After ending the conversation in the "Otherworld," everyone returned to the "Rest Space."
Tiona and Tione followed Tsunayoshi back to his room. Tiona, unable to hide her worry, wrapped her arms around Tsunayoshi's neck and pressed her cheek close to his.
"Tsuna, spirits are said in legends to have overwhelming magic—second only to the gods. Being marked by something like that is going to be a huge problem, right?"
Tsunayoshi thought for a moment. On this point, he couldn't lie and say there would be no trouble at all.
"It will be troublesome. The one I ran into today was a 'spirit embryo' that had part of its power forcibly absorbed by an Enhanced Species. Because Enhanced Species have the trait of Self-Devour, I didn't end up facing a Level 4 stone giant at full power. Otherwise, it really would've been a mess."
He emphasized the point.
"What I mean by 'troublesome' is that I wouldn't be able to take down that Enhanced Species lightly, and I wouldn't be able to set up control over the reports quickly. It would be easy for the spirit to pick up my trail."
"So your information hasn't been exposed yet?" Tiona stared at him in surprise.
"It hasn't," Tsunayoshi said, shaking his head.
"I realized the Enhanced Species was fixated on me, so I figured someone was pulling strings behind it. My first move was to hide everything—use monsters to block all information and signals so that nothing that happened would leak out."
"But you still killed the stone giant, didn't you?" Tiona said. Even if you jammed the information, once the stone giant and the 'spirit embryo' were dealt with, word would get out.
"Right. No matter how well you hide things, you can't exactly erase the fact that the stone giant and the spirit embryo died, can you?" Tione agreed it was a big problem.
"Normally, yes. My case is a little different." Tsunayoshi smiled. A cup appeared in his hand; he let go, and it fell to the floor, shattering. Then a pocket watch appeared in his other hand. He clicked the crown. With a soft snick, the shards on the floor flowed backward against all sense—reassembling until the cup was whole again, and it leapt as if rewound straight back into his palm.
The scene played out like stage magic, leaving Tiona and Tione dumbfounded.
"Th-that was time reversal!" Tione's face was all shock—she had just watched time run backward, a broken cup restored as if nothing had happened.
She immediately caught up to his meaning. "So you used the same method on the stone giant and the spirit embryo?"
"That's right."
"But isn't that encroaching on the gods' domain? Won't the gods fixate on you, Tsuna?" Time reversal was clearly trespassing into divine territory—especially using it to bring a slain stone giant and a spirit embryo back to life. That was interfering with life and death.
Realizing this, Tione grew even more anxious. Being targeted by the Dark Faction and by a spirit was bad—but being targeted by the gods above would be far worse.
Tsunayoshi only chuckled. "Tione, the gods' hands don't reach the Dungeon. The stone giant is a monster, and the 'spirit embryo' isn't even a complete lifeform. It doesn't fall under the Dungeon's jurisdiction either. I sealed off every avenue of transmission. Who exactly is going to come and settle accounts with me?"
Tione blinked, then followed his logic through—and found it held.
The stone giant? That goes on the Dungeon's tab.
The spirit embryo? That's on the spirits.
No matter how you add it up, it doesn't land on the gods, and even if time reversal touches the divine realm, as long as the gods don't confirm it, it won't land on Tsunayoshi.
"Phew… You nearly scared me to death," Tione said, finally letting out the breath she'd been holding. "If those people heard about this and spread it around, wouldn't that be a disaster for you?"
"It would," Tsunayoshi admitted. "Which is why I cut off every channel for information. The barrier outside didn't just block transmissions—it induced cognitive interference outward. I only acted after confirming no one was watching from outside.
"I reversed the deaths of the stone giant and the spirit embryo and restored everything to its prior state. The embryo is still concealed inside the giant's magic stone. Everything looks like a mirage that never happened.
"Even if the spirit senses something odd, the fact remains that the embryo never activated. Without a clear explanation, the spirits will only be suspicious—not certain."
He had accounted for all of it. As long as they had doubts rather than certainty, they would have to verify. Tsunayoshi wasn't too worried about that. He'd just need to be more careful when entering the Dungeon. Until the spirit was completely dealt with, he would send puppets ahead to scout. It would be a hassle—nothing more.
"As long as you've got it under control," Tione said, easing up as she watched his confident expression. "But seriously, Tsuna, please tone it down. My heart can't take it."
"Yeah, same!" Tiona had been a beat slower to react, but quickly caught up.
"Just trust me," Tsunayoshi said.
Both sisters puffed their cheeks at that. What kind of answer was that?
"Of course I trust you," Tione said. "But the things you whip out are so intense it's terrifying. Those magic tools of yours—half of them feel like taboos even the gods would frown on."
Space.
Time.
Now that her heart had stopped racing, Tione found herself wanting to tease him a little—maybe a bit of spoiled affection to soothe what nerves she had left. She opened her arms to him.
"So, I need a warm hug to calm me down."
"Of course," Tsunayoshi said, blinking once before smiling and pulling Tione into his arms.
(End of Chapter)
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