The Sword Deity in Tokyo

During the lunch break on the second day, Sena Nagayama brought the contract to Sakura Kyu Academy.

Kazuki went through it briefly in the Principal’s office and did not discover any problems with it. He signed his name straight away.

Upon seeing this, Sena Nagayama said with a smile, “The salary is paid weekly, and Harunaka will pass you the salary every week. Of course, I will be reminding her every week, just in case she forgets about it.”

“No problem.” Sena Nagayama was a thoughtful person where she had considered all aspects of the matter, putting Kazuki at ease.

“Do make preparations these few days and bring along the invoices for the cost of teaching materials to pass them to Harunaka if you need to claim reimbursement.”

This was also the reason why Sena Nagayama wanted Kazuki to start tutoring next Monday. After all, some things needed to be prepared before the tutoring began.

“Alright.” Kazuki smiled. Typically, tutoring materials would be prepared by the private tutors themselves as the teaching content was basically from the textbooks. If any teaching materials needed to be purchased, the students would be informed to buy it themselves.

However, Sena Nagayama did not have any sense of trust towards Harunaka and the others. Hence, she might as well just let Kazuki arrange things himself. Kazuki did not have any opinion about this point, it was only a small matter.

Once everything was correctly arranged, Sena Nagayama excused herself and left.

She also had work that she had delayed for two days by coming to Jinwen District but could not delay any longer. Kazuki thanked the principal once again and left the Principal’s office.

Time flew by quickly, and the afternoon school bell that signaled the end of classes rang.

Kazuki left the classroom swiftly. According to his usual routine, he should have been paying more attention to the situation of the Sword Believers’ Club these past two days. However, he had quite a lot of things on his plate, so he passed these matters to Eguchi Keisuke.

Walking out the school gate, he did not go home but instead headed directly toward the direction of the railway station. Today, he decided to have a look at the situation of Eguchi Keisuke’s brother.

The obsession of Akie Hanzawa was somewhat general, but fortunately, it was not the type of obsession that could not be fixed. Otherwise, he would have had to put him out with euthanasia.

In his past life, Kazuki would wander in the library of the Spiritual Academy and would read the journals of ancient cultivators during his free time. He would discover lots of fascinating things every time, adding some spice into his dull research life.

The obsessiveness of apparitions was important to ancient cultivators. Due to ancient feudalism, the existence of apparitions was more common then than in modern times. However, a majority of them were demons that could not be absorbed. Ancient cultivators would choose to destroy them and suppress them if they could not be defeated.

As for spirits, they were dealt with in the exact same way as Kazuki was doing now, by satisfying their obsessions and absorbing them. After all, the formation of apparitions was formed from reiki melding with their consciousness. Then, the consciousness of the spirit would vanish from the world without the support of its fixation, leaving behind a mass of complete and pure reiki, which could aid in cultivation.

It was different from the reiki that was absorbed during cultivation where the reiki left behind from the dissipation of spirit obsessiveness was complete and superbly pure at the same time.

Cultivation was comparable to building a house in which the reiki ordinarily absorbed by cultivators during cultivation were bricks to be used in building a brick house.

On the other hand, the reiki left behind from the apparition were ceramic tiles. As the quality of the reiki was different, thus the house built would be different as well.

It was also possible for Kazuki to forcefully absorb reiki even if the obsession was not satisfied. However, the utilization rate would be the same as that of a demon, full of impurities. If the impurities were removed, the quantity of reiki left would be minimal.

He and ancient cultivators differed from the fact that they did not even dare to absorb reiki that was mixed with impurities as such reiki was fatally toxic.

Just like the blood-sucking bat he had destroyed before, it had internal reiki that was enough for him to evolve into the Peak of the First Foundation State. Yet after filtering through the impurities, the reiki was only just enough for him to enter the later stage of the First Foundation State.

Ancient cultivators would try their best to satisfy spirits’ obsessions. However, each apparition had different obsessions, some of which were a bit much at times. What could be done at times like this?

For instance, in the journal of the Buddhist Meigetsu, its content wrote of him at the age of 56 when he had met a spirit whose obsession was to be immortal.

This kind of obsession was a small matter in the recuperation of the reiki era because once spirits reached the cultivation of the Metamorphosis State, they would be released from their obsession. The Spiritual Academy would let these spirits cultivate and reach the Metamorphosis State within a week, only then would they not have any of these impossible obsessions.

However, cultivation itself in ancient times was difficult, and such was the case for apparitions as well.

Hence, the ancient cultivators came up with a humanitarian method, known as the ‘Consciousness Comforting Method’. With personal reiki, a mild approach was used to envelop the consciousness of the apparition. The consciousness of the apparition would be comforted in a warm and gentle bubble, and be removed slowly.

This removal process would take a longer time, whereby the minimum time needed would be one month, and the maximum would take up to three months.

However, after removal, the total quantity of reiki would significantly reduce, and the quality would be no different from normal reiki. Therefore, as long as there was a chance of satisfying the obsession of the spirit, ancient cultivators basically did not give up. Despite the duration needed to complete the obsession being very long, they would still willingly do so.

Regardless of whether the method used was gentle, the act of erasing the consciousness of an apparition itself was ruthless, but it was a matter that could not be helped. In situations where the obsessions of spirits were unable to be satisfied, the obsessions of these spirits would gradually become twisted as time passed… Maybe with a few years, a decade, or even hundreds of years, the twistedness would grow and develop in time to finally turn them into demons.

Apparitions were unstable factors that only countries in the era of the recuperation of reiki could control. However, where cultivation in ancient times itself was challenging in addition to the constant turbulence and chaos of ancient imperial courts embroiled in war, the number of cultivators decreased even more. Ancient cultivators who met unresolvable spirits would apply the ‘Consciousness Comforting Method.’

In an era where there was no recuperation of reiki, this was a clean-cut method that was born out of a lack of alternative options.

If the obsession of Akie Hanzawa could not be satisfied, Kazuki would not try to be courteous and would directly apply the ‘Consciousness Comforting Method’ to euthanize him. This was for his personal cultivation and also to prevent Akie Hanzawa from transforming into a demon.

Moreover, his use of the ‘Consciousness Comforting Method’ would not require such a long period of three months with the help of the sword’s spirit. So, according to Kazuki estimations, it would take only approximately two weeks to do so.

Of course, the best option would be to satisfy his obsession.

With that in mind, Kazuki sat on the train seat with the Sun and Moon Sword in his arms, resting with his eyes closed. Meanwhile, Akie Hanzawa, who was beside him, was commenting on the high school girls on the train.

“Gosh… The bow-legged problem of Japanese girls has been getting more serious recently.”

“There’s not even a single girl that can be called ‘cute’ in this coach!”

“Sigh, Master Kimura, there are a few girls at the side who are looking at you. They aren’t that good-looking.”

Along the way, Akie Hanzawa’s endless blabbering did not irritate Kazuki, but he did not speak to him either. After the train was announced to have arrived at the Seigyoku District, he then got off the train.

Akie Hanzawa’s brother was studying in Akihide High School, located in the Seigyoku District. However, according to Akie Hanzawa, his brother Mikito Hanzawa had joined the Culture Department, so he was in no rush.

Since club activities would take quite a long time, he did not plan to find Mikito Hanzawa immediately and instead decided to take a look around first.