“Assistant Manager Tanabe told me about it,” the girl replied with a giggle. “It recently caused a lot of damage in the area I’m in charge of.”
“Ah.” Nishimiya worried that this girl might be a little loose with information.
Aside from a talent for cursed techniques, sorcerers needed the ability to remain calm even in the midst of unusual states of affairs. Killing and dying were everyday occurrences. Even as they sat here, calmly enjoying their coffee, curses were roaming this ostensibly peaceful city, seething and cursing people. Somebody could die tomorrow, and that somebody might be one of them.
If you couldn’t live with an internal understanding of that, you would, as Satoru Gojo might say, “go crazy up here.” In other words, you needed to be able to switch mental gears the moment an incident arose or an attack occurred. Even if you weren’t a sorcerer fighting on the front lines, you needed to stay on your guard.
Yuu didn’t give the impression that she had that ability. Even Miwa, whom the sorcerers had scouted, sensed something dangerous about this girl. She cast a glance at Mai, who raised a knowing eyebrow in response.
“Yuu, you said there’s been damage in your area, right?” Mai asked.
“Yep!” the girl replied.
“If you ever see that cursed spirit, be sure to inform Jujutsu High right away.”
“Of course! I could never fight a cursed spirit, so I’ll be sure to tell you, Mai!”
“No, not me. Tell a teacher or assistant manager.”
“But I want you to expel it! So your accomplishments will earn you a promotion!”
“She’s got a thing for you, Mai,” Nishimiya said. She seemed exasperated, but she was smiling. From Nishimiya’s point of view, anyone who understood Mai’s position and wanted to help—even if that person was a little excitable—was someone to be happy about.
Mai waved her hand as if Nishimiya’s gaze was bugging her. She didn’t want to deal with the teasing. Just then, Yuu checked her watch and shot to her feet.
“Um, sorry, but I gotta go,” she said.
“Have plans with a friend?” Mai asked.
Yuu made a point of turning and shaking her head in response to the question.
“No, it’s work. The cursed spirit we were just discussing appeared at the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine the other day, and before that it showed up near the Meishin Expressway in the evening. It appeared at twilight, and I suspect its next target will be around the Tofuku-ji temple.”
“You suspect? Don’t tell me you’re investigating it by yourself,” Mai said.
“That’s dangerous. You should leave it to a sorcerer to chase down clues,” Miwa chided, but Yuu didn’t seem the least concerned.
“I know. I’m only gonna confirm the residuals. Cuz I know how scary cursed spirits can be!” She flashed a bright smile, then turned to face Mai. “But if I ever get in a pinch, come save me again, okay?”
Then she winked.
Mai’s eyes narrowed in exasperation. “Okay, but only to pay you back for the scone,” she said.
“Yay!”
Mai sighed and shrugged as Yuu walked off with a joyful smile on her face. It felt like a baby duckling was following her around.
“So you will rescue her?” Nishimiya asked.
“I just said that to be polite,” Mai answered. Ignoring Miwa’s laugh, she looked toward the café exit. Yuu dutifully continued to wave goodbye until she was out of sight.
“Mai, this is no big surprise, right? After all, you helped her out once.”
Mai winced at Nishimiya’s question. “Like I said, it was a fly head.”
“If it was just a fly head, you could have let it go, but you chose to help her.”
“Even if it was harmless, it would be unpleasant for her to witness something so creepy. To be honest, though, I regret helping her.” Mai drained her coffee, which had gone cold, and glowered. “I don’t like it when people get the wrong idea and act all clingy with me.”
Nishimiya’s and Miwa’s eyes met when they noticed Mai gazing into the distance.
One week later, they found out that all communication had been lost with the window around K Girls University.
“It’s probably too late.”
Assistant Manager Tanabe was frank in his conclusion. He wasn’t giving them mission orders. It was unusual and annoying to have students contact him to request information about an incident involving a cursed spirit, but the girls had asked, so he provided as much information as he could reveal.
Miwa looked at him like he was being unbelievably coldhearted, so he added that Yuu Makimura had been investigating outside the bounds permitted by her assignment. It was a broad-range wandering vengeful spirit of at least grade 2. Many cursed spirits settled in a single place, but this one, true to its name, was wandering around the city. That didn’t mean, however, that it was aimless.
