Naoya Zenin was starting to feel the pressure.
Hearing his cousin call from outside, even a man as usually cold and composed as him couldn't help feeling a little panicked.
Ever since that day in the classroom, when he had used every vicious word he could think of to humiliate Mai Zenin, who had long since given up on everything, until she snapped and awakened her Sharingan, the two of them had completely cut ties. They hadn't exchanged so much as half a sentence since.
The already deeply estranged cousins were now practically mortal enemies.
There was nothing but hatred between them.
And that was without even ntioning that Mai was a gloomy landmine of a girl whose abusive family had damaged her ntal state back in childhood.
What could she possibly want from him now?
To discuss the details of dealing with the Cursed Spirits next?
Absolutely absurd.
Wasn't that supposed to be part of their upcoming exam? Coming to ask him about it in private was basically asking for leaked answers.
With Mai's bone-deep negativity and her deep-rooted hatred of him, there was no way she would willingly approach him under so wholeso excuse like "studying hard and improving every day."
It felt like she had co prepared.
This transmigrator's mind was far more ticulous and suspicious than the original host's.
He quickly thought of the weather outside.
The blizzard raging through the mountains of Nagano still showed no signs of stopping. Bitter winds howled across the sky, carrying sheets of heavy snow. Layer upon layer of wind and snow had sealed off the entire mountain forest, cutting off all traffic from the outside world. Worse still, the violent air currents had mixed with cold Cursed Energy, throwing every signal in the area into chaos and isolating the entire region like an island cut off from the world.
Holy crap.
Wasn't this just a textbook Snowstorm Manor?!
Could it be that, after awakening the Reverse Cursed Technique, Mai had suddenly unlocked her full potential?
Just like Satoru Gojo back then, had she transford overnight into the ultimate war god, standing there with a cold face and saying so deranged line like, "Big brother, your little sister is here to save you," before coming to have a nice, heartfelt chat with him?
Hiss.
Mai, as far as I can tell, you haven't suffered any ultimate humiliation. You were just hard by your birth family your whole life. Sure, your brother Naoya likes to step on your head, put his hands on his hips, and laugh whenever he has nothing better to do, but your biological father is the real bastard who bullied you the worst. If you're going to awaken, at least go blow up your biological dad first!
And taking ten thousand steps back, even if Mai had never watched Detective Conan and wasn't planning to take this chance to pull off a perfect locked-room murder, Naoya Zenin still couldn't let her in right now.
The reason was simple.
He looked at Kasumi Miwa, whose little face was deathly pale beside his shoulder, then at Momo Nishimiya, whose little face had gone red beneath the water. Even this arrogant young nobleman couldn't help feeling that things had gotten a bit out of hand.
In the middle of the night.
One Sensei and two high school girls secretly sharing a couple's bath in an open-air hot spring?
If his little sister saw this, he would never be able to clear his na, not even in the afterlife.
Mai would definitely think this.
Although my cousin is a bastard who keeps calling won useless, he is still a famous heir of a prominent family. He is a chauvinistic yakuza-boss type, and unlike those playboys who only know how to flatter society ladies, he cares about his reputation, keeps himself clean, and is a misogynistic heartthrob who is actually quite traditional and proper deep down.
But who would have thought that behind the scenes, he was just a pervert with no moral bottom line who played around with female students?
There was no need to think about how Mai would fill in the blanks and twist the story.
In her eyes, Naoya Zenin, who was already rotten to the core, would simply gain another label as a debauched scumbag who disgraced the family.
In other words, this transmigrator could originally have maintained his misogynist persona, treated all won equally, and then turned into Itachi Uchiha, using a grand martyr-style redemption to dissolve Mai's years of hatred, awaken the truth, goodness, and beauty in his little sister's heart, and make her cry out "Onii-chan."
Damn it.
If I'd known this would happen, I shouldn't have held back. I should've sent Momo Nishimiya straight to God with a few shuriken!
This was all because that lunatic panicked the mont she heard Kasumi Miwa co in, dove headfirst into the hot spring, and refused to let go of her idol baggage, dead set on maintaining that lofty elite upperclassman image in front of her junior.
Please. With a smooth-brained pig brain like Kasumi Miwa's, even if her own husband were played with by a blonde gyaru right under her nose a thousand tis, she would only pat him on the shoulder and laugh, "What's going on, hubby? Is the weather really that hot? You're already sweating this much?"
Any flimsy excuse would have been enough to fool her, but Momo just had to dive headfirst into the hot spring like she was trying to break a free-diving record and explore uncharted territory.
"S-Sensei! You absolutely can't let Mai co in!"
Kasumi Miwa was genuinely panicking. Even though she was in a steaming hot spring, she hugged her shoulders, shivering and breaking out in a cold sweat.
"She'll really kill if she finds out! I don't want to be so howrecker! I'm really a good girl! I've never once thought about being a mistress in my life!!!"
See?
This was the blue-haired character.
Even he, who knew the original story inside and out, couldn't understand what she was talking about.
What kind of abstract thought process allowed soone to hear a classmate knock on the door and imdiately say sothing that outrageous?
"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!!"
The bubbles on the surface grew even more violent.
