After going for a nap, mage Coventina Avalon wakes up in a different world.
She now needs to navigate this new world, where all her knowledge of magic is useless. And where the adults of this world don't see her as a child, but as a tool. Not to mention this white-haired brat constantly annoying her.
[Chapter 2]
Kuramoto Mieko and Uehara Ko take Coventina to Tokyo Jujustu High to sort everything out.
[Chapter 3]
Coventina is tested by the higher-ups of the Jujustu world.
[Chapter 4]
After being tested, Coventina is sent out for her first real mission under the supervision of Uehara.
[Chapter 5]
Entered male lead, stage left.
[Chapter 6]
Coventina is sent out on her first solo grade 2 mission, and things don't go that smoothly.
[Chapter 7]
Coventina is forced into doing a 1st-grade mission.
[Chapter 8]
Coventina gets unexpected guests at her dorm, which leads to finding out why she hasn't been sent out to kill any more curse users.
[Chapter 9]
Coventina's work trip to Kyoto takes a turn when she bumps into Gojo.
[Chapter 10]
The happiest time of the year.
[Chapter 11]
Coventina gets a surprise proposal from the Gojo clan.
[Chapter 12]
Coventian is now living in the Gojo home as fiancée to the future clan head. Now the clan prepares for the New Year.
Fairy tales often feature healing water, either from a spring or some kind of magical fountain, but occasionally cursed springs pop up as well. In particular cursed in such a way that they transform the drinker.
In the Grimm’s “Brother and Sister” two children pass by three springs in the forest, that each murmur in the sound of rushing water:
“Whoever drinks from me will become a tiger.”
“Whoever drinks from me will become a wolf.”
“Whoever drinks from me will become a deer.”
In this version the springs have been cursed by their evil stepmother, who is a witch, but there are other variants where the springs are like this naturally.
Interestingly enough, in a Russian version of this tale (Alenoushka and her brother) it is not a spring, but a hoof print filled with water (of a horse, a cow, and a sheep) that the children must resist to drink from. Which matches very well with the folklore of turning into a werewolf if you drink the water from a wolf’s paw print.
Cursed springs themselves are also linked to werewolves, though:
There is a legend about a Prussian magistrate who, after returning from a hunting trip with his beloved wife, suddenly finds the town he oversees plunged into despair. Children start disappearing, one by one, stolen from their cribs without so much as a cry.
Meanwhile the gentleman’s beautiful wife grows more and more reclusive. She shuts herself up in her chamber and will never allow her husband to see her at night anymore.
Her husband does not know what to think, until one of the grieving mothers vows to him that she knows where her child went. He follows her into the woods, all the way to an old hunting lodge, and there they find a monstrous being, half woman, half wolf. This is the monster that has been stealing children and it is not until that moment that the gentleman recognises his wife, who was unfortunate enough to drink from a cursed spring on their last hunting trip, and has become a werewolf, doomed to transform every night.
The tragedy of the cursed spring is that the victims have usually committed no greater sin than succumbing to their thirst. In legends like the Prussian one there is usually no cure at all, nothing but grief and the sad knowledge that sometimes the wild magic of the woods can sometimes be painfully cruel. But in the fairy tales, where the world is as it should, the victims are always saved. Either by defeating the layer of the curse, finding a stronger magic, or when the sister catches her brother up in her arms and hugs him until she is holding a boy again.
Which is a tried and tested method of un-transforming, just ask Janet and Tam Lin.
With Coventina agreeing to the marriage, and no way for the elders of the Gojo clan to make a fuss unless they wanted the ire of the strongest sorcerer.
Now, with an unexpected engagement to prepare for and the New Year at the end of the week, the clan had been thrown into a panic.
The first thing that had been done was that Coventina was moved into the Gojo compound. Immediately. For her protection.
Surprisingly, she had been given a room across from Gojo *cough* Satoru’s. Coventina thought that was strange. The Gojo clan was very traditional; she thought she would be put far away from him. Though she did have an inkling that her fiancé might have had something to do with that.
On top of all of that was her education. Coventina hadn’t been in school for about a year; that didn’t include the three months she had been in this world. So, she was a bit behind. That’s not to mention that the Japanese education system was slightly ahead of the UK’s. And that was compounded by her learning disability; there was a lot of work to be done so that she would be ready for Jujustu High in the spring.
Not helping the situation was Satoru. When he returned from school, he would go and annoy her or drag her away from what she was doing. No matter what she was doing- in the middle of class, reading, drawing, doing homework or practising he would crash it. And it would get worse since he had finished school for the year.
“Cove~” Satoru sang loudly as he waltzed into her room.
He never knocked when he entered her room, just slid open the door and wandered in.
Today, Coventina was sitting at her desk, luckly she managed to get a Western-style one, so her legs wouldn’t get sore sitting on the hard floor. She hated doing that for dinner.
Satoru wandered over to her. Leaning on her to peer over her shoulder to see what she was doing, despite being tall enough to do it without leaning over.
Peering down at the desk to see an open sketchbook. On the page that the book was open to, the top fourth of the page was taken up by a familiar sight: a Ranma screen, one from the tatami rooms downstairs. A simple design with a pine tree and a crane.
Underneath the drawing of Ranma were versions of different designs of haircombs inspired by the screen.
“I thought it looked pretty,” Coventina answered the question she knew that was brewing in her fiancé’s mind.
“So you decided to make it into a haircomb?” He actually asked this time.
“I got bored listening to Tomika-sensei talking about nuclear fusion, so I ended up doodling,” She confessed.
“Let me guess, the mage doesn’t like science?” He chuckled.
“No, I do like science,” She corrected him. “I like space and mineralogy,” She told him.
Satoru let out a breathy laugh.
“Of course, the one with the title of Mistress of Crystals likes mineralogy,” He laughed.
“What else did you expect?” The blonde asked.
Before Satoru could answer back, someone interrupted them.
“Excuse me, Satoru-sama, Avalon-san,” The housekeeper interrupted them. “Madam Yoshimi would like to see both of you,” She informed the teens.
Finally, Satoru stopped leaning on Coventina’s back with a dramatic sigh.
For her part, Coventina placed her pencil in the centre of her sketchbook before standing up.
The two teens followed behind the housekeeper. Satoru walked with his hands tucked into his trousers’ pockets, with a slump as he walked. Coventina placed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, but she stood straighter, being nervous and a bit curious why both of them had been called by Satoru’s grandmother.
The blonde hadn’t seen much of the old woman at the marriage meeting. Of the members of the Gojo clan that she interacted with - be Satoru- was his aunt, the wife of the oldest son, the uncle that she had previously met.
The uncle that was supposed to be heir to the Gojo clan. Well, that was until the new Six Eyes was born. Usurping his uncle’s position.
Though that’s what was whispered among the maids.
Hotaru took them to the tatami room that Madam Gojo used as her office of sorts. Once outside the room, Hotaru knelt in front of the door. She knocked, then informed the madam that she had brought the two teens. Once permission was given, Hotaru slid open the door to reveal the tatami room. The room was traditional to a T.
The tatami room was fairly large. A single low-rise table dominated the room. Scattered across the table were various pieces of paper. From the door, Coventina couldn’t see what was on them. But she could spot colour swatch cards among the papers. The tokonoma in the left-hand corner was decorated with various ornaments that expressed the Gojo clan’s power and wealth.
Madam Gojo sat at the head of the low-rise table, facing the door that had been opened. On her right was her daughter-in-law. Opposite Chinatsu was a middle-aged man dressed in a nice suit.
“Satoru, Coventina,” Yoshimi greeted the teens.
“How ya’ doing, old woman?” Satoru greeted his grandmother back, which caused the woman to scrunch her nose in displeasure.
The white-haired teen grinned at her reaction. He walked over to the table and plopped himself down next to his aunt.
Coventina held in a sigh at Satoru’s behaviour. Unlike him, she gave the old woman a bow.
“Good afternoon, Madam Gojo,” She greeted the older woman.
Satoru frowned at his fiancée’s greeting of this grandmother, but the woman looked pleased.
“There’s no need for such formalities, child. Just refer to me as grandmother,” The madam smiled.
“I will, grandmother,” She replied.
The blonde then joined her fiancé at the table.
Now that everyone was settled, Madam Gojo turned her attention to the man sitting on her left.
“This gentleman is Kobe Ren. He’s the one in charge of organising your engagement party. I really, we would have liked to have the party before the New Year, but with that only being three days away, it would be rushed,” The older woman bemoaned.
“It was the right move to make, mother,” Her daughter-in-law reassured her. “Imagine what the Kamo and the Zen’in, especially the Zen’in, would say if something went wrong or was not up to standard,” Chinatsu added.
“I know,” Madam Gojo sighed.
Of course, image was everything for the powerful clan. The adult continued to talk about the engagement party. Coventina wondered why they were there; she was quite sure their opinions didn’t matter. Flickering her blue eyes over to her fiancé, who looked like he was a second away from falling asleep. But she kept quiet, somewhat listening to Kobe’s plans about the engagement party.
“Coventina, once this meeting is finished, we’re going to pick out a kimono for the engagement party,” Madam Gojo informed the teen.
“Okay,” It’s not like she could argue.
If this was an engagement party of her own desire, she would wear the Avalonian clothes that she had inherited. But she didn’t have access to them at the moment. Though she probably wouldn’t be allowed to it anyway.
Not that she minded; her little weeb heart soared at the chance to wear a real kimono, especially knowing that the Gojo clan must have some gorgeous and stunning kimonos.
The rest of the meeting passed painfully slowly. When it did finish, Coventina wasn’t allowed a quick break as she immediately swept away to a kimono.
She was guided to another tatami room, upstairs, where the servants were pulling out many boxes with various kimonos in them.
But before any choosing could be done, a little problem had to be sorted.
“Satoru,” Yoshimi called her grandson’s name with a cautious tone.
The blonde hadn’t noticed her fiancé following them, long turning out his presence in her mind.
“Something wrong, old lady?” He asked curiously.
The silent rage coming from the older woman was causing the air to become tense, especially since there was nothing she could do to control this child.
“I was hoping we could use this time to get to know each other better,” She told him.
“Of course,” Satoru smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I'm just tagging along,” He told her.
The tension grew between grandson and grandmother.
“I was hoping it would just be us three girls,” Yoshimi emphasised that last part.
“That’s alright. I’ll just be in the corner, watching,” Satoru didn’t back down. “My fiancée is a bit shy. I can’t leave her alone with a bunch of strangers,” He added.
It was true that Coventina was shy, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t handle being left alone in a room with strangers for a while. Though she was getting the feeling that Satour was using this excuse to rile up his relatives, or he really didn’t trust them.
“It'll be fine, Satoru,” Coventina stepped in. “It’s only a few hours. I’ll survive,” She reassured him.
The boy stared down at her, his eyes obscured by the dark lens so the girl couldn’t see what emotions were swirling inside of them.
“Satoru,” A new voice cut through the tension.
Stepping into view was a stunning woman. She was tall for a Japanese woman. Her brown hair was elegantly styled without a hair out of place. The pale kimono she wore was simple, but it enhanced her beauty. If she were back home, Coventina would have mistaken her for a fairy.
When the woman stepped into the agrue, Coventina noticed that Satoru’s behaviour changed.
The woman then turned to Madam Gojo and her daughter-in-law.
“Mother, Chinatsu-onee-san,” She greeted the woman with a deep bow.
‘Mother and sister?’ Coventina looked at the new woman in surprise. Yoshimi had a few daughters and daughters-in-law, so which one was she? ‘She doesn’t look like Yoshimi or Daichi,’ She realised. ‘So is she…?’ Her blue eyes flickered over to her fiancé.
Satoru had never mentioned either of his parents (though she probably hadn’t known him long enough for him to mention them). Now that she thought about it, Satoru’s uncle always accompanied the boy, not his father. She would have to ask him about it later.
“If you’re worried about your fiancée being alone, why don’t I keep her company, Satoru?” She inquired.
All eyes were back on the boy, waiting for his answer.
Satoru made no contact with anyone, just stared at the wall in front of him. His face was blank as he stared at the wall.
“If Cove is alright with it and that’s what you want to do,” He said.
“I don’t mind,” Coventina told him.
The new woman beamed at the blonde’s agreement. Satoru stayed emotionless, just nodding before leaving the room.
Coventina stared at her fiancé’s retreating form, confused about his sudden change in behaviour. Though she didn’t have much time to muse over it as the unmane woman stepped closer to her.
“It’s nice to meet you, Avalon-san,” She greeted the teen. “I’m Gojo Natsumi,” She introduced herself with a bow.
“There’s no need to bow to me! And, please, call me Coventina! No honorifics!” She flusteredly requested.
“If that’s what you desire,” Natsumi answered.
Now that was settled, the ladies all sat down. They sat in a L-shaped, Madam Gojo sat by herself, whilst Chinatsu, Coventina and Natsumi sat to the madam’s right.
As they waited for the servants organised the kimonos. Putting some of the exquisite kimonos on the stands and laid other kimonos on the floor with their patterns facing them.
“Are there any colours, patterns or motifs that I should avoid?” Coventina inquired.
“I suggest no dark colours,” Madam Gojo answered. The woman took a sip of her tea before continuing on. “As for patterns or motifs, avoid white chrysanthemums; anything else will be judged on a per kimono basic,” She added.
“Okay,” The teen acknowledged the advice. “Do you have any light blue coloured kimonos?” She requested.
“Light blue?” Chinatsu raised an eyebrow at the blonde’s request.
“It’s my family’s colour,” She informed the woman. “Since none of them can be here with me, I would like something to represent them,” She explained.
“That shouldn’t matter,” Chinatsu told her. “You are marrying into the Gojo clan. You should focus on that,” She reprimanded the girl.
Coventina frowned at the woman. Her eyes looked over to the woman’s mother-in-law. The old woman didn’t bat an eye, most likely agreeing with her daughter-in-law.
“Chinatsu-onee-san,” Natsumi called to the other woman. “Don’t forget that Coventina is a foreigner and some Western countries see marriage as the joining of two families,” She explained, but the explanation seemed to satisfy her sister-in-law, as her face became even more sour. Natsumi let out a sigh. “I’m sure Satoru wouldn’t mind,” The mere mention of the boy’s name seemed to straighten Chinatsu out.
“I don’t see a problem in Coventina choosing a blue kimono. Blue is also the colour of our clan,” Yoshimi said.
‘Not like you were totally agreeing with your daughter-in-law,’ Coventina scoffed in her head.
