"So, do you believe me?"

  "..."

  Should she believe him?

  Holy, Mai wasirely sure. She felt like she had never seen anyone more captivating than this boy in front of her, whose bright smile seemed to light up the room.

  Humans are sensory creatures. Everyone's drawn to beauty, whether they realize it or not.

  As she felt her heart stir, Mai blushed slightly, trying to push those thoughts away.

  "... Yeah, I believe you," she finally nodded, her voice steady.

  At the moment, she couldn't think of any other way. To Mai, Ryuji was more than just a sorcerer—he was a bea of hope, someone who made her feel less alone. Slowly, she stepped forward and pced her hand in his.

  "Target tacted: Mai Sakurajima. A purple ability entry has been triggered. Would you like to load it?"

  A purple entry? That's already pretty impressive.

  Ryuji grinned slightly, feeling the warmth of her hand in his. Meanwhile, Mai, a bit embarrassed by the touch, stayed silent.

  Without wasting any time, Ryuji began eling his cursed energy.

  The problem with Mai was both simple and plex.

  It was plex because, for an ordinary person, eveh exceptional talent, there'd be no way to resolve the issue of her fadience.

  But for a skilled sorcerer with a strong reservoir of cursed energy, it was a simple task. All he had to do was use his own cursed energy to calm the chaotiergy inside her. Ohat was banced, her teique would settle down on its own.

  And now, that's exactly what Ryuji was doing.

  "So warm…"

  Mai could feel something flowing through her body, spreading from where their hands touched. It was a soothing warmth.

  The moment, everyone saw it—a girl with strikiy sloeared in front of Ryuji, holding his hand.

  "What the...?"

  "Is that… Mai Sakurajima?"

  "Amazing!"

  The others couldn't hide their surprise. An incredibly beautiful girl had suddenly materialized out of thin air.

  At the same time, memories of Mai Sakurajima started flooding bato their minds. After all, she had been a child star, quite famous ba the day. When she'd been in school before, plenty of cssmates had approached her because of her fame. Some asked for autographs, others tried to befriend her, but most just wao be part of the hype.

  "Thank goodness! You all see me now!"

  Notig the stares from everyone around her, Mai was so overwhelmed with relief that she nearly cried. Without thinking, she threw her arms around Ryuji in a grateful hug.

  "Ahem!"

  Utaha cleared her throat, her voice carrying a teasing note.

  "No matter hoy you are, you 't just hug someone else's boyfriend, you know~?"

  Realizing what she'd done, Mai's face flushed deep red, and she quickly stepped back.

  "S-sorry! I was just too happy!"

  No one held it against her. After all, it was uandable. Being invisible to the world, feeling abandoned by everyone—now that she was seen again, who wouldn't be emotional?

  Ryuji, oher hand, remained casual, as if nothing had happened.

  Not that he mi all.

  Holy, he wouldn't even mind if it happened again.

  "Alright, alright."

  Ryuji waved a hand, signaling for everyoo calm down.

  "Let me expin something real quick. What I just did was use my cursed energy to stabilize yours. But this isn't perma. If you don't learn to trol your cursed energy, there's a good ce you'll disappear again pletely because of your unstable sense of existence."

  "This... so it's not solved yet?"

  The room fell quiet. The irls, who had been joking just moments ago, now looked on with .

  Jokes aside, they were good people at heart. They knew when something serious heir attention, so they kept quiet to let Ryuji tinue.

  "What should I do then?"

  Mai felt panic welling up again.

  "I thought you'd be more ed about what cursed energy even is!"

  Ryuji gave a wry smile. This girl wasn't following the usual script.

  "Let me expin what cursed energy and teiques are first."

  "Uh... okay," Mai nodded, still a little shaken, but she listened ily.

  Ryuji didn't bother with too maails. He kept it simple, giving her a basidown.

  Mai listened, her face growing more and more serious. If she hadn't experiehis herself, she never would've believed that such a thing as cursed spirits and sorcerers existed in their seemingly peaceful world.

  "So… does that mean I have the potential to bee a sorcerer?"

  Hearing this, Utaha, Yukino, and the others looked at Mai with envy.

  They, too, wished they had the talent to be sorcerers. But unfortunately, they didn't. It was something they had to accept, no matter how helpless it made them feel.

  "Well, before we get into that, why don't you tell me how you ended up like this?"

  Ryuji asked, leaning back. This wasn't a typical world they were in an anime world after all, so things didn't always follow ventional logic.

  For Mai, her fading from existence wasn't just adolest syndrome, like the show had inally suggested. It was caused by something far more dangerous—cursed energy.

  "Okay."

  Mai trusted Ryuji, especially after what he'd just done for her. She nodded and began retiory.

