Miko Becomes a Demonic Cultivator

"Mm..."

To an outsider, this gesture might have seemed quite intimate, but for some reason, Yuria felt a bit awkward.

Were they really that close yet?

She shot a cautious glance at Yotsuya Miko. This psychic with immense power seemed to catch onto her thoughts, and Miko removed her hand from Yuria's shoulder.

"Yuria? Can I call you Yuria-chan?"

Yurikawa Hana, oblivious to any tension, cheerfully turned to Yuria with a bright, joyful smile, happy that Miko had made a new friend.

"Uh..."

Why was everyone so warm all of a sudden? Futamido Yuria looked at Hana, who was leaning in, her eyes flustered as she forced a smile onto her face.

"Um... I've got things to do, so I'll be going now. You two carry on."

With that, she dashed off into the distance, glancing back at them once before disappearing into the crowd.

"Huh?"

Even Hana, naive as she was, could tell those words were just an excuse.

"Miko, does she not like me?"

"No, that's not it."

Miko shook her head. Yuria's escape was within her expectations. That girl had been isolated for so long—it would be strange if she could naturally chat with them.

"She's just... a little shy around strangers."

Having seen ghosts since childhood, having been shunned for her abnormality since she was young—calling it "shy" probably wasn't enough.

"Is that so?"

"Mm, it's fine. Next time, let's invite Yuria out together. Oh, right, didn't you say you wanted to buy underwear today?"

She shifted the topic to their shopping plans, and Hana stopped dwelling on Yuria, instead eagerly focusing on what clothes to buy.

Well, more specifically, what underwear.

Watching Hana's attention shift, Miko opened her phone and sent a message to someone.

On the street, a certain golden twin-tailed girl hadn't made it home yet. She was fretting over the trouble a powerful psychic had brought her.

Yes, Yuria saw all of this as a nuisance.

"Damn it, that girl definitely thinks I'm a joke..."

Thinking back on everything that happened today, Futamido Yuria felt an indescribable emotion welling up inside her.

After what I did, she still comes close to me all friendly like that—what else could it be but messing with me?

Just as she was plotting some way to get back at her, her phone buzzed violently. It was a message from someone named "Yotsuya Miko."

"Third condition: Get along well with Yurikawa Hana. Give her food, and she'll be happy."

"..."

Staring at the words on the screen, Yuria's hand gripping the phone trembled slightly.

"What does this girl even want?"

She gritted her teeth.

"If this is the final condition, fine. I, Futamido Yuria, accept!"

She declared it loudly, hoping that girl would follow through.

Having sent that message, Miko didn't bother checking on Yuria anymore. After all, that girl's isolation probably wasn't something that could be fixed in a day or two.

She shopped with Hana until late, until the sky had darkened.

After saying goodbye to Hana, she walked home alone.

Shopping with Hana always took so much time.

Miko thought this as she opened her phone to a new message from Hana.

"Let's check out each other's underwear later."

"No, but I want to see Hana's photos."

This freeloading idea quickly got her a reply: a photo of a Ram Rabbit stabbed with spikes.

Not expecting to actually get away with it, Miko just smiled faintly as she walked down the steps of an overpass. But on nights like this, there were always surprises.

Seeing an old woman sitting on the steps, Miko couldn't help but sigh.

Her time getting home tonight would be a little later.

"Grandma, are you lost?"

"Mm... mm..."

The old woman mumbled indistinctly, her teeth completely gone, but it wasn't the worst-case scenario.

"Do you know the way?"

The old woman looked at her, her mouth opening and closing slightly.

"Is that so?"

Yotsuya Miko crouched down in front of the old woman and reached out both hands.

"Then, I'll leave the directions to you."

Fortunately, the directions she gave were still correct.

Miko carried the old woman on her back and walked in the direction she pointed. After a considerable distance, they finally arrived at the old woman's doorstep.

"Mom?"

A middle-aged woman turned her anxious gaze toward them, and Miko finally managed to set the old woman down on the ground.

With that, I can rest easy.

Yotsuya Miko listened to the woman's worried words to the old woman, watched as she handed over a set of dentures, and finally let out a sigh of relief. Just as she was thinking of leaving, the old woman grabbed her arm.

"Huh?"

"I don't know who you are, but thank you so much for your kindness."

The old woman said, now with her dentures back in, but when she bowed, she faced the wrong direction.

"I'm sorry for the trouble."

The middle-aged woman looked at Yotsuya Miko with a hint of apology.

"When my father was still alive, she was a reliable person, but now she's forgotten even her family and her own name."

The woman said, then pulled herself together a bit.

"Thank you so much. I have to properly repay you."

