A/N

Beta-reader: Biabialex

To answer Cute Little Cellest, I think I might extend the fic for more than ten chapters (I did not expect this, too T_T). The story was supposed to end at Shibuya Arc since I was about to get busy next year, but I'm excited about Emi's future. For now, I would try to release as many chapters as possible so we can enter canon before the start of December. To Amatsumi, I don't think Suguru would follow his canon counterpart's path in the manga. There was not enough trauma (his father was removed entirely from his life and had friends at an earlier age). From Gege's words, he became too worn out after the Star Plasma Vessel arc causing a personality change, telling himself that he hated non-sorcerers ever since.

2001 July 23

Emi wanted to curse out loud. Her fingers and toes squirmed under the ropes as she swore to herself that she would never let down her guard again. Gagged with her hands tied, the little girl could only manage to glare from afar.

Earlier, she rushed to the Gojo compound after getting a text from Satoru telling her she should come quickly. Emi thought it was an emergency, so she did not waste time, dropped everything she was doing, and rushed to the compound. After arriving and finding out he was not on the training grounds, she hastily made her way to his room, to which she found both Suguru and Shoko waiting for her. The white-haired boy ambushed her from behind, knocking her out and tying her using a cursed rope from the Gojo family that prevented her from using cursed energy.

It was chaos, and Emi would like to ask the three where they had gotten the audacity.

"Come on, Emi-chan. If you continue to give me that glare, then I'd be pissing on my pants by the end of the trip." Satoru tried to hide his half-amused expression as he tried to inflate the pool floats using an electric pump they brought from his family's compound. "See? Bangs-kun feels sorry too."

Suguru, who pretended the boy did not call him 'bangs-kun' because even he did not know when it started, shrugged while helping Shoko remove their things from the van. "I sincerely want to apologize, Emi-chan. I heard you'd go to the beach, so I could not help but invite myself." The boy did not look apologetic at all and instead wore a slight smile on his face.

"I want to clear my name out of this," the other girl in the group deadpanned, blinking slowly; she added, "I only tagged along since Gojo-san said it would be fun if Dr. Tomita and I also went."

Emi hissed under her gag, internally giving up with the set-up. The white-haired boy wanted to use the entirety of the break to spend it on the beach; however, since she was too busy, she said no on the spot. However, it seemed right after the start of summer vacation, Satoru went to find accomplices behind her back after the rejection. He visited Dr. Tomita—who both he and Suguru were seeing after her insistence—to ask him.

Shoko and Suguru, who were present at that time, could not help but join in.

"Oi, stop teasing Emi-chan!" Masamichi shouted from the driver's seat, taking it upon himself to stop the children if ever their jokes went too far. He went out of the van with Dr. Tomita, cutting the ropes with a swish of his knife.

Emi grumbled under her breath after being freed, then sent the older man a grateful look. Scratching the reddened skin on her wrist, she stood up from her seat. "Haa, I guess I can't really do anything now. Everyone's against me."

"They only want what's best for you, Emi-chan. You've been pushing yourself too hard these days. I supposed you don't want to give me more jobs, right?" Dr. Tomita said jokingly, patting Masamichi's shoulder asking him if he agreed to which the man nodded.

Osamu was already pretty close with the children considering he saw the two boys semi-frequently while Emi would visit weekly depending on her schedule. There was already a significant improvement in the girl's workaholic problems and self-sabotaging tendencies, so they estimated they would solve her insomnia sooner than expected. It also helped that Shoko was willing to visit her place when she was unable to go to Dr. Tomita's clinic.

But seeing them gang up on her this time, she did not know if she should be smiling or crying at something she caused herself.

"Well, Emi-chan?" Satoru drawled, stretching out his limbs lazily while he approached the irritated Emi. The boy was smiling the same Cheshire cat-like grin he had been wearing ever since they arrived here. He touched both of them and grabbed her shoulders as he changed his expression to a serious one. "Rest is a part of work, too," he reminded her by tapping her cheeks.

