Chapter 1819: Chapter 1040: Found You
Very soon, Sato Kojiro’s file came through. Wang Yue Qianxun handed the phone to Yang Xiao. A video was playing on it, very clear, with a middle-aged man at the center giving a speech.
The middle-aged man was in a suit and tie, looking every inch the business elite. It was none other than Sato Shouta’s prideful father, Sato Kojiro.
After watching the video closely, Yang Xiao let out a long breath of stale air, then slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the man in the rearview mirror had already become the spitting image of Sato Kojiro.
She had been prepared for this, but when it actually unfolded right in front of her, Wang Yue Qianxun still couldn’t help being shaken. The strange feeling was beyond words.
"Miss Wang Yue, thank you for your hard work." Yang Xiao spoke—and what came out was unmistakably Sato Kojiro’s voice. Even the cadence and the tiny micro-expressions in his face were almost identical, as if a dead man had climbed out of his grave.
"What a terrifying ability..." Wang Yue Qianxun took a deep breath, thinking to herself.
Next, Yang Xiao went through the information on the man who had stolen Sato Kojiro’s family fortune. His name was Sakata Yoshiji. The photo showed a fair, chubby guy with small, single-lidded eyes, cramped features, a suit that made him look vaguely respectable. He seemed quite pleased with himself, a barely noticeable smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
He carved Sakata Yoshiji’s face into his memory. This bastard was currently living in the same villa that used to be Sato Shouta’s home—that was the house as it existed in Sato Shouta’s memories.
He was living the life that should have been the woman’s. This bastard had taken everything.
Wang Yue Qianxun’s people had already hacked into the villa’s surveillance system and confirmed that the bastard Sakata Yoshiji was at home. Aside from him, there was also a mistress, two maids, and a bodyguard.
The bodyguard was just an ordinary person. In Yang Xiao’s eyes, his combat power was almost negligible.
All of these people had been hired by Sakata Yoshiji and had nothing to do with what happened to Sato Shouta’s mother. Yang Xiao had no desire to drag the innocent into this.
The mistress was the same. All she wanted was Sakata Yoshiji’s money. What sin was that?
A few hundred meters from the villa, Wang Yue Qianxun pulled over in a secluded spot. "We can only go this far. That villa is in a high-end residential area, and the surveillance nearby is very tight. If we get caught on camera, it’ll cause trouble. We can only..."
As she was unfastening her seatbelt, Wang Yue Qianxun sensed something was off. She glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror and then realized the back row was empty. Yang Xiao was nowhere to be seen.
"A space-type Magical Artifact, huh..." Wang Yue Qianxun was slightly surprised, but quickly relaxed, leaning back into the seat.
It was only natural that a special envoy from the Patrol General Bureau would be carrying a space-type Magical Artifact. And having such an item would greatly reduce the risk of exposure during operations. For both Yang Xiao and herself, it was a good thing.
Picking up her phone, Wang Yue Qianxun sent a message to her people, telling them to keep a close watch on the surveillance in Sakata Yoshiji’s home. She was worried that Yang Xiao might lose control of his emotions for a moment and do something excessively extreme.
At that moment, using the Soul-Capturing Mirror’s ability, Yang Xiao had already slipped silently into the villa. The interior was lavishly decorated, proof of how solid the Sato family’s financial footing had once been. In the garage there were several somewhat older model sports cars.
Judging from his build, Yang Xiao was pretty sure it would be difficult for someone like Sakata Yoshiji to squeeze into a sports car’s driver’s seat. The original owner of those cars had to be Sato Shouta.
According to Sato Shouta’s original plan, once they escaped that terrifying Nightmare World, one of these cars would have gone to Yang Xiao.
But that promise was destined never to be fulfilled. Still, anything Yang Xiao had promised him, he would see done.
There were five people in the villa in total. The bodyguard was sitting out back taking a break. Of the two maids, one was cleaning the living room while the other was practicing flower arrangement.
