In the underground warehouse of Tokyo Jujutsu High, within Medea's temple.
"So, it still came to this?"
Suguru looked at Medea in front of him, still carrying a hint of hesitation.
"Oh my, are you still hesitating? That's not like you."
Medea looked at Suguru with surprise.
"No hesitation, really."
Suguru shook his head.
"Satoru and I were already prepared to fight Tengen last year. I just thought we wouldn't need to anymore."
A flicker of memory passed through Suguru's eyes.
'I wonder how Amanai is doing now…'
The internet still wasn't very developed, so keeping in touch hadn't been easy. And with the peak season for Cursed Spirits recently, everyone had been busy.
Suguru hadn't heard from Amanai Riko in months.
"You even prepared a trump card against Tengen?"
Medea raised her brow.
"No."
Suguru spread his hands.
"Then what did you prepare?"
Medea asked curiously.
"The resolve to protect Amanai from the entire Jujutsu world."
"…"
Not sure how to respond, Medea simply echoed a line Eichi often used.
"Well then, let's make the final preparations."
As she spoke, Medea extended her hand toward Suguru.
"No problem."
Suguru relaxed, completely withdrawing his Cursed Energy.
A cylindrical barrier formed around him, and Medea began manipulating the surrounding space.
Suguru's figure gradually shrank until he could fit in the palm of her hand.
With her temple's amplification, Medea quickly completed the spatial compression using magecraft.
After securing Suguru and ensuring she could summon him along, she took out her Noble Phantasm:
Rule Breaker.
Then, Medea waited quietly for Eichi's call.
One hour. Two hours...
"If you could see through people's hearts, today would be much more troublesome."
As Eichi's voice fell, one Command Spell on the back of his hand vanished.
At the same time, his shadow moved.
"Hmm?"
Tengen's eyes widened.
She immediately recognized the effect of the Command Spell.
Crack.
The teacup in her hand fell and shattered against the floor.
The air around them shifted.
To Eichi's left, space twisted, revealing Medea's figure. Mahoraga emerged from Eichi's shadow.
The ground beneath Eichi rose, forming a cage-like barrier. Cracks began to spread beneath his feet.
Although she didn't know why Eichi suddenly attacked, Tengen acted immediately, preparing to eject them from Tombs of the Star Corridor.
Medea threw the object in her hand toward Tengen.
'A barrier? No, compressed space. There's something inside!'
Tengen instantly identified Medea's move and diverted power to intercept the cylindrical object flying her way.
Mahoraga struck the rising barrier with his fist.
The barrier meant to trap them shattered instantly.
More barriers began to rise, but Medea had already taken advantage of Tengen's split focus to flash directly in front of her.
Crack.
An omamori-style magical tool on Medea's body shattered.
It was a one-time-use Mystic Code Medea had prepared specifically for this operation.
Though single-use, it was powerful enough to bring her right in front of Tengen.
Tengen's two left eyes stayed still, while the two right eyes locked onto the suddenly appearing Medea.
It had been a long time since she'd experienced real combat.
Having been secluded in the Tombs of the Star Corridor for years, her reflexes dulled. She failed to respond in time.
Rule Breaker pierced into her body.
"Damn it!"
Tengen felt her connection to the barrier sever instantly.
The nearly completed barriers around them shattered.
To accelerate construction, Tengen had borrowed the barrier that formed her body to build new ones.
But once that connection was cut, the in-progress barriers collapsed.
Tengen's hands began to deform, attempting to release new barriers by drawing from her own structure again.
This method was much faster than constructing from nothing.
But Medea and Eichi didn't give her the chance.
Shadows crawled up from Tengen's feet, climbing along her robe-like body.
Mahoraga stopped attacking the barriers and redirected his focus.
His casserole-sized fist slammed toward Tengen.
Medea hovered behind her, magical patterns spreading across Tengen's body.
Her barrier-constructed body housed her consciousness.
Eichi didn't intend to destroy it—doing so would scatter Tengen's mind.
Instead, he had Medea temporarily seal her consciousness.
Just temporarily.
Tengen's body dropped to her knees, then was swallowed by Eichi's shadow.
Medea immediately scanned the surroundings.
"That direction!"
Mahoraga slammed his fist toward where Medea pointed.
Crack.
A barrier shattered, revealing the entrance to the central chamber of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, where the great tree stood.
At the same time, the compressed space holding Suguru broke open.
Suguru reappeared midair, arms protecting his head.
"Rainbow Dragon!"
He summoned the Rainbow Dragon beneath him and immediately flew toward the central chamber.
Medea spread her bat-like wings and followed closely behind.
Eichi, being the underhanded one, stayed behind with Mahoraga to guard the sealed ancient elder, Tengen.
He stayed behind because he simply couldn't trust her.
Not with her history in the original timeline.
And not with her behavior in this one.
Kenjaku had collected ten million Cursed Spirits before the Culling Game.
Not a thousand. Not ten thousand. Ten million.
And Tengen claimed she had no idea?
Eichi didn't know what she was really thinking.
Maybe she had made some sort of deal with Kenjaku.
Or maybe she'd just lived too long. So long that she no longer cared what happened—to herself or to Japan.
In the old ways of thinking, someone like that was either a fool or evil.
And either way, Eichi wasn't going to leave that kind of time bomb unchecked.
Soon, Suguru and Medea returned with Tengen's physical body.
Suguru had already completed the subjugation.
Eichi then released the barrier body containing her consciousness.
He had no intention of killing Tengen. If she died, the barrier covering the entire country could collapse.
He still needed those barriers.
So instead, he chose to control her through Suguru and Medea.
"Speaking of which, Medea."
"What is it, Eichi?"
"Your Territory Creation lets you build temples, right? Now that you've got Tengen's barrier as a foundation, can you turn the entire country's barrier into your temple?"
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
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