𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 || 𝐉𝐔𝐉𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐔 𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐍

Chapter 17: Overtime

However, travelling in such a manner was tiring depending on the distance travelled, and also light sources were often unpredictable in the given area she wished to travel to.

She'd learnt over time there were rules to this ability: the higher the concentration of shadows in the area she wished to go, the easier it was, and she couldn't travel to places further than a mile without feeling violently ill. Finally, sometimes randomly appearing out of nowhere may give the little old granny who saw you a heart attack.

Thankfully, the latter had only happened once, so Mina felt that her conscience was somewhat clean in this regard.

It took a few moments of being cocooned in darkness before she sensed a cluster of shadows outside of the sewers above ground. After locking onto her target, Mina dissolved into shadow, only to appear moments later behind a dumpster in a residential area.

Scratching her head, she couldn't recognise where exactly she was, so she called Yuuji to give her directions so they could meet up.

He picked up after the second ring and thankfully was only a fifteen-minute walk away.

*** *** ***

"Oi Yuuji!" she yelled, finally spotting him a short distance away with another youth.

"Junpei Yoshino I presume?" she smiled cheerily at him.

Junpei blinked at her enthusiasm, but smiled tentatively and shook her outstretched hand.

"Where's Nanami?" Yuuji asked curiously, looking around for the Jujutsu sorcerer.

"We were ambushed by some patchwork doll freak who, if I'm not mistaken, is currently trying to kill Nanami," she said cheerfully. Yuuji looked at her in shock, but she waved him off.

"Don't worry, he can hold his own." The levels of cursed energy Nanami radiated told her enough; he would be hard to take down.

She turned to face Junpei, who was looking at her wearily.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Good question, I'd love to tell you but I'm not quite sure myself yet," she grinned at the suspicious look on his face.

"What've you guys been talking about?" she asked. Yuuji scratched his head.

"Just about what movies we've watched."

Mina rolled her eyes.

"I've never seen one, so I really don't understand your enthusiasm."

"Eh?!!?" Yuuji and Junpei said at the same time.

"What do you mean you've never seen a movie before?" Junpei said in surprise.

"You mean you've never seen xxx, or not even xxx?! That one was really famous!" Junpei had forgotten his earlier apprehension, turning animated at the talk of movies. Mina laughed at the passionate look on his face and shook her head.

"I'm not from around here. Besides, I've never really had the chance to do something like that before," she said.

Seeing the wistful and slightly sad look on her face, Yuuji felt a pang of sympathy for the woman who, no matter how normal she seemed, was worlds apart from the rest of them.

Just then, a woman's voice rang out from the top of the stone steps above them. She was a middle-aged woman who had the refined air of someone who had aged gracefully. She looked to be in her mid-to-late thirties and was looking down curiously at the group.

"Oh, Junpei?"

"Mom?" Junpei said in surprise.

"It's unusual to see you out here. Are these friends?" she asked, smiling at us.