Seeing

The bell rang, and the sun was already sliding toward the west.

With the ringing of the dismissal bell, the moment of release finally arrived. Students throughout the campus stood up amid lively chatter, ending a full day of classes. As they talked among themselves, they began heading toward their various destinations.

Miketsu—now inhabiting the body of a middle school girl named Fushimi Inaba—finished packing her things, slung her bag over her shoulder, and walked straight out of the classroom. Looking through the window at the sun hanging in the sky, she could not help but sigh.

“Getting out of school this early, huh…”

Japanese middle schools usually dismissed a little after three o’clock, far earlier than in Miketsu’s previous life. Of course, dismissal did not mean the end of a student’s day—there were still club activities and cram schools afterward, and after all that, it would not be very early by the time one got home.

That said, since Miketsu had only just enrolled, she had not joined any clubs yet. Nor did she want to waste time on supplementary classes. With nothing in particular to do, she simply chose to go straight home.

“F–Fushimi-san!”

After that, accompanied by a crisp voice, a girl with light chestnut-colored hair ran up to Miketsu’s side. Miketsu turned her head slightly, thought for a moment, and confirmed that she was a classmate who sat behind her—her name was Hayakawa Rin.

“Hayakawa Rin… what is it?” Miketsu replied calmly.

However, when Hayakawa looked into Miketsu’s somewhat piercing eyes and felt the pressure that came with them, she was startled and took two steps back.

Eek! Fushimi-san feels so scary… even scarier than my grandpa…

Damn it—old habits again. I almost spoke as if I were addressing foxes or yokai subordinates…

Seeing this, Miketsu complained inwardly. Back in the Heian era, whether dealing with gods, great onmyoji, or supreme yokai generals, she had long been accustomed to the position of one in authority.

Looking at the frightened girl before her, Miketsu quickly adjusted her mindset, relaxed her expression, and spoke again with a gentle smile.

“Hayakawa-san, right? Did you need something from me?”

“Ah… um, well… it’s nothing important. I–I just thought that earlier, when you recited the poem, you were really elegant, Fushimi-san, so I wanted to… um… chat a bit.”

Seeing Miketsu’s demeanor and tone shift by a full one hundred and eighty degrees, Hayakawa froze for a moment, then scratched her head and laughed awkwardly as she spoke—though she still unconsciously kept a bit of distance.

After that, Miketsu and Hayakawa Rin began chatting casually. As the conversation continued in a calm atmosphere, Hayakawa’s earlier tension finally eased. Before long, she revealed the real reason she had come over.

“Fushimi-san… I think you should be careful of Eguchi-san and her group. It looks like you’ve become their target…”

Lowering her voice, Hayakawa spoke while glancing sideways into the distance.

“Target?” Miketsu murmured, following Hayakawa’s gaze.

At the far end of the corridor stood several girls whispering among themselves. Miketsu recognized them—they were all classmates.

Among them, the apparent leader had dyed blonde curls and heavy makeup, her gaze frivolous and her expression confident. She was openly talking while looking straight in Miketsu’s direction.

“Hey, did you see her? That transfer from Kyoto. I’ve never heard a Kansai dialect like that before. She talks like some old granny—does she think she stepped out of a jidaigeki or something? It’s hilarious…”

“Yeah, yeah… so funny…”

Thanks to her heightened perception, Miketsu could clearly hear their conversation. She felt no anger at all—if anything, she found it amusing.

A thousand years ago, people speaking Kyoto speech would have had the entire country kneeling and calling them ‘my lord.’ Everywhere outside Heian-kyo was just a bunch of backwater bumpkins. And now, a millennium later, Kyoto gets regionally discriminated against? Interesting.

“Hayakawa-san, is my accent really that strange?” Miketsu asked.

“No, not at all! I think your way of speaking is very elegant. It’s just… around here, being too distinctive can get you targeted and isolated.”

Hayakawa whispered her warning. Hearing this, Miketsu more or less understood.

Being isolated for standing out… that’s basically school bullying, isn’t it? These kids—rather than studying, they’re pretty skilled at this nonsense.

As she thought this, Miketsu looked toward the girls talking about her, her gaze sharpening slightly.

“So, tomorrow we should give her a little lesson—eh…?”

Just as the girls were talking animatedly, a furry spider suddenly dropped from a web on the ceiling. It fell straight down into their midst, landing directly on the hand of the leading girl—Eguchi.

For a few seconds, the group froze. Then, all at once, they erupted into screams.

“AAAAH!”

In their panic, the girls scattered wildly and crashed straight into some boys who were cleaning nearby, carrying buckets of dirty water. The boys lost their balance, and the buckets flew from their hands, splashing filthy water all over the girls. One bucket even—by sheer bad luck—landed squarely over Eguchi’s head, drenching her from top to bottom.

“Ahh—what the hell is this?! I can’t open my eyes! Ugh!”

With a bucket still covering her head and dirty water stinging her eyes, Eguchi staggered forward. Her foot slipped, and she fell hard to one side. In her blurred vision, she instinctively grabbed onto the nearest thing she could—and yanked.

“Damn it… where did that spider even come from…?”

Rubbing her eyes, Eguchi slowly got up from the floor. Then, in front of her, a grinding female voice rang out.

“You little—”

Hearing that voice, Eguchi shuddered violently. Still wearing the bucket on her head, she raised her face in horror—and saw a tall, muscular upperclassman with dyed red hair. She had a cigarette between her fingers, stickers on her face, heavy makeup, and a face so sharp it looked almost masculine. She was glaring at Eguchi with an extremely dangerous expression.