It looked like Madam Gojo was trying to stay neutral, but it was obvious that she didn’t want Coventina to marry into the clan.
The rest of the session went well…ish. There was little arguing (mainly between Coventina and Chinatsu) and disagreement between them.
After going through many blue kimonos, Coventina settled on a light blue kimono that was decorated with white camellias that surrounded various pale small flowers.
“Mother, will Coventina be joining us for Hatsumōde?” Natsumi inquired.
If Coventina remembered right, Reina had mentioned that Hatsumōde - the first visit to the shrine or temple, it was the most important event in Japan. She had said a lot of people stay up until midnight so they could visit as soon as the New Year had been welcomed in. Others wait until morning.
“She will,” Madam Gojo confirmed. “I guess we should choose one now since we have the kimonos out,” She reasoned.
A huff came from Chinastu; it seemed like she didn’t want to spend any more here.
“Don’t worry, Chinastu-san. It shouldn’t be that long. I spotted a few kimonos that I like,” She told the woman.
She had seen a vibrant purple kimono as the servants shifted through the boxes of kimonos to find the blue kimonos for her. The blonde pointed to the box that she saw the servant put the kimono in.
Pulling the kimono out of the box, Coventina could see the kimono fully.
The kimono was a shade of amethyst. Along the sleeves and the front panel were covered in large pale pink roses. Along the side those roses were various small flowers of white, pink, and pale purple colours.
“Will this one be fine?” She asked.
Madam Gojo looked over the kimono.
“Yes, that will be fine,” The old woman nodded.
Now that all the kimonos had been chosen, the servants started to pack the kimonos and boxes away.
The slides exited the room. Coventina followed Natsumi’s lead in saying goodbye to Madam Gojo and Chinatsu with a bow. Chinatsu got a slight bow, whilst Madam Gojo got a deep bow. The four of them then parted ways. Madam Gojo and Chinatsu went one way, and Natsumi and Coventina went another way.
Natsumi didn’t accompany Coventina all the way back to the wing where her bedroom was located. Parting ways a couple of halls away.
“It was nice to met you, Coventina-chan,” Natsumi told her. The woman reached out and took the teen’s hands into her own. “If you need any help, please seek me out,” She smiled at the teen.
“Sure,” Coventina reluctantly said.
She didn’t trust anyone in the Gojo clan -besides Satoru; she could guess that most of the clan was plotting to get rid of her, probably by killing her.
Even though Natsumi came off as a kind person, it could be a way for the Gojos to make her let her guard down.
Returning to the wing where her room was, Coventina made a pit stop by Satoru’s room.
He was sitting in front of his TV, playing a game.
“I’m alive,” She groaned as she entered the room.
She knelt behind him, placing her hands on top of his head; then she placed her head on top of her hands.
Coventina watched Satoru play the game he was playing.
“You’re distracting me,” The boy complained.
“All of the perks of being a little sister,” She shot back.
Some kind of growl left the boy’s throat, but he didn’t make any moves to remove his fiancée. He just continued to play his game.
A silence fell between them for a while before Coventina remembered why she had stopped by.
“Who’s Natsumi to you?” She asked.
There was a brief pause in Satoru’s movements.
“She's my mother,” He answered, keeping his focus on the game.
There was a flatness to the boy’s voice.
“You two don’t get along?” She asked a follow-up question.
“It’s a bit hard to get along with someone you never see,” He answered again.
“What?” She looked down at him in confusion.
Satoru kept his eyes on the screen as he explained to Coventina.
“As soon as I was old enough to be fed solids, I was taken away from my parents and raised by a legion of nannies, with my grandfather and uncle having the final say on the important decisions,”
Removing herself from the boy’s head and sat down next to him.
“I guess they had no say in it?” She guessed.
“My mother, yes. But my father agreed to it. He’s a pushover with no backbone. He agreed to whatever the old man wanted him to do,” He criticised his father.
Coventina waited to ask more questions, but she stopped herself, seeing that Satoru didn’t want questions anymore, and she didn't want to push him either.
***
The air was bitterly cold as she walked to the shrine with the rest of the Gojo clan.
Coventina had been woken up a few hours before sunrise. The maids needed to get her dress and ready an hour before sunrise so the family could walk to the shrine to meet the other two major clans.
It was a tradition for the three major clans of the Jujustu to meet at the shrine for their first visit of the year. Unlike other families that went to Fushimi Inari-Taisha or their local shrine or temple, the big three had their own shrine that had been built in the Golden Age of Jujustu (whenever that was). The grounds were extensive, with equally impressive large accompanying buildings that were just as grand as the main shrine. Her Jujustu instructor had told her that the shrine’s grounds were covered by a robust barrier that even kept out Grade 1 cursed spirits, allowing the clans to visit the shrine in peace.
The walk to the shrine was about thirty minutes, which was a torturous time for the blonde teen who hated the cold. She wasn’t allowed to wear a coat with the kimono, just mulberry coloured harai, which didn’t give her much warmth whatsoever.
‘At least my hands aren’t freezing,’ She happily mused, looking at her white-gloved hands.
Those gloves were a personal creation of hers. Well, more like a collaboration. Coventina had commissioned someone to measure, cut and sew the gloves, whilst the teen herself had brought the white leather, enchanted it and created the crystals that decorated the top, which she sewed into a pretty design. The spell that she cast upon the materials allowed her to control the warmth. Too bad she didn’t have the foresight to make a crystal that could do the same thing for her whole body.
“Couldn’t you use that spell without putting it into something?” Satoru inquired as they walked to the shrine.
Satoru had allowed Coventina to cling to his arm as they walked to the shrine, as he was a walking hot water bottle.
“You can,” She answered. “You need good concentration to do it,” She added.
A snort left Satoru. He had already tested her concentration, which was horrendous, so no way she could keep up a spell like that for any length of time.
“There are probably different versions of that spell that involve so much concentration; I just haven’t had the chance to find them,” She added on.
“Why would there be multiple spells for the same outcome?” Satoru asked.
“That's because they're from different countries. Magic is a bit like maths, there are multiple ways to get to the same answer,” She explained.
Satoru then became quiet, lost in his thoughts as he mused over the information that she had given him. He probably had a lot of questions about magic. Coventina just hoped that she could answer them.
“Pop quiz time!” Satoru announced after a brief silence.
“Is the topic about Faberge Eggs?” Coventina asked with little enthusiasm.
“Nope,” He answered. “The topic of this quiz is our fellow guest!” He grinned.
“Can I not participate?” Coventina requested.
“No. You have no choice in this,” Satoru told her.
Coventina let out a heavy sigh, not looking forward to this quiz.
“First question!” Satoru started. “What are the names of the two clans we are meeting?” He asked.
“Kamo and Zen’in,” Coventina answered straight away.
“Right!” Satoru grinned. “Next question: who’s the current head of the Kamo clan?”
This answer took a few moments as she tried to remember the name.
“...Seiji?” She hoped that was the right name, as it was the only name that came to mind.
“Ding, ding, ding,” The boy loudly said, which earnt a glare from his uncle.
Both teens flashed a smile. Satoru’s being mischievous, whilst Coventina’s was strained. Once the man turned back around, the teens continued on with the quiz.
“Next, who’s the Zen’in heir?” Satoru asked next.
“Don’t you mean, who’s the Kamo heir?” Coventina looked at him in confusion.
Her short-term memory might be horseshit, but she definitely knows that they're just talking about the Kamo.
“This is a different question,” He pointed out. “So a different topic,” He clarified.
“Thanks for the clarification,” She grumbled. “I don’t know why I even asked, cause I don’t know who the heir is. Same for the Zen’in,” She admitted. “My Jujustu instructor has only taught me about the heads ot the clans so far. I’ve only had one lesson,” She added.
“What a horrible teacher,” Satoru mocked pitied her. “Would you like your fiancé to tell you all bout these heirs?” He cooed at her.
“Just their names. I’ve heard plenty of rumours about them,” She requested.
“You have?” Satoru raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised anyone would talk to you, especially about that stuff,”
“No one has,” She said. Seeing the pale eyebrow raise again, she continued on. “I’ve created crystal creatures that hang around the compound, listening to everyone’s conversations,” She quietly explained to him.
“You’ve been listening to everyone’s conversations?” He questioned.
“No. I have a filter that picks out the most interesting or the juiciest one,” She explained. “For example, I heard that the two oldest sons of the Kamo Seiji got bumped down in succession by their much younger half-brother, as he was born with the clan’s inherited technique,” She recited the rumours.
“Correct,” Satoru confirmed. “All the clans prefer their heirs to have processed hereditary technique,” He explained. “What other rumours have you heard?” He inquired.
“That you’re a thorn in the side of the miads that serve you. And the younger ones find you incredibly handsome,” She didn’t refrain from throwing shade at her fiancé, which earnt her a pout. “Oh, come on. Those are kind words compared to what they say about the Zen’in heir,” She finished.
“Oh? What do they say about Naoyo-kun?” He asked with a mischievous grin.
“That he’s a prick,” She matter-of-factly said. “He’s full of himself. He’s also a bully and thinks women are beneath him,” She added.
“Yeah, that sounds like him. Though he knows the limits of his power. He hasn’t picked a fight with me since our first,” Satoru mentioned.
Finishing the prompt quiz as the torii gate of the shrine came into view.
The Gojo clan stopped at the front of the gate so they could bow before passing through, keeping to the side. Allowing room for the gods to pass through the centre.
“Looks like the Kamo are already here,” Toshio pointed out as they reached the top of the stairs that led up into the shrine’s grounds.
Not that far from the top of the stairs was a group of people, about twenty of them. A mix of genders and ages.
Standing off-centre of the group was a tall man with dark hair that was slick back. He wore a dark coloured kimono.
That man glanced over at the group ascending the stairs.
“Daichi,” The man greeted the head of the Gojo clan. “Happy New Year,”
“Happy New Year, Seiji,” Daichi greeted the head of the Kamo clan.
Once the heads of the clans finished greeting each other, the two clans mingled together. Splitting off into groups, the woman of the families formed their groups; the children dashed off to play, leaving the teenagers to mess around.
Coventina stuck by Satoru’s side, as she didn’t know anyone there.
Satoru didn’t pull her over to where the other teenagers were congregating, instead pulling her towards a small wooden building that was off to the side.
“This building here sells snacks and drinks,” Satoru told her. “It got built during the 60s after a practically cold New Year,” He added.
The boy brought both of them a hot chocolate and mochi for them.
Coventina happily sipped on her hot chocolate in between munching on mochi, sitting on the bench near the serving hatch of the building. Sitting beside her was Satoru, who was devouring half a dozen mochis. She knew a few people who had a large appetite, her own cousin being like a human bin; but Satoru put him to shame. His excuse was that Limitless and Six Eyes used a lot of energy, and sugar was an easier and quicker way to replenish it.
“Satoru,” A deep voice called to the boy.
Looking over to the path leading back to the main part of the shrine, coming down that path were two boys. Well, boys might be the wrong term, as they looked a few years older than her and Satoru.
“Yuichi, Masumi,” Satoru greeted them with a nod. “It’s been a while,”
“So it’s true that you got yourself a foreign bride,” Masumi said, turning his gaze to the foreign bride next to him.
Coventina averted her eyes from the men standing in front of her.
“Yeah,” Satoru casually confirmed, still munching on his mochi. “This is Avalon Coventina. Cove, these two are Kamo Yuichi and Masumi, the eldest sons of the Kamo clan head,” He introduced everyone.
The blonde shifted her gaze to the men; one of them was the son who got booted from his role as the heir by his younger half-brother.
‘Probably shouldn’t mention that.’
There was awkward silence between the group. Coventina stared at her hot chocolate, watching the marshmallow bob around. She could feel eyes on her. The Kamo men were analysing her, wondering why the strongest sorcerer had chosen her as his bride.
“What’s your technique?” Masumi inquired.
“It’s called Crystallization. I turn my cursed energy into crystal,” She informed.
It was agreed to keep her status as a mage a secret, not wanting to upset the balance of the Jujustu world. Only those of the three major clans and a select few knew the truth.
‘Do those two know?’ Coventina wondered.
Before anything else could be asked, another presence appeared.
This new person was another boy, about the same age as herself and her fiancé. He had blonde hair, a few shades darker than Coventina’s, but she could see that his dark roots were beginning to show. His dark coloured eyes scanned the scene in front of him.
“Looks like the Zen’in are here,” Satoru muttered ot Coventina. He stood up after saying that. A cocky grin spread across his lips. It was slightly different from his normally that he wore; it looked like he was slightly annoyed. “Naoya-kun!” Satour grinned. “Long time no see,”
Naoya’s eyes then shifted from the older boy to the girl who he had just been sitting next to.
“So, it’s true that you found yourself a fiancée,” He said, his eyes scanned over her. A cold shiver ran down her spine. The look in his eyes was hunger. “A fine specimen, indeed. Let’s hope she can fulfil her duties as our culture expects,” He grinned.
It took all of her effort not to crush her flimsy cup that held her hot chocolate. Coventina wanted to ask what Naoya meant by his comment, but she didn’t want to embarrass the Gojo and cause the target on her back to get bigger.
“I can reassure Naoya-kun that Coventina will be perfect. She has a great personality,” Satoru told the other teen with a grin; his hand came to rest on her shoulder, the furthest for him. Pulling her body closer to his.
She didn’t know if Satoru was being genuine with his words, but it didn’t matter as the words still caused her to blush.
One of the Kamo men coughed to change the topic and the growing tension between the teens.
“Since all three clans are present, we should head back and join them so we can get started,” Yuich suggested.
Everyone silently agreed with the Kamo and headed to the main part of the shrine.
When they reached that part, the clans were already lining up at the chōzu-ya.
Satoru dragged Covetina to the front of one of the queues, which mortified the British teen.
“Calm down,” Satoru told her “This whole event has a hierarchy. Everyone else won’t be able to pray until we have done ours,” He explained.
When they got to the front, Coventina begrudgingly took off her gloves to wash her hands.
Her fiancé showed her how to properly wash her hands, as this was the first time being at a functional shrine. Taking the hishaku into her right hand, filling the hishaku with water, then bringing it to her left hand to wash it. Changing hands, washing her right hand. Refilling the hishaku, she poured the water into her hand so she could wash out her mouth.
Now that they were purified, the proceed to the main shrine.
The clans heads were already at the haiden, along with their wives. After them were the heirs of the clans. A head of herself and Satoru was the Kamo’s heir.
