[The next day, Sendai City, the abandoned hospital.] [“Emerge from darkness, blacker than black, purify all that is impure and wretched…
Alright, Okotsu-san, once you put down a Veil like this, ordinary people won’t be able to notice the Cursed Spirit.”] [“…Um.”] [Yuna Okotsu stands a little over two meters behind you, her head lowered, hands anxiously twisting together.] [She doesn’t dare get close to you, nor does she dare speak to you, because that sweet fragrance is still haunting her.] [Even though she is desperately holding her breath, that impulse to draw closer, to touch, to bite down still burrows into her mind like tiny insects.] [The only reason she can endure it right now is because Rika hasn’t fully manifested like she did that night, leaving her bottomless pool of cursed energy dormant for the moment…
But if they are forced to join the battle later and summon Rika, the past will repeat itself.] [“Endure it, endure it, endure it…
Must endure, must endure, must endure, must endure, must endure…”] [*Holy crap, this is terrifying.*] You let out a cough, deciding to break the deadlock.
[“Okotsu-san…
Can I ask how you view the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit attached to you?
The one named ‘Rika’?”] [You see Yuna’s shoulders flinch, followed by a long silence…
Just when you think you won’t get an answer, she speaks up.] [“Rika is…
my precious friend.
We used to play together all the time when we were little.”] [“But the Rika now…
I don’t know why she became like this either…
She’s protecting me, I know that…
But every time she appears, people get hurt, and I just keep hiding behind her, completely paralyzed by fear…
Pretty pathetic, right?”] [You fall silent for a moment.] [Generally speaking, based on your social experience from your past life, this is the exact moment you should stroke her fur the right way.
You should tell Yuna that it isn’t her fault, that it’s all because Rika is latching onto her…
and that everything will be fine.] [But…] [Your choice?
Comfort / Apply Pressure] “Huh?
Giving me a choice right here?” Outside the simulation, Rui blinks, caught off guard by the sudden branching path.
“Hmm, with Yuna’s current mental state, she might not even process it if I comfort her…
Besides, my position right now is incredibly awkward.
Even if I tell her she’s doing fine, the moment she looks at me–bam, her appetite kicks in, and she’ll lose control and want to bite my neck again.
My comfort has zero credibility.
Let’s try applying pressure?” [But that…
is a sucker’s bet.] [Your twenty years of gal-game experience tell you that now is the exact time to apply pressure!] [“Is that so?”] [You speak up airily.] [“So, Okotsu-san, you just want to run away to a place where Rika doesn’t exist?”] [Yuna’s footsteps grind to a halt.] [She lifts her head, looking as if she didn’t hear you correctly.] [But you don’t stop.] [“If you’re so afraid of Rika, you can just run away.
Push all the blame onto a Cursed Spirit you can’t control, lock yourself away in a detention cell, and ideally never see or touch anyone again.
That way you won’t hurt anybody, right?”] [“…I’m sorry.”] [“Back at the school, there was a split second where you actually controlled Rika, wasn’t there?
And then you wanted to bite me.”] [“…I’m sorry.”] [“Is ‘I’m sorry’ the only thing you know how to say?”] [“…I’m…
sorry.”] [You reach out and grasp the handle of the short cursed tool dagger at your waist.] [The sharp ring of the blade clearing its scabbard echoes through the empty hospital corridor.
Yuna snaps her head up, instinctively taking a step back.] [“Tachibana…
Tachibana-kun…?”] [From her perspective, your sudden barrage of interrogation clearly makes it sound like you hold a deep, bitter grudge against her…
Out here in the middle of nowhere surrounded by curses, it wouldn’t even be surprising if you decided to get your revenge right now.] [Honestly, it might have actually been better if you had–because a second later, you make the move she least wants to see.] [You flip the blade and lightly slice the pad of your own thumb.] [The exact microsecond a bead of blood wells up, Yuna’s breathing completely stops.] [You even see her pupils briefly lose focus, looking exactly like a character from an Asanagi manga right after getting slapped across the face…
but she forces herself back to reality a moment later.] [“Even right now, you want to bite me, don’t you?
Look, my finger is right here.
If you want to eat, help yourself.”] [Your words are practically ice-cold.] [You extend your bleeding fingertip right to Yuna’s lips.] [One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.] [“…That’s so mean…
you’re being so mean, Tachibana-kun…
Why?
I…
I don’t want to be like this either.
If only you had just left me alone, it would have been fine…
Why do you have to bully me like this…?”] [She’s dropping little pearls now.
What a delicious expression.] [However, you quickly notice out of the corner of your eye that a massive, pitch-black face is slowly beginning to manifest from Yuna’s shadow…
Kid, you’re literally turning into a dark, edgy version of Yuta right now; Rika is looking down from heaven at you in sheer disappointment.] [*Holy crap, I think I pushed it a bit too far.
Better skip straight to the reassurance part of the ‘push-and-pull’ dynamic, otherwise Rika’s going to finish me as a light snack before I can even play around with my Construction Technique.*] [You pull your finger back and use cursed energy to seal the wound.] [“See?
Okotsu-san, you can still control yourself, can’t you?
Ms.
Gojo mentioned that my cursed energy properties are unique, and the larger my pool of cursed energy grows, the more addictive it becomes…
This is just like wanting to eat when you’re hungry; there’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
If anything, the fact that you didn’t bite down that night means I’m the one who should be saying thank you.”] [Yuna looks up blankly.] [“So stop apologizing.
If I get totally bodied by a Cursed Spirit in a minute, I’m going to have to rely on you to call out Rika anyway.”] [*Gaslighting!
He is totally gaslighting you, Yuna!
Don’t let him trick you!* …For a second, it feels less like an imagination and more like you can actually hear Rika wailing that exact warning into your ear.] [“But…
if I call Rika out, I won’t be able to control myself…
and I’ll want to eat Tachibana-kun…”] [After a long silence, the gloomy Miss Okotsu finally squeezes out that quiet response.] [“Getting eaten by a girl my own age sounds way better than getting eaten by some ugly Cursed Spirit.”] [Even as you say it, the words feel a bit bizarre…
and it feels dangerously like you’re setting a death flag.] [The very next second, however, Yuna’s expression drastically shifts.] [Her pupils contract violently.
She doesn’t even have time to shout a warning, her gaze instinctively snapping to the space right above your head.] [You follow her eyes and look up…
A Cursed Spirit resembling a human female is hanging upside down from the ceiling.