An ordinary café, in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

Sitting boldly across from me was a black-haired high school girl with a pretty face that was cute as long as she kept her mouth shut. Looking at Sua—who described herself as fucking adorable—I asked out of politeness,

"Aren't you going to school?"

"I go when I feel like it."

With a perfectly nonchalant expression, Sua added,

"Which means I don't."

Absolutely shameless.

Sure, education was compulsory through middle school, but high school was something you attended if you wanted to. Otherwise, you could take the equivalency exam.

It wasn't my concern.

Sua stirred her drink with her straw as she spoke.

"Mister, you're that weird thing, a Ghostbuster, and a magician too, right?"

Ghostbuster... It was a weird thing, all right. Though magician wasn't much better.

"That's right."

"But what's the difference between a magician and... an exorcist? Or a shaman?"

I considered her question for a moment.

... Well, even if it was only for about a week, she had said she wanted to learn magic. I did need to give her a brief explanation of occult magicians.

Orientation. Time for an introductory session.

Honestly, I hadn't been a magician for long myself, and I'd learned magic on my own from grimoires. Still, I could tell her what I'd come to understand about magicians.

"Let's say you buy a house, but some weird guy has settled in and refuses to leave. He says he's been living there far longer than you."

"What the hell! He's crazy!"

Obviously, I wasn't talking about an actual person. It was an analogy for the uncanny.

"Now, a shaman listens to the squatter's story and past circumstances, gets angry with him, soothes him, and gets him out."

I took a sip of coffee before continuing.

"... An exorcist or magician beats the squatter with a club and drives him out. Depending on the situation, a magician might even go, 'I happened to need a slave anyway. Lucky me, finding you,' and turn him into a house slave on the spot."

After hearing my example, Sua blinked, then shrugged.

"... I do like the second approach. It's refreshingly straightforward."

"Good. Then class is on hold for now."

"Huh? Why?"

I stood up and said,

"Ghostbuster work. Exorcism."

I'd only been keeping Sua company for a bit because she'd come to see me. It was nearly time for my appointment with a client.

I'd expected her not to follow because it would be too much trouble, but apparently she'd meant it when she said she'd work as my assistant. She stood beside me and walked along.

"Ooh, so are you going to draw a magic circle and shoot a beam, like when you wiped out those zombies last time?"

"Who knows? That sort of thing is actually pretty rare."

In fact, this job didn't involve the uncanny at all.

In the female client's room, she pointed at wallpaper covered in mold. Depending on how you looked at it, it resembled a human face—something like Munch's The Scream.

Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"E-ever since that appeared... the room has felt darker, I suppose... I feel a little unwell, and uneasy too. I-is this some kind of paranormal phenomenon?"

I gazed silently at the mold, putting on a serious expression.

'Of course living in a room with a patch of mold that big would be bad for your respiratory system.'

Naturally, it wasn't the uncanny, though the mold certainly looked unpleasant.

'I think something like this happened before...'

Well, some of the jobs I received did involve the real uncanny, but most were like this.

Sua poked my arm twice, then three more times. When I tilted my head toward her, she rose onto her toes and whispered in my ear.

"Isn't that just mold? I think she needs a counselor, not an exorcist."

"Yep," I replied briefly.

Anyway, since the client believed it was the uncanny, I decided to do a suitable job of getting rid of it. It wasn't as though she'd listen if I tried to persuade her otherwise.

And so, the procedure for exorcising a mold spirit.

First, open the window to air out the room. Then put on a mask and rubber gloves and carefully, diligently scrub the wall with a damp cloth sprayed with mold remover.

Scrub, scrub, scrub.

As I worked my arm vigorously, sweat beaded on my forehead.

"Here you go."

Sua came over wearing a mask and wiped my forehead with a handkerchief.

... I supposed wiping away sweat did qualify as an assistant's job. I just hadn't expected to get that help while eliminating mold rather than the uncanny.

Anyway, time to finish up.

"Hair dryer."

"Here you go."

WHIRRR.

I finished by drying the damp wall with the heat from the hair dryer, and the mold that had seemed to writhe like Munch's The Scream was gone.

... Then the client blinked and asked,

"Um, isn't this just cleaning up mold?"

Of course it was.

