The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 226: Birth

"We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"On deck, we're exposed. But in the cabins, death is waiting."

Was she talking about the phantom shadows? Or something else entirely? Lu Li still couldn't grasp the root cause of the situation, and the woman in black clearly had no intention of elaborating.

Five minutes after they returned to the wheelhouse, the fourth wave of shadows crawled onto the deck. Led by the captain's shadow, they surged toward the wheelhouse.

"The intervals between their appearances are getting shorter," Lu Li noted, watching the woman in black. She had blown the captain's shadow's head apart with a single shot and was now blocking the doorway, fending off the other shadows by using her Spirit Gun as a club.

"I've noticed," the woman replied, crushing another shadow with the barrel of her gun.

It was 4:55 AM, less than an hour until dawn.

The intervals between the shadows' appearances had shortened from the initial ten or fifteen minutes to just seven or eight. This meant that even if they could hold out for another half hour, they would still have to face at least six more waves.

"Can your Mind Level take it?" Lu Li asked."It's no worse than yours, at least."

"You know about my Mind Level?"

"Mm-hmm."

Lu Li didn't ask how she knew. He moved to stand behind her, helping her dispatch the shadows that were suddenly emerging from the floor.

When half the shadows were destroyed, the rest scattered. Five minutes later, the fifth wave appeared.

The sixth, seventh, eighth...

Bang!

After destroying a dozen wraiths and blowing the captain's shadow away from twenty meters out, the woman in black lowered her pistol. Panting slightly, she said, "It's time to go."

"Where?"

"To the ship's rail. To wait for dawn."

"It'll be hard to defend ourselves out there," Lu Li frowned.

"There's no other way. If we stay here, we might miss the sunrise. We don't know the exact time."

Her words sparked an idea. Lu Li reached into his pocket and pulled out the pocket watch.

Flipping open the cover, he saw that the hands of the broken watch were frozen at 5:30.

Could it be? The time shown on the watch given to him by the whale's shadow... could it mean something...?

The woman in black noticed the watch in his hand. "Where did you get that?"

"From a cabin."

"Maybe it's a clue. The time of the sunrise."

"My thoughts exactly." Lu Li snapped the watch shut. "Should we bet on it?"

The woman slotted the last two bullets into her pistol and snapped the cylinder shut with a click. "Makes no difference to me."

Lu Li lowered his gaze for a moment, then looked up. "Then we'll stay in the wheelhouse and head for the rail when it gets closer to that time."

5:15. Fifteen minutes to dawn. Three minutes had passed since the last assault.

The ninth wave of shadows crawled out from the black substance coating the deck and began to move slowly toward the wheelhouse.

The woman in black's movements had become sluggish. Lu Li took one of the Spirit Guns from her and, swinging it like a club, began to smash the approaching shadows.

5:19. Eleven minutes remained. Two minutes had passed since the last attack.

The tenth wave appeared.

One of the shadows crept up silently behind Lu Li. He reacted in time to shatter it, but the tips of its fingers brushed his arm, and his nearly dry shirt was instantly soaked through with the black substance.

"Don't let them touch you. That black grime appears wherever a shadow makes contact. It slows your movements. I'm sure you've figured that out already."

"I have."

5:21. Nine minutes to dawn. A minute had passed since the last attack.

The eleventh wave appeared.

The woman in black raised her arm, her bandaged fingers squeezing the trigger.

Bang!

A plume of black smoke erupted from the barrel. The captain's shadow on the deck dissipated, but a few seconds later, it rose again from the floorboards.

The shadows were now appearing without pause, giving them no time to rest.

The woman lowered her arm. "We can't hold out. We can't let them surround us. We need to do something."

"How much longer can you last?" Lu Li asked.

"Thirty seconds."

"Get to the stairs. I'll think of something."

"Move."

The woman in black headed for the stairs.

Lu Li turned, glanced at the clock in the wheelhouse, and memorized the time: 5:22.

The woman threw one of the Spirit Guns like an expendable tool. The pistol smashed two shadows and, losing momentum, clattered onto the stairs. She flicked it up with her foot.

The Spirit Gun sailed through the air, shattered the head of another shadow, and landed at the far end of the deck.

The woman fired a shot down the stairs. The deafening report echoed across the deck, and all the shadows on the steps vanished instantly.

But almost in the same instant, new shadows crawled out of the deckboards and began to move silently toward them.

"Back into the cabins! Only attack if they get close," Lu Li yelled, using the brief respite to dash inside.

The woman in black shifted her gaze to the approaching shadows.

Almost exactly thirty seconds later, just as she'd predicted, a clamor erupted from the ship's interior. Lu Li emerged, followed by a pack of grotesque black shadows.

The woman raised her Spirit Gun, aiming toward the cabin, but then she lowered it.

Lu Li wasn't running in a panic. The shadows weren't chasing him at all.

Lu Li ran to the woman's side as the shadows flowed past them, parting like a river around a stone and surging onward.

The four-meter whale shadow smashed everything in its path like a colossal beast. The octopus shadow in its comical boots strangled enemies with its tentacles. The cook shadows swung their cleavers. A shark shadow darted among the throng, leaving dissipating blots of darkness in its wake. Several smaller shadows leaped onto their enemies' backs, beating them with tools. At the head of the charge, a shadow with bull's horns swung a massive axe, carving a path through the horde.

Wham!

The deck shuddered. Splinters flew as several shadows were hurled into the air. A thick, tentacle-like vine burst up through the floorboards from the deck below and slammed down violently on the mass of shadows.

On one side, an unstoppable force. On the other, endless regeneration.

The pressure around them vanished in an instant. The woman in black holstered her Spirit Gun and walked toward the rail.

"Why are they helping you?"

"Because I helped them."

"How interesting..."

Picking their way through the chaos on deck, they reached the rail. The woman in black watched the battle. "It's almost time. Do you want to say anything to them before we leave?"

Lu Li took out his flask, poured the last of the water into his palm, and tossed the empty container aside.

"Thank you. If you're ever near Belfast, feel free to drop by," he called out to the shadows that were helping him.

"So that's your style," the woman in black remarked, then began the countdown. "Ten... nine... eight... three... one..."

"Jump!"

The time was 5:30.

Wiping his wet palm across his eyes, Lu Li leaped into the dark water. The moment his feet touched the surface, all pressure vanished, as if the sea were a thin film concealing an entirely different world on the other side.

A wave of dizziness, a brief sensation of flight, and then Lu Li saw golden rays of dawn breaking through the clouds to flood the ocean with light.