“I know that,” Hearing Tsuchimiya Kagura say that Hikigaya Hachiman meant no harm, Iwahata Kouji nodded deeply in agreement.

Even though he didn’t truly understand who this dead-fish-eyed boy really was, just from the fleeting look of respect that passed through their team’s ace—Izayama Yomi’s—eyes and the intense danger signals ringing from his own body, he knew this boy was extraordinarily powerful.

If this young man truly harbored malicious intent, the three of them would probably already be lying on the ground waiting to be carried away in body bags.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. It was a conclusion Kouji Iwahata came to after accurately assessing his own combat capability.

Although he didn’t dare to keep his eyes fixed on Hikigaya Hachiman for too long, Iwahata speculated about his true identity. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel⁂fire.net

As a former overseas mercenary with excellent combat experience and a faint trace of spiritual power in his body, Iwahata had been lucky enough to be recruited into Japan’s exorcist unit.

However, due to his own limited strength, even though he was respected in the team, his clearance level was actually lower than that of Tsuchimiya Kagura, who had only been on the team for less than a month.

As a result, he didn’t have access to many classified files and could only analyze and speculate based on what little intel he had.

The Tsuchimiya family basically represented the top tier of spiritual power in Tokyo.

As the new generation of the Tsuchimiya family, Kagura and Izayama Yomi were already at the pinnacle of their class.

But clearly, neither of them stood a chance against the boy in front of them.

Since he wasn’t someone from the Kanto region, that left only Kansai or Hokkaido.

“A Kyoto household?” Hokkaido hadn’t produced any notable talents in years. With this suspicion, Iwahata raised his eyes to look at Hikigaya Hachiman.

“Kyoto?” Hikigaya blinked in confusion, genuinely baffled by this old man suddenly bringing up something so strange.

“Ah, sorry. I have a habit of talking to myself.”

Seeing the blank look on Hikigaya’s face, Iwahata immediately understood that he had made a misjudgment due to his limited access to intel.

“All right, Uncle Iwahata, stop overthinking. We still need to get back to Tokyo.” Hikigaya had no idea what Iwahata had been implying, but Izayama Yomi did.

Sighing inwardly that knowing too much wasn’t necessarily a good thing, she stepped forward to cut off Iwahata’s speculation, then opened the car door and gestured for Tsuchimiya Kagura to get in.

“Oh, right. Big brother, would you like us to give you a ride home?” With one foot in the car, Kagura suddenly realized this was the perfect opportunity to visit Hikigaya’s house.

“That won’t be necessary. This isn’t the countryside—there’s a bus stop nearby.” Hikigaya politely declined.

If they were out in the suburbs, he wouldn’t mind accepting, but the train had broken down in central Chiba. A bus stop was just a short walk away, and if he didn’t feel like waiting, he could always spend a bit more on a taxi.

“I see. Then goodbye, big brother!” Although she didn’t get to visit Hikigaya’s house, Tsuchimiya Kagura wasn’t discouraged.

After all, her goal had simply been to get to know Hikigaya and build a friendly relationship.

Now that she was already good friends with Komachi, she’d have plenty of chances to interact with Hachiman in the future.

After saying goodbye, the black SUV sped off down the road.

It wasn’t clear how long they were silent. Only when the car merged onto the Tokyo expressway did Izayama Yomi suddenly jab her finger into a spot on the car wall, removing a hidden listening device. With a faint sigh, she looked helplessly at Iwahata.

“Uncle Iwahata, I’ve told you before, haven’t I? Don’t go digging into things you don’t have clearance for.”

“Yeah, but I still want to know.”

“If you keep going rogue like this, you could very easily be disposed of, you know?” Seeing Iwahata nod expressionlessly, Izayama Yomi rubbed her silky long hair in frustration.

Other than her father and Tsuchimiya Kagura, the people she cared about most were her fellow exorcist team members.

But Iwahata’s constant attempts to uncover things he shouldn’t be prying into made her genuinely afraid that one day he might suddenly ‘heroically die in the line of duty.’

“I used to think the world was only so big… until the division chief found me and introduced me to you all.” Instead of being worried by Yomi’s concern, Iwahata smiled.

“In my eyes, decades of warfare and gunfire were nothing compared to the past year of missions with you. So I want to understand more of the truth about this world—even if it costs me my life.”

“But Uncle Iwahata, if you die, we’ll be really sad.” Now that they were in the car, Kagura no longer needed to carry her heavy guitar case.

Opening it, she pulled out a katana almost identical in design to Hikigaya’s demon-slaying blade and held it in her arms with a worried expression.

Ever since her mother passed away when she was ten, she hadn’t felt the warmth of family in a long time.

Though she’d only been with the team for less than a month, she already saw each of them as family.

“All right, I’ll be more careful from now on.” Seeing both Yomi and Kagura urging him to tone it down, Iwahata showed a rare look of resignation.

“Speaking of which… I wonder how the other members are doing…” Seeing Iwahata back down, Yomi nodded in satisfaction, then began to worry about the other half of their exorcist team.

Due to a manpower shortage, the team had been forced to split into two groups today for separate missions.

With two powerful members on Yomi’s side, their task had been easily completed. But the other team…

“It was just a bunch of small fry. No need to worry.” Compared to Yomi’s concern, Iwahata had full confidence in their teammates’ abilities.

“Let’s hope so…” Yomi sighed softly.

For some reason, ever since meeting Hikigaya Hachiman, she had felt a lingering tightness in her chest, as if something bad was about to happen.

“If you’re that concerned, why not call them? They should be on their way back to base by now.” As he spoke, Iwahata pulled out his phone and began contacting the other team.

“Eh? What’s that?” Kagura, still hugging her katana and lost in thoughts of Hikigaya, suddenly noticed a cluster of blue butterflies fluttering ahead of the car.

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