Kasumigaoka Utaha, a character from "Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend" and its spin-offs, is one of the school beauties of Toyogasaki.
She is Aki Tomoya's senior, a light novelist, and has a sharp tongue.
At the same time, she has an identity known only to a few—the light novelist "Kasumi Utako."
Now, this young novelist was leaning against the cold tiled wall, slowly sliding down to sit on the floor. Her arms tightly hugged her knees as if she could draw a sliver of negligible security from the gesture.
She buried her face between her knees, not daring to look at the mirror again. But even with her eyes closed, that extra mouth and that sinister eye seemed branded onto her retinas, terrifyingly clear.
Is what he said true?
Her logic was frantically ringing alarm bells.
This was too absurd! A thousand-year-old monster? Cursed Object fingers? Seals?
This was a plot that only appeared in her novels!
How could it exist in reality? Could it be some new type of hallucinogen?
Or... was she really suffering from severe schizophrenia due to long-term late nights and stress? Was she having visual and auditory hallucinations?
This thought made Utaha shudder. If it were a mental illness, that might be harder for her to accept than supernatural phenomena. The latter at least meant something was wrong with the world, while the former meant something was wrong with her own mind.
Does he have designs on me? This was her most direct and realistic concern.
How could an existence capable of possessing someone silently be harmless?
His seemingly "peaceful" tone sounded to Utaha like it was filled with condescending amusement and scrutiny, like a cat playing with a mouse under its claws.
Now he says he "can't do anything", is it just because he just woke up and his power hasn't recovered?
Once he recovers his strength, will he immediately seize control of her body, or even... devour her soul?
"Don't be afraid, I can't do anything to you."
This reassurance sounded more like a lie to paralyze prey at this moment. In novels and movies, don't evil entities always deceive the innocent like this?
Why me?
This question was like a poisonous thorn, stabbing deep into her heart.
Utaha was an ordinary female college student who was at most slightly famous in the field of light novels. She had a life trajectory so simple it was almost boring.
Her family background was ordinary, she had never encountered any mysterious events, and she certainly hadn't eaten any strange fingers—she was one hundred percent sure of that.
How could an ordinary person like her be targeted by such a thousand-year-old monster? Was it a random choice? Or was there something special about her that even she didn't know?
One doubt after another tumbled and collided in her mind, giving her a splitting headache. She tried to use the logic she was best at to analyze and derive the most reasonable explanation, but every path eventually led to an incomprehensible abyss.
"Hey, little girl." Sukuna's voice rang out again, this time with obvious impatience.
"How long do you plan to sit on the floor? Like some abandoned stray cat. I told you I have no ill intent, at least not for now."
Utaha snapped her head up, her pupils interlaced with fear, vigilance, and a hint of offended annoyance. "No ill intent? You say it so lightly! Suddenly appearing on someone's face and then demanding they immediately believe such an outrageous story? Who knows if you're weaving lies, waiting for an opportunity..."
"Waiting for an opportunity for what? Possession? Devouring?" Sukuna sneered, that mouth curling into an exaggerated arc.
"With how weak and fragile you are now, if I could do it, I would have done it long ago. Why would I need to waste words with you? Save it. I have no interest in forcibly occupying a vessel that can't unleash my power."
He paused, that eyeball turning toward Utaha. His gaze seemed to penetrate her skin to see the soul within. "As for why it's you... Hmph, I'd like to know that too. Perhaps it's bad luck, or perhaps... you have some 'value' that even you haven't noticed?"
"Value?" Utaha caught this keyword, and her heart sank.
What did that mean?
"Who knows." Sukuna spoke vaguely, seemingly unwilling to delve deeper into the topic.
"In any case, the current situation is that we're temporarily tied together. You can treat me as an unavoidable trouble, or a tenant parasitic on your face. Instead of scaring yourself, you should think about how to adapt. For example... aren't you going to school later? You're going with that face?"
School!
Utaha felt like she'd been struck by lightning, only now remembering the reality of the situation. She had important classes today, and in the afternoon, she had to discuss the plan for her new work with her editor, Machida Sonoka.
How could she go out like this? How could she see anyone?
Panic swept over her again.
She struggled to stand up and rushed to the mirror. In the mirror, that extra mouth was yawning boredly, while the eyeball was looking around, seemingly very interested in the bottles and jars in the bathroom.
"Then..."
