Chapter 95: Descendants of the Witch
A faint gleam vaguely appeared before my eyes.
The sound gradually came through.
Where was this place?
Was it the Ghost River of the Netherworld?
"You had fifteen minutes, make the most of it… I won't bother you any longer, I'm getting old and can't handle these things."
"Thank you."
The sound went from being muffled to becoming clear, and Sato Zaki distinctly heard the voices of people conversing near his ears.
Following that, a face appeared in front of him and vigorously shook his body.
"Father! It's me, have you awakened?"
Sato Zaki heard a familiar call, startled, and immediately awakened from his dazed state, opening his eyes.
He looked at the young boy next to him in astonishment. He tightly grasped his shoulder with his fingers, but at the same time, he was worried about hurting the boy too much. Eventually, he released his grip.
"What did you call me?"
Sato Daitake opened his mouth, and a hoarse sound came from his throat. His nose felt sour, and he lowered his head, softly calling out in a low voice.
"Father… I was Daitake."
Sato Zaki stood still, frozen in astonishment.
"I truly was Daitake. You could ask me about the things from my childhood, I remembered them all. I was mischievous when I was young, I broke some cups a few times and even cut my hand, which was bleeding. I secretly ran out into the street, and if it wasn't for you chasing after me, I would have almost been hit by a car…"
Sato Daitake spoke quickly, eager to immediately prove his identity.
But in the next moment, Sato Zaki reached out his hand and tightly embraced the young boy.
He wasn't doubting at all, but the sudden arrival of this fact left him feeling confused.
"That's great…"
The aged father choked back tears as he said, "You're still alive…"
Sato Daitake also hugged his father tightly, and the two of them embraced each other, overcome with emotions as they choked back tears.
At that moment, they finally forgave each other, and all the barriers between them disappeared.
After more than six years of enduring anticipation and a lifetime of regret, in an instant, it all vanished into thin air.
…
"Hiss… wheeze…"
Bai Wei lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of white smoke. He stood calmly at the entrance of the house, with a serene expression on his face.
He had already made a call to the police. Approximately twenty minutes later, the police would arrive here to carry out the final cleanup work.
This matter ultimately proved to be inconclusive and was likely left unresolved.
In Yingzhou, the police department had an exceptionally high case closure rate, with less than ten percent of cases undergoing autopsy examinations.
In other words, more than 90 percent of the cases were left unresolved, with no one willing to investigate thoroughly. These were cases where the victims themselves were the perpetrators, and the perpetrators were the victims. It was simply impossible to uncover the truth and therefore, they were hastily documented and closed. This was because in Sato Zaki, there were no older or younger individuals to be concerned about, and nobody cared about the outcome of investigating or not investigating in detail.
Not far away, a young boy walked out of the house in a dazed and disoriented manner, his face filled with anguish.
However, compared to his previous feelings of regret and guilt, at that moment he felt slightly more angry.
"Did you say goodbye?"
"Yes, my father… passed away peacefully. He said he had no regrets."
"What are your plans for the future?"
"I decided to stay because the police needed someone to file a report, and there were arrangements to be made for my father's affairs," the young boy explained. "I have already caused you a lot of trouble, and I won't disclose anything about you."
"I wasn't talking about what's coming up next, I was talking about what lies ahead," Bai Wei said, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, as he gazed into the distance.
Sato Daitake's voice trembled weakly, "My father has passed away, and Sato Daitake has also ceased to exist completely. From now on, I am only Heita Hojo… All I can do is visit my parents' graves every month."
Bai Wei said, "If you have nothing else to do right now, why not recite the Scriptures of Transference to aid your father?"
Sato Daitake asked, "Does the concept of the afterlife truly exist in this world?"
"Yes, and many afterlives."
The young boy gazed at the ground, lost in his own thoughts, unaware of what was going through his mind.
"What do you know about the concept of soul swapping?"
"I don't know much either, but when I was near the Aokigahara Forest, I would hear strange echoes," recalled Sato Daitake. "However, as time went on, those memories became increasingly blurry."
…Then it was the Aokigahara Forest, a place known for suicides. Last time, Guan Ling's family happened to be passing by this area during their sightseeing trip.
Bai Wei heard the sound of sirens, extinguished the cigarette, circulated his true qi, and dispersed the smell of tobacco from his body, "The police from the Metropolitan Police Department have arrived."
Sato Daitake slowly realized what was happening and when he looked up, the young man had already disappeared.
Only then did he remember that he had forgotten to ask the other person's name.
…
He walked back and sat on the ground, gently tidying up his father's appearance.
He wondered if his father had ever gently touched the sleeping child's face like this when he was young.
He seemed to have matured a lot in an instant, making it difficult for him to go back to his youthful days.
