Hana was a bit dazed.
Isn't he Miko's suspected boyfriend? What does he want to do? Why did he want to touch my face?
"Hana!" Miko's voice made Hana shudder, and she subconsciously pulled away from Asakura.
"Um, Miko... it's not like that..." For some reason, she said with a guilty conscience.
"Hana, are you okay?" But Miko just ran to her side in worry, holding her hand and asking with concern. Because from Miko's perspective just now, she saw a completely different scene from the person involved, Hana. The spiritual entity that had just disappeared from the corner was lying behind her, its entire face buried in her shoulder, looking as eerie as if it were about to merge with Hana.
However, after Asakura reached out and brushed it off Hana, the spiritual entity disappeared at an extremely fast speed.
"Eh?" Miko's attitude left Hana completely baffled.
At this moment, Miko looked at Asakura: "Asakura-kun, what was that just now..."
"It shouldn't be that Asakura-kun is unfaithful, maybe he just saw some dirt on my face..." Hana subconsciously defended Asakura.
"To be precise, it was on your shoulder, the dirt." Asakura added from the side. Immediately after, he asked in confusion: "What does this have to do with being unfaithful?"
"Well, because aren't Asakura-kun and Miko in a... um, relatively intimate relationship?" Hana said somewhat embarrassedly.
"Don't let your imagination run wild!" Miko sighed. If possible, she actually wouldn't object too much to dating someone like Asakura Takuma—putting his looks aside, at least if she were by his side, she probably wouldn't be troubled by those bizarre and terrifying existences anymore. But the problem was, a powerful person like Mr. Asakura certainly wouldn't be interested in an ordinary girl like her.
Meanwhile, Asakura had already begun to ponder. He had been ready to burn that spiritual entity directly just now. As a result, the moment he touched it, it simply disappeared instead of catching fire.
This indicated that the spiritual entity appearing on Hana just now was merely something like an illusion or a clone, not the main body, so it could not be selected by [Candle] as fuel. Thinking about it this way, is the problem indeed coming from this crude, abnormal space? It wasn't a particularly troublesome thing, just a bit of a nuisance. The feedback from [Snake] had already arrived, so in that case—
"Yotsuya-san, can you take your friend and leave this place together?" Asakura said.
"As long as we know where the exit is..." Before Miko could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Hana's exclamation next to her.
"A snake! What a huge snake!" The young girl subconsciously looked down at the ground, only to see a large, jet-black snake slithering out of a manhole cover. The snake's pitch-black eyes gleamed with an eerie light, and it stared at Miko, nodding its head toward her in a remarkably intelligent manner.
"Just follow the snake," Asakura then continued. Early on, when he discovered that this kind of alleyway replicated the sewer system, he had already activated [Snake] to create a large number of scouts right under their feet, exploring almost all the branching paths. It wasn't until just now that a snake found the real exit.
Although it wasn't quite clear what was going on, one of Miko's virtues was that she was compliant, very compliant. She nodded quickly and asked again: "What about Asakura-kun?"
"Leaving this place around is an active hazard. To prevent more victims from appearing, I intend to deal with it directly," Asakura said with a smile.
"...Um, although it might be a bit late to ask now," Hana asked with a bit of delayed realization, "Could it be that Asakura-kun is someone like a chief priest at a shrine or a monk in a temple?"
"Are you just realizing this now?!" Miko was stunned, then retorted helplessly, "That's why I told you from the very beginning, Asakura-kun is the helper I invited."
"I just thought... when girls encounter difficulties, the first person they want to turn to for help... isn't it usually their dad or boyfriend?" Hana said, scratching her face in embarrassment.
"No, no, no, it's definitely better to turn to a professional for this kind of thing..." Miko felt a bit mentally exhausted. She looked toward Asakura, who offered her a warm smile.
"It's fine to call me dad, too."
"Asakura-kun, don't follow Hana's lead and make that kind of joke either!" Miko retorted loudly.
But immediately afterward, she still felt a bit lost in her heart: Even if he chooses to be a dad, he won't be a boyfriend?
Hana, however, patted her shoulder as if she had penetrated her best friend's thoughts.
"Calling someone daddy can also apply to a boyfriend," she showed a Fujiya expression, giving Miko a thumbs-up, "Isn't there also the concept of 'compensated dating'?"
