The blood-red setting sun saturated the entire illusory space. Surrounded by mountains of blurred shadows, the calmly flowing water reflected a crimson glow. On a small island in the middle of the stream, overgrown wild grass swayed with the breeze. Beneath a dense canopy of trees, Eguchi, still in her pajamas, stared in a daze at the girl before her, slowly repeating the name with a stutter.
"Enma... Ai? You're the Hell Girl... Are you here to eliminate my grudge?" Fear was palpable in Eguchi's voice. It was clear she hadn't expected the so-called Hell Correspondence to be real; the urban legend was now manifesting right before her eyes.
Standing before Eguchi was a girl with long black hair, a black uniform, pale skin, and crimson eyes. She looked at the panicked Eguchi with a lifeless expression. Her vermilion lips parted slightly as she spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.
"Hone Onna..."
"Yes... Milady..."
Responding to the dark girl's words, a mature woman stepped out from the shadows beneath the trees. She wore a kimono, her hair pinned up with an ornate hairpin, and possessed the tall, voluptuous figure and aura of an oiran. Stepping forward on her wooden clogs, she stood behind the black-clad girl and wrapped a long scarf around her own neck. Then, with a blur of her form, she suddenly vanished. The sight caused Eguchi to stumble back two steps in fright.
"Take this..."
Seeing Eguchi's distress, Enma Ai reached out. A small straw doll appeared in her palm, with a thin red string tied around its neck. Looking at the straw doll in Enma Ai's hand, Eguchi spoke with a mix of unease and confusion.
"This is..."
"If you truly wish to dispel your grudge, then untie this red string. By untying it, you formally enter into a contract with me. The object of your grudge will be sent to hell immediately..." Enma Ai answered with the same unchanging, cold tone. Taking the straw doll from her hand, Eguchi murmured in shock.
"Sent to... hell?"
"However... once you send another to hell, you must also pay a price..." Enma Ai continued coldly. Hearing this, a visible look of confusion appeared in Eguchi's eyes.
"A price?"
"He who curses another digs two graves. Your soul will also fall into hell afterward, suffering in agony, never to find rebirth... But that will be after your death." Enma Ai slowly spoke the terrifying words. Hearing this, Eguchi's pupils shrank, and her entire body trembled as if she could already see her soul plunging into the abyss.
"My soul has to go to hell too... No, you're kidding, right!? How can it be like that!"
Eguchi cried out loudly, but Enma Ai ignored her and turned away.
Watching Enma Ai depart, Eguchi reached out to say something, but at that moment, the surrounding space began to shift violently. Eguchi's vision blurred, and when it cleared, the blood-red sunset had completely vanished. The space around her returned to being dark and cramped—it was her own familiar bedroom.
Looking at the familiar scenery, Eguchi stood there in a daze, as if everything she had experienced was just a dream. Yet, in the small, dim room, Enma Ai's indifferent whisper echoed softly.
"The rest is for you to decide..."
Hearing those distant words, Eguchi looked down at the straw doll in her hand—the proof that everything before had been no illusion—and fell into a long silence.
...
The moon set and the sun rose; the night faded as day arrived.
Morning sunlight spilled across the campus. During the break between classes, a boisterous atmosphere rose throughout the school as students moved through the hallways and classrooms.
On the rooftop of the teaching building, Eguchi, dressed in her uniform with her yellow curly hair, stood alone by the wire fence. She held the small straw doll with the red string, staring straight at it with a heavy expression, her mind clearly locked in a difficult internal struggle.
"Why... Why do I have to be dragged down just to send that girl to hell... What 'price'... Can't this Hell Correspondence be a bit more reasonable? Maybe a discount for the first order? This feels like such a bad deal right now..."
Looking at the straw doll, Eguchi muttered incessantly to herself, her expression full of dissatisfaction. Not far from her, within the demon realm invisible to ordinary people, three figures stood silently watching her.
"Heh... she actually wants a discount... That's quite funny. Milady, she doesn't look like someone willing to pay the price of going to hell to settle a grudge."
The speaker was a handsome young man with black hair, dressed in casual clothes. A lock of hair hung down to cover one of his eyes, while his visible eye watched Eguchi with clear mockery in his tone.
"Indeed. On the surface, her grudge doesn't seem that deep. Logically, it should have been very difficult for someone with this level of resentment to even see the correspondence website..."
On the other side, a thin, withered old man wearing a hat and a simple shirt spoke with a slightly puzzled expression as he watched Eguchi.