"Do I have a choice?" Emi asked lightly, sure that it was all under Satoru's plan and she did not have a say in the first place, then let her body fall on the white-haired boy's arms.

Satoru snickered as he enclosed the girl's body in his embrace. "Of course, you don't."

Tomita Osamu liked his hair bleached. It was one of those instances where you do something enough times that you could not live without it after. Although he knew the first time he played with his hair color, there was no turning back. His original hair color was black, which was awfully hard to lift, by the way, so he needed to bleach it once or twice to get that dirty white color.

It was unlucky that his hair became dry because of the direct sunlight, so he had no choice but to settle under the shade of the large umbrella. Lying beside him was his patient, Tokunaga Emi, who was idly sprawled above the haphazardly laid beach towel. Then a few meters away from them was his apprentice, Shoko, who was playing with sand while Satoru and Suguru were bickering while playing with seawater.

"I see that rest seems to be a good thing for you. What do you think?" He casually started the conversation, wondering if he should also play with the kids before Masamichi came back from getting their lunch.

"Tomita-san, you're using your work voice." The little girl reminded him as she yawned, a little irked that the man was 'business as usual' despite going to the beach for a break. "But to answer your question: my heart is beating fast, and I'm having anxiety because I'm doing nothing."

Maybe it was because Osamu did not get enough sleep, or perhaps the heat made him sleepy, so he decided to copy the girl and lie down. "We all have our days. You shouldn't be too comfortable working, and you shouldn't be too comfortable resting." Which was his motto, and he had been living by those words since he left the jujutsu community.

"Is that advice as my older role model or as my psychiatrist?" Emi looked over at him suspiciously as she adjusted the straw hat lying on her face to cover her eyes completely.

"As an older role model."

After all, Osamu being older did not have anything to do with how he wanted to be a better person for others.

Dr. Tomita was born from a fallen minor jujutsu clan, making it easy to drop everything and become a civilian. What was hard was studying for his degree when he only had little to no interest in it in the first place. It got easier after some time, though, and it took him a few years to accept that either he would continue with this career path or he would need to start with another. Osamu was not the type to jump from one job to another, to begin with, so he guessed that helped.

Which reminded him.

He met Masamichi back in Tokyo Jujutsu High, and they were in the same year and class with two other sorcerers. People who graduate from jujutsu-inclined institutions would either choose one of the two options: fake their college credentials (if they decided to pursue another) or finish technical college seriously. He was the latter, and his friend was the former. Although he remembered the man took some education units to understand how to teach children better. It paid off, and from what he could see, the kids treated him as some sort of sensei. That excluded Emi, of course. The girl was the only one with an unusual dynamic with other people her age, much more to people older than her.

In truth, it was easy to forget Emi was a child when conversing with her. There was no topic under the sun that she would shy away from, and everything was discussed from a third person's perspective—rationally—unless stated otherwise. A good example would be when he needed her to talk about her feelings, whether biased or unbiased; she tended to evaluate them logically, completely disregarding her emotions. However, at the end of the day, she was still a child, so he needed to treat her as such.

Osamu thought she experienced some kind of extreme parenting. Still, from what he had seen so far, both her grandfather and father were not the type to project their dreams to other people, and her deceased mother shouldn't affect her that way after being dead for a couple of years. Then it was a case of nature vs. nurture where the former won.

Dr. Tomita did not know if she was an exceptional child or a miserable one. He guessed the best thing he could do now was provide her the necessary mental support as an older role model and as her psychiatrist.

Ieiri Shoko silently ate her dinner while she listened to the squabbling of the two children. They were attacking each other's arguments, and neither Satoru nor Suguru were backing down.

Suguru mentioned that we needed to save people when they needed help while Satoru did not care; it was useless, he said. Personally, Shoko did not care about the topic at all. What would happen, would happen. It was how the world worked; hence, thinking about it too much would ruin your mood. But she guessed that was not the point today because if no one stopped the two of them, they would eventually start a fight. Emi, who was the only person who could control the two, slept most of the day. There was no way she would wake her up from something small.

