Kyokan

"Yo you, you're finally awake!"

Mizuki opens her eyes to find herself sinking into his shoulder. Daisuke's carrying her on his back through the woods. She notices his shoulder wet with something, at the same time something is dripping from her mouth, it's her saliva.

"WAAHHH?!! LET ME DOWN! LET ME DOWN!!!"

"Okay okay I got it! Hahaha, I don't mind carrying you all the way home though" Daisuke just chuckles at her reaction.

"Waaa- that's not the problem here!!" She responds as her face is flushing red from embarrassment. To drool like that on some guy's shoulder.

"Well it's good that you're lively again. This one is a new record really, it hasn't even been an hour yet since you pass out"

He sees Mizuki still gathering her strength to stand back up and holds out his hand to which she just rebels against

"I'm fine. Hmph! Your way of explaining thing is so misleading, you told me it wouldn't hurt my physical body but you never told me it would still hurt! I would've gotten the ghost if it wasn't for that"

A bit pouting. Though it seems her reaction just further entertains him instead of making him feel guilty.

"Well that's what you get for getting in over your head, I warned you not to fight it. Obviously losing a hand would hurt you, you don't need to master Reichitsu to figure that out" he mocks.

"But you lost your hand too back then! You seemed just fin- was that actually painful the whole time?"

Mizuki stops being agitated and genuinely got curious instead to which he only answers with a silent smile.

"Well your technique was wrong too so that's part of the reason why you have to went through all that" feeling that she's getting lectured, Mizuki tries to defend herself

"W-Well that's natural! That was my first time!"

"And that's why I warned you."

"Guuhh..."

Daisuke repeats his statement, this time just a tad more stern. Feeling a bit guilty this time, although still laughing it off, she tries to steer the conversation away from her blunder

"Anyway.., what do you mean my technique was wrong? Could I have avoided the pain if I did it right?"

Following along with her change of topic, Daisuke took the opportunity to teach her some more about

"Reitai. A spiritual body replacing your physical body with the benefit of spiritual matter and properties. However, a spiritual body is still a body, and a body is dead without the organs in it. Just like your brain, your other organs still functions in the spiritual body along with the nerves and veins tied to it. When you create a shape using your Reichitsu while your body is incomplete, it treats the process as another part of creating the body, channeling the organs and nerves alongside those new shapes like a body of water filling in a new empty space. Effectively, you just extend a part of your body, with all it's sensitivity still intact"

Huh...? I don't get all that but, that's just ridiculous. Why would the Reitai still need human organs anyway?"

"Well that's..." Before he can continue explaining, he sees something ahead of them

"...a topic for another day, we're already here"

He gestures towards an old wooden hut in the middle of the woods, an artifact of an abandoned newsstands at an out of commission bus stop. An old man stands behind the counter, greeting them with a smile, though both his eyes are covered in bandages and yet he somehow "sees" them coming.

"Yo oldie, I got something for you"

Daisuke greets casually. Apparently he's acquainted with this shop owner in the middle of nowhere.

"Oh what have we 'ere? an apprentice of yer?"

" Nope, just a client I bring along from another case. For now it'll be safer to have her close by. Mizuki, this here is Oldie. Oldie, Mizuki"

"N-nice to meet you, O-oldie san..!" Mizuki a bit impromptu.

"Oyh oyh, yer the only one who call me that, and same 'ere, young lady. Feel free to browse the store"

As Daisuke's discussing the price of his hunt, the ghost they'd fought earlier in school, with the old man, Mizuki is looking around the store. Various oddities and bizarre items are on display, each stranger than the last one. Dried up body parts, frozen small critters, jarred organs, some suspicious liquids in bottles and vials, all the crazy stuff you'd find in either a witch's house or a mad scientist's lab or a weird combination of both. She saw Daisuke handing a small glass bottle to the old man. Inside it, a familiar although tiny spectral being caught her eye

"That's... from yesterday...?"

"Oh one other thing, that Kyokan was way too heavy oldie, don't you have something lighter?" Daisuke complains.

"Hmm that's a first, nobody ever complain about the Reichi toll before. It's heavy because it eats up only yer Reichi and create the kyokan from there. But most of my regulars still pick that over the other one"

He put something on the counter, a fish head, no a dagger with a fish head as hilt, with a pair of mismatched eyeballs, like they are both taken from different animals. Looking closely, the 'blade' of the dagger is a frozen tongue, most probably that of a snake's.

