DISCLAIMER:

I do NOT own the Oregairu and Jujutsu Kaisen series as they are respectfully owned by the creators and studios.


Two days later. September 21.

One day left until the event

12:35 PM

Tomorrow would be the Goodwill Event, and the students of Tokyo Jujutsu Tech taking part were preparing themselves after training for two months.

However, three people had their own business to attend instead of making preparations for the aforementioned event.

Megumi, Maki, and Hachiman were waiting for the head of the Zenin Clan, Naobito to arrive hoping to have a smooth negotiation in an attempt to rescue Maki's sister, Mai, from the shackles of that household in exchange for one that Hachiman possessed. Until now, Megumi and Maki still didn't know what the dead fish-eyed sorcerer had to persuade Naobito, but they hoped it would work.

While the two Zenins wore their usual Jujutsu Tech uniform, Hachiman wore the business suit that he always used in partaking of missions. He thought about wearing the one Gojo gave him, which was the charcoal grey suit with white chalk stripes, but he didn't want to appear that flashy, so he backed away from that. They waited in a room with furniture such as two couches facing each other and a wooden table between them. Hachiman sat on one of those couches in the middle while Maki and Megumi stood behind him.

"... This is pissing me off." The dark green-haired girl mumbled.

"Be patient." Hachiman tried to calm her. "That guy will be here any minute now."

"Not that. Why am I standing here like I'm your bodyguard?" Maki gritted her teeth.

"You tell me. I'm just sitting on this couch alone saying nothing until you talked."

"I thought we're just standing because we're reserving these spots for other important people at our side." Megumi said his thoughts.

"What gave you that idea?" Hachiman asked.

"I'm just guessing what your bargaining chip is."

"Well, it does involve a person, but no one else is coming besides the head of the Zenin." Hachiman denied his junior's speculation. Then, Maki just jumped over the couch and sat next to him on his right.

"You still won't tell us? It's getting annoying, you know." She complained while resting her right shoulder on an armrest and rest her chin on her right hand. "You're REALLY sure what you got is gonna work?"

"Yes, I am." The dead fish-eyed sorcerer answered with confidence.

"If it doesn't work, I'll kill you... and what's with the hair, by the way?" She asked while pointing at it.

Hachiman slicked back his hair with a mid fade, in which the fade was just above his ears. At first, he thought it was a good idea to look a little presentable to the head of a clan, but Maki's reaction might've proved him otherwise. The charcoal grey suit with stripes wasn't what he preferred, but he felt it would be wrong to present himself with messy hair. Also...

"I just thought of using the comb she gave me since I haven't touched it till now." He blushed in embarrassment.

"From Mai, huh?... And here I thought you're worried about your look." She said with a smug. "You said you don't care at all, but here we are now."

"Hah... forget it. It's stupid." Hachiman grabbed his own hair, but before he could shake it to turn it back into as close as the usual hairstyle, she interrupted.

"I didn't say it's bad."

"Hm?"

"You look like a yakuza about to rob people's money as a loan shark."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Did you cut that yourself, senpai?" Megumi asked while sitting next to Hachiman's left.

"Yeah, it isn't exactly that hard."

"I imagine you would struggle since you apparently kept that messy hair for a while." Maki commented.

"Using a scissor is a little hard when it's your first time doing it..." The spiky-haired junior spoke.

"No." Hachiman immediately denied. "I just used my katana."

"I shouldn't have asked, part 3." Megumi thought with a deadpanned look.

"Hahahahaha! What, you can't do shit right if it's not a sword you're using?" Maki laughed while mocking him. "What's next? Are you gonna use it for arts and crafts?"

"Shut up. It just makes me less nervous when doing it." Hachiman averted his gaze from her.

"You're one hell of a battle freak, you know that?"

"Says the other battle freak that has a short fuse."

"Hah?!" Maki glared while the dead fish-eyed sorcerer stared back with a stoic expression. Then, they heard footsteps outside the room, which caused the three to be silent, waiting for the guest to arrive. When the footsteps grew closer and stopped, the door was slid open to reveal a group of four men. The first three entered and stood behind the other couch while the fourth one just stood at the doorway observing Maki, Megumi, and Hachiman.

"Heh, so that's how it is..." The man smirked. He had dyed blonde hair accented with his black roots, and three piercings in his left ear, one in his earlobe and two more at the top. His attire consisted of a long-sleeved shirt that buttoned to the collar underneath his dark blue kimono. Also, he wore a white hakama bottoms and sandals. "Well, this should be worth my time for a different reason now."

"Shit..." Maki swore under her breath as she watched the blonde man sat at the center of the couch. "This bastard is here instead of that old geezer. What the hell?"

"And who are you supposed to be?" Hachiman asked him with a calm demeanor, which caused the latter to sigh with an arrogant smug.

"This is the problem with people like you. Being an ignorant dumbass is far more pathetic than any weakling." He crossed his own legs and rest his left arm on top of the backrest. "I'm Zenin Naoya, son of our clan's head, and the number one successor of the household."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Maki asked while piercing the man named Naoya with a glare.

"Father told me about this whole man-to-man talk with little Megumi, and I just said, 'Let me go talk to him and show him the ways of the clan'. You know, because I know better than anyone else. And he accepted."

"What now, senpai..." Megumi whispered. "Should we try to negotiate with him instead?"

"Yeah, we can make do with this. In fact, this is better. No, perfect." Hachiman's response caused Megumi to arch an eyebrow. The former remained calm and smirked, an expression that didn't go unnoticed by Naoya and his companions. "I didn't think of a different scenario before, which is to send someone else to do the discussion. But this is honestly the best outcome. The son of Naobitio, and he's arrogant as shit? This'll be too easy."


The Shell And The Slug: Part 8

One's Act, One's Profit

"Hmph, as if such an obvious lie would trick me." Naobito thought while drinking sake in a small gourd. He sat in the middle of a tatami room alone. "Now, who coerced him into doing this? Could it be Gojo? No, the meeting place is at Jujutsu Tech, and he's elsewhere on a mission apparently... Who else? Maki? If she's the culprit, then the reason for doing it is obvious. But she could've just called about that instead of trying to pretend. And what made her so confident in pulling a stunt like this without expecting any consequences? Because she cut off ties with us? Hah! The arrogance..."

"Pardon the intrusion." The voice of a woman reached his ears as the door slid open to reveal her wearing a white kimono and a purple hakama. While she was prostrating, there was a wooden tray in front of her with food on top. The food was a bowl of cut pieces of wagyu beef with rice pilaf, sauteed mushrooms as a side dish, and a plate full of gyoza at the front. "I brought to you lunch. All made to your tastes."

"Good, now get out of my sight." The old man said to her, and she slid the door closed before leaving. As he enjoyed the food, he contemplated further on the issue. "It could be Gojo's scheme, but... what else am I missing here?... Wait, there's that boy. Hiki... whatever his name is, that brat killed my foolish brother and ruined our image. Lumping us together with curse users, I'll cut their throats for badmouthing my clan so carelessly... Hmm..."

"MAI!" His shout brought the woman who gave him lunch to come back. As the door slid open, he stared at her prostrating.

"Is there anything you need?" She asked.

"You went to Okinawa on a mission, right?"

"Yes, me and my classmates were-"

"I couldn't care less about your classmates. What I want to know is about that brat, Hiki... what's his name again?"

"Hikigaya Hachiman."

"Yeah, that. Tell me your relationship with him."

"There wasn't much to say. We're not exactly friends or acquaintances. He just aided me and my classmates in succeeding the mission, nothing else."

"Nothing, you say? Have you all done nothing that could grow that bond between you two? No sense of camaraderie?"

"Well... I gave him a present for his birthday."

"Hah?"

"He went to Okinawa to enjoy a vacation and celebrate his birthday, but the mission and the curse users involved in it were disrupting his peace. And so after completing that mission, he suffered injuries that lasted for days and-"

"I heard enough. From your perspective, he's just some freelancer helping you, is that it?"

"Yes."

"Well, I doubt that man shares the same feeling. In fact, he's probably worried about you till this day."

"I don't think he'd spare his own time having thoughts of me."

"Are you correcting me, woman?" Naobito said in a low tone while giving her a piercing glare. It made her look down to avoid eye contact and calm her fear.

"N-no. I'm sorry." She said before lowering her head to the wooden floor.

"Hmph, you're too shortsighted." He mocked her before taking a gyoza in his mouth. After chewing and swallowing it, he spoke further with a grin. "I wager that man will save you. If it isn't that white-haired brat, then that one is the most likely to convince Megumi and Maki to do it. Do you agree with my insight?"

"Yes, Naobito-sama."

"Are you happy? That your sister and that man are trying to save you from our great hospitality?"

"No, they are foolish to oppose us."

"That's right. You should be disgusted." Naobito laughed and then drank the sake in the gourd. "Hikigaya Hachiman... He is bold. I respect that. But to try humiliating us just for a pitiful and worthless princess? Does he think he's Michiyori from the Tale of Ochikubo? Hahahaha! Well, I can see the similarities. What do you think?" (1)

"I believe his actions are a waste of time because I already vowed to devote my life to someone else." Mai answered with a stoic expression.

"Heh... Leave and let me enjoy my meal in peace." Naobito sent her away, and she complied before hearing his words. "I'm quite interested to see how he handles my son."

Mai walked in the hallway while trying her best to maintain that stoic expression, as her lips twitched and her hand clutched the sleeve of her kimono tightly. Once she reached the kitchen, she saw a woman chopping vegetables to cook more food for the relatives with the help of three other women. Mai went past them without saying a word and went to do the same. She picked up a large, perfectly cut tuna, sprinkled salt on both sides, and placed it on the pan that had oil on it. After searing the tuna, she placed it on a plate and started chopping vegetables for making salsa. While doing this, certain thoughts came to her mind.

One was the face of a woman with glasses that had the grin that annoyed her the most.

Confident, strong, talented.

That woman had the things she didn't. The last time they met was when she and Todo were harassing the two first years in Tokyo Jujutsu Tech. She still didn't forget about that brown-haired girl that put her in a chokehold. That girl was just as irritating as the woman with glasses. Mai's last conversation with the latter was about defeating each other at the Goodwill Event, but with the circumstances Mai was currently in, it would seem to be impossible to fulfill. However, that didn't mean her hatred for that woman faded in the slightest. In fact, she cursed her in unimaginable anger that she controlled at times when relatives were nearby.

The other was a man who appeared to be the most disgusting encounter she ever had. That messy hair of his made her eyes roll. It was as if he didn't wash it and was unkempt for years, which resulted in such a ridiculous hairstyle. The cynical attitude he had was irritating to deal with, and it was worse with that stoic expression he always wore. Those eyes of a dead fish made her uncomfortable whenever they stared at her. He mocked her and so she bit back, but he responded so quickly to every jab she threw at him, as if he was used to such bantering. It was a frustrating, yet also fun interaction. She respected him for going out of his way to help them deal with those curse users back at Okinawa. He wanted to live a normal life, but still stepped in for the sake of his friend. There was truly a sense of camaraderie.

However, she envied him.

It was because he gained a life that she could probably never have.

A normal life.. or at least, a life where she was only at the bottom, not striving to climb for anything.

