“Your eyes…
are they alright?” Cotton fabric brushed softly across his cheek.
The girl’s clean scent pushed away the lingering traces of everything else in the air.
The distance was too close.
Way too close.
Close enough that Uchiha Ayato could count each individual flutter of Wakaba Mutsumi’s lashes.
This out-of-nowhere act of crossing into his personal space hit directly against Ayato’s social defense instincts.
He instinctively started to pull his head back — but then he caught the look on the girl’s face.
She looked like she’d summoned every last scrap of her courage to do this, fragile enough to shatter at any second.
He stopped.
And then there was that system mission that had just popped out of nowhere…
Good lord.
Uchiha Ayato complained about it internally, and then, as if on reflex, slipped into his signature smile to hide what he was actually feeling.
When in doubt, just smile.
That’s probably the right call here.
“It’s fine.
Just looks scarier than it is.” “Got a little too into it — call it a small side effect of the technique.” Ayato lightly raised his right hand and, with complete naturalness, covered the back of Mutsumi’s hand — the one holding the handkerchief — and gently guided it away from his cheek.
“Not bleeding anymore.
Thank you.” He eased back, opening up the space between them, keeping his tone easy enough to dispel the thickness in the air.
To take back control of the conversation, Ayato’s gaze swept over the devastated luxury bedroom.
“But speaking of which…” “Why did it come straight to your house?” Cursed spirits of the urban-legend variety generally selected victims at random on the streets.
Directly targeting one person and breaking into their home was extremely unusual.
Mutsumi, her hand pulled back now, could still feel the warmth of his cheek against her fingertips.
She was stiffly clutching the handkerchief — now stained with a stark dark red — and staring down at the wood chips on the floor.
Silence filled the space between them.
Only the wind coming through the gap where the window used to be pushed into the ruined bedroom.
A full thirty seconds passed before Wakaba Mutsumi finally spoke.
“Outside.
I saw her.” “I thought, like before, if I looked once and then pretended not to — nothing would happen.” Uchiha Ayato’s smile slowly faded.
His eyes narrowed fractionally.
Genuine surprise surfaced on his face.
“You said…
like before?” Normal people couldn’t see cursed spirits.
Unless they were at death’s door, ordinary people went their entire lives without ever perceiving the existence of those warped monsters.
Being able to pierce that barrier meant the seemingly delicate little cucumber in front of him was not entirely a “non-sorcerer.” Uchiha Ayato: Well, that’s on me.
Was just trying to keep her out of this world, and turns out she was already in it from the start.
Suddenly shifting from a slice-of-life idol anime to a supernatural horror — what’s going to happen to our little girl-band member (choked up)…
what’s she going to become (choked up again)?
“You’ve been able to see those things…
all this time?” Ayato asked quietly.
Wakaba Mutsumi slowly raised her head.
Her eyes held no trace of the fear she’d had for the monster.
What was in them now was the relief of someone finally able to exhale a secret they’d kept buried for over a decade.
“Since I was little.
It started then.” “On the way home from school in the drainage ditches, behind Minamicha and Aa-ron…
there were always lots of them.
Really disgusting-looking ones.” “You’re different.” Her gaze stayed on Ayato, not shifting away for even a second.
“Last night.
Back then.
You were clean.” Clean?
Ayato’s eyebrow went up.
And on the other end, Mutsumi’s voice took on a solidity it hadn’t had before — something long-missed.
“Around you.
There’s nothing there.” “Those things can’t get close to you.” “…The weird white-haired man with the blindfold next to you was the same.” Just as Uchiha Ayato had said before — ignorance was its own kind of bliss.
Normal people couldn’t see cursed spirits.
The ones who could were essentially subjected to non-stop visual assault, every moment of every day.
Hard to even imagine how this girl had managed to carry that all this time.
“Haah…” Ayato let out a long sigh and pressed two fingers to his temple.
A note of resignation crept into his voice.
“Well, this just got complicated.” That statement made Mutsumi’s body give a small shrink.
She’d always hated being a burden, always been afraid of being seen as a problem.
“Look, if you were a completely ordinary person, this would actually be simple.” Ayato pointed out toward the night beyond the window.
“After I notify my assistant manager that the mission is complete, the professionals who handle cleanup will show up.
