The doorbell rang early that morning.
Mashiro opened the door to find Itadori outside, holding a lunch box.
"You have a mission today, right?" Itadori handed her the lunch box.
"Ten o'clock. Shinagawa." Mashiro took it and headed inside.
Itadori followed her in and changed his shoes, his gaze passing over the silvery-white Murasame on the sword rack in the entryway.
Mashiro opened the lunch box. Rice, rolled omelet, and spinach dressed with sesame filled it to the brim to accommodate her appetite, with miso soup in an insulated flask.
There was enough food, but how should she put it? It was a little too Japanese for her tastes.
Still, considering Itadori had gotten up early to make it and bring it over, that minor mismatch hardly spoiled the gesture.
Mashiro picked up a piece of omelet, took a bite, and began eating slowly.
Itadori helped himself to a glass of water and sat down across from her.
"Still partnering with Mr. Nanami?"
"Yeah."
"What is it this time?"
"Grade 1. We won't know the details until we get there." Mashiro put the last piece of omelet in her mouth, took two sips of miso soup, and stood up. "Time to go."
Itadori packed up the lunch box and looked back when he reached the door. "Come to Jujutsu High tonight. I'll save you dinner."
Mashiro slung her instrument case onto her back, her hand pausing on the doorknob. "Okay."
The door closed, and the footsteps in the hallway gradually faded.
Nanami waited for her by the window of a café in Shinagawa Ward's coastal industrial district.
The wind chime rang as Mashiro pushed the door open. Nanami looked up and nodded to her.
A black coffee and a latte sat in front of him.
Mashiro sat down, took the latte, and sipped it. It was a little bitter.
She quietly added three more spoonfuls of sugar.
Nanami slid a mission briefing over to her, with two on-site photographs taken by Window clipped to it.
"Codename: Tide Echo. Grade 1. It operates in the abandoned Warehouse Sector Four at Shinagawa Port, on the seaward side." Nanami sounded more cautious than usual.
"Its abilities are water manipulation and sonic attacks. The underground pipes in the warehouse district connect to the sea, allowing it to move quickly through the pipe network. The two members Window sent never returned. These photographs were all they managed to send back."
Mashiro examined the photographs. Ankle-deep water covered the warehouse floor, and dense cracks riddled the walls, as though something had shaken them apart from within.
"Sonic waves." Mashiro repeated the words, tracing a finger lightly around the rim of her coffee cup.
"High-frequency vibrations, amplified through water. Its water manipulation isn't the attack itself, but the medium." Nanami took out a sheet of paper-Window's analysis report. "Its attack radius is roughly thirty meters. The sonic waves cause anything containing water to resonate, including the human body."
Mashiro set down the photographs, took a sip of her latte, then lowered the cup. Its base clinked softly against the saucer.
"Window's report says their cursed energy signatures disappeared, not that their deaths were confirmed."
Nanami glanced at her. "Window always uses cautious wording in its reports. But after more than forty-eight hours missing, they're effectively presumed dead."
"So they haven't found the bodies."
"Correct."
"Then we'll treat them as alive." Mashiro stood up. "They might still be trapped in some corner. We'll know when we get there."
Nanami did not try to persuade her further. He was already used to the silver-haired girl's way of thinking. Pessimism had no place in it.
He took a pair of specially made earplugs from his briefcase and handed them to her. "Put these in. They'll protect your ears."
Mashiro took the earplugs and inserted them.
The world fell quiet. Unless something was relatively close, she could barely hear it.
They left the café. A faint briny smell hung in Shinagawa's streets, growing stronger as they headed south.
Mashiro followed behind Nanami. The sea breeze lifted a few strands of her silver hair, and she brushed them aside, her gaze sweeping over rows of abandoned shipping containers and rusted cranes along the road.
The warehouse district stood at the southernmost end of Shinagawa Port, its four rows of warehouses built right beside the sea.
The first two rows had been completely abandoned. Their roofs had collapsed, and rust had eaten holes through their sheet-metal walls. Demolition had just begun on the third row, where sandbags and reinforcing bars lay piled up.
Standing in front of Warehouse Four, Mashiro looked down at the water around her feet.
It was shallow, but she could feel waves of cursed energy spreading through it-the cursed spirit's lingering traces.
"It just passed through here." She kept walking. "The water in the underground pipes is flowing. It moves faster down there than it does aboveground."
"Which means it already knows where we are." Nanami drew his short blade and coated it in cursed energy. The edge reflected a dazzling white in the midday sun. "Open the door."
Mashiro pushed open the warehouse's iron door.
The hinges let out a sharp screech that echoed repeatedly through the empty warehouse.
