Bringing Xu Fu and Red Hood into her room and explaining the existence of Graduates to them was Yayoi Hozuki's way of showing deep friendship to people she trusted. It meant she already regarded them as reliable companions worthy of her faith.
By now, every one of those dolls contained nail clippings or strands of hair from Yayoi Hozuki, Eiko Hozuki, and Keitaro Gentoga, so the evil spirits sealed inside them were unable to harm any of them.
And now, Yayoi was preparing to place Xu Fu's and Red Hood's nail clippings or hair into the dolls as well.
But on that point, Xu Fu was going to disappoint her.
"Thank you for trusting me that much, but I'm sorry—things like hair carry special meaning for Taoists. You've read Journey to the West, right? Sun Wukong can pluck out as many hairs as he wants and turn them into just as many clones. And when he runs into people who need help, he'll sometimes give them a few hairs and call them life-saving hairs that can save them in a critical moment."
"To us, hair is equivalent to an alter ego. It contains a portion of our power, so it isn't something we can just casually give away."
To prove she wasn't making it up, Xu Fu pulled out one of her hairs and placed it inside a doll.
The doll immediately burst into flames, and together with the evil spirit sealed inside, burned down to ash.
"See? Evil spirits on this level get burned straight to cinders by the power contained in a single strand of my hair."
"Oh!"
Yayoi looked at Xu Fu with bright delight in her eyes—the kind of look you'd get in a game after taking a simple quest to kill a chicken, only to have the server's one-and-only Dragon-Slaying Blade drop instead.
"Xu Fu! Give me your hair!"
"Huh? Didn't I just say it? You can't use my hair to make a katashiro."
"Using it for katashiro would be a waste! I've got a brand-new idea." Yayoi's voice brimmed with excitement. "I can carry your hair with me, and when I run into evil spirits, I can scatter it around. Or tie it to a stone and throw it. I can turn it into a weapon specialized against evil spirits..."
"Are you treating my hair like a throwing weapon?!"
"If hair won't work, nails are fine too. Nails are even better suited to being thrown..."
"Enough! Stop that train of thought right now! I'm not giving you either my hair or my nails!"
If too much of her hair got cut off, how was Xu Fu-chan supposed to preserve her throne as the cutest beautiful girl in the world? Absolutely not!!
...
"Xu Fu's a cheapskate..."
Even after climbing into the back seat of the little van, Yayoi kept muttering under her breath. Like a cat that had had its dried fish stolen, she slumped into the seat with puffed cheeks, staring resentfully at Xu Fu's reflection in the window with dead-fish eyes.
"Ahaha... Yayoi-chan, try to be a little understanding of Xu Fu-chan too. Taoists probably have rules they have to follow on their side," Eiko said from the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel and sounding full of energy. "Come on, Yayoi, perk up! We're going to look at houses next, so we need to make a good impression on the seller! Let's go, let's go~!"
The first house they were going to see was one Yayoi and Eiko wanted for themselves.
Not for people to live in, but for evil spirits on the level of Graduates.
That meant it didn't need to be luxurious. What they needed was a place within Tokyo or its outskirts, inside an energy field—preferably directly on a leyline—and far away from residential areas, somewhere even a Graduate wouldn't be able to harm anyone.
In the end, they found a house online that fit those conditions perfectly.
And the price was absurdly cheap.
Only one hundred yen.
There was, naturally, a very understandable reason why a dilapidated old house that could be bought for all of one hundred yen still hadn't found a buyer by now:
it was haunted.
A great many ghost stories begin that way. There's an unbelievably cheap haunted house for sale, and then some stubborn family that doesn't believe in ghosts gets tempted by the low price and moves in anyway.
The classic example was probably The Shining. Though that movie was famous, what Xu Fu remembered most vividly was still the parody version from iPartment... everyone had Zhang Wei's face, so instead of being scary, it was just hilarious.
Precisely because it was a stigmatized property with supernatural problems, Yayoi and the others had wanted to bring Xu Fu and Red Hood along.
It was safer that way.
And there was no doubt about it—it was a truly cursed house.
Anyone could understand that with a single glance.
At the end of an overgrown path stood an old, long-neglected house. Large patches of wall had peeled away, exposing the rotten wooden structure beneath. Dense green vines crawled over the exterior like parasites, some even snaking through the shattered window frames into the house itself. The roof, too, lay buried under fallen leaves, untended. The whole building radiated a gloomy, sinister air.
