The Bound Spirit of Shinji Tower
In the world of eroge with human souls, there are active eroge and passive ones. Let's start with the latter: basically, most of the story progresses as the protagonist moves around on his own, with you just clicking on key choices to decide. Naturally, this gives more of a visual novel vibe than a game, and the reception can swing wildly depending on the story's quality.
On the flip side, active ones go beyond simple choices—they have gameplay systems, or events trigger based on time, location, or stats. Games like the JRPG-style Demonic Warrior series with their gameplay mechanics, or My Classmate, where you wander around based on time, place, and progress with heroines to trigger events, fall into this category. Aodaru is the type where events occur based on time and location, so you roam the Kanemachi City map, and stuff happens at major buildings or the heroines' homes.
And for certain heroines, you can only meet them at specific spots—one of them being Fujiwara Yuu, the bound spirit heroine.
You enter the unfinished abandoned building, Shinji Tower, in the southern outskirts of Kanemachi City, where the construction company went bankrupt mid-build, and that's how you meet her.
"Haa...."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing."
To be honest, there are exactly four heroines I was blatantly avoiding. The vampire Ichinose Aris who warned me last time, the bound spirit Fujiwara Yuu, and ones I haven't even seen yet: the cat yokai and the maid robot. The magical girl elementary schooler just never came up.
Why avoid them? Simple: get tangled up wrong, and you really die. And screw up bad enough, your family’s in danger too. Once those so-called factions get involved.
"Tsukino, you seem to learn better through practice than theory, so I thought we'd go out together."
"No, yes. You're right."
"Is there another reason your expression looks poor?"
"That building over there gives off a bad vibe."
Hanasaki's eyes widened slightly at my words. For her, that was probably as close to extremely surprised as it got. She paused for a moment, then spoke in a tone that could only be described as cautious.
"If you're sensing something over there, shall we go together?"
Huh?
Did I pick the wrong choice? Why were we heading toward the one I was avoiding instead of away?
But she wasn't the type to change her mind if I whined something like "It's scary, so no thanks." I followed obediently, mindset on just catching a glimpse of bound spirit Fujiwara-san's face and bailing.
As expected of an abandoned building, no elevator—just the iron stairs on the outside. They creaked underfoot, and the still-chilly night breeze sliced across my cheek as we climbed. Eight floors up like that. With a spine-tingling hinge screech from Hanasaki's touch, a heavy iron door swung open, and she knocked on the cracked concrete wall—some kind of signal, maybe.
「Oh? Yui-san. What brings you without calling ahead?」
"Today, I brought someone who sensed your presence. Thought I'd introduce you."
「Really?」
"Yes. This is Tsukino Takuya. His spiritual senses might even surpass mine. Tsukino, this is Fujiwara Yuu."
"...Hello."
「You can really see me? Hear my voice too?」
"Yep. Purple hair, patient's gown and all."
She had an incredibly faint presence, but no gradient like you see with other ghosts. Normal floating spirits look blurry at the limbs even to my eyes, but she was uniformly semi-transparent—no parts fading more than others. Well, knowing the story, I could guess why. She wasn't actually dead; as a living soul, part of her spirit was still in her body.
Anyway, un-ghostlike, she kept her feet on the floor and hopped around excitedly.
"Our original goal was exorcising the evil spirit behind Shinji Tower. But if we can get acquainted with Fujiwara-san, it's worth investing the time."
「Heehee. I ask Yui for little favors sometimes. If there's a day she can't come, maybe I could talk to Tsukino-san instead?」
"Haha. Coming here alone might be dangerous, though."
"The way here isn't dangerous. It's after that."
"Yep."
With Hanasaki blocking the exit, I flashed the biggest smile I could muster and gave an OK sign. If I had to do it anyway, better leave a good impression.
「Oh, are you going to deal with that evil spirit wandering the woods behind lately?」
"Not 'deal with'—call it exorcism, please."
「Is there a difference?」
"Yes."
Exorcism covers sending them to the afterlife, banishing, or sealing, so it's not quite the same as 'catch' or 'kill.'
