Chapter 93: exorcism tool!
After calling Miko and telling her about the dream she had forgotten, Luke also agreed on a time for them to sleep together.
He put away his phone, returned to the group, and began thinking about what preparations he should make.
"Do you have something going on?"
Yumiko looked at Luke, who was still deep in thought even while paying for the three pairs of glasses he was holding, and asked.
"Nothing for now. I just can't go back too late."
He raised his head and answered simply.
Because Kasumizuki had told Miko about the cultists, during non-school hours, she had not gone out shopping and playing with her best friend, Yurikawa Hana, like usual. Instead, she had called Hana and Yuria to her house for a study session.
Kasumizuki had also said they did not need his help over there.
So until the sleep time he had agreed on with Miko tonight, he did not need to go back. He just could not delay the evening schedule.
"Oh."
Yumiko intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the glasses he had put away, then twirled a drill-like curl of hair and muttered.
"If you really have something to do, just say so. It's not like I truly wanted this punishment anyway… I only wanted to even out the tennis score and pay you back for what happened in our match."
"In short, let's call it even."
"Don't worry. I really don't have anything. Because I never lie."
Luke puffed out his chest.
"Heh."
Luke looked over.
After hearing his words, Yukino could not help the corners of her mouth rising. She flipped her black hair and turned her face away to avoid his gaze.
He sized her up. Today, Yukino wore a light blue stand-collar top and a gray knee-length skirt, a very casual outfit.
And…
Her nasty personality remained unchanged.
"What punishment? What match?"
Shizuka asked with interest.
"Just some club activity."
Luke had already paid. He brushed off Shizuka while asking Yumiko, "Is there anything else you need to buy?"
"Next time."
Yumiko shook her head.
Next time?
Before he could ask, Yui squeezed her head between him and Shizuka, looking curiously at the pairs of glasses he had paid for.
"Why did you buy so many glasses?"
"Decorations. I bought them for fun."
Luke casually took out one pair, thought for a moment, and handed it to Yui.
"Want to try?"
"Mm… I'll try."
Yui took the glasses with some interest, lightly brushed aside her hair, and put them on.
Looking at the suddenly changed view, her eyes unconsciously stared at the glasses on the bridge of her nose. She worked hard to wrinkle her nose and brows, trying to push the glasses up.
"Heh."
Seeing Yui's slightly comical look, he could not help laughing.
Facts proved that putting glasses on an idiot would not make her look smart.
"Hey!"
Yui cried out angrily.
Yumiko, however, held her shoulders and carefully examined her.
"Aren't they pretty cute?"
"Cute in a dumb way."
Although his voice was quiet, Yui and Yumiko still heard him. Both of them glared hard at him.
Yui angrily grabbed Yukino and Yumiko with one hand each, then charged toward the elevator with her head lowered.
"Eh! Yui?"
Yumiko panicked and was dragged away before she could react.
"Yuigahama-san…"
Yukino struggled slightly, then also "reluctantly" let Yui drag her along like a playgirl holding one girl in each hand.
Watching Yui drag the two of them away like Luke holding one plushie in each arm, Shizuka followed behind and asked strangely, "Hm? Did Yuigahama and Yukinoshita already become that close?"
"Didn't I tell you Yui is amazing? And didn't you say Yukino is very gentle?"
"Mm, I know… but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly…"
Shizuka pinched her forehead.
"After all, even if someone is gentle, once they lock themselves away for too long, walking out is still very difficult."
"That's why I said pure Yui is amazing."
Luke gave his understanding.
"And there's no one who actually likes loneliness. They just don't like being disappointed."
"Murakami Haruki, huh…"
Shizuka murmured.
"What Murakami Haruki? That's my own conclusion!"
He immediately denied it.
Shizuka fell silent for a moment.
"As your teacher, I naturally believe you. However… Murakami Haruki already wrote that line into his work last century."
"What? I was beaten to it?!"
Luke froze, his expression tightening.
"Damn you, Murakami Haruki!"
For a moment, Shizuka was speechless.
"Hey! Even if you really want to become a literary master, at least show the basic respect owed to a senior! …Also, do you really not know Murakami Haruki?"
"Of course I know him. I just didn't know he wrote that sentence before me. I was planning to put it in my modern Japanese homework."
"Mm, that attitude deserves encouragement, but… keep working hard. Sensei believes you can do it."
Shizuka praised his attitude and patted him.
