The uncle behind the counter of the ice cream shop was wiping down the display case when he looked up — first blinking in mild surprise, then letting a smile spread back across his face.
"Oh, you're back——" His eyes swept past Mahiko to the person beside her. "Hm? Is this your older sister?"
"That's right!"
Mahiko was bouncing along at Nobara's side, her hand hooked into Nobara's, tugging at it as she craned her neck back to show off proudly to the uncle: "You know, mister? This is Kugisaki-nee-san! Kugisaki-nee-san is so cool — she scared away all those monsters just now!"
The uncle laughed heartily and gave Nobara an approving nod. "Oh really? How impressive, young lady."
Nobara stood there and gave a small, composed cough. If you looked closely, you could just make out the very tips of her ears — quietly, barely perceptibly — going a little red.
...This was the first time a little kid had ever looked at her like she hung the moon.
Nobara hadn't actually done anything. The cursed spirits had run off on their own, according to the girl's account — which, come to think of it, meant the cursed spirits here had sensed danger in advance and fled. They really were sharper than the rural ones. Tokyo cursed spirits really were something else. But none of that mattered, because here was this little blue-haired girl saying all of this, and Nobara had no choice but to just stand there, lips pressed together, being looked at like some kind of hero.
This feeling...
Wasn't bad at all, honestly.
She smothered that thought immediately, gave another cough, and maintained her outward composure.
"Nee-san," Mahiko tugged at her hand and tilted her head up, a faint wheedling lilt threading the end of her words, "if you ever want ice cream, you should come to this shop — it's so good!"
Nobara glanced down at her.
She wasn't entirely sure if it was the flattery from a moment ago that had gone to her head, but she found herself — against all logic — letting out a cough and then, with an uncharacteristically open hand, saying: "...Then — two servings, please. One each."
"I get one too?" Mahiko's eyes went wide and round.
"Obviously."
Mahiko immediately let go of her hand and bounced up to the display case.
The uncle smiled and began to scoop, stacking balls one by one onto two cones: "Eat too much ice cream and you'll get a stomachache, little one."
"No I won't!"
The uncle laughed again and passed both cones over the counter.
Mahiko took hers first, then handed one to Nobara, then bowed her head and gave her own a very deliberate, serious lick. She smacked her lips.
Satisfied.
Freebie!
Holy — getting things for free is the BEST!
The two of them walked out of the shop into the slanting afternoon sun. The breeze was light, and the street hummed with the easy drift of foot traffic. Mahiko licked her ice cream and ambled alongside Nobara, steps unhurried, completely at ease.
Nobara glanced sideways at her.
"Where are your parents?"
Mahiko's licking paused — just barely half a second — then she lifted her eyes and said, very naturally: "Mom and Dad? Don't have any."
Nobara's stride faltered.
"...Huh?"
She looked Mahiko over again.
She was already regretting asking.
"Then..." Nobara recalibrated, "...your grandparents?"
"Gone too."
Gone too?!
Both parents and both sets of grandparents?!
"What about aunts and uncles?"
"None."
"Older siblings?"
"None."
What?! Not a single one?!
What on earth had this child been through?!
How impossibly strong did a kid have to be to answer all of that without her expression changing even once?!
Nobara mentally slapped herself across the face. Twice. Hard.
Meanwhile, Mechamaru — who had been listening to the whole exchange from the earring — gave a quiet, unimpressed click of his tongue. Did this cursed spirit ad-lib all her lies completely off the cuff?
"I'm an orphan," Mahiko said, with a slightly put-upon air. "By the time I was old enough to remember anything, I was already on my own."
Ah. Right. Of course.
"Then..." Nobara cleared her throat, resolved to salvage the image of herself as a warm and perceptive person in this child's eyes. "Which orphanage? I'll walk you back."
"It's okay, it's okay," Mahiko waved her off, her tone breezy. "I can get back on my own."
"Are you sure you'll be alright by yourself?" Nobara's brow creased. She was clearly not entirely convinced.
"Really, I'm fine. I'll head back myself." Mahiko nodded — and then tilted her head back to look at Nobara properly, a note of genuine warmth threading into her voice. "Nee-san, you're such a good person. If it hadn't been for you today, something really bad would have happened to me in there. Those monsters were so scary — thump thump thump — I was hiding in the corner and my legs were shaking... but when you showed up I finally felt safe. Nee-san, you're really amazing. So brave..."
