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II: Lily of the Valley
Chapter 100: Tea Smoke
Next time... let's have a good chat.

＊＊＊

"Fushiguro, you're so stupid."

"A person who hits others with her head, then hits herself, and send herself to the infirmary has no right to criticize me."

"Tch."

Knocking on the door of the infirmary and pushing the door handle, Yayoi saw two girls who disliked each other, and a boy, who was sandwiched between them with his delicate face. Nobara, who had her chin propped up and her legs crossed with an impatient look on her face, Megumi, who had a bandage on his head, and Mai, who was headbutted into the infirmary by Nobara.

The air in the infirmary was filled with a thick smell of gunpowder smoke that was deliberately suppressed. Just a spark could ignite the entire fire.

Irritated like Nobara, if this was not Shoko's territory and medical harassment was prohibited, this irritable girl would have jumped up and fought for three hundred rounds with Mai who had an ice pack on her forehead. The eyes of the two girls collided from time to time, and the moment their eyes met, fierce sparks crackled in the air.

Megumi had a paralyzed face, his eyes wandered from Nobara to Mai who had the same unhappy expression, and finally chose to keep a paralyzed face and not look at anyone.

Megumi: Women's war, it has nothing to do with me.jpg

When Yayoi pushed the door open and walked in, the attention of two girls and one boy was instantly attracted by the movement at the door. Mai pursed her lips, and cold sweat silently broke out on her forehead.

She didn't know where Todo had gone. Her current situation, it didn't matter if she was alone or helpless.

Mai was different from her older twin Maki who was unwilling to bow her head. She had always been a girl who knew how to size up the situation and go with the flow. When she was still at Zenin's house, she knew how to read people's words and how to cater to others. She was different from her stubborn sister. Similarly, she knew how to obey and surrender. Even if she hated those who sneer at them, she could hide her disgust and impatience well under her face.

Originally, it was good like this. She could survive by doing some chores with her sister. Although she was not taken seriously by others, Mai was very satisfied to be able to live together. No matter how much she was treated as an object that could be sacrificed anytime and anywhere, as long as she had her sister, she could still live well even if she fell together.

People who live in the cracks must know how to obey and surrender. The sister who did not know how to obey and surrender left the Zenin family and left her younger twin alone.

Why?

The older sister who promised not to let go of her hand left the Zenin home and left her farther and farther away, but she always stayed where she was. If she continued like this, she wouldn't even be able to see her sister's back, so she was angry with her sister. Because of her anger, she went to Kyoto High. No matter how angry she was, all she saw was her sister's back.

She really hoped that she had talents that she did not have, even if this talent was not recognized by the Zenin.

The woman who broke into the battle without permission had a beautiful appearance, which was definitely the type that most men would like. This kind of appearance was also quite popular among the men in the Big Three Sorcerer Families.

She had rare red hair, a tall and slender figure, and even the loose sportswear could not hide her beautiful body curves, but there was no trace of any fluctuations of cursed energy from her body.

When fighting Todo, she didn't feel any cursed energy.

Todo was not the kind of opponent that could be dealt with casually.

Women were tools to give birth to outstanding heirs for the family. As a woman, no matter how excellent the technique was, she would eventually be sent to serve the sons born of the legal wife and give birth to a new generation of outstanding heirs for the family. This was the consistent style of the Zenin family.

Her sister Maki was one of the few things that this family was lucky about. There were two sisters. One had so little cursed energy that she couldn't even see the cursed spirit without relying on cursed tools. The other was so ordinary that she could be seen everywhere on the street and did not need to be sent to serve the sons born of the legal wife.

No matter how angry she was, it couldn't change the fact that the Zenin family despised women. The Zenin family was just a microcosm. The number of female sorcerers was rare and they were often despised and neglected. This was an irrefutable thing. Such things could be seen everywhere in the jujutsu society.

She defeated Todo, subverting all Mai's perceptions. She was simply the second Maki.

They're all the same... annoying.

Mai pursed her lips, a bitter taste filling her mouth silently.

"Hey, why are you staring at someone else's assistant teacher?" Nobara looked unhappy.

"You are very unpopular, aren't you?" She raised her eyebrows slightly, curled a strand of hair with her fingertips, and taunted the girl who was completely opposite to her sister casually.

"Huh? Do you want to fight? Didn't the headbutt just now teach you enough?" The grumpy Nobara exploded.

There was a dull pain in Mai's forehead, and her eyebrows twitched subconsciously, "Only fools can use this trick of injuring the enemy a thousand times and damaging yourself eight hundred, right?" The people at Tokyo High were simply extremely poisonous.

It was obvious that the gun was pressed against Nobara's waist and abdomen, but the girl's reaction speed was beyond her expectation. She had clearly grasped her vital point, but without changing her expression, she grabbed her wrist with her backhand and restrained her opponent.

