"Hana!"
Not long after Miko ran into the alleyway, she saw her missing best friend.
The other girl seemed to have been lost in the alley as well; the moment she saw Miko, she visibly sighed with relief.
"Honestly, Miko, where did you run off to!" She placed her hands on her hips, speaking as if she were admonishing a small child.
"No, no, no, that's my line, isn't it?!" Miko couldn't help but retort.
"I was so worried," Hana wiped the corner of her eye. "After all, Miko seems so cowardly; if you kept crying because you were lost..."
"I—I wouldn't cry!"
Miko glanced at Asakura, who had followed unhurriedly, with some embarrassment and protested crossly to her best friend.
After all, compared to the things she used to see every day the moment she opened her eyes, a small problem like being lost could already be considered cute...
"Eh, then the crying sound I heard just now was..."
Hana pressed a finger to her lips, tilting her head in confusion.
However, her attention was quickly drawn to Asakura as he approached.
The young girl's eyes lit up. After carefully observing the sense of distance between Asakura and Miko, she flashed a mischievous, narrow smile.
"Oh my? And this is..."
"Because you were lost, Hana, I invited this person to help find you."
Miko answered calmly.
Yet, the subtle, irrepressible tremble of shyness in the girl's voice and the subconscious glance she stole toward Asakura did not escape Hana's eyes, causing her to immediately break into an even more interested smile.
"Really? Then this gentleman..."
"You can just call me Asakura," Asakura replied casually.
His attention was entirely focused on this small alleyway.
He really hadn't expected to encounter two "Mirror Realms" in a single day—though strictly speaking, the one over by Kasumigaoka's side wasn't exactly a Mirror Realm.
This alley was very dark and crude. At first glance, it looked no different from a normal back-alley behind a house; an average person wouldn't even notice they had already left reality and entered a treacherous space.
Even Asakura hadn't noticed at first—not because this thing was particularly sophisticated or powerful, but simply because it was too crude and completely lacked the outward appearance of a Mirror Realm, which was why he failed to discover it immediately.
However, once Asakura noticed that while it was still drizzling outside, there wasn't a single drop of rain in the alley and no overhead shelter existed to block it, he realized the truth.
"Alright, then what kind of relationship do Asakura-kun and Miko have?"
She asked with a beaming smile.
"Our relationship is very complex," Asakura rubbed his chin and then said, "If I had to describe it..."
"Mm-hm, mm-hm."
Hana looked at Asakura with great anticipation.
"It's probably like the relationship between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus," Asakura answered offhandedly.
"So you mean Asakura-kun is the carnivore type and Miko is the prey?!"
Hana clutched her chest and said excitedly.
"That—that's not it, Hana, don't talk nonsense!" Miko finally couldn't maintain her serious facade anymore and spoke helplessly.
"Actually, the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived in the Late Cretaceous period 68 million years ago, while the Stegosaurus lived in the Jurassic period 143 million years ago. There is a gap of nearly 80 million years between the two. From the perspective of a T-Rex, on a temporal scale, even humans are closer to it than a Stegosaurus."
Asakura's tone didn't change in the slightest. "You saying a T-Rex could drive a car is more plausible than it preying on a Stegosaurus."
"So... so complicated..."
Hana clutched her head. "My brain isn't very good; it would be better if Asakura-kun could say it in a simpler, easier-to-understand way."
"Exactly, Miko and I have that kind of complex relationship."
Asakura nodded along and said.
"I-I see..."
Hana also nodded, but then immediately shook her head violently and shouted: "Wait, no! Doesn't that just mean you're strangers! Do I really look that easy to fool!"
"Str... strangers..."
Miko was devastated; if Asakura and Hana hadn't been right there, she would have dropped to her knees in an OTZ pose.
"Sorry, sorry, actually T-Rex and Stegosaurus definitely have a connection, um... for example, T-Rex and Stegosaurus are both from the Saurischia and Ornithischia orders..." Seeing this, Asakura tried to comfort her.