As for Sakata Yoshiji, he was hugging his mistress, snoring away in the upstairs bedroom.
From the state of the area around the bed, it was clear there had been some kind of "battle" here not long ago. The woman’s body was half exposed, and there were several pieces of nightwear and underwear scattered on the floor by the bed.
Who knew where he’d picked up this particular kink: a huge mirror covered almost half a wall, standing directly opposite the bed.
Convenient for Yang Xiao, though. Hidden within the mirror, he first scrutinized the surroundings, confirmed there was no surveillance in the bedroom, then raised his hand and tossed the sleeping Sakata Yoshiji into the Mirror World.
With the person beside her suddenly dragged away, the woman jolted awake, but before she could scream, Yang Xiao knocked her out with a single swing. The Human Bone Staff was perfect for long-range strikes.
The Mirror World was a one-to-one reflection of reality. Sakata Yoshiji was slammed hard onto the bed and woke with a shriek.
The world before his eyes felt unfamiliar; terror flooded those small eyes. The place clearly looked exactly like the bedroom he remembered, yet it was far more gloomy and sinister.
And although it was clearly daytime, the light was strangely dim, icy cold on his skin, without a hint of warmth.
"Keiko! Keiko, where are you?!" For a moment, Sakata Yoshiji didn’t dare move. He shouted loudly for his missing mistress.
Only now did Yang Xiao notice that Sakata Yoshiji wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing. His pale, flabby flesh was jarringly bright against the dim, eerie backdrop.
"Yoshida! Yoshida, where the hell did you go?! Matsui, Matsui, can you hear me?" Sakata Yoshiji called out the names of his bodyguard and the others one by one, but the surroundings remained deathly silent, not a single response.
Just as Sakata Yoshiji was at a total loss, suddenly, a noise came from the next room.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
The sound was coming from the direction of the bathroom. This was the master bedroom, very spacious, with its own bathroom and walk-in closet. At this moment Sakata Yoshiji’s face turned ashen. He had heard clearly: it sounded very much like a cleaver chopping down on a cutting board.
Someone in the bathroom...was chopping meat.
The image alone, just forming in his mind, made Sakata Yoshiji shudder violently.
But it turned out he was scared too soon, because in the next second, the chopping stopped—and then a familiar voice drifted out from the bathroom with the half-open door, like some kind of summoning from beyond.
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
At the sound of that voice, it was as if a basin of ice water had been poured over Sakata Yoshiji from head to toe. He knew that voice better than anyone—it was his former partner, Sato Kojiro’s voice!
But...but how was that possible? Sato Kojiro was already dead. He’d dropped dead from anger and stress while searching for his good-for-nothing son. Sakata had even attended the funeral himself, had personally watched the corpse being pushed into the cremation chamber.
Guilty men fear no Ghost knocking at the door, but Sakata Yoshiji clearly wasn’t that type. He knew perfectly well what he’d done after Sato Kojiro died. The instant he heard Sato Kojiro’s voice, he completely lost his grip.
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
The calling from the bathroom grew more and more eerie, like someone was deliberately squeezing their throat to make that sound.
"Sakaeda... Sakaeda isn’t home, Mr. Sato, you should... you should hurry... hurry and go back, the dead and the living belong in different worlds, this... this isn’t a place you should come to." Sakata Yoshiji was so scared his tongue was trembling, he couldn’t even get his words straight.
"This is my home~~ Sakaeda, why are you in my home~~" Sato Kojiro’s voice began to distort, then footsteps sounded from the bathroom.
"Pat."
"Pat."
"Pat."
The footsteps sounded stiff, like the knees couldn’t bend and could only shuffle forward one step at a time, accompanied by the scraping of something heavy being dragged along the floor.
"Creak—"
The bathroom door was pushed open; first a shadow appeared on the wall, and then, reflected in the wall mirror, Sakata Yoshiji saw the most terrifying scene of his life.
