Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

192: With Much Anticipation, Lin Sanjiu Dies

This train was familiar to her, but it wasn't the same as the previous time. When Lin Sanjiu looked down and saw a squished newspaper in the crevice of a green seat, she felt a little perplexed. Even without reaching for it, she knew what was written on it. The handwriting on the surface of the newspaper matched her memory exactly. The only difference was that the paper had many more wrinkles, which Lin Sanjiu caused. After almost a day, Lin Sanjiu found herself on the same train she had taken when she had come.

Noting this point, Lin Sanjiu was still very confused because that would mean that after she alighted, someone must have boarded the train, picked up the crumpled newspaper she randomly threw on the floor, and stuffed it back in the crevice of the seat.

It almost seemed like boarding the same train wasn't just a coincidence. She was mystified and thought about it for some time but finally gave up. After all, her current priority was to protect herself and not solve mysteries.

This time, Lin Sanjiu decided to do something different. Since the train had protected her from those spooky things twice, she was certain that being on the train was safer than being out there. That was probably the reason why the woman wrote the words, "Don't alight." As for the large words that gave a different warning, there could be many reasons for it. Perhaps it wasn't even written by the same person and wasn't worth considering.

Suppressing her inexplicable uneasiness, Lin Sanjiu stepped on a green seat. She stretched her arms and stuck her Teru Teru Bozu on the train ceiling. The Teru Teru Bozu gently swayed with the movement of the train. Lin Sanjiu scrutinized it for a few minutes before she contentedly sat down on the seat in front of it.

Regardless, she wasn't going to alight from this train anytime soon.

When she looked at the train route map, she saw that the stop after Bamboo Grove Mountains Station was Kitty Provincial Hospital. Even though the word 'kitty' made the station's name cuter, there was no way anyone would alight since hospitals were known to be hotbeds for all sorts of ghost stories.

Furthermore, Lin Sanjiu had already decided that when the train doors opened at the next station, rather than waiting fearfully, she would check the driver's cabin.

"Huh?"

Lin Sanjiu straightened her back. Through the train windows, she could only see darkness. She didn't know if the train was in a tunnel or if it was just nightfall. Although the fluorescent lights in the train weren't that stable, it was still bright inside. Lin Sanjiu could see her reflection in the train window very clearly.

Naturally, Lin Sanjiu noticed the anomaly when another reflection appeared beside her own: a large white Teru Teru Bozu dangled from the train ceiling directly behind her, turning its head to face the train window and flashing a black-marker-drawn smile at Lin Sanjiu through its reflection.

The cold breeze on the back of her neck rendered Lin Sanjiu's down jacket useless, prompting her to leap from her seat and turn around with a pale face, only to find the train carriage as empty as before, with her Teru Teru Bozu still hanging in its usual size from the ceiling.

Despite this, the air in the train continued to grow colder.

"Am I too paranoid?" She steadied her heavy breathing without lowering her guard, then she switched off the vibration of her vibroblade to jab the Teru Teru Bozu.

After the doll spun twice from the jab, its black-marker-drawn eyes and smile remained unchanged, prompting Lin Sanjiu to glance at it and then the train seat, feeling a strong aversion to sitting there again.

"That's weird. Why?"

It wasn't just that particular seat that repelled Lin Sanjiu; this aversion extended to every seat she approached on the train, as if an innate repulsion prevented her from sitting.

"Forget it. Alright, I won't sit," she told herself. "Considering that this is a world of urban legends consumed by dark matter, there will always be something of... Maybe I should look at the driver's cabin first."

"It's not as if I have other plans. Plus, this might prep me for any strange happenings when we halt." Seeking solace, she decided to leave her Teru Teru Bozu behind. The train wasn't lengthy, and after navigating through about a dozen carriages, she found herself at the locked door of the driver's cabin.

Lin Sanjiu paused, hand raised in hesitation, before softly knocking on the door. She didn't know which situation was worse for her: if the door opened with a click, and she saw no one... or suddenly saw a train conductor smiling at her.

Luckily, she witnessed neither of these scenarios; the driver's cabin was quiet, and there was no sign of any movement. Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and activated her [Mosaic Censorship], pressing her hands on the lock. The lock was instantly blasted to bits, flying everywhere. The door swung open slowly.

Cautiously, Lin Sanjiu used the tip of her knife and pushed the door to open it further. Following this, she sighed in relief. She wouldn't say she was disappointed that no one was in the room. There were only rows and rows of indicators with blinking lights. The train seemed to have been programmed for auto-driving. This also explained why the train was operational even after the apocalypse.

Lin Sanjiu stored her vibroblade and suddenly felt very exhausted. She didn't know if it was because the down jacket wasn't warm enough, and she just had to endure the cold. She also didn't wish to remember all the spooky events she had experienced since she arrived in this Kisaragi Station world. Ultimately, she dragged her feet and returned to the train carriage with her Teru Teru Bozu, sitting down.

Then, her throat suddenly tightened.

It wasn't just her imagination or a feeling. Lin Sanjiu's face quickly turned purple. Whatever grabbed her slowly squeezed out the air in her lungs. She heard a knocking sound in her mind, as if her blood was attacking something. She tried to move her pupils to the corner of her eyes. From the reflection in the train window, she could see a white shroud around her neck.

'I need to get... get my vibroblade.'

Just as she felt her card appear in her hand, cold air enveloped her, and she could no longer move.

In a contradictory manner, her life slowly and rapidly left her body. After five minutes, Lin Sanjiu's body became flaccid, and she stopped struggling.

A second before she died, she saw everything. All the train seats were filled with people with gray, emotionless faces. The old lady sitting on the seat she was on stretched out a dry claw-like hand and held her arms. So, she had been sitting on that old lady.

And this was why the girl scribbled the warning for others to get down.