Jujutsu Kaisen: I Have A Gardevoir

Speechless as he was, there was no way Kamo Noritoshi would admit it.

That would do no good for the Kamo family, for himself, or even for Akira and Hayami.

As the saying goes, "The higher the tree, the more it catches the wind." If this scandal were exposed, everyone connected would be in turmoil.

"If you want to say my eyes are small, just say it. No need to be roundabout about it."

"Oh, so you know?" Somehow, Mai felt a lot less pressure.

Kamo Noritoshi suddenly felt an urge to curse, but managed to hold it in. "The message has been delivered. If there's nothing else, please leave."

"You haven't given me your answer yet. Are you going or not?"

"This has nothing to do with you."

"How does it not? Do you have his contact information? I don't leak others' private contact details without permission."

Mai spoke with an air of righteousness, feeling quite pleased with herself after saying it. No wonder both Akira and Noritoshi liked lecturing people.

There was indeed something exhilarating about acting morally superior.

Noritoshi found himself at a loss, feeling stuck.

Fortunately, he had a decent brain, and he quickly thought of a response.

"You don't need to worry about that. Getting someone's contact information isn't hard for me."

"No, it's not hard, for someone like you, the young heir of the influential Kamo family. But, have you ever thought—why did Akira ask me to deliver this message instead of coming to find you directly?"

A slight smile appeared on Mai's lips. Her instincts, along with Noritoshi's strange behavior, made it clear there was more to this. She had just been intimidated by his status and the failure with Mechamaru yesterday.

Noritoshi's movement of getting up to see her out paused, and he finally realized the crux of the problem.

Akira didn't want anyone else to know about this meeting.

That was why he chose this roundabout way, instead of directly finding him.

The reason could be a request from his mother—perhaps she didn't want any association with the Kamo family.

But if Zen'in Mai knew, would it be alright?

What was their relationship, anyway?

"Can I trust you?"

"Who knows? If I say yes, you might not believe me. But Akira seems to trust me—he's seen through my true nature, and it wouldn't be difficult for him to get back at me if he wanted to. As for the young heir of the Kamo family, I'm just a nobody—I wouldn't dare provoke you. I could establish a 'Contract' not to disclose it to others."

Mai smiled self-deprecatingly, effectively using her own position.

Hearing this, Noritoshi finally relaxed. "Thank you. After this matter, you will be rewarded."

The "Contract" had an element of compulsion, but it also required the other party's willingness and clear understanding of the contents.

If Mai was unwilling, she could simply walk away and spread the word. Unless Noritoshi killed her to silence her, there was no way to stop her.

Even if he wanted to take revenge, he'd have to wait for another opportunity. Noritoshi wasn't powerful enough to silence people at will.

The same reasoning applied to obtaining contact information—there was no guarantee that the person handling it would keep it confidential, since Noritoshi was only the heir, not the current head.

This attitude only confirmed Mai's guess, and she said, "Looks like you and Akira do have a deep connection—like Maki and me."

"Maybe," Noritoshi said, as Mai had already used her cursed energy to establish her self-restraint, leaving him with nothing to worry about.

"As expected of the Big Three Sorcerer Families, even in these matters, you're all so alike." Mai folded her arms and wore a mocking smile. "But you brothers are much stronger than us sisters. What's the current head thinking? Just sending his son away like that? Judging from his attitude towards you, it doesn't seem like Akira is a secret weapon being cultivated in secret."

"I don't really know what happened specifically. He's always been someone with strong ideas."

A hint of nostalgia appeared in Noritoshi's eyes.

Since they were around the same age, the brothers had spent at least half of their days together, but Noritoshi never understood what his brother was thinking.

Sometimes he even felt like Akira was the older brother, and he himself was the younger.

After all these years, they had all grown taller and grown up, yet that initial gap hadn't changed.

Perhaps that was what true maturity was.

"He has plenty of thoughts even now."

Mai muttered under her breath, like when he flirted with her.

"Do you mean—?" Noritoshi looked confused, feeling like her face was a bit red.

Mai quickly made up an excuse, "I mean in terms of using guns. It was the reward for passing his message—his suggestion for me. He said I should get more firearms, that one revolver wasn't enough."

This was the reward for Mechamaru—one-for-one exchange, Akira's trustworthiness was impeccable, as promised.

"Indeed. Although physical attacks alone have no effect on cursed spirits, if you can use them as a medium to increase cursed energy speed, the killing power will also increase. If you could shoot a 'Black Flash' with a gun..."

At that, Noritoshi couldn't help but shiver.

Mai felt the same.

"You're crazy for even thinking about that."

"I'm just speaking hypothetically."

Shooting a Black Flash would be like taking "upgrading from a shotgun to artillery" literally—firing a cannon with a gun.

It wasn't entirely infeasible.

The principle of Black Flash was complete synchronization of impact and cursed energy. If physical blows could do it, why couldn't other things?

As long as the cursed energy could keep up, theoretically anything could have a Black Flash. It's just that, compared to the body, other objects were one layer removed. Syncing the body itself was already difficult—external objects were even harder, and no one had ever achieved it with long-range weapons.

"Forget it. Let's not talk about this anymore. I'll go reply to the email and see what he says."

Mai ended the conversation and typed away with her gun-wielding, single-for-sixteen-years' dexterity.

Not long after, Akira's reply arrived.

It was an entire action plan.

First, use the excuse of choosing firearms to officially request leave and exit the campus.

Then actually select some firearms, and once that was mostly done, sneak out at the right time.

Akira would be waiting nearby.

After reading this simple yet intricate plan, both of them had only one thought—respect.

Complete respect.

This had been planned since the individual matches, with foreshadowing set up beforehand—on both sides, so that every move made sense afterward.

How does this guy's brain work?

I'd rather face Maki in hand-to-hand combat than cross him. Getting beaten by Maki would hurt for a while, but if I got schemed against by him, who knows how many traps would be waiting afterward.

This was Mai's thought.

And as for Noritoshi—if he really wants to be the head, I'll let him. I can't beat him physically, nor mentally, and that was his position to begin with.

For a moment, both were deep in thought, speechless.

A few minutes later, they both stood up and started to carry out Akira's instructions.

When night fell and the lights came on, Kamo Noritoshi and Akira (Kamo Noritsuna)—the half-brothers—finally met.