Chapter – 52
The Vortex of Light
With a bookmark tucked in—
After the Adachi incident,
a period of calm continued for a while.
As part of his rehabilitation,
Adachi seemed to be enjoying making miniatures
in the workshop with the King of the Underworld.
If the ring continued to settle into his body,
he would return to work.
Until then, Mukai was paired with Enat
and stationed in the lower world.
“Without Adachi-kun, it’s hard to tell spirits apart.
I’ve been sending both protected spirits
and dispatched spirits together to the salon—
that’s okay, right?”
“Honestly, I can’t tell the difference either.
The vortex of light appears a few times a day.
Any spirits outside of that are either protected or dispatched ones.
For now, as long as they’re at the salon,
we can hear their stories there,
so having you help out, Enat-san,
really saves me.”
“Then that’s good.
In that case, let’s keep sending them along.”
Enat smiled and twirled a finger.
A vortex formed at its tip, spreading out like ripples,
enveloping the spirits.
“Lately, a lot of spirits have been moving
from erasure toward rebirth,
so it’s nice that the salon has gained
a bit of breathing room.”
“Yeah, it really is.”
Mukai smiled as well.
As the two continued their patrol,
they spotted Sakuma and Makino ahead.
As usual, Makino was loudly making a fuss about something.
“Makino-kun is always so energetic,”
Enat said with a laugh,
his finger still sending spirits off to the Underworld.
“Did something happen?”
As Mukai and the others approached, they called out.
“They’ve done construction to increase the spirit power lines,
so Makino-kun is in a bad mood,”
Sakuma said with a wry smile.
“Shut up! That damn yokai decided to build a stage,
so they told me to increase the spirit power
for the lighting!”
Ah, that recital issue.
They’d already started building the stage…
Everyone really does move fast.
Mukai looked down and chuckled quietly.
“What’s so funny? It’s not funny at all,”
Makino said, pouting unhappily.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s not that.
You know how Sei-kun is doing hip-hop lessons right now?
After seeing that, the King of the Underworld suggested
holding a recital in the Underworld.
And I thought it was a pretty good idea,
so I encouraged him—
that’s why I feel a bit bad for you, Makino-kun.”
“Huh? A recital?”
Enat’s face lit up with delight.
“If you have something you’d like to perform, Enat-san,
it’s open entry—anyone can participate.”
“Ohhh, a recital?
Maybe I’ll join too.”
At Sakuma’s comment,
the three others present were all taken aback.
“What? Is it really that surprising?
Believe it or not, I’m quite good at paper cutting.
I used to perform it as a part-time job
when I was a student.”
“That’s a pretty plain hobby,”
Makino said.
“Paper cutting is a traditional art.
I can even handle some requests,
so it’s perfect for a recital, don’t you think?”
Sakuma said calmly, with a composed look.
“Then I’m in too!!”
“Makino-kun, do you have a talent as well?”
“…I’ll think of one.”
As they were talking,
a street campaign speech drifted over from somewhere.
“Election season already, huh…
I really don’t want the Special Division
to get noisy again,”
Mukai said thoughtfully.
Just then,
evil spirits began to stir.
“Crap. Spirits always react to stuff like this.”
With a shared sigh,
the four of them headed off
to deal with the evil spirits.
