Naoya Zenin never would have imagined it.
He had only scolded her a few tis, sa as always, yet this ti Mai had actually responded with such obedience.
What did kneeling even an?
Could it be that, to her, breaking in while her cousin was bathing really was so grave betrayal of the family?
Mai suddenly dropping to her knees left Naoya Zenin silent.
It also made the two female students wrestling beneath the water, blowing bubbles at each other, stop at once.
Holy shit!
Although everything sounded muffled underwater, Kasumi Miwa could see Mai kneeling on the ground perfectly clearly.
The blue-haired girl nearly lost it on the spot.
This was a public place!
Sure, it was an open-air hot spring, but other people could still co in!
Were they insane?!
Even back in the classroom last ti, they hadn't gone this far, right?!
Why was she kneeling the mont they t in private?!
Never in my life did I think Mai would kneel to anyone!!!
Oh my god...
I had a feeling before, but don't tell Mai really is a masochist?!
You two aren't seriously going to have sex here, are you?!
Don't go that extre! What if a Cursed Spirit shows up halfway through?!
And at least read the room!
There are two spectators right here!!!
…
Nishimiya-senpai probably doesn't know about Naoya-sensei and Mai's secret, right?
Kasumi Miwa glanced at Momo Nishimiya beside her, only to see her eyes wide open. Her already flushed skin had turned completely red, like crispy roast duck fresh out of the oven.
Naoya Zenin!!!
So my information really wasn't wrong!
You bastard! So this is how you abuse Mai in private?!
Mai is usually so aloof at school, and that cool, distant air of hers has made plenty of boys and girls secretly fall for her. She's supposed to be that untouchable flower on the mountaintop, yet behind everyone's backs, what have you trained her into?!
No wonder Mai reacted so strongly when I said we should work together to take you down. This is pure Stockholm syndro!!!
You lowlife, sadistic teacher!
Do you really still have the nerve to call yourself Mai's older brother?!
"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle-gurgle-gurgle!!! (Naoya Zenin, I'm going to kill you!!!)"
"Gurgle, gurgle! Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle!!! (Calm down! Nishimiya-senpai!!!)"
The two of them started fiercely grappling underwater again.
But Naoya Zenin had no ti to bother with those two troublemakers.
Watching Mai suddenly sink to her knees, he felt sothing heavy and suffocating press down on his heart.
He had expected it to so extent, but he still had not imagined Mai would be this afraid of the original host.
So afraid that just making one mistake was enough for her to kneel and kowtow.
Was the original host simply inhuman, or had the Zenin Clan's feudal upbringing forced people into becoming ghosts?
He had originally thought that since Mai's strength had already broken through, her heart would grow stronger too, and she would no longer beco the gloomy, self-destructive landmine girl from the original work.
But now, it seed that in front of him, Mai was still the sa cowardly Mai.
The deeper her fear of him went, the deeper her hatred for him went as well.
Would normal cousins act like this?
Would they kneel and kowtow the mont they t?
At this rate, no matter what he did, he would only end up repeating the sa mistakes.
Naoya Zenin's breathing trembled slightly, but he absolutely could not let it show.
He looked down at Mai kneeling before him and said mockingly,
"A Jujutsu Sorcerer's knees bend surprisingly easily."
"Before I beca a Jujutsu Sorcerer, I was always a mber of the Zenin Clan."
Mai did not raise her head.
She only clenched her fists.
"And likewise, I am one of the clan mbers ant to serve you."
"I told you. I don't need useless trash by my side."
Naoya Zenin's voice was utterly cold.
"Mai, if you'd understood yourself this clearly earlier and chosen to return to the Zenin Clan on your own, I might have fed and kept you like a stray dog. But since you've already followed Maki Zenin onto the path of becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer, stop embarrassing yourself like this. If you want to die, then die as far away from as possible. Don't bring the family any harm."
"I-I never wanted to beco a Jujutsu Sorcerer!!!"
Mai slamd her fist against the ground in fierce defiance.
"It was all because of her! All because of my sister! Because she wanted to run away from ho! That's why I was forced down this path! From the day I was born, I never wanted to beco a Jujutsu Sorcerer! I only wanted to stay in the Zenin Clan! I wanted to live peacefully with my family for the rest of my life! So no matter how much you look down on , I'm still your cousin!!!"
It was an emotion stronger than any anger.
Love and hatred for family.
The family one was born into could not be replaced.
Because it was the soil where the first roots of the self took hold.
The way a person connected to the world, their first impression of intimacy, their earliest judgnt of their own worth. None of these were questions people only began to consider after reason had matured.
They were things the body and emotions had already rembered before one had even grown up.
