Masamichi Yaga looked at his smug young master Gojo and Suguru Geto, who should not have been there, and suddenly felt a splitting headache coming on.
"Don't the Gojo Clan and the Miwa family have ties?"
Masamichi Yaga made one last attempt. Those ties were precisely why the higher-ups had chosen Satoru Gojo for this mission, but the choice now looked like a complete failure.
"Miss Miwa seems to have some grievances with Jujutsu Society. We may need to work a little harder." Suguru Geto was telling the truth, though he left out Satoru Gojo's misdeeds.
Masamichi Yaga sighed, but Satoru Gojo suddenly spoke up beside him.
"Getting the Miwa family into Jujutsu High was the higher-ups' idea, right?"
Masamichi Yaga thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know the specifics, but the mission definitely came from the higher-ups."
"What, those old fossils suddenly grew a conscience and want to bring them back into the fold?"
Satoru Gojo gave a soft snort. Though he hated that Miwa family brat, he had no objection to the girl's reluctance to return to Jujutsu Society.
"Satoru, some things aren't ours to decide," Masamichi Yaga reminded him. "But at least Jujutsu Society wants to recognize the Miwa family again now."
The statement was so vague that it made Satoru Gojo's head hurt.
Still, if that Miwa family brat came to Jujutsu High, he could beat her until she cried. That sounded pretty good.
"I'll see what I can do."
"Classes started a month ago. Arrange for Miwa to enroll as soon as possible."
Masamichi Yaga set a deadline, earning a disgruntled "Tch" from Satoru Gojo, just as expected.
"I'd like to join this mission too."
Suguru Geto eagerly volunteered. He was hardly a model of dedication; he was simply looking forward to watching Satoru Gojo get put in his place.
Masamichi Yaga nodded, thinking that things should go more smoothly with Suguru Geto involved.
Probably?
Meanwhile, Miwa Chisei, who had received that unexpected visit from the two boys, was leisurely packing up her little stall. She patted the fifty thousand yen in her pocket. It was her first sale that week.
Compared with the fortune-telling services all along the street that cost around two thousand yen, her price was admittedly outrageous.
But hers was fortune-telling from the Miwa family.
She returned to the small apartment she rented not far from the shopping street. The rent here was cheap enough for Miwa Chisei to afford.
She switched on the orange light. The room was bare, and she lived there alone. Half a carton of milk left over from breakfast sat in the fridge.
I need to save a little. Ramen for dinner again, then.
As she watched the ramen bubbling on the stove, the girl's long silver hair looked less cold and lonely under the warm light. Without her sunglasses, her features were exquisitely delicate, hinting at the stunning beauty she would become when she grew up.
Go to Jujutsu High?
Her hand drifted unconsciously to the area around her eyes.
Because of these eyes, she had suffered so much bullying at school throughout her childhood. Countless people had called her a monster.
An exiled Jujutsu family, suppressed both openly and covertly for five hundred years, had gradually been reduced to barely scraping by even in the world of ordinary people.
Her wish was simple: keep the Miwa family line from dying out.
So why should she desperately cling to the world that had abandoned her family?
What's wrong with living an ordinary, mundane life like this?
She turned off the heat. The mildly spicy scent of ramen filled the air as Miwa Chisei carried the small pot to the table and pressed her palms together in a prayer before eating.
Please let me have meat tomorrow.
After her earnest wish, the doorbell rang. Whoever was outside seemed impatient, and the ringing grew more insistent with each passing moment.
Miwa Chisei glanced at the clock, calculated the direction and the visitor's cursed energy trajectory, and promptly decided to pretend she was out.
To her surprise, his brash voice rang out beyond the door. "Open up, or I'm kicking it down."
With a resigned sigh, Miwa Chisei rose and opened the apartment door. A tall figure immediately filled the small doorway, the setting sun behind him tracing an attractive silhouette. It was quite a pleasing sight.
Miwa Chisei merely narrowed her eyes, inwardly lamenting her rotten luck.
"So you are home."
The silver-haired boy grinned and strode inside without invitation, making sure to offer his opinion. "The ceiling's way too low. Are you a hobbit?"
His arrival made the thirty-square-meter apartment feel cramped. Miwa Chisei shut the door, returned to the table, and sat straight down on her cushion without offering him anything.
"You're supposed to bring a gift when you visit someone's home. Beef, for instance."
Miwa Chisei took a bite of instant noodles, utterly unconcerned with how he had found her home.
He was a young master from one of the Three Great Families, after all. He could afford to do as he pleased.
Satoru Gojo plopped down across from Miwa Chisei and got straight to the point. "Sure. Come to Jujutsu High with me, and I'll give you beef."
"Not happening."
"Hey, hey, hey, don't be so cold. We're practically..."
Miwa Chisei slapped her chopsticks down on the table, displeasure filling her blood-red eyes. "The Miwa family has nothing to do with Jujutsu Society anymore."
Satoru Gojo propped his cheek on his hand and studied the girl across from him. She brought up the Miwa family at every opportunity.
"You don't have the authority to speak for the Miwa family, do you?"
His words seemed to strike a nerve. She drew an Omamori from inside her kimono, black on one side and white on the other, threaded with a red cord, and hung it around Miwa Chisei's neck.
At the sight of the Omamori, Satoru Gojo's carefree expression vanished.
"My father passed away last year. I'm the current head of the Miwa family."
"Your father..."
"Right. Who would remember the Miwa family?"
The Miwa family had lost its ancestral home and shrine. Its so-called head was merely whoever held the Sun and Moon Charm. Her father had only one child, so the Sun and Moon Charm had passed to her.
The dark kimono she wore had belonged to her father when he was alive. It was the attire the head of the Miwa family had favored.
When her father died, she had actually written to the Gojo Clan, hoping they could help fund his funeral rites, but she had never received a reply.
Satoru Gojo was only a child. Even with the "six eyes," he had no authority over clan affairs yet, so this had nothing to do with him. Miwa Chisei understood that perfectly well and would not hold it against him.
"Now, may I speak for the Miwa family?"
Miwa Chisei's expression was not sorrowful. If anything, it was a little numb.
Yet Satoru Gojo felt as though the girl's blood-red eyes were about to see straight through his soul.
He could only avert his gaze, which happened to land on her bowl of ramen. It did not even have vegetables or an egg. That was downright pitiful.
"Let's change the subject. How about I take you out for dinner?"
The change of subject was so abrupt that Miwa Chisei blinked.
"Buying me dinner won't make me go to Jujutsu High."
"I just want to buy you dinner. Got a problem with that?"
"Then I want premium wagyu."
"You really don't hold back..."
Satoru Gojo complained, but he did not refuse. Then he watched the girl take off her dark kimono right in front of him.
"What are you doing?!" Satoru Gojo suddenly shouted, a suspicious flush rising to his face.
Miwa Chisei stood and looked at him in confusion. Beneath the kimono, she wore a pale camisole and shorts that outlined her slender, still-developing figure.
"I need to change if we're going out to eat."
Satoru Gojo felt he had overreacted. She had clothes on underneath after all.
He cleared his throat and awkwardly turned his head away. "Hurry up."
Miwa Chisei simply grabbed a jacket. "Done."
When Satoru Gojo looked back, he was met with the glaring sight of her fair, straight legs.
"Put on long pants! It's only April!"
Miwa Chisei thought he was being an outrageous busybody. She rolled her eyes and decided to pretend she had not heard him.
"Satoru Gojo, you're going to step in dog poop when you go outside."
"Fuck."
A thousand curses finally condensed into a single word, revealing just how furious he was.
Before you continue