Obon has long passed, and the season is autumn. It's been a while since I went to play at Comiket, and heard rumors on the wind that Satoru-kun went unreasonably peerless at the Goodwill Event or something.
This summer, there weren't that many Special Grade cases, but there were Grade 1 cases sporadically, so it was a reasonably busy summer.
As expected, curses in the suburbs of Tokyo are a flavor or two different from those in the countryside. They were smaller fry than the estimated Special Grade Turbo Granny, but an environment where curses of a decent scale spawn infinitely like mold in a bathroom is an experience you can't really understand without experiencing it.
In a sense, coming here ahead of time might have been the correct answer. It's annoying that it reeks of being just as my old man planned, but I guess that's the judgment of a clan head for you.
I've gotten used to it by now, and since we're heading into early autumn and the number of cursed spirits has decreased considerably, I have a bit of free time too.
So, that being said, on this day, I have brought the brats along and come to a junior high school in Gunma that just became abandoned the other day.
The objective is, plainly, cursed spirit hunting. You might ask what I'm making three-year-olds do, but honestly, if you're from a sorcerer family, being thrown into a battlefield at this age happens fairly often.
Usually, it's often done with cursed spirits caught by parents or siblings, or in a cursed spirit room set up in the mansion, but obviously I can't bring cursed spirits into Toji-kun's house. It's in the middle of a normal city.
And so, that's why we're at an abandoned school. I figured I should pay my respects to the Technical College, so I ran it by them too, meaning we can hunt cursed spirits without any hesitation.
The chaperones this time are me and Toji-kun, and one Assistant Director dispatched from the Technical College. Yuki is currently on a business trip to Zambia since the other day, so she's absent.
And as for the participants...
"Toji-kun, are you really sure? About Tsumiki-chan. She's a non-sorcerer, aren't you pushing her?"
"You're saying that to me? If we're talking about being a sorcerer or whatever, I'm the least sorcerer-like here. If she uses cursed tools, she'll manage somehow. Was it Mai? Didn't you say she can make cursed tools?"
"That's true, but she can't even see them, right? She has glasses, but it must be inconvenient. ...Well, it's not my place to butt in. But won't your heart ache, just a little?"
"Don't be stupid, I'm not that kind of guy. ...Besides, making her stay home alone would be more of a hassle."
As per that conversation, this time Tsumiki-chan and Megumi-kun are also tagging along with Toji-kun. Well, Megumi-kun can blatantly see cursed spirits and seems to have cursed energy, so worst case it's fine, but Tsumiki-chan is a genuine civilian. It feels off, or rather, makes me wonder 'Is this really okay?'.
However, the group of four brats doesn't seem to care about such adult circumstances.
"Magical Pink!"
"Magical Black!"
"Magical White!"
"Oh, ooooh\~?"
Yeah, they're completely half-playing. By the way, Pink is Mai-chan, Black is Maki-chan, White is Tsumiki-chan, and the one confused by being shown a pose that he doesn't understand and has subtle balance is Megumi-kun.
Maki-chan and Tsumiki-chan are equipped with the 'Magical Mai-chan Dress', and everyone holds a 'Magical Mai-chan Mace', so technically they are not unprepared to fight cursed spirits, but... I'm the one who set this up, but the visual is a gag, isn't it? I'll record it on video.
"...No, aren't you half-playing too?"
"Well, yeah. As expected, I don't feel like losing to the cursed spirits here. They're Grade 3."
While exchanging such words, I had the Assistant Director lower the Curtain, and what spawns are, just as I said earlier, Grade 3 to 4 small fry cursed spirits.
Technically, even a Grade 3 can kill a defenseless human, but to use an analogy, it's a level where you'd be fine if you just had a pistol. As for Grade 4, it's a level where hitting it with a metal bat would kill it. Even Toji-kun without cursed energy could beat them up unilaterally without cursed tools, though it would take forever to finish them off completely.
In other words, it's easy even for a bunch of kids, but...
"R-Really, they're ghosts...!"