There were troubles in such a lifestyle, but she still preferred it because that choice was better than going out to face terrifying monsters called cursed spirits and criminals who used jujutsu for malice. She wished to have the same freedom of choice as that man. To just drop out of campus and live peacefully. However, that was a wish that would never be fulfilled as long as her sister kept climbing as a sorcerer. Then, Mai's father was killed for being associated with curse users. That news didn't break her heart, but rather she just felt indifferent. Her father didn't treat the twins well, so his death was well-deserved anyway.

What shocked her though, was the person responsible for his death: Hikigaya Hachiman.

The man who helped her and her classmates, the one with the cynical and stoic personality, and the person she respected to a certain extent.

At first, there was confusion in her mind. It was difficult to process the information she heard, but that ended for a few moments. She felt genuinely frustrated that he lied about being a drop-out and was actually an undercover sorcerer. Was there hatred? Only a sliver, but she was still angry at his lies. How many lies did he tell them about himself? Were his girlfriend and the entire vacation plan an act to perform his disguise better? She didn't know the answers... and she might never find out because two days after her father's death; the household called her back and forced her to drop out of Kyoto Jujutsu Tech, so she could stay in the house to receive punishment for his father's actions. Her sister couldn't come because she severed all ties with the clan, so Mai was alone to endure the torture. It would've been better for them to exile her and her mother, but they had other plans.

The daily routine was basically the same as before she left for Jujutsu Tech: doing household chores; being scolded by her mother and others; being mocked by her relatives.

Except that abuse was harsher and more painful. Whenever she made a mistake, one male relative would suddenly punch her stomach as everyone in the vicinity laughed at her agony and mocked her clumsiness. When she accidentally bumped shoulders with a female relative who also worked to do chores, the latter pushed her hard enough to slam her into a wall.

And then, sometimes the sorcerer relatives became tired after a hard work on missions.

When she went past them, her spine shivered with a feeling of dread. Their gazes were something too dangerous for women to encounter. Fortunately, they didn't act on it, so she was relieved. That was until the head of the clan gave her the most unbelievable demand she received from him. One would say she was lucky to receive such an offer from Naobito, but for her, it was hell in its most sinister form. She wished to get away, but the 'offer' was more terrifying than anyone in the household besides Naobito.

Arrogant, strong, twisted, and narcissistic.

They forced her to tie the strings with that man, or else they would do something far worse than what she could imagine from them.

So when she heard that Hikigaya Hachiman was going to save her, it conflicted her for several reasons...

"Idiot... that damn... idiot!"


"So? What kind of shit is this?" Naoya asked Megumi. "You didn't call to talk about your so-called 'right to inherit', hm? And you brought the other failure of the twins. How nice."

"And it's not nice that your face is full of shit as usual." Maki scowled.

"Well, with those glasses and that stupid brain of yours, it's really not that surprising why you can't see anything right." He shrugged while grinning.

"As you have said, I didn't call the head so I could compete as a successor." Megumi answered in calm manner. "This is for a negotiation."

"Negotiation? Hah! And I thought you're trying to be interesting." Naoya mocked him.

"Such a dull person possessing one of the most powerful inherited techniques. The modern era is as terrible as I expected." An elder scoffed with a laugh. He was short and had a mohawk.

"Oi, oi. Are you saying I'm terrible, too? Chojuro?" Naoya asked playfully, but there was a hint of malice.

"Kehehehe! At least you make things exciting, Naoya-dono." The old man named Chojuro answered, then looked back at the spiky-haired boy. "I'm interested to see who would win between the two brats of our clan."

"I'd cut your tongue, but you said something that got me thinking." The blonde sorcerer stared at Megumi with confidence. "What do you think? Wanna spar? I do wanna see how I measure up against the Ten Shadows Technique."

"I'd rather not." Megumi's response was quick and indifferent. "And I'm not the one you should be talking to. The negotiation is between you and Hikigaya-senpai."

"Hikigaya... You mean..." A muscular man spoke in a stoic manner while staring at the dead fish-eyed sorcerer. He had wild and spikey black hair, thick eyebrows, an X-shaped scar on his forehead, an unshaved beard, and wore a brown kimono. "So you're Ogi's killer."

"Heeeh~? You're uglier than I thought." Naoya commented while appearing uninterested.

"Ogi was Naobito-sama's brother and a strong jujutsu sorcerer serving the clan well." A man spoke while looking at Hachiman with a serious expression. He was a young man with wide, yellow eyes, black disheveled hair tied into a low ponytail, and wore a white kimono and blue hakama. "I never thought I'd get to meet his murderer this way."

"Don't tell me you're mad for the traitor of your clan?" Hachiman asked with an arched eyebrow.

"No, his actions wounded our name. We are actually thankful for snuffing him out." The man with the ponytail bowed in gratitude.

"Right... I didn't think of the possibility they would like me because of that. But I thought it's unlikely since they're in cahoots with the Dhamini Troupe and it was their own choice that led to their reputation being dirty- well dirtier than usual for them... Unless..." Hachiman contemplated with a held chin while staring at the four Zenin members in front of him one by one. "Unless it's not the entire clan that affiliates themselves with the curse users, but a select few?"

"Ranta, you're an idiot."Naoya shook his own head while chuckling. "Ogi was as weak as a lowly member of the Kukuru Unit. It's easy to kill him with our hands tied behind our back."

"He's saying that out of arrogance. I don't know how Ogi compares to his other Zenin relatives, but he was by no means weak." Hachiman folded his arms together. "If he's weak, then I guess I have a long way to go since I struggled a bit in fighting him."

"It's probably gonna take a hundred lifetimes for you to climb." Naoya mocked him. "But hey, you killed a man of the Zenin. It's still a big accomplishment, even though that guy is an ant."

"Hah! That man was no Zenin, just a pest crawling within our clan." Chojuro scoffed.

"Chojuro, don't make this guy's trophy look more trash than it already was. What's your name again, Hikigaya?" Naoya asked between laughter, and Hachiman nodded. "Just give Hikigaya the glory. No matter how delusional it is, HAHAHA!"

"I can't say if he's strong or weak compared to you guys, since I don't know much about your strengths. Oh..." The dead fish-eyed sorcerer stood up. "How about we spar, Naoya-san?"

"Hah? Why would I waste my energy on that?" The blonde sorcerer asked in both displeasure and indifference. "Let's get on with this negotiation thing."

"Think of it as a bonding exercise. You're not gonna make some lame excuse to cowardly back out, are you?" Hachiman smiled when he asked that. The expression on his face might seem bright, but they all knew it was to insult Naoya.

"You got one shitty tongue, huh?" Naoya spoke with his eye twitching. His grin grew slightly menacing as he glared at him. "It's better if you clean that, or else you won't be able to talk anymore."

"I'll do that when you clean your entire shitty face, you failing successor." Hachiman responded while maintaining that smile. Naoya smiled back as well and stood up while stretching his arms. After three seconds of silence, he went on top of the table and threw a right punch at Hachiman's face. His movements were so quick, it happened in a millisecond that he became a blur. Despite such a ridiculous speed, he was shocked when the target managed to catch it with his left hand. With slight frustration, Naoya swung a left kick at his head and Hachiman raised his own right hand to block it. However, that was a fake as the blonde sorcerer's actual intention was to hit his chin with an upper kick. Hachiman still blocked that attack on time and grabbed his left foot.

"Then I guess that's a yes." The dead fish-eyed sorcerer spoke with the same irritating smile and just threw him out of the shoji window, leaving a hole in it. Before he could jump out to pursue the Zenin, he became paralyzed. Two massive eyes appeared, floating above him.

"Stop this at once!" Ranta shouted with his hands raised forward.

"Stay out of this! He clearly needs some discipline." Naoya's loud voice from outside reached their ears. He stood up with veins popping out of his head. His grin was full of malice, and his eyes displayed murderous intent. Ranta reluctantly released Hachiman from the paralysis. The latter jumped out of the window and made eye contact with the angered, yet entertained Naoya. He didn't feel intimidated in the slightest and just smiled as usual to annoy the Zenin even further. "Alright, let's play."

"So, you are going to act as if this is a game. Are you a manchild?" Hachiman taunted.

"I'm playing around a weakling who doesn't know his place. Of course this is a game." Naoya responded. "Am I supposed to take you seriously when you're way below an ant?"

"Right back at you. Am I gonna take you seriously as the son of a leader when your whining has more presence than your likelihood of taking over a clan?"

"You're way too ignorant for your own good."

"And you're way too confident for your own good. I wouldn't be surprised if Megumi inherited the household instead of-" Before Hachiman could finish his sentence, Naoya disappeared, and the former enveloped himself in a black aura a millisecond after. The latter appeared next to his left and tried hitting his ear with a palm strike, but Naoya's arm flung back as if something compelled him to do so.

When the blonde opponent was wide open, Hachiman didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to strike.

He first switched his Falling Blossom Emotion into Auto Mode and hit Naoya's liver with a left hook. Then suddenly, Hachiman's figure became a blur as the latter felt being hit three times in one second. The first was his chin, his stomach, and then his face. Naoya tumbled away because of the attacks, and Hachiman pursued him with the Falling Blossom Emotion still in Auto mode, letting the barrier protect him with whatever move it registered as the best option. The former landed on his feet and then disappeared in front of his opponent's sight. Hachiman's barrier technique made him bend sideways to the right to evade a palm strike coming to his left arm. However, the palm lightly touched the arm, and suddenly he froze. Naoya grinned as he saw Hachiman as an animation frame and then hit his right temple with a spinning right back round kick.

The dead fish-eyed sorcerer tumbled away because of that strike, but Naoya pursued him with his abnormal speed. Hachiman had no time to wonder how his speed works, and so he used the barrier technique's Repel Mode to bounce away an axe kick while tumbling. While lying on the ground, he used his hands to stand and thrust his two feet at Naoya's face without real physical contact. A kick with the repelling force of his Falling Blossom Emotion. After standing normally, he watched his blonde opponent rolling away until he hit his back on a tree trunk. The latter stood up, wiped the blood off his own nose, and spat blood on the grass. But then he fell to his knees for a moment before standing back up.

"You're probably thinking my cursed technique was that barrier I did earlier, aren't you?" Hachiman spoke to him while pulling his tie to loosen it and tidying his suit. Then he smiled once again, just to annoy him. "Sadly, you're wrong."

"Heh! And you're still probably confused about how my cursed technique works." Naoya argued with a smug expression. "Both ugly and dumb, literally the worst combination."

"Hmm... But I wonder what's more embarrassing, though? The one who's still trying to figure out, or the one who stupidly made the wrong conclusions this early in the fight? I'd say the latter since you look so confident about your mistake, it's really laughable. The less intelligent successor of the Zenin Clan. God, I hope your father is smart enough to know his own son doesn't make the cut." Hachiman's insults caused his opponent to charge at him and then disappear with his cursed technique. The dead fish-eyed sorcerer used Repel mode to defend against another palm strike, and the barrier appeared thinner already when Naoya tried touching it. Naoya then thrust a kick to his stomach, which the barrier was destroyed after repelling it.

That was Naoya's opportunity. At least, that was what he thought.

