Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

The leisure pool’s Watery Gnawer had been defeated.

There should be no more victims.

The homeroom teacher nervously patrolling the city with a flashlight in hand would return to school tomorrow without issue.

After parting ways with the sisters, Yahirodono Tsumugi returned to the detective agency on her own.

“Is it over?”

“Of course,” replied the shrine maiden with black hair tied back as she tossed the old oil lighter to the detective.

Yes.

There hadn’t been any problems.

“The older Betsuzaki sister was charmed and lured by the Watery Gnawer, so she would have tried to protect it.”

But Hisame Kouga was a detective. He had no convenient spiritual sense at all. But he knew how to arrive at the truth without relying on that sort of inborn talent.

So with three simple words, he arrived at the heart of the matter.



“''Was it hard''?”

The online shrine maiden pressed her forehead against his chest.

She was trembling.

She was suppressing the sobs, but she knew he would still feel them.



''“How could you…?”



Those words were born of misunderstanding.

Rainy had been charmed by the Malign Spirit, preventing her from seeing what it didn’t want her to see.

But those words had still come from her heart.



''“How can you do this!? Malign Spirits were human once. That boy only wanted his mom. But you just march in and kill him without even hearing what he has to say!?”



“I know all that.”

Tsumugi couldn’t forget the look in Rainy’s eyes.

That gyaru sister was always the center of attention and overflowing with cheer, yet that had been the tearful look one gaze a child murderer.

“What I’m fighting are people’s souls, they are still human no matter how much they’ve changed, and they are all victims who were killed… But once the change happens, nothing other than utter obliteration will stop those Malign Spirits. If I don’t do that, I can’t protect the living! Not a single one!! I’m well aware I’m trapped in that catch-22 of contradictions!!

She had done the right thing, but she couldn’t call herself just.

This was a reminder that she was ultimately a dark existence.

“But I will still choose the souls of the living… Because I don’t want anyone else to die! Because I don’t want to even imagine anyone I know becoming a new Malign Spirit! Yes, yes. I imagine a true saint would elegantly wrinkle her brow, call it ‘horrid’, and refuse to go along with it. Maybe this makes me selfish!! But I won’t back down. Never, ever, ever… I will not let the living be killed to soothe the pain of the dead!! This world exists for the living. I won’t bend on that! I will protect this ordinary world! At the risk of my one and only life!! No one else will approve of what I’m doing? So what!? Why should I care!? Uwehhh, ahhhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

She felt a soft sensation.

It was the detective.

He held the weeping girl in his arms and gently rubbed her head.

“If this hurts you…”

Detectives were experts at guiding people to the right answer.

This man knew the girl better than anyone but he was not allowed to fight by her side. Nevertheless, he refused to accept that meant there was nothing he could do for her.

“If you can work to help a friend and cry when your feelings are hurt,” he said. “It means you are a ''living'' human. You can be confident of that.”

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