Miko's Methods / Loneliness and Understanding It ...

"Hm? What? Silver Pellets?"

Miko had developed a reflexive reaction to the term. She looked toward the television, where the title beneath the program clearly read "Guardian of Silver Pellets—An Unbelievable Urban Legend."

"Has this gotten that popular already?"

Yotsuya Kyosuke murmured instinctively, voicing Miko's doubts. As they continued watching the program's account, their attitudes gradually changed.

Kyosuke went from unconvinced to surprised, even excited. Miko, on the other hand... went from startled to shocked, and finally to—trouble.

How had it turned out like this?!

She thought it was absurd. It was just something that killed Ghosts. How had it suddenly become a universal treasure? How could she, its creator, know nothing about that?

Miko's Methods

Yotsuya Miko lay in bed, thinking for two whole hours, but still couldn't figure out why people had imagined Talisman Iron Pellets to be universal treasures. All they were supposed to do was kill Ghosts. She'd only inscribed one rune on each of these Talisman Iron Pellets, and they contained very little spiritual energy. After a day, that energy would be completely exhausted, leaving behind a little iron ball that was entirely useless to anyone else.

But who the hell could've expected someone to take one of these things to a hospital and try to save a dying patient with it? And it wasn't just one person, but a whole group. Things had gone so far that Miko could already foresee the future of Silver Pellets. It would probably become an urban legend that persisted for a long time, one people might even bring up again more than a decade later.

And when she thought about how she herself had handed one of these Talisman Iron Pellets to its owner—despite believing that something like this would never happen—Miko couldn't help regretting it. Some things really shouldn't be tempted. Like now, when she had no idea what to make of the situation.

All she could do was... try not to pay attention to it.

As things stood, no one had discovered that she was the one who made the Talisman Iron Pellets. People were focusing only on the various owners of Silver Pellets, especially Miss Natsukawa Yuki—the young woman who'd made such a fuss and owned a unique Silver Pellet. She was receiving even more attention. At first, some people had tried to find out how the Silver Pellets had appeared, but no one knew how they'd ended up with them. The pellets were so tiny that people could easily overlook them without a close look.

So those who'd tried to investigate the Silver Pellets' origins had given up and turned their cameras on the owners instead, hoping to uncover a deeper connection between people like them and the Silver Pellets. Though Miko thought there probably wasn't any connection to uncover.

She'd simply picked a few unlucky people at random who'd been possessed by Ghosts, then shot Talisman Iron Pellets at them. If people could find a connection in an arbitrary coincidence like that, Miko had nothing to say. She could only conclude that they had too much time on their hands—or very strange ways of thinking.

Still, she would be affected to some extent. For instance, there were the reliable big-data algorithms, and the Silver Pellet she'd given Tono Zen again today.

"...This is such a pain."

Miko ran a hand through her hair, feeling helpless. She was beginning to understand that life was full of unpredictable twists and turns. If those people really dug into the matter, she couldn't count on Tono Zen to keep the Silver Pellet a secret—and that might lead the unknown people involved to turn their attention toward her.

If they got even a little luckier, they might discover the hundreds of Silver Pellets in the iron box inside her shoulder bag.

She wasn't going to gamble on such a small possibility. For now, she'd have to put a hold on gathering fish to refine into blood ink. She could start up again once the attention had truly died down. She'd also have to be careful with her shoulder bag, in case all the Talisman Iron Pellets in the little iron box spilled out. Of course, the best solution would be to find a way to use them all up or destroy them, keeping only a few master copies.

Out of concern for her own wallet, Miko still thought using them up would be the better option. But there weren't any powerful Ghosts nearby that would let her have a really good fight. The only exception would be if she were willing to go alone to that mountain, with no reliable information, and pay a visit to the Mountain God there.

But the instant the thought crossed her mind, she quashed it. The reason was simple—she didn't dare take the risk.

"So, would it be better to change the medium?"

Miko looked at the densely packed little balls in the open iron box and sighed. She'd considered all sorts of mediums before, like the Talisman Paper used in the Xuanhui Realm, or using dolls. In the end, though, she'd settled on a relatively reliable medium in this world: iron pellets. They were small, easy to conceal, and easy to collect. If she switched to Talisman Paper, there'd be problems with speed of use and concealment. And making them into little paper scraps... well, iron balls were easier to handle.

