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

9 PM, Saitama.

Yoshio Tanaka's old home was an old-style detached house with several roof tiles missing and knee-high weeds growing in the yard.

The living room lights were on, and the television emanated a muffled sound.

Mashiro entered through the back door, and the lock was silently severed by the spatial cutting.

Yoshio Tanaka sat on the sofa watching a late-night variety show. There was half a bottle of beer on the table, his laptop was on, and the encrypted email interface on the screen was still open.

He heard something and turned his head.

Masashiro's crimson eyes shone in the darkness.

Yoshio Tanaka's body trembled, and he suddenly turned around.

A mouse glanced at him and then ran away.

He let out a breath and wiped away his cold sweat. "Oh, it was a rat."

He turned around, intending to continue watching the variety show, but suddenly saw someone standing in front of him.

Tanaka Yoshio screamed in fright, then stared wide-eyed at the person in question: "You're that...!"

Mashiro had no intention of wasting words with him; Murasaki pierced his heart.

A knife.

His mouth was open, but he couldn't say anything.

The beer can rolled off the table and smashed on the floor, spilling the remaining beer onto the tatami mat, leaving a stain.

Mashiro blurred out and withdrew from the rain, then picked up her laptop.

The encrypted email on the screen was sent to "Hanayama-in".

She took the photo, closed the laptop, and put it in her arms.

The laughter of comedians on TV variety shows filled the quiet room.

Then, a fire destroyed everything.

10:15 PM, Nerima Ward.

Shigeru Sakakibara's apartment is on the fifth floor. Mashiro came up the stairs, and two of the hallway lights were broken.

She arrived at the door of her target and knocked.

The door opened, and Shigeru Sakakibara, wearing glasses and holding a pen in his hand, appeared.

His pupils contracted the moment he saw Mashiro, but he wasn't as surprised as Yoshio Tanaka.

"Kujo Mashiro," he said.

"Um."

Shigeru Sakakibara took a step back, gripped the pen tightly in his right hand, and the pen tip drew an arc in the air.

The documents on the desk suddenly flew up, their edges gleaming with a magical light, like a swarm of spinning blades rushing towards Shinpaku.

The first sliver of paper cut her face, leaving a shallow mark.

Click-clack.

The second piece, cut in the same spot, broke on its own.

Shigeru Sakakibara continued to draw arcs with his pen, sending more papers flying, while he himself retreated to the window, his left hand fumbling for the window lock behind his back.

Mashiro walked straight through the encirclement of paper blades, the blades hitting her body without even cutting her clothes.

A slash across the rain.

The pen broke in two, and the fingers holding it fell to the ground.

Shigeru Sakakibara looked down at his severed finger, and before he could even cry out, the second knife had already pierced his heart.

Mashiro drew her sword, and the scattered papers on the ground were stained with blood.

The surging water washed away all traces.

She picked up Sakakibara Shigeru's body and threw it into the lake.

11:40 PM, Port Area.

Hikaru Sato lives on the 23rd floor.

The floor-to-ceiling windows offer a view of Tokyo Tower, and at this time, more than half of the lights have already been turned off.

Mashiro climbed up the floors one by one, knowing that Sato Hikaru could sense the increasing fluctuations of her cursed power as she approached.

Soon, we arrived at the entrance, which was wide open.

Mashiro looked up and gazed into the room.

The lights were all on, and a suitcase stood in the entryway, half-filled. There was no one in the living room.

"It's a little later than I expected."

The sound came from the French windows. Sato Hikaru stood with his back to the door, his right index and middle fingers pressed together lightly on his temple.

Mashiro stood still, without saying a word.

"You went to Saitama and Nerima first." Sato Hikaru turned around.

His eyes glowed with a faint magical light as the spell was activated.

The distribution of cursed energy throughout the room was precisely marked in his perception, and the flow of cursed energy within Mashiro's body was as if it had been illuminated by a searchlight.

"Are they both dead?"

Mashiro did not answer; Murasaki appeared in her right hand.

Sato Hikaru drew his cursed dagger, the blade gleaming with a cold light, and lowered his center of gravity.

"You're not the first person to try and mess with Kazan-in," he said, then charged at Mashiro. "But he has people above him, and you can't kill them all."

The short sword pierced Mashiro's left shoulder with precise angle.

Sato Hikaru's ability to sense curse power allowed him to anticipate the flow of his opponent's curse power, and this strike landed precisely on the weakest point in her defense.

But it was no use; it didn't even cause the slightest wound.

Sato Hikaru's pupils suddenly contracted.

Cong Yu slashed upwards, cutting through his left wrist that was holding the knife, the blade emerging from the back of his hand.

Sato Hikaru gritted his teeth and suppressed his screams.

Instead of letting go, he used his pierced left wrist to press down, trying to trap Cong Yu in the bone, while simultaneously grabbing Zhen Bai's neck with his right hand.

Mashiro didn't loosen his grip on the hilt, and a spatial slash appeared, severing his right hand.

Sato Hikaru knelt on the ground, both his hands were useless, and the short sword fell to the floor, bounced, and slid under the sofa.

Mashiro pulled Murasaki out of Sato Hikaru's left wrist.

Hikaru Sato looked down at his drooping arms, then looked up at Mashiro.

He smiled, a bitter smile of resignation.

"Yeah...you'll find out sooner or later anyway..."

The rain pierced his throat.

His words were cut short by blood.

The sound waves vibrated, and everything in the room was destroyed into pieces.

Sato Hikaru's body was thrown out of the window and fell to the ground, where it was unrecognizable.

She walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and glanced at the reflection of the last few lights on the Tokyo Tower.

He turned and left.

At 1 a.m., Ijichi's car was parked on the side of the road in the port area.

Mashiro opened the car door and sat in the back seat.

Satoru Gojo was in the passenger seat, his legs propped up on the glove compartment, playing on his phone.

He glanced at Zhenbai in the rearview mirror; there was a small bloodstain on her cuff, but otherwise she looked no different from when she got in the car.

"Have all three been resolved?"

"Um."

"Where are his superiors?"

"Sato Hikaru said before he died, 'Hanayama-in, and there are others above that.'"

Gojo Satoru put his phone in his pocket: "Kayama-in is in charge of budget approvals at the Kyoto General Office. Moving against him will trigger a full-scale backlash from higher-ups."

Zhenbai's fingers lightly tapped on her knee.

"Let's keep it for now and talk about it after the exchange battle."

"Are you sure the exchange battle went smoothly?"

Mashiro glanced at him: "That's precisely because something will happen, we'll talk about it later."

Gojo Satoru nodded without asking any further questions. He pulled up his eye mask and leaned back into the headrest.

Ichi started the car.

At 2 a.m., Mashiro returned to her apartment.

She placed Yoshio Tanaka's laptop on the table and opened it.

A screenshot of the encrypted email has been sent to Nanami.

Nanami's reply came quickly.

"Nanami": He is the head of the Secretariat of the Directorate General, directly under Hanayama-in. He has the authority to approve budgets and prioritize tasks in the window system. Sato Hikaru is his direct subordinate.

"Mashiro": Received, leave him alone for now.

"Nanami": Okay.

Mashiro sat on the sofa, turned off her phone, and closed her eyes to think.

The three executors are dead, but the one who gave the order, Huashan Yuan, is still alive, and he has someone above him.

There are nine days left until the sister school exchange program.

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There's still 4k at night.