"Humans and gorillas are both from the Mammalia class and Primate order." Miko turned her head away with a dark expression and muttered: "Isn't that even further apart than strangers? I really want to become a human..."
"Alright, enough about these trivial matters—" Asakura coughed dryly, intending to change the subject.
"I... I'm a trivial matter..." Miko only looked more depressed.
"Anyway," Asakura pretended not to notice her state and forced the conversation forward: "Even if something is happening, let's get out of here first."
"That's true, even though you can't tell from the outside, I didn't expect the alleys here to lead in all directions; I got lost before I knew it." Hana chimed in, clearly having already suffered for it.
"In all directions?"
Miko was stunned: Wasn't there only one fork in the road?
Wait, if there really was only one fork, why couldn't Hana find her way out?
The young girl quickly looked behind her and was instantly dumbfounded.
The good news: the path they came from hadn't disappeared.
The bad news: the path they came from had started to multiply.
Looking back now, it had turned into seven or eight suspicious-looking alleys.
How were they supposed to go?
"Um..."
Just as Asakura was still trying to distinguish which path looked the most promising, Hana suddenly spoke up.
Her face was pale, and she swallowed hard, unable to suppress her fear: "Miko... you're not crying anymore, right?"
"I told you I wasn't crying from the start!"
Miko snapped back to her senses and couldn't help complaining to her best friend.
"Then..." Hana asked tremulously: "The one who is crying right now, who is it?"
Miko froze at the question, and even Asakura stopped talking.
Once they all fell silent, the previously faint sobbing immediately became distinct.
"There really is someone crying..."
Miko's expression changed, and she subconsciously moved a bit closer to where Asakura was standing.
"Ma-maybe... that person is lost too." Hana muttered in a low voice as if looking for an excuse for herself, "Should we... go take a look?"
"No need."
Asakura shook his head, rejecting her suggestion.
"But..." Hana was still a bit uneasy.
But in the next moment, Asakura's words gave her the sensation of falling into an ice cellar.
"No, what I mean is, even if we don't go over there, that thing is already coming over on its own."
"Eh?"
Hana was startled, and immediately after, she sensed that the sobbing sound was indeed getting closer and closer.
Miko was somewhat worried, but then she remembered that even the defensive measures Asakura left on the Mystic Eye Killers could incinerate that giant monstrosity in an instant. Ordinary monsters shouldn't be his match, which eased her mind slightly.
However, her body was very honest as she sidled even closer to Asakura, almost pressing herself against him.
Suddenly, the sobbing sound paused for a moment.
The next moment, when it started up again, Hana's face changed instantly.
Because the crying was no longer coming from some branching side-alley, but had appeared right in front of them, just inches away.
As if echoing this eeriness, the alley grew so dark it seemed to swallow all light, save for a flickering streetlamp at the corner that occasionally flashed for a split second, casting a layer of deathly white light over the filthy, damp ground.
In that instant the light swept past—"she" suddenly appeared in the corner that should have been empty.
It was a woman dressed in white; the hem of her clothes was heavy from being soaked in water and stained with dust, and her messy hair hung down, covering her entire face.
She sat kneeling on the filthy, damp ground like that, her body slightly curled up as if trying to shrink herself into some non-existent shell.
In the next moment, low sobs began to seep out from her throat bit by bit, initially so soft they were almost inaudible, but then becoming hoarse and broken as if torn open by something.
"A-Asakura-kun..." Hana subconsciously wanted to lean on the only male present.
As it turned out, when she turned her head, she discovered that not only did Asakura have no expression on his face, but even Miko didn't seem that afraid anymore and was curiously sizing up the source of the sound.
"No, aren't you guys scared?"
For a moment, Hana found it a bit hard to accept; it was one thing for Asakura to be a bit braver as a boy, but why wasn't Miko afraid at all!
At the same time, she felt a bit ashamed of her own performance—it was like everyone going to a haunted house together where others were strolling leisurely while she was the only one screaming in terror.
