All because Megumi and I had walked past that damn sports field together. We both immediately sensed that it was surrounded by hopelessly cursed energy.
Our first encounter – and she had captivated me, Satoru Gojo, instantly.
All the more delighted I was when she agreed to a second meeting in a much calmer setting. The one at the café, where we could talk calmly about our... peculiarities. Together with Megumi.
I still remembered it clearly.
Her facial expressions had more range than an entire theater ensemble. From "wow – how cool!" to "what the hell are they talking about?", everything was there. She probably thought we were completely nuts, some esoteric weirdos with combat training.
But there was this one thing – this crucial commonality with us.
The ability to see curses.
And suddenly we were using terms that she apparently understood. Now, after all the other conversations I'd had with her, I knew she had previously had no exposure to this surreal topic.
How could she?
But that's why it happened pretty quickly that she let us invite her to visit the academy.
True to her open-book nature, she inspected everything with joy and excitement sparkling in her eyes.
So, we had made our impulsive proposal that she move in – followed shortly by the actual move.
Since then, she had brought order to all our lives in a quiet, unobtrusive way.
Just small things – but noticeable.
Like how she cooked for us almost every evening. Previously, it had mostly been Kento who often provided a delicious meal, but ever since Mayu arrived, we could hardly wait for her to get into the kitchen. And she did it without us ever asking.
We also noticed, or rather, Kento did, that our daily routines had become more structured at key points.
She organized things in the background. We didn't see it, but we felt it. It helped.
For instance, she took care of our uniforms – washed them, folded them neatly and placed them on our beds.
Usually when we weren't home – but she was.
Even Megumi wasn't the same anymore. That walking ice block was slowly thawing – and not because of summer temperatures. No, it was obvious.
By now I could already say I had a good idea of how my unofficial foster son ticked.
He became more open – almost approachable.
His looks toward her were underlined by a gentleness I had previously only seen when he talked about Tsumiki, his sister. Rare, but unmistakable.
Exactly that kind of gentleness was in his expression – as if he saw Mayu as a kind of sister.
Far-fetched, maybe, but it wasn't just my imagination. Why else had he helped her earlier with his shikigami and even defended her against me?
Megumi – the one who stood protectively in front of Mayu and defended her.
That wasn't the guy who had previously only shown me the cold shoulder.
The two of them seemed to share a special bond.
Even Kento's tough shell began to crack. He had been incredibly skeptical at first – though respectful.
But even that didn't faze Mayu. She stood her ground in her own way. Not confrontational – rather quiet and subtle. Through action and conviction – without sweeping her principles under the rug.
By now I'd caught them several times cooking together or shopping for household stuff. Or just going on curse hunts – whenever he took her along.
Which seemed to happen more and more lately.
And I wanted more.
I needed to see how she would react to Maki, Panda, Toge – especially Yuta.
It would've only been a few more days until they came back from their long-term exchange at the sister school in Kyoto.
…