"Miko."
Miko walked out of the infirmary and found Hana had come looking for her as well, asking with a serious face.
"I heard you beat a girl from Class B to death, is that true?"
Miko, who had just been warmed into a smile by Hana, saw her smile vanish instantly.
"I didn't kill her."
"Eh? Miko doesn't seem like the type to hit people. Did she bully you?"
Miko sighed deeply. "She's just a childish person."
"She is the same type as me, people who can see them."
Miko said softly as she walked toward the classroom.
"But what she can see is the lowest grade. In other words, 4th Grade cursed spirits are essentially harmless."
"As a result, to prove to me that she could see, she used a bottle cap to attract a lot of 4th Grade cursed spirits."
"But she didn't know that 4th Grade cursed spirits attract high-level spirits to hunt them."
"So, she said she could see right in front of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit."
"To prevent both of us from being killed by her, I had no choice but to knock her out."
"Eh!?"
Hana almost jumped up, immediately grabbing Miko's arm.
"Special Grade? Is it like the one we..."
"Yeah."
Miko looked solemn, walking to the other end of the corridor and looking toward the Gymnasium, where black smoke was still drifting.
"It's a spirit as powerful as that one, inside the Gymnasium."
"I'm going to give her a beating! Don't stop me! That damn girl!"
Hana rolled up her sleeves, ready to settle the score with Yuria, while Miko could only hold her back firmly.
"Forget it, teaching her a lesson won't help now. I need to report this."
Miko took out her phone, logged into the Exorcism Society app, and reported the appearance of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit at the school.
"That damn girl! What does she think that is?"
"Is it some prop she can use to show off? It really makes me so angry!"
Hana walked toward the classroom huffing with rage. At that moment, Miko's phone rang; someone had added her as a friend on the Exorcism Society app.
Just as she added them, the call came through.
"Lord Akuto! Do you still remember me? It's Saionji!"
An energetic voice came from the other end of the line.
"Saionji... Oh, the person who sells useless props."
"Eh? Lord Akuto, your words are so hurtful!"
Miko stared with dead fish eyes. She remembered that more than half of the useless props in the Exorcism Society's mall were sold by Saionji.
For example, talismans that could only expel 4th-grade cursed spirits.
Or a doll that would only ring when a spirit was within 10 meters.
"I'm Miko."
Miko perked up and clarified.
"Oh, I see. Sigh. Miss Miko, I saw that you uploaded a report about a Special Grade Cursed Spirit appearing at your school. Is it convenient to talk about the situation? Sigh."
"Why do you sound so disappointed?"
Miko complained inwardly, then gave a brief description of the situation, which Saionji quickly recorded.
"Alright, an Expulsion Team will head over tonight to expel the spirit."
"Just expel it?"
Miko was somewhat dissatisfied. After all, if it were just expelled, the spirit would simply go somewhere else.
"Miss Miko, currently in all of Sakura, the S-rank Psychics who can deal with Special Grade Cursed Spirit Spirits, including you... Um... including Lord Akuto, there are only five people in total."
"Except for you, everyone else is responsible for the city and won't leave easily."
"For cases like this where they haven't actively harmed people or caused large-scale negative impacts, we don't ask S-rank Psychics to intervene unless they are willing."
Miko's eyes dimmed.
"I understand."
"Is it convenient to explain how it will be expelled?"
Saionji immediately explained.
"It's a special cursed spirit, 1st grade, sealed in a special container."
"The scent emitted by this spirit is unbearably foul to other spirits; most of them will flee."
After hanging up, Miko felt somewhat melancholy.
The disasters brought by spirits were far more terrifying than Miko had imagined.
The more she learned about this world, the more powerless she felt.
"Miko, do you want some snacks?"
Seeing Miko distracted, Hana took out a candy to cheer her up.
"Well, never mind."
"Let's just be happy today. After all, it's Hana's birthday."
Miko touched the gift box in her pocket.
After school in the afternoon, Hana pulled Miko along, planning to go out for a big meal.
"Miko-chan!"
A calling voice came. Miko looked toward the sound; it was Marin.
"Marin, good afternoon."
"Are you guys going somewhere to play?"
Miko pulled Hana over.
"This is Yurikawa Hana. Today is her birthday, and we're going to celebrate."
"Eh? Happy birthday, Yurikawa-san!"
"Um... can I join?"
Marin seemed a bit hesitant, but Hana didn't mind at all and said casually.
"Since you're Miko's friend, come along! It's my treat today."
"That's great! I didn't buy a gift, so I'll treat you guys to getting your nails done!" Girls' activities were utterly boring to the extreme.
The three of them gorged themselves at a dessert shop, then got their nails done under Marin's lead.
It was the first time for both Miko and Hana to try such a thing, and they found it incredibly novel.
Hana got pink nails covered in tiny hamburgers, which were incredibly cute.
Meanwhile, Miko just got light pink press-on nails; they were very simple but suited her well.
The three of them took many more photos before arriving at the restaurant for their main meal.
The moment they entered the restaurant, Miko's expression became very strange.
Hana, who had just finished ordering, seemed to have guessed something.
"Miko, do you want to move to another place?"
Not wanting to spoil the mood, Miko forced a shake of her head.
"It's fine, let's just stay here."
At that moment, in Miko's vision, several pale heads appeared on the wall not far away.
Each head was the size of a truck's front, with mouths wide open.
And in the aisle, dozens of cursed spirits were lining up.
Once they reached the end, they would be swallowed by those pale heads.
Miko could even see the pus bursting from those spirits.
Some spirits were unwilling to be eaten, but a terrifying spirit holding a chainsaw stood nearby.
Whenever a spirit tried to escape, the chainsaw spirit would cut it into pieces and throw them into the pale heads.
Fortunately, this process didn't last long.
Soon, all the spirits had been eaten.
The heads on the wall moved.
Miko's pupils shrank as she looked up at the spirit's terrifying size.
It was actually two stories high! It had six heads and long, slender limbs.
Like an animal, it used all four limbs to cling to the wall, passed through the floor, and disappeared.
"Miko, are you okay?"
Hana squeezed Miko's hand and found it excessively cold.
"Yeah, I'm fine now."
Miko opened her phone and sent a message to Saionji, describing the scene she had just witnessed.
Saionji replied quickly.
"Ah, that situation. I've seen it many times too."
"However, I can't see everything. I only saw it once through a prop during a collaboration with a senior."
"At that time, my senior said that it's the entrance to The Other Side. Cursed Spirits that get eaten go to the other side."
"Things like that happen in many places in the city every day."
"I'm not too sure about the rest. Sorry, I couldn't be of more help."
Miko put away her phone and didn't pay much more attention to it.
Since it was a common occurrence, it didn't matter.
Laughter soon rang out in the private room.
"Happy birthday! Hana, blow out the candles."
"Miko! How can you waste cake!"
"It's a tradition, a way to give you my blessings."
"Then I'll 'bless' you too!"
"Ah! Stop it!"
"Let's take a photo together!"
"Hana, did we forget something?"
"Eh? It feels like I forgot something... Whatever, never mind!"
With the flash of the camera, the three beautiful girls with cake-covered faces were captured on the phone.
On the other side, Okuma, who had become a clown, had turned into a "disciple-waiting stone," sitting by the window looking out expectantly.
"Is it because my teaching is too poor..."
"Or am I too fierce..."
"My disciple... why aren't they coming???"