The memory came unbidden.
Yuji lay there, trapped in a deep sleep.
His body was sweating cold.
His breathing was short, irregular, as if something were squeezing his chest from the inside. In his dream, broken images repeated themselves: the village in silence, motionless children, empty eyes… Rem falling. Ram screaming. And him arriving too late.
"...No..." his voice escaped in a whisper even in his sleep.
He tossed and turned in bed, his brow furrowed, as if fighting against something invisible. The nightmare had no defined form, it was just the suffocating certainty that something was wrong and that he would fail.
Then, warmth.
Something held his hand.
In his memory, Yuji felt it clearly.
Small fingers pressing firmly against his, as if saying "stay here". Then, another hand, on the other side.
Rem.
Ram.
They were sitting beside the bed.
Rem held his right hand carefully, as if afraid of hurting him. Her fingers trembled slightly, but she didn't let go. Her face was serious, focused, her blue eyes full of worry.
Ram held his left hand more tightly, without any delicacy, as if trying to forcefully pull him back to reality.
But she didn't let go.
Not for a second.
Yuji, still trapped in the dream, instinctively squeezed their hands. His body relaxed a little, his breathing began to calm.
The nightmare hadn't completely gone away, but it had loosened.
Rem brought her other hand to his forehead, wiping the sweat with a cloth.
Ram looked away, biting her lip.
But her hands trembled.
----
In the present, Yuji suddenly opened his eyes.
The room was empty.
Silent.
His hands were clenched into fists, as if still holding something that was no longer there.
"...So that's what happened..." he whispered.
He hadn't imagined it.
They knew.
Even in that first loop, even before everything went wrong... Rem and Ram had stayed there. Guarding someone they didn't even fully understand, but who was already carrying too heavy a destiny.
Yuji brought his hand to his face, taking a deep breath.
"Damn..." he chuckled softly, his voice faltering.
The weight on his chest increased.
Ram and Rem stood in front of the bed.
They both had expressions rarely seen on them, terrified.
Rem kept her hands clasped against her chest, her eyes wide, her body rigid. Ram, on the other hand, was a step ahead of her sister, as if instinctively ready to protect her... but her gaze betrayed confusion and alertness.
Yuji was still half-upright in bed, breathing deeply, his gaze distant, as if he had just woken up from something much heavier than a simple sleep.
"...You two aren't making things easy for me..." he murmured, almost laughing.
That's when he realized.
Too much silence.
Yuji blinked... and finally focused on them.
They were both staring directly at him.
Fixedly.
As if he were something that shouldn't be there.
Rem swallowed hard.
"H-He..." she said softly, without taking her eyes off him. "He was talking... to himself, dear sister..."
Ram narrowed her eyes.
"Hmph." The tone was dry, but there was tension there. "Besides being strange, now he's also talking to nothing?"
It took Yuji a second to understand.
Then it dawned on him.
Ah.
He awkwardly ran a hand behind his head and gave a wide, simple, open smile that didn't seem to hide anything.
"Oh, sorry," he said, chuckling slightly. "I was daydreaming."
That didn't reassure her in the slightest.
Rem took a half-step back.
"D-Dreaming…? Dear sister, this young man is very strange..." she repeated.
Yuji looked at the two of them attentively.
Not like someone assessing enemies.
But like someone who had finally found something familiar.
"So…" he said, in a calm, almost gentle tone. "You're Ram and Rem, right?"
The two exchanged glances at the same instant.
"Yes…" Rem whispered.
Ram frowned, clearly irritated.
"That's none of your business," she replied coldly.
Yuji placed his hands on the mattress and stood up slowly, without making any sudden movements. He wanted them to understand there was no danger there.
"I'll repeat myself, my name is Yuji Itadori" he said naturally. "And… well."
He opened his arms slightly, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world.
"We'll get to know each other better later, but I thought it best to let you know now."
The two girls fell silent.
Yuji smiled again, sincerely.
"We're going to be friends."
The air grew heavy for a second.
Rem's eyes widened, clearly unsure how to react to that. Nobody just decided that kind of thing like that.
Ram looked away, huffing.
"What a conceited guy…" she murmured. "Do you really think anyone would trust you like that, out of the blue?"
Yuji tilted his head, thoughtful.
"Maybe not now," he admitted. "But it's okay."
He shrugged.
"I hope so."
Rem looked at him carefully, as if trying to see beyond that easy smile. There was something strange there… but it didn't seem like malice.
It was more like… certainty.
A certainty she didn't understand.
"…You're weird." Rem said finally.
Yuji laughed.
Yuji took a deep breath.
