At this moment, Yuria slowly woke up.
Immediately after, she spat out a mouthful of sour liquid; her entire body was in so much pain it felt as if she had been hit by a truck.
She then focused her gaze and found several men in suits standing beside her.
One of them held up his work ID.
"Yuria Niguredou, you are suspected of attracting a Special Grade cursed spirit to a crowded area, endangering public safety, and bringing unrelated people to a gathering place of cursed spirits, among other charges including suspected murder."
"Your actions have seriously endangered public safety and resulted in two deaths."
"We need to contact your family, and until then, you must be detained."
Just as he finished speaking, Yuria's parents arrived in their car.
The moment Yuria's father saw his daughter, he slapped her across the face!
Slap!
"I told you long ago not to research those dubious things."
"Dear! Yuria didn't know any better!"
Yuria's mother still wanted to defend her, but she was pulled by Yuria's father to look toward the tunnel entrance.
There were still many fragments of internal organs and a leg there.
"This is what you mean by 'didn't know'!"
"It's because you indulge the child every time that her personality has become so headstrong!"
But she was his daughter after all. Yuria's father repeatedly bowed and apologized to the surrounding Exorcism Society staff.
"I am truly sorry, my child has caused you so much trouble."
"We are willing to bear all consequences. If there is punishment, please punish me!"
"Dad..."
In her mother's arms, Yuria looked at her father with tearful eyes as he continuously apologized to others.
At this moment, she finally felt regret.
She also remembered what Miko had told her.
Exorcism is not a game to prove who is stronger; it is a real battlefield where you have to risk your life.
Only after truly seeing someone being eaten alive in front of her did Yuria realize how ridiculous she was.
She had seen only a corner of this world and thought she had seen it all.
At this time, the captain of the exorcism squad took out a notebook.
"Normally, in this situation, her Spiritual Eye would need to be closed, but in reality, what Yuria can see are only 4th-grade cursed spirits."
"So it doesn't really affect her."
"And sealing a Spiritual Eye is a very complex matter, with costs exceeding one hundred million, so the parents should focus more on education."
"In the future, try to ignore them as much as possible and do not get involved in such things."
"As for the two deaths, although they were caused by the cursed spirit and they followed of their own accord,"
"You still need to pay a portion of the costs to their families."
"Also, this mission has been classified as S-rank, so you need to pay the fee. The price for an S-rank Psychic to act once is fifty million yen."
Fortunately, the Niguredou family was quite well-off.
While this amount of money would hurt them significantly, it wouldn't drive them into debt.
"We are willing to pay the compensation."
At this point, Miko also walked over. She did not refuse the mission compensation from the Niguredou family.
First, because this was Akuto's money, she had no right to refuse.
Second, Yuria needed to learn her lesson.
After finishing, Yuria's father glanced at Yuria and then bowed, saying. "At the same time, we also hope your side can help my child seal her Spiritual Eye. I will pay the price."
A cost of over a hundred million was enough to put Yuria's family into debt.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were going bankrupt.
But there was no choice. If Yuria were allowed to continue, God knows who she would get killed next time.
Yuria opened her mouth but ultimately didn't have the courage to voice her refusal now.
From then on, the other matters had nothing to do with Miko and the other two.
Sanka and Marin signed non-disclosure agreements and were escorted away, and Miko also left the scene.
Yuria's family paid a large sum in compensation.
However, the sealing of the Spiritual Eye ultimately didn't happen. Yuria's family ran out of money; the death compensation was much more than expected.
So they simply sold their house, processed a school transfer, and left Kyoto.
Yuria looked at the scenery rapidly receding outside the window, her eyes somewhat vacant.
She had been sternly warned by her father.
If she caused trouble again because of something she saw, he would personally gouge out her eyes.
Sealing the Spiritual Eye was expensive, but post-operative recovery for gouged eyes was very cheap.
Yuria also threw away everything related to Psychic powers.
She was truly afraid.
But it was all too late.
Yuria looked at the two blurry figures beside her.
Those were cursed spirits.
They were cursed spirits above the 4th Grade; otherwise, Yuria wouldn't have been unable to see them clearly!
"I... I'm being haunted, but I deserve this... I'm the one who caused their deaths..."
Yuria slowly withdrew her gaze, but her whole being had gained a sense of gloom... On the other side, Miko lay on her soft, large bed, looking at the sunset outside the window, arguing with Akuto about another matter.
"So why were you able to shut off my senses back then?"
"What did you do with the cursed spirit from Mount Kayama? Why hide it from me?"
"Why can't I shut off your senses?"
"It's not fair!"
"Shut up!" Akuto was so annoyed that he couldn't take it anymore. "Men have men's business; women don't need to worry about so much!"
Actually, Akuto wanted to say that men have their own secrets too.
But saying it that way felt weird.
Miko, however, completely misinterpreted Akuto's words.
Telling a woman not to meddle in a man's business—this kind of dialogue only appeared between husbands and wives.
Miko's cheeks burned, and for a moment, she didn't know what to do with herself.
Only after soaking herself in the bathtub did Miko emerge from her flushed state.
"Husband and such..."
Miko grew more and more nervous, so she simply closed her eyes and plucked up her courage to say.
"It's still too early! Please, Lord Akuto, give me a few more years!"
A question mark appeared over Akuto's head.
"Are you an idiot?"
The Yotsuya Family's life has become much more fulfilling lately.
Besides her job, Touko had also signed up for financial management classes and was busy and happy every day.
Kyosuke was also busy inviting various friends over to the house to show off. Seeing him so idle, Miko threw him to Teacher Okuma for guidance.
Under the pretext of cultivating a manly spirit.
Miko herself was still studying at the dojo while starting to take on preliminary exorcism missions.
However, Akuto wouldn't let Miko use his account, stating that low-level missions would pollute his record.
In a fit of pique, Miko went to the Exorcism Society to get one for herself.
Now she was just a lowly C-rank Psychic.
The rank of a normal Psychic is raised by doing exorcism missions. Once a certain mission volume is reached, the headquarters will increase permissions and then issue a promotion mission.
If the promotion mission is completed, they become a Psychic of the next rank.
If they fail, they have to start over.
Promotion missions are quite dangerous, involving life-threatening risks, so the review is exceptionally strict.
Psychics also treat them very seriously.
Akuto hadn't had much to do lately; Tozuka was still investigating the matter of the finger.
It required investigating decades of transaction records from several auction houses.
It was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task.
Miko kept scrolling through her phone, looking for a suitable mission for herself.
"Eh? There aren't any good missions today..."
"This one seems okay, a C-rank mission, clearing cursed spirits in an old house, let me see..."
"Oh! Four tenants have already died!"
"This is the one. It just so happens that two people have already signed up."
Miko accepted the mission.
Soon, a temporary group was formed.
"Hello, seniors~ I'm Sanka, please take care of me!"
"Inukai here, I'll go to the destination and wait for you."
Miko also gave a greeting and then walked out of the bathroom.
C-rank missions basically all require collaboration; the mortality rate for a single person performing the mission is too high.
So Miko was used to it.
"Kyosuke, I'm going out, and Mom is going to class too. In the evening, contact the butler yourself to solve the dinner problem."
"I'm heading out!"
—
T/N: Again, I really hated how they portrayed Yuria here. It was ridiculous.