So people spend their whole lives being healed by their childhood. Others spend their whole lives trying to heal from it.
When it ca to how they treated family, the twin sisters Maki and Mai had completely different attitudes.
Maki chose to run.
Unable to accept her family, she turned the hatred and disgust inside her into action. She beca aggressive, constantly clashing with others in the outside world. That opposition had no specific target. It was more like she was fighting reality itself, a reality that was collapsing around her while she had no way to stop it.
Her thod was fierce, always pushing outward, always attacking.
However the Zenin Clan had treated her when she was young, she would make them pay it all back once she grew up.
Mai, on the other hand, went to the opposite extre.
She was left at ho.
She did not resist. She did not leave. She simply beca cold and numb, no longer expecting anything to change. She withdrew from every relationship, blended into the crowd, and drifted along with it, becoming soone no one noticed, soone who kept erasing her own existence.
The sisters' thods seed completely opposite, but the result was the sa.
Neither of them truly faced the family's problems head-on.
The older sister was used to responding to family through confrontation.
That thod ca from the Zenin Clan's own way of treating one another. Her father scolded her mother, her mother scolded her, and so Maki kept clashing with others as a way to deal with the conflict inside her.
The younger sister responded to family through repression.
She knew the family was falling apart, but refused to feel that pain. Mai split her understanding away from her emotions, turning herself into soone who knew what was happening, but did not have to suffer for it.
So when the family's contradictions beca a reality she could no longer avoid, all those frozen emotions would burst their banks in an instant, turning from avoidance and repression into the most primitive kind of impact.
That was [destruction].
And right now, Mai had already revealed the deeply hidden self-destructive streak buried in her heart.
She would rather beco a mindless puppet, a coward kneeling before an enemy, than give up on desperately trying to salvage her already shattered family ties.
To her, Naoya Zenin was the sa as the Zenin Clan itself.
If he chose to abandon Mai, then Mai would have nothing left.
She would beco soone unloved by her father, unloved by her mother, unloved by her older sister, unloved by her older cousin.
Soone completely alone.
"I've gotten stronger... The things you told last ti... I've already done them... I'm not that useless waste anymore."
Mai choked on a sob.
"So... can't you give one more chance? From now on, I'll do everything I can to beco the kind of little sister you want, Onii-sama. One who won't disappoint you or embarrass you..."
After a long silence, Naoya Zenin finally made a sound.
It was laughter.
"Mai, humans really are fascinating creatures. As soon as they can't get what they want, they'd rather ignore the person's own will and hand over their treasure to soone else."
That cruel mockery made Mai's body jerk violently.
"You keep talking about family. You think you've given the Zenin Clan your love, but you're wrong, Mai. There's no such thing in this world as true love given for free, and there's no such thing as love that asks for nothing in return. The love you've been giving all this ti was only ever ant to satisfy your own desires."
"I... I don't love my family?"
Mai was struck speechless.
"Your parents don't love you either. You're nothing more than a pawn they used to achieve their own ambitions."
Naoya Zenin stood up expressionlessly.
"And likewise, I don't love you."
"Wh-what...?"
"Incompetent people lose their way because they waste too much thought on aningless things. That is why they are incompetent. Mai, yes, you've gotten stronger. But has your heart really gotten stronger? Was it because you were clinging to this kind of incompetent thinking that you got stronger back then? Would a truly strong person win a match by kneeling to soone and begging for rcy?"
"..."
Mai fell silent.
Because Naoya Zenin was not wrong.
Back then, she had understood [Reverse Cursed Technique] because of her hatred for Naoya Zenin, because she wanted him to apologize to her, because she had wanted to kill him.
So why was it that the mont they t in person, her bones went soft, and she dropped to her knees on the spot to beg for forgiveness?
"So what if you've gotten stronger? Do you want to praise you like parents seeing their daughter cook for the first ti? You're being far too naive."
Naoya Zenin laughed coldly.
"Get up. I do enjoy seeing won bow their heads in submission, but an ungrateful bitch like you is so irritating that you've even ruined my mood to keep bathing."
However, for the first ti ever, Mai did not obey Naoya Zenin's command.
Mai remained kneeling on the ground.
And she was crying silently.
"...Mai, what are you crying for?"
"I'm very sorry. Even though I had already prepared myself, hearing you admit it with your own mouth, Onii-sama, hearing you admit that we're no longer family, I..."
Mai slowly raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears, and murmured,
"I'm just so sad..."
What exactly are you sad about?
Are you really crying your eyes out over the original host, this sadistic cousin who tortured you since childhood?
Naoya Zenin realized he had still underestimated Mai's feelings for him.
