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CHAPTER START---
---May 27st, 11 PM…
"I miss who I was a month ago," Mei Mei says as she looks down from the rooftop.
She was standing atop a 5-story hotel at the edge of Osaka, with her battleaxe at her side, sharing vision with her crows.
Behind her, Taiyo was leaning against a water tank, idly scrolling on his phone.
"Why is that? You lost an investment or something?" he asks.
"As if I'd ever do that," Mei Mei curses the thought. "You know, all these missions we've done must have made you quite a profit. I could help you grow it."
Taiyo looks up from his phone for a moment, looking her up and down as she turns to give an inviting smile.
But he knows the heinous woman she is when it comes to profit.
"What's the catch?"
"I get 20% of your gains."
"10."
"15," she says.
"15, and you teach me about your New Shadow Style: Simple Domain," Taiyo says. "Kusakabe can't teach it, but he said the New Shadow Style school head hates you since you stole it, as did Gojo."
"Well, he saw it once and learned it, but I did steal it," she admits. "And deal."
She walks forward and shakes his hand, solidifying the binding vow.
"You know, I would have taught you for 3%," she says with a scheming smile.
Only for him to lean forward, meeting her at eye level, and whisper, "I would have given you 50% to learn it."
Mei Mei's heart skips a beat, not from the proximity or intensity of his gaze, but for all the profits her wallet would not experience.
"Now I really do wish I could go back one month," Mei Mei sighs as she walks back to the edge of the roof.
"That would be just after you stole my battleaxe," he says.
"If that's how you view it," Mei Mei says. "But before I started working with you, I had fewer missions to do, and they were a lot less intense. You Special Grades are so annoying."
"Well, when they can trust me to operate solo, you can go to the spa instead of working for your money."
Mei Mei raises the axe to him, then turns and walks to him, gently touching it to her chest. "Was that a threat? Are you trying to cut me out?"
"Wow," Taiyo mutters, staring at her in wonder. "I didn't know you could care about anything. Seems money really is everything to you."
"Value, is everything to me. Money just makes quantifying easier," she says while staring into his eyes. "And you know, your head is likely still worth a lot, if I happen to drop it at their feet."
Taiyo smiles, "The first hit is free."
With no hesitation, she draws back her battleaxe and swings it directly at his neck, only for him to intercept it with one finger.
"Are you at your limit for Reinforcement?" Mei Mei asks, pushing with all her might, but unable to even cut his finger.
"I still have room to improve, but we've been focusing on my Innate Technique and Simple Domain these past two weeks," Taiyo says before casually pushing her blade aside.
"How about this?" She raises her hand, ready to snap her fingers. "Think you can handle a direct Bird Strike?"
"Can you handle the cost?" He narrows his eyes at her. "I did say the first hit is free, so this one won't be…"
Mei Mei shakes her head and turns her back to him, walking back to the edge.
Taiyo puts his phone away and joins her at the edge of the rooftop, looking at the road below that leads north, away from the city.
"Is there anything you won't do for money?" Taiyo asks.
Mei Mei glances at him from the corner of her eye. "Is this your sad attempt at propositioning me?"
"I meant people you wouldn't kill."
"No."
"Didn't even hesitate," Taiyo says. "What about your little brother? The one you said was a fan of mine."
"If the payment surpasses his value, then yes, but thus far, he's proven invaluable."
"Can't put a price on sentimental value, I guess."
"I meant his Innate Technique," Mei Mei says. "Why are you asking this? Are you having second thoughts about this mission?"
"No, they knew the risk. Kamo and Zen'In clan, blood isn't allowed to mix. They wanted to play 'Romeo and Juliet', now we cut to the ending."
"The big Jujutsu clans value worthless things too much. Such things as respect, loyalty, and legacy are worthless, yet they're willing to pay us this much to protect them."
"Are you complaining?"
"Oh no, never. The more people value such silly things, the easier jobs like this I get."
"I think you mean 'We' get, you're only here because you now have a Special Grade helping you."
"Don't remind me," Mei Mei grumbles before snapping to attention. "I see them. The intel was right, they must be coming to the port here."
"How do we deal with this one?"
"We've done this once before," Mei Mei says as she gets ready to leap. "Follow the birds, and keep quiet."
With that, she begins leaping between the buildings along the outer edge of the city, guiding them toward a suitable place to intercept their targets.
Taiyo easily keeps up, treating her sprint like a casual jog while leaping between and over buildings.
Eventually, they leave the city and run toward a lonely stretch of road outside the city.
Running parallel to the road, they see a short bridge ahead, and Mei Mei signals for him to prepare for the ambush there.
Taiyo takes up his position behind a tree while Mei Mei shares vision with her Crows.
"Now," she says.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." Taiyo manifests a barrier above them, 300m wide, and the car is already near the middle of it.
The car screeches to a halt in the middle of the bridge, and with a snap of her fingers, Mei Mei commands one of her crows to Kamikaze into the side of the vehicle, punching a hole through the back of it and causing it to slam into the wall of the bridge.
"Good timing," Taiyo says as he hops over to their end of the bridge and begins walking toward the car.
Walking closer to the edge, he looks over to see a shallow ravine below, and Mei Mei nods, agreeing with his silent observation.
"Is he a Hei?" Taiyo asks as a man gets out of the driver's seat, wielding a Katana and rushing toward them.
"No, he's from the lower caste of the Zen'In, just another body," Mei Mei says as she rushes forward, meeting his blade with hers.
Her battleaxe meets his sword, breaking his blade and slashing him into two pieces.
Taiyo continues walking, quickly approaching where she and the corpse are.
"Should have thrown him over the edge instead of making a mess," Taiyo says.
As he walks past the corpse, he releases blood-red flames from his right hand, but anything that doesn't touch it directly gains no heat.
An application of Immolation that mimics fire, for the sake of situations where fire is preferable to heat beams.
It completely cremated the corpse, clothes, and blood, only melting the asphalt beneath slightly while Mei Mei and Taiyo approached the car.
Arriving at the wrecked car Mei Mei and Taiyo see a very pregnant and injured woman in the front seat, bleeding from her head.
Mei Mei takes a picture of the woman before Taiyo reaches down and grabs the bottom of the car, then, with one casual motion, he flips it into the air and over the side of the bridge.
"Sent," Mei Mei says as the sound of the car crashing below reaches them. "Our money should be here soon. But I wish Jujutsu Headquarters would control their people better."
"Yeah, but maybe that's a good thing," Taiyo says as he dispels the Curtain above.
"Oh, because we get more money?"
"Something like that," Taiyo mutters before looking over at her. "Do you like how things are being run right now?"
Mei Mei gives him a perplexed look.
"I mean, how do you feel about what we do? No, not 'what we do', but, 'how we exist," Taiyo nods. "Yeah, that's it."
"I try not to think about such things when there is money to be made," Mei Mei says. "Now, let's get a place to stay and discuss the specifics of your investments with me…"
END CHAPTER---
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