Yuji had to pause for a second to comprehend what had happened. He had thought that Mai would choose Kugisaki or Maki, but not him. Did she do it to show her sister that she didn't fear him? Or Mai did it to spite her sister?

Mai turned away from them, half-smiling and continued moving to the entrance.

Yuji exchanged glances with Maki and Kugisaki. Maki put her polearm to rest on her shoulder and murmured. "And I thought I could tolerate her enough to work with her on a mission."

Kugisaki said, "She is doing it on purpose. But I can't wait to see her against curses. Itadori, tell us if she screams when they will attack her."

Yuji sighed. This mission would be tiresome with all these tense relationships.

Mai said, "Are you coming or do you need a special invitation?"

Yuji and the others caught up with Mai. She opened the door and entered, stopping after a few steps.

Yuji entered the last and closed the door. He watched it closely, but it didn't disappear, so they hadn't entered a domain. That was good.

Kugisaki said, "It's so dark here."

The faint moonlight was coming through windows, but it wasn't enough to see anything on the far side of the hall, and all colours seemed grey in this lighting. At least Yuji didn't feel any curses around. But the absence of sounds gave him chills. There were three rooms in the hall corners and barely visible stairs in the far right corner. To the left and right, there were entrances to the passages that lead to the wings.

Next time Yuji would take a flashlight for any evening missions, but for now, he got an idea. He infused his fists with the cursed energy. Blue light lit up several meters around him, but it wasn't bright enough to penetrate the hall's darkness.

Mai turned to him. "Smart move - now curses notified that we're coming."

Yuji stopped infusing the energy and looked away from Mai. He should have thought that curses could sense usage of cursed energy.

Mai took her right hand from her pocket. In it, she gripped her revolver's handle. The revolver was huge in her hand. Black matte paint of metal parts and varnished brown wood of the handle gave it an elegant look. Mai put her right arm along her body. "We'll take the right wing. You check the main building and the left wing."

Kugisaki said, "Stop ordering us around. We are not your servants." The sound of her voice echoed around the hall.

Maki shoot a glance at Kugisaki. "Let's stop with this bickering till the end of the mission."

Kugisaki nodded to Maki, who crept to the closest door that led to one of the hall's rooms.

Mai snorted. "You're so prepared. One might think that you have never been on a night mission before."

Maki paused in front of the door and turned to Mai. "Were you? I bet you're as unprepared as we are."

Mai said, "I'm smart enough to know what I should prepare." She tossed something from her left pocket at Maki, who caught it. It was a small handheld flashlight.

Kugisaki said smiling, "We have a light."

Maki turned on the flashlight. The ray from her flashlight revealed specks of dust floating in the air, the white stone of the floor, and the sky blue colour of the walls.

"Thank you." Maki illuminated dark parts of the hall, but nobody was there, only several trails of blood droplets smudged by shoe marks. The trails led to the left wing passage entrance.

Mai took out another flashlight from her pocket and strolled to the passage that led to the right wing.

"Be on your guard, especially against Mai." Kugisaki nodded to Yuji and went to Maki.

Yuji caught up with Mai and started walking shoulder to shoulder with her. He kept the distance of an outstretched arm between them, just in case closer distance would bother her.

The passage had windows on both sides along the entire length. Dim light from the outside created a strange pattern of light and dark on the floor's tiles.

The only sound was their footsteps on the tile floor, but they were pretty quiet. After a moment, Yuji realized that the noise of the footsteps was created only by him. Mai stepped fast but soft. Her dark heelless shoes didn't create any sound at all. Yuji tried to step silently but couldn't do it while moving fast enough. He grimaced and returned to his regular gait.

Yuji still didn't feel any curses around. When the seal on Sukuna's finger was broken, and curses attacked Yuji's school, he could feel their presence - the death from afar.

As they walked, Mai used her flashlight to inspect the floor. But it didn't have any blood stains or dirt from outside. It could be that nobody used this passage recently.

Yuji stopped. His idea about not talking to Mai seemed unworkable. He whispered, "Mai-san, wait."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"If this building hasn't been used for a while, there must be a layer of dust everywhere." Yuji squatted and swiped the index finger of his right hand over the floor. It was dusty. Yuji shook off the dust from his finger.

