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"Soyo-san, are you there?"
Kitahara Makoto tried calling out twice, but the Haunted House was quiet, and he heard no response. He tried walking back a couple of steps, but the hallway was empty, and he didn't see Nagasaki Soyo's figure either.
"She must have been pulled away by other tourists during the recent chaos..."
Kitahara Makoto quickly guessed the truth.
Since he couldn't find Tsundere Young Miss, Kitahara Makoto naturally didn't force it and simply embarked on his solo Haunted House adventure.
As an exorcist who had eliminated real evil spirits, there were only a few places that could startle him; other areas posed no difficulty at all. Now, without Nagasaki Soyo, the progress of Kitahara Makoto's Haunted House exploration rapidly increased. It didn't take long for him to successfully find the exit of the Haunted House.
He walked out of the Haunted House.
The bright sunlight fell directly, causing Kitahara Makoto to squint slightly.
"Looks like it's still early…"
Not far from the entrance, there was a sunshade with a table underneath. A staff member in uniform was sitting behind the table, with two tourists gathered nearby.
Kitahara Makoto walked over curiously and found it was a stamp collection and check-in spot.
"It's so scary inside!"
Two young girls, not very old, chattered away while stamping their cards.
"Exactly, especially those two children in white dresses, it really felt like they were floating when they walked, so terrifying."
"If we have time next month, let's come play again. I feel like there are so many places we haven't explored yet."
"Wait a moment…" The staff member sitting behind the table looked up, her tone puzzled, "Did you just say two children?"
One girl nodded at her words:
"Your staff are super dedicated. Children so small can even crawl on the walls."
The staff member's tone became even more hesitant:
"But… the staff in the Haunted House are all adults, there are no children…"
"…"
The air instantly fell silent.
The three looked at each other, and the two girls' faces quickly turned pale.
"No… children?"
"Then what did we see?"
Kitahara Makoto stood behind the two girls, his brows slightly furrowed, keenly sensing that something was amiss.
The two girls' faces were white, and they didn't seem to be lying.
As for the staff member, there was even less reason for her to lie, and in a place like a Haunted House, children are generally not allowed in, let alone the use of child labor.
A bad premonition arose in his heart, and Kitahara Makoto's expression became serious:
"Could it be that there are real evil spirits haunting the Haunted House?"
"It's very possible."
There's no rule saying evil spirits can't appear in a Haunted House; it would be perfectly normal for one to crawl out of a toilet someday.
"Ria-chan, sh-shall we go?"
"Okay… that's enough for today…"
The two girls looked very nervous. After hastily completing their check-in, they quickly left in a panic, clearly frightened by the staff member's words.
Kitahara Makoto, on the other hand, stepped forward and asked the staff member in a deep voice: "Hello, have you seen a girl with long brown hair, blue eyes, a very cute appearance, and wearing a school uniform come out?"
With Tsundere Young Miss's appearance and temperament, no matter where she was, she would make people take a second look. If she had come out, this male staff member would definitely remember her.
That being said, Kitahara Makoto had actually already guessed that Tsundere Young Miss was likely still in the Haunted House. If she had truly come out, she would definitely be waiting for him at the exit.
Sure enough, the staff member quickly shook his head and said:
"Sorry, I haven't seen the girl you mentioned…"
"I understand."
Kitahara Makoto's expression was calm as he turned and walked towards the exit.
Now, two choices lay before him.
One was to not care and wait at the exit for Nagasaki Soyo to come out. Those two tourists might just be joking, and perhaps they didn't see any children, nor any evil spirits.
The second choice was to go in and find Tsundere Young Miss.
Better safe than sorry.
If Nagasaki Soyo really encountered something, he would definitely feel guilty. Although Tsundere Young Miss clearly had ulterior motives for him, at least so far, their interactions had been quite comfortable.
"No choice. After all, I promised not to abandon her. Of course, I have to keep my word…"
Kitahara Makoto lifted the curtain at the exit, re-entered the Haunted House, and at the same time, took out his phone to message Nagasaki Soyo:
"Soyo-san, tell me your location. I'm coming to find you."
"…"
At the same time.
In a dim, eerie hospital room, Nagasaki Soyo hid behind a cabinet, her hands covering her mouth, completely motionless.
Earlier in the hallway, everyone was being 'chased' by the Haunted House staff member crawling on the ground. The tourists were in a chaotic mess. In the confusion, Nagasaki Soyo didn't know who grabbed her arm, so she could only go with the flow and follow the escape.
When the chaos ended, Nagasaki Soyo realized that the person who had grabbed her and ran was a complete stranger, a passing girl, and Kitahara Makoto was nowhere to be seen.
After the other person apologized, the two decided to temporarily team up and explore the Haunted House together; having someone nearby always made one feel a bit safer.
But not long after, the two once again encountered a ghostly staff member from the Haunted House. Then, the temporary teammate, the passing girl, screamed and turned to run, directly abandoning the weak-kneed Nagasaki Soyo behind her.
In contrast, Nagasaki Soyo suddenly wished immensely that Kitahara Makoto would appear by her side… Compared to passing tourists, Kitahara Makoto was the one she could truly rely on.
"Calm down, don't think about him!"
"It's just a Haunted House, even if I'm alone, I can get out…"
Nagasaki Soyo clenched her fists, cheering herself on while gritting her teeth and looking for the way out. However, not long after, she saw two children, only about five or six years old.
(Strange, why are there children in the Haunted House?)
Tsundere Young Miss hid in the shadows, and after the two children quietly walked away, she continued forward. She soon reached the spot where the two children had appeared, then suddenly her eyes widened.
(Wait, wait a minute!)
(Where's the door?)
(Why is there no door on the wall?)
Nagasaki Soyo felt her breath freeze. The place where the two children had just appeared was clearly a cold, hard concrete wall, with no door whatsoever.
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
If there was no door on the wall, could those two children have walked through the wall?
"I must have been mistaken. How could a human walk through a wall…"
Halfway through her soft murmur, Nagasaki Soyo suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth. A terrifying thought surfaced in her mind.
(What if they weren't human?)
(It is said that mysterious disappearances have indeed occurred in the Haunted House of this amusement park… No way, right?)
The Tsundere Young Miss felt utterly distraught and was about to leave in a panic.
But just then, two faint voices suddenly sounded behind her:
"Big sister seems to have seen us."
"Let's play hide-and-seek together?"
"…"
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