"Ahhhhh--!!!"
Hayama Takuya could no longer care about any livestream or Katori-chan. A companion's body was hanging like that from the ceiling, swinging back and forth, staring right at him with unclosed eyes. It scared him out of his wits, and he turned and bolted, screaming a string of panicked cries while tumbling and scrambling.
"Ahhhhh--!!!"
This time Hayama saw very clearly that this was no prop at all, but a flesh-and-blood corpse.
In this terrifying, abandoned mall, a monster was truly lurking!
Hayama's mind was a blank slate now, possessed only by the most primal instinct: to escape, to run as far away as possible, to flee this cursed place and reach the spacious, bright, and safe human metropolis.
Rushing wildly through corridor after corridor, not knowing how many bits of clutter he knocked over, Hayama ran out of breath, dripping with sweat, and bent over with both hands pressed against his knees, gasping heavily.
Looking back, nothing seemed to be following him, and only then did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.
"Where on earth have I run to?"
Only now did Hayama realize he was all alone. The cameraman who had been following behind him earlier had vanished without a trace, and he had no idea where he had dropped the flashlight.
The cameraman hadn't followed, which meant he surely must have...
Hayama had already conjured up visions of the inhumane torture the cameraman suffered before dying. If the one who ran too slowly was himself...
Gazing at the pitch-black, inky, dilapidated corridor behind him, the lonely and chilling night breeze brushing against him, Hayama could not help but shudder.
The cold wind blew against Hayama, making his mind clear up just a little bit.
Wind-having wind meant there was an exit!
He hurriedly ran forward, rounded a corner, and sure enough spotted a balcony. Cold moonlight, like a ray of salvation's hope, poured down from outside the window, illuminating this dark and despairing place.
"God protect me! Protect me, Tōshō Daigongen! Lord, save me! I've finally escaped!"
Hayama rushed onto the balcony with a face full of ecstatic joy. From here he could already see the myriad lights of downtown Tokyo, and tears of emotion welled up in his eyes. He vowed that once he got back, he would go and bow at every single temple and shrine in Tokyo.
His hands and feet had already climbed up onto the railing. This was only the second floor, and Hayama usually kept up with fitness. As long as his luck wasn't too terrible, jumping down wouldn't even result in a broken leg.
Even taking the risk of spraining an ankle, as long as he could escape, it was worth it!
However, right at that moment, the body of Hayama Takuya suddenly stiffened and went completely motionless.
"Damn it, what's going on? My... my body, why is it moving on its own..."
"Help! Help me!"
The ecstatic expression on Hayama's face froze instantly, then rapidly morphed into extreme terror. He widened his eyes, opened his mouth, and began shouting and cursing at the top of his lungs. Half of his body, which had already crossed over the railing, climbed right back and he stood back on the balcony.
Then, just like a marionette on strings, Hayama's stiffened body backed away, marching step by step back into the building with matching hands and feet.
"My body is being controlled by something! I don't want this kind of thing! Just as I was about to escape, right at this moment... Ah--!!"
Hayama opened his mouth to emit a hysterical cry of agony, tears and snot streaming down his face. His vivid, terrified expression formed a sharp contrast with his stiff, awkward movements.
Yet no matter how much he cried, howled, or begged for mercy, his body still backed uncontrollably into the darkness, marching step by step deeper inside.
The moment he returned to the depths of the corridor, Hayama felt as if the suspension strings had suddenly been yanked from a puppet. He collapsed backward onto the floor, flailing his limbs, waving his arms, and struggling and screaming wildly in a panic.
After venting hysterically for a while, Hayama finally found that he had regained control over his body. He hurriedly scrambled across the floor, running toward the balcony he had just been at.
Suddenly, Hayama felt a tightness in his neck, as if something had snared him. The next moment, his feet left the ground, and he was hoisted up into midair.
Hayama Takuya kicked his feet wildly in the air, his hands scratching at his neck, but his body slowly rose upward, higher and higher, higher and higher, until thud, his head slammed into the ceiling.
With a flushed face from asphyxiation, Hayama Takuya's eyes bulged wide as he stared fixedly ahead. Up on the ceiling, he finally caught sight of that monster prowling the abandoned mall.
"Crack."
A crisp sound rang out-the sound of cervical vertebrae snapping.
A few minutes later, a crow flew over. Looking at the human figure hanging and swaying back and forth in midair, it let out a few caws of ambiguous meaning, then spread its wings and flew off.