So even though she wanted to change the medium, Miko couldn't think of a good alternative. Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding also introduced some mediums, but those were usually made of special materials and could be used permanently. They weren't much help to Miko, who kept making shoddy products. These low-quality Talisman Iron Pellets didn't last long, either; after only a few uses, they became completely ineffective. That was one reason she made them in bulk. Another was that they made her feel safe.

Having a large number of Talisman Iron Pellets meant she could draw on less of her own spiritual energy and get more out of them when fighting Ghosts. Each pellet was like a boost to her combat strength. Even if she ran out of spiritual energy, she could keep fighting with the energy already stored in the pellets. At lower cultivation levels, these pellets could multiply a cultivator's strength several times over. Even at higher levels, they were an important part of a cultivator's power.

Take Miko, for example. Without external tools like Talisman Iron Pellets, her combat strength would be one. With the hundreds of pellets she'd made so far, it could reach ten, or even twenty. She simply couldn't bring herself to throw them away or leave them behind.

"Forget it. Things haven't gotten dangerous yet."

Miko shook her head, brushing the jumble of thoughts from her mind. She closed the lid again and put the iron box in her shoulder bag. Getting discovered would be bad, of course, but being without the Talisman Iron Pellets would be even worse. At least in the former case... she could still find a way to deal with it.

She quietly took several specially made Talisman Iron Pellets from her clothes. Besides the regular ones, she kept many pellets with special uses on her person, just in case. Looking at the few pellets in front of her, she decided she could probably sleep soundly after all.

She couldn't make an entire city forget about Talisman Iron Pellets. But if there were a few people who'd already turned their suspicions toward her, she could find a way to stop them from disturbing her peaceful life.

Besides, this wasn't the only method at her disposal. Things hadn't reached that point yet. For now, she could bear with the attention Silver Pellets brought and simply stay home instead of going out.

Heart Sees, Things Become Clear: A Note on Starting Paid Chapters

I had thought the story would go premium, but it still feels a little early. The author hasn't even finished writing the first volume yet. There's room for a few more short stories in the first volume's outline, and then we'll officially move on to the second volume.

When I first started writing Miko's story, I didn't think too much about it. I saw someone in another Miko story say they were planning to bring a demonic cultivator into Miko's world, and it gave me a sudden idea—to make Miko a demonic cultivator. As it turns out, it really was a terrible idea. There just aren't many readers for xianxia, and even fewer for a xianxia story like mine that doesn't quite count as a peach story and doesn't have a male lead.

Still, I'm planning to keep writing for a while, at least until I finish the first volume. Then I'll see if I can put in the effort to write the second volume, and after that, think about the later volumes. I'm also very grateful to all the readers for their feedback and suggestions. They've given me a lot to consider.

For now, the first volume is tentatively titled "Heart Sees, Things Become Clear." It mainly tells the story of how an ordinary high school girl like Yotsuya Miko gradually turns into a demonic cultivator. After all, she didn't change her way of thinking smoothly or easily. The second volume will be about Miko's battles on the path to becoming a demonic cultivator. It'll be... Ah, I'm thinking too far ahead. I'd better finish the first volume first.

For the sake of the attendance bonus, I generally won't stop updating, unless I decide I don't want the bonus anymore. (The attendance bonus is a major source of income for struggling authors.) I hope you'll continue to look forward to the stories to come. I'm very grateful to everyone who's read the book and left feedback, helping it avoid becoming a one-player game. Sometimes I really do refresh the latest chapter like crazy to check your comments and reviews. (Hahaha.) After all, people often give up writing because no one responds.

Well, that's all I have to say. Finally, I'd like to ask you to support the book with your first-day subscriptions and recommendation votes. (Laughs.)

Loneliness and Understanding Loneliness

Miko had gotten up as usual, except that she hadn't made any Talisman Iron Pellets the night before. Between the Silver Pellet incident and having run out of materials, she'd done practically nothing the previous evening.

After changing into her uniform, she tucked the iron box deep inside her shoulder bag and took a deep breath as she went downstairs.