He dashed to Hachiman's back at blinding speed and tried touching him, but the latter disappeared as well. Hachiman evaded that by predicting his next move and proceeded to duck before the attack happened while using Falling Blossom Emotion for a guaranteed dodge. Naoya raised his own right arm to block a right straight punch aiming at his right cheek, but failed to block a left punch to the liver because of how fast that was. Hachiman, who used Auto Mode, then stomped at his right foot with his own in an attempt to immobilize him, followed by a right hook to the stomach. Naoya let out saliva because of that strike and tried blocking the right jabs with the help of his cursed technique to keep up with the speed, which lead to exchanging and blocking each other's barrage of blows.

Slowly but surely, Hachiman was forced to be on the defensive as the blonde sorcerer surpassed his speed.

It was almost like a dance from how in sync with their movements became. The scene reminded Hachiman of his fight with Ogi, yet this time, he was slowly stepping back, trying to defend each of Naoya's strikes. Also, Hachiman was at a disadvantage because he needed to parry and dodge those strikes to avoid being frozen again.

Hachiman parried a one-two punch, then a left palm strike aiming at his liver, and saw a right fist coming at his face. When he raised a hand to defend against that as well, Naoya faked it and instead used the momentum of his swing to turn his body to set up a right elbow strike in the stomach with the enhanced speed of his cursed technique to catch him off-guard. Despite the heavy blow, the blonde sorcerer's opponent endured it to face his other blows. Naoya threw three right jabs at Hachiman while the latter weaved to evade the first two. The last one was a fake, and the real third strike was a left palm to the stomach, which the dead fish-eyed sorcerer deflected it in time. At that exact moment, Naoya kicked his right temple again at abnormal speed.

That meant the blonde sorcerer scared his opponent into thinking he was aiming to freeze him, but he used the cursed technique for a fast left kick.

Then, Naoya hit his face with a right palm strike, freezing him in an animation frame, then did a right back kick to the stomach to send Hachiman tumbling away with the pain in both his stomach and nose at the same time. After landing on his feet, the dead fish-eyed sorcerer tried activating Repel Mode to defend, but the blonde sorcerer was quick enough to hit his right cheek with a left forward kick before it was complete. Naoya backed away after seeing the black aura around his opponent. Hachiman noticed that and already understood he was being cautious against Repel Mode, and so the former switched to Auto Mode to bait him.

Of course, Naoya wasn't that foolish, so he resorted to an offense from long range.

Why would he do that when close combat was his specialty?

It was to experiment with his opponent's barrier.

Naoya was born with talent and was trained and educated since childhood about jujutsu. What he understood clearly as a veteran sorcerer was all powers had weaknesses. Everything had its own conditions and rules to maximize those powers' full potential while restricting the users to give caution.

A clear example was his cursed technique called the "Projection Technique". Despite the powerful abilities it had shown and the advantages it gave to Naoya, there were weaknesses that would be his downfall if he wasn't careful. And so, he applied to that kind of mindset to Hachiman's barrier. One obvious theory he had in mind was that barrier could only defend against those with cursed energy. The other, which he was most sure of, was that any attacks, cursed technique, or anything with cursed energy that would harm him would weaken the barrier after repelling them.

Brimming with confidence, the blonde sorcerer bent a knee with both hands on the ground as if he was preparing to run a marathon. Meanwhile, Hachiman maintained his own fighting stance before adjusting his pose. He turned to the right to show his left side, raised his right hand higher and closer to his mouth, and his left hand lower between the abdomen and chest.

It was a stance to bait him further and to hide his real intention.

Naoya speed blitzed behind him while a small object was flying towards the latter's eye. It was a stone he picked up when he put both hands on the ground. With a look of bewilderment, Hachiman dodged it and that expression didn't go unnoticed. His blonde opponent dashed again with Projection Technique in front of his face out of arrogance.

However, something took his attention away.

It was a small golden aura located at the front of the dead fish-eyed sorcerer's white shirt. He couldn't determine what it was because of a right uppercut at his chin. The attack was imbued with Repel Mode so the damage was immense and with no physical contact. Few of his teeth broke from that and while he flew away, Hachiman felt a sharp pain in his own back.

"Ggh! What... the..." He tried to reach the spot where it hurt, but it was difficult. What happened was the exact moment Naoya dashed in front of his face, he also threw a tanto-style knife that he hid in his kimono. The weapon didn't have cursed energy, so it managed to bypass the barrier and pierced the target with the help of the Projection Technique of splitting the movement of throwing for it to travel five times faster than an arrow shot from a bow. Of course, Hachiman reinforced his body with cursed energy in combat, so the injury wasn't deep enough for him to worry aside from the bleeding. After removing the knife, he threw it away.

"GAAAAAH!" Meanwhile, Naoya screamed in pain from his broken chin and teeth as he spat blood. He rolled on the ground while holding his mouth before trying to stand up and face the cause of such pain. There was no need to exchange words. The glares they gave to each other were enough to convey their emotions. Hachiman first approached his opponent, and then the latter. At first, it was a walk and then they started running towards each other.

Naoya disappeared once again, but Hachiman guessed where he was going: The knife.

That was why he threw the weapon to a certain spot where he could easily close the distance, but not raise suspicion at the same time. Once the blonde sorcerer used Projection Technique to reach the knife, Hachiman was already close to him for a shoulder charge with Repel Mode. The attack caused Naoya to crash through a tree and hit his back with another one while unintentionally letting go of the weapon. As that one tree falling towards him, he jumped towards it with his cursed technique to push it towards Hachiman with a kick. Surprisingly, the dead fish-eyed sorcerer pushed it back with a forward kick as splinters and pieces of wood scattered everywhere. His blonde opponent hit the tree with a right side kick and now they were competing to break it with only their right foot. Then Naoya disappeared, along with the thinner part of the tree they were hitting. That made Hachiman realized he was unintentionally helping him make a weapon. He turned around while switching his Falling Blossom Emotion to Auto Mode, and dodged a piercing attack that cut off his left earlobe, along with breaking the hearing aid.

Naoya wielded a makeshift spear roughly crafted using the wood they repeatedly kicked with a sharp end. That thrust had the enhanced speed from the Projection Technique, so if he succeeded, he could hurt him at least in the same damage as a punch. Meanwhile, Hachiman didn't switch to Auto Mode to dodge, but to be fast enough to hit him back. He first threw a right jab at his face followed by a hook right above his ear, an uppercut to the chin and then another jab to the jaw, which the blonde sorcerer blocked the third one with an elbow and deflected the last with the makeshift spear. Naoya tried stabbing him multiple times as Hachiman deflected and dodged most of them. Some attacks gave him cuts around his body, with a few deep enough to bring a short amount of concern, while most of them would give him bruises. Each thrust to his body was slowly breaking the spear. After deflecting another thrust, the dead fish-eyed sorcerer swung his own right heel to the back of Naoya's right knee to break his posture, grabbed his throat, and carried him into the air to do a choke slam, leaving a crater behind his opponent's body. After being slammed into the ground, the blonde sorcerer just stared at the blue sky for a moment with heavy breaths, and after inhaling deeply, he sat up to see his opponent just standing straight in front of him.

Hachiman was waiting for him to get up and fight... all while looking down on him.

"You..." Naoya tightened his own fist until blood came out of the palm because of his nails. "You're fucking wit' me..."

"It's better if you don't talk with that mouth sinking with your own blood." Hachiman commented while spitting his own blood on the ground. He waited for him to stand up and then they both struck their fighting stances. Without warning, the blonde sorcerer dashed behind his opponent, then disappeared again in his opponent's eyes after the latter turned around, and started running around the dead fish-eyed sorcerer at unnatural speed. Hachiman realized he was getting faster, and so he activated Repel mode to block the next attack. However, Naoya's hand immediately destroyed the barrier at the cost of being repelled with a force equal to the momentum he was building up. Despite being flown away, he managed to stay up on his own feet and used that repulsion to recover that momentum and build up even more speed. After the barrier was destroyed, Hachiman quickly switched it to Auto Mode to evade.

That was wishful thinking as Naoya's speed easily surpassed his own.

Naoya punched him in the face with all his might and momentum he built up, which sent Hachiman flying into the forest. The former chased him while building up even more speed with his cursed technique. He went past the young sorcerer and kicked his back, specifically the stab wound, sending him flying in another direction while crashing through trees. Naoya caught up to him once again to punch his stomach and chased him for the third time to strike his face with a knee. Hachiman blocked that knee in time by crossing both arms in front of his own face, but that caused pain to one of those arms and it still sent him flying into an open field with only grass surrounded by trees.

What made this impressive on Naoya's part was how he was able to move around the forest at such near-uncontrollable speed.

The Projection Technique divided one second of movement into 24 frames of animation using the user's field of view as the projection angle of view. It required him to trace a predetermined set of movements, split them into 24 frames and performed it in just one second. This resulted in making him appear to move unnaturally fast. One of its weaknesses was the predetermined course couldn't be adjusted once he began, and so the user needed to complete it, or else there would be a consequence.

In other words, Naoya needed to predict his opponent, move strategically, perform the timing right, and have proper positioning to successfully attack. For anyone else with such a technique, that would be difficult to accomplish, but with a genius such as Naoya, he could execute multiple actions with Projection Technique in quick succession.

It was also worth noting how he could do that in a dense area such as the forest. He needed to find the places to approach, as he needed to go past the trees and other obstacles. It was as if he was observing the forest itself while hitting his opponent. Such high-level observation, talent and skill was what made him a worthy candidate of being the head of the Zenin Clan.

Meanwhile, Hachiman couldn't concentrate on activating Falling Blossom Emotion: Repel Mode when Naoya kept chaining combos at him as with each hit, it becomes faster and more powerful because of the momentum it carried. In the end, the barrier was still a recently gained technique that needed more practice.

However, there was still Isolation Effect. A technique that he still practiced way before he learned Falling Blossom Emotion. Although he didn't have eight objects for him to use a technique, nor would he be given the time to do so in the first place, Hachiman improved the technique even further in the past two days.

To summarize as a reminder, the concept of Isolation Effect is defined as a phenomenon when multiple homogeneous stimuli are presented, the stimulus that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered.

The term "homogeneous stimuli" is NOT limited to just physical objects.

It can be other things, such as words on a list, images, and anything that shared the same theme to form a group.

Hachiman expanded his cursed technique further to use a single object to activate the effect.

How was it possible?

By dividing that said object into individual parts.

In this fight, Hachiman poured cursed energy into his white buttoned-up shirt, the object that had already been in physical contact by just wearing it. He divided that shirt into eight parts as he applied the technique: the collar, the tag that had the size and brand of the shirt printed on, the split yoke, front placket, front panels, sleeves and cuffs with the buttons on them. He couldn't use the buttons on his panel because he had already used them once in this fight. Those parts were a group that made up a shirt, and he chose the front panels to be engulfed in a golden aura since the more noticeable the characteristics of the object... or in this case, the part, the more effective the cursed technique would become. The front panels were covered in so much dirt and holes that his skin was visible, so people would notice it more than the other parts of his shirt.

When he activated the Isolation Effect, Naoya lost his own awareness and had all the attention on his shirt after sensing it. Because of that, he stopped running and crashed through the trees with the momentum he had built up. What made it worse was that the reinforcement of his body with cursed energy slowly faded because of being distracted by that cursed technique.

Which meant the damage he took from all the crashing and tumbling was almost as much as what a normal human would take.