Beep beep beep…
Suddenly, the old-fashioned landline telephone in the room started ringing.
He was wondering if it was a police phone number, so he picked up the receiver, and there was a voice on the other end of the line.
It was a voice that he had heard before.
In Aokigahara, the Sea of Trees.
He asked, "Do you want your father to stay with you forever?"
With a simple sentence, Sato Daitake's face instantly became rigid, and he appeared frozen in his expression.
Obsession, guilt, desire, sadness. - Obsessions, feelings of guilt, desires, and sadness.
Various emotions were reflected on his expression.
For a long time, for a long time.
Crackling sound…
The boy put down the receiver, knelt at the edge of the cabinet, tears streaming down his face, and let out a silent, anguished cry.
…
The police car drove along the street, coming within three meters of Bai Wei on the sidewalk.
In the dim light of the street lamp, behind Bai Wei, followed another faint silhouette. The young man walked swiftly, and the shadow behind mimicked his every step.
The ghost asked, "Could I, perhaps, go again tomorrow?"
Bai Wei said calmly, "The function of the soul-summoning talisman can only last for three hours. If your soul tears apart and fails to become a bound spirit, you might end up as a lost soul wandering aimlessly. Who knows, someone might conveniently offer salvation. Once a person dies, they lose their rights. It's better to obediently jump into the well of reincarnation than to vanish into thin air in the mortal realm."
"I didn't say that I won't go, but it's simply too late now," Sakurai quickly explained. "My daughter is not feeling well, and going now would disturb her."
"The last time, whether love met or not," Bai Wei stopped in his tracks.
"I'm going, I'm going."
Sakurai's soul shadow merged into the piece of talisman held between Bai Wei's fingertips.
Bai Wei waved his hand, hailed a taxi, and went to a private hospital in New Tokyo.
When it came time to pay, Bai Wei certainly felt a pang of pain. After all, he had to dig into his own pocket. Lately, he had been spending quite a bit of money, and his savings were running low.
He somewhat regretted not looting the corpses when he fought monsters, otherwise, there would have been some currency he could find for sure.
"Do you not have any money?" Sakurai asked cautiously.
Bai Wei glared fiercely at the scammer and said, "I come from an average background, but as for you, your wallet is filled with nothing but business cards and IOUs."
"It's all for the sake of making a living," Sakurai chuckled. He pointed to a nearby building and said, "It's this building right here. My daughter was in a three-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor."
The private medical institution had relatively strict confidentiality policies. When Bai Wei visited late at night, he was questioned several times. However, the person in question was right next to him, so he answered smoothly and without any possibility of any mistakes occurring.
The nurse led Bai Wei to a three-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor. All the rooms here were individual wards, providing the highest standard of medical care, which naturally came with a hefty price tag.
Arriving at the entrance, surprisingly, the lights inside the house were turned on.
The nurse's face slightly changed, she pushed the door open and indeed saw the little girl lying on her side near the window, coughing incessantly. In the nearby basin, there was a deep red color of blood.
"Miss Si, I have told you so many times, if you feel uncomfortable or in pain, you must press the alarm button!"
The nurse rushed in and quickly supported the girl's shoulders.
"I, I'm fine… I really am fine, I'll be better in a little while…" The little girl's voice seemed to be squeezed out with great effort from the depths of her lungs.
"It doesn't seem like everything is fine! I immediately called for the on-duty doctor!"
"No need, no need…"
The girl wanted to stop it, but as she coughed repeatedly, fresh blood escaped through the gaps between her fingers.
Her life was being constantly worn down.
Sakurai rushed forward, anxiously clutching his head, but couldn't touch anything, and no one could hear what he was saying.
Bai Wei slowed down his pace, entered the ward, and looked up at the girl on the hospital bed. The angle he stood at didn't provide a clear view of the girl's entirety, but he caught a glimpse of her shoulders and hands.
Delicate, frail.
What kind of fragile shell was that?
The blood vessels were clearly visible beneath the skin, the skin was pale, the bones protruded, even the smallest-sized hospital gown appeared loose and baggy when worn.
Just like a fragile structure built with matchsticks, it couldn't withstand the ignition of the flame of life, destined to be accompanied by illness for half of its existence.
It was like haphazardly adding colors to a delicate portrait, hastily sketching it, as if the Creator had patiently drawn a fine and vivid face but lost patience due to a restless mood. Consequently, they casually outlined an abstract painting with a rough, mismatched figure.
The nurse quickly ran out of the ward and said, "I went to find the on-duty doctor, her condition had worsened again."
Inside the ward, there were only the girl coughing up blood, the unfamiliar young man, and a lonely spirit filled with remorse, pounding his chest and lamenting.
The name in front of the hospital bed was Sakurai Shiru.
The entry above her head reads "A Descendant of the Chaotic Witches".