"That's right. It manifested as mold, so I removed it by cleaning."

I nodded and spoke gently.

"The important thing now is to keep your curtains open during the day so plenty of sunlight can enter, and to let yang energy into the room through ventilation.

"... And evil spirits don't only appear in places filled with yin energy. They also appear in people's anxious hearts. It's admirable to work through things on your own, but sometimes it's good to visit a professional counseling center and talk about your worries."

I offered a few suitably encouraging words. Whether the client was genuinely convinced, or simply wanted to get this lunatic out of her home as quickly as possible—the one who'd cleaned up some mold and claimed to have exorcised an evil spirit, with a high school girl in tow—she nodded and spoke in a trembling voice.

"I-I see. ... All right. Thank you so much."

Anyway.

Mold spirit exorcism complete! One case solved.

Normally, for cases like this that didn't involve the real uncanny, I just offered some advice and charged a consultation fee. But this time I'd actually done some work, so I charged a little for labor too.

You know how apartment security guards get paid when they help with tasks that take some muscle? It was like that.

Once we were outside, Sua pressed her index finger to her lips in thought.

"Hmm..."

She lowered her finger and said,

"It kind of feels like we scammed her, but kind of not."

"Well, we did do the work."

"That's true."

Sua gave a small nod.

I'd expected her to say exorcism work was more boring than she'd imagined and go home, but she didn't.

Instead, she suddenly remarked, perfectly casually,

"But if you're going to work anyway, wouldn't you make more money by releasing a real ghost into someone's house and then exorcising it?"

"..."

I shot Sua a sidelong look.

'Is this little shit a psycho? A real budding magician.'

"Are you a psycho?"

Sua frowned and raised her voice.

"No! I'm not saying we should do it! I was just curious why you don't, mister!"

... Well, the answer to her question was simple.

"It's not my thing."

As I'd said time and again, money was something I needed for a safe, peaceful life. It wasn't my top priority.

... Of course, I wouldn't deny that the more I had, the better.

Ever since getting the grimoires, I'd frequently been dragged into strange incidents even when I did nothing. I had no intention of creating an incident myself just to earn a few bucks, making unnecessary enemies or attracting the Special Response Section's attention again.

Sion alone was more than enough of a paranoid headache.

"If it's a job I can handle, setting a price and doing the work I'm paid for is enough."

I offered the explanation as we walked.

"Well, that was a long-winded way of saying it... but basically, I just don't want to pull that shit."

Walking alongside him, Sua turned her head slightly to look at Yohan's profile.

'Hmm... So he doesn't like that sort of thing.'

"All right. I really was just asking because I was curious."

Then she said in a casual voice,

"Anyway, work's over now. Get back to teaching me."

"Sure. Anything you want to know?"

"Do you need talent or something to use magic?"

I thought about her question for a moment before speaking.

"... As an analogy, let's say you want to be the fastest runner in your class."

"Huh? The fastest runner? Are we in elementary school?"

I shrugged slightly.

"It's an analogy. Anyway, there's someone much faster than you, so you can't take first place. That's when you use magic to come first. You might make your legs faster, or put a curse on the fastest runner."

I stopped walking for a moment and looked at Sua as I spoke.

"The contradiction in this story is that someone with real talent could get what they wanted without magic."

The original fastest runner, in other words.

"Talent for magic surely exists, but you don't need to worry too much about it. It wouldn't be a proper sort of talent anyway."

After hearing me out, Sua pressed her index finger to her lips and thought for a moment.

"But magic is my power too. Doesn't that mean I took first place through my own strength?"

She grinned playfully.

"Anyway, I came first in the race, so all good!"

She had a point. You had to stay positive in life, after all.

I pointed an index finger at her.

"That's a magician's way of thinking. One point for student Sua."

"Yay! What's the scoring system? Do I get something if I collect ten points?"

I replied matter-of-factly,

"You feel good."

Sua blinked.

"That's kind of underwhelming. Though maybe it's nice?"

"Rewards you can redeem points for are always underwhelming."

"That's true too."

As I walked, I thought of the notebook tucked inside my coat.

I'd only been joking about magician points, but once she collected ten, giving her the notebook where I'd compiled my magical knowledge might not be a bad idea.