Nobara got flustered from the flattery all over again, and tactfully dropped the subject.
Beside her, Mahiko bent her head back to her ice cream, tongue making a careful circuit of the scoop, the well-behaved curve of her mouth staying perfectly in place.
"But — oh, right," Nobara said after a moment, her tone casual, but her eyes sharp. "Do you... see those monsters often?"
Mahiko blinked.
She wasn't sure why Nobara was asking, but she recalled that she had, in fact, mentioned earlier that she could see cursed spirits — to put Nobara's suspicions to rest. She answered with mild uncertainty: "Not... that often, I guess..."
"Is that so..." Nobara made a thoughtful sound, and didn't say anything more.
The two of them drifted down the street at a slow pace. Mahiko watched Nobara from the corner of her eye — as they walked, Nobara's brow was faintly knit, her gaze turned inward, like she was quietly turning something over.
Thinking about it, Mahiko had a pretty good guess at what.
Ordinary people could not see cursed spirits. That was basic common knowledge. Unless they were on the threshold of death or gripped by some overwhelming emotional crisis, the eyes of a normal human were effectively closed to the cursed world.
But there were exceptions — people who lacked any talent for jujutsu, who could not manipulate Cursed Energy, yet who could nonetheless see cursed spirits, could sense the presence of Cursed Energy.
In the jujutsu world, there was a specific term for these people: Windows.
Jujutsu High maintained a longstanding cooperative relationship with these Windows — after all, the number of jujutsu sorcerers was finite, and they couldn't cover every corner of every city at every hour. Windows served as the city's eyes, distributed across its streets, spotting cursed spirit activity first and alerting Jujutsu High to send someone to clean it up.
In short: professional civilian scouts.
Nobara was probably wondering: what if this girl in front of her was a Window?
If she was a Window, that meant she'd keep encountering cursed spirits. Keep being in danger. And on top of that, she was an orphan, with no parents...
Nobara was quiet for a moment longer. Then she stopped walking, reached for her phone.
"Hey... do you have a phone?"
Only then did Nobara realize she still didn't know the girl's name.
"Hm? I... don't, actually..." Mahiko had no phone, and looked up at Nobara with genuine puzzlement. "What's wrong, Nee-san?"
Nobara wrote her social media handle and phone number on a scrap of paper and held it out to Mahiko. "This is how to reach me. From now on, if you run into those monsters again, contact me. Tell me where you are, and I'll come."
"...Huh?"
"Anywhere you say," Nobara said, her voice steady. "I'll protect you."
Ah.
But... I'm literally the enemy you'll despise and hate most somewhere down the line, you know...
"Thank you, Nee-san..." Mahiko's eyes lit up, bright and clear. "With you around, I won't be scared anymore."
Nobara looked at her — at those eyes — and was quiet for one second.
Then she turned her gaze away, as though suddenly very interested in the middle distance, and made a small sound in the back of her throat, light and slightly stiff: "Mm."
She was about to ask Mahiko her name when — in the next instant — her phone buzzed.
Nobara glanced at the screen, blinked once.
She answered, pressing the phone to her ear. "Hello, Ijichi-san?"
Ijichi Kiyotaka — Assistant Supervisor at Jujutsu High. Not a front-line fighter, but the person responsible for coordination, intelligence relay, barrier placement, and mission dispatch from the rear. He could deploy basic barrier techniques, and use shikigami for support, but he was not a combat-type sorcerer — purely logistics and support.
That said, in the jujutsu world, Assistant Supervisors like Ijichi were genuinely indispensable. Most of the time, students received their mission assignments through Ijichi's channel.
So when Ijichi called, it only ever meant one thing.
A mission.
Mahiko stood beside Nobara without moving, listening with every appearance of quiet innocence.
She couldn't make out what was being said on the other end — she could only watch Nobara's expression. One second. Two seconds. It was sinking. Visibly, steadily sinking.
"A Special Grade cursed womb?" Nobara's pupils contracted sharply. She went completely still. "You're telling me... the higher-ups want three second-grade sorcerers... to go up against a Special Grade cursed womb? Are they trying to get us killed??"
____
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