As Naoya recovered his awareness while sliding on the ground, Hachiman chased after him and managed to catch up. The former screamed in pain while reinforcing his own body with cursed energy. Hachiman jumped farther and stomped his stomach, pushing him on the ground while they slid, leaving a large trail.

Sparks of black light flashed when his foot came into contact.

With what momentum they had left while sliding, Naoya used that said momentum combined with raising his own entire lower body to jump and get Hachiman off him while back flipping. Unfortunately, the blonde sorcerer couldn't land perfectly since his body was in immense pain, and so he just fell on the ground while the dead fish-eyed sorcerer tumbled until he reached another wide open field. The two combatants struggled to stand until they both did it.

"Haha... Hahahahaha!" Hachiman laughed so loud, it echoed through the forest. His hair became messy and his face had blood dripping from his head and mouth. Maki, Megumi, and the other three Zenin members finally caught up to them and saw what they couldn't believe was real. He noticed them while still laughing and tried his best to stop.

'Hiki... gaya?' Maki called out to him with hesitation.

"Naoya-san..." Ranta said his leader's name in shock. It had been a while since he last saw him in such an injured and weak state. Naoya was always confident in his own abilities, which led to having an arrogant behavior. But that attitude was backed by the talent he was born with and trained for several years. To see such a man being injured by someone who only joined jujutsu sorcery in just mere months was hard to believe.

"You should've seen what happened." Hachiman spoke between chuckles. "I... I used my cursed technique, right? To distract him... haha.. then, h-he crashed into the trees like an idiot and got himself like that. HAHAHAHAHA- Aw... aw... haha... aw... hahahaha."

"Fuck... FUCK!" Naoya shouted while on his knees. His speech became quite stammered because of his damaged teeth and chin. After swearing for a moment, he limped towards him due to an injured foot. "You shink you... can beat me?"

"I mean... look at you, hahaha." The dead fish-eyed sorcerer laughed while wiping a tear from his eye.

"... I'm gonna kill you." Naoya threatened in a low tone.

"Hey, wanna make this a bet?" Hachiman asked nonchalantly.

"Hah?!"

"Letting it end this quickly makes me lose my motivation to fight you. I'm getting bored. How about we settle this with hand-to-hand combat and the loser needs to do what the winner orders him to?"

"Fuck you. I'll kill you with everyshing I've got." Naoya immediately refused. "Don' get shcared of me now."

"If you want a pure jujutsu fight, then fine by me." Hachiman shrugged his own shoulders. "You're in with the bet? Ah, you can only give one order, and things like killing himself and whatever shit that harms the loser aren't allowed. How about that?"

"... oh, so this IS the 'negotiation'." Naoya chuckled. "And what if I refuse?"

"Then refuse. I'll make you submit either way." The tone of Hachiman's voice changed into something more menacing. His glare was sharp, calm, and focused. Naoya speculated this could be a scheme from the man provoking him. "It's obvious that I win, Naoya. I can torture you without worrying about getting myself executed as a curse user. I have Gojo-san to grant me immunity, after all. Blame yourself for being stupid enough to get pummeled."

"You have quite the nerve threatening your surperiors like that." Chojuro said while approaching the young sorcerer. "Learn your place, trash."

"There are boundaries you shouldn't try to overstep." The muscular man followed while cracking his knuckles. Although he didn't enjoy defending Naoya, he couldn't tolerate someone with that behavior.

"... Tell me what you're gonna order me to do." Naoya asked.

"Naoya." The muscular man called out his name. "Don't be stupid enough to-"

"Jinichi, you damn gorilla. Just shut up." Naoya interrupted. "Well? What is it?"

"I'll order you to bring something important back to me. No one should have it." Hachiman answered.

"Important?"

"Your father will figure it out when one of you tells him about me. And it has to be right after the fight."

"... Alright... Ash for mine, I'm gonna make you tell me who and where your loved onesh are sho I can taucher (torture) them and make you regret everyshing!" Naoya shouted with his pupils dilated in rage.

"Deal. I'll even help you cover it up if you want."

"Hikigaya-senpai!" Megumi shouted his senior's name in bewilderment.

"Relax. Fushiguro. I got this." Hachiman reassured him with a kind smile. That reminded Megumi of the last time he put faith in someone because of that same smile he wore. And that person died from having his heart ripped out of his chest by a demon inside him.

"Don't do it, senpai! You can't risk everyone you know for this. Just-"

"Let him, Megumi." Maki interrupted his plea with a serious expression. "He's confident enough to win if he's that willing to risk it all."

"But there are other ways for us to solve the issu-"

"Look at him. You think that's someone who's gonna lose to some asshole?" As Maki asked that question, the spiky-haired boy looked at Hachiman once more and realized there might've been a difference between that smile and the other. One was willing to sacrifice his life to save people with a hint of fear of death, while the other had no intention of losing whatsoever, determined to defeat the opponent. From that, Megumi just remained silent and let the climax of the fight unfold.

"So that's the deal, right? If I win, you give that back to me, and if you win, I'll help you torture those I love." Hachiman said while approaching his opponent.

"And what's the goal to win?"

"One of us needs to be either knocked out cold or forfeit."

"Alright, then. And you wanna make this a binding vow, don't you?"

"Am I that obvious?"

"Heh, I accept your terms." Naoya agreed and did the same as they both slowly walked to each other. "You hear that! If I loshe, give him what he wantsh! That'sh IF I loshe. HAHAHA!"

"So he's still a brat that just has some talent. Oh well, at least this will humiliate him and probably lose supporters. Naobito might hate him for this, too." The muscular man named Jinichi thought while still being indifferent to all of this. "That boy's skill is not bad if he actually brought Naoya into that state."

Hachiman slowly approached while taking off both his jacket and shirt, revealing his upper body full of scars and the massive burn mark on his forearms that reached his wrists with one long scar in the middle of those arms. There was also a large scar on his abdomen that reached the right side of his body, with a large burn mark surrounding it, but that didn't look as deep. Except Maki and Megumi, the Zenin members present in the fight already guessed who gave him those with the burn marks and they all observed him carefully.

Slowly, the two combatants closed their distance with their entire muscles relaxed despite the pain in their bodies.

Not yet.

Tensing the muscles when they were still far apart from each other would waste energy.

Wait for it.

For the right distance to strike.

The only part of their bodies that remained intense was the glare in their eyes.

When they were finally within each other's range, they both raised their right hands while sliding their feet apart to make a fighting stance. Naoya's right wrist lightly touched Hachiman's, which made the latter wonder until he understood what his opponent wanted. Without a word, the dead fish-eyed sorcerer agreed by maintaining his fighting stance while keeping his own wrist in physical contact with Naoya's. (2)

Dragging the fight any longer would not benefit both of them, but there was a hint of respect Naoya had for the sorcerer in front of him. This change from a brutal fight to a formal duel was a sign that he acknowledged Hachiman's skill to an extent, and the latter accepted the gesture. Of course, Naoya was confident in his victory despite the current state of their bodies being near to their weakest. Both of them had several injuries, and they were also exhausted. However, Naoya had the better advantage since he still had a lot more cursed energy than him, and his body was trained for years from the highest level the clan could bring.

Nevertheless, Hachiman's own talent and pain tolerance could keep up with a veteran sorcerer. The problem was he depleted his cursed energy so much from just using Repel Mode that his only option was using the Isolation Effect once. If he used the barrier again, he wouldn't have enough cursed energy for reinforcement to fight. There was also the lack of materials/parts needed for Isolation Effect. As for domain expansion, it wasn't complete yet. He was foolish to believe he could improve it within just two days. Even an incomplete domain wouldn't help him in this fight. He needed more time to practice and restructure it until it was a success. And so, he focused primarily on improving his cursed technique and Falling Blossom Emotion within that short amount of time before the "negotiation". Hachiman was as confident in his own victory as Naoya.

Meanwhile, there was a crow standing on the highest branch of a tall tree, watching the two combatants in the middle of the open field. Unbeknownst to everyone, that crow was used to spy on them.


"It looks like we're reaching the climax." A woman spoke while watching them on the screen using the crow's vision. "Who do you think will win, Shoko-chan?"

"I don't know, Mei-san." Shoko answered while shrugging her own shoulders. "I'm too busy getting pissed off at how much work I'm gonna do today after seeing their injuries."

"What a lie. You're cheering for Hikigaya-kun, aren't you? Your dishonesty is adorable." Mei chuckled in amusement and went back to the screen. "Shall I give them the signal to begin?"

"Please do." Shoko agreed. It was pure coincidence she eavesdropped on their conversation two days ago about rescuing Mai. She was just going to Maki's room to check on her, but she discovered that ridiculous plan Hachiman had instead. "You better win."


Hachiman and Naoya inhaled deeply while the breeze blew the leaves and the soil wandering in the air that happened because of the fallen trees and their slide earlier. After breathing in to their limit, the crow let out a caw.

That was the signal for them.

Naoya threw a right jab at his face so fast, Hachiman barely reacted. The latter took a few steps back from the pain.

"Heh!" The blonde sorcerer gave a smug. Hachiman closed the distance and had their right wrists touch each other once again. They both stood still in their fighting stance until the crow let out a caw for the signal. Naoya landed a right-left punch to the face in quick succession. In fact, it was so fast, his right hand became such a blur that it looked like it barely moved. The blonde sorcerer didn't use the Projection Technique on those hits. He was just that fast. Hachiman recoiled from those two hits and stepped back while caressing his jaw and wiping the blood off his nose.

"Stop fucking around, Hikigaya." Maki whispered in slight frustration while Megumi carefully watched the two combatants. Jinichi and Chojiro just observed calmly while Ranta had a serious expression. After recovering for a moment, Hachiman went back and touched each other's right wrists for the third time.

He and Naoya inhaled to their limits until a branch fell to the ground a second after. The dead fish-eyed sorcerer weaved side to side from two right jabs, used his own right elbow to block a left hook to the liver and a right uppercut to the chin, and landed his own left hook to Naoya's liver, followed by a quick right punch to the face.

"Gggh! Aggaahh!" Naoya recoiled from those two hits and fell on the ground from his lack of balance. After holding his own liver and face for a few seconds, he slowly stood up with wobbly movement and went back to the duel. As they touched each other's wrists, it only took three seconds for Hachiman to strike first. He feinted a left straight and went for a right hook to Naoya's right side, then a genuine left straight to the face. The blonde sorcerer deflected both of those punches with just his right hand and threw a right jab at his opponent, which the latter just caught the wrist to perform a shoulder throw. Naoya managed to land on his own feet, spun to pull Hachiman, and did a right elbow strike with that momentum. Hachiman caught that and threw a left punch while Naoya did his own at the same time. Both of them hit each other and recoiled. After one step back, they clashed once again without the formality.

They abandoned the formal duel and continued the usual fistfight, as they sent flurries of punches at each other. This time, Naoya used the Projection Technique to punch, block, and dodge faster than his opponent. However, he couldn't go any faster because of the poor state his body was in. That didn't make him worry since he was steadily overwhelming Hachiman, who tried his best to do the same with his own skill, but as they both expected, he failed to avoid some attacks and received direct hits in the face and body. Then, Naoya touched his abdomen to freeze him in an animation frame and sent him tumbling with a full right straight to the face.

