Chapter 23: An Unreachable Dream

The chaotic parking lot now resembled a gigantic cage.

Cars waiting to pay and leave were packed bumper to bumper in dense rows.

Every vehicle had become a trapped beast—unable to move, forced to watch the chaos unfolding only a short distance away.

When the prison-clothed man, crazed like a demon, appeared in everyone’s sight, the people inside their cars were restrained by seat belts and steel frames. Aside from staring in terror and frantically locking their doors, there was almost nothing they could do.

Ironically, the people who had not yet gotten into their cars could still flee on foot, desperately escaping this sudden source of danger.

Nakano Masao narrowed his eyes slightly, the approaching ragged figure reflected within his dark pupils.

That person was somewhat dangerous, but not enough to truly concern him.

The ones he was more wary of were the pursuing police officers behind him—especially the two abnormal-looking enforcers wielding bloodstained katanas.

Killing them would be easy.

The troublesome part was the endless complications that would follow afterward.

They were backed by the machinery of the state. Naturally, he could not casually expose his abilities in front of them.

At that thought, he subtly lowered his head by the smallest margin—not out of fear, but to cleverly avoid the direct line of sight of the two swordsmen.

He could not fake a panicked expression, nor did he need to. But reducing the chance of drawing special attention was always the safer option.

Meanwhile, in the passenger seat, Risa’s heartbeat was already racing so fast it felt ready to burst out of her throat.

She could also feel the undisguised intent directed straight at her.

The prisoner’s gaze swept rapidly across every passing car window like a searchlight. He was not charging around blindly like a headless fly—he was clearly searching desperately for something.

And then—

Swish!

Their eyes collided through the windshield across roughly a dozen meters of noisy chaos.

Risa saw a pair of bloodshot yet unnaturally bright eyes carrying a kind of frenzied hope.

And the instant those eyes locked onto her, they exploded with terrifying intensity.

Found you!

Though no words were spoken, Risa somehow understood the scream hidden within that look.

The next second, the man seemed injected with berserk strength.

His legs slammed against the pavement, his body almost turning into an afterimage as he charged forward at an inhuman speed.

He swung his already shredded and bleeding fist, carrying the determination of someone with nothing left to lose, and smashed it toward the passenger-side window.

Bang—Crash!

After a heavy impact, the reinforced laminated glass instantly exploded outward in spiderweb cracks before caving inward and shattering.

Fragments flew everywhere.

A dirt- and blood-covered hand with bulging veins suddenly thrust through the opening, reaching precisely for the unlock switch inside the door.

“Ah!”

Dodging the flying glass, Risa let out a short scream and instinctively leaned back.

“Mom!”

Only then did Nobuhito seem to recover from his extreme shock. The color drained completely from the boy’s face, yet he burst forth with astonishing courage, actually trying to squeeze through the gap between the seats to block that terrifying hand with his own tiny body.

“Nobuhito, don’t move!”

At that critical instant, Risa reacted faster than thought.

It was not bravery, but some impulsive instinct mixed with maternal protectiveness.

She abruptly shoved Nobuhito back into his seat with one hand, using her own body to shield him from the arm reaching through the broken window as she blurted out:

“Don’t hurt him!”

The words came out in Japanese. Her voice trembled, but the protective meaning behind them was unmistakable.

The bloody hand groping for the switch strangely paused for a fraction of a second.

Through the shattered window, the man’s bloodshot eyes quickly glanced at Nobuhito behind her, then deeply at Risa’s face—filled with terror yet desperately maintaining composure.

A fleeting, unreadable emotion crossed his gaze.

Then, in that brief instant that felt almost frozen—

Vroooom—BOOM!

The silent, stone-like Nakano Masao suddenly slammed down on the accelerator without warning.

The engine let out a suppressed roar.

The front wheels spun violently with a shrill screech and the smell of burning rubber as the entire vehicle jolted violently.

The front of the car abruptly jerked leftward and slammed hard into the bumper of the adjacent vehicle with a loud crash.

The powerful momentum and inertia violently flung the man—halfway through the window—outward.

“Ugh—!”

He groaned as he crashed awkwardly onto the lane beside the car.

That collision made the already chaotic scene even louder.

“Surround him!”

“Don’t let him escape again!”

The police surged forward like a black tide.

Blade-light and shields reflected the cold sunlight as they rapidly closed in around the fallen prisoner, about to completely encircle him.

Struggling to his feet, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, the man cast one final glance toward the shaken Risa inside the car.

That gaze no longer held madness.

Instead, it carried a deep, almost mournful sorrow.

Then he abruptly turned around, exploding with the last of his strength as he desperately charged toward the more sparsely packed side barrier, attempting one final breakout.

Everyone’s attention—the police, the spectators, even Nakano Masao’s coldly evaluating gaze—was drawn toward this last desperate attempt.

No one noticed that, in the instant the man was flung from the car window and withdrew his arm, a tiny crumpled paper ball stained with dark red blood quietly slipped through the broken gap and rolled beneath the passenger seat into the shadows.

And beneath the cover of her skirt, a cold, trembling hand moved with astonishing speed, clutching that still faintly warm paper tightly within her sweaty palm.

Risa lowered her head, her long eyelashes hiding the storm raging in her eyes.

Inside her hand, the bloodstained paper quickly crumbled into powder.

Without warning, a line of text appeared before her eyes.

[If I’m still alive, I’ll come find you.]

This was… that man’s message?

Delivered in such an inconceivable way?

Who exactly was he?

Not only could he speak Chinese, he could also use methods so obviously beyond common sense.

Did he know “Nakano Risa”?

Or did he know… the soul occupying Risa’s body?

That line—“I’ll come find you”—

Was it a threat? A promise? Or a cry for help?

Risa bit hard against the inside of her mouth, forcing herself to remain outwardly calm through pain.

Her nails dug deep into the remaining paper dust in her palm.

Her “husband” sat beside her. This brief silence did not mean things were over.

Her son Nobuhito, still shaken yet frighteningly perceptive, was perhaps watching her from the back seat even now.

She could not reveal the slightest flaw.

She could not show any extra attention toward this bizarre event.

Damn it.

When she had first transmigrated and fused memories, discovering she was in Japan had subconsciously made her sigh in relief. At least, she had thought, she’d arrived in a foreign land vaguely connected to the culture of her homeland—something relatively familiar.

But who could have imagined that after only a few short days—

Beside her was a “husband” suspected of being something nonhuman.

Invisible watchers lingered around the house.

Her son was a psychic child capable of seeing ghosts.

And now even a simple outing had led to rampaging animals and a bizarre supernatural prisoner…

The waters of this parallel world ran far deeper than she had ever imagined.

The ordinary life she once longed for had already become an unreachable dream.