Something was terribly wrong, terribly wrong!
After a wild, frantic dash that finally shook off the mannequin, Amami Katori twisted a rusted doorknob, shoved the door open and rushed inside, then immediately bolted it shut. Her lithe body pressed against the back of the door as she panted heavily.
In the midst of her flight, one of her delicate shoulders was exposed, and a large expanse of snow-white skin on her chest was laid bare to the air, though unfortunately there was no one to appreciate it.
Tidying her clothes slightly, Amami Katori picked up her phone. By this time, the popularity of the livestream had completely exploded!
Viewers drawn in by the recommendations saw the swarm of mannequins that had previously chased out right behind Katori-chan, and they were all praising the prop department for going all out, noting how realistically terrifying it was.
Yet a portion of her fans insisted that this was a genuine supernatural event, and the two factions were currently locked in a fierce battle.
The tourist-dominated majority naturally assumed this was a scripted prop setup arranged by the production team, and that only a chūnibyō would take it seriously. The other faction consisted of Katori-chan's fans; although they were mainly there to watch the girl, there was no shortage of people interested in the occult. Refusing to back down, they immediately fired back.
You mock me for not understanding science; I ridicule you for lacking awe toward the mysterious. Since they were just typing behind screens and weren't at the scene, neither side could prove what was real or fake, which naturally gave them free rein to spout whatever they liked. Thus, they traded barbs and flamed each other back and forth.
The popularity of the entire livestream climbed steadily, surpassing every past record of "Apprentice Shrine Maiden Katori-chan's Great Adventure."
Had she seen such high popularity before, Amami Katori would have been overjoyed long ago, even jumping into the fray herself to act pitiful and cute in order to stoke the flames.
Yet this time she had no mood for that whatsoever.
Unlike the viewers hiding in bright rooms holding keyboards and flaming each other, Amami Katori was personally living through the terrifying front lines!
Much like visiting a haunted house, everyone knew it was fake-that the ghosts were actors in costume and the corpses were props-yet being there in person would still scare you half to death.
From her close-range, first-person perspective, the mere memory of so many mannequins with twisted limbs scrambling to pounce on her made Amami Katori's scalp tingle and her hair stand on end.
This had completely exceeded the script. Besides, those were mannequins, not robots; she knew very well as a former prop stylist just how much it would cost to make them run and jump around, and it was simply not something their amateur troupe could afford.
It was also unlikely to have been arranged by Hayama's team, as Hayama couldn't even protect himself-how could he possibly spend this much money?
"What is going on?"
Pulling out the phone used for internal team contact, she dialed Takagi and Kogiso, but neither answered.
Amami Katori instantly felt a bad premonition.
Their previous ghost-hunting livestreams had visited classic horror movie settings like old mansions, abandoned primary schools, and hospitals without a hitch, and they had never encountered any unclean entities. The biggest mishap ever was just a stray dog hiding in an old estate. In fact, because things had been far too uneventful and failed to draw viewers, their team had personally stepped in to write scripts, arrange various suspenseful and terrifying scenarios, and set up props.
This time, could something actually have happened...
Meanwhile, the fiercely contested livestream surged in popularity yet again as another large crowd poured in, claiming that the neighboring room of Hayama had captured something extremely terrifying and that his stream had also been cut off.
Amami Katori looked at these chat messages and drew in a sharp breath.
"Everyone, everyone, listen to me. Some kind of accident seems to have happened during this livestream. Everything I'm about to say is true. I really don't know what's going on with those mannequins, and as for Hayama-kun's situation, I'm clueless as well..."
Amami Katori explained to the livestream camera with a furrowed brow and a solemn expression, but the viewers expressed utter disbelief, instead praising her acting skills for improving tremendously and far surpassing her previous livestreams.
Amami Katori was left momentarily speechless, feeling both exasperated and somewhat wronged. Why wouldn't the viewers believe her words?
Right at that moment, a ringtone suddenly sounded from within Amami Katori's embrace.
The caller ID showed Kogiso, the team's script planner. A glimmer of hope rose in Amami Katori's heart, and she hurriedly picked up to answer:
"Kogiso, what on earth is going on here? This is completely different from the original plan. Did you guys add some new planning? Are those mannequins new props?"
"And where are you right now? Are you still on the second floor?"
Amami Katori asked quickly in an anxious tone, but bizarrely, the person on the other end remained completely silent.
