Narrator's POV
After Mahito absorbed the Yokai's aura, he felt stronger and even gained the ability to generate musical notes with various properties.
'I clearly won my bet, but it seems that absorbing the aura doesn't make the being disappear from the memory of the living and the dead,' he thought.
Mahito assumed that it didn't count as losing the aura, but rather as an assimilation.
It was a situation similar to Buu in DBZ, or simply, the spirit whose aura Mahito had absorbed would continue to exist as part of him.
"Shit, he got glasses!" shouted a spirit angrily.
"Just speed up the pace, they'll end up being overwhelmed," ordered the spirit who looked like their leader.
Mahito quickly turned his gaze to Kouki, who was starting to struggle with the new rhythm imposed by the angry spirits.
'No choice, she's still a novice after all,' he thought. Having inherited the original Mahito's genius, even though this was his first death match, he had good adaptability, unlike Kouki.
Mahito split into several ravens and began flying in all directions to obstruct the spirits' vision.
One of the ravens landed on Kouki's shoulder, who appeared slightly out of breath.
"Listen carefully, you need to understand this about psychic powers," Mahito's clone, disguised as a raven, quickly explained to Kouki while laying out the basics of psychic arts.
Mahito felt a bit guilty for dragging Kouki into a fight so quickly. He had forgotten that she wasn't a genius like Momo and that she was still an ordinary high school student until yesterday.
He had been slightly reckless.
'It's not a big deal, I can finish these spirits at any time, and I can use this pressure to force Kouki to immediately apply the theoretical lessons,' thought Mahito's clone while protecting Kouki from an extremely close attack.
"Psychic powers rely on three important elements: concentration, visualization, and projection. They're essential for influencing the world around you with your powers." Kouki listened attentively to my words while the other clones protected her and the original Mahito kept the spirits in check.
"When you use your powers, I want you to concentrate, visualize the effect you desire in your mind, and project it into reality!" After listening to Mahito's clone's explanation, Kouki experienced an illumination.
Before, she thought she could only move objects or control them from a distance, but according to Mahito's clone's words, her powers seemed to go far beyond that.
"I'm going to leave you now, but don't forget the basics, and one last piece of advice that I'll elaborate on later." The tone of Mahito's clone was serious.
"Psychic abilities fall into three types: those who create and manipulate energy to control the world around them, those who use their psychic power to manipulate their own brain and others' for various purposes, and finally, those who enhance their physical abilities." After finishing, the raven Mahito and other clones rejoined their original.
"Mahito probably wants me to specialize," concluded Kouki after Mahito's long explanation.
Looking at her situation, she understood that she wasn't an expert in hand-to-hand combat like Mahito.
Although brain manipulation was tempting for her, given her past, she knew it wouldn't be immediately useful.
The only option was to follow the path of the psychic power user capable of controlling their environment, as Mahito had explained.
'I shouldn't just settle for lifting part of the ground or manipulating objects.'
Kouki concentrated on her environment and ignored her opponents. She trusted Mahito.
Although she was in an illusion created by the spirits, she could feel the warmth and wind blowing around her.
"I got it!" exclaimed Kouki, raising her arm toward where the exchanges between Mahito and the spiritual entities were taking place.
She sent several wind blades in their direction, after using her psychic powers to take control of the wind.
Mahito immediately transformed into an eagle and flew away at an incredible speed, but the musician spirits weren't so lucky.
*Slash* The wind blades tore through the spirits, reducing them to unrecognizable pieces of flesh.
"Very good work, you can rest now." Mahito was really satisfied with Kouki's performance, so much so that he didn't hesitate to compliment her.
"Th... thanks," whispered Kouki before fainting. Shortly after, her nose started bleeding.
Mahito quickly used his cursed technique to heal her and increase the sleep hormone level, or simply melatonin.
"She just needs to learn to control aerokinesis, but she's on the right track." Mahito would have preferred Kouki to specialize in the cerebral field, but that wasn't the most urgent thing for her at that time.
Kouki needed strength and, yes, a reliable servant. Mahito had therefore decided to encourage her to follow this path temporarily.
The illusion broke after Kouki defeated the last spirits, but one portrait had disappeared, unlike the others that remained.
'It seems that the one whose essence I absorbed won't return,' thought Mahito, relieved not to have absorbed the others.
This place was literally Kouki's training ground; it would be a waste to devour it entirely.
Mahito left after carrying Kouki like a princess and quickly flew toward her house. He wasn't worried about Kouki being tired the next day, since he had increased her melatonin production.
Frankly, Mahito's cursed technique is extremely convenient.
...
Mahito's POV
"Wake up, you're going to be late." I was in the form of a cat and jumped on Kouki's bed to wake her up.
"Just one more minute..." As I try to get her out of there, I end up being pulled against her.
I end up becoming an impromptu stuffed animal.
It took about ten minutes for Kouki to finally wake up, and we were now on our way to high school, or more specifically, Kouki was running at Olympic speed to get there.
"Why didn't you insist on waking me up!" Her tone was full of reproach, but I didn't really care.
"I made sure you got a restful night despite your nocturnal activities, and I even woke you up, but you just wanted to linger," I said, ignoring her accusatory look.
We finally arrived just in time.
"Interesting..." Once in the hallway, I noticed Okarun, the protagonist of Dandadan.
He seemed to have understood that I wasn't an ordinary cat since he kept glancing at me while looking around.
You should know that cats and other animals are forbidden at school, but there he was, seeing a cat lounging on a high school student's shoulder, and no one noticed it.
I gave him a little wave with my paw, and his shocked reaction was amusing to watch.