"Yayoi-chan! I hadn't even stopped the car yet—how could you jump out like that? That was dangerous, wasn't it?"
From the driver's seat, Eiko Hozuki stuck her head out the window and couldn't help calling out.
The girl with the double pupils, Yayoi Hozuki, ignored Eiko's concern. Instead, she raised a hand and pointed toward the convenience store in the service area, then turned to look at Keitaro Gentoga, who was still in the car.
"Keitaro... over there. Do you feel anything?"
"Huh? Why all of a sudden...?" Keitaro froze for a moment, then followed the direction of Yayoi's finger, closed his eyes, and carefully tried to sense it. "No. I don't feel anything."
"I see..."
After hearing his answer, Yayoi's face remained as calm and unreadable as ever. There was no sign of disappointment or any other emotion, as though she were a beautifully crafted doll.
"Oh? Oh! Whoa—?!" Eiko whipped her head around, eyes shining. "What do you mean? Don't tell me this place has something like that too? Waku waku! I'm getting excited!"
In complete contrast to Eiko's eager anticipation, Keitaro's face had already gone deathly pale from fear and tension, and even his legs were trembling.
"I'm not sure either..." Yayoi said expressionlessly. "I just suddenly got this indescribable feeling a moment ago... but at the same time, maybe there was nothing there? That's why I wanted Keitaro to check."
"But I really didn't feel anything..." Keitaro said nervously.
Eiko pulled out her phone and murmured, "There don't seem to be any rumors of paranormal activity around here, either..."
Eiko Hozuki was a college student with an intense love for ghosts, curses, and all things paranormal. Keitaro Gentoga was a college student who feared spirits, yet attracted them and was extremely sensitive to them. And Yayoi Hozuki was a little girl with eyes that could see ghosts.
The three of them made up a little group of their own.
Inside the service area, Yayoi had only seen a few Wandering Ghosts. Weak, powerless spirits like those could be found almost anywhere, and they certainly wouldn't trigger this kind of feeling in her.
So had it really just been her imagination...? Yayoi couldn't help feeling puzzled.
"Still, just in case, let's go check around the convenience store first."
"Then let's buy something to eat too—go! Go! Go!" Eiko's energetic voice rang out.
As the three headed toward the convenience store, another group of five was walking toward them from the opposite direction.
"Ughhh... I'm sleepy... Now that I think about it, Xu Fu-chan hasn't slept at all since yesterday, has she? That won't do. Staying up late is the enemy of beautiful skin..."
"Xu-chan, do you want to go back to the car and sleep? There are blankets in there."
"Or you could sleep here at the service area, I guess? There should be somewhere to rest..."
Seeing Xu Fu yawning at the front of the group, Yasukawa Nagisa and the others all understood that she had stayed awake the whole time to protect them, and they felt a little guilty.
Neither Xu Fu nor Yayoi noticed each other at first as they passed by—then both stopped at the same time.
"Yayoi-chan?"
Eiko and Keitaro turned to look at Yayoi, not understanding why she had suddenly stopped walking.
Still expressionless, Yayoi lowered her gaze to the doll in her arms and spoke in a strangely low voice.
"This child... is trembling."
"Huh?"
Eiko and Keitaro both froze. Only then did they notice that the doll Yayoi was holding really was shaking violently, just as she had said. It felt almost as though... it wanted to break free from her arms and flee this place.
To keep the child from making too much of a fuss, Yayoi tightened her arms slightly and held the doll firmly against herself.
"Whoa~! Carrying something that dangerous around with you? Even Xu Fu-chan is a little spooked by that~!"
Covering her mouth with one small hand, Xu Fu turned around. Her strange gaze swept lightly over the three of them, and at once her bright eyes shone with a peculiar brilliance, like gemstones made from crushed morning light.
"Dangerous?"
Having only just gone through a paranormal incident themselves, Yoshida Saori and the others instantly tensed up and crowded close to Xu Fu, as if doing so alone could give them some sense of safety.
"Xu-chan..." Keeping a wary eye on Yayoi and the others, Yoshida Saori asked cautiously, "Could it be... they're the same too? Um... evil spirits?"
