"Wait — where's the underwear I gave you??" Mahiko stared at her, completely lost. "Your outer clothes are perfectly fine, so what happened to what you were wearing underneath?"
Not that this was the magical-girl transformation sequence's fault — let's be clear about that.
When Mahiko had designed the Binding Vow, she'd thought it through carefully. The transformation looked like flames consuming the clothes, but in reality, the Cursed Energy was preserving them. Once the transformation ended, the clothes reverted to their original state.
So any damage to the clothing would have existed before the transformation, not after.
If the outer clothes were completely intact — why was the underwear gone?
"Mmph… mmph mmph."
Only then did Mahiko remember she'd stuffed something in Jogo's mouth. She quickly reached over and yanked the wad of fabric out.
Jogo's cheeks were flushed a deep crimson. She turned her gaze slightly to the side, avoiding Mahiko's eyes.
"That thing… was uncomfortable from the start. And after the fight with Gojo I was in a foul mood, so before we went into the mall…" She paused. "I burned it."
Mahiko slowly produced a single mental question mark.
I'm sorry, what?
You burned your underwear because wearing it felt uncomfortable? Are you a toddler in kindergarten?!
I genuinely cannot with this girl!!
Mahiko grabbed a strip of torn fabric from earlier and used it to give Jogo's still-suspended body some semblance of cover, then cracked the fitting room door open, stuck her head out, and waved over one of the shop attendants.
The attendant had, in truth, already heard the noises coming from inside the fitting room. Her imagination had supplied her with several deeply alarming scenarios. When she saw Mahiko peek her head out, she didn't dare look past her into the room — her eyes skittered nervously to the side as she asked in a tight, anxious voice: "W-what's wrong?"
Mahiko pressed some cash into the attendant's hand and lowered her voice. "Could you pop over to the lingerie shop next door and grab a set of underwear? Smaller sizes are fine. Thank you."
The attendant's eyes went perfectly round.
Lin… gerie?!
Then she snapped back, nodding rapidly — "Yes yes yes of course" — and spun on her heel and bolted. Whatever she'd conjured in her imagination must have been truly spectacular, because both her ears had gone completely red by the time she nearly collided with the doorframe on her way out.
Mahiko sighed, pulled her head back inside the fitting room, and shut the door.
She could, technically, have had Little Rabbit fashion a set of underwear out of Cursed Energy for Jogo. But Little Rabbit was, in a sense, soul-linked to Mahiko — and doing it that way felt… off, somehow. Just a little weird.
So she'd sent the attendant to buy something new instead.
Then Mahiko looked at Jogo.
She paused.
A moment ago she'd been too startled by the discovery that Jogo had been going commando to look properly. But now, with a moment to actually take her in — the figure in front of her suddenly felt almost unfamiliar.
Jogo… you…
Before Mahiko's eyes: a silver-haired, crimson-eyed girl, the corners of her eyes still glinting with the remnants of tears, face stained with a flush of red. Her usually sharp, cool white hair was slightly disheveled. Both pale arms were bound together and suspended above her head by the fluffy rope, her clothing torn and tattered — and Mahiko had, admittedly, ripped it a little more herself just moments ago.
Gulp.
Mahiko swallowed involuntarily.
Good lord…
Who even is this person?
Is this really Jogo?
What is this energy — this whole "insufferable gremlin girl gets completely humbled and turns into something soft and helpless" transformation??
Jogo had opened the story by loudly proclaiming she could kill Satoru Gojo, then proceeded to get thoroughly pummeled by Satoru Gojo — a very classic insufferable-gremlin-girl-gets-what's-coming-to-her arc. Solid setup.
But what on earth was this bashful, flustered creature in front of her right now?
Those red eyes still held the ghost of defiance from her earlier struggle — but that stubbornness, layered over flushed cheeks and the faint glimmer of barely-held-back tears, had undergone some kind of extraordinary chemical reaction.
