In the eyes of everyone else at the company, Kaori Itadori had once again gone home especially early today.
Had it been any time before this stretch, the moment work ended, her colleagues would have been all too eager to invite this young single mother out to all sorts of get-togethers and dates.
Miss Kaori Itadori was exceptionally beautiful, and her personality was wonderful too—just like an angel. Though she was a single mother, her income was substantial, and she was very young. She was practically everyone's dream partner.
Throughout the entire company, nearly everyone was secretly competing, wanting to court Miss Itadori.
But recently, they had noticed that things were different.
Kaori Itadori had gradually gotten used to declining every after-work invitation, no longer joining her coworkers in any activities or socializing outside of work.
"It's over—Miss Kaori Itadori's heart already belongs to someone." That earlier wave of suitors had almost all reached this consensus, each of them endlessly regretful, angry, and unwilling to accept it. Just which guy had beaten them to it and swept Miss Kaori Itadori away?
A female coworker had once asked Kaori Itadori, "Are you seeing a new boyfriend?"
To this question, Kaori Itadori only smiled and said nothing.
This vague attitude—one that offered no denial—only made them all the more certain of their guess: Kaori Itadori had a boyfriend.
And then, today.
"Hey, hey, hey, the security guard says someone's here looking for Miss Itadori!" Outside the office door, someone poked their head in and called out to everyone.
The group had originally all been rivals, but after losing the competition one by one, they had become brothers-in-misfortune.
Upon hearing the news, they exchanged a glance.
Someone had come to pick up Kaori Itadori... Was that her boyfriend, come to fetch her?
They rose to their feet one after another, sneaking off to the company entrance to take a look, wanting to see just what kind of remarkable figure had stolen away the best Miss Itadori of their dreams.
But when they finally saw clearly, they were instead shocked beyond all measure.
Because the moment Kaori Itadori reached the entrance and revealed a look of surprise at the person before her, the one standing there was not some dashing, elegant young lord—but a pure, innocent, blue-haired girl, beautiful as an angel.
"Huh? Why did you come to pick me up here today?" Kenjaku looked at Mahiru, slightly startled.
This girl, who had always been as lazy as a cat, had actually come to the company to find her of her own accord this time—truly, the sun had risen in the west.
And Mahiru simply seized Kenjaku's hand.
"Let's go." The girl was terse, a hint of urgency in her voice. "There's something I need to discuss with you."
Mahiru hurriedly dragged Kenjaku all the way back home.
Back home.
"What's so urgent?" Now Kenjaku was genuinely a little curious.
"I want to kidnap Tengen. And while we're at it, sign contracts with a few more Magical Girls." Mahiru never rested until her words left people stunned.
That single sentence left Kenjaku utterly bewildered.
"Setting aside contracting Magical Girls for now," Kenjaku said, coming back to her senses, "why do you want to kidnap Tengen?"
"Because Tengen's ability can help me quickly achieve my goal of assimilating the world."
This was nonsense—but it wasn't exactly a lie, either.
Hearing this, a flicker of understanding passed through Kenjaku's eyes.
Indeed, she could understand. After all, in her own Culling Game plan, Tengen had been an indispensable link as well.
She really hadn't expected that, after all the twists and turns of taking a new path, she'd still find a use for the old baggage.
"Kidnapping Tengen won't be that easy, though—it'll take careful planning." As Kenjaku said this, she held up one finger. "At the very least, it'll take a few years of lying low, making plans, and waiting for the right moment..."
"No, I can't wait that long. A few years is too long." Mahiru shook her head without hesitation and also held up a single finger. "This is the time limit I can accept."
"A year? Isn't that a bit short?" Kenjaku was surprised.
Mahiru's lips twitched. "It's one month."
The current situation was changing with every passing second; she had to seize the time. Not a single second could be wasted.
And as it happened, in about a week or two, Tengen's Star Plasma Vessel incident would break out as well—by then, the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai, would be brought in to assimilate with Tengen, and that incident would become a perfect opportunity to get close to Tengen and kidnap them.
So when Zhen Lan said one month, it wasn't entirely a wild fantasy.
Kenjaku stroked her chin. "I see... it does sound feasible. But the problem is that breaking into the Tomb of the Star Corridor and kidnapping Tengen are two completely different matters. That Tengen is very strong—won't just let you do as you please. At the same time, those people at Jujutsu High are no pushovers either, especially the one with the Six Eyes from the Gojo Family, and that guy who uses Cursed Spirit Manipulation... They're all a lot of trouble."
In the original story, Kenjaku only succeeded in taking down Tengen at the very end—and there was a reason for that.
Because it truly was very difficult.
