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ilham20
"Something like this… is it really allowed?"
Kanae Kocho didn't reach for the Equivalent Exchange scroll Shuya held out. She hesitated, voice quiet but firm.
She wasn't against staying in the world. She wasn't against staying with her sister.
But keeping a lingering soul like hers walking around forever? That crossed a line. The last person who'd tried to cheat death and life itself had been Muzan Kibutsuji a thousand years ago—and look what that had done to the Ubuyashiki clan. A hereditary curse that still killed their men young after ten centuries.
If she accepted this, would Shinobu end up paying the same price?
"Sister!!"
Shinobu saw straight through her. She'd spent the last two years living exactly the way Kanae used to. Of course she knew what her big sister was thinking.
She didn't care. Without Kanae, what was the point of being alive anyway?
Kanae shook her head once, silently telling her little sister to stay quiet. Then she looked straight at Shuya, needing the truth.
If the answer was what she feared, she'd let go of her regrets and move on. She wouldn't drag Shinobu down with her.
"Sister, I can't lose you. So—"
Shinobu snatched the scroll out of Shuya's hand before he could react. "I'm sorry. Forgive me for being selfish one last time."
Her head was full of everything Shuya had said.
Sign her name and she could still see her sister even after his power ran out. She'd have the same power he did. She could keep Kanae here forever.
She didn't wait for permission. She bit her index finger hard, drew blood, and scrawled her name across the parchment in one fast motion—Shinobu Kocho—without even reading the terms.
The bloody signature glowed the instant it touched the paper.
Kanae's eyes went wide. "Little Shinobu, you—!"
Too late. The name flared like a star going supernova. Light exploded outward, scattering into glowing particles that swirled around Shinobu before pouring into her body like liquid fire.
Normal contract activation. Nothing unusual.
Except it didn't stop there.
Red ribbons—Nen-made, edged with delicate butterfly-wing patterns—burst from Shinobu's chest like living tentacles. They snapped forward and swallowed Kanae whole before Shuya could even blink.
Kanae vanished into her sister's body with a soft gasp.
Shuya stood there holding the second scroll, mouth open. "What the hell…?"
The light around Shinobu faded. She looked… different. More solid. More real.
Then she spoke, voice soft and a little dazed. "Shuya-san?"
"Kanae-san?" he asked carefully.
"Shinobu" nodded. "It's me."
Shuya's brain short-circuited. "How did you end up inside Little Shinobu's body?"
Before Kanae could answer, the glow returned. This time it peeled away from Shinobu's skin, coalesced in the air, and reformed Kanae's body right beside her.
Shinobu didn't hesitate. She threw herself into her sister's arms. "Sister!"
Pure joy. No fear. Just overwhelming relief at having her back.
Shuya felt the contract feedback hit him like a truck.
Obsession.
Shinobu's refusal to let her sister disappear. Kanae's inability to leave her little sister behind. Two overwhelming regrets had fused under the contract's power and created something new.
From this moment on, both sisters were his contractors.
They existed in perfect symbiosis.
When Shinobu controlled the body, her Nen affinity was Enhancement. When Kanae took over, it switched to Transmutation. Both could use Conjuration at will.
In battle they could split—one staying physical while the other turned intangible and untouchable—or stay solid and fight two-on-one. Or merge completely into a single fighter, just like they had a second ago.
Like Daki and Gyutaro, the Upper Moon Six siblings. They would only truly die if both were destroyed at the same time.
And their training speed? Double that of any normal Nen user.
True two-in-one.
Shuya stared at the sisters holding each other, still glowing faintly from the aftershock.
Well. That was new.