Fog Formula-Warning Book of Fog City Search Chief's Strange Talk

"Five years ago?" There seemed to be a flash of inspiration in Hino Minoru's mind. At that moment, he seemed to have caught something, but he seemed to have caught nothing. He looked at the boy opposite, full of astonishment and surprise, not understanding what inexplicable words he was talking about.

"what are you saying?"

"follow me."

But the boy ignored his words again, turned around and led him towards the door. Obviously it was Hino who said he wanted to send him home. It turned out that he was leading the way for Hino Mi, and led Hino Mi straight to the door, this direction... was to leave here.

"Where are you going?"

Hino Minoru asked behind the little boy. But the little boy seemed very cold and didn't answer his question. The two walked through the long corridor to the door, and as soon as they opened the door, dazzling sunlight poured in on them.

Wait, why is it daytime?

Hino's pace faltered, his head was a little dizzy, he clearly remembered when he came out...huh? When did he come out... what time was it?

"Hey! Wait for me!"

However, the little boy did not stop because of his delay, and walked ahead without hesitation. Hino Mino was stunned for a while before being pulled away by a long distance, which forced him to let go of the chaos in his mind and followed in a daze.

The sun was shining brightly during the day, and the two of them seemed to have arrived at the main street of the resort within a few minutes of walking. The bustling resort is crowded with people, full of laughter and laughter. The stall owners on both sides of the shop are busy and shouting excitedly. As far as the eye can see, it is full of foreign tourists who come to Xuejianze for vacation. Those people are wearing dazzling casual clothes. , speaking various languages ​​​​that they don’t understand, coming and going on the street, enjoying their beautiful holiday, just walking next to them seems to be infected by that holiday mood, and the corners of their mouths will smile uncontrollably.

It is already very close to the sea, and the whistle of the cruise ship can be heard from a distance. When you walk to a place with a wide view, you can still see the freighters on the sea. They are busy loading and unloading at the pier, transporting wealth and supplies to the city.

I just don't know why, Hino actually felt a little strange seeing this scene, but this should be a scene he is used to. Xuejianze is an important port city, a key hub of shipping, and its tourism industry and economy and trade are equally developed. It should have been full of tourists as it is now.

"Longtai, where are you going?"

With his head in a daze, Hino Mino couldn't help it anymore, stopped the little boy in front of him, and couldn't help asking his direction. His footsteps subconsciously followed the other party, just because he had nowhere to go now, but the other party shouldn't lead him to nowhere like this without saying a word.

"Going to someone's funeral."

The little boy finally spoke, but after holding back such a sentence, no matter how much Hino Minority interrogated him, he couldn't ask another sentence. The two got on the tram and headed towards the urban cemetery. Hino knew where the cemetery was. When he was a junior high school student, the school organized them to visit the grave as volunteers.

The two of them walked through the bustling streets and alleys of Xuejianze and arrived at the cemetery. There was actually a funeral being held there. Women wearing white flowers cried together in front of the tombstone, and men in black suits pulled white elegiac couplets to calm their emotions.

For some reason, looking at the people at the funeral, Hino felt that they were somewhat familiar, as if he should know these people, and these people had some kind of intersection with his life.

Has someone he knew died?

He thought about it in a daze. But the little boy took him to the edge of the funeral and didn't come any closer. He just stood there silently watching the people cry, as if he was watching a play, as if it was not a funeral but a performance .

"Whose funeral is this?"

Hino thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't tell which person in his social circle the dead person was. After looking around the crowd for a long time, he couldn't find the information he wanted to see, and finally he could only look at the little boy next to him. Ask this question, hoping to get an answer from him.

"Did you hear the bell?"

However, the little boy is still in the style of not speaking human words, and suddenly such a sentence pops up.

"What?"

This is the third time Hino has uttered these two words in this place. Coincidentally, the meanings of these three times are different. He followed this boy all the way to the present, and the other's nagging finally made him start to fear, but he was not easy to get angry on the edge of the funeral, so he could only try to calm himself down while thinking about what the other said.

But the bell? What bell? Next to them, only the funeral orchestra was playing mourning music, but obviously there would be no such instrument as a "bell" among the instruments of the orchestra.

