When a person runs into something shocking enough, the brain just goes blank.
At least, that was how it was for Maki Zenin.
The girl felt as though her mind had been clogged shut — endless waves of shock crashing through her thoughts, washing her capacity to think clean away.
Why… why was this happening?
"Did you… replace Mahiru?" Maki Zenin asked, looking at the blue-haired girl in the distance.
And Mahiru, for her part, turned around with her hands clasped behind her back, and went hopping forward — like a child skipping across stones in a stream — bounding over the severed limbs and pools of blood strewn across the ground, one after another, until she came to a stop right in front of Maki Zenin.
"Nope." Mahiru's smile was radiant. "From the very beginning, it was me, you know?"
From the time they had first gone shopping for clothes together.
From the time they had first goofed off together at the idol concert venue.
All along, Mahiru had been the blue-haired Cursed Spirit. She… had been right there beside them the entire time.
"..." Maki Zenin's mouth opened, then closed.
She wanted to say something, but she couldn't think of a single thing she ought to say.
Her throat worked silently — countless words rising up only to be swallowed back down.
"You…"
"I saved you, you know — but I'm sorry, I need to keep my identity hidden, so the blame for killing all these people is going to have to land on your head, big sis Maki," Mahiru tilted her head, smiling with all the innocence and sweetness in the world. "Big sis Maki won't be upset, will she?"
She twisted her neck and looked across the scene of carnage around them.
Mahiru had killed every single one of these people.
Ogi Zenin included.
As a matter of fact, with the exception of Ogi Zenin, every one of the other guards had been a one-slap job to Mahiru.
Ogi Zenin, admittedly, had taken a few extra slaps.
Back when she had first climbed into the car with Maki Zenin and the others, Mahiru had already anticipated that a battle would break out here. And so she had already mapped out every step of what would come after.
In her plan, she couldn't allow her identity to be exposed.
But at the same time, she had decided to deliberately expose her identity — to Maki Zenin and Zen'in Mai, and only to them.
And so, while she had been killing, Mahiru had deliberately avoided using any of the techniques the "blue-haired Cursed Spirit" had ever used in the past.
That enormous monstrous tree, for one, had actually been kneaded into shape by Mahiru using cursed spirits.
And that massive, fanged thorn — she had crafted to resemble something like a cursed tool. So that if anyone came later to investigate the scene, the cause of death of all these people would be ruled as having been stabbed by Maki Zenin using a cursed tool.
For a short while, Mahiru was going to have to ask Maki Zenin to shoulder the blame for her.
Not that it really mattered.
Even if Mahiru hadn't made Maki Zenin take the fall, there was still an eighty percent chance the blame would have landed squarely on Maki Zenin's head anyway.
After all, every twist and turn currently unfolding in the Zenin clan had Kenjaku pulling the strings from the shadows. And Satoru Gojo, even now, still had not returned.
The other heirs of the Zenin clan would absolutely not allow Maki Zenin and Zen'in Mai to quietly walk away with a share of the family estate.
Which meant that for Zen'in Mai and Maki Zenin, the current situation was already the best outcome they could possibly have hoped for.
"Hey, hey, big sis Maki, why aren't you saying anything?" Mahiru pushed her face right up close to Maki Zenin's, blinking at her, smiling. "Your sweetest, most well-behaved little junior didn't get killed by the bad guys — and at the same time, you've finally found the worst enemy you've been searching for all this time. Hahahaha… two good things just happened at once — so why are you making a face like that? Hahaha…"
Maki Zenin's expression could no longer be described as sadness, or even as despair.
"You… you weren't really lying to me…?"
Maki Zenin's pupils trembled. Even though, in her heart, she had already entirely accepted what the other was telling her, she still asked the question — begging the other to answer her with a denial.
Because Maki Zenin truly, genuinely cared about this child Mahiru.
No — and not just Maki Zenin either. Among the students of Jujutsu High, anyone who had ever spent time with Mahiru, without exception, had come to love the blue-haired girl.
That blue-haired girl who had become their junior — adorable, well-behaved, and at the same time mischievously sharp.