The Kamo’s heir wasn’t as young as everyone made him out to be. Coventina thought he would be four or five, but he looked about eight. He waited for his turn calmly with an older woman beside him. His nanny, most likely, as she had heard that his mother (a mistress) had left.
Once the Kamo hier was finished, it was her and Satoru’s turn. They walked up the few steps to the saisen-bako. Throwing some yen into the offering box. Following Satoru's lead, after he rang the bell, she bowed twice, then she brought her hands together to make her wish/pray. When their turn was done, it was Naoya’s turn; then the rest of the clan members could start with their sumōde.
Satoru had mentioned that the clans took turns on who went first each year. This year it was the Kamo, next year it will be the Gojo.
Her fiancé now dragged her to a set of buildings that lay off to the side of the main shrine.
The part of the buildings that faced them held many shelves that were filled with various knick-knacks like candles, talismans, charms (traditional and modern) and more things that wouldn’t be out of place in a souvenir shop.
“Time to pick your omamori,” Satoru smiled at her. “...Do you know what an omamori is?” He asked.
“Aren’t there protective talismans?” Coventina said. Satoru nodded at her answer. “Reina has a few,” She explained.
“Reina?” He questioned the unfamiliar Japanese name.
“She's a friend from back home. Japanese-American. Her grandparents send her over omamoris each year,” She explained. Stepping forward, Coventina began to inspect the different omamoris in colour and purpose. “Which one should I get?” She asked.
“Whatever one you want?” Satoru answered.
Coventina managed not to groan out loud but did roll her eyes.
‘He’s a lot of help,’ She criticised her fiancé. ‘Good health, ward off evil spirits, support in love, help in finance, god they have everything,’ She mused.
Coventina picked up a purple Gokaku Kigan omamori.
“Really? That one,” Satoru criticised her choice.
“Yeah,” She shot back. “I’m severely behind in school. I don’t want to make a huge fool out of myself when we get into Jujustu High,” She grumbled.
The white-haired boy paid for her omamori, along with two omikujis and an ema.
Coventina put the omamori into her bag for safekeeping. When she looked back up, Satoru was holding up the two omikujo out in front of him.
“Which one do you want?” He asked with a mischievous grin.
Coventina, being a younger sibling, knew exactly what that grin meant and what he was going to do.
With her limited understanding of time magic, Coventina was able to pause time briefly. It was enough time to grab one of the slips. When time started to flow again, the puzzled look on Satoru’s face was priceless.
“...How…did you…?” He tried to process what had happened.
Coventina opened her mouth to explain, but immediately shut it; there were too many people around.
“I'll tell you later,” She told him.
Stepping to Satoru’s side so that they could open their omikuji together.
Opening her omikuji to see what her luck was for the coming year, which was fair. Whilst her fiancé read excellent, which he held up to show off to his fiancée with a shit-eating grin.
Ignoring his behaviour and walked off to the stands, where she saw the others tying their omikuji. Coventina tied hers off, and Satoru came to tie his off as well.
“One last time,” The boy smiled, holding up the ema.
He handed over the wooden plaque to the blonde, who stared at it.
One side was blank, whilst the other side was painted with a koi pond with water lotus framing the edges.
“What do I do with this?” She asked.
“You write a wish on it,” He told her, pointing to the blank side.
“A wish…” Coventina softly repeated.
She searched around for something to write with. Back over at the shop, she spotted a small area that was set aside for writing. Instead of pens, there were a few brushes and some ink blocks. The blonde carefully wrote out her wish. It was strange to hold the brush the way she was, straight, not at an angle. Even with her best effort, the writing still came out a little messy, but the words were readable.
‘I wish to fish a way home,’
She had written her wish automatically in English.
‘I probably should have written it in Fae,’ She thought. ‘Though Riena did mention that her fellow countrymen aren’t that proficient in English. It probably would be a while before anyone noticed,’ She realised.
Once her ema was finished, Coventina put it with the other ema before Satoru dragged her away. Dragging her to the shrine’s gardens that surrounded the shrine.
The shrine’s garden was vast, with various types. There was a bamboo grove, a zen garden and many ponds. But, due to it being winter, there was no flora, just shrubbery. The ponds did have koi in them, which Satoru took Coventina over to look at.
Between Satoru’s endless chatting, during the quiet moments, Coventina found herself humming as she fed the koi in the pond that they had stopped by.
“What are you humming?” Satoru asked, as she was unable to identify the tune.
“Auld Lang Syne,”
“Huh?”
“It’s a Scottish folk song. It's sung at New Year. Normally after welcoming in the bells,” She explained her culture to him.
“Why are you singing a Scottish folk song?” Satoru raised an eyebrow.
“Because my mother is Scottish,” She answered.
“Sing it,” Her fiancé ordered.
The blonde stared at the boy, who was staring down at her.
“What?”
“You're not going to understand a single word, especially since a lot of words are in Scottish Gaelic. Your understanding of English is rubbish,” She argued.
“So,” Satoru shrugged his shoulders. “A lot of English people listen to Japanese music without understanding a single word,” He pointed out.
And, with that point, Coventina had run out of excuses not to sing.
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
A days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For day of auld lang syne…”
Coventina sang the rest of the song for Satoru, in the tranquillity of the gardens.
Once the song was finished, the two of them continued to wander the gardens until someone came to fetch them when the clan was ready to go home.
The last thing that she remembered was being in The Morrign’s domain. Now she was sitting at the base of a giant tree, surrounded by even more giant trees.
Was this a part of The Morrign’s training that she was talking about earlier?
“She could have at least put me in decent clothes,” She grumbled, staring down at the cute red dress that The Morrign had put her in.
Standing up, her body was stiff, especially her neck.
“Okay,” She breathed, slowly rolling her neck to help with the stiffness. “What did Master say to do if you find yourself in an unknown place, Coventina?” The girl mumbled to herself as she inspected the area.
It looked like she had been dropped in a forest. And, with the chill in the air and the position of the sun, Coventina guessed it could be spring, meaning that she could be in the northern hemisphere, probably in a northern country like Canada or Norway.
Extending her magical senses, Coventina couldn’t sense any people nearby by but there was a strange presence. The strange presence felt icky to her.
With no other leads to go on, Coventina headed in the direction of the icky presence.
It was lucky for her that the shoes that The Morrign had chosen had been flat, as she walked across the root-infested ground. The only bad thing was that she was cold in a sleeveless dress, despite the sun rising. The girl summoned a coat from her storage earring.
It took her a while for her to reach her destination, which was a deserted Japanese shrine.
Coventina’s eyes lit up at the thought that she could be in Japan.
She couldn’t feel any concealed spells or anything else dangerous, then the blonde moved from the treeline into the shrine’s ground.
But when she entered the shrine’s ground, Coventina felt a pulse of energy surge around her.
The world around her became distorted. The sky became red as foul scent filled the air. The icky presence intensified, becoming sickening. What drew her attention was the creature above the dilapidated shrine.
It was a worm-like creature with rotten bird wings hanging off its body. Oh, and it was about fifteen meters long.
With no warning, the creature lunged at her. Coventina managed to dodge the creature’s attack, but she fell to the ground as she did.
“Death!” She screamed.
The black crystal around her neck sprang to life. Darkness sprang out of the crystal, wrapping around her, before pulling her into the shadows below.
Her heart was racing. Even though she was technically immortal now, she didn’t feel like testing out her new ability.
“What is that!?” Coventina screamed at the spirit that resided in Death.
“It's definitely not a magical creature. I can be sure about that,” Death told her.
“You’re so helpful,” She grumbled.
Her bright blue eyes glanced up from the shadows to see the creature looking around for her.
As the creature searched for her, Coventina looked around the shrine’s ground to see what she could use for cover or she could launch herself off the building to get hight. Or there was the torii gate, which looked like it was ready to fall over.
‘I guess my best option is to launch myself off the shrine and impale it,’ She planned.
As the creature circled around the grounds looking for her, Coventina made her to the shrine still in Death’s shadow. Once at the shrine, she used Death to scale the building and place herself in the centre of the shrine’s roof. Summing Brunnaprinzessin to her hand, shifting the weapon into a spear. She watched the creature circle around the ground, waiting for the right moment to attack.
When she saw the perfect opportunity to attack, Coventina launched herself from Death’s shadow, aided by her magic. Now she was above the creature. She created a crystal platform so she could launch herself back down at the creature, with her spear pointed out in front of her.
“W-What!?”
Coventina watched as Brunnaprinzessin bounded off the creature’s skin.
The creature let out some kind of roar before using its tail to hit the fourteen-year-old. The girl barely managed to dodge the attack, leading back down the ruin stone-tile ground.
‘Why did my attack bounce!?’ She panicked. ‘Does this thing have a magic-infused hind?!’ She wondered.
Even if this creature had a magically infused hind that could repel a weapon that was enchanted with mana, it wouldn’t stand a chance against the hardest substance in the world.
Gathering her mana that she needed for her next plan, before casting the spells that she needed.
“May the weight of Alts pin you to the ground!”
A giant magic circle appeared about the creature. Her spell slammed the creature into the ground, but before it slammed into the ground, she cast another spell.
“Imperial Stalagmites!”
Diamonds came jutting out from the ground, ready to impale the hurling creature that was approaching the ground. The creature let out a screeching howl as it was being impaled on the diamonds. A dark purple liquid leaked from the holes where it had been impaled. Once it had finished its dying howl, the creature dissipated.
Coventina stood there slightly confused. All the magical creatures that she had fought in the past always left corpses.
“What the hell?” A deep voice from behind exclaimed.
Too caught up in her confusion, she didn’t notice two presences coming up the stairs behind her. The girl quickly turned around to see a man and a woman standing underneath the torii gate.
Both of them were obviously asian. The man was tall, about five feet and seven inches. He had tanned skin with black short hair with bangs that was gel back, with line green eyes. He was dressed in a leather jacket with a dark coloured suit underneath. Coventina was surprised that he didn’t have stubble and a cigarette in his mouth.
The woman had long lavender and baby blue hair, the lavender on top and the baby blue underneath. She had pale skin with chestnut brown eyes. She wore a fitted grey suit with a large satchel hanging off her shoulder.
“Did you exorcise that curse by yourself!?” The woman exclaimed.
“You mean that monster that was flying around this place? Then yeah,” Coventina confirmed.
Both adults looked mortified at her.
“How old are you?” The man asked.
“Fourteen,” The girl answered.
The mortified look on their face grew.
“Not even in high school yet, and she can take on Grade 1,” The man sighed.
“She is a foreigner, we would have heard of her,” The woman pointed out.
“Yeah,” The man agreed. “Where did you come from?” He asked.
“I woke up in the forest,” She told them.
The adults looked at her like she had grown a second head.
“Did you sleepwalk here?” The man reluctantly asked.
“Uehara!” The woman called to the man in a scolding tone. “The nearest inhabited village is twelve miles away,” She reminded him. “Especially in that outfit,”
The adults turned back to the girl to see that the black outfit she was wearing had now been replaced with a red dress. During the time that the woman was scolding Uehara, Coventina had dismissed Death, returned The Morrign’s dress.
“Weren’t you wearing something else?” Uehara confusely asked.
“Yeah, but I didn’t need Death anymore?” Coventina answered.
The adults both looked at each other again.
“I didn’t sense any curse energy being used, did you, Kuramoto?” Uehara asked the woman.
“None at all,” Kuramoto replied.
Coventina cocked her head at their use of ‘curse energy’, it was how she would use mana.
“How did you defeat the curse- monster?” Kuramoto asked, changing her terminology so Coventina could understand.
“With my magic,” She told them.
The look that Kuramoto and Uehara gave her told her that they didn’t believe her. So, Coventina lifted her hand up, considering her mana a few feet away from them. Releasing her mana, it crystallised into a tower of crystals. Once again, Kuramoto and Uehara looked at each other.
“We need to take her back to Tokyo,” Kuramoto stated.
“It’s your job. I’m only here to assess how you do,” Uehara replied.
“I think this is over my pay grade,” Kuramoto said. “So, um…” She turned to address the girl but realised that she didn’t know her name.
“Coventina Avalon,” The girl introduced herself, curting as she did.
“Well, nice to meet you, Coventina-chan. I’m Kuramoto Mieko, and this man is Uehara Ko,” Uehara nodded his head towards Coventina. “We’re going to take you back to Tokyo, is that alright with you?” She asked.
Coventina’s bright blue eyes sparkled when she heard Tokyo.
“I’m really in Japan,” She awed.
“You know you’ve been talking Japanese this whole time,” Uehara told her.
Due to how Coventina learnt Japanese - through magical means - she couldn’t tell if she was talking Japanese or English.
“Oh yeah,”
“We probably should stop by a clothing shop before we get to town,” Kuramoto said.
The group started to make their way down the million stairs that led up to the shrine.
“Oh, I have some spare clothes,” Coventina told them.
Christmas had passed. Now it was that strange week in between Christmas and New Year. Well, a strange week in the Western part of the world.
In Japan, everyone was preparing for the New Year. Stores and businesses were putting up their decorations and putting out their products for the New Year.
But, for Jujutsu sorcerers life continued on. Exorcising cursed spirits that grew in numbers in winter.
Or, in Coventina’s case, eliminating curse users.
She had been assigned this mission on Boxing Day (26th Dec). Even though she had requested both Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, it seemed that the higher-ups didn’t care.
The curse user that she had been sent out to eliminate wasn’t that strong, about Grade 3. But the curse user had been blatantly using his cursed technique to rob people and their houses. So, he needed to be eliminated. So, Coventina was sent north to deal with it.
It only took an afternoon to find and eliminate the cuser. But by the time she finished and got to the train station, the last train back to Tokyo had already left, so she had to stay in a hotel near the train station in the town where the curse user was located in.
Early the next morning, Coventina got the train back to Tokyo.
Stepping out of the train at Shibuya Station, Coventina stretched her short limbs after the train ride, before heading down to the subway to begin the journey back to school.
Stepping through the gate that separated the platform from the station, the teen began orienting herself so she could navigate through the confusing maze of Shibuya Station.
“Coventina,” She heard her name being called.
Looking around the crowd in the station. She spotted Doi. Confused at his appearance at the station. Coventina walked over to the man.
“Afternoon, Doi-san,” She greeted him. “Are you waiting for a sorcerer?” She inquired.
“No. I’m here for you,” He informed her. The blonde’s eyebrows in confusion. “Principal Enomoto had ordered me to take you straight back to the school, something urgent has come up,” He explained.
Urgent? Coventina didn’t like the sound of that, but she had no choice.
She followed Doi out of the station to his car.
