Night had settled over the city, and the streetlamps cast pools of dim yellow light across the road.
As Natsuki walked Eriri home, she kept her head lowered, her twin-tails swaying gently with every step.
“Thank you for today, Natsuki-kun,” she said softly. “I think I’ll be okay for the English quiz now…”
“That’s good.”
Natsuki smiled, then suddenly stopped.
A faint black barrier covered the street ahead. Ordinary people could not see it, but to him, it stood out clearly.
“A Curtain…”
He raised an eyebrow.
Jujutsu sorcerers used Curtains to conceal exorcisms from civilians, preventing both collateral damage and the sight of Cursed Spirits from reaching the public.
Eriri noticed where he was looking and tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Something’s happening up ahead.”
Natsuki turned to her.
“You should head home first, Eriri. Be careful on the way.”
“Eh?”
She glanced at the apparently empty street, then back at Natsuki’s serious expression.
After what had happened to her before, she seemed to understand.
“This…. is like that monster from the alley, isn’t it…?”
“I-I can wait for you, Natsuki-kun…”
“No.”
Natsuki shook his head.
“It could be dangerous.”
“Then you need to be careful too…”
Eriri bit her lip.
“Promise me you’ll come back safely.”
“I will.”
Natsuki watched until she disappeared down the street leading toward the Sawamura residence.
Then he turned and headed for the Curtain.
…
Inside the barrier, two girls were facing an enormous Cursed Spirit.
It resembled a centipede and stretched more than ten meters long. Every segment of its body bore a twisted human face.
“The intelligence was wrong…”
Mai Zenin’s expression darkened.
She had short, dark green hair and wore the uniform of Kyoto Jujutsu High. In her hand was a specially made revolver.
As a second-year student, she was currently ranked as a Grade 3 jujutsu sorcerer.
“This thing isn’t Grade 2!”
“Mai!”
Kasumi Miwa tightened her grip around the hilt of her sword.
“We need to retreat!”
“It’s too late…”
Mai clenched her teeth.
The centipede Cursed Spirit had already locked onto them, malice burning in its crimson compound eyes.
“It consumed a Special Grade cursed object. That’s why it evolved into a Special Grade.”
She pulled the trigger.
A bullet infused with cursed energy struck the creature’s shell but left behind only a faint white scratch.
“Damn it!”
Mai cursed under her breath.
She had already used up her stored ammunition. Her Construction Technique required time, and even at her absolute limit, she could only create a single bullet.
The Cursed Spirit would never give her the chance.
Even if she managed to construct one in the middle of battle, a lone bullet would not be enough to turn this around.
“ROAR—!”
The centipede shrieked.
Dozens of long, tentacle-like legs stabbed toward them at once.
“Move!”
Miwa grabbed Mai and dragged her backward.
The limbs slammed into the ground, splitting the concrete apart and filling the street with dust.
“We can’t keep this up…”
Mai wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
“We need to break through its armor somehow.”
“But…”
Miwa stared at the Cursed Spirit.
Its shell was absurdly tough. Her blade could not cut through it at all.
Miwa was reasonably capable and had already learned New Shadow Style.
If she continued developing, then as a sorcerer without an innate technique, her ceiling might one day resemble Atsuya Kusakabe, the man widely regarded as the strongest Grade 1 sorcerer.
For now, however, she was nowhere near that level.
Her mastery of New Shadow Style and her battle experience were both still severely lacking.
Just as the two girls found themselves cornered, ripples spread across the edge of the Curtain.
A figure stepped inside.
“Oh?”
Natsuki entered the barrier and surveyed the battlefield with interest.
“A Special Grade Cursed Spirit…”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Looks lively in here.”
“Who are you?!”
Mai immediately turned toward him, her guard raised.
An ordinary person should not have been able to enter the Curtain.
Unless…
“You’re a jujutsu sorcerer?”
“Something like that.” Natsuki answered casually, his gaze settling on the centipede.
“This thing looks interesting.”
“Watch out!” Miwa cried.
The Cursed Spirit noticed its new prey, and several of its limbs immediately turned toward Natsuki.
They tore through the air like spears.
Natsuki did not move, he merely raised his right hand.
“Trace on.”
Points of energy gathered, and Kanshou and Bakuya instantly formed in his hands.
The twin blades crossed.
Clang—!
A harsh metallic screech rang out as the Cursed Spirit’s legs were severed cleanly. Green blood sprayed through the air, and the creature howled in pain.
Mai’s eyes widened.
“What kind of technique is that?!”
“A Construction Technique? No…”
She stared at the twin blades in Natsuki’s hands.
They had clearly been created on the spot.
But how had he done it so quickly?
Creating a single cursed-energy bullet took her a long time and usually left her with a nosebleed.
Natsuki had casually produced two entire swords in an instant.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Mai muttered in disbelief.
Miwa stood frozen beside her.
“Mai-senpai… his technique looks a little like yours…”
“It’s different.”
Mai gritted her teeth.
“Construction requires the user to understand the material’s structure. Even with complete familiarity, it shouldn’t be possible to create something that quickly.”
She kept her eyes fixed on Natsuki, determined to understand what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Natsuki was already fighting the Cursed Spirit.
Despite its enormous body, the centipede moved with frightening agility. Its legs, tail, and venomous attacks came at him in a relentless storm.
Natsuki slipped through them with ease, his twin blades becoming streaks of black and white.
Every strike landed precisely on one of its joints.
“ROAR—!”
The Cursed Spirit flew into a rage.
All the human faces along its body opened their mouths at once as cursed energy began gathering inside them.
“This is bad!”
Mai’s expression changed sharply.
“It’s activating its technique!”
“Get back!”
She pulled Miwa away.
Natsuki, however, stepped forward.