On the outside, he appeared calm. Inside, the mind was spinning nonstop.
Not this time.
He wasn't going to accept that ending again. I wasn't going to die, I wasn't going to let Rem die, much less allow that curse to play with destiny as if it were a broken game.
He already knew the result.
Now I needed to find out the cause.
"Someone is cursing the people in the village…" he thought. "And I need to find who, how... and especially how to destroy this without becoming the victim's substitute again."
The cold he felt remembering the reversal was still there, hidden beneath his skin.
Absorb destiny…
This wasn't normal, not even for him.
Among all the figures in that mansion, only one seemed old enough, isolated enough, and knowledgeable enough to know something about curses, contracts, and things that shouldn't exist.
Beatrice.
"That little girl… no." he corrected mentally. "Beatrice."
With that decided, Yuji put the thought aside for now.
He already knew: forcing things too soon would only create dangerous detours.
Events proceeded as they should.
The door to the mansion opened, and Emilia appeared in the hallway, the same gentle smile, the same soft presence that he remembered, although now there was something different about Yuji as he faced her.
She spoke to him.
He replied.
Everything sounded… right.
Roswaal appeared soon after, theatrical as always, the makeup exaggerated, the humming tone that Yuji now recognized as something much more calculated than it seemed.
"So you want to work here?" asked the wizard, smiling.
Yuji held his gaze for a moment longer than before.
"I want." he replied firmly. "I can be useful."
Roswaal smiled even more.
"How wonderful… how wonderful."
Accepted.
Nothing has changed.
Or at least, that's what it seemed like.
Shortly after, Ram appeared beside him, arms crossed, gaze sharp.
"Don't get in the way." he said dryly. "And don't trip along the way."
Yuji laughed lightly.
"I am going to try."
She gave him a suspicious look, but turned and started walking.
"Come. I'll show you the mansion."
As he followed Ram through the wide corridors, Yuji observed everything with renewed attention: the details of the walls, the distant sound, the paths that led to important places.
---
Yuji was in the kitchen, absentmindedly stirring the pot, when a really good smell invaded the room. It wasn't just good, it was comforting, the kind that tightened your stomach and made you want to smile without realizing it.
He turned his face and saw Rem concentrated, cutting ingredients carefully, her movements precise and silent as always.
"Wow…" escaped him. "That smells amazing."
Rem slightly looked up.
"Rem is just preparing something simple." she replied, politely but distantly.
Yuji got a little closer, curious.
"Can I help?"
She shook her head slightly.
"It's not necessary. Rem can do it on her own. It's your first day, Ram said you can start tomorrow."
Yuji scratched the back of his head, smiling awkwardly.
"Ah... I know, but... I promise not to get in the way. Besides, cooking alone is kind of sad, don't you think?"
Rem hesitated for a moment, blue eyes shifting to the bubbling pot. She seemed to be thinking about something she didn't say out loud.
"…You could end up hurting yourself."
"I've been hurt by much worse." he responded quickly, without realizing the weight of his own words.
That made Rem stop.
She stared at him for a few seconds, as if she were trying to truly understand him.
"So…" he sighed. "You can help. But just simple things."
"Fair!" Yuji smiled widely. "What do I do?"
Rem pointed to the vegetables on the side.
"Cut it. Any way Rem shows it."
She approached, guiding his hand carefully. Yuji felt a slight shiver, not from nervousness, but from that strange familiarity that insisted on appearing since he arrived at the mansion.
As they worked side by side, the silence was not uncomfortable. On the contrary, it was calm.
In the kitchen, the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board filled the silence. Yuji watched Rem work, each movement was clean, trained, almost automatic. There was no waste, there was no rush. It was as if cooking was something natural to her, as simple as breathing.
He ended up blurting out the question without even realizing: "Rem… how did you get so good at this? Different from your sister…"
She didn't stop what she was doing.
"Because Rem needed to be good." he replied, with a low voice.
Yuji frowned.
"Needed…?"
Rem took a short pause. Just enough to choose the words.
"For my sister." he said. "Ram has lost his horn."
Yuji blinked, confused.
"Horn…?"
She then looked at him, directly for the first time.
"We are demons."
Yuji's heart gave a slight jolt, but not from fear, from surprise. Still, he kept his tone light.
"Ah. Okay. That explains a lot… I think."
Rem continued:
"Demons are usually born with two horns. It's the source of our power." Her fingers tightened slightly on the knife. "But Ram and Rem were born twins."
Yuji listened silently.
"A miracle… and a curse," Rem said. "The power was divided. One horn for two people."
She pointed, almost unconsciously, to the side of her own head.
