Chapter 38: Unpacking Dangerous Goods

When Jiang Xia arrived home, he found a delivery van parked in front of his house.

He originally thought Shirley had sent another strange new supplement.

But upon closer inspection, the sender's address had changed this time. The signature was no longer the initial "S" of Shirley's English name, but a generic name like "Hanako"—the kind of placeholder name used for someone like "John Doe" or "Tanaka Taro."

Xiao Bai observed for a moment, landed on the tightly wrapped delivery box, and phased its head through the cardboard to take a look inside.

However, the contents were pressed tightly against the box; it couldn't see the packaging clearly and could only make out the shapes of the objects.

Jiang Xia: "..."

...Suspicious. In short, extremely suspicious.

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Xia chose to sign for it.

He didn't receive many packages, so the sudden arrival of one piqued his curiosity.

—Thinking on the bright side, perhaps it was some kind of dangerous item sent randomly by criminals, containing a gas bomb or something similar; if he followed the trail, he might uncover a nest of murderous international bandits...

...

With that thought, Jiang Xia brought the package into the house expectantly.

He first took it to the basement to pass through a detector, but it didn't trigger anything for explosives or radioactive materials.

After a moment of disappointment, Jiang Xia placed the package into a sealed compartment.

Then, he left the basement and went to the room furthest away from the package.

—The absence of explosives and radiation did not mean there were no other risks.

A mature medium should not open an anonymous package themselves; such tasks, as expected, should be left to a puppet.

...

Inside the room.

Jiang Xia drew the curtains and turned around.

Several shikigami flew out from beneath his feet, landing in the center of the room and gradually coalescing into a heavy clay figure.

—As the number of shikigami Jiang Xia possessed increased, the speed of the clay figure's formation and its structural integrity also saw slight improvements.

Jiang Xia walked over, picked up Xiao Bai, and placed it into the puppet clay.

The clay figure began to boil as if splashed with scalding water. Soon, it gradually solidified into a fixed shape.

A few seconds later, a little boy looking about six or seven years old appeared before Jiang Xia.

The puppet's appearance was half derived from Jiang Xia's soul and half from the ghost used as filler. This puppet child was an even split between cute and handsome.

On the left side of the boy's neck was a black, stylized "Z" tattoo, in the exact same position as the one on Xiao Bai.

Jiang Xia admired the puppet for a while. After a few seconds, he gradually felt something was off: "...You're actually a male ghost?"

If he remembered correctly, Xiao Bai had made plenty of whimpering sounds before.

Back then, Jiang Xia had assumed it was definitely a cute little girl... *Tsk, the last time it whimpered, the pitch was too light.*

The little boy stood there, motionless, without answering him.

Jiang Xia was not surprised.

Although this "body" was a metaphysical product, it was still too heavy for a ghost.

—Once a ghost fetus is thrown into the "puppet clay," it can "support" the clay figure into a proper human body.

But currently, Xiao Bai had not yet been strengthened; it could only act as a scaffold, lacking the strength to manipulate the puppet.

The specific actions would have to be performed by Jiang Xia himself.

...

Jiang Xia sat down at his desk and projected his consciousness into the puppet.

A second later, he opened his eyes within the puppet.

Jiang Xia moved his limbs, looking around with novelty, though he spent a moment "..."ing at this low-angle elementary schooler's perspective.

Then, regaining his composure, he headed to the basement to unbox the package.

Entering the sealed compartment in the small puppet, Jiang Xia showed no fear as he picked up the package sent by the unknown person and deftly tore it open.

*Clatter.*

Two stacks of albums, tightly bound together, fell out of the delivery box. They were all works by Yoko Kinoshita.

Looking closely, the one on top was exactly the one he had wanted to buy earlier but hadn't managed to find.

Seeing this, even though Xiao Bai was still inside the puppet, it couldn't help but let out a delighted murmur.

Jiang Xia: "..."

Could the sender "Hanako" actually be Yoko Kinoshita?

Perhaps she had sensed through some spiritual connection that Xiao Bai had no new albums to read, so she sent them all at once, including the ones from before.

The connection between mother and child is truly miraculous... Jiang Xia sighed and put the albums away.

With the unboxing complete, he released the puppet.

The puppet collapsed in place into several flying shikigami and a ghost fetus.

A second later, the ghost fetus and the shikigami returned to the tattoo on Jiang Xia's chest, as if returning to a respawn point.

————————

Note

In the manga, the one-billion-yen robbery only happened once, committed by Akemi Miyano and her two rogue accomplices.

(End of Chapter)