"Sorry for making you help me clean up, too."
"It's okay. It's no big deal."
Miko shook her head and lowered her gaze to pick up a few bottle caps from the ground. These shiny little things often attracted Little Old Men, and if you were lucky, they might also draw in a big monster that preyed on Little Old Men. But the odds weren't that high. Yuria had gotten pretty lucky today.
"Your name's Miko, right?"
"Yeah."
She hid the caps in her palm and picked up a volleyball from the ground, placing it in the basket as well.
"I'm Yuria."
"Okay. Nice to meet you."
Yotsuya Miko smiled. Based on what she'd found out, she had a pretty good idea what the girl in front of her was trying to do.
So she watched the girl slowly close the door without saying much. That also made it easier for her to do what came next.
"Actually, I've been keeping an eye on you, Miko."
Oh, you knew that too?
"I realized that you're one of us."
So you really could see a little.
"You can see them, right?"
As she spoke, she edged closer to Miko, brimming with a strange confidence.
"You can't fool me."
No, I'd never even thought anyone else could see them. Why would I try to hide it?
"You haven't told anyone you can see them, have you? I can guess why."
A trace of loneliness crossed her face. Just like the rumors said, this girl had been ostracized in middle school after talking about ghosts and such. Even now, she hadn't made any friends.
Still, that didn't give her an excuse to cause trouble just because she wanted to find someone like herself.
Looking at the girl in front of her, who wasn't afraid of Ghosts at all and even seemed proud of herself, Yotsuya Miko figured it was a good thing she could only see weak Ghosts. With a personality like hers, she'd surely get herself killed otherwise.
And speaking of getting herself killed, she'd already started.
"Don't worry. I'm just like you. It's just the two of us here, so you don't have to hide your abilities."
"Come on, tell me your secret!"
"...What a pain."
Yotsuya Miko sighed and pointed at Yuria's pocket. Having experienced the power of the prayer beads, she had already sensed with her Spiritual Sense that this girl had a string of them on her.
"Take out your prayer beads."
"Huh?"
Yuria stared at Miko, who had suddenly seemed like a different person. After a moment, she hurriedly took out the string of prayer beads Godmother had given her.
"What are you going to do?"
"Put them on and wait for them to explode on their own."
Yotsuya Miko calmly put a few bottle caps in her pocket. She needed these little things as temporary vessels.
"Just so you know, the energy from prayer beads repels weak Ghosts. But strong ones are the exact opposite."
As soon as she finished speaking, the prayer beads on Yuria's wrist shook violently, then burst into fragments.
Like fireworks scattering across the sky.
"What a lovely sound, Yuria-chan."
Chapter 27: Three Things and a Promise
Along with the prayer beads, Yuria's heart shattered.
Miko's words quickly made her realize one thing: there was a powerful Ghost here that could destroy the prayer beads.
But why couldn't she see it?
"Because you're lucky. You can only see weak Ghosts, the kind that can't hurt you."
Yotsuya Miko rubbed her wrist and looked at the enormous Ghost that was already going berserk, its face like a block. She wondered what she should do with the thing.
Although this Ghost looked terrifying, it was still within her ability to control.
"Being able to see them isn't a good thing. Once these things realize you can see them, they'll leave their shadowy state and then... kill you."
She spoke, then paused.
"By the way, pretending to see them doesn't seem to have that effect."
"Spirit Binding Technique."
As she spoke, she cast a spell. Dozens of streams of spiritual energy shot toward Block Face in a streak of black light as it charged at her in a frenzy. The streams quickly turned into slender ropes, slithering over Block Face like pythons before winding tightly around it.
"All right, what do you want to ask?"
She clapped her hands and glanced at the Ghost, now completely wrapped up, then turned her gaze to the girl in front of her.
"..."
Yuria could only stare at her, stunned, unable to accept what she'd just heard.
But that wasn't a problem. Yotsuya Miko walked up to her and tapped her forehead.
"Spiritual Eye Technique. It lets you briefly see the world through my eyes."
Several streams of spiritual energy flowed from Miko's fingertip, from Yuria's forehead to her eyes. Yuria couldn't feel the energy moving, but when she looked ahead again, she stumbled backward several steps.
"What... is that?"
"As you can see, a Ghost."
Miko didn't laugh at her reaction. She knew that seeing these things clearly was an enormous strain on the mind.
"They take all kinds of bizarre forms, with twisted human bodies. Even if you don't want to pay attention to them, they'll linger around you for all sorts of reasons."
As she spoke, she gently patted Yuria on the shoulder.
"Don't worry too much. I've already subdued this one."
"I understand that you want to find someone like yourself, but that doesn't mean you can play around with Ghosts. People who provoke Ghosts generally don't end well."
As she spoke, Miko casually sent another wave of spiritual energy into Block Face, making it behave itself a little more.
"Now that you've seen what I can do, do you have anything to say?"
"Oh, right."
She took the bottle caps out of her pocket.
