Night had fallen by the time Natsuki returned to his apartment, and the smell of instant noodles drifted through the hallway.
Gabriel’s door had been left slightly ajar, allowing Raphiel’s gentle yet unmistakably teasing voice to carry outside.
“Gabriel, if you keep eating instant noodles, you’ll turn into a hopeless shut-in.”
“I already am a hopeless shut-in…” Gabriel replied weakly. “Raphiel, when are you going back to your own apartment?”
Raphiel had arrived in the human world later than Gabriel, but she had already arranged a place of her own.
The only reason she was still staying here was because teasing Gabriel amused her.
She was a natural-born sadist who lived for other people’s reactions.
Still, she would probably move out within the next couple of days.
It was not as though she would actually report Gabriel’s fall to Heaven. For all her mischief, Raphiel was not the type to snitch.
“Eh? But I’ve only been here for two days~” Raphiel said with a beaming smile.
“It feels like two years…” Gabriel rolled her eyes.
‘People who smile with their eyes closed are all monsters.’
Natsuki shook his head in amusement and entered his apartment.
After washing up, he sat at his desk and turned on his computer.
His inbox contained a proposal for his new novel from Kagurazaka Ayame, along with some writing notes Utaha had shared with him.
By the time he had replied to everything, it was already close to nine.
His phone vibrated.
Eriri had sent him a message with a photograph attached.
The picture showed a sketch on her drawing board. Delicate pencil lines formed Natsuki’s profile, with the light and shadows rendered in impressive detail.
[Eriri: Today’s practice~ (???)]
[Natsuki: It looks great.]
Her response came almost instantly.
[Eriri: Really?]
[Natsuki: Yeah. You’ve improved a lot.]
[Eriri: Then… where should we go to gather references this weekend?]
[Natsuki: You decide.]
[Eriri: I’d like to visit a shrine outside the city. I heard the maple leaves have already turned red…]
[Natsuki: Sounds good.]
[Eriri: Great! Shall we meet at the station at eight on Saturday morning?]
[Natsuki: Sure.]
After putting down his phone, Natsuki walked over to the window.
Tokyo remained brilliantly illuminated beneath the night sky, but when he activated his Sharingan, the view changed.
The tomoe slowly revolved within his crimson eyes as faint currents of cursed energy became visible above the city.
They were noticeably denser than they had been several days ago.
“It really is increasing…”
Natsuki frowned.
A rise in cursed-energy concentration meant more Cursed Spirits would appear, and the ones that already existed would become stronger.
It was hardly a good sign.
Then again, every crisis also presented an opportunity.
…
The next morning, a knock sounded at his door just after he had finished washing up.
Natsuki looked through the peephole and saw a girl in a school uniform standing outside. The gentle smile on her face made her seem kind at first glance.
‘Vignette?’
Natsuki remembered her.
She was a demon from Hell whose personality was kinder and more responsible than that of almost any angel.
In the original story, she had been the only person capable of keeping Gabriel under control.
Unlike Raphiel, who mostly tormented Gabriel for entertainment, Vignette genuinely cared about her.
Natsuki opened the door.
“Good morning.”
The girl bowed politely.
“My name is Vignette April Tsukinose, and I’m Gabriel’s classmate. May I ask whether she lives here?”
“Good morning. I’m Amamiya Natsuki. Gabriel lives next door in apartment 303.”
“Thank you.”
Vignette turned to knock on the neighboring door, only to stop and glance back at him with a puzzled look.
“Um… there’s a very unusual presence around you.”
“What kind of presence?”
“I’m not sure how to describe it…” Vignette tilted her head. “It feels like a Guardian, but it’s also slightly different.”
Natsuki raised an eyebrow.
So demons could sense the presence of a Guardian too.
It seemed both Heaven and Hell were deeply concerned about the spatial rifts. Neither side would welcome beings from other worlds invading their territory.
Before Natsuki could say anything more, the door beside them suddenly opened.
“Eh—?”
Gabriel stared at Vignette in surprise.
Raphiel peeked out from behind her with her usual pleasant smile.
“My, my, Vignette is here too.”
