Ren Kuroda had only appeared here by chance.
After being gone for two weeks, he'd happened to hear about the famous "Spirit-Exorcism Commercial Street" while walking through the city, and curiosity had gotten the better of him. He'd come purely to see it for himself—he had no intention of going out to hunt yokai at all.
"That's because I couldn't find a team anywhere… and since you've been sitting here alone this whole time, I thought you might be in the same situation as me. So I figured—why don't we team up together?"
The person standing in front of Ren Kuroda and suddenly striking up a conversation was a young girl with fairly delicate features.
She had straight, shoulder-length black hair and wore a simple set of sportswear. Her face still looked youthful—almost childish—but her figure was strikingly well-proportioned, so much so that it felt oddly out of place.
Right now, her expression was tense and nervous, her eyes filled with unmistakable hope as she looked at Ren.
Ren had actually noticed her earlier. He also knew exactly which category she belonged to—the fourth tier he'd just identified: an ordinary civilian with no special abilities whatsoever.
But even among fourth-tier civilians, there was a hierarchy of disdain.
After all, this wasn't some casual outing—it was a life-and-death struggle against yokai. Naturally, the stronger a teammate was, the better. Physically fit adults were preferred, and retired soldiers were especially popular.
Those with frail builds—and women in particular—were naturally unwelcome here.
This was a battlefield, not a beauty pageant. What good was being pretty? Other than serving as a decorative burden who'd still want a share of the spoils, who would willingly bring such a teammate along?
In fact, the crowd here was overwhelmingly male. Women were exceedingly rare—and aside from serum warriors, ordinary women almost never appeared in this place.
The girl standing before Ren looked, at most, like a middle schooler. He honestly couldn't imagine why she would choose to show up somewhere like this.
And she wasn't lying—she really had tried to approach many teams already. Without exception, she'd been rejected every single time.
No one would choose a middle school girl as a teammate. Even if she had a cute face and an eye-catching figure, anyone who came here was prepared to walk a blade's edge. Letting lust cloud judgment here was nothing short of suicide.
Besides, as long as you survived and came back, the rewards would be immense. With that kind of money, what kind of women couldn't you have later? Why drag along a pretty but useless liability who'd still demand an equal cut?
Because of this, the girl had hit wall after wall—until she noticed Ren sitting alone off to the side. Thinking he might be just like her, she'd finally gathered the courage to approach him.
"Compared to teaming up, I'm actually more curious," Ren said calmly. "At your age, you should still be a student. Why are you here?As far as I know, even regular schools now have practical combat classes, not just exorcist academies. Why not wait until you graduate before choosing to hunt yokai?"
Exorcist academies were specialized institutions designed to train those with spiritual aptitude. But after the massive Tokyo Incident two weeks ago, the upper authorities had realized just how severe the shortage of combat-ready personnel was.
As a result, even ordinary schools had begun adding extensive practical courses—firearms training included.
This girl could have gone through a systematic education and only then stepped onto the battlefield. There was no need for her to take such a reckless risk now, which was why Ren asked.
"Because… for personal reasons, I need money. A lot of money.So please—team up with me. I swear I'll bet my life and won't drag you down!"
The girl bowed deeply, forcefully. Her face was filled with determination—and unmistakable desperation.
If even Ren refused to team up with her, then she'd have no choice but to go out alone. But no matter what, she wasn't planning to give up.
"Tendōin—" Ren coughed lightly. "Ah, sorry. My name is Satō Kazuma. Nice to meet you."
Seeing the resolve hidden within her eyes, Ren finally let out a helpless sigh and spoke.
He'd almost given his real name—Tendōin Ren—out of habit, but caught himself in time and switched to a borrowed alias.
After all, Tendōin Ren was now a household name—especially within the Tokyo area. There wasn't a single person who hadn't heard of him.
To avoid causing a scene, Ren had taken precautions: dyeing his chestnut hair white and pulling on a hooded sweatshirt to keep a low profile.
"Y-Yes! My name is Yūki Yako. It's a pleasure to meet you, Satō-san!"
Hearing his response, the girl—Yūki Yako—broke into a smile of pure relief, bowing repeatedly in gratitude.
