Wearing her slippers, she stepped outside and walked to the vending machine near her home.
Looking at the dazzling array of drinks inside, Miko quickly found the one she wanted.
"It's so cold. I'll have some red bean soup."
As she spoke, she took out a coin she had brought with her.
"I'll get some for Kyosuke too. It's so cold."
Pinching the coin between her fingers, she was about to put it into the vending machine when, as expected, her grip loosened a little. The coin fell to the ground and slid underneath the machine.
"..."
Yotsuya Miko crouched down. Her Spiritual Sense told her there was an extremely weak Ghost beneath the vending machine, but a Ghost this weak probably wouldn't suddenly go crazy and scare her, right?
She peered beneath the vending machine and saw the coin, along with a tiny Ghost beside it.
It looked... genuinely very weak.
The instant the Ghost noticed her gaze, it hurried off elsewhere. Along the way, it even tripped, looking incredibly clumsy.
"Little Old Man?"
That had to be the Little Old Man that entertainers on TV often claimed to have seen.
As she wondered about it, the Little Old Man tripped again.
So they really did exist.
Yotsuya Miko picked up the coin and watched the Little Old Man disappear around the corner, raising an eyebrow.
It was surprisingly weak. She doubted it could even produce Soul Extract.
She had no intention of chasing the Little Old Man around for fun. After all, there was a much bigger one near the corner it had disappeared around.
Two cans of red bean soup...
She safely inserted the coin into the vending machine and took out two warm cans of red bean soup. Just as Yotsuya Miko was about to head home, she couldn't help glancing toward the place where the Little Old Man had disappeared.
Come to think of it... that one seemed like a powerful Ghost too. Maybe she should... kill it?
Feeling the aura through her Spiritual Sense, Yotsuya Miko began to hesitate. Her Soul Devouring Tribulation hadn't ended yet, and for now, she was still relying on the rosary's energy to stay normal. Strengthening her Spiritual Sense was still a difficult task, since the Profound Nether Qi in her body was far too limited.
After thinking it over again and again, she decided to let it go.
She didn't like causing trouble for no reason. That thing hadn't bothered her, and it was hard to say whether trading some of the rosary's energy for Profound Nether Qi was worth it.
She'd wait and see. If a stronger Ghost appeared...
With that hopeful thought, Yotsuya Miko carried the two cans of red bean soup home.
"What do you think, everyone?"
She opened the living room door and immediately saw Kyosuke, his upper body wrapped in a blanket.
"You're back?"
"Yeah. They were out of cola."
Yotsuya Miko handed Kyosuke one of the cans and opened the other for herself.
"They only had this. Drink it while it's hot."
"..."
Kyosuke looked at the red bean soup in his hand, then glanced at his sister, who had already started drinking hers.
"You didn't want to buy me cola, did you?"
"They really were out of cola."
"I don't believe you."
"Whether you believe me or not, they really were out."
Miko sat down on the sofa, ignoring the two Little Old Men beneath it who had gotten in somehow. With such weak auras, they could only be those two.
"Let's keep watching Creepy."
"...Okay."
Kyosuke reluctantly opened the can of red bean soup and took a sip.
"It's too sweet..."
"I went out of my way to get it for you."
"I wanted cola..."
"They were out."
###
A demonic cultivator would naturally imbue the talismans and artifacts she made with a strong Demonic Path influence.
After saying goodbye to Yurikawa Hana, Yotsuya Miko strolled down the street. Her desire to make a talisman or artifact to ward off Ghosts was growing stronger and stronger.
Ghosts were still running rampant at school today.
Thanks to the immense power of the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, her attitude toward Ghosts had changed from fear to irritation. Her Spiritual Sense could help her avoid the unpleasant situation of a Ghost suddenly scaring her, but she still couldn't avoid seeing their faces or what they were trying to do.
Unless she was willing to use the Soul Collision Art to kill them outright, or use a spell from the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding to destroy them.
But that clearly wasn't a foolproof solution. Even if she destroyed one batch of Ghosts, another would appear, and Ghost Bodies took time to dissipate naturally. The surviving Ghosts could devour those Soul Bodies and become more powerful. To avoid being affected too much by the Soul Devouring Tribulation, Yotsuya Miko couldn't devour every one of those Soul Bodies herself. That was when she needed talismans or artifacts to destroy them—or collect them for other uses.
As for whether the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding had any spells that could destroy both Ghosts and their Soul Bodies... it did, but they consumed several times as much spiritual energy. Even with the more than one hundred units of spiritual energy in Miko's body, she could only afford to use one five or six times. After all, killing something and eradicating it completely were two different things.
She searched her memories for knowledge of various talismans and artifacts, and soon found a talisman that fit what she had in mind.
The Evil Banishing Talisman.
It could interfere with the movements of Malevolent Ghosts. If she stuck one in a particular place, Ghosts without strong awareness would stay away from it. As for Ghosts with strong awareness... they would have to be powerful enough to surpass the Ghost used as the Talisman Base.
The rest would be easy: all she had to do was gather the materials and make the talisman.
As for the object to carry it... Yotsuya Miko looked at Eye-Eye on her schoolbag. That would make a pretty good base.
Besides the base, she also needed one or more reasonably powerful Ghosts, whose Soul Bodies she could extract to use as the Talisman Base; some blood; paper to temporarily hold the talisman; and... a piece of fresh flesh that had been separated from its source for no more than half an hour.
