Miko's pupils shrank, yet she still turned and climbed the stairs as if she hadn't heard.
"Miko! Whatever you brought back is cursed—I can feel it! Throw it away, now!"
Miko's pupils quivered visibly. "Shut up, old ghost! If you're dead, hurry up and go to hell!"
Akuto stretched out a hand (finger in this case), ready to activate Dismantle.
"W-what are you?! What are you going to do to my daughter?"
"Well…"
Akuto lowered his hand and rubbed his chin. "So the dead guy is Miko's dad… he'd actually forgotten."
If he killed the old ghost now, Miko would probably throw him away.
He didn't want to let go of this heaven-sent vessel.
Bang!
Sensing something wrong, Miko quickened her pace, rushed back to her room, and slammed the door.
Leaning against it, she slid to the floor, tears pooling in her eyes.
"Brat, you think pretending not to see those spirits will make them spare you?" Chin in his fingers, Akuto said with playful amusement.
"Useless, sooner or later you'll slip, and when that happens… tsk-tsk…"
"Just imagining it's pitiful—being eaten alive, bit by bit," Akuto said with a malicious smirk.
Miko shuddered, then staggered up, grabbed the sealed finger and, as if it burned her, flung it into a box and snapped the lid shut.
Her whole body wouldn't stop trembling.
Even now she couldn't understand why she'd brought a spirit home.
Perhaps it was the only one she'd ever met that could talk normally, didn't want to eat her, and actually wanted her to eat it.
After calming down, she stripped and stepped into the bath; only once she sat in the tub did her brain start working again.
"I can't fight spirits… the moment they realize I can see them, I'm done for."
"That creepy finger… seems to have the ability to kill them."
"But it wants me to eat it—clearly it's up to no good…"
"I absolutely won't eat it, even if I die!"
If Akuto could hear her thoughts he'd wonder if he'd been that obvious.
After dinner she lay on her bed, scrolling her phone for exorcism tips.
'Coarse salt can drive off spirits… coarse salt…'
She slipped off the bed, slid her small bare feet into slippers, and headed to the storage closet, where she found a bag of coarse salt.
Like a nervous tic, she poured it into a bowl and set it in the corner.
"Tch—" Akuto snickered.
"Brat, you think that garbage works?"
"Ah, it seems not."
With a deadpan face, she turned to the box on the table.
"Mr. Finger didn't react at all."
She opened the box and expressionlessly buried the finger under the remaining salt.
"Hey, don't call me with such degrading names you brat!"
Akuto felt his composure crack.
"And stop burying me in some random junk—it's filthy!"
"As expected, useless."
The light in Miko's eyes dimmed; she turned back to bed and lay down.
After a moment she rose again, pulled the finger from the salt, and placed it beside her pillow before closing her eyes.
'At least… Mr. Finger won't suddenly attack me.'
Watching the world through dead-fish eyes, Akuto issued a helpless invitation to negotiate.
"Hey, brat, let's talk. You need my power and you know it."
Miko opened her eyes, sat cross-legged, and faced the finger.
"Then, Mr. Finger, why do you want me to eat you?"
"Open information is the basis of cooperation, right?"
Akuto frowned—he hadn't prepared a line.
He'd have to improvise.
"Well, I'm more or less the King of Curses. Right now my power is scattered and I can barely use it."
"Only if you swallow me can I regain my strength."
"It's not bad for you either—you can borrow my power temporarily. Once I reclaim what's scattered, I'll leave your body."
The room fell silent.
Akuto looked at her, his heartbeat quickening slightly.
Suddenly Miko's eyelids drooped; she stared at the finger with dead-fish eyes:
"Mr. Finger, that story wouldn't fool even Kyosuke."
'For reference, Kyosuke is my little brother—he still watches cartoons."
"Since Mr. Finger shows no sincerity, negotiations are over."
Akuto was genuinely stunned.
Everything he'd said was ninety-nine percent true—only the last few words were false.
Obviously, the damn woman didn't believe a word.
Not even the truth!
His composure shattered!
"Brat! I'm telling the truth! I am the King of Curses!"
"Are you even listening?!"
"Without me, you're just a dead girl! That medium constitution will kill you and everyone around you!"
"Brat!"
Miko turned away and covered her ears with a pillow.
Akuto seemed to realize something; a playful smile appeared and he fell silent.
After an unknown time, Miko's eyes suddenly snapped open.
Something was moving under the quilt.
She lifted the blanket.
Inside lay a pitch-black, shriveled, mummy-like creature, staring at her with hollow eyes.
Then the spirit's head split open in a grin, half its skull peeling apart.
Miko froze, pupils quaking.
Expressionlessly she pulled the quilt back over it and, trembling, groped beside her pillow.
In the darkness, the finger was nowhere to be found.
No matter how she searched she couldn't feel it.
The spirit under the quilt began crawling up her body.
'Not good… gonna die, gonna die…'
Terror nearly made her scream. 'Where did Mr. Finger go…?!'
The next moment the spirit poked its head through the quilt, face almost touching hers.
"You… can see… me…"
Its voice warped, like five or six people speaking in chorus, grating like nails on a chalkboard.
"Brat, see? Only I can help you."
Akuto's smug voice drifted over.
Though still terrified, Miko felt a weird, inexplicable sense of safety.
Hearing Mr. Finger, she wasn't as afraid anymore.
Deadpan, she turned, grabbed the finger that had rolled to the bedside, and casually swept it across the air.
"Shhk!"
"Gyaaah!! Sss!!"
The finger tore a gash across the spirit's head.
The spirit clutched its skull and rolled on the bed in agony!
"Itai—itai yo…"
"I'll eat you… eat you!"
At that moment, Miko and the sealed Akuto were all dumbfounded.
Miko hadn't expected the finger could be used like this.
And Akuto hadn't expected the Cursed Energy he'd released to communicate would be used for exorcism.
"Tch, what an annoying woman."
He snorted and reined in every trace of his Cursed Energy.
Overjoyed, Miko waved the finger again as if by accident.
This time it passed through the spirit without resistance.
She tried several more times—still nothing.
"You can see me! You can see me! You can see me! You can see me!"
Realizing it wasn't harmed, the spirit crawled up and repeated like a madman, face pressed to hers.
Miko could even see its pores.
"Sure enough… crystal clear!"
Her pupils quivered; expressionlessly she turned and buried her head under the pillow.
"You can see me! You must… see me! I'll kill you! Kill you!"
Under the spirit's curses, Miko somehow fell asleep.
The spirit seemed to rant for half the night.