Good. He had made up his mind.
He would buy some Murakami Haruki books along the way and see exactly how capable he was.
Luke took a deep breath.
"In short, the victory in my match with Yukino is almost mine, right? Although the contest is about helping others resolve requests, solving the request related to Yukino, this problem child, should give me a lot of points too."
"Not necessarily~"
Shizuka tilted her head and winked at him with a faint smile.
"Why?"
Luke was quite confused.
"Because… do you think I'll tell you?"
Although her smile remained, Shizuka's eyes were also full of amusement.
"You may be a student Sensei likes, but I won't be biased in this competition."
"Unless…"
He instantly understood.
"…Hm? Then what if I say, 'You are my favorite teacher, so could Sensei be a little biased?'"
"Mm… if you put it that way… I'm still quite happy."
Shizuka bumped him lightly with her shoulder.
"So…"
"No."
Luke sucked in a cold breath.
"Despicable adult. Toying with my feelings."
"Haha. Adults are just that despicable. What are you going to do about it?"
Shizuka put her hands on her hips and laughed loudly.
Good, good, good. Then do not blame him for throwing sand!
His eyes turned cold, killing intent rising.
He said hatefully, "Sensei is so nasty. No wonder nobody wants you!"
Silence.
"Ugh—! What do you mean nobody wants me…? That's slander."
Shizuka painfully clutched her heart, her whole body trembling as her voice shook.
"You… you… this is a personal attack."
"Hmph~ It's just the truth. Also, this is something I learned from the classical literature textbook and modified—Hiratsuka-sensei Version: Besieged on All Sides."
Feeling incredibly refreshed, he looked at the couples around them, whispering sweetly and making eyes at each other, and found them much more pleasing for some reason. His steps became powerful as he moved forward.
Shizuka pressed a hand onto his shoulder.
"Eh?"
Luke turned around to look at her.
"Tighten your stomach!"
"Eh?"
"Feel pain!"
Bang!
Haa. Thankfully.
His recent training results had been quite effective.
Luke relaxed his abdomen.
"Haa! Sensei! Isn't this the real personal attack? But Hiratsuka-sensei… did you skip breakfast this morning? Hit harder! I. Can. Take. it!"
"Ah! You brat! Take this—Overlord Divine Fist!"
"Tekkai!"
Looking at the teacher who did not act like a teacher and the student who did not act like a student…
Yumiko pulled her blonde hair in front of her face to cover it.
Yukino sighed softly.
Yui did not know who she should cheer for.
…
"I'm never eating with Sensei again."
On the way home from the yakiniku restaurant, Luke thought that speechlessly.
Although having one more person helped him use up the coupons more effectively, Shizuka, who had somehow gotten drunk from eating ramen last time, naturally added a little alcohol for fun this time at the yakiniku restaurant.
So even more naturally, she had kept casting her "Hiratsuka Shizuka spell" nonstop.
It was filled with complaints about school leadership and work, giving the few of them a clear experience of the dark side of society.
Even Yukino looked dizzy after hearing that long string of complaints. As for Yui, her head had gone blank, and she had curled up on the sofa like a puppy.
If he had known, he would not have used "Besieged on All Sides" on Hiratsuka-sensei. Who knew eating a meal would turn into a Hongmen Banquet? He had almost failed to walk out alive.
Haa.
"Forget it. No more thinking. I should prepare the tools."
Luke stopped at the entrance of the park near his home and thought about what tools he should prepare.
Something to improve spirit, and also his own exorcism tool.
But spirit-enhancing tools felt very out of place inside a dream.
A sudden increase in spirit stats would make it easier to have trouble falling asleep. And if he could not fall asleep and enter the dream, then increasing spirit would be useless. Delaying sleep time would only lose more than it gained.
Most importantly, they themselves had little research on dreams. They did not know how useful spirit-defense tools, meant to resist evil spirit attacks, would be inside a dream.
After all, nobody would abandon improvement in reality to focus on researching dreams. If you could not win in reality, being stronger in dreams was useless.
Luke passed through the torii and entered the run-down shrine beside the park.
Even if he did not use a spirit tool, he still had to take out that exorcism tool of his.
Entering this ruined shrine again, he saw that the stone-paved path inside was already covered with moss. The eaves drooped crookedly, and the wooden structure was mottled and rotten, looking as if it could break at any moment.
