Getting things in order

After leaving the alley, Mashiro found a deserted corner to check her injuries.

She had plenty of wounds, but most had already stopped bleeding and scabbed over. The ones contaminated with various toxins were healing a little more slowly, but they were still gradually closing up.

My body really is tough, and it heals quickly too. At least I'm not a pushover anymore.

With my adaptation ability, as long as I don't get killed in one hit and have enough time to adapt to my enemy's attacks, I'll get stronger the longer I fight.

But if there are too many enemies, or too many different kinds of attacks, things will get tricky.

She mentally reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of her abilities. After a while, she came back to herself and took out the fifty thousand yen she had just received.

"My first earnings. Not much, but at least food and lodging are covered for the next few days." Mashiro considered how to spend the money.

"Clothes and a phone are necessities too. And..." Mashiro lowered her head and sniffed herself. "I stink, and I'm all sticky. I need somewhere to stay."

She stood up and stepped back into the night.

The twenty-four-hour supermarket in Shibuya glowed with cold white light.

Mashiro pushed a shopping cart between the shelves. At this late hour, the supermarket held only a few office workers buying coffee to get through the night and some convenience store clerks. No one gave her a second glance.

First, she picked out two inexpensive sets of clothes, shoes, and socks, all black so they wouldn't show dirt as easily.

She also grabbed a baseball cap. Her appearance was far too striking; any little bit she could hide would help.

Then she went to the food section. Looking at the boxed meals that could only fill a bird-sized stomach, she gritted her teeth and bought three, along with bottled water and a large sports bag.

She stopped at the toiletries section and bought what she needed, all in the smallest sizes for easy carrying.

At checkout, a sleepy-looking middle-aged woman scanned her purchases without expression and announced the total.

"Twenty-one thousand yen."

Mashiro counted out the bills and handed them over, then took her change and the bulging shopping bags.

When she left the supermarket, she had a heavy bag on her back, but her wallet was half as thick.

"Twenty-nine thousand left..." she calculated. "I need somewhere cheap to stay. The phone will have to wait until tomorrow."

A hotel wouldn't work. She had no identification, and she was too young. Spending the night at an internet café was an option, but places like that had too many people and prying eyes, making them unsuitable for someone who needed to hide a sword.

She remembered a place she had seen while passing by earlier.

A capsule hotel tucked into an alley on the outskirts of Shibuya. Its sign was old and its lights dim, with a notice by the entrance reading, "Open 24 hours. 3,000 yen per stay."

Mashiro pushed the door open. A balding middle-aged man sat at the front desk, looking down at his phone. When he heard the door chime, he looked up and paused at the sight of a little silver-haired girl.

"Little girl, are you sure you're in the right place?"

"One stay." Mashiro placed three thousand yen on the counter, keeping her face lowered and her cap pulled low.

The man glanced at the money, then looked her over. "You're... alone?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any ID?"

"No."

The man frowned. "Little girl, we have rules here-"

"Double the price." Mashiro cut him off, drew out another three thousand-yen bills, and gently set them beside the first stack.

This is a necessary expense.

Mashiro suppressed the sting of parting with the money.

The man fell silent for a few seconds, his gaze moving between the bills and her lowered cap. Finally, he swept the money into a drawer and took out a key. "Room 307. The bathroom's at the end of the first floor. Check out before ten in the morning."

"Thank you."

Mashiro took the key and climbed the narrow stairs with her bag on her back.

The capsule room certainly lived up to its name: about two meters long, a meter and a half wide, and no more than two meters tall. Inside were only a thin mattress, a blanket, and a tiny shelf.

But for Mashiro right now, that was enough.

She organized the contents of her bag, ate all three boxed meals, and headed to the bathroom with a clean set of clothes and her toiletries.

The bathroom was communal, but it was three in the morning, so naturally she was alone. She locked the door and turned on the hot water.

Warm water flowed over her body, washing away the blood and sweat.

She looked down at her wounds. The scabbed areas itched faintly under the running water, a sign that they were healing.

Her adaptation ability didn't just work in combat. It also let her recover far faster than an ordinary person.

She carefully washed her body and hair. Now that she looked like such a cute girl, she ought to take a little more care to stay clean.

After washing, she stood before the mirror, she stood before the mirror, quietly studying the silver-haired girl reflected in it.

A cute face, silver hair, red eyes, and skin so pale it was almost translucent. The Dharma Wheel above her head added a touch of otherworldly beauty.

"Kujou... Mashiro." She raised a hand to touch the mirror and murmured her own name, then smiled softly. "It sounds pretty nice."

She didn't particularly care that she had turned into a girl. If anything, looking at her cute appearance made her happy.

Could this be the result of adaptation too?

Mashiro pondered that as she dried herself, changed into clean clothes, and stuffed the dirty ones into a plastic bag.

Forget it. No point thinking about it. Worst case, the pilot just crashes her plane.

Mashiro gave up on digging deeper and returned to her room, quietly humming a song.

The room was tiny, but she wasn't tall either. At 144 centimeters, she could lie down easily. She placed Murasame beside her, ready to draw at any moment.

She closed her eyes, but didn't fall asleep immediately, instead thinking about where to go from here.

Accumulating cursed energy was far too slow. Murasame could absorb the cursed energy released when cursed spirits died, but the amount was pitiful.

At this rate, she would probably have to deal with more than a dozen grade 3 cursed spirits to reach Grade 2.

"This is so inefficient..." she murmured with a sigh.

But she had no better options for now. She rolled over and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Birdsong and the sounds of other guests outside her door woke Mashiro. She glanced at the clock in the room: seven in the morning.

Her body had almost fully recovered. Her wounds had mostly healed, leaving only faint red marks. She stretched her limbs and felt pretty good.

Checkout was at ten, but she had no intention of lingering.

She packed her things and shouldered her bag, hanging Murasame at her waist and partially concealing the sword under her jacket. After putting on her cap, she waited until the voices in the hallway gradually faded before leaving her room.

When she left the capsule hotel, a young woman had taken over at the front desk. She merely glanced up at Mashiro without asking any questions.

Mashiro stepped into the early morning streets of Shibuya.

Early risers were already out. Office workers hurried past with briefcases, students headed toward the station in twos and threes, and employees swept outside breakfast shops.

She found a café, bought a breakfast set of coffee and bread, and sat by the window, watching the street as she ate.

At this hour, the concentration of cursed energy in the air was much lower than at night. Most cursed spirits lurked in the shadows, waiting for nightfall, but there were always exceptions.

She spotted a fly head clinging to the side of a building across the road, slowly squirming. Farther away, in a small park, she sensed the faint presence of a grade 3 cursed spirit.

They were all too ordinary. Window would take care of them.

Window was a monitoring organization within Jujutsu Society, responsible for gathering intelligence on cursed spirits and planning and assigning missions.

It consisted mainly of people who could see cursed spirits but had little cursed energy and no cursed technique.

Mashiro ate the last bite of bread, finished her coffee, and got up to leave.

She went to a phone shop and spent ten thousand yen on a secondhand phone. She didn't have much money left.

But that wasn't her priority now.

"All right, fed and watered. Time to start hunting."

Thinking about the cursed energy she could absorb after exorcising cursed spirits, Mashiro licked her lips and broke into an excited smile.