“Raphiel, don’t bully Gabriel!”
“I haven’t bullied her at all. I’m merely helping her return to the proper path.”
“You’re obviously just amusing yourself at her expense…”
The three immediately began arguing.
Despite being angels and a demon, they got along surprisingly well.
Natsuki closed his door, shutting out the noise.
This apartment building was about to become much livelier.
…
On Saturday morning, Natsuki arrived at the station right on time.
Eriri was already waiting for him.
She wore casual clothes, had tied her twin-tails into a high ponytail, and carried a drawing board on her back.
“Natsuki-kun!”
She waved enthusiastically.
Miko approached from the other direction soon afterward.
Ever since the protective charm Natsuki had given her began driving away most weaker spirits, her condition had improved considerably.
Without the constant exhaustion and fear weighing her down, she once again looked like the bright, energetic beauty she was supposed to be.
“Senpai, Eriri-senpai…”
“Morning.” Natsuki nodded. “Everyone’s here, so let’s go.”
The train carried them toward the outskirts of the city. There were few passengers, allowing the three of them to sit together beside a window.
Eriri took out her sketchbook and began drawing the scenery passing outside, while Miko watched quietly with obvious admiration.
“Do you want to learn?” Natsuki asked.
“Mm…” Miko nodded. “Eriri-senpai is amazing. She’s the star of the school’s Art Club!”
“You can start with basic sketching,” Natsuki suggested.
He was fairly skilled at drawing himself.
“Would you teach me, Senpai?”
“Sure.”
Miko’s eyes immediately brightened.
“Thank you, Senpai!”
Eriri’s pencil paused for a moment, but she said nothing and continued drawing.
…
Half an hour later, the train arrived at their stop.
The shrine stood halfway up a mountain, reached by a winding stone staircase lined with maple trees whose leaves burned red like flames.
“It’s beautiful…” Miko murmured.
Eriri had already set up her drawing board and begun choosing a composition.
Adult doujinshi might be her main field, but that certainly did not mean her talents were limited to it.
If anything, successful doujin artists often needed exceptional technical skill.
An ordinary illustrator had countless opportunities to display their ability, but a doujin artist often had only a single cover image to capture someone’s attention.
If that first glance failed to draw readers in, the book could be dismissed immediately.
Natsuki stood nearby and surveyed the area.
The shrine’s barrier was intact, and he could not sense a single Cursed Spirit within it.
“Senpai,” Miko said softly, “this place feels… really clean.”
“Shrines can purify the surrounding area.”
The existence of such a peaceful shrine surprised Natsuki as well.
If this had been purely the world of Mieruko-chan, shrines were not always the comforting sanctuaries people imagined them to be.
Miko released a relieved breath, her expression relaxing considerably.
While Eriri concentrated on her painting, the soft scratching of her pencil filling the air, Natsuki walked to the shrine’s main hall, tossed a coin into the offering box, and brought his hands together.
‘What should I wish for?’
After thinking for a moment, he settled on world peace.
“Natsuki-kun believes in this sort of thing too?”
Eriri had approached without him noticing.
“When in Rome, do what a romans do!”
“Then I’ll make a wish too…”
She tossed in a coin and closed her eyes.
When she opened them several seconds later, her face was slightly red.
“What did you wish for?” Natsuki asked.
“I’m not telling you!”
Eriri turned away sharply.
Miko joined them and made a wish of her own, after which the three wandered around the shrine and took several photographs.
That afternoon, they stopped at the shrine’s teahouse to rest.
“Here.”
Eriri handed Natsuki a bento box.
“I made it…”
“Thanks.”
When he opened it, he found neatly shaped rice balls and pieces of fried chicken. Miko had also brought a homemade lunch, so the three shared everything together.
“Natsuki-kun,” Eriri began suddenly, “what do you want to do in the future?”
“Write novels, and… protect the people I want to protect.”
“Protect…”
Eriri pressed her lips together.
“Does that include me?”
“Of course.”
Her expression blossomed into a bright smile, her eyes curving into crescents as her two little fangs peeked out.
