"So that's how it is. I get it now. Thanks, Saiki."
Saiki said goodbye to Akiyuki at the door.
(Yare yare daze, so it was just for something this small.)
After Saiki's explanation, Akiyuki finally understood.
She had come specifically to ask how to use the candle. When Saiki asked, it turned out she had also heard from the ghost patients, but she didn't believe them and insisted on coming to ask Saiki before she could feel at ease.
She even asked about a ton of detailed things, but they were way too detailed—like which side of the bed to sleep on for more safety, where to position her head, and...
[This is way too cautious.]
Saiki glanced in the direction Akiyuki had left, shook his head, went back into the room, sat on the stool, propped his left cheek on his hand, and stared at the clock that had somehow appeared on the wall at some point.
8 o'clock.
9 o'clock.
10 o'clock.
"Tick tock tick tock..."
The room was very quiet, with only the sound of the clock's second hand moving.
Finally, 11 o'clock arrived. The lights went out, and the room was instantly enveloped in darkness, with only faint moonlight seeping in from the window.
Night had fallen.
[This...]
But it was very weak. The room was pitch black, yet Saiki could see everything clearly.
[There aren't any ghosts at all!]
The system sat on Saiki's shoulder and pointed at the talisman stuck on the door: "Saiki, did you forget? I gave you that talisman that blocks 99.999% of ghosts from coming in."
[You added an extra 9.]
"That's not important."
System: "If you want to see ghosts, you'd have to tear the talisman off."
[No thanks. Not needed.]
Saiki slowly walked to the bed, took off his outer jacket, lay down, pulled the blanket over himself, turned to the side, and coldly stared at the door.
[I already saw them.]
(=°Д°=)
System: "You saw them?"
Saiki nodded.
[But they detour even farther away from my room. Looks like your talisman is actually pretty useful. I don't even need to light the candle.]
"Hmph! Of course. Don't you know who I am? Anything produced by the system is premium quality."
[I already told you there's nothing to be proud of about that, but...]
Saiki was about to say more when he felt something wriggling inside the blanket.
[Hey! System, don't suddenly get bigger and crawl into my blanket!]
The palm-sized humanoid system flew to Saiki's cheek, scratched its head, pointed at itself in confusion, and said: "I'm right here!"
"..."
[You're here? Then what's in my blanket is...]
Saiki and the system exchanged a glance. The latter dove into Saiki's body.
"Ghost... it seems like a ghost!"
[You're the system. It can't see you anyway. And do systems normally get scared of ghosts?]
"I'm not scared. I'm just looking for something."
The system flew back out and stared at the unidentified lump that had suddenly swollen up in Saiki's blanket.
Saiki slowly placed his hand on the blanket, gripped the edge, and gradually pulled it upward.
He saw something the size of a three-year-old child lying inside the blanket.
It slowly raised its head. Its pupils were pitch black. When it saw Saiki, its mouth slowly stretched all the way to its ears, as if it had seen something fun, and it let out a strange laugh.
Saiki quickly closed the blanket again, his face darkening as he grumbled.
[What kind of trash talisman is this!]
"This is one of those ultra-low-probability ghosts that can get in, and it's really weak. Just the type that harasses people. As long as you pretend you can't see it, it won't hurt you. Even if it realizes you can see it, it still can't do any real damage. It seems like it's just for scaring people!"
The system pulled out a small book and explained from the side.
Saiki sighed. He was about to lean against the headboard when he suddenly felt a chill wind. The room's temperature dropped several degrees in an instant, and a creepy aura rolled in.
Saiki's eyes instinctively flicked to the ceiling, and his mouth twitched.
[So... this one too?]
"What?"
The system followed Saiki's gaze and saw a woman hanging upside down from the ceiling.
She wasn't wearing shoes; her bare feet were planted on the ceiling. Long black hair hung down naturally, her back facing Saiki.
She looked utterly terrifying.
System: "Ah, what is this?!"
[I was about to ask the same thing.]
The woman hanging upside down on the ceiling felt a bit off. Her position slowly lowered while still facing away from Saiki, but her body was gradually shifting toward him.
Until her long hair draped onto Saiki's blanket, and the back of her head was only an arm's length from Saiki's face.
Saiki didn't move, but the person opposite him did.
The female ghost's body was completely facing away from Saiki, yet her arm twisted around unnaturally, rotating a full circle. Her hand reached back from behind her head and slowly parted her hair.
What appeared from the back of her head wasn't a skull—it was a face. The skin was rotting, partially obscured by mosaic-like blurring, making only a vague outline visible through the haze.
(So ugly.)
It was the kind of face that would give normal people nightmares if they saw it at night.
The system watched Saiki remain completely unfazed and tried to warn him: "Saik..."
Saiki moved first. With a calm expression, he flipped open the blanket to reveal the little ghost underneath.
The little ghost noticed too—there was a female ghost hanging upside down above it.
Before the two ghosts could catch up, Saiki, under the little ghost's puzzled gaze, extended his palm. He paused in midair for a second, as if charging power. The air froze, and a faint green aura shimmered around his hand.
