Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

If all goes well, the auditorium should be safer. As long as Shigure Kira follows my instructions, with the grave incense suppressing them and the auditorium shielded, no bizarre entity should be able to harm them.

Once the bizarre entities revive, Shigure Kira will immediately send out a dazzling signal, and I, Li Mo, can complete the third day's ritual alone.

That way, both the second and third days can pass without incident.

"Seems a little too easy," Li Mo said, taking a huge gulp of cola. (not)

"Huh?"

Li Mo stood up quickly, focusing his attention on the darkness above the auditorium.

A magnificent waterfall of frost erupted from the ground, surging powerfully, its scattered ice crystals like a sky full of twinkling stars.

"Very good, looks like this should be solved without a hitch."

Li Mo activated the broadcasting equipment, turning on the microphone, all lines showing as active.

But just as Li Mo was about to speak, the unexpected happened.

Ten seconds later, the first frost waterfall hadn't even disappeared before a second one appeared.

"..."

Li Mo frowned slightly, putting down the microphone. He looked towards the auditorium but couldn't see anything.

Only the faint trembling of the ground told Li Mo that something had gone wrong there.

Inside the auditorium, everyone stared fiercely at the small child with pale blue skin. Not a single healthy hue remained on its body; its dry lips, rotten face—all proof of its identity.

"Damn it...!" Shigure Kira gripped her greatsword tightly, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

She had miscalculated.

Just as Li Mo predicted, Shigure Kira did encounter many survivors upon returning to the auditorium, all controlled and kept far from the black coffin, but not outside the auditorium.

She'd steeled herself and driven them outside, and they had indeed complied, not resisting.

Shigure Kira had lowered her guard when a mother suddenly stopped to ask for food, saying it was for her child, she herself didn't need any.

After a moment of hesitation, Shigure Kira decided to let the child come get it.

And told the older survivors to move away from the black coffin.

The child seemed normal, but right at 7:00 AM, it completely changed, turning into a projectile aimed straight for the back of the black coffin.

Shigure Kira reacted immediately, cutting its neck with a single sword strike, separating its head from its body.

But it was no use.

Because the head could still move, quickly devouring the second grave incense stick.

"Captain... what do we do? The second grave incense was eaten."

"What about the senpai? Captain, you left with that senpai, where did he go now?"

"Yeah, why didn't senpai come back with you?"

A barrage of questions erupted, but the tremors in the ground snapped everyone back to reality.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The head began to twitch, jumping up and down, hitting the ground and heading towards the auditorium.

Without the incense's suppression, the auditorium lost its shielded perception. They were all about to face a mountain of heads attacking from outside.

"Open the black coffin! Throw out the corpse inside! Get as many people inside as you can!"

Shigure Kira's face was grim. She fired a clear signal into the sky, deviating from Li Mo's plan.

The original plan was for the grave incense to protect the auditorium, and when the head ghosts stirred, that would signify the start of the third day's ritual. Shigure Kira would then signal, and Li Mo would complete the third day's announcements alone.

But this sudden turn of events completely threw off the plan.

With the grave incense gone, they couldn't tell when the third day's ritual would begin.

So, Shigure Kira sent out a second signal. She was betting that Li Mo could guess what was happening on her side.

"Captain, you come in too!"

Many people scrambled into the black coffin, but Shigure Kira and Saori Tsuruha had no intention of going in.

"Aren't you going in?"

Shigure Kira ignored her teammates' cries, turning instead to the little girl who always clung to Li Mo.

"Where's Big Brother?" Saori Tsuruha asked.

Shigure Kira pointed towards the school building, "He's over there completing the third day's ritual by himself."

"Then why aren't you going in?"

Shigure Kira walked towards the door, saying, word by word, "Because I have to pay the price for my mistake."

Meanwhile, Li Mo, in the broadcast room, immediately understood what was going on after seeing the two signals.

If the intention was to tell him to hurry with the third day's ritual, then there would have been a long pause between the two signals, the second only appearing after the first disappeared.

The second appearing right after the first meant that there was an emergency.

Li Mo guessed that the ghost had succeeded in destroying the grave incense or the auditorium's shielding, the bizarre entities revived prematurely, and the people inside the auditorium were in dire straits.

"...So we failed."

Li Mo muttered. Either side failing meant they'd both be buried here. Even if he wanted to help the auditorium, he couldn't make it in time.

"Hehehe! Dead! Dead! Someone's dead! Someone's already dead!"

The gloating broadcast voice seemed to be popping champagne in Li Mo's mind, celebrating its victory.

Li Mo slumped onto the sofa, looking up, unsure of what to do.

Die again?

No, if he died again, he might not even be able to maintain his human will.

What should he do?

Li Mo didn't blame anyone. After all, he had chosen to trust others instead of trusting himself.

But even if he had another chance, he couldn't make any better choices.

Because, whether facing the upside-down Theresa or the ghost in the auditorium, newcomers like Shigure Kira couldn't possibly handle things as well as he could. He'd only made a temporary judgment; he couldn't have prepared for this in advance.

They had come prepared.

Faced with the upside-down Theresa and the nauseating sight of her spine connecting to her inverted head, it was already good enough to not be overwhelmed by fear and maintain normal thinking.

Li Mo didn't expect them to find the pattern and solve it.

"…"

Li Mo thought for a long time, his defeated gaze finally settling on the notebook in his hands.

"I don't have any better options now. I can't tell when the third day's ritual will start. If I do it prematurely, not only will it be useless, but it will accelerate the arrival of the fourth day's ritual, completely reversing the process."

Li Mo looked at the exposed spine on his back, a rare bitter smile appearing on his usually emotionless face.

"Prove your worth to me, or you'll be buried here with me."

"Of course, I don't have the ability to completely bury you now. Maybe one day a new host will find you."

"But that won't be any time soon."

Li Mo finally opened the notebook, a thick smell of blood wafting from the first page.