The two adults with them were of no help. Masamichi went somewhere to exorcise curses, and Dr. Omita went with him as a support. It was funny how they trusted the children, not even in their puberty, to handle themselves in case of emergency—that was the right decision, though.

"Do you want to take this outside?" Satoru exclaimed as he dropped his chopsticks on his bowl aggressively.

"Then let's go outside," the boy who was only referred to as bangs-kun earlier replied, his left eye twitching.

Shoko listened to them, unbothered about the brewing hostility. "Why don't you two agree to disagree?"

"No!" They replied in unison, slapping both of their hands on the table.

The back-to-back argument started to give the girl a headache as she tried to find another topic to discuss. "Not caring about civilians is not good, but caring about them too much is no good either." Shoko settled for the best thing she knew and racked her brain on how Emi would reply to this situation and continued, "What would Emi-chan say?"

"She would save them if she saw them. If not, then she'd let them be." Satoru did not even think twice as he brought out a black blindfold from his pocket to do his daily routine of covering his eyes at night. Going back to his seat, the boy suddenly felt disinterested in continuing their fight as he yawned.

Suguru, who thought for a moment, added, "If it has nothing to do with her, then it's not her business."

Shoko snickered, amazed they were getting it wrong. "That's what she would say. How about what she would do?"

"Oh, good point, yeah." Suguru sat down, nodding absent-mindedly.

Emi was the type that would say one thing then act on it differently. She said she did not like working, but the girl would do it regardless. She said she did not like saving people, but she would try her hardest to keep them. She said she wanted to rest, but it had been days since her last sleep; that was why they were on vacation in the first place. They had to look out for her because she was just so stupid.

If Shoko let her be, the girl would die young, and that would be something that would irritate her to death—dying before her? Not on her watch.

2001 July 24

"Is that the cave?"

"It's creepy," Suguru remarked as he peered over Shoko's shoulder. "I see a lot of cursed energy."

Satoru behind them glanced at the dark entrance under his black blindfold and scowled. "Is that the place where Dr. Tomita and Masamichi-san entered?"

"Looks ominous," Emi commented as she strolled at the opening of the cave, examining the place. "Ruru, did you remember the contents of the report?"

"Supposed to be grade-level two curse. Masamichi-san is a level one sorcerer, and Dr. Tomita is level two, so they should be alright." The white-haired boy tapped her hand when she curiously reached for a broken blade on the ground. "Don't touch that. It seems to be Dr. Tomita's backup cursed weapon. If it's broken, then that means they are in danger."

"Ah, this is troublesome." Emi huffed out loud as she let herself get dragged upward by Satoru, forcing her to stand up from the wet ground.

Since they left to investigate the nearby cave for any cursed spirit activity, Masamichi and Osamu were supposed to return to their lodge after daybreak. However, it was already afternoon, and they had yet to show themselves, so the children got worried, dragging her outside to look for them.

The four children entered the cave, and the inside was humid and dark. It was a good thing Suguru captured a curse that uses fire a few weeks ago, so they managed to see the area with no problem.

The floor was wet, and it was hard to move from one place to another since Suguru was the only light source. It took them a while before they saw a sign that the two were still inside. They saw Masamichi's cursed doll Cathy lying on the ground; it was broken and barely functioning, evident that it went through a brutal fight. Suguru grabbed it from its head and inspected it. "It seems it was recent. If we continue to walk further down, we might see the two."

"Dr. Tomita is not the type to leave his blade outside. We should hurry—huh?" As Shoko was speaking, a large object slammed on the wall behind them. When she turned around to look, her eyes widened in disbelief. "M-Masamichi-san?"

Satoru and Emi immediately moved, the former catching the older man's body before it fell to the ground and the latter receiving the brunt of the attack of their unknown opponent. "Shoko, look at Masamichi-san! Suguru, go inside and look for Dr. Tomita!" She barked, realizing if they checked the status of the two a little too late, one of the older men might have died.