Mai illuminated the floor near Yuji. There was a giant human-like handprint in the dust that pointed out to the right wing.

Yuji said, "We can track that big curse using these handprints."

Mai squatted and moved the flashlight's beam around. "That was a good idea, except it won't work."

Mai stopped the beam at the handprint with fingers on both sides. It wasn't a single handprint but two handprints that were left when the curse went in different directions. Mai shifted the flashlight's beam more, and it turned out there were a lot of overlapping handprints. Also, there were footprints that could belong to a barefoot human.

Mai stood up, looked at one end of the passage, then turned and looked at another. "We need to move faster, maybe both curses in the other wing. I don't want Maki and Nobara killing both curses."

Yuji stood up, and they both strode in the direction of the right wing. Mai directed the flashlight forward, checking the surroundings. In the movies, at these moments, the hero would direct the flashlight while aiming his gun where the flashlight's beam was. But Mai still had her right arm with the revolver along her body, with index finger lying on the revolver's trigger guard. She seemed relaxed for the current situation. Only her head and eyes moved, searching for a threat.

Yuji had seen guns only in movies. He thought that if he were friends with Mai, she would allow him to held or maybe even shoot her gun. But that sounded improbable. Did she even have friends, or she kept everyone at a distance?

Mai whispered, "Stop staring at me. I know that I look stunning, but you should pay attention to the surroundings."

Yuji quickly turned away, nodding. He hadn't thought that she would notice him looking at her. For a while, he felt her gaze but didn't dare to look back.

They entered the right wing. It was a long corridor with rows of doors on both sides. The walls were painted in light blue colour. All the doors were made from glass, and a small amount of light came through them, creating patches of light in the dark corridor. At least Yuji and Mai didn't need to open every door to search the entire wing.

To the right, there were stairs to the next floor. And on the far side of the wing, a pair of windows let moonlight inside, but it hardly lit anything. The schools that Yuji attended had many windows that created a healthy environment, but this school must be gloomy even on a sunny day.

They had to slow down, so Mai could use her flashlight to illuminate the classrooms' insides. Most of them had wooden desks scattered around or even broken into pieces. In some classrooms, empty bottles and bags of chips wallowed scattered around. This place seemed to be popular among shady companies.

Previously the big curse had caught Yuji and Fushiguro by surprise because it attacked through the ceiling. But now, Yuji constantly checked the ceiling and the walls for any signs of the curses. Also, he looked back regularly in case they were followed.

They reached the far side of the wing. To the right, other stairs lead to the next floor. Through the window, Yuji could see a part of the empty road and trees surrounding it.

Yuji decided to say something. "It's strange that we haven't been attacked yet."

"The curse could be in another wing, or maybe we need to create some noise."

Yuji didn't feel any cursed energy around. Mai could be right, and they should return to Maki and Kugisaki. Also, the noise sounded like a good idea. Yuji opened the door to the nearest classroom and kicked one of the less broken desks. The desk flew away, clanged, colliding with two other desks that cracked from the impact.

Yuji exited the classroom turning and ran into Mai, who stood face to face with him, frowning with the clenched jaws. Yuji took several steps back. She had her revolver close to her chest with her right elbow resting against the side of her body. The barrel pointed forward from Mai, aiming slightly to the side of Yuji. She held her left hand close to her shoulder, pointing the flashlight upward to create diffuse lighting around them.

Mai said through clenched teeth, "Are you a dimwit? What do you think you're doing?"

"You said about noise, and I thought it was a good idea."

"What if both curses are in this wing?"

"We can exorcise-"

A hand with long black claws emerged from the wall behind Mai. Yuji jumped to Mai. He needed to sidestep around her and block the attack so that Mai wouldn't be harmed because of his stupid actions.

Mai moved her revolver forward from her chest. She was aiming at Yuji. Did she think he decided to attack her?

The curse fully emerged from the wall and jumped at Mai, its claws aiming at her head. Yuji dodged from revolver's aim and sidestepped around Mai. A shot was fired with a thunderous clap.

