The Grim Reaper Girl, Too Late to the Scene / Miss Horse-Headed Reaper

"Actually, it's not a big deal... We just can't accept Japanese society now. We have to work overtime every day. The boss says that the company is a big family and we should work hard together, even if we have to work overtime all night, we should still do our job well. But at the same time, he tries every means to deduct employees' wages, make them late for work, and make them wear inappropriate clothes."

The seniors also arbitrarily pushed their work onto Guangzhi, and he couldn't utter a single complaint. The rent increased year after year, and he had to set aside a third of his salary each month just to live in a house with a bathroom and a kitchen.

Because of the aging society, this kind of work may have to be continued until the seventies before formal retirement, which means there are still fifty years to go.

Honestly, I couldn't stand being in such a place for even five seconds longer. It felt like I was being domesticated, confined in a glass tank, at the mercy of others, and even the amount of food I ate was no longer under my control.

So Guangzhi and I made a promise to leave this world together. I never expected that I would be the only one who died..."

"... Is it that suicide case? The world these days..." the inspector said softly, flipping through the collected files.

"Do you hate him?" Mashiro asked the female ghost.

The female ghost said softly, "No, it's because Guangzhi is a gentle person to the point of being cowardly. He always thinks of others and would rather suffer himself than refuse other people's requests. That's why he gets bullied by his seniors at the company. So I'm thinking, could it be that he didn't actually want to die, but that I forced him into it, and he didn't know how to refuse me?"

A mournful wind swept through the room.

"No, Mr. Mori's behavior suggests that he deeply loves you, Miss Reiko. Even if he is mentally unstable, he is still thinking about Miss Reiko," Shirou said.

The female ghost smiled slightly and said, "Yes, that's why I can't let him go, like I'm possessing him, following him around. But sadly, whether alive or dead, we haven't found happiness. He's broken, and I'm bound to this world. Have we gone too far astray, so we can't see hope? Or are unhappy people destined to be unhappy even in death?"

Shirou shook his head and said seriously, "Personally, I think happiness is something you give yourself. If you're happy inside, you can endure whatever you've experienced before and then pursue more happiness. Humans don't live for unhappiness; they're creatures that constantly seek happiness because they're dissatisfied with their current situation."

The female ghost sighed and said, "Perhaps. If he chooses to live, then let him live well. As his girlfriend who loves him, the female ghost has never pressured him, but has stayed by his side like a guardian spirit. I tried to give him hints, but he didn't notice any of them."

Instead, he fell into delusions, constantly thinking about dying. When I covered him with a blanket, he thought I was telling him to hang himself. When I gave him a fruit knife, he thought I was telling him to cut his wrists. Maybe it really was because of me that he was driven to this end."

Whoosh... The cold wind in the room suddenly picked up, causing the blue candle flame to sway violently from side to side, as if protesting something.

Chapter 866 The Belated Death Girl

The man was devastated. With his girlfriend's help, he tried to use a rolled-up blanket as a rope, but that failed. Then, with her help, he attempted to cut his wrists, but it was all just a hallucination.

The female ghost, Reiko, never actually laid a hand on the man until he collapsed in the bathtub, unable to die despite his desperate attempt. He was emaciated, with sunken eyes, looking like a walking corpse, no longer resembling a human.

At the last moment, the man saw the real Reiko floating in the air, watching him intently. With tears in his eyes, he said to the female ghost, "Please, Reiko, take me with you."

This time, the female ghost made her move, pushing the man into the pool. With tears in her eyes, she held him underwater no matter how much he struggled in pain, until he drowned completely.

After learning the whole story, everyone sighed with regret, but the case still needed to be tried. Before the law, no matter what the hidden circumstances, those who made mistakes would be punished.

"Ahem, even if that's the case, under human law, even assisted suicide is still a crime. Ms. Reiko, you still insist that you are the criminal who murdered the person in question, right?" The inspector coughed and asked seriously. He had a responsibility to bring this case to a conclusion.

"Yes... that's good then," the female ghost replied.

"Then..." The inspector was about to make a decision.

At this moment, a cold wind swept through the secret room, and the blue flames of the candles blazed brightly, rising into the air.