Utaha took a deep breath, trying to use a negotiating tone. "Can you first... close your eye and mouth? At least when I need to go out. If I go out like this, I'll just be treated as a monster, either caught by the police or sent to a mental hospital."
"Close them?"
Sukuna acted as if he'd heard something interesting. That eyeball nimbly turned toward Utaha's face in the mirror, the corner of the mouth curling with amusement.
"You mean, let me actively cut off my perception of this 'window' and shrink back into that dark Domain that smells only of bones and blood? Good grief..."
He deliberately drew out his words, and the eyeball even gave a human-like roll. "No. That place is boring to death. Aside from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, there isn't even a living thing to talk to. How can it be as interesting as this colorful world outside? Look at these shiny tiles, smell this fragrant... uh, probably the scent of body wash? Though it's cheap, it's better than the stench of rot."
Utaha felt a wave of helplessness.
This guy was actually looking down on her body wash for being cheap?
And the "Domain" he described... just hearing it was hair-raising.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
"But how am I supposed to live?!" Utaha couldn't help but raise her voice.
"I have to go out, I have to see people! And... and..."
Her cheeks flushed with an imperceptible crimson, and her voice lowered, filled with intense embarrassment. "What am I supposed to do when I shower later? Are you going to... going to watch too? Pervert."
She almost shouted those last few words in shame and indignation. As a teenage girl, valuing her physical privacy was etched into her bones. The thought of her every move, especially something as extremely private as bathing and changing, being "seen" clearly by a strange, male consciousness through the eye on her own face made her scalp tingle with shame and anger.
The mouth in the mirror split into an even larger, arguably malicious smile.
"Actually..."
Sukuna drawled, intentionally pausing to appreciate Utaha's instantly tensed body and flushed face before lazily continuing, "...it's not impossible. Since you're the one using this body now, I can't see any 'extra' scenery anyway. At most, I'd just experience the showering process from a first-person perspective? Tsk tsk, human cleaning methods haven't changed in a thousand years. They're still so tedious."
"CLOSE! YOUR! EYES!"
Utaha was shaking with rage. She grabbed a plastic mouthwash cup from the sink and made a move to throw it at the mirror, but ultimately put it down dejectedly.
What use was breaking the mirror? The only ones hurt would be her own hand and the mirror that needed to be paid for.
She could only command him fiercely, word by word, although this command sounded to Sukuna like it had no deterrent power at all, resembling a kitten baring its claws.
"Fine, fine, I give in to you."
Sukuna seemed to feel he'd teased her enough. That eyeball finally slowly closed, and the extra mouth shut as well.
Although the two slits still existed, there were at least no signs of living activity, making them look more like two eerie, slightly raised scar tattoos.
"Is this fine? But let's get this straight. I can only keep them closed, I can't completely 'disappear.' Also, I can't block out sounds. The sound of flowing water and your nervous heartbeat... tsk tsk, I can hear them perfectly clearly."
This was already the best result Utaha could strive for at the moment. She looked at the "quieted" extra organs in the mirror and breathed a small sigh of relief, but the sense of shame didn't completely fade. She decided to finish washing up as quickly as possible.
However, just as she was brushing her teeth and washing her face quickly in a state of unease, that voice echoed faintly again. This time, it carried a slightly strange sense of urgency, different from the previous playfulness.
"Hey, little girl, hurry up and wash. Can we go eat after you're done? I'm a bit hungry."
Utaha's movements paused. With foam in her mouth, she responded vaguely and irritably, "Do fingers need to eat too?"
She remembered this guy claimed to have been made into a cursed object, did Cursed Objects still need to eat? What kind of strange setting was this?
"It's you who needs to eat." Sukuna's voice betrayed a hint of impatience and a trace of... imperceptible awkwardness?
"It's your body sending out hunger signals. I can just... feel it clearly. This body's biological clock and needs are buzzing in my consciousness like background noise right now, it's annoying as hell. Hurry up and get something to eat to shut this body's mouth so I can have some peace."
So that was it.
Utaha realized, while at the same time a very strange feeling rose in her heart. The signals that she was hungry could be felt not only by herself but also simultaneously by this "old monster" living on her face?
This sharing of physiological needs gave her a sense of intrusion and being bound that was even more uncomfortable than visual sharing. It was as if the connection between the two of them was much deeper and more troublesome than simply "having something extra on her face."
She hurriedly spat out the mouthwash and splashed her face with cold water, trying to clear her chaotic mind.