— — — — — —
"Excuse me, if I say I don't want to see these spirits anymore, how will you help me? You're not going to gouge out my eyes, are you?!"
Miko's hand trembled as she asked Kazuma, voice small and panicked.
"Are you crazy? Who would blind someone just so they stop seeing ghosts and spirits?" Kazuma blinked. "Besides, if you can't see them, will you still be able to hear them? Smell them?"
"And I've never hurt anyone before. They even call me the Saint." Kazuma gave a gentle smile, saying words he didn't believe for a moment. But for his client, it was ok to lie.
He had watched the anime, and it never hinted this girl had such a violent streak of self-harm. But living in that terror every day would wreck anyone's head. Being a little messed up mentally made sense.
"You're right, haha." Miko forced a laugh, but inwardly she was thinking, 'You do not come off as a 'nice person' at all. Saint my ass. Who's a saint and immediately shoots spirits?'
'Who's a saint and casually presses a gun to someone's head?'
The instant her question left her mouth she'd actually expected him to do it. The image fit too well. But hearing his answer, she relaxed. He was fierce, but human.
"So… what do we do next?" she asked, a tiny hope in her voice. She was exhausted from living with this constant dread. She wanted normal back.
"First, let's find somewhere to sit. Standing in the middle of the road and talking feels weird." Kazuma scanned the street. It was empty, but still.
"There's a café nearby. My treat." Miko was eager to leave a better impression.
"Let's go." He led the way and they headed for the café.
---
…later, inside the café.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"This place is crawling with spirits." Kazuma fired three quick shots and cleared the room. The other customers didn't react at all. They kept sipping coffee, eating pastries, chatting like nothing happened.
"Wow, amazing." Miko's eyes lit up with stars. He was terrifying, sure, but incredibly capable. Being near him felt safe. How long had it been since she'd been in a place that felt normal and spirit-free? She'd forgotten. Spirits were everywhere.
Well... if Miko knew there was a world called Jujutsu Kaisen, where the spirits were way worse than the ones here, she might even consider herself lucky.
...
"What did you do just now? Why didn't anyone notice the gunshots?" she asked quietly after they'd sat down with two coffees and some desserts.
"Special gun in spirit form. Ordinary people can't normally see it, hear it, or touch it. It deals massive damage to spirits." Kazuma explained. The gun in his hand had been summoned from his Gate of Babylon. The Treasury had all kinds of weapons and items there. Whatever opponent you could name, there was a weapon that could counter it.
But most of them were sealed, waiting for him to unlock— or for the system to do it. Sadly, even after all his analysis, the system's rules were never clearly stated.
Kazuma's main goal was to unlock Ea. He was sure as hell he'd be safe with it, but he still had no idea how to get it.
...
"It's incredible." Miko stared. The gun looked real to her: silver, etched with mysterious patterns, powerful and oddly beautiful.
"So how do we stop me from seeing the spirits?" she asked, trust in him rising.
"I'm not going to make you unable to see them." Kazuma shook his head. "That's a bandage on a wound. Like I said: if you can't see them, can you still hear them? Smell them? Even if all your senses were shut down, the spirits wouldn't disappear. They'd still be there. You'd be even more terrified. Hidden danger is worse than visible danger."
His mission wasn't just to take away her sight. From what he understood, Miko had strong spiritual awareness—centered in her eyes. You could say her main ability was Spirit Sight.
So the real problem was never her eyes; it was the attention those eyes attracted. Hiding the symptom wouldn't fix the cause.
"Then what else? I can't take this anymore." Miko's voice trembled.
"Simple. Kill them. Just like I did." Kazuma set the gun on the table. "If they're gone, it's like they never existed. If it's the same result, what difference does seeing them make?"
"But I—" she started.
"I know you can't fight them. I can. I can also sell you one of these guns. With it, spirits are just a pull of the trigger."
Miko stared at the gun on the table. She wanted it so badly. With one, she could protect herself. But if she took it, what about Kazuma's job of exorcising things later? Would he be left without work?
"You think this is the only one?" Kazuma waved and produced another identical gun. The King's Treasury had another feature: it could copy weapons. Modified by his system, the Gate of Babylon could replicate any summoned item as long as he spent mana.
"I'm not giving it away. I'm selling it. Here's the price." He held up one hand, palm flat.
"Fifty thousand?" Miko's face brightened. "I can do that."
Kazuma waved his hand as if brushing away the idea. "Fifty thousand? Don't make me laugh."
"Five hundred thousand! Okay, I'll take out my mom's wedding savings and pre-borrow from my allowance!" she blurted. She gritted her teeth. Half a million was a lot, but for her future safety she was willing.
Kazuma sighed. He was used to million-yen commissions and up. Suddenly hearing half a million felt like chump change and left him oddly off balance.
"F-five million…" Miko stammered, eyes going white when he sighed again. "I really can't come up with that much money. I'm just a high school student. Five million is impossible."
She was panicking. The price had climbed into a number she could never reach.
.
.
.