The journey back to the school. It was a silent drive back to the school as Coventina thought through the different scenarios that could happen.
When they arrived back at the school, she was taken straight to the principal’s office.
Doi knocked on the office door.
“Who is it?” Enomoto called out.
“Doi, sir. I have brought Avalon-san,” He explained.
Doi did as he was instructed and opened the office door to usher the teen into the room, shutting the door behind her.
‘There’s no escaping this,’ She cursed. “Afternoon, Principal. How may I help?” She sweetly greeted the old man, hiding how much she despised him.
“Sit, we have things to discuss,” He explained.
Now she was really confused. She had been told that this was urgent, but the principal looked calm.
Coventina placed her overnight bag next to a chair before sitting down on it.
“If there's something wrong, Principal? I was told this was an urgent situation,” She told him.
“Urgent?” Enomoto echoed her words. “I wouldn’t say it’s urgent,” He said.
‘So why was I dragged here then?’ She sarcastically thought to herself.
“This situation is more of great importance,” He clarified.
“Of great importance?” She inquired.
“Yes. The day you were sent on your mission, the school received a message from the Gojo clan. It seems their heir has taken an interest in you and wishes for your hand in marriage,” The principal informed her.
The blonde stared at the old man in front of her in disbelief.
She was a bit stunned. She knew that the Gojo clan was one of the three most powerful clans of the Jujustu world, so why would their heir ask a foreigner like her to marry him?
‘Did he talk about me to the hier?’ She wondered, the white-haired menace image popped into her head. ‘They’re probably cousins or something like that,’ She realised. ‘I’m sure he told his cousins all about his encounters with me. That’s probably why he wants to meet with me. But, marriage? Is that the only way that he could do it?’ She wondered. “What do I do?” She inquired.
“There will be a meeting at the Gojo’s estate in the next few days, where the terms of the marriage will be discussed. Of course, you will not agree to this marriage and reject it,” He instructed her.
“Reject?” Coventina echoed the man’s last words in inquiry.
The principal didn’t like her question, as a look of displeasure crossed his face.
“You are a foreigner and an anomaly to this world. Having you mix in with such a noble blood as one of the three clans would be destructive,” He told her. “I wish the Gojos would rein in that child. Proposing marriage to a foreigner,” He muttered that last part to himself, but Coventina still heard it.
‘Oh, he’s one of those,’ Coventina realised.
It seemed like Principal Enomoto was a member of the conservative faction. A man who believed in blood purity. That elites should marry each other, and the plebes should stay in their own lane.
“I understand,” Coventina placated the old man. “I am expected to go by myself?” She asked.
“No, I’ll send Kuramoto and Uehara with you as your guardian,” He informed her.
“Thank you,” Coventina said with no gratefulness behind it. Standing up from the chair and bowing to the principal, though he didn’t deserve it. “If that’s all, I will be heading back to my dorm,” She told him.
“That’s fine. I have an assistant manager message you with the date and time of the meeting when I receive it,” He informed her, then dismissed her.
Now free to go, Coventina grabbed her bag and swiftly exited the old man’s office.
Walking back to her dorm, Coventina was fuming. Not about the marriage proposal, that was very much a nothing potato. What made her angry was the principal. How dare he dictate what she does due to his shitty personal views.
‘If this Gojo heir is handsome enough, about my age and if the terms of the marriage are fair enough, I might just accept the proposal just to piss off that old man,’ She decided.
Once back at her dorm, Coventina dumped her bag at the door, then she dumped herself onto her bed.
Burying her face into her pillow. Screaming into the soft item, which helped relieve the stress that had built up during the meeting with the principal.
Once the stress had been released, Coventina pulled out her mobile to message Mieko to see if the woman was free. The woman in question didn’t connect her until a little after lunch.
“Hey,” A tired Mieko answered the phone. “You wanted to talk?” She inquired.
“I got escorted back to the school to have a meeting with Principal Enomoto,” She informed the woman.
“What!?” She exclaimed. “What do you mean, escorted back to the school!?” She spoke loudly from the other side of the line.
“I guess escorted isn’t the exact way to say it. When I stepped off the platform into the station, Doi was waiting for me. He immediately took me straight back to the school. The principal wanted to talk as soon as I returned to Tokyo. Apparently, the heir of the Gojo clan wants to marry me,” She explained the situation.
“WHAT!?” Mieko yelled through the phone.
And due to her horrible reaction time, Coventina failed to pull her mobile away quickly enough, deafening her temporarily.
Bolting up from the lying position that she had been in, whilst holding her mobile away from her ear. Now sitting up, Coventina adjusted her position so she was in a more comfortable position. Folding her legs at her knees, so her lower legs lay against her bottom. She dragged her pillow behind her, to her chest, so she could lay her chin on top of it.
“Did you really need to scream into my ear?” She complained to the woman.
“I’m sorry, Cove,” Mieko apologised. “But, having the Six Eyes personally asking for your hand in marriage is a huge deal,” She clarified. “Though I guess no one has explained anything about the big three clans,” She guessed.
“Not a thing,” The teen confirmed the adult’s suspicion.
A sigh left the woman before she proceeded to explain the three clans.
“As you already know, the Gojo clan is one of the most powerful families in the Jujustu world. That’s mainly due to the clan’s inherited technique, Limitless and the Six Eyes. I don’t fully understand how Limitless works exactly, but the one thing I do understand it creates a force field around the user, making them invincible to attacks. The Six Eyes technique is a bit easier to understand. It’s not literally six eyes but the ability that allows the user to see cursed energy much more clearly,” She explained.
“Okay, those abilities do sound dope,” Coventina said.
“Dope?” Mieko repeated the unfamiliar word.
“Yeah, it means cool,” The blonde explained the British slang.
“Yes, the technique is ‘dope’,” Mieko used the slang this time. “He’s the first one in four hundred years to be born with both techniques,” She mentioned.
“In four hundred years…” Coventina repeated that information. “Is it a rare ability?” She required.
“Six Eyes, yes. Not the Limitless. Though Limitless can’t be fully utilised without the Six Eyes,” Mieko explained.
“Really?” The girl remarked.
“Yes,” The woman confirmed.
“So, this heir is super powerful,” Coventina commented.
“Yes, I’ve heard some people refer to him as the strongest sorcerer. I’ve even heard that he can already take on Special Grade,”
Special Grade Cursed Spirit, very few sorcerers and curse users could take them on.
Guessing how Mieko talked about the heir of the Gojo clan, he must be young, probably hasn’t finished high school yet.
“-So we go shopping when I get back to the school,” The woman told her.
Too caught up with her thoughts about this mysterious heir of the Gojo clan, Coventina hadn’t realised that Mieko had continued to talk, and Coventina hadn’t caught the first part, just the last part.
“Shopping? What for?” Coventina asked.
“...I guess you weren’t listening to me just now,” Mieko sighed. “I said you probably don’t have any clothes that are suitable for this situation. Normally, you would be expected to wear your best kimono, but obvious that you don’t have one. So, the next best thing is your best clothes,” She explained. “None of your current clothes come close,”
Mieko was right. All of her clothes were casual wear. Totally not acceptable to wear for meeting nobles.
“What time are you back?” The teen groaned.
***
It was that afternoon when Coventina and Mieko (and probably Uehara as well) received a message that they would be meeting the Gojo clan tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm.
Luckily for the girls, they sorted out the clothes and make-up for the meeting already. All that was left was to wait until the next day.
Coventina wondered how Mikeo and Uehara slept last night.
Mieko looked jittery when she left her dorm yesterday, and their phone call before she went to bed, the woman sounded nervous.
When Uehara called after Mieko, the blonde couldn’t detect any nervousness in his voice, but she had learnt that the man was a good actor.
As for herself, Coventina had gotten a good night's sleep. Though that was mainly due to the fact that she actually took her sleep aid meds, which she normally didn’t take them, mainly due to the side effects in the morning. Grogginess and the further delay in her reaction time upon on her dyslexia.
Since the meeting wasn’t until the afternoon, she had plenty of time for the side effects to wear off.
Breakfast was eaten slowly through the grogginess. A shower was next. She had taken a shower last night, but that was mainly to wash her hair; it would be unworkable. Though Coventina didn’t mind having her hair down, she actually liked having it down for formally meeting and parties, but Mieko advised her to have her hair up as the older generation saw it as more appropriate. This shower was just to wash her body.
By the time Coventina had finished her shower and dried herself off, Mieko had let herself into the dorm room.
Coventina had given the woman permission to enter her dorm just in case she had fallen back to sleep.
Quickly slipping into her underwear and her bra, Coventina stepped out of the bathroom with her housecoat on and greeted Mieko.
The woman was already for today’s meeting. She was dressed in a black dress that reached her knees. Under her dress, she had put on dark tights and on her feet were a pair of back heels. To top this off, Mieko had put on a grey jacket that ended around her waist, with three-quarter length sleeves. She styled her bright hair into a low bun, making sure that only the blue top layer was showing.
Mieko looked more like a businesswoman than a guardian accompanying her ward to marriage talks. Though the Gojo clan actually see it as some kind of business arrangement.
Now that Coventina had stepped out of the bathroom, Mieko could begin preparing the teen. They started off by getting dressed. Yesterday, the blonde had brought a blouse and a pinafore for today.
The blouse was quite plain compared to the lolita ones she normally wore. This blouse was made out of a soft material and was designed for women who were well-endowed in the chest area.
The pinafore was also something that the blonde wouldn’t go for. The skirt of the pinafore reached her ankles, but that was all. The pattern across the pinafore was one that she had back home, houndstooth; this one was black and brown. Her normal pinafore was more brightly coloured and fell around her knees or mid-thigh.
Coventina had paired the outfit with brown tights and black low-heeled shoes.
Once dressed, Mieko moved on to the teen’s make-up. They kept her make-up natural. A bit of powder on her face, a touch of pink blush on her cheeks and a hint of brown eyeshadow across her eyelids. The lipstick that was chosen was a pale shade of pink.
Now that her make-up was sorted, it was now time for her hair.
Mieko was awed at the girl’s hair. This was actually the first time that the woman was touching the teen’s blonde locks. She could see that the locks looked soft and silky, but she never realised how thick they were. Mieko managed to plait the side of Coventina’s hair before pinning the ends at the base of her head. Gathering the rest of her hair, tucking it behind the plaits. It was held in place by a golden haircomb with reddish-brown crystals that formed a flower. The hiarcomb came from Coventina’s personal collection.
Stepping away from the teen, Mieko admired her handiwork.
“You’re so beautiful,” She gushed over the teen.
“That’s only because of your handiwork,” Coventina praised the woman, shying away from the compliment.
With everything done, the ladies gathered their bags and coats. Heading off to the rendezvous with Uehara.
Uehara, punctual as ever, was already at the mountain road exit, taking the opportunity for a last cigarette before the journey to the Gojo compound.
“Uehara,” Both ladies called out to the man.
The man looked over his shoulder to see the ladies approaching him.
He let a whistle when the ladies got closer to him.
“You two clean up well,” He teased them.
“I could say the same thing to you too,” Mieko shot back.
Coventina watched as Mieko stepped forward into Uehara’s bubble to adjust his tie.
The blonde had to admit that Uehara did look nice today. The suit he wore today was much nicer than his everyday ones. It looked like it was made out of tweed in a grey colour. The dress shirt he wore with it was black with a plain grey tie.
Coventina felt a little left out since she was in white, black and brown, whilst both Mieko and Uehara wore grey and black. She wondered if it was intentional or accidental.
‘Probably accidental,’ She thought, knowing that the adults wouldn’t want to make her feel left out.
Uehara offered Mieko the cigarette, which she took a puff of. Whilst Mieko didn’t actively smoke, if she was offered her one, she would take a few puffs, especially if she was nervous. Like this very moment.
Mieko soon passed the cigarette back to Uehara, who finished the cigarette off as a car pulled up in front of them.
This car was much nicer than the cars that the assistant manages used, meaning this car was the one that the Gojo clan had sent to pick them up.
When the car came to a stop, the driver stepped out. He asked for their names, and when he confirmed that they were the people he was picking up, he then opened the back door of the car for them. Mieko got in first, followed by Coventina, and Uehara was last.
The journey to the Gojo’s estate in Kyoto was absolutely boring. Everyone sat in silence, the radio filling the silence.
Coventina was quite sure she had fallen asleep during the five-hour journey, but she wasn’t entirely sure. Everything looked the same.
When they finally arrived at the Gojo estate, they arrived fifteen minutes before the meeting was about to start.
Uehara helped Coventina out of the car as she admired the grand entrance of the Gojo house.
Of course, the traditional Japanese house. Across the noren curtain and the other cloth that hung around the entrance way was covered in Gojo’s clan crest.
Standing in the doorway was an older woman, in her 50s if Coventina had to guess. Judging by the simple blue-grey kimono she was wearing, she was a servant, probably the housekeeper.
“Avalon Coventina,” The woman stared at her.
“That’s me,” The teen confirmed.
“I’m Miyaskai Hotaru, housekeeper of the Gojo clan,” Miyaskai introduced herself, giving the teen a deep bow.
Coventina replied with a bow of her own, not as deep as Miyasaki’s one, but enough to show respect.
Mieko and Uehara then stepped forward to introduce themselves.
Once all introductions were done, Miyaskai guided them into the house.
As they walked through the halls of the grand house, Coventina stopped to admire an enclosed courtyard that had a zen garden in it. It was beautiful and elegant. It looked well-maintained, not a single weed or a grain of sand out of place.
Too focus on the beauty of the courtyard garden, Coventina didn’t notice the hallway behind her or the person creeping in it.
Suddenly, the teen’s wrist was grabbed, and she was dragged down the hallway that was behind. She let out a scream as she was whirled around. She heard Uehara shouting her name as she was dragged down the hallway.
Once the dizziness had faded from the sudden spin, Coventina’s eyes locked onto the head of the person who was dragging her away. The white hair of the person looked very familiar.
“Satoru-sama!” Miyasaki yelled after them.
“Don’t worry!” The boy grinned at the woman over his shoulder. “I promised I’ll bring her back once you adults finish talking about the boring stuff!” He yelled as they got further away from the adults. Those aquamarine eyes then turned to her. “Let’s get out of here,” He grinned at her.
Gojo then started running down the hall, dragging Coventina behind him.
When they stopped, Coventina went to put her hands on her knees, but the white-haired boy was still had ahold of her wrist.
“Could you let me go?” She harshly asked.
The boy looked down at where his hand was gripping her wrist.
