A/N
Since lovy_dovy_assassin asked for an illustration, it also made me wonder what she looked like at this point 'cause it was all a blur. So I made a quick illustration (please check in ao3 I couldn't figure out how to add the link in ff for the life of me, but it's on the cover of this story if you don't want to check) of what she looked like in my head (?) so others could see it too! There would be another illustration in the next chapter, but I apologize because that would be the last one since I wanted to focus more on writing and my studies.
To Amatsumi, I don' think they were overestimating Emi's 'value.' Gojo had assassinations directed at him as soon as people heard he had the Six Eyes. Imagine someone on par with him, who killed a Special Grade Curse at such a young age that also worked to provide somehow a middle ground for all the big three families. They'd (referring to their group) be a force to be reckoned with if given time to grow. To answer another question, Satoru's a time traveler, a regressor to be exact, so he was working on the idea of a timeline where Emi 'died.'
I also wanted to emphasize the fact that Emi was not a threat alone. The butterfly effect she produced with her presence was the scary thing. SI/OCs were a bit OP in the first place, given the nature of their reincarnation. I also want to get this out of the way (clarification) Emi only had the knowledge up to Chapter 150 of the manga, and it was not as clear as she would like it to be. This would be explained in the future chapters.
2003 January
Work was a lot these days. Not to mention Emi, who had scrambled everywhere to prepare for Satoru's schedule, also had to continue and go to school with her friends. She was in no way complaining, but things got harder all of a sudden, and the girl had to vent it out. Now that she thought about it, someone gave her a pamphlet about going to the gym to release someone's stress.
Maybe that would work.
"…Room 2230?" She asked herself in confusion while looking at the hospital room door. Emi tried to remember if Suguru said it was Room 2230 or 2213, but she was on the second floor now for the former, and it would take a while to go back and check the one on the first floor for the latter.
A cursed spirit attacked Emi's homeroom teacher. Thankfully, Suguru was able to exorcise before it harmed the man any further. There was a recent increase in the number of curses going around the school, and from what the jujutsu Gojo family researcher had found, there seemed to be a leader that gathers them. Satoru was out of the country taking care of the family's business, so they were the only ones who could eliminate enemies in the area.
The 12-year-old girl knocked on the door and opened it slowly. "Sensei?"
"Eh?" A woman in her early 20s blinked at her with mild surprise. She was alone in the room, lying on the hospital bed with a baby crib next to her. "I'm sorry. I think you got the wrong room."
Emi stared at the woman's familiar spiky hair. "Is that so? I'm sorry, Miss. I was looking for my sensei, and I got confused about his room number." She bowed in apology as she showed an awkward smile. "Can I ask for your name? You look familiar."
The woman laughed as she recovered from her astonishment. "My name is Zenin Misaki. What about you?"
"I'm Tokunaga Emi, Zenin-san." The girl's eyes widened in wonder. She encountered the family she had been trying to find for months by pure chance after giving up from finding them. Emi's eyes darted on the crib next to the woman and asked, "Did you recently give birth?"
"Ah, no." Misaki tried to reach the baby in the crib carefully, but the girl helped her by giving her baby with the dexterity of an experienced baby handler. "I gave birth in December. But I am sick now, so my husband and I decided to bring Megumi here," she explained, cradling the child who was woken up by their conversation. "You're really good at carrying babies. Do you have any younger siblings?"
"My mother died when I was a baby, and my father refused to get married again." Emi avoided the topic of why she was good at miscellaneous things while staring at the baby in the woman's arms. The girl could tell Megumi was not the type to cry all the time, seeing how his mother was so attentive.
As if struck by some sort of realization, Misaki stared at her child for a moment then looked at her. "Would you mind staying here? It's nice to have a visitor since I'm alone most of the time."
"Your husband is?" The girl looked at the flying cursed spirit outside the window of the hospital room. Emi released her cursed energy to block the window entirely so it wouldn't be able to enter.
"Oh no." The woman laid the boy next to her then waved her hands at the implication that her husband had left her. She followed where the girl was looking, but when she saw nothing outside the window, Misaki turned her attention to her child once again. "Toji visits me always, but you know, sometimes he needs to take care of things."
Emi, who was now facing the baby Megumi, could not help but fiddle with the child's chubby hands. "If it's okay, Zenin-san. Can I ask why you're sick?" The boy grabbed her finger by reflex, and she could not process the sudden physical touch, so her body froze.
