"Here, your ice cream."
"Oh, thank you, big sis Kugisaki!"
Mahiko took the ice cream and happily bit into it.
Nobara Kugisaki casually handed the other two to Jogo and Hanami.
Hanami murmured a soft "thank you" and accepted hers, then looked down at the pale pink scoop in her hand with quiet curiosity. She gave it a small lick. Her pointed ears twitched ever so slightly.
Jogo, on the other hand, stared at her ice cream with a perfectly flat expression. "What's so good about human food."
Nobara blinked. "Human food?"
A beat of silence.
Mahiko gave a very loud, very deliberate cough.
"Ahem! So, um—" She sidled up to Nobara and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial murmur, the unmistakable tone of someone about to share a juicy secret. "My big sis Jogo is actually super amazing, you know."
Nobara's curiosity was immediately piqued. "Super amazing? How so?"
Mahiko raised one solemn finger. "Big sis Jogo says she's a demon who possesses the Evil King's True Eye — not a human at all! So if you ever run into any other demons, just let me know and I'll pass it along — big sis Jogo can take care of them!"
Ah.
Nobara Kugisaki, Maki Fushiguro, and Maki Zenin all exchanged a look.
Right. Got it.
This was what they called Eighth Grade Syndrome.
Kids that age did go through phases like this, so it wasn't that surprising, was it? And with the hood and face mask, she did kind of look like the type — you know, the kind with a very active imagination.
Jogo glanced over at Mahiko, a questioning look flickering in those red eyes of hers — it was painfully clear she had no idea what "the Evil King's True Eye" was supposed to mean.
Mahiko waved her off, and while she was at it, snuck a sidelong eye-roll in Jogo's direction, silently expressing her displeasure at the slip-up.
Jogo frowned slightly but said nothing.
Hanami, meanwhile, quietly licked her ice cream beside them, as if she hadn't heard a single word.
"By the way—" Mahiko's gaze landed on the knife at Maki Zenin's hip, and her eyes lit up. "Big sis, that knife is so cool!"
"Oh…" Maki Zenin glanced down at her hip. "You mean this?"
Maki Zenin was a tall, sharp-looking girl with her hair in a high ponytail, glasses perched on her nose — the definition of cool. She was a second-year student at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu Technical College.
Come to think of it, most of the female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen tended to be the cool, capable type, and if you had to name the coolest among them, Maki Zenin would be at the top of that list without question.
Maki had no Cursed Energy and no Jujutsu Technique to speak of — but what she had was extraordinary physical talent. She carried a half-formed Heavenly Restriction, and even in that incomplete state, her physical specs far exceeded any ordinary person's. Add to that her relentless training regimen, and her actual combat ability was formidable.
Because she had no Cursed Energy, however, she couldn't perceive Cursed Spirits with the naked eye — hence the glasses, which allowed her to see them.
She also kept cursed tools on her at all times — weapons imbued with Cursed Energy, designed specifically so that someone without Cursed Energy of their own could still harm Cursed Spirits.
The knife at Maki's hip was one such cursed tool.
While Mahiko was busy playing the role of the innocent, wide-eyed little girl, both Jogo and Hanami had inconspicuously shifted their attention to the blade at Maki Zenin's side.
It did radiate a faint trace of Cursed Energy. Faint enough, though — nothing worth worrying about.
Jogo narrowed her eyes slightly, then looked away.
Maki Zenin, for her part, let out a small laugh, reached out and ruffled Mahiko's head, then actually unclipped the cursed tool from her hip and held it out for Mahiko to examine — speaking in the indulgent, coddling tone of someone humoring a small child. "That's right. This knife can slay ghosts, you know."
Mahiko took it with both hands and arranged her face into an expression of wide-eyed amazement. "Really?! That's so cool!"
In truth, Mahiko's appearance wasn't particularly childlike.
And yet — for some reason, perhaps because she played the part of innocent naivety just a little too convincingly — people always seemed to unconsciously assume she was some sheltered, know-nothing little girl who hadn't seen the world.
And watching Mahiko put on that saccharine, pure-as-snow act, Jogo's brow twitched violently.
Good lord…
Why was this girl suddenly talking in that cloying, baby-ish voice? Why was she acting so cute?
Gross. So gross.
Jogo hurriedly rubbed her own arms.
Cursed Spirits, of course, had no name for the sensation — she only knew that her skin was prickling all over in waves.
She had a very strong urge to complain about it. Loudly.
"Oh! Look at this one!" Nobara Kugisaki suddenly had her attention snatched by something in the shop window beside them. She plucked a piece of clothing off the rack and held it out in front of Mahiko. "I think this would look so good on you!"
Mahiko smiled and said a polite "thank you" first, then shook her head. "I'm not here to buy things for myself this time — I'm here to bring these two big sisters of mine who don't get out much. We're buying something for big sis Hanami right now."
Buying for big sis Hanami?
Nobara's gaze shifted to Hanami, sweeping over her from head to toe, her eyes growing brighter with every second. "Are you a model? Your figure is incredible!"
Hanami smiled gently. "Thank you. You're very beautiful too."
Oh wow — she looks like that and she's this polite too?!
This was way too much goodness in one person!
Nobara immediately spun around and elbowed Maki Fushiguro with delight. "Did you hear that? A total beauty just complimented me!"
Maki Fushiguro rolled her eyes and didn't bother responding.
The girl has an eye patch on — she obviously can't see what you look like — and you still take the compliment at face value. How much self-confidence do you even have.
Although, speaking of the eye patch…
Watching the way Hanami moved and walked, Maki Fushiguro couldn't detect anything resembling the behavior of a blind person.
Hm…
Remarkable.
Apparently, blind individuals who develop a strong sensitivity to environmental information really could achieve something like this after long years of training and trial and error.
