Meanwhile, similar events were beginning to unfold both inside and outside the various Culling Game barriers across Japan.
Outside the Sakurajima Colony, far from Tokyo, armored vehicles rolled to a stop.
"This way! Move faster!"
"Yes, sir!"
Orderly footsteps echoed across the area, accompanied by loud responses.
(Don't mind whether the soldiers are speaking a foreign language.)
Groups of fully armed soldiers were gathering outside the barrier. An officer stood among them, repeatedly flipping through a thick stack of documents while issuing orders to his men.
Based on the information they had gathered, entering the barrier by vehicle was impossible due to the random teleportation effect of the Culling Game.
"You can't do this! Ordinary people aren't allowed to enter here!"
One of the assistant managers who had been stationed nearby immediately stepped forward and blocked the officer's path.
No matter how heavily armed they were, soldiers were still ordinary humans. They couldn't harm the cursed spirits that might be roaming inside the barrier, and as for powerful sorcerers, conventional firearms were generally ineffective.
According to the usual power scale, most portable firearms could only threaten sorcerers below grade 2.
"Detain everyone here."
The officer ignored the warning entirely and instead ordered his men to capture all the assistant managers. With the enormous benefits promised by cursed energy, nothing could be allowed to stand in their way.
"Wait! What are you trying to do?!"
Just as the soldiers were about to tie up the assistant managers with ropes, a girl's voice rang out from the distance.
Two tall figures approached. Though their faces were almost identical, they gave completely different impressions. One carried the aura of a sharp-tongued beauty, while the other looked like a born athlete.
The Zenin twins had arrived.
Before the soldiers could act, Maki stepped forward to stop them. The two sisters had originally come to assist in dealing with the barrier, only to find themselves facing this situation instead.
"Be careful! They're not here to help!" the assistant manager hurriedly shouted.
At that moment, every gun barrel turned toward the sisters.
"Well, this couldn't have gone better."
The officer looked completely relaxed. According to their original plan, they would have needed to enter the barrier first and use the so-called Kogane to identify sorcerers, yet now two had practically delivered themselves.
He might not know much about sorcerers, but ordinary girls didn't carry around weapons that looked so difficult to use. Combined with the assistant manager's warning, these two were undoubtedly sorcerers.
"See? I told you these men were all terrible," Mai complained as she drew her pistol.
When she first noticed something was wrong, she had wanted to observe the situation a little longer. Unfortunately, Maki had already rushed out without hesitation.
The current situation wouldn't have been difficult for the other semi-grade 1 or grade 2 sorcerers at Jujutsu High, but for the twins, it was troublesome.
Mai's close-combat ability was relatively weak. Against large-scale gunfire, she could only rely on cursed energy for defense, and using her technique on ordinary soldiers wasn't cost-effective.
Maki's physical abilities were exceptional, but her cursed energy was too low. Against overwhelming firepower, her body alone might not be enough.
This was the curse of being twins. If she possessed a complete Heavenly Restriction body like Mukuro or Toji, she could simply charge through the hail of bullets and slaughter every soldier here.
"Trouble never comes alone."
Maki wasn't intimidated by the sea of black gun barrels. Grinning, she tossed her weapon bag onto the ground and, as she released it, smoothly pulled out two blades.
They were low-grade cursed tools from the Zenin Clan. Although they lacked any special technique, they were still weapons capable of exorcising curses, and their durability was more than enough to withstand bullets.
That's right. She intended to cut down the entire opposing force with these two swords.
Her breathing became slightly faster as excitement surged through her body. If those two monsters could do it… then she could too.
She could already see bullets and react to them. The enemy might outnumber her, but that didn't matter as long as she was fast enough.
She didn't need to be faster than bullets. She only needed to be faster than the people pulling the trigger.
"Mai, stay back!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Maki had already charged forward.
"Tch." Her sister clicked her tongue and darted off in another direction.
"Open fire!"
Maki's terrifying speed instantly put the officer on alert. He quickly retreated behind his men as memories of what happened at the White House half a month ago suddenly resurfaced.
Only then did he realize something. The uncaptured sorcerers weren't "new energy." They were superhumans, monsters beyond the limits of ordinary people.
Not caring about anything else, he shouted the order.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted as a storm of bullets rushed toward Maki.
In her vision, the projectiles rapidly closed in, and she instantly made her judgment. She couldn't block them all. She wasn't one of those inhuman monsters. She couldn't face this level of firepower head-on.
So she pushed off the ground with explosive force. Right before the barrage arrived, her body shot into the air.
Some bullets missed entirely while others slammed into the ground. Broken tiles and shattered stone exploded upward, creating a cloud of dust that perfectly concealed her advance.
At this time, the distance between her and the dozens of soldiers was less than two meters.
"Watch the sky!" someone shouted after noticing that Maki had avoided the first volley and raising his gun upward.
Slash!
The next second, that soldier's arm fell to the ground and blood burst from the severed sleeve.
Maki had already entered the formation. The smile on her face carried the same violent aura Toji once displayed while slaughtering weaker opponents. In close-range, her blade was faster than a gun.
As for killing people? She had been born into the Zenin Clan. The law of the strong devouring the weak had existed since ancient times.
"You shot me!"
The orderly formation instantly descended into chaos as the rhythm of gunfire became erratic. Panicked soldiers pulled their triggers blindly, shooting their own comrades.
"Don't even think about running."
Just as they attempted to retreat and create distance, Mai began firing at fleeing soldiers from another direction while steadily closing in.
The soldiers didn't understand what her ability was, and their fear of sorcerers trapped them between advancing and retreating.
That had been her plan all along. As long as Maki remained in close combat, victory would come easily.
Within the crowd, severed limbs and bloodied bodies flew through the air. The pale face of the older sister gradually became stained red with blood.
"So this is a sorcerer..."
Watching his troops being slaughtered, the officer who had hidden at the rear continued backing away. He climbed into the back of a military vehicle.
When he emerged again, a rocket launcher rested on his shoulder.
"Die!"
Without the slightest hesitation, he pulled the trigger. He didn't even care that his own soldiers were still being butchered.
The massive rocket screamed toward Maki. This time, she couldn't immediately escape. The dense crowd that couldn't stop her attacks had limited her movement.
At this distance, she couldn't dodge.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion followed, but the rocket aimed at Maki exploded in midair.
As smoke spread across the battlefield, a figure crashed onto the ground.
It was Mai, holding a massive shield.
"Mai!"
Maki's heart skipped a beat, and her blades moved even faster as she shouted toward her sister. The elite force of dozens lost all combat capability in the blink of an eye.
"I'm fine."
Mai dusted herself off and stood up, yet two streams of blood flowed uncontrollably from her nose.
At that critical moment, she had used her technique. Her cursed energy wasn't particularly strong, and she hated pain. So she had poured a huge amount of cursed energy into creating a sturdy shield to block the rocket for Maki.
The sudden drain of cursed energy, along with the force of the explosion knocking her to the ground, still hurt like hell.
Of course, she wasn't about to admit that. Instead, a thought quietly surfaced in her mind.
If she didn't exist, would her sister's life be easier?
Without her, perhaps Maki could have become someone like her cousins or the others, someone standing at the very top.
But there were no "what ifs."
She would live in the present. For herself, and for Maki.
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