagawa Tera’s footsteps. The world had become white.

She was so nervous that her ears were buzzing and her head was dizzy!

Under Kamiya Mirai’s intense observation, Kitagawa Tera bent down, avoiding the other party’s blow, and clamped his legs around the opponent’s waist.

At such a short distance, Kitagawa Tera could even smell the stench that it could not eliminate.

Exerting strength in his legs, Kitagawa Tera suddenly jumped up. Dense black aura gathered together and formed sharp claw nails. He extended both his hands and held the rotting head.

He twisted his wrists and lowered his waist.

Kacha!!!!

Kitagawa Tera actually made use of the opponent’s forward-moving force and his sharp claw nails to ruthlessly twist the head of that human-faced wraith off!

Jujitsu!

At the moment when the opponent’s body fell, Kitagawa Tera caught Hoshino Nana’s eyes on the opponent’s chest.

That pair of black eyes without any white was still full of resentment toward life, not changing a bit.

It’s the same in fact. Kitagawa Tera sighed.

He wanted to attempt communicating with Hoshino Nana to get her to tell him who had killed her, but the outcome was only this.

I took it for granted.

Kitagawa Tera calmly stretched out his left hand and, with a click, reconnected his dislocated right hand while thinking, Wraiths are wraiths. They are simply a collection of people’s negative emotions. Rather than hoping to get some information from their mouths, it’s better to wait until Cadaveric Aura possibly obtains the ability to see the memories of the dead later.

The only good news was that intermediate-level Cadaveric Aura already had a certain shaping ability, which was very helpful in actual combat.

The head in his hands turned into a black stream and dispersed into the air. The lingering remnants of the wraith lying on the ground and constantly twitching also went with the wind.

When the black gaseous stream completely dissipated, Hoshino Nana’s voice of extreme resentment also rippled in the air above.

“Kitagawa…”

A cold message came.

‘Recovered the human-faced wraith. One advanced-stage elementary wraith. Gained two skill points.’

Kitagawa Tera closed his eyes to feel the increase in his physique and Cadaveric Aura. But before he had the chance to check the exact status of his body, he heard Kamiya Mirai exclaim loudly, “What is that?”

At the place where the human-faced wraith disappeared was a tattered square-shaped object that resembled a skill book.

“This is?” Kitagawa Tera walked over.

He had some anticipation in his heart.

Is it possible that advanced-stage elementary wraiths drop skill books like in RPG games?

He had not explored most of the functions of the system. After all, it had only been around a short ten days.

But when Kitagawa Tera actually held it in his hands, he was slightly disappointed.

The texture of the paper rubbed against his fingertips.

It was merely a normal worn-out notepad.

Kamiya Mirai had remained limp for quite a while. Once her legs regained a little strength, she stumbled over.

Her eyes were brimming with a brilliance of witnessing something unknown that was beyond her knowledge. Upon seeing Kitagawa Tera’s expression as he looked over, she said timidly, “I swear… Neither haunted houses nor roller coasters in theme parks were as exciting as just now.”

She was so scared that she had almost peed in her pants. Even now, her white legs were still a little soft upon recalling what happened just now.

Kamiya Mirai strenuously made her way to Kitagawa Tera’s side. Her hands tugged at his sleeves, and her small face pressed tightly against the side of Kitagawa Tera’s face as she weakly asked, “What is this?”

Kitagawa Tera paid no attention to Kamiya Mirai’s intimate actions. Looking at that notepad in his hands, he frowned slightly and analyzed. “I assume it’s something the culprit left behind or forgot. Hoshino used the last bit of obsession before her death to bring along some of the owner’s aura and absorbed the notepad into her body.”

“Is it?” Kamiya Mirai could only feel that her entire body was limp, with no strength to stand up. So she simply hugged Kitagawa Tera from the back, pressing her chest against his back. Her entire body seemed to be hanging on him as she continued, “In this case, there should be some leads to the culprit on it.”

“Should be.” Kitagawa Tera held the notepad and looked at the front and back, repeatedly confirming that it was not a skill book-type item before grudgingly saying, “Let me open it.”

All he could think of now was things like skill books and had no mind to care about Kamiya Mirai’s small actions.

Kitagawa Tera opened the notepad, glanced at the contents on it, and mumbled, “It really isn’t a skill book.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, Tera-kun?”

“Nothing,” Kitagawa Tera replied coldly. He was slightly unhappy that he had not obtained a skill book.

However, he still flipped through the book unwillingly.

He finally gave up.

It was really just a notepad, and a very special notepad at that.

“What exactly is written in it?” Kamiya Mirai squeezed over and asked curiously, “Can I look at it, Tera-kun?”

She had a reason for asking.

Heavens knew if there was something like a ‘grudge’ on the notepad.

“Up to you.” Kitagawa Tera threw the notepad to Kamiya Mirai.

Kamiya Mirai caught the notepad and became spirited.

She found a bench and sat down before flipping the notepad open.

The handwriting on the notepad was messy. Some of the words were distorted, and some areas were blurred by patches of bloodstains. Even Kamiya Mirai could only barely read and understand a portion.

She looked at the first sentence.

“Have I gone mad? I actually… I actually… I actually killed the daughter of the Mitsuis next door. Was it just for the promise with Yuuki? No, no, it’s not like that. I love Yuuki. What I did… was right?”

The frenzied and twisted writing was like fingernails tearing across the surface of the paper.

[1] Onmyoji are special individuals that help to bridge the world of humans and spirits.