"That's enough thanks already," Ren said. "Tell me about the commission you took. Let's get moving."
This plaza existed specifically for forming teams. Generally speaking, teams here operated in two ways.
One was to freely hunt yokai in the field, exchanging their remains for money and resources.
The other was to accept formal commissions—posted by organizations or civilians—to collect specific materials or deal with designated yokai.
Commission-based hunts typically paid better than free hunting.
After all, in addition to the yokai remains, you'd also receive a direct payment from the client.
Of course, commissions like these weren't something you could find whenever you wanted. Yūki Yako explained that she'd only gotten this one thanks to a friend's connection.
She'd thought that advantage would help her find a team quickly—only to be rejected everywhere she went.
"The commission I took is to exorcise an E-rank tsukumogami causing trouble in a mansion. Since it's inside the city, the overall danger level is fairly low.But holy water is essential against spirit-type yokai, and I could only afford one bottle… so I need teammates to help.Satō-san, do you have any holy water? It's extremely effective against this type of enemy."
Against spirit-type yokai, holy water was indeed exceptionally effective. High-grade holy water could even outright destroy lower-ranked spirits.
But even the most common holy water was an exorcism item—and therefore expensive. Yūki Yako had scraped together all her savings just to buy a single bottle, and even that was low-grade.
Did Ren have holy water?
Not only did he have it—he had top-tier holy water. The kind routinely issued to Countermeasure Division operatives during missions. Ren had never once used it, so it had been sitting untouched in his system inventory, gathering dust.
Hearing her question, Ren pretended to reach into his coat—then casually pulled out two bottles of holy water from his system space.
"Th-That holy water… isn't that top-grade Kagumori Family holy water…?Using something like this on an E-rank tsukumogami is way too extravagant, isn't it?No—actually, even if we complete the job and sell the spirit cores, plus the commission fee, we still wouldn't be able to afford even one bottle of this!"
Yūki Yako might have been a beginner, but she'd been taught how to identify holy water grades. The bottles Ren took out were unmistakably top-tier—whether in purity or spiritual density.
And the label clearly bore the mark of the Kagumori Family, one of the Thirteen Yokai-Slaying Houses. Renowned for sealing techniques, Kagumori holy water was considered the strongest in the Tokyo area.
Honestly, even though the Countermeasure Division was the weakest overall among the exorcist organizations, they were backed by the government—and absolutely loaded.
High-grade holy water like this was handed out to every operative before missions, whether they used it or not. Once issued, it was never reclaimed.
"How much is the commission paying?" Ren asked calmly. "And how many tsukumogami are we dealing with?"
Compared to Yūki Yako's shock, Ren looked completely unfazed. He genuinely had no idea how expensive holy water was—he'd never bought it himself.
"The exact number isn't confirmed, but it shouldn't exceed three.The commission pays 500,000 yen. If we include the spirit remains, the total should come to about 1 million yen."
This was the current state of the exorcism market. Just a few E-rank yokai could earn such an outrageous sum. No wonder so many civilians were willing to gamble with their lives.
Even with inflation taken into account, it was still far more than Ren had earned in the past.
"So even without counting supply costs, we'd each walk away with only 500,000 yen, right?" Ren said."Just 500,000 yen… that doesn't seem like enough to justify risking your life. Why not join another team and hunt stronger yokai? The payoff would be much better."
For Yūki Yako, who desperately needed money, 500,000 yen was nowhere near enough. But what choice did she have?
She was just an ordinary middle schooler. She hadn't even exorcised an E-rank yokai before—and now she was supposed to hunt stronger ones?
Besides, even ordinary civilians here looked down on her. The top-tier teams wouldn't even consider her.
Before she could respond, Ren seemed to have already spotted something interesting. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a nearby group.
"Damn it! We finally tracked down the yokai Wanyūdō, but after searching forever, we still can't find a suitable teammate?!"
Wanyūdō was a yokai that took the form of a massive flaming wheel, with a demonic face embedded at its center.
Its defining trait was speed—absurd speed. Without proper countermeasures, even if you managed to overpower it, it could easily escape.
"If you don't mind," Ren said, stepping forward, "how about letting us try?As for that Wanyūdō you mentioned—I'm fairly confident I can restrain its movement."