Suguru nodded without hesitation as he ran inside, following her orders. Shoko's hand trembled when she approached the white-haired boy carrying the unconscious body of Masamichi. The girl instantly activated her reverse cursed technique and started healing the older man while looking at his other injuries. With a wave of her hand, she noticed not only one but two life-threatening wounds on his body—one was near his heart, and the other was on his head.

"Emi-chan, it might take a while for Suguru to come back. I will help you first." Satoru, who left the man in Shoko's care, rushed to where Emi and the cursed spirit were battling while checking to see if Suguru was back.

The girl grunted as a reply, quickly retreating after attacking the cursed spirit once, effectively changing the target from Masamichi to her in just a split second. "If Yaga brought this curse this far, that meant Dr. Tomita was inside and in a fatal condition," she concluded, watching Satoru remove his blindfold to give it to her.

"Then, let's do it." Satoru blinked his light blue eyes, adjusting to the darkness while showing a wide grin.

The curse in front of them was a large humanoid creature with a tongue as its eyes. It has four bulky arms, and even though it was gigantic, it still maintained its fast speed. Surprisingly, it could even catch up with Emi, who used her quickest movement when she tried to attack it earlier to check for its capabilities. It should be a special grade one cursed spirit by that alone and if she took its strength and curse energy into account—a special grade.

It was their first time fighting an opponent more powerful than them. Emi could feel the white-haired boy's excitement.

Satoru charged forward using his fastest speed, appearing behind the cursed spirit. "Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue." The humanoid expected the attack as he quickly dodged, appearing a few meters away.

"Technique Release: Control," Emi muttered under her breath, waving her hand in different directions as a colossal hand materialized out of thin air and attacked the curse. It crashed on the ground due to force, failing to recover from the consecutive physical attacks.

"Nice." Satoru reappeared beside Emi as they exchanged a quick handshake. "Cursed Technique Lapse Maximum Cursed Energy Output: AzureGlow."

The space around the cursed spirit distorted, gathering in a single area as it attracted the surroundings. The cave's ceiling gave in as Emi rushed to where Shoko and Masamichi were, destroying the falling stones before they hit the ground. Satoru had already limited the affected area, but it might put the other children in danger if he used his explosive power. What was worse, even if they were alive, they might be trapped inside.

"Ruru, careful!" Emi gestured for the white-haired boy to cut it out, to which he replied with a salute. They needed to rely on taijutsu, but damn, what was with those humongous muscles? There was no way in hell she would exchange a few moves with that cursed spirit. She would die even with her innate enhanced strength. "Same old!" She shouted as she took the rear while Satoru took the front.

"Children, huh?" It was the first time the cursed spirit spoke as he looked down at them, giving them a scrutinizing glance. He stood up slowly, using his knees as support. "She never told me there are child sorcerers."

She?

Emi ramped up her cursed energy, collecting it on her one hand. "Technique Release: Vibration." She used the air particles to distort the cursed energy around them, effectively making them disappear on the curse's senses. It did not have eyes, so the only way it could see its surroundings was the cursed energy flow; he was as good as blind without the consistent pattern.

The girl silently said sorry to Satoru in her mind because that was how he technically did it too. You have to rely on your eyes for a while, Ruru.

The curse jumped towards Emi before she could completely put the cursed energy flow into chaos.

"Emi-chan!" Suguru appeared right on time as he released his most powerful curse. He was carrying Dr. Tomita on his tiny back while he approached Shoko on the side.

"Suguru! Shoko! Bring them outside, and we will meet the two of you there!" Satoru shouted, delivering a roundhouse kick to their enemy while Suguru's curse distracted it.

"YOU DARE?!" The cursed spirit shouted in anger as he tried to chase the boy.

Suguru hesitated and was about to reject him when Emi shouted using a commanding tone. "Go! We're fine!"

