After being subjected to the vintage car's suicide attack, the shrine's owner, whom Asakura couldn't see before, finally entered his perception and could be captured by his low-resolution Truth Vision.
It let out a terrifying roar and lunged at Asakura.
It's worth mentioning that, unlike normal creatures opening their mouths and baring fangs to attack, this fox-like spirit instead had its entire face split open, writhing with bizarre limbs covered in sharp bone spikes, just like a parasitic beast. It looked incredibly grotesque and terrifying. The extent of its horror and visual impact on ordinary people could be somewhat inferred from Fujiwara Chika, who was frozen in fear behind Asakura.
But this had little to do with Asakura, as his right eye's vision had not yet recovered; everything he saw looked like severe myopia with astigmatism. Being able to distinguish the enemy's outline was already good enough.
[Scale]
He kicked a small pebble on the ground in the direction the monster was lunging. At the moment the monster's figure intersected with the pebble, it stopped completely as if it had hit an invisible wall. Its twisted, terrifying face was strangely and comically flattened, looking as if it had been forcefully knocked flying by a pebble the size of a fingernail.
Only then did Asakura leisurely point at the opponent.
[Candle]
The monster immediately let out a piercing shriek, and strange bell sounds rang out repeatedly, seemingly attempting to use supernatural power to extinguish the flames on its body. However, in terms of priority alone, Curse that could even work on evil gods from other worlds was clearly superior. This level of struggle was completely unable to resist the power of [Candle].
In fact, if Asakura hadn't been sulking because of the old Ford car's self-destruction and deliberately tormenting the opponent, his battle with it would have ended in just one encounter—the moment he saw it, the opponent had already lost its only chance of victory.
"That..."
At this moment, the girl behind Asakura quietly asked, "Do we really have to kill it?"
"Otherwise?"
Asakura raised an eyebrow and asked.
"I just feel like it hasn't really done anything bad..."
Fujiwara Chika said with a lack of confidence.
Although she was indeed severely harmed by the Evil Spirit, almost dying at one point, if she had to say, part of the reason she was entangled by the Evil Spirit was her own lack of strong will, which caused her to be too shaken after seeing those supernatural beings, and she failed to react immediately and pretend not to see it the moment the other party asked, 'Can you see me?'
In contrast, the owner of this shrine did not cause her any substantial harm, and even fulfilled her wish to see incredible things—regardless of whether what she saw was a trap or not, just tell her if she saw it or not...
"You're too naive; that's because the other party hasn't collected 'payment' from you yet."
Asakura said in a deep voice, "The gifts of fate have long been marked with a price... it's just that you were unlucky and almost died from an accident before the payment was demanded."
He looked at the shrine's owner, who was writhing in pain on the ground, covered in flames, and continued, "To give an example... if you were clever enough not to be entangled by that Evil Spirit on the road and returned home safely, but the Truth Vision ability wouldn't disappear, and from now on, malicious spirits would constantly appear in your sight, threatening your life at all times... what would you do?"
Fujiwara Chika was speechless.
The girl thought for a moment, following Asakura's train of thought, then answered somewhat uncertainly.
"Become the Prime Minister of Japan?"
"Why would you come up with an answer like that?!"
"Because after becoming Prime Minister, I can establish a special department to subjugate Evil Spirits... Hmm, let's call it the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Office~"
"That sounds like a mob organization that a long-haired JK would solo."
Asakura first casually scoffed, then said, "Setting aside whether you can successfully make it to graduation and participate in elections, just the appearance of Evil Spirits in one's sight can cause unease and depression. If you keep ignoring them, even the sunniest person's mind would break. So, in reality, you probably wouldn't last long before regretting the wish you made at the very beginning..."
"So, I'd run back here again to make a new wish..."
Fujiwara Chika finally understood Asakura's meaning.
"And from your appearance, you probably don't know that there's also a saying in this world called 'votive offering,' do you?"
Asakura continued.
"What is that?"
"Simply put, it means that when a wish you made is fulfilled, you need to go to the place where you made the wish to express gratitude."
Asakura said, "Besides verbal thanks, people often prepare some gifts... What do you think this thing will collect as payment before you run back here again, wanting to cancel your wish or make a new one?"
"...Donation money?"
"Guess again."
The girl's expression turned ugly.
Unfortunately, because she was behind Asakura, he couldn't appreciate the girl's frightened expression at that moment.
"But what you said isn't entirely without reason..."
Asakura looked at the Fox Shapeshifter, which was suffering immensely from the burning [Candle] flame, and leaned in with great interest: "Hey there, if you're willing to surrender and become my Shikigami or familiar, I can spare your life."
The shrine's owner's struggling movements became smaller.
It straightened its body, lay on the ground, and pressed its head towards Asakura, seemingly consciously expressing surrender.
At this moment, Asakura's usually quiet system popped up a new page.
[Demon Contract Fox]
[Effect: After this contract is formed, the Keeper can summon the other party to assist in battle at any time]
[Cost: Each summon requires sacrificing a part of the body]
Asakura was silent for a moment, a forced smile appearing on his face.
His fist was first covered with a layer of [Scale], and then the blazing [Candle] flame, specifically effective against spirits, ignited.
Then, Asakura, with lightning speed, directly threw an uppercut at the monster.
"Demon, huh! Sacrifice, huh! Body, huh! You want to eat so badly, here's a punch to taste first!"
The monster was sent tumbling and scrambling, covering its head, by Asakura's punch, but it didn't dare to truly escape, because Asakura's Curse had already locked onto it.
After being beaten for a while, and after those originally incredibly sharp teeth fell all over the ground, the system page in Asakura's vision updated again.
[Familiar Contract Fox]
[Effect: After this contract is formed, the Keeper can summon the other party to assist in battle at any time]
[Cost: Spare its life]