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Kai really didn't think much of it.
In fact, meeting all those staring eyes, he just flashed them a bright, easygoing smile.
"..."
Nobody said a word, and before long, everyone awkwardly averted their gaze.
Japanese society was inherently cold and distant. Especially here in Tokyo, people mostly just minded their own business and couldn't care less about what anyone else was doing.
"P-Please don't make jokes like that."
It took a good while before Miko Yotsuya finally mustered the courage to speak up, her voice incredibly weak.
Miko had always considered herself completely average—average looks, average grades, average figure. She instinctively assumed Kai was just messing with her.
"I wasn't joking. You really are cute, Miko."
"..."
She weakly raised her head, stealing a quick glance at him.
Seeing the absolute sincerity in his eyes—without a single trace of teasing—she immediately dropped her head again in pure embarrassment.
"By the way, let's swap LINE contacts."
Kai suddenly pulled out his phone. LINE was the standard messaging app everyone used over here in Japan.
"Eh!"
"That way, if anything happens, you can reach out to me immediately."
Thinking back to the grotesque Cursed Spirit she had just seen, Miko obediently took out her phone and added his contact info.
"My name's Kai. If you don't mind, you can just call me by my first name from now on."
It only just hit Miko that he had been calling her by her first name this entire time. At school, Hana was the only person who did that.
"K-Kai-kun!"
Strangely enough, it didn't feel abrupt or offensive at all. Deep down, she actually felt a tiny flutter of joy.
"My stop is coming up. I'll catch you later, Miko!"
His apartment was only three or four bus stops away from the school.
"Ah!"
Even though she had been practically dying of embarrassment just a second ago, hearing that he was leaving filled her with a sudden, inexplicable sense of loss.
Kai wasn't surprised in the slightest. This was the textbook definition of the suspension bridge effect. When someone survives an experience of extreme terror, the sudden rush of relief naturally causes them to develop feelings for the person who saved them.
That was exactly why the whole "hero saving the beauty" trope, as cliché as it was, remained so incredibly effective.
"Don't sweat it. We go to the same school anyway, and you have my LINE now. If you miss me, you can text me whenever."
"Mhm... mhm!"
Miko nodded absentmindedly.
But then she quickly ducked her head again in embarrassment. 'If you miss me, you can text me'—that was just way too intimate!
And yet, her heart didn't reject it at all. This was a feeling she had never experienced before in her entire life.
Once the bus pulled up to the stop, Kai hopped off.
Miko's eyes subconsciously tracked his figure as he walked away. The moment he disappeared from sight, her gaze grew noticeably dimmer.
Ding!
Her phone chimed.
It was a message from Kai. No text, just a simple "Please take care of me from now on" sticker.
That simple little message was enough to make a genuine smile break across her face.
Tapping lightly on the screen, she fired the exact same sticker right back.
Staring out at the scenery blurring past the window, Miko decided that even though she had completely humiliated herself today, it was definitely still her lucky day.
————————————————————
"System, claim my reward!"
On Kai's end, the moment he stepped off the bus, he immediately cashed in the reward from the quest he'd just cleared.
[Congratulations, Host]
[Reward Acquired: High School Mathematics Knowledge]
"It's not cash this time?"
He thought it was going to be another payout. Then again, he was technically still a high school student.
Actually, this was perfect. He had completely forgotten everything he'd learned in his past life ages ago. Having the System just download the knowledge straight into his brain saved him the agonizing grind of studying it all over again.
"If I collect the knowledge packs for every subject, getting accepted into Tokyo University would be an absolute breeze."
In this heavily stratified, class-locked Japanese society, a chef's son was destined to be a chef, and a lawyer's son was destined to be a lawyer. For anyone from an ordinary family, getting into Tokyo University was the ultimate cheat code to completely rewrite their destiny.
If it were the old Kai, getting into Tokyo U would have been his absolute highest ambition.
But the sudden introduction of Cursed Spirit Manipulation and actual Cursed Spirits had clearly paved a vastly different path for him.
"What's the point of Tokyo U? With Cursed Spirit Manipulation, if I just eat enough Cursed Spirits, I might eventually get to experience what it's like to be the Lord of a Hundred Demons. No, scratch that—a hundred is too low. Leading a Legion of ten thousand demons... now that sounds interesting."
————————————————————
Kai's place was just a standard, cheap apartment. It was roughly twenty square meters—the kind of shoebox where you could see the entire layout the second you opened the front door.
Multiple families were crammed onto the same floor, and practically every unit shared this exact same floor plan.
That was just the reality of juggling school with a part-time job. Even though his parents sent him a living allowance, the old Kai—despite being incredibly socially awkward—had a strong sense of pride. He insisted on earning his own keep, so being able to afford an apartment like this was already a massive win.
Kai wasn't disappointed in the slightest.
Back when he was slaving away as a corporate drone in his past life, he had lived in basement units way shittier than this. This place was practically a luxury suite in comparison. At the very least, it was clean, tidy, and he didn't have to worry about rats scurrying across the floor.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat...
Kai sat cross-legged on his futon, ready to properly test out Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
Since he had already swallowed the Cursed Spirit, the next logical step was figuring out exactly how to command it.
"Come out!"
He fine-tuned the output of his Cursed Energy.
Following the motion of his raised hand, a jagged tear suddenly ripped open in the empty space right in front of him.
First, a grotesque hand reached out from the void, followed shortly by the upper half of a torso. It was the exact same Grade 4 Cursed Spirit he had "eaten" just a little while ago.
He could feel it.
His authority over this Cursed Spirit was absolute.
He could command it to kill itself right now, and it would obey without hesitation.
After emerging, the Grade 4 Cursed Spirit just stood there like a statue. It seemed incapable of taking a single action without Kai's explicit orders.
"Grade 4 Cursed Spirits are just way too weak, and they've got zero intelligence. I'll need to 'eat' a few stronger ones later and see how they stack up."
The only question was whether there was a decent supply of Cursed Spirits out there to farm.
But considering Miko Yotsuya's anime lore, these things were practically everywhere. The future was definitely looking bright.
"Go back!"
With a casual wave of his hand, the Grade 4 Cursed Spirit retreated back into the void.
Pulling out his phone, Kai figured he'd chat with Miko for a bit before turning in for the night.
But right at that moment—
"Where's the booze?? Didn't I tell you to buy alcohol??"
The sharp, violent crash of glass shattering against the floor suddenly echoed from the apartment next door, followed immediately by a man shouting aggressively.
"My salary for this month hasn't been paid yet."
Another voice replied—a distinctly cold, aloof female voice. After that, everything went completely quiet. It seemed the man had gone back into his room to sleep.
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