Chapter Three: Interview With a Magical Girl

Kazamino Shokudou was a surprisingly pleasant place to eat, Kento Nanami found. Despite being the very definition of a hole-in-the-wall, small and situated as it was in the back streets of the city's less affluent districts, the owners were friendly and genuine, and the food was as hearty and plentiful as it was tasty and cheap. It was also exactly the sort of place that wouldn't turn away anyone, even a homeless girl – or perhaps especially a homeless girl.

As Nanami calmly ate his variety platter oden, taking time to savor each flavor in turn, he regarded Kyouko Sakura with a measuring stare. The girl's behavior and outfit had been clue enough, but when coupled with the way she ate, it was clear. She ate with rapid efficiency, pacing her quick, voracious bites exactly enough to prevent her from losing her lunch and only that much.

This was not the behavior of a hungry girl, but that of someone familiar with the prospect of food insecurity; were Nanami a betting man, he'd have wagered everything he owned that Kyouko had spent at least a year without hearth or home to call her own, likely longer.

Nanami knew all too well that his country had a homelessness problem; Tokyo alone was home to somewhere between four and five thousand people with nowhere to live, and that number was only rising as time passed. That being said…

He crushed the boiled egg he'd just popped into his mouth with unneeded force, the tension of his jaw seeming to go unnoticed by Kyouko as she continued to tuck into her own hotpot with relish.

That being said, the idea that someone so young would be subjected to such a crushing lifestyle made his heart ache and his blood boil. It was the duty of adults to safeguard and guide the youth until they were ready to face the world and stand on their own feet, so why? Why had Kyouko Sakura been left by the wayside? Where were her parents? Her extended family?

He would find out, Nanami decided, and if they were still alive, he would have more than mere words to throw in their faces.

Nanami let out a harsh puff of air through his nostrils and resumed his meal. There was no merit in letting his emotions run amok here, ruining a perfectly good meal in the process. He would have time enough to vent later, when and where the unsightliness of his rage could unfold without others being subject to it.

The sound of Kyouko's voice snapped him from his contemplation, though. "If you're pityin' me, Old Guy, don't bother." Her frown was equal parts tired irritation and grim acceptance. "I've been on my own long enough that I can take care of myself just fine."

"Pity? What would that accomplish?" Nanami questioned rhetorically, pushing his glasses up his nose as he swore internally. Clearly, this extended trip had done a number on his poker face if he'd been read so easily. "No, I do not pity you, young Sakura. Rather, I find myself vexed that you were put into such a situation to begin with."

He set his chopsticks down delicately and folded his hands. "Self-sufficient or not, it is frankly appalling to me that you are, by all indications, homeless and without any outside support whatsoever."

Kyouko scoffed, though by the surprise that flashed across her face, she hadn't been expecting such a frank reply. "What's it matter to you?" she challenged nonetheless. "You barely know me."

Tired eyes glinted behind his spectacles as the Sorcerer rested his chin on his knuckles. "That is irrelevant. Any adult with a shred of decency would feel the same as I do. Children, no matter how martially capable, should have somebody they are able to turn to, to rely on."

The Magical Girl bristled, before snarling, "What gives you the right to call me a child, huh!? You don't know shit!"

"Then tell me." Nanami replied simply, quietly. "Tell me what you've endured. Help me understand, Kyouko Sakura."

Kyouko jerked back in her seat as though burned, eyes wide and full of pain and the ashes of a wretched, burning memory. Her mouth snapped shut, jaw clenching and face contorting into a rictus of denial for a long moment before she visibly forced her emotions down. Her face became a flat, blank mask of withdrawal, though in her eyes Nanami could still see the embers of agony..

She offered no verbal reply, but none was needed. "I see. We will table that question for the time being." Nanami straightened and flagged down the lone waiter staffing the diner. His appetite was well and truly gone, now. After requesting the check as well as a few to-go boxes, he turned to regard Kyouko once again.

The redhead seemed somewhat mollified by his willingness to drop the subject, though her shoulders remained noticeably tense as she returned to her meal with the same vicious, desperate fervor that had possessed her before he'd first spoken. It was unsurprising, then, that by the time the waiter returned, Kyouko had polished off the remnants of her meal.

Once Nanami had paid for the food and boxed up his leftovers, the duo left the diner and meandered for a bit. The ex-salaryman Sorcerer followed quietly in Kyouko's wake, entirely willing to let her take time to collect her thoughts in silence.

After a quarter of an hour, she finally seemed to have put things in order, and plopped down on a bench, motioning for Nanami to join her. As he did so, she spoke up. "So. You wanted to talk, yeah? Something about a job offer?"

"Indeed." he replied, shifting gears into a mindset he hadn't used in quite some time: that of a salesman. "I will be frank: the skills you displayed in that – Labyrinth, was it?" At Kyouko's nod, he continued, pushing up his glasses. "The skills you displayed there were impressive, both from the perspective of a sorcerer and from the perspective of a tactician. Were you a Jujutsu Sorcerer, you'd be a Second Grade at the bare minimum, likely higher than that."

"That's nice and all," Kyouko drawled, "but that don't exactly tell me much." She twirled a finger lazily through the air. "I ain't exactly in the know about all this sorcerer business, you know."

Nanami gave a short nod. "I was getting to that. To be brief, Grades are assigned to Curses and Sorcerers alike, from Fourth Grade at the lowest, counting down to First Grade and then Special Grade above even that." He folded his hands in his lap as he continued his impromptu lecture. "These rankings indicate classification of danger in the former case, and what Grade of Curse the sorcerer should be able to exorcise, in the latter case."

