(200 Power Stone Bonus)
Chapter 18: The Operating Table
Wait a minute, what in the world is happening right now? What kind of situation is this?!
Asuna stared blankly at the girl currently buried in Yumesaki's embrace, the corners of her eyes twitching violently. Who on earth is this woman? She literally just showed up out of nowhere and immediately called him 'darling'! How shamelessly brazen can someone possibly be?!
Yet, Asuna managed to suppress the urge to instantly fly into a furious rage. After all, if anyone had the absolute right to explode with jealousy right now, it was Medea and Nero.
Furthermore, what if this girl was an actual legitimate acquaintance of Yumesaki's? When she really thought about it, her own acquaintance with Yumesaki had barely crossed the twenty-four-hour mark. To say she knew nothing about his past wouldn't even be an exaggeration; she truly knew absolutely nothing.
"A friend of yours?"
Yumesaki looked down at the girl huddled tightly against his chest. Feeling her entire frame trembling like a leaf in a violent storm, he couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.
"In a certain sense, I suppose you could say that."
Hearing this, Medea and Nero immediately clued in, realizing that the girl before them was highly likely another heroine from some popular anime series.
Yumesaki reached out his hand and gently patted the girl's head. This classic head-patting technique held an incredibly high success rate among fictional heroines.
Countless male protagonists relied heavily on this exact move to tame and conquer their respective main heroines.
Yumesaki figured he would give it a shot. And honestly, it turned out to be far more effective than he had initially anticipated. The moment his palm rested on her hair, the girl's violent trembling miraculously ceased.
The girl slowly tilted her head upward. Within her striking golden irises, a faint shimmer of tears danced, yet she kept her eyes locked onto Yumesaki without blinking once. Her mouth puckered into a pout as she whined softly, "Darling, you are so incredibly cruel! You promised we would meet up half an hour ago, but look at you now..."
"Alright, that's enough acting."
Yumesaki cut her off before she could spin the lie any further. His sharp gaze shifted away from her face, locking onto the grotesque, hideous Evil Spirit currently latched onto her back.
"It is merely a single low-class Evil Spirit. There is absolutely no reason for you to be this terrified."
At that exact moment, the Evil Spirit clinging to the girl's shoulders overheard his words and instantly became wildly hyperactive.
"You can see me! You can see me!"
Its already deformed face twisted into an even more monstrous expression, and it lunged forward, snapping its jaws straight toward Yumesaki.
Swoosh!
This time, however, Yumesaki didn't bother offering the creature a peaceful path to enlightenment. With a casual flick of his wrist, he unleashed an invisible flying slash. The concentrated strike sliced the Evil Spirit cleanly in two, then into four, then into eight, instantly vaporizing the entity on the spot.
It died a death so absolute that not a single trace of its existence remained.
Seeing that the terrifying stalker spirit that had been hounding her footsteps was finally dead, the girl clinging to Yumesaki let out a massive, heartfelt sigh of relief.
A second later, she suddenly realized just how incredibly ambiguous and inappropriate her current posture was. Blushing furiously, she immediately detached herself from Yumesaki and began bowing repeatedly.
"Thank you! Thank you so very much!"
"Don't mention it." Yumesaki waved his hand dismissively. "It was just a minor favor."
Asuna glanced over at Medea and Nero, only to find that both of them wore expressions of perfect understanding, complete with knowing smiles. She instantly felt an intense wave of isolation, as if she were the only one being completely left out of the loop. She had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Why did this random girl suddenly sprint into Yumesaki's arms, and why was she suddenly bowing and thanking him so profusely?
And what on earth did Yumesaki's words from a moment ago even mean?
An Evil Spirit?
Could it be that this girl possessed the ability to see those monsters too? She was being haunted by an Evil Spirit, so she ran into Yumesaki's embrace specifically to beg him for protection?
"That is pretty much the gist of it."
Yumesaki looked over at Asuna, his eyes filled with a look of genuine praise. As expected of a main heroine, her deductive reasoning skills were incredibly sharp.
He gestured toward the teenage girl standing before them. "This girl's name is Miko Yotsuya. She possesses the absolute highest grade of Spirit Sight, allowing her to clearly perceive countless supernatural entities that ordinary people remain completely blind to—such as Evil Spirits, Cursed Spirits, and even Yokai."
