Kyushu, Sakura Prefecture, Kyoto City.
Today is the first day of school for first-year students at Soubu High.
The early spring breeze, accompanied by falling pale pink cherry blossoms, reflects the youthful energy of the young boys and girls, forming an extremely beautiful scene.
Meanwhile, inside a clubroom on the second floor of the main teaching building.
A girl with smooth, long black hair, wearing the Soubu High uniform, with a pair of golden eyes, whose appearance, while not particularly outstanding, could still be considered cute, was standing in front of the window, as if admiring the scenery.
However, the tears about to spill from her eyes, the slightly trembling pupils, and the constantly shaking body betrayed the fear in her heart at this moment.
"Can you see them?"
"Can you see them?"
...
To ordinary people, there was no one in the clubroom besides the girl; it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
But in the girl's eyes, the clubroom was like a living hell.
A dozen twisted, terrifying-looking evil spirits, emitting a faint black mist, were surrounding her.
One of the evil spirits, with its body still in the corner of the clubroom, had stretched its neck out nearly five meters, its head swaying back and forth in front of her, its two eyeballs, about to fall out, staring intently at her face.
"Can you see them?"
Faced with the entanglement of the evil spirits, Miko Yotsuya, although terrified to the extreme, forcibly maintained a calm appearance on her face, pretending to admire the scenery outside the window, and muttered to herself.
"T-the weather today is r-really nice."
At this moment, Miko Yotsuya was almost crying.
How could this happen?
This wasn't the first time Miko Yotsuya had seen evil spirits and monsters.
It's just that usually, as long as she pretended not to see them, those "things" would ask two or three times at most and then silently leave.
But this time, she had been hiding in the clubroom for almost ten minutes, and the other party didn't seem to have any intention of leaving!
"What to do?"
Miko Yotsuya lightly bit her lower lip, feeling that she was about to collapse.
She had also thought about leaving the clubroom, but in such a terrifying scene, her legs had already gone weak. If she wasn't holding onto the windowsill with her hands, she would probably have collapsed to the ground long ago.
If that were the case...
These "things" would definitely realize that she could see them.
As long as you pretend you can't see them, there will be no danger.
This was the iron rule that Miko Yotsuya had summarized for surviving in this dangerous world.
But looking at the current situation, even pretending not to see them wouldn't solve the problem.
Just when Miko Yotsuya was feeling desperate, she suddenly heard the sound of the clubroom door being pulled open behind her.
She did her best to turn around and saw a black-haired, black-eyed boy, with a very outstanding appearance, who looked about the same age as her, walking in slowly.
Miko Yotsuya immediately realized that this was an opportunity.
A chance to escape the predicament of being surrounded by evil spirits.
"Um... classmate."
Miko Yotsuya's voice trembled, and her golden eyes revealed a look of pleading.
"I think I sprained my ankle. Can you help me and take me back to the classroom?"
Under normal circumstances, Miko Yotsuya would absolutely never make such a request to a boy she had just met.
But now, she couldn't care less.
If she didn't leave here, she would be discovered by the evil spirits sooner or later.
"Sprained your ankle?"
To Miko Yotsuya's surprise, the boy just smiled indifferently, then slowly closed the clubroom door.
Then, under her puzzled gaze, the other party walked to the desk in the clubroom, very gracefully took out several things from his pocket, and muttered in his mouth.
"Let me see, what's left that I haven't experimented with... a peach wood dagger, silver nails, and a few talismans that are said to exorcise demons, that's about it."
After counting the items on the table, the boy raised his head and showed a gentle smile.
"Hello, my name is Yozora, and I'm a first-year student at Soubu High who enrolled today."
Miko Yotsuya nodded subconsciously.
"My name is Miko Yotsuya, also a first-year student. I look forward to working with you in the future."
After finishing the self-introduction, Miko Yotsuya belatedly realized what was happening and nervously pursed her lips.
"Um... can you help me out first?"
As soon as her voice fell, all the evil spirits in the clubroom suddenly turned their heads and stared intently at her face, squeezing out a hoarse voice from their throats that sounded like a roar.
"Can you see them!?"
Miko Yotsuya's body trembled violently, and her back was so frightened that it was covered in sweat.
At this moment, something unexpected happened to her.
"Ahem."
Yozora coughed lightly, waved his hand at the evil spirits beside Miko Yotsuya, and said in a friendly tone, as if greeting a neighbor.
"I can see you."
Miko Yotsuya was stunned for a moment, then her pupils shrank in shock, and she hurriedly reminded him.
"D-don't... don't say it out loud!"
She didn't know why this boy named Yozora also had the ability to see evil spirits and monsters, but that question was no longer important.
The most crucial question was that the other party had actually broken through this layer of window paper?
Letting the evil spirits and monsters know that he could "see" them...
Then it was all over!
However, what happened next was something Miko Yotsuya never expected.
After Yozora said those words, the evil spirits in the clubroom actually shrank into the corner, their twisted bodies huddled together, and on their terrifying faces appeared an expression she had never seen before, an expression called fear.
"This... what's going on?"
Miko Yotsuya had an unbelievable expression on her face.
The evil spirits...
Were afraid?
What were they afraid of?
Could it be the boy named Yozora in front of her?
What exactly was going on?
Yozora looked at the group of evil spirits shivering in the corner and shook his head slightly in disappointment.
"There aren't any particularly strong ones... oh well, I'll make do with these."
After saying this, he picked up the peach wood dagger on the table, walked up to the group of evil spirits, and directly stabbed it into one of them.
The evil spirit that had its body pierced let out a shrill roar that Miko Yotsuya had never heard before.
Yozora's gaze never shifted, he just stared at the hole in the other party's body, and after it slowly closed, he took out a small notebook from his pocket and recorded on it.
"Hmm... the lethality of a peach wood dagger against ordinary evil spirits is about the same as that of a steel one. It seems that it doesn't have any special effects."
Then, Yozora repeated the same action several times, except that the weapons were changed to silver nails and talismans.
"Silver nails, the effect seems to be slightly better than ordinary metal, but it's also limited."
"This talisman is useless at all. I have to go find that old swindler who set up a stall in front of the shrine and get a refund."
After finishing the recording, Yozora put the notebook back into his pocket, stood up and stretched out a long lazy waist, and yawned.
"Not bad, your work is done."
After saying this, Miko Yotsuya saw in horror that as Yozora slightly opened his mouth, the bodies of the dozen or so evil spirits actually turned into a large mass of writhing black mist, emitting a strange aura, and were all sucked into his stomach!
Seeing the evil spirits finally disappear, coupled with the shock brought about by this scene, Miko Yotsuya's psychological endurance finally reached its limit.
Her legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground, two lines of clear tears streaming down her bright golden eyes.
Just then.
"Huh? Why is there a sound in the clubroom?"
A female teacher wearing a white coat and black suit pants opened the door to the clubroom.
Appearing before her was a girl sitting on the ground, looking pitiful and tearful, as if she had been bullied.
And Yozora, standing not far away, still holding a peach wood dagger in his hand.
"What... what's going on!?"