"You can call me Misaki. It's fine." Misaki seemed to see her discomfort and gently removed the baby's hands from her finger while she laughed. "I have cancer. We found it a little too late. It was near the time where we got to know of my pregnancy, so we were unable to do most of the treatments for it."
"What kind of cancer?" Emi thanked the woman mentally for being so attentive that she also saw how uncomfortable she was with kids. Gazing at the woman's pale face and bruised skin, she faintly guessed what kind of sickness she was affected with.
"Leukemia." Misaki seemed to be unbothered with her disease as she gave her son a tender glance. Her hands brushed his growing hair while sighing. The woman, probably stranded in the hospital for a long time, was comforted by the presence of another human being in the room, so she expressed her thoughts ruefully. "If you come over here again, please play with my son." As if she had a sudden idea, she added lightheartedly, "Look after my husband, too. He's a handful sometimes."
Emi smiled when she realized the woman's charisma was off the charts. No wonder Zenin Toji had fallen in love with her. "I'll try to."
The girl thought of sneaking into the nurse's station to look at Misaki's file at a later date. If what she feared was true, then the woman had a few years, if not months, to live. Pregnant leukemia patients were few and far between because chemotherapy could influence a woman's fertility by inhibiting egg production in the ovaries. If this occurred, they would be unable to conceive and might have menopausal symptoms.
If they chose to go through with the pregnancy, they would be unable to do most of the treatments since it could affect the child's growth. However, it would be a matter of choosing between the life of the child or the life of the mother since the woman's sickness would progressively get worse the longer she took care of the child in her womb. On the other hand, if she went with abortion, she would be able to survive, although there was no way she would be able to bore a baby after.
Zenin Misaki chose her son over herself. A decision Toji respected but made him unable to look at their child in the future after the boy's striking resemblance with the woman.
"Misaki, I've brought your fav—whose kid is this?" The door opened without any warning, and a man with a scar beside his mouth pointed at Emi while his other hand-carried grocery bags.
"Ah, Toji! This is Emi-chan. We met earlier when she entered the wrong room." Misaki introduced her then gave the girl her baby to put it back in the crib a few meters away.
The sorcerer killer, who had seen their interaction, narrowed his eyes. "Then why is this dum—kid still here?" He went to the opposite side of the room to drop his recent purchases while trying to keep his irritation under the wraps.
"Hello, Zenin-san. Misaki-san told me to stay for a moment since she needed help with the baby." Emi confirmed he really had no cursed energy, but strangely, he appeared to recognize the hovering cursed spirit by the window. Then there was a large possibility he noticed the traces of the girl's cursed energy inside the room as well.
Toji observed her for a moment before transferring his gaze to his wife. "Then I'll help you find the room you're supposed to visit." He took her by the scruff of the neck and walked to the door.
Emi had a foreboding that she would encounter something dangerous, so she planned to escape right after the Sorcerer Killer had closed the door.
"That's good, Toji. Make sure she goes so she can visit the room safe and sound." Misaki smiled brightly, then added, "Ah, Emi-chan! Would you mind coming to visit me when you're free? It's nice talking to you."
"I'll be back, Misaki." The man's eye twitched at her words then he exited the room.
Emi slammed on the wall of the deserted part of the hospital parking lot. She wondered if her self-preservation instincts were still working at this point. If she had run away while under the watch of Misaki (who was Toji's weakness, let's be honest), then she would have survived. The Sorcerer Killer wouldn't be able to kill in front of his wife since she was a civilian.
But the girl just had to be curious about one thing.
If Misaki had leukemia, then she had a few years or at least months to live. Megumi's surname would be Zenin unless Toji intentionally changed his family registry after his second marriage. However, it did not make sense for him to do that if he would sell his child back to the Zenin Clan anyways. The timeline was too short, and everything needed to be planned beforehand in preparation for the woman's death.
But the Sorcerer Killer did not seem the type to plan while his spouse was dying. He seemed to be the person who would wallow before, during, and after the passing of his loved one.
Then it only meant it was not pre-planned, and the woman did not die because of natural causes; she was killed. Hence, Toji needed to protect his kid and trade him to his family for the money because someone or something was coming after him—the same people who murdered his wife. Changing the surname was also a matter of protection for Megumi since the enemies searched for a Zenin and not a Fushiguro. Using Misaki's surname would not also work, considering they already knew her connection with them in the first place.
Ah, love. The greatest curse of them all. If only he weren't the Sorcerer Killer, his family would be spared.
"What the hell did you say?"