Haunted houses becoming like this was perfectly normal. No one was willing to maintain them, and no contractors would agree to renovate them, so in the end they were simply abandoned and left to rot. Given enough time, of course they would end up like this.
"Here, the key."
The owner handed the key to Eiko and explained in a dispirited voice, "I'm scared of that kind of terrifying stuff, so I can't go in with you to show you around. Please, go in on your own... To be honest, I really wouldn't recommend buying this place. I know I'm the seller and shouldn't say that... but if you want to back out now, it's not too late."
Three girls. The owner was genuinely worried they had no idea about the house's history and had simply been lured in by the absurdly low price, so he explained.
The house had originally belonged to his father. Back then, it had been rented out to a father and daughter. That pair killed many people in the house, then eventually committed suicide there as well.
But what came afterward was even more horrifying.
A female police officer who entered the house as part of the case didn't do anything at all, yet suddenly became pregnant. Ten days later, she gave birth to a grotesquely abnormal, large-headed infant—and it tore its way out of her abdomen. The officer and the baby both died soon after.
So now, people nearby said that the victims murdered there had tried to reincarnate themselves by placing a curse of pregnancy on others, and they had started calling this place the House of Annunciation.
"That's why this house just won't sell," the owner said helplessly. "If you still want to buy it after hearing all this, I'd be grateful. But you're all girls. If something happens to you later, I'd feel awful about it."
Eiko had plainly been scared by the story. Her face had gone pale, and her legs were trembling.
Yayoi, on the other hand, didn't need worrying about. She was as calm as ever.
Xu Fu, however, made an ugly face.
"To be honest, I already want to run."
"Huh? Huhhh?!" Eiko stared at Xu Fu in horror. "D-Does that mean... the evil spirit here is so strong that even you can't handle it?"
"No, I'm just thoroughly disgusted..." Xu Fu muttered, clutching Red Hood's doll tightly in her arms. "Girls who go inside get forcibly impregnated, then die when a malformed baby rips open their stomachs... The malice this curse has toward women is way too much."
They were all curses, so why were the curses in this world always so weak in power but so good at being revolting? Why couldn't they be more like Jujutsu Kaisen and settle things in an honest fistfight?
Compared to a death by being impregnated through monster parasitism, even getting chopped into mince by Ryomen Sukuna suddenly seemed downright merciful.
"But we can't just leave it alone."
If an evil spirit that dangerous really existed here, then no one knew how many more innocent people it would kill if left unchecked.
Besides, Xu Fu remembered this house appearing in the original plot too. The evil spirit inside was not only dangerous, it was also connected to that group of dangerous people who had created Kuubou.
Yayoi and Xu Fu headed straight for the entrance to the house, and after hesitating for a while, Eiko nervously followed after them.
"Eiko, are you sure you want to come?" Xu Fu glanced back at her. "A friendly tip from Xu Fu-chan—there might be a very dangerous evil spirit in there~!"
"Xu Fu-chan, please stop scaring me..." Eiko asked tensely. "Anyway... you and Yayoi are definitely going to protect me, right?"
"Yes. I'll definitely protect Eiko." Yayoi nodded expressionlessly. Her tone was flat, but the determination in it was unmistakable.
"Hey, don't make me say something that sounds this obviously like a death flag." Xu Fu protested unhappily, then let out a helpless sigh. "So~! Why do you insist on coming along? You're scared, aren't you? Your legs are still shaking."
"Yes, I'm scared. Terrified, even..." Eiko said with a bitter smile. "But at the same time, I'm excited! And the excitement is winning out!"
"If Eiko stays outside, she could still be attacked by an evil spirit." Yayoi looked steadily at Xu Fu. "And if that happens without us beside her, she'll be in even more danger. It's better if she comes with us. At least that way we can always keep track of her condition."
Truthfully, Xu Fu thought the safer course would be to have Eiko leave the place entirely while she and Yayoi explored the inevitably haunted house by themselves...
But she was only one person. She couldn't outargue Yayoi and Eiko together.
Left with no choice, Xu Fu had to agree to bring Eiko along. At least part of what Yayoi said was true—leaving Eiko outside by herself would indeed be more dangerous.
If Xu Fu remembered correctly, the evil spirits in this house were three grotesquely large-headed infant spirits called "Angel-sama." They parasitized women's wombs and forced them to give birth to them, completing the ritual of their "birth."
Compared to "young beauty" types like Xu Fu and Yayoi, someone with a more mature body like Eiko was obviously more likely to be targeted by those three evil spirits and chosen as the mother to carry out their ritual of birth.
