The forest draped over the foothills like a curtain, with a small stream winding through it like a serpent. At times, it trickled gently over pebbles like a light rain, while at others, it surged wildly down cliffs like a roaring waterfall.
Maki made her way through the forest and soon arrived by the stream.
She didn't have to wait long before hearing footsteps behind her—deliberately light, as if someone was trying to sneak up on her.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out the next moment.
A bullet tore through the air, aimed straight for Maki's back.
But Maki moved faster than the bullet. The instant it left the barrel, she turned, her naginata flashing like a blade of steel. The incoming bullet was deflected as if it had struck an alloy plate.
Maki glanced in the direction the bullet had ricocheted.
Just a rubber bullet.
At the muzzle velocity of a revolver, even if it hit a person, it wouldn't be life-threatening. Even if cursed energy were used to enhance its power, a sorcerer could still block it by reinforcing their body with cursed energy. After all, the exchange event generally didn't allow fatalities.
"To think you'd come to a place like this alone, Maki. Even you can be this careless!"
Mai stepped out from the thicket where she had been hiding, her face alight with satisfaction.
"Call me 'big sister.'"
Maki rested the naginata on her shoulder, her expression calm.
"I knew you'd follow me from the start. But I still came alone."
Her demeanor made it seem like she didn't consider Mai a threat at all.
She had anticipated the pursuit but still acted alone—meaning she never saw Mai as a danger to begin with?
The thought stung, and Mai's face twisted with anger, as if pricked by invisible barbs.
"That face of yours—always fearless, always charging ahead without hesitation—it's just as disgusting as ever!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots thundered in rapid succession.
Three bullets shot toward Maki almost simultaneously, forming a triangular pattern aimed at her head and chest—three vital points.
Mai's hands were steady, as steady as an Olympic champion's. Having chosen the gun as her weapon, she had practiced marksmanship since childhood, forced by internal and external pressures to train for hours every day. Among the students of both schools, her shooting skills were unmatched.
These bullets wouldn't kill Maki, but they would make her taste the same pain Mai had endured for so long!
Clang—!
But to Maki, the bullets—which would be too fast for an ordinary person to see—were as clear as pellets from a toy gun.
She didn't even need to exert a tenth of her strength. With a single swing of her naginata, like a child playing a matching game, she intercepted all three bullets, deflecting or knocking them away. The metallic clangs merged into a single, continuous sound.
After this volley was effortlessly blocked, Maki saw a flicker of unmistakable panic cross Mai's face.
Expressionless, Maki took a step forward.
Mai instinctively retreated a few steps before gritting her teeth and turning to flee into the forest behind her. She ducked behind a tree for cover, extending the barrel of her gun from the bushes where Maki couldn't easily spot her.
Bang! Bang!
Two more bullets came flying.
But Maki's eyes were like high-speed cameras. No matter how hard Mai tried, the last two bullets were deflected like powerless cotton with a swing of her blade.
A revolver held six bullets in total—and she had fired all six.
Mai took cover behind a tree, likely aware of her predicament, intending to use the concealment to reload.
"This is getting nowhere."
Maki sighed imperceptibly.
She hoped the request she had made to Roy-sensei would give Mai a harbor to retreat to.
But she wouldn't hand over victory—not even to her own little sister!
She quickened her pace, aiming to end the fight swiftly and return to support Yuji's side.
Bang!
Yet in that instant—a moment with no opening—another bullet shot out from the bushes.
Less than a second's gap. No time to reload.
This was the seventh bullet, present from the very beginning!
As if caught off guard, the bullet struck with the precision of a homing fang, hitting Maki square in the face!
The impact snapped her head back.
"It worked!"
Mai had staked all her hopes on this single bullet. Seeing it hit Maki's face, her spirits soared, and she stepped out from behind the tree with a triumphant grin.
Unlike Maki, who was born with zero cursed energy, Mai was born with both cursed energy and a technique.
But her cursed energy reserves were mediocre—below even the average sorcerer, barely hovering around Grade 3. Her low aptitude had made her the target of scorn and ridicule within the Zenin clan.
Her technique, however, was quite remarkable.
Her technique was Construction—the ability to create matter from scratch using cursed energy. The constructed objects wouldn't vanish even if the cursed energy sustaining them was lost. The moment they were made, they became genuine, tangible items. In essence, she used cursed energy to manifest real objects.
Of course, she couldn't construct just anything. The prerequisite was understanding the material she intended to create. Conceptual substances that existed only in fantasy—like imagining an element and assigning it arbitrary properties—were beyond her ability.
