Chapter 25: Directive from the Society

Chapter 25: Directive from the Society

I supposed it was thanks to reconciling with Nagumo and walking with her all over the school.

Distrust with the spiritual disaster counseling room had cleared up a little and we were starting to see more and more students coming in for counselings.

Nevertheless, most of the counselings had little to do with spirits and there was almost no change to patrolling the school being our main activity.

Although Soya was slightly dissatisfied with the continuation of such tedious work, I was generally happy with the fact that I was able to do my work safely without using climax exorcism. I thought it would be nice if things stayed this way.

–It was then.

The responsibility for investigating the spree of random street attacks that were said to be happening frequently in Shinonome had shifted from the city’s police department to the Exorcist Society.

"‘There have been a number of assaults in Shinonome that are believed to be the work of a monster. The Society will be dispatching multiple teams of exorcists to the city, so cooperate with them to strengthen the night patrols. See the attached sheet for details.’ it says! I have a hunch that this is the big job we’ve been waiting for!"

Soya cheerfully read out the directive that had been sent directly from the Exorcist Society and puffed out a breath in excitement as she stood up–no, threw her upper body on the desk in the spiritual disaster counseling room and squished her soft cheek on its surface.

"What are you doing?"

"No–, you see, I’ve been feeling a bit of an information overload these days."

"An information overload?"

I asked her and Soya removed her contact lenses as she responded, "That’s right, an information overload." Pink hearts floated within her eyes. It was the cursed ability that forced her to see other people’s sexual information at all times, demon eyes.

"I can’t turn the demon eyes off so every time I meet someone for the first time, information flows in. This school is full of people I don’t know so I’m always bombarded with tons of information… it’s especially overwhelming after school since I have to walk all over the place."

It looks like there’s going to be a lot of work! Soya had enthusiastically said back then, but it seemed like she was having a surprisingly hard time.

She was a big difference from Karasuma who was drooling over her erotic book as she listened to music on her earbuds, taking advantage of the fact that there were currently no students visiting the spiritual disaster counseling room.

Ah well, I supposed it couldn’t be helped. I decided to buy her a juice or something before she looked over the details of the directive.

I left my seat and was about to go out into the hallway when the door opened by itself, startling me.

"Whoa!?"

"Hello–, is Furuya here? Oh, you’re right in front of me."

I bumped into Nagumo as she opened the door and walked into the spiritual disaster counseling room.

She was smiling spiritedly today and like usual, I had trouble knowing where to look as her huge breasts shook and her ponytail swayed.

T, that was dangerous. I was about to collide head-on with Nagumo’s breasts when we bumped into each other… as my heart secretly pounded,

"Hmph!? I just saw something jiggle out of the corner of my eye!?"

Noticing the presence of Nagumo’s breasts, Karasuma looked up from her erotic book and pulled out her earbuds as she stood up. From the earbuds which had been tossed away, we could hear the beats of trending music–no, never mind, the sound of pants and moans.

This idiot, she was reading an ero book while listening to an ero voice track at the same time…!?

"Super boobs! Super melons! Well, well, well, isn’t this Miss Boobs who I met on the first day!"

Karasuma greeted Nagumo’s breasts with a twinkle in her eye. This idiot apparently remembered Nagumo by her breasts, not her face or her name.

…Looked like she still hadn’t learned her lesson.

"I’m sorry, Nagumo-san! I’ll get her to quiet down now!"

Soya raised herself from our desk and tied up Karasuma while apologizing to an exasperated and wryly smiling Nagumo.

"I don’t want to be tied down! I don’t want to be tied down! I want to be on the side that ties others up!"

Karasuma resisted by shouting but Soya grabbed her by the ears and rolled her up helplessly.

"Geez. They’re all about boobs. When talking about women, you have to start from the inside."

Nagumo said mannishly while folding her arms.

Karasuma who was now strapped to a chair smiled fearlessly as she said, "You don’t understand, Miss Boobs."

"Protected by outer garments, bras, and laws, boobs are a forbidden paradise that cannot be viewed from the outside. In other words, boobs are also part of a woman’s inside!"

"I’m sorry, Nagumo-san! I’ll shut her up now! I’ll shut her up now!"

"Hmph!? Mmm!?"

Soya sealed up Karasuma’s mouth and the room finally regained its serenity.

"Sorry for causing you trouble, Nagumo. So, why are you here today?"

I asked as I rolled Karasuma to a corner of the room. Only then did Nagumo remember what she was there for as she sat herself down in a chair and began, "Well, that…"

"I came here to ask for some advice, and it’s kind of… well, it’s weird."

Nagumo who was usually cheerful and energetic now seemed uncharacteristically hesitant.

Nagumo paused for a short time to choose her words then eventually said,

"Have you heard of the woman who runs away from boobs?"

…hm? What?

"The woman who runs away from boobs? Not the slit-mouthed woman?"

When I mentioned the name of a famous monster, Nagumo shook her head.

According to Nagumo, the "woman who runs away from boobs" was a mysterious person who had been the subject of rumors in the city of Shinonome since some time ago.

A suspicious woman dressed in a red coat, hiding her face with a hat and mask.

She asked people on the street "Are my boobs, big?" and beat up without hesitation anyone who answered anything similar to "They’re not?"