And Eguchi herself… was clutching a torn skirt in her hands. Between the upperclassman’s thick legs, pink panties were plainly visible.

Seeing this scene, the other girls who had been with Eguchi felt a chill run down their spines and quickly stepped back, distancing themselves from her.

“T–That is, Masuda-senpai, I can explain—” Eguchi stammered in terror.

As she spoke, she let go of the torn skirt. Masuda pulled it back into place, then grabbed Eguchi by the arm and dragged her away.

“You can explain it to me in the bathroom.”

“N–No! Please don’t!”

……

At the other end of the hallway, Hayakawa Rin stood frozen, staring at Eguchi being dragged away, utterly speechless.

Everything had happened far too suddenly. She had just warned Miketsu about Eguchi—and in the blink of an eye, Eguchi was gone like that. What on earth had just happened?

“Well, looks like she won’t be bothering me anymore. See you later.”

Watching the scene from afar, Miketsu spoke calmly. After saying goodbye to Hayakawa, she turned and left. Hayakawa could only nod blankly, just like everyone else nearby, still unable to process what had just occurred.

……

Leaving school early, Miketsu headed home. Walking along the bustling streets, watching the stream of cars and people, she breathed in the atmosphere of modern life while reminiscing about the ancient, tranquil streets of Heian-kyo.

Faced with this sense of separation across eras, she could not help but feel nostalgic for the serenity of the Heian period.

“In ancient times, I longed for the future. Now in the modern age, I yearn for the past… Humans really are contradictory creatures, never satisfied.”

She laughed at herself, then turned her gaze to a vending machine by the roadside.

“But still… this kind of happiness never existed in the Heian era.”

Smiling, Miketsu dropped a coin into the machine. After a few simple operations, a small can of cola fell out. She opened it and took a big gulp.

“Ah… so good~”

After finishing the can and tossing it into a nearby trash bin, Miketsu continued on her way. Before long, she arrived at the train station.

Since it wasn’t rush hour, there weren’t many people around. After waiting on the platform for a short while, the train she needed arrived.

As the doors opened and Miketsu stepped inside, she looked at the seemingly empty carriage and frowned slightly.

“Heh… looks pretty full to me.”

With a quiet chuckle, she took a seat at random. Although there were few passengers, she could clearly sense the gloomy aura permeating the carriage.

Once seated, Miketsu activated spiritual vision.

In an instant, the empty carriage became crowded in her eyes. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees, and faint, whispering noises filled the air.

Before her eyes were countless grotesque abberations.

Infants with heads several times larger than their bodies crawled around with bloodshot eyes. Headless corpses in tattered clothes gripped the train’s hand straps. Charred, twisted humanoid shapes sat stiffly in the seats. Obese figures knelt on the floor, their split flesh crawling with maggots…

The inhabitants of the other side of the world packed this narrow space, yet the living passengers remained completely unaware, each going about their own business.

The ghostly mirror is lively in any era… no, it feels even livelier now. Are there so many humanoid abberations because the population has increased?

Miketsu observed calmly, long accustomed to such sights.

In the modern age, population growth had far outpaced the expansion of the Underworld. More and more souls lingered in the mortal world after death. High-pressure modern life also made it easier to accumulate resentment, twisting these souls into such grotesque forms. They wandered the world, separated from the living by boundaries.

“Fortunately, they’re only abberations.”

Watching passengers pass straight through the ghostly figures, Miketsu murmured. These wandering spirits looked frightening, but due to the boundary, they could not affect the human realm. No matter how desperately they lunged at humans, they would only pass through harmlessly.

They were merely “abberations.” To actively cross the boundary and interfere, one would need to reach at least the level of a yokai.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a single yokai since awakening. Where do they hide in this era? Is there a Ghost Market nearby?

She wondered if she should seek out a Ghost Market later and enjoy some long-missed yokai cuisine.

I wonder who rules the Kanto demon territories these days. Who’s in charge of Tokyo’s yokai? If I remember correctly, in the Heian era, this area was under the Lord of Arakawa—though he only cared about rivers and the sea, never land affairs.

Her thoughts returned to the carriage. Several ghostly beings crept closer to passengers, baring their teeth and whispering into their ears.

“Can… you… see…?”

“Can… you… hear…?”

“Can… you… smell…?”

Miketsu pursed her lips.

Trying to lure people across the boundary, huh? But this method is crude. Anyone who can see or hear them already has spiritual perception. With that much spiritual power, who would be afraid of abberations like these? At worst, they might weaken someone already frail and make them sick.

She was about to turn off her spiritual vision when someone across from her caught her attention.

It was a middle school girl in uniform, slightly older than Miketsu, with a round, cute face and straight black hair. By appearance alone, she looked completely ordinary.

What drew Miketsu’s eye was her behavior.

Most passengers were on their phones, dozing, or reading. This girl, however, was frozen stiff, eyes wide open, staring at her phone. Her attention seemed locked onto the screen, yet her hands holding it did not move at all. The contrast with the other passengers was stark.

Several ghostly beings surrounded her. One, its rotting face inches from her ear, whispered:

“Can… you… see…?”

At that moment, Miketsu clearly saw the girl’s pupils contract sharply—yet her body did not move at all.

Utter terror shone in her eyes, paired with an unnaturally steady posture.

“That girl… she can see them.”

Miketsu stroked her chin, intrigued.

……