"I'm taking these with me. Otherwise, the Little Old Men will keep hanging around here, and they might attract more Ghosts."
With that, she paid no mind to Yuria, who still hadn't recovered. Miko dismissed the Spiritual Eye Technique and focused her attention on the Ghost once more.
If she hadn't wanted to explain the dangers of Ghosts to her reckless classmate, she would have killed it outright. Instead, she'd wasted a lot of spiritual energy keeping it contained. For the Demonic Path, killing was much easier than capturing.
She casually cast a few spells without even bothering to call out their names. Watching the black light characteristic of the Demonic Path strike Block Face and blast several holes in its body, Miko nodded in satisfaction. The more hits it could take, the better its quality would be. A few more flashes of black light followed. Amid the Ghost's howls, the last of its consciousness finally faded away.
She took the bottle caps from her pocket and used spiritual energy to fuse them together into a temporary container. Stained with the Ghost's aura, the caps could barely serve as a vessel. Miko was a make-do sort of person, so she had no intention of preparing a proper container.
Under the influence of spiritual energy, the bottle caps quickly formed a hollow sphere. The Soul Body remains, usually blasted all over the ground, were drawn back by the spiritual energy and gathered into a clump, then compressed into a ball. She put the little ball into the sphere formed from the bottle caps and cast another sealing spell. Only then was the Ghost completely captured.
With the Soul Body of a Ghost like this, Miko would have many more options. She could upgrade the Evil Banishing Talisman on Yurikawa Hana, or the one on her own hand. She could also make the device she'd considered before, one that forcibly increased a Ghost's strength. Or she could use it as nourishment to cultivate the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record.
All in all, she was satisfied with what she'd recovered today.
"Um... aren't you angry? I did something like that, after all."
After Miko finished dealing with the Ghost, Yuria finally seemed to wake from a dream and began to grasp what she'd done and what consequences it had brought.
If Yotsuya Miko had happened to be able to see the vicious Ghost but didn't have the overwhelming strength she'd just shown, and Yuria had still forced her to admit she could see it...
Yuria began to regret her recklessness. She could have handled things much more gently.
"If I were going to get angry, I would've started a few days ago."
Miko patted Yuria's hair, her expression tinged with helplessness.
"Honestly, having you stare at me every day at school isn't exactly pleasant. I'm just lucky I've seen so many Ghosts that I can ignore your gaze. But it seems like there's something you haven't said to me yet?"
If she judged Yuria by her actions and not her intentions, then she had every reason to be angry. Yuria had been trying to put her in danger. But really, Miko thought Yuria seemed like a lonely, helpless child. She'd suffered because of her ability to see Ghosts, so it made perfect sense that she desperately wanted to find someone like herself.
By the way, Yuria's hair felt pretty nice. Unlike her little brother's bristly hair, Yuria's blonde hair was silky smooth, just like the shampoo in that ad had promised.
"...I'm... I'm sorry for making trouble for you."
Yuria obediently bowed her head and apologized to Miko.
"That's not quite enough."
Yotsuya Miko smiled at her.
"How about you do a few things for me, Yuria-chan?"
"What things?"
Yuria boldly closed her eyes as she spoke.
"I'll do whatever it is! I deserve it for bringing this on myself."
"Well, you've got a lot of spirit."
Yotsuya Miko held up three fingers.
"First, clean up the broken prayer beads at your feet. It wouldn't be good to leave them lying around."
"Second..."
Yotsuya Miko took out the sealed ball and placed it in Yuria's palm.
"Hold on to this container for me. I'll wait for you after school."
"As for the third thing..."
She looked at Yuria and smiled.
"I'll tell you when I think of it."
Chapter 28: Miko Hadn't Changed
After everything that had happened, the matter with Yuria was more or less settled.
After school, Yotsuya Miko took back the little ball and showed Yuria her phone.
"Want to exchange contact info?"
Like Yuria, Yotsuya Miko didn't plan to tell ordinary people that she could see Ghosts. Most of the time, telling them would only hurt them.
So even in front of Yurikawa Hana, she hadn't revealed her abilities as a cultivator of the Demonic Path. But someone like Yuria, who could see Ghosts, wasn't much of a problem.
At worst, she could make this girl a set of gear that protected her from head to toe. After all, Yuria had pretty strong nerves when it came to Ghosts.
"Uh... okay."
Yuria felt awkward about the invitation, but also thought it would be stranger not to accept. After hesitating, she took out her phone and added Yotsuya Miko as a contact.
"Then remember, we still have one promise to keep."
Yotsuya Miko smiled at her, then looked toward Yurikawa Hana, who had come over to find her.
"Miko... Huh? Who's this?"
Yurikawa Hana looked at the petite girl standing in front of Miko and tilted her head.
"I feel like I've seen her somewhere before."
"Yeah, at Mrs. Donut's."
Yotsuya Miko grabbed Yuria by the shoulders.
"This is Futamido Yuria. We finally met at the gym just now, right, Yuria-chan?"
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