This cursed spirit reacted strongly to being seen. Reacting to a sighting was a common trait among cursed spirits, but it was even more pronounced in this one. Whether or not that was the case because of the personality where the curse had originated didn’t matter when it came to dealing with the cursed spirit.
Some people have a strong second sight. They don’t have what it takes to become sorcerers, but they do have a sense for the existence of cursed spirits. The cursed spirit in question attached to people like that, people who were aware of their own power but unable to fight back. It was how the cursed spirit picked its prey. Meanwhile, it fled from sorcerers, who had combat ability. It was crafty like that, able to rack up damage.
Yuu Makimura had zeroed in on that trait. As someone who could observe but not fight cursed spirits, she thought that maybe as a window she would be able to draw it out, and she’d made a proposal along those lines.
“Of course, I rejected it,” Tanabe said. “After all, I was already being extremely careful in investigating this cursed spirit in detail, so as to avoid the unnecessary death of a window.” Tanabe let out an irritated sigh. “No, I won’t put together a team for a rescue mission. A grade 1 sorcerer could handle this easily, but we never have enough of those, especially not for a window who deliberately put herself at risk. Call me coldhearted if you want. Am I abandoning a child? From my point of view, you students are children, and I would never send students ranking approximately grade 3 to handle a cursed spirit about which we know very little.”
His speech highlighted how careless Yuu had been. On her own initiative, she made contact with a grade 2 cursed spirit. And per her own decision, she went investigating all by herself. That really didn’t leave much room for sympathy.
Miwa had that look on her face again, and Nishimiya sighed in recognition of the inevitable. Each registering their own emotions, they walked out of the office. Mai was the last to leave.
From the moment of her birth, Mai had lived in fear. Defilements, known as curses, filled the world. Mai was born with the ability to see them all, and had regretted that fact countless times.
The sky was a beautiful blue and the city was resplendent with color, but this wasn’t simply a pretty place. If she hadn’t been born into a sorcerer family, and if she didn’t know that the world was cursed, perhaps her eyes might have registered nothing but the pretty colors.
Mai knew how horrifying it was to be able to see curses, so of course she was afraid. There was no way she could face that in a state of calm.
The memory of Yuu’s voice, asking for help, rang in Mai’s memory.
“Aw, give me a break!”
It had been an offhand promise, so she had no obligation to keep it. Besides, as Tanabe had said, Yuu had brought this upon herself. She wasn’t so close to the girl that she had to save her. Furthermore, the cursed spirit was grade 2, whereas Mai was grade 3. The task was beyond her ability.
“So it’s totally impossible!”
It was late at night. There were no sounds, but she plugged her ears and closed her eyes anyway.
The right thing to do was to let Yuu go. No one would criticize Mai for that. But it didn’t feel right. All alone, Mai pondered what was eating at her.
Liar.
A familiar voice sounded in her head. A face appeared behind her eyelids—Maki’s. Mai swung her arm to drive it away, but it wouldn’t disappear. Maki’s eyes stared at her.
“Do you have something to say, you dummy?”
With a painful heave, Mai let out a groan. Then she realized something. If she looked closely, it wasn’t Maki’s face after all; it was her, Mai, when she was a child.
“Liar.”
This time, it was clearly audible. It was Mai herself who was muttering.
Memories swirled in her head, the scenes switching dizzily from one to another. Her older sister holding her hand. Her sister promising to never let go. Her sister becoming an adult and leaving her alone. It was Mai who was calling her sister a liar, and it was Mai who always felt like crying.
“I …”
Mai took a deep breath and struggled for words. Then she spoke.
“I’m not like you, Maki.”
She holstered her pistol and flung on her coat. She couldn’t think straight, so she didn’t bother trying to understand what she was doing. It was probably something stupid, and it would come to no good.
Nonetheless, she kept moving. She simply couldn’t bear it. Yuu believed in Mai on account of that cheap promise. Mai couldn’t bear the thought of such stupidity, so she decided to go help her. She didn’t want to be yet another example of someone to whom trust meant nothing and promises were for breaking.
Driven and still in a daze, she turned the doorknob. Two figures were waiting for her in the dark hall.
“Kasumi … Momo … Why?” Mai asked.
“Because we figured you’d do this,” Nishimiya said, tamping her broom on the floor.
“And we couldn’t let you go alone,” Miwa said, resting her hand on the hilt of her katana.
“You guys are so weird,” Mai said exasperatedly.