To Saori and the others, the three in front of them looked completely normal. But they had just seen the evil spirit at the temple disguise itself as Xu Fu in order to trick them, so they no longer had any confidence that what they saw was necessarily real. All they could do was ask Xu Fu for help.
Saori's words reached Eiko and Keitaro's ears, and both of them widened their eyes in surprise.
For the overwhelming majority of people in this world, evil spirits, gods, monsters, and the like existed only in human imagination. They were unreal. Rumors of paranormal phenomena would only earn scorn and ridicule from ordinary people.
But Keitaro and a very small number of others knew the truth: evil spirits were real.
Because of his constitution, Keitaro had spent his life dealing with evil spirits. That had made him look like a freak—a lunatic—in the eyes of normal people ever since childhood, and it had made it hard for him to fit into society.
So the moment Keitaro and the others heard Saori say the words "evil spirit," they understood—these people had seen one with their own eyes.
If they hadn't, there was no way ordinary people would ever believe evil spirits existed.
"They're not evil spirits. They're completely human."
Yoshida Saori and the others had only just begun to relax when Xu Fu's next sentence sent their hearts right back into their throats.
"But the doll in that little girl's hands really does have an evil spirit imprisoned inside it."
And that wasn't all. Xu Fu's gaze quietly swept over Keitaro's and Eiko's hands as well.
Even though it wasn't cold at all, both of them were wearing gloves.
Keitaro wore one only on his right hand, while Eiko wore gloves on both.
Of course, they were nothing like some self-styled "Jet-Black Wings" who wrapped up parts of his body in bandages or gloves because he thought it looked cool. That whole "a black flame dragon is sealed inside my arm" setting was just a fantasy he'd made up himself.
The curses hidden under these two's gloves, on the other hand, were real.
And they were the especially nasty kind—curses with no range limit, the kind they could never escape no matter how far they ran.
"Tch. Eyes that can see spirits, an evil spirit imprisoned in a doll, a special constitution that attracts evil spirits, and stubborn curses hidden under gloves..." Once she had more or less figured out what was going on with the group, even Xu Fu clicked her tongue in irritation. "I get the feeling that if I get involved with you people, it's going to mean an endless stream of trouble from here on out..."
Uwaah... Xu Fu-chan hates overtime...! Uninvited trouble and overtime are both bad civilization! Only paid vacation is good civilization! Uwaaaah...!
At that, not only Eiko and Keitaro looked stunned—even Yayoi, who usually showed almost no expression at all, opened those skull-patterned eyes just a tiny bit wider.
In such a short amount of time, the other girl had seen straight through everything unusual about them. All three of them were deeply shocked.
"You... are you a specialist?" Yayoi stared at Xu Fu, her eyes glinting with excitement. "This is the first time I've ever met someone who could see through our situation at a glance... Are you some kind of spiritualist?"
"To be precise, Xu Fu-chan is the cutest beautiful girl in the world and a Taoist~!" Xu Fu declared as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh! The cutest beautiful girl in the world. Amazing." Yayoi clapped lightly, her eyes full of admiration as she looked at Xu Fu.
"Wah-ha-ha~!" Xu Fu planted her hands on her hips, clearly very pleased with Yayoi's response.
Beside them, Keitaro couldn't suppress the urge to comment. "Why does 'the cutest beautiful girl in the world' have to come before 'Taoist'?"
"Idiot~!" Xu Fu stuck out her tongue and pulled a face at him. "Because obviously 'the cutest beautiful girl in the world' is more important! There can be lots and lots of Taoists, but a beautiful girl as cute as Xu Fu-chan? There isn't a single other one in the whole world~!"
Yayoi copied Xu Fu and pulled a face at Keitaro too.
"Keitaro, idiot~!"
"Yayoi-chan?!"
Aren't we supposed to be on the same side? Isn't that betrayal way too fast?!
Ignoring Keitaro, who clutched his chest like he'd suffered a devastating emotional blow, Xu Fu and Yayoi had already become such good friends that they were holding hands and calling each other by name.
"Yayoi-chan~! You're cute too. You're still a little behind Xu Fu-chan, but I'll allow you to become the third cutest beautiful girl in the world~!"
