Chapter 42 Should I Have Known?

Standing in the twenty-eighth-floor luxury apartment, Biga Haruko held a glass of fruit juice and looked down at the streets below, where traffic still bustled through the relentless rain.

Recalling that puppet spirit directly torn to shreds and dismembered by spiritual power, Biga Haruko's mind involuntarily brought up the image of Uta Kaya's black wristband.

Had something inside that object emerged to destroy the puppet spirit?

Turning her gaze back to the desk, she looked at the camera filled with photographs of abandoned shrines.

If that Uta Kaya belonged to a family of spiritual mediums, it would be one thing. But if he were merely an ordinary person who had accidentally stumbled upon a powerful cursed artifact, trouble would surely follow.

The use of cursed artifacts always exacted a price. Once Uta Kaya could no longer afford that toll, that would be the day the entity sealed within the wristband would run amok.

No one could possibly predict the consequences when that time came.

Considering all this, Biga Haruko decided it was necessary to approach Uta Kaya once more—as for that girl named Tomie.

For some reason, despite possessing stunning beauty and an intensely alluring, mesmerizing aura, Tomie invariably evoked a sense of bizarre terror within her.

Especially that vitality, so overwhelmingly unique and vigorous that it scarcely seemed human, which left her utterly baffled.

Yet Biga Haruko was a woman of exceptional decisiveness; having made up her mind to contact Uta Kaya, she had no intention of wasting even a minute.

In the old classroom, Uta Kaya, Tomie, and Kayako were busy cleaning up. This would henceforth serve as the headquarters for the Folklore Research Club.

Although the school required a minimum of five members to establish a club, such obstacles were effortlessly resolved by Tomie with merely a couple of sentences.

Not to mention Toumoku Saburo, who had his name registered despite rarely showing up.

Yet, on many occasions, Uta Kaya had to admit that supernatural powers were genuinely convenient.

"Come to think of time, the camera is lost, what are we going to do about the data inside..."

Faced with Tomie's persistent murmuring, Uta Kaya rolled his eyes.

"Given what the situation was like that day, how could anyone still worry about data?"

"I suppose that's true..."

That day?

Hearing their exchange, Kayako blinked her eyes in bewilderment.

Perhaps because she had been frequently keeping company with Tomie and Uta Kaya lately, and additionally due to Uta Kaya's insistence that she stop slouching and straighten her back, Kayako had gradually begun to be recognized by people around the school. Even so, it went no further than that, for the moment Uta Kaya was absent, she reverted to being that silent, ominous little wallflower.

Just as Tomie was growing somewhat frantic over the missing data, the sound of leather shoes stepping onto the floor echoed from outside the doorway.

Biga Haruko still wore her white suit and her utterly expressionless demeanor.

Only this time, she was carrying a bag in her hand.

"This is the camera you dropped."

Seeing Biga Haruko seeking them out, Uta Kaya and Tomie exchanged a glance, and Uta Kaya stepped forward to take the camera.

"Thank you."

Biga Haruko nodded, casting a glance at Tomie, who wore a black miniskirt and a short-sleeved white blouse, and then at Kayako, dressed in a sky-blue floral maxi dress with evasive eyes.

"May we talk alone?"

"Me?"

Pointing at himself, Uta Kaya asked in mild confusion.

Biga Haruko nodded. At that moment, Tomie suddenly crossed her arms and stepped forward.

"Sorry, no."

For this girl full of hostility toward her, Biga Haruko merely glanced at her without speaking, keeping her gaze fixed on Uta Kaya.

Tomie took another step forward, preparing to drive the visitor away, but was pulled back by Uta Kaya.

"Alright, let's go talk outside."

Being held back, Tomie gave Uta Kaya an annoyed kick, yet she ultimately did not obstruct his decision.

The two walked over to the flowerbed outside, and Biga Haruko casually produced a cigarette and offered it to Uta Kaya.

"Smoke?"

Uta Kaya looked at the cigarette before him, hesitated for a moment, and shook his head.

Biga Haruko placed the cigarette between her lips, lit it, and exhaled a plume of smoke.

"You must have seen that thing that day, right?"

Uta Kaya immediately recalled the bizarre, desiccated corpse-like evil spirit and nodded.

"That was a puppet spirit, suppressed there by an exorcist five years ago."

Without waiting for Uta Kaya to respond, Biga Haruko continued speaking on her own.

"In this world, various supernatural incidents beyond ordinary imagination happen at any time and anywhere. Minor ones amount to nothing more than falling ill, while severe ones can cause the death of an entire village or a small town."

Uta Kaya blinked, offering no word of rebuttal.

"Don't you feel scared?"

Uta Kaya smiled awkwardly. After all, standing right beside him were one entity capable of destroying the world simply by existing, and another capable of destroying it upon dying.

If you asked him whether he was afraid, any answer would feel somewhat disrespectful...

Seeing Uta Kaya fall silent, Biga Haruko pressed on.

"At first, I thought you two merely had exceptionally good luck that day, because that puppet spirit was capable of wiping out an entire village."

"Surviving it can only be considered the good fortune of you ignorant youngsters."

"However, after inspecting the scene afterward, I realized things were not nearly that simple."

"?"

Biga Haruko glanced at Uta Kaya's wrist.

"It was you who had the entity inside the wristband kill it, wasn't it?"

"...Huh?"

What did that mean? What entity inside the wristband? Wasn't this wristband given to him by Kayako?

"You didn't know?"

Biga Haruko frowned as she looked at Uta Kaya. His bewildered expression made it abundantly clear that he was unaware of the wristband's peculiar nature.

"Should I know?"

Seeing this, Biga Haruko's frown deepened.

"May I take off your wristband and have a look?"

Hearing this, Uta Kaya hesitated for a moment before removing the wristband and handing it to her.

The moment it came into her possession, a massive and twisted surge of spiritual power entered Biga Haruko's perception. Clearly, such chaotic and distorted spiritual power should have easily dissipated.

Yet, driven by a powerful obsession, it quietly resided within the wristband.

Moreover, there were no evil entities inside it whatsoever, which deviated greatly from her expectations.

"It wasn't you?"

"What was me?"

Seeing that Uta Kaya was genuinely oblivious, it appeared this wristband must have been given to him by some powerful exorcist.

Then, what on earth was the thing that had slain the puppet spirit?

Handing the wristband back to Uta Kaya, Biga Haruko fell into deep contemplation.

"Could you tell me who gave you this wristband?"

Uta Kaya shook his head without a second thought.

Seeing this, Biga Haruko was not disappointed; after all, there were still many exorcists who preferred to remain hidden from the public eye.

"Um, can I go back inside now?"

"Leave me your phone number."

"Eh?"

"My sixth sense tells me we will meet again."

"Uh..."

With those words trailing off, Biga Haruko gazed at Uta Kaya.

"My name is Biga Haruko. I am an exorcist."

"...Uta Kaya. Just an utterly ordinary college student."