"Miko-chan, are you okay?"
Looking at her reddened forehead, Fujiwara Chika asked with concern.
"I-I'm fine."
Miko didn't dare look up, answering only with hesitating, timid words.
"Instead of her, you should worry more about yourself..." Asakura said while stroking the frame of the Demon Eye Killer, looking toward the pink-haired girl.
"Eh? Me?" Fujiwara Chika looked completely blank. "What's wrong with me?"
"To put it simply, you're too much of a busybody."
Asakura reached out and gave the girl a flick on the forehead. "This world isn't entirely made of evil spirits where 'as long as you can't see them, they can't hurt you.' Many spiritual bodies can cause you harm even if they aren't visible to the naked eye. You were lucky this time; in the future, do less of this 'snatching food from a tiger's mouth' behavior."
"Awoo!"
Fujiwara Chika squinted her eyes and clutched her forehead, letting out a pitiful sound.
Asakura ignored her act and handed the glasses back to Miko. "I've added some defensive capabilities for the time being. You should try your best to keep them on your person; even when bathing or such, it's best to keep them within arm's reach."
"I'll wear them even when I'm bathing!" The girl was like a pitiful little palace maid receiving a reward from the Emperor; her head remained pressed tightly against the table, while her hands were raised flat in front of her, receiving the glasses with the utmost respect.
"There's no need to go that far..." Asakura deadpanned.
"No, no, no, I am absolutely sincere about doing so." Having put the glasses back on, the girl finally found the courage to look at Asakura again. Her small face was written with the bitterness of her past life being filled with those monsters. "Leaving aside the ones that crawl out from under the bathtub while I'm washing, there's often a human head in the fridge, and there are even monsters in my bedsheets... Ugh, what happened to the 'bed is a safe barrier' rule..."
"Well, how should I put this..." perhaps because the girl looked truly too pathetic, even Asakura couldn't help but start to pity her. "You've had it rough. Give me the glasses."
He snatched the glasses back from her face (Miko's head hit the table again with a thud). He wiped away the [Scale Flash Pattern] originally engraved on the edge of the frame and changed them to [Cursed Gear: Flame Scale], which offered superior defensive and offensive power.
"This should do it..." He handed the glasses back to her once more.
"Next time you take the glasses off, could you please tell me in advance?"
The girl, feeling like a strange scar was about to be engraved onto her forehead, spoke with tearless grief.
"You're welcome..." Asakura said, giving her a thumbs-up.
"I wasn't thanking you... wait, in this situation, I really should say thank you. Dammit, what is this feeling in my heart, this mix of a surging urge to complain and an indescribable sense of gratitude..."
Having put the glasses back on, the girl clutched her head and muttered.
"It's friendship!" Beside her, Fujiwara Chika gestured wildly, affirming her with a firm tone. "At this very moment, a precious friendship has been born!"
"F-friendship?" Miko was stunned. "Is... is that right?"
"Absolutely!"
Fujiwara Chika insisted.
"Alright, stop fanning the flames over there..." Asakura said irritably to the pink-haired girl.
"For Miko-chan's sake, I even gave away my treasured glasses that Asakura gave me. Can't I say a few words?" The girl puffed out her cheeks, throwing a bit of a tantrum out of both heartache and dejection.
No, no, no, the Demon Eye Killer was only lent to you. I was going to take it back once my Vision of Truth recovered anyway. In fact, since your spirit vision has almost entirely vanished, shouldn't you have returned it to me by now?
However, seeing that the girl seemed genuinely hung up on the fact that she no longer had the glasses he gave her, Asakura wisely chose not to say that out loud.
He thought for a moment, picked up a table knife from the table, and said lightly: "[Snake]."
The table knife instantly transformed into a small silver snake.
Asakura then pulled a gemstone from his pocket—an alchemical material he had "fleeced" from the system at the very beginning, of which very few remained.
The little snake bit the gemstone, which looked slightly too large for it—the thing was even a circle larger than its head.
Following that, the little snake coiled itself into a ring in Asakura's hand and shed its snake form as the spell was released.
A snake-shaped bracelet inlaid with a gemstone was thus completed.
"Take it."
Asakura gave the bracelet to Fujiwara Chika.
"Eh? Is it really okay? Such a beautiful bracelet..." The girl was somewhat surprised.
"It's made from a table knife, so essentially it's just stainless steel. It's not that valuable..." Asakura shrugged. "Though to you, there's probably no difference between this and something made of silver or gold."
After all, the Fujiwara family was a powerful, old-school political clan in Japan. Even for Fujiwara Chika, she should have plenty of expensive jewelry—though, considering political optics, the unit price generally wouldn't exceed 40 million yen (about 2 million RMB).
Of course, there was no need to mention that the gemstone was a magical material that couldn't be bought with any amount of money in this world.
"And this thing is primarily to prevent you from continuing to court death."
"C-court death..."
The originally joyful Fujiwara Chika was hit hard by Asakura's evaluation, suddenly becoming much more wilted.
But Asakura had no intention of pitying her. Besides knowing that this expression was 80% an act, there was the fact that this girl really knew how to court death. Leaving aside the time she went to that shrine and provoked the fox monster, nearly getting herself killed; this time was the same. Even though it was to save Miko, forcing a rescue when she had absolutely no means of attacking supernatural beings was, honestly, not a behavior worth encouraging.
"In any case, put it on first..." Asakura said to the girl.
"Oh..."
Fujiwara Chika carefully put the stainless steel snake bracelet on her wrist. Setting aside the material, because it had been washed by the spell and stripped of all stains and signs of aging, the bracelet actually looked quite good on the girl's porcelain-white wrist.
"Is that it then?"
"Not yet."
Asakura reached out his finger and pressed it against the gemstone in the center of the bracelet.
A moment later, he withdrew his finger with a satisfied nod. "Now it's done."
The girl tilted her head in confusion; she hadn't felt anything. She looked curiously at the bracelet on her hand. She couldn't tell if it was her imagination, but she felt as if a shadow shaped like a fox's head was reflected in the gemstone. She couldn't help but ask: "So, what did Asakura-kun do?"
"To put it simply..." Asakura said, "I helped you reconnect the 'Fate' that was once broken."