Clang—
The blade flashed, drawing a silver arc through the air.
Mahiko sprang free from Miwa's arms in a single leap, her body twisting lightly through the air as she slipped past the slash the girl had brought down, landing gracefully on the floor two steps away.
Hmmmm...
The blade in Miwa's hand was still faintly trembling.
That was Miwa's combat style — the school known as Shinkage-ryū.
"Oh dear." The blue-haired girl tilted her head and blinked, her tone carrying a hint of disappointment. "So it really doesn't work as well on jujutsu sorcerers as it does on ordinary people, huh?"
Indeed.
The mental-control command Mahiko had just issued to Miwa Kasumi using Cursed Speech might have taken immediate effect on an ordinary person — but against a jujutsu sorcerer with a Cursed Energy foundation, the effectiveness was clearly diminished.
Or rather, that one breezy little sentence had done absolutely nothing.
And the blowback was no joke either.
Mahiko's throat had just erupted in searing pain.
The last time it had hurt this bad was the very first time she'd used Cursed Speech — when she'd hypnotized everyone in the library into believing they were cats. Her throat had been absolutely wrecked that time.
This time wasn't much better.
Hypnotizing a jujutsu sorcerer and hypnotizing an ordinary person really were worlds apart.
Miwa Kasumi had been affected — but only for a split second. Her body stiffened for maybe a fraction of a second, and then, powered by a sorcerer's instincts and the protection of her Cursed Energy, she snapped free of the daze on her own — and immediately drew her blade and swung it at Mahiko.
"It's not just mental fortitude that affects the hypnotic power of Cursed Speech — Cursed Energy acting as a shield is a factor too..." Mahiko rubbed her chin, thinking.
She'd run a lot of experiments just now.
And she'd found that hypnotizing people with Cursed Speech wasn't actually as simple as she'd assumed.
Some people had a stronger will than others, and Mahiko had to use Cursed Speech several times before she could get through to them.
Against a jujutsu sorcerer, she'd probably need to say a lot more before any hypnosis would stick.
"Well then, let's keep experimenting." Mahiko's smile was sweetness itself.
As mentioned before — ever since that pack of jujutsu sorcerers had ambushed and cornered her, Mahiko had developed a habit. She kept a ring of miniature clones deployed within roughly one to two hundred meters in every direction, monitoring all sides like a radar array, keeping watch for any sorcerers who might close in on her at any moment.
So when Miwa Kasumi started walking over, Mahiko had noticed immediately.
But she'd also clocked that it was only Miwa — alone — and that the girl wasn't in any combat-ready state. Her pace was loose and wandering. One look was enough to tell Mahiko that Miwa was just taking a stroll.
In other words, Miwa Kasumi ending up here was pure coincidence, not a deliberate move to come looking for trouble.
So should she leave?
For a moment, Mahiko had genuinely considered retreating.
Returning everyone to normal was as easy as speaking the reverse command — simple, convenient, something she could do at any time.
But then she'd dismissed the thought.
She'd simply watched Miwa Kasumi walk into the library — and then, the moment Miwa wasn't looking, she'd silently deployed a Curtain, severing Miwa's connection to the outside world.
The Curtain was thin and well-hidden. Its core sat inside the library, blocking cell signals and Cursed Energy communications — but from the outside, the library looked completely normal. Not a trace of it.
Even if patrol personnel from Jujutsu High walked past nearby, they might not detect a subtle Curtain like this from a distance.
And besides, Mahiko's outer network of clones would tip her off to their approach long before they got close enough to notice anything.
Which meant Miwa Kasumi was now a turtle in a jar.
Not that there was any misunderstanding to clear up.
Mahiko hadn't trapped Miwa here just to torment her.
Although... well, ahem, Mahiko would admit that lately she did seem to have been enjoying picking on people more and more — especially girls like Miwa Kasumi, whose reactions when flustered were honestly adorable.
But that wasn't the main purpose.
The main purpose was still the experiment.
Miwa Kasumi was weak, sure — but she was at least a jujutsu sorcerer. She had a Cursed Energy foundation. She knew how to use Cursed Energy to attack and defend.
And all of Mahiko's Cursed Speech experiments in the library up until now had used ordinary people as subjects. Ordinary people had zero resistance to Cursed Speech, so the effects were explosive — but they held no reference value.
What Mahiko truly wanted to know was: how did Cursed Speech's mental control hold up against a jujutsu sorcerer?
How many times would she need to repeat the hypnotic command before she could strip away the target's free will?
If she found herself in battle against another sorcerer someday — could she directly take control of them with Cursed Speech?
She'd been chewing over that very question when Miwa Kasumi walked right through the door.
Well then. You'll do nicely as a test subject, Miwa.
That was why she'd leaned in and whispered those words in Miwa's ear: "Become my little cat, Miwa Kasumi."
It probably sounded deranged. Possibly perverse. But she really was just testing the operational limits of Cursed Speech in a real scenario.
To be honest — compared to manipulating someone's mind, Mahiko still preferred just messing with people the old-fashioned way.
...Wait.
Oh no. Had she actually turned into a sadist?
This was all Fushiguro's fault.
Why was Fushiguro so awful — making her turn out like this.