Momo Nishimiya was clutching Naoya Zenin's thigh tightly, clearly expressing the sa stance.
After all, even a Jujutsu Sorcerer couldn't save their own lung capacity.
This blonde loli's lung capacity was already stretched thin. If Mai ca in and wasted more ti, she really would beco the first person in the history of the Jujutsu World to be solo-killed by a hot spring.
Counting on these two won to confess and clear his na was already impossible.
Naoya Zenin took a deep breath, then calmly spoke toward the door.
"Don't co in. I'll be out in a mont."
"Okay."
Unlike Momo Nishimiya and Kasumi Miwa, Mai had always been obedient.
She was different from the rebellious Maki Zenin.
The Zenin Clan's teachings on won's conduct had sunk deep into Mai's heart. Even after reuniting with Naoya Zenin at school, no matter how much she hated him through gritted teeth, she would still suppress it, put on a respectful face, and call him "Big Brother."
But people like that were also the best at holding grudges.
That was the good part, and also the bad part.
Otherwise, before her death, Mai Zenin would never have desperately said those cursed words to Maki Zenin, telling her to destroy the entire Zenin Clan.
Complete destruction.
Everything belonging to the Zenin Clan.
Every single person.
Not even a dog could be left alive.
"...Then I'll wait outside the door for you."
Mai made no protest at all. She only spoke with perfect calm from outside.
"I'll keep waiting."
"What are we going to do?!"
Kasumi Miwa completely panicked.
The blue-haired girl nervously bit her finger, utterly beside herself.
"Mai always ans what she says! If she says she'll keep waiting, she really will keep waiting! Doesn't that an I'll never be able to get out of this hot spring for the rest of my life?!"
Kasumi Miwa was truly falling apart.
No, she had only co here to use the back door and ask for a teaching assistant position.
She did not want to be caught red-handed by Mai and drowned in a pig cage as so mistress!!!
Mai, sis, I swear I wasn't planning anything like that!!!
"Shut up!"
Naoya Zenin saw Kasumi Miwa clinging tightly to his arm, looking as if she had called to heaven and earth with no answer from either, and realized her brain capacity had completely overloaded. He hurriedly covered her mouth by force.
However, the Mai outside the door was no longer the rookie she had once been.
Ever since that night, when she stepped into the Domain of the [Reverse Cursed Technique], Mai had discovered that she could sense the flow of Cursed Energy much more sharply. Her five senses had also improved trendously.
It was as if the once-blurry world had suddenly beco as clear as a mirror wiped clean.
In her spiritual Domain, she had already vaguely sensed that, aside from Naoya Zenin, there were two other rather subtle sources of Cursed Energy inside.
But she still didn't dare defy Naoya Zenin.
Since Naoya Zenin had said nothing was wrong and told her to wait outside, Mai naturally would not do anything reckless.
But now it was different.
She had clearly heard a second voice coming from inside the open-air hot spring.
And it was a [woman]'s voice!!
"I thought I heard sothing. Is there soone else in there?"
"You're overthinking it."
Naoya Zenin's calm voice could no longer stop the naturally suspicious Mai.
It was definitely a woman's voice!
Could it be a bathhouse attendant?
But Naoya Zenin had always disliked won. There was no way he would call a woman over to serve him while he bathed. It had been the sa back at the Zenin Clan. Every ti her mother ordered Mai to go to the bathhouse and attend to him, it only set off this cousin's fury, and the next day, he would take it out on her sister with a beating.
Could it be Kasumi Miwa and Momo Nishimiya?
Mai imdiately thought of those two.
They had suddenly disappeared. Though that was not unusual in itself. After all, with Momo Nishimiya's and Mai's personalities, neither of them would ever do sothing as girly as holding hands with Kasumi Miwa to go to the bathroom together. The three of them did not spend every mont glued to one another. Keeping their own private space was actually the norm.
But they had clearly agreed that the three of them would team up during the mission.
Now, at the crucial stage of patrolling for Cursed Spirits, the two of them suddenly vanishing had already made Mai uneasy.
But that was impossible.
Those two didn't seem like the kind of loose won who would sneak into the hot spring for a secret eting with Naoya Zenin, did they?
Could it be a Cursed Spirit?!
The Yuki-onna appeared as a female Cursed Spirit!
...
Could it be that while Naoya Zenin was bathing, the Yuki-onna had ambushed him in the hot spring, and now he had already been taken under the enemy's control?!
No matter how afraid she was of this cousin, Mai could not just stand by anymore.
"Sorry. I have to co in now."
Without another word, Mai pushed the door open.
At that exact mont, she suddenly heard a huge splash.
A mysterious black shadow used the rising mist as cover and leaped into the water with incredible grace.
Who was Kasumi Miwa?
She had been at ho in the water since childhood. While ordinary city kids were still going to cram school, she had already been roaming freely through mountains and fields, appearing mysteriously in every reservoir like a rmaid. Her classmates had even respectfully nad her Kasumi Miwa, the Blue Streak of the Waves.
There was a kind of bird that never touched the ground from the day it was born.
Mai?
You think you can catch ?
How about I just dive underground?
