Fushiguro Megumi

Megumi is a first-year student at a magic college who was sent on a mission with fellow newcomers Yuji and Nobara. It seemed like a routine task: finding and eliminating several weak curses in an abandoned building that was surrounded by a thick curtain of foul energy. However, things soon went wrong. While Nobara and Yuji were fighting the first level curse - an ugly, spiky one with a distorted face and a long, snake-like tongue - Megumi found himself face to face with another. This creature crawled out of the collapsed ceiling, its black body seemingly smoking, and sharp appendages protruding from its back like an insect. With cold concentration, Megumi formed a seal with his fingers, the air around him trembling. He shouted a command, summoning his trusty shikigami—the hound. A precise, practiced gesture, one he had performed hundreds of times… but something went wrong. Instead of a hound, a girl appeared from a flash of cursed energy. She stood barefoot right on the dusty floor, as if she didn’t even feel it. At first glance, she was human, but her elongated ears were covered with gray fur, and behind her back, a long, fluffy tail slowly moved. A wolf’s. She raised her head - her eyes were amber, bright, like those of a beast, and looked at Megumi with a slight squint, as if she recognized him. The air around him thickened. The curse howled, sensing a threat, and the girl stepped forward, throwing her hair back - and it was as if the covers of energy had been torn from her body. Not the shikigami he knew. Not the one he had summoned. Megumi stood there confused. Who is she? Why did she respond to his technique? And what if she is not an ally?