Cherish the time

"Hmph... That's true." The man snorted softly, waved his hand, and retracted the mist covering Shinto's body, "Come up."

"Eh?" Shinto was a little confused.

"Either come up, or let go." The man got into Lincoln, leaving such a sentence, "Or do you want your fingers to be pinched off?"

After the three of them got into the car, the man tapped lightly on the partition between the driver's seat and the car started smoothly.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Zhusheng Wujian, the head of the Zhusheng family." The man took out a plain white folding fan from nowhere, and when he opened it suddenly, a strange crest appeared in front of Shintosa. in mind.

"Hello...I'm Shinto Hikari." Shinto sat and bent over.

"My respectful greetings, I am Sakai Fujiwara. ’ Zuo Wei knelt down on the ground, and made a big salute with his head touching the ground, “I don’t know the status of your lord, but your words and deeds have offended me a lot before, but I still hope that your lord will be Haihan.” 』

"Zoe—? 』Shinto obviously didn't know what happened.

"You don't need to be so formal." Zhusheng waved his hand, the folding fan in his hand disappeared like mist, looked at Shinto and said, "What do you want to ask?"

"Excuse me!" Although Shinto didn't understand what was going on with Zuo's attitude, he quickly responded to the question, "Is there any way to make Zuo's existence last longer?"

"—It is thanks to you that I was able to find Lina." Zhusheng added, "So, three questions."

"Eh?"

"I will answer your three questions." Zhusheng Wujian patted Lina's head in his arms, "Ask me after you think about it."

"Then the first question is what I just asked." Shinto said without hesitation.

"Go find someone from Abe's family." Zhusheng yawned, "The second one."

"What do you mean—!" Shinto panicked, "Doesn't that mean you didn't say anything!"

"Little light! But Zuo Wei immediately stopped him, "Don't be presumptuous!" 』

Zhusheng Wujian glanced at Zuo Wei indifferently, "You are quite vigilant."

"Please don't care about the child's unreasonable offense! Zuo Wei still maintained the posture of kneeling, and begged with his hands on the ground.

"You were attracted by the spirit of Abe chess, so you were transformed into a spirit after death," Zhusheng yawned, and said slowly as if suddenly showing mercy, "Thousands of years have passed, and the power of the chess soul is running out. It’s been a few years since the smoke disappeared.”

After finishing speaking, he added, "If you understand, then hurry up and ask the second question."

"Then how can I—"

"May I ask you, is there any problem with Xiao Guang's current situation?" ’Zuo Weiping stretched out the folding fan in his hand to signal Xiaoguang to shut up, and asked himself.

"A spirit body in his 50s lives in a teenage body, and the wear and tear is very serious." Zhusheng said indifferently, "Fortunately, the original spirit body of this body was devoured, and the strength of the soul was enhanced. It also adds a little coherence, but it doesn't last long."

"—After all, there is no second spirit body for you to devour~ What?" He glanced in the direction of Shinto with a playful and sinister look, and his tone at the end of the sentence had a strange rise.

Shinto seemed not able to understand what he was saying, "Swallow... what is it..."

"It literally means hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!" Lina, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke, still using that weird and inexplicable tone, "Tear up?, crush?, swallow?, digest? —Two people become one person? ——Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!"

Shinto suddenly remembered the dream of that night.

...

The little black house...

The weak 12-year-old self...

And the tears that rolled down the corners of the boy's eyes when he finally merged into the black room...

……

"However, your wavelengths are really in sync." Regardless of Shinto's absent-minded expression, Takebuo yawned and continued, "If you don't pay attention, you won't be able to tell that the inside has been swapped."

"Excuse me—" Zuo Wei had recovered from his surprise, and quickly asked the next question, "How to solve Xiaoguang's problem?" 』

"Don't you care about the devoured spirit body at all?" Zhusheng sneered, "It's really a touching friendship."

"—But unfortunately, this problem... can't be solved." Zhusheng patted Lina's head, "This child also survives in this world by being possessed constantly—even though he has been protected by the lords of the past , but never lived past the age of 20."

Lina puffed up her cheeks, and buried her head in Zhushengwujian's arms again.

"The question is over, you can leave now." Zhusheng Wujian knocked on the partition again, and the Lincoln car slowly stopped on the side of the road, "Please get out of the car."

From leaving in the car to returning home, Shinto Hikaru and Fujiwara Sakai didn't say a word.

The facts they learned today have already exceeded their tolerance, and numbness has become the only reaction that a person and a ghost can make.

It wasn't until Shinto climbed onto the bed to lie down that he stumbled out his first words since getting off the car.

"It's...my fault...it's all...my fault..."

"Xiao Guang..." Zuo Wei didn't know what to say, he just knelt on the ground and looked at his profile with worry.

"When I...was found to be sick...uh...not reconciled,...okay, not reconciled..."

"... So I... woo... I started praying..."

"So much, so much... hiccup, so much,... see you again..."

"Think about it, think about it, think about it, think about it...and play chess with you again..."

"Most, uh...the most important thing is..."

"I really want to... I really want to, I really want to live—!"

He turned his face to the other side, and the whole person hugged the quilt into a ball, leaving only a whimpering voice.

"...so I...have always spent this lifetime..."

"Take it as, hiccup,...stolen thing..."

"...But I was wrong... Woo... Wrong!" He suddenly roared, like a beast struggling before death, uttering a mournful cry, "...This is not stolen! This is snatched!"

"I snatched it from my 12-year-old self! Suddenly, I snatched it—!"

"No, no—!"

"This is the precious time I robbed at the price of killing people!"

Zuo Wei bit his lower lip and sat there without speaking.

After a silence, Shinto laughed out of the blue, "...Ha, it's outrageous to cry like this when you're over 50 years old." He picked up the quilt with his hands and began to wipe it.

"There's nothing wrong with crying. "Zuo Wei held the folding fan in his hand, closed his eyes and said, "I can still feel the temperature of tears, isn't it the proof of being alive. 』

"..."

"To still be able to truly feel the pain in my heart, isn't that also a proof of being alive. 』

"..."

"If this is what you dream of, the time you get at the price of killing people," he opened his eyes suddenly, looking straight at Shinto who turned his head to face him at some point, "——you really Do you have the luxury of time to worry about it? ! 』