Just when Naoya and everyone thought the winner became obvious, Hachiman's pupils started glowing red once he stood, and the former's right sleeve was engulfed in a red aura. No one could see the aura except for the dead fish-eyed sorcerer. Everyone, including the two women watching through the crow's sight, wondered why his eyes glowed red, but Naoya didn't want to waste time to think as rushed towards him with Projection Technique in an attempt to punch him again.

However, Hachiman caught his fist with little effort.

"Eh?" Before Naoya could process what happened, he received a right fist in the chest. The moment that fist hit him...

"A black flash?" Jinichi mumbled with his expression changed slightly into a serious one. "So he's at that level, huh?"

"A what?" Maki heard what he said and asked.

"Heh, of course a failure like you wouldn't know." Chojuro shook his head in scorn while laughing, which made Maki enraged and was about to approach him until someone answered the question.

"Black flash is a phenomenon that multiplies the strength of one's physical attack when cursed energy is applied to it within one millionth of a second." Ranta answered while watching Hachiman quickly overwhelming Naoya in both speed and power. "That's basically 0.000001 second. When that happens, space is distorted and causes a flash of black light the exact moment the attack hits. Accomplishing that requires incredible concentration. It is so difficult to pull off that not even Gojo Satoru can do it at will."

"And once someone lands a black flash, that person apparently understands the 'core of cursed energy' or something." Jinichi commented. "It pretty much means that boy has climbed to a higher level."

"Don't unde-eshtimate me!" Naoya shouted in frustration while using Projection Technique to avoid his opponent. However, Hachiman was quick enough to catch up to him as the now red-eyed sorcerer hit his stomach with a left forward kick that sent him tumbling away, ran past him in an instant, then swung a right kick to the back. After tumbling in a different direction where the trees fell and the large trail was at, Naoya landed on his feet and weaved to the right to dodge a left punch. Then, small animation frames appeared between him and Hachiman, and the former hit all of them with his palms. A dust of soil came out and covered Hachiman's eyes. Naoya tried touching him to freeze him, but Hachiman parried it with his eyes still open despite being covered in soil, threw a right hook to his left side, and a left kick to the right shin. Naoya responded by blocking that hook, slid his foot back to avoid the kick, and then went for a left jab as a counter. His red-eyed opponent tilted his own head to dodge while throwing a punch to the stomach at the same time. The blonde sorcerer blocked it with his left knee and used that same leg to kick Hachiman's right arm, followed by a fast right palm strike with the Projection Technique to both hurt and freeze him again. Hachiman caught the wrist in time and swung his own left kick to Naoya's right arm, in which a black flash occurred that broke its bones. "GAAAAH-"

He didn't even give Naoya time to scream in pain, as he landed a left and right hook on his cheeks in quick succession, after which two black flashes occurred at the same time.

That was three consecutive hits of black flash.

Hachiman tried to land another left hook, but the blonde sorcerer weaved back to evade, and touched his chest fast to freeze him. Naoya then performed a high left roundhouse kick to his right temple...

... And sparks of black light flashed in his attack as well.

That powerful kick sent the red-eyed sorcerer tumbling in the air until he landed on his feet, then rushed towards his opponent at a ridiculous speed as if the attack didn't affect him in the slightest despite being a black flash in the head. Naoya didn't give up either and blitzed behind him with his cursed technique. Hachiman, with blood gushing out from his right temple, turned around fast enough to perform a right elbow strike to the face, and after his opponent weaved back to dodge that, swung a left kick to his abdomen, which sent the blonde sorcerer flying. The former caught up to him, hit his liver with a left hook that had a black flash to make him fly in another direction, punched him to do it again, then repeated that process ten times. It was Hachiman's turn to chain combos. Five of those hits had a black flash, albeit not consecutively. All Naoya could do was raise his left arm on his face to block since he couldn't move his broken right arm. After the tenth hit, Hachiman tried to chase him, but paused as the red in his eyes faded.

"Eh?... What is... going on?" He spoke while falling to his knees. From the expression, Hachiman appeared to be confused and in excruciating pain as he grunted and breathed more heavily than ever. There was a ringing sound in his left ear that wouldn't go away, and his vision became blurry. Well... not that it bothered him that much. He was already used to this kind of state after experiencing it a few times. All he needed to do was to stay conscious. He raised his head to see Naoya on the ground, trying to stand up, and limped towards him with a broken arm. With a deep breath, Hachiman tried to do the same, but he couldn't move his body anymore because of the extreme exhaustion and injuries. His best bet was to wait for his cursed energy to replenish until it was enough for "Falling Blossom Emotion: Auto Mode" while hoping his opponent would still move slowly, since he could tell that the Zenin sorcerer had no intention of giving up.

"So I guess this is Naoya's win..." Jinichi mumbled. "Or is it?"

"Hmph, of course it is. But the way he struggled to reach this result is pathetic." Chojuro commented. "Brats these days."

"... No. Something else is about to happen." Ranta argued while narrowing his eyes to look.

Unlike most of his powerful relatives, Ranta could admit a person was strong once that person had shown their capabilities. Years ago, there was one man that stood out in the household. A black sheep in the clan due to his loss of cursed energy from birth. Everyone mocked him for having such a "disability" except for a few people. One of them was Gojo Satoru, who fought that man in battle, Naoya, who often boasted about that man's strength, and of course, Ranta himself, who saw that strength multiple times. Majority of the Zenin Clan saw the black sheep's power as a disability, but that was a heavenly restriction that blessed him with superhuman physical prowess at the cost of all his cursed energy. Ranta even believed that man could destroy the entire clan with how many brethren he had defeated on his own during the times of harassment.

"It was only a glance when I first saw Toji-kun, but that was enough for me to know he was strong. It was like there was a blade in my throat whenever he was nearby. Naoya, as a child, felt the same too when he first saw him. The only person who could make a presence like that besides Toji-kun is obviously Gojo Satoru, but now..." Ranta curled his hands into fists. "Just for a moment with those red eyes... Hikigaya Hachiman gave off that same feeling. Is he the same as those two? Is that why Naoya-san went for a formal duel earlier out of respect? It could be, but it's still weird considering he only knows him for just a short time, and they're almost equal. Does... Naoya-san know something about this guy that we don't?"

"Hikigaya-senpai wins the fight." Megumi said softly while watching.

"You think so too?" Maki responded with a confident smirk.

"Well... He's just not your average sorcerer, after all." Megumi saw his senior's expression. His eyes still had a spark in them with the will to fight. "He.. can make everyone believe he can make miracles."

"You... you better not tap out." Naoya said in his own mind while approaching Hachiman. The pain in his body was tremendous, but he didn't care about that. After landing a black flash, there was a sensation surging within him that was indescribable. It was the first time he had such a feeling. Despite being talented, Naoya had never landed a black flash in his entire life until now. He felt enlightened, as if he saw everything about the power it existed in this world. That sensation brought him bliss, and he wanted to share it. Naoya wanted to use it in battle. There was almost no hatred and frustration left towards Hachiman. In fact, he was grateful, but his intent to kill was still there. And so, with a smile that showed his broken teeth covered and dripping in blood, the blonde sorcerer slowly closed the distance between him and the opponent he was fighting. "It's not over for you, right? I can tell... Good, good. It'd be a letdown if it's all over just like that. This... feeling of enlightenment. I want to use it."

Naoya finally got close enough to attack the "defenseless" opponent. While Hachiman was on his knees glaring at him, he just looked down at the dead fish-eyed sorcerer as if he was saying he won. That he was better than him. Hachiman remained on his knees for a moment until he inhaled deeply, concentrating his cursed energy in his body to reach the ending of the fight. Naoya swung a right kick despite his damaged foot, and his opponent leaned sideways to dodge once his body was covered in a white aura. Hachiman did a left sweeping kick to his left foot, but Naoya disappeared using the Projection Technique. He looked up and saw the blonde sorcerer in the air right above his head. The latter tried to stomp him with his left foot, but Hachiman became a blur and disappeared. Naoya turned around and threw a left punch at him with the Projection Technique, while his opponent threw a right punch at the same time. They both landed their blows in their jaws, but one of them had a black flash.

It was Naoya's.

The black flash sent Hachiman tumbling away.

"I did it... hahaha. I... won..." Naoya thought confidently while falling to his knees on the grass. He finally relaxed himself since it was his victory... Or at least that was what he thought. After narrowing his eyes, the blonde sorcerer saw Hachiman sitting up with a left hand on his face. That hand appeared to be red and broken. Before he could lose consciousness, Naoya chuckled. "Ah... He blocked it..."

"It was a wonderful fight, Naoya-san..." Ranta said after gently letting him lie on the ground.

"You have some skills, I give you that." The old man said to Hachiman in a condescending tone. "But you just fought against an idiotic brat, nothing more. If he had been more careful, he would've killed you easily."

"You insulted and praised him at the same time..." Hachiman said while looking at Chojuro with a deadpan stare, and suddenly Maki punched his right arm. "Ouch! Why did you do that?"

"That's for not going all out on me..." She said in a low tone. "Grade 2 my ass."

"I didn't hold back on our sparring match. Well, maybe a little." He explained nervously while scratching his own cheek.

"I'm gonna kill you after this."

"Hey, I was just being careful since the Goodwill Event was close. And mind you, that was 80% to 90% of my power you just fought."

"What a bullshit percent. What kind of math did you use?"

"Just trust the source."

"That source smells like it doesn't even exist."

"Source: me."

"Then I'll make it cease to exist." Maki cracked her knuckles and glared at him with a twitching eye.

"Please don't. It's a credible source that you need to have at all times."

"I'd rather have Twitter."

"At least choose something that's not hell."

"Uhuh... By the way, what was that earlier? Your eyes went red all of a sudden. A cursed technique?"

"Oh... yeah. My cursed technique involves using eight similar objects/parts, imbuing them with enough cursed energy and pick one of them to steal the awareness of my enemies, forcing them to focus only on that particular object." Hachiman tried moving his hands, but to no avail. "I can do the same towards myself. It's an extension technique I like to call 'Lock On'."

"Like in those video games where you lock on an enemy?" Maki sat in front of him.

"Yeah, so.. by injecting my cursed energy into eight objects or parts that are attached to the enemy, I can turn the object/part of my choice to have a red aura that would engulf the target. When that happens, it steals all my attention, forcing me to focus on that one target and almost forget everything else. I chose to inject Naoya's clothes with my cursed energy while we were in close combat, and chose the right sleeve of his kimono, since it's the dirtiest and most torn out of all the parts in his attire."

"So with that immense focus combined with the benefit of the black flash..." Megumi interjected while approached the two.

"One crazy monster." Maki grinned.

"Well, I can't use any other techniques like my barriers and Isolation Effect itself when I'm in that state. Not to mention, I lose my sense of surroundings. There could be a chance I might crash into a wall while chasing my target and I won't flinch at all."

"You could at least fight that asshole with your sword." She pointed at the unconscious Naoya behind her with a thumb.

"The goal is to manipulate him, not kill." Hachiman argued. "And I can't imbue weapons with Repel Mode. Whenever I tried doing that, the weapon breaks as if I was hastily injecting cursed energy too much. I need more training."

"Hikigaya Hachiman is your name, right?" Jinichi asked with folded arms while Hachiman nodded with a calm demeanor. "I'll remember you."