“Nope~” He grinned.
Gojo then tugged her forward, nearly making her lose her balance. He slid open the door that he had made them stop at.
The door slid open to reveal a tatami room. It was a fairly large room with another set of doors on the far end of the room.
The other thing that caught her attention was the T.V. stand that was located in the room in the centre of the wall opposite the door. On that T.V. stand was a…T.V. (obviously), but it was plasma, one of the early ones. The shelves in the T.V. stand were filled with various gaming consoles, a P.S. 2, an Xbox and a Gameboy.
Gojo dragged Coventina over to the T.V., pulling her down as he sat down in front of it.
The blonde watched him as he switched the T.V. and P.S.
“What are you doing?” She questioned him.
“Setting up Street Fighter?” He responded, looking away from the P.S. where he was inserting a second controller, looking at her in confusion.
Coventina stared back in shock at the sheer audacity of this boy.
She stood up, not wanting to put up with him anymore, but the boy pulled her back down.
“I don’t have time to be pissing around with you! I’m here to have a meeting with your family!” She hissed at him.
“I know,” He stated. “I was the one who set it up,” He borely informed her.
“Huh?” Was Coventina’s initial response to that piece of information that she stared at the white-haired boy, dumbstruck. Her brain was lagging behind as it tried to process the information. “You’re the Gojo heir!?” She exclaimed when her brain had finally processed it.
“Yep! That’s me! Future head of the Gojo clan. First one in four hundred years process both the Six Eyes and the Limitless Technique. The Strongest Sorcerer to date,” He rattled off his claimant, though that last one was said more boastfully.
There was a moment of silence between the teenagers before one of them spoke up.
“That actually explains a lot,” Coventina said.
“Oh? It does?” Gojo raised an eyebrow at her comment.
“Yeah,” She confirmed. “It explains why you’re such an arrogant prick,” She told him.
“Hey! That’s not nice!” Gojo pouted.
“Not a lot of things in this world are nice,” She shot back.
“I know, that’s why I’m offering you marriage,” The tone of the conversation shifted.
Gojo became serious.
“Howls that being nice?” Coventina asked.
“If you marry me, no one will be able to touch you or those two adults that accompained you here,” He stated.
The blonde just stared at the boy, utterly confused by him.
“You just like me,” He said.
“How?” She raised an eyebrow at his words.
How did this rich, spoilt brat think a working-class girl was the same!?
“The elders and higher-ups in the Jujustu’s world think they can control us. It’s only a matter of time before I’m free from them. Unfortunately, you can’t break free. Though for you, it’s because you have a weakness,” He stated.
Coventina made no denial, as he was right about her weakness. Her weakness wasn’t physical, but emotional. That was because Coventina had people that she cared about. People that the higher-ups of the Jujustu world could use against her.
“If you marry me, no one would think twice about hurting you or the adults you care about. They're too worried about how I would retaliate,” He explained.
“What happens if I get punished by just agreeing?” She inquired.
Her focus remained on the T.V. screen, staring at the main menu screen, but she could feel those blue eyes on her.
“Someone already threatened you?” He asked. “Let me guess, it was Ikeda Isao or Tominagaka Kenji, maybe Nakao Dai? No. It was Principal Enomoto Ken’ichi!”
Coventina did not flinch or let anything slip onto her, but she was sure that Gojo already knew the answer before he even asked.
“That old man has been aiming to make his granddaughter my wife, since the day it was announced that I had been born with Six Eyes and Limitless,” He divulged that information.
With that piece of information, the principal’s attitude on another day made sense. The principal didn’t want to lose that precious opportunity to a foreigner.
‘I guess the principal wants to make his pawn into a queen,’ Coventina thought.
“What do you get out of this?” She asked him, still didn’t have a clue what he would want her as his bride.
“A chance to choose my own bride,” He stated, staring intently at the T.V. screen.
Coventina was taken aback by Gojo’s statement. She never thought about the male party in an arranged marriage. All the media that she consumed was from the P.O.V. of the female main character, where their fiance were either uninterested or wanted them. It had never crossed her mind that the man wouldn’t want the marriage.
“I also get a beautiful foreign wife!” He then immediately breaks through her thoughts and the new opinion that she was forming about him.
Coventina felt her face becoming warm at Gojo’s comment. She knew that was pretty, all the adults that she met told her, but she mostly brushed them off as adults being nice. No boy had told that to her face, just that she was weird or a freak.
“And that I will be the only person in the world who’s going to marry a mage,” He grinned.
Her blue eyes flickered to the boy’s face.
So, he did know that she wasn’t a human from this world. Was that all an act when they first met at the school? No, that couldn’t be right? His following interaction with her didn’t make sense. He thought she was weak because he couldn’t see any curse energy.
“You weren’t at the meeting where I demonstrated my powers,” It was a buff; she wasn’t paying attention to the people’s presences at the meeting, so she couldn’t tell if he actually was present. But if she was right, he wouldn’t know.
“The elders of the Gojo clan are still clinging to their power, since I’m not old enough to take over the clan yet. So, I wasn’t informed about that meeting or you. Not until I threaten them,” He gleefully explained. “Enough about that boring stuff. Let’s play!”
He threw the second controller, but due to her dyslexia caused her reaction to be horrible, so she didn’t even bother trying to catch it; she just allowed the controller to fall into her lap.
“No,” She told him.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those girls that doesn’t do video games,” Gojo whined.
“No, I do like video games. I play a lot in my free time. I’m just not good at these kinds of games,” She told him, gesturing to the screen.
“Have you ever played Street Fighter?” He asked her.
“No,” She honestly answered him. “But, my thirteen-game losing streak on Smash Bros should be a perfect indication of how well I fare at Street Fighter,” She defended herself.
“Smash Bros and Street Fighter are two completely different games,” Gojo exclaimed.
“I know! Street Fighter is harder!” She argued back.
“How’s Street Fighter harder?” He questioned her.
“You need to know the combos to play Street Fighter decently. And, I have a memory of a gold fish,” She shot back.
Suddenly, Gojo became quiet. Coventina stared at the boy worrily and was perplexed as to what had caused him to be quiet.
“What’s my name?” He asked.
Now it was her turn to become quiet.
It had been a miracle that she had remembered his surname - through that was mainly due to the Gojo clan being an important family, so she heard their name frequently.
“Gojo,” She confidently answered, knowing that wasn’t the name he was referring to.
“My given me,” He clarified.
She was now sweating bullets. She couldn’t remember it, not even what the first letter of it. Well, symbol in this case.
“Come on~ It’s not that hard,” He purred.
Satoru had abandoned his controller and moved towards the girl. He braced his hands on either side of the blonde.
“It is! I’ve only heard it a handful of times! That’s not enough times for me to remember it!” She confessed.
During that whole confession, Gojo had been leaning into Coventina’s personal space as she tried to lean away.
“Come on~ My name isn’t that hard~ Say it with me Sa-”
“SATORU!”
The door of the room slid open with force. Standing at the threshold of the room was the man that Covetina saw with Gojo the first time they met.
“Uncle!” The boy greeted the man with a cocky smile. “Something wrong!?” He innocently asked, knowing he had done something wrong.
“What do you think you’re doing with that girl!” His uncle demanded.
“My fiancée? We’re having some bonding time,” Satoru grinned.
His uncle stepped into the room. It only took a few steps for the man to get to the teen’s side. The man reached down and gripped the blonde’s upper arm and yanked her up. Due to the harsh yank to her feet, caused Coventina stumbled, which earnt a glare from Satoru’s uncle.
“She is not your fiancée!” The man stated to his nephew with a harsh tone. “...Yet,” He coughed into his fist. With that cough, the man’s behaviour changed as well. “She hasn’t agreed to anything yet. So, we can’t have you two being alone,” He stated, this time much more calmly.
Coventina didn’t dismiss the man’s initial reaction. She guessed that Satoru’s uncle was a part of a faction that didn’t want his nephew to marry a foreigner.
This reaction didn’t slip past Satoru, either, who gave his uncle a dark look.
As the older Gojo lectured the younger one, Coventina slipped out of the room where Uehara was waiting for her.
“Are you alright?” Her male guardian asked her.
“I’m fine,” She reassured him. “The only thing he did was annoy,” She smiled, in the hope it would ease the man.
“As long as you’re fine,” Uehara sighed. “We'd better get back to Mieko. She was concerned when she heard you scream earlier,”
Miyasaki, who had been waiting a few steps away from them, guided them to a small room where Mieko was waiting for them.
The woman rushed over to Coventina when she stepped into the room. Her hands cupped the girl’s cheeks as she checked if she had been hurt, to which the teen reassured that she wasn’t. Once Mieko’s worry was put to rest, she began to fix the blonde’s appearance.
Now that the blonde was cleaned up, Miyasaki then guided them to the main tea room where the meeting was being held.
The main tearoom of the Gojo clan was lavish.
In the centre of the room was a low wooden table with two traditional teapots with matching cups.
In the tokonoma (alcove) was a beautiful scroll with various ornaments decorating the alcove.
When the trio entered the room, they were greeted by the elders of the Gojo clan, the current head of the clan, Satour’s grandfather Daichi and his wife, Yoshimi. His eldest son, the uncle that Covetina and personally met, Toshio and his wife, Chinatsu. Satoru stood in the middle of the man, with a look of utter boredom across his face.
Coventina hadn’t noticed they met earlier- being too annoyed by his stupid face and those pretty eyes- Satoru was wearing a kimono. It was a muted blue colour with no pattern or flourishes. And those round sunglasses were missing.
Introductions were made before the group migrated ot the table.
The Gojos got straight to the point, listing out what they expected from Coventina. Which was, once they were married- which wouldn’t happen until both parties were eighteen- that she would produce at least one male heir for the Gojo clan, along with performing the duties of the wife of the head of the clan. In return, the Gojos would protect her from the other clans and the higher-ups of the Jujustu world, pay for her expenses and allow her to attend Tokyo Jujustu High alongside Satoru.
To Coventina, all of their demands *cough* requests were reasonable. The only request that she made was for Mieko, Uehara and any children that either one of them would have to place under the protection of the Gojo clan, as they are the closest thing she has to family in this world.
There was a quiet moment on the Gojo side as Satoru’s grandfather and uncle exchanged looks with each other, having a silence conversion if they should agree to it. Of course, Satoru being Satoru agreed to this request, leaving the adults around him to pick up the pieces.
All that was needed to be done now was to reject the offer, as she was expected to by the Gojo clan, the principal and the higher-ups of the Jujustu world.
It had been a week since Kumagai's mission, and when Mieko found out about it. And since then, she hadn’t been assigned any jobs involving curse users. Just exorcising 1st and 2nd grade cursed spirits.
But today, there was no mission. A rare day off.
Coventina wasn’t sure what to do with herself. She had finished all the drawings in her sketchbook and had no coloured pencils or watercolour paints to colour them with. She would like to go into the city to purchase some, but she wasn’t sure how she would get there by herself. Every time she had been in Tokyo, she had been taken by the adults with access to a car.
The school was located on the edge of Tokyo in the mountains, so she wasn’t sure if there were any bus stops nearby. There were definitely no train stations this far out.
As far as she knew, there was nothing for her to do on campus. Though it hadn’t explicitly been told to her, Coventina was quite sure she wasn’t allowed to use any of the school’s facilities.
‘Probably should ask Mie or Uehara about transport,’ She thought to herself.
Well, thinking about it since that day she found out Coventina washing blood out of her hoodie, Mieko had been quiet. Not completely ignoring her, just keeping her texts brief. Whilst Uehara had been off on a mission for the last week. This left Coventina feeling lonely.
As she debated whether to send a text to Mieko or Uehara, a knock came at her dorm door.
The blonde flickered her eyes in the direction of the door. From her bed, Coventina could tell that the person- persons at her door weren’t the two adults that had taken her under their wings or any of the assistant managers that she was familiar with.
Getting up from the bed, Coventina slowly approached the door. Summoning a knife to her hand just case it was someone with ill intent.
Opening the door an inch, the teen was surprised to see two girls standing in front of her door. They were around the same age as herself, probably a year or so older since high school started at 15 in Japan.
The girl standing closest to the door wore a smug grin. That, combined with her narrow eyes, made her look like a snake, which made Coventina grip her knife a little tighter.
The other girl stood slightly behind her companion gave a completely different vibe. Her brown eyes were opened wide in shock and surprise, along with her mouth. She wore a priestess robe, which, combined with her pigtails give her a cute vibe.
The white-haired girl started to open her mouth, but her companion was quicker.
“There’s actually someone in this dorm!?” She exclaimed.
“You think I would lie to you, dear Utahime,” The white-haired girl said.
The girl’s voice was smooth like honey, a kind of voice that a succubus or a femme fatale would have, which made Coventina trust her less.
“Not really,” Utahine mumbled. “But, why would anyone be put in this dorm? It’s basically abandoned. Especially, a teen girl! I know Tengen-Sama’s barriers are strong, but not all sorcerers are good. It’s dangerous. Also, why would the teachers keep her separate from her peers?”
There were all good points that Utahime made. She just couldn’t see that her teachers didn’t see her as a student or even a sorcerer.
“Those are all good points. Why don’t we ask her?” Her friend suggested.
Their eyes turned back to Coventina, hoping that she would divulge the answer.
Their eyes pinned the blonde in place. She had no excuse for why she was here. All that needed to be know wasn known. And it was clear that she shouldn’t be mingling with the students. She guessed no one anticipated that the students might come looking for her.
“I’m not old enough,” Coventina spat out a quick answer.
“‘Not old enough’?” Utahime echoed her words.
“Yeah. I’m only 14. Doesn’t high school start at 15 here?” Coventina clarified.
“That’s right. But, that doesn’t answer why you are here?” The white-haired pointed out.
The blonde glared at the white-haired teen; she was too smart to be fooled.
“If you let me finish,” Coventina glared at her.
“Mie Mie, let her finish explaining,” Utahime scolded her companion.
Mie Mie didn’t say anything in reply, just waved her hand in front of her to indicate for the blonde to continue on.
“I have no parents or relatives, so the school has took me in, since it’s too dangerous for me to be left in the care of an average family, jujustu or not,” Covenitna explained.
She hoped that Mie Mei would buy it since most of it was the truth. She just didn’t divulge that she was a being from a different world.
“But to keep you away from everyone is not right,” Utahime expressed her dislike for it.
“You can ask the higher-ups about it,” Coventina told her.
The raven-haired stared at the blonde, wondering what she was thinking.
