In truth, Izumi Shirayuki was also filled with curiosity and didn’t particularly want to retreat.
“Let’s go up. Of course, if the situation turns bad, everyone run immediately,” Shirayuki told the three girls.
They all nodded.
They continued heading over, drawing closer and closer.
Tsukiyomi Ruri twitched her little nose and said quizzically, “Do you all smell alcohol?”
“It seems like there really is some. Is it coming from inside the classroom?” Mizuhashi Yuzuki sniffed the air.
“Ghosts are drinking alcohol?” Izumi Shirayuki fell into deep thought.
Tsukiyomi Ruri glanced at Shirayuki, wondering why she was so convinced ghosts existed. As an ordinary person, she should just act like one properly and not believe in things beyond common sense.
“Are there… are there really ghosts?” Inoue Keiko looked terrified, shrinking behind Tsukiyomi Ruri.
This left Ruri utterly speechless. In her view, the two “ordinary people” beside them weren’t even that scared right now. Why was a legitimate Reincarnator like Inoue Keiko scared stiff instead?
How embarrassing for Reincarnators!
“Inoue-san, a ghost is right beside you, watching you,” Tsukiyomi Ruri said.
She just said it casually to spook Keiko, seeing how frightened she was. But Keiko’s reaction was clearly beyond her expectations.
“Ahhh!”
Inoue Keiko screamed and ran off.
Both Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki were startled, looking at Inoue Keiko with expressions of bewilderment.
Keiko ran a few steps, turned back to look, and realized Ruri had just been joking with her. Facing Shirayuki and Yuzuki’s gazes now, she looked innocently at Ruri.
Ruri felt even more innocent. To be scared that badly by just a comment like that—this had to be a fake Reincarnator!
Just as the four were looking at each other in confusion, the window of the nearby classroom—the one suspected of housing the ghost—slid open with a crash. Then, a blonde guy with ear studs poked his head out and glanced their way.
When he looked over, Tsukiyomi Ruri and the other three looked back.
Upon seeing this, Ruri was immediately speechless.
She finally saw why the chairs had seemed to float. It was because the chairs were actually hung up, tied to the ceiling fans. From a distance, it really did look like the chairs were floating there.
“Ane-go, there are four people outside. Looks like students from this school,” the blonde guy called back into the room at that moment.
“Round ’em all up and bring ’em to me!” a bold, spirited female voice rang out from the classroom, clearly tinged with drunkenness.
The windows were all pushed open with a crash. Immediately, a large group of people leaped out the windows and ran toward Tsukiyomi Ruri and the other three. Anyone could tell at a single glance that these were yankees. Right now, the heavy smell of alcohol clung to every one of them, and their gaits were all unsteady as they walked.
“That yankee gang is the group I ran into yesterday,” Mizuhashi Yuzuki said, her eyes wide.
“Now’s not the time to worry about that! Run!” Izumi Shirayuki yelled, taking the lead as she turned and ran.
All four immediately ran toward outside the school grounds.
Tsukiyomi Ruri flexed her fingers but still felt it wasn’t right to make a move. She didn’t want to drag ordinary people into the world of Reincarnators.
Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki shared the same thought.
However, the yankee gang was still chasing them. This matter needed to be resolved. So, all three subtly glanced at Inoue Keiko.
“Let’s split up and run! Don’t get caught together. Whoever gets away, call the police immediately,” Izumi Shirayuki said cleverly.
She figured that once they split up, Inoue Keiko would definitely deal with this yankee gang. Suggesting they split was just to create an opportunity for Keiko to act.
Tsukiyomi Ruri and Mizuhashi Yuzuki didn’t know Shirayuki’s exact intention, but knowing Keiko’s identity, they also thought this was a chance for Keiko to make a move.
Of course, even if Keiko didn’t act, now that they were separated from the others, they could also act covertly themselves.
Thus, without any objection, the four immediately scattered and ran off.
Seeing Tsukiyomi Ruri and the other two disappear around corners ahead, Inoue Keiko decisively stopped in her tracks.
‘Could those three be the three Reincarnators I encountered yesterday? Hmm, spending time with them today, they felt like very amiable people. Definitely not them. They’re just ordinary people. In that case, I, a Reincarnator, will protect them!’
Inoue Keiko had suspected Ruri and the others, but now she felt she might have been overly paranoid.
Turning to face the charging crowd of yankee men and women, a white card materialized in Inoue Keiko’s hand.
Yesterday, when Tsukiyomi Ruri had taken her Ability Card, [Updraft], she’d said it was her only card. That statement… surely no one actually believed it, right?
What lay in Keiko’s hand now was an Equipment Card: [Another Cup]. As she activated the card, it instantly transformed into a tall-stemmed wine glass, appearing in her grasp.
The moment the glass appeared, liquid naturally coalesced inside it.
Keiko took the glass and flicked its contents at the first charging blonde yankee. A heavier scent of alcohol immediately billowed from the guy’s body as he pitched forward onto the ground, falling fast asleep.
Anyone splashed by the liquid condensed within this glass would experience intense drunkenness. For an ordinary person, this drunkenness was enough to knock them out directly.
Seeing the blonde yankee passed out drunk, the others—equally inebriated—paid it no mind and continued their pursuit.
Seeing this, Inoue Keiko didn’t hold back. She continuously used the glass to splash liquid onto the approaching figures. Faced with a method so far beyond common sense, none of the yankees had any ability to resist. One after another, they all collapsed with a series of thuds.
‘The situation is good. These yankees were already drunk. Now that I’ve made them all pass out from it, no one who sees them will suspect anything out of the ordinary. They’ll just assume they drank themselves unconscious. Even the yankees themselves are too far gone to notice anything amiss.’
Relieved, Keiko willed the glass in her hand to revert into a white card. The card’s face was a white background with a wine glass pattern on it.
Pocketing the Equipment Card, Inoue Keiko turned and left.
Meanwhile, from a corner of the school, Tsukiyomi Ruri had witnessed Keiko’s actions from afar.
‘Very good. Next step is to call the police and let this yankee gang take the fall. We’ll pin all the recent paranormal incidents on them. This way, the matter can be wrapped up perfectly.’
Ruri felt their luck was quite good. The yankee gang had probably tied the chairs to the ceiling fans to clear space for their partying, creating the illusion of floating chairs when seen from a distance. As it turned out, this perfectly resolved the influence of the ghost incidents.