Even so — it must take enormous effort.
"Oh! Right this way." Nobara had already taken Hanami by the arm and was steering her forward, coming to a stop in front of a boutique whose doorway was draped in beautiful dresses. She gestured with a flourish. "Hanami absolutely has to wear something from this place."
Maki Zenin smiled and added, "Little sis Fushiguro should try something from here too — she'd look adorable."
Maki Fushiguro's expression darkened. "No."
Absolutely not. Over her dead body.
Her dignity told her that if she put on something like that, she would lose everything — and by everything, she meant several things that were very important to her.
She absolutely refused.
Her resistance, however, was irrelevant — Maki Zenin had already seized her arm and was marching her inside. "Come on, come on."
Maki Fushiguro, of course, could not break free from Maki Zenin's inhuman grip, and so she was unceremoniously dragged in.
"Let me see…"
Mahiko made a circuit of the shop, her gaze moving along the rows of hanging garments. She mentally recalled Hanami's build, her aura, her coloring — then selected a piece and sent Hanami off to try it on.
A few minutes later, the fitting room curtain was pulled aside.
The Hanami who stepped out made everyone's eyes go wide — Jogo included.
"Mm… is it strange?" Hanami tugged at her skirt self-consciously.
Mahiko shook her head emphatically, rubbed under her nose, and stuck up a big thumbs up. "It's a perfect fit. Absolutely perfect."
The white-and-green dress draped over Hanami's frame worked beautifully against her golden hair, lending the whole ensemble an air of mystery and quiet elegance.
Truly, genuinely stunning.
Nobara Kugisaki jogged over, produced a wide-brimmed cream sun hat from somewhere, and plopped it right onto Hanami's head. "Now it's perfect!"
Maki Fushiguro observed dryly, "It's cold out. That's a bit much for summer vibes, don't you think."
Then she got elbowed.
Pap.
Then a piece of clothing hit her in the face.
"Your turn, little sis Fushiguro — you can't be left out!"
"Left out of what?… Ah," Maki Fushiguro looked down at the price tag, and her expression shifted. "This is so expensive. This is the kind of thing you'd never actually buy — so why even try it on?"
Nobara grinned. "You don't get it. Shopping with your girlfriends isn't about buying — it's about the experience of trying things on."
Maki Fushiguro let out a deeply baffled: "Huh?"
She wanted to look at the outrageous number on the tag again to make sure she hadn't misread it, but Nobara had already shoved her into the fitting room without further debate.
Some time passed.
The curtain parted. Maki Fushiguro stepped out, expression thunderous.
"Wow." A note of genuine admiration escaped Mahiko.
A formal gown.
A long dress in dusty purple-grey, the hem falling all the way to her ankles — and honestly, it suited Maki Fushiguro's slightly shadowed, brooding aesthetic to an almost unfair degree.
Black hair. Deep green eyes. Pale skin… paired with the purple-black fabric, she looked like something straight out of a fairy tale — specifically, the kind with a morally questionable, darkly alluring second princess who was also the villain.
"Sis Kugisaki has such amazing taste!"
"And little sis Mahiko is no slouch either!"
The two of them, inexplicably, began high-fiving each other.
With everyone's eyes on her, Maki Fushiguro's face started to flush. She grabbed her own arm with one hand, gaze sliding off to the side, expression caught somewhere between mortified and helpless.
"…Done looking?" The hem of the skirt was bunched between her fingertips, being kneaded unconsciously. "If you're done, I'm going to go change."
Nobara and Maki Zenin both laughed — they both knew when teasing had run its course. Seeing how much Maki Fushiguro was resisting, they let it go. Time to find her some actual everyday clothes.
Maki Fushiguro, realizing the others had gotten it out of their system, let out a breath and turned to head back and change.
And then.
All of a sudden.
"Big sis Fushiguro."
A voice came from her side.
Maki Fushiguro turned. Mahiko was standing right beside her, head tilted back, eyes shining up at her.
"You know, big sis Fushiguro, you're so beautiful." The blue-haired girl's voice carried something completely genuine — admiration without a trace of artifice. "Do you think I could be that beautiful someday too?"
Maki Fushiguro froze.
She looked into the girl's clear eyes.
You're way cuter than me, you know.
That was her first instinct.
But looking at that bright, earnest light in the girl's eyes, she suddenly understood — what the girl was reaching for wasn't the cuteness of childhood, or even physical beauty on its own. It was the kind of composure that came with growing up. A maturity she didn't have yet.
This was a longing for the person she might one day become.
Maki Fushiguro let out a soft laugh. Without thinking, her expression gentled.
She reached out and lightly patted Mahiko on the head.
"You'll get there. When you grow up, you will."
Mahiko's eyes went wide, sparkling. "For real?"
Maki Fushiguro nodded. "For real. I'm sure of it."
Mahiko's smile broke into something even brighter. She rose up on her tiptoes and leaned in a little closer.
"Then — big sis Fushiguro, can you grant me one wish?"
Maki Fushiguro blinked slightly. "A wish?"
The girl gave a very serious nod. "Yes. A wish."
Maki Fushiguro figured that whatever this girl asked for, it couldn't possibly be anything unreasonable. And in a moment like this one, with this particular atmosphere — she felt it would be wrong to do anything that might shatter the small, precious, pure little dream glowing inside this girl.
So she nodded and let a warm smile settle onto her face. "I can. What's your wish?"
The girl grinned — bright and absolutely innocent-looking — and brought out the hand she had been hiding behind her back the whole time.
In it dangled a bikini. An extremely revealing one.
Still smiling that perfectly pure smile: "I want to see big sis Fushiguro at her most mature!"
The warm smile on Maki Fushiguro's face froze solid.
____
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