Curse Return: Demon Void Girl Doesn't Want to Be a Weakling

9:00 AM, Miyagi Prefectural General Hospital.

As Mashiro pushed open the glass door, the smell of disinfectant wafted out.

She walked straight to the nurses' station, where the nurse on the night shift was preparing to hand over her duties. When she saw her approaching, she gave a professional smile.

"Hello, may I ask—"

"I've come to collect Mr. Itadori's ashes," Mashiro said. "They were left here last night by Itadori Hisahito's grandfather."

The nurse looked down at the logbook. "Yes, we have it. Mr. Itani said last night he'd come to pick it up today. You are...?"

"His sister."

Without asking any further questions, the nurse turned around and took out a jar wrapped in a white cloth from the locker.

The white cloth was wrapped carefully, with the edges tucked in; it must have been wrapped by Japanese knotweed herself yesterday.

Mashiro took it, hugged it with one hand; it was lighter than she had imagined, and then carefully put it into her bag.

The sunlight was a bit dazzling as I walked out of the hospital.

She took out her phone and opened LINE.

The pink tiger avatar lay quietly at the top of the chat list, the last message being a report from Huzhang last night after he arrived at the vocational college safely.

"Mashiro": Let's head to Tokyo right away.

He then went to the station, bought a ticket, and quietly sat down in his seat.

Soon, the train started moving, and the streetscape of Sendai rushed past.

She only stayed in Sendai for less than a week, but a lot happened.

Mashiro leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes to rest, and unconsciously tapped her fingers lightly on the sword sheath.

The train passed through the tunnel, and the light outside the window dimmed and then brightened again.

My phone vibrated.

Tiger: Mashiro-nee, are you coming to Tokyo? What time are you arriving? I'll pick you up!

"Mashiro": No need, you can wait at the vocational high school.

"Tiger": I'll send you the address! Actually, I still don't quite understand where this place is. Teacher Wu drove me here last night, and I fell asleep on the way...

"Mashiro": I have your address. I'll contact you when I get there.

Tiger: Okay! (•̀ω•́)✧

Around noon, the train arrived at Tokyo Station.

Mashiro took the subway and then a bus, and it took her more than an hour to finally stand outside the main gate of the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Higher Vocational School.

The stone steps lead upwards, with ancient trees towering on both sides, and a wooden plaque with the school's name hanging at the entrance, the characters neat and upright.

Mashiro looked up at the faint outline of the buildings visible at the end of the stone steps. The environment was better than she had imagined; at least there were many trees and the air was clean.

The location is quite remote; it's about a 20-minute walk to the nearest convenience store.

She took out her phone to send a message.

Less than a minute later, hurried footsteps came from above the stone steps.

Huzhang's figure appeared at the top of the steps, her pink hair even more conspicuous in the sunlight.

"Mashiro-neechan!"

He jumped down the steps in two quick steps, rushed to Mashiro and stopped, breathing a little fast, with a smile on his face.

Then his gaze fell on the white cloth wrapped in her arms, and his smile faltered for a moment.

"……This is."

"Your grandfather's ashes." Mashiro handed over the jar. "I left it at the nurses' station yesterday; you forgot."

Huzhang took it with both hands, his fingers gently stroking the white cloth.

He carried this jar out of the hospital yesterday, left it at the nurses' station last night, and then never came back.

"Thank you," he said, his eyes darkening slightly.

"Let's go inside."

Huzhang roused himself, nodded, and walked ahead carrying the urn, his pace much slower than when he arrived.

Mashiro followed behind, looking around.

The college was larger than she had imagined. At the end of the stone steps was the school gate, and beyond the gate was a path lined with tall cedar trees, through which sunlight filtered down.

At the end of the approach path are several traditional Japanese buildings with gray tiles and white walls, winding wooden corridors, and pine trees and dry landscape gardens in the courtyards.

It was built quite meticulously and maintained well; it truly lives up to its reputation as a long-established sorcery organization.