Moreover, Construction was extremely taxing, both in terms of cursed energy and physical strain. Given Mai's constitution and cursed energy reserves, producing a single bullet in a day was her limit—and that was only when she was at full strength.
The reason she used a revolver was to create the illusion that she only had six bullets. Once her opponent fell for it, the seventh bullet would pierce right through them!
"So this was your trump card?"
Maki turned her head, shifting her gaze back to Mai in an instant.
"No way! You took a direct hit...!"
Mai, who had thought she'd turned the tables, froze in disbelief as Maki looked back at her, seemingly unharmed. Her face twisted in frustration.
Well, not entirely unharmed.
A faint red mark had appeared on Maki's forehead.
It was so slight you'd miss it if you weren't looking—like a mosquito bite. Not even a scratch!
Infinite closeness to unharmed.
Maki had no cursed energy.
She could only rely on her physical body to withstand it.
Even so, she only suffered a minor reddening of the skin.
In other words, the last bullet she had pinned her hopes on—no, to begin with, a weapon like a pistol, no matter how many bullets it fired, even if it could spew bullets endlessly—could never have harmed Mai in the slightest from the very start!
"...You've gotten stronger?"
Mai clenched her teeth so tightly it seemed she wanted to shatter her jaw, glaring at Maki with hatred.
"The old you, though your body was as tough as an elephant's, would never have been able to shrug off a bullet like it was nothing!"
That was right.
No matter how she thought about it, the only possibility was that Maki had grown stronger!
But Mai despised that strength with every fiber of her being!
"It's always like this! You get stronger, forcing me to get stronger too! You work hard, so I have to work hard too! I don't have some grand ideal I absolutely must achieve, nor do I have your unyielding will. I just wanted to live peacefully in the Zenin family, to coast through life—why couldn't you be like me...?!"
Why couldn't you just live carelessly with me?
Why couldn't you just sink into depravity with me?
The Zenin family's rules were so strict that they showed no mercy even to their own kin.
Maki and Mai's father was the elder brother of the current family head, making them the head's own nieces.
Yet, despite being the head's nieces, simply because they were born with poor innate talent, they were ordered to live like servants, handling household chores from childhood—washing clothes, cooking, sweeping—tasks meant for servants, forced upon the two sisters. Even if they were bullied, no one in the family would stand up for them.
The Zenin clan was like an ancient aristocracy surviving in the modern era, preserving all its worst traditions, turning the family into a swamp deep in the jungle—murky and reeking of rot.
Living in such a family, one either shone brilliantly, becoming the center of attention, or fell to the bottom, erasing their identity to serve as slaves, knowing only obedience and servitude to the former for the rest of their lives.
Mai was the latter.
Having always been in the position of the protected younger sister, she had no ability to maintain her sense of self in the mire. Her protective facade, as fragile as mud, crumbled easily under the weight of the family's toxic customs.
She was well aware that she had willingly embraced depravity, that her personality was nothing more than third-rate.
Her arrogance was merely a cover for her deep-seated inferiority.
The moment she faced true authority, that arrogance would shatter like mud, exposing her nature—discarding dignity, willingly sinking into depravity.
Just like when she faced Roy.
Obedient, submissive, eyes lowered.
That was the survival tactic she had learned in the Zenin family when facing those in power.
"This power wasn't something I gained on my own."
Maki looked at the hatred etched on Mai's face and understood its source.
It wasn't Maki herself that Mai hated—it was the fact that she had left her behind.
—As long as my sister is by my side, even if we're in hell, I can endure it.
Life in the Zenin family was like living in hell, but as long as her sister was there, it would have been bearable.
Yet it was this very sister who had abandoned him of her own accord, embarking on a path entirely different from his own—a path of rebellion.
Under such circumstances, hatred would indeed be natural.
But Maki had no intention of justifying herself or explaining the intentions of her heart.
She simply stated the source of her power with calm detachment.
"This power isn't mine. It was bestowed upon me by Roy-sensei. So you didn't lose to me—you lost to Roy-sensei."
Even without this power, she likely wouldn't have lost against Mai.
But Maki chose not to voice these thoughts.
"...So you obeyed orders too?"
Mai froze momentarily upon hearing this, then—as if everything suddenly made sense—her eyes lit up with vindictive glee, twisting into a mocking smile.
"You stubbornly left, only to circle back to where you started. In the end, what difference is there between you and me?"
Why would Roy, a Special Grade, grant her such immense power?