"Hana?! What are you talking about, Hana!" Miko made a cat-like sound in sheer embarrassment.
"Alright, you two should get out of here quickly. Staying in this kind of place for too long might not be good for your health." Asakura said with a beaming smile.
So Miko pulled Hana, who was still sizing up Asakura curiously, and left, following that snake on the ground which looked roughly like a black mamba.
Asakura stood completely motionless in the main pathway of the alleyway maze, which was the very same alley they had initially entered from.
After receiving the signal that the snake guiding Miko and the other girl had undone its curse and vanished upon reaching its objective, Asakura finally extended his finger, a flame continuously dancing at his fingertip.
As if sensing the immense level of destructive aura contained within that flame, which was barely larger than a lighter's spark at the boy's fingertip, the entire alleyway came 'alive' just like that.
The originally mottled concrete on the walls began to heave and roll like skin, mold spots and cracks slowly opened and closed, and a dark liquid seeped out, looking like sweat, yet also like bleeding.
Those shadows clinging to the base of the walls seemed to perceive the presence of the firelight and shrank back one after another, yet in the blink of an eye, they approached once more as if driven by some sort of will.
A low friction sound echoed in the air, like countless people simultaneously groaning a command in their throats while suffocating; the ground was pulled and bulged upward, and slender black lines crawled out from the brick crevices, intertwining and knotting together as if to extinguish that single speck of light.
The firelight reflected in the boy's pupils, its shape distorted to the point where it did not look like received light, but more like a certain existence that was gazing back at him.
"You really underestimated me." Asakura raised his fingertip and said softly: "[Phosphorus]!"
In the next instant, the tiny flame flew down from his fingertip.
The eerie shadows, the damp ground, and the mottled walls swept in and enveloped him from all directions, trying to completely snuff out that speck of flame in its initial stage.
However, the flame did not go out; on the contrary, that glimmer which was originally only the size of a fingertip seemed to receive some invisible stimulation and suddenly burst into bloom.
A nearly imperceptible hiss echoed in the air, and the fire spread rapidly like a living thing, burning against the direction of the airflow, turning everything that swept toward it into its own fuel, continuously burning and devouring.
The shadows at the entrance of the alley were the first to be ignited, and the black walls began to peel and melt, turning into flakes of blazing bright ash.
The color of that fire was bizarre, like a fluid mixed with blood and metal, continuously flipping between light and dark.
Accompanying it was a wave of whispering wails, as if the entire alley was being burned awake in agony.
The ground rose and collapsed, the air distorted into rings, and the fire swirled within them, turning into a massive yet illusory human form.
That was the spiritual entity of the sobbing girl, the source of the formation of this alley Mirror Realm, except it seemed to be mixed with the resentment of other victims, making its aura mottled and impure, able only to wail within the fire.
Its emotions flared open, as if sowing a seed of memory in the air; even just standing there, one could receive a few fragments of its memories from when it was alive.
A broken family of origin, a younger sister to depend on for survival, oneself suffering from a terminal illness, an accident caused out of good intentions that conversely destroyed the sister's dream, thinking that death could atone for the sin but the sister passed away first, agony, remorse, sorrow, despair, breakdown... ultimately, the battered heart was devoured by some supernatural inducement and turned into an anomaly...
Asakura stood in the center, the firelight swirling around him, tongues of flame licking at his body, but they were kept at bay by [Phosphorus], not harming him in the slightest.
His expression was calm to the point of near indifference, and he spoke in a tone that was almost like a judge delivering a verdict.
"None of my business."
No matter how tragic the past was, it had already become empty; if it were just that, Asakura might have felt sympathy for the other party's encounter, or perhaps expressed pity, and it wouldn't even matter if he paid out of his own pocket to donate some money.
But from the very moment that the anomaly it transformed into harmed the first person, the nature of the situation changed.
It was no longer an existence eligible to be treated with empathy, but simply a monster that harms people—the fox monstrosity at least helped the other party realize a wish—no matter how tragic the past, it could not serve as a basis for forgiveness; Asakura was not a left-wing liberal who supported the abolition of the death penalty, and in his hands, the only end awaiting a monster that harms people was to be completely turned into ashes and smoke.
