In Zongman, the evil spirits are eliminated physically.

Looking at the crowd of people punching and kicking each other, this kind of unrestricted fighting can be said to be a scene of eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their magical powers. Qianshu not only saw people using karate, but also people using Jeet Kune Do and Sanda. Qianshu even saw an uncle in a kimono, holding a white radish as a samurai sword, knocking down several people who approached him, and then taking away a box of half-price fried chicken lunchbox as if he had won the winner's crown.

"Takina, should we go buy a box too!?"

Qianshu pointed at the fighting crowd with shining eyes. She didn't want to eat the half-price bento, but just thought it was very fun.

"We've been busy all day, let's not make any more trouble. Let's go."

"Hey, come on, Takina, let's go join in the fun too. Oh no, let's grab a bento."

5

Chapter 5 Sakurajima Mai is dead! ?

In the end, Takina didn't give Chizuka a chance to grab the bento, and went to pay the bill with the kabayaki eel bento for tomorrow's breakfast. Chizuka, who failed to grab the half-price bento, could only buy two baumkuchen rolls for breakfast.

When they arrived at the checkout counter, Takina and Chitsuka unexpectedly saw the girl in bunny girl costume again. They didn't know what happened. The girl had clearly put the potato chips in front of the cashier, but she seemed not to see the girl.

"Eh? Now that I'm closer, I realize this girl is the famous Sakurajima Mai?"

Qianzhu discovered the blind spot.

"It seems to be her."

Takina looked at the girl seriously and came to the same answer as Chizuka.

"I thought Takina was the type of person who didn't pay attention to celebrities at all. She even knew Sakurajima Mai. Yeah, Takina also didn't completely lose touch with society with my help."

"what are you saying?"

Takina glared at Chizuka speechlessly, "Didn't you notice? She's the spokesperson for the milk we use in our store. I saw her on milk cartons every day a while ago. I saw her so many times, how could I not remember her?"

"Then we go up and ask her for an autograph. Can we hang it in the store to attract her fans to come and spend money there?"

"We're not suited to being on TV. A popular celebrity like her is wearing a bunny girl costume and shopping in a supermarket late at night. She might be filming a show. If we appear on camera with her, we'll have to deal with the media afterwards. We shouldn't cause unnecessary trouble for our colleagues."

"What if wearing a bunny girl costume to shop in the supermarket at night is her personal hobby?"

"That's even more impossible. The official media is under the control of the DA. We know tomorrow's news the fastest. As for entertainment news spread by paparazzi, our control is not strong enough. If they capture us, they might just publish it directly."

"Compared to erasing intelligence later, it is still necessary to strictly control the leakage of intelligence in the early stage."

Takina looked at Chizuka, using her eyes to warn her not to cause trouble. "My face doesn't matter, but Chizuka, you are Licorice's trump card. Your face cannot appear in the media. The fewer people who know you exist and recognize your face, the better."

"No way~"

Chizuka put her arm around Takina's shoulders and said, "Takina has such a cute and pretty face. My seniors and I both really like her. If Takina becomes a model or an idol, she will definitely be very popular. Maybe she can even become a super idol that symbolizes an era."

"When Takina graduates from Lycorice, I'll have my seniors arrange a magazine cover for her. I'll have her debut as the island nation's strongest model. Her debut will be the pinnacle! By then, everyone from Kana Arima to Ruby Hoshino will be outshined by Takina!"

While Chizuka was planning Takina's future career, the clerk standing behind the cash register repeatedly leaned forward to look in the direction of Takina and Chizuka, and finally couldn't help but speak.

"You two! If you want to pay, please come forward."

Seeing that the clerk ignored Mai who had been standing in front of her for a long time and spoke directly to the two of them who were standing farther away, Takina and Chizuka, who had already seen all kinds of ghosts and monsters in the other world, looked at each other silently.

That’s not right. I haven’t seen any news recently saying that Mai Sakurajima died. How could this clerk not see Mai Sakurajima?

Unlike Chizuka Takina's surprise, Mai didn't react much to the cashier ignoring her. It was as if it was just a common occurrence, like eating bread. Who would remember how much bread they had eaten? Mai couldn't remember how many people had ignored her in the past period of time.

About half a month ago, Mai discovered that her sense of existence seemed to become very weak sometimes. Often, the staff would come to her, but they were like deaf and blind people and could not see her. She would only be discovered by herself when she called them or made large movements.

