As soon as Eriri's voice rang out, the female spirit instantly froze in place as if bound by an immobilization spell. Her sharp cries were abruptly cut off.
However, Eriri did not immediately eliminate the spirit. Instead, she decided to give the young man a chance to reunite with his old lover—it would undoubtedly be a heartwarming reunion.
Before Eriri could act, a flamboyantly dressed young woman entered Barker Tea House and walked straight toward the young man.
"Yuu-kun, what are you doing?" the woman cooed playfully.
The young man's face briefly stiffened upon seeing her, but he quickly regained composure, putting on a casual smile as he greeted her.
"Oh, Naiko, you're here."
However, the woman, Naiko, didn't respond to him right away. Instead, she turned her gaze toward Miko Yotsuya, who was sitting on the sofa nearby. Her expression darkened with displeasure.
A smug, almost malicious smile appeared on her face as she clung onto the young man's arm.
"Sorry, little girl, but Yuu-kun is my boyfriend," she declared smugly.
"I think you're mistaken," Miko Yotsuya replied, exasperated. "I have zero interest in your boyfriend. In fact, I already have someone I like."
She couldn't believe that merely glancing at the female spirit had brought her this much trouble.
Miko Yotsuya had no fondness for Naiko either. Judging from the large crowd of male spirits following her—each repeatedly muttering the same words—Naiko was clearly just as much of a player as the young man.
Her entourage of spirits varied in age, ranging from young men to elderly figures.
It was evident that Naiko had quite the romantic history.
Wanting to avoid any further involvement with the pair, Miko Yotsuya quickly picked up her coffee and moved to a different seat.
Had she not been waiting for Hana Yurikawa, she would have left Barker Tea House altogether.
As she stood up, she couldn't help but cast a curious glance at the still-frozen female spirit. Though she wasn't sure why Eriri had chosen not to destroy it outright, she didn't dwell on the matter. As long as it didn't affect her, she didn't care.
Seeing Miko Yotsuya leave, a fleeting hint of regret flashed in the young man's eyes. However, dealing with his new girlfriend took priority, so he turned his attention back to Naiko.
The two of them, now entwined in each other's arms, made their way out of Barker Tea House. What unsettled Miko Yotsuya, however, was that the immobilized female spirit closely followed behind them, as if bound to the young man by an invisible thread.
Eriri watched their retreating figures with an expression of indifference, as if she were watching walking corpses.
Just a few minutes after they exited the café, sudden, terrified screams echoed from outside. However, those screams were short-lived and quickly died out.
Moments later, a wave of commotion and shocked exclamations filled the street, piquing Miko Yotsuya's curiosity about what had transpired.
She stood up and walked to the entrance of Barker Tea House, only to find the street bustling with anxious onlookers. Their faces were filled with a mix of excitement and fear.
Many were pointing toward a particular location, murmuring among themselves in hushed tones.
It didn't take long for Miko Yotsuya to piece together what had happened from the conversations of the bystanders…
...
A few minutes earlier, the young woman clung affectionately to the young man's arm as they exited Barker Tea House. The moment they stepped outside, the female spirit behind the young man suddenly regained her mobility.
Freed from her frozen state, the spirit initially appeared bewildered as she looked around. Then, her gaze locked onto the couple, and she immediately ran to the young woman's side, screaming in anguish. Her words were nearly identical to those she had yelled at Miko Yotsuya moments ago.
However, the young woman couldn't see the spirit and remained completely unaware of its presence, leaving the ghost to scream in vain.
But the situation changed drastically in the next moment.
With Eriri's 'helpful' intervention, both the young man and woman suddenly awakened to a heightened form of spirit vision.
In an instant, their perception of the world was completely overturned.
Beyond the bustling pedestrians around them, they could now see countless spirits cloaked in dark mist. The first and most prominent was the enraged female spirit standing directly in front of the young woman.
"A-AHH! A GHOST!"
The young woman let out a horrified scream and instinctively recoiled. Since she was still holding onto the young man's arm, their sudden movement caused them both to lose balance and crash onto the pavement.
But the pain of falling was the least of their worries. What truly paralyzed them with fear was the horde of malevolent spirits looming behind the young woman.
An unimaginable terror gripped their very souls.
The overwhelming fear left them weak and trembling on the ground, completely unable to move.
Their piercing screams and cries for help drew the attention of passersby, but to the crowd, they appeared no different from two lunatics suffering a sudden mental breakdown.
As for the spirits, they momentarily paused at the couple's reaction, but soon, waves of exhilaration surged through them.
"You can see us? Yuu-kun, you can see me?! You can really see me now!!!" The female spirit shrieked, abandoning her hostility toward the young woman and instead lunging at the young man.
"Yuu-kun, my Yuu-kun! You belong only to me! I won't let anyone else have you! Let's become one and be together forever!!!"
Without hesitation, the spirit bared her jaws and sank her teeth into the young man's body.
"NOOO! PLEASE, SPARE ME! I'M SORRY! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN! SOMEONE HELP ME—!" The unbearable agony of being devoured caused the young man to scream hysterically.
At the same time, he finally realized who the spirit was.