Gritting his teeth, he reabsorbed his curse then released another one to carry the two adult males. Shoko gravely nodded as Suguru helped him climb up his curse spirit. The two disappeared in just a few minutes, which made Emi and Satoru heave a sigh of relief.

"Now, we either die together or live together, Emi-chan!" Satoru shouted, grabbing her hand and teleporting them near the curse.

"Dumbass, of course, that's a given."

There was no way back up would come right on time, so they had to hold out in the cave until the two could successfully get out. Teleporting outside would mean they would affect civilians in the process. Suguru, Shoko, Masamichi, and Osamu would never be safe unless they defeated the curse here. Emi had seen Dr. Tomita's body earlier, and he was hovering between life and death—fuck, was this the place where he was supposed to die in the original? Because she never recalled a man named Tomita Osuma existing.

Screw this. They only needed to stall this guy, right?

Suguru was panting as they ran halfway on their escape. The curse he deployed blocked all the debris from falling straight to them while he carried Masamichi on his back and Dr. Tomita was on Shoko's.

With narrowed eyes, he dimly saw the light beyond them as they urged Shoko to run faster. "And I thought Dr. Tomita was skinny. Why was he so heavy!" She complained but increased her speed nevertheless.

It was no problem for them to run while carrying someone heavy since people with high cursed energy had more or less increased strength. However, they needed to conserve it because they needed to ask for reinforcements. Moreover, Suguru could not leave Shoko alone in case other cursed spirits were waiting for an ambush.

The two children brought the adults on their back down once they were outside of the cave. Shoko immediately used her reverse cursed technique to heal Dr. Tomita, who was close to death. Suguru called out his strongest cursed spirits if anything terrible happened as he searched Masamichi's pocket for his flip phone. Opening it, he clicked on the speed dial and put the phone on speaker.

"Bzzzt. Hi, this is Tatsuo from Pizza Hut! How may I assist you today—"

"What the fuck was that?" Shoko, who was healing her master, raised her head, surprised that the number on Masamichi's speed dial was a pizza store. "Try looking at his contacts."

"Damn, like I know." Suguru, who felt the incredulity of the situation, could not help but berate the older man in his mind while he browsed through his contacts. Phones were slowly becoming common, but not everyone would have them. Only a few people from middle-class to wealthy households could buy it. Thankfully, jujutsu sorcerers were paid high enough so they could afford small luxuries like flip phones. It took him a moment to find a number with the name 'principal,' so he did not hesitate to call it.

Ring! Ring!

Ring!

"—what the hell did you do this time?" A rough voice shouted at the other end of the line.

"Masamichi-san was injured because of a cursed spirit we found inside the cave." The boy did not waste time as he explained the situation. "We need backup."

The person on the other line did not answer right away as Suguru heard papers shuffling. "Is that the cave near Shobutahama Public Beach?"

"Yes."

"Got it." The man gave orders while on the call, and the person on the other end continued, "Wait for a blonde woman in a motorcycle, then tell her where to go."

Beep!

They decided to visit Miyagi prefecture because of Masamichi's suggestion. He was supposed to go out for a cursed spirit mission but decided to join, so they had no choice but to go to a public beach near the cave. Satoru did not turn down his suggestion, preferring to let the adults decide where they could go during summer vacation.

"What did the person say?" Shoko, watching the boy closely, inquired, finishing up some minor injuries on Dr. Tomita's body. "Who did you call?"

"It's the Jujutsu High principal," Suguru guessed as he fell on his knees because of tiredness, the adrenaline leaving his body. "He said let's wait for a woman on a motorcycle."

"Then let's do that. I hope Emi-chan and Satoru-kun are okay," she replied, showing worry on her face.

"Satoru!" Emi shouted, watching the white-haired boy crash against the cave's ceiling.

