Chapter 326
"Ha... it's fine..."
Cold sweat streamed down Nakamura Tsuna's forehead.
He forced himself to stay calm while desperately recalling every ghost film he had binge-watched over the past few days.
According to the movies—
spirits usually targeted the weakest prey first.
As long as he stayed composed, maybe he could still escape.
"D-Don't panic..." he stammered, slowly backing away.
"We came here to hear your story. We mean no harm..."
The figure in the corner remained motionless.
Only the endless black hair continued spreading across the floor like living worms.
Mia dangled in midair, desperately clawing at the strands around her throat.
"Ghk—! Ghhk—!"
Her face had already begun turning purple.
Simon instinctively raised the camera toward the apparition.
Even now, his professional instincts overpowered his fear.
The lens zoomed in.
And at that exact moment—
the woman's head twitched.
Then slowly—
violently—
it snapped toward the camera.
Her blackened eye stared directly through the lens.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Nakamura finally lost control and screamed.
He turned and bolted toward the door.
But before he could take more than two steps—
Bang!
The bedroom door slammed shut by itself.
The entire room plunged into darkness.
Only the camera light still flickered weakly.
"No... no no no...!"
Nakamura frantically pulled at the doorknob.
It wouldn't move.
Behind him came the sound of wet hair dragging across wood.
Shaaa... shaaa...
His body stiffened.
Very slowly, he turned his head.
The black-haired woman was no longer in the corner.
She was now standing directly beneath Mia's hanging body.
Nakamura's pupils shrank violently.
Too fast.
He hadn't even seen her move.
The black hair covering the ceiling began dropping strand after strand, writhing toward the floor like a nest of snakes.
Meanwhile, Simon kept filming.
The cameraman's breathing had grown ragged, yet his hands remained unbelievably steady.
Perhaps because the camera gave him a strange sense of safety.
Or perhaps—
he simply hadn't fully processed the danger yet.
Then the LCD screen suddenly flickered.
For a split second, the image distorted.
And within the static—
another face appeared beside Simon's own reflection.
A pale child's face.
Simon froze.
The next moment, something cold grabbed his ankle from beneath the bed.
THUD!
He crashed violently onto the floor.
The camera rolled across the room, its lens spinning wildly.
For an instant, the frame caught the underside of the bed.
Several pale children were crouching there shoulder-to-shoulder.
Their pitch-black eyes stared upward without blinking.
Then the screen tilted again.
"HELP ME! HELP ME!"
Nakamura completely broke down.
All composure vanished as he pounded the door like a madman.
But the instant he shouted—
a mass of black hair burst from the ceiling and wrapped around his neck.
"Ghk—!"
His scream cut off instantly.
The hair dragged him backward across the floor.
Nakamura clawed desperately at his throat, eyes bulging with terror.
At this moment, all the so-called rituals, theories, and expertise in his mind collapsed into meaningless trash.
He finally understood one horrifying truth—
this was not the kind of "spirit" he had imagined.
This thing...
was an actual monster.
The room temperature continued dropping.
Dark stains began spreading across the walls.
The old wardrobe creaked open by itself.
Inside sat a pale little boy hugging a broken building block.
He tilted his head slowly toward Nakamura.
Then—
he smiled.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Nakamura's shriek became utterly inhuman.
…
At the same time—
downstairs.
Gideon's expression changed instantly after hearing the scream.
Without hesitation, he exploded upward toward the second floor.
"Damn it!"
The moment he reached the staircase landing, his pupils contracted sharply.
The corridor ahead—
which should have been only several meters long—
had stretched into endless darkness.
…
In desperation, Nakamura hurriedly grabbed the bag of bloody meat he had prepared earlier and hurled it across the room.
"As long as it's fed with flesh and blood, it'll calm down... Every evil spirit I've encountered before reacted like this..." he gasped.
Whether he was trying to reassure himself or the barely conscious Mia—even he no longer knew.
Nearby, the camera remained aimed steadily at the corner.
Although the lens trembled slightly upon closer inspection, Simon still didn't retreat a single step.
Then, in the next instant—
the figure in the corner vanished.
Nakamura instinctively searched around the room, only to realize Simon had suddenly turned the camera toward him.
Given the cameraman's skill throughout the night, a terrible premonition instantly rose in Nakamura's chest.
Very slowly, he lowered his head.
And his heart nearly stopped.
The female spirit was wrapped around his waist.
Her head had bent upward at an angle no human spine could possibly achieve, revealing those dead, blackened eyes staring directly at him.