A week ago, the situation became even worse. Mai found that no matter what she did, she could no longer attract other people's attention. No matter if she was shouting in their ears or walking around in a bunny girl costume, everyone ignored Mai and went about their business.

This had a huge impact on Mai's life. When she went to eat, the waiter ignored her completely. There was no QR code ordering system in the island country. However, Mai guessed that even if she ordered by scanning the QR code, the waiter would take the food away even if he brought it to her. Whether she bought a drink or something else, Mai was completely unable to do it. Mai, who had a moral bottom line, could not just take the food and leave. Every time she took something, she would put the money at the front desk, but when Mai came again next time, she would find that the money was still there.

How does it feel when no one sees or ignores you?

Mai was a little happy and excited at first, because she could get rid of her mother, but what followed was the fear and loneliness of being forgotten and abandoned by the world. It was as if she was a bug in the world, unable to interact with anyone, and her existence was just the wrong result caused by a wrong code. Is the essence of the world just a potato?

After being completely ignored by the world for several days, Mai's mood changed from fear to fear and numbness, and some of her behaviors gradually became bolder, such as playing with her mobile phone in a store where mobile phones are prohibited, looking around a pachinko parlor that prohibits minors from entering, and tonight wearing a bunny girl costume to go out shopping.

I originally thought that since I was wearing revealing clothes and I was pretty good-looking, I should be able to get some attention. Unfortunately, I put the potato chips in front of the cashier, but the cashier ignored me and the potato chips even though I was wearing a bunny girl costume, and talked to Chizuka Takina who was not far away, asking them to come over and pay.

"Is this not an option? How about wearing a school swimsuit to get ice cream next time? Or maybe cosplaying as a popular anime character and going to Akihabara?"

Tonight's plan failed, and Mai began to conceive a new plan. "A popular character recently, um, Fulilian? A small elf with flat breasts? That's something I can try."

Picking up the potato chips, Mai was not planning to buy them for free, but to put them back on the shelf. Taking things without asking is considered stealing. Even if Mai knew that what she took would be ignored by the whole world like herself, and no one would notice that a bag of potato chips was missing, Mai would still not do such a thing based on her simple moral values.

"That lady has been standing in front of you for a long time. Please pay her first."

Chizuka said, pointing at Mai who was about to leave.

"Eh?"

It was only then that the clerk suddenly realized that there was a bunny girl standing in front of him.

"Eh!?"

Mai's reaction was even more intense. Her eyes widened, her bright red high heels made a clicking sound, and she rushed to Qianshu at the speed of light.

"You can see me!? You can spot me!?"

On the park bench, Mai, still wearing a bunny girl outfit inside and a Lycoris uniform jacket outside, devoured the kabayaki eel bento that was supposed to be Takina's breakfast.

"How long has it been since you last eaten?"

Seeing Mai finish one bento and immediately pick up another, Chizuka asked in surprise.

"Like..."

Mai ate her rice while vaguely answering Chizuka's question, "I haven't had a normal meal like this for a week."

"Ever since no one could see me, no one paid any attention to me when I went to the store to buy something, and no waiter came to serve me when I went to the restaurant to eat. Although my mother has piled up a lot of food in the refrigerator at home, I don't know how to cook, so I can only eat instant noodles every day."

"Warm, you are alive."

Chizuka's fingers poked Mai's cheeks, which were bulging from chewing.

"Of course, I just can't be seen or noticed by everyone. I'm not a ghost."

Mai continued, "Did you think I was a ghost at first?"

"Of course."

Qianshu said as a matter of course: "I thought you were a ghost like Ai. You were wearing bunny girl clothes but no one saw you. You could take things from the shelves and even pay for them. You are obviously a ghost who has maintained his sanity."

"Love? Is it a new anime or TV character?"

"It's a living ghost."

Although the words "alive" and "ghost" don't quite match, Qianshu feels it's quite good and continues, "But if Ai goes to get something, others can still see it floating in the air. It won't be like this where both the person and the item are invisible."

"Have you ever seen a real ghost?!"

"Yes."

"I, this...eat."

Mai opened her mouth for a long time, wanting to say and ask many things, but in the end she swallowed them down. "I have inexplicably become a transparent person invisible to everyone. Such incredible things have happened to me. It's not surprising that there are ghosts in this world."

"People with a strong ability to accept things can live a happy life."

"I'm not receptive, I'm just numb."

Mai sighed helplessly. As the saying goes, if you can't avoid being fucked, then you can only enjoy it.

"Actually, your ability is quite useful. You can use it to do my job. If you were my colleague, I would give you half of my ace throne."