"Hmm? Sorry, my mouth slipped." Emi used her arms as support to stand from the ground. The debris from the broken wall fell over her shoulder, so she had to shake some parts of her clothes to remove them all.
Toji did not accept her apology, and instead, he seemed to be angrier. "If I weren't the Sorcerer killer, my family would have been spared?"
A cursed spirit appeared over his shoulder in a blink of an eye. It opened its mouth as the man grabbed something inside it.
"Well, that's what you've been thinking at least," she blurted out honestly, thinking how the hell did a non-sorcerer raise a cursed spirit so docile it even acted as weapon storage.
"Kid. How old are you again?"
"I'm turning 13 this March." Emi quickly defended herself when the Sorcerer Killer rushed to where she was in about of silent anger. "Why did you ask? If you're gonna give me a gift, can you give me some nice leg warmers?" She maneuvered her body to the left, avoiding a lethal attack on her heart.
Toji sneered at her words while he tried to find other ways to attack the girl. "Don't you think 13 years is way too long for you?"
"Now that you mention it. Why yes. Yes, I do." The girl, who had been avoiding all this time, tried to gain the upper hand by slipping between his legs and attacking from behind. However, she was never the man's opponent in terms of speed, so she was pinned on the ground by his sword. Emi's flesh was pierced under her armpits avoiding any vital area. "Woah, tough crowd. Can't joke about anything these days."
"You're annoying." Toji's eye twitched as he watched her blood seep into her clothes. His face was wholly unimpressed while he directed his killing intent at her.
"You know. I told Misaki-san I'd be seeing her tomorrow. So please let me leave with my life intact so that I could come back in the future."
Toji, who realized she could not kill the girl since his wife was fond of her, settled for using her as a pincushion.
Stab!
"Ugh!" Emi felt her stomach physically lurch when he punctured her abdomen. This was what she got for joking around, alright? "Hey, mister. I didn't say you can maim me, or I'll show up tomorrow all bandaged." Using his wife as leverage, the girl tried to block the pain while patiently waiting for him to remove the sword.
It was not that she had balls of steel, but she had to think clearly and use humor to cope with the situation. Kinda like laughing as a response when they told you your grandma died.
"I'm going to forgive you now. But if you did something suspicious, I'm gonna kill you on sight, brat." Toji removed his sword from her torso, and blood freely escaped her body without anything hindering it. Emi could not blame him either, the number of people who had used children to assassinate someone was astounding, so if she were in his place, the girl would also be on guard.
Emi did not hear his departure, but she was pretty sure he was more than willing to leave a dying kid in the hospital's parking lot. It was a good thing this part was deserted (a bad thing if she didn't know how to heal herself since it would be too late to save her if someone discovered her body), so she laid there for a couple of minutes using her reversed cursed technique.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
"Hello, who is this?" The girl grabbed the phone in her pocket with one bloodied hand while staring into the sky for comfort after another near brush with death.
"You didn't save my number?" There was a lot of sound in the background, and she could faintly hear Satoru and Shoko shouting at each other. "This is Suguru. Satoru just got back—hey! DAMN OKAA-SAN SATORU BROKE YOUR VAAAASE! (Hey, I didn't. It was Shoko!) When will you be coming here? How was sensei?"
Emi couldn't help but chuckle, the tears on her eyes falling when she felt relief while she looked at the blood-covered screen of her flip phone. "I'm coming in an hour. Tell Suzume-san to make me hot chocolate."
"Got it! Shoko told me you should buy some dango on the way." Suguru's voice seemed to get weaker and louder at different intervals, as if the phone was getting pulled away from him in a tug of war. "I'm gonna hang up now! Shoko and Satoru—bzzt!"
Emi's hand slowly fell to her chest as she closed her eyes. If anyone were present, they would see the wound on her stomach and shoulder was healing at speed visible to the eye. Cursing at herself, she didn't know if she was lucky to meet Toji and Megumi at an earlier date or if she was destined to meet them at all.
2006 August 14
"Ah fuck. You're that kid, right?" If Toji did not remember that signature hair, then let himself be damned. He clearly remembered almost killing the kid in a hospital parking lot a few years ago.
Emi did come back a couple of times after that, though. So he got acquainted with her after a while. At that time, Toji was amazed at how unfazed she was. Facing your (almost) murderer in the same room would unnerve a lot of people but apparently, not her. It lasted for a few months until the girl stopped coming, so Misaki, who was weakened at that time, told him to find out what happened to her. Eventually, he learned the news of her death, which he never got the chance to relay to his wife because of health reasons.