If some were careful enough to answer "They’re big." then she would open up her coat, show her flat bra, and ask "What about now?", resulting in the same beating.

"There are rumors that if you say ‘big boobs’ three times to her then she won’t hit you or if you stuffed your shirt then she’ll avoid you out of fear… that’s what I’ve heard, anyway."

So that was how she got the name "woman who runs away from boobs", huh?

What a silly urban legend… I thought as I slightly cringed. Nagumo scratched her head and bitterly smiled, "Well, that’s the kind of reaction I had expected."

"At first, we also just laughed it off. But lately, some of the people around me have been getting hurt pretty badly and we’re getting scared. I’ve even started answering the requests of some girls to be their bodyguard and take them home."

Nagumo nervously spoke with an apprehensive expression.

"…So, what do you think? Could this be the work of, uh, an evil spirit?"

She said that she was taking on the role of a bodyguard but she was probably the most scared among them.

However, this woman who ran away from breasts… Nagumo told us that she had already been involved in numerous assaults so perhaps–

"It’s not an evil spirit, it’s a monster."

Soya answered Nagumo’s question while looking down at the directive that had arrived from the Society.

"The directive doesn’t call her the "woman who runs away from boobs" but calls her "Monster A of Shinonome city"… However, her appearance and behavior match the details in the directive perfectly. Well, the directive doesn’t say anything about stuffing our shirts so perhaps it would be best to take that rumor with a grain of salt."

Soya handed me the directive and when I read it, I found that it certainly contained a lot of content that matched what we had just heard from Nagumo.

The monster was estimated to be second or third-ranked.

Since the identity of the person was unknown, there were not many ways to approach this. We either had to encounter the woman by chance and exorcise her or try to gather more information about her instead.

"Is a monster… different from an evil spirit?"

Nagumo tilted her head as she asked, partly out of fear and partly out of curiosity.

"Well, to put it simply, you can imagine a monster as a person who has turned into an evil spirit but still has the ability to somewhat live normally."

I tried to give a brief explanation to Nagumo.

We all had negative emotions such as resentment, bitterness, insecurity, regret, and frustration. When these emotions were too strong, people sometimes attracted minor spirits or yin energy in the air. With these emotions as a core, they turned into evil spirits even while continuing to live their lives.

The more yin energy a person attracted, the more their core’s negative emotions would swell. And the more their negative emotions swelled up, the more yin energy the person would attract. At the end of this vicious cycle of negativity, the monster would acquire unusual abilities and crazy thoughts that matched their emotions and eventually start harming people. This was essentially how monstrification worked.

And since the person who had been swallowed up by the monster was not aware of it, their condition often worsened without anyone noticing. Dealing with these things was an absolute nuisance.

This woman who ran away from boobs seemed like she had an aggravated case of insecurity with her small-breasts…

"So, in other words…"

Nagumo who had been tilting her head as she listened to my explanation seemed to have suddenly noticed something as her eyes lit up.

"Since they have physical bodies, I can just take them down with my shinai right!? If that’s the case then I should be fine."

No, no, no.

"Although it’s certainly possible to beat them down, please remember that they’re no longer human. So if you happen to meet one, please run away."

Well, if the rumors that this woman avoided big breasts were true then Nagumo didn’t have anything to worry about… However, you never knew what might happen with a monster so I had to give a few words of advice to Nagumo who was currently full of energy.

However, Nagumo seemed to be relieved for the time being to know that her opponent had a physical body, and said, "Thanks for the counseling!" as she returned to the kendo club with a cheerful smile. Was she really going to be okay…?

"Well, at any rate, our initial response will be crucial if this is a monster!"

Soya stood up with the directive in her hand.

"After all, speed is everything when it comes to exterminating monsters! We need to start doing night patrols starting from today!"

If left untreated, the symptoms of monstrification would worsen all on its own, making the monster even more powerful and vicious.

Moreover, a person who had been monstrified would have no memory of their time as a monster and were usually indistinguishable from ordinary people. It was not easy even for professionals to solve the problem when the suspect still hadn’t been narrowed down.

Soya’s view that we should move as soon as possible was correct. She was correct, but…

"Even if we happen to find this monster, do you think we can handle it?"

The monster was estimated to be second or third-ranked, meaning that she was a threat on a par with the woman who crawled on all fours.

All of Soya’s techniques were at the D class level and Karasuma’s restraint techniques were only activated if the target was a beautiful woman.

"We don’t know if this woman who runs away from bobs is good-looking or not, and besides, she’s hiding her face behind a mask, isn’t she?"

"It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine! Her hat and mask can be removed by my shikigami and even if she’s not to Aoi’s liking or we can’t exorcise her, finding her and gathering information is also important!"

If we use the shikigami as bait, we can escape safely! Soya said. Apparently shikigami, even when first-ranked, were quite useful.

"Well, I understand the importance of gathering information. If you already have an escape plan then I don’t have a problem with this night patrol."

"Well then, let’s do our best to help solve the case!"

And so on that day, we received the directive from the Society and began our night patrols. While remaining unaware of just how insane the "woman who runs away from boobs", who at first glance seemed to be a joke of a monster, had already become.