"Human, back off!!"
Tohru was like a little dog guarding its food, immediately threatening Hana for hugging Takumi.
As for the killing intent she was giving off, the airheaded Hana didn't feel a thing.
Turning around with her usual soft, clueless expression, Hana noticed the dragon maid with horns.
"Huh? Who's this cute girl?"
Hearing that, Tohru immediately reined in her hostility and proudly introduced herself. "I am Takumi's one and only maid, Tohru... and one day, I'll also become his eternal wife~~"
"Wow, that sounds amazing. Thor, like the thunder god?"
That made Tohru's whole face go dark.
"I'm not some thunder god. I'm a dragon. A great dragon!"
"A dragon?"
This time, it wasn't just Hana who reacted. Miko blinked in confusion too.
Her eyes quickly landed on the horns atop Tohru's head.
Earlier, Miko had assumed they were just accessories, but now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.
"Um... are you still here for a reading?"
Watching the four of them start going at it right in front of her, Granny Takeda carefully spoke up.
She didn't understand a thing about all this dragon and thunder god talk.
As far as she was concerned, this was just a bunch of young people being chuuni.
Right now, all she wanted was to fleece them for some money.
Takumi glanced at Granny Takeda and waved a hand. "I'm not getting my fortune told. You all go ahead."
"Really? Then I want one! I want a love reading!"
Hana immediately raised her hand and looked at Granny Takeda with sparkling excitement.
The moment she heard the words love reading, Tohru shoved her way over too.
"Granny, can you tell romantic fortunes? I want one too!"
The old, scheming Granny Takeda took one look and could tell both girls were interested in Takumi.
No kidding, that handsome boy really does attract women. Since both of these girls like him, I absolutely have to use him as the angle here.
Granny Takeda didn't actually know how to tell fortunes, but she knew how to read people.
Fortune-telling, at the end of the day, was just vague talk plus saying what the other person wanted to hear. Do that, and they'd obediently hand over their money.
Still, with Takumi staring at her, Granny Takeda felt a chill run down her scalp, like all her little schemes had been seen through.
But in the next second, Takumi looked away and ignored her.
At the end of the day, her whole fortune-telling scam wasn't really a big deal.
If getting duped a little made Tohru and the others happy, then whatever.
What really drew Takumi's attention was the cursed spirits wandering nearby.
"No wonder it's Miko. Wherever she goes, the cursed spirits get thicker. When I go shopping, I can walk around forever without bumping into even one. Hm? Something's off, though."
Takumi expanded his senses, his powerful psychokinesis spreading outward in an instant, covering the whole street and even the nearby mountains.
In less than half a second, he spotted a run-down shrine standing on a mountain peak about a thousand meters away.
Dense cursed energy hung through the forest and mountains. Just the little threads leaking out were enough to make this entire area teem with low-level cursed spirits.
"So that's why there are so many weak cursed spirits around here. They're being affected by that place. It's hidden pretty well too. It used the mountain terrain and the earth veins to cover its cursed energy. If I couldn't see through to the essence of things, it probably wouldn't have been easy to spot at a glance."
Takumi slowly withdrew his gaze, his expression barely changing.
Though that place was the root cause behind the swarm of cursed spirits here, the thing over there wasn't actually that impressive.
By Takumi's estimate, it was probably only around the level of a Special Grade cursed spirit.
To him, that didn't even count as a particularly big ant.
"I'll deal with it on the way back, before lunch."
Lifting his eyes again, Takumi then looked at Yuria Niguredou, who was crouched off to the side, practically vibrating with the urge to act.
Those ruby-like eyes of hers were fixed straight on Miko.
Today, Yuria Niguredou had accidentally discovered that Miko could see evil spirits too.
And now that Miko had come here to meet the "Godmother," Yuria had completely convinced herself that Miko was here to steal her chance at becoming the Godmother's top disciple.
At that point, Yuria absolutely could not sit still anymore.
She had observed this Godmother for a long time before finally finding a spirit medium with real ability!
It wasn't just about apprenticing under her.
Yuria wanted proof that she had been right all along.
Her gaze turned rock-solid with determination.
Ever since she was little, Yuria had been able to see spirits.
But when she told her classmates, they doubted her, called her a liar, isolated her, and left her with no friends.
It was only now that she had finally found the Godmother, a spirit medium with genuine skill.
At that thought, Yuria immediately dashed out and rushed over to Granny Takeda.
"Please, take me as your student! I'll be better than her!"
Granny Takeda: "..."
Miko: "?"
Looking at this little girl who had suddenly popped out and blurted out something completely random, everyone present was full of question marks.
Hana, however, recognized her and exclaimed in surprise, "You're that super haughty girl—Yuria, right?"
"Yeah, I'm Yuria Niguredou, and I'm a spiritualist too. And I'm stronger than all of you!"
Yuria proudly thumped her flat little chest, clearly trying to prove herself in front of Granny Takeda.
Seeing that Yuria had some ability, but not much, Granny Takeda let out a weary sigh.
And besides, this wasn't even Yuria's first time coming here.
"I've told you a bunch of times already, kid. I'm not taking students."
"You can't make an exception?"
Yuria asked pitifully, unwilling to give up this chance.
"You look like an elementary schooler. For something like this, you need to bring a parent."
Granny Takeda casually threw out an excuse to brush her off, but Yuria immediately cried out, "Don't let this fool you—I'm a high schooler!"
As she said that, she even bounced a little, showing off the black pantyhose wrapped around her pale, slender legs.
Yuria had deliberately worn them to make herself look more mature.
From Takumi's angle, a tiny little thing with Yuria's body type wearing those black tights... honestly, it did give her a faintly mature, slightly alluring edge.
But even more than that, it mostly just made her look like a little girl trying too hard to act grown-up, which somehow only made her even cuter.
To Granny Takeda, though, it was obviously just a brat playing dress-up.
She nodded perfunctorily. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Take this home."
As she spoke, Granny Takeda pulled out a string of prayer beads she'd enchanted and handed them to Yuria Niguredou.
Yuria's eyes lit up immediately, and she hurriedly took them, slipping them around her wrist.
"I've been recognized! From now on, I'm the Godmother's top disciple! See that? I knew I was the one she'd choose!!"
Yuria was so excited she practically glowed. She turned to show off, but Miko only gave her a look like she was watching an idiot.
Top disciple? Miko had no idea what the hell Yuria was talking about.
She'd just come here to accompany her best friend.
Who knew what bizarre fantasy Yuria had cooked up in her head to start blurting all this nonsense?
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.