"You seem to know everything." Nobara pressed her shoulder blade and clasped her wrist with the other hand. A chill filled the air in the noisy summer of cicadas. "In fact, you don't understand anything."

After Nobara threw her over the shoulder with a backhand, she sat on her stomach, held her head and gave her a loud headbutt.

The two heads collided, and the sound of the collision in the air made people's teeth hurt.

So the two people entered Shoko's infirmary at the same time.

Yayoi gently touched Nobara's painful head. Nobara grimaced in pain and reached out to slap her hand away, "Don't touch, don't touch! It hurts!"

"It hurts, and you hit her with a headbutt?" Yayoi walked aside, picked up the ice pack on the table and put it on her forehead.

Nobara pouted, "Didn't you hit Sukuna with a headbutt?"

Mai: "..." Wait, wait, who do you think she hit with a headbutt?

When Megumi's eyes wandered away and accidentally fell on Mai, the horrified expression on the other person's face was unsurprisingly included.

The sea urchin head with spiky hair still had a lackluster expression, "It's true."

Mai: "..."

"It happened in the juvenile detention center." Megumi said with a paralyzed face, "She and Sukuna fought with bare hands, although it was interrupted by Itadori."

"By the way, Itadori, the 'Sukuna vessel', is her brother." Megumi added in a hurry, with a rare chill in his words.

You said bad things about someone else's brother, and you said it in such a bad way. If she found out, even a beating on you would be an easy one.

Mai: "..."

"Maki is outside the infirmary." Yayoi said intentionally or unintentionally.

Mai paused, her tightly gathered fingers clenching the fabric of her long skirt until it became wrinkled.

"What does it have to do with me?" Mai heard her own mean and cold voice.

"I'm not talking to you." Yayoi's expression is still as steady as an old dog, "I'm talking to Megumin."

Megumi: "..." What the hell is Megumin? Gojo-sensei, is that you?

Mai choked.

Nobara, who caught the opponent's pigtails, raised her hand and half-covered the corner of her mouth, and let out a pleasant mocking sound, "Some people clearly care about Maki-senpai, but they are so stubborn that they say, 'it's none of my business'."

"Maki said you are her sister." Yayoi said calmly while holding the ice bag that was about to fall off Nobara's forehead.

Mai smiled, mocking the girl's laziness, "I thought she didn't remember."

Yayoi: "Your auras are very similar, are you twins?"

"So what?"

Mai felt that her temper was a bit irritable today. Maybe it was because she saw her sister who left home without permission and left her behind. Maybe she felt that this woman was a bit like Maki for some reason, which was different from her previous style of being submissive.

The provocative tone failed to arouse Yayoi's anger, so she said calmly, "If you want to see your sister, just go and see her."

"What are you talking about?" The girl looked up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, conditioned reflex, and stared at Yayoi with anxious eyes.

"When you can't see her anymore, regret will be even more uncomfortable than now." Yayoi said intentionally or unintentionally, "Whether it's a quarrel or a casual chat about today's weather, if you want to see her or talk to her, just go. When the day comes when you can't see her anymore, you really can't see her anymore."

"Besides, you haven't had a good conversation in a long time, right?"

Yayoi stretched out her hand, and under Mai's resisting expression, she picked up Mai like a kitten by the scruff of her neck and carried her to the door of the infirmary.

"Wait..." Mai didn't realize what Yayoi was going to do. She turned around and saw Maki standing on the edge of the corridor. There was a long stick hanging on her shoulder, a lot of dust on her clothes, and there was still a pair of cursed glasses on the bridge of the nose.

"What on earth do you want to do?"

She could choose to force herself to raise her head high to mock her sister, who had weak cursed energy. Although this was not what she wanted, she had never thought about the option of talking to her. When someone put this option in front of her, she became at a loss.

Mai was so angry that she wanted to escape into the infirmary, but the door was slammed in front of her. Her nose was almost damaged, and the door panel almost came close to her.

Mai was so angry with Yayoi that she hunched her back like a cat with fried fur. Facing the door panel and thinking about the wall, she had to turn around to look at her sister.

The corridor of the infirmary was quiet, and the smooth tiles underfoot reflected the reflections of two girls with similar eyebrows. Maki had a paralyzed face, calm eyes, and looked at her sister with an indifferent expression.

"Is your forehead... okay?" the sister with a ponytail said slowly.

Mai was stunned for a moment, took a deep breath, calmed her heart and breathing, and put on a half-smiling expression on her face, "Just mind yourself."

"I'm in great shape." Maki smiled, relaxed and cheerful, "On the other hand, the gorilla from your school shot our sea urchin head and was just pulled out after being planted in the ground by our assistant teacher."

Mai realized that the 'gorilla' was Aoi, and felt that this description was very appropriate.

