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"That was amazing!"
The most impressed was, of course, Miko—watching Rosen take down something that big so effortlessly left her in awe.
"Don't be discouraged. One day, you'll be as strong as I am now."
After offering that comfort, Rosen turned to the bunny girl.
"So… how do you feel now?"
Mai slowly lifted her head. Her cheeks, once flushed, were pale—clearly still shaken from the encounter.
"Don't be scared," Miko said warmly. "With Rosen here, no spirit can touch us."
Her complete trust in him was obvious.
After a few deep breaths, Mai's legs finally steadied. She gave a faint, bitter smile. "I didn't think… the world was like this. Spirits really do exist."
Rosen chuckled.
"You can handle your own situation just fine, but this is what throws you off?"
In his mind, Mai's "Adolescence Syndrome" was even stranger than spirits. At least spirits could be explained by science or magic—her condition might as well be sitting at the same table as quantum mechanics.
Mai froze. And, after a moment, had to admit… he kind of had a point.
"I have another question," she said once she'd calmed down. "If spirits exist, what do they normally do? Why can they appear in the daytime? And… why did that one come straight at me instead of anyone else?"
"Let me answer that."
At Rosen's nod, Miko—being the resident spirit expert—took the lead.
"Most spirits either have no intelligence or very low intelligence. They usually just wander around the same places they were attached to in life. And forget the horror movie stuff—sunlight doesn't hurt them. Nighttime just makes them creepier.
"As for your last question—spirits can't attack people who can't see them. But since Rosen gave you the Yin-Yang Eye and you made some noise, it figured you could see it, so it came for you."
"Not quite," Rosen corrected gently. "It's not that they can't attack people who can't see them—it's that as long as you ignore them, and they're not sure you can see them, they can't touch you."
In the original story, Miko had accidentally bumped into spirits plenty of times—but if she forced herself to act like she didn't notice, she could walk straight through them.
"…Huh. I guess that's true?" Miko said uncertainly. Every time she saw a spirit, she was too scared to think about it.
"I see…" Mai nodded slightly. So there was a way for ordinary people to survive encountering a spirit.
She remembered what Miko had told her earlier—so before she made this "contract" with Rosen, Miko had been living like this the whole time?
If it were her…
Mai imagined the scenario and decided she'd probably have died the moment she saw her first spirit.
The thought left her with newfound respect for Miko—maybe she didn't seem the sharpest, but she was unexpectedly brave.
As for Rosen, he didn't rush her to make a decision.
"I'm not going to force you," he said. "The Yin-Yang Eye will fade soon, so while I can still see you, you should take some time to think it over."
Mai gave a small, helpless laugh. "…Do you really think I have any other choice?"
"I'll sign the contract."
"In that case, I won't hide it from you. Once you sign the contract, you'll become my subordinate—and you won't be able to disobey my orders."
"…"
Mai Sakurajima had expected there'd be a price to pay, but she hadn't imagined it would basically mean selling herself.If Rosen decided to do… whatever he wanted, she wouldn't even be able to fight back.
Then again, thinking about it from another angle—if Rosen were planning something perverted—she still wouldn't be able to resist. Which meant… he actually came off as a bit of a gentleman by comparison.
Of course, the main reason she was even considering this was because she didn't want to disappear. And after witnessing the supernatural with her own eyes, there was no way an ordinary human like her could say no.
Becoming something beyond human—that kind of temptation was huge.Mai was no exception.
I mean, imagine you suddenly heard a "ding" in your head one day—would you accept it or turn it down?
And if it wasn't that, but instead a voice asked, "Do you know the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live?" … Well, probably ninety percent of people would say yes.
"..."
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