“You’re trying to use a special move?”
A faint grin appeared on his face.
“Did you ask my permission?”
He brought his hands together.
Kanshou and Bakuya vanished, replaced by a black longbow.
Then an arrow appeared.
“Caladbolg II.”
Spiral patterns twisted along its shaft.
Natsuki drew the bowstring.
Then fired.
The arrow became a spiraling streak of light and shot straight into one of the Cursed Spirit’s open mouths.
Boom—!
The explosion erupted from inside its body.
The centipede swelled violently before bursting apart.
Green blood and mangled flesh sprayed in every direction.
Natsuki had already expected that.
With a sweep of his hand, he raised a magical barrier that stopped every drop before it could reach him.
As the dust cleared, only scattered remains were left behind.
The Curtain began to dissolve.
“I-Is it over?”
Miwa stared blankly at the wreckage.
“Yeah.”
Natsuki dismissed the projection, and the longbow dissolved into motes of light.
He turned toward the two familiar sorcerers.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-No…”
Mai finally recovered from her shock.
She stared at him.
“Who exactly are you?”
“Amamiya Natsuki. I’m a student at Toyogasaki Academy.”
“A student?”
So he was not from either jujutsu school.
Mai frowned.
“That technique you used…”
“You can think of it as a Construction Technique.”
Natsuki smiled.
“Though it probably works differently from yours.”
“How is it different?” Mai immediately asked.
“Once I’ve projected something, I don’t need to analyze its physical structure again,” Natsuki explained. “As long as I understand its concept, I can reproduce it.”
“Its ..concept?”
“Right. A knife, a sword, a bow…”
Natsuki casually swept his hand through the air. A short blade formed above his palm, then disappeared again.
“As long as I understand the form of its existence, I can recreate it.”
“…”
Mai fell silent.
Her own Construction Technique transformed cursed energy into physical matter.
That required her to understand the structure of whatever she wanted to create, and every bullet had to be constructed with painstaking precision.
Yet Natsuki could do it so effortlessly.
“Why is it so easy for you…?”
“Maybe I’m just exceptionally talented?” Natsuki answered jokingly.
Miwa spoke up in a small voice.
“Amamiya-san… thank you for saving us.”
“No problem.”
Natsuki waved it off.
“You’re both from Jujutsu High?”
“Mm. The Kyoto school.”
Miwa nodded.
“I’m Kasumi Miwa, a second-year.”
“Mai Zenin. Also a second-year,” Mai added.
“Zenin…”
Natsuki raised an eyebrow.
“As in one of the Three Great Sorcerer Families?”
“…Yes.”
Mai’s voice turned cold, making it obvious she had little affection for the name.
“I see.”
Natsuki did not pry.
Every family had its own problems.
“How did that Cursed Spirit end up here?”
“The intelligence was wrong,” Mai explained. “It was originally only Grade 2.”
“But it consumed a Special Grade cursed object and evolved.”
“A cursed object…”
Natsuki’s expression grew thoughtful.
“Was it planted here deliberately?”
“We don’t know.”
Mai shook her head.
“Incidents like this have been happening more often lately. A lot of Cursed Spirits have been evolving abnormally.”
“I see…”
Natsuki looked toward the remains.
A pitch-black fragment lay among them, giving off an ominous presence.
“That’s what remains of the cursed object,” Miwa explained. “We need to take it back and seal it.”
“Right.”
Mai walked over and placed the fragment inside a specially prepared container.
Then she looked back at Natsuki.
“Don’t tell anyone about what happened here.”
“Understood.”
Natsuki nodded.
“We’ll be leaving, then.”
Mai turned away.
Miwa bowed deeply to Natsuki.
“Thank you again!”
“Be careful on your way back.”
The two girls left.
Once the Curtain completely vanished, the street returned to normal.
Natsuki remained where he was, watching them disappear into the distance.
“A Special Grade cursed object…”
He murmured quietly.
“This world really is getting livelier by the day!”
…
When Natsuki returned to the apartment building, game sound effects were already pouring through the wall next door.
Gabriel was obviously gaming again.
He shook his head and entered apartment 302.
After taking a shower, he sat down at his desk and checked his phone.
Several unread LINE messages were waiting for him.
[Eriri: Natsuki-kun, did you get home safely? (`?ω?′)]
[Miko: Senpai, thank you for today…]
[Utaha: Kouhai-kun, I finished the outline for my new chapter. Would you like to read it? (????)??]
Natsuki replied to each of them, then turned on his computer and prepared to write.
His thoughts, however, kept drifting back to the earlier battle.
“Mai Zenin…”
He remembered the frustration in her eyes.
“Construction Technique, huh…”
If he remembered correctly, Mai’s innate technique allowed her to convert cursed energy into physical matter, effectively creating something from nothing.
In theory, it was an incredibly powerful ability.
Unfortunately, Mai had been born as one half of a set of twins in the jujutsu world.
Her weak reserves of cursed energy meant she could only construct a single bullet each day.
Trying to create more would leave her bleeding from the nose.
Compared to that, Natsuki’s Projection Magecraft allowed him to keep creating weapons for as long as he had energy.
It really did feel a little unfair.
Ding!
His phone screen lit up.
Utaha had sent him a file.
[Kouhai-kun, hurry and read it! I wrote a new chapter!]
Natsuki opened the document.
It was the latest chapter of The Metronome in Love.
Her prose remained beautiful, and the emotional details were handled with delicate care.
He read the entire thing seriously before replying.
[It’s great. You’re getting better and better, Senpai.]
Utaha responded almost instantly.
[Really? (/ω)]
[Yeah. It’ll definitely sell well when it’s published.]
[Then Kouhai-kun has to be my very first reader from now on~]
[Deal.]