"Ghh... ghhk..."
That low bubbling sound echoed again.
Nakamura's entire body erupted in goosebumps.
The next second, agony exploded through his shoulder.
A pale hand had sunk directly into his flesh—
and tore out a bloody chunk.
"AAAAHHHH!"
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Nakamura nearly blacked out from the pain. Clinging to consciousness by sheer instinct, he desperately clawed at his neck.
A yellow pendant hung there, etched with mysterious patterns.
He ripped it free and threw it outward.
"Bzzzt—!"
A burst of pale-yellow energy erupted.
The long-haired spirit immediately recoiled, crawling backward off his body.
At the same moment, the black hair around Mia's throat loosened.
She collapsed heavily onto the floor.
Nakamura didn't hesitate for even a second.
He turned and sprinted toward the door.
But before he could cross the threshold, clumps of black hair burst from the frame itself, rapidly sealing the exit shut.
"AH! AHHHH!"
Nakamura wildly swung the pendant, trying to drive the hair away.
Then—
a mass of hair suddenly dropped from the ceiling and coiled around his remaining good arm.
His eyes widened in horror.
SHHK!
Fresh blood sprayed into the air.
The strands twisted violently into his flesh—
and his entire arm was severed clean off at the shoulder.
Mia trembled against the wall.
Suddenly, she felt something warm splash across her face.
She wiped at it instinctively—
and immediately smelled thick blood.
At the same time, a soft tap... tap... echoed across the floorboards.
Mia slowly raised her head.
The long-haired woman was crawling toward her on all fours, limbs bent at grotesque angles no human body should ever achieve.
"AHHHHHHH—!"
Her mind finally shattered under the terror.
Acting purely on instinct, she scrambled upright.
CRASH—!
The bedroom window exploded outward.
Mia hurled herself through the second-floor glass.
And the crawling figure immediately followed after her through the broken window.
Simon had collapsed onto the floor, yet somehow the camera on his shoulder remained perfectly steady.
One second later, he pushed himself up again.
Without hesitation, he pulled out a rope harness from his equipment bag, tied it around the camera, and carefully lowered the expensive device out the window first.
Only after securing the footage—
did he climb out after it himself.
Several seconds later—
Bzzzt... bzzzt...
The black hair sealing the doorway suddenly melted away all at once.
Immediately afterward, several glass bottles were hurled into the room, releasing a nauseating stench.
Only then did Gideon burst inside.
One glance was enough for him to spot Nakamura lying on the floor.
The lingering spiritual fluctuations throughout the room clearly indicated that a battle had just taken place moments ago.
"You need a hospital."
After quickly examining the wounds, Gideon arrived at a grim conclusion.
"Too... late..." Nakamura's face had already gone deathly pale.
"Don't... let that thing... escape..."
He tightly grabbed Gideon's robe, his eyes filled with struggle and regret.
Three golden rings emerged within Gideon's pupils.
Holy power surged through the room instantly.
Although the house itself wasn't large, even with his full spiritual perception expanded outward, he still couldn't pinpoint the true source of the evil presence.
Then his gaze suddenly shifted toward the shattered window.
At the same time, sensing the overwhelming spiritual pressure radiating from Gideon, Nakamura's eyes widened in shock.
"I... was... completely wrong..." he muttered weakly.
Suddenly, color returned to his face for a brief moment.
Even his remaining arm regained a trace of strength.
"Take it... ngh... Her story is written... inside..." Nakamura pulled a notebook from beneath himself.
Gideon immediately noticed the abnormality in the man's condition.
A final burst of vitality before death.
He silently sighed and accepted the worn notebook.
Moments later, the light in Nakamura's eyes faded completely.
His arm dropped lifelessly to the floor.
After offering a brief prayer for the dead, Gideon opened the notebook.
And finally understood what kind of monster they were dealing with.
"Kayako..."
So it really was her.
Crawling beneath blankets.
Killing people in broad daylight.
Anyone touched by her curse doomed to die.
That infamous murder spirit.
"But if this notebook exists..." Gideon narrowed his eyes, carefully examining the spiritual residue clinging to it.
Soon, he noticed something unusual.
Amid the countless spirit-particle runes, a single strand of black hair slowly emerged.
It stretched outward through the broken window.
Gideon cautiously followed it—
only to stop abruptly.
The strand of black hair wound all the way downstairs, circled through the first floor...
and then returned to this very room.
Its endpoint rested directly beneath his feet.
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