"How's it look inside?"
"It's really wet—water everywhere! Don't come in too fast or you'll slip…"
"…"
Kuzeha's forehead twitched with a few dark lines at Yotsuya Miko's incredibly misleading answer.
"I meant—are there people inside?"
"Oh! No, nobody's here."
Miko's voice came from within the bathroom. Kuzeha glanced up at the sign above the door—Girls' Restroom.
Only then did he let out a small breath of relief.
This was no joke.
A girl accidentally wandering into the boys' room? Sure, that was social suicide.
But if a boy barged into the girls' restroom and got caught—well, he could kiss his future goodbye.
Carefully stepping over the thin film of water on the tiles, Kuzeha entered the girls' bathroom.
Compared to the boys' room, there really wasn't much difference.
The only real change was swapping the urinals for stalls.
As soon as Miko saw Kuzeha come in, she hurried to his side, almost trotting to catch up.
"It's in the very last stall…"
"You're sure it's Hanako of the Toilet?"
"She called herself that. I can't be certain… But she definitely looked a lot more intelligent than the other spirits I've seen."
Her voice was a little shaky, betraying her nerves.
"More intelligent, huh…"
Kuzeha already had a rough guess in his heart.
As he walked forward, Miko instinctively clutched at the corner of his sleeve, sticking close behind him.
When they reached the stall door, she suddenly tugged his sleeve again, as though remembering something.
"W-wait! When you start exorcising her… should I look away?"
Kuzeha blinked, caught off guard, then let out a helpless sigh.
"This is a demonstration for your sake. If you look away, who exactly am I demonstrating to?"
At that, he noticed Miko's face going crimson, her head lowering more and more, until it nearly touched her chest.
A spark of realization flashed across his mind.
"Yotsuya-san… you're not… misunderstanding this, are you?"
The way her little face flushed even deeper confirmed it. Yep. She had absolutely misunderstood.
"Listen, Yotsuya-san, my spirit-binding technique is completely proper. If you were hoping for something improper—"
"Stop! It's just my dirty imagination, okay?! Kuzeha-kun, just hurry up and get started!"
Before he could even finish, the girl—her cheeks scarlet—cut him off in a fluster.
Last night—
She had desperately scoured the internet for exorcism methods. By pure chance, she stumbled onto a link on some anime forum:
"Exorcism Master Suppresses Hanako in the Toilet—Hanako Wails in Agony!"
Trusting in the sacred creed that anyone who loves anime must be a good person and therefore not a liar, she grabbed a notebook and prepared to jot down all the "important exorcism techniques."
The video was fiery, the battle intense—and of course, censored with mosaics!
Miko hadn't slept a wink the entire night after watching it.
Kuzeha just shook his head at her fluster and didn't bother asking further. Instead, he pushed open the stall door.
Inside, a spirit in a school uniform—once clearly a girl—snapped open her blood-red eyes.
"A boy! A filthy boy dares enter the girls' bathroom?!"
The spirit's shriek exploded through the room.
It was like knives raking across a blackboard, drilling straight into the ears, making one's nerves crawl.
Miko staggered back two steps, terrified she might somehow get in Kuzeha's way.
She braced herself, wondering what powerful ritual or talisman he might use.
But instead—
Kuzeha's eyes glowed faintly blue. Without another word, he raised his hand and smacked the spirit flat against the stall door.
Then—both hands at work.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Blows rained down in quick succession.
And all the while, he was calmly explaining:
"Step one of spirit-binding: weaken the spirit's strength."
"To put it simply—beat the hell out of it first."
Miko gawked in stunned silence as Kuzeha's palm landed a dozen times in a row.
Was it just her imagination, or… did the spirit's once-menacing eyes already look a lot less feral?
Kuzeha pinned the spirit with one hand, and with the other, he took hold of Miko's hand.
The next moment, she felt a strange warmth flow into her body.
"Here. You try."
Miko hesitated, glancing down at her own hand, faintly glowing with a trace of light. She remembered the miserable days she had endured, haunted endlessly by spirits.
She clenched her teeth, screwed her eyes shut, and steeled herself—
Smack!
Her hand landed squarely on the spirit's cheek.
It felt soft. Cushy. Almost like hitting a giant stuffed toy.
"Good. Again."
Wanting her to overcome her fear and build confidence, Kuzeha encouraged her to strike again and again.
After a dozen more slaps, Miko's movements grew steadily more relaxed, her face losing some of its tension.
"Alright. Next comes the real binding."
Kuzeha began performing the Spirit-Binding and Marshal Summoning technique, narrating each step in detail for Miko's benefit.
Of course, he didn't expect her to learn it in one go. Today was about easing her fear and laying the foundation.
With her natural talent—born with true spirit-sight—he was confident she'd pick it up quickly.
"That's about enough."
As Kuzeha's motions ceased, the black miasma coiled around the spirit dissipated almost entirely.
What remained was a fairly ordinary-looking schoolgirl ghost.
"You're supposed to be the Hanako from the urban legend?" Kuzeha asked.
The ghost shook her head frantically.
"No!"
"When you die, you pick your own identity. I just thought using that name would scare people more, so I borrowed it…"
Kuzeha didn't look surprised.
The bigger the reputation, the wider the legend spread, the stronger a spirit became.
There was no way the real Hanako-san of legend would be loitering in the restrooms of Sōbu High School.
"So. What can you actually do?"
"Uh… fight, drink, bleach my hair, do my nails…"
As she spoke, the schoolgirl ghost hunched her shoulders, sneaking peeks at his face. When she saw his brow furrow slightly, she quickly added:
"I can also hide in the stalls and secretly snap photos of girls—"
Before she could finish, Kuzeha wordlessly sealed her away.
"Useless, then."
He turned to Miko.
"I'll hold onto this spirit for now. Once you've practiced spirit-binding enough to get the basics, you can consume it yourself."
Miko nodded blankly, slowly relaxing at last.
But then—something suddenly struck her.
Her face went crimson again as she pushed Kuzeha toward the exit, her voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz.
"K-Kuzeha-kun, wait for me outside a minute… I actually need to use the bathroom…"