Back at Jujutsu High, Nanami had just returned.
Mechamaru had arrived as well.
Mechamaru's current form was a deep-brown robot — a puppet being remotely operated by his real body back in Kyoto. He wheeled in the corpse of the Black-Robed Figure that Mahiko had fabricated, pushing it on a small cart, and brought it to a stop in front of Nanami.
Nanami bent down to examine the body, brow furrowing slightly.
Something felt off compared to the Black-Robed Figure he'd encountered before — but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.
"This one... are you certain this is the same person I mentioned? The one whose methods resembled Cursed Spirit Manipulation?" Nanami asked.
Mechamaru shook his head. "He was indeed fighting alongside Cursed Spirits, and he did perform something that looked like absorbing them — but I can't say for certain he's the same individual you're referring to."
Mechamaru didn't commit to a definitive answer. This was Kenjaku's instruction.
Because truthfully, the resemblance wasn't one hundred percent.
If he stated it as fact and Nanami later noticed something inconsistent upon closer inspection, it would drag Mechamaru into the mess. Keeping things vague was the most useful play.
Kenjaku's ultimate goal was for the people at Jujutsu High to come to see the Black-Robed Figure as a separate existence from Suguru Geto.
Nanami's frown deepened. "We'll need to look into this further."
Mechamaru nodded, then asked, "What about the other students here at Jujutsu High? I believe Todo and Miwa arrived too — where are they?"
"They've all gone out," Nanami answered.
"Gone out? Gone where?"
"Apparently they all went with Todo to some idol event. They're at an idol venue somewhere."
Mechamaru paused at that.
An idol venue?
Hadn't that blue-haired Cursed Spirit gone to an idol venue as well?
They weren't going to run into each other, were they?
He felt a flicker of unease.
Surely nothing would go wrong... right?
...
Meanwhile, on Mahiko's end.
The girl was looking down, locking eyes with Lil' Dagon — those wide, dewy, sparkling little eyes staring right up at her.
"Big Sis Mahiko, won't you come be an idol with me~!" Lil' Dagon chirped, grabbing Mahiko's hand and swinging it back and forth with gleeful energy.
The moment Mahiko heard that, she started shaking her head like a rattle drum.
"No no no no no..."
Look — if you asked Mahiko to fight, she wouldn't flinch for a second.
But if you asked Mahiko to get up on stage and sing and dance... well, her Big Sis Mahiko genuinely wasn't cut out for that.
She'd never learned how. Not once.
Getting up on stage to perform something she'd never learned — wasn't that just embarrassing herself in public?
Absolutely not. No way. Never. Something that humiliating was completely, utterly out of the question.
And if Kenjaku happened to see it — she'd be laughed to death. The last thing she wanted was to be laughed to death by Kenjaku.
Lil' Dagon pouted at the rejection, cheeks puffing out into a round little bun face.
Jogo stood behind them with his arms crossed. "Isn't it already over anyway? Isn't the whole afternoon just the main stage stuff? The morning was enough of a treat."
Unless they got voted onto the main stage, the afternoon was none of their business.
Hanami crouched down beside Lil' Dagon, offering comfort. "It's not that we don't want to go — it's just that the main stage over there is for professionals..."
Lil' Dagon finally nodded obediently.
Mahiko watched from the side, struck by an inexplicable sense of déjà vu — like she was watching a family of four.
...How were these Cursed Spirits somehow warmer and more loving than most jujutsu sorcerer families? What was going on?
Was this still Jujutsu Kaisen? This felt more like a family sitcom.
Well, whatever. As long as they didn't cause trouble. That was Mahiko's one real fear — those three stirring up chaos.
Fortunately, it seemed like things had wrapped up. Getting onto the main stage now should be out of the question.
But...
Mahiko unconsciously reached up to touch her nose.
An ominous feeling welled up in her chest.
Because she suddenly realized — as amateur as that performance had been, the crowd around the three on the small stage had still been the largest of any small-stage act. The audience had cheered with a fervor that nearly drowned out the legitimate idol stages next door.
Was there any chance — any chance at all — that they'd actually made it in?
Sure enough, the very next second, a staff member walked over with news.
"Congratulations! The audience just voted — you came in third place among all the small stages! You're invited to perform on the main stage!"
Lil' Dagon's eyes lit up like stars. She leapt straight into the air and grabbed Hanami's hands, spinning in circles on the spot.
Mahiko and Jogo, meanwhile, both went stiff in the face at the exact same moment.
Wow...
Speak of the devil and he shall appear, huh.
Takata was an idol who took her fans and her events very seriously.
She always prepared thoroughly before every event.
"I heard there's a team on the small stage — some new idols who haven't debuted yet? They scored incredibly high?"
Takata was in the backstage area doing her hair and makeup when she caught the staff members chatting around her. She tilted her head slightly, mildly curious.
"Yes! Apparently there's a child star, a super gorgeous blonde model, and an acrobat from the circus!"
Jogo biting a lighter had gotten her classified as a circus acrobat.
Honestly — who around here had ever seen anything like that? Everyone was just stunned into believing it.
And on top of that, they were good-looking — genuinely, strikingly good-looking, all three of them.
So the audience swarmed together and crowned the "Calamity Sisters" as the top three of the small stages, launching them straight onto the main stage. Cheers like "Give her the lighter! Give her the lighter! Give her the lighter!" rang out without end.
The professional idols were, to put it mildly, shaken. They looked around and asked their staff the same question: who on earth were these three uninvited guests?
"I literally just picked them up off the street!" the poor talent scout who had dragged three disaster-level beings into the idol world looked completely baffled when she heard the news. "What do you mean the vases I found on the roadside started breathing fire on stage?"
That's why you don't just shove random things you find on the side of the road into your pocket.
Too late to regret it now.
Because the audience's enthusiasm was simply too overwhelming — there was no way to keep those three off.
"If anything goes sideways this time, I'm telling you, kiss your bonus goodbye..."
Hit with an ultimatum, the talent scout had no choice but to put on her most pitiful face and go find those three "quality idols" she'd picked up off the street, begging these three complete amateurs not to cause any spectacular disasters.
What was she most worried about? Mainly the fact that all three of them looked like they absolutely did not follow orders. The little girl was fine, the blonde one smiled pleasantly enough but was impossible to read — but that white-haired one looked like a delinquent who had wandered in from somewhere, and for all she knew there was a crowbar hidden under that skirt.
Truly terrifying.
But to keep her miserable little job, she had no choice but to steel herself and push forward.
If only there were someone who could actually wrangle those three walking red flags...
On the other side of the backstage area.
"Huh? I have to dance too?" Mahiko pointed at her own nose.
Lil' Dagon nodded, eyes full of anticipation. "Yes!"
――
[Author's Note: Because of watching the Culling Game match during the day, plus other things that came up, the update's late! Apologies to everyone. Please support me with your monthly votes. Once I get home I'll post the next chapter for you all.]
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