  In short, Mai had debuted as a child star. With her striking looks, she gained a lot of fans. Naturally, her mother became her manager.

  That wasn't a problem in itself.

  But while Mai loved ag and enjoyed being in the spotlight for her craft, her mother had other priorities. As time went on, she began to see Mai as little more than a tool for making money. Soon, Mai was being forced into endless ercials. The final strahen her mned her up for an underwear ad without her sent.

  That was when Mai snapped. She gave up her ag career auro school, hoping for a normal life.

  But fame followed her. Back at school, she couldn't escape the attention—autograph requests, random students trying to chat with her for clout.

  "At that point, I remember thinking, 'It would be so nice if no one could see me, if I could just live in peace,'" Mai said softly. "The day, it happened. No one could see me anymore."

  Everyone nodded, starting to uand what had happened.

  "Emotional states affect cursed energy. Your emotions must've fluctuated so much that it unsciously triggered your teique."

  It was a reasonable expnation.

  "That's horrible! Using your own daughter just to make money!"

  "Seriously!"

  The girls were visibly upset after hearing Mai's story. They couldn't believe her mother had treated her that way.

  Mai, however, stayed silent, her expression unreadable.

  Perhaps she was angry at her mother, but in the end, that was still her mom. No matter how much she resehe situation, she couldn't bring herself to speak badly about her.

  "Is there a way to fix this pletely?" Mai asked, her voice filled with hope.

  Ryuji had mentioned earlier that her problem wasn't permaly solved yet. If there was a ce it could happen again, she didn't want to gh that loneliness a sed time.

  She looked at him, hoping for a miracle.

  "There are two ways," Ryuji said, raising a finger.

  "First, I could send you to Jujutsu High."

  "Jujutsu High? Is that the pce that trains sorcerers?"

  Ryuji had mentio earlier when expining sorcery and cursed spirits. But Mai had no iion of being a sorcerer. All she wanted was to be normal again.

  "What's the sed option?"

  Hearing her question, Ryuji grinned and poio himself.

  "The sed option is… I'll teach you."

  "Huh? You'll teach me?"

  Mai was genuinely surprised. Somehow, she trusted Ryuji more than the idea of going to Jujutsu High.

  But at the same time, she couldn't help feeling a bit unworthy.

  "Don't uimate yourself," Ryuji said, readihoughts. "Your teique is really special. It erase your own sense of existence, but I suspect it also erase someone else's too. You could make a person disappear entirely. Think about how terrifying that potential is."

  The girls all looked at Mai with wide eyes. They hadn't sidered that angle before, but now they were starting to see just how powerful her teique could be.

  "I've hought about making someone disappear. I just want to go back to normal, to live a quiet, ordinary life."

  Mai didn't want to experience being erased from existence again, but she also didn't want to stand out like she had in the past. Ordinary was good enough for her.

  "So, have you decided to learn from me?"

  "Yeah."

  Mai nodded seriously, her mind made up.

  As for learning how to trol cursed energy, Ryuji didn't see it as much of a challenge. After all, he had a cheat code of sorts.

  Sure, he wasly an expert in training teiques himself, but he knew someone who was!

  "Mr. Ryuji?" Oher end of the phone, Kento Nanami, who was in the middle of exorg a cursed spirit, sounded somewhat fused after receiving Ryuji's call.

  "You want to know how to trol cursed energy? No problem, I'll send it over shortly."

  In the world of sorcery, non ieiques and the method of trolling cursed energy wasly a closely guarded secret. And si was Ryuji asking, Nanami saw no reason to refuse.

  "Thanks a lot."

  Ryuji could hear the sounds of battle on Nanami's side, indig he was in the middle of dealing with some cursed spirits.

  "How's it going? Need any help?"

  Ryuji had a good impression of Nanami, and if he was in trouble, Ryuji didn't mind a hand.

  "It's just a grade 2 cursed spirit."

  Nanami chuckled softly.

  "But, it is lunchtime right now. Having to work during lunch really ruins my mood."

  After exging a few more pleasantries, Ryuji ehe call.

  Nanami worked quickly. After finishing his exorcism, he piled the teiques into a dot a it over to Ryuji.

  "Wow, this is way lohan I expected."

  Ryuji g the file on his phone, somewhat surprised by how detailed it was. He hadn't realized just how much went into learning to trol cursed energy.

  "Wait, has Ryuji never practiced before?"

  Seeing his rea, the girls in the service department couldn't help but feel a little fused.

  After all, Ryuji was so powerful—it didn't make sehat he had never practiced.

  "Well, there are aleople in this world who get a little help from luck," Ryuji smirked.

  "Some people are just born with advantages."

  ****

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