"Just moments ago, she was being heavily stalked by an aggressive Evil Spirit that kept cornering her, demanding to know if she could see it. That's why she dove into my arms to use me as a shield."
"Huh? But why?" Asuna asked, still struggling to comprehend the logic.
"And wait... how on earth do you know my name?!"
Hearing this complete stranger call out her exact name without a single mistake, Miko couldn't help but take a frantic step backward. She stood there entirely stunned and paralyzed with shock. She could swear on her life that she had never set eyes on this man before today.
How could he possibly know who she was?
Could it be that in her frantic rush to escape a monster, she had accidentally thrown herself into the arms of a literal stalker?
Please, anything but that!
Yumesaki chose to answer Asuna's question first. "Because the entities known as Evil Spirits operate under a very strict, specific binding vow. Before you actively acknowledge their presence, they possess absolutely no power to harm you. Only after you visually confirm their existence can they physically touch or hurt you."
"This is the absolute barrier separating life and death, the boundary between Yin and Yang."
"Until you actively shatter that barrier yourself, you are completely safe."
"Therefore, before an Evil Spirit attacks a human, it will relentlessly question them, asking 'Can you see me? You can see me, right?'"
"If you genuinely can't see it, it won't do a thing to you."
"But if you can..."
Reaching this point in his explanation, Yumesaki paused for a brief moment, casting a deeply meaningful look at Miko.
Asuna eagerly pressed further, "What happens if you can see it?"
"Then you have to do exactly what Miko here has been doing. You have to pretend with all your might that you see absolutely nothing. You act as though there is nothing there at all. Even if you are utterly terrified out of your mind, you cannot allow your expression to waver for even a fraction of a second."
Hearing these words, Asuna couldn't help but look at Miko with profound amazement. To think such a terrifying rule existed! Even if a monster was staring you dead in the eye, you had to completely ignore it. That strategy required an unbelievable amount of mental fortitude.
Even though she had never seen an Evil Spirit herself, she knew they had to be incredibly horrifying.
To face something that deeply terrifying while maintaining a perfectly calm, unbothered expression...
This woman is a total badass.
Asuna realized that she had never truly admired anyone her own age before, but right now, she felt a genuine sense of deep respect for this girl standing in front of her. She was a true heroine among women.
If she were to find herself placed in that exact same situation, she knew without a doubt that she would fail miserably.
Meanwhile, Miko was still utterly dying to know how Yumesaki knew her name, so she mustered up the courage to ask again.
"Because I have already read your manga."
Yumesaki's casual answer left Miko completely dumbfounded. On the other hand, Asuna, who was standing right next to them, instantly understood. She hadn't expected this absolute legend of a girl to actually be the main character of a manga series.
No wonder she could ignore terrifying ghosts with such a flawless poker face. That explained everything.
Miko, however, was thoroughly dissatisfied with that answer. What do you mean you read my manga? Is this guy seriously treating me like an absolute idiot?
She felt like she really ought to be angry, but considering the fact that this person had literally just saved her life from a horrifying ordeal, she couldn't bring herself to snap at him.
It was incredibly frustrating.
After swallowing her irritation in silence, Miko looked up at Yumesaki with a slightly stiff expression and asked, "Um, excuse me... but are you perhaps a Master Onmyoji?"
Earlier, when she was being driven to the brink of despair by that ghost, she had happened to catch a glimpse of Yumesaki casually obliterating an entity from afar. That was the sole reason she had gambled everything and bolted toward him for help.
"Not quite." Yumesaki shook his head with a slight smile. "You can consider me a Jujutsu Sorcerer."
Now that he had successfully mastered the art of extracting and manipulating Cursed Energy, possessed an abundant pool of it, and had even awakened his own Innate Technique, he was fully and legally qualified to call himself a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Besides, when you're traveling out in the world, your identity is whatever you choose to tell people.
"A Jujutsu Sorcerer?" Miko tilted her head, thoroughly confused. She had never heard of such a profession in her entire life.
Seeing her confusion, Asuna stepped forward and took the initiative to explain the grand lore and background of Jujutsu Sorcerers to Miko.