The Mirror Realm collapsed and dissolved, and not even ash was left of the spiritual entity amidst its wails.
By the time Asakura opened his eyes again, he had already returned to the alley from the beginning, and Miko and the others were standing on the sidewalk at the alley entrance, waiting for him anxiously.
The moment they saw Asakura appear, both of them revealed expressions of pleasant surprise.
Asakura waved at them, and just as he wanted to walk over there, his foot stepped on something.
He looked down and found it was a collar.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary pet collar, but looking closely, it had a bit of an ornamental feel to it.
Of course, none of these were the key point; what mattered was that Asakura felt a trace of an aura on this item that was similar to that camera from the Nukumizu family.
Could it be an item that also possesses some sort of extraordinary power?
Could this be considered a reward after clearing a dungeon? No, to be precise, the extraordinary power on this thing was the main factor that allowed a mere spiritual entity to create a Mirror Realm, just like the Golem (Napoleon) that Yui's family had inadvertently obtained back then.
Asakura picked up the collar and observed it curiously for a moment.
"What is that thing?" Miko and the others, who were walking toward Asakura, also saw the collar in his hand and couldn't help but ask curiously.
Asakura thought for a moment, then waved his hand at Miko: "Miss Yotsuya, come over here."
"Me?" Miko came over to stand in front of Asakura very obediently.
Then, relying on [Snake]'s reaction speed that surpassed humans by seven times, Asakura placed the collar around her neck before the girl could even realize it.
"Eh? Eh-eh!" Miko was bewildered at first, and then she let out an astonished sound.
"Sit." Asakura said.
Consequently, the girl, who had still been subconsciously trying to take off the collar, immediately made a squatting motion similar to a dog's.
"Ah-wa-wa, Miko, pantsu! Your panties are showing!" Hana said flusteredly.
"Ah? Woof?!" Miko let out a strange cry in some panic.
"Spin around once and say 'one'." Asakura said.
The girl spun around like a dog, "Woof!"
"Spin around twice and say 'two'." Asakura commanded again.
The girl spun around twice more, "Woof... two!"
"I see, so you don't actually turn into a dog, and you can still speak human language."
Asakura let out a sigh, unclear whether he was satisfied or disappointed, and reached out to remove the collar from the girl's neck.
As a result, Miko's eyes, which had been staring longingly at Asakura just a moment ago while begging for praise, instantly cleared up. She jumped up from the ground, pulled away from him, and shouted in shame and anger: "Asa... Asakura-kun!"
Asakura calmly comforted the girl: "Sorry, because I felt it would be a bit rude to put this on Yurikawa..."
"So it's fine to do it to me?!"
"After all, I'm more familiar with you, Miko."
"We've only met one extra time... and besides, suddenly you're calling me by my first name!"
"Do you dislike it? You can call me Takuma too, Miko."
"It's not that I dislike it, it's just that it feels a bit too sudden..."
"I see, so Miko prefers the kind of dynamic where you gradually build affection through daily casual chats?"
"Well, how should I put it..."
"The little bear is very cute."
"Don't casually praise a girl's pantsu like it's nothing! This isn't a casual chat at all!"
"It feels like the favorability score didn't increase."
"If anything, it went down, hey!"
It seemed the girl had not been comforted at all.
Meanwhile, Asakura quietly opened his system page.
As it turned out, he found that the latest quest on it, [Adopt a Peculiar Pet], did not show as completed.
Does that mean a pet like a JK is too common to be counted as a 'peculiar pet'?
Or is a dozen or so seconds too short to count as 'adopting' it?
Asakura looked at the girl's fair neck, thoughts constantly churning in his mind.
Miko felt hairs stand up on end from Asakura's gaze. As if realizing something, she instinctively took another step back.
"Are you serious about taking a step back? I'm so heartbroken."
"Sorry..."
Miko couldn't help but feel a bit guilty; after all, Asakura was considered her savior, so her action just now was indeed a bit uncalled for...
"Even though you were so obedient and cute when you were still Miko (dog form)."
"...I'm truly sorry that the normal me isn't that cute." The guilt in the girl's heart instantly flew out of the window.
"Just a joke, let's go to the Rabbit House to eat Rabbit Dango," Asakura smiled.
"My treat." He said.