"Ram's horn was the stronger one. Rem's… only supplementary."
Yuji felt a strange tightness in his chest.
"So… when she lost her horn…"
"Ram lost everything," Rem concluded. "Her strength, her pride, her place… That's why Rem needs to be useful. She needs to work. She needs to be good at everything she does."
She went back to chopping the vegetables, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Yuji remained quiet for a few seconds.
"That doesn't seem fair to me..." he finally said.
Rem tilted her head slightly, ignoring Yuji's comment. "Help me here."
Yuji gripped the knife handle tighter.
"Even so..." he smiled slightly. "You're not doing this just out of obligation. It's clear you care."
Rem seemed to freeze for a moment.
"Rem... doesn't understand what you mean."
"Yes, you do," Yuji replied calmly. "You're just not used to hearing it."
She looked away, her face slightly flushed, almost imperceptible.
The smell of food continued to waft through the kitchen.
And, for the first time since returning to that time, Yuji felt he had learned something that wasn't in the previous loop.
That hit Yuji in a strange way.
As Rem resumed stirring the pot, speaking as if it were just another fact of the world, his mind was pulled away, to another kitchen, another world, other words spoken with the same weight.
Maki.
She had also told Yuji something similar.
Two sisters. A single "value" in the eyes of the world.
In the world of Jujutsu, twins were not seen as two complete people. They were treated as a mistake in division, a flaw. As if the strength that should exist in one had been broken in half. Maki and Mai carried this burden since birth, not because they chose it, but because the world decided they could not be seen as different individuals.
Yuji rested his hands on the counter, silent.
It was different…
But at the same time, painfully the same.
"This…" he began, choosing his words carefully, "reminds me of someone I knew."
Rem looked up, curious.
"Someone… from your homeland?"
"Yes." Yuji nodded. "She also had a twin sister.
Their world told them that the two couldn't exist as they were. That one would always 'get in the way' of the other."
Rem listened attentively.
"And… what happened to them?"
Yuji took a deep breath.
"They suffered. A lot," he admitted. "In different ways. One tried to be strong on her own… The other ended up sacrificing herself for the sake of the other… It wasn't a happy ending."
Rem squeezed the cloth between her fingers.
"So… Rem understands," she said softly. "When two people are born together… the world always tries to choose only one."
Yuji shook his head, denying it.
"It shouldn't," he said firmly. "Not in my homeland, nor here."
She blinked, surprised by his tone.
"Ram is no less for having lost her horn," he continued. "And you're not just a 'shadow' of her.
You are two people. Two different stories."
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the bubbling of food.
Rem looked away, but this time it wasn't out of coldness.
"Itadori-kun…" she murmured, "you say strange things."
He smiled, that simple, honest smile.
"It's not the first time I've been told that before."
For a moment, Rem felt something tighten in her chest. But it wasn't pain.
After that, Yuji left the kitchen silently and went to the mansion's backyard. The sky was clear, too blue for someone carrying so many bad memories in their heart. He threw himself onto the grass, on his back, feeling the cold ground pierce his clothes.
"Haa…" he exhaled slowly.
His body ached. It wasn't a specific injury, it was a deep weariness, the kind that doesn't go away with just rest. He closed his eyes for a moment.
"Hey, human~"
The light, irritatingly cheerful voice came from above him.
Yuji opened one eye and saw Puck floating, arms crossed, staring at him with that dangerous mascot smile.
"Lying on the ground like that will make you sick, you know?" Puck said. "Emilia would be worried."
"I've been worse," Yuji replied, without moving. "This is fine."
Puck frowned.
"You have a strange smell," he commented. "It's not mana… but it's not normal either."
Yuji gave a tired half-smile.
"Yeah, I've been told that too."
Puck was silent for a few seconds, observing. Then he shrugged and sat in the air, as if in an invisible chair.
"Strange humans always end up causing trouble," he said. "But you don't seem dangerous."
Yuji didn't answer. He was too busy thinking.
So that's it…
Only the memories returned.
His body did not.
He placed his hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat, too normal for someone who had already died so many times. The cursed energy still flowed, but not with the same force. His body was still adjusting to this world, to this time.
"Not even a week has passed…" he murmured. "And I'm already pushing myself too hard."
Absorbing destiny… It wasn't something he knew how to do. It just happened.
"You're thinking about something dangerous, aren't you?" Puck asked suddenly.
Yuji opened his eyes again.
"Always," he answered honestly.
Puck laughed.
"How troublesome."
The wind passed lightly through the yard. Yuji closed his eyes again, letting the sound of the trees fill the silence.