The Yotsuya household was just as it always was. Her mother, Yotsuya Touko, had prepared breakfast for the two children early, while her younger brother, Yotsuya Kyosuke, ate and complained about how slow his big sister was.

"Big Sis, you got up so late again today."

"Sure, sure. You're the one who got up early."

Miko had no intention of arguing with such an energetic child. She simply pulled out the chair in front of her, sat down, and ate her breakfast. Her life was like that of many ordinary people. Even after she became a demonic cultivator, nothing much had changed—hardly anything at all.

Even the people closest to her had no idea how drastically Miko had changed in just a few short months. Whenever she reacted strangely, the two of them simply found some other explanation for it. Honestly, that might have been satisfying for people who wanted to hide their strength and catch others off guard, but for someone seeking comfort and help, it only brought more frustration and helplessness.

Fortunately, Miko had gradually gotten used to hiding herself and keeping her secrets from affecting other people. She calmly finished breakfast, slung her shoulder bag over her back, and went to the door to put on her shoes.

"We're heading out."

"Be careful on your way."

The moment she stepped outside, her world became completely different from everyone else's. No matter how many times she cleared them out, Ghosts still lingered on this street, shuffling through the world of the living. Ordinary people couldn't see them. They unknowingly walked right through them, or were possessed by them. Miko, meanwhile, only pretended not to see them. She used the power of her Talisman Iron Pellets to drive them away or kill them, without caring what they'd looked like when they were alive or what happened to them after death.

Ghosts and humans were one and the same: when a person died, they became a Ghost, and when a Ghost died, Miko had no idea what it turned into. Ghosts might retain a person's will, but that was all. For the most part, they relied on their status as Ghosts and their ghostly forms, and they had a tendency to harm people. If they realized that an ordinary person could notice them, they would unleash all the malice that had turned them into Ghosts upon that person, killing them.

So Miko generally considered Ghosts a menace, and she feared the more powerful ones even more. If the Ghosts she was powerless against discovered that she could see them, she had no idea what would happen to her... just thinking about it made her deeply uneasy. This wasn't just her imagination, either. Some Ghosts really were more powerful than the usual ones. She might simply have been lucky enough not to encounter any more powerful than the ones she'd met so far.

And so that fear had gradually deepened, becoming a nightmare she couldn't dispel for the time being.

"Good morning, Miko."

"Mm, good morning, Hana. And Yuria."

Miko turned to look at the two behind her: her energetic friend, Yurikawa Hana, who always seemed to stay optimistic, and the blonde girl beside her, Futamido Yuria, who still seemed timid and aloof.

"What were you thinking about just now?"

Hana put an arm around Miko and gave her a teasing look as she asked in a mischievous tone.

"Were you thinking about some handsome guy you're trying to flirt with? Mii-ko."

"Actually, I was thinking about you."

Miko smiled back at Hana and effortlessly sidestepped her harmless teasing.

"I was wondering what our little glutton Hana ate today."

"...Pancakes and strawberry cake."

Hana looked a little sulky at the answer, but still admitted what she'd had for breakfast.

"That's all, so please stop calling me a glutton."

"Is that so... What about you, Yuria-chan?"

"Eh? Me?"

The Golden Twin-Tailed Girl pointed at herself in surprise, as if she couldn't believe she'd been dragged into their conversation. But when she saw Hana and Miko looking at her, she quietly told them what she'd eaten.

"Um... tea and cookies."

"Tea and cookies? Wow, that sounds so fancy."

Hana looked surprised and studied Yuria from head to toe.

"Could Yuria-chan actually be the daughter of some big-shot CEO?"

"You watch too many dramas."

Miko grabbed Hana, who was shamelessly leaning in so close to Yuria that their faces were almost touching, and answered the question herself.

"Compared to you two, I think my breakfast was much more ordinary: fried-egg sandwiches."

"That does sound pretty ordinary."

"But they're delicious. My mom made them."

"That's nice. My mom made mine too, though. The pancakes are so good! You should come over to my house next time and try some."

The two of them started chatting again. Yuria watched them from the side. Even if she wanted to say something, she felt as if she couldn't get a word out. But... this was enough.