"Are you afraid?" Zhen Lan lifted her head, meeting Kenjaku's gaze.
Kenjaku froze, then let out a speechless little laugh.
The girl's words were obviously a provocation.
But what surprised Kenjaku even more was that she had actually been goaded by Zhen Lan's short little sentence. "No, how could that be? I'm merely admitting that this matter is quite challenging," she said. "The thing that could make me 'afraid' probably hasn't appeared yet."
There was one more thing—the "expanding the Magical Girl squad" that Zhen Lan had brought up.
Really, whether they were "Magical Girls" or not didn't matter.
Mahiru's true intent was to gradually build up her own forces in this world—because she strongly suspected that the Culling Game would eventually spread into this "past" world as well.
Yes. Since the Culling Game was already able to traverse the future and the modern era, then who could say whether one day it might also come to this "past" world of hers.
In this past world, even the strongest, Satoru Gojo, had not yet grown into his power. Trying to hold back the Culling Game would likely be extremely difficult.
That was why Mahiru wanted to cultivate Itadori and the others as much as possible ahead of time... Even if she couldn't raise them to be exactly the same as in the modern world, she wanted to accelerate their growth as much as she could.
So the girl dug out from the cabinet the "Magical Girl reserve" list that Kenjaku had given her earlier, and read through it carefully.
She silently sifted through it in her heart.
She more or less had a plan now.
The next two matters: one was expanding the Magical Girl squad, and the other was beginning preparations to "kidnap Tengen."
She was going to have to get busy.
After school today, Megumi Fushiguro didn't go home. Instead, he wandered outside with his backpack on his shoulders.
The boy had no mother, only a father in name—and that father was scum, a bastard, and a gambler on top of it.
Years ago, that man had abandoned him and washed his hands of it all. The Megumi Fushiguro of today depended on his sister Tsumiki for survival.
His sister would work part-time jobs to support him, would care about him, would comfort him when he was sad—to Megumi Fushiguro, in this world, his sister was practically his everything.
Today, Megumi Fushiguro should have gone home and eaten the meal his sister had prepared.
But they'd had a fight.
The reason for the argument was that Megumi Fushiguro had said he wanted to get a part-time job too. The boy couldn't bear to watch his sister toil day and night, so he had secretly found himself a job.
But the ever-gentle Tsumiki Fushiguro, upon hearing that Megumi had done this, got outright angry and scolded him very harshly.
In his sister's eyes, all he needed to do was go to school.
Megumi Fushiguro couldn't understand it. He felt that Tsumiki Fushiguro was already far, far too exhausted—how could he go on letting himself be sheltered behind her with a clear conscience?
And so the two of them fought, the argument growing fiercer and fiercer. In the end, the more Megumi thought about it, the angrier he got, and as one word led to another, he simply slammed the door and stormed out.
So now, the boy was wandering aimlessly, alone, down the dim streets.
In truth, he was still young. Though he'd say he was running away from home in a fit of pique, he hadn't actually gone very far—just past the two blocks up ahead and that was the end of it.
Gradually, as he wandered about, the anger and temper that had flared up from the fight slowly faded away bit by bit.
In its place welled up guilt.
His sister already had it so hard, yet here he was fighting with her.
His sister would surely be worried about him, yet he had still slammed the door and left without going home.
Would she worry? Would she be anxious?
Megumi Fushiguro pursed his lips. The knot of stubbornness in his heart loosened, and he decided he'd better hurry home.
But just as he had turned around to head home and taken only a few steps, passing a narrow alley, he suddenly heard a strange sound coming from deep within it.
That sound was sticky and muffled, mixed with a kind of... tearing, chewing noise.
Megumi Fushiguro hesitated, but still poked his head in to take a look.
Then, as the sound grew clearer and clearer, his heart grew more and more uneasy.
He didn't walk away. Instead, as if driven by some unseen force, he crept two steps forward on tiptoe, hid behind the corner of the alley, and quietly poked his head out.
And then, he saw it.
A monster, its whole body twisted and its appearance hideous, was crouching deep in the alley, head lowered, gnawing on something... No.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!
Megumi Fushiguro's scalp went numb with fear.
The monster was eating a person!
It was eating a person!!!
The boy had never seen such a monster.
He didn't know what it was! He only knew that thing was very dangerous. At this point, Fushiguro had not yet awakened the Ten Shadows Technique, nor had anyone taught him how to use Jujutsu. He was now already showing faint precursor signs of awakening his Cursed Energy, which was why, in this moment, he was able to see it.
But this was a bad thing. The Cursed Spirit was devouring a person, and Fushiguro had already arrived at a very dangerous spot.
Megumi Fushiguro was scared out of his wits. He shrank into the shadows of the corner, clamping a hand tightly over his mouth, not daring even to breathe.