"There's a doctor here that can use reversed cursed technique. Let's take Naoya-san to her!" Ranta spoke.

"Oh? We're not leaving until we finish cleaning the mess." Chojuro said as both he approached the dead fish-eyed sorcerer with hostility. Maki and Megumi immediately went between them to protect Hachiman.

"Don't try anything funny." Maki said while in a fighting stance wielding a red three-section staff.

"You forgot there was a binding vow, remember?" Megumi made a hand sign that looked like a dog.

"Of course we do. But he didn't say we should give it to him alive, now did he? Kehehehe!" Chojuro laughed while touching the ground with one hand.

"That staff... where did she hide that? I didn't see any of them carrying weapons. Oh, well." Jinichi thought and then sighed while grabbing the old man's arm. "Oi, we're done here."

"Hah?! You think there'd be witnesses here?" When Chojuro asked that question, Jinichi moved his own head to point at the crow standing on the branch. The crow flew towards them and stood between the four Zenin members and Hachiman's group. It let out a caw as if it was telling them the fight was over and no further conflict would be tolerated. With a click of his tongue, the old man mumbled. "We're being watched this whole time. That money-loving whore... So is this blackmail?"

"I guess that's the plan." He answered while shrugging his own shoulders. "As long as you stay away from me and everyone I care about, no one will find out about this, and if I do expose it while you're fulfilling that promise, then you can try your best to kill me. We can make a binding vow out of this if you don't believe me."

"Is that it? Fine. We don't need a binding vow for this." Jinichi spoke while approaching Hachiman, who still sat on the ground since he couldn't move that much. Maki and Megumi maintained their guard up in case the muscular Zenin was about to make suspicious movements. Once he was close enough, Jinichi stretched out a hand and Hachiman accepted it. Before they let go of each other's hand, Jinichi tightened the grip and leaned closer to whisper into his left ear. "In fact, we're not dumb enough to-"

"Uh, can you whisper on the other side? I can't hear you with this useless left ear of mine." Hachiman whispered back, and the Zenin complied.

"You've earned my respect."

"I'm kinda honored. Oh, by the way, the reason I'm doing all this is for Zenin Mai."

"... What?" Jinichi became confused by that statement." Are you saying that the thing that's important to you is related to that woman?"

"..."

"Oh... Oh, I see. So we've been tricked." The muscular Zenin sighed. "And Naobito will know once I tell him about you, including your reason..."

"Heh." Hachiman gave a smirk.

"All that taunting and fighting was to get Naoya into making a binding vow with you to take her back, but that will be difficult for us."

"What do you mean?"

"Mai is currently married to Naoya." Jinichi's answer caused the dead fish-eyed sorcerer to widen his eyes in shock. "She became his wife almost two weeks ago and just yesterday, we found out that she's pregnant with his child."

"... You gotta be kidding me." Hachiman looked down to process the information and then raised his head to face him. "Why her?! Doesn't he hate rejects like Maki-san?!"

"What are you talking about?" Maki arched an eyebrow when she heard her own name, and so she walked towards them.

"She's a woman. What other reason is there?" The muscular Zenin's answer shared no concern for that. "A woman's purpose is to breed. And since Mai would be staying in the household forever, that should be her main duty: to give birth to a strong child that would benefit our clan and satisfy the husband."

"What?" The dark green-haired girl was close enough to hear what he just said. Her grip on the three-section staff tightened. "Who's married to who?"

"Maki-san, calm down." Hachiman said to her while maintaining eye contact with Jinichi. "The decision is final. You will give Mai to me. I couldn't care less about his kid."

"Are you saying you'll give us the child once she gives birth to it?" Jinichi asked.

"That depends if Mai even wants to keep it alive or not."

"Fair enough. We'll let Naoya know when he wakes up."

"... Wow, you really don't care?"

"It honestly benefits me in a lot of ways. Besides, there are other women in our household that would suit his taste. If he can't find one, then whatever. Hopefully, he grows old as an unmarried man."

"That's pretty cruel. Well, I can tell he isn't that likable, so I doubt his chances. If he did manage to get one, it's obvious he is using his status."

"Power is the main aspect of man. I don't see any shame in using that to obtain desire."

"It's embarrassing that you have to use the status as the son of a leader just to get laid."

"Maybe you don't understand the benefits of titles."

"Maybe I just have more experience in dating a girl without flexing my big name or whatever." After Hachiman argued with a stoic expression, they stared at each other for a few seconds until, unexpectedly, Jinichi smiled.

"At least you're interesting." The muscular Zenin walked away. "We'll surely meet again."

"Uh... yeah." Hachiman was quite confused as he watched him leave. Then suddenly, he saw Maki hitting Jinichi's face with the red staff, which sent him tumbling on the grass.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!" Maki shouted in anger.

"That's enough!" Hachiman tried stopping her.

"Fuck off! I'm not stopping until they're dead!" She said while approaching Jinichi. Then, Megumi summoned the shikigamis of Gama to restrain her with their long tongues.

"We already won, Maki-san." The spiky-haired boy stood in front of her. "Our next priority is to get Hikigaya-senpai medical treatment."

"... Right... right." Maki reluctantly lowered her weapon. Just as she was about to calm down, Jinichi went to her in an instant and punched her in the face. The dark green-haired girl slid far away on the ground, tearing up the grass and leaving a trail of soil. She struggled to stand up until Jinichi stomped her chest to keep her down.

"I'm already giving mercy. Don't waste it." That was his final words before he and Chojuro ran to the forest at blurring speed. Ranta carried Naoya in his arms and followed suit.

"Maki-san!" Megumi ran towards her, but then he also noticed Hachiman lying on the ground sideways with his eyes still open. Those eyes appeared to be exhausted and lifeless.

He was unconscious

And so, the spiky-haired boy commanded the Divine Dog to carry him and Hachiman while Maki stood up and rode the shikigami behind him.

"You two are both idiots..." Megumi commented.

"Shut up and go faster!" Maki said with an angry click of her tongue.


"So Hikigaya-kun lied about making negotiations, intending to manipulate him into forming a binding vow..." Mei remained seated while Shoko stood up and approached the door. "That has way too many risks that I'm surprise he succeeded. What would he do if it failed?"

"He'd probably offer himself to them in exchange for that girl." Shoko answered as she held the doorknob. "Hikigaya's that kind of person to sell himself as a solve all problems, but give everyone a bad taste."

"What a hero." Mei chuckled. "I see why you and many others, including Gojo are so interested in this boy."

"A depressing hero, more like..."

"By the way, Shoko-chan-"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry. I have my ways of convincing Satoru. It's 50 billion yen, right?"

"Thank you for doing business." Mei's smile grew larger when she heard that response. "I'm sure it's a small cost for someone like him."

"He doesn't need a discount, so it's fine." Shoko waved a hand as a gesture fo an uncaring attitude.

"Well, I can give you an 80% discount if you answer my questions."

"Eh? Are you serious?"

"Answer me this: What time do you check on Maki-san and Hikigaya-kun in their respective bedrooms in the past two days?"

"Sometime between noon to 3 o'clock..."

"And was Hikigaya-kun aware of that schedule?"

"I did complain about it... Wait, are you saying-"

"He calculated the timing of your arrival to eavesdrop on the conversation, then anticipated you to call me so you could watch him."

"What made him think I would go to you specifically?"

"Mhmhmhmhm, well..." Mei crossed her legs and adjusted her front braids to look at the doctor better. "Did you think me not being on missions today is a coincidence?"

"I... did." Shoko looked down in thought.

"Principal Yaga called me a few hours ago to come here as a request from Gojo Satoru. I didn't think it was suspicious until I bumped into you. Why did Gojo ask the principal when he has my contact number? So I texted him and said he has no idea." The bluish silver-haired sorcerer showed her the text messages of Satoru on the phone. "Then, the large confirmation of my suspicion was when Hikigaya-kun was looking around early, near the beginning of the fight. When he saw my crow, he had a moment of relief. In other words, Hikigaya-kun tricked both you, me, and the principal so he could manipulate Zenin Naoya with some of the risks handled by me and others. Also, he chose the room closest to the area where the Goodwill Event would take place so he could bring the fight there and make sure the penalty given was as severe as Naoya being banned to this campus. What's strange is why he has to go that much effort when he could just ask Gojo directly."

"Maybe there's a disagreement between them..." Shoko suggested while holding her own chin. "It must be because Satoru is busy with handling the Dhamini Troupe. He wants to end it that badly because of their escalation and outside factors like those unregistered special grade curses. Adding more problems is a no-go. Not to mention, the Zenin Clan is affiliated with the troupe, which means if we provoke the clan, there may be some intense reaction where they would use whatever influence they have to bring Hikigaya down, and worst-case scenario, a cooperative effort between the clan and the criminal group."

"A disagreement, is it? I can imagine that considering Gojo's personality." Mei stood up from her chair while staring at the monitor screen. "Now then. The next thing I should be doing is show the higher-ups this footage to frame the story as the son of the Zenin head harassing a fellow student of Jujutsu Tech. That's probably what the boy wants from me."

"Wait." Shoko called out to her. "Why the discount?"

"Shoko-chan... haven't you learn anything about business?" Mei responded with her eyes still on the screen, particularly the unconscious Hachiman being carried. "It's simple. Offering discounts is a consumer magnet. Everyone wants to buy goods and services at a cheaper price, and they all want to buy it again in the near future. I got ten billion and one million yen for Hikigaya-kun's training, and I'm about to get another ten billion right now for this. I've never gotten that much money in such a short amount of time."

"So basically, you want him to be your loyal client." Shoko said while putting her hands in the pockets of her lab coat.

"Tell him his investment today is beyond satisfactory, and that I hope we will do more business in the future." Mei turned off the monitors and went past the doctor to go outside. Shoko just watched her walking away in the hallway until she stopped. "I just remembered. That plan B Gojo talked about two months ago..."

"Plan B? You mean the whole forming an independent group outside of Jujutsu Tech's authority, right?"

"It seems that plan is a failure since Hikigaya-kun is now a student here and is very well known in the community... Unless Gojo has a different idea in mind."

"I don't know. He never mentions it ever since..." Shoko shrugged her own shoulders, and Mei just stared at her with a scrutinizing gaze while maintaining that usual smile. After a few seconds of silence, the latter spoke.

"What a shame, and I was quite expecting it, too." Mei folded her arms together.

"I'm surprised you kept it a secret for this long. Wouldn't that make you an associate with that and piss off the higher-ups when they find out?"

"Tell me, Shoko-chan. Which one would you prefer: making money by working to death, or while sleeping comfortably on your own bed?"

"The second choice any day."

"I'm the same as you." And with that, Mei continued walking.

"I doubt that means she's completely on our side. As long as someone gives her a lot of money, she'd switch sides without batting an eye." Shoko walked in the opposite direction of the hallway while in thought. "Still, she would prefer making a profit without too many dangerous risks. Gojo's progressive ideals might be the key to that dream as long as he proves it with fine results. His Plan B is... I bet he's going to use the Samsara's Helm as Plan B instead of Hikigaya. It is a secret organization outside of Jujutsu Tech's control, after all. Now then, off to the infirmary. Two or three patients need healing, and one good hit in the head. Geez, Hikigaya should've just told me straight instead of going all around. Does he think I wouldn't go along with it? Well... I actually wouldn't, since he already got hurt a lot of times in just one week."