Toji only told Misaki her parents did not allow her to go back to the hospital anymore.
It had been a long time since they last saw each other. Now that Toji got a clearer view of her face, he realized they had the same eyes. Not the same appearance, but the same dead-looking ones. It made him burst into laughter when he felt it was pretty ironic how a lively girl like her was becoming more like him.
"What are you laughing at?" The bangs-kid, who he indistinctly remembered was called Suguru, asked him with hidden contempt.
Toji did not pay him any heed as he continued his staring contest with the girl. "You like meat?"
"I prefer vegetables and seafood. Thank you." A pescatarian, then.
The Sorcerer Killer did not drop his gun while he engaged in a conversation with her. "Do you mind if I kill your friend?" Changing his aim to Suguru, he did not hesitate to shoot a few times near his feet in a playful manner, but a cursed spirit blocked his attempt.
"I would appreciate it if you would stop killing my friends one by one. By the way, where did Satoru go?" Emi appeared before him then disarmed him in an instant. She switched on the gun's safety, released the magazine, and removed the bullets for additional assurance.
Toji watched as Emi threw his weapon to Suguru then pointed her broadsword near his neck. "The Six Eyes kid—"
"I'm alive." Satoru appeared from the tunnel behind him, his clothes visibly tattered, but his body was not injured. "He trapped me under the rubble then rushed here quickly when he realized he couldn't kill me."
What a bright brat.
It took Toji a few exchanges of moves before he concluded that their battle would end in a draw at most. He had greatly underestimated the teen; he would admit to that. It was all his fault; the man did not realize they were at the same level because he was relatively younger. So in return, he hurriedly devised a plan to kill the Star Plasma Vessel before she entered the barrier by trapping the Gojo-kid for a few minutes.
"How did you find your way here?" Emi pointed her sword closer to his neck while he obediently raised both of his hands.
"Have you forgotten? I have sharp senses." As if they were conversing over a meal, Toji casually explained how he could find them in such an effortless manner. "You did not leave behind any residuals, but that's not necessary for me. I can track by smell and footprints."
Residuals were traces of cursed energy left behind by sorcerers, curses, or curse users. The imprints left could be utilized to trace the user, and the traces of someone's jujutsu could even be used to identify them. In this case, Suguru made sure to erase all their trails, but he did not expect to be up against a Heavenly Restriction user with heightened senses.
"He's really a monster." The white-haired teen got into his defensive position to support his childhood friend in case the man attempted to attack them again. "Riko, are you okay there?"
The teen who had been watching all their interactions seemed to come back to reality. "Y-yes," Riko managed to answer in a hurry.
The Sorcerer Killer gagged the cursed spirit that he used as weapon storage for a long time. It could reduce its size by eating parts of itself, and he could hide it in his gut, and he could be untraceable under the jujutsu sorcerer's eyes. "Hey, girl. Remember what you promised Misaki?"
Megumi meant 'blessing' or 'grace'. Toji named his son after seeing how he and his mother were spitting images of each other. Now he could not look at the boy in the face again.
Emi had taken care of his child, and she was also there to support Misaki in his absence. Toji had to take care of his enemies during that time, periodically going around the hospital's vicinity in case someone tried to assassinate his family. He even needed to buy groceries once in a while so his wife wouldn't get suspicious. One time, he was too injured to look after them, and the girl protected them in his place despite his clear attempt to kill her in their first meeting.
The Sorcerer Killer owed the kid a lot for letting his wife live a little longer. There was no way he would say no to her request to avoid killing her friends. However, that might change since Toji was tempted to have a battle to the death with Satoru for his pride.
Grabbing a weapon inside the mouth of his cursed spirit, he smirked when Emi gave him an odd look. "My kid's in Saitama. Make of it what you will." Toji pointed the dagger on his throat, then proceeded to stab himself.
Misato exited the elevator in a hurry, even leaving in a disorderly manner because of panic. Earlier, a teenage girl appeared behind her and covered her mouth, then hid both of them in a dark place.
She thought it would be an abductor. However, she was surprised when another man appeared at the place where they were earlier. Even though he was a non-sorcerer, the girl had ordered Misato to stay silent, so she did. They waited for him to disappear, and that was the only time she removed her hand from her mouth.