Yuji infused his hands with cursed energy. Using knife-hand strike with his right hand, he chopped off the clawed hand nearest to Mai's head. With his left hand curled in a fist, Yuji punched the curse in its head. Blue cursed energy obliterated the curse's head into a purple mash and the curse dissolved.

Yuji rotated to Mai and glimpsed a dissolving curse. So the students had seen only one of these human-like curses.

Another curse was flying to Mai, extending its clawed fingers. Mai's flashlight allowed Yuji to make out the details of the curse: thin black limbs ending with claws, grey head too big for its small body and a mouth full of fangs. The curse's four red eyes reminded Yuji about the special-grade curse he fought with Fushiguro.

The revolver boomed. The bullet left a dim blue trail. It penetrated one of the curse's red eyes, exploding it and exorcising the curse mid-flight.

Now Yuji felt the cursed energy. There were more curses hiding in the walls and ceiling around him.

Yuji rotated his back to Mai and started looking around, preparing for an attack.

Mai again pointed the flashlight upward to create diffuse light around them. "That was the third-grade curses at best, but there might be more of them hiding there."

"Your gunshot attracted them."

"Better for us. We can kill them all at once."

"But previously, you've said that creating any noise was a bad idea."

"And it was. You must tell me about your ingenious plans before executing them."

Yuji was embarrassed. He definitely should communicate before doing anything that could endanger his partner.

From the corner of his eye, he saw dark spots appear on the walls several times, but they disappeared when he focused on them. The curses still hadn't attacked. Usually, low-grade curses attacked on sight or behaved like animals, employing some primitive tactics.

Behind him, Mai was breathing steadily. Yuji got an idea. "Mai-san, let's stand face to face. The curses attacked us when they had seen our not protected backs."

"What!?"

"Everything will be fine. That will provoke the curses, but we will protect each other."

Mai didn't answer at first, then she said, "You'd better have my back."

Yuji rotated to face Mai. She turned with her revolver in a ready position, close to her chest. Her mid-length dark green hair was dishevelled after the fight. She blew the hair out of her eyes. Mai's eyes constantly moved, observing what was behind Yuji. Her eyes were dark grey, almost black, with a deep green ring close to the pupil. She looked anxious, and her pose was tense with both hands close to her body.

The last thing Yuji needed now was her accidentally shooting him. He said the first thing that came to his mind. "You're the best shooter that I've ever seen."

Mai nodded, but she didn't look Yuji in his eyes.

Yuji continued, "If only your revolver didn't create such loud noise in closed spaces."

"During training, I use ears protection, but I don't risk using it on missions."

Yuji still felt the curses around, but they didn't attack.

Mai bit her lip. "Why did you become a jujutsu sorcerer?"

Yuji didn't expect so personal question from her. But maybe if she understood him better, she would be more okay with him around. "At one moment, I didn't have another choice, but now I see this as a way to help people that only I can help."

"You didn't have a choice?"

"Fushiguro and I were fighting a curse. He was hurt pretty badly. I fought with the curse, but without the cursed energy couldn't win, so I had to eat Sukuna's finger to save myself and Fushiguro."

Mai said nothing, but it looked like she was thinking this through. "How are you able to control Sukuna?"

Yuji noticed movement under Mai's feet. He grabbed her around the small of her back, rotated her around him and released her. Four clawed hands grabbed nothing at the place where Mai was a second ago.

Yuji infused his feet with cursed energy and made a low kick at the hands. His leg easily tore through the claws, destroying hands of curses. The stumps disappeared into the floor.

A second later, from the right and left walls, two pairs of curses jumped to Mai. The right pair of the curses had stumps that regenerated as they were flying.

Yuji darted to intercept the closest pair, which was from the left. Four shots boomed. Yuji almost punched the first curse when a bullet that left a dim blue trail hit the curse, exorcising it.

Yuji looked around, but all curses had been already exorcised. "I could have exorcised the left curses by myself."

"You wasn't fast enough," Mai's face was flushed, she said. "And what makes you think that you're allowed to touch me like this?"

Yuji tried to remember how exactly he had touched her. Because, in the heat of the moment, he did it on a reflex. The feeling of her body tightly pressed against his came to his mind. He had screwed up, and now he needed to clarify why he had grabbed her. But what if she didn't see the claws underneath her feet? "I've just seen-"

"What would happen if your actions led to my injury?"

