"Kira-san-san~ Hello~"
"I'm not a teacher anymore."
Kira's expression darkened as he studied the girl seated before him.
Thin lips pressed into a line. She wasn't wearing her usual navy school uniform. Instead, a pale dress of gauzy fabric traced her silhouette, sheer enough to hint at the curves beneath.
Perhaps the summer heat was to blame—she wore open-toed sandals, her small feet curling slightly in the breeze. Faint blue veins traced beneath the skin.
Summer.
No matter how you looked at it, she was a flawless girl. Like summer itself.
But for reasons he couldn't articulate, Kira felt something off about the way she watched him.
He asked directly.
"Weren't you investigating the scene with Itadori and the others?"
"Oh, those guys?"
Hoshino Ei covered her mouth, head tilting to one side. "They're not needed anymore."
"What do you want?"
"I love you."
...
Kira blinked.
What was it like for a thirty-three-year-old salaryman to be suddenly confessed to by a beautiful high school girl?
He glanced at Hoshino Ei's hands. Her slender fingers looked as though they'd been carved from jade, gripping the edge of the table now with a subtle tension.
"What did you just say?"
Outside the window, the clouds had turned red. A stroke of dusky mountain in the distance kept the sky from looking too monotonous.
"I love you."
Hoshino Ei said it with the same casual ease as someone ordering groceries—as natural and irrefutable as the need to breathe.
She propped her chin on one hand, amused, and nudged Kira's leg under the table with the toe of her sandal.
"This is puppy love. As your teacher, I'm going to have to call your parents."
Kira said this with a straight face. Somehow, in this moment, he'd remembered his duty as an educator.
"Huh? How can you do that?"
Hoshino Ei's delicate brows knitted, her wide eyes brimming with exaggerated surprise.
"You're the one who chased me first, sensei. And now you're just going to throw me away?"
She sniffed at her own armpit, then pulled open her collar and ducked her head to take another whiff.
"I don't smell weird or anything. I'm clean now. I won't go bad."
When did I ever chase you... Kira grumbled internally, then paused. Something flickered at the edge of his thoughts.
A vague realization surfaced.
He remembered how Stray Cat had been born.
Hoshino Ei's face still held that calm, cool composure. She covered her mouth with a light laugh.
"Have you figured out who I am, Nanami-kun? I have a surprise for you."
She opened her pale handbag and rummaged through it until she found what she was looking for—a photo album.
Kira already knew what was inside. He pressed a hand to his forehead.
"You really did come to life, didn't you..."
The album fell open. Sunlight illuminated the page, catching the silk lining with a faint gleam.
A smooth hand lay quietly on the satin, pale fingertips tracing a graceful arc. Slender fingers splayed naturally, faint blue veins visible on the back, making the skin look impossibly delicate.
It was Hasegawa Kaede's hand. Unlike a month ago, it was supple and lustrous—as though it had just been plucked from a living body.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Hoshino Ei tilted her head, chin raised, brimming with self-satisfaction—like a kitten fishing for praise.
Kira recalled Hoshino Ei's Cursed Technique: Concealment.
That explained how she'd slipped out of his apartment without a trace.
Hoshino Ei reached over and helped herself to Kira's coffee, sipping it in small, deliberate mouthfuls, her tongue lapping greedily at the rim.
"You're not Hasegawa Kaede. You're not any of the soul fragments, either."
Kira smacked her reaching hand away from his dinner and continued.
"You're the hand itself. Same as Stray Cat. You're nothing more than a curse."
Stray Cat had originally been a cat whose lingering spirit, after death, had lodged itself in a plant—forming a Cursed Spirit.
Hoshino Ei was similar.
There must have been one remaining soul fragment still at large. When her original body was destroyed by Kira, the Po residing within the meridians of the flesh would have perished with it, becoming residual resentment—a lingering soul.
Curse users and jujutsu sorcerers alike could give rise to curses after death. Even Special Grades were no exception.
The lingering soul had found the remnant of flesh. And from it, a newborn curse emerged—the same way Stray Cat had come into being.
He, Nanami Kira, truly had the devil's own luck.
Bad Luck Money strikes again—a double kill.
The day it had drawn Stray Cat, it had also drawn Hasegawa Kaede's lingering soul.
Nobody had stolen the hand. She'd walked out on her own.
"Exactly."
Hoshino Ei made another grab for Kira's knife and fork, popped the fork into her mouth, and mumbled around it, her words barely intelligible:
"I'm not Hasegawa Kaede, and I'm not any soul fragment."
"I'm the hand itself—a curse born from Hasegawa Kaede's severed hand."
She pulled the fork free, trailing a glistening thread of saliva.
"So I'm just a baby, really. Less than a month old."
"I inherited Hasegawa Kaede's memories, but I'm not her."
Hoshino Ei spread her hands. The slanting sun caught her, vivid and sharp.
"I'm a brand-new life. And I'm your girlfriend, Kira-kun."
"You're nothing but a Cursed Spirit."
Kira's gaze was flat and unmoved.
"A Cursed Spirit that looks remarkably human."
"Special Grade?"
"Semi-Special Grade."
"That's what I figured."
"When I slapped your hand just now, I already used my shikigami's ability to turn you into a bomb."
"Hey, that's not fair!"
Hoshino Ei's brows shot up, pink-cheeked with indignation, righteous fury blazing in every syllable.
"Who turns a girl into a bomb while she's confessing her love?!"
Kira held his left hand in the air—four fingers loosely curled, thumb raised high.
"But you came here and revealed your identity to my face. I assume you have insurance—something along the lines of 'kill me and X happens.'"
"You'd better show your hand right now, before my thumb comes down."
Hoshino Ei clicked her tongue and sighed softly.
"What an impatient man. You can't kill me. This is just a stand-in."
"My true body is the hand. It's not here."