"Ngh—! This strength... is really amazing!"

Minos's shoulders were pinned by Jiang Jiang. Her body sank instantly, her legs spread wide, and she planted herself firmly in the sand. Her pale, rounded thigh muscles tensed, outlining powerful curves.

She clamped Jiang Jiang's wrists firmly. Jiang Jiang, not to be outdone, held her ground with slender yet explosive arms against Minos. Their bodies trembled slightly from the struggle, and the bells on both of them rang out with a crisp jingle-jingle, like background music.

"Amazing! Her strength is actually on par with Minos!" Medusa was shocked, covering her lips with her hand.

Ryohei Tanaka felt that Minos was shaking a lot, bouncing with a "Duang~ Duang~." The cow-girl is really stacked. What a sight!

"Hah—!"

Feeling she couldn't win on strength alone, Minos grabbed Jiang Jiang's collar. Using her waist and hips, she swung Jiang Jiang up, sending her flying in an arc before slamming her hard onto the beach.

With a loud THUD, sand flew everywhere. Jiang Jiang, like a delicate doll, had shattered into pieces.

"Uh... she's that fragile?"

Minos, who had expected an 800-round battle, was stunned. She blinked her beady eyes, never expecting it to end in one move.

Poporon and the other onlookers were also surprised.

"I... I'm in pieces..." Jiang Jiang, now immobile, lay on the sand and said awkwardly to Minos, "Could you... help me put my head and limbs back on... please!"

"In your dreams!"

Seeing Jiang Jiang was down, Jashin-chan immediately jumped up. She strode over, fists clenched, glaring down at her. "You dared to attack me! I'm going to finish you!"

"I'm sorry, I thought you were enemies..." Jiang Jiang said, embarrassed.

"What's the use of saying sorry now! If 'sorry' was useful, what would we need police for? If you could be forgiven just by saying sorry, the world would be in chaos!"

Jashin-chan said this righteously, then noticed everyone staring at her. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Nothing. It's just surprising to hear words like that coming from you," Yurine said with a small smile.

"Tch!" Jashin-chan clicked her tongue, ignoring it.

Ryohei Tanaka looked at the zombie girl on the sand and spoke up for her. "She doesn't seem like a bad kid. Let's give her a chance."

"Th-Thank you!" Jiang Jiang looked gratefully at Ryohei for defending her.

Jashin-chan puffed her cheeks, annoyed. "Servant, you're always trying to be the good guy! I'm the one who got bitten!"

"Then how about we have her pay your medical fees?" Ryohei asked, suggesting a compromise. Jashin-chan was indeed attacked and injured, so it wasn't fair to ask her to forgive Jiang Jiang just like that.

"That works!"

Jashin-chan's eyes lit up. She excitedly held out her hand to Jiang Jiang. "Pay me 50,000... no, 100,000 yen, and I'll forgive you!"

"Why'd you raise the price at the last second?" Jiru retorted.

"None of your business!" Jashin-chan said, completely shameless as she puffed out her chest. "I love raising the price at the last second!"

The scum-snake is still a scum-snake, as always.

"100,000 yen? Okay." Jiang Jiang, still in pieces, agreed, but with a request. "But you have to help me put my body back together!"

"No problem!" Jashin-chan was an expert at this—she was always getting chopped up by Yurine and kept 502 (super glue) handy at home. She didn't have any on her, but she was sure Medusa did. She held out her hand. "Medusa, you brought the 502, right? Let me borrow it."

"Okay, wait a second," Medusa replied, jogging over to the parasol where she'd left her bag.

"By the way, didn't Lucoa say there were two presences in the coffin?" Remembering this, Poporon looked at Lucoa, then at the coffin, wondering if someone else was still inside.

Hearing this, the others also looked over. Ryohei and Lucoa, however, looked at Jiang Jiang's chest.

On her chest, a certain "panda print" was startled. Knowing it couldn't hide, it spoke up. "I'm here."

"My sister was rude just now. I apologize."

"Eh? The clothes are talking!" Medusa, returning with the glue, was shocked.

"Eh?" Everyone turned to look at Jiang Jiang's clothes.

"I am not clothes!" Lan Lan explained.

Jiang Jiang quickly added, "This is my sister, Lan Lan!"

"You call your clothes 'sister'?" Jashin-chan asked, taking the glue from Medusa, completely confused.

"She's my real sister!" Jiang Jiang corrected her seriously. "My sister was cursed by a panda in the Demon Realm and turned into a panda doll. She's temporarily living on my clothes."

"That's right," Lan Lan added, sounding resigned.

"Are pandas from the Demon Realm that powerful?" Yurine paused, looking at Jiang Jiang being glued back together. "They can turn a... demon... into a panda doll!"

"We're jiangshi (zombies), not demons, you know." Realizing they hadn't introduced themselves, Jiang Jiang quickly said, "My sister and I are jiangshi from the China region of the Demon Realm. My name is Jiang Jiang, and my sister is Lan Lan."

"Are you the hopping kind from Hong Kong movies? The kind that becomes obedient when you stick a talisman on them?" Yurine asked curiously. She hadn't seen the movies but had heard of them.

"Those are low-level jiangshi. We're high-level. We can move however we want," Jiang Jiang said proudly, despite her current pathetic state.

"We suffered a lot to become high-level," Lan Lan added.

Medusa, helping Jashin-chan glue a leg, asked, "Why did you come to the human world?"

"Good question!" Jiang Jiang beamed. "I want to become human! A great person told me that if I do good deeds and help people in the human world, one day I can become human."

"As for my sister, that person said there's a way to break her curse in the human world, so she came along."

"And you believed that?" Jashin-chan looked at Jiang Jiang's head, astonished. "Forget the curse, the 'becoming human' part is obviously a scam, right? How can a zombie who's already died become human again!"

"Eh?" Jiang Jiang froze. "I can't?" Her mood visibly plummeted. "But that's what the person said, so I came..."

"Jiang Jiang, why do you want to become human?" Medusa, unable to stand seeing others sad, quickly changed the subject.

"Because I love humans!" the zombie girl replied without hesitation, a bright smile on her face.

"I see." Ryohei Tanaka nodded thoughtfully, one hand on his chest, the other stroking his chin as if making a decision. He looked at Jiang Jiang and made an offer.

"Do you want to work at my restaurant? I can't make you human, but I can put you in charge of serving some human customers."

"Also, I might have a way to solve your sister's curse."

Ryohei figured Lucoa could probably break the curse. If not, just like in the original story, he could contact that "Zhang Fei" panda through Jiru's mother and have him remove it. It wouldn't be too difficult.

~~~

Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!

https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn

~~~

Every 5 new reviews = 1 extra chapters

Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter