ch61-ch80 · 085-inter15

Interlude: Yuuka Runs the Night Road

The day after she met Sai at university.

Futami Yuuka was running through the night-lit streets.

She'd always liked being active... but there was more to it than that. After being called "clumsy" over and over, she'd taken up running to try and move even a little more briskly.

Whether she kept going as an adventurer or quit, her body was her capital. And when she sat at home thinking, she always ended up spiraling in a bad direction. Plus, she felt restless.

That was why she was running.

Her university friends sometimes told her, "Isn't it dangerous?" running at night, but so far nothing had happened. If someone with bad intentions approached, she could fight back or escape with her adventurer-trained body.

That said, there were problems that came with the time of night. For instance, when she ran along the Arakawa or Sumida Rivers at night, she'd occasionally be startled by people shouting nonstop, or drunkards who'd passed out from drinking too much.

Compared to that, ghosts... spirits were around "regardless of day or night," which was oddly reassuring. They were still harmless to Yuuka, same as always.

She kept running like that, and entered a park.

She was thinking of doing a few laps around the nighttime park, when —

A clattering footstep, gasha gasha, came from behind her, matching her own pace. Not getting closer, not falling behind.

...Yuuka realized.

It was an evil spirit. Yuuka sometimes saw evil spirits around town too.

Among ghosts, these were the ones that were — what, aggressive? — they might attack. Unlike ordinary spirits, they were dangerous.

Still, until now, as long as she didn't approach them, evil spirits hadn't been a problem. As long as she didn't get close to them, she didn't get "chased by evil spirits." Especially since becoming an adventurer, she'd never been chased by one.

So why was she being chased now? Maybe the increase in mana was making evil spirits more active — even outside Shinjuku Tower?

Yuuka was carrying a protective charm right now. A few days ago, the Adventurer's Guild had announced that protective charms for warding off evil really were effective, and it had made the news. On a trial basis, Yuuka had started carrying one too — but the evil spirit was still chasing her.

There was talk that they weren't effective against strong evil spirits. Maybe this one was just that strong.

She couldn't tell if the charm was a fraud or if the enemy was just that strong. Either way, what she did know was that she couldn't lead an evil spirit home with her.

Fortunately, the park was surrounded by trees. If she fought here, it seemed like she could handle it without being seen.

That decided, Yuuka resolved to fight back in the open square.

She didn't have a weapon, so it'd be hand-to-hand. But even so, if it was an evil spirit, magical power should work on it. As she spun around, she first kicked with holy-attribute magical power infused into the blow.

She couldn't gauge the enemy's strength, but the clattering sound meant it was probably an armored warrior evil spirit. The sound was the same as when she'd seen an armored warrior ghost walking around before. In that case, she could use the tips Sai had talked about in his stream for fighting knight-type undead.

She organized her response like that, and was just about to land the kick as she turned around — when, at that very moment —

"Purification Light!"

She heard a voice from a short distance away.

"Huh...?"

Even though it was night, a dazzling white light purified the armored warrior evil spirit in an instant.

From where!?

She'd heard a woman's voice, but there was no one anywhere around.

It felt kind of familiar, but who?

The other person was hiding their presence...

Yuuka hurriedly enhanced her five senses.

Originally possessing strong Mana Perception (spiritual sensitivity), Yuuka — a scout — began checking her surroundings. It was a swiftness you wouldn't expect from someone branded clumsy.

—Gotcha!

And then, all the coincidences lined up.

One: the two hidden women were the ones who'd been with Sai yesterday.

(And incidentally, they were the two disciples who'd appeared on his stream multiple times.)

Two: the two hiding also knew who Yuuka was.

Realizing they'd been spotted, the two hidden women called out to Yuuka.

"I knew it! You're the one Sensei was hitting on yesterday!"

"Idiot, Hiyori! Sorry about that — we'll come over there."

If Sai had been here, he'd probably have shouted "That's a false accusation!" But unfortunately, there was no middle-aged man present.

◇

Looking thoroughly embarrassed as they came out were Sai's disciples.

Hiyori and Mio.

They'd been here for exorcist work — hunting evil spirits.

Since exorcist work was done in secret, they'd put up an exclusion barrier to clear the area. But Yuuka's special constitution (spiritual medium), combined with her strong magical power, seemed to have repelled the barrier.

Hiyori and Mio also had trouble identifying Yuuka as the adventurer who could reach floor fourteen in the night darkness. And from Hiyori and Mio's perspective, it looked like Yuuka was being chased — that was the problem too.

Prioritizing saving a life, they'd hastily released the exorcism technique, "Purification Light"... and so it went.

Normally, this would be a problem, but in practice, they weren't complete strangers to each other.

That worked in their favor.

If they'd been total strangers, the girls would have retreated immediately.

Thanks to that, the tension from earlier was nowhere to be found.

The three of them started chatting amiably.

"Man~ I guess someone who can make it to floor fourteen would notice us~"

"We got spotted, huh. We've been watching your instructional stream, Sensei."

"Yeah. You're Ichijō Hiyori-chan and Kuri Mio-chan, right. The former high school girl adventurers."

