Under Haruki's strike, the ghost let out a piercing shriek. The black miasma surrounding it flickered and wavered, as if it had sustained a catastrophic wound.
BOOM!
Driven by a need for revenge, the entity abandoned its attempt to possess Miko. It dragged its massive, distorted form across the pavement, lunging directly at Haruki. Because it was thoroughly enraged, its speed was blinding—it was in front of him in the blink of an eye.
"W-Watch out!"
Seeing this, Miko abandoned all pretense of hiding her vision. she cried out a warning, desperate for Haruki to dodge.
"So you really can see it," Haruki noted calmly.
He looked into Miko's eyes, using the reflection in her pupils to track the monster's exact trajectory. Then, at the very moment the twisted specter was about to touch him, he swung his blade once more.
CRACK!
A flash of pitch-black light flickered along the length of his sword. A wave of sword-qi, sharp enough to leave visible ripples in the air, tore through the space. The ghost was instantly reduced to a fading shadow before vanishing entirely.
When the entity was destroyed, the residual black mist didn't dissipate. Without a host to cling to, the spiritual energy instinctively surged toward the strongest presence in the area.
Aside from Haruki, there was no one else.
A massive surge of spectral power rushed into Haruki, merging into his right arm.
"This is..."
An ordinary person wouldn't understand what was happening, but as the wielder of the Sword Saint System, Haruki grasped the situation immediately.
"Does this count as 'Ghost Power'? No... it's not quite a god or a demon, just a minor spirit..."
Sheathing his sword, Haruki looked at his right hand, which now felt slightly heavier than before.
Through his previous training, he had raised the system to Level 2 and unlocked the Ghost Slayer Arts. However, he had quickly realized that these techniques were different from standard swordsmanship. Many of them weren't even things a normal human could study.
Beyond pure physical moves like Triple Slash, the Ghost Slayer Arts included skills like Ghost Slash and Wave Sword—powers tied to specters, bloodlust, and spiritual fluctuations. The "Ghost Power" aspect, in particular, had been a domain Haruki simply couldn't touch.
While he could try to understand "Bloodlust" or "Waves" through meditation, "Ghost Power" was purely metaphysical. Since his system was damaged and lacked a tutorial or support function, that specific power had remained out of his reach.
He had almost given up on mastering that side of the tree, figuring he would just focus on the physical sword skills. But he never expected a breakthrough to appear in such an ordinary world. There were ghosts here. And there were people like Miko who could see them.
If I can hunt more spirits like that and refine their energy, I might be able to manually cultivate a power similar to 'Ghost Power' without needing a pact with a spirit. That's the key to mastering the full Ghost Slayer tree.
Haruki looked toward Miko. To him, she was no longer just a random high school girl; she was the key that would unlock the door to his true potential.
If he wasn't worried about scaring her off, he would have demanded she become his personal ghost-radar on the spot. He made a mental note: no matter what, he wasn't going to let this "Radar Girl" get away. He was going to make her his "Ghost-Hunting Assistant No. 1."
The rain continued to fall lightly at the bus stop. Miko Yotsuya leaned against the edge of the bench, nervously fidgeting with her phone charm while casting frequent glances at Haruki.
After a long silence, her curiosity finally won out. "A-Are you... an exorcist?"
She couldn't believe what she had just seen. According to common sense, ghosts didn't have physical bodies. How could a normal sword cut something that wasn't solid? If Haruki wasn't some kind of esper, he had to be an exorcist.
"No, I'm not an exorcist."
"An Onmyoji, then?"
"Not that either." Faced with her confusion, Haruki gave her the answer. "If you must have a label, I'm just a passing swordsman."
A "passing swordsman"? Having "swordsman" as a profession in modern society is already the opposite of ordinary, Miko thought to herself.
She was becoming increasingly convinced that Haruki was a total eccentric. For the sake of her peaceful daily life, it was probably best to keep her distance. However, the memory of that horror—and the fact that Haruki had saved her—made it hard to walk away. If another monster attacked, Haruki was her only lifeline.
Trying to distract herself from the lingering fear, she asked, "If you can't even see those things... how did you kill it?"
"Since when does not being able to see something mean you can't cut it?" Haruki replied with a question of his own.
"That's..." Miko was speechless.
She wanted to press him for more details, but she suddenly froze. During the heat of the struggle, she had been too terrified to notice, but now that the adrenaline was fading, she realized her "accident." Due to the sheer, soul-crushing terror, her lower half had... betrayed her.
Now that she was calm, she realized the area under her skirt was significantly wetter than her rain-soaked jacket.
H-He didn't notice, did he...?
Panicked, she glanced at Haruki, her right hand clutching her skirt tightly. It was a mistake. Haruki, a man whose perception was sharp enough to track a ghost via the reflection in someone's eyes, easily read her body language.
"Do you need to stop by that clothing store over there to change?" Haruki suggested politely.
He thought he was being helpful. He didn't realize that a teenage girl's heart isn't a math problem to be solved with logic.
"Uuu... uwaaaaah..."
Having been exposed so bluntly, Miko sank to her knees, covered her face, and burst into tears. At that moment, she honestly wished the ghost had just eaten her.
After the rain stopped, Haruki let the mortified Miko go home.
While he was very interested in her "Eyes," he wasn't the type to force someone into service. In his mind, any partnership had to be mutually beneficial; it was more efficient that way and reduced unnecessary drama.
He had simply exchanged contact info with her and left it at that. Given her luck, she was bound to run into more trouble soon. When she eventually found a monster she couldn't hide from, she would come crawling to him for help, and he would be there to harvest the energy.
Haruki walked through the narrow streets of Chiba until he reached a high-rise apartment complex in the city center. He took the elevator to the top floor and swiped his key card to enter his unit.
The apartment was a decent size—two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. It was perfect for one person, and it had a wide balcony with a great view of the city's night lights. That was why he'd rented it in the first place.
However, Haruki's solitary life had recently been interrupted by a girl he had saved on a whim.
"Ah, Master, you're back!"
The moment Haruki stepped into the living room, a girl with long silver hair wearing an apron emerged from the kitchen. She looked to be about his age.
Her name was Sakiko Toyokawa.
Rumor had it she was once the daughter of a top-tier billionaire family. But for some reason, her father had been ousted from the Toyokawa clan, and Sakiko had lost everything. She had been forced to leave her life of luxury to live in a run-down apartment with her depressed, struggling father.
Despite the fall from grace, Sakiko hadn't given up. She worked part-time jobs while attending school, always keeping her single set of clothes neat and tidy. Unfortunately, her hard work didn't inspire her father; it only made him more bitter. After a massive argument, Sakiko had walked out.
Haruki had encountered her when she was homeless and wandering the streets. Initially, he had ignored her, treating her like any other stranger. But when he saw a group of thugs bothering her while he was coming back from a convenience store, he had stepped in.
After learning she had nowhere to go, Haruki had offered her a job as his live-in maid. He provided room and board and a basic salary. For Sakiko, it was a lifeline. For Haruki, it was a way to keep his home life organized while he focused on his blade.