She smiled and was about to say goodbye to them and head to her classroom when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed her shoulders.

"Come to think of it, I never see you at lunchtime. If you don't mind, want to have lunch with us?"

"Eh?"

"You just want to see what Yuria's lunch is, don't you?"

Miko glanced at Hana, who'd turned her attention back to Yuria, and teased her. Then she leaned closer to Yuria.

"Actually, I'm curious too... Wait, do you eat by yourself?"

Miko wasn't as openly concerned for Yuria as her good friend Hana was, but she still empathized with the lonely girl. She and Yuria were in almost the same situation, yet the people around Yuria didn't understand how she felt at all. They simply treated her like an oddball.

"How could that be... I mean..."

Like a cat caught by the tail, Yuria stammered as she tried to object, but couldn't get anything out. In the end, she lowered her head and admitted it in resignation.

"Eating alone... isn't that bad, is it?"

"Then come eat with us."

Hana suddenly took both her hands.

"If I had to leave Miko to eat by herself, I don't think I could enjoy my meal. Eating alone is so depressing."

As she spoke, Hana made it clear that she wouldn't let go unless Yuria agreed, staring straight at Yuria-chan.

"Is that all right, Yuria-chan?"

"Is that all right, Yuria?"

Miko put a hand on Yuria's shoulder. Ever since she first learned about the girl's situation, she'd wanted to help Futamido Yuria. She knew all too well that without Hana and without the mysterious master who'd taught her the cultivation method, she might have been even more helpless and lonely than Yuria.

Tono Zen, Whose Changes Were Astonishing

After arranging a time to have lunch with Yuria, it was almost time for class. The first lesson was Japanese literature, taught by Tono Zen.

Yotsuya Miko sat in her chair, feeling a little hopeful—though that hope soon turned to doubt. She didn't think Tono Zen was the sort of person to believe rumors about Silver Pellets, so she wasn't very optimistic about whether his attitude had changed.

By now, she even thought that when she saw Tono Zen again, she'd feel awkward about her irrational behavior the day before. She might even want to erase the conversation she'd had with him from his memory.

But when she saw Tono Zen again outside the classroom, she realized there was nothing for her to feel awkward about. What she'd done the previous day had been her decision, made of her own free will. And even if the way she'd expressed herself might have seemed awkward to other people, no one else had seen it anyway.

"All right, let's begin class."

Tono Zen placed his handouts on the desk. His expression was still calm and composed, as if nothing could unsettle him. He took out the attendance sheet and called on a student to read the text aloud, listening quietly as he stood nearby. Only after the student had finished a passage did he call on another.

Japanese literature was a dull subject, and having such a stiff teacher made it even duller. Still, at least the teacher's good looks helped a little. Perhaps they didn't want to make a bad impression in front of him, because even when the lesson got boring, hardly anyone fell asleep. The only one secretly eating bread beneath her textbook was Hana, sitting next to Miko.

Tono Zen glanced at her, then looked away. But after the previous student finished reading, he suddenly walked over to Hana and called on her.

"Yurikawa Hana, please read the next three paragraphs."

"Mmph—!"

Hana hurriedly stood up and swallowed the crumbs in her mouth. But the bread she'd dropped on the floor made a noise. She instinctively crouched to pick it up, then bumped her head against the corner of the desk, making an even louder noise. She even shoved the desk back a little.

"Ow..."

Hana clutched her forehead and groaned, mourning the bread she'd wasted on the floor, her embarrassing predicament, and her injury.

After a brief pause, everyone in the classroom quickly understood what had happened. Their cheerful laughter soon carried into the other classrooms.

"Hahaha... That's so like you, Hana."

"I can't... I'm going to die laughing."

"Hahaha... I posted it on Twitter."

Miko, sitting beside her, suddenly felt like she didn't want to be associated with Hana at all. She covered her face with one hand—not entirely, though—and peered through her fingers at Tono Zen, who was standing beside Hana. She was curious to see what expression he'd make.

Then she froze.

Tono Zen looked at the befuddled girl before him as if something had occurred to him, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a faint smile. He crouched, picked up the piece of bread, and tossed it into the trash can beside the classroom.

"You can't eat in class, Yurikawa."