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Wait, didn't it say this was supposed to taste terrible?
If it weren't for the fact that he could distinctly feel his Cursed Energy reserves expanding, and he could literally sense the newly subjugated Cursed Spirit waiting for his command, he would have genuinely thought Cursed Spirit Manipulation had completely failed.
"Oh, right!"
It suddenly hit Kai—the technique he had received wasn't the standard version. It was the Perfect Edition of Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
He hadn't fully grasped what that meant at first.
But now, it was starting to make sense. The System had completely stripped away every single negative side effect associated with the original technique.
Did Suguru Geto's Cursed Energy naturally increase every time he swallowed a Cursed Spirit?
He was pretty sure the anime never established that. It only stated that eating them allowed him to control them. So, not only did he not have to endure that horrifying, literal "swallowing a rag used to wipe up vomit and feces" taste...
...but constantly devouring Cursed Spirits would actually increase his Cursed Energy with an essentially infinite ceiling.
Understood! The "Perfect Edition" was basically an insanely buffed version!
Just the sheer implication of that realization made Kai practically vibrate with excitement.
And right at that moment—
Snap!
Slowly inching backward, Miko Yotsuya's foot accidentally crushed a dry twig. The sharp sound immediately snapped Kai's attention toward her.
Realizing that Kai was now staring dead at her, Miko began to frantically stammer.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see anything! I'm just a completely normal high school girl! Please don't eat me! I'm sorry! I am so, so sorry!"
The sight of him literally swallowing a monster whole seemed to have caused a massive, horrifying misunderstanding in Miko's head.
Her terrified, borderline hysterical reaction actually made Kai let out a small, amused chuckle.
"Ahem. Let's not jump to conclusions here, Yotsuya-san. You can just think of me as an Onmyoji. That technique just now was specifically meant for dealing with Cursed Spirits. I'm a human being. I obviously don't eat people."
"You... don't eat people?"
It seemed Miko had completely tuned out everything except those last four words.
Looking at Kai's bright, genuinely handsome face, her racing heart finally started to settle down a fraction. 'He's so handsome... there's no way a guy like him would lie, right?'
Clearly, even in a massive anime crossover universe, handsome privilege was still an absolute law of nature.
"Of course I don't eat people. Besides, even if I did, you'd definitely need to go take a thorough shower before I could even stomach the idea."
"..."
'Is he saying I'm dirty??'
Her heart skipped a beat. She was still a teenage girl, after all. Saying something like that was just incredibly out of line! She instinctively fired back without thinking.
"What is that supposed to mean?? I take a proper bath every single day!"
Here in Japan, soaking in a hot bath was practically a daily ritual.
Kai didn't say a word. He simply pointed a finger down at Miko's skirt, a faint, teasing smirk playing on his lips.
"?"
Not fully grasping what he was getting at, Miko absentmindedly followed his gaze and looked down.
In the very next second...
"Uwaaah!"
She let out a senseless, strangled squeak, her entire face flashing bright crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye. She practically turned into a human steam engine.
Did I actually just... get scared into...??
She had been so completely paralyzed by fear earlier that she hadn't even realized it. Now that the adrenaline was fading, she suddenly registered a very distinct, damp chill radiating from down below. And when the cool evening breeze drifted past... that sensation alone made Miko want to instantly cease existing.
"I'm dead! I am already dead!"
She immediately squatted down on the pavement, burying her completely flushed face deep into her arms. 'Honestly, I'd rather have just been eaten by the monster.'
Experiencing absolute, irrecoverable social death couldn't possibly feel any worse than this.
[Completely destroy Miko Yotsuya's social life]
[Quest Completed]
This quest had basically just handed itself to him on a silver platter.
Clearing his throat, Kai actually shifted into a more serious tone.
"Ahem. Look, don't beat yourself up over it. For a normal person stumbling across a Cursed Spirit like that completely out of nowhere, having a physical reaction like that really isn't strange at all."
She just peed herself a little out of sheer terror. At least she hadn't completely crapped her pants.
"I-Is it really not that strange?"
She raised her head weakly, looking up at Kai with incredibly pitiful, teary eyes, exactly like a small, helpless animal begging for reassurance.
"Really."
"Have you ever actually seen anyone else do this before?"
"Well, no."
"..."
————————————————————
Fortunately, the bus finally rolled up a few minutes later. Even though she was currently suffering from lethal levels of social death, Miko absolutely did not have the guts to stay at that cursed bus stop a second longer.
She quickly scrambled onto the bus alongside Kai.
Seeing that there were other normal passengers on board finally allowed the suffocating tension in her chest to ease up a bit.
"Um... that thing from before... what exactly was it?"
Having just experienced a literal roller coaster from hell to heaven, Miko instinctively shuffled closer to Kai. It felt like standing next to him was the only way to guarantee her own safety.
"It was a Cursed Spirit. You can basically think of them as living urban legends."
Kai honestly had no idea if there were any other actual Jujutsu Sorcerers running around in this world, but when it came down to it, Cursed Spirits, ghosts, and supernatural urban legends were all fundamentally the exact same thing.
"Normally speaking, ordinary people have absolutely zero ability to see Cursed Spirits. The fact that you can see them proves that you have a very special constitution."
According to the established rules of the Jujutsu world, only Sorcerers—or individuals with exceptionally high Cursed Energy—could perceive Cursed Spirits.
Miko Yotsuya clearly had the latent potential to awaken as a Sorcerer.
"I don't want this kind of special constitution at all."
From Miko's perspective...
If given the choice, she just wanted to be a completely normal, painfully average high school girl.
"Is there any way to make me stop seeing those mons— Cursed Spirits?"
"No."
At least, Kai didn't have a fix for it right now. Maybe he would unlock something further down the line.
"Okay..."
She lowered her head in sheer disappointment.
Even though they had literally never met before today, interacting with him felt strangely natural. Miko found herself subconsciously treating him like a friend. Maybe it was because he had already witnessed her at her absolute, most humiliating rock bottom, so she felt like she didn't have anything left to hide.
"By the way, how did you know my name?"
It suddenly clicked in her head. He had called out her name right at the very beginning, even though she was absolutely positive she had never seen him before in her life.
"I go to Sobu High too. I heard one of your friends call your name during lunch break the other day, and it just kind of stuck."
"You have a really good memory."
Miko didn't overthink it. They went to the exact same school; a coincidence like that was completely normal.
"Not necessarily."
Seeing Miko keeping her head down, acting like the textbook definition of a timid, weak-willed schoolgirl...
Kai suddenly flashed a teasing smirk. He leaned in close to her ear and dropped his voice to a low whisper.
"If it were just some average girl, I definitely wouldn't have remembered. But since Miko is just so incredibly cute, of course I remembered it instantly."
"Eh??"
She could literally feel the warmth of his breath brushing against her ear. Hearing Kai say that made her earlobes instantly flush a brilliant, burning red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She let out an involuntary squeak of absolute shock.
But this was still a public bus. Realizing that a handful of passengers had just turned around to stare at her, Miko desperately buried her face against her chest.
'What is going on today? This is the second time I've completely embarrassed myself!'
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