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ArabicAnime Crossover: Eating Evil in a Daily World — Chapter 18
Chapter 18: The Soul of Miko’s Father
Meanwhile, on the Commercial Street.
Yotsuya Miko stared at the long sword strapped brazenly to Yozora’s waist. He made absolutely zero effort to conceal the weapon, walking with the casual stride of someone heading to a convenience store rather than illegally carrying a lethal blade in public.
“Is it really okay to be this conspicuous?” Miko whispered, casting nervous glances at the passing crowds. “What if someone discovers it…”
Yozora waved a hand dismissively. “Do you see anyone staring at us?”
Miko looked around, her golden eyes scanning the pedestrians. She nodded slowly. “Yes. There are actually quite a few people staring right at you.”
“That is simply because I am incredibly handsome,” Yozora replied without missing a beat. “It has nothing to do with the sword.”
Narcissism was usually a repulsive trait. Yet, Yozora delivered the line with such flat, justified confidence that Miko found herself completely at a loss for words.
She took a closer look at the people sneaking glances their way. Most of them were young women, and their eyes were indeed glued entirely to Yozora’s face. Not a single gaze drifted down to the massive weapon resting at his hip.
“I suppose you have a point. I was overthinking it,” Miko conceded quietly.
Kyoto was a city where otaku culture thrived. Here on the bustling Commercial Street, it was completely normal to see teenagers wandering around in elaborate cosplay. Yozora’s unmasked, nonchalant attitude toward the prop-like sword actually worked in his favor. If he had tried to wrap it up or act suspiciously, the sheer length of the blade would have drawn far more attention.
As they finally stepped away from the crowded shopping district, Miko glanced at the weapon again. A practical question surfaced in her mind.
“How are you planning to get home later?” she asked. “You definitely cannot take that on the train or the bus. Are you just going to walk the whole way?”
“What are you talking about?” Yozora stopped and looked at her with genuine confusion. He unbuckled the scabbard from his waist and casually shoved it into her hands. “How to get home with this thing is a problem you need to figure out.”
Miko stood frozen, the heavy sword resting awkwardly in her palms. She blinked, entirely bewildered. “Why… wait, you want me to take this back to my house?”
“Obviously.” Yozora’s tone implied she was missing the simplest logic in the world. “This sword is a specialized spiritual object. The very first thing we need to verify is whether it actually projects an aura of deterrence against Ghosts and evil spirits. Therefore, it has to be held by someone who can actually see the local wildlife. You know my situation. You are the only one qualified for this highly important task.”
Miko bit her lip, her expression twisting into a knot of hesitation.
He was right about the logistics. Out of everyone they knew, only she and Yozora possessed the true Yin-Yang Eyes required to see those grotesque entities clearly. While Oda Noto was technically a psychic, he could only perceive vague, distorted shadows at best. To properly test the sword’s repelling effects, the wielder needed crystal-clear spirit vision. Otherwise, there would be no way to confirm if the monsters were actually running away.
But Yozora’s personal situation made him a terrible test subject. He did not need a cursed sword to keep spirits at bay. Yozora himself was a walking hazard to the supernatural. The local ghosts actively kept their distance from him out of sheer survival instinct. The proof was absolute: during her entire day at Sobu High School, Miko had not seen a single trace of those horrifying things. For a girl who lived in a constant state of silent terror, it had been a rare, blissful vacation for her sanity.
If Yozora held the sword, the experiment would be completely useless. The ordinary spirits would not dare approach him regardless of what he was holding.
Yet, there was one critical issue keeping her from accepting the weapon.
Miko looked down at the scabbard, her eyes swimming with deep internal conflict. She slowly raised her head to meet his gaze.
“Yozora… can I trust you?”
“That is a question you need to ask yourself.” The casual amusement vanished from Yozora’s face, replaced by a rare, chilling seriousness. “If you are hiding some unspeakable secret, it is not too late to back out. The choice is entirely in your hands.”
Yozora already knew exactly why she was hesitating.
There was something lingering inside her home. It was difficult to classify. Calling it a ‘Ghost’or an’evil spirit’ felt wrong. It was simply a soul.
If it were just a random phantom, Miko would not care. She had encountered hundreds, if not thousands, of terrifying entities by now. But the soul wandering the halls of her house belonged to her father, who had passed away not too long ago.
If she took the sword home and it turned out to be a dud, that was one thing. But what if it actually worked? What if the spiritual deterrence was so strong that it forcibly banished her father’s soul? Would she ever be able to see him again?
That fear anchored her feet to the pavement.
The two of them stood in absolute silence near the exit of the Commercial Street. Their tense standoff inevitably drew the attention of passing shoppers.
“Are they breaking up?” a girl whispered to her friend.
“Looks like it. It’s getting intense.”
“Ah, the drama of youth is great.”
“Do you think it’s a love triangle? Maybe she caught him cheating?”
“Forget it, let’s just go buy our stuff. I’ve been working all day and I’m exhausted.”
The gossip drifted past them, ignored by both. After a long, heavy silence, Miko finally pursed her lips. A sharp light of determination ignited within her golden eyes. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of the long sword.
“I have made up my mind.”
Taking a deep, trembling breath, Miko confessed everything. She told him about her father’s death, and how his soul had remained trapped within their family home ever since. She forced down the suffocating knot of grief in her chest, her voice steadying into a firm, tragic resolve.
“Although it breaks my heart to let him go… please rest assured. I will take full responsibility. I will personally send my father to the afterlife.”
Yozora stared at her. His expression shifted through a colorful spectrum of absolute bewilderment.
“Wow… I really do admire your ruthless determination to sacrifice your own family for the greater good,” Yozora said, his voice dripping with dry disbelief. “But haven’t you severely misunderstood something here?”
Miko blinked, the tragic heroine atmosphere shattering instantly. “Wait. You don’t intend to destroy my father’s soul?”
“When did I ever say anything remotely close to that?” Yozora threw his hands up, caught somewhere between laughing and sighing. “Your father is not an evil spirit. He poses absolutely zero threat to living humans, and he hasn’t been corrupted by the Doors. Why on earth would I go out of my way to destroy him for no reason?”
The realization hit Miko like a physical blow.
She had completely misunderstood. Because Yozora treated horrifying evil spirits like a casual buffet, devouring them by the hundreds, she had assumed he harbored a merciless, absolute hatred for all supernatural entities. Combined with his earlier statement on the train about refusing to get involved in anything unrelated to evil spirits, Miko had naturally concluded that he was an extremist. She thought he would ruthlessly purge any ghost he found.
That was the entire reason she had been agonizing over the decision.
It turned out she had just been fighting a dramatic internal battle against her own wild imagination.
“I… um… that is…”
Miko, a girl who practically never showed strong emotion on her face, felt a nuclear level of heat rush into her cheeks. Her face burned crimson. She desperately wished the concrete would crack open and swallow her whole.
It was humiliating. It was just too shameful.
She had just delivered a cool, tragic, tear-jerking monologue about sacrificing her beloved father, and it turned out she was just an idiot talking to herself. The social death was agonizing.
Watching Miko short-circuit from embarrassment, Yozora shook his head with a faint smile. Then, his amusement faded, returning to that quiet seriousness.
“However, you weren’t entirely wrong about one thing.”
Miko looked up, still flushed.
“Things cannot stay the way they are,” Yozora warned quietly. “As long as those Doors continue to spawn across Kyoto, the ambient corruption will spread. Eventually, your father will be affected by them. And when that happens, he will transform from a harmless soul into a terrifying evil spirit.”