Chapter 357: Girls’ emotions are always strange.
Girls’ emotions are truly a peculiar thing. Even Kazumi Shimizu, who had been a girl for several months, still couldn’t understand why this girl, with whom she wasn’t too familiar, was showing her such great kindness. Was it simply because the other party claimed not to have seen any negative emotions from her through her spiritual sight?
After Kazumi, who had just finished bathing and changed into her pajamas in the bathroom, could not even reach her bed to dry her hair, Mai Shinomiyai, who had been reading by the head of the bed, “heaved a sigh” of closeness.
“Kiyomizu-san!”
“What is it?”
Kazumi, who had just placed a dry towel on her head, had no choice but to turn her head around to give the other party a glare. Who knew that this girl, who usually appeared dignified and elegant, was so clingy in private? What was even more infuriating was that she had no real way to deal with her. She couldn’t kill her, and her usual method of cold treatment didn’t work on her.
As soon as she showed a cold, distant demeanor, this girl would immediately come up and say, “My ability didn’t sense any bad emotions from Kiyomizu-san. Kiyomizu-san, you’re actually a very good person,” and other nonsense, making it impossible to refute.
Mai Shinomiyai seemed to be unreasonably confident in her abilities, but she couldn’t tell her that she was a spirit and had no emotions, so she couldn’t sense anything…
Therefore, until she found a better way to deal with it, Kazumi could only endure this person she disliked constantly sending her signals of goodwill.
“I forgot to ask before, Kiyomizu-san, do you want to learn Onmyoji arts?”
Mai Shinomiyai sat on the edge of the bed, her slender legs crossed, showing a bit of alluring flesh. She seemed oblivious to the girl’s disdain, and her emerald eyes, filled with a smile, looked at Kazumi and asked.
“Onmyoji arts?”
Despite her disdain, the content of Mai Shinomiyai’s question confused Kazumi. What was this? Asking if she wanted to learn Onmyoji arts? Even if the other party didn’t know her identity as a spirit, their relationship should only be that of ordinary classmates. Was it really okay to pass down her abilities like this?
“Yes, it’s the art of controlling energy, manipulating elements, and summoning Shikigami.”
Sensing Kazumi’s confusion, Mai Shinomiyai quickly summoned spiritual energy in her hands, transforming it into various shapes as she explained.
“Can I do it too?”
However, the girl’s mind was not on this. Completely ignoring the other party’s showy energy manipulation to promote it, she looked up at Mai Shinomiyai and asked in return.
“Of course, you can. My family’s shrine has special detection tools. I think with Kiyomizu-san’s talent, you should exceed the ordinary level. After studying for a while, it should be quite easy to get started.”
Hearing Kazumi’s answer, Mai Shinomiyai’s spirits lifted, and her tone became much more cheerful as she quickly replied.
“Let’s… let’s forget it…”
Mai Shinomiyai’s answer extinguished the slight thoughts that Kazumi had just harbored. What a joke, going to the other party’s territory for a talent test?
Although Mai Shinomiyai, this half-baked Onmyoji, couldn’t see through her due to her own abilities, the cautious Kazumi didn’t dare to be so reckless as to run into someone else’s lair.
This world already had spiritual energy and Shikigami, so who knew what kind of gods might pop out of the shrine. Whether she lived or died was a question, and even exposing her abilities through testing would be unbearable.
Therefore, compared to the negligible benefit of learning Onmyoji arts, Kazumi quickly understood that the gains and risks were not proportional. She shook her head and refused decisively.
“Are you having any concerns? If you’re worried about the difficulty of learning, I can help you. And we have a cooperation with the association, so with just a few small techniques, you can already have a good auxiliary position. It’s very good for future development.”
Kazumi’s refusal made Mai Shinomiyai panic. After finally finding a talented seedling, Mai Shinomiyai was really reluctant to give up. She quickly explained some of the benefits the association offered to psychics.
“Power comes with a price.”
“Huh?”
The girl raised the towel over her head, gently
drying her wet hair, and looked at Mai Shinomiyai, who was sitting on the bed looking confused, with a blank expression. She responded emotionlessly.
“Even for auxiliary combatants, the death rate in frontline agencies is 35%. Even though the welfare and benefits are much higher, the risk is still unacceptable. Moreover, considering the cost of learning Onmyoji arts and the sunk cost of not being able to transfer existing knowledge, it is not a good choice overall.”
“…”
The girl’s analysis completely stunned Mai Shinomiyai. A fifteen-year-old kid wouldn’t think about this. For Mai Shinomiyai, it was already a very mature thing to cheer up and study Onmyoji arts to shoulder the family burden. As for the future, costs, and other things that Kazumi spoke of, she had absolutely no idea.
“Although I don’t quite understand, I feel like Kiyomizu-san, your way of thinking is very much like an adult’s…”
Scratching her head somewhat resentfully, Mai Shinomiyai finally managed to say this, and then, as if accepting her fate, she lay back down, carelessly exposing her fair, slender legs from under her pajamas to Kazumi’s eyes.
“Eh, since Kiyomizu-san is reluctant, then forget it.”
With no ripple of emotion, Kazumi’s eyes swept over those round, slender, beautiful legs while her heart was contemplating why the other party was so casually passing down the inheritance of her abilities.
Although the spiritual energy seemed to have little value in the girl’s eyes due to Mai Shinomiyai being the number one person of the younger generation, casually handing over the method of inheriting abilities, and even wanting to take back anyone with talent, it was clearly not a sign of a healthy system of development.
Could it be that psychics are so scarce that there is no one to use?
Wait, this idea actually seemed correct.
According to some summarized information from Kazumi’s previous conversation with Masashi Sakuraba, the development of psychics in Kyoto this year had indeed been miserable.
The “World-Ending Demon Snake” more than ten years ago had almost wiped out the psychics of the current generation. After only a few years of recuperation, Masashi Sakuraba, that unlucky fellow, had finished off the remaining ones. Except for a few old guys who were too old to know if they were dead or not, the rest were all side branches of families or groups that were too weak to participate in battles.
Thinking of it this way, it was somewhat understandable that Mai Shinomiyai, this weakling, could become the number one person of the younger generation.
“I won’t think about this anymore. I’m only fifteen and I don’t want to think about such profound topics.”
As if still thinking about the previous topic, Mai Shinomiyai rubbed her head with some distress, then as if thinking of something, she suddenly sat up like a carp and looked eagerly at Kazumi, who had already gotten into the covers and was still thinking about things.
“Um… Kiyomizu-san, can you teach me how to fall in love?”
(ps: I’m thinking about what kind of character Shinomiyai is. She seems quite well-rounded, doesn’t she? It’s hard to summarize her with a label at the moment.)
