"…They'll probably be your long-term sparring partners," Maro said, staring at the pups with narrowed eyes, even using spiritual vision—yet found nothing unusual.
"Long-term sparring partners…" Two girls and two dogs stared at one another.
"WOOF WOOF WOOF!" The dogs suddenly began barking wildly, sounding like they were either furious or swearing.
Because they were so weak, even their anger looked adorable.
"…Still don't understand dog," Cyr muttered as he listened to the incomprehensible barking.
Maruko and Inukura, the two little pups, were panicked beyond reason.
And a distressed pup? It barks.
They even bared their little fangs in an attempt to look fierce, trying to scare off their enemies.
But here? Enemies were on all sides.
And every single one of these humans… didn't look like they'd be easy to deal with.
"Maruko, what do we do?" Inukura whimpered in panic to his companion.
"I don't know, I don't know!" Maruko was so anxious it started spinning in circles, biting its own tail as it answered its companion.
"Despicable humans," Inukura growled through gritted teeth.
They must have captured them on purpose! The clan always said humans were cunning, fond of schemes and deception!
And that big demon who looked like a tiger—he helped the humans! Helped them capture us! A disgrace to all yōkai!
Any yōkai who works for humans as a shikigami or servant is a disgrace to their race!
"Master Kōen will definitely come save us," Inukura said with hopeful determination.
Their master was the strongest, most dependable Inuyōkai in the world.
He had to come rescue them from these human monsters.
Just as that hopeful thought passed through their minds—they were both slapped into the air out of nowhere.
Maro had used nen for extra force, his face dark with irritation as he stared them down.
"I don't care if you understand human speech or not—you're going to understand me right now."
"You're these two brats' sparring partners. Got it?"
Maro hadn't spent his time here in vain.
He had learned that this world had jujutsu sorcerers, onmyōji, and yōkai.
He didn't quite understand what they all were, but… yōkai seemed pretty similar to magical beasts, right?
And most magical beasts could understand human language.
The two little dogs drooped their ears and whimpered.
They did, in fact, understand human language. They just couldn't speak it yet.
Until they gained the ability to take human form, they wouldn't be able to talk like people.
"Sparring. Not death matches. Injuries are fine—just don't kill them. Understand?" Maro clarified.
The dogs both nodded.
"Woof woof…"
(Inukura, let's just pretend to cooperate for now and look for a chance to escape later.)
"Woof."
(Got it.)
The two Inuyōkai communicated openly, confident the humans couldn't understand a word.
They took up the fighting stances they had learned and faced off against the two human girls, preparing for battle.
They recognized the girls' clothing—miko attire. Shrine maidens usually possessed spiritual powers, making them different from ordinary humans. So they still needed to be cautious.
The two little girls, on the other hand, looked completely lost. They had no idea what to do.
Maro didn't give them time to hesitate. He barked a command:
"Begin."
The dogs launched their attack immediately.
They leapt and charged forward. In a single round, they had knocked both girls flat on the ground.
Without missing a beat, they followed up by biting at them.
The girls panicked, trying to shield themselves with their arms, but their strength didn't compare to the dogs'. One of the pups even got a firm grip on a sleeve.
Cyr silently raised a hand to cover his eyes.
It was painful to watch—but not unexpected.
He had already guessed that these two wouldn't even be able to beat a couple of dogs.
"Stop. You should've been prepared the moment they moved," Maro called off the dogs and turned to the girls who were scrambling to their feet.
Instead of teaching them how to defend, he started showing them how to fight back.
Because attack is the best defense.
"Your fundamentals are awful—your stance is weak, limbs have no strength…" Maro rattled off a list of criticisms.
He didn't know how to teach people properly, but he could see their flaws.
And everything he knew, he'd learned from real combat.
The two children stayed quiet, listening intently to what he said.
"Woof woof woof!" The two dogs started barking again.
(What about us? What about us?)
"Woof woof woof…"
(Since this is training, don't we get any instructions?)
"Shut up," Maro ordered coldly, unable to understand dog speech.
"Whimper…" The two Inuyōkai shrank back with their tails between their legs.
Such a scary human!
"Tsksksk…" Cyr made the traditional dog-calling sound while waving at the two dogs.
"Woof?"
(This human is weird.)
"Woof!"
(Wait—that's not a human! That's a yōkai!)
The two dogs looked at each other in confusion.
Is he human or yōkai?
They sniffed him frantically, trying to figure it out, but they couldn't catch any clear scent.
In fact, they vaguely smelled blood—but no one here was bleeding.
"It actually didn't work…" Cyr looked at his own hand, deep in thought.
Back in his home, if he made that sound, a whole row of dogs would rush over eagerly to be petted.
Was it the breed? Or the environment?
"Forget it, you all continue." Cyr stood up and left the childish, not-even-as-exciting-as-a-cat-vs-dog battle behind and returned indoors.
He figured he'd go back to his experiments.
His last experiment was copying stories to bring fictional ghosts into reality.
But this time…
He wanted to see if he alone could create a curse or summon a yōkai.
A powerful jujutsu sorcerer could probably curse an object so intensely that it instantly becomes a special-grade curse.
So in that case…
"Love is the most twisted curse. But how am I supposed to fall in love with you?" Cyr's experiment had hit a dead end over this one crucial point.
Just like in some pure romance story, where someone cursed another out of love and made them stay behind…
But Cyr—
He touched his own chest.
He couldn't feel even the slightest bit of love. Why did it always have to be about romance and feelings?
What about hate? What about disgust?
"Nope, I still can't do it," he sighed.
Love—such a boring thing—he just didn't have any.
He didn't even… love himself.
Cyr looked at the portrait of himself on the table and sighed again.
The person in the painting was supposedly him, but also not really.
Because in the painting, the white-haired figure had four arms, four eyes, was bare-chested, and had a grinning mouth on his stomach.
That was his imagined version of himself—Cyr: The Original Sukuna Skin Edition.
In his mind, that version of him should definitely count as a major yōkai.
But even though the painting was finished, there was no sign of it manifesting.
This experiment seemed to be a failure.
°°°
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