"Perhaps ya can try this, it can scan the Reichitsu around and turn 'em into kyokan instead of yer own. It's lighter on the Reichitsu but trickier to use so it's not very popular with the folks. But maybe ya can use it better"

"Then I'll take this one instead, tell me how it works"

the old man explains about how the user have to operate the items to do what it does which requires extra effort, time and expertise to make a single kyokan unlike the last one. The heavy emphasis on cognitive involvement already explains why it's not so popular with his regular customers that are mostly ghosts. They generally have more SP than human that's why they would rather take the one that is heavy on the SP rather than the brain.

"Well this is about enough. I'll be going then!"

"Alright glad doing business with ya! also ya best be careful out there, rumor has it that a suspicious Reichi has been lingering around town and is bothering the locals, so much so that even the Chiikikou is getting antsy"

*Tch* under his breath.

"Got it, we'll keep an eye out. Thanks for the warning, oldie" Daisuke said while turning his back and waving at the old man.

The old man just smiles.

After a while walking, Mizuki strikes a conversation with Daisuke.

"Is Kyokan really that important?" She got curious after hearing about it earlier.

"Only if you actually care about the physical realm. 'Imaginary Space' or 'Kyokan' helps protect the physical matter by replacing them with temporary spiritual matter. This way, any damages from battles in the kyokan doesn't affect the physical realm, that applies to living beings and the environment too"

"I see.., so that's what happened at school today.. still it's very thoughtful of Oldie san to sell items that protects the human world" Mizuki's impression of the old man improves.

"That's just a merchant grabbing a business opportunity. It's really the Corps who decided on the law to minimize damages from ghosts conflicts in the physical world."

"The what now?" Mizuki could not keep up with his explanation.

"Uwah my bad, around here, if I remember correctly, they're called the Majinkyotai is it? Basically like a police for keeping the bad ghosts in check"

"You mean like the one from school earlier? Because it's bothering humans?"

Daisuke fidgets a bit, it seems he's having a hard time

"Well it's more complicated than that... B-But for now yes, basically ghosts that creates too much problem will upset the Corps and they usually put a bounty on that ghost for other ghosts to hunt, or me"

He's still scratching his head, like even he is not convinced by that explanation.

"And they care so much about balance and order that they make a rule to not destroy the human world while we're hunting our target"

"Amazing! So you're like a bounty hunter!" Her eyes sparkle.

"Well you could call it that, though only for the time being, it's a quick way to make some money as unstable as that is. However, there are practically no other human doing this job around here so I have less competition in that regard. *Sigh* I take it that's why oldie gave me that heavy one"

"I know, I'll become a bounty hunter too! And you can teach me how to fight and hunt those ghosts" Mizuki proclaims, excited.

A skeptical look colors his eye

"You- Listen here. What are you going to do about your studies then huh? Didn't you hear what I said, it's a quick way to get money but it's unreliable. You're better off studying hard and get a REAL job" he nags while pinching her SP cheek, stretching them out beyond normal human convention. Defiantly, Mizuki defends her decision amidst that

"I'll do both. I can study hard during class and hunt ghosts after class, then sell to Oldie san for some extra money. And besides..." She pulls herself back from his attack.

"I told you didn't I, I want to fight them. I'm tired of running away. And you're going to help me with this."

Daisuke's a bit dazzled by her resolution. He wasn't convinced before but he understands now

"So you're serious about that... Good grief, even after today's mishap you still... Huh, okay. I have to warn you though, it'll be tough. And you need to listen to my instruction" he scoffs. Humored by her resolution.

"Yes! I'll try my best, Teach!" excitedly Mizuki appoints herself as his disciple.

Daisuke only sighs

"You getting all excited actually worries me even more"

He recalls what her enthusiasm brought to her earlier at school.

Before long, they find themselves arrived at Mizuki's house.

"Well here you are, actually not so late today"

Mizuki just groans at the remarks

"Ughh you're right... Mom did tell me she was going to start personally picking me up at school everyday if I came back late again today..."

"Owh? And you don't want that?" He sneers.

"Of course not! That would be way too embarrassing especially for a highschooler! I.. don't even want to think about it, I should get inside quickly, see you tomorrow then!"

She tries to end their conversation there while hastily getting inside

"Okay then. Oh and one more thing Mizuki kun-" but Daisuke's call stopped her on the door

Don't trust that old man too much" he said in a serious tone.

"Huh?" But before she could chase that matter any further she heard her mom calling from the inside. Turning back towards the front gate and she finds him already vanished. And the door opens.

"Mizuki? You're already back!"