"Miko, I told you not to use your phone while walking! It's dangerous!"
Hana walked over and pulled Miko's arm back to the original line.
The warmth of Hana's skin made Miko, who felt a bit dead inside, feel like she had returned to the land of the living.
She turned her head to look at the line she had just been in.
That line was composed entirely of Cursed Spirits, heading into an alleyway.
And at the entrance of the alley stood a monster two stories tall, looking like a toad but with a human face.
The monster opened its mouth, ate a Cursed Spirit, and chewed.
The Cursed Spirit burst in its mouth.
"Hana."
"Eh?"
"I'm truly grateful to you, thank you."
Hana was very proud:
"There, there, as far as you know."
Only Miko knew that she was thanking Hana for saving her life.
After buying the daifuku, Miko was still a bit dazed on the way home.
She thought about what Mr. Finger had said.
"Sooner or later, I'll be exposed. Sooner or later, I won't be able to control my expression. Sooner or later, they'll find out I can see them..."
"Eh! Was this kitten abandoned?"
Hana saw a cat abandoned in a cardboard box by the side of the road.
Miko, however, saw that there were Cursed Spirits beside the cat, so no matter how cute it was, she really didn't want to touch it.
Unable to refuse Hana, Miko finally decided to find an owner for the kitten.
After posting a thread online, the two of them waited in a nearby park.
Miko seemed absent-minded; even the kitten couldn't soothe her shattered soul.
The more Miko thought about it, the more despair she felt. She patted her face and decided to find something to talk about with Mr. Finger.
"Mr. Finger, do you like cats?"
In the Sealed Space, Akuto, who was dozing with his head propped up, opened his eyes slightly and looked at the kitten outside with a disdainful smile:
"Weak creatures... I could probably kill them with a flick of my wrist."
"Is that what you're focused on, Mr. Finger?"
Miko instinctively retorted.
"Miko, who are you talking to?"
"Ah? No... no one..."
As Miko spoke, she slowly looked up. At some point, a man had appeared beside Hana, with dark skin and scars all over his body.
He looked like the kind of delinquent who would kill someone at any moment!
"Hey, Miko."
"He's been staring at me... Am I going to be killed...?"
Hana's voice trembled, as if she were about to cry.
Miko looked at the man and prepared to use the situation as a conversation starter with Mr. Finger. Everyone likes discussing this kind of thing, right?
Miko gave herself a mental thumbs-up for her wit.
"Mr. Finger, do you think the kitten can be entrusted to this person?"
A cross-shaped vein popped on Akuto's forehead as he said impatiently.
"Don't bother me with such trivial nonsense, brat! Otherwise, I'll kill this cat, that big-chested stupid woman, and that big oaf altogether!"
"Looks like that backfired."
Miko continued to complain internally.
As she spoke, Miko looked at Hana's chest and felt like she'd taken an arrow to the knee again.
"Well, in a way, Mr. Finger's observation is quite sharp."
"Excuse me, are you looking for an owner for the kitten?"
A voice pulled Miko's thoughts back. She looked up and saw a young man looking at them expectantly.
The man had blonde hair with a 7/3 part, looking quite stylish.
He was the archetype of a clean and gentle handsome guy.
Hana thought this one was much more pleasant to look at than the one next to him, who looked like a criminal who would kill people and abuse cats.
She immediately said excitedly.
"Yes."
The young man smiled warmly:
"Then can I adopt the kitten? I'll take good care of it."
"This person looks so gentle! That's great."
Hana looked at Miko. Miko stood up, still with her dead-fish eyes, her voice as calm as a deep well and quite heartless.
"No."
"Eh?"
Now both the man and Miko were stunned.
"Wh— No, never mind. I understand."
The man turned and left. In Miko's eyes, the man's back was like a fire scene.
Black smoke rose straight into the heavens.
Countless cat Cursed Spirits and a giant Cursed Spirit were coiled around him.
"Miko, you..."
Just as Hana was about to speak, Miko picked up the kitten and handed it to the delinquent who looked like a criminal.
"I'm entrusting it to you."
The man was stunned for a moment, the twitching at the corner of his eyes making his face look even more ferocious.
But strangely, Miko saw gentleness on that face.
It was quite a mismatch.
"Yeah, I'll cherish it."
The man carefully held the kitten and turned to leave, but Hana was filled with worry.
"Miko, won't there be a problem?"
Miko looked at the Benevolent Spirits of two kittens on the man and nodded slightly.
"Yeah, it'll be fine. He's probably... a good person."
"Hana, I'm going home first. I'm a bit tired today."
After saying that, Miko turned and left. Hana clearly felt something was wrong with Miko, but before she could ask, Miko had already left the park.
In the end, she could only turn and leave helplessly.
Miko was thinking all the way home.
I must talk to Mr. Finger.
If this continues, death isn't a matter of 'if', but 'when'.
Back home, Miko quickly ate dinner, showered, and returned to her room, locking the door behind her.
The scene shifted.
Akuto's sealed finger was placed inside a shrine.
The so-called shrine was just something Miko had cut and pieced together from cardboard, with obvious tape marks on it. It seemed to be from some promotional event, printed with a GG logo.
Two candles were lit in front of the shrine, with three plates placed in the middle, offering daifuku, Tri-color Dango, and pudding.
"Clap!"
With an expressionless face, Miko slammed her hands together and then performed a perfect prostration before Akuto.
Akuto seemed to have gotten used to Miko's bizarre train of thought; his tone of voice actually... seemed somewhat flat.
"What... are you up to now?"
Miko remained expressionless, still staring with her dead-fish eyes, pretending to be very devout.
"Please enjoy the incense and offerings."
"Sigh..."
Akuto scratched his head, grimacing as he pondered; Does it really have to be Miko?
Should I just kill this woman?
Doing stupid things with such a serious face.
It's really infuriating!
Thinking carefully, it really had to be Miko. After all, besides Miko, there was also that amateur, Yuria Niguredou, in the original story.
She's an even bigger idiot.
Her abilities are also half-baked.
Yuria probably wouldn't even be able to see him.
While she might be easier to control, her priority was clearly not as high as Miko's.
And since Miko is the protagonist, the probability of her encountering various events is higher.
The protagonist's trouble-magnet constitution makes things easier to handle.
"Is Mr. Finger not satisfied?"
Miko peeked up at the shrine.
"If you do something this pointless again..."
Akuto flicked Miko's forehead with Cursed Energy. The force was just right—enough to daze her without hurting her brain:
"...I'll throw this crude handicraft of yours along with all this trash into a Cursed Spirit's nest."
Akuto paused, sucked a skewer of Tri-color Dango into the Sealed Space, took a bite, and then frowned.
"It tastes bad, but compared to this stupid shrine, it's barely acceptable."
Miko remained kneeling on the floor with her head raised, the center of her forehead slightly red, her expression unchanged.
But in her heart, she secretly clenched her fist.
"Yes! Step one, success."