Kyouko cocked her head to one side. "And what Grade are you, Old Guy?"

Nanami smiled very slightly as he adjusted his glasses. "First. If I am to do a job, I will do it well, and be paid well for my trouble."

At the mention of pay, the Magical Girl's eyes glinted with interest. "What's the pay like?" She asked, unashamed.

"For a First Grade like me? An average of ten million yen, with some variance dependent on the number of assignments taken." Nanami replied. "It's much lower for lower Grades, but the risk is exponentially lower at those levels as well."

Kyouko arched an eyebrow. "Just ten mil a year? Not like I was expecting a CEO's level of cash, but that still seems kinda low."

The blond Sorcerer exhaled amusedly. "Ah, my mistake. When I said ten million, I meant per month, not per year."

"...Damn," Kyouko said after a moment, letting out a low whistle. "That's not CEO money, that's fuck you money."

"The government has considered Jujutsu Sorcerers to be a vital expense since the days of the shogunate," Nanami explained, "and thus has spared no expenses to ensure that those with the ability to face the most dangerous Curses are highly incentivised to do so."

"No shit!" Kyouko exclaimed. "If I'd known I could get that kinda dosh for doing what I already do, I'd've joined up years ago." She frowned. "Come to think of it, why didn't Kyubey say anything? Little furball was holding out on me!"

Nanami narrowed his eyes. "Kyubey?"

Still frowning, the redhead bit out, "Little white cat-rabbit thing that grants a wish and contracts girls as Magical Girls in exchange for fighting Witches, and who has apparently been scamming me out of a paycheck!"

"What." Nanami's reply was less a question and more an automatic response to Kyouko's words. "Contracts? Wishes?" he asked incredulously, his mind already rifling through possibilities and discarding the ones that didn't fit.

Those that did fit only made him more concerned.

Nanami reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, tabbing open the notepad application before looking over to Kyouko, positively radiating intensity. "Kyouko," he said, tone deadly serious, so much so as to instantly snap the Magical Girl out of her aggrieved grumbling. "I need you to explain this in more detail, please. Kyubey, Magical Girls, Wishes; I need to know everything you do."

"Why?" Kyouko asked, the rebellion practically reflexive, rather than out of any real mistrust.

"Because," the Sorcerer stressed the word, eyes not leaving hers for an instant, "your words suggest that an inhuman being with unknown intentions has apparently entered into Binding Vows with multiple children. Even the most idealistic, unrealistically optimistic explanations for this still raise a number of questions that need to be answered."

Kyouko gave a slow, thoughtful nod. "I get ya. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and all that." She gave a shrug. "Sorry, but there ain't much more to it than that. The fuzzbutt finds girls with 'high potential' or whatever and offers them a deal: they get one wish, and to pay it off they become Magical Girls and fight Witches."

"How many Witches? For how long do Magical Girls have to fight? What are the limits of the wishes?" Nanami rattled off the questions as he transcribed her words into his phone.

Kyouko's brain seemed to stall for a moment. "Uh, I dunno. Only limit to the wishes I know about is that it can't bring back dead people, unless they're very recently dead." She shrugged again. "Sorry, Old Guy. Never really thought about askin' about the rest; gotta hunt Witches to keep my magic up anyway."

Nanami paused, mind racing. "What was that? Your hunting of Witches is not just to fulfil the terms of the Binding Vow? No, more than that, how was this Kyubey able to form a Binding Vow without precisely defining the terms and limitations? A Vow that vague wouldn't be enough to chain a Fly Head, let alone someone as competent as you."

"I dunno about 'Binding Vows' and 'terms and limits' or whatever," Kyouko replied, "but Magical Girls hunt Witches for Grief Seeds." She dug in her pocket and produced a small, black, spindle-like object covered in strange markings and burning with Cursed energy. "Witches drop these things and they brighten up our Soul Gems, letting us use more magic."

"...Soul Gems?" the Sorcerer asked, eyes narrowing.

The Magical Girl waved her hand at him, a small ring inset with a crimson gemstone flush with Cursed energy. His mind was immediately drawn back to the bauble that had sat at her collarbone when she'd been transformed. "These things. We use 'em to transform. When they get dark, it means we're low on magic, and using a Grief Seed fills 'em back up again."

A number of pieces clicked into place in his head, the sound of them coming together as damning as the cocking of a revolver. If he was right about this…

No, he had to be absolutely certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, before he entertained an idea so appalling. He didn't have the means to achieve that certainty, but he knew who did. Ordinarily, it would fiercely grate on Nanami to call on Satoru Gojo for aid, but under the present circumstances?

He didn't hesitate in the slightest to dialing that number.

-x-x-x-x-x-

At precisely seven points in the immediate vicinity of Kazamino Town, fourteen beady red eyes fixed on a singular point in space. In the following seconds, six of the seven Incubator terminals watching over that ward self-terminated in a variety of ways, their corpses rapidly fading from existence. The seventh made its way to a point far removed from that point in space, though high enough up as to be able to observe from a distance carefully calculated to be safe.

It was absolutely imperative that no member of the Incubator collective be perceived by the human with the Six Eyes, who had appeared in Kazamino using its (admittedly impressive) abilities without warning.

If fulfilling that imperative meant that the investment that was Kyouko Sakura went to waste, then no matter. As an existence founded on logic, the Incubator collective was not subject to such an emotional thing as the 'sunken cost fallacy', as the humans had termed it.

The time investment of a single Magical Girl was easily recoupable. The setback that would come of being subjected to the Six Eyes, however…

Catastrophic.