"It's been years, but I knew there was something about his senses. I purposely spread your smell traces and additional footprints. Since the Sorcerer Killer's only trying to find the Star Plasma Vessel, you're safe for now." The girl with white fringed hair gave her a piece of paper as she tied her incredibly long hair in a large bun. She talked as if she was incredibly familiar with the man. "Nevermind, that's not the problem. Go find Ieiri Shoko in the Jujutsu High Infirmary. Tell her what I told you and give her the paper. My friends are going to give me one hell of a headache later."
Friends? Sorcerer Killer?!
The caretaker had recognized the name Shoko, and he heard Suguru mention it a couple of times during their trip to Okinawa. She was their friend and a reverse cursed technique user. Which eventually made her wonder who the girl was, and this was her first time seeing her. Misato had forgotten to ask her name because of the situation. She was not wearing a uniform, so she couldn't be from the technical college. The teen did not look that old either so that she couldn't be a graduate of the school.
But people thought she was also younger than her age, wasn't it? Misato was already 31, but they would often mistake that she was the same age as Riko.
Unlike other Star Plasma Vessel aides that hailed from her family, she was the only one who rejected the job and entered a junior college to rebel against their' responsibility.' Misato didn't see any reason why she would work under some random kid she barely knew, and she would rather enter the Japanese workforce earlier than expected if that were the case. The woman hated being under pressure because of the duty they gave her even before she was born.
First, it did not make sense. Second, the agreement was never consensual, and Misato wanted none of it.
If Misato had the choice, she would like to be an accountant, but it didn't seem possible in the first place, considering she had to study for four years then pass the exam. The woman had been training for housekeeping her entire life; it would be a complete change of occupations. Who knew she would eat her words when she met Amanai Riko back when she was still a child. The girl recently lost her parents and she had no choice but to take care of her.
Eventually, Misato got fond of the Star Plasma Vessel, so in the end, she had to give up her hopes and dreams.
"Go quickly, Caretaker-san. I'm a hundred percent sure the merger wouldn't continue. We need to tell others how we're gonna fuck this up so even if we're pig-like teammates[1], at least they were aware."
Misato had no idea what pig-like teammates were like, but she assumed it had a negative connotation. Plus, when the girl mentioned that the merger wouldn't go as planned, she couldn't contain the happiness in her heart, so she followed her instructions in a hurry.
The caretaker finally entered the school grounds and approached the first person she saw. A man wearing a doctor's coat with bright green eyes appeared approachable, walking to the other side of the technical college.
"E-excuse me!" Misato tried to lessen the tension that started to show on her face. "May I know where the infirmary is?"
The man smiled to calm her down, seeing her exhausted expression. "Go straight down this hallway. The infirmary is in the third room to the left. If I may ask, what do you need to do there?"
"I need to see Ieiri Shoko," she raised the paper in her hands, showing the reason for her visit. "A girl with white locks of hair in front of her face told me to give this to her." Watching his amiable expression turn into a poker face in an instant, Misato blinked in surprise.
The bright-green-eyed man looked at her clothes and nodded. "Then I'll lead you there instead. We're in a hurry, aren't we?" He gestured at the hallway using her hands, telling her to go first. "It's better if you don't get lost."
"T-thank you!" Misato lowered her body in a 90 degree-bow and followed the amiable man inside the building. She hoped nothing wrong happened to Riko while she was away.
"Why are people suicidal these days?" Emi had thrown the cursed-spirit-slashed-weapon-storage away from the man along with the dagger that he used to commit suicide.
Satoru looked at her incredulously as if they weren't the same. He had to save her life a couple of times when they were younger since she wouldn't stop sacrificing herself.
The white-haired teen was also taken aback by the Sorcerer Killer's actions. He was currently unable to use limitless, considering he was on the verge of depleting his cursed energy after the continuous fighting, even more so now that he had to heal some of his injuries because the reverse cursed technique used twice as many resources as other techniques. He was also safe enough without it since his childhood friend was beside him.
"Why did you stop him from doing that?" Suguru made all his cursed spirits return while he acted as a shield before Riko. Satoru had the same question, and he had no qualms about his enemies killing themselves in front of him. If anything, it saved him the hassle of doing the job, so in some way, he was a little grateful.
"Why are we preventing the merger when we have too much on our plate again?"
"Because we want to." The white-haired teen answered on everyone's behalf. It was not that he took pity on the girl, but he knew how wrong it is to take someone's life to extend another, but morality was not something he could explain in one sitting, so here he was.
