Chapter 31: Worsening Situation
"Whoa!?"
What emerged from the talisman was a single dragon that resembled a serpent. It looked like a very high ranking shikigami.
"It’s not much to brag about in front of the Soya Family’s daughter, but it’s a fourth-rank specialized in short-range movement."
Kadokura-san and her team released the wards on the door of the spiritual disaster counseling room and then jumped on the dragon.
"The most troublesome part of exorcising a monster is its dormancy. So the quickest way to get rid of it is to strike at it directly when it’s active."
Kadokura-san looked out over the city of Shinonome from the top of her dragon.
"That’s why we’re planning to cover the entire city of Shinonome with a monster-detecting ward."
She just said something outrageous.
All the members of her team were going to do it, but even so, they were trying to cover the whole city. It was going to be a massive operation.
"If we rush to the scene as soon as the monster appears, we should be able to avoid any more casualties. And even if Monster A is wary of us and stops appearing, your teammate’s unique spirit vision ability should be able to discover her identity sooner or later."
Wind swirled around the dragon as Kadokura-san spoke.
It seemed like they wanted to go put up the city’s wards immediately.
"Um, Kadokura-san!"
When I heard Kadokura-san say, "is wary of us and stops appearing," I realized that I had forgotten to tell her something.
"The woman who runs away from boo–, I mean, Monster A, well, it has a tendency to avoid women with large breasts, so please be careful not to scare it away!"
I really didn’t want to shout out this kind of thing so loudly but the wind that the dragon was creating was too loud.
Kadokura-san quickly covered her breasts and slightly recoiled as she looked down at me, then said,
"Thank you for the… information."
The wind surged then the dragon carrying Kadokura and the others quickly disappeared out of sight.
"If it’s them, they should be able to arrive in time and prevent any more casualties if the monster appears again."
Since they were veterans dispatched to exorcise a fifth-ranked monster, Kadokura-san and her team had tremendous power.
I had been wondering if things would be okay now that Soya’s demon eyes were temporarily out of order, but it seemed like I didn’t have to worry about it.
"Nevertheless–"
Karasuma mumbled as she opened the door of the spiritual disaster counseling room and let Soya in.
"She was rambling things that seem to make sense but in the end, she left like she was running away from Miss Misaki."
"High-ranking exorcists avoided me again…"
Soya crumbled to the floor in tears.
Well, I supposed I would’ve done the same thing if I had known about her demon eyes ahead of time.
"Even Miss Kadokura who seemed so strong panicked that much. Despite seeming so self-important, it seems like her nights are filled with information that she can’t let anyone know about. Kufufu, I don’t know the details but just knowing that alone… is arousing!"
Karasuma looked at the sky where Kadokura-san and the others had disappeared with an ecstatic expression on her face. It seemed like only this girl was happier being with Soya than avoiding her.
"Stop being an idiot, let’s go do what we can too. Well, as long as Soya doesn’t overstretch herself."
That was what I had said back then, but…
"There’s actually not much to do, is there?"
I mumbled while walking around Shinonome High School after school.
Soya didn’t need anyone to help her use her demon eyes’ spirit vision ability.
City patrols were no longer needed thanks to the warding done by Kadokura-san and her team.
There were only two things left for Karasuma and me to do. Taking on the duties at the spiritual disaster counseling room so that Soya could focus on concentrate on using her demon eyes. Or checking to see if any minor spirits were gathering in Shinonome High School which was filled with anxiety about the woman who runs away from boobs.
I was relieved that it looked like there was going to be no need for me to use climax exorcism but felt uncomfortable knowing that there was a fifth-ranked monster wandering around the city.
"Hm? Furuya, that’s you right?"
A voice suddenly called out to me.
"Oh, Nagumo. It’s been a while."
I looked and saw Nagumo Mutsumi waving at me. She looked like she had been drinking water from the fountain next to the gymnasium.
Perhaps her kendo club was taking a break since she was wearing her kendo uniform without any protective gear. The white bleached cotton fabric of her uniform was holding her breasts firmly in place but nevertheless, her big breasts which overflowed and asserted their presence made my gaze wander.
"Are you okay? I heard things were pretty tough when you were attacked by the woman who runs away from boobs."
Her expression was full of concern.
"Wow, I didn’t know there were rumors about that already… well, as you can see, I’m doing fine."
"That’s good…"
Nagumo took a quick look at my body and exhaled as if satisfied.
"What a mess we’re in. I’ve never heard of the city issuing a spiritual disaster warning before. The teachers are also getting strangely nervous… it really looks like things are going to get pretty bad, doesn’t it?"
It had already been communicated to the faculty that a student from Shinonome High School was the suspect.
However, there was no way I could say such a thing to Nagumo who was a student herself.
"Well, there was a bit of an unexpected delay in resolving the matter but some talented professionals just arrived. We just have to leave the rest of the work to them and things will be okay."
I said so reassuringly.
However, Nagumo frowned doubtfully and asked again,
"Really?"
She nudged her elbow against my shoulder nervously as she asked for confirmation.
The last time I told her about the monster, she had been easily reassured and even said something like, "Monsters can be beaten up!?", didn’t she? Well, I supposed it wasn’t so easy to be reassured now that the monster had just destroyed a telephone pole and a wall and a spiritual disaster warning had been issued.
"Really. Well, the main problem is that monsters are highly dormant so it’s not always easy to find them."
"Hard to find them… but monsters are still just flesh and blood, aren’t they? A crazy person who attacks people should be easy to find even without resorting to something like psychic powers, right?"
"You’d think so, right? However, monsters are tricky."
"Tricky?"
"In this case, crazy people don’t realize that they’re crazy and the people around them don’t realize it either. That’s why you can’t tell at a glance that something is wrong with someone who’s monstrified. Monsters usually lurk deep inside the host so spirit vision doesn’t work very well… it’s extremely difficult to find and strike at them when they aren’t active in their monstrified state."
After my explanation, Nagumo looked at me as if to say, "So things are pretty serious, after all."
"But, well, the professionals who came as reinforcements knew that and set up wards all over Shinonome. If they can exorcise the woman who runs away from boobs when she appears in the city then there will be no more victims."
To reassure the anxious Nagumo, I told her that.
–It was only a few hours later when I found out that the professional team led by Kadokura-san had been completely wiped out.