"That's not how it is!!!" Then the young detective suddenly convulsed, his head drooping like a descendant of the dead, his whole body losing all strength, and he let out a strange roar!

"Hey? What's wrong, Ono!" The middle-aged detective looked at his subordinate who had suddenly gone berserk!

"He seems to be possessed by a ghost!" the more experienced inspector said.

"I am Mori Hirotomo himself. I was killed willingly. It wasn't her fault! I begged her to kill me. I'm sorry... I always ran away from reality, pretending that Reiko was still alive. I only thought about the promise I made to Reiko to travel to Kamakura, but I forgot about Reiko herself. Every time I woke up, I wanted to commit suicide, but I failed every time." The male ghost possessing the young detective lowered his head and said with a sob in his voice.

"Huh?!" the middle-aged detective exclaimed in surprise.

The man finally regained consciousness after death and remembered everything that had happened. He had gone insane from that day on. He attempted suicide but failed, and his girlfriend left this world. After leaving the hospital, he tried to commit suicide several more times, but whether it was due to timing, luck, or courage, he always failed.

The man was unable to accept this outcome and broke down.

"Before I died, I was trapped in a fantasy I created. I always thought I had come to Kamakura with Reiko on a suicide trip," the male ghost said. He then turned to his girlfriend, who was possessing the old woman, and said, "I'm sorry, Reiko. You were with me the whole time, but I didn't notice you."

"It's really too late! You idiot!" The old woman wiped away her tears, rolled her eyes at the male ghost on the detective's side, and cursed.

"Huh? What's going on?" The people inside were all completely bewildered.

Because in everyone's eyes, all they saw was an old woman rolling her eyes and flirting with the young detective.

"Cough cough cough!!" The inspector coughed loudly, reminding the two ghosts to mind their image. Even if they didn't care about their image, the person possessed still had to save face.

"Well, let me explain. The thing is..." the male ghost began to explain.

In fact, Reiko's spirit had already come to his side at the time of the mass suicide. However, in his breakdown at the time, he began to live in the illusion that Reiko was still alive, and he was no longer paying attention to anything else.

Fearing he would catch a cold, they covered him with a sheet, but it was later used as a white silk ribbon for hanging.

He was told to eat more fruit, and the small knife he was given was used as a weapon to cut his wrists.

In each instance, the man chose death, only to fail due to cowardice.

On that day, he finally died.

To be honest, when the man became a ghost, he felt more of a sense of liberation. He was clearly much clearer-headed than when he was alive. His whole being... no, now even the ghost itself seemed more refined and cultured.

The man's madness, coupled with Reiko's involvement, complicated the situation and led the police to suspect that he had been murdered.

"I'm sorry, boss and proprietress, I've caused trouble for your shop. I have over 300,000 yuan in cash on me, it's not a lot, but it's all intended to compensate you, please accept it," the man said.

"No, no, forget about the money. As long as things are cleared up and the inn is cleared of any wrongdoing, I, Old Niu, will be satisfied," Boss Niu replied awkwardly.

"I'm so sorry, it's all because I'm so useless," the man apologized to the detectives.

It was all because the ligature marks on his neck were shallow and didn't damage the neck bones when he fell. The cut on his wrist was crooked but didn't damage the artery, and the bleeding stopped soon enough. Even soaking it in warm water didn't have much effect. That's why the female ghost Reiko had to take action.

"No, no, thank you for your hard work." The inspector didn't know how to respond. The other party was a ghost, and now it was possessing his subordinate. In the end, he could only nod and return the greeting.

The man, who had just become a ghost, hadn't yet fully grasped his abilities as a ghost. When the spirit medium summoned him...

The female ghost, Reiko, suddenly pulled the man away and answered the summons herself.

Then, when Reiko confessed to her crimes, he became very anxious. In his desperation, he directly entered the male detective's body, and unexpectedly, he actually succeeded in possessing him.

"The person involved, what do you want to do? Don't act impulsively!"

"Don't worry! I won't hurt him, but there are some things I need to make clear. After saying that, I'll leave," the male ghost said.

"Is that so? That's good." The inspector finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're such an idiot! It's okay that you forgot that promise. You're so indecisive about whether you want to live or die. Do I have to worry about you more?" The female ghost said to the man, tears streaming down her face.

