Chapter 192: Young Yukinoshita
"Kagura, you made it…"
Even before Hachiman Hikigaya and Tsuchimiya Kagura reached the front of the train, Isayama Yomi had already inferred from the sudden surge in the corpses' aggressive behavior that it was Kagura coming from the rear of the train.
What she hadn't expected was that Hachiman, who should have been in Chiba, had actually appeared in front of her.
"Master…"
After thoroughly clearing the entire train of corpses, Isayama Yomi brought the little girl she had previously rescued to Hachiman's side and bowed respectfully.
"Hm…"
In Yomi's eyes, Hachiman responded rather haughtily with a simple acknowledgment and then turned his face away, no longer paying her any attention.
In fact, Hachiman was thinking about a serious issue.
From the rear to the front of the train, he had killed at least over a hundred corpses.
Assuming each corpse gave 100 spirit coins at night, his spirit coin count should have increased by more than 10,000 points.
But in reality, Hachiman had only received around 5,000 points—less than half of what he had expected…
'System, what's going on?'
Although he knew an AI system couldn't arbitrarily withhold spirit coins, losing 5,000 points still irritated Hachiman.
-'The host's slain spirits did not meet the minimum rank for low-level spirits. Spirit coin reward halved.'
The system's mechanical voice sounded in his head without a hint of leniency.
'Of course… I knew it wouldn't be this easy to earn a huge number of spirit coins…"'
Shrugging, Hachiman reluctantly accepted the explanation. After all, those corpses really didn't qualify as low-level spirits.
Snapping back to reality, Hachiman's attention was immediately drawn to the little girl hiding behind Isayama Yomi.
Of course, this wasn't due to any particular fetish—it was simply that the girl looked very familiar.
However, his good memory told him he had never seen this child before. The familiarity was just an illusion, caused by the girl resembling someone he knew.
"Ugh…"
Noticing the merciless "great demon king" staring directly at her, Tsurumi Rumi grabbed onto Yomi's skirt and shrank behind her.
Yet Yomi's slender figure wasn't enough to completely hide her.
"Ah, I remember now!"
At that moment, Hachiman finally figured out why the child looked familiar.
"A slightly younger Yukinoshita!"
"Huh?"
Accidentally speaking his thoughts out loud, Hachiman immediately drew everyone's attention.
"No, it's nothing… Why is this child here?"
Noticing all eyes on him, Hachiman scratched his face, sheathed his Zangeki sword, and squatted in front of Tsurumi Rumi.
Perhaps Hachiman's deadpan eyes made him seem completely harmless.
Rumi peeked out from behind Yomi, scrutinizing Hachiman carefully.
"I noticed her at the front of the train. It seems she was intentionally left alive to impede me."
If Yomi hadn't needed to protect Rumi, she would have already cleared the train from the front to the rear. Except for the fat zombie, which might have given her some trouble despite her combat experience, there would have been no reason to draw Hachiman over.
"So that means…"
Hearing Yomi's words, Kagura suddenly realized something. She quickly covered her mouth, guilt written all over her face, unable to meet Rumi's eyes.
"Excuse me, did something happen?"
Rumi looked at the suddenly silent three with some confusion.
"Um, little girl, what's your name?"
"Tsurumi Rumi. I'm already in sixth grade, not a little kid!"
Looking at Hachiman, Rumi introduced herself and objected to being called a child.
"Alright, Rumi, I'm afraid we have some bad news…"
Hachiman's expression tensed as he tried to figure out how to tell her that her family had already died.
But Rumi rolled her eyes at his hesitation.
"I say, big brother, you don't mean to think my parents are in there, right?"
Suppressing her disgust, Rumi pointed to the pile of corpses behind Kagura.
Seeing the three stiffen at her words, Rumi sighed, a note of helplessness in her voice.
"I already said I'm not a child. Can't I ride the train alone?"
"Well…."
Hearing her, the three of them looked a little embarrassed. Among elementary school students, riding the train alone at night was indeed rare—they couldn't be blamed for misunderstanding.
"In any case, if that's not the case, isn't that a relief?"
Finally, Kagura spoke to lighten the mood.
"That's true…"
Seeing that the newcomers weren't as fearsome as imagined, Rumi fully relaxed and nodded in agreement. Although she didn't understand why the passengers had suddenly turned into corpses, she was relieved that her mother had not been affected.
"Rumi, could you come with us for a while?"
Yomi reached out, gently stroking Rumi's hair as she asked.
"Of course. I suppose it's some measure that requires me to keep things secret, right?"
Rumi said this while looking at Hachiman. Though vague, she sensed that Hachiman was the leader among the three.
To her surprise, Hachiman admitted he didn't know either.
"Sorry, I'm not working with them. But don't worry—they won't do anything weird to you…"
Though curious about how Yomi would enforce the secrecy, Hachiman had been away from home for a long time. He wasn't interested in trivial details.
Exiting the train at the front, Rumi set her feet on solid ground and looked back at the towering train with lingering fear.
"It's okay. This was just an accident."
Hachiman's gentle voice reached her, and a string of prayer beads appeared in front of her.
"This is… a spiritual tool?"
Seeing what Hachiman produced, both Yomi and Kagura's expressions changed slightly.
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