A Dangerous Woman Arrives

The previous night, a golden ball strikes Aira on the head as she strolls in the dark, and she stares at a trail of light gliding along the train tracks. Captivated, she scoops up the ball and keeps it. At Kami High the next morning, her friends Anzu and Tsubame arrive with the gear she asked for, supplies for her self-styled quest to rescue the world. Aira alerts them to a red-clad stranger she has noticed outside, but they reveal that the figure is visible to her alone, leading Aira to decide the woman is Momo's familiar sent to watch her. She ducks out of sight, gets flagged as suspicious by two boys, feigns ignorance, and quietly arranges to meet her friends after class. Up on the roof, Turbo Granny tells Momo and Okarun about a strange woman skulking nearby, and the three consider that a human may have grabbed one of Okarun's golden balls, which would open that person's eyes to spirits and make them a target. Turbo Granny says the rest can wait until school lets out.

Later, Aira frets about taking on both Momo and the supposed familiar and watches the woman in red close in. In the corridor she asks Momo, recognizing her as the girl she beaned with a basin the day before, for a private word. Momo agrees rather than stir up trouble and tells Okarun she will rejoin him afterward, just as Turbo Granny, tucked in his backpack, warns that the stranger has surfaced. Aira draws Momo into a derelict building, where Anzu and Tsubame ambush and cuff her while Aira attempts an exorcism with rosary and bible. Annoyed, Momo flings the pair off with her psychic powers. Stunned anew by Momo's "demon wings," Aira produces the golden ball to bolster her ritual. Grasping that Aira carries one of Okarun's balls, Momo cannot make her understand its nature. Okarun then dashes in out of worry, and Momo warns that Aira is the mysterious woman, but he sets her straight: Aira is the woman's quarry, and the Acrobatic Silky abruptly appears to snatch the girl away.

Taking the golden ball into her possession leaves Aira newly attuned to the supernatural, and she pegs the red woman as Momo's familiar on her trail. Turbo Granny spots the figure as well and notes that any human holding a kintama risks being assailed by spirits. Aira lures Momo to a quiet spot where she and her friends mount an exorcism, and the yokai Acrobatic Silky seizes Aira, doting on her as though she were her own daughter.

Set in Volume 2, this chapter sits within the Acrobatic Silky Arc and the Kintama Hunt Saga and was adapted into Episode 6 of the anime. It marks the first appearance of Aira Shiratori. Spanning twenty-three pages, it was released on June 29, 2021, between Chapter 12 and Chapter 14.