Miko instinctively picked up her pace.
But just as she moved, she noticed a monstrous entity blocking her and Hana's path. It was vastly different from the minor spirits lurking in the corners—it was a gargantuan, bloated beast. A heavy chain was coiled around its neck, and its eye sockets were hollow pits of darkness.
Confronted by a horror on par with the one from the bus stop, Miko froze. But then she remembered the "invincible" prayer beads on her wrists. Her confidence surged.
"It's okay... I have protection..."
Miko steeled her nerves and prepared to walk past. But right then, the monster let out a low, wet mumble: "So... itchy..."
Snap!
The moment the words left its mouth, the prayer beads on Miko's wrists shattered, the wooden beads scattering across the pavement like rain.
Miko stood there, paralyzed. Her heart hammered against her ribs, her body turning as cold as ice.
"Miko? What happened? Did your shoelace come undone?" Hana called out from a few meters away, noticing her friend had stopped.
"N-No! It's nothing! Just... my bracelet broke!" Miko shouted back, her voice trembling. She didn't want Hana to come any closer.
She knew that as long as Hana couldn't see the monsters, she was relatively safe, but she couldn't bear the thought of her best friend touching something so foul. However, Hana was already walking back toward her.
Miko was in a bind. If she kept acting weird, Hana would realize something was wrong. But if she let Hana keep walking, her friend would walk straight into the monster's bloated gut.
"Hana..."
Driven by a desperate need to protect her friend, Miko didn't hesitate any longer. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number she had sworn she would never call again.
"Where are you?"
Haruki's voice rang out from the other end. He didn't ask why she was calling or what was happening. He went straight to the point, as if he had been expecting her call from the moment they parted.
Hearing that voice—which she had found so annoying just days ago—now gave Miko an overwhelming sense of security. She quickly blurted out her location.
"I'm coming."
Haruki cut the line. He had been in the middle of Service Club activities, but after a quick, vague excuse to Yukino and Hachiman, he bolted from the room and headed toward Miko's location at top speed.
Miko knew it would take time for Haruki to arrive. Until then, she had to keep Hana away from the spirit.
"Miko, who were you just calling?" Hana asked curiously, catching up.
Miko couldn't explain Haruki or the ghosts, so she forced a smile. "Just a... a friend. I asked him to meet us here."
"A friend?" Hana looked surprised.
They had been best friends since elementary school, and she knew Miko was a bit of a loner. Aside from Hana herself, Miko didn't really have anyone she called a "friend." Hana's internal alarm went off—she worried Miko was in some kind of trouble.
"Miko, you've been acting really strange lately. Is something bothering you?"
Seeing Hana's eyes fill with genuine concern, Miko felt like crying. But her priority was still Hana's safety. She gritted her teeth, steeled her heart, and decided to walk through the monster herself to prove it "wasn't there."
I can't see it... I can't see it... I see nothing...
Miko marched forward, passing right through the spirit's massive, shadowy form.
Eeeeeeek!
Even though there was no physical sensation, her mind felt like it had been plunged into a vat of ice. She felt nauseous, her spirit recoiling from the foul energy.
Seeing Miko walk over, Hana stopped worrying about the phone call. She noticed the broken beads on the ground. "Wow, the quality of those beads was terrible. Let's go back to the store and demand a refund."
"N-No! It's fine!" Miko said quickly. Passing through that thing once was bad enough. Going back for a second round was a fate worse than death.
However, as they turned to leave, Hana looked at her waist and gasped. "Wait! My plushie! Where's my bunny?"
"Your plushie?" Miko looked back and saw the stuffed rabbit lying right at the monster's feet.
"Ah, there it is! I didn't even notice it fell." Hana started to walk back toward the beast.
"Hana, wait!"
Miko lunged to grab her friend, but she tripped on the uneven pavement. Her momentum carried her forward, right toward the monster's waiting arms.
I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead!
Tears pricked Miko's eyes as she watched the bloated, gray skin of the monster get closer and closer. Her world was turning black.
But just before she made contact, a pair of strong hands reached out from the side.
Grab!
Haruki had arrived just in time. He caught Miko by the waist and pulled her back with a sharp, controlled motion. Due to the force of the pull, Miko ended up tumbling directly into Haruki's chest.
Under normal circumstances, Miko would have been mortified. But right now, being in Haruki's arms was ten thousand times better than being in the monster's embrace. She gripped his shirt, trembling with relief.
"Where is it?" Haruki asked immediately.
Miko didn't hesitate. She pointed at the ground where Hana's plushie lay. "Right there! In front of the rabbit!"
"Understood."
Confirming the position, Haruki drew the Kujisada. The sharp blade gleamed even in the dim light of the alley. With a single, fluid strike, he drove the sword through the air where the monster stood.
"So... itchy... so itchy..."
In Miko's eyes, the monster didn't scream like the last one. Instead, as the Kujisada pierced its form, the bloated entity looked almost... relieved. The black miasma surrounding it began to dissolve into a soft, fading light.
"Ah... it doesn't itch anymore... so... good..."
The monster let out a sigh of pure bliss. Its distorted form began to shrink and shift, transforming back into a normal-looking middle-aged man.
It seemed this man had died alone in his apartment, unnoticed by anyone. His body had rotted away without a proper burial, and his lingering regret and the "itch" of decay had turned him into a vengeful spirit.
Haruki's strike hadn't just destroyed the ghost; it had severed the miasma of regret, allowing the soul to find peace. The man gave a deep, respectful bow to Haruki and Miko before his spirit faded away into the distance.
"Did he... ascend?" Miko whispered, watching the spot where the man had vanished. She felt a wave of profound emotion—this was the first time she had seen a spirit truly "saved."
At the same time, Haruki felt a massive surge of spectral energy. A thick cloud of Ghost Qi swirled into his right hand, making his arm feel heavy and powerful—a true "Ghost Hand."
Suddenly, Haruki's vision flickered. In the shadows of the alley, he could now see faint, blurry outlines of other minor spirits drifting about.
The Ghost Power is evolving, Haruki realized.
His theory was correct. By slaying these spirits and absorbing their essence, he could cultivate Ghost Power within his own body. Right now, he could only see blurry shapes, but if he continued to hunt, he would eventually see the world exactly as Miko did.
While Miko and Haruki were processing the aftermath, Hana Yurikawa was staring at them with wide, shocked eyes.
Of course, she wasn't shocked by Haruki's combat skills. Since she couldn't see the ghost, all she saw was Haruki swinging a sword at the air like a total weirdo.
What shocked her was the sight of her best friend, Miko, clinging to a handsome guy's chest in the middle of a dark alley. To Hana, it looked like a scene straight out of a romance manga.