A Real Man Kills With His Navel!

Compared to the comments, who were just watching the show from a bystander’s perspective, my feelings about this matter were more complicated.

At first, I thought the homeless man who had inhumanely tortured the captured girl was the sole culprit, the final boss of this livestream journey. But now, it seemed that this homeless man was also just a victim.

Looking at it from the perspective that the homeless man in front of us was not mentally ill and had indeed been coerced by a supernatural, or rather, ghostly, entity, the content of the first note, which was actually written by the homeless man, was:

[I can’t escape no matter what I do. Help me].

This note was probably written after he entered this abandoned dormitory building and was controlled by the ghost rooted here, unable to even leave the building if he didn’t obey it.

The second note, [I’m done for! I’m done for! I’m done for!!!], was probably written after he was forced to capture the girl who was later tortured, knowing that he had committed a very serious crime, which was why he said he was done for.

And the next one, [Don’t do this anymore… Don’t do this anymore…], was probably him begging the ghost not to force him to torture the girl anymore. Whether it was out of his own morality or fear of the law, he didn’t want to do anything more to the girl, but the ghost would not be swayed by his will.

The final one, [It’s all over], perhaps indicated that he had been forced to kill the captured girl and was in complete despair.

I waved my hand to swat away the fly that was disturbing my thoughts and saw that Saber seemed completely unconcerned with the truth hidden beneath the fog. Instead, she went straight to the point and asked the pitiful, cowering homeless man, “Where is the girl you captured now?!”

Her golden eyebrows were raised in anger. She looked like a groom who, after being arrested by the police for human trafficking, had finally escaped while the on-duty officer was engrossed in a game of P-Switch, only to find that the bride he had worked so hard to abduct had vanished.

With the scarred, round moon at his back, the homeless man pointed a trembling, filthy finger towards the broken section of the rooftop guardrail and said in a hoarse voice, “O-over there…”

I glanced over. Perhaps because of the lighting and my attention being drawn to the broken guardrail, I hadn’t noticed before. But looking carefully now, there was indeed an unmoving figure lying on its side in the thick shadows. The figure was wearing an orange T-shirt, from which a piece had been torn, corresponding to the orange scrap of cloth we had seen earlier. Her head was bald, with no hair. Although her eyes were closed, her eyelids were noticeably sunken, as if her eye sockets were empty, leaving only hollows. Even so, you could tell she had a sharp, influencer-like face and could be considered pretty.

And on her unmoving body, flies were buzzing.

This overly cruel sight made me involuntarily take a step back. Then, a cool and delicate hand covered my eyes. In the darkness, I heard Exusiai’s soft voice and warm breath in my ear. She spoke gently, like a young and beautiful mother comforting her child, “Don’t look… it’s okay, don’t look… Since you can’t bear it, don’t look at such a cruel sight.”

With her cool, smooth palm covering my eyes, my entire eye socket felt soft and full. I suddenly felt that even this darkness had become so reassuring.

But before I could thank her, I felt another, equally cool and smooth little hand sneak in from the hem of my clothes and cover my small, delicate navel. Her hand was slightly cool, making my navel and the surrounding area of my stomach feel a little chilly.

My mouth twitched. I asked in the darkness, “Why are you covering my navel?”

Exusiai’s crisp voice sounded innocent. “Didn’t we agree not to look? So I covered your navel too.”

“In your understanding, I can see people with my navel, is that it?? By your logic, don’t you have to cover all the ‘eyes’ on my body?!”

Exusiai was clearly stunned for a moment, then replied, “…Oh, right!”

Immediately after, I felt something coming towards my butt.

“It’s a ghost, oh!”

While we were engrossed in a biological debate about whether the navel could be used for seeing, the sound of… thump… thump… thump… climbing a ladder suddenly came from not far away. Just from the sound, the newcomer’s legs were not very nimble, and they seemed to be climbing with great difficulty.

I patted Exusiai’s hand covering my eyes. She immediately understood and moved it away, but the hand on my stomach showed no signs of leaving. I didn’t have time to worry about that. I immediately turned my head to look at the skylight leading to the rooftop and saw a stubbled middle-aged man in a faded T-shirt climbing up with great effort. It was the same man who had claimed to be looking for his daughter earlier.

After he stood up, steadying himself on the dusty concrete floor, he looked at us, panting. There was a bloody patch on his knee. It seemed he had fallen while climbing the stairs earlier, which was why he had been behind us.

This disheveled man didn’t even wait to catch his breath before he hurriedly asked us, “Have you… seen my daughter?” 

The memory of that tragic figure made me involuntarily shiver. Exusiai took her small hand from my stomach, then wrapped her arm around me, conveying a sense of “leave everything to me.” She raised her other hand and pointed towards the place I couldn’t bear to look at again, at that figure, and said in an indescribable but sorrowful tone, “Your daughter… is probably already…”

I saw the panting man look in the direction Exusiai was pointing. After seeing the tragic figure, he was also clearly startled, almost stumbling. He quickly looked at us. “That’s not my daughter…”

“Huh?!” Both Exusiai and I exclaimed.

Not your daughter? Then there’s no one else here!

You’re not going to say one of the four of us is your daughter, are you?

First, rule me out. I’m a boy, I can’t be your daughter…

While I was using the process of elimination, having finally narrowed down the target to Saber, who had once said, “I wish I had a super-rich secret dad,” I heard Yukino exclaim, “Look over there!”

Her fair little hand, extending from her shirt sleeve, pointed at the broken section of the guardrail. I tried my best not to look at the tragic figure lying beside it and only looked at where Yukino was pointing. I saw another figure slowly emerge like a bubble in a dream.

It was a short-haired girl with a cute, round face.