"Dead last, just mind your own business, okay?"

"It sounds so nice, but in fact we are the same as each other. There is nothing to quarrel between the two dead lasts."

"I'll beat you if you disturb the patients." Yayoi's calm voice came from the infirmary.

"..."

"..."

The two of them closed their mouths, looking at each other's eyes with eyebrows similar to their own reflected, and the way both of them refused to bow their heads made Maki feel like laughing.

The person involved was confused by what happened, but the bystanders see it clearly.

There were many things that people in the situation may not know as well as people outside.

Yayoi said that her sister might be angry with her. At first, she felt very strange. In her impression, the little sister had a vicious mouth, but was timid and weak. She was afraid of cursed spirits. She was so timid and weak that even if it was just a low-level cursed spirit blocking her way, she would not dare to step forward.

Because she couldn't see, the younger sister could only cover her eyes and not see dirty things. As long as she held her younger sister's hand, she could always lead her to the destination. It didn't matter whether she saw the road or not.

But when did it start to turn into a hedgehog with spikes all over its body? She also went to Kyoto High to study, saying it was a sister school, but ever since Satoru became a teacher, Tokyo School and Kyoto School have never dealt with each other.

Maki sighed and scratched her hair, almost as if she was angry.

They just had a few words of quarrel, maybe it wasn't even a quarrel, but Mai felt inexplicably tired. It was a hot summer day, the heat was rolling, but the wall behind her was as cold as ice.

"Why did you leave home?"

"Didn't you come to the high school too?" Maki leaned against the wall holding her long stick.

"I don't want to be a sorcerer." Mai took a deep breath.

"Ha?"

"Because of you, because you are working so hard." Mai bit her trembling lips and tried to stop the cry that was about to escape her mouth. "I've had enough. Why are you trying so hard? Do you know that you will die? Even if you are shouted at at home, you won't... you won't die. Wouldn't it be better to just live on?"

"Why don't you want to go down with me?"

Maki said nothing, holding her long stick and leaning against the whitewashed wall. The girl's body was as straight as a pine and cypress. The sun heated the glass, and the brilliant golden light stung people's eyes.

"Because I would hate myself." Maki said slowly.

She couldn't straighten her back, couldn't lift her head, and was called a "waste" by others. She was treated like a waste for the rest of my life. She was thrown on the cobblestone road. The hard stones hurt her life and heart.

If she was really willing to be an animal all her life, and one day they want to slaughter her sister like an animal, she was afraid she would be powerless.

Just thinking about it, Maki hated herself like that.

"Sorry." Maki said softly, "It's my fault for leaving you without permission."

"Even if I didn't tell you..." Maki raised her head and looked at the white ceiling, "I couldn't be sure that I would survive in the end."

This was a gamble-like change.

It was the elder sister's fault that she left her little sister behind without permission. This was an irrefutable matter. But since she wanted to gamble, she couldn't gamble with her sister's life. Her own was enough.

The tight lips suddenly loosened at this moment. Maki, who was unwilling to lower her head, actually apologized to her. Mai lowered her head again, and her short, drooping hair covered her face.

After being angry with her older sister for so long, it turned out that she just wanted to say 'sorry'.

How childish.

Mai realized that she was extremely childish. She wanted to laugh, but she wanted to cry for no reason. She had disguised herself as a hedgehog for too long, and after putting down the spikes, she was left with only bitterness.

It was as if all the strength in her body had been drained away. The weak girl's limbs were weak, and she slowly slid down against the wall. She squatted on the ground and hugged her knees, burying her face in her arms.

"You're a big liar." Maki heard her sister cry.

Maki pursed her lips, and out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her two idiot classmates stacked in pieces on the wall, looking like they were watching a show.

Maki: "..." ##

Panda's hands were shaped like trumpets, and he kept making lip-syncing sounds. Maki didn't know what the hell he was talking about, so Maki became even more angry until Toge threw her a pack of handkerchiefs and tissues.

Maki: "..."

Panda and Toge gave her a thumbs up sign at the same time, meaning to encourage her to work harder.

Maki: "..."
Two idiots.

Maki picked up the tissue thrown by Toge and handed it to her crying sister, "Wipe it, it won't be good if others see it."

Her little sister was different from her, a big, rough woman. She paid more attention to clothing and grooming than she did. She loved to look beautiful and dress up. She was a delicate girl.

Mai looked up and saw her sister with an awkward look on her face. She thought of her nose and tears, so she grabbed the tissue out of desperation.

"Next time... let's have a good chat." Mai heard her sister say.

"..."

"Don't be the quarrelsome kind."

"..."

"Okay."

•••

# Small theater:
Gojo the Cat: Maki, dad is so happy, you have finally grown up!
Panda: Maki, dad is so happy, you have finally grown up!
Toge: Salmon!
Maki: Go away!


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