“It’s not good for you to be alone,” Utahime stated before taking a step forward towards Coventina.
She grabbed hold of Coventina’s arm, which she was using to hold open the door. Utahime dragged the blonde out of her room.
“Come and have lunch with us,” Utahime insisted.
The girl left no room for arguing with her; her grip on her arm was strong.
“W-Wait!” Coventina panickly exclaimed, trying to stop the older girl.
“No. They have donburi today in the cafeteria, and it normally goes fast, so we have to be the first ones there,” Utahime explained.
“Could I at least put some shoes on?”
Utahime stopped her pulling at the blonde. She looked down to see that the girl’s feet were only clad in socks.
“Oh! Of course!” The raven-haired immediately let go of the blonde.
Coventina took a couple of steps back. Desummoning the knife that was still hidden behind her back. She quickly shoved on a pair of trainers that were lying beside the door.
Now she was standing on the other side of her dorm door, in the hallway with Utahime and Mei Mei. Utahime grabbed her hand, leading her to the high school’s cafeteria.
It was a fifteen-minute walk to the cafeteria, with Utahima talking all the way there. Mostly about how good the cafeteria’s food was. Coventina and Mei Mei stayed quiet and let the raven-haired girl talk.
Now all three of them were standing in front of the chalkboard with that day’s menu written on it.
Studying the board, Coventina realised that she didn’t know what any of these dishes were.
“Utahime?” The blonde called to the older teen. “What’s donburi?” She asked.
The raven-haired teen looked at her with a confused look.
“I guess it’s not as popular as sushi for foreigners to know,” She commented to herself. “It’s a bowl of rice, topped with either meat or vegetables,” She explained. “Today it looks like we have unadon-eel, kastudon-breaded chicken and chukadon, which is stir-fry with vegetables,” She further explained.
“I think I might get katsudon,” Coventina mumbled.
Utahime led Coventina to the counter, where they ordered their lunches.
It only took a minute for the dinnerladies to prepare their meals, along with the sides and their drinks.
When the katsudon was placed on the lunch tray, Coventina realised that she did know this dish, just never its name.
She watched as the dinnerlady placed some chopsticks on the tray as well.
“Sorry, do you have a fork?” The blonde politely asked.
The dinnerlady nodded and walked off to retrieve it.
“Can’t use chopsticks?” Mei Mei teased.
“I can, but I can’t do it for a whole,” She shot back.
Once their lunches were ready, the girls headed over to a table that was on the far side of the room. Coventina and Utahime sat next to each other on one side of the table, whilst Mei Mei sat on the opposite side.
Coventina and Utahime chatted through their lunch, mainly keeping to mundane topics.
Near the end of lunch, someone walked past the group.
“Oh, Avalon-chan?” The person stopped at the end of the table.
“Hello, Takahashi-Sensei,” She greeted him.
Takahashi Kai was Tokyo’s Jujustu High resident reverse curse user. He also acted as the high school’s doctor.
Coventina had spent a lengthy amount of time with the doctor. The higher-ups had ordered a full medical examination after the meeting, where she demonstrated her powers to the elites of the Jujustu world. They wanted to know if there were any differences between her and them. From what she was told afterwards, they didn’t find anything different in her than a human or a sorcerer. Not mention she had to explain her medical history and extensive medication that she was on to make her feel like a normal person.
“Don’t see you down here in the cafeteria that often,” He commented.
“Utahime wanted me to join her and Mei Mei for lunch,” She told the doctor with a nervous laugh.
“It’s good to see you making friends on your own. Especially with Kuramoto-Chan busy with work and Uehara in the infirmary,”
The doctor’s words caused the blonde to stare at him in confusion.
“Uehara is in the infirmary?” Coventina uttered.
“You didn’t know? I thought you’d be one of the first to know,” Takahashi said. “He’s been in the infirmary for nearly a week now,” He informed her.
Upon hearing this, Covetina lost her appetite. She quickly stood up, bumping her thighs against the table as she did, and grabbed the lunch tray once she was fully standing.
“S-Sorry,” She stuttered out in English. “Sorry,” She repeated, this time in Japanese. “I-I have got to go,”
The blonde dumped the tray on the cleaning station, not even bothering to scrape the leftover food into the bin or sorting the bowl, cutlery or tray into their piles.
Utahime called after her, but Coventina didn’t hear her so focus on getting to the infirmary.
When she got to the part of Jujustu High that held the infirmary, Coventina used her magical senses to locate Uehara, which was easy since there weren’t many people in the infirmary. She also noticed that Mieko was also in the same location as Uehara.
Walking over to the room where she felt their presences coming from. She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Uehara’s voice weakly called out from the other side of the door.
Opening the door, Coventina saw Uehara lying in a hospital bed, slightly reclined. His tanned skin had become pale, and he looked dead tired.
“Coventina,” Mieko softly muttered.
The teen’s crystal blue eyes flickered to the woman, who was sitting on a chair to the left of Uehara, wearing her own tired look on her face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”” Angry tears swelled in her eyes, burning at the edge of her eyelids, blurring her vision.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” Uehara honestly told her.
“Worry me?” The blonde repeated his words. “You didn’t think I would worry when I heard from someone else that you were in the infirmary!” She yelled at him, allowing her tears to break free from the rim of her eyelids.
The man flinched at the teen’s outburst.
Mieko let out a tired sigh.
“And you!” Coventina’s anger turns to the woman. “Were you going to keep this a secret from me as well!?” She accused the woman.
Mieko didn’t say anything; she just stood up from her chair. She walked over to the teen, still not saying a word to her, just wrapping her arms around the girl.
“I only found out a few days ago through the assistant manager with whom I was on assignment. I only returned last night, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to visit this idiot,” She softly explained. “I wanted to check on this idiot and his condition before telling you,” She continued on. “I didn’t want to worry you,” She finished.
A huff came out of the said idiot when Mieko called him that.
The woman’s words caused the teen let out a tiny sob. Her sobbing caused Mieko to hug her tighter.
Once she had calmed down, Covetina was guided over to Uehara’s bed, where he gave an awkward sideways hug, lying down. When the hugging was over, Mieko brought over another chair so Coventina could sit beside her.
Mieko explained that Uehara’s injuries weren’t serious, but it will take him a couple more days for him to be back to full health. Mainly thanks to Takahashi’s reverse curse technique.
“It must have been one hell of 1st-grade cursed spirit,” She commented.
Her comment caused the man to slightly flinch, which Coventina noticed.
“Uehara,” She called to him. “You didn’t fight a 1st-grade cursed spirit,” She concluded from his reaction.
“It was a curse user,” He confirmed her suspicion.
A pit formed in the teen’s stomach. She thought it was strange that she hadn’t received any jobs involving curse users. The naive side of her hoped that the sudden lack of those missions was because of a lack of curse users to take out. But that was wrong.
Mieko must have told Uehara about her previous mission, and it looked like he took things into his own hands.
“You know, what I said to Mie applies to you as well,” She hissed, her hands clenching the fabric of her jeans to contain her anger. “I don’t need you taking my jobs,”
“I can’t do that,” Uehara sternly told her. “Dealing with curse users is an adult’s job, not a job for a child,” He stated.
“Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works,” The teen stated.
Coventina’s cold words silenced and shocked the adults.
“There are many things in the world that children do that they shouldn’t be doing, but still do anyway,” She added.
Neither adult had anything to say to rebut her, knowing what she said was true.
“I still won’t be stepping aside. The curse user that the higher-ups send you to can easily seriously injure or kill a first-grade sorcerer,” Uehara angrily told her.
Serious injuries and death weren’t things that Coventina needed to worry about anymore. With the ancestral blessing from the First Lady of the Lake, along with the demi-immortality that she had received from The Morrigan, she was physically invincible. Her only weakness was the people that she cared for and loved. They were mortals that her enemies could hurt and kill. She didn’t want to lose anyone else she loved.
“That doesn’t apply to me,” She told them.
The teen stood up from the chair, not waiting for the adults to say anything to her. She just walked over to the sink in the corner of the room. At the sink, she turned on the cold water, then summoned a knife. She then positioned herself so that Mieko and Uehara could see what she was doing. She brought up the knife to her pinky finger on her left hand.
“Coventina!” Uehara shouted at her as Mieko shot up from her chair.
Mieko raced over to the sink, but she was already too late. Even before Mieko was out of the chair, Coventina was already slicing through her pinky. The blood spurted from the wound, spattering against the mirror that was on the wall behind the sink. Once the finger was fully off, Coventina dunked her hand under the running water. By the time Mieko was by Coventina’s side, she saw what was left of her pinky finger before she dunked it under the water. When Coventina’s hand met the water, steam arose. Mieko stared in bewilderment when the teen removed her hand from the water. Her pinky finger was still attached to her hand, but Mieko could see another pinky finger lying in the sink, blood still oozing out.
“What the fuck…?” Uehara cursed when he managed to stumble over to the sink.
“See?” Coventina held up her left hand to the adults. “You don’t need to worry about me. I have a blessing from my ancestor that allows me to heal myself with water. So you don’t have to worry about me getting injured. Even if I lose a limb, I can just use water to regenerate it!” She reassured the adults with a smile.
The smile that appeared across the teen’s face unnerved the adults. Knowing Coventina’s attitude, this was the end of the convention. No arguing with her, especially when she had made her mind up. And, they had to deal with it.
A month had passed since the incident with the boy, whose name Coventina had already forgotten.
For most of that month, the teen had been either accompanying Uehara or Mieko on their grade 2 or 1 missions, whilst doing grade 4 or 3 missions by herself. However, that was about to change. As she was being sent out on an urgent mission, that was grade 2. A cursed item had appeared in Aomori, west of Hirosaki City. From what the window had told the higher-ups that some teens had been exploring Akiya when one of them came across the cured item. After that, all that was known was that all but one of the teens were dead and one was missing. Now there have been a few attacks and murders in the area, similar to the teens.
Since there were no grade 2 or higher sorcerers available so Coventina was sent out.
Mieko was hovering at the door of Coventina’s bedroom as the teen quickly packed a bag for this job.
“I’ll be fine, Mie,” The teen reassured the woman, who had been hovering like a concerned mother (or older sister). “You should be heading out to your mission,” She told her.
Mieko stood there for a moment, not wanting to go, but she had to. She realised a heavy sigh before walking over to the blonde. The woman wrapped her arms around the girl.
“Come back safely, Coventina,” Mieko told her.
Coventina was still for a moment before returning the hug.
“I will,” She promised.
***
The journey to Hirosake City was a tiring ten-hour train ride, then roughly an hour car ride to the Akiya, where all the trouble started.
This Akiya was a traditional-style house on the bigger size.
“What do we know about this place?” Coventina asked the assistant manager, Emi Yoshida.
“From what we gathered, this property used to be owned by the Sasaki, a sorcerer family,” The assistant manager started. “It looks like the family died out in the 50s, and no relatives took ownership of the house,”
“So, no one from HQ came and checked if the family had anything dangerous here?” The blonde inquired.
Coventina had been told when a mage family die out without no family the Magic Council would come in and strip the house and workshop. All items, research, books, magic weapons and artefacts would be sorted through. Any high-value items would be kept by the council, whilst anything else would be sold off. But that didn’t seem to happen here.
She could hear the sound of paper rustling behind her as she entered the old house.
“Looks like someone did come, but I guess they didn’t do a good job,” Yoshida told her.
Coventina stopped at the genkan, looking back at the assistant manager.
“Stay here. I’ll investigate this quickly,” She told her.
Coventina adventured further into the house.
The teen entered the first room in front of her. The fusuma doors were on the far right down the hallway that led to more rooms. She stopped momentarily to admire the white camellias painted on the fusuma before opening it. The smell of mould and damp flowed out of the room. It was a tatami room and she could see the family’s altar - the Kamidana sitting in the left-hand corner. Decorating the top of the walls of the room were a few black and white photos, either of middle-aged men by themselves or accompanied by a middle-aged woman. These people were most likely previous family heads of Saksaki and their wives.
Apart from the Kamidana and photos, there was nothing else in the room. Though to Coventina's limited knowledge (which was only the Fatal Frame game series), this was normal for this room.
Coventina exited the room through the door she entered from. She continued down the hallway off the entrance. She could see light coming from one of the rooms. There was a fusuma door lying on the ground with a few slashes in it. She lifted up the fusuma to see an unwelcome sight. Dried blood. A large amount of it is on the wooden floor leading into the room that the fusuma door belongs to.
Putting the fusuma door by the wall next to the doorway it belonged to.
Stepping into the tatami room wasn’t pleasant. The tatami mats were covered in blood. There were splatters of blood along the walls and door of the room.
‘So this was one of the rooms where the teens were attacked in,’
Coventina left that room and went to the other tatami room next door.
There was less blood in this room. Most of the blood was concentrated in or in front of a closet in the far corner of the room.
‘Looks like someone tried to hide in the closet,’
Aside from the blood, the rooms also had traces of cursed energy.
She followed the cursed energy out of the room towards the altar room. By the side of that room was a small corridor that was easy to miss. Going down that corridor, Coventina came across another fusuma door, this one was painted with pine trees.
Behind that door was another tatami room, but this one was larger than the other two tatami rooms.
‘Probably the dining room,’
Scanning the room, Coventina noticed that some tatami mats had been removed from the floor near the alcove that held a dusty scroll. On closer inspection, the floorboards had been removed, revealing the space between the floor and the ground. The cursed energy coming from it was overwhelming.
Kneeling in front of the hole, Coventina peered down into it, but it was too dark to see if there was anything was in there.
“Illuminate,”
The spell that Coventina cast created a small ball of light. She allowed the ball of light to float down into the hole to illuminate it.
The first thing that she saw was a box. It was wooden, about 45cm long. The wood of the box looked old, probably a bit rotten. But, the most noticeable thing about the box was covered in weathered talisman plastered on the box, and the fact that it had been open.
“This must be where the cursed item was being stored,” Death concluded.
“That’s obvious,” Coventina muttered. “Just hidden underneath the floorboards like a stash of porn mags,”
“I don’t think people hide their porn under the floorboards,” Death told the teen.
“How do you know?” Coventina questioned the spirit. “Porn like this wasn’t even around when you were alive, and I bet you were too poor back then to get your hands on any racy photos,” She shot back.
The response that she got back from the spirit was a tired sigh.
The blonde looked back down into the hole to see that her light had floated further down to reveal more wooden boxes, in various sizes and plastered with talismans.
‘The family must have used this place to store the cursed items that they sealed. How did someone miss this!?’
