Master of Kaidan
Chapter 285: Visible

Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Visible

"Haah~" During the Chinese language class, as the teacher droned on with monotonous voice about the uninteresting content, Yajima Yurika couldn’t help but yawn. She wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but she felt a vague sense of fatigue today. Moreover, even though she had eaten twice as much food as usual that morning, she still felt like she hadn’t had enough to eat.

"It’s not possible that I’m going through a growth spurt, right?" Yurika looked down at the obstacle that prevented her line of sight from reaching her feet and immediately felt that the idea was a bit absurd. She flipped to a new page in her notes to appear as if she was attentively listening to the lecture and casually glanced out of the window.

And then...

"Whoosh!"

There was clearly no sound, but Yurika sharply felt a ringing in her ears. At the same time, out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to catch a glimpse of something flitting by.

"Was it a bird?" Yurika looked out the window and didn’t see anything worth noting, but she did feel a piercing gaze on her.

She immediately turned her head and saw the teacher looking at her with an intimidating gaze. Realizing that her distraction had been caught, Yurika quickly gathered her thoughts and refocused her attention on her textbook.

But for some reason, she found it unusually hard to concentrate today.

She managed to endure until the end of class, and the feeling of hunger rising in her belly made her head straight to Rinko’s desk.

Startled by her best friend’s sudden appearance at her side, Rinko hesitated before saying,

"Yayuka, you look unwell..."

"Got any snacks? Give me a few packs, and I’ll pay you back during lunch break!" Yurika got straight to the point, confident that her best friend’s bag was definitely stocked.

Seeing Yurika’s serious expression, Rinko took out a pineapple bun from her bag and handed it over to her best friend—

"When did you start snacking during class?"

"I don’t know, I just suddenly felt a bit hungry." Yurika tore open the pineapple bun’s packaging and took a bite, the crunchy exterior and soft bread mixing together in her mouth. Before she could savor the taste, she had already swallowed it.

"?" Rinko watched Yurika’s way of eating, feeling somewhat covetous of the food for a moment, then remembering her best friend’s odd behavior today, Rinko’s eyes sharpened. Then, she suddenly reached out with both hands...

"Ah!" Caught off guard, Yurika instinctively clutched at her chest and glared at Rinko.

"What are you doing?!"

"It seems there’s no problem! I thought you were possessed by a hungry ghost!" Rinko made a couple of empty grabs with her right hand, as if trying to recall the feeling from earlier, her tone tinged with a strange sense of melancholy. However, Yurika, being in a sensitive state of mind, heard the odd term and immediately became wary, asking,

"Hungry ghost? What’s that?"

"A demon that’s said to rise from the souls of people who have died of starvation. It can possess people it comes across, depleting the nutrients in their body rapidly, making them emaciated, and they will feel a strong sense of hunger, never feeling full no matter how much they eat. But since your fat layers are still so thick, you should be fine."

Rinko waved her hand dismissively, but Yurika, still on alert, checked herself over to make sure she hadn’t changed before retorting somewhat irritably,

"By that definition, you’re the one who seems possessed!"

"Right? That’s why my family sends me to the shrine every year to pray and exorcise demons, and during the Bean Throwing Festival, I’m always the one getting hit..." Rinko spoke as if she was being bullied, which left Yurika with a face full of disbelief. She quickly finished the remaining half of her pineapple bun, finally feeling a bit better in her stomach. However, just as that feeling of fullness started to fade, out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to glimpse something once more.

"!!"

Suddenly turned around, but saw only a few classmates gathered together chatting, listening to their discussions about last night’s TV programs, and for a moment, couldn’t help but relax a bit.

"Yayuka, are you okay? Do you want to go to the medical room and rest a bit?" Rinko asked with concern, looking at Yajima Yurika. Yurika, hearing this, simply stretched her hand out to massage the Jingming acupoint, speaking wearily.

"It’s probably because I didn’t sleep well last night."

"Then go to the medical room and sleep for a while. The next class is home economics, and I’ll ask for leave for you." Rinko immediately put Yurika’s hand on her shoulder, striking a pose as if "carrying a comrade who had been gravely injured in war," and headed towards the medical room.

"Wait, Rinko-chan! This is too much!"

"Not at all!" Rinko stubbornly took Yurika to the medical room, left behind two pieces of bread, and then quietly left.

"I’m not hungry anymore though!" Looking at the two pieces of bread, Yurika sighed, but immediately after, her face showed an incredulous expression. Because she saw something: a faint apparition seemed to be slowly passing by outside the window.

Yes, an apparition. It felt like the steam curling off a hot pot, the kind of visual distortion caused by heat, barely a definite shape, but undeniably standing there, just like... just like an Invisible Man wearing optical camouflage in a movie!

Okay, Yurika knew the example she thought of wasn’t very ladylike, but it was the closest analogy she could think of to her current situation.

"What is this? A ghost? A spirit? A demon? Or some other kind of Kaidan?"

Yurika’s mind was in turmoil. She tried to focus her gaze but couldn’t resist observing the twisted figure.

"Keep calm, keep calm! In the stories, those who saw the Kaidan either got seriously injured or died on the spot. Can’t let it be known that I saw it!"

Yurika bit her lip, but as she tensed up, the apparition seemed to become clearer and clearer.

No, not just outside. Even within the medical room, an apparition appeared!

And it became increasingly real!

It was a short, plump bald figure that, although still blurry at the moment, allowed Yurika to vaguely see the colossal eye that occupied half of the face.

It seemed as if it was casually scanning the entire medical room, especially the beds holding other students, examining each one closely, even looming over their faces for an intense gaze.

Yet all the students, whether feigning sickness to skip class or genuinely ill, seemed as if they saw nothing, which made Yurika even more anxious.

Tap, tap, tap...

The one-eyed bald figure was getting closer and closer to her bed, the image in Yurika’s eyes becoming increasingly defined. She could make out the kasaya, the monk’s robe on its body, see the disgusting veins and wrinkles on the shiny bald head, see the long tongue extending out of its mouth dripping with viscous fluid...

She even started to hear a "tap, tap" sound that resembled the noise of wooden sandals hitting the floor as it moved!

A surge of physical discomfort made Yurika want to get away, but her subconscious reactions seemed to have drawn its attention.

The one-eyed bald figure abandoned the bed in front of it and slowly approached Yurika with an oppressive speed. Tears unconsciously spilled from the corners of her eyes, and seeing this, the figure became even more excited. It brought its face close to Yurika’s, speaking with a ghastly voice,

"Can you see?"