The twilight hour refers to the time of day when night and day switch places, either at dusk or dawn. During this time, the skyline becomes blurry as the last light of the sunset fades away, briefly connecting the worlds of the living and the dead, allowing monsters and ghosts to appear.
In short, this is a time when, according to legends, bad things are more likely to happen.
"Thanks for the useless trivia, Hikigaya. If you could stop shaking your leg in fear, that would be even better,"
Yukinoshita Yukino said while carefully observing their surroundings.
"I'm not scared, just nervous,"
Hikigaya Hachiman stubbornly replied.
"Aren't you shaking too?"
"I'm also nervous."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Hikigaya forced a smile and said,
"Let's not talk about this anymore."
"Agreed,"
Yukinoshita Yukino nodded.
Since they entered the office building, Hayashizaki had gone silent, not responding to Yukinoshita Yukino's calls. It was clear he had decided not to help unless it was an emergency.
They thought they had a strong ally, but it turned out they had a spectator.
The first floor of the office building was a large hall, with all the furniture and decorations removed, leaving only drag marks and dust on the floor. The empty, quiet space showed no signs of any curses.
"Should we go upstairs?"
Yukinoshita Yukino asked.
"I guess we have to,"
Hikigaya Hachiman shrugged, trying to act casual.
"Do you think Hayashizaki would let us run away?"
"And according to classic horror movie plots, the entrance we came through might have disappeared... We might really be trapped here,"
Hikigaya joked while looking back nervously. Seeing the open glass door, he sighed in relief.
"Good, nothing cliché and deadly happened."
"Anyway, let's check the second floor,"
Yukinoshita Yukino said, taking a deep breath and clenching her fists as if to cheer herself up.
"Okay,"
Hikigaya Hachiman nodded, then noticed she was standing still.
"What's wrong?"
A few seconds later, he saw a blue aura of curse energy rise from the girl, enveloping her like flames.
The successful activation of her curse energy eased Yukinoshita Yukino's anxiety and tension. She explained,
"I can control my curse energy a bit now, but I'm still not very skilled. If I wait until a fight starts to try, it might be too late, so I need to prepare in advance."
"I see,"
Hikigaya Hachiman nodded in understanding.
"Can you do it?"
"Well, barely."
After getting tips from Hayashizaki yesterday, he had locked himself in his room and practiced all night, even annoying Komachi with strange noises. But he managed to keep up with Yukinoshita's progress.
Soon, a layer of blue curse energy also surrounded Hikigaya Hachiman.
Keeping the curse energy active was a bit wasteful, but it was better than freezing for a few seconds in a sudden fight and getting hurt or killed.
"It's too quiet."
As they carefully stepped onto the stairs, the narrow stairwell echoed with their footsteps. Hearing her own echo, Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't help but get goosebumps.
"Could it be that we'll never reach the second floor, or that we'll be stuck in an endless loop on these stairs?"
Hikigaya Hachiman felt a bit scared.
Imagining the scene Hikigaya described, Yukinoshita Yukino shivered. She didn't even use her usual sharp tongue and directly scolded,
"Shut up!"
"...Sorry."
The boy with dead fish eyes apologized sincerely.
Fortunately, what Hikigaya Hachiman described didn't happen, and they smoothly reached the second floor.
Compared to the spacious first-floor hall, the second-floor corridor seemed a bit narrow. As it got later, the light inside the building dimmed. After stepping onto the second floor, time seemed to speed up. The sunset quickly disappeared, and the unlit office building was soon engulfed in darkness. They could only see by the faint moonlight, and their shadows stretched long, merging into the darkness ahead.
This sudden change heightened their alertness.
However, the corridor remained silent, and the so-called cursed spirit still didn't appear. But it was this unknown that made them feel scared.
"Hikigaya, watch your back."
"I got it."
They moved slowly through the corridor, back to back. Soon, they passed through the corridor and returned to the spacious office area, which was also empty, with only a few support pillars standing alone.
"Nothing on this floor either?"
Just as Hikigaya Hachiman started to relax a bit, Yukinoshita Yukino stared intently at the dark area ahead.
"No, it seems like someone is coming?"
"Huff... huff..."
Heavy breathing came from the darkness in front of her. There was also a narrow corridor there, seemingly leading to the restroom on this floor.
"No... don't... cut my salary..."
Accompanied by hoarse muttering like an old bellows, a bloated figure staggered out of the darkness.
No, it couldn't be called a person anymore. It was just a monster with a roughly human shape.
Its body was made of bloated flesh, and its head looked like a fish's head. The lifeless big eyes on its head were very similar to Hikigaya Hachiman's dead fish eyes. Its limbs were shriveled like SpongeBob's thin arms, and it wore a tattered suit that was corroded and torn, as if it had melted onto its body, with disgusting lumps oozing out.
"I... will never... poop at work again..."
The cursed spirit staggered towards them, its fish mouth opening and closing, mumbling incoherently,
"Don't... dock cut... salary..."
Seeing the enemy's appearance, both of them showed disgust on their faces.
This creature was far more disgusting than the dog-like cursed spirit that attacked Yukinoshita Yukino at home. For the next two weeks, there would probably be no fish on Yukinoshita Yukino's dining table.
"Disgusting, but what it's saying is a bit pitiful."
Hikigaya Hachiman smirked, looking at the cursed spirit with a slightly sympathetic gaze.
"Do you feel a connection with its dead fish eyes, Mr. Slacker?"
Maybe because the enemy looked really weak, Yukinoshita Yukino was no longer so tense, and her sarcastic skills returned.
"This is why I decided to be a househusband. If I became a corporate slave, I might end up like this."
Seeing the cursed spirit in front of him, Hikigaya Hachiman became even more determined not to work.
...
...
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