.

.

.

The news of the battle between Zenin Naoya and Hikigaya Hachiman spread very quickly. At first, the higher-ups thought about regarding the latter as a curse user, but with Mei Mei's footage, and the testimony from Fushiguro Megumi, Zenin Maki, and Zenin Jinichi, they decided to punish both of them.

They considered just giving Naoya a temporary ban with several of them as supporters of the clan, but it became permanent once the sorcerers found the residuals in the forests, confirming the damage in the area where the Goodwill Event would occur was their doing. And so, he was banned from entering the Tokyo school grounds, and the paychecks he usually received from working with them dropped by 30%. He would only take solo missions and was not allowed to ask cooperation with other sorcerers, especially students. A permission was required for assistance and must be granted by either the director of Jujutsu Tech, or the assistant director, Ijichi Kiyotaka. As for the family situation, his supporters shrank at a dangerous amount. Most of those supporters flocked to either Jinichi's or Megumi's side as potential candidates to inherit the Zenin Household. His father, Zenin Naobito, was angry at his son's defeat, not because of the aforementioned penalties and consequences, but for making the Zenin Clan look weak.

Meanwhile, Hikigaya Hachiman was suspended for 27 days, and therefore could not participate in the Goodwill Event. He was also banned from stepping foot into the Three Major Clan's households and his paychecks would drop to 10%. They also placed him under house arrest for two weeks, not allowing him to leave his own room. Because Gojo Satoru was absent to intervene, the penalty was set in stone... however, the higher-ups were expecting his interference once he came back to Jujutsu Tech.

As for the Goodwill Event, it would still continue tomorrow without delay.


11:20 PM

He opened his eyes slowly from how heavy it felt lifting the eyelids. A massive headache happened much worse than two days ago. Twenty seconds flew by, and he still waited for the pain in his head to lessen slowly, but it had yet to happen. And so, Hachiman decided to distract himself by looking at his surroundings, hoping he could ignore the pain.

"Yup... this is my room, and I'm hurt all over. Just a normal day for the handsome and strong sorcerer... Well, if I'm really regarded as handsome, then the beauty standards dropped a lot in logic." Hachiman chuckled to himself, but then grunted when he felt the headache again. He held his head that was wrapped around in bandages and closed his eyes shut to wait for the pain to fade. Once the headache weakened, he turned his head to the left and saw someone sitting next to him in a chair.

It was a woman with short hair, and wearing a white kimono and a purple hakama. Her eyes were closed, and she started wobbling her head as if she was about to fall asleep.

"What's she doing here? Oh, right, I won the fight, so the binding vow... Is she here to check up on me? That seems to be the case. I... guess it would be rude to just wake her up, huh? She's, uh... quite pretty. I noticed that back at Okinawa, but she's really attractive. Despite being a second year, her looks are... more mature if that makes sense. I would easily mistake her to be the same year as I am or a college student... Hm?" He noticed something odd about her appearance. There was a bruise on both her right wrist and under the left collarbone that was both hard to see with the kimono hiding it. He also saw a large red mark on her left wrist as well. Looking up, Hachiman narrowed his eyes and moved close to see a small red mark on her neck. Suddenly, she straightened her posture, which made him flinch, but his eyes were still on her. After scratching her own eye, she looked around and saw the injured sorcerer lying on the bed awake. "Uh... good evening, Mai-san?"

"... You." Mai looked down, which made her eyes hidden behind her bangs while clenching her hands. "Are you an idiot?"

"So they say, along with other insults." Hachiman responded in a sarcastic tone.

"Who the hell asked you to save me?"

"No one."

"I didn't ask you to save me!" Mai shouted and glared at him with tears in her eyes. "Who would want to save someone like me?! This... This stupid and weak trash!"

"Stupid, probably. Weak and trash, you're far from that."

"Don't give me that sweet talk. What do you even get from doing this? Money? Status? Are you after my body? Is that it?!"

"To pay the debt." Hachiman's response was quick and without a feeling of discomfort. "You helped me save Haruno-san, and you gave me a birthday present. I want to return the favor."

"Return... the favor?... haha..." She laughed while putting a hand on her face, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Do you even know the problems you might have from doing this?"

"Earning the contempt of a prominent clan, the higher-ups who like that clan, and probably kill me if they have the chance?"

"If you know all that then-"

"I don't regret it." He interrupted her with a determined look. "Or at least, I don't want to regret because if I do, I might hate you. That's the last thing I want to happen."

"You're really an idiot." She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her kimono. "I kinda get how you manage to get a girl like Yukinoshita."

"Eh?"

"What's your plan now? You can't leave this room for two weeks and still be in suspension for 13 more days."

"Oh, seriously? Nooooo~, well, life goes on."

"You're one hell of a NEET." Mai looked at him with a deadpan stare.

"Correction, introvert. I still go to school." Hachiman argued.

"I don't see the difference."

"Please apologize to every introvert in the world this instant."

"Why would I do that? It's not my fault they're too scared to go outside and talk to people. What are they, vampires?"

"I guess I look the part."

"Gross. Vampires are supposed to be both hot and undead, not dead-looking and rotting. You're more of a zombie."

"Hmm... That's probably more accurate."

"You just accept that so easily..."

"Well, vampires are supposed to look scary since they're monsters."

"At least they look better than a zombie."

"Then I'm the best-looking zombie you've ever met."

"Pfft! A zombie is still a zombie even if you put sprinkles on it. Wait, sprinkles don't even suit you. The fact a mere zombie has a better chance of improving appearance says a lot."

"Why are we talking about fashion and physical appearance, anyway? It's not like it matters when they're both going to kill you."

"It's about how you die in the best way."

"Well, would you prefer a good-looking monster that will eat you, or an ugly one that may be your friend or at least won't kill you?"

"Uwaaaah, are you trying to get a confession out of me? Sorry, but I don't really like you. Try someone else that's in your league if she ever exists."

"Please don't make this a running gag. I've already tolerated enough confession-related gags in one lifetime." Hachiman let out a sigh. "So you prefer a handsome monster, even if it kills you. I think I heard of a prominent serial killer in America who fitted the description."

"Well... I'm already friends with one ugly zombie right in front of me, and that zombie is the one who saved me from that hell, so..." Mai gave him the kindest smile he had ever seen. Hachiman had never thought she could make that kind of smile. It was as if the mature aura was replaced with something more childlike, more innocent. He couldn't explain it, but he knew it was much brighter than her usual smirk she kept wearing. "Thank you, Hikigaya..."

"That's.. not the response I was expecting. But she must've gone through a lot..." Hachiman looked away with a blush. "No problem. Hey, uh... can you sit next to my right side since I can't hear anything in my left ear anymore? And it's hard to hear with my other one."

"Oh, right. I forgot about your tinnitus..." Mai had an expression of guilt.

"It's a full-blown hearing loss in my left ear now and I think my right ear got weaker. I'm waiting for Ieri-sensei to get me new hearing aids." He responded and noticed her expression too late as she stood up and went to his right. "I'm not blaming you. It's my fault for being weak."

"Weak, huh?" She just stood there while staring at the window, then sat next to him on the bed.

"You, uh... could just take the chair and-"

"I'm too tired to carry that, and I don't feel comfortable sitting on that chair."

"How petty can you be?"

"I can be as petty as I want... After all, I'm finally free." Mai straightened her back and raised her head up with eyes closed. It was as if she was savoring the moment she had never experienced before. Meanwhile, the injured sorcerer looked away out of awkwardness and spoke.

"You can go to sleep. Do you have a bed?" He asked without making eye contact.

"The dormitory has a lot of empty rooms, so I can just sleep in one of those."

"I see."

"But... I don't want to sleep yet." When she opened her eyes, he found it difficult to read her emotions. "They keep popping up. The torture in that place... all the pain I had to endure."

"But like you said, you're free." Hachiman sat up. "So you can rest easy now."

"Can I?"

"You have to, since it's natural for living things to rest. Then, you can do whatever you want, like strolling in Tokyo or going back to being a student in Kyoto Jujuts-"

"I don't want to go back."

"You don't have to even go near that house."

"I mean I'm not going back to being a sorcerer."

"... Oh."

"It wasn't even my choice when I enrolled in Kyoto. They forced me to do it because my dumb sister is striving to be a sorcerer." She hugged herself with a hint of fear. "I don't want to fight scary things. I hate tiring myself to do better when nothing would change. Doing pointless things like that is what I hate the most. Overall, I'm useless as a sorcerer, and I never want to be one."

"That's not true. You helped me back at Okinawa." Hachiman leaned forward to argue. "If you ween't there, the rest of us would be dead."

"If YOU weren't there, we would've died." Mai rebutted.

"That doesn't mean your efforts amounted to nothing. You went out of your way to pull me and Miwa-san out of there. And if it weren't for that cursed technique to make that katana, I wouldn't be able to beat that vengeful spirit." His response made her silent, unsure of what to say. And so he continued to push. "There were a lot of chances for you to run away, but you stuck with us till the end. You chose to fight. That's why you're an amazing sorcerer, Mai-san."

"... I can only use my cursed technique once."

"And you used it at the right moment."

"I'm too weak to fight, so I have to use a gun."

"And that gave me and Miwa-san cover. Look, I get it. You're not as strong as the others, but no one complained about that during that mission. Not me, not Miwa-san, or Mechamaru. As long as you did something, we appreciated it. The only thing I complained about you is how much of a bitch you were."

"Oi."

"I'm not apologizing." He shrugged his shoulders while giving a smirk. Mai just shook her head, but not out of disappointment or anger, since she wore a smile. "Then... what will you do now?"

"I don't know... For now, I want to rest here."

"Will they even allow you to stay here when you're not a sorcerer anymore?"

"Principal Yaga was nice enough to lend me a room here. The agreement is that I can only stay here for a week until you decided what to do with me, since you're responsible for this whole thing."

"Then I decided to let you wander off."

"You're going to throw me away without giving me money?"

"Hmmm... I could ask Gojo-san for money. But I get the feeling he wouldn't be happy about what I did... and he'd probably get tired of being treated as everyone's personal bank. The alternative is to ask Haruno-san to give you shelter and a well-paying job. Or I can make you my personal maid."

"Pass."

"Yeah, I don't like the idea of Haruno-san giving you-"

"I meant the last part!" Mai gritted her teeth, but then made a look of realization. "Then again, since I belong to you now, I guess I have no choice."

"... Excuse me?" Hachiman blinked.

"Isn't that what you said? I'm the important thing you want back and no one should have me." Mai gave him the usual smirk.

"That choice of words is just to trick Naoya and the others." His cheeks became red.

"Heeeeh~? Is that really the reason?" Mai teased while covering her mouth with a hand. "I thought you're falling over me. What would happen if Yukinoshita knows about this?"

"She would tease me to no end." Hachiman appeared to dread at the thought.

"She would?" The short-haired woman tilted her head in confusion. "She didn't look the type based on her personality I've seen in Okinawa... Did I misunderstand her character?"

"How DID you misunderstand her character?"

"Eh?... Ah, speaking of Okinawa, you lied to us, huh?" She glared at him suddenly. "'A drop-out just going on a summer vacation', you said..."