"Holy crap! Why is this hot spring so shallow?!"
The mont Kasumi Miwa dove into the water, pain shot through her forehead. She had slamd into so mysterious object underwater.
At first, she thought she had hit the bottom of the hot spring, but when she opened her eyes, she realized that was not the case at all.
Why was there sothing so hard underwater?
Could it be Naoya-sensei's thing?!
It was actually that hard?!
As the ultimate little fangirl, Kasumi Miwa's face flushed even hotter, and her heart trembled with fear.
n really were terrifying!
But when she looked closer, she realized she had not crashed into so sturdy pillar from the Dragon Palace at all. It was a foreigner's head, topped with a ss of blond hair!
The next mont, two pairs of terrified blue eyes t underwater.
"Gurgle gurgle?! Gurgle gurgle gurgle?! (Nishimiya-senpai?! What are you doing here?!)"
"Gurgle! Gurgle gurgle! Gurgle gurgle-gurgle-gurgle! (Shut up! I want to ask you the sa thing! What are you doing here?!)"
"G-Gurgle gurgle gurgle-gurgle. (I-I'm not here for the teaching assistant position.)"
"Gurgle?! Gurgle gurgle gurgle waaahhh!!! (Fuck! Mai is coming over!!!)"
Mai approached with a wary expression.
Strange.
She could clearly sense three sources of Cursed Energy, so why had she not found anyone else after coming in?
Could Naoya Zenin really have grown that powerful?
Had he already mastered the art of splitting himself into three?
But she had clearly heard a huge splash just now.
And when she first ca in, she was absolutely sure she had seen a mysterious black shadow moving through the mist!
"Mai, I distinctly ordered you to wait outside, didn't I?"
Before Mai could continue reasoning it out, Naoya Zenin's face had gone completely cold. He stared at the short-haired girl who had recklessly barged in.
Mai scread inwardly.
This was bad.
Ever since she had beco old enough to understand things, she had basically never once defied Naoya Zenin. If she angered this cousin, her sister would inevitably suffer for it.
But Naoya Zenin had clearly told her to wait outside, and she had still barged in.
In the Zenin Clan, that was practically treason.
It was like taking a seat at the table without respecting rank and order. If her father saw it, she would definitely be locked away in the forbidden area as punishnt.
"I-I heard sothing from outside just now. I thought it was a Cursed Spirit attack, and I was afraid you might be in danger, so I disobeyed your order and ca in on my own to check the situation..."
Cold sweat instantly broke out over Mai's body as she spoke respectfully to the man in front of her.
"Hmph. Foolish sentintality."
Naoya Zenin snorted coldly.
"It was nothing more than a re Grade 3 Cursed Spirit. Even if sothing like that really had happened, Mai, do you think I would be no match for it?"
"How could I? Naoya-sensei, you are a Special Grade 1 Sorcerer. The only Cursed Spirits worthy of being your opponents would be Special Grade Cursed Spirits..."
"Then why act so recklessly?"
Naoya Zenin seized the initiative.
"Mai! I don't recall the clan raising you to be such a short-sighted coward!"
I-I was only...
Only worried about you...
Mai could never say those words aloud.
Because even she could not explain why she had barged in.
She could not exactly say she suspected him of hiding won in the open-air hot spring and holding so kind of obscene private party, could she?
At this point, all she could do was drop to her knees and apologize.
"I'm sorry."
Mai bit her lip.
She really had lost her head for a mont and done sothing so reckless.
Naoya Zenin had always hated being disturbed while bathing. All the more when the person disturbing him was Mai Zenin, who had grown up by his side since childhood.
He must be furious.
He would definitely use this chance to beat her senseless!
"Hmph. Since you know you were wrong and are willing to repent, I'll spare you this once."
Naoya Zenin waved his hand impatiently.
"Hurry up and leave. Stop embarrassing yourself in front of ."
Hearing that Naoya Zenin had forgiven her so easily, Mai's heart, which had been lodged in her throat, finally relaxed.
If this had been before, Naoya Zenin absolutely would have beaten her.
But she had never expected him to let her off so easily this ti.
...So what he said last ti really was true. He had not been joking.
Mai's expression dimd.
Naoya Zenin no longer needed to treat her harshly.
Because to him, she was nothing more than an outsider. An insignificant passerby.
So no matter how much she embarrassed herself, as long as she did not appear in his sight, he simply did not care.
Forget it.
She should just leave in disgrace.
After all, no matter what Naoya Zenin did, she, as an outsider, had no right to ask about it.
She was no longer Naoya Zenin's little sister.
The mont she thought of that, Mai's legs, which had been about to leave, froze as if filled with lead.
Why?
Why did she have to be looked down on by him and treated with contempt?
Why could he act like nothing had happened and cut her off just like this?
...
I cannot accept that ending!!!
"No."
Mai kept her head lowered in silence for a long ti before finally speaking.
"I cannot accept this outco."
"...?"
Facing the utterly bewildered Naoya Zenin, the short-haired girl knelt directly on the ground and bowed her proud head deeply.
"For committing such an offense against the future Clan Head-sama, I, Mai Zenin, willingly accept punishnt."
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