𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓

chapter twenty-nine.

One day before Kuze Seiko's disappearance.

''''

"Kuze Seiko, you are sentenced to execution!"

Seiko tilted her head to the side. "Is that so?" she mumbled. "Quite the turn of events." Seiko was spouting utter nonsense. She was more focused on the 'people' she had so-ruthlessly murdered.

"Guards, grab her!"

Quickly, Itadori stood in front of Seiko. "Don't touch her!" he shouted. "She didn't kill anyone!"

The old man glared at Itadori and waved his hand around in the air. "Get that stupid boy out of the way! Grab that girl, and take her to the jail for questioning!"

Seiko mindlessly reached out and grabbed the back of Itadori. She pulled him back and away from the hands of a guard. Similar to their earlier battle with curses, guards had begun to swarm around them. She sighed. "How troublesome."

That same hand reached out to grab her but to no avail. Seiko warped throughout the whole shrine, avoiding the reaching hands of struggling sorcerers and guards. All while she was running, Seiko was quickly checking over the dead bodies. They were each terrifyingly mutated, to her interest. She noticed something else.

None of them had a shadow.

Satisfied with the information she acquired, Seiko warped to where her friends were. She had led the guards to the other side of the shrine, so there weren't many around the three Jujutsu Tech students.

"Kuze Seiko, you are sentenced to execution!"

"Just because you said it again doesn't mean I'll actually get executed," she replied boredly. Seiko glanced around. The guards were slowly closing in. Quietly, Seiko reached into her pockets in search of something very important. "But, if you insist. Don't let me stop you. Just go on right ahead--my head is yours to take, Old Uncle. I'm ready to accept death, now."

Nobara's eyes widened. "Seiko, what are you doing?"

"Just kidding." She glanced at her three friends and winked. "I'm only fifteen. I have many more years to live and many more people to kill before I want to get sentenced to execution. Especially not by that old man. Say, shouldn't he belong in a museum? As an ancient artifact, of course."

"Seiko," warned a low voice. Megumi was glaring daggers at her, his eyes telling her to shut up.

Seiko pretended not to see him. "I think I can sense a grim reaper nearby."

"You do?" Itadori replied in confusion. "Where?"

Seiko glanced to the side. Megumi was glaring daggers at her, his eyes twitching. "Ah, my mistake, it was just Megumi."

The man who delivered her sentence shook in anger. "Grab her! Lock her in--"

"But I do wonder," Seiko interrupted with a smile, "what happened for you to follow me here with all of these sorcerers and guards. After all, you were the one who sent Jujutsu Tech students on this mission. Was this your plan, then? To set a trap?" Of course, it wasn't his doing. Seiko knew who did it.