"B-Big...!"
"H-Hieee...!"
"Tsumiki, Mai, Megumi, d-don't be scared!"
"Oh, Maki's got spirit, doesn't she?"
"Being a big sister is great, isn't it. Well, she herself is trembling though."
"Better than average. Your dead brother pissed himself, you know."
"Which brother? Quite a few died, so I don't know."
"You know, there was one. Long hair."
"Ah, that one... Name won't come out. What was it?"
...I seriously can't remember. Unless they're exceptional, I don't remember men's faces and names. Plus, they were just trash brothers who were all talk and no show, right? It's normal not to remember. Mai-chan and Maki-chan left more of an impression. They were beautiful girls you wouldn't think were old man Ogi's kids. Is the mother's blood good?
Anyway, back to the topic.
Regarding Maki-chan, that rumored beautiful girl—just as Toji-kun said she "has spirit," she was indeed the first one to take a swing at a cursed spirit.
And the result was, naturally, an overwhelming victory. The Magical Mai-chan Mace is a cursed tool after all, and Maki-chan is Physically Gifted after all, so naturally, the Grade 3 cursed spirit that got smacked had its head crushed into a mess and was reduced to cursed energy.
But still, my honest impression is that the degree of reinforcement is weaker than Toji-kun's. Is the cause the fact that Maki-chan has a subtle amount of cursed energy, like the shit of a maggot swarming on shit?
But in the first place, both Maki-chan and Toji-kun possess the same binding of 'gaining peerless physical ability in exchange for all cursed energy', so why does Maki-chan have cursed energy?
...It's common knowledge in jujutsu circles that identical twins are bad omens, but well, technically speaking, since identical twins are the result of a fertilized egg that was planned to be one person splitting, the cause should be that they share a soul. On the other hand, since the binding is placed on the 'body and spirit', it refers to the individual bodies and personalities.
So, probably, looking at it in terms of cursed energy, Mai-chan and Maki-chan's capacities are connected by a pipe called the soul, but Maki-chan doesn't have a vessel for cursed energy because of the Heavenly Restriction.
Because of that, Mai-chan's cursed energy keeps leaking to Maki-chan's side and decreasing, and conversely, Maki-chan's Heavenly Restriction is lackluster because of the cursed energy constantly flowing from Mai-chan. Is that it?
...Let's think of a countermeasure later. At this rate, no matter how much I raise Mai-chan's cursed energy efficiency or output, the momentum will be weak due to the leak, and Maki-chan will just become a mere civilian the more the inflowing cursed energy increases.
If I recall correctly—Toji-kun stole 'that' from the Zen'in clan, didn't he?
While I was pondering such things, perhaps inspired by Maki-chan's struggle, Mai-chan, Tsumiki-chan, and Megumi-kun also hit the cursed spirits with their respective maces, graduating from their battlefield virginity.
"Oh oh, do your best, do your best. I want to go home early."
"Couldn't you cheer a bit more?"
"Then you do it."
"...Can't be helped. Maki-chan, great job! Being the first isn't something just anyone can do! Mai-chan too, being brave is great, but saying the Magical Line would be even better! Tsumiki-chan, getting hurt is no good, be careful! You have no resistance to cursed spirits! Megumi-kun, most excellent! Cursed spirit extermination at 3 years old is Guinness-worthy!"
"...Somehow, when you act decent like that, it's creepy."
"Toji-kun, where did your human heart go? I'm praising your kids too, you know?"
"Don't have such a thing. That woman took it with her."
"Go get it back right now, from your wife. That person isn't that stingy, right?"
"...Well, sometime."
Interspersing such stupid exchanges that sounded like a comedy routine, the sorcerer debut of the 3+1 kids succeeded without incident.
My thoughts were already devoted more to the Mai-chan Leaking Problem than the current situation here. The key to that is, after all—.
"—Toji-kun, do you need a temporary bonus?"
"Ah? If you're giving, I'll take... Is it something troublesome?"
—Saying that, not even trying to hide his disgusted face, is that person.
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