The big tree beside it, however, was still tall and sturdy. The well nearby, from which Sadako would not crawl out, had already been weighed down with stones by him.
He swept his surroundings using a special method and saw the ghost floating inside the shrine.
"How's it going, Granny Nanohana? Has anyone come recently wanting to buy this shrine?"
He immediately called out. He had not expected Granny Nanohana to be inside the shrine, which was great. Now he did not need to go around looking for ghosts to ask.
"Of course they have!"
Granny Nanohana said decisively.
"But I followed your method. I directly gathered my friends, combined our strength, and appeared together, scaring away every developer who had their eyes on this land."
Granny Nanohana floated beside him and hurriedly continued.
"You don't know this, but the moment we appeared, that big boss collapsed on the ground in fright. His face turned almost whiter than ours…"
"That guy kicked with both hands and feet on the ground. In the end, he simply lay down and rolled out of the temple."
Luke glanced at Granny Nanohana, who was high-spirited and talking endlessly.
Although these good spirits still wandering in the world all had unfinished thoughts of their own, or promises with others, and had no malice toward humans, the long years without sensation gradually made life feel dull to them.
So casual chatting was a pastime they often used, and frequent pranks were daily missions they enjoyed even more.
"It's fine as long as you scare them away. Just don't scare anyone into an accident."
Luke reminded Granny Nanohana.
"Don't worry. We know our limits~"
Granny Nanohana said happily.
In any case, this shrine was not a good place. If they could stop people from moving in, that was for the best. Who knew what problems might happen?
Preserving this place also made it convenient for him to store his and his colleagues' exorcism tools, saving them from losing their spirituality after going unused for too long.
"Oh, right. Why did you suddenly come here today?"
Granny Nanohana asked curiously.
"I came to get my things. Also, to save the world."
Luke slipped into the shrine's inner ritual space.
This had not been a proper place to begin with, and the shrine's structure did not follow normal construction either. There was only this one space used for worship.
The talismans pasted all over the inside and the bells tied with red ropes were already tattered beyond recognition. The murals on the walls had peeled away, leaving only mottled fragments of color, barely outlining a shape.
As for the enshrined miniature shrine, he had no idea where he had thrown it long ago.
Circling behind the altar, he pushed aside a creaking table nearby, took the key from his wallet, and gently opened the lock. Then he hooked the cellar door open with one foot.
"Peh, peh, peh!"
A huge wave of rotten air surged out from inside. He hurriedly pinched his nose with his hand.
Thankfully, he had opened the door with his foot. Otherwise, he would have been smoked to death.
The last time this cellar had been opened was probably when he put his own exorcism tool inside.
Only after the air inside dispersed for a while did he go down.
This kind of underground space was usually used to store sacred objects, ritual tools, important documents, or items needed during ceremonies.
After he killed the evil spirit that had once curled up here, it became a freezer for nurturing his exorcism tools.
He looked at the various exorcism tools stored around him, walked to the weapon rack nearby, and took out his guandao.
The blade was black as night, heavy and thick. The edge flickered with a faint, eerie light, and the patterns engraved on the handle remained clear, not damaged by time.
As for the origin of this guandao exorcism tool, all he could say was that it had not come through proper channels.
But at least he had used it for proper purposes.
Also…
Didn't expect this, did you, Hiratsuka-sensei? The thing I wrote in my homework back then was actually true.
Luke casually weighed it in his hand.
Mm. The feel was the same as ever.
"You're using that blade again?"
Granny Nanohana floated by the cellar entrance, keeping far away as she spoke.
"Mm. I'll need it these next few days."
He kept it simple.
"Then you'd better be careful. Don't get reported again."
"Don't worry. I'm not taking it to chop people. I'm just using it to raise my strength a bit."
Luke said that calmly to Granny Nanohana.
"That's good."
Granny Nanohana nodded.
"Sigh."
Luke looked at the guandao, feeling speechless in his heart as he sighed.
The residential area he lived in had always had few people, and even fewer young people. In the past, this place had been an area occupied by evil spirits, and the shrine could even provide them with nourishment.
So for the sake of peace and quiet, and also to earn his maids' wages, he had simply started working overtime and fighting evil spirits nonstop.
But who knew that right after he eliminated most of the evil spirits, some bastard had reported him?
It was a whole performance of killing the donkey after the grinding was done.
"The more I think about it, the angrier I get."
He spoke with righteous indignation.
…
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