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As the shikigami were summoned, the ghost froze when she saw the living room suddenly filled with unfamiliar, terrifying beings.
Even as she struggled against the Parasitic Spirit, her movements stalled.
She didn't know where these things came from or what they were.
But one thing was clear. Every single one of them had been summoned by that handsome young man.
She was already struggling with just one Parasitic Spirit. There was no way she could handle four more.
In less than a second, she reached a conclusion.
She had to run.
If she waited any longer, she wouldn't even have a chance to escape.
The moment she realized this, the ghost turned and rushed toward the balcony.
Obviously, Asher wasn't about to let her go.
Even without explicit orders, the newly summoned shikigami knew exactly what to do.
As a three-star shikigami, Yamausagi didn't charge forward immediately. Instead, she began dancing in place.
This was one of her R-rank abilities: Rabbit Dance.
[Rabbit Dance: Increases speed and attack power for all allied units. The bonus scales with the shikigami's star rating.]
As three-star Yamausagi danced, the Parasitic Spirit and the four N-rank shikigami felt their bodies grow light all at once.
The next second, the ghost had barely turned before she was forcibly intercepted by the Parasitic Spirit and the others, stopping her dead in her tracks before she could reach the balcony.
"W-what are you doing?"
"No… no, stop!"
Surrounded by four terrifying figures glaring at her, the ghost barely managed to let out a shrill, unwilling scream before she was smashed into nothingness.
Not even a trace remained.
[Congratulations, host! You have eliminated a female ghost evil spirit. Reward obtained: one shikigami gacha draw.]
Hearing the system notification, Asher raised an eyebrow.
He hadn't expected the reward for killing this ghost to be so good. A gacha draw, no less?
From the system's wording, it seemed that eliminating evil spirits or yokai outside of missions granted completely random rewards.
In other words, even a run-of-the-mill evil spirit could drop a draw chance.
That meant from now on, no matter what kind of spirit or yokai he ran into, he couldn't just let them go.
After dealing with the ghost, Asher recalled all five shikigami back into the system space.
The hair binding Ebina vanished with the ghost's destruction, and she fell from the air. Asher caught her and gently laid her on the soft sofa.
Ebina stared blankly at him, clearly still in shock.
What Asher had just displayed was far too overwhelming.
"Miss Ebina, snap out of it."
Seeing her dazed expression, which somehow made her look even cuter, Asher waved his hand in front of her face.
Feeling the faint breeze on her skin, Ebina finally came back to her senses.
Immediately, she began stumbling over her words.
"Ash… Ash… Asher, sir!"
"You… you… what are you, exactly?"
The thought that Asher possessed such terrifying power made her subconsciously replay everything she had done earlier, wondering if she had treated him improperly in any way.
The more she thought about it, the more nervous and stiff she became around him.
Seeing her like this, Asher smiled helplessly.
Then he began to explain.
"Miss Ebina, I'm actually an onmyoji."
"As you saw, those beings just now were my shikigami."
"A-an onmyoji?" Ebina finally understood who he was, her heart filled with shock.
She had never imagined that someone she casually helped would turn out to be a legendary onmyoji.
Then again… someone like him probably didn't need her help at all.
Thinking about how she had acted on her own initiative earlier, Ebina felt even more embarrassed.
Still, Asher's identity left her deeply shaken.
As someone from an island nation, she had grown up listening to tales of yokai and onmyoji.
In people's hearts, onmyoji held the same place as Daoist priests did in China.
But in modern times, most people's first reaction to hearing the word "onmyoji" was to assume it meant a fraud or charlatan.
She never expected to actually encounter a real onmyoji with genuine exorcising power.
"Um… Mr. Onmyoji, I'm sorry, earlier I… I…"
She could barely even get the words out.
Asher just smiled, then casually ruffled the soft crown of Ebina's wine-red short hair.
"No need to worry about it, Miss Ebina."
"And also… just call me by my name."
"If the evil spirit here has already been dealt with, and I'm going to be staying long-term, then I guess we'll be neighbors from now on."
As he said this, Asher himself felt a hint of awkwardness.
After all, he hadn't known earlier that his N-rank shikigami would be this ridiculously strong.
If he'd known, he would've just gone straight up to the female ghost and picked a fight.
Still, how things turned out wasn't bad.
At the very least, he'd met a cute girl like Ebina Nana.
"Mm… okay."
Hearing Asher's reassuring words, Ebina finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
As long as Mr. Asher wasn't holding what happened earlier against her, that was enough.
Otherwise, she really wouldn't have known how to face him afterward.
Only then did Ebina suddenly realize something.
Just now… didn't Mr. Asher rub her head?
Uh…
The moment she recalled that pleasant sensation on her scalp, her whole body felt like it had been shocked by electricity.
Her face instantly burned red.
Thankfully, the living room lights were off, and only the pale moonlight filtered in, making it impossible to clearly see the shy expression on her face.
"Well then, Miss Ebina, it's getting late. I'll head back now."
"Mm… okay, I understand."
"Good night, Mr. Asher. Have a good rest."
After exchanging a few more polite goodbyes, Asher left Ebina's house.
After all that hassle, he finally entered the residence the system had assigned to him for the first time.
Since it was already quite late, Asher didn't bother inspecting the room layout carefully.
He went straight into the bedroom and lay down on the bed.
But he didn't go to sleep right away.
Instead, he opened the Great Onmyoji System.
"Kagura, use a shikigami draw."
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining shikigami: Parasitic Soul!]
[Parasitic Soul's star level has automatically increased to 2 stars!]
"??"
"Gouyu system, screw you!"
"....."