But that Cursed Spirit seemed to have sensed something all the same.
It slowly straightened up and began walking, step by step, toward the direction where Megumi Fushiguro was hiding...
Don't, don't come over here...
The boy prayed, but it was no use.
The Cursed Spirit's breathing drew closer and closer.
Megumi Fushiguro's heart nearly leapt out of his throat. He pressed his entire body into the shadowed corner, even cutting off his own breath.
But perhaps his prayers really had worked.
The footsteps paused a few steps away from him, then seemed to turn around and slowly walk off toward the other end of the alley.
The boy listened for a long while, and only after confirming that the Cursed Spirit had truly left did he let out a breath—only then realizing that the cold sweat covering his whole body had nearly soaked through the back of his shirt.
That scared me to death... it really scared me to death... What on earth was that monster? Should I call the police? But what good would calling the police even do?
Megumi Fushiguro felt his legs were still weak. It took all his effort to stand up against the wall, and after catching his breath for a good while, he finally dared to slowly walk out of the alley...
...Wait.
His breath abruptly caught again.
Because he saw a trail of blood on the ground, extending all the way out of the alley. And the direction it stretched toward—was actually the direction of his home!
It was the direction where his sister was!!!
Megumi Fushiguro's heart lurched violently. No way? Surely things couldn't be that bad?
He forced himself not to overthink it, but his legs had already begun sprinting toward home, no longer obeying him.
Please, don't let it be like this, don't hurt my sister... Please... The boy prayed over and over. But this time his prayers had no effect at all.
His worst guess had come true.
That trail of blood really did lead all the way to his home.
Megumi Fushiguro rushed to the doorway. The door was open. He charged inside in a single stride, and there, in the room, he saw his own sister.
Tsumiki lay collapsed on the ground, drenched in blood. Her forehead had been smashed open, blood streaming down her cheeks, and one arm hung at a grotesque angle—it was broken.
The girl was gravely injured, terribly, terribly so.
And that Cursed Spirit, facing his sister, heard him and slowly turned its head.
"Megumi! Don't come over here—run! Run now!" Tsumiki struggled, shouting at him with all her strength.
But at that very moment, the monster had already turned around, fixing those unfocused eyes upon Megumi Fushiguro.
Fear overwhelmed the boy, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
It was a pure, overwhelming power—the kind of power that a weak existence like him found hopeless even to look up at.
The boy sank into an abyss of despair and terror.
But in the next instant—perhaps because things reverse once they reach their extreme—a surge of rage suddenly blazed up in Megumi Fushiguro's heart once more.
Because how dare you hurt Tsumiki like this!
As mentioned before, Megumi Fushiguro's self-destructive tendencies had existed since he was young. Because he had been abandoned, because he had been looked down upon... because of a whole series of reasons, he did not think his own life was very important.
He didn't want to die, but he didn't feel that dying would be such a terrible thing either. The one thing the boy could not accept right now was his sister being hurt.
Anyone could die, but Tsumiki could not die!
If you want to kill me, then I don't care—but if you dare touch my— "AAAAAAH!!!"
Without any hesitation, the boy screamed and charged at that monster with all his might.
Megumi Fushiguro was already able to actively see Cursed Spirits, which meant the Cursed Energy within his body had begun to awaken.
But the problem was that he was still far too weak.
He threw himself at it, punching the Cursed Spirit again and again. The Cursed Spirit was momentarily stunned by this sudden attack, seemingly caught off guard. But it quickly reacted, and with a casual swing of its arm, it violently flung this reckless little brat away, slamming him hard into the wall.
"Kah—!" Megumi Fushiguro spat out blood.
The boy had been beaten badly.
The Cursed Spirit stepped forward.
From somewhere, Tsumiki found the strength to lunge over and shield him beneath her, holding him fast.
But what good would that do?
The sister and brother had, after all, been cornered against the wall. The two of them clung tightly to each other, their blood pooling across the floor.
It's over. Megumi Fushiguro was filled with despair.
Why was he so weak... Why couldn't he protect his sister... This shitty world—just when the two siblings had finally begun to find some stability in their lives, it had sent this monster to hunt them down.
Did it not want to see them happy?
And in this moment of utter despair—
In the sky, a burst of pink light suddenly bloomed.
Immediately after, a pink figure crashed through the room's window, descending gracefully from within that light.
That was a... pink Magical Girl?
The Magical Girl, in an incredibly dazzling pose, landed steadily before the two siblings, her back to them, standing between them and that monster.
"Monster! You shall not harm civilians!"
The pink Magical Girl planted one hand on her hip, her pink hair fluttering, and shouted this line with a full, resounding voice.