However, having abandoned so many women in the past, he couldn't immediately recall which ex-girlfriend had returned to haunt him in the form of this crimson-clad apparition.
Not that it mattered. His fate was already sealed.
In less than thirty seconds, the young man was completely devoured, leaving no trace behind.
The young woman met the same grim fate as the young man, overwhelmed by the swarm of male spirits that had been following her.
Due to the sheer number of spirits attacking her, her demise was even more rapid.
Once the spirits had finished feasting upon the deceitful couple, a powerful force suddenly descended upon them, obliterating them into black mist in an instant.
The sheer horror of the couple's demise left the surrounding pedestrians in shock. No one dared to approach the spot where they had vanished.
The crowd could clearly see the bodies of the man and woman—whom they had assumed to be having a mental breakdown—vanishing bit by bit, as if consumed by an invisible force.
This led them to immediately think of ghosts.
Speculation ran wild as people shared bizarre theories, but the prevailing emotion was fear—fear that one day, they too might be devoured by an unseen force just like the doomed couple.
The commotion attracted the attention of malevolent spirits lingering nearby. Some spirits even mistakenly believed they had been spotted and excitedly lunged at the surrounding pedestrians.
However, their claws passed straight through the humans, unable to inflict any harm.
Realizing their mistake, the less intelligent spirits lost interest in the frenzied crowd and resumed aimlessly wandering the streets.
...
A little over ten minutes later, Hana Yurikawa finally arrived, having taken the wrong train earlier.
During that time, the 'chaos' outside Barker Tea House showed no signs of settling down. In fact, it had escalated to the point where authorities had become involved.
However, none of that concerned Eriri or Miko Yotsuya anymore.
After reuniting with Hana, Miko Yotsuya followed her lead toward a nearby market called 'Tonkichi.' Eriri floated leisurely beside them, and any spirits that dared approach within five meters of her instantly exploded into nothingness.
"Nee, Miko, do you think ghosts are real? Everyone back there was talking about some ghost eating people. Do you think it's true?" Hana asked, her face tinged with unease.
She glanced back nervously at the crowded street where the chaos had unfolded earlier.
Since she had been in a hurry when arriving, she hadn't paid much attention to the details, but as they left Barker Tea House, she overheard snippets of conversation from the bystanders.
"I have no idea. I was inside waiting for you the whole time," Miko Yotsuya answered casually.
To keep her friend from panicking, she continued to hide the truth about the existence of malevolent spirits.
She knew that whatever had happened outside Barker Tea House would ultimately be dismissed or covered up by the authorities. After all, very few people could actually see spirits, making it impossible to prove their existence.
As for the deaths of the deceitful couple, they would likely be classified as an unsolved mystery.
"I really hope it's not true… If it is, that's just too scary!" Hana clutched her chest, sighing in relief.
Unbeknownst to Miko Yotsuya and Hana, a small girl with twin tails was peeking at them from behind a utility pole a short distance away.
However, Eriri was well aware of the girl's presence and had already identified her.
...
Yuria Niguredou.
Despite her petite frame and childlike face making her look like an elementary school student, she was, in fact, a high schooler.
She attended the same school as Miko Yotsuya and Hana, though they were in different classes.
Like Miko Yotsuya, Yulia possessed spirit-seeing abilities. However, unlike Miko Yotsuya, her ability was something she had been born with.
That said, Yulia's spiritual vision was weak. Compared to Miko Yotsuya's, it was far inferior, allowing her to only see harmless, low-level spirits.
Yulia had ended up here purely by coincidence. She had been nearby when she overheard rumors of a ghost devouring people.
Aspiring to become a powerful exorcist, Yuria Niguredou saw this as a rare opportunity to broaden her experience, so she rushed to the scene.
However, before she could investigate the incident directly, her attention was drawn to Miko Yotsuya and Hana Yurikawa. As for Eriri, she couldn't see her at all.
Due to her lower-level spirit vision, Yulia only perceived a few weak spirits scattered along the street. Unlike Miko Yotsuya, who saw vicious malevolent spirits lurking everywhere, Yulia's sight was limited.
Yet, she witnessed something extraordinary.
Whenever Miko Yotsuya and Hana Yurikawa neared a spirit she could see, the entity would be erased out of existence as if by an invisible force.
This phenomenon left her utterly astounded.
Such an overwhelming exorcising ability was beyond anything she had imagined, likely surpassing even her most admired exorcist, the legendary 'Godmother,' Mitsue Takeda.
While she didn't fully understand Miko Yotsuya's situation, she could clearly perceive the immense life energy radiating from Hana Yurikawa.
Yulia knew that life energy could repel spirits to some extent, but for it to destroy spirits within a five-meter radius was unheard of.
Furthermore, she had overheard fragments of their conversation earlier, which allowed her to rule out the possibility of Hana being a powerful exorcist.
That left only one suspect—Miko Yotsuya.
But without solid proof, she couldn't be completely certain.
Yulia was already familiar with Miko Yotsuya and Hana Yurikawa, having occasionally seen them in the school hallways.
Because of Hana's intense life energy, they had left an impression on her—even though she didn't yet know their names.
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