Matching Wits with Thin Air

Megumi Fushiguro looked sadly at the fallen sparrow. Fond as he was of small animals, he hated to see it hurt, but he knew this was the best way to test the food. All he could do was sigh and hold out his hand.

"Give it to me! Whatever else, it died for us. We should at least find somewhere to bury it."

Aikawa Kaze blinked, held back a smile, and handed over the little sparrow.

Megumi Fushiguro carefully cradled the little bundle of feathers. His palms could still feel the sparrow's lingering warmth, along with breathing so faint it was almost imperceptible... Huh?

Feeling the tiny creature stir, Megumi Fushiguro widened his eyes. He gently pressed his fingers against the sparrow's body to check, and his eyes lit up.

"It's okay!"

"Of course it is. Even if they wanted to cut out our organs and sell them, they'd need the skills and equipment to do it."

There had to be a reason. Even murdering someone for money required some basic calculation of risks and rewards, didn't it?

If all they wanted was the little money the two of them were carrying, it hardly warranted risking murder.

If human trafficking was involved, there was even less reason to kill them. That possibility was fairly unlikely, though. They weren't children too young to remember things, nor were they female.

In the eyes of ordinary people who knew nothing about the Jujutsu Society, they probably weren't worth much.

"But even if it's only a sedative, that's enough to prove he means us harm-maybe this entire village is doing something shady."

"..."

Megumi Fushiguro's newly relaxed expression turned wary again. He carefully set the little sparrow beneath the potted plant beside the bed, looking thoughtful.

"You mean..."

"Isn't this the perfect chance to uncover the village's 'secret'?"

"Okay."

Megumi Fushiguro nodded, seeing nothing wrong with the idea.

With their combined strength, a group of ordinary people posed no danger whatsoever.

Even in the worst-case scenario, where the locals had firearms, Megumi Fushiguro was fully confident in his ability to summon shikigami. At worst, they could leave first and come back later to resolve the situation.

Megumi Fushiguro had really gone to great lengths for his little brother's safety. Left to his usual temperament, he would never have proceeded so cautiously or considered so many possibilities.

"Nue!"

Watching Megumi Fushiguro summon the human-faced owl in advance, Aikawa Kaze nodded approvingly. Thoroughly cautious-he liked that!

Ordinary people couldn't see Nue anyway, so having Nue stand by like this wasn't a bad idea.

Still, words alone weren't proof. Even if they witnessed evidence of a crime themselves, their verbal testimony wouldn't be convincing enough.

With that in mind, Aikawa Kaze switched on his phone's recording function.

"My phone has a lot of important information on it. If they confiscate it, they might damage it. How about asking Nue to hold on to it? Nue can follow us the whole time and preserve the evidence."

"Wouldn't other people see a phone floating in midair, then?"

Megumi Fushiguro shook his head, glanced at Aikawa Kaze's phone screen, and immediately understood.

"I see. You want to record them? I should have brought a disguised miniature voice recorder or something..."

He sounded a little annoyed with himself, and Aikawa Kaze realized the problem as well.

Once they pretended to be unconscious, they would definitely be searched. Their phones wouldn't be safe then, let alone remain on them to record anything.

Although it wouldn't be difficult to report the village using their testimony and the Jujutsu Society's influence, whenever he thought of Suguru Geto watching them from some unknown location...

Aikawa Kaze felt it would be better to have solid evidence they could use in the ordinary world, if possible.

"Oh, right. I bought a present for Sakura a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to give it to her yet. It happens to have a recording function. I originally meant it for the kids to record their lessons."

As though something had just occurred to him, Aikawa Kaze rummaged through his trench coat pocket and pulled out a little box.

"A phone is too obvious, but we might be able to hide a watch."

The adorable little pink watch had several functions. He had originally intended it as a gift for Sakura, but it came in handy now.

Hiding a phone would be hard to explain to Megumi, but a small girls' watch would be much easier.

He only needed to take it out when he wanted to record, then put it straight into the Four-Dimensional Pocket afterward. Something so small was easy to hide, and taking it out wouldn't draw much attention either.

Just as they settled on a tool for gathering evidence, the old man's heavy footsteps and several overlapping voices happened to sound outside the door.

The two exchanged a glance, quickly dumped the food out the window to dispose of it, then slumped over the table in unison, closing their eyes and pretending to be unconscious.

"Heh heh heh... Hahahaha! Two prime specimens arrived on the very day of the sacrifice. This must be a sign from the Mountain God!"

"B-but, Village Chief, we've always sacrificed girls before. These two may be fair-skinned and tender, but they're definitely boys!"

"Hmph. At this point, unless we can find that monster again, where else are we supposed to get a sacrifice?!"

"I heard Dazhuang found something suspicious about Sentaro. If we just follow him..."

"Very well. Catching that monster would be best, of course. The Mountain God would certainly be pleased with that sacrifice. But if we can't find it... we'll have to prepare for both possibilities... Tie them up and throw them in the Firewood Shed first!"

"Yes!"

"..."

As Megumi Fushiguro and Aikawa Kaze lay in speechless silence, their hands and feet were bound and they were locked in the Firewood Shed. Their kidnappers showed no caution whatsoever, merely locking the door before leaving.

Jujutsu sorcerers had keen hearing. Once they were sure no one was nearby, Aikawa Kaze and Megumi Fushiguro opened their eyes at the same time, momentarily at a loss for words.

These people had tied the ropes quite tightly, but they hadn't searched either of them at all. Never mind unfamiliar gadgets like phones-they hadn't even taken away the utility knife Megumi Fushiguro carried.

If he had to put the feeling into words, it would probably be...

"It's like we've been matching wits with thin air."

Speechless, Aikawa Kaze broke free of the ropes and paused the recording. Unfortunately, the recording was somewhat vague and didn't clearly establish a crime, but it could still serve as supporting evidence.

"Megumi, need a hand?"

"No."

Looking equally exasperated, Megumi Fushiguro took the knife from his pocket and cut through his ropes, comforting the embarrassed-looking Aikawa Kaze.

"Kaze, it's not your fault you thought things through. They're just too unprofessional... Ahem, I mean, there seems to be some good news. They probably aren't habitual offenders, so there shouldn't be many victims."

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better..."

Aikawa Kaze covered his face, feeling inexplicably humiliated.

Caution was clearly a virtue, but perhaps because their enemies were so utterly lame, everything he had just done seemed incredibly fucking stupid.

"Forget it... Megumi, I'm suddenly thinking that maybe all we need to do is charge straight at them?"