Chapter 35: A Problematic Commission

As usual, after finishing dinner, Komachi sat on the sofa playing with her phone, while Hikigaya Hachiman was in charge of cleaning the dishes. Because their parents often worked overtime, the Hikigaya couple usually came home around 8:30 p.m. That was exactly why Hachiman always chose to handle his commissions around 9:00 p.m. "Onii-chan, are you going out tonight too?" Just as Hachiman was hesitating on how to tell Komachi about going out that evening, she had already guessed his thoughts. "How did you know?" Hachiman sat on the sofa with a "guess I can't hide anything from you" expression on his face. "Because your face was already full of the expression, 'How do I tell her I'm going out?'" Komachi replied, pointing at his face. "Was it that obvious?" Touching his face, Hachiman gave a wry smile. He had thought of himself as a master of facial expression control, but apparently, he wore his thoughts all over his face. "Of course not." Komachi rested her chin on her hands, lying on the sofa and looking at Hachiman, her small feet swaying back and forth. "It's just because I know you so well, I figured it out..." "Well, yeah. I am going out tonight." Seeing her insight, Hachiman raised his hands in surrender and admitted his plans for the evening. "Ten thousand just for the deposit?!" After hearing his explanation, Komachi's eyes widened in shock. That was 100,000 yen! Equivalent to her pocket money for ten whole months! "Well, yeah... it's quite a bit." Even Hachiman couldn't help but feel a bit excited at the amount the client offered. After all, that was the same as forty months of his own pocket money... "Onii-chan~" Suddenly, Komachi's eyes sparkled mischievously as she wrapped herself around Hachiman's arm, acting spoiled. "Stop! What are you trying to do?!" Startled by her syrupy tone that gave him goosebumps, Hachiman quickly asked her intentions. "Can I be the one to hold on to the money?" Komachi's eyes had already turned into yen symbols. "Well, I guess that's fine. I don't need to use that much money anyway..." Seeing Komachi completely entranced by money, Hachiman wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and agreed to let her hold onto it. Besides, knowing her "housekeeper" personality, his money would be perfectly safe. "In that case, Onii-chan, you have to work hard tonight!" Now knowing that she would be managing the earnings, Komachi beamed with joy. She even wanted to urge Hachiman to hurry up and leave to handle the commission right away. But reason held her excitement in check—after all, if their parents hadn't come home yet, Hachiman wouldn't feel comfortable leaving her alone. . . . Time quickly passed, and it was 8:30 p.m. The Hikigaya parents returned home right on time, dragging their tired bodies through the door. After greeting them, Hachiman used the excuse of studying to return to his room. Then, with Komachi distracting their parents as a cover, he quickly jumped out the second-floor window, bypassed the yard, exited through the main gate, and sprinted toward the station where he had arranged to meet Kawasaki Saki. With the boost from his tactical gear and spiritual power, Hachiman's physical condition had drastically improved over the past few days. Even after a full-speed sprint, he was only slightly out of breath. As he reached the station, he immediately spotted Kawasaki Saki in a black suit. The suit perfectly accentuated Saki's mature, curvy figure—far beyond what was typical for girls her age. Even though her icy expression deterred most people... In just the brief moment it took Hachiman to approach her, two groups of people had already tried to exchange contact info with her. Seeing Hachiman coming from afar, Saki breathed a sigh of relief. She completely ignored the office workers around her who were holding out their phones asking for her contact info and walked straight toward Hachiman. "Looks like you're pretty popular..." Glancing at the stunned office worker still holding out his phone behind her, Hachiman couldn't help but make a jab. He had thought Saki, like him, was the reclusive, unpopular type. But the scene just now proved him wrong. He was reclusive because he genuinely was. Saki was alone simply because she chose to be. "You're late." Saki ignored his comment and instead pointed out the fact that he had kept her waiting in front of the station, dealing with constant approaches from strangers. "Sorry, my bad..." Hachiman immediately put on an apologetic face. It was indeed his mistake for not estimating the time properly and causing Saki to be harassed by random guys. "Forget it. Let's get going." Saki didn't intend to argue further. She glanced down at the time on her phone and urged him to move. "Yeah!" Both of them shared the same thought—finish the job quickly and head home. After all, Hachiman had left home under the pretense of studying. If his parents suddenly decided to check on their diligent son and opened his door, only to find him gone... Just imagining that scenario gave Hachiman chills. So, the sooner they wrapped up this commission, the better! After two train stops and a ten-minute walk led by Saki, the two finally arrived in front of a house. "High-level evil spirit detected nearby. Host, please be cautious!" The system's warning rang in Hachiman's mind for the first time in a while—but this time, the message didn't make him happy. The system's alerts usually came late—often when the evil spirit was already right in front of him. But now, even before they entered the house, it was giving an early warning. That could only mean one thing: this commission was very dangerous. "What is it?" Just as Saki was about to press the doorbell, Hachiman pulled her back. Saki wasn't upset at the sudden action—just looked at him with confusion. "How did you get this commission?" Eyes fixed on the house in front of him, Hachiman asked her. After hearing the system warning, he thought carefully and suddenly realized something was off. It was just last night that he had asked Saki to help look for exorcism commissions. And now, barely a day later, she had already landed one? That was way too fast. Especially considering that Saki had no prior experience or network in the exorcism circle...