Smack!!
One slap.
Saiki slapped the female ghost into nothingness, scattering her completely.
Seeing this, terror surged through the little ghost. In the instant it froze in place, Saiki had already extended his middle finger, pressing it against the little ghost's forehead like he was about to flick it.
Under the little ghost's terrified eyes, Saiki showed a slight smile.
[Goodbye.]
Bang!!
The little ghost vanished without a trace, gone from the room in an instant.
The room fell silent. Saiki snapped his fingers, and the candle next to the table instantly lit up.
The room grew a bit brighter. The surroundings calmed, the eerie aura vanished, and the temperature returned to normal.
System: "Saiki, I just checked—that ghost was a reverse ghost. They often move upside down. Her face is on the back of her head. She always walks on the ceiling. But just like that little ghost, she's only good for scaring people. She can't actually hurt normal humans."
[It does a lot of damage to the psyche, though.]
Saiki's eyes drooped slightly at the corners. He turned to look at the talisman stuck on the door.
[This thing is straight-up garbage.]
The system didn't know what to say. It poked its two fingers together in front of itself and muttered quietly: "But... that's exactly what it said in the shop. What can I do? It's not my fault."
Saiki: ...
(Even though it was just an internal complaint, he had somewhat believed in the talisman. Now it seems it does have some effect, but for him it's basically the same as having nothing. Whether big ghosts or small ones come in, the ending is the same.)
Saiki lay back on the bed and reminded the system.
[Right, remember to wake me at 6 tomorrow morning.]
"I'm a system, not an alarm clock."
[You heard me?]
"Yeah, I heard."
Lying on the bed, Saiki didn't close his eyes to sleep. Instead, he stared straight at the door—or more precisely, at the darkest spot behind the door leading into the corridor, where a group of fast-moving figures were scurrying around wildly.
...
"Tap tap tap..."
The room seemed very quiet, with only the ticking of the clock. But if you listened carefully while lying in bed, you could still hear strange sounds from outside.
Outside,
in the 6th-floor corridor.
"Thud thud..."
"Thud thud thud..."
Urgent footsteps echoed, as if someone was running frantically.
A one-armed young man clutched his arm, fleeing in panic. He glanced back into the pitch-black darkness behind him—no one was chasing him, only a gust of cold wind.
But he didn't dare slow down even a little. His breathing was ragged, chest tight, head dizzy, vision blurring—he felt like he'd collapse any second. Yet his eyes stayed fixed on Room 603 not far ahead.
That was Saiki's room.
Saiki suddenly opened his eyes wide on the bed, sat up, looked toward the door, paused for a moment, then lay back down—but he didn't close his eyes.
[Yare yare daze...]
Right behind Saiki's door, a hand stopped at the doorknob, less than two centimeters away.
The owner of that hand was the unlucky guy from this afternoon whose arm had been torn off.
His arm trembled, but it couldn't advance even an inch. His mouth made "woo woo woo" sounds. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared back in terror.
Thump!!
He collapsed to the ground. Something unknown began slowly dragging his body backward. A black arm covered his mouth. The thing in the darkness grabbed his feet and pulled him—the dead man—into the deepest corner.
He stared desperately at the doorknob so close yet so far away, with no way to reach it. He could only be dragged into the darkness.
Less than 10 seconds later, the noise stopped.
System: "Sigh~ Saiki, I thought you'd step in to save him?"
[What nonsense are you talking? I'm not that kind of good person.]
"But you sat up and looked at him earlier."
[That was just curiosity.]
"If someone really knocked on the door, would you help?"
"..."
Saiki fell silent. After a few seconds, he said:
[I wouldn't...]
...
...
The next day.
"Saiki, time to wake up! It's 6 o'clock!!"
A slender hand rubbed Saiki's face. Saiki slowly opened his eyes and saw a blue-haired, blue-eyed girl straddling him.
"You're up!"
So the question is: what do you do when you wake up in the morning to find a lively, youthful blue-haired beauty sitting on you?
Hug her and go back to sleep
We should first...
[That kind of boring stuff doesn't matter either way.]
Saiki sat up halfway and placed his hand on the system's face. The sudden contact made the entire system look awkward and start stammering: "I..."
[Get off me.]
Saiki pushed downward. The system tumbled to the floor.
[Ah]
Saiki yawned, rubbed his eyes lazily, walked to the clock on the wall, and checked the time: 6 o'clock.
"You... you actually did that to me!"
[Who told you to suddenly get bigger and sit on me?]
"It's because you wouldn't wake up no matter how I called you! I had no choice!!"
Saiki hesitated for a moment, put his hand to his chin, and thought.
[Oh right! Last night the ghosts outside weren't loud, but they were still too noisy, so I blocked my hearing.]
After a quick tidy-up, Saiki opened the door and immediately saw a real claw mark right at his doorstep—like someone had been dragged away, fingers desperately scraping the floor and leaving bloody trails.
The marks stretched across to the opposite wall and disappeared.