In her eyes, he was not simply a cousin.
He was more like the projection of the Zenin Clan itself, the last place in her heart where familial affection still belonged.
But this was fine too.
This way, Mai Zenin could give up her fantasies early. She could stop imagining that her family had actually loved her all along, and then she would not be so easily called back ho by Ogi Zenin later and stabbed to death.
It was just that this cruel reality was far too heavy a blow for that cowardly Mai to accept.
Nothing could be done about it.
Not every parent in this world loves their child.
Especially not that biological father of yours, the one obsessed with climbing to the top.
He did not even love his own wife. He only wanted to produce a tool as soon as possible that could help him seize the Zenin Clan Headship. So Mai, stop indulging in those pointless delusions.
Grow up already, then leave the Zenin Clan with your older sister.
"Zenin Naoya!!!"
But soone truly could not hold it in any longer.
A furious, ferocious figure descended from the heavens!
Momo Nishimiya burst out of the water in a rage, her face flushed bright red, and brought down righteous judgnt on the man in front of her.
"You heartless, ungrateful scum! Why can't you understand Mai's sincerity?! You've clearly abused her like this since she was little! Yet not only has Mai never hated you, she hasn't even said a single bad word about you!!!"
"Exactly!"
Kasumi Miwa popped out of the water right after her, nodding in righteous indignation.
"The Play you two do in private has gone way too far! Even I can't stand listening to it anymore! Even if you're a sadist and a masochist, you should at least respect each other's dignity!!!"
As Mai's best friends.
Momo Nishimiya and Kasumi Miwa really could not take it anymore!
Who could just stand by and watch their best friend get bullied by a bad man?!
Mai did not know how to fight back.
But Momo Nishimiya and Kasumi Miwa were not about to put up with Naoya Zenin. They imdiately charged in as one, standing on the moral high ground and attacking him together.
"Mai wants familial affection more than anyone, and she values you, her cousin, more than anyone. Even after being neglected and mistreated, she has never resented you in the slightest. She was even willing to cast aside all her pride, bow her head, and admit fault. How can you be so stone-hearted?!"
"Naoya-sensei, there should at least be basic respect between people! Even if the family rules are strict, you shouldn't grind away soone's true self like this! Mai has worked so hard to catch up. She pushed herself to break past her limits just because she wanted a tiny bit of your approval. There's nothing wrong with that feeling!"
One on the left and one on the right, the two of them looked ready to demand justice for Mai.
But before the two girls could continue their fierce barrage, Mai, standing to the side, imdiately wiped away her tears and rose to her feet. Then she lowered her voice and struck first.
"Why are you two here?!"
"..."
"..."
Momo Nishimiya and Kasumi Miwa went completely quiet.
The two exchanged a glance.
"I-I was flying through the sky on patrol just now, and then I saw you two arguing, so I ca down."
The little witch scratched the back of her head and said it as if nothing were wrong.
"Then why are you wearing a bath towel?!"
"W-well, no one ever said you have to wear clothes just because you're flying in the sky. Ahahaha..."
Seeing that Momo Nishimiya was determined to keep bluffing no matter what, Mai turned to Kasumi Miwa.
"I-I ca here to swim!"
Kasumi Miwa thought fast, raised a finger, and imdiately explained,
"I was swimming and swimming through the hot spring, and sohow I ended up here. Wow! How amazing! An open-air hot spring!!!"
Watching her two best friends laugh awkwardly, Mai's eyes filled with even more aggrieved tears, and they began falling one after another.
"Did you two... hear everything just now?"
"No."
Momo Nishimiya shook her head repeatedly.
"I only heard half."
Kasumi Miwa nodded repeatedly.
Their answers imdiately split in two different directions.
"Fuck! Are you stupid?!"
"Holy shit! I wasn't flying in the sky! I was swimming in the water, so of course I heard half of it!"
The two were just about to keep arguing when a frantic shout ca from outside.
"Cursed Spirits have appeared!!!"
Naoya Zenin did not hesitate for even a second. He imdiately threw on his clothes and ordered the three of them, "Stop arguing! Everyone, follow ! Prepare to move out!"
Mai only turned back and glared fiercely at Kasumi Miwa and Momo Nishimiya, then hurried after him.
"...Wait, why did Mai yell at us?"
Only then did Momo Nishimiya finally realize sothing was off.
"Weren't we speaking up for her?"
"Ah, Nishimiya-senpai, you just don't get it."
Kasumi Miwa let out a long sigh.
"So things are complicated. You can't really understand them."
"What's complicated about it? Can't you explain it to ?"
"I can't be bothered to waste words on a little witch."
"???"
...
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