They’ll seal off the area around your house.” “Since you wouldn’t have any ability to exorcise curses, they wouldn’t pull you into this world.
As a victim, you’d be taken away and given counseling.” “Then they’d apply some kind of technique and wipe your memories of tonight clean — every monster you saw, gone.” “After that, they’d put out an official statement saying the Wakaba residence suffered a gas explosion, or an unlawful break-in and assault.” He paused, and a sardonic smile pulled at his mouth.
“And your two celebrity parents would probably use the ‘our daughter survived a horrific attack’ angle to cry a few crocodile tears on camera, harvest a wave of viewer sympathy and viral attention, and rocket their careers right back to the top.” Listening to that, Mutsumi’s breathing tightened.
Wipe the memories clean?
Forget everything that happened tonight.
Forget this warmth of being protected.
And then get thrown back into the swamp where she had to face her fears alone again?
No.
Absolutely not.
Ayato, unaware of her thoughts, kept going.
“The problem is, you happen to have the latent ability to see these things.” “They’d almost certainly judge you as having sorcerer aptitude and enroll you in Jujutsu High.” “That’s not what I’d call a fun life.
You’d train, you’d be deployed, and you’d spend every day fighting cursed spirits — living the kind of life where losing a limb or getting chewed up and swallowed whole is always on the table.” “You have your own life, your own interests, your own bonds.
You’d hate that kind of existence.
Right?” Forget everything, pretend none of this happened — or enter a world that sounded brutal beyond words.
When Uchiha Ayato’s voice stopped, that was all that remained in Mutsumi’s mind — a dead-end with no way out.
Sakiko still needs me…
But I also…
“I…” “Hold on.” Uchiha Ayato suddenly raised a finger and pressed it lightly to his lips.
“Don’t rush into a decision.
I’m not done.” “Both wiping everything away and going back to a life of constant low-level dread, or getting drafted to exorcise monsters — both are pretty extreme options for you, aren’t they?” “So.
There’s actually a third path.” He let the pause sit, watching the light gradually come back into the girl’s eyes.
“I’ll use a small trick to get this whole situation to slip through the cracks.” “When the cleanup team shows up, just keep your head down and play the part of a traumatized, completely ordinary victim.
I’ll handle everything else from there.” “After tonight’s mess is over, your life goes back to normal — you go to school, you play your guitar, same as always.” “As long as you keep the fact that you can see them buried, you won’t have to set foot in that dangerous world.
As for cursed spirits…” Ayato leaned forward slightly, closing the distance to Mutsumi’s pale little face by a few more inches, and winked at her.
“After you’re clear of this, I’ll find time to privately teach you a few things — ways to protect yourself.” “Can’t promise you’ll be handling things as easily as I do, but giving you enough to fight back, or run and survive — that’s doable.” “That way, you won’t have to spend every day walking on eggshells.” “No giving up the life you have.
No memory wipe.
This is a special tutoring arrangement only you and I know about.” “How about it?
Not a bad deal?” Mutsumi, you’ll have to spend a lifetime hiding your true self!
Uchiha Ayato: Just to be clear up front — I’m not some harem-obsessed collector, and I’m not some softie who caves the moment a girl starts crying.
This is purely for the mission.
The mission.
The.
Mission.
“…” The girl looked into Uchiha Ayato’s eyes in silence.
Those dark pupils — like a well with no bottom.
She could keep being an ordinary person.
She wouldn’t have to forget tonight.
And…
He’ll come to me.
He’ll teach me.
That warmth — that clean, safe feeling — wouldn’t disappear.
It would become a secret belonging to just the two of them.
A secret only for me…
“…Okay.” Her answer came out small.
And without any warning, huge tears began pooling at the rims of her eyes.
“Then — contract’s sealed.” Uchiha Ayato smiled softly.
His eyes flooded with crimson once more.
The tomoe turned soundlessly.
The still-crying girl lost consciousness in the next breath, pitching forward into Uchiha Ayato’s arms.
She weighed almost nothing.
Like catching a handful of air.
Ayato shook his head, took out his phone, and dialed Ijichi Kiyotaka.
“It’s me.
Yeah — cursed spirit exorcised.
You can lift the Curtain.” To be continued…