Convergence

Part 1 : chapter 5

"So you're telling me you've been sitting here all day... watching a doctor's office across the street? Wow. That sounds incredibly dull," said a little girl named Ieiri Shoko, casually sipping from a can of Coca-Cola.

Utahime sighed.

She was seated outside a convenience store, tucked into a narrow alley opposite Doctor Takahashi's clinic.

She had already been there for two hours.

Watching. Waiting.

She wore denim jeans and trainers, a black cap pulled low over her long dark hair. In her hands, she held a large newspaper she wasn't actually reading.

"Yes... that's about it," Utahime replied, hoping the answer would discourage further conversation.

"But you realise you look extremely suspicious like that, don't you?" Shoko continued.

Utahime let out a quiet, exasperated breath.

When is she going to leave? she thought. Didn't this child have anything better to do?

It was a Saturday morning at the end of April. The cherry blossoms had begun to bloom, and the air was finally warming.

Utahime had sacrificed one of her rare days off for this.

When she had called her parents on the landline, they hadn't understood her decision at all. They had hoped to spend time with her - had even planned a trip to the seaside.

It had already been four months since she had left home.

Reluctantly, she had told them she had an important duty to fulfil.

And now, she was stuck outside a convenience store... with a persistent little girl who refused to leave.

"Don't you have something else to do?" Utahime asked, her irritation slipping through.

"No. Nothing at all."

Utahime sighed again.

Of course.

"Fine... you can sit here, then."

Without hesitation, Shoko plopped down beside her.

"What year are you in at school?" she asked.

"I'm... not really attending school at the moment. It's complicated."

"Why?"

Utahime hesitated.

How was she supposed to explain this? Perhaps... if she told the truth, the girl might finally leave?

"I can see people's cursed energy. And... I can manipulate it."

"What's cursed energy?"

Of course. To an ordinary person, it must sound absurd.

"It's the manifestation of negative emotions - like stress, fear, sadness. They leak out of people constantly. See that man over there? The one unloading boxes? That small creature clinging to his shoulder - it was born from that energy."

"Oh. I see it too."

"Wait...What?"

"The little green thing on his left shoulder, right?"

"You can see curses?!"

Utahime stared at her, stunned.

The odds of encountering another exorcist like this - randomly, on a Tokyo street - were almost nonexistent.