The White-Haired Little Girl Satoru Gojo? Something's Wrong With This Picture

The door was shoved open.

Not gently. Someone kicked it open from inside.

The door slammed against the wall with a dull bang, sending dust trickling from the frame.

Outside, March 7th reflexively straightened up, folded her hands in front of her, and put on her most polished smile.

Welt adjusted his glasses and stood ramrod straight.

Himeko leaned against the corridor wall with her arms crossed, a smile playing at her lips.

They were all waiting.

Waiting for the legendary Female Lord to step through the door.

According to the Stellaron Hunters' intel, the Female Lord stood over six feet tall and had an oppressive presence. When she spoke, even the air seemed to freeze. She was the kind of person who could make ordinary people's knees buckle with a glance.

March 7th had even rehearsed her bow three times in her head.

The door opened.

The person who emerged was not a tall woman.

It was a little girl.

She looked seven or eight, with a mess of white hair and tiny black sunglasses that hid nearly half her face. A lollipop stuck out of her mouth, puffing up one cheek. She swaggered along like a cat that had just stolen a fish.

She kept one hand in her pocket and gave a casual wave with the other.

"Yo."

The little girl's voice was clear and childish, though she deliberately pitched it low.

"I'm the—this lady is the Seventh Seat of the Divine Court!"

The corridor fell silent for three seconds.

March 7th's smile froze.

Still holding her hands together, she lowered her head bit by bit, as if her neck had rusted stiff, and stared at the white-haired girl who barely reached her waist.

"...Huh?"

Welt frowned.

He said nothing, but his fingers tightened slightly around his cane. There was no trace of astral power coming from this little girl. None at all. Yet he could sense something else: a strange force that warped space, like invisible hands twisting creases into the air before silently smoothing them away.

It was not the power of a Stellaron.

Nor was it any other power he knew.

Himeko straightened and uncrossed her arms. Raising an eyebrow, she looked the little girl up and down twice.

"That's... the Female Lord?"

"Who knows?" Welt said quietly. "Be careful."

The little girl seemed oblivious to their reactions. Lollipop in her mouth, she swaggered past March 7th. Her sunglasses slipped down a little, revealing startlingly bright blue eyes that flicked toward March 7th.

Then she stopped.

"You." The little girl pointed her lollipop stick at March 7th. "You look silly."

March 7th: "..."

She took a deep breath.

Don't argue with a child.

The little girl kept walking, then stopped in front of Welt and tipped her head back to look at him. Welt looked down at her. They held each other's gaze for two seconds.

"Not bad, old man. You've got sharp eyes," the little girl declared. "But your cane is ugly."

Welt: "..."

Himeko couldn't help laughing.

The little girl turned to Himeko and looked her over before nodding, as though confirming something.

"This big sister's all right," she said. "Better than the silly one."

March 7th couldn't hold back. "Hey! Who are you calling silly?"

The little girl ignored her.

She took the lollipop out of her mouth. Its orange-flavored wrapper glinted in the sunlight. She licked her lips, then popped the candy back in.

"Come on, quit standing around," she mumbled. "I'm hungry. Got anything to eat?"

March 7th's mouth twitched.

She looked at Welt, Welt looked at Himeko, and Himeko shrugged.

This was nothing like the intel.

The Female Lord in the intel was cold, powerful, and sparing with words. She could put down a planet-wide rebellion alone. The white-haired little girl before them, aside from her swagger, looked every bit like a grade-schooler who had run away from home.

But Welt did not let down his guard.

That space-warping force was still there, like an undertow beneath the water: invisible, but real. He could tell it came from the little girl, and he could not begin to gauge its depth.

In all his years, he had seen the corruption of Stellarons, the contamination of the Antimatter Legion, and all manner of bizarre forms of energy. None had been like this.

The force did not spread outward. It drew inward, like a spinning black hole, twisting the surrounding space apart and restoring it piece by piece. If he had not been especially sensitive to spatial disturbances, he would never have noticed it.

"What's your name?" Welt asked.

The little girl tilted her head.

"Su Chen," she said. "Remember it, old man."

"Su Chen..." Welt repeated the name, but could not match it to anyone on any list of known powerhouses.

"Don't bother. You won't find anything on me." Su Chen waved a hand, putting on the air of an elder. "If I told you where I came from, you'd die of fright."

March 7th rolled her eyes.

If an adult had said that, she might have been a little nervous. But coming from a white-haired little girl with a lollipop in her mouth, it sounded exactly like a child bragging.

She crouched down to meet Su Chen's eyes.

"Hey, little one," March 7th said, making her voice as gentle as she could, "how long have you been here by yourself? Where's your family?"

Su Chen's expression changed.

He took a step back, his eyes narrowing behind his sunglasses.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child," he said. "I've lived longer than you've had hot meals."

March 7th paused.

Then she saw Su Chen's eyes.

His sunglasses had slipped to the tip of his nose, fully exposing those blue eyes. They were not a child's eyes. Something indescribable lay within them, like snow that had piled up for a thousand years, cold enough to make her skin crawl.

Cold sweat broke out across March 7th's back.

She instinctively drew away.

But it lasted only a second.

Because Su Chen sneezed.

"Achoo!"

The little girl let out an enormous sneeze. His sunglasses flew off, spun twice through the air, and landed on the floor. The sneeze left his white hair sticking up in every direction like a little dandelion.

March 7th stared at him.

Su Chen stared back at March 7th.

They held each other's gaze for three seconds.

"...What are you looking at?" Su Chen's face flushed as he scrambled to pick up his sunglasses. "Never seen someone sneeze before?"

March 7th's heart melted.

The cold, the ancient snow, the eerie power—it all vanished with that sneeze.

She watched the white-haired little girl crouch on the floor, picking up his sunglasses with his hair in a tangle and his cheeks bright red. Something burst inside her chest.

Maternal instinct.

An overwhelming flood of it.

"Aww!"

March 7th spread her arms and lunged at Su Chen.

"You're so cute! Come give your big sister a hug!"