The already-dead Sato Kojiro walked out of the bathroom with his head hanging low, swaying as he moved. His left leg feebly stepped forward, his right leg dragging along behind, and in his hand he carried a rusty kitchen knife.
The sight froze every drop of blood in Sakata Yoshiji’s body. It was only at this moment that he realized a person in extreme terror actually cannot make a sound.
He sat bolt upright on the bed, his mouth gaping open, yet not a single sound could come out. He felt waves of cold air rushing up from the soles of his feet straight into his skull, like his skull was about to be blown right off.
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
"Where are you~~? My wife came to me in a dream and said she’s doing very badly, that someone cheated her out of her money and the inheritance I left her. Do you know... do you know who that person is~~?"
Yang Xiao shuffled his shoes along the floor, limping as he walked toward the bed, but he kept his head lowered the whole time, only using the corner of his eye to take note of where Sakata Yoshiji was.
Yang Xiao paced around the bed with the kitchen knife dangling from his hand, circling again and again as he kept asking who had swindled away the property he’d left behind, and why Sakata Yoshiji was living in his villa.
Sakata Yoshiji had been scared witless. He clamped both hands over his mouth, his nearly three hundred pounds of flesh curled up on the bed, trembling nonstop, ripples like water patterns actually appearing across the surface of his fat.
"Mr. Sakaeda~~ are you home~~?"
"Mr. Sakaeda~~"
"I came back to see you~~ don’t you go and keep quiet on me now~~"
Yang Xiao circled the bed over and over, his head bobbing up and down, left and right like he’d taken ecstasy, his voice picking up a tremor.
The kitchen knife in his hand, whether on purpose or not, kept gesturing in the direction of Sakata Yoshiji on the bed, making the man’s teeth chatter with fear.
But gradually, Sakata Yoshiji noticed a pattern. He realized that Sato Kojiro’s Ghost seemed unable to see him, and also couldn’t get on the bed to look for anyone.
Turns out not all horror stories are lies—beds and blankets really are safe rooms.
With that thought, Sakata Yoshiji shrank into himself, shaking, then wrapped the blanket completely around his body, closed his eyes, and prayed over and over in his heart, praying that Sato Kojiro’s Ghost would leave as soon as possible.
And soon, his prayers seemed to have some effect. Sato Kojiro’s Ghost looked as if it had lost its target and began dragging a crippled leg back toward the bathroom it had come from, muttering, "Mr. Sakaeda isn’t home~~ then I’ll come back another day~~"
Listening to the footsteps grow fainter and fainter, then the bathroom door being pushed open, until all sound finally disappeared, Sakata Yoshiji didn’t dare move a muscle under the blanket.
minute.
minutes.
minutes.
...
Sakata Yoshiji didn’t know how long he waited; all he knew was that he waited a very long time, until he was sure there were no more strange sounds outside. Only then did he, trembling, lift the blanket a tiny bit, revealing a narrow slit to peer out through.
Nothing.
He turned to another side.
Still nothing.
Turn again.
Still nothing.
Curled up under the blanket, Sakata Yoshiji twisted about like some huge, bloated grub, constantly changing direction to look out, and only after he was certain Sato Kojiro’s Ghost had completely vanished did he finally let out a breath of relief.
He slowly lifted the blanket, gulping for air. The poor breathing this whole time had almost suffocated him. But just as he inadvertently raised his head and looked upward, the scene before his eyes instantly chilled him to the core and hurled him straight back into hell.
There was a figure standing on the headboard in a grotesque posture, looking down at him from above. Sato Kojiro’s eyes were blood-red, filled with burst vessels, and the kitchen knife in his hand was caked with blood.
"Mr. Sakaeda~~ so you were home after all~~"
"Found you~~"
"Aaaahhh!!" Sakata Yoshiji let out a scream that didn’t sound human, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed headfirst onto the bed, white foam spilling from the corner of his mouth.