"I visit often, so if you need anything later, I'll send Tsukino."
「Great! Come again sometime, and we'll chat more!」
"...Got it."
My power was still too weak to touch a spirit this faint, but to assure her I perceived her as human-shaped, I extended my right hand near hers. Fujiwara hesitated a beat, blinked, then overlapped her hand with mine and smiled.
...Mess this up, and the Ichinose family—one of Japan's top noble houses—would hunt me down. But seeing her pure, joyful smile, I couldn't hate it.
With that, we left the building and descended the creaking stairs.
"You show unexpected sides sometimes, Tsukino."
"Pardon?"
"Most people—let alone ghosts—don't get treated so kindly on first sight."
"She's someone you vouched for, Hanasaki-san."
"And what does that mean to you."
"You're trustworthy...."
Her lips twitched. She had something to say but held it back. Finally, she sighed and fell silent.
Short silence later, as we reached the woods' center, a chill blade pressed against my throat. I ducked instinctively, channeled spiritual energy into my arms, and guarded my head.
"Handle this one alone first."
Cursing Hanasaki inwardly as she slipped away, hidden by her spiritual energy, I rolled once and focused my eyes. A shabby man wielding a knife came into view. He looked like any street bum on the surface, but the ominous spiritual energy rising beyond that marked him a fairly strong evil spirit.
I yanked the wooden sword strapped to my back as fast as I could and slammed spiritual energy into it. Predictably, Shinamori Shrine's wooden sword repelled over half the overzealous force, barely blocking the middle-aged evil spirit's knife swing. Pure strength-wise, I could've parried easily. Cursing Hanasaki again for making me use this thing, I dialed it back—calm, not too much, not too little.
Now it took hold; I shook out the blue-glowing wooden sword lightly.
I didn't know swordsmanship. But neither was this foe a trained warrior spirit—just an evil one. The wooden sword outranged the knife. Barely a kodachi, short sword length, but way longer and sturdier than his butterfly knife.
■■■■■■■■■■■-!
The human-looking evil spirit's roar nearly burst my eardrums, but with a hesitate and die mindset, I swung down at its crown. Unlike a human skull, it squished softly, head bursting—but the core wasn't there. The body alone slashed at me with the knife.
Caught off-guard, it grazed my cheek. Curse seeped in, burning pain engulfing my left face.
Curse—pushing out curses, I'd done once at school. Gritting my teeth, I shoved spiritual energy into the burning spot on my face. Couldn't see it, but drawing on last time's feel, I managed. Felt liquid ooze from the wound; shifting energy to my eyes, vision flipped, revealing the evil spirit's black spiritual flow.
Core oddly in the lower belly. I jammed the wooden sword in as deep as possible and poured in energy. Pop—a crisp sound, and it burst, vanishing.
...Erasing a blatantly human-origin soul left a bad taste.
"Much improved from last time's flailing."
"Not easy."
"No one's first time is. And one more thing."
"Yes?"
"When facing evil spirits from humans, always consider why they became that way."
She placed a hand on a nearby tree, infusing spiritual energy. Deeper in the woods, far stronger, murkier energy swirled—way creepier than before. I refocused my eyes.
Far off, something grayish, semi-transparent, form hard to describe—hanging by the neck from a tree, slowly swaying toward us.
Then I, too, should hang by the neck.
"Snap out of it."
"Ah."
"That last evil spirit was just a victim of that one. Of course, you're not ready to handle it yet."
Hanasaki gripped a talisman; red spiritual energy swirled around her, a glowing ritual circle spinning at her feet. Like firing a gun, energy coiled around her extended right index finger and shot out.
"Hoo."
Total victory. The 'weird thing' vanished without a trace.
"Tsukino."
"Yes."
"Get strong enough—just enough—to beat me."
"...Like that?"
She looked faintly drained. I split a nearby log for her to sit, then sat beside her. And then, something unexpected happened.
"Wait—just a moment. Lend me your shoulder...."
"Sure."
Leaning on me, she murmured softly.
"You're the only one who can help me, Tsukino."