This time I can't die.
Not because of Rem.
Not because of Ram.
Not because of Emilia.
He needed to be smarter. Discover the origin of the curse before it manifested. Prevent the curse from affecting the village, the children, Rem. Talk to Beatrice.
"Hey, Puck." Yuji called suddenly.
"Hmm?"
"If someone were cursing people little by little… without killing them immediately…" he opened one eye. "Would you notice?"
The spirit tilted its head, thoughtful.
"Maybe," it replied. "It depends on the type of curse."
Yuji took a deep breath.
"Then I'll need your help at some point."
Puck smiled, but there was something attentive in his gaze.
"Hehehe… you're really interesting, Yuji."
He stood up slowly, still feeling the weight on his body.
The game had restarted.
Yuji leaned against a tree trunk, keeping a certain distance. He didn't want to interrupt.
Emilia sat on a small wooden stool in the yard, her posture relaxed, her hands resting in her lap. Around her, small lights floated like conscious fireflies, lesser, almost childlike spirits. They came and went, swirling near her face, some landing on her shoulders, others playing hide-and-seek behind her silver hair.
She spoke softly, in a gentle tone, like someone talking to shy children.
Yuji couldn't hear a single word.
Even so, he could understand a lot just by observing.
The way Emilia tilted her head when she "listened."
How she smiled slightly, sometimes worried, sometimes relieved.
How she made small bows, in gratitude.
"So she really talks to them every day and night…" Yuji murmured to himself.
There was something almost sacred about that scene. Unlike the cursed energy, unlike the brutality he knew. This was… calm. Too pure. For a moment, Yuji felt a tightness in his chest.
This world is too cruel for someone like him.
One of the smaller spirits moved away from Emilia and floated a few meters, as if it had sensed his presence. The small light flickered curiously.
Yuji remained motionless.
"Relax…" he thought. "I didn't come to bother you."
The spirit only observed him for a few seconds before returning to her side, as if it had decided that he wasn't a threat.
Emilia laughed softly at something she heard, a soft, almost musical sound. Yuji realized that this laughter had nothing to do with complete happiness. It was a forced laugh, from someone trying to keep hope alive.
She also carries a burden, he concluded.
Yuji turned slightly, noticing the small spirit floating near him, arms crossed and a decidedly unfriendly expression.
"Hey, Puck…" Yuji said in a low voice. "What kind of magic does Emilia use, anyway?"
Puck raised an eyebrow.
"She's not a sorceress," he replied immediately. "She's a user of Spirit Arts."
"I know..." Yuji said, scratching the back of his neck. "She told me herself. But… what's the real difference?"
Puck was silent for a moment, as if deciding how much to explain. Then he sighed.
"The difference lies in how you use OD."
Yuji frowned.
"OD… like mana?"
"It's mana," Puck replied. "OD is the life force that exists within people, like a gate. Sorcerers use their own OD and transform it into mana through formulas, magic circles, words… it's something they force to happen."
He made a gesture with his hand, as if squeezing something invisible.
"Spirit Arts are the opposite. Emilia doesn't force anything. She negotiates."
Yuji glanced at where Emilia had been before, now empty.
"So she doesn't use the OD alone?"
"Exactly." Puck continued. "She lends it, shares it, trusts it. The spirits use her OD as a conduit, not as disposable fuel."
This made something click in Yuji's mind.
"...So if a spirit wanted to, it could simply refuse."
Puck smiled slightly.
"There you have it. That's why not everyone can use Spirit Arts. Talent isn't enough. You need empathy. And courage to trust something that can abandon you."
Yuji became thoughtful.
This was very different from jujutsu. Cursed energy came from negativity, from pain, from fear. There was no negotiation beyond the Binding Vows. You extracted power by force. And the reverse... required absurd control to transform it into something positive.
"Funny…" Yuji murmured. "A power system completely different from what I know…"
Puck crossed his arms, puffing out his chest as if he were giving an important lecture.
"Magic has attributes," he began. "Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Those are the basics. Then come the rare ones… Shadow and Light."
Yuji's eyes widened slightly.
"It's like Yin and Yang…" he murmured. "Sounds heavy."
"And it is," Puck replied bluntly. "Very few people even survive having an affinity with them."
Yuji then looked again at where Emilia used to use her spells. Memories of the ice blades, of the biting cold, resurfaced.
"But wait…" he said. "Emilia always uses ice. So wouldn't it be an ice attribute?"
Puck let out a short, almost mocking chuckle.
"That's where you're wrong. Emilia's attribute is Fire."
"...Fire?" Yuji blinked, confused.
