Of course, neither the records on the computer nor Saori's records of ghost stories contained any content related to Soul-Returning Incense.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, that was something that only appeared in myths and legends. If that counted as a ghost story, then Shuten-doji, the White-Faced Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Fox, and the Ootengu would count as ghost stories too.
In fact, whether it was the information gathered by Ryunosuke's software or the accounts in Saori's records, they both pointed to the same thing.
Zombies.
Zombies had appeared in Ashikura District, and there were even rumors of them attacking humans.
Asakura did another search for relevant official news and found that during that same period, people who were officially reported as being attacked by "zombies" in Ashikura District had their stories changed to bear attacks—the place was quite remote, surrounded by dense forests, and belonged to the kind of countryside where bear sightings weren't surprising.
As for the subsequent developments, the software Ryunosuke used to scour and organize information from the web produced a different result from Saori's ghost story records.
Saori's records mentioned that the zombies, which had suddenly appeared three years ago and attacked humans, disappeared after an accidentally triggered forest fire.
However, the AI in Ryunosuke's software had dug up information from some obscure corner of the internet showing that it wasn't an "accidentally triggered forest fire" at all. Instead, it was a deliberate blaze set by city hall officials using napalm to eliminate the zombies.
It was just that Japanese officials, wanting to prevent panic and evade responsibility, claimed to the public that it was merely a natural forest fire—compared to the Australian bushfires, this small fire didn't draw much public attention. Thus, the officials involved didn't even need to come out and perform the traditional "Hontou ni Sumimasen" (I am truly sorry) routine. Furthermore, since there had been no reports of zombie attacks since then, it seemed the creatures had indeed been wiped out.
But that wasn't important. To Asakura, the threat level of a zombie wasn't even as high as the Yamanokemono back at Mount Kumotori.
The key was the timing of the zombies' appearance—it happened to be right after that group performed their sacrificial ritual. Wasn't that timing a bit too coincidental?
"It's too much of a coincidence; it's hard not to draw a connection."
Asakura rubbed his chin. "Tch... could those guys' sacrificial ritual have actually succeeded in creating Soul-Returning Incense?"
No, a proper resurrection shouldn't turn someone into a human-attacking zombie; they probably messed it up.
And judging by the fact that they didn't replicate the ritual to make more Soul-Returning Incense, the ritual itself likely had certain requirements and restrictions—for instance, a restriction like "it only works in Ashikura District."
"No, I'm overthinking it."
Asakura pressed his temples and rubbed them slowly for a moment.
To say "all" might be too absolute, but as long as a ritual involves a "sacrifice" step, once it is established and activated, a recipient of that sacrifice must exist.
An entity that would accept such "blood food" sacrifices, produce half-baked Soul-Returning Incense, and protect such evil people was either a naturally wicked Yokai or an Evil God with a nature bordering on chaos.
It wasn't incomprehensible that such a being would protect that wanted criminal, allowing him to remain a fugitive for so long in modern society.
But that guy was easily taken down by Asakura's snakes, which meant that whatever was behind him, its protection only went that far.
And honestly, Asakura hadn't seen a real Yokai in reality yet (he absolutely refused to acknowledge those distorted things Miko could see as Yokai). If it really was something like that, he was actually quite curious about them.
If it were an Evil God, that would be even better, since he was currently worried about how to complete his mission.
"What are you doing here?"
Suddenly, the door to the activity room was pulled open. Hiratsuka Shizuka, who had appeared there for some reason, looked at Asakura with narrowed eyes.
"Ah..."
Deep in thought, Asakura realized he had ignored the warnings from his little snakes, resulting in him being caught red-handed by Hiratsuka Shizuka.
However, he quickly adjusted his mindset.
"As you can see, club activities."
"I believe I made it very clear during the class meeting that Chiba will be quite dangerous these next few days, so you should go home immediately after school..." Hiratsuka Shizuka said with a frown. "Are my words just in one ear and out the other?"
"I just didn't think it was necessary."
"Huh?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka's voice went up an octave; she seemed truly a bit angry.
"I mean..." Asakura spread his hands, "I don't have parents, and I don't live with any other relatives. Whether I'm here or at home, I'm alone anyway. The risk is the same... Considering the school has security, it might actually be safer to stay here."
Hiratsuka Shizuka, who had been rolling up her sleeves and preparing to administer some "Fist of Love" education, suddenly froze.
She looked at Asakura and noticed a slight loneliness in the boy's expression. Deep in his eyes, there seemed to be a hidden, profound sorrow. Her heart softened instantly.
"That's true... it was a bit inconsiderate of me to ask you to go home alone."
Hiratsuka Shizuka nodded.
"Exactly, so don't worry about me..." Seeing that he seemed to have fooled her, Asakura tried to strike while the iron was hot.
"So, until this is over, you'll stay at my place for now..." Hiratsuka Shizuka said directly before he could finish.
Asakura: "¿"
Wait, why isn't this going the way I planned?
"No need to be shy; taking care of students is a teacher's duty." Hiratsuka Shizuka patted Asakura on the shoulder.
"Um... actually, I can just sleep on the floor in the activity room."
Asakura suggested dryly, originally planning to head back to the spot where the fugitive was caught to see if he could find any special clues while it was still early.
"That's the act of occupying public space."
"I think the issue of taking a student home is much more serious! Rather, is this really okay?!"
"Don't worry..." Hiratsuka Shizuka wore a gentle smile. "No one will speak up for you."
"Give me a better reason to 'not worry'! This just makes me feel like my human rights are at stake, hey!"
"Oh? Asakura... could it be that you're shy?" The smile on Hiratsuka Shizuka's face became gradually mischievous. "You usually act like you're afraid of nothing, but you're actually a quite innocent young boy, aren't you?"
"...In this situation, isn't the dangerous one you, Hiratsuka-sensei?"
"Stop overthinking, you brat who looks easy to get along with but is actually prouder than anyone else!" Hiratsuka Shizuka threw two crisp jabs. "Regardless of what you want to do or what I want to do, you're on the side that can't resist anyway. Just accept your teacher's kindness obediently!"
Asakura watched Hiratsuka Shizuka demonstrate the fighting techniques she was so proud of—which were actually zero threat to him—and felt no emotion whatsoever.
He even felt a little like laughing.