"Hello? Kogiso, why aren't you saying anything?"
After half a minute of such silence, the person on the other end suddenly hung up the phone.
Amami Katori stood holding her phone, somewhat at a loss for words. What kind of stunt was Kogiso pulling by calling and then hanging up? Kogiso had only confessed his feelings to her a few days ago, so why was he suddenly treating her with such a cold attitude?
Right at that moment, Amami Katori's phone rang again. The ethereal and melodious ringtone echoed inside the silent room.
Amami Katori was just about to answer when her heart suddenly skipped a beat, and all the blood drained from her face.
Human imagination was a terrifying thing; under the suggestion of a gloomy environment, it would inevitably wander off into all sorts of terrifying realms.
Was it really Kogiso calling her right now?
If it wasn't Kogiso, then who was calling her, and why were they calling?
The ringtone!
In the lonely, gloomy depths of a massive building, even the slightest sound would draw attention, let alone a mobile phone ringtone.
An idea flashed through Amami Katori's mind, and she instantly felt chilled to the bone, paralyzed by a fright that left her unable to move.
Wasn't this a classic horror movie trope where the victim had already hidden and was about to escape, only for their phone to ring and trigger a game-over?
Amami Katori hurriedly pressed the power button on her phone and powered it down.
At the exact same time, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door, identical to the noises the mannequins had made earlier. Amami Katori held her breath completely, curling up in a corner without daring to move a muscle, hoping to conceal herself this way.
"Bang!"
However, things went contrary to her wishes. A violent impact suddenly echoed from outside the door, and the entire wooden panel shook heavily from the collision.
"Eek--!"
Amami Katori was startled into letting out a shriek.
"Who's out there?! Stop trying to scare people like this! This livestream ends right here. If you guys keep scaring me like this, I'm calling the police!" Amami Katori mustered her courage and shouted loudly toward the outside.
Yet the person outside completely ignored her, offering no reply. The bang, bang, bang sound of a body slamming against the door panels continued incessantly, growing even louder and more violent.
"Please, everyone, I'm really not acting. I truly don't know what's happening... Please believe me, I'm really scared right now. I don't care about anything else, I just want to go home right now."
Amami Katori's face had drained of color from terror, and she was crying a tear-streaked rain. She revealed her pale, frightened face to the camera and pleaded with a trembling, sobbing voice:
"Wuu wuu, whoever you are, please help me... Help me call the police. I don't want to stay here anymore... Save me..."
The chat in the livestream paused abruptly. Looking at Amami Katori's expression of genuine terror and the heavy door behind her that was trembling under continuous impacts, some viewers had already begun to believe her, and comments started scrolling past.
"I've already called the police, hold on, Katori-chan!"
"Does anyone actually believe this fake shrine maiden? Crying so fakely. It's Saturday, stop causing trouble for the officers!"
"The one in front, shut your mouth! Is this Adachi Ward? I'm coming right now!"
Other comments even started offering strategies to Amami Katori:
"Those mannequins chasing Katori-chan are made of plastic, their strength shouldn't be very high! Katori-chan, hurry up and use something to block the main door!"
"Right, block the door."
The back door of this room was piled high with various construction debris, and its only window was hammered shut across with wooden planks in a crisscross pattern, allowing thin wisps of moonlight to filter in through the gaps.
Katori-chan placed her livestream equipment on the floor, adjusting the angle to ensure it captured the doorway, and then prepared to lift the discarded clutter.
Right at that moment, a pale, terrifying arm about two meters long reached in through the side window next to the door!
That arm opened its palm, dropping a black mobile phone that was currently in the middle of dialing. Then it extended an abnormally long finger, gave a gentle hook, and flipped the lock open from the inside.
The door was pushed open. A male mannequin with hollow eyes walked in with an awkward posture, followed one after another by emotionless, mutilated mannequins that shuffled inside as well.
This nightmare-like scene made the entire livestream seem as though it had been pressed on the pause button. All chat messages vanished, and those who had previously clamored that everything was fake and merely props were now too terrified to utter a word.
Amami Katori had nowhere left to run. Despairing and panicked, she collapsed limply to the floor, waiting for the slowly approaching mannequins to engulf her.
Just at that critical juncture, the window sealed shut with wooden planks was slashed open from the outside.
Sweeping into the room alongside the crisp moonlight was not only a fresh breeze, but also a young man wearing an Akatsuki cloak with two tear troughs carved into his face.
Before you continue