"Exactly. Because I want to." Emi disabled the Star Plasma Vessel barrier and took a long look at their escortee before giving the two boys an impassive gaze. "Both of you are old enough, so I assume you know the consequences of your actions. But really? Not even a bulletproof vest? A helmet? So much for an escort mission."
"I agree." The Sorcerer Killer, who had been pardoned, nodded at them good-naturedly as if he was not the one they needed to protect the girl from. "Jujutsu sorcerers are confident with their skills, so it's easy to catch them off guard by using firearms."
"I'm sorry, Fushiguro-san, but you're one to talk. Others can also use these weaknesses against you." Riko, who had been silent all this time, managed to point this out. When Toji glanced at her, she hid behind Suguru in a hurry.
Satoru leaned on the wall, watching them interact with each other. "I think we needed a resolution. How can we be assured that he would not kill us?" The teen trusted Emi's decision but had no hope the Sorcerer Killer would back away even if he promised.
Emi, who had gotten his hint, looked at the man straight into the eyes. "Twice as much the Time Vessel Association would be willing to pay you and a continuous contract with the Gojo Clan."
"Details?" Toji held his chin thoughtfully while considering his options. That would be a steady source of income, and depending on the job details, he might not necessarily need to kill anybody.
"Two binding vows with our life on the line—mainly using my cursed energy, of course. The first is the promise to cancel this mission and come back after a while to create the second binding vow with clearer terms and conditions. Job nature would be to act as my representative in certain missions overseas." Emi had made the right call. The only way to make sure they would come into an agreement was to settle it at a later time and solve the problem of the assassination first. Although Satoru was unsure how a binding vow would work with someone with zero cursed energy, his childhood friend probably figured everything out before sparing Toji's life.
"I agree. But I want to add a few clauses to the next agreement."
"Done." The girl offered her hand to the Sorcerer killer, which he took without much thought. Binding vows were usually settled without fanfare, and it was also the case this time. This was the reason many people thought it didn't have any consequence then regretted it much later once they broke the vow.
Fushiguro Toji left the tomb after that, and the people who remained at the scene were Emi, Satoru, Suguru, and Riko.
"Sorry, but what do we need to do now?" Riko asked the three teens, fiddling her hands because of nervousness.
The group exchanged glances; Suguru raised his two fingers, signaling the white-haired teen what they needed to do. Satoru liked this crude attempt to determine the next person in charge, so he played a short round of rock, paper, scissors with his friend. After a few tries, his friend won the game, and he was the one who lost.
Satoru avoided using his Six Eyes to the best of his abilities. Emi had also destroyed the usual flow of cursed energy so he wouldn't cheat. He lost, and it proved to him one thing, he wouldn't win any card game soon if he didn't learn to improve his observation without his skill. The white-haired teen was practically blind without it.
"Can I ask what's happening?" The Star Plasma Vessel felt left out since they were only exchanging glances without saying anything. "Why are you playing in the middle of a serious situation?"
Satoru hit his fist with the palm of his hand, realizing she was not with them long enough to understand their cues. Emi and Suguru looked at him with contempt because of his late reaction. "We're figuring out who's going to make the next binding vow with Master Tengen."
"A-A binding vow?!" Riko spluttered with this information and looked at their group with a dubious expression. She didn't even hide the phrase 'we-will-die' that was plastered on her face.
"Hey, trust us a little; we saved your life." The other girl in the group assured her by patting her shoulder. Emi straightened the Star Plasma Vessel's uniform while giving her a slight, quirky smile. "But make sure to pay us after this. Did you realize how much we needed to pay the Sorcerer Killer just to spare your life?" Her smile turned grim as if losing so much money in one go was not in her plans.
Satoru and Suguru shared a look. Another poor soul was added to their ranks. They were becoming an adopt-an-innocent-person-and-turn-them-into-a-slave-of-paperwork organization really quickly. If it were the white-haired teen, he would rather merge with Master Tengen than being conned with a life of debt.
Look at Nanami. He was starting to look like a zombie the longer he stayed with them. Wasn't Satoru technically the leader of this organization since they needed his signature to finalize all that paperwork? Damn.
[1] In games, the whole phrase is "Not afraid of godlike opponents, only afraid of pig-like teammates." Which practically meant that a person on your side pulling you down is scarier than facing someone stronger than you.
A/N
Thank you for everyone who followed and favorited. Especially to those who commented since Chapter 1, MiuraChronicler, Moises Garcia Jimenez, Amatsumi, whoopiensed, Cute Little Cellest, Crystal Blue Butterfly, Hyacinth97, and maritesolores!