"Although I'm very sorry, I feel so much lighter now that I'm dead," the male ghost said to the female ghost.

"Idiot!" the female ghost cursed again, but the atmosphere eased.

At that very moment.

Knock knock! There was a knock on the door. The voice was sweet, almost like a little girl from an anime.

"Excuse me, I am a Grim Reaper dispatched by the Death Bureau, here to accept the criminals who are ghosts."

Her feet stepped in first, followed by a cloud of smoke carrying underworld energy that drifted in along the floor. They saw a woman in a black suit and a black top hat, and when she poked her head in, they saw a horse's head... a horse's head!!!

Chapter 867 Miss Shinigami

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!," everyone screamed in shock.

"How rude of me! I am a descendant of 'Horse-Face,' the god of death in hell! Of course I have a horse's head!" the female god of death said unhappily, stomping her leather shoes on the floor a few times, much like a horse kicking its hooves.

"Sorry, sorry!" everyone apologized awkwardly.

Although to everyone else, she looked more like a woman in a suit with a horse head covering. It wasn't cartoonish at all; it was a real horse head. It terrified everyone.

Yet, she has the cute, loli-like voice of someone from an anime... The contrast here is even greater than that of Ru Hua from Stephen Chow's movies.

"It's completely unsuitable..." everyone thought to themselves, but since the other party was the Grim Reaper, no one dared to say it aloud.

At this moment, the female Grim Reaper with the horse's head, her eyes wide open, scanned the crowd and asked, "Are you all thinking that my voice doesn't suit me at all?"

With its long, horse-like face and dark, hollow eyes, it looked particularly terrifying in the dim light.

The female ghost possessing the old woman and the male ghost possessing the detective huddled together in fear.

"What should we do? Death seems to be angry?" The proprietress winked at the shopkeeper.

"I don't know either!" Boss Niu shook his head repeatedly.

'And another thing! Mashiro, please don't secretly sketch the Grim Reaper's horse head, okay?!' Shirou thought to himself.

Just when everyone was at a loss for what to do, the tone on the other end of the line suddenly changed.

"Oh dear! Just kidding! Don't be so scared. I really am the Grim Reaper, a legitimate person with an official position in Hell, so I only know how to speak, not how to do anything out of line. So those of you who are still alive, please live well. I will come looking for you after you die." The horse-headed female Grim Reaper stamped her foot and said to the crowd with a smile.

"What...?" The police chief breathed a sigh of relief. The world had been changing too fast lately, and he hadn't gotten used to cooperating with the underworld yet.

A snap.

The horse-faced woman placed ancient shackles on the female ghost, formally arresting her.

After the case was fully clarified, the Horse-Headed Miss Shinigami was to take the man and his girlfriend away. Even if it was assisted suicide, it was still a crime. The female ghost would be sent to the Yama Palace for interrogation, and the man would be guided to the underworld to report for duty.

"Wait! I have something else to say!" the male ghost called out to Death.

"Yes, please speak," said the Horse-Head Death God.

The male ghost said to his girlfriend, "I'm sorry! It's not that I didn't want to go with you. We made a promise to leave this world together, but I was just too cowardly. I couldn't do anything right. I just watched you die, and I just passed out."

"I'm so afraid you'll be angry. I'm afraid that even if I die, I'll never see you again. If you abandon me, my life will have no meaning. The more I think about it, the less I can kill myself."

"But things are different now! I'll go to the trial with you, I've made up my mind! No matter what, I'll be with Reiko, and we'll face everything together. If there's to be punishment, please let me bear it with you," the man's ghost said.

"What an idiot..." The female ghost Reiko looked at the man and scolded him with a smile, but she reached out and tightly grasped the man's hand.

"Alright then, it just so happens that the one in charge of judging today is Lord Red Lord Enma of the Yama Palace. He is a very kind lord. As long as you don't lie and explain the cause and effect clearly, you should be able to get the lightest punishment." The horse-faced grim reaper, dressed in a suit and wearing a top hat, comforted the two in a loli voice.

"Yes, thank you, Miss Shinigami." The two ghosts bowed to Miss Shinigami with her horse head in gratitude.

With the power of death, the two ghosts revealed their true forms. Although the man was dead, he seemed to be in much better condition than when he was alive, perhaps because he had truly accomplished what he wanted to do.

