And because he hadn’t gotten too close, nor made any noise to startle the old man, the Half Ghost behind Watanabe Gou showed no sign of lifting its head; this was a good thing for him.
Next, his target was a female student, then a middle‑aged woman...
After he had tried all five people, Watanabe Gou’s heart went cold halfway; these five all seed fine, their bodies didn’t tremble, they didn’t even use the reflection of the window to observe him. In Watanabe Gou’s understanding, this was absolutely impossible. Yamamoto Chunai did not have that kind of psychological resilience. If it were Yandeta Chiyoda, it was still possible.
During this period he hadn’t stopped observing the n in the carriage either, but that was just as fruitless. Everyone here was acting too normal, so normal it made one’s heart clench.
He tried to put himself in their shoes and wondered if the two of them had sensed sothing, or had seen him coming through the partition door between the two carriages, and that was why they’d avoided him.
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it felt, so he kept moving forward and reached Car No. 1, but he still ca up empty here.
There was no one who, at a glance, obviously had sothing wrong; this didn’t match his understanding of Yamamoto Chunai.
"This is bad..." Watanabe Gou stopped hesitating and imdiately turned back. He didn’t know why this was happening, but he knew there had to be sothing he hadn’t accounted for.
He decided to give up on Yamamoto Chunai and Xiao Lin Zhengyan, and go back to Car No. 5 to see what was going on there.
When he stood at the rear of Car No. 5, it was still the sa as before. He still didn’t see any sign of Hirano Yuuhi or Yandeta Chiyoda. Looking around, all he saw were utterly unfamiliar faces.
This scene almost drove Watanabe Gou mad. If it had been a newcor, they would probably have broken down on the spot. He had absolutely no clues from any predecessors to draw on; every rule in this Ghost Train had to be figured out by him.
And as the pioneer of the team, he would pay a heavy price for this—very likely with his life.
He tried to speak, wanting to communicate with teammates possibly hiding among the passengers, but he only opened his mouth silently and couldn’t make any sound at all.
Of course, he understood that even if he could talk, he wouldn’t get any response. Right now, everyone was too busy hiding from him.
There weren’t many won in Car No. 5, only four in total. After a brief test, Watanabe Gou gave up.
To be honest, he was already sowhat in despair. He even suspected that no matter who it was, once they received a Ghost Train Ticket and boarded this old train packed with Fierce Ghosts, there would be no way out—only tornt before death.
Disheartened, he went to the last carriage, which was Car No. 1; his targets were still the won there.
There were more won in Car No. 1, eight in all. Their ages, looks, clothing, professions all seed different, but this larger number also allowed a faint trace of hope to erge in Watanabe Gou’s previously deadened heart.
He speculated whether the two won from Car No. 2, after sensing that sothing was off, had both co here to hide.
It wasn’t impossible. After all, everyone knew he was the one holding the Ghost Train Ticket tonight, and he was in Car No. 4; Car No. 5 was only one door away from Car No. 4.
He even suspected that as soon as he first showed signs of abnormality, the two teammates hiding in Car No. 5 had already noticed, then quietly slipped away to avoid being caught by him on his way back.
At the sa ti, Watanabe Gou sharply noticed that the train had begun to slow down. This ant the Ghost Train was about to reach a station.
He had no doubt that the next station would be Youjian Mountain Station. He was clutching the ticket in his hand.
Only soone holding the ticket could arrive at the real Youjian Mountain Station.
There was no ti. He had to speed up. He judged that there were at most only a few minutes left.
This ti, with his previous experience, he really did notice sothing. He quickly locked onto three of the eight won.
Each of these three had small flaws in their reactions. For example, when he ca close they suddenly blinked, or their bodies were a bit stiff, or so lifting‑hand movent was slightly unnatural.
None of these were big issues, certainly not enough to confirm they were teammates in disguise, but under imnse pressure, Watanabe Gou’s Perception was now pushed to its limit.
There was no more ti. He decided to pick one of these three and gamble on it. Live or die, he’d leave it to fate.
The first woman looked like a student, standing with her back against the door. She was suspected because her posture was too dangerous.
After all, the safety asures on train doors in this era weren’t very well developed. But it was also possible this girl was just reckless.
The second suspect was a middle‑aged woman in a business suit and skirt. One of her buttons was done up in the wrong hole. In Japan’s workplace culture, which placed great emphasis on personal appearance, this was rare. It felt more like she had abruptly changed identities and couldn’t reconcile them for a mont, fumbling her buttons in a rush.
The third was a fashionable young woman dressed youthfully and stylishly: a knit cardigan with a short leather skirt, low‑cut leather shoes, light makeup on a neat short‑haired face, and a pair of very eye‑catching pearl earrings at her ears—she drew a lot of attention.
The suspicion toward her wasn’t because of how she reacted to him, but because of the woman herself. In Watanabe Gou’s subconscious, won who dressed like this should be fairly confident and poised, but this woman gave off a weak air, as if she were afraid of sothing.
The seat she chose was strange too. It was in an area with the most people, with passengers on both sides, as if she deliberately wanted to hide herself within the crowd.
Yet when he had approached earlier to test her, she hadn’t shown any obvious flaw. For the mont, this left Watanabe Gou unsure. After all, he only had one chance, and there were three possible targets.
After thinking for a few seconds, Watanabe Gou turned away. He decided to feint retreat—turning his back on the three won and walking outward, pretending to leave, while using the reflection in the window to secretly watch their reactions out of the corner of his eye.
Unfortunately, by the ti he walked to the partition door between Cars No. 1 and No. 2, none of the three had given him so much as a glance; they didn’t even lift their heads. Everything was so natural, so calm.
The train’s deceleration was becoming more and more obvious. Watanabe Gou clenched his teeth. There was no other way; he had to gamble.
Just as he was about to turn around and randomly grab one of them, his peripheral vision inadvertently swept over the partition door between the two carriages. Through the glass on the door, he saw that at so point a book had appeared on the previously flat floor of Car No. 5.
He had just walked through Car No. 5. He was certain there had definitely not been a book on the floor earlier.
Clinging to a final shred of hope, he passed through the partition door, entered Car No. 5, and, with difficulty, picked up the book. When he opened the first page, his pupils couldn’t help but contract sharply.
On the slightly cheap paper, soone had written a slanted line of words in steel pen: "Car 1, pretty girl, pearl earrings."
It was a hint, and it instantly made Watanabe Gou think of one of his three suspects: that attractive, very stylishly dressed woman. It was her!
The train was already showing signs of coming to a full stop. Outside the window it was no longer pitch‑black; a faint light was streaming in, that dark‑gray, icy kind of light.
No ti. No ti left to verify whether this hint was true or false. He decided to gamble. Things had already co to this anyway.
Watanabe Gou dropped the book and turned back toward Car No. 1. He fixed his gaze on the young woman sitting in a slightly cornered seat, while deliberately making his footsteps louder to put as much pressure on her as possible. This too was a tactic.
As he drew closer and the target beca more and more certain, the woman finally showed a barely perceptible flaw. Her right hand, which was resting on the seat and appeared relaxed, had its fingers tremble ever so slightly.
Although she suppressed it the very next second, it was still noticed. With the target already clearly in his sights, such a flaw was fatal.
In the very second before the train ca to a complete stop, Watanabe Gou struck, shoving the ticket in his hand straight into the woman’s collar.
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