Chapter 162: Death Flight?

In an instant, Qiao Qiao instinctively raised his gun.

His muzzle was aimed directly at the flight attendant named Hime.

He remembered her introducing herself earlier as Satoh Hime, the purser for this flight.

After all, in the confined space at an altitude of ten thousand meters, the presence of numerous, unknown corpses would make any Exorcist feel deeply vigilant.

"No, uh, well, it's not what you think."

Satoh Hime hurriedly raised both hands.

"I'll give you one minute to explain clearly," Qiao Qiao said.

A faint aura of gloomy yin energy lingered around Satoh Hime, a clear sign of recent contact with corpses.

"Actually, these people... these deceased individuals are also passengers on this flight," Satoh Hime said in a low voice.

"Passengers?"

Qiao Qiao was puzzled. Could these really be considered passengers?

"These deceased individuals were born in Hawaii, came to Japan to work, live, and ultimately passed away," Satoh Hime explained, gesturing for Qiao Qiao to pull the curtain behind him as she spoke softly. "However, before their deaths, they wished to be buried in their homeland, which is why we are transporting them back via this flight."

"?"

Listening to this, question marks popped up over Qiao Qiao's head.

While he could understand the sentiment of fallen leaves returning to their roots, surely they could have been cremated and their ashes checked in as luggage. Leaving corpses sitting upright inside an airplane cabin was downright creepy. Besides, if the other passengers found out, it probably wouldn't sit well with them.

Noticing Qiao Qiao's confusion, Satoh Hime nodded.

"True, under normal circumstances, cremation followed by transporting the ashes is the standard procedure, but this particular batch is different."

Simply put, although cremation has become widespread around the world, customs in certain regions still preserve burial. For instance, in the country to which Hawaii belongs, the cremation rate is only about twenty percent, and in some states, that percentage is even lower.

Therefore, these "passengers" were individuals whose families or religious beliefs strictly rejected cremation.

Because international procedures for transporting corpses are extremely tedious and have a very low approval rate, certain airlines quietly operated specialized transport services of this sort.

Nowadays, transporting a dead person was far more expensive than transporting a live one.

Normally, passengers would never discover the presence of these specially treated corpses. The on-duty Exorcist for the flight would also be informed in advance.

By a strange coincidence, however, Qiao Qiao's application meant he was the only duty Exorcist on this flight, and due to an oversight by the staff, he had not been notified.

Thus, this situation had arisen.

"I understand." Qiao Qiao nodded. After speaking with the captain and others to verify the situation, he prepared to leave. "In that case, I won't disturb the deceased any further."

Just as he turned to go, he cast a habitual glance back at the cabin filled with corpses.

And then, he saw one of the corpses stand up.

...

"I was so foolish, truly I was."

Sitting on the steps of the shrine, Asano Shoji muttered to himself while holding the little cat, Saya, in his arms.

"I only knew that Arisu had been acting a bit strange lately, always running outside; I had no idea she could actually sneak abroad behind my back."

By the time Asano Shoji learned of his daughter's whereabouts, Asano Arisu was already on a flight headed to Hawaii.

"It's all that guy's fault. I should have known he wouldn't let it go."

"Who wouldn't let what go?" asked a gentle-sounding woman from behind him.

"Uh, nothing, I was just talking to myself," Asano Shoji immediately defended.

"Arisu is already grown up; it's about time she went out to see the world," the woman said, leaning down and extending a hand toward Saya.

The little kitten affectionately rubbed against her, rolled over onto its back, and exposed its belly.

"But there's a boy around her same age with her. What if he takes advantage of Arisu's cuteness and suddenly..."

"It's fine. The boss told me—it's Qiao Qiao, right? He's a very upright child." The woman smiled and picked up the cat. "Alright, come inside for dinner. Don't overthink things about Arisu."

Asano Shoji looked at his wife Eino's completely relaxed expression and stopped himself from speaking further.

At that moment, his phone rang.

Yes, his phone.

Asano Shoji checked the caller ID; it was a call from the Tokyo Exorcists Association.

"Huh? What?"

Asano Shoji listened to the words coming through the phone, and his face instantly turned pale.

"What on earth are the airport security checks doing?" he cursed, exchanged a few more words, and hung up.

Bzz—

Several new messages popped up in the group chat shared by the head priests of various shrines and the abbots of temples.

They were all talking about the same thing.

Normally, flights from Japan to Hawaii occasionally carried corpses.

This time, however, someone at Haneda Airport had discovered a corpse that had been dead for some time. At first, it was thought to be a criminal case, but after the police arrived and conducted an investigation, they discovered that this corpse was actually supposed to have been on a flight heading to Hawaii.

Upon checking the passenger manifest of that flight, the police realized that the number of corpses listed on board was completely correct.

In other words, some unknown entity had impersonated a corpse and boarded the plane.

And that flight was the very one Asano Arisu was on.

"This is the only time I truly hope that Qiao Qiao can do something..."

Asano Shoji felt burning anxiety, but could only gaze helplessly at the eastern sky.

...

The corpse stood there completely devoid of any stiffness, gently patting another corpse nearby.

The corpse that was patted also swayed and stood up, though its movements were noticeably more sluggish.

"This..." Satoh Hime stared in wide-eyed horror at the sight.

The junior flight attendant beside her collapsed onto the floor, unable to move a muscle.

"Notify the captain and the passengers. Leave this to me to handle. Oh, and you'd better wake up the passenger in seat K15."

Qiao Qiao stepped past the junior flight attendant and walked deeper into the colder cabin.

"Don't move."

Qiao Qiao had not sensed any aura belonging to the deceased from that first "corpse" from the start; clearly, this was not a genuine corpse.

Yet the spiritual power emanating from the entity was unlike ordinary spiritual power either—in Qiao Qiao's terminology, it felt more like yin energy.

Hearing Qiao Qiao's command, the creature halted its movements.

It tilted its head and looked over.

Under the dim lighting, its complexion was deathly pale, and its two eyes emitted a cyan glow.

At the exact same time, every single corpse in the cabin began to vibrate violently.

Bang—

Qiao Qiao fired.

A rubber bullet struck the creature's chest, but rather than bouncing off, it sank deeply into the flesh.

Bang, bang, bang, bang—

Qiao Qiao fired four more consecutive shots, all of which found their mark.

The fourth shot struck the creature directly in the forehead.

To his astonishment, the hard rubber bullet actually embedded itself into the creature's forehead, as if its body had long since decayed into dust.

Qiao Qiao quickly switched to live ammunition.

But in the next instant, the entity appeared right in front of him.