"You honor me," Marabas said with what felt like a smile-just being a mask and all meant he had no face- "But really, we wouldn't have gotten half-done with it if not for you. You're quite the prodigy in your own right."

"Aww, thanks!" Miwa said with a smile. "I'm going to sleep now, ok? You... do whatever you do for sleeping. Wait, do demons even sleep?"

"Of course we don't," the demon said with mild smugness, "Who are we, mortals?"

"I...good night, demon."

As Miwa seemingly went to sleep, Marabas stared at Miwa. A light chuckle started out from him. As it started getting out of control, he stabbed his own chest with his bare hand.

Couldn't have the child waking up, after all. Humans need rest if you want them to become perfectly fine for the future.


"Hey, wanna visit my girlfriend?"

Miwa looked up from the dirt in surprise at Todo's request. They had just gotten done sparring, if you could call a one-sided beat down that included such fine moments as:

Getting switched into the line of fire of her own energy wave, to be slammed into the ground by her foot when she jumped and he switched again.

Todo almost running through her with her own sword when he switched out of a trap.

Todo hitting her with a black flash, which was why she had to look up from the dirt to show her surprise.

"Oh don't give me that look, it's only been a few weeks since you saved her. She wants to thank her savior after all." Todo said with a small smile as he helped get up.

"It's not...you ask questions at the weirdest times, you know?" Miwa said with a small groan, sheathing her sword.

"Really? Name one time-

"Literally every time you meet someone new you ask them what their type of women is before beating the life out of them," Miwa said remembering their own first meeting with a shudder. How was she even alive after?

Well obviously, she was a lot sturdier now, so it wasn't worth asking. I mean, she even tanked a black-

Miwa felt explosive pain in her chest and all but immediately collapsed as the thought crossed her mind.

Ok, so maybe 'tanked' isn't the right word... Miwa thought as she passed out.

Todo looked at Miwa for a time, chuckling to himself about determined children, then scooped her up and put her in the infirmary.

As he was walking out, he ran into Gakuganji, who had Mechamaru in tow.

"Did Mechamaru do anything wrong, Teach?" Todo said with a small chuckle. "It takes too long to fix him, so go easy on him ok?"

"... Right." Gakuganji said in a way meant to brush him off. "Well, enjoy your day, you have a mission tomorrow."

"Are you going to tell me, or..."

"You'll know tomorrow. And Todo, if you see any mask parts, be sure to bring them to the association, ok?"

"Mask parts?" Todo asked in confusion.

"Yeah, like Miwa's," Gakuganji said with a slight edge in his voice.

And with that, Gakuganji and Muta walked away from Todo, leaving nothing to discuss and everything to ponder.


The journey to Nobukuo's house three days after had been awkward, to say the least.

Perhaps it was because despite being good friends, they generally tried not to hang out with each other and were both acutely aware that the other was doing so.

Maybe they had nothing to talk about.

Or maybe they had realized that they weren't good friends at all, and just had very good relationships with their mutuals.

Truth be told, the first one was right, Miwa mused. There was something of an unwritten rule between the two that she had dubbed as the 'L aw of Mutuals'. What this meant was that they didn't go out of their way to speak to each other outside of group hangouts, if they could help it.

Despite this unwritten code though, they had hung out a few times before today, typically hanging out at fast food restaurants when they came across each other. They also sparred occasionally, when Miwa was feeling particularly lucky. That said, for the most part they were content with enjoying the other's presence with other people, or just not at all.

So this situation, sitting together in a train without the other students, was quite new and uncomfortable for people who, up until now, were fine with not being terribly close to each other.

"So..." Miwa started, trying to find a question that wasn't too personal, but at the same time, was interesting.

The attempt failed, and Miwa turned her attention to the window, slouching in defeat and embarrassment.

She wasn't usually like this, she knew. Usually she could at least think of a question to start a conversation with. As a matter of fact, she knew they would very quickly pass the time if she decided to ask how they-Todo and Nobuko- even got together, and be closer as a result. And it wasn't like she hated him. On the contrary, she wanted to get closer to Todo, shore up that bond. And yet...

For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to say anything to him, feeling a sudden indifference to the whole matter. If he wanted to talk to her, she would engage, but she wasn't going to start the engaging.