Surely, just like her, she must have willingly accepted a mission from the family, selling her dignity and body in the process?
No matter how prettily she phrased it, no matter how much she defied the family, wasn't she still the same as Mai in the end?
"Think whatever you want."
Maki's expression remained as composed as ever.
She stepped forward, extending the hilt of her naginata, and lightly tapped the back of Mai's neck.
Mai's body went limp as she lost consciousness, collapsing slowly.
Maki caught her and gently laid her down on the nearby flat ground.
Above them, the brass bird witnessed the scene and promptly announced:
"Kyoto Second Year, Zenin Mai—eliminated!"
"Can Mai be sent out?"
Maki looked up at the brass bird, pausing briefly before raising her voice to ask.
"Affirmative. Arrangements will be made immediately."
The brass bird responded swiftly.
Relieved, Maki turned her gaze back to her sister lying on the ground.
Her departure had undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to Mai.
But it was alright.
"Just a little longer! Soon, you won't need to suffer anymore..."
She shook her head, dispelling distracting thoughts, and dashed back into the forest behind her.
...
When Noritoshi Kamo arrived at the other entrance area, the sight before him nearly made him doubt his eyes.
Beneath the dense canopy, the two stood facing each other like duelists, one fully focused on guarding against the other.
The other was moved to tears.
"What the hell is Todo-senpai doing?"
Kasumi Miwa, who had followed closely behind Noritoshi, arrived just in time to see Aoi Todo weeping uncontrollably, utterly baffled.
Anyone would think he'd just been dumped by his crush.
"Regardless, kill Yuji Itadori first!"
Noritoshi couldn't fathom what Aoi was up to either, but he kept the principal's mission firmly in mind.
Not wasting a single moment, he reached behind his waist, retrieved a blood pack, and wrapped the blood within it around his palm like dough.
"Blood Manipulation: Scythe!"
The blood, infused with cursed energy, shot from his palm like a high-pressure water jet, forming a scythe-like blade that slashed toward Yuji Itadori's neck!
The moment Noritoshi appeared, Yuji's attention flickered toward him.
At the moment he launched his attack, Yuji gritted his teeth, forced to remain wary of Aoi Todo while attempting a minimal backflip to evade the blood blade carrying the scent of death.
Simultaneously, Aoi moved as well.
In an instant, Yuji's scalp prickled. Every muscle in his body tensed to its limit, as if pushing his spirit to the brink, his nerves stretched taut to the extreme.
Smack!
Aoi dashed forward at a speed indistinguishable to the naked eye.
Appearing before Noritoshi, he slapped the latter's hand aside with a single motion.
The sickle-like blood blade whistled through the air, slicing through a distant tree but leaving Yuji Itadori completely unharmed.
"Todo, what the hell are you doing?!" Noritoshi gaped in shock.
Regaining his composure, he glared furiously at Aoi.
Had Todo joined him in attacking Yuji earlier, Yuji might already be severely injured by now!
Yet not only did Todo fail to encircle Yuji, he even interfered with Noritoshi's attack.
Given Todo's nature, Noritoshi had accounted for possible disobedience from the start—but outright sabotaging the mission crossed the line of what he could tolerate!
Even Yuji wore a thoroughly bewildered expression.
"Looks like they're having internal strife?"
At that moment, a patch of shadow suddenly emerged on the ground beside Yuji. Megumi Fushiguro surfaced from it as though stepping out of a swimming pool.
"Now this is an unexpected windfall."
"Any other gains?" Yuji asked Megumi without a hint of surprise, as if this had been part of the plan all along.
Megumi said nothing, merely pointing skyward.
A giant owl-headed bird swooped across the sky, a faint arc of blue lightning flashing in its wake.
Momo Nishimiya dodged Nue's strike but was struck squarely by the electric current. Her body stiffened mid-air, and she plummeted uncontrollably from her broom.
"Senpai!" Kasumi Miwa glanced helplessly at the quarreling Todo and Noritoshi before rushing forward in an attempt to catch the falling Momo.
"Ora!"
But in the next instant, a figure leaped out from nearby bushes like a specter, slamming a palm toward Kasumi's back!
The ambush caught Kasumi completely off guard. Though the attack wasn't particularly fast, she had no choice but to channel all her cursed energy into her back to shield herself while catching Momo.
"Ugh!"
Kasumi staggered under Momo's weight but managed to secure her. A needle-like pain pierced through her back, forcing her to leap away and put distance between herself and the assailant. Turning around, her eyes widened in shock.
"Nobara Kugisaki?"