Standing up, Coventina wiped away the dust and dirt from her shins and knees before returning to the entrance of the house.
Yoshina was still standing at the entrance with a phone in hand now.
“Yoshida-san,” Coventina called out to the assistant manager, which caused the woman to jump.
“Coventina! Finished you’re investigation?” She asked.
“Yes,” She confirmed. “I need you to call HQ, there are still cursed items in this house,” She informed the assistant manager.
“W-What!?” Yoshia exclaimed.
“Yes, in what looks like a dining room, some of the tatami mats and floorboards have been removed to reveal a space in between the house and the ground. There are a few boxes covered in talismans in there. And it reeks of cursed energy,” She told the woman.
Yoshida was bewildered by what the girl had just told her.
Coventins walked past the dumbstruck Yoshida.
“C-Coventina! Where are you going?” The woman stuttered.
“After the cursed item,” She simply told the woman. “I was able to get a good read on the cursed energy left in the house, so I’ll be able to track it down. You should stay here and get in touch with HQ to organise a pick up for the other cursed items. I’ll call you once I’m done,”
The blonde didn’t leave any room for the assistant manager to say anything, and the girl quickly disappeared to the back of the house. Stopping at the back of the house, Coventina waited a moment to see if Yoshida would follow her back here. When Yoshida didn’t, the teen transformed into Death then slipped into the shadows.
Coventina want to keep Death a secret. If the higher-ups of the jujutsu world knew that she had a powerful magical item like Death, who knew what they would do.
Using Death’s shadows to traverse the mountainous forest made it easy to follow the trance of cursed energy. Following the trance led her to come across the areas where the attacks and murders had happened, until she came to the end of the trail. At the end of the trail was a teenage boy.
The teen boy looked to be a few years older than herself. He was wearing a jacket and jeans, but they were covered in dirt and blood. The look that the teen had on his face was pure anger and hate. Coventina also noticed that the teen was clutching a knife in his right hand. The knife looked like a small version of a samurai sword.
Coventina emerged from the shadows. As soon as she emerged from the shadows, the teen was on her. She managed to dodge his attack by sidestepping with Death.
“Jesus Christ!” Coventina cursed out loud. ‘How did this dude even manage to sense me that quickly? Not even the best mages can sense Death,’
Her eyes darted to the knife in the teen’s hand, sensing the cursed energy pouring off it.
‘Is it that cursed item’s doing?’ She wondered.
The teen darted toward her again, swinging the blade towards her. With each swing, Coventina dodged, but she noticed that the teen’s swings weren’t willy-nilly but precise, like a seasoned warrior.
‘Yoshida did mention that none of the teens had any martial arts background or weapon training, so where was this ability coming from?’
The teen slashes at Coventina a couple more times before the blonde notices that the hand that was holding the knife looked strange. Coventina could see that the veins in his hand were black.
‘Okay, the knife is definitely the cursed item. I guess it’s like Saika from Durarara!! How am I going to separate it from the guy!?’
The teen’s next attack aimed at Coventina’s head. She summoned the cursed sword that Uehara had helped her pick, which she had named ‘Xiǎo Dāorèn’. Her sword blocked his knife. She manoeuvred herself so hopefully she could disarm, but it didn’t work.
“I won’t forgive you!” The teen hissed; his voice sounded distorted.
‘I guess that’s the curse talking through him,’
The two teens exchange blows with their weapons for a few minutes as Coventina tries to think of a way to disarm the teen without hurting him.
But, before she could come up with a plan to defeat the boy, Covetina felt another presence, a jujustu sorcerer.
She then heard the sound of clicking fingers, followed by a searing heat. Feeling the heat licking at her back, Coventina charged forward, taking the teen and herself into Death’s shadows, avoiding the heat.
“Damn it!” A male voice cursed as he watched the teen dive into the shadows.
The blonde resurfaced about a meter from where she entered, facing the sorcerer who had attacked her. The possessed teen was now beneath one of the blonde’s knees, pinning him down- well, slightly, Death was actually holding the boy down.
Since Death had a handle on the boy, Coventina focused her attention on the man standing above her on a branch. He wasn’t hard to miss, dressed in a white outfit.
“Who are you?” She demanded.
“I’m surprised that jujustu the higher-ups would send a child on such a high-grade mission,” The man stated, ignoring her question. “Especially one without an ounce of cused energy. They definitely don’t like you,” He mocked her.
“What do you?” Coventina asked him, grinding her teeth as she did.
“It’s Q's desire to have that cursed tanto to help us in our goals in uprooting the jujutsu world!” The man flamboyantly stated.
The blonde gave the man a deadpan look.
‘I’ve got the kid. You deal with that man,’ Death told her.
Coventina could imagine that Death was also wearing a deadpan expression on his face or one of exhaustion, or he would have, but he didn’t have a face.
The blonde lifted her knee from the teen, who was still fighting against Death.
“You’re not getting your hand on that knife,” She sternly told him, moving to stand between the teen and the man.
“You think you can beat me? Schau, one of Q’s strongest!” He exclaimed.
Coventina let out a sigh.
“Did your mother teach you not to judge a book by its cover,” She reminded him.
Pausing time, Coventina poured mana into her legs, then launched herself at Schau. By the time the spell wore off, the girl had reached the man. They both went tumbling down to the ground. The ground beneath the tree was a slope, so they both slid down it.
Once they stopped sliding down, Schau kicked Coventina off him, but the girl took it in stride, using the momentum of the kick, Coventina turned it into a somersault and landed on her feet.
But for Schau, he stumbled to his feet.
Schau was the first to move, creating a flame that was aimed at blonde. The girl sighed before taking a breath. Breathing out a jet of water passed through her lips, colliding with the fire, causing steam to be created between them.
Using the steam as cover, Coventina dashes towards the man. She summoned Xiao Daoren back to her hand, aiming it at the man’s chest. But Schau managed to grab her waist before she could stab him.
Using his superior strength to throw her off to the side. He quickly followed that up with a fireball. Coventina counted the fireball by creating an air vacuum that sucked all the oxygen out, destroying the fireball.
“W-What!?” Schau exclaimed, confused at what he had just witnessed.
This girl processes no cursed energy, but she was able to create water and manipulate air. Did this girl have a heavenly pack that allowed her to control the elements? No, she was also fast, which couldn’t be part of her heavenly pack.
Before Schau could come up with a plan, the girl was on him again. This time, she went for hand-to-hand combat, only knowing the basics of boxing, especially against a man twice her size, but her plan didn’t involve her defeating Schau with her dreadful boxing skills. Concealed in one of her fists was a crystal, a diamond to be more precise. It was one of Coventina’s premade crystals that had spells inside. Inside this diamond was a blinding spell and a paralysing spell.
After taking a couple of hits, Coventina managed to land a kick on the men’s stomach, using her mana to strengthen her attack. As the man was falling, Coventina threw the diamond. Schau’s eyes widen when the jewel enters his sight.
“Release!” Coventina commanded the jewel.
The jewel glowed before a bright light flashed from it. When the light faded, the man was lying on the floor, not moving an inch.
The blonde walked over to the man to check if he was still alive. She could see that his chest was rising and falling and that his eyes were moving wildly.
“Good, I didn’t kill him,” She let out a sigh of relief, still not sure how her magic would affect people of this world. “Death, how’s everything on your end?” She asked the spirit.
‘The boy is fighting against me like hell,’ The spirit informed her.
“Good,” She said.
She turned her attention back to the man on the forest floor. The blinding and paralysing spells should last for about 30 minutes to an hour. To make sure that if the spells did wear off quickly, Coventina created some diamond shackles, which were attached to the forest’s floor.
Now that she was sure that Schau was secured and would not cause her or the boy any harm, Coventina returned to the boy.
True to Death’s word, the boy was still struggling against his hold.
Standing beside the boy, Coventina stared at him, wondering how she would get the knife away from the boy. If it were back home, she would have known what to do or Noël would have known what to do, but here everything was done differently.
The blonde sighed and reached for her mobile. Death retrieved it from her normal clothing and handed it to her. She dialled Yoshida’s number; she hoped that she could get a single out here.
‘Probably should change his restraints. Don’t want anyone questioning about Death’s powers. Probably should change back into my normal clothes as well. Shouldn’t use crystals, that would cause the boy harm because of his struggling. Would vines be better?’ Her thoughts bounced from topic to topic.
She cast the vine spell before dismissing Death.
“Hello,” A tired voice of Yoshida’s came from the other end of the line.
“Hey, it’s Coventina. I’ve got the boy. He looks fine, mostly. It looks like the knife is trying to take over his boy. Also had to fight a sorcerer from some group called Q,” She informed the assistant manager of the situation.
Upon hearing the group’s name, Yoshida let out a sound like she was coughing on the air in her lungs.
“Q-Q!” She stuttered. “This is bad. The cursed user group Q is a part of as well,” She cried.
“Cursed user?” Coventina repeated the unfamiliar phrase.
“I guess no one has explained who they are to you yet,” Yoshida sighed. “They are evil sorcerers,” She quickly explained.
“Sounds about right, especially with what he was saying. Well, I managed to subdue him for the moment; he just needs to be picked up,” Coventina explained.
“Okay,” Yoshida let out another weary sigh. “I’ll send someone to your location once we can pin it,” She ended the call, sounding even more tired.
It took them about four hours for them to arrive at Coventina’s location. When they arrived, Coventina was sitting on a tree’s root that was protruding out of the ground, playing on her DS. The blonde removed her headphones that she had put on the block out the sound of the teen and the curse user from Q.
“This is bad,” The sorcerer who was looking over the boy muttered.
“Has the cursed item merged with him?” Coventina asked him.
“Partly,” The sorcerer confessed. “Not sure if the reverse cursed sorcerer at Tokyo will be able to do anything,” He grimaced.
“We still have to try,” Coventina weakly mumbled.
“I know,” the sorcerer meekly agreed.
“Excuse me!” The other sorcerer shouted, grabbing Coventina’s attention. “Could you release the cursed user?” They asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Coventina shot up, forgetting about the curse user.
She dashed over to the over sorcerer to make sure that the transfer to Jujustu High went smoothly.
***
It had been a couple of days since Coventina returned from Aomori.
She was currently in her dorm room preparing dinner for herself when a knock came at her door.
Knowing who was at the door by their presence, Coventina opened the door for Mieko.
“Hey, Mie,” She welcomed the older woman.
“Good evening, Cove,” She greeted back. “Mmm,” Mieko hummed in delight at the delicious smell in the air. “What are you cooking?” It smells great,” She complimented.
“Spaghetti bolognese,” The blonde answered.
The girl stepped back to the cooker, grabbing a spoon and dipped it into the sauce so Mieko could try it. The woman opened her mouth, taking the spoon into it. She hummed in delight at the rich flavour.
“Would you like to join me for dinner?” Coventina asked upon hearing and seeing Mieko’s reaction.
“I would love to, but this was just a quick stop by. I wanted to let you know about the boy you saved in Aomori. They managed to remove the tento,” Mieko informed her.
“But?” Coventina could hear it at the end of Mieko's sentence.
“But the curse that was attached to the tento has damaged his brain. It’s unclear if the reverse-cursed sorcerer can do anything to help him,” She sadly added.
Coventina sighed. She knew that the possibility of that happening was slim. Even back home, fixing the brain with magic was difficult, even for the most talented magical healer.
Unfortunately, that’s how life goes. The innocents get fuck over the most, and there’s nothing that can help them.
There was an awkward silence that fell between Mieko and Coventina.
“I was surprised to hear that you were able to fight a grade 1 curse user. Not even Uehara can do that,” Mieko brought up, finally getting rid of the awkward silence.
Coventina looked at the older woman in confusion.
“Why?” The girl asked.
“Well, sorcerers are not expected to fight curse users until the third year, about eighteen. There can be some exceptions for second years if they make it to grade 1 by then. But, you are not even a first year, and you were able to handle that curse user with ease,” Mieko pointed out.
Coventina was quiet for a moment, processing Mieko’s words.
That curse user wasn’t that hard for her to beat. It was actually one easier battles she had recently. She guessed the reason why the battle had been she easy for her was due to her magic. The fact that she could use multiple elements and enchant her was an advantage compared to the sorcerers and curse users, who could only use one ability.
“I guess I do have an advantage behind a mage and not a sorcerer. But, why does that make you worry?” The girl asked.
“I’m sure as soon as the higher-ups hear about your defeat of the curse user, they will want to take on more dangerous missions regardless of your age. A child should not be taking on missions like that,” Mieko stated.
Mieko’s statement hung in the air like a death sentence. Coventina hope that Mieko’s worries were just worries.
It took a couple of days for the higher-ups to make a decision about Coventina’s fate. They decided that Coventina would join the ranks of the Jujutsu sorcerers.
So, now she was sitting on the Komachi Shinkansen with Uehara. The higher-ups had assigned her a job with Uehara as a supervisor.
“So, where are we going?” Coventina question the man.
“Akita Prefecture,” Uehara told her. “It’s known for its natural beauty, hot springs, rice, sake, the dog breed Akita, and its beautiful woman, Akita Bijin,” He delivered it like a tour guide, but that last part was said with a grin.
The blonde ignored that last part before asking another question.
“What’s the job?”
The goofy grin that was on Uehara’s face disappeared, replacing it with a serious look.
“There have been a few missing persons reports of couples that have gone missing in Semboku,” He explained. “The initial investigation concluded that this was the doing of a cursed spirit about grade 1,” He added.
“If someone was already there, why are we going?” The teen asked.
“That’s because there are windows- the investigator can’t use jujutsu but can see curses, so they sent in to ascertain the grade of the cursed spirit so we can send out the right sorcerer to exorcise it,” He explained.
“What do we know about the missing couples?” Coventina asked further.
“All the couples were in their 20s. Both rather attractive,” He told her. “But look at this,” The man said.
Uehara placed an oldish laptop on the top of the small table attached to the train seat in front of them. Opening the laptop, Uehara clicked a couple of themes to bring up a few photos. Each one of the photos was I.D. photos of men, most likely the victims. Looking at the photos, Coventina could see that all the men had similar features. All the men had diamond-shaped faces with narrow noses and honey brown eyes.
“So this curse has a type,” Coventina commented. “It’s some kind of revengeful spirit?” She asked the sorcerers.
“It’s a possibility, but that’s for us to find out,” Uehara told her.
***
The journey to Semboku was uneventful. It was nighttime when Coventina and Uehara arrived at the ryokan that they would be staying at for this job.
“How do we start this investigation for the curse?” Coventina asked.