Between the young man and the old man stood the black-haired girl with the expressionless face—the Hell Girl, Enma Ai. She watched Eguchi silently, her face devoid of any obvious emotion.
"Wanyudo... have you clarified the reason for her grudge?" Enma Ai spoke slowly in her cold, flat voice. The old man replied.
"Ah, that. Based on my undercover inquiries this morning, I know a bit... Our client this time seems to be a vainglorious school bully. She wanted to bully a classmate she disliked, but for some reason, she kept failing due to various bizarre accidents. This caused her to suffer many injuries and lose face in her social circle, which led to her accumulating a grudge against the person she originally intended to bully."
The yokai elder known as Wanyudo adjusted his hat as he explained the results of his morning investigation. Wanyudo was a wheel yokai who served as Enma Ai's attendant and, at times, her mode of transportation.
"Bizarre accidents?" Enma Ai asked softly, and Wanyudo continued.
"Yeah... according to the students' descriptions, it was all sorts of unexpected mishaps. It seems the client's luck is just terrible. Because she failed so many times, it's debatable whether the target of her grudge even knows she's being watched."
Enma Ai paused briefly before turning her gaze to the black-haired young man and speaking calmly.
"Ichimoku Ren, what about the target?"
"Well, I did a preliminary investigation of the target this morning. Her name is Fushimi Inaba. She seems to be a transfer student from the Kansai region. It appears the client took a disliking to her because of her accent. From her situation at school, she seems like a very ordinary, common student. If there's anything notable, it's that her grades are excellent, but she's not very social and has few friends."
The young yokai known as Ichimoku Ren reported. He was also a yokai attendant of Enma Ai, his true form being a tsukumogami of a tachi.
"From the current situation, that Fushimi Inaba seems to have no idea she's being hated. She's in danger of being sent to hell despite having done absolutely nothing. Tsk, tsk..."
As Ichimoku Ren spoke, Wanyudo chimed in.
"Heh, from your tone... you seem to pity her? Oh, right, you were a famous blade forged at Mount Nanakaku in Kansai? So you're technically hometown folks."
"Not exactly. I already had consciousness and had become a yokai by the time I arrived here, haha... Though people say I'm a blade forged by the God of Mount Nanakaku and even call me Ichimoku Ren by the god's name, fighting over me... who knows what the truth is? Maybe I was just forged by an ordinary blacksmith, and they just tacked on that story for the prestige..."
The blade tsukumogami known as Ichimoku Ren said to Wanyudo. Meanwhile, Enma Ai continued to watch Eguchi and spoke indifferently.
"Continue the investigation... Monitor the client and the target. I feel... this request might not be as simple as it appears on the surface."
Enma Ai spoke coldly. Hearing her words, Wanyudo and Ichimoku Ren looked at each other and replied simultaneously.
"Yes... Milady..."
...
In the classroom during the break, Miketsu sat at her desk, focused on playing an action mobile game on her phone. Behind her, Hayakawa Rin was frantically catching up on her homework.
"Inaba, let me borrow your pen!"
"Ah, take it yourself..."
Miketsu replied softly. Hayakawa Rin hurriedly grabbed the pen from Miketsu's desk and continued writing furiously. Their ordinary interaction was captured by a high-altitude gaze.
In the demon realm invisible to ordinary people, a massive eye opened on the classroom ceiling, looking down at the noisy school scene, its focus concentrated directly on Miketsu.
'She really does look like just an ordinary student, nothing special about her... But since Milady said that, I should get a bit closer to monitor her...'
Ichimoku Ren, the demon eye on the ceiling, thought to himself. Just as he was about to move to a closer position, a figure walked quickly past the classroom hallway.
A student guidance teacher with a balding "monk's patch" hairstyle and glasses walked briskly down the hall with a stern expression. Students nearby scrambled out of his way in fear. Suddenly, the teacher's eyes flashed as he spotted something eyesore-inducing in the classroom.
"Class 1-B! There's a spiderweb on the ceiling! How are you doing your cleaning?! Get it cleaned up right now!"
"Yes, sir!"
Under the teacher's sharp command, several students in the hallway immediately found a long-handled broom specifically for cleaning ceilings. They entered the classroom from the back, which happened to be a blind spot for the demon eye's vision.
Then, a male student gripped the long broom, aimed at a spiderweb on the ceiling, and thrust the broom upward—right into the wide-open demon eye.
Immediately after, a man's scream rang out on the school rooftop.
Rate on N.U.