"Ah, no, please don't worry about it."

Miko said this, but the woman still walked into the house, apparently going to fetch something.

"Wait for me a moment."

"Ah, well..."

Before Miko could stop her, the woman had already entered the house. Looking at the old woman still beside her, Miko knew she had lost her chance to slip away now—after all, she couldn't just abandon the old woman at her side.

And also... the ghosts that had gathered around the old woman at some unknown point.

"Four... six... three"

The ghost beside the old woman repeated the same string of numbers over and over, as if it were something very important.

Her husband?

But ordinary people couldn't hear the voices of ghosts.

Rubbing her head, looking at the old woman beside her, Yotsuya Miko finally let out a sigh.

Forget it. If that ghost makes a move, I'll just kill it.

She decided to see it through to the end and simply tell the old woman that string of numbers as well.

Chapter 29: Thoughts, and the Present

Who would have thought that ghosts could also thank people?

After the old woman heard that string of numbers, she suddenly changed as if she were a different person. She entered the numbers into a safe and took out an object that hadn't been opened in a long time—a hair ornament her husband had given her.

The old woman, who had been in poor condition, regained her clarity and called out the woman's name like a normal person.

And the ghost beside her gave a slight bow.

"Thank you..."

It had sensed that this human could see it, yet hadn't harmed it.

This gesture made Yotsuya Miko feel uncomfortable, but she also breathed a sigh of relief.

She didn't know what she was relieved about—perhaps it was the relief of not having to kill this ghost after all.

Declining the family's invitation once more, Yotsuya Miko walked home carrying the pork soup the woman had given her.

She sent a message to her mother, saying she was on her way home safely.

After sending that message, Yurikawa Hana also sent a message.

A picture, and a sentence.

Looking at the words and the attached image, she couldn't help but smile.

She had casually mentioned it earlier, and Hana had actually sent the photo—though it was like wearing underwear outside your pants like a superhero, with a teasing tone.

"Sexy?"

Yotsuya Miko didn't reply. She turned off her phone and slowly walked along the road ahead.

Maybe being able to see ghosts didn't only bring misfortune.

Thinking of the father at home who lived as an ordinary person, the Bakeneko on that hard-to-approach man, and today's old woman's husband, Miko felt that her understanding of ghosts was still far too shallow.

What would happen if they saw them?

Would they really kill the people who saw them, like in TV shows? Or was that only the case for a certain type of ghost?

All kinds of questions surfaced in Yotsuya Miko's mind, and she had no answers for them either.

If this were the Xuanhui Realm, the knowledge in her mind would provide reasonable explanations for most phenomena that existed there, all compiled by Xuanhui Realm cultivators through practice. But this was Miko's world—a world without Spiritual Qi, without an underworld to house ghosts. Ghosts and humans walked together, and only a very few people could see them.

Or perhaps, this world did have something like an underworld, and the number of people who could see ghosts was astonishingly large, while the ghosts walking among humans were only a small fraction of all ghosts, with powerful ones never appearing before the world.

Miko had never thought about this before, because she had once been among those who couldn't see. Even after she could see, she hadn't thought about it, because for her back then, ghosts were terrifying—something she couldn't treat as visible.

But now... you're nothing but a pile of rotting bones.

Yotsuya Miko touched the "Eye-Eye" at her side. The Evil Banishing Talisman inside was still working as best it could, but after several days of consumption, its effectiveness was getting worse and worse, reminding her that it needed repair or replacement.

In her mind, the energy of the original Prayer Beads had also been mostly consumed. As her Spiritual Sense grew stronger, she had begun to suppress the Soul Devouring Tribulation well. And with the growth of her Spiritual Sense, her ability to identify ghosts became more precise, her perception range gradually expanded, and she had even started to slightly distinguish differences between people.

A kind of energy, different from that of ghosts, appeared on every person's body. For those with strong physiques, this energy was more intense; for those with weak physiques, it was very faint. This energy suppressed the aura of ghosts, driving away weaker ones.

Yurikawa Hana was the strongest possessor of this energy that Miko had sensed in her surroundings, but it was precisely this powerful energy that attracted ghosts. Those strong ghosts often regarded such intense energy as something akin to food, seeking to taint it.

However, Hana had her by her side—a demonic cultivator whose strength, though at the very bottom of the Xuanhui Realm, was enough to exterminate most ghosts walking among humans in this world.

Yotsuya Miko's current strength had already given her the ability to delve into the other side of this world.

But while uncovering the secrets of this world, she still needed to further enhance her own power.

"Toward that goal, I'll do my best for now."

By the time she reached her front door, it was almost nine o'clock. Her mother opened the door.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back."