Honestly, in terms of sheer devastating appeal, this blew Fushiguro Maki and Hanami clean out of the water — by several orders of magnitude!!
"There's nothing decent to wear anyway," Jogo said, breaking the silence. Her crimson eyes drifted to the lower right — she had the look of someone deliberately being difficult. "It's all just the dregs of the old humans."
Mahiko snapped herself back from dangerous territory, cleared her throat, crossed her arms, and sighed. "The old humans you're dismissing developed over several thousand years after that. Everything they invented that's still around today — there's a reason it stuck around."
Take underwear, for instance.
Yes, you're flat as a board, so going without isn't going to cause immediate disaster. But give it a day or two, and your very-much-human body is going to have a very bad time.
This was legitimate health knowledge. Not something to joke about.
"And besides…" Mahiko looked at Jogo, her tone shifting — dropping just slightly. "What do you actually think, Koey… about Suguru Geto's so-called New Human plan?"
Jogo blinked, and looked up at her.
Perhaps because the topic had shifted so abruptly into something heavier, she didn't react to the new nickname at all.
"What do you mean… 'what do I think'?"
"Your opinion. How do you see the plan? What kind of world do you think it would create?"
Raising this question within their little group was, by any measure, sensitive territory.
But just before they'd entered the fitting room, Mahiko had half-jokingly shooed away Kenjaku's surveillance insect — and it seemed to have worked, because Kenjaku hadn't dispatched any new scout-type Cursed Spirits since then.
At least, none that were immediately detectable nearby.
She couldn't be a hundred percent certain all surveillance had been dropped — but this was, without question, an opportunity. A chance to have a genuine conversation with Jogo about what she actually believed.
Not that Jogo's mind was necessarily full of complicated layers to begin with.
"Do you actually sympathize with humans the way they are now?" Jogo shook her head lightly. "Cursed Spirits are clearly far stronger than humans — and yet we're the ones forced to exist in the dark corners of the world, while humans rule over everything. Do you think that's fair?"
Mahiko tilted her head slightly.
Jogo's answer was more or less what she'd expected.
Pretty much in line with what she'd already thought through and analyzed.
"Still though — don't you think human creativity has added a lot of interesting things to this world?" Mahiko smiled. "I remember giving you a pair of earphones and an MP3 player before you set out — loaded with some of my favorite songs. What did you think of them?"
The silver-haired girl stilled for a moment, then looked away.
"You mean… that." Her voice dropped. "Sorry. I lost them."
Lost them?
Mahiko blinked. "You didn't like them?"
"No, it's not that I didn't like them." Jogo's gaze drifted toward the corner of the fitting room, like she was choosing her words carefully.
"Then?"
Jogo was quiet for two seconds.
Her red eyes dropped slightly.
"I just… was worried they'd get broken. So I took them off before the fight. I just — I lost, and didn't get the chance to go back for them."
Mahiko stood there for a moment or two.
Then she burst out laughing.
And kept laughing — her laughter growing louder and louder, completely uncontrolled.
Jogo watched her laugh, and couldn't help but frown, the brief flash of sheepishness from a moment ago vanishing entirely, replaced with something thoroughly disgruntled. "What are you laughing at? I lost the fight — do you think that's funny?"
"No no no," Mahiko said, waving her hand and dabbing at the tears of laughter at the corner of her eye, then grinning at Jogo. "They're just earphones and an MP3 player. I'll buy you another set."
Jogo blinked. Her expression loosened just slightly.
"Really?"
"Yep — might not be a super expensive set, but yeah."
"Will it have the same songs as before?"
"It'll have even more songs."
"Then… that's fine."
"Heheh." Mahiko wagged her finger. "Look forward to it."
-------------
[Author's Note: Just thought of something funny — after Mahiko dies in battle, Jogo would be like:
(puts on earphones) Come on then, Mahiko. Time to go all out.
This is a bonus chapter, ~2,300 characters. There'll be another update tonight.
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