"That's right. You give us the money, and we'll take care of it right away. Better hurry though, if it gets darker I might start getting hungry." Mukuro stretched lazily, glancing out the window at the sky that was growing darker, then turned back to answer in support of Mei Mei's earlier words.
"This is exactly the amount you asked for. Please handle it as quickly as you can." The woman pulled open the drawer of her desk and placed a thick envelope on the table.
She had prepared it beforehand, long before she even reached out to the three of them.
She remembered what Mei Mei had said the last time, and she had guessed that since there were three of them, the price might be around three hundred thousand yen, making it easier to divide.
That was also the bottom line she had set for herself after running around in vain, failing to find any other help.
As long as the price didn't exceed that number, she could force herself to accept it. If it went over but not by too much, she would still grit her teeth and swallow the cost.
What she hadn't expected was that her guess would match the result exactly.
"Well, aren't you clever? You even predicted our second price. No wonder you're a teacher," Mei Mei said as she snatched up the slightly heavy envelope and tore it open. Inside, crisp ten-thousand yen bills filled the pack.
"Now, we'll need you to step outside. What we're about to do is our specialty, and outsiders aren't allowed to watch."
Once Mei Mei counted the money and gave him a nod, Mukuro stood up and waved for the woman to leave the building.
Matters involving sorcery weren't things ordinary people should witness unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, curses only bred more curses. The less people knew, the less fear and resentment would fester in the world.
"What? I paid you so much money—" The woman's brows furrowed, and her already weary face, worn down by stress and sleepless nights, twisted with anger. If it hadn't been for that kind old restaurant owner praising these kids so highly, she might have suspected it was all a setup to scam her.
"If you stay here, you might disrupt our work. If something goes wrong, you'll have to take responsibility." Before she could finish, Mei Mei interrupted her with that calm tone of hers.
"Hmph! You'd better not be lying! If you are, I'll call the police, even if you're just elementary schoolers!" After weighing her options, the woman finally stood up, furious, spat out a threat, and slammed the door on her way out.
"To be honest, all we're doing is exorcising some low-grade curses that can barely hurt anyone. Isn't three hundred thousand a bit much…?" When she was gone and they were about to step into the hallway to start, Nanami spoke his mind.
He wasn't like Mei Mei or Mukuro.
The former loved money, enjoying the process of earning it with her own power.
The latter, on the other hand, saw making money as secondary. For him, it was more about adding some fun to his ordinary school life. He enjoyed spending time with friends. To him, exorcising curses after class was no different from playing games together, easy and carefree.
But Nanami was different. Even as a child, he was proper and serious. To him, this was training and also work.
And the pay for this work felt far too high. It seemed like they were taking advantage of others.
"Nanami, would you want to spend your free time after school on cram lessons?" Mukuro didn't answer directly. Instead, he tossed back a question of his own.
"Hah? No way!" Just the thought of giving up his free time to someone else's control made the boy shiver.
"Exactly. Most people wouldn't. That's why so many curses appear here. So, is it because there's a demand for cram schools that they exist, or is it because they exist that students feel the need to go?" Mukuro grinned and raised a finger, tossing out another question.
"I don't know… but what does that have to do with what I asked?" Nanami rubbed his chin, thinking seriously, but couldn't find an answer. He turned the question back at him.
"Zenin-kun's point is that there's no need to feel bad about charging the cram school teacher more. It's not like we owe them anything. This is the result of their own choices. The curses are born because of them, so they should pay the price to remove them. Right?" Mei Mei snapped her fingers in front of Nanami, voicing her view.
"Bingo." Hands in his pockets, Mukuro was already walking down the hallway filled with curses.
"I… I guess that makes sense." Nanami felt their words sounded reasonable, but something about it still seemed off.
His head was starting to overheat.
"Let's do it." Mukuro didn't bother taking his hands out of his pockets. He simply glanced at Nanami, who was still standing in the office.
"You want me to do it?" Though curse bodies and their blood would vanish after death, Nanami still rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward.
Over the past half month, under his friends' guidance, he had already learned how to control his cursed energy a little.
As the other two watched, a faint sea-blue aura began to wrap around his fist. Without using any techniques, he threw a simple cursed energy punch at the Fly Head curse in front.
It exploded instantly into a smear of flesh.
Buzzz!
The swarm of Fly Heads, calm until now, grew restless at the first death. They surged toward Nanami in a frenzy.
"There's too many! Zenin, give me a hand!"
While these grade 4 curses could be killed with one punch, the sheer number overwhelmed him. It was like being struck again and again by a pile of pillows. He was struggling to keep up.
On top of that, his cursed-energy output wasn't stable. Sometimes too strong, sometimes too weak. The bones in his fists were starting to turn red.
"If that's the case, why punch them one by one? They're so weak. Just use your technique and crush them all at once." Mukuro finally pulled his hands out, grabbing curses off Nanami and tossing them down the hallway.
Since he used only physical strength, the Fly Heads hit the wall at the far end but weren't injured.
"You know my technique doesn't work like that. I can only handle them one at a time." Nanami rubbed his reddened knuckles, confused.
"You really are dense. If your fists hurt because you can't control the cursed energy properly, why not just wrap something around them?" Mukuro's eyes scanned the hall, then landed on Mei Mei. He walked over and yanked off her scarf.
"Hm?"
Before she could react, he had already tied it around Nanami's right hand. "This way, it won't hurt as much."
"You'll have to pay for that later, Zenin-kun." Mei Mei sighed helplessly, though a bright smile spread across her face.
Real friends didn't care about such small things.
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