When evening came, after finishing dinner, I spoke to the air beside me: “Today’s dinner was great, wasn’t it?”
Tsugikuni Yoriichi: “?”
He looked toward where I was looking, quite certain there was nothing there.
I continued as if talking to someone. “You’re saying there’s suddenly another person in the house? Yes, he’s going to stay here.”
I leaned over slightly and pinched the air. “Don’t be unhappy. He’s a member of the family now, too, so you must get along well.”
“Megumi…” he asked softly, “is there something there?”
“It’s Midori-chan,” I said, describing it vividly. “It has green hair, is missing an eye and a leg, and is a ghost that lives in my house.”
As if remembering something, I added, “It wasn’t here, so I forgot to introduce you.”
“In reality, I am a shrine maiden, so I can see things that others cannot—these entities.”
“Is that why you’re afraid of ghosts?”
I tried hard to suppress a laugh and said with a straight face, “Yes. There are good ghosts like Midori, but there are also evil ones. I can see the extraordinary solar energy in you; it’s capable of deterring those evil spirits!”
He looked toward my side with curiosity. “Is it still here? Will I hurt it?”
Ah! He believed it; he actually believed it! The prankster within me couldn’t stop bubbling up.
“It’s here!” I turned my head. “It’s looking at you right now!” I made a hand seal. “There, I’ve placed a barrier; your power won’t affect it anymore.”
I patted the “head” of the air again. “There, there! Don’t be afraid! Don’t pull on my sleeve; you’ll get ‘death energy’ on it.”
His entire attention had been captured by that non-existent entity.
I asked teasingly, “Do you want to touch it?”
“May I?”
I grabbed his wrist. “Come on, it will be fine; I’m here.”
As I lifted his hand and brought it near the empty air, I finally broke character and burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha…” I collapsed onto the table, shoulders shaking with laughter. “S-sorry, hahaha, I… actually, ha, cough, there’s nothing there.”
I lifted my face, my eyes watering from the laughter. “M-my stomach hurts from laughing!”
“Was I being teased?” After being tricked, he didn’t react with anger or frustration. He waved his hand forward, as if trying to touch something which, of course, was nothing.
“Yup!” I wiped away my tears with my index finger. “Yoriichi is really cute. How could you believe such a childish lie of mine?”
“I’ve never been teased by anyone before,” he said. “When I was a child, except for my older brother, everyone stayed far away from me.”
Seeing his calm reaction to being teased, I felt a bit bashful. I placed my hands neatly on my lap, lowered my head, and said, “I’m sorry, I went too far.”
“No need to apologize.”
After hearing these words, I looked up and only caught a glimpse of his robe disappearing out the door.
Conversely, left alone in the dimly lit room with the pea-sized flame flickering and casting long shadows, I started to feel creeped out.
“D-don’t go!”
I hurriedly chased after him.
“Isn’t there no ghost?” he asked, looking down at me.
“W-what if there is one?” I followed him, stubborn. “Better safe than sorry, right?”
“Megumi, you should only say such things to me.”
We reached the kitchen, and he continued: “If others find out, you will be treated differently.”
I blinked. Was he worried I would face the same treatment as him?
“Treated differently?” That usually just meant exclusion and disgust.
“I understand,” I said, sitting on the edge and swinging my legs. “I don’t joke around with just anyone, either.”
“I only did it because Yoriichi is someone who can be absolutely trusted.”
Across the stove, I watched him in a daze. Beneath his red flame markings, his brow carried a heroic spirit, his features as exquisite and calm as jade.
He was very pleasant to look at; the more I looked, the more extraordinary he seemed.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi moved into my house.
I rested my chin on my hands, watching the figure in the yard.
That genius who would eventually push the Immortal Ghost King to the brink of death was currently chopping wood, fetching water, and doing laundry at my home acting like a selfless helper… It felt like a dream.
When I stepped outside, sure enough, he had done everything, except for one thing… I opened the empty water vat.
He clearly had a bit of social anxiety.
“Are you going out, Megumi?”
With my correction, he finally stopped calling me “Miss Megumi.”
“Yes, Yoriichi~”
I took him out with me, greeting the people I knew; occasionally, someone would strike up a conversation with him.
He spoke very little, but he answered everyone very politely.
“When I am by your side, others are kind to me as well,” he said suddenly.
“Even without me, others would treat you that way. Yoriichi is inherently someone worthy of kindness.”
