Suguru Geto smiled at the two of them.
"Since you're here, let's go to the site together."
Kiyotaka Inokiya opened his mouth like he wanted to object, but when he saw the "exorcists" already moving, he swallowed the words. In the end, he could only wave over a few middle-aged men carrying farm tools and have them follow along.
It didn't take long for the group to reach the mission location: Kamiya Stalactite Cave.
The entrance was surprisingly wide, with mist curling and drifting above it. The dark, well-like opening, paired with the faint shapes of stalagmites inside, looked like the gaping mouth of some demon waiting to swallow you whole.
Naoya Zenin immediately drew his blade and settled into a fighting stance.
"Looks like a big one."
Akira Zenin nodded.
"Yeah. If the stories really go back to the Edo period, it's not going to be small."
All at once, an indescribable fear and shuddering dread washed over the farmers who'd come with them.
In the sorcerers' eyes, something reached out from the cave mouth.
A claw… maybe a wolf's?
Then another limb slid out, like a spider's leg, or some other arthropod's. After that came something like an octopus tentacle. Then, unbelievably, a human leg…
All of those limbs were tangled together on a round, disk-like body as if someone had stitched them on at random. Finally, the thing took shape: an enormous woodlouse-like creature that slowly crept out, half writhing and half crawling, pressed flat against the ground.
In the original incident, this Cursed Spirit had only been mentioned in passing. Akira Zenin had assumed Suguru Geto could subdue it without effort. He hadn't prepared himself at all, and the moment he saw it, disgust crawled up his skin like an itch.
"This nasty thing is the culprit behind the 'Kamikakushi'?
Geto, hurry up and take it in. I don't want to look at it for even one more second."
Suguru Geto nodded.
A blue barrier snapped into place around them. Behind him, a woman's voice rose, eerie and drawn out.
"Tell me… am I… beautiful?"
Kuchisake-Onna stood at Suguru Geto's back. Beneath the curtain of her hair, countless eyes stared straight at the Cursed Spirit. In her hands were scissors that opened and closed without stopping, and her split mouth stretched wide, packed with fangs like a beast's.
The "Kamikakushi" Cursed Spirit struggled, its body of tangled legs squirming harder. The air around it seemed to turn unreal, as if an illusion had fallen over the area, twisting everything out of shape.
A normal sorcerer would probably have been hit with dizziness from that mind-jarring, absurd sensation.
But inside Kuchisake-Onna's domain, that kind of resistance was immediately judged as a "violent response." Several massive pairs of scissors appeared around the Cursed Spirit, slicing off part of its limbs. Even after they hit the ground, the severed pieces kept wriggling as if they were still alive.
Suguru Geto summoned Rainbow Dragon as well, and it lunged in to bite down on the "Kamikakushi" Cursed Spirit. Under the combined pressure of Rainbow Dragon and Kuchisake-Onna, the Cursed Spirit was finally absorbed through [Cursed Spirit Manipulation], compressing into a blue orb.
That thing was so revolting… maybe that was why, in the original incident, Suguru Geto hadn't wanted to swallow it?
Akira Zenin walked over, only to find Suguru Geto still smiling. He watched as Geto pulled out a packet of red bean paste, mixed it with the Cursed Spirit orb, and swallowed it like he was eating dessert.
Something about Suguru Geto like this made Akira Zenin feel strangely unsettled.
"Uh… Geto. You okay?"
Suguru Geto turned to look at Akira Zenin, the smile never leaving his face.
"Of course. I've never felt better."
After witnessing the massive crater that had suddenly formed in the ground, hearing the sharp scissoring sounds, and sensing the oppressive chill vanish without a trace, Kiyotaka Inokiya and the surrounding farmers visibly changed their attitude. He looked at the group with newfound reverence.
"Exorcist-sama, since the unseen great demon here has already been subdued, would you like me to take you to the place where we're holding the other monsters?"
Suguru Geto frowned slightly.
"Holding monsters? A place?"
Naoya Zenin let out a scoff.
"You people can hold monsters? If you were capable of catching them, why would you need to call us?"
Kiyotaka Inokiya hurried to explain.
"Well, it's like this. Earlier, we caught what we believed to be a demon's offspring. The strange thing is, no matter what we did to it, the weird incidents kept happening. So we thought we'd ask you to purify it… we just didn't expect you to come straight here instead…"
Suguru Geto followed Kiyotaka Inokiya into a dim, cramped room. Inside a crude, makeshift cell, two small girls were curled up together, clinging to one another as they trembled.
They were covered in injuries, their clothes torn and filthy, their faces deathly pale. One of them could barely keep her eyes open.
Suguru Geto frowned deeply, lifting a hand to rub at his temple.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"The meaning?" one of the villagers said bluntly. "These two are the source of everything that's happened!"
A slightly overweight villager, oblivious to Suguru Geto's expression, continued loudly.
"These two monsters have something wrong with their heads! They keep attacking people with invisible, incomprehensible powers!"
Suguru Geto already understood what had happened. These were two children born in a remote mountain region who had awakened as sorcerers, only to be labeled monsters by villagers who couldn't comprehend what they were seeing.
How ignorant. If you're weak, why not accept protection? Why insist on forcing your own narrow worldview onto others and doing something so needless?
Another woman chimed in.
"That's right! My grandson almost died because of them!"
The little girl Nanako shouted back, her voice shaking.
"He was the one bullying us…"
Another farmer shouted toward the cell.
"Shut up, monster!"
"Smack!!!"
Naoya Zenin appeared beside the farmer in an instant and slapped him across the face.
The blow was heavy. The man was sent flying, several teeth scattering across the ground.
"If you don't know how to speak, then keep your mouth shut. If you can't manage that, I'll do it for you."
People around them instinctively covered their own faces, a phantom ache spreading across their cheeks. A few farmers had raised their tools, but a single glance from Naoya Zenin froze them in place.
Naoya Zenin stared at the crowd with open hostility.
"A bunch of ignorant swine. Truly entertaining. Since when did non-sorcerers think they could climb over sorcerers' heads?"
Even Suguru Geto was momentarily stunned by the scene.
I haven't even acted yet, and someone's already started throwing punches?