[The blurb may be revised, but the general idea will stay the same.]
When Ieiri Shoko thought she'd have to spend the next three years of her youth with two scumbag delinquent boys, a transfer student arrived in her class.
Summer sunlight shimmered through the gaps in the trees. Cicadas called restlessly from the woods. The classroom was empty and quiet in the afternoon. Shoko leaned against the window, smoking, the beauty mark beneath her eye cool and alluring.
A strange sound came from her desk. Puzzled, she walked over.
A strange girl was curled up beneath her desk, hugging her knees, her head resting against one of the legs. She seemed to be fast asleep.
As Shoko drew closer, the girl's lashes fluttered. Her short, blue-green bangs swayed gently, and she opened a pair of clear, cool brown eyes.
Shoko's vision blurred. A dense stream of subtitles appeared, flickering across her vision, one after another from left to right.
[Where the dream begins]
[Third rewatch]
[Ahhh, front-row seats to the meeting place of these kindred spirits!]
[The reason to live is our future little angel!]
[?? Why are there so many more comments now that this girl has appeared?]
[You're hurting my eyes!]
[That's normal, this show has a super popular character here, lol]
Shoko, with comments plastered all over her vision: ?
What the hell is this?
The comments then explained that the strange girl before her was the young head of the Zenin family, one of the Three Great Families of the jujutsu world.
So Shoko tried greeting her. "Zenin, are you a transfer student in our year?"
"Yeah." Mirai Zenin stretched out one straight leg and answered slowly, "I'm in your year."
Then she took a bitter, black chocolate candy from her pocket and held it in her palm. As she bent down to get up, her stiff movements made her hit her head hard on the underside of the desk, flipping it over. Without changing expression, she tore open the wrapper and placed the candy in Shoko's palm. Her gaze was calm and unreadable, and her voice flat and matter-of-fact.
"I'll give you a candy for a cigarette."
Shoko glanced at the cigarette burning halfway between her fingers. She took the chocolate, then pulled out a cigarette and handed it to the other girl. "Thanks, but it's better not to smoke."
[Ahhh, picking up our adorably airheaded future little angel and inhaling her!]
[Mirai's a little anemic, so she carries chocolate everywhere. That's so cute~]
[Hahaha, two emotionally constipated people talking]
[The desk!]
[You shouldn't smoke either, Shoko!]
Shoko stared at the subtitles scrolling through the air and took another drag to calm herself down.
She seriously considered three unbelievable facts:
First, she was the only one who could see these texts, which knew a lot of things and were called comments.
Second, her kindred spirit seemed to be the sixteen-year-old head of the Zenin family and Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer standing before her, Mirai Zenin.
Third, for the next three years, she wouldn't have to deal with just those two scumbag delinquents.
Relieved, Shoko said to Mirai, who was holding the cigarette up before her eyes and studying it with curious attention, "Let's get along well from now on, Mirai."
Mirai stared at her for a long moment, blinked, then slowly nodded. "Yeah."
"Is the chocolate... good?"
"It's okay. A little bitter."
"Is that so... Hmm, I hadn't thought about it."
[Reading guide]
1. Two female leads: Mirai Zenin and Shoko Ieiri. No couple. Friendship in the spirit of Jump.
2. A story about kindred spirits, with mutual healing. The comments ship the two of them (read that again).
3. The point of view switches between the two female leads.
4. This little angel isn't that little angel. She's a dark little angel.
5. This is a short story. There is some angst along the way, but it has a happy ending.
6. Specific content warnings are in the author's note of Chapter One.
Theme: Friendship is the best!