Coventina never had to do the investigating part of her jobs, that’s normally left for the ‘responsible’ adults.
“We’ll start at the last known location of the couples,” Uehara told her.
The two of them had dinner before heading to bed. The morning the two of them got up and had breakfast, they headed out to investigate the couples’ last location.
Uehara took Coventina to the edge of Semboku. Where there were more trees than buildings. The two of them were standing in front of a small boutique ryokan.
“The first couple to disappear was Miya Kohaku and Yuta, newlyweds on their honeymoon,” Uehara explained. “The receptionist told the police that they went out for a walk after dinner and never came back,”
“What about the other two couples?” The teen asked.
“They were both staying in the same ryokan down the road,” Uehara said, looking down the said road. “Ishii Kotone and Ono Kei had gone out for a hike for the day and never turned, and Nagasawa Hisoka and Wada Fumiko had gone out for drinks for the evening and also never returned,” He went through the information of the case.
“Which direction did Ishii and Ono take for their hike?” Coventina asked.
Uehara used his thumb to point over his shoulder, gesturing to another road that ran alongside the boutique ryokan. But this road was a narrow single-track lane that looked like it wasn’t frequently used.
“Nagasawa and Wada would have used the road we came from to head into the town,” He added.
“So all the victims have this area in common, so the curse must be in the vicinity,” Coventina theorised.
“Let’s head to the ryokan that the other two couples stayed at, to question the staff to see if they have any information that the police might of missed,” Uehara told her.
Coventina followed the man to the ryokan down the street.
Uehar ducked his head under the pieces of cloth that hung across the entrance. Coventina followed behind him, awed at the beauty of the reception, staying in the genkan as Uehara took off his shoes and put on some slippers, then headed to the reception’s desk. Standing behind the desk was a middle-aged woman, dressed in an elegant kimono.
“Good morning, sir, do you have a reservation?” The woman asked.
“Sorry, I don’t have a reservation,” Uehara told her. “I’m a private detective looking into the disappearance of Miya’s who were staying at the ryokan down the road,” He explained. “I’ve also heard that some people have disappeared from your ryokan,” He finished.
“Oh, yes. It was two couples as well,” The woman confirmed. “Do you think these disappearances are connected?” She inquired.
“I don’t know,” He told her. “That’s why I’m here. I was hoping that I could interview some of the staff; maybe they would have more insight?”
Coventina was still standing in the genkan, watching Uehara talk to the older woman. There was really nothing for her to do. So she returned back outside to wait for Uehara to finish. Looking around to see if there was anyone around before summoning one of her sketchbooks and continuing the design of the tiara that she had been working on.
It was an hour later when Uehara stepped out of the ryokan.
“There you are,” He sighed.
“Finished your questioning?” Coventina asked him. Standing up from the bench she was waiting on.
“Yeah,” He confirmed.
“I guess it wasn’t very useful,” She guessed by his tone.
“Yeah. It’s all the information we already knew,” Uehara sighed. “Back to square one,”
That’s how the rest of the day went. Coventina and Uehara went to places that the couples had visited before they disappeared, questioning people around with no luck. It was now evening, and Uehara took her to a ramen restaurant for dinner. After ordering dinner, Uehara stepped outside for a smoke. As she waited for dinner and Uehara, Coventina continued sketching, but she had moved on from the tiara to sketching the basic outline of the room; she was absent-mindedly listening to the conversations around her.
“Dude, you’re taking Shinsato to the ‘Lover’s Platform’!” A male voice exclaimed.
Coventina’s eyes flickered to the table in front of her. Sitting at the table were a few teenage boys who looked a couple of years older than her.
“Yeah, Yasuko loves the stars. I’ve been told that it’s a good place to watch them,” Another teen replied.
“Alright, dude! Keiji is going to get some!” The first boy cheered.
The boy named ‘Keiji’ punched his friend in the arm with a scowl on his face.
“I’m not like you, Yamazaki,” Keiji scolded his friend. “I love Yasuko. I’m not desperate to get laid, like you,” He explained.
“I’m not desperate!” Yamazaki defended himself.
“I think you probably should wait to take Shinsato-chan to Lover’s Platform,” Another boy told Keiji.
“Why that, Iida?” Yamazaki asked.
“Is this to do with the missing couples that have gone missing near the Lover’s Platform?” Keiji inquired.
“Somewhat,” Iida said. “But, also the Lover’s Platform is where that woman committed a murder-suicide last year,” He told his friends.
“Oh yeah,” Yamazaki said. “That’s the woman who found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her and caused both of them to fall off the platform,” He recounted the events.
“Wasn’t the boyfriend the son of Azuma Sake Brewers?” Keiji remembered as well.
“Yeah, rich and spoiled,” Iida nodded.
Coventina listened carefully to the boys’ conversation. She knew from Uehara’s sparse lessons, she knew that people's negative emotions can congregate in areas related to haunted places.
‘I guess a place related to a horrible murder-suicide, especially if it’s related to the area where the couples went missing. I’ll talk to Uehara when he comes back,’
As hearing her thoughts, Uehara returned to the table. And as soon as Uehara sat down, the restaurant staff brought over their dinner. Coventina’s mouth watered at the smell of ramen. She immediately dug into her meal, forgetting all about what she had just heard.
Uehara watched the blonde with amusement as she struggled a little with the chopsticks.
Towards the end of the meal, Coventina remembered the teenagers’ conversation.
“Uehara,” She called to the man on the side of the table. “I remembered you saying that rumours could cause a curse?” She asked.
“They can. It depends on how strong the negative emotions connected to the rumours,” He explained.
“How about a murder-suicide at a popular lover’s spot?” She inquired.
Uehara raised his eyebrow at Covenitna’s inquirer.
“Where did you hear that from?” He asked.
“The boys that were sitting at the table behind you were talking about it,” She told her. “One of them was talking about taking his girlfriend to this lover’s spot, the ‘Lover's Platform’. Another one of the boys warned his friend against going, mentioning the murder-suicide and that a woman was haunting to place,” Coventina elaborated.
“Did they mention anything else about this murder-suicide?” Uehara asked.
“That it happened last year, after the woman found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, and that somehow led to them falling off the Lover’s Platform,” She divulged what she had heard.
The tanned man was quiet for a moment as he thought over the information he had just received.
“The woman’s hatred could have led to her becoming a curse. They do say that love is the cruellest curse,” He stated. “Once we’re finished here, we’re head back to the ryokan. I need to do some research on this murder-suicide,” He informed her.
The two of them finished off their dinner and then headed back to the ryokan.
Once back in their room, Uehara began to make some phone calls as Coventina decided to get ready for bed. Uehara was still on the phone.
“Goodnight,” Coventina quietly said to Uehara, who returned it with a wave.
The teenager walked into the bedroom where she was staying to see that the futon was already set out for her. She took her nighttime medicines before settling down to sleep.
The next thing she knew, it was morning and her alarm was going off.
When she left the bedroom, she found Uehara was awake and was sitting in the lounge. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was now in a yukata, she would have believed that he hadn’t been asleep.
“Morning, Coventina,” He greeted.
“Morning,” She greeted back. “Did you find anything about the case?” She asked.
“Yeah. I’m waiting for HQ to send over the paperwork,” He told her.
The blonde kept forgetting that she had also gone back in time, so they couldn’t just send the documents over the phone.
“Didn’t feel like wearing the yukata?” Uehara asked her.
Coventina gave him a confused look.
“I guess I didn’t tell you that ryokan gives you a yukata to wear,” He sheepishly told her.
“No. I’ll wear it tonight,” She said. “When’s breakfast?”
Uehara looked over at the clock on the wall.
“Soon,” He answered.
“I’m quickly going to get dressed!” The teen shot back into the bedroom.
Throwing on a new pair of socks and underwear, she then put on the clothes that she had been wearing yesterday, and she was ready.
Just as she exited the room, a knock came from the room’s door.
Uehara stood up and answered the door. On the other side was an older woman dressed in a simple kimono.
“Uehara-san, this was dropped off for you a moment ago,” The woman told him, handing over a millina envelope.
“That was quick,” Uehara said. “Thank you,” He thanked the woman with a bow.
The woman returned the bow with her own before closing the door.
“The case files?” Coventian inquired.
“Yeah. We can look over it after breakfast,” Uehara said, placing the envelope on the lounge’s table.
They went to breakfast, then returned to their room to look over the documents that HQ sent over. The teen waited for the adult to read through the papers so he could relay what they said to her.
“So, the victim was Ono Isao, 27, whilst the perpetrator, slash girlfriend, was Sone Aimi, 25. Ono and Sone met in high school, but didn’t start dating until Sone finished high school,” Uehara relayed the information on the papers.
“So, they had been dating for 7 years?” Coventina concluded.
“Seems like it,” He agreed. “From what the police gathered after indecent, it seems that Ono was constantly cheating on Sone for the majority of their relationship. Sone was mostly oblivious of this until a week before the murder. A friend of Sone had seen Ono with another woman and informed her about it,” He continued. “It seemed like she found out that Ono was meeting a woman at Lover’s Platform and followed him there. Once she got there, Sone found Ono embracing and kissing the woman. That was all the proof that Sone needed of Ono’s cheating. An altercation broke out between them and led to Sone and Ono falling to their deaths. It was also found at her post-mortem that Sone was pregnant,” He finished.
“Is that enough for someone to become a cursed spirit?” Coventina asked.
Uehara didn’t say anything back, just placed a piece of paper on the table in front of the teen. That piece of paper was a photo of a man with dark brown hair, a diamond-shaped face, a narrow nose and honey eyes. On top of the photo, written in Japanese was ‘Ono Isao’.
‘It seems like the curse has been targeting couples, whose men look like Ono,’ She concluded.
Uehara placed the documents down.
“Looks like we’re going to have to make a trip to the Lover’s Platform,” He stated.
The man got up and went to his room. Coventina guessed to get change. Whilst he was doing that, the teen busied herself with reading through the papers. Once Uehara was ready, they headed to the forest that sat on the edge of town.
The Lover’s Platform was off the main hiking trail, down a muddy path that was mostly overgrown.
Following the overgrown path through the trees until the trees parted into a clearing.
The clearing was only a few meters wide, but it was on a cliff, giving it a stunning view of the valley below and a clear view of the sky above.
“I can see why people come here,” Uehara muttered as he admired the view.
The two of them walked into the middle of the clearing. Coventina looked around the clearing, but she couldn’t see any strange creature or that icky presence that she had come to associate with cursed spirits.
“I can’t see or sense any curse,” She told Uehara.
“That’s normal,” He informed her.
The man held up one of his hands, holding up his index and middle fingers together.
“Emerge from the darkness,
Blacker than darkness.
Purify that which is impure,”
Uehara chanted those words, and Coventina felt a shift in the world. Above them in the sky, a black spot appeared, and it then speared down into a dome covering the area of Lover’s Platform.
“This is a curtain, a barrier that allows sorcerers to work without non-sorcerers seeing our work,” He explained.
“We have a similar spell,” Coventina replied.
“Isao…” A distorted voice groaned from behind them.
The two of them spun around to see the cursed spirit standing behind them, just sky of the treeline.
The cursed spirit was about eight feet tall, its arms were thin and the ground. Its face (if it even had one) was covered by inky black hair that looked wet. But what stuck out the most was the bulbous belly. It made the curse look like it was nine months pregnant with triplets; it didn’t help that its body looked malnutrition.
“Isno,” The curse repeated before lunging at Uehara.
“Shit!” The man cursed.
He quickly threw his hands together, just in time to activate his technique. Trees came jutting out of the ground, creating a wooden barrier to stop the curse. Taking advantage of the curse crashing into the wooden barrier, Coventina cast Imperial Rain but but the curse reacted to it rapidly and moved out of the way. Uehara tried to follow up with some wooden stakes, but the curse dodged them as well.
“Great,” Uehara cursed.
“Something wrong?” Coventina asked.
“It's moved out of my range,” He answered. “I can only use my technique within a five-meter radius of myself,” He explained.
“And it’s too quick for me to land a shot on it,” Coventina added. “This is why I prefer close-quarters combat,” She complained.
The curse then launched itself again at Uehara’s barrier, clawing at it. Coventina then shot Imperial Rain at the curse again, which it swiftly dodged again.
This repeated a few times before Coventina got an idea.
“The people that the curse has attacked are the men that look like Ono and the woman they were with, so we need someone that looks like Ono to distract it,” She surmised.
“Yes! But, we can’t endanger non-socerers!” Uehara told her.
“We don’t need to! I can create an illusion!”
Coventina launch another Imperial Rain, creating some distance and time for her to create the illusion of a man that looked like Ono, just in front of Uehara’s barrier. The curse righted itself and looked towards the illusion. For a moment, it looked like her plan was going to work, but the curse lunged right through the illusion. Coventina was shocked.
‘Can the curse not see the illusion?’ She wondered.
The teen didn’t dwell on that thought as another plan formed. She knew for certain that curses could see her crystals, so she slightly altered her original plan.
Whilst the curse was focused on Uehara’s barrier, Coventina concentrated on creating a life-like figure that looked like Ono out of crystals. Creating it took a lot of considerable amount of energy, but she managed to create a realistic-looking Ono. Using the rest of her concentration to control her creation to punch the curse. Of course, they dodged it, but that wasn’t her goal.
The curse snapped around to see the crystal figure.
“ISAO!” The curse screeched on up, seeing the figure.
The curse threw itself at the crystal figure, clawing at it.
“Impale,” Coventina commanded.
Since the curse was giving the crystal figure all its attention, it didn’t have a chance to even think about dodging the spikes that erupted from the crystal figure.
“Isao,” The curse groaned. “Why…?” The curse’s voice wasn’t distorted anymore; it sounded feminine. “I gave you everything…I could have gone to university and become someone… But I stayed for you… Why…? Why did you do this to me…?”
With those words, the curse vanished. The curtain was released, bathing Uehara and Coventina in the dying light of the sun.
“Were those Sone’s last thoughts?” The girl asked.
“Most likely,” Uehara mumbled. “I guess her feelings were that ingrained into her, finally the moment transferred over to the curse created from her negative feelings,” He concluded.
The blonde then let out a huge sigh before falling to the ground.
“Coventina!” Uehara exclaimed, rushing over to the girl. “Are you alright?” He panicky asked.
“Fine,” She triedly smiled. “That fight took a lot of energy out of me,” She told him.
The man let out a sigh of relief as he knelt by her side. He placed his hand on top of her head and gave her hair a ruffle.
