Chapter 14: Demon Eyes
–Demon eyes.
Soya said that this was the curse that had been placed on her eyes.
"When I look at someone’s face, all kinds of sexual information will appear around them. I mean, it’s hard for me to say it, but there are things like the number of people they’ve done it with, how many times they’ve done it, and so on… I can even see how many hours and minutes have passed since they’ve last done it alone, what video they used, all the details."
On top of that, the demon eyes’ ability could not be turned off at will. The only thing that could be controlled was increasing the amount of information provided by strengthening her eyes.
Soya had been using this cursed ability to obtain sexual information on me and the other guys.
The first wet dream I ever had as well as the fetishes of all the guys who had ever confessed to her were apparently visible at all times to Soya due to these "demon eyes". It was an extraordinary psychic ability, but frankly speaking, it was an ability that made no one happy. It was truly a curse.
"No matter what kind of defensive technique anyone uses or whatever medical treatments I take, it’s meaningless as soon as I see a face. I think it’s been a while since I’ve last seen my mother and father’s faces. It’s awkward because I can ‘see’ the number of times they do it increasing on days when they’re feeling exceptionally friendly with each other."
Soya breathed out a gloomy sigh.
"It doesn’t matter what kind of technique anyone uses, you said… don’t you belong to the, Soya family?"
"That’s right, what about it?"
"If that’s the case, you should’ve been given priority for an exorcism performed by the current head of the Soya family or by one of the Twelve Heavenly Masters through your connections. Was that also no good?"
The Twelve Heavenly Masters.
Of the approximately 200,000 professional exorcists belonging to the Exorcist Society, those twelve monsters were said to be the most capable.
"Yeah, it didn’t work."
Soya said so simply.
"They couldn’t find a way to undo the curse, let alone alleviate the symptoms. I don’t have any other way to deal with it other than avoiding face-to-face contact with people. But my parents were probably resigned to this possibility from the beginning. You see, these eyes were originally a cursed artifact that was sealed on my parents’ estate because exorcism didn’t work on them."
It was two years ago, when she was fourteen years old, that Soya was possessed by the demon eyes.
When the head of her family was trying to repair the wards of the demon eyes which had been secretly sealed on the family’s premises, the demon eyes suddenly moved on their own and possessed the unsuspecting Soya.
After that, Soya even took a break from school for a while as she received exorcism treatments but none of them had been effective.
"…sounds like me."
"Eh?"
Hearing Soya’s story, I couldn’t help but mutter to myself. Soya looked surprised so I began to tell her the history behind my abominable hands which I had never told anyone before. I couldn’t help feeling empathetic about Soya’s situation.
"It was a long time ago, before I even started middle school, I think. I was in a deserted antique store when I got possessed by this curse."
Kaede and I were still kids.
A bit of curiosity led me to stop by the store, where a strange object had been displayed.
The object had a texture similar to a mummy and was shaped like two intertwined female hands.
My memory was hazy now, but I think I had touched the object as if something was calling to me. Ever since then, this curse has continued to reside in my hands.
"After that, my father… he wasn’t blood-related, by the way, he’s my foster father… he tried various things but in the end, not much could be done… even someone like him who had the power of one of the Twelve Heavenly Masters, wound up helpless."
So I had given up completely.
Although the routine weekly checkup was half forced by Kaede and her grandmother, they were the few people aware of my situation, I didn’t expect myself to be free from this curse any time soon.
And yet.
What did Soya say earlier?
She wanted success so she could break the curse?
Despite being in a much more privileged environment than me and receiving exorcisms from more than one of the Twelve Heavenly Masters, her treatments had failed.
"It’s a curse that even the Twelve Heavenly Masters couldn’t break, could success do anything about it?"
I asked this in a slightly cynical tone. Soya nodded and responded with a simple, "Yes, it can."
"You know that the Exorcist Society has a lot of information classified into different tiers that cannot be viewed or shared without moving up in rank, right?"
"Yeah."
Kaede had pointed that out to me yesterday.
"The information on Demon Eyes is also restricted. My father, mother, and the Twelve Heavenly Masters would only tell me that it was a cursed artifact that couldn’t be exorcised. That’s why I’m trying to rise the ranks to gather more information on this ridiculous artifact."
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