Itadori led her into the living area and pointed to a building on the left. "The dorms are over here. Fushiguro and I live on the first floor, and Kugizaki lives on the second floor. I slept pretty well last night; the blankets were quite soft."

Mashiro glanced in the direction and saw that the exterior walls had been renovated in recent years, the windows had aluminum alloy frames, and the outdoor air conditioning units were neatly arranged on one side of the exterior wall.

Two ginkgo trees were planted in front of the building, their shade covering most of the entrance.

It was indeed better than she had expected.

Itachi's room was at the end of the corridor on the first floor. He pushed open the door and let Mashiro peek in.

The six-tatami mat room is fully equipped with a wardrobe, desk, and independent air conditioner. The windows face south and have good natural light.

It's much better than the dormitories at most schools.

Mashiro made her own assessment.

"It's pretty good," she said.

"Right!" Itari carefully placed the urn on the alcove, clasped his hands in prayer, and then turned around to say, "Kugizaki complained last night that it was like a haunted house, but I think it's just that the building is a bit old, it's actually not bad to live in."

Mashiro didn't respond.

The two walked out of the dormitory building and were heading towards the main building when a figure emerged from around the corner of the corridor.

White hair, black eye patch, uniform hanging loosely on his body, holding a lollipop in his hand.

Gojo Satoru stopped in his tracks when he saw them.

"Oh, you're here." Her tone was as light as if she were bumping into a neighbor. "I was wondering this morning if you would come. Looks like you kept your promise, Kujo-kun."

"If I said tomorrow, then tomorrow is tomorrow."

Gojo Satoru nodded, put the lollipop in his mouth, and pointed at Itajimaru with his free hand: "Yujin, go to the principal's office first. Principal Yagami wants to see you about the enrollment procedures."

"Oh, okay." Itajimaru scratched his head and ran towards the principal's office. His footsteps echoed a few times in the wooden corridor before disappearing.

The corridor fell silent, leaving only Gojo Satoru and Mashiro.

Gojo Satoru, with a lollipop in his mouth, leaned against a pillar and tilted his head to look at her.

"What are you planning to do next?" he asked. "Go back to Sendai?"

"Move to Tokyo."

"Oh?" Gojo Satoru pulled the lollipop out of his mouth and teased, "Because Itajima is here?"

"Um."

Gojo Satoru took the lollipop out of his mouth and drew a circle in the air: "Since you care so much about Itadori, why don't you just move to the vocational high school? I can arrange a dormitory room for you. There are still empty rooms in the girls' section. It must be quite boring for Kugizaki to live alone."

Mashiro glanced at him.

The dorms are actually pretty good. Each person has their own room with an individual air conditioner. They have everything you need, and they're several levels better than the average high school.

But a dormitory is a dormitory.

At the end of the corridor is a public washroom. To take a shower, you have to go to the public bathhouse. The canteen serves meals at set times, and there might even be a curfew at night.

Surrounded by people from vocational colleges, every move I make is under their watchful eyes, making it very difficult to do anything.

Mashiro's cute little face was expressionless, and she answered crisply, "The environment is too bad, I can't get used to living here."

"Bad?" Gojo Satoru's tone was exaggerated as he accused her, "You just said Itadori's room was pretty nice."

"That's compared to regular schools." Mashiro said without changing her expression, "I have requirements for my living environment."

Gojo Satoru stared at her for two seconds, then laughed.

Telling lies so casually that they're easily exposed is just being perfunctory.

"To put it bluntly, they just don't want to live in the dorms, and they're afraid of being controlled?"

"It's inconvenient to do anything, and I'm not used to living with too many people." Mashiro stopped pretending. "Besides, the food in your cafeteria probably doesn't suit my taste."

"How would you know if you haven't even tried it?"

"intuition."

Gojo Satoru smiled and shook his head, putting the lollipop back in his mouth. "But since you don't live in the high school, contact Hisahito. We sometimes need to ask you to participate in missions."

"I will."