The eleven-year-old girl estimated that both of her friends already escaped outside as she ran to catch Satoru before he landed on the dirt. Emi healed the boy once she saw him in her arms, bringing his unconscious body away from the cursed spirit's fighting range. They were already fighting for half an hour, and both of them were close to burning out. She almost exhausted her cursed energy after using the reversed technique repeatedly. At the same time, the white-haired boy who was constantly receiving the brunt of attacks was dead tired from continuous fighting. She placed his body on the cave floor and created a shield around him by increasing the pressure on the surroundings.

Kami, she already died once. What was so bad about dying twice?

Emi disappeared from where she was standing by increasing her speed at a maximum. The girl amplified the sound around her, using the echoes produced in the cave to create feedback as a way to paralyze the cursed spirit. She covered her ear earlier with an impromptu earplug made from dirt, completely removing her sense of hearing.

"What is this?" The curse muttered in wonder as a sticky liquid slowly flowed from his ears.

Emi appeared inches away from the cursed spirit's face, kicking it using the heel of her feet. "Technique Release Overpower: Increased Pressure." It allowed her to increase the movement of the molecules in her surroundings and to compress the air, forming immense firepower in an isolated space. However, this expended her cursed energy twice as much as when she used Vibration and Control.

"Aaaaahh!" It screeched, trying to cover his ears from the loud sound as holes started to appear on his body.

The girl was already maintaining the barrier around Satoru while fighting the curse; she needed to end the battle quickly to save the boy. Emi then remembered the lunch she left in the fridge; badly wanting to eat her unfinished porridge, she hoped the spirit would give in soon. The pressure around the spirit increased as it fell on the floor crouching from the high-pitched sound produced by their surroundings.

Increased pressure helped with slowing the curse down and enabled Emi to hurt it physically. She used her elbow to deal her last blow when the cursed spirit immediately used his hand to block it. Pulling the short sword that she snatched from Satoru's unconscious body earlier, she slashed the enemy's hand, cutting it off.

"This is so irritating," she whispered to herself while backing away. Only a fourth of her cursed energy remained; Emi needed to exorcise the opponent right away. "Technique Release Overpower: Increased Pressure."

Emi placed her bets that she weakened the cursed spirit enough that using her remaining reserves in one go would kill it. With a wave of her hand, she used her curse technique directly on the enemy's head and chest, boring a hole into the two fatal areas. She felt her body fall on the ground slowly, her cursed energy disappearing around the cave.

"That was a good technique," she heard the booming voice of the curse as her head collided on the cold floor. "But the source of my cursed energy is not there."

So it was in the stomach? Emi wanted to raise her middle finger but fainted on the spot.

2001 July 27

"Shit."

"Don't curse in my face." Satoru did not distance his face from Emi's and instead held both of her cheeks on the palm of his hands as he stretched them as far as possible. "Hey, what took you so long to wake up?"

Emi, who realized the white-haired boy was lying beside her on the bed, quickly slapped his hand away. "How long was I asleep?"

"This is the second day you've been unconscious." He blew away the white hair strands on her face and pointed his index finger on her forehead. "Who knew you'd act like an idiot and exhaust all your cursed energy in one go?"

"Who knew you'd sleep in the middle of the fight?" Emi shot back sarcastically, yawning after she just woke up. Then after realizing she lost consciousness right after she dealt a supposed 'killing blow' to the cursed spirit, she added in panic, "What happened to the curse?"

"I woke up in the middle of your fight, but I can't get out of your shield at all, and it seemed you can't hear me," Satoru explained as he sat up looking down on the girl lying on the bed. "I only got the chance to escape when you fainted since you can't maintain the shield anymore. Plus, I got the chance to use my incomplete domain expansion."

Bringing her head on top of the boy's lap, Emi did not expect he would enter the domain stage so rapidly. "You're there already? I'm close, but in the end, you beat me to it," she replied in faux disappointment as she hid her proud smirk with both of her hands.

Satoru, because of the desperation of the situation, finally came to understand how domains work. Domain Expansion (領域展開, Ryōiki Tenkai) was a powerful barrier technique that reflected the user's Innate Domain and confined their victim inside it by creating a barrier wall. The user's cursed techniques would be amplified once inside and cannot be prevented. His domain was called Unlimited Void that would make a metaphysical realm in which he would constantly bombard the opponents with sensations and information that limited their mental processes and behaviors. The boy estimated that those he would contact personally would also be immune to its effects.

