"Um… Natsume-kun," she hesitated for a long time before finally mustering the courage to break the silence in the car, "Thank you so much… for today."
Natsume slowly opened his eyes. His calm blue Six Eyes rested on her.
"You did well. Thirty million was just right, not too much, not too little."
Eiko's face bloomed into a radiant smile at the praise. But soon, as if something had come to mind, her smile faded slightly, replaced by a hint of worry.
"Speaking of which, Yashiro… is she really going to be okay?" she asked, anxious. "After we got back last night, she said she had some new ideas about your 'regeneration' of Miss Hanami and wanted to test them. Early this morning, she ran off on her own…"
"Where did she go?" Natsume asked.
"She said… she was going to retrieve a few of the 'graduates' she could not exorcise before, the ones she could only seal for the time being." Eiko explained carefully. " 'Graduates' is a name Yashiro made up for herself. It refers to cursed entities that have special abilities, or are so dangerous that she cannot handle them alone. She said… she wants to try, to see if she can do what you did, Natsume, and turn those dangerous 'graduates' into power that she can control."
Natsume frowned slightly.
Yashiro's fighting style relied on those twin pupils of hers that could see through life and death. She would seal evil spirits into dolls, then use various "educational" methods to tame them into her own shikigami.
That approach was fundamentally different from his own "purification and rebirth".
Even so, he had to admit that this twelve year old girl possessed a genius-level of intuition and creativity in the field of jujutsu, far beyond ordinary sorcerers.
However, going alone to recover cursed beings that even she herself had labeled "extremely dangerous" was still too much of a gamble.
"Do not worry," Natsume said lightly. "The cursed energy marker I left on her has not been triggered. That means she is safe, for now."
Hearing that, Eiko finally let out a long breath of relief. Then, almost immediately, an even stronger emotion washed through her chest like a rising tide, something that could only be called adoration.
He was not only powerful, he was… so considerate.
Without them even knowing, he had already quietly left a contingency on Yashiro, a safeguard strong enough to protect her life.
This silent kindness was, to Eiko, impossible to resist.
The Rolls-Royce eased to a stop beside a bustling commercial district.
"Natsume-kun," Eiko looked out at the rows of glittering luxury stores outside the window, and a bold idea suddenly surfaced in her heart. She turned back to him, her beautiful eyes shining with a mix of hope and nervous pleading. "Could we… maybe go shopping for a bit later? Just as… a way to celebrate this successful commission?"
Seeing the look of pure expectation on the girl's face, Natsume, for once, did not turn her down.
"Alright."
That one simple word made Eiko feel a sudden rush of happiness. She almost cheered as she hopped out of the car, her steps light and quick.
The two of them walked side by side along the busy pedestrian street of Ginza, surrounded by waves of fashionably dressed men and women. Eiko was in a simple, fresh-looking tracksuit today, yet it could not hide her beautiful figure or her bright, striking features. She drew more than a few glances as they passed.
She walked a little nervously at Natsume's side, hands having nowhere to go, heart racing so fast she thought it might burst.
She could feel countless gazes on them from all directions, full of amazement and jealousy, all secretly sizing up the man beside her.
Yet he paid none of it any mind, just walked quietly forward, as if nothing in this world could stir up even the slightest ripple in his heart.
Eiko watched his perfect profile, and the affection in her chest felt like it might spill over.
At that moment, a warm, steady hand suddenly reached over, gently yet irresistibly closing around her cool fingers.
Eiko's whole body went rigid.
She lowered her head and stared blankly at that large hand that completely enveloped her own. An indescribable heat surged up from her palm, spreading across her cheeks, then to the tips of her ears.
She could hear her own heartbeat pounding like a drum.
Natsume did not look at her. His expression remained as calm as ever, as if he had done something utterly ordinary.
"Come on. When it is this crowded, it is better to stay close."
"…Yeah."
Eiko nodded hard. A bright, shy smile spread across her face. She turned her hand over and gripped his warm palm tightly in return, as if she wanted to clutch all of her happiness firmly in her own hands.
...
What followed turned into a "zero yen shopping spree" that left every sales clerk they met utterly speechless.
They walked into a Chanel boutique.
"This dress is nice…" Eiko only let her gaze linger a second longer.
"Wrap it up," Natsume said, not even bothering to look at the price tag.
They went into a Cartier jewelry store.
"This bracelet is so pretty…"
"Besides that one, pack that necklace and those earrings as well."
They stepped into a Patek Philippe watch shop.
"This watch would suit Yashiro," Natsume said, thinking of the gothic loli who was always carrying a crowbar.
"And that one, for Utaha-senpai."
"This one… I think Yui will like it."
He tossed the thirty million yen cheque onto the counter as if it were a scrap of paper, not even furrowing his brow.
"The code is six zeros. Keep the change. Consider the rest as your bonus."
This kind of unrestrained spending, spending money without a second thought, left Eiko completely dumbfounded. She watched Natsume with that same relaxed expression, like he had just bought a soda at a convenience store instead of half a store's inventory. The feelings in her heart kept building, and finally, broke through the last thin barrier of rationality.
...
In a private room of a high-end tea restaurant, when the two of them finally sat down to rest, Eiko could not suppress her feelings any longer.
She looked at the boy across from her, who was leisurely sipping his tea, took a deep breath, and spoke with a solemnity that sounded almost like making a vow.
"Natsume-kun, I like you."
"I like you. From the very first moment I saw you, I liked you. No, actually… it is love."
Her confession was completely direct, without a trace of roundabout testing.
"Please go out with me. I… I want to be your girlfriend. I… want to stay by your side for the rest of my life."
Faced with this sudden, burning confession, there was still not much change on Natsume's face.
He set his teacup down and looked calmly at the girl in front of him with those blue eyes.
"Eiko, before I answer you, there is something you need to know."
His voice was as even as always, yet it carried a frankness that allowed no self-deception.
"You are not the only one by my side. Utaha, you have already met her. My relationship with her is not shallower than my relationship with you. Besides her, there are others."
"I will not give up other people for the sake of one person. That is my stance."
"Now that you know this, do you still want to be my girlfriend?"
The words were undeniably cruel.
They shattered a dreamy, pink-tinted fantasy of romance in an instant, revealing the most real, most complicated core beneath.
The blush on Eiko's cheeks faded visibly.
In her eyes flashed a moment of struggle, a flicker of pain, and even a hint of something that belonged to a yandere, a twisted, feverish jealousy.
But in the end, all those negative feelings were drowned out by an even stronger, more obsessive desire to possess.
Slowly, she showed a smile that could unsettle anyone who saw it, a smile tinged with the faintest trace of sickness.
"…It does not matter."
She spoke softly, every word filled with unwavering determination.
"As long as… as long as I can stay by your side, Natsume-kun, nothing else matters."
"The others… I do not care about them. Because I absolutely will not lose to them."
"In the end, I won't lose to anyone else when it comes to you."
Natsume quietly watched her. From those eyes burning like twin flames, he saw a love that was almost distorted in its purity.
He did not say anything more.
He simply reached out again and took her cool hand in his.
Everything that needed to be said was already contained in that gesture.