Chapter 45: It Feels Kind of Hot in Here for Some Reason!
"…so, what’s with the glum face?"
"……"
Nagumo had already left my hospital room together with the two professional exorcists who were watching over her.
Soya remained in my room squirming around on a round chair, the fingers of her two hands restlessly fidgeting with each other. freewebnove(l).com
It seemed like she was here for some additional things besides accompanying Nagumo and explaining the details of what happened after the incident. freeweb novel.co m
"…well, it’s about your ability, Furuya-kun."
Soya who had been silent for a while finally opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind.
"I’m sorry!"
Soya bowed her head with the same vigor as or even more vigor than Nagumo and suddenly started rambling all at once.
It seemed like she had been thinking about what to say to me for a while.
"Although details about your ability still haven’t become widely known yet, there are a lot of crazy rumors going around the school. For example, some people are claiming that you sexually harassed a girl under the guise of exorcism… Aoi-chan and I have been trying our best to stop the rumors but because of how high profile the woman who runs away from boobs incident became, the rumors spread too quickly… honestly, at this point, I feel like the effects of the rumors are already irreversible…"
"…ah–, I already know."
I showed Soya the screen of my phone that I had been looking at earlier.
There were numerous messages sent by idiots from class D who had misunderstood the situation.
Seeing the messages, Soya turned even paler,
"I’m sorry…"
I was about to ask, "No, why are you apologizing?" but before I could, Soya continued,
"Even though you hated having your ability revealed… I forced you to join my team by threatening you and even caused you to end up getting seriously injured… you probably don’t want to be on this team anymore, right…?"
Honestly, I couldn’t hide my surprise.
I couldn’t believe that Soya, who seemed like the perfect example of an idiot who rushed forward without paying attention to such details, could have such an admirable attitude.
And above all,
"So, that’s what you’ve been worrying about?"
"Fueh?"
Soya raised her face which seemed to be on the verge of tears and looked at me.
"W, what do you mean? After all, you said that the team would be disbanded if people found out about your ability… now it’s not just the professional exorcists who were there that know, there are even rumors at school… so I wouldn’t blame you for disbanding the team…"
No, no, no. This girl was still an idiot as usual.
Since Soya was lacking so much of her usual energy, I had been worried that I was actually going to be expelled from school and be arrested on suspicion of indecent assault.
"Remember what I told you, idiot. When we were teaming up, I asked you not to tell anyone about my ability and to be careful not to let others know about it. You did exactly that, and in this case, I willingly used my ability in front of people so of course it doesn’t count as violating our agreement."
"Eh…?"
Soya blinked. Don’t say ‘Eh…?’, you idiot.
"In the first place, disbanding the team right now is not something to take lightly."
I rolled up the magazine my doctor had given me to pass the time.
"Listen carefully," I said, poking Soya’s head with a bokoboko–.
"My climax exorcism has already been exposed to quite a few people. They now know that it’s an extraordinary obscene ability that can exorcise a sixth-rank in a single blow. However, if I continue to keep this kind of power around with me forever, neither my physical strength nor social reputation will be able to last."
I was certain that after being called to resolve all sorts of dangerous situations like the woman who runs away from boobs, the people around me would treat me as some kind of weirdo with a perverted sexual harassment ability. All that awaited me was physical and mental exhaustion.
I no longer had the choice of saying carefree things like, "I wonder if I’ll be stuck with this curse for the rest of my life?"
"I’m going to keep working with you until I figure out how to break my curse. In fact, I want to get rid of this curse so badly now that I’m even worried that you might give up halfway through. I hope you’re sufficiently determined to go all the way with this crazy goal of yours."
Soya had said things like "I won’t give up until I’m at least convinced of it myself!" or "If I work hard, I might be able to meet someone who can love me despite these eyes!" as if there were paths with happy endings even if she failed to break her curse. However, there was no way I was going to let her choose these paths now.
"After all, my ability was exposed because you threatened me and forced me to join your team, right? So you’re going to have to take responsibility and go through with your goal together with me even if it means we have to go to the ends of hell!"
Climax Exorcism and Demon Eyes. Two somewhat similar curses.
Although everyone had already long given up on breaking both curses, if the two of us stayed together, we might be able to find a breakthrough.
"……"
Soya who had continued to remain silent as her head got prodded with my rolled-up magazine was now staring at me absentmindedly with an idiotic expression,
"…you’re the first person to say that to me, Furuya-kun…"
She muttered the words as if she were simply spilling out exactly what her mind was thinking at that moment.
"Ever since I got stuck with these eyes, other than my family, nobody’s been willing to stay with me for very long… I also hated having to see that kind of information pop up whenever I looked at people so I started to keep people away on my own."
Soya continued her words as if she were talking to herself with her face slightly downcast.
"There are even fewer people willing to stay with me when I refuse to give up on breaking my curse… since I’m such a failure, I’ve caused a lot of trouble for the people around me by doing reckless things… and I’ve also caused a lot of trouble for you, Furuya-kun, and yet… you’re the first person who’s ever said that to me."
No, it’s just that I have a similar curse so I have no choice but to bet everything on you… was what I had been about to say, however, I held my tongue.
Despite us not talking about anything particularly ecchi, Soya’s face suddenly blushed.
Soya seemed bewildered about her own feelings as she mumbled,
"Huh? Why? What’s this?"
She lightly slapped her cheeks with both hands and groaned, "It feels kind of hot in here for some reason!"
"H, hey, are you okay? Unlike me, you had to deal with the aftermath of the incident, is the exhaustion finally catching up to you?"
"What!? Y, yeah, maybe!"
When I moved my body to try to get a closer look at Soya’s face, she stood up from her round chair with a start,
"U, uwaah, I feel really strange. Since I’m already at the hospital, I’m going to ask them to take a look at me!"
She then left the hospital room in a hurry.
"…one minute she’s depressed, the next minute she’s all hyped up. What a restless girl."
Well, it was good to see her back to her usual self.
I closed the door that Soya left open.
In my hospital room that had suddenly become quiet, I enjoyed the silence like an old man.
After all, once I became discharged from the hospital, my turbulent and unpleasant life as an exorcist was going to begin again.
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