kscans

Chapter 165 - Eyes

After work, I turned down an invitation for drinks and waited for the kids at the Mutual Aid Society. Today's was a non-combat request. I think they were helping out with something related to yokai, wasn't it? Just because we work in the Supernatural World doesn't mean we are fighting and shooting all year round. Non-combat requests are fewer compared to subjugation or capture missions, but a certain number still come into the Mutual Aid Society.

I used to do a lot of those back in the day.

Even excluding beings like gods and buddhas, many non-humans are friendly toward people. The non-humans who request jobs from the Mutual Aid Society are mostly that type. The content of the work varies widely, but a lot of it is mediation with humans. Even those who have lived in human society for a long time are sometimes troubled by the differences in perception between themselves and people. So it's even more so for those who have only just begun to interact with humans.

Helping them make up with human friends, supporting them with neighborly relations…

I think I even set up a group date once. Classic species from tales of interspecies marriage, like snow women or monster foxes, are often friendly to humans, and many of them want to get on good terms with people. You ask if there is a problem with getting together with a non-human? Well, yes and no. Unlike in the past, the technology of the Supernatural World has advanced. It's easy to make the child born from such a union human. However, the child often possesses non-human powers, and if they get involved with the Supernatural World, there is a high probability those powers will awaken. So there are risks in that regard, making it a bit of a problem, but since some go their whole lives without ever getting involved in the Supernatural World, it is not considered that big of an issue.

To be frank about it, for the Mutual Aid Society, it is a no-lose situation. If we help them form bonds with humans, the non-humans become our allies, as will their children. Should those children's powers awaken, their parents would surely have them join the Mutual Aid Society. After all, the Mutual Aid Society is large in scale and has close ties to the Japanese government. For non-humans living in human society, becoming a member of the Mutual Aid Society is a good deal in terms of stability.

"Oh, you're back."

I looked toward the entrance and saw the kids walking in, chatting cheerfully.

"Ah, Mister. Did we keep you waiting?"

"Nah. More importantly, go file your completion report first."

I gave them a little wave, sending the kids off to the reception desk.

"Paisen, thanks for your hard work."

"Not at all. They're all good kids, so it wasn't any trouble."

"Even so… I mean, first Sarna-chan, and now you're looking after our Saku-chan too."

"Well, I was one of the people who found Sarna-chan, you know."

As for Sakuya-kun, Paisen lowered his voice a little.

"Speaking frankly, from the Mutual Aid Society's perspective, this is a chance to earn your goodwill."

He said this, making a circle with his index finger and thumb.

"I'm getting a pretty hefty bonus from the higher-ups. My kid was just born, so it's a huge help."

"I see. Well, if that's the case."

"I still have a decent amount in savings, but you want to earn as much as you can while you can, right?"

"I get that. I know what you mean about wanting your kids to live without any worries, and then you can't help but think about your grandkids and beyond."

Though I'm single myself.

"Right, right. I know there's no end to it, but still."

"Well, I guess that can't be helped."

As the two of us old guys were chatting, the kids came back.

"Well then, I'll be off."

"Yeah."

I parted ways with Paisen and turned to face the kids again.

"You said there was someone you wanted me to meet today, right?"

"I think you wanted us to watch a fight with that person."

"Ah. You guys have gotten pretty used to things. I figured I'd let you experience the next level up."

But to do that, I first need to drill the prerequisite knowledge into your heads. I urged the kids to take a seat. This was going to be a bit of a long story.

"The topic is ‘this’."

With that, I pointed to a certain part of my face.

"…Eyes?"

"That's right. 'Eyes'. What organ do you use for what?"

"What do you mean, what? For… seeing, right?"

I nodded at Hikaru's words. It seemed no one but Sarna-chan had caught on yet. Well, Sarna-chan is a bookworm, and she reads all sorts of genres in her free time. She has probably read books on the occult, so she must have a vague idea. That said, it seemed she did not know which story about eyes I was going to tell.

"Allow me to lecture you on the act of 'seeing' in the occult."

I cleared my throat with a kohon and began to speak.

"To 'see' is a way of dominating a certain kind of opponent."

Oh, looks like Sarna-chan gets it now.

"Dominating seems like an exaggeration… it's just looking, right?"

"Not quite. Let me give you an easy example. Try to think of some idioms related to seeing."

"Ah."

"Saku-chan, what do you mean?"

If I mentioned idioms, of course Saku-chan would get it. When I prompted her to say what she just realized, Saku-chan opened her mouth, though she sounded unsure.

"Easy ones would be 'to look down on', 'to watch over'… maybe 'to keep an eye on' too?"

"What about them?"

"Rika-san, all the words I just listed are words that, through the act of 'seeing', place oneself in a superior position."

Looking down on someone is a perfect example. Watching over someone cannot happen unless you are in a higher position than the subject. The same goes for keeping an eye on someone. A prisoner and a guard, which one is on top? That's what it comes down to. Power dwells within the eyes and in the act of seeing that is performed with them.

"Sarna-chan, there's a famous Greek figure whose power comes from her eyes, right?"

"Medusa, or Medousa, right? According to legend, if you were glared at by her eyes, you would turn to stone."

And she's also a member of the Athena Victims Association. The legends say she was killed, but as times changed, she was shown some mercy and revived, I think? Monsters and such who were already killed in these kinds of myths are sometimes resurrected in the modern era. Gods have to update their perceptions to a certain extent to match human values, or they can't get by. As part of that adjustment, they might revive those who had extenuating circumstances or who were deemed evil and unreasonably slaughtered. Well, that's excluding the ones who were completely annihilated. What happens if the resurrected ones do something bad? That becomes the responsibility of the one who brought them back. If they mess up, it means they misjudged… in other words, their values didn't align and their ability to judge character was no good.

I saw her in a gravure magazine, she was a real beauty, that Medusa…

Her boobs and butt were huge. Uhehe.

"…Hero-san, you're making a creepy face."

"Oops, my apologies. Another famous example would be vampires. A vampire's charm is another one."

That too is a power derived from the eyes.

"Evil eyes, magic eyes, purifying eyes… there are all sorts of special eyes."

But they all share one thing in common. They impose power, which is to say rules, through the act of seeing.

"And imposing rules is…"

"The same as dominating… is that it?"

"Exactly."

Even without any special eyes, those with superior power can do all sorts of things just by looking. Having you all understand that is the purpose of this lesson.

"The man we're going to meet now is someone I hold in high regard in the field of fighting with your 'eyes'."

Get it? Because eyes! Wahahaha! Huh? That phrase is from Go? That's what dad jokes are all about.