They slowly approached the front door.
And then, bizarrely, the frosted-glass door cracked open by itself.
A high-tech automatic door clearly wasn't something a run-down, unwanted house like this would have installed.
"It seems the thing inside this house is inviting the three of us in."
Xu Fu turned and swept her gaze over Eiko and Yayoi, all traces of humor gone from her eyes.
"Well? You can still turn back now~. Once you step inside, anything could happen. And if you regret it after that, it'll be too late."
The moment Eiko met Xu Fu's eyes, it was as if that deep gaze had seized her very soul. She found herself holding her breath, swallowing lightly, even her fingertips turning a little cold.
"Xu Fu-chan, I know you're concerned about me, and I know this is for my own good, but..." Her breathing gradually grew heavier, her heart pounding so hard it scared her, and the corners of her lips lifted on their own. "The more you say that, the more excited I get. The more I want to go inside and see it!"
This girl was hopeless.
"We're not getting anywhere standing here. Let's go in."
Yayoi pulled the door open and stepped straight inside without taking off her shoes.
That was a little bad-mannered, maybe, but if anything happened, taking off your shoes would only make it harder to run. And if you stepped on something sharp, you could get hurt.
As for dirtying the floor, they could just clean it up after dealing with whatever was inside. Assuming nothing unexpected happened, this house would probably be theirs before long anyway.
The moment Xu Fu stepped inside, before she could even properly take in the structure or furnishings, she noticed something.
She looked beside her.
To an ordinary person with no Spiritual Sight, "Yayoi Hozuki" and "Eiko Hozuki" would appear to have stayed right by her side the whole time.
But in Xu Fu's eyes, the two standing beside her had already been replaced by two unknown dead spirits.
"Tch. Another spatial transfer? Can't you come up with anything new?" Xu Fu blurted out, then after a beat added with a gloomy face, "Though... maybe not the pregnancy curse. Some originality really is too much..."
"Hm? Xu Fu-chan, what are you muttering to yourself about?" "Eiko Hozuki" tilted her head, wearing a smile that was just a little too perfect.
"Hey~! Hey~! Xu Fu, let's hurry up and go inside! I can't wait to see what's in there!" "Yayoi Hozuki" clapped excitedly, her eyes curved into flawless crescents.
The two crowded close on either side of Xu Fu, wearing smiles as exquisitely fixed as dolls. The overly precise curve of their mouths brought to mind department store mannequins, every expression as neatly measured as if by ruler.
Apparently these two had no idea that Yayoi Hozuki was expressionless by nature. Since when would she ever smile that sweetly?
If you were going to impersonate someone, at least look at that phantom demon disguised as Himmel and learn some professionalism. The first thing out of its mouth had been "Do it." It would rather die than go out of character.
Xu Fu withdrew her gaze. Looking at them even a second longer would be a waste of time.
Her red lips parted, and she spoke softly.
"Hood. Do it."
Like a streak of scarlet lightning, Red Hood appeared at Xu Fu's side in an instant—and "Yayoi Hozuki's" head, still wearing a look of total shock, flew high into the air.
"Gyaaaaaahhh...!"
"Eiko Hozuki" collapsed onto the floor on her backside, face pale as she pointed at Xu Fu and Red Hood and shouted, "Y-You... you... why did you kill Yayoi?!"
But her acting was simply far too clumsy. Xu Fu and Red Hood couldn't even be bothered to respond.
A sudden pain shot through "Eiko Hozuki's" chest, and then her back slammed hard into the floor, driving all the air from her lungs. By the time she came to, Red Hood had already planted a foot on her and was pointing a short firearm directly at her forehead.
Terror flooded her face.
"Wait—"
BANG!
She wasn't given even the chance to finish.
The loud, forceful gunshot cut off every word she might have said.
Xu Fu had no time to play house with these two dead things. The most urgent priority was regrouping with the real Yayoi Hozuki and Eiko Hozuki as quickly as possible.
Yayoi wasn't too much of a concern. She might have been young, but her abilities were no joke. She was capable of handling the overwhelming majority of evil spirits in this world.
Eiko was different.
The only thing she had to rely on was that pile of katashiro Yayoi had prepared for her.
In other words, all she really had going for her was extra lives.
If the evil spirit in this place could separate Xu Fu from the others, then naturally it could separate Yayoi from Eiko too.
Which meant there was a very real chance that Eiko was alone right now.
---
T/N: uh oh NTR? keitaro getting NTR'd???