Regardless, she had time to spare right now, and Mahiko decided to keep the experiment going. Not like she had anything better to do — and besides, Mahiko had a few other ulterior motives quietly ticking away in the back of her mind.
"!!!"
And before her, Miwa Kasumi had by now shaken off every last trace of that initial daze. The girl clenched her jaw, both hands gripping her blade, Cursed Energy flowing along the steel and casting a faint shimmer of light.
Her eyes locked onto Mahiko without blinking.
Blue hair.
Blue hair...
Miwa Kasumi recognized her. This was that blue-haired Cursed Spirit.
The one with the bizarre Jujutsu Technique that could alter the human body — the extremely dangerous, extremely cunning Special Grade Cursed Spirit!
"You're... that Cursed Spirit?!" Miwa broke into a cold sweat.
She hadn't expected a casual trip to a library to end with her running straight into the most wanted target in all of Tokyo. The ferocious, slippery, blue-haired Cursed Spirit that even a team led by a Grade 1 sorcerer hadn't been able to catch.
She was done for.
She was genuinely, completely done for.
She couldn't break through the Curtain, she couldn't get a signal out, and there was no way she alone could stand against this monster.
She could already picture it — ending up like those factory workers who'd been killed, warped into some grotesque creature, dying a miserable death, left without even a whole corpse to bury.
Ugh... if only she hadn't come to Tokyo.
If only she'd stayed put in Kyoto like a sensible person.
She'd thought coming early and answering the call would earn her some brownie points with the teacher.
Instead, she'd hit the jackpot in the worst possible way — blundering right into the blue-haired Cursed Spirit. She'd probably be left without even a whole body to identify.
Should she shove her ID card into her mouth right now so that when the other sorcerers eventually cleaned up the mess, they'd at least be able to figure out which one was her corpse?
Sweat beaded on Miwa's forehead. The fingers wrapped around her blade were trembling with fear and tension.
But—
The girl drew a slow, deep breath and shoved every scrap of terror and despair raging through her mind down hard, burying it in the deepest part of herself. She took her stance, blade at the ready, hands locked tight around the hilt.
Then I'll die!
No — she wasn't going to die for certain!
Whether she could win or not, she'd only know by fighting with everything she had. No matter what, she couldn't abandon hope. She couldn't surrender her right to struggle. And even if she was going to die — she was going to make it mean something first!
"I am a penguin I am a penguin I am a penguin I am a penguin..." The same person from earlier sprinted past behind her.
Miwa's mouth twitched — but she held her focus like iron, blade pointed at Mahiko's brow as she shouted:
"The people here — did you do all of this?! Did you drive them all insane?! What did you do to them?!"
Mahiko blinked and slid her gaze over toward the chaos in the room.
Someone was still rolling around on the floor meowing. Someone else was scaling a bookshelf. Two more people had started a competition to see who could stack their palm on top of the other's hand faster.
It was, admittedly, quite the scene.
"Ahem, about all of that..." The blue-haired girl cleared her throat. "Don't worry about it — it's fine. I just ran a few casual little experiments. When the time's up they'll go back to normal on their own, no harm done."
It did admittedly sound pretty shady. But Mahiko had actually been quite careful about safety.
Throughout all her Cursed Speech experiments, she'd had clones keeping a constant eye on everyone's wellbeing the entire time. No matter what, these people were absolutely safe — nothing was going to happen to them.
So the concern was unnecessary.
— As if a Special Grade Cursed Spirit couldn't keep an eye on a room full of people.
As a bonus, Mahiko had also quietly treated everyone for things like nearsightedness, hay fever, and whatever else she'd noticed along the way — call it compensation. Because she did know her little prank had gotten a bit out of hand.
Heh heh. Mainly it was just that Cursed Speech was such an insanely fun ability.
She simply couldn't help but make everyone embarrass themselves a little.
Sorry, sorry. I'll leave you all healthier than before, so please forgive me.
Clap!
Mahiko pressed her palms together with a sharp smack and turned back to Miwa Kasumi with a bright, beaming smile.
"Alright, enough about them. Miwa-nee-san — won't you be a good girl and become my little kitty? Or if you don't fancy being a cat, I wouldn't mind a puppy either?"
The girl's smile was sunny and perfectly innocent.
"And, and — if you don't struggle, I might even have a little reward for you~? It's so much nicer to just be good and cooperate. Doesn't that sound lovely?"
Miwa Kasumi said nothing.
Her teeth clamped down harder. The blade stayed trained on Mahiko's forehead, Cursed Energy churning wildly along the steel. She absolutely would not yield. Miwa didn't know what was coming — but she would never submit to a Cursed Spirit.
"I am a baby dragon I am a baby dragon I am a baby dragon I am a baby dragon..." A small boy ran between the two facing girls.
Mahiko's mouth twitched too.
And in the next instant — right as that boy darted past — Miwa drew her blade.
A flash of cold steel cut sideways.
"Shinkage-ryū — Slash!"
*(Author's Note: This chapter is 3k, and there was also a morning update of 3k — so I actually added an extra chapter today! I wanted to keep writing, but I'll give myself a day off.
Everyone else enjoy your day off too.
The monthly ticket bounty is still ongoing — thank you all for your support.)*
____
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