As they walked down the street, Shoichi Kano waited until no one was around before speaking. "Um... Mom, could you stop doing that? It's kind of scary..."
"Hm? Hm?! Hm!!!" It was the first time Shoichi Kano had heard someone-or rather, a cursed spirit-say the same syllable in three different tones. "Does my little baby not want Mommy anymore? In that case... Mommy will just have to..."
Her dark gray eyes, visible above her mask, took on a remarkably human look of sorrow. She even tried to squeeze out a couple of tears, but unfortunately, none came. So she took a small bottle of eye drops from her trench coat pocket and squirted some into her eyes, then rubbed them, successfully making them look moist.
Shoichi Kano only felt more frightened.
When they reached his front door, Shoichi Kano was just about to take out his key when the Slit-Mouthed Woman found the house key first and unlocked the door. She seemed so familiar with the place that she might as well have been its owner.
Kano followed her inside, but he felt as though he had passed through a thin, membrane-like barrier. He guessed that the Slit-Mouthed Woman might have set up some kind of barrier around his home, but a half-baked jujutsu sorcerer like him, who had only just awakened his innate cursed technique, had no idea what it did.
"You found the spare key?"
"Wasn't it right there in the shoe cabinet by the entrance?" She took off her mask the moment she entered, exposing the lower half of her face. "I found it after a quick look."
The stitches Shoichi Kano had added still remained along the slits at the corners of her mouth, as though they, too, had become marks of their binding vow.
Noticing Shoichi Kano staring at the corners of her mouth, she deliberately curved them upward a little and pointed at the stitches with a sharp black nail. "These are the marks my little baby left on Mommy."
Shoichi Kano shuddered again.
"Oh, right, baby." Like the lady of the house, she calmly took off the clothes she had conjured from cursed energy and changed into a black, lace-trimmed nightdress. Her feet, previously enclosed in high-heeled leather boots, slipped into a pair of slippers. "Well, how should I put this? Mommy got a little curious this morning, so I went into your room."
"And I found a little notebook. What it said was..."
Alarm bells blared in Shoichi Kano's head. At that moment, he no longer cared about the distinctions between Grade 1, Grade 2, and Special Grade. He simply rushed forward with the fastest reaction of his life, taking the distance in a few long strides, and clapped a hand over her mouth to stop her from finishing.
The notebook contained information he had recorded in Chinese ever since he had first become able to remember things, including some memories of his previous life and his theories about this world. Although the Slit-Mouthed Woman's native language should have been Japanese, Chinese and Japanese shared certain characters. She might have been able to figure something out!
But as soon as he covered her mouth, she opened it and bit him. Kano felt a sharp pain in his hand. He quickly pulled it back and saw a bleeding bite mark on his palm.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman had bitten his hand, but honestly, he had been the first to put his hand over her mouth. That made it self-defense on her part, not a violation of their binding vow.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman licked her blood-moistened lips, looking as though she wanted more. "Why is my little cutie in such a hurry? Mommy hasn't even said anything yet."
"Still, I never knew you spoke a foreign language." She manipulated her cursed energy to open the medicine kit from a distance, as if using telekinesis, then sent an unopened box of adhesive bandages flying into Shoichi Kano's arms. "To be honest, Mommy couldn't understand much of it."
"I did understand the drawings toward the back, though." She patted Shoichi Kano's shoulder and shuffled farther inside in her slippers. "So my little cutie likes that kind of figure. Isn't that a lot like Mommy's?"
As she said this, the Slit-Mouthed Woman deliberately swayed her upper body. Without an underwire to restrain them, those two voluptuous mounds bounced with her movements like a pair of shapely silicone water balloons with just the right softness.
Only then did Shoichi Kano instinctively notice what she was wearing:
Two straps so thin they looked as though a single tug would snap them hung from her grayish-white shoulders. The deep V neckline plunged below her bust, exposing a broad expanse of porcelain-smooth skin and a breathtaking cleft.
The hem barely covered the tops of her thighs. One leg was slightly bent, leaving her smooth calf exposed, while her toes, tipped with sharp metallic-black nails, fit snugly inside a properly sized slipper and gleamed alluringly in the dim light.