Then, from who knows where, she pulled out a pink magic wand, murmuring under her breath as if solemnly chanting some incantation.
Just as Megumi Fushiguro thought she was about to unleash some kind of magic light cannon, she instead swung that wand straight up and smashed it hard against the Cursed Spirit's head.
BAM!!
She sent the Cursed Spirit flying outright.
Megumi Fushiguro was utterly dumbfounded.
A Magical Girl... aren't you supposed to chant a spell and cast magic? How—how did you just swing your staff like a hammer?!
"Heh heh." The pink-haired Magical Girl wore a smug expression.
That's right—this Magical Girl was, in fact, Itadori.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer exorcising a Cursed Spirit follows essentially the same logic as a Magical Girl eliminating a monster. During this period, Mahiru had always sent Itadori out to patrol within her line of sight, continuously hunting Cursed Spirits and honing her abilities.
And now, with a monster appearing and threatening civilians, our Magical Girl Yuuko naturally rose to the occasion, showing up here and rescuing the Fushiguro siblings in one fell swoop.
The Cursed Spirit before her was probably at the level of a grade-two Cursed Spirit.
Itadori already possessed extremely powerful jujutsu talent. And when Mahiru turned her into a Magical Girl, that talent had been thoroughly unleashed.
So this seemingly goofy swing carried a terrifying amount of force, forcibly sending that Cursed Spirit flying clean away, crashing through several walls.
"Don't worry, with me here, you two won't come to any harm!" The pink-haired girl broke into a brilliant smile and looked back at Fushiguro and Tsumiki.
Moonlight spilled in from the window, falling upon the girl's beautiful long pink hair. Watching her, Fushiguro was, for a moment, actually dazed.
Who could be rescued at a critical moment by a bright, cheerful, pink-haired beauty, and see her turn to give you a smile that set your heart at ease—and not feel dazed?
But in the next second, Megumi Fushiguro's pupils suddenly contracted.
Because he saw that the Cursed Spirit that had been sent flying had actually struggled back up out of the rubble, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, and was now lunging at the utterly unguarded Magical Girl, whose back was still turned to it.
"Look out—!!" Megumi Fushiguro shouted with all the strength in his body, his voice hoarse.
The pink Magical Girl blinked her eyes and didn't even turn her head.
In the very instant the Cursed Spirit was about to bite her, she merely tilted her head to the side nonchalantly, nimbly dodging that snap of its jaws, then flipped her wrist and, with a backhand swing, struck it squarely across the face with her wand once more.
She was showing off on purpose.
And the Cursed Spirit let out a miserable shriek.
Little Itadori would not be staying her hand after this.
She chased after it with brisk, light steps, raising that pink magic wand—one blow, another, and yet another—and, with utter brutality, beat the still-struggling, wailing Cursed Spirit into a pulp while it was still alive.
Only after the Cursed Spirit had gone completely still and dissolved into smoke did she contentedly put away her wand and turn around, returning to stand before Megumi Fushiguro.
"It's all fine now, the monster's been beaten off—ah, no, beaten to death!" Itadori grinned, flashing him a brilliant smile, and stretched out a small hand to pull the slumped Megumi Fushiguro up from the ground.
Megumi Fushiguro lifted his head, staring blankly at the person before him.
Gazing at the girl's face, nearly glowing in the moonlight, the boy suddenly felt a sting in his nose—he actually wanted to cry.
In truth, Megumi Fushiguro didn't watch much anime normally, so he couldn't really say what Magical Girls were even supposed to be like; he'd only vaguely heard of them here and there.
But at this very moment, he felt that the Magical Girl before him was the most wonderful person in this world—a beam of light shining into his darkness.
"From now on—er, no, ah! She's hurt!"
Itadori had been about to ride the moment and boast about herself a little more, but halfway through her words, her gaze drifted to the side, and only then did she notice that Tsumiki Fushiguro had at some point passed out from excessive blood loss, her face pale as paper.
She panicked on the spot. "Oh no, oh no, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, she's lost so much blood!"
Megumi Fushiguro panicked along with her, his whole heart clenching. He couldn't let his sister die—absolutely not.
"What do we do? Can... can you save my sister?"
Itadori grew frantic too, spinning around in circles, and then her eyes lit up. She suddenly clenched her fist and slammed it hard into her palm.
"The Angel surely has a way!"
The "Angel" she spoke of naturally referred to Mahiru.
Megumi Fushiguro didn't know who this "Angel" was, but at this point, he was in no position to care about anything: "Is it really possible? Please, save Tsumiki..."
Itadori put her hands on her hips and puffed out her small chest, her face full of certainty.
"Don't worry! The Angel can do anything!"
____
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