"Oh! Yayoi has obtained a new title!" Yayoi raised one hand and gave a small cheer with a straight face, then asked curiously, "But why third?"
"Because in Xu Fu-chan's heart, the second cutest in the world is Master~! Even Xu Fu-chan has to admit Master is very cute. But when it comes to the cuteness race, Xu Fu-chan is the undisputed number one! So Master will just have to suffer a tiny bit~ Besides, Master definitely won't mind... and even if he does, that's fine, because Master totally dotes on Xu Fu-chan, so no problem~!"
"Master? Never heard of it. That's a weird name... or maybe a nickname?" Yayoi tilted her little head.
Xu Fu and Yayoi, the respective centers of their two groups, had closed the distance between them at remarkable speed. That became the opening that led the two groups—strangers until now—to find a place to sit down in the service area and start chatting.
They were a little stiff when they first introduced themselves, but Eiko was the sort of person who was extraordinarily good with people. She had been popular in middle school, high school, and college alike. On the other side, Yoshida Saori was just as talkative. With those two around, the atmosphere between the groups quickly turned friendly and relaxed.
"So you really did run into a paranormal incident too? Can you tell us exactly what happened?" Eiko was eager to hear Saori and the others' story.
Eiko was the kind of person everyone called "someone else's perfect child"—she got great grades, was beautiful, and was exceptionally good at dealing with people. She had even represented Japan at the International Olympiad in Informatics.
And yet, this brilliant young woman was utterly obsessed with things science couldn't explain—things unknown, uncontrollable, paranormal. Whenever she searched out horror and explored it, she felt a thrill she could hardly contain.
Saori and the others were equally delighted to have finally found someone willing to listen. What had happened to them was serious enough that they had almost lost their lives, but if they told anyone, practically no one would believe them. That meant even if they wanted to talk about it, they had never had anyone suitable to talk to.
Yayoi held out the doll in her arms to Xu Fu.
"This child... seems to be very afraid of you."
Oddly enough, the moment Xu Fu placed her hand on the doll's head, the doll that had been shaking violently a moment earlier went completely still. It neither cried nor fussed. It was more obedient than a sleeping baby.
Evil Spirit: I wouldn't dare move, wouldn't dare move (QAQ)
"This little thing is kind of interesting." Xu Fu poked the doll on the table with a finger and spoke with an unreadable half-smile. "It's obviously weak, but it's pretty smart. It knows how to avoid harm and chase benefit."
While Xu Fu examined the evil spirit inside the doll, Yayoi was observing Xu Fu in turn.
She had already met several people who could see spirits, and from their experiences she had even picked up a number of tricks for dealing with evil spirits.
But someone like Xu Fu—someone who could frighten one of her captured evil spirits into trembling just by brushing past it—was a first even for her. The evil spirit in the doll was hardly one of the stronger pieces in her "collection," but it wasn't weak either.
That was why she was curious what was so extraordinary about the seemingly young girl sitting before her.
But she couldn't tell.
If only I could see how she performs in an actual fight... Yayoi found herself thinking.
"We were clearly following the mountain road downhill the whole time, but somehow we ended up right back at the temple! We've never run into anything that creepy in our lives—at the time we were terrified!"
"I know! That was a ghost wall, right? You lose your bearings and get trapped in one place, and no matter which way you go, you always wind up back at the starting point. It's a really famous paranormal phenomenon!"
Yoshida Saori and Eiko chatted animatedly, while Nagata Takaya and the others chimed in now and then to fill in details. Eiko always knew exactly when to respond and how to give people the kind of emotional support they needed.
"That evil spirit was seriously way too cunning! It even disguised itself as Xu Fu-chan and tricked us into going into the temple, then shut the doors so we couldn't leave!"
"And then? Then what happened?"
"And then..."
Listening as Saori and the others used all kinds of exaggerated language to describe how terrifying and disgusting the evil spirit that had impersonated her was, and how huge a psychological shadow it had left on them, Xu Fu's feelings were truly complicated.
You guys... did you really have to be that detailed about this part in particular?
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T/N: oooh i think we came across the main cast now!!!