Hino Miko just wanted to answer that he didn't hear it, but when the little boy on the opposite side said the word "bell", it seemed that there was really a bell coming from the space. The sound of the bell was neither thick nor deep, but rather weak and weak, trembling in a very low audio frequency hidden under the sad melody, even if you concentrated on distinguishing it, it was difficult to hear clearly.

Is there a bell from the beginning, I just didn't notice it?

So Hino began to feel unconfident again. I don't know if I ignored the existing bell, or because the other party said that there was a bell, I had an illusion.

It's just inexplicable, the rhythm of the bell made him very sad, and he couldn't help but start to feel depressed, like a song that was more sad than mourning, it couldn't help evoking the sadness in people's hearts.

"Very faintly, isn't it? Because the bell was struck a long time ago, and now it's just a residual aftertaste."

The boy spoke again, and he talked to Hino Minoru very calmly, looking down at the boy with a look of compassion.

"The bell? What bell? What are you talking about?"

A kind of subconscious anxiety suddenly emerged in Hino Mino's mind. He didn't know what the boy opposite was talking about, but instinctively felt that he couldn't let him continue talking. Following the boy's words, the sadness in his heart began to spread from his heart at a speed that his body could feel. It was even hard for him to say whether this spread was a psychological change or a physical change.

"That day there was fire and sulfur rained from the sky, and everything was burned up. On the desolate land, only featherless crows were left weeping on the graves of civilization, and the ghosts hung on the dead trees like black mist."

The boy's voice was not high, but these words seemed to have magical powers, and the moment they hit the ear, they exploded in Hino Mi's mind like an explosion. Hino couldn't help but began to curl up with his head in his arms. He didn't understand the meaning of these words. In his ears, these words were just a common combination. However, listening to these words, his figure began to uncontrollably Trembling, the moment the words hit his ears, a sharp pain like a knife and axe suddenly came through his mind, and the pain accompanied by fear seemed to emerge in his soul. For just a moment, his eyes were bloodshot as if they were about to explode.

So sad, really sad.

Hino Mino lay trembling on the ground. At this moment, he seemed to be integrated into the funeral and became one of the people howling in front of the tombstone. He didn't even know whose funeral it was, but he felt sad from the bottom of his heart, his nose began to sour uncontrollably, and tears poured out of his eyes unstoppably.

He seemed unable to stop crying, as if the person in the tomb was extremely familiar and intimate with him, surpassing any relationship in the world, as if the person in his tomb was connected with him by blood beyond any blood relationship in the world, as in the tomb The person she was looking for fit him so well, to the point that...it was himself!

But no! He is clearly still alive! Obviously still living among friends! Damn it! Why does he feel that he is still alive is an illusion? Why does he have the fear of being punctured in his illusion!

"No!" Hino struggled while covering his head, "This place is wrong, this place is wrong, it's not me who is wrong...you are the one who has the problem!"

"There is nothing wrong. A funeral in this place does not mean death, but a return." The boy was not angry at Hino Mino's rejection, but just stretched out his hand to him calmly, his words were neither joy nor sorrow, but only infinite pity .

"return?"

"If only Yongye didn't exist five years ago, wouldn't it be great? If only Xuejianze had always been the same as before?" The little boy tilted his head and said, "Everyone in Xuejianze would think so, wouldn't they? Everyone in Xuejianze wants to go back to the time when nothing happened five years ago, and start over, right?"

etc? eternal night?

Hino was panting heavily on the ground. When the boy said "Yong Ye", there seemed to be countless information exploding in his mind, but it seemed that there was nothing. He struggled to get up from the ground and stared. To the boy who brought him here, he desperately scratched his head as if trying to catch some non-existent information.

who I am? Where am I? It's not right here! wrong!

"Come to me, as I said, for the people in this place, a funeral is not death, but a return." The little boy walked up to him, as if he wanted to help him. He was not that tall, but In front of Hino Mi who was kneeling on the ground, he looked condescending, with a relieved and compassionate voice.

"Actually, you don't have any reason to refuse, do you? Closed, chaotic, weird talk... the days of struggling with these things are too hard."

"I just want you to have a comforting dream."