The silk fabric simulated through cursed energy clung to her shapely curves. The full swell of her breasts looked ready to burst through that pitiful scrap of cloth.
Shoichi Kano felt as though his ears were hot enough to give off steam. After all, his current body was only about sixteen, the age of a Japanese high school boy, when budding desire and raging hormones were at their peak. Since this world had only reached the early 2000s, it lacked many of the entertainment options that would come later. If he couldn't find the erotic pictures he liked, what choice did he have but to make his own?
Something he had drawn for his own private enjoyment had been dug out by someone else, who was now using it to turn the tables on him. The fact that he was merely blushing rather than completely losing his composure was already an achievement!
The Slit-Mouthed Woman settled comfortably onto the Kano family's sofa, crossed her legs, and even started watching television to amuse herself.
Having just bandaged the bite mark on his hand, Shoichi Kano slowly sidled over. "Um... there's something I wanted to talk to you about, Mom."
"What is it, baby?" The Slit-Mouthed Woman grinned and shifted toward the edge of the sofa, apparently making room for him. "Why don't you tell Mommy what's on your mind?"
Kano did his best to ignore the way she stroked his hair as though petting a dog and simply gathered his thoughts. "After I made the binding vow with you last night, I went to the supermarket to buy a few things..."
"But I had to buy not just food for us, but everyday supplies for you, too, so I spent pretty much all the living expenses I had left. Now I'm out of money."
"That's easy." The Slit-Mouthed Woman didn't consider it a problem at all. "Later, when I go... to work, I'll bring back some money from my prey for you."
"You can't!" Shoichi Kano objected instinctively.
"Why not?"
Only then did Kano realize there was something strange about his thinking. She was a dangerous special grade imaginary cursed spirit who had made a binding vow with him, so why was he considering things from the perspective of her safety?
But his thoughts had already gone there, and the words were already on the tip of his tongue, so he said them anyway. "Um... Mom, if you go out too often, what if you attract the attention of jujutsu sorcerers? Ordinary Grade 2 Sorcerers probably wouldn't be a problem for you, and you might be able to handle a weaker Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, too. But what about stronger Grade 1 Sorcerers? Or a Special Grade?"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman's white pupils contracted slightly, clearly showing her surprise. "Oh? Didn't you only awaken your innate cursed technique yesterday, baby? You've figured all that out in just one day? You're a quick learner."
Kano pursed his lips. He had already learned all this from reading manga in his previous life. Now that he happened to have transmigrated into this world, couldn't he simply put that knowledge to use?
"Then tell me. What should we do?"
"Maybe..." Shoichi Kano ventured, "I could take some commissions privately, helping exorcise cursed spirits and things like that..."
When he said "cursed spirits," he deliberately glanced at the Slit-Mouthed Woman's expression, afraid she might object. He was worried that the words "exorcise cursed spirits" would anger her. After all, from her perspective, he would be harming her own kind.
"Those low-level cursed spirits with nothing but instincts and no intelligence..." Sure enough, the smile on the Slit-Mouthed Woman's face faded a little. "Exorcise them if you like. I don't really care."
"But those somewhat higher-level cursed spirits..." She didn't finish the sentence, but Kano could tell what she meant from the look in her eyes.
Sure enough, cursed spirits killing humans and humans exorcising cursed spirits were essentially the same sort of thing from her perspective.
"You don't want me to be exorcised by a powerful jujutsu sorcerer, baby." The Slit-Mouthed Woman gently stroked Shoichi Kano's head, crossed her legs naturally, then turned to look at him with a faint, ambiguous smile. "Mommy doesn't want you to be killed by those powerful cursed spirits, either."
"After all, if you were gone, Mommy would have one less source of fun, wouldn't she?"
Shoichi Kano blushed again!
That said, his money-making plan would have to be shelved for now.
Since the Slit-Mouthed Woman was willing to refrain from killing people for money as a favor to him, he no longer had the motivation to earn money by exorcising cursed spirits, either.
But without money, getting by was going to be difficult...
And so the human and the cursed spirit sitting side by side on the sofa both fell silent. Neither took the initiative to break the stillness.
Before you continue