Perhaps because she was an orphan, she had developed, at an unusually young age, the kind of cleverness and maturity normally seen only in adults. And yet she had also held on, just as fully, to a bright, lively, childlike spirit — vitality of every kind seeming to flow out of her in every direction.
Spending time with this girl — whether they were out shopping or just chatting — gave you the sort of feeling where, suddenly, you realised, "Oh — so the sky really is this blue, and the sun really is this warm."
So much so that, even though there had been suspicion that the girl was the blue-haired Cursed Spirit, almost no one had ever turned a properly serious, scrutinising gaze on her… because she seemed like the embodiment of every concept of purity and goodness that humans aspired to, all gathered into one being.
No one would have ever classified her as belonging to the same category as the "blue-haired Cursed Spirit."
Who could have known…
Who could possibly have known...
"Why?" Maki Zenin was asking.
The girl had become utterly lost.
As a sorcerer, she ought to be on her guard against the blue-haired Cursed Spirit standing in front of her at once.
But her overwhelmed mind had tilted her into a state of resignation, an inclination not to act.
"Why what?" Mahiru crossed her arms and tilted her head. "Are you asking me why I saved you? Hmm… because I really like you?"
It was a very vague answer.
But it was also a perfectly sincere one.
"Ah — big sis Maki, a flash of doubt just crossed your eyes there. Hahaha, no, it's fine, I understand, I understand… every word I said was the absolute truth, but I'm not going to demand that you fully trust me."
Mahiru bent slightly at the waist and reached out, tilting Maki Zenin's chin upward. "Because — next, I'm going to need you to become a possession of mine."
Maki Zenin's eyes trembled. "…What does that mean?"
"It means I want you… no, big sis Mai as well, the two of you together — to become possessions of mine." Mahiru's smile was full of amused mischief. "And in exchange, I will be responsible for breaking the shackles that are restraining the two of you, and for helping you resolve the predicament you are currently caught in. How does that sound?"
In truth, if Maki Zenin and Zen'in Mai fled back to Jujutsu High now, under the protection of the students and the staff there, the two of them ought to be able to keep themselves safe.
They were weak, yes — and with everyone else growing rapidly stronger around her, Maki Zenin, who could not awaken Heavenly Tyrant, would quickly be left behind.
But by clinging to others, the two of them could still go on living.
But — was that really alright?
To hand your own fate into the keeping of others?
To depend on the strength of other people to decide whether you lived or died?
"Breaking the shackles that restrain us… what does that mean?" Maki Zenin's eyes flickered.
"It means," Mahiru smiled, "I can help you become strong."
"How strong?"
"At the very least, dealing with small fry like Ogi Zenin won't be a problem."
"And if I refuse you, what will you do?" Maki Zenin pressed on. "Will you kill me?"
"Oh come on, big sis Maki — of course I'm not going to kill you. I already told you, I really like you." Mahiru's smile was at once wicked and innocent. "If you refuse, I'll probably just use Cursed Speech to violently hypnotise you, make you forget everything that happened here, and then send you back."
After that — either she would be sheltered by Jujutsu High until Satoru Gojo returned, or she would be intercepted somewhere along the road by the Zenin clan or by people from the upper echelons of the jujutsu world…
Probably it would amount to her life being preserved — but she would still be that same laughable, weak figure she had always been, the one who could be effortlessly destroyed by any sudden upheaval, the one who could only cling to others.
["…Go and be buried, you useless trash…"]
["…A piece of trash who can't even see Cursed Spirits wants to be clan head?…"]
["…You can never be a sorcerer — why can't you understand that?!…"]
["I can help you become strong… at the very least, dealing with small fry like Ogi Zenin won't be a problem…"]
"Heh." Maki Zenin let out a low, quiet laugh. "Signing a contract with the devil, then…"
"The devil? Really?" Mahiru blinked. "But I think I'm pretty much an angel?"
"Mm. You're right. That's true." Maki Zenin closed her eyes. "Contract sealed. From now on — I belong to you."
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👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone