"Okay, okay, I understand."
"Thank you for looking after Kenmei during this time. Goodbye, Master."
"Please take care of yourself."
"Yomi-nee, are you on the phone?"
After showering, Kenmei came out and heard Yomi Isayama sitting on the tatami, speaking softly into her phone.
"It's nothing, just work stuff."
"Oh, okay."
Hearing it was work-related, Kenmei didn't pay it much mind.
Next to Yomi sat a long, slender object wrapped in fine red silk, placed carefully within reach as if she valued it greatly.
After hanging up, Yomi stared at her phone, slightly dazed. Her expression was strange, as if she was trying to process the news she had just received.
Master said her "good-for-nothing" little brother awakened his own technique?
And that he solved a heavily wounded Grade 1 Cursed Spirit by turning it into a bomb? No wonder Yomi had suddenly felt a spine-tingling fluctuation of Cursed Energy earlier in the evening. For a moment, she thought a Special Grade Curse had appeared, especially with that pillar of fire visible across Tokyo shooting straight into the sky.
That was all her brother's doing?
"Kenmei, you..."
But just as Yomi decided to ask Kenmei exactly what was going on, the words got stuck in her throat like a fishbone, leaving her mouth agape but silent.
"What's wrong, Yomi-nee?"
Kenmei was standing in front of the fully stocked fridge, happily chugging a large gulp of iced barley tea. Yomi had a habit of filling his fridge every time she visited, buying enough food to last him many days, so Kenmei was enjoying the refreshments.
"Hmph. I was going to say, drinking iced beverages on an empty stomach before dinner will give you a stomachache."
Yomi pulled rank as the older sister, speaking sternly.
"Yomi-nee, you're so strict."
Kenmei sighed and put the iced barley tea back in the fridge.
"Alright, come eat."
Yomi waved Kenmei over, and she sat opposite him.
Yomi had prepared four dishes and a soup: eggplant claypot rice, grilled eel, braised beef with potatoes, pan-fried tofu, and a bowl of miso soup.
The color and aroma were top-tier. Simple home-cooked dishes, yet anything but simple, making one's index finger twitch with anticipation.
Taking the rice bowl from Yomi, Kenmei realized he was starving, his stomach rumbling loudly.
"Yomi-nee, aren't you eating?"
Although hungry, Kenmei noticed he was holding the only set of chopsticks and bowl. Yomi had none, so he didn't start eating immediately and asked.
"I'm not hungry. I ate earlier."
Yomi rested her chin on her hands, smiling as she explained.
"Besides, I was just passing by on a mission and wanted to see how you were doing."
"Hurry up and eat. Once you're done, I'll wash the dishes and head back out."
"Yomi-nee, you have to work this late?"
Kenmei had gotten home around eight. After showering and sitting down at the table, it was almost nine. Yet Yomi said she had a mission after he finished eating.
Damn it, those old dogs at the Jujutsu Association aren't human.
Kenmei clicked his tongue in annoyance. Bunch of bastards.
It was rest time, yet they were sending a 19-year-old girl out on a mission.
What happened to labor laws?
"Yomi-nee, even if you're efficient, the Association shouldn't exploit you like this."
Yomi Isayama had another identity: a prodigy of the Jujutsu world. At 19, she was already a Grade 1 Sorcerer and had been recognized by the Isayama family's heirloom Special Grade Cursed Tool, [Nue]. She was essentially confirmed as the next head of the Isayama family. (Being the head meant Yomi couldn't marry out; she could only take a husband who married into the family.)
A stunningly beautiful girl with superb strength and an icy personality—like a rose with thorns. She was often compared to the only current Special Grade Sorcerer in the Association, Yuki Tsukumo. While Yuki was a willful lady who ignored orders, Yomi was a terrifying mission machine.
Revitalizing the declining and depopulated Isayama family was also Yomi's responsibility and obligation as the next head.
"Can't be helped. The Association is short-staffed."
"Short on people who actually do work, you mean."
Kenmei was sick of this trash Association. If they kicked out all the Grade 1 and Grade 2 Sorcerers who sat in offices drinking tea and reading newspapers, he refused to believe an organization consuming a quarter of Japan's fiscal budget would be short on manpower.
The people who actually worked stayed at the bottom, while those who did nothing but wag their tails at the leaders climbed the ranks.
Akutagawa and his team had contributed so much to the Association, yet look at them now—left with nothing but a Grade 1 certificate and bodies full of scars.
"Yomi-nee, Mr. Akutagawa actually gave me two months off. Let me help you."
Kenmei knew Yomi always worked as a solo unit, never teaming up with anyone.
"Two people can look out for each other. Yomi-nee, I forgot to tell you, I actually awakened a technique."
"I won't drag you down. Let's restore the Isayama family name together!"
Screw the Kamo clan. To Kenmei, the Isayama family, who took him in and raised him safely, was his true home.
"Kenmei..."
Hearing her brother offer to lighten her burden touched Yomi deeply.
Yomi found it hard to trust others. Even her cousin Mei Isayama and her uncle, whom she had lived with for nearly ten years, still looked at her with eyes full of alienation and jealousy.
If her family in name was like that, let alone strangers.
Why was Yomi always so cold during missions? Because emotions were superfluous. Only with a frozen heart could she cut down enemies without hesitation, becoming a machine that simply completed the task.
"I'm sorry, Kenmei."
"Why? Yomi-nee."
"Because my work is far more dangerous than what you do with Master."
As an active combatant, Yomi didn't just face terrifying Cursed Spirits. Humans who used Cursed Energy for evil were also her targets. They had guns, explosives, assassinations, and poisons—threats that were impossible to fully guard against.
"If something happens to me, at least our family still has you."
"Then let's make a bet."
Kenmei didn't give up. Giving up would be truly foolish; if he wanted Points, he had to prove his worth.
"For this mission the Association assigned you—if I complete it before you do, you have to accept my party invite."
"No, it's too dangerous!"
Yomi thought of her mission. It was far beyond what a rookie who just awakened his technique could handle.
But Kenmei's next words shook Yomi's resolve to its core.
"You know, Yomi."
"Sakura is gone. You're the only sister I have left."
"As a brother, how can I let my sister do dangerous work alone in the dead of night while I curl up at home and sleep?"
Kenmei's persistence finally eroded the girl's resistance.
"Fine."