Nobara Kugisaki felt sick to her stomach.
She had always had a strong sense of justice — and along with that, her own very personal understanding of what justice actually meant. Out of everyone caught up in the whirlpool of last night's incident, she was the one who had come into closest contact with the blue-haired Cursed Spirit.
Which was why she believed she understood the blue-haired Cursed Spirit's true nature better than anyone else.
Why had the blue-haired Cursed Spirit saved her?
Nobara didn't know.
Maybe there had been no special reason at all. Maybe the spirit had saved her simply because she was one of the hostages the terrorists had taken — in which case, that itself was proof enough that the blue-haired Cursed Spirit was, at her core, a being of genuine nobility.
Or maybe there had been a special reason.
Like the blue-haired Cursed Spirit wanting something from her. Or — the more likely possibility — that at some point without Nobara even realizing it, some kind of bond had already formed between them.
Taking it to the extreme...
Nobara flicked a glance sideways at the blue-haired little girl beside her.
Then shook her head.
Anyway. Whatever the reason the blue-haired Cursed Spirit had saved her, none of it changed the fact that the blue-haired Cursed Spirit was something entirely different from an ordinary Cursed Spirit.
And so Nobara Kugisaki felt sick to her stomach.
"Those dusty old fossils," she ground out through her teeth.
Mahiko, meanwhile, had caught that glance Nobara had just sent her way.
What was that about?
Nobara might have recognized her — but then again, it was hard to imagine Nobara actually had. After all, aside from build and hair color, the Cursed Spirit form and the human form looked quite different in practice.
At most, Nobara had her suspicions. She was still a million miles away from certainty.
And even if Nobara did figure it out, it wasn't really a problem.
Mahiko had slipped into Jujutsu High purely to freeload off the sorcerers' intelligence and resources. She could bolt at any time. Getting found out wasn't something she feared.
Naturally, Losso finding out would be fine too — Losso knew Mahiko was just lying low and had no intention of cooperating with the sorcerers, so it wouldn't interfere with any of Mahiko's prior arrangements.
As for the business of the exchange event's content being changed...
The upper echelons of Jujutsu in the original story came in exactly two varieties: the stupid kind, and the corrupt kind. The corrupt ones had been thoroughly infiltrated — by money, by power, and by Losso.
And the stupid ones were simply old men who had lost the plot entirely.
In short, setting aside the slight rehabilitation of the Kyoto sister school's principal near the very end of the story, the people at the top of the Jujutsu world were essentially all villains, without a single exception.
So naturally, causing trouble was par for the course.
"Are those old geezers out of their minds?!" Nobara slammed the table — she was genuinely furious. "On what grounds?! Do they just not believe what I'm saying, or are they so pigheaded their brains have literally grown tumors?"
The revised content of the exchange event: track down and apprehend the blue-haired Cursed Spirit.
Hmm... well, honestly, it wasn't all that different from the kill order from before, so Mahiko couldn't claim to be particularly shocked.
Changing the exchange event's content to something like this was probably their way of preventing the Jujutsu High crowd from endlessly dragging their feet and letting the whole thing slide. A deadline of sorts.
And in practice, whenever the higher-ups in the Jujutsu world went off the rails like this, Kenjaku was always somewhere in the background pulling strings.
Kenjaku had pieces embedded within the upper echelons of Jujutsu.
In canon, Kenjaku hadn't moved those pieces early — but this time was different.
After Kenjaku's plan to frame Mahiko had fallen apart, Kenjaku would naturally be scrambling to prevent any scenario where Mahiko and Jujutsu High started cooperating. If those pieces weren't played now, there might not be another chance.
For the time being, it seemed the Jujutsu High students who had actually fought Mahiko, been saved by her, or had their lives spared by her hands were mostly inclined to oppose both the kill order from the higher-ups and the new content of this exchange event.
But on the other hand — the Kyoto school's students hadn't been on the scene last night, so they had no particular reason to take Nobara's word for any of it.