“Then it’s a promise.”
“Mm.”
Miko quietly lowered her gaze to her food, her feelings suddenly complicated.
‘I want Senpai to protect me too…’
‘Eriri-senpai is so brave!’
…
After lunch, they returned to sketching.
Once Eriri finished painting the maple trees, she moved on to figure drawing, choosing Natsuki as her subject.
“Don’t move,” she instructed seriously.
Natsuki leaned against a maple tree and closed his eyes to rest.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting shifting patterns of light and shadow across his face as Eriri’s pencil moved rapidly over the page.
Miko took out her own sketchbook and secretly began drawing him as well.
Time passed peacefully, and at three in the afternoon, they packed their things and started down the mountain.
Halfway along the path, Natsuki suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Eriri asked.
Instead of answering, he looked toward the forest beside the mountain road, where a distinct fluctuation of cursed energy had appeared.
A moment later, a Cursed Spirit resembling an enormous wild boar burst from the trees.
It stood over three meters long, with exposed tusks and thick bone armor covering its entire body.
‘A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit?’
Worse, it was charging directly toward them.
Natsuki frowned.
A curse of this level should never have appeared so close to a protected shrine.
Unless someone had deliberately lured it here.
“ROAR—!”
The Cursed Spirit thundered toward them, shaking the ground with every step.
Natsuki moved in front of Eriri and Miko as lightning erupted from his right hand, filling the air with the piercing cry of a thousand birds.
“Chidori Sharp Spear!”
[Lightning Style: Chidori Current]
That was the superpower Natsuki had received today.
Boom—!
The extended blade of lightning pierced the weakest point in the Cursed Spirit’s defenses and tore straight through its body.
The curse was instantly impaled, and when the dust cleared, its enormous form dissolved into black smoke.
Natsuki approached what remained and found a black talisman lying among the debris.
Strange patterns had been drawn across its surface.
“Just as I thought…”
It was a talisman designed to attract Cursed Spirits.
Someone had deliberately placed it here.
But why?
Were they testing him, or was there some other purpose?
…
The three descended the mountain and boarded the train back to Tokyo.
During the journey, Eriri fell asleep with her head resting against Natsuki’s shoulder, while Miko quietly stared through the window, lost in her own thoughts.
Natsuki took out the black talisman and ran his fingers over the strange patterns.
The craftsmanship was extremely sophisticated, far beyond what an ordinary curse user could produce.
It seemed someone troublesome had begun paying attention to this area.
By the time they returned to the apartment, evening had already arrived.
Natsuki encountered Vignette near the entrance, carrying a bag of garbage.
“Good evening,” she greeted him. “Did you go somewhere today?”
“Yeah. We went out to gather references for some drawings.”
“That sounds nice…” Vignette sighed. “I’ve been helping Gabriel clean her room. That girl is a complete disaster.”
“You have my sympathies.”
“I’m used to it.” Vignette gave him a strained smile. “I am a demon, after all, even if I’m not a very good one…”
She had ranked second from the bottom in all of Hell.
“Are all demons like you?”
“Of course not.”
Vignette shook her head.
“There are all sorts of demons in Hell. I’m just… a little unusual.”
A slight blush appeared on her cheeks.
“I think you’re perfectly fine the way you are,” Natsuki said.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Vignette smiled.
“Thank you.”
Once inside his apartment, Natsuki placed the talisman on his desk and took a photograph with his phone before sending it to Megumi.
[Natsuki: Do you recognize this?]
A reply arrived several minutes later.
[Megumi: It’s a high-level talisman used to attract Cursed Spirits. Where did you find it?]
[Natsuki: At a shrine outside the city.]
[Megumi: I’ll check the records at Jujutsu High. There have been a lot of similar incidents lately, so be careful.]
[Natsuki: Understood.]
Natsuki put down his phone and made himself a cup of tea as night gradually deepened outside the window.
When he activated his Sharingan, he could feel that its visual power had grown by another small amount.
At this rate, the third tomoe was not far away.
“Looks like it’s time to start searching for a few ‘experience points’ myself…”
Natsuki murmured quietly.