The city of Nagano is up in the mountains, just high enough that it mingles in a blanket of fog and clouds most days. It's known for ski resorts and snow monkeys, but in mid-July, there was still a lot of tourist activity.

"There's too many people," Yoshi grumbles as the car drives them further towards the famous highlands. "Is there a veil in place yet?"

Naoya rolls his eyes. "Of course there's a veil. They've already closed off the hiking trails too," he says, arms crossed impatiently.

Several police cars have blocked off the entrance to the trail, and Naoya's driver tells them they'll have to continue on foot to reach the veil. He tries to hand them a map, and Naoya snatches it away before Yoshi can look at it.

The car ride was awkward enough, but the hike to the veil? Even worse. Yoshi wants to block out all sight and sounds from Naoya, but she's pretty sure he'll try to throw her off the cliff if she doesn't keep an eye on him.

"You're stiff as a board, Yoshi," Naoya comments gleefully as soon as they're alone on the trail. "But at least you know your place."

"What?" Yoshi blinks, reluctantly pulling her gaze away from the tiny blue flowers growing along the forest floor.

"A woman's place is three steps behind a man," Naoya drawls. He turns his head just enough for her to see the smug curve of his grin. "Your manners have improved."

I'm literally just walking here and you made it weird, Yoshi complains to herself.

Technically, she is walking a few steps behind Naoya. Over the car ride, Maki explained how Naoya's cursed technique, 'Projection', worked. He would need to touch her to activate Projection, and as long as Yoshi could keep an eye on him, he wouldn't be able to reach her.

If Naoya thought this was some weird power play… well. It isn't Yoshi's job to correct him.

So she says nothing.

Of course, her silence bothers him too. Naoya slows down to look at her, and Yoshi carefully veers off to the other side of the trail so she's not shoulder to shoulder with a whiny bitch. His eyes narrow.

"It was a cute trick, you know," he says mockingly. "Your little 'Nudge' technique."

Yoshi doesn't bother to ask how he knows the name of her technique. She gave Yaga and Gojo permission to discuss her innate technique, so it was probably in her sorcerer file or something now.

"But Nudge doesn't account for how much cursed energy ya have, or how ya use it for speed and strength," Naoya concludes. "So what's your real secret, Reina Ariyoshi?" Naoya shoots her a triumphant look, having discovered her legal name. It's not so impressive, especially since Gojo flipped through her social media accounts on day one. "There's no Ariyoshi clan, but there's plenty of wayward branches ya might stem from. Like the Okkotsu boy."

Who the hell is Okkotsu? Yoshi wonders, exasperated. "I don't know who my ancestors are," she tells him truthfully. "And I don't care enough to find out. I just know I have a lot of cursed energy."

"You were born with more cursed energy than humanly possible," Naoya says cuttingly, "Your presence was enough to kill all the existin' curses in the city as an infant. How can ya not know why?"

She eyes him, annoyed. Naoya has the details wrong, but he's close enough to the facts to make Yoshi's life difficult.

"I think there may be a cultural difference between you and I," Yoshi says flatly, stopping in the middle of the trail.

"What?" Naoya bites out, stopping with her. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's very important, actually," Yoshi insists. "In New York, when something isn't bothering you, you leave it the fuck alone. You don't go poking things that aren't your problem."

He exhales a sharp breath that might almost be a laugh. "Willful ignorance," Naoya muses, "Is the way of the weak."

The way of the weak. See not, hear not, speak not…

For some reason, Yoshi feels disappointed. It's strange, because it means she had some sort of expectation for Naoya to reach, and he couldn't even manage that.

Would she ever meet a sorcerer that didn't come with a massive ego?

"Gojo said that too," Yoshi notes to herself, caught between exasperation and anger. "You're more similar than I thought."

"Ain't that something," Naoya cocks an eyebrow, genuinely amused. "Maybe that's where the real difference lies. Gojo and I come from good stock, but you're just some bastard by-product that got lucky," he spits out the word like a slur, resentment pooling between them like an oil spill.

"...That's right," Yoshi says, swallowing down every vicious thing she could do. She begins to walk, and Naoya follows. "I'm a lucky bastard," she agrees. "And it pisses you off, doesn't it?"

Naoya stares down at Yoshi, and for once, he's not smirking or scowling at all. He looks resolute. "Scum like you are a disgrace to sorcery," he says plainly, looking her right in the eye. "I don't know what you did, but you don't deserve that power. It's an abomination to the natural way of things."

A strange sense of calm washes over Yoshi. No feeble promises, no flimsy threats—just his wretched, honest thoughts.

It means her conscience is clear, no matter what happens next.

"Hold onto that," she murmurs to him as the two of them ascend up the steep face of the mountain trail. "If you're mad at me, hold onto that feeling."

"What are you talking about?" Naoya hisses back, coming to a stop at the top of the trail. "You're…" he doesn't finish his sentence, though.

They've reached the veil.

Yoshi glances at Naoya, pulling a different baseball bat from the tattoo on her finger. This one emerges jet-black, and studded with nails like a feudal-era kanabō. Naoya's gaze is transfixed for a moment, realizing that her tattoo is its own source of cursed energy, dormant until she calls to it. All that excess power she was born with—she's sealed it into the tattoos.

"Stay mad," she advises him. "It's free entertainment for me."

Then she ducks through the veil before he can respond.

A/N: I recently answered some questions about this fic on tumblr, so I'm just gonna post some of it here too:

- Yoshi writes her name in kanji as 吉 meaning 'lucky' or 'good'.

- She shares her birthday with Wendy, and they've been literal friends for life.

- Yoshi forgets names very quickly, but she's good with maps directions.

- At age 13, Yoshi convinced Wendy into giving her a stick and poke tattoo. (It's a piece of toast with a smiley face in it. Wendy was hungry at the time.)

Thank you to everyone who's commented on this story so far! I also post on Ao3 under the username 'grilledsquids' and I encourage you to read it there, because I post more updates on that site, and it's so much easier to respond to comments & questions there.