It wasn't that he didn't want to be with his girlfriend; it was just that suicide was too difficult for him. Humans are born with a fear of death; it's a survival instinct ingrained in our genes since the dawn of humanity hundreds of years ago. He might just have stronger genes for this than the average person.

If someone truly has no fear of anything, that would be abnormal. Only someone suffering from an incurable disease, experiencing inhumane treatment, or enduring extreme events more painful than death could possibly become so broken.

"What an idiot! Didn't I tell you to take your time? I'll be waiting for you on the other side. Why can't you hear me?" The female ghost said, helping the man who was kneeling on the ground to his feet.

"Sorry..." The man hugged the female ghost, a somewhat silly smile on his face.

Perhaps death... isn't so bad for them. Couples are supposed to be birds of the same forest, but when disaster strikes, they fly away separately; yet there are also white eagles that, when their wives die, refuse to live alone and crash off cliffs to their deaths; and tropical hornbills that have only one mate for life, and if one mate dies, the other will starve to death.

"Yes, yes, let's go, let's go. In hell, you'll have plenty of time to be lovey-dovey," the horse-faced death goddess urged helplessly.

After that, Death took the ghostly couple away. Boss Niu and the detectives went out to see Death off and complete the handover procedures. Only Shirou and Mashiro remained in the room.

Shirou walked up to a broken mirror, probably broken accidentally by the man during his death throes. Mashiro also came over.

Shirou pieced the mirror together. It had jumbled, illegible blood-red characters on it—actually, reversed kana and kanji. Presumably, the mirror was upside down in the afterlife. It contained a message Reiko had written for Mori Hirotomo, which, read from right to left, meant...

"Please love yourself a little more, just as I love you." Shirou and Mashiro exchanged a glance, looking into each other's eyes, and smiled at the same time.

"Shirou... if I die too, will you come looking for me like Mori-san did?" Mashiro asked at this moment.

"Yes, I'll find you and bring you back to the human world. Then I'll give you a good scolding for being so disobedient and getting lost in the underworld," Shirou replied with a smile.

"Hmm? Even I wouldn't run to the underworld! Hmm... probably." Mashiro wanted to argue, but she felt it wasn't convincing.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you. I won't leave you alone," Shirou said with a smile, patting Mashiro's head.

"Yes, as long as I'm with Shirou, that's enough for me," Mashiro nodded and said.

"Whoaaaaaah!!!" A scream rang out from outside. It was the female Grim Reaper with the horse-headed loli voice; her voice was so unique that it was impossible to mistake her.

Shirou and Mashiro nodded, took each other's hands, and ran outside.

Chapter 868 Kishimojin's Street Rampage

At this moment, a smoking SUV was parked on the old street, pressed to the ground by some dark, ominous object, and was now creaking and groaning mournfully!

With a bang, the car door was ripped off, grabbed by a hand made of black energy, and violently flung towards the crowd on the street.

"Aaaaaah!!" People on the roadside had no time to dodge and could only let out panicked screams.

A flash of cold light, and the long-handled sickle fell, slicing the car door in two, which then landed on the ground.

Miss Shinigami appeared there and blocked the attack for the pedestrians.

"Roar!!!" The black mist looked towards the horse-headed Miss Shinigami. Because its attack was blocked, it straightened up and let out an angry roar. It revealed its true form and crushed the off-road vehicle into scrap metal.

"Emergency! Emergency! Requesting backup!" Seeing this, Miss Shinigami broke out in a cold sweat and shouted anxiously at the skull badge pinned to her chest.

"Roar!!!"

The black monster atop the scrap metal block had a bodhisattva statue at its center. At this moment, its entire body was mixed with black and purple gas. One hand was vaguely visible as being severed, but in its place, six black and purple arms had grown from the statue's body.

Dancing wildly in the wind, like a demon from legend, clinging to the monster's perimeter, small bulges appearing—purple-skinned Oni infant and vengeful spirits, like giant tumors attached to the Bodhisattva stone statue.

This is not simply the work of Bodhisattva stone statue; it contains a mixture of hundreds of spirits, whose yin energy is so violent it's explosive, like a storm. It is a demonic entity that can be called the demon Kishimojin.