Deep inside, they could make out a massive humanoid silhouette, roughly three meters tall.
Its body resembled a translucent jellyfish, with murky liquid flowing inside. A horizontal slit split its head where its mouth should have been.
"Tide Echo."
Sensing the intruders, Tide Echo let out a shrill howl. The vibrating sound sent ripples across the water.
Mashiro sensed the cursed energy in those ripples. She had no intention of dodging and gathered her cursed energy to resist the coming attack.
The ripples struck her calves. It felt as though countless needles had pierced her muscles at once. Vibrations spread upward along her blood vessels, and her knees briefly lost their strength.
Nanami moved swiftly between the warehouse's steel supports, stepping onto a broken crossbeam to avoid the ripples.
He frowned down at Mashiro. The girl stood where she was, water already reaching her thighs, her body trembling slightly beneath the surface.
Instead, Mashiro took several steps forward and began her counterattack.
Click, click, click. The Dharma Wheel above her head began spinning, picking up speed with every ripple it swallowed.
"Again!" Mashiro drew her blade and charged at Tide Echo.
The cursed spirit's mouth split wider, and the air throughout the warehouse began to tremble.
Countless droplets shook free of the water and hovered in midair, then shot toward Mashiro under the influence of Tide Echo's cursed energy.
Mashiro swung Murasame rapidly, slicing through most of the droplets, but hundreds upon hundreds still struck her at once.
Countless tears opened in her clothes. Broad patches of red bruising appeared on her exposed skin, her eyelids grew heavy, and a dull pressure filled her ears as the resonant force repeatedly compressed her internal organs.
She felt liquid surging in her throat, unable to tell whether it was water or blood.
The Dharma Wheel accelerated, and the crimson light in her eyes grew brighter.
She raised her right hand and pressed it to her chest, feeling her heart beating within.
A normal person's heartbeat was regular, but hers was now synchronizing with the cursed spirit's vibration frequency.
She was adjusting it deliberately. By now, she could barely feel the pain of the vibrations.
Nanami leaped down from the steel framework, unleashing several slashes with his short blade to cleave the water around the cursed spirit and interrupt its attack.
But the gaps in the water closed in an instant. The water dispersed the cursed energy in his slashes before they could reach its core.
"No effect? Kujou, another attack is coming!" Nanami shouted.
The second wave was not just sound. Its water-controlling cursed technique joined in, forming the suspended droplets into a waterspout around her.
Sand and iron filings churned through the rapidly spinning water, engulfing her in the center of the vortex.
Blades of water sliced her skin. Sand and iron filings burrowed into her flesh. Sonic waves traveled through the water directly into her bones, sending sharp pain deep into her marrow.
But it was too late. The Dharma Wheel stopped spinning.
She had adapted.
Mashiro opened her eyes.
The waterspout still spun, but neither the water, the sonic waves, nor anything else within it could hurt her anymore.
She raised her hand, and Murasame slid free of its sheath.
"Your cursed technique," Mashiro said with a grin, every word clearly audible, "is mine."
She pushed off, shot through the vortex, and appeared in front of the cursed spirit.
It tried to make one final struggle, its gaping mouth preparing another attack, but a sudden column of water struck it and cut the attack short.
"It's over. Sleep forever."
Murasame cleaved downward, cutting into its translucent body and tearing through its defenses. The cursed spirit's body swelled violently, countless watery blisters bulging across its surface before it exploded from within.
Water surged skyward, but not a drop landed on Mashiro. She had learned both its water-manipulation and sonic techniques.
Tide Echo-exorcised.
Murasame's blade grew hot, light flowing along it as it channeled the Grade 1 cursed spirit's cursed energy into Mashiro.
Mashiro assessed the changes within her. Her total cursed energy had risen considerably again, bringing her fully into the realm of a Grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer.
There were some other new changes, but now was not the time to investigate them.
"Nothing special. Not strong enough to interest me." She looked up at Nanami. "I can handle the next Grade 1 mission alone."
Nanami put away his blade and approached her, looking down at the dozens of holes in her clothes. "...Do you have to ruin an outfit on every mission?"
"Add a clothing allowance to the next budget."
"I was joking."
"I'm serious." Mashiro sheathed Murasame and lifted the sleeve dangling from her arm by only a few threads. "This time, add a pair of pants too."
"I'll discuss it with Window this afternoon." Nanami watched the small cuts on her arm already beginning to scab over and fell silent for a moment. She learned something new after every mission. That learning ability was frightening.
"How precise is your water control?" he asked.
"It depends on the volume. I could shape that water ball into needles. I'll have to test anything larger." Mashiro raised her hand, gathering the water from her clothes into a ball. "I should be able to control more near the sea or in the rain, but I'll need to test it in combat."