The sudden understanding of the Domain Expansion came in clutch after his extreme frustration with the situation. Thankfully, he managed to save his childhood friend as Suguru and Shoko managed to call some backup for the curses lurking outside the cave.

The white-haired boy was also surprised when he knew that Tsukumo Yuki, a special grade sorcerer, was the one to help them during the crisis.

"Then how are the others?" Emi blinked, unsure of how to ask if all of the people who went with them came out alive.

Satoru grunted at her question, irritated that she had the time to worry about others rather than prioritizing her situation. "All safe. No one was too injured apart from you."

"That's good."

This idiot. There was nothing good about that.

Except for some mental scarring, Suguru and Shoko were fine. Masamichi and Dr. Tomita were both away from harm after they were healed using the reverse cursed technique. However, some jujutsu doctors advised them to stay put and avoid straining themselves. On the other hand, Satoru was surprisingly okay after the fight, and except for some minor injury and a concussion, he managed to get back to total health. The only problem was the self-sacrificial tendencies of Emi, who did not even leave a shred of cursed energy so that she could stay awake. The girl made everyone worry, and even those who were unfamiliar extended their good wishes.

Satoru wanted to smack the girl right on the back of her head.

"Am I still in Shobutahama?" As if remembering they were supposed to be on vacation, Emi suddenly sat up, surprising the white-haired boy who immediately forced her to lie down. "Are the others here?"

"Yes, and no," he replied, exerting extreme patience while he sighed. "The two of us are still in our rented lodge since we agreed that it wouldn't be good to move you, and the others came back from where they were supposed to be—well, excluding the two kids."

As if right on cue, they overheard arguing voices in the hallways. They heard a knock, and Satoru carefully removed her head from his lap to stand up and open the door. What greeted him was the worried faces of Suguru and Shoko that directly ran past him, ignoring his presence as they climbed over the bed to jump on Emi. So much for taking care of her when two idiots would hurt her nonetheless. The boy did not have time for this, and it still irked him. Two bean sprouts disrupted the girl's rest, but he watched their interaction with a blank face regardless.

"Are you okay, Emi-chan?" Shoko looked like a mess, her eye bags were reaching the tip of her nose, and her previous nonchalant attitude was nowhere to be seen.

Suguru, who followed her in climbing the bed, was glad she finally woke up. "We thought it'd take you a week to open your eyes."

"I'm okay now." Emi lazily replied, then attempted to push the two away.

Shoko swatted her hand coolly and smiled, ignoring her reluctance. "You should carefully listen to us, Emi-chan. The next time you pull that shit again, I'll make sure to irritate you to death."

"Now, now, Shoko-chan." Suguru intervened, showing his signature bright smile. "But you were too reckless, Emi-chan. You should not have done that."

Satoru could finally not help it and grabbed the two children by their collars and threw them out. "Now, everybody. Let's not disturb the patient who should be resting," he warned them while wearing a large grin on his face. "By the way, what do you want for dinner?"

"Sushi." Emi felt relieved as soon as the two went out of the room and continued her rest.

"Noted."

"Can we also have ramen?"

"Shut up, Bangs-kun."

Yaga Masamichi

Age: 29

Hobby: Collecting sunglasses and liking cute things

Favorite food: Smoked daikon pickles

Least favorite food: Sweet liquor

Innate technique:

Cursed corpse

Skills:

N/A

Tomita Osamu

Age: 28

Hobby: Bleaching his hair and using skin care products

Favorite food: Steak and potatoes

Least favorite food: Anything with ginger

Innate technique:

String of fate

Skills:

Reverse cursed technique

A/N

I'm hyped up! We would start another arc next chapter and I want to finish that now but I'm too busy. Again, thank you for the people who followed and favorited!