"Yep, that's us. Nice to meet you, Futami Yuuka-san."

"Huh? You know my name?"

"Well, partly because we've heard about you from Sensei's stream..."

Aside from watching the instructional stream, there was another reason. After Yuuka was possessed by an evil spirit, a certain expert had checked her body. That was when her spiritual medium constitution was discovered. And that expert was none other than Ichijō Hayato.

In the Exorcist Alliance, people with spiritual medium constitutions were shared on a list, just in case.

That was how Hiyori and Mio knew about her.

But being called out on that would be awkward for both Hiyori and Mio.

Even if they were adventurers, Yuuka was still a civilian. It was best to keep secrets secret.

With that in mind, Hiyori decided to change the subject.

There was something she wanted to ask too.

"Anyway, I've got a question. Were you about to fight that evil spirit?"

"Yeah. Something at that level, I think I could've taken it down with holy-attribute attacks."

"As expected~ Yuuka-san, you really are strong."

"You think so?"

"Mm-hmm. I mean, Sensei's instructional stream — we watched it too — and like a true scout, you were moving really carefully and properly."

"Carefully... that's just me being clumsy."

"No way. The others were all pretty rush-in-headlong. Watching it, I was like, no wonder you didn't mesh with them."

"To you, Hiyori-chan, it looked that way..."

She'd been a scout for a while now, but she never imagined her approach would be described as "careful." Sai had told her her movements were good too. Maybe when people who knew what they were looking at saw it, it really was different.

"Oh? Are you lacking confidence?"

"Hiyori!"

Hiyori's bluntness earned her a reprimand from Mio.

"It's fine, Mio-chan. She's right anyway. Oh, but lately — you know how Sai talked about recovery magic and the Hexa Shield on his stream, right? If it's those..."

Saying that, Yuuka deployed a Hexa Shield with her left hand, while generating the distinctive light of recovery magic with her right.

She'd shown two different spells, activated simultaneously.

That alone was enough to tell.

Yuuka was a dexterous person, and an excellent adventurer.

"Wait, you can already use both the Hexa Shield and recovery magic?"

"Ehehe. I'm clumsy, so I wanted to increase the things I can do, even a little."

Even as she said it, Yuuka looked embarrassed.

She didn't have confidence, but she kept putting in the effort.

Mio was just as surprised.

"The Hexa Shield too, but recovery magic — wasn't it hard to learn?"

Recovery magic repaired the human body.

It was difficult to learn, and especially difficult if you were trying to heal someone else.

"Hmm~ A lot of people say that on social media too, but I never really felt it was that hard. I can't use mid-grade yet though... hey!"

The distinctive light of recovery magic grew brighter.

She said she couldn't use mid-grade yet — but it hadn't even been a month since recovery magic was made available to everyone.

Even low-grade was impressive enough. Yet she was already reaching for mid-grade.

Hiyori and Mio were stunned by Yuuka's composure with such a difficult spell.

"Whoa! Then you could work as a healer too!"

"Yeah. I was thinking this might let me support a party better, but..."

"Could it be..."

The story of Yuuka's possession was known to every adventurer.

It wasn't surprising that Mio had caught on.

"Yeah. Probably... the party's going to disband, I think."

Even if they didn't completely disband, one of her party members had been traumatized by seeing Yuuka possessed. Adventuring together might be difficult.

Seeing Yuuka look sad, Hiyori asked a question.

"I see. Yuuka-san, are you going to keep being an adventurer?"

"Honestly, I've been wondering..."

She remembered what Sai had said yesterday.

'I want to be someone who can be confident in the choices they find — after hesitating, worrying, and thinking about it.'

Thanks to Sai, she wasn't so afraid of other people's eyes anymore.

For someone who'd always been called clumsy, adventuring was the first job she'd ever been praised for.

It wasn't just that it suited her — there was another reason too.

Considering her spiritual medium constitution, she'd face more situations like just now where she'd have to fight back.

And if she didn't fight, she could be possessed again.

"I think I still want to keep going. Besides..."

There was another reason she had to keep being an adventurer.

"There are some things going on, and I need money."

Right now, Yuuka was sending money to her family.

Both her parents had fallen ill at the same time, and she had to cover their living expenses and medical bills.

It wasn't something she could tell anyone — but thanks to adventuring, which paid well, she was somehow managing. An inescapable reality.

Hiyori and Mio looked at Yuuka's face.

In a way, a woman fated to fight evil spirits. Futami Yuuka.

A spiritual medium, yet skilled enough to reach floor fourteen. A versatile adventurer who could handle both scouting and healing.

And she respected Sai.

They seemed like they'd get along.

"Mio-chan, what do you think?"

"I'll leave it to Hiyori."

"Huh?"

The sudden exchange made Yuuka tilt her head in confusion.

"Hey, if you're interested — how about joining our party?"

The moon illuminated Hiyori's face as she smiled, saying that.

Maybe it was the moonlight, but she looked just a little dazzling.

Later, as her party disbanded, Futami Yuuka joined Hiyori and Mio's party. And given her spiritual medium constitution, perhaps it was only natural that she ended up joining the Exorcist Alliance as well.

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Thank you for reading.