Chapter 1: A Peaceful High School Life
Kyushu, Sakura Prefecture, Kyoto.
Today marked the enrollment day for the first-year students at Sobu High School.
The early spring breeze carried scattered, pale pink cherry blossom petals, framing the young men and women who were overflowing with the energy of youth. It created a truly picturesque scene.
Meanwhile, inside a clubroom on the second floor of the main school building.
A girl with sleek, long black hair stood by the window. She wore the Sobu High uniform and possessed striking golden eyes. While her appearance couldn't be called devastatingly beautiful, she was certainly cute. She looked as though she were simply admiring the scenery outside.
However, the tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment, her trembling pupils, and her uncontrollably shivering body betrayed the sheer terror gripping her heart.
"Can you see me?"
"Can you see me?"
...
To an ordinary person, the clubroom would appear empty aside from the girl. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
But in the girl's eyes, the current scene in the clubroom was nothing short of a living hell.
Over a dozen evil spirits with twisted shapes and terrifying faces, emitting a faint black mist, were surrounding her.
One spirit in particular, though its body remained in the corner of the room, had stretched its neck nearly five meters across the air. Its head dangled right in front of her face, swaying back and forth. Its two eyeballs, bulging as if they were about to fall out, stared dead at her face.
"Can you see me?"
Faced with the suffocation of these evil spirits, Yotsuya Miko was terrified to the point of breaking. Yet, she forced herself to maintain a façade of calm, pretending to admire the view outside the window as she muttered to herself.
"The... the weather t-today... it's r-really nice, isn't it?"
At this point, Yotsuya Miko was on the verge of crying out loud.
How did things turn out like this?
This wasn't the first time Miko had seen evil spirits and ghosts.
Usually, as long as she pretended not to see them, those "things" would ask two or three times at most before silently drifting away.
But this time, she had been hiding in this clubroom for nearly ten minutes, and they showed absolutely no intention of leaving!
What do I do?
Miko bit her lower lip gently, feeling like she was on the brink of a mental collapse.
She had thought about leaving the room, but in such a horrific scenario, her legs had turned to jelly. If she hadn't been holding onto the windowsill for support, she would have slumped to the floor long ago.
And if that happened...
These "things" would definitely realize that she could see them.
As long as I pretend not to see them, I won't be in danger.
This was the ironclad rule of survival Yotsuya Miko had deduced to stay alive in this dangerous world.
But looking at the current situation, even turning a blind eye wasn't solving the problem.
Just as Miko was sinking into despair, she suddenly heard the sound of the clubroom door sliding open behind her.
She turned around with every ounce of strength she had left. A boy with black hair and black eyes, who was quite handsome and appeared to be about her age, walked in slowly.
Miko immediately realized this was a chance.
A chance to escape this predicament of being surrounded by spirits.
"Um... Excuse me."
Miko's voice trembled, her golden eyes filled with a pleading look.
"I think I sprained my ankle. Could you please help me... and support me back to the classroom?"
Under normal circumstances, Yotsuya Miko would never make such a request to a boy she had met for the first time.
But right now, she couldn't care less about propriety.
If she didn't leave this place soon, the spirits would inevitably discover her.
"Sprained your ankle?"
To Miko's surprise, the boy simply smiled nonchalantly. Then, he slowly slid the clubroom door shut.
Immediately after, under her confused gaze, he walked over to the desk in the room with elegant movements. He pulled several items from inside his jacket, muttering to himself as he did so.
"Let's see here... What's left that I haven't tested? Peach wood dagger, silver nails... and a few protective charms that are supposed to exorcise demons. That should be about it."
After taking inventory of the items on the desk, the boy looked up and offered a friendly smile.
"Hello. I'm Yoru. I'm a first-year student enrolling at Sobu High today."
Miko nodded subconsciously.
"I-I'm Yotsuya Miko... also a first-year. Please treat me well."
Only after the introductions were finished did Miko's brain catch up to the situation. She pursed her lips nervously.
"Um... could you please help me out of here first?"
The moment her voice fell, every single evil spirit in the clubroom suddenly turned its head. Their gazes locked dead onto her face as they squeezed out a hoarse, raspy sound from their throats.
"Can you see me!?"
Miko's body violently shuddered, cold sweat soaking her back.
Just then, something completely unexpected happened.
Ahem.
Yoru cleared his throat lightly. He waved his hand at the spirits surrounding Miko, greeting them as if they were neighbors, and spoke in a warm, friendly tone.
"I can see you guys."
Miko froze for a second. Then, her pupils constricted in shock as she panicked and shouted a warning.
"Don't... Don't say it out loud!"
She didn't know why this boy named Yoru also possessed the ability to see spirits and ghosts, but that wasn't the important issue right now.
The critical issue was—he had just torn through the veil of ignorance!
Letting the spirits know that he could "see" them...
It was all over!
However, the scene that followed completely defied Miko's expectations.
The moment Yoru finished speaking, the evil spirits in the clubroom actually recoiled in unison, shrinking back into the corner. Their twisted bodies squeezed together into a lump, and on their terrifying faces appeared an expression Miko had never seen on them before:
Fear.
"W-What... What is going on?"
Miko wore a look of utter disbelief.
The spirits...
Are afraid?
What are they afraid of?
Could it be... this boy named Yoru standing in front of me?
What on earth is happening?
Yoru looked at the cluster of spirits shivering in the corner and shook his head with a hint of disappointment.
"None of the strong types here, huh... Whatever, you'll have to do."
After saying that, he picked up the peach wood dagger from the table, walked right up to the group of spirits, and stabbed one directly.
The spirit whose body was pierced let out a shrill shriek that Miko had never heard before.
Yoru's gaze didn't shift in the slightest. He simply stared intently at the hole in the spirit's body. As the wound slowly closed up, he pulled a small notebook from his pocket and began writing.
"Hmm... Peach wood dagger. Its lethality against common spirits is about the same as steel. Looks like it doesn't have any special effects."
Next, Yoru repeated the same action several times, simply swapping the weapon for silver nails and the protective charms.
"Silver nails... effect seems slightly better than common metal, but still limited."
"This protective charm is completely useless. That damn old con artist who set up his stall in front of the shrine... I need to go get a refund."
After finishing his records, Yoru tucked the small notebook back into his jacket. He stood up, stretched his body in a long, lazy arc, and yawned.
"Not bad. Your work here is done."
As soon as he said that, Miko watched in horror as Yoru opened his mouth slightly. The bodies of the dozen or so evil spirits turned into a massive cloud of struggling black mist, radiating a sinister aura—and were all sucked directly into his stomach!
Watching the spirits finally vanish, combined with the shock of witnessing such a scene, Miko's mental endurance finally reached its limit.
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. Tears streamed uncontrollably from her bright golden eyes.
Just then.
"Eh? Why is there noise coming from the clubroom?"
A female teacher, wearing a white lab coat over black suit pants, slid the clubroom door open.
The scene that appeared before her eyes was a young girl sitting on the floor, weeping pitifully as if she had been bullied.
And standing not far away was Yoru, still holding a peach wood dagger in his hand.
"What... is going on here!?"