He seemed to have a little bit of… insecurity.
Actually, it was much more than a little bit!
I pondered, and a vague idea formed in my mind.
When we arrived at the Tomoda house, Mrs. Tomoda treated us well. The fresh plums just picked from the tree were sweet and sour. Yoriichi, as always, followed behind me like a silent tail.
He rarely communicated with others voluntarily; this kind of socially withdrawn behavior wouldn’t do.
I never imagined he was like this in the past. I wondered how he eventually underwent such a transformation.
He really didn’t seem to be speaking idly; he intended to stay for a long time.
I calculated that if that were the case, the house would need to be expanded, and I would need to find a carpenter to redesign it. The savings I had accumulated until today… should be enough.
But before that, I needed to confirm it again. I removed the bandage from my finger and held it out. “Look, my injury is mostly healed. I should be able to do my own work by tomorrow.”
The cut on my finger was now just a shallow trace of skin.
“Do you really intend to stay?” I asked him with a seriousness I had never used before.
He nodded slightly and whispered, “I have nowhere else to go.”
Although I knew he didn’t mean to elicit pity, my heart still softened. “In that case…”
At that moment, a roar came from the distance, and then a furious figure charged toward us.
“YOU! THAT! GUY!” An angry voice echoed through the air.
Appearing was a tall, muscular, and fierce-looking young man in short sleeves. He grabbed Tsugikuni Yoriichi by the collar, looking vicious and gnashing his teeth.
“You guy, what have you been doing behind my back while I was away!”
“Ya, stop it!” I exclaimed, shocked.
Don’t go looking for death!
Tsugikuni Yoriichi did not resist in his grip. Although his build was leaner, he was not shorter than the other.
“Are you actually favoring him?” Ya looked at me with a hurt expression, then stared viciously at the expressionless Yoriichi. “This is all your fault!”
“Sneaking into a woman’s house, I’m going to beat that indifferent face of yours to a pulp!”
He shoved Yoriichi away.
The water buckets could no longer maintain their balance, and the water we had worked so hard to fetch spilled onto the ground.
A small cross of veins popped up on my forehead as I shouted at him.
After a pause, he said, “Megumi, just take a good look at how weak this guy from outside the village really is!”
His arm muscles bulged as he clenched a fist the size of a sandbag. My heart stopped. “Don’t!”
I lunged to grab his arm.
But Ya, usually impulsive and currently in a rage, ignored me and swiped me away. “Get lost! Don’t get in my way!”
I was swept aside, my ankle failing to support me, and I fell to the ground.
And Tsugikuni Yoriichi, who had been silent and unresisting, allowing Ya to yell at him, finally spoke: “That is truly excessive.”
“Huh?” Ya picked his ear with his pinky finger. “Can you only curse like a sissy? Megumi, you see it, right? This guy has no ability; he’s not worth trusting!”
He gave a fierce look. “And don’t think that means I won’t beat you!”
In the next second, he swung his fist toward Yoriichi’s face.
If that punch had landed, the outcome would have been a bruised face, at the very least, and probably several teeth knocked out.
But the lean young man with the high ponytail simply shifted his feet calmly and dodged the attack with ease.
Then, he took half a step back, pulled out the carrying pole for the buckets, and swung it at a speed almost impossible to track!
It was an attack that even a well-trained samurai couldn’t dodge, let alone a village youth with nothing but raw strength.
Ya fell to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching his arm, which seemed to be broken; cold sweat, a stress reaction, beaded on his forehead.
The unimaginable, terrifying strength that had erupted in that instant—if the object in his hand hadn’t been a crude pole but a sharp blade, he likely would have been cut in two.
Ya looked ahead. The youth holding the pole was staring at him with blood-glass-like red eyes, his voice icy. “Please apologize to Megumi immediately.”
Though his tone remained calm, Ya felt an inexplicable pressure.
The youth, who had been unremarkable just moments ago, had transformed into a terrifying, violent machine in an instant.
Absolutely impossible to defeat.
That thought flashed through his mind. He hadn’t seen anything; he hadn’t even had time to react before he was knocked to the ground.
As I rubbed my scraped and aching elbow and looked back, the scene was frozen in a stalemate, with no one speaking… Ya bit his lip in pain, seemingly regretting that his cry of pain had made him lose face.
Black lines hung from my head.
I knew it would turn out like this! I looked at Ya, frustrated by his inability to act as expected. Why on earth did you provoke him?