"Well... the summer vacation part is true." He answered with a hint of nervousness.

"Mhm, I'm waiting..." Mai folded her arms together.

"I asked Gojo-san for a week-off because I got too tired of dealing with cursed spirits in Chiba everyday. And Haruno-san was the one who invited me to Okinawa, so..."

"Hmmm~..." Mai narrowed her eyes to give him a scrutinizing gaze before turning her head away from him. "I'll take that for now. But if you lie again..."

"Why does this feel like I'm trying to explain that I'm not cheating on her?!" Hachiman's eye twitched at the thought and tried to change the topic after clearing his throat. "So... where are you planning to go?"

"Chiba."

"As great as my home is, there isn't much to do there compared to Tokyo. Are you sure?"

"I just think it's a place I'd be most comfortable with." Mai shrugged her shoulders. "The curse activity over there died down a bit, so I'm fine."

"I'll make sure Haruno-san gives you a tour."

"Obviously. I'm not expecting you to be a good tour guide."

"I have all the knowledge you need to know about Chiba, along with its history and interesting trivia."

"Yaaaawn~, I'm bored already."

"My tour is educational, not fun."

"Do I look like a nerd who likes studying?"

"Not everyone who likes studying is just nerds."

"Good point. Your ugly face proves that."

"Thank you for the most generic insult. And-" As Hachiman used sarcasm, the two were about to engage in another banter until he suddenly realized about a certain issue. He hesitated for a moment and held his chin in thought.

"What's wrong?" She noticed that and asked.

"I... heard you're pregnant." He finally spoke with a worried look. However, there was little reaction from the woman in front of him. She was just staring at him as if it was none of her concern.

"Yeah, I am... And I'm going to ask Ieri-sensei or a doctor outside of Jujutsu Tech for an abortion."

"I figured as much."

"I told you, didn't I? Doing pointless things is what I hate the most. It's impossible for me to raise a child of... that bastard. I won't love them, nor would I try to think they exist."

"I don't know if Ieri-sensei has done an abortion before, but she's a doctor with reversed cursed technique, so she'd be confident of that."

"Haha... Honestly, I thought you'd be more against the idea."

"Well, I've already killed people, so I don't have any right to say about it." The injured sorcerer scratched his head and looked down. "You know... ever since I started getting involved in the whole jujutsu thing, nothing's what I expected."

"Were you expecting something like saving the princess and get married or something?"

"I'm a Japanese man and not working as a plumber, so no." (3) Hachiman leaned on the headboard. "I just read too much shonen manga."

"Of course you'd be an otaku." Mai put a hand on her cheek in amusement. "Well, I kind of get how you feel. At first, I knew it was too good to be true when I heard I was ordered to drop out of school and go back to the household, but a part of me wanted to believe I could go back to my previous routine, which was to be ordered around and do housework. I know, pretty boring, but that's really the life I'd rather have. I mean, you get me, right? All I had to do was clean this and that, cook food, do this and that, and then fall asleep. That mundane routine isn't bad, right?"

"No, it isn't..." Hachiman answered while realizing her speech became faster than usual and her tone was strange. "Well, one of my dreams is being a househusba-"

"Then you get it! So why do they have to hit me and spit on me every time I made a mistake!?" She leaned closer to him with a strained smile. "Why did they have to slap me when I serve them food one minute late?! The food was good so don't complain about it! Did that bitch have to push me when we accidentally bumped shoulders?! Be grateful I didn't ruin your face!"

"Mai-san, calm down!" The injured sorcerer tried stopping her as she held her head and started pulling her hair.

"And then there's that other guy! And that bitch! Even the other girls who were just indifferent to me in the past started kicking me like I'm trash! Why do I have to take the punishment?! Are they thinking my father would cry in hell for me when he didn't really care when he was alive!?" She suddenly clenched the part below her stomach. "Then there's that bastard Naoya! WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING MARRYING ME?! I BET HE JUST WANTED TO HAVE HIS WAY ON ME THEN GO FOR ANOTHER WOMEN AFTER HE'S DONE! WHAT OTHER REASON IS THERE?! I'M JUST ANOTHER CONVENIENT TOY! THAT PERVERT! IS HE TOO STUPID THAT HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT IMPREGNATING WHOEVER HE WANTS? I-"

"MAI!" Hachiman tried reaching his hand to her, but that made it worse. When she saw the hand, her pupils dilated and her body shook.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She slapped his hand away and stood up to step back. Hachiman wanted to say something to calm her, but he figured that any word might have a negative effect. And so, they stayed silent for a few minutes with his face still had a look of concern while Mai looked down to take deep breaths. Because of her own erratic behavior, she noticed her kimono was quite loose, exposing her cleavage along with the small red marks and bruises on the skin.

Hachiman looked in horror at how dark and red some of those bruises were, and tried his best to not imagine the abuse the woman had to endure. Mai covered them quickly and was on her knees, crying. As tears were streaming from her eyes, Hachiman stood from the bed while resisting the pain from his injuries, and bent his own knees to embrace her. Instead of relying on comforting words, letting the tranquility ease the mind and his own warmth protect her fragile body was the best option he could think of. The cries of the tormented flower in his arms lasted for so long, he didn't know if it was minutes or hours. But time wasn't his concern at the moment. After a while, Mai just leaned onto her chest in silence before wiping her tears and separated herself from him.

"Sorry you have to see that." She said while chuckling. Hachiman didn't respond and just stayed silent. Mai wanted to separate from him, but he had no intention on doing so just from how strong, yet comfortable his embrace was. "You really know how to handle women."

"I don't..." He finally spoke. "I'm just quiet because I'm scared of how my words would make things worst."

"You reassured me about my skills as a sorcerer, so you're pretty good at it."

"No, I... just don't want to face this kind of topic. It's not something I've witnessed firsthand before."

"Is that so... But, uh... you know, doing this kind of thing would get Yukinoshita jealous, so-"

"Why would she get jealous?"

"H-Hah? I mean, your girlfriend is-"

"... Okay, I get the feeling I missed a lot of context here." Hachiman raised an eyebrow after separating from her. "Where did you get the idea Haruno-san and I are dating?"

"What are you on about?" Mai grew increasingly worried about this strange situation. "I mean her younger sister. Aren't you dating her?"

"She... has a younger sister?" His question made her bewildered as she just stared at the injured sorcerer for a few moments, until her eyes focused on the bandages on his head. "Yeah, she has a sibling, but... is it really a younger sister or older?"

"... What's your name?"

"Now what are you-"

"Just tell me your full name!"

"Hikigaya Hachiman."

"Date of birth?"

"August 8th."

"Age."

"18."

"Name of your parents?"

"My parents... are..." He looked down to think while holding his own chin. His eyes widened at the realization, then there was that expression of denial, scratching his head, and stood up. Mai watched him struggle as he sat on the bed with a hand covering his mouth. She stood up with her worries confirmed. "I'm Hikigaya Hachiman, 18 years old. My birthday is on August 8th. The name of my parents... are... Wait, I know their names... I have a mom and dad... and a sister, too. What's her name? It's... Kamakura. No, that's the name of my pet. Was it a dog or a cat?"

"... You're kidding..."


TRIVIA:

1) The Tale Of Ochikubo is a Japanese novel from the 10th century that is similar to the story of Cinderella. Lady Ochikubo was the heroine and is treated harshly by her wicked stepmother who favours her own daughters. In the Japanese novel, Ochikubo's lover helps her escape from the stepmother's house and then subjects her stepfamily to humiliation as revenge. Naobito compared that to Hachiman's actions, saving Mai from the evil house and humiliated the clan by defeating Naoya.

2) An obvious Enter The Dragon reference. I've started watching some Kung Fu movies and I can't wait to write more about it here!

3) Super Mario reference.

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ISOLATION EFFECT: LOCK ON

- An extension technique that forces the user to focus on his chosen target by using eight stimuli to engulf that target in a red aura. By doing this, his concentration increases dramatically, ignoring the pain which causes him to move beyond his body's limit. This also means that the chances of a black flash increases as well, making him a potential candidate in achieving the record, or perhaps breaking it. Because of the risks, Hachiman put a time limit, so those risks wouldn't be exploited soon by his enemies.

Weaknesses:

- Loss of awareness such as time, surroundings, ect.

- Cannot use techniques such as the barriers and the Isolation Effect itself

- Lasts for one minute.

HACHIMAN'S FALLING BLOSSOM EMOTION:

It gives the user the ability to attract others that has cursed energy to attack them at a faster speed or repel from them to evade. By changing the sizes of the two layers that coat his body, he can switch between those two functions at will.

- Reflexive Mechanism

The FBE identifies cursed energy approaching the user and compels him to do certain actions depending on the situation. It does this by emitting tiny waves from the outer layer and alerts itself when outside cursed energy interacts with it. Then, it automatically does the best course of action between attraction and repulsion and act upon it to save the user. It doesn't have an interval between those steps, so it's fast enough to react. However, there are weaknesses such as forcing the user to move beyond his body's limit, and the amount of cursed energy needed.

- Defensive Repulsion

By expanding the cursed energy layer (inner layer) and shrinking the technique layer (outer layer), it turns into an aura that repels anything with the force equal to their cursed energy. Those without cursed energy can bypass the defense.

- Offensive Repulsion

Using the function of repulsion offensively will give the user's attacks more devastating damage to the enemy because it increases based on the cursed energy output of that target. The user can also attack without even gaining physical contact with the target.

Weaknesses:

- Can be destroyed by attacking it with cursed energy, or interact with a cursed technique.

- Becomes more difficult to activate after it's destroyed.

- Attraction

By expanding the technique layer and shrinking the cursed energy layer, it turns into an aura that forces the user to attract to other cursed energy. Using it offensively doubles the speed of his attacks.

- Defensive Attraction

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- Offensive Attraction (against others instead of himself)

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And another chapter done!

To be honest, I'm unsure of this chapter because of five reasons:

1) 8man's "IQ play"

- When I read my chapter, it does feel like I'm stretching a bit here.

2) The Hei Unit

- It's kinda hard to write their characters since they were only shown for just a short amount of time in the JJK manga, so I don't know if I nailed this one or not. Especially Naoya. Like, I don't know if I'm exaggerating his attitude or not.

3) Stretching the scenes too long?

- Sometimes I think to myself if I should just tone it down on the details like the fight choreography and the dialogue.

4) Uh oh! Edgy!

- Yeah, I tried to highlight more of the clan's cruelty, but I don't know if I'm overdoing it or not. Mai's situation is terrible that's for sure, but am I taking the abuse too far?

5) DUUURRR THIS AUTHOR IS A RIGHT-WING LEFT-WING FRONT-WING BACK-WING PRO-CHOICE OMG FUCK THIS GUY

- The mention of abortion feels like bad timing with what is happening right now, and honestly, this one made me scared that I might get crucified by the internet. I know it's weird to worry about that in a fanfiction, but eh... Well, I want to say that I don't write fanfic solely political messaging, but just to write a story I want and enjoy doing it.

In the end, I feel like it's fine. I'm trusting you readers' thoughts on the chapter, so whatever criticism you have, I appreciate it. Next chapter will be the FINALE of the arc and move on to the Goodwill Event.

As always, thank you for reading this chapter, and see you in... well, let's hope I can post as early as next month again.