Weird Stories: Gothic Lolita Begins

Groot’s connections were indeed extensive. In the morning, he completed the adoption procedures, and in the afternoon, Lenari’s admission procedures were also completed.

However, after Lenari argued, Groot agreed that she didn’t have to go to school on weekdays, as long as she was present for midterms, finals and other important exams.

Lenari knew very well that she was not a human being. Her rational learning and memory abilities were far behind those of ordinary humans. Going to the classroom every day to follow her “peers” was a sheer waste of time.

…

That morning, Groot, who had received a call an hour ago and hurried out, suddenly brought back a paper file bag.

“Business is here. Come over and study together.” Groot said to Lenari while untying the string wrapped around the file bag.

Lenari, who was watching anime on a tablet with Lucia, paused and moved closer to Groot.

At the only reception booth in the office, two people and a cat sat around a solid wood coffee table, looking through a thick stack of paper materials taken out of the file bag.

"...The slit-mouthed woman?" Lenari asked in confusion, flipping through the blurry printed photos in his hand, but with obviously different figures and clothes.

"It's a very old urban legend." Grot commented, "But this time it's very likely to be fake."

"Can a legend be faked? Are you so bold?" Lenari couldn't understand.

At this time, Lucia, who was scratching the materials with her cat's paws, said, "There are more bizarre ones. Human beings' fancy suicide operations can always refresh your three views."

"...Really?" Lenari didn't quite believe it, but didn't make any comments on it.

At this time, Groot took out a map of the city of Inisel from a pile of maps that he had bought from somewhere on a solid wood file rack against the wall, spread it out on the spacious coffee table, and said:

"This case was commissioned by Team 7. It is most likely a prank or cosplay event, but the possibility of a true ghost story cannot be completely ruled out, so it was commissioned to a ghost story agency like ours."

"'Like us'?" Lenari asked in confusion.

"These days, ghost story detectives are licensed to work." Groot pushed his glasses and said helplessly, "Therefore, ghost story agencies like ours are actually everywhere in the world."

Lenari nodded, and probably understood why Groot's connections were so powerful, but the agency's business was so bleak.

As if knowing what Lenari was thinking, Lucia looked up and added: "In fact, it is because Vivian himself is unwilling to expand the staff, so the manpower is limited. Many investigation commissions, such as this one, are not easy to do, and they cannot compete with other companies."

"There is nothing we can do about it." Grot looked very helpless, but he still explained patiently, "It's easy to deal with fake ones. Once you encounter a real ghost story or an evil superpower, ordinary people have almost no ability to resist."

"I can't control what other companies do, but I don't want my employees to be injured or even sacrificed because of work."

"Then why don't you hire superpowers?" Lenari asked doubtfully.

"Uh..." Grot smiled awkwardly, lowered his head and picked up a small marker, and marked the locations corresponding to the blurry photos taken by the street camera on the map one by one.

Next to him, Lucia grinned and answered for him: "Of course there are ghost story agencies composed of pure psychics. Vivian's place... the temple is too small."

"Oh!" Lenari understood, picked up another small marker, helped Grote mark the location, and pretended to be nothing happened.

After a while, hundreds of marks were densely and irregularly distributed on the map.

Grote looked at the map, pondered for a long time, and could not come to any useful conclusion: "Well... I haven't found any common points for the time being..."

"If there are common points, there are still some." Lenari looked at the map, thinking.

"Huh?" Grote looked at Lenari in surprise.

Lenari explained: "These marked locations are not dead ends. On the contrary, they are all connected in all directions nearby, with many large and small shops, and it is easy to hide or slip away."

"I see... In this way, the possibility of suicidal activities has increased again." Grote nodded.

Groot was naturally familiar with the city of Inesel, but he was more familiar with the roads that vehicles could pass, the landmark buildings, the district conditions, etc., and the conditions of the alleys, except for a few specific ones, were not as familiar as Lenari who had been wandering around for many years.

Then, Groot asked again: "If you monitor remotely, how many locations can you take care of at the same time?"

"There are specific locations, hundreds of them are no problem at all." Under the influence of the hot-blooded anime, Lenari filmedHe said confidently, "Leave it to me."

"Wow~ So awesome!" Lucia admired.

Groot was a little surprised, but he accepted it well. He nodded and said, "Then I'll leave it to you! I'll go prepare some props."

"Props?" Lenari was aware of the shadow monitoring of the target point, and he had time to satisfy his curiosity.

Grot answered while searching in the solid wood cabinet behind the desk: "Cameras, video cameras, handcuffs, and some odds and ends."

"Oh, and a pistol." Grot said as if he suddenly remembered, "You don't know how to use a gun yet? I'll take you to the shooting range of Team 7 to practice some other day."

Hearing this, Lenari was stunned for a moment: "Can minors carry guns properly?"

"Generally speaking, no." Grot said while loading odds and ends on his body, "But you are an excellent psychic. Although it is not stated explicitly, the superiors have a little privilege for excellent psychics by default."

On the other side, Lucia rolled her eyes and corrected: "It's obviously 'billion points'!"

Lenari nodded to show that he understood, and manipulated the shadow, took out a small high-definition camera and threw it into the shadow, explaining: "I have a virtual space called 'Dark Realm', where electronic products such as mobile phones can be used, but you have to open a hole to connect to the signal."

"What about living things?" Lucia asked curiously.

"Hmm... there's no air inside..." Lenari pondered, "I can turn into a shadow myself, so I'm not afraid..."

"Let's buy a few live chickens and ducks to do an experiment someday." Groot said, and found a small camera and put it in his pocket, "Just do a preliminary investigation now, don't take risks."

"Okay." Lenari agreed.

In fact, she didn't plan to take risks.

If it was just humans who were trying to kill themselves, it wouldn't matter, but she was afraid of encountering the real thing.

Lenari was really unsure, what was going on with the weird against the weird?