A wave of sudden realization washed over Miko. She had never imagined that alongside regular Evil Spirits, this world also harbored entities known as Cursed Spirits. No wonder she occasionally ran into bizarrely shaped monsters that didn't fit the description of a traditional ghost at all.
Looking at it now, those freakish abnormalities weren't ghosts at all; they were Cursed Spirits.
But none of that truly mattered to her right now. The only thing that mattered was...
"Lord Jujutsu Sorcerer, please, is there any way you can seal my vision? I just want to stop seeing these horrible things!"
Yes, for Miko, the only thing that truly mattered in life was whether or not her accursed Spirit Sight could be permanently shut down.
Ever since she developed the ability to see these chaotic monstrosities, her life had become entirely too exciting, far too chaotic, and overwhelmingly stressful.
Every single day, if she wasn't actively holding in her pee out of sheer terror, she was sprinting to the nearest bathroom to do so. If things kept going at this rate, her bladder was going to literally explode from the stress.
For the sake of her future happiness, the thing she desired most in the world was to completely seal away this vision, blind herself to the supernatural, and return to her peaceful, normal life as an ordinary high school girl.
"It is not entirely impossible."
Hearing Miko's desperate plea, Yumesaki replied in a calm, measured voice. "I can easily replace your vision with that of a perfectly ordinary human, ensuring that you will never have to lay eyes on these chaotic entities ever again. But... are you truly willing to accept that?"
"Huh?" Miko blinked up at him, completely losing his train of thought.
Yumesaki continued, "Ever since you gained the ability to see these twisted creatures, your entire life has been turned completely upside down. Do you feel no desire for vengeance whatsoever? Don't you want to completely slaughter every single monster in your sight, ensuring they never dare to cross your path ever again?"
"No, no, no, no, no, absolutely not!"
Even though Yumesaki's proposition sounded incredibly epic, Miko shook her head at lightning speed, rejecting it completely. She was just a completely ordinary high school girl. Before all of this happened, her daily routine consisted entirely of going to school, hitting up karaoke rooms with friends, or lounging at home watching TV.
To suddenly ask her to take up a blade, dive into brutal, bloody combat, and act like some fierce, battle-hardened warrior maiden from a shonen manga to crush all her enemies...
Yeah, no thanks. This humble servant is completely incapable of such feats.
Seeing her absolute reluctance, Yumesaki chose not to push the matter any further.
In truth, he wasn't particularly fond of unnecessary violence or conflict either. He firmly believed in the golden rule: do not force upon others what they themselves do not desire.
He had merely wanted to present Miko with an alternative path in life. Since she possessed absolutely zero interest, he would let it drop. There was no need to force it.
Instead, Yumesaki turned his gaze toward Asuna. "What about you? Do you want this pair of Spirit Sight? Do you wish to peer into the true reality of this world?"
"Huh? Is that... is that actually possible for me?"
Compared to Miko, whose entire existence revolved around escaping the supernatural, Asuna looked incredibly eager to give it a shot.
Having already experienced the cold embrace of death once before, she understood the sheer, terrifying danger lurking within this world better than anyone.
She had already developed a profound desire to attain true power. If she could acquire a legitimate pair of Spirit Sight right now, it would undoubtedly provide a massive boost to her future growth.
"Of course. It's a simple task. Just leave it to me."
Yumesaki led the group over to a completely secluded, empty clearing where no ordinary citizens were in sight. He seamlessly switched his active power over to the Ope Ope no Mi, lifted his hand, and casually snapped his fingers.
"Room!"
In an instant, a massive, translucent spherical barrier of energy erupted outwards with Yumesaki at the absolute epicenter, expanding rapidly until it completely enclosed both Miko and Asuna within its bounds.
This domain was his absolute operating table.
Within the boundaries of this spherical space, any living being severed by his blade would not suffer death, would not spill a single drop of blood, and would remain perfectly alive.
Even if he were to decapitate someone completely, their severed head could still move and speak with perfect agility. It was the absolute ultimate tool for performing precise surgical procedures.
Yumesaki raised his hand, extended his fingers in a plucking motion, and instantly extracted Miko's eyes clean out of her sockets.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh—!"
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