Dimly, she thought about training with Marabas, feeling the cursed energy roll throughout her body and into the mask fragments that she had brought to show Nobuko, maybe even give to her as a...gift? She couldn't remember the exact reason, or how they had even found they're way into her bag in the first place.

Ah, well. She'd show them to Takada-Chan when they got there. It was a devilishly cool keepsake, after all.


"Finally! I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up until tomorrow," Nobuko beamed as she let the two in, hugging Miwa and kissing Todo.

"Kyoto isn't that far from Osaka," Todo said with a smile after breaking the kiss. "We just had to wait a while to get everything cleared, and then there was a few issues on the train."

Issues was a quaint way of putting it, Miwa thought to herself as she smiled awkwardly They'd had to switch trains almost 3 times when the first one had come down with gas leaks, so they had to switch to a second-rate one. Of course that one got quickly put out of commission, as it was rammed by a curse train. How they were still alive was a mystery to her.

Miwa gave a small wave, hoping that her smile didn't come across as strained. "Hello again."

"Hello again!" Nobuko enthused as she hugged her. She was surprisingly strong, and Miwa felt still-tender ribs creak under the pressure. Shame. The hug itself had felt nice.

After releasing the hug, Miwa smiled a little more genuinely. "I wasn't expecting to see you again after the construction site, so when you asked for me, I was quite surprised. Do I really leave that much of an impression?"

"You'd be surprised," Todo said with a small smile. "You certainly left a lasting one on Mechamaru."

"Really?" Miwa asked in surprise. "I wouldn't know. We don't really talk, unless I'm trying to get him to do something for me."

"Really now?" Todo asked, surprised, while Nobuko asked "Who's Mechamaru?

"Yeah. Shame, too. I'd like to get closer to him, build that relationship. Maybe even go on a few dates with him, see how it goes."

Todo's grin was devilish. "I see."

"Who is Mechamaru?" Nobuko asked again.

"Ah, well, you see..."


"So you're telling me that all of those urban legends and Yokai were real at some point in the Golden Age of Sorcery, and that cursed spirits come from human belief and human emotions, but not from sorcerers, because they can stop their cursed energy from leaking, and they fight curses forever, until they die or become corrupt?"

"Basically," Todo said nonchalantly, while Miwa glared at him with a thousand-yard-stare.

All of her attempts to stop the buff fool from outing both schools of sorcery, on top of all of the sorcery world in general, had been about as useful as trying to stop air from flowing into someone's lungs by punching the air around them: if anything, it helped his cause, as he constantly swapped between the two of them while basically all but doxxing literally everyone in the school.

If he ever got concussed by another baseball pitch, she hoped his mind flashed back to this day.

Fortunately, Nobuko seemed to be taking it rather well. That is to say, she wasn't going into shock. She was still very much surprised, trying to process it all.

"That...makes sense, actually. I've been going through some weird things myself, too." Nobuko said with a small relaxing of her shoulders.

"Define weird." Todo said, all prior nonchalance gone. What he was acting serious for when he hadn't just made her a walking information bomb to out everyone, she had no idea.

"Well, I started seeing those things...curses, right? There was a small bulbous one with wings, that I couldn't get off my shoulder no matter how hard I tried. When I yelled 'Get off!' It blew backwards into a wall and died instantly. Didn't work when I tried it on my mom, though," Nobuko thought with a chuckle.

"Really now?" Kasumi said, now fully invested in the situation. Similar cursed energy techniques weren't uncommon, but they didn't usually manifest this late, and if they did, more than likely they were crap. This, however, was quite promising.

"So not cursed speech, at least not exactly..." Todo said with a slight frown. "Have you tried doing it with singing?"

"No. I am doing a karaoke stream tomorrow though, why you ask?"

"Just a theory. Did you get it off after you sang, or before."

"Before. I was in the middle of warming up my voice, though, so...I guess?" Nobuko said with a slight frown, making her confusion known, before a lightbulb went off in her head. "Wait, are you saying-"

"Yes, Nobuko," Todo said with a smile that was both sad and happy at the same time. "Congratulations, and welcome to the sorceror club. Please note that the exit is in Yomi-no-kuni."