( Arata's POV )
When I asked Ranna if she wanted to be part of our family, I thought she was going to ask me more questions about what that was about but she immediately responded with the most honest smile I'd ever seen, maybe I should have seen this coming.
Urara: Do you know what we're talking about?
Ranna: ...I don't know.
Urara: And you don't want to know?
Ranna: ...Not really.
Arata: Let me tell you anyway, in case you change your mind.
Ranna: I won't~
Arata: Basically we will be protecting the city, taking care of gangs like the group from before and other things that are somewhat out of the ordinary.
With my short explanation Ranna stood up and made a statement with a big smile in her face.
Ranna: I understand, I'll go beat up all the gangs in the city~
Ranna turned around to embark on her self-imposed mission but I grabbed her hand to stop her, I'm sure any normal gang couldn't stop her, but I know the enemies we're going to face will only get more dangerous.
Arata: wait wait, you don't need to do that now, there are other things that will occupy our time.
Ranna sat back down and we talked about future plans until it was time to return to class.
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From that day on, Ranna officially became part of our group, although communication between us was not the best, with me she was more than happy to talk but with the other girls she only responded with short, somewhat delayed answers, but that was at least something for anyone else who tried to talk to her, she didn't bother to answer.
Mostly she tried to stay close to me and that had the unintentional advantage of stopping a lot of the stares I'd been feeling recently.
The next day when I had to take care of the old man's shop as he asked me, Ranna came with me, she was looking around at all the strange gadgets in the store but that seemed more out of curiosity than a genuine interest in these things.
Ranna: Arata, are you interested in this kind of things?
Arata: My mom is the one who is obsessed with this kind of thing and I guess when I learned that this was real I gained some interest too.
Ranna: I'm interested in this too~
Arata: You don't have to force yourself to like what I like.
' But I guess it will be useful to know about this kind of things in the future. '
Arata: I found a book that talks about different types of yokai, do you want to read it together?
Ranna: yes~
*Ring*
The old man said it was strange that he had guests but we still heard the doorbell, the one who had entered was a girl around our age with long dark blue hair, Ranna frowned and grunted a little because the girl had interrupted us but she calmed down when I patted her head.
Arata: Good afternoon, can I help you with anything? Were you looking for something specific?
The girl was looking around confused, It seemed like she didn't know much about this kind of thing or maybe she had walked into the wrong store.
???: Well, I was looking for a charm... A gift for a friend.
Arata: oh there are a lot of those here.
I looked under the counter and found a box with a large number of amulets divided by their effects.
Arata: We have everything you could need to attract good luck, for good exam results, for fertility, maybe you don't need that one, to ward off evil spirits and ghosts.
When I mentioned evil spirits the girl's eyes widened a little but she quickly returned to her normal expression.
???: I'll take one for good luck.
I thought she was going to choose an amulet to repel evil spirits but she chose the simple good luck charm.
She took the amulet and when she went to hand over the money I noticed that her hand was shaking a little, but that could be because Ranna was staring angrily at that girl.
When she took the amulet and the girl left the store in a hurry, she turned out to be the only guest of the day and when it was time to close, The old man appeared and thanked me for the help, he also gave me a black box with several scrolls, I took a quick look at one of them, and it looked like what I was looking for.
Old Man: Oh, I also found something else on my trip that might interest you.
The old man showed me another long box and what was inside was a Katana.
Old man: The blade of this sword is made of a material that bathes in the sun's rays all year round, this will keep creatures of the night away from a home.
It seems the old man knew just what to say to get me interested, or maybe I was more like my mother than I thought, I bought the Katana from the old man but obviously I couldn't be walking around town with something like that so I asked Sun's mom to send someone to pick it up.
After that I returned home and started reading the scrolls, in addition to sword techniques the scrolls talked about breathing techniques, that was talking about the most efficient way to take in oxygen and that this increase in oxygen improves the body's performance.
That's something I've heard is practiced in some martial arts so this must be legit, I showed this to the girls another day.