In the evening, after coaxing her grandmother to sleep, Miss Yuu sat kneeling in the room.
Mori Tsukisa and the others were idling opposite her—some drinking tea, some spacing out. Nagini sat in the corner reading a finance book; Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun were holding their phones, learning how to make photos look better... Arrietty had already fallen asleep drunk.
These people... can they really do it?
All the lights in the room were turned on. Outside was a quiet dark night, but inside the window, it was as bright as day.
"Don't worry, Miss Yuu." Mori Tsukisa stuffed the last bite of the small cake, along with the cherry on top, into her mouth, wiping the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. "Mmh... I need to see the ghost gentleman first."
"Come on, come on. Think of something sad."
Actually, she didn't need to do that. Fujiwara Yuu's originally stiff smile gradually straightened under Mori Tsukisa's gaze, and then, the air suddenly turned icy... as the corners of her mouth tilted further downward, the room became colder—the multi-bulb high-wattage electric lights overhead flickered incessantly; the wooden-framed beam windows rattled with a 'bang bang', as if an invisible pair of hands were shaking them; the tatami felt like countless smooth, cold snakes sliding past the soles of her feet... Mori Tsukisa licked the cream off her lips and looked up.
Above, black liquid appeared bit by bit from within the filaments of the lights, soon covering the entire ceiling; like a black rain, it dripped pitter-patter onto everyone in the room.
Strangely, after passing through their bodies, not a single drop stayed on them, as if it were a projection from another World.
"He... he's here!!" At this moment, Fujiwara Yuu was already curled into a ball in the corner, covering her ears. She no longer had her happy smile, and her whole being appeared both distorted and pained. Her slender eyebrows were knit together, and her calves trembled uncontrollably. "He's here!!"
Bang.
The light bulb went out completely, and the room was plunged into darkness.
Nagini closed her book in dissatisfaction and looked up into the darkness.
Giggle, giggle... A very young male voice. No, to be precise, it should be a Boy.
The originally cute Child's voice became eerie and terrifying with the enhancement of the surrounding environment. In the darkness, the sound of rustling footsteps slowly approached Fujiwara Yuu... "Miko My Lord!!"
Mori Tsukisa stood by the girl's side against the wall, spacing out. In front of her, a spirit about the same height as her looked at her quietly. There was nothing in his hollow eye sockets; he had short hair, narrow shoulders, and the eerie laughter was coming from the direction of the spirit's heart.
Mori Tsukisa looked at him, and he looked at Mori Tsukisa. For a moment, the black nightmare and the young girl faced each other in silence. As the Spell Power surged, the corresponding information also spread out like ripples.
[Ghost]
[One...]
Mori Tsukisa calmly read the lines of text in mid-air. At some point, the dagger in her palm had already disappeared.
A moment later, Fujiwara Yuu heard Mori Tsukisa's voice coming from above her head.
"I know now," the girl said. "I'll think about it."
In an instant, the lights came back on, and the laughter and coldness also slowly receded... "Miko... My Lord?"
Fujiwara Yuu huddled in the corner, looking up at the girl who seemed like a spirit medium; the surroundings had already returned to how they were just now.
Some reading, some playing with phones... "Sen... Miss Tsukisa?"
Sen Getsusa stomped her feet to dispel the chill, the jingle-jingle of bells breaking the silence. "Mmh... I probably know what's going on. I'll tell you tomorrow, okay?"
The bewildered Fujiwara Yuu was pulled up by Mori Tsukisa, whose small hands rubbed her arms vigorously a few times—
"Warm up a bit. Sleep peacefully; I've temporarily sealed him. Tomorrow, I'll tell you what the problem is."
The soul-shaken Miss Yuu could only believe the short girl in front of her... at least for her now, everything Mori Tsukisa had done was progress she had never reached before.
Those so-called Miko in the shrines weren't as powerful as her. Mori Tsukisa wasn't the only one who had made her call out the ghost on the spot and then perform a ritual: a long time ago, the terrified girl had tried all sorts of ways. The better ones could still perform a ritual calmly in the face of that ghost; most of them just had a look of disbelief, and then, in just five seconds, their faces would turn ashen, and they would wail and disappear, leaving her behind...
Mori Tsukisa had managed to 'exorcise' the spirit with just a single sentence.
Is this what a real shrine maiden is like?
Mori Tsukisa remained noncommittal; she didn't actually know anything about exorcism. "Let's have lunch together tomorrow noon, okay?"
"Wh-what?" Yuu still hadn't recovered from the incident just now.
"I said, let's have lunch together tomorrow... When the ghost came just now, I spent a long time thinking..."
"Tch. Compared to red bean cakes, I still prefer the matcha dango you make."
So the reason you only said one sentence just now...
...was because you were thinking about what to eat tomorrow?
The stiff college girl stared blankly at the girl before her, who looked to be in high school at most. This Child... does she treat exorcism and seeing ghosts as just everyday trivialities?
What on earth were her family members thinking, letting her do such dangerous things—
The gaze Yuu directed at Mori Tsukisa began to carry a hint of pity... and maternal love.
"Sorry... I still want to ask." After calming down, Fujiwara Yuu found it even harder to understand. "Has Tsukisa always been like this?"
"How many times have you experienced things like that? Doing this... it's very dangerous."
Nagini remained silent, head bowed as she quietly turned a page. Imhotep looked at his lover—Anck-Su-Namun stretched, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she pointed behind Yuu. "Who... is in danger?"
Fujiwara Yuu turned around and saw Mori Tsukisa rolling on the floor without a shred of dignity. "Aba aba... tomorrow we eat matcha dango, matcha..."
...The next morning, she slept in. By the time Mori Tsukisa opened the bedroom door with Arrietty on her head, the aroma of food was already wafting into her nose.
"Wow." Arrietty rubbed her eyes. "I love people who can cook!"
"How come I've never seen you praise Nagini and Yuno like that?"
Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun had also woken up late. In the kitchen, only Nagini was quietly helping out, passing plates and chopping vegetables. The cold-eyed woman and the girl who had just started college actually seemed to get along well.
Yuu's grandmother was also settled at the table—this was at Mori Tsukisa's request.
"That would be too impolite."
"Regarding the ghost from yesterday, Grandmother needs to be present as well."
Coincidentally, during lunch, the old woman and Mori Tsukisa sat directly opposite each other. Thus... the entire meal was accompanied by an interesting back-and-forth between incessant cries of "Evil spirits, begone!" and "Ah! I'm dead!" occurring one after another.
"Evil spirits, begone!"
"Oh no! My power... it's disappearing!" The serious-faced girl gesticulated wildly while chewing on a green pepper. Directly across from her, the old woman was being fed sushi by her granddaughter, mumbling incoherently.
It was truly a happy lunch.
"Oh, right." Swallowing the green pepper, Mori Tsukisa stared at the old woman and casually uttered a name. "Do you still remember him?"
"If there's no problem, the ghost haunting your granddaughter is about to be exorcised."
Fujiwara Yuu didn't understand what use there was in Mori Tsukisa saying these things to her grandmother, a woman who had nearly lost her mind to dementia—
"He can't!"
The girl turned her head in shock, her chopsticks hitting the wooden table with a 'clack'.
The old woman's cloudy eyes were now terrifyingly clear. Her skeletal body was suddenly filled with an infinite strength as she flailed, knocking over the soy sauce dish on the table in a near-frenzy.
"No! No! He can't!" Struggling as her white hair fell into disarray, the old woman gripped Mori Tsukisa's hand with all her might, something churning in her clouded eyes.
She pointed tremblingly in a certain direction.
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