The café was bustling with the weekday after-work crowd. Miwa Chisei and Asō Yoshino sat in a corner, where Chisei had ordered a strawberry milkshake and quietly listened to the woman tearfully pour out her troubles.
"He really is a perfect man. He's handsome and gentle, and he's so patient with me. Do you think I might just be hallucinating?"
Chisei calmly passed her a tissue and asked, biting her straw,
"How many times have you seen this happen?"
Asō Yoshino hesitated and lowered her head.
"Ever since I found out he was giving me sleeping pills, I've been pretending to take them. If he leaves in the middle of the night, I wake up... It's happened five or six times already."
She's seen it five or six times and still wants to call it a hallucination? Love really does make people blind.
Chisei sighed, unsure how to advise her. The woman had said a great deal, but most of it was about her own feelings. She never got to the point.
"Has he done anything else suspicious?"
Asō Yoshino nodded and continued pouring her heart out.
"I've secretly seen him making strange hand gestures at thin air."
Chisei raised a hand and casually formed a sign, showing it to Asō Yoshino.
"Something like this?"
Asō Yoshino nodded, looking at Chisei in confusion.
It seemed the man really was a curse user. He had been performing jujutsu when he made those hand signs. Ordinary people lacked sufficient cursed energy to see it.
After a moment's thought, Chisei held out her palm.
"Miss Asō, could you write a few characters for me? Anything will do."
"Huh? Is this part of the investigation too?"
"A very important part."
Asō Yoshino reached out a finger and traced characters on Chisei's palm. Chisei was