Nanami looked at the ball of water and asked, "Is it only water manipulation, or did you get the sonic waves too?"
"Both. That cursed spirit could make water vibrate at high frequencies." Mashiro waved her hand, scattering the ball into mist that refracted a small rainbow in the sunlight. "But right now, I can only use it to control water. Cutting with it will take practice."
"That's already enough." Nanami adjusted his glasses. "On the battlefield, every additional ability gives you another safeguard for survival. Your learning ability is the strongest I've ever seen."
Mashiro tugged at her dry collar and nodded in satisfaction. "At least I can dry my clothes."
Nanami silently looked down at his still-dripping suit. "Is that service unavailable to me?"
"Unavailable. Figure it out yourself, dependable adult."
As she spoke, she surveyed the warehouse and used her water-manipulation technique to drain all the water from it.
The warehouse's original appearance emerged once more. A maintenance door stood shut nearby, with a flashlight lying in front of it.
"He's still alive. He must have been swept into the pipes." Mashiro walked over, crouched down, and picked up the flashlight. "His cursed energy signature never actually disappeared. The water was just blocking it."
Nanami helped her push open the maintenance door leading to the underground pipes. Beyond it, stairs descended into a rush of briny air, and a faint response came from below.
Mashiro turned to Nanami. "He's not dead."
"I'll go down." Nanami took off his suit jacket, folded it on a dry step, and rolled up his sleeves. "Stay here and help me bring him up. The pipes are too narrow for two people to move through at once."
"You don't need me to go?"
"I haven't contributed anything this time." With that, Nanami headed down the stairs.
Mashiro stood at the entrance to the pipes, watching him disappear into the darkness, then looked down at the flashlight in her hand.
Then she turned and sat down, laid Murasame across her knees, and slowly traced circles on her knee with a finger as she waited.
Several minutes later, Nanami emerged from the pipes supporting a young man with a broken leg.
The young man was drenched, covered in seaweed and mud, and leaning on Nanami's shoulder. His face was very pale, but he was still reasonably alert. He froze briefly when he saw Mashiro sitting beside the water.
Her clothes were in tatters and wounds still marked her body, yet she remained perfectly composed.
This girl, who looked twelve or thirteen, had also taken part in the mission and fought a far more brutal battle than he had.
"Th-thank you." His voice was hoarse. After swallowing so much seawater and being trapped in the dark, he could barely form a complete sentence.
Mashiro lifted Murasame off her knees and returned it to her waist, then stood and examined the makeshift splint on his leg. Nanami must have fashioned it down below.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes."
"Good, then." She nodded and handed him the flashlight. "I picked this up for you."
The young man took the flashlight and lowered his head, falling silent for a moment. "I thought I was going to die here."
Mashiro had already turned toward the warehouse entrance. At his words, she stopped and looked back, her crimson eyes faintly glowing. "The information you sent was important. Go back and focus on recovering."
She continued outside, leaving wet footprints with every step.
Nanami helped the young man sit against the warehouse's outer wall, then took out his phone to request a support vehicle from Window. After ending that call, he dialed Satoru Gojo and gave him a rough account of the completed mission.
Meanwhile, Mashiro had already bought two cans of latte from a vending machine. She handed one to Nanami when he came over.
Nanami accepted it and glanced at the label. "Sweetened."
"Sweet tastes better."
Nanami said nothing. He pulled the tab and took a sip, while Mashiro leaned against the vending machine and drank slowly.
The sea breeze lifted a few strands of her silver hair, and she brushed them aside.
"Water manipulation. Sonic waves." Nanami suddenly spoke. "How many cursed techniques do you have now? Have you counted?"
Mashiro did not give him a number. "Haven't counted. As long as I have enough."
"Enough." Nanami repeated the word and tossed his empty can neatly into the trash. "But your method of learning is too dangerous. Every time, you have to observe your opponent up close in combat and expose yourself to their attacks. No matter how quickly you understand them, always charging to the front and taking hits isn't sustainable."
Mashiro glanced at him. "Do you even understand how the strong think?"
"All right, all right. I think like the weak." Nanami did not pursue the subject.
Remembering what Satoru Gojo had said over the phone, he relayed it to Mashiro. "Gojo asked me to tell you he wants a demonstration of the abilities you learned. He's also waiting to read your mission report."
"Let him write it himself." Mashiro threw her empty can into the trash. "Tell him if he wants a demonstration, he can trade me a report for it."
With that, she turned and left, casting a long shadow in the midday sunlight.
Since I'm updating with around 8k every day, please leave a few more comments, dear readers, meow. I don't want to write into the void, meow.
I hope you all enjoy reading, meow.
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