And the Kyoto school's principal was himself one of the conservative faction within the Jujutsu upper echelons, which meant the Kyoto students would very likely throw themselves into this capture operation with enthusiasm.
It was at this point, however, that Mahiko noticed a shift in the wording of the order.
The original command had been "hunt and kill." Now it had been changed to "capture."
On the surface, it looked like a softening of their hostility toward Mahiko — but at the same time, it also made it considerably easier for the students to accept the idea of being Mahiko's enemies. After all, killing someone was irreversible, but a capture could always be undone.
"And they moved the exchange event up by a few days," Yuji said, blinking. "Isn't it starting the day after tomorrow?"
"Right, because with Gojo-sensei away, they can revise the exchange event rules however they like," Megumi said, nodding.
"But honestly... there's no way we can actually find the blue-haired Cursed Spirit," Yuji said. "If we could find her, we'd have found her already, wouldn't we?"
"That part, actually — we have a theory," Megumi said.
"A theory?"
"Yeah. If Nobara's perspective is correct, then the blue-haired Cursed Spirit saving Nobara must have had a reason behind it."
"Sure, but the thing is, nobody knows why, right?"
"So — an alternative theory: maybe the blue-haired Cursed Spirit didn't come for Nobara at all." Megumi's gaze settled on Mahiko. "Don't forget — Mahiko was taken too. Maybe the one the blue-haired Cursed Spirit was coming to save wasn't Nobara, but Mahiko."
Nobara, in that case, might have just been collateral.
"Uh..." Mahiko opened her mouth. "I mean... that's... not impossible?"
"Hey, Megumi." Nobara Kugisaki frowned, fixing her with a wary stare. "You're not about to do the same thing as those Jujutsu higher-up types and go hunting the blue-haired Cursed Spirit down, are you?"
"I'm against hunting the blue-haired Cursed Spirit down. But I'm not against finding her," Megumi said. "There are things that will never be understood unless you actively try to figure them out."
"But—"
"So during the exchange event, I'm going to do everything in my power to find the blue-haired Cursed Spirit before the Kyoto school does. And I think that, compared to Nobara, it's actually Mahiko who might be the key to finding her."
As she said it, Megumi looked directly at Mahiko.
"So — would you be willing to participate in the school exchange event with us and help us look for the blue-haired Cursed Spirit?"
"Uh..." Mahiko tugged at the corner of her mouth. "If it's a request from my dear seniors... I suppose it's not like I can't..."
I'd be looking for myself.
Well, this was certainly one way to interpret "finding Mahiko means finding the blue-haired Cursed Spirit."
"Thanks for your cooperation." Megumi nodded, and her expression visibly relaxed — she even let a warm smile through. "With this... our plan should be good to go."
For some reason, Mahiko suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.
"What plan?" The girl hunched her shoulders, gripped by an inexplicable dread. "Is this plan of yours actually a legitimate one?"
Megumi let out a quiet laugh. "You'll find out when the time comes."
You're keeping secrets?! Seriously?!
Mahiko was becoming increasingly convinced that whatever idea was cooking in that girl's head was not a good one.
What if it's some plan to hang me off the roof of a building to lure in the blue Cursed Spirit?!
Or pretend some terrifyingly dangerous kidnapper has abducted me and loop my sobbing screams on the internet or something?!
That sounds horrifying...
"Is it too late to back out now?" Mahiko shuddered. "I... I'm actually really scared of dying..."
Social death counts as death too, you know.
She really, truly was scared of dying.
"Don't worry." Nobara Kugisaki, meanwhile, had assumed Mahiko was afraid of the blue-haired Cursed Spirit, and so she reassured her: "This time, we absolutely won't let you get hurt. And besides, you're a girl — so you don't need to be scared of the blue-haired Cursed Spirit."
Mahiko blinked.
Mahiko slowly typed out a question mark.
What did that mean? How did that sentence even come out of her mouth?
What did "you're a girl so you don't need to be scared of the blue-haired Cursed Spirit" even mean?
What kind of image do you people have of me exactly?!
____
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