"What does Miss Nishiki do for a living? She can come into contact with ghosts. Is she the manager of a haunted house at an amusement park? Or a shrine maiden? Or a nun at a church?"

"Likolis, Likolis."

Feeling that Mai in front of him could be considered as someone who had half a foot in contact with the other world, Chizuka did not hide it, "It's a dangerous job to protect the island nation from the dark and deal with all kinds of bad guys who want to sabotage it."

"But let me be clear, I'm not included in this. I won't shoot them down."

Qianzhu took out a pistol and proudly announced, "My pistol is the gun of kindness."

Compared to the ghost, Qianzhu's job content stimulated Mai more. She was so shocked that she even stopped eating. After swallowing the rice in her mouth, she asked uncertainly.

"Miss Jinmu, is your job... a killer?"

When Mai said the last two words, her confidence was very weak.

"It's Lycorice."

Putting away the gun, Qianzhu pointed to the Lycoris symbol on his chest and said, "I am an agent who protects the citizens and the country in the dark."

"The person who knew your secret...?"

"We won't kill you. Our job is to protect citizens like Miss Sakurajima. How could we kill you?"

Realizing that Mai had misunderstood, Chizuki immediately explained.

"That's good, that's good. I thought I would be silenced for knowing Miss Jinmu's secret."

Mai, feeling relieved, ate the last piece of pickled radish. Her stomach felt bloated. This was the most delicious lunch box Mai had ever had.

"The lady who gave me the lunch box said she was going to make a phone call, so why hasn't she come back yet?"

"Maybe he's explaining Miss Sakurajima's situation in detail to the seniors. After all, we don't know how to handle a situation like Miss Mai's, so we have to leave it to the seniors who are professionals."

As soon as Chizuka finished speaking, Takina came back.

"We were just talking about you, Takina. How about you? What did senior say?"

"Senior didn't answer the phone."

Takina shook her head. "Maybe she's cleaning the room with Kotoko-sister and Yono-sister and the others, so she doesn't have time to answer my call."

"Didn't the senior give us a number?"

Hearing that Ouyang Falcon didn't answer the phone, Qian Shu was puzzled. "Senior said that as long as we call this number, he will answer it immediately no matter what he is doing."

"That number was left to us by our seniors to call in case of life-threatening situations. Although Ms. Sakurajima's situation is very strange, I don't think it's time to call that number yet. We don't want our seniors to feel like they're crying wolf."

"But if that's the case, what should we do about Miss Sakurajima? We don't know how to deal with this kind of thing."

Qianshu said with a bitter face.

"Just wait for Senior to come over."

"Didn't the senior answer the phone?"

"Yeah, but Senior sent me a message afterwards."

Takina nodded, then handed the phone to Qianzhu. The page showed the chat history between Takina and Ouyang Falcon. Just after Takina finished calling Ouyang Falcon, Ouyang Falcon sent an inquiry. After Takina briefly summarized Mai's affairs, she sent it to Ouyang Falcon along with her current location. At the end, Takina added that the situation was not very urgent and the senior should take care of his own affairs first.

"I just don't understand why seniors can reply to my text messages but don't have time to answer the phone."

"Ah, this, ah, maybe Senior is busy cleaning the room with Kotoko-sister and Yono-sister. He's so focused that he can't hear your call."

6

Chapter 6: Fight Night.

"So busy cleaning the room that you don't have time to answer the phone? Senior's house isn't that messy, is it?"

Takina frowned in confusion.

"As for boys' rooms, it's easy for all kinds of weird things to appear in them. It's normal that it's troublesome to clean them up."

"Um, the senior you're talking about, is he a profession like Onmyoji?"

Mai asked.

"The senior is a Taoist priest."

Takina said, "He is the best Taoist priest."

"Can you tell me about this senior?"

Mai went on to explain: "I recently took on a movie that tells the story of a Taoist priest from the mainland and a Kyoto shrine maiden who falls in love. I wanted to understand what a real Taoist priest is like."

"Although my current state of being invisible may lead to the role being replaced."

"No, although we can't solve what happened to you, we can definitely solve it with what you said, because you are the strongest Taoist priest."

"It'll take some time for Senpai to get here anyway, so let's just tell Miss Sakurajima how great Senpai is."

This kid really likes that senior, right?

Looking at Takina who walked over to sit next to her with her head held high, Mai thought to herself that the look on her face was exactly like the pride that a girl in love feels when she talks about the boy she likes.