The Sword Deity in Tokyo

Kazuki did not care to explain for he thought that it would complicate things further. Hence, he merely eyed Shiori silently, hoping she would get the hint.

Unfortunately, it seemed impossible to steer Shiori away…

If he insisted, things would be even more complicated and would only cause Shiori to be even more suspicious.

The two soon passed through teaching building and its courtyard to arrive at the wide field that was situated behind the teaching building. From there, a few buildings could be spotted from afar.

In the dark of night, Kazuki could clearly identify the figures of Yamazaki Masato and Sakai Keiko.

It seemed like that was the dormitory building.

A few years ago, this vast field had once been filled with the traces of footsteps left behind by the athletes in the Track and Field Club, but all that was left now was just desolation.

There were also many areas on the right…

It encompassed the activity space for various clubs like the tennis club, the baseball club, and the ping pong club. The sheer size of the entire field was terrific to take in.

Situated on the left side of the field was a sports stadium which Kazuki hurried toward without a word as Shiori followed behind.

In no time, the two of them arrived at the entrance of the sports stadium…

“The door of the sports stadium was taken down as well?” Shiori asked with curiosity as she stared at the vast stadium before her.

Kazuki said nothing as he walked straight into the sports stadium…

At first glance, they realized it was a basketball court.

However, the faded wooden floorboards of the sports stadium had lost its bright yellow color, and the stadium was enveloped in darkness. The basketball hoops on both sides of the court had fallen onto the ground, rusty and covered in dust. It was apparent that the place had been left unattended for many years.

Nevertheless, all of this did not faze Kazuki at all. Once he entered the sports stadium, his nose began to twitch as the strong scent of burnt material in the air almost choked him.

Kazuki held his breath, but an odd feeling made his heart quiver in fear.

Ghosts!

For a split second, the thought flashed through Kazuki’s mind.

He eyed Shiori, who stood beside him and noticed that her expression remained unbothered as she clearly did not smell the burnt scent.

It seemed that the reiki in this place had been contaminated. In a split second, Kazuki had immediately understood the whole situation.

The presence of ghosts was widely accepted by society during the time of recuperation of reiki, but there was still a considerable difference between the evil ghosts and good ghosts.

The most significant difference was that evil ghosts were formed from negative emotions. As such, if they lingered at a particular place for a long time, the reiki of the air would be contaminated.

If ordinary people stuck around the contaminated area for an extended period, they would either catch a cold or get sick in minor cases but could also die after falling ill in a worst-case scenario.

Shiori could not smell the burnt scent because she was an ordinary person and not a practitioner. The air she breathed was just air that the reiki automatically filtered out.

Even though the reiki was thin in the air, the contaminated reiki would slowly seep into Shiori’s body if they continued to stay here. If Shiori continued to stay here for more than ten minutes, she would fall sick at least once when she returns home.

Such a phenomenon was commonly known as being possessed!

“Should we go straight to the sports storeroom or do we walk around first?”

Not only did the sports stadium include a basketball court, but there was also an indoor swimming pool, a volleyball court, dance studio, and more. They were all the activity spaces of the various clubs and societies in Akichi High School.

Kazuki did not speak. Although he had found out that there were ghosts around at the first instant, he was not happy.

If there was an evil ghost lurking in Akichi High School, what were its capabilities? It was a matter of concern for him, and he was glad that he had not acted recklessly, but instead, came prepared.

If worse came to worst that he could not defeat it, he could still choose to retreat to safety.

“Let’s just walk around first…” Kazuki did not make up an excuse to steer away from Shiori even though the longer they stayed at the place, the higher the chances of Shiori falling sick were.

But… why would that matter to him? Kazuki thought to himself coldly.

Of course, he hoped that Shiori would go elsewhere because he was sure that there were ghosts in the sports stadium and there would surely be a fight later on if they met with one. However, knowing that Shiori would definitely not budge, he did not bother wasting his breath.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Suddenly, a sharp scream sounded from the direction of the teaching building, piercing through the night and bringing with it extreme terror that echoed in the quiet, abandoned campus.

“Ahhh!” The sudden scream caused Shiori to scream in shock. Subconsciously, she grabbed Kazuki’s sleeve.

However, she quickly regained her senses, and she loosened her grip. Her face that had paled in shock was colored red as she blushed, but she recomposed herself swiftly. Looking toward the teaching building, she patted her chest in an attempt to calm her racing her and asked nervously, “What happened?”

Before Kazuki could speak, she continued saying, “Let’s go take a look.”

Shiori was worried, but at the same time, she could not help the excitement that flashed through her eyes.

This girl really is gutsy, sighed Kazuki at the sight of Shiori’s flash of emotions.

“I think I’ll pass.” Kazuki was not interested in the situation that was going on at the teaching building and got straight to the point as he said, “There are many rooms in the teaching building and walking down the dark corridors itself is really scary. It’s normal that Miss Suzuki would feel scared even if it was only due to the slightest noise or movement.”

In actual fact, he knew what had happened. He had overheard Yasuda Aohi’s conversation on the phone during break time, and even though there was a distance between them, he got the gist of what he was saying.

This guy had cooperated with the staff of the haunted house to set up a mini haunted scenario in Akichi High School to court Suzuki Aichi.

The phone call itself was to check in on whether the plan was planted in place.

Any horror scene in real life that had artificial props added to it would scare anyone to death no matter how gutsy they were.

Aichi’s scream just now had proven that Aohi’s plan was a huge success! The only question was if Aichi would seek revenge if she found out the truth.

“Are you really not going to go over?” Shiori furrowed her brows. “Even if it was just the slightest noise or movement, it’s impossible for her to have been so frightened! It was so loud that probably the entire Akichi High School heard it.”

As a novelist, Shiori was often doubtful toward many things.

She had had her doubts about Kazuki being the kind of superhero that appeared in novels, but seeing him choose to ignore such matters made her waver in her belief.

She thought for a moment before making a decision, “I’ll go over to take a look, you can explore the sports stadium first. If there really isn’t a problem, I’ll be back once I’m done. I’ll contact you through the phone later.”

Everyone had already exchanged phone numbers outside to avoid any mishaps in case of emergencies.

“Alright.” Kazuki nodded in agreement.

Watching as Shiori disappeared from his sight as she hurried off in the direction of the teaching building, Kazuki turned his attention back to sports stadium that towered before him and stared intently at it.

His gaze traveled from the basketball court and stopped in the direction of the sports storeroom.

The door of the sports storeroom was also missing.

As he moved toward the sports storeroom, the burnt scent within the reiki in the air began to intensify.