"I wanted to save you."

"I don't need your help. I would have killed them all by myself."

Yuji nodded, that was embarrassing, but at least she wasn't injured.

Mai dropped the flashlight to the ground. It stayed vertically. Using her right hand, she released the revolver's cylinder. It swung out to the left. She gripped the revolver with her left hand, fixing the cylinder with middle and ring fingers. Her right hand got into her pocket while she rotated the revolver muzzle up and pressed the ejector rod. A bundle of six empty cartridge cases flew to the floor. Mai took out from her pocket six rounds bundled together, simultaneously lowering and rotating the revolver handle up. She dropped the rounds bundle on the cylinder. The bundle aligned and loaded into the cylinder with a click. She closed and latched the cylinder in place, gripping the revolver with her right hand. The reload had taken only a second or two.

Mai took the flashlight from the ground and glanced at Yuji. "What now?"

Her reload speed impressed Yuji even more than the speed with which she exorcised all curses. She definitely had many hours of practice with the revolver. "Your reload speed is insane."

Mai turned aside. That was a strange reaction. Yuji couldn't see what her facial expression was, but she might have thought it was inappropriate for him to compliment her. And that meant that Yuji had screwed up again.

Mai faced Yuji and said, "I just have a lot of practice, and with moon clips, it's easy to reload a revolver really fast."

Yuji was glad that she answered him. "I've seen a lot of revolvers in the movies but never noticed that someone used moon clips or reloaded as fast as you."

"Watch some westerns, and you will find gunslingers who shoot as good as I."

Yuji had an irresistible desire to ask her about the movies, but she turned away from him, and the moment was lost.

Yuji almost forgot about the curses and the mission. He inhaled and exhaled to calm down and return his thoughts to the mission. His concentration returned, but he didn't feel any curses around. "We must have exorcised them all. Let's check the other floors and move to the left wing."

Mai strolled to the stairs. "You didn't answer my question."

"What question?"

She narrowed her eyes. "About Sukuna."

"I can't control him, but I'm preventing him from taking over my body."

"And he has never controlled your body?"

Yuji grimaced. That would sound bad. "I've allowed him to control my body several times, once when Gojo-sensei asked me and another time when I had lost to a special grade curse."

"The last time happened when you saved Megumi and Kugisaki but supposedly died."

"Yes, but I died for real, at least temporarily."

"Being dead supposed to be permanent. How did you return from the dead?"

"Sukuna returned me."

On the second floor, classrooms had almost no desks, but there were piles of bags with cement and broken tiles. This corridor was even darker than the first floor's corridor, but Yuji didn't feel any cursed energy here.

Mai said, "So, you are immortal?"

"I don't think so. If you had killed me during the team battle, who knows what Sukuna would have decided to do."

Yuji cursed inside, this sounded accusatory, and he had already known that it was their principal who asked Kyoto students to kill Yuji. Gojo said that he would deal with the principal, so Yuji didn't need to worry about him.

Mai stared Yuji in the eyes. "One word and I can satisfy your interest."

Yuji didn't know what to say to this. Did she joke like this? Or Kugisaki was right, and he needed to be ready to fight with Mai?

They walked in silence through the third floor. Yuji glanced at Mai. Was it a hint of a smile on her face? In this lighting, Yuji wasn't sure.

The third floor had groups of floor tiles missing. Some of the glass doors were broken to pieces that cracked under Yuji's shoes.

Mai said, "After you and Todo saved everyone during the team battle, nobody from my team would try to kill you. And even if they try, Todo would kill them instead."

"He said this?"

"Couldn't stop talking about you, the most exciting fight that he had in a while," Mai laughed. "And he said that you are not boring."

That was the first time he heard her laughing, and she had a cute laugh. Yuji tried to say something about Todo but couldn't.

The fourth floor was without any attacks or other signs of the curses. Yuji and Mai stopped in front of the stairs to the floor below.

Mai tilted her head, slightly biting her lower lip. "There is one thing that Todo didn't tell me. What can you do in a fight so special that it astonished him?"