"I don't have much of a feeling for... well, classic Japanese horror movies."
Asakura spread his hands.
Although he wasn't perverted enough to say something like "I've used a Shaped Charge effect on Sadako," that was the general idea; after possessing supernatural powers, ordinary ghosts and monsters really weren't that scary to him.
"Well, you see, she at least still looks human, doesn't she..."
Miko also nodded in agreement.
After all, she hadn't gone without encountering monsters that did jump scares, and compared to those things that didn't even count as human or carried a significant amount of uncanny valley effect, an existence like this one that was similar to Sadako and still had a human shape didn't seem nearly as frightening to her.
"Sigh... seeing you guys like this, I feel like a fool for still being scared..."
Hana grumbled in a low voice, though she didn't even notice that because of Asakura and Miko's attitudes, she wasn't as afraid anymore.
As for that anomaly, it seemed to realize that it hadn't managed to cause Asakura and the others any fear; after wailing for a moment, it disappeared from the corner again, running away so fast that Asakura didn't even have a chance to step forward and check the situation.
"Alright, let's keep looking for the way out."
Asakura shook his head and began walking back in the direction they came from.
The girls seemed to have relaxed a lot as well, following Asakura to check if those branching alleys were exits.
Taking advantage of Hana moving a bit further away, Miko leaned in and asked Asakura in a low voice: "Hana can't see those things when she's outside, but she clearly saw that ghost just now. What's going on? Has she awakened Spirit Vision too?"
The young girl was clearly worried about whether her friend would walk the same path she had; after all, Hana clearly wasn't as good at acting as she was, and would probably be eaten by a monster on the very first day her Spirit Vision awakened...
"It has nothing to do with her personally; it should be a problem with this space. Once you fall into this space, even people without spiritual sensitivity can see those supernatural existences."
Asakura shook his head and replied, "In fact, this kind of space usually provides a boost to the power of those things... under normal circumstances, so-called vengeful spirits are actually very weak. They are essentially residues left in the world due to resentment after a person dies; they couldn't do anything while they were alive, so how could they suddenly possess extraordinary power after death? Only in this kind of 'Mirror Realm' do vengeful spirits truly become threatening."
"I see. That means as long as Hana can leave here, she can continue her normal life, right!"
"Provided she doesn't run into anything too terrible."
Asakura shook his head: "Although your friend doesn't have much talent in terms of magic or spiritual sensitivity, her life energy is unexpectedly strong. If she gets stimulated by some monster, she might actually awaken some strange talent..."
Unlike mana, Asakura's perception of life energy wasn't that acute; in fact, before the Chiba Port Tower incident, he didn't even know such a thing as life energy existed.
It was only after saving Ayase that the dense life force on the girl finally gave Asakura a certain degree of recognition for this power, but even so, he still couldn't perceive the life energy of normal people—otherwise, he could have used his perception as radar.
But when he met Hana, he very clearly felt life energy from her; although it certainly wasn't on the same level as Ayase's, it could already be considered far beyond that of a normal person.
"I understand..." Miko nodded with a determined look in her eyes: "I will protect her well!"
No, what exactly are you protecting? Aren't you two on completely different levels of combat power? No, considering that life energy deals restrained damage to weak evil spirits, you're even weaker than her, okay!
Asakura complained in his heart.
But seeing the girl's high-spirited look, he eventually swallowed those words back down and didn't say much.
Filled with a sense of mission, Miko worked hard to find the exit to the alley, and at this time, Hana came to Asakura's side.
"Asakura-kun and Miko's relationship is really good; you were just whispering in each other's ears." she teased.
"Miko was just worried about you." Asakura replied.
"Yeah, she's a good person and my best friend," the girl looked up at Asakura, rolled up her sleeves, and made a bodybuilding pose with her thin arms that showed no muscle at all: "So Asakura-kun, you must never hurt her casually, otherwise I'll... ah-re?"
Before the girl could finish her sentence, she saw Asakura suddenly reach out his hand slowly toward her face...