In other words, it had to be flesh from a living creature that had been separated from the creature less than an hour ago. Aside from the quality of the creature itself, the heart and brain were best, followed by the liver, lungs, kidneys, and stomach; then the eyes, ears, nose, and limbs; and lastly, fingers, toes, and claws. Anything below that could only be used as an inferior substitute.
The earlier requirements were easy enough. The flesh was the tricky part. Yotsuya Miko thought about what kind of flesh she could obtain legitimately, and then an idea came to her.
"Fish?"
A whole fish should work as the flesh, right?
So she headed to the nearest market, completely unaware of the little tail following her. Compared with Ghosts, the people detected by her Spiritual Sense all felt much the same. Miko was on a busy street with people coming and going everywhere. Unless someone had spiritual energy in their body, they wouldn't draw her Spiritual Sense's attention.
After Miko left, Yotsuya Kyosuke poked his head out from behind a building. He planned to follow his sister.
Kyosuke had felt for a while that something about his sister had been off lately.
"Your sister's acting weird?"
"Yeah."
At school, he had been talking about his sister Miko with his classmates.
"What kind of weird?"
"She sighs all the time now," (because she kept seeing Ghosts in certain situations)
"And her attitude is strange too," (because that attitude was directed at Ghosts that ordinary people couldn't see)
"She keeps saying 'no, no' in her sleep." (Only once, that one time last time)
"I see."
His good friend probably crossed his arms and said something that an elementary school student would say.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"She must have a boyfriend."
A girl nearby, listening to their conversation, stated it with absolute certainty. Kyosuke couldn't help looking over at her.
The purple-haired girl with twin tails exuded a precocious air. She spread one hand, acting like she was familiar with these things.
"My older sister was like that when she got a boyfriend too."
"A boyfriend?"
Kyosuke fell into thought, completely missing the implication in the girl's next words.
His sister had a boyfriend?
"Girls give their hearts and bodies to the people they like, you know. Get it?"
That did seem possible. So, back then... had she had a falling-out with her boyfriend?
"I have no idea what you're talking about," his best friend quipped.
"By the way, if I dated someone, I'd be devoted to them too."
As she spoke, the girl looked at Kyosuke. But he was still lost in thought about his sister, and didn't notice her gaze at all.
Worried about his sister, he decided to follow her and find out whether she really had a boyfriend.
If she did have a boyfriend, why hadn't she told him?
And she'd been so upset before... had that guy scolded her?
At the thought, Kyosuke was already getting angry.
Bastard, I'll never forgive you.
And so... he followed Yotsuya Miko all the way to the market.
After watching his sister pick out a fish at the fishmonger's and leave the market, Yotsuya Kyosuke began to feel that something was wrong.
Then he followed her again to a convenience store. When his sister came out carrying a new shopping bag, that feeling of unease grew even stronger.
Is someone watching me?
Yotsuya Miko carried the butchered fish and a dish of fish blood, along with the brush and white paper she had bought at the convenience store. She looked back. Her Spiritual Sense told her that a gaze had been following her the whole time, but when she turned around, she couldn't see anyone.
Her Spiritual Sense really was troublesome in this regard.
It could distinguish Ghosts' auras very clearly, but the differences between the people coming and going on the street felt faint. After all, everyone was just an ordinary person, and her Spiritual Sense couldn't detect human Life Energy.
Still, Yotsuya Miko looked at the fish in her hands, which had been dead for a while, and had no choice but to put the feeling of being watched out of her mind. If someone really meant her harm, the various spells of a demonic cultivator would be more than enough to make them regret it.
She walked into a narrow alley and saw the Ghosts gathered there. Without hesitation, Yotsuya Miko used a spell she had just learned to send them out of the world.
She used spiritual energy to gather the Soul Bodies scattered across the ground, then took out the fish carcass and dish of fish blood and set them down. She began making the talisman.
The process was very simple. First, she used spiritual energy to grind the Soul Bodies down again until they were about as fine as flour. Then she sprinkled the Soul Body powder into the fish blood and stirred it.
She ground the whole fish carcass into a bloody pulp, poured the fish blood mixed with Soul Bodies over it, and then fed a few units of spiritual energy into the mixture as a catalyst. All that remained was to keep grinding the bloody pulp with spiritual energy until the spiritual energy she had added guided it into a thick-ink-like consistency.
There was almost no technical skill involved, aside from the precise guidance needed for those few units of spiritual energy.
Once the thick ink was ready, Yotsuya Miko poured it into another small dish she had prepared—also bought at the convenience store—then took out the brush and dipped it into the blood-colored ink.
The last step was to draw the talisman on the white paper and then transfer it onto the doll, Eye-Eye.
Just as she was about to reach for the white paper, her Spiritual Sense finally locked onto the person behind that gaze. The person had boldly come right up behind her.
"Big sister, what are you doing?"
Yotsuya Miko's hand froze as she reached for the white paper. She turned around stiffly and looked at the person behind her.
"What are you doing here?"
###
How should she deal with her younger brother catching her making a talisman?
Miko took a deep breath, then calmly gave her explanation.
"You scared all the cats away."
As she spoke, she quietly put the thick ink into the shopping bag and used a layer of spiritual energy as a lid to keep it from spilling.
Before you continue