"Fire isn't just flames and explosions," Puck explained. "Fire governs temperature. Heating, cooling, accelerating, stopping. The ice she creates isn't ordinary ice. It's dry ice, extreme condensation of controlled cold."
Yuji was silent for a few seconds, digesting it.
"So she doesn't 'freeze' things... she steals heat?"
"Exactly," Puck confirmed, satisfied. "Lesser spirits are usually Water. They help with regeneration, relieve pain, balance the vital flow. That's why they're frequently used in healing."
At that moment, something clicked in Yuji's mind.
The scene returned clearly:
Ram with an injured arm. "Is that water magic?"
Yuji slowly lowered his left hand, staring at his own palm as if he could see something there.
"...So that's why," he murmured.
Puck tilted his head.
"Why what?"
"When I healed Ram's arm..." Yuji answered slowly. "She thought it was water magic."
He felt a slight shiver run down his spine.
Reverse cursed technique wasn't mana.
It wasn't OD.
But the result... the end effect... was too similar.
"Maybe..." Yuji continued, "What I do looks like water healing to you."
Puck watched him more closely now, his eyes half-closed.
"'Looks like'? But its smell is really strange. It's not mana... and it's definitely not pure OD."
Yuji smiled slightly, somewhat awkwardly.
Puck smiled in that mischievous way he always did and floated a little closer.
"Want to know what your attribute is, kid?"
Yuji blinked once and nodded. "I want to!"
"Then stay still."
Puck lightly touched the tip of his tail to Yuji's forehead. There was no pain, no shock, just a warm, almost comforting sensation, like the sun on his face after cloudy days.
For a brief moment, Yuji felt something opening up inside him. Not like the cursed energy, which always came heavy, dense, almost suffocating… this was different. It was clear. Light. Direct.
Puck's eyes widened.
"Oh… that's rare."
Yuji frowned.
"How rare?"
"Quite rare," Puck replied, stepping back a little. "Your attribute is Light."
Yuji remained silent.
"Yang… kind of light?"
"Light, vitality, expansion, life," Puck explained. "It's the opposite of Yin. Where Yin absorbs, hides, and erases, Yang reveals, strengthens, and illuminates."
Yuji felt a strange discomfort in his chest.
"That's… ironic."
"Hm?" Puck tilted his head.
"Where I come from…" Yuji said. "My power comes from something negative. Evil, hatred, death. Cursed energy. And now you're telling me that here… my attribute is light?"
Puck smiled slightly, but sincerely.
"Different nations, different rules and visions. Maybe power was never the problem."
Before Yuji could answer, a soft voice joined the conversation. "So that was it…"
Yuji turned his face and saw Emilia approaching. She had stopped talking to the lesser spirits, who now floated around her curiously.
"I felt something different when Puck touched you," she continued. "It didn't seem like ordinary magic."
Yuji scratched the back of his neck, somewhat awkwardly.
"So… Yang is a good thing?"
Emilia smiled, a gentle, almost relieved smile. "Very much so. Yang users are associated with protection, blessings, resistance to curses… and rare miracles. They often restore people and objects. They are good at manipulating and controlling fire."
Yuji felt his heart clench.
Resistance to curses.
Reverse Cursed Technique.
Blood Manipulation.
Cleave.
Dismantle.
If you doubt it, he can even control Sukuna's Fūga.
Save someone… even if the world said he couldn't.
"That makes sense… I guess…" he murmured.
Emilia observed him more attentively now, as if she were seeing something that had previously gone unnoticed.
"Yuji, perhaps it's no coincidence that you ended up here," Emilia said, laughing.
He looked away, staring at the sky above the mansion.
"Coincidence or not…" he replied in a low voice. "This time I won't let anyone die."
Puck crossed his arms and gave a confident little smile.
"Heh. With an attribute like that… I think fate will have its work cut out for it."
In the distance, the lesser spirits swirled excitedly, as if in agreement.
By the end of the first day, exhaustion weighed heavily on Yuji's body.
It wasn't just physical; his mind was also full. Memories that weren't just memories, deaths that only he remembered, decisions that hadn't even happened yet… all of this accumulated like an invisible weight on his shoulders.
As the sky began to darken, he decided that was enough for today.
Yuji walked through the silent corridors of the mansion to his room. The door closed behind him with a dry sound, and for a few seconds he just stood there, staring at the simple surroundings. The bed seemed too inviting.
He threw himself onto it on his back, putting his arm over his face.
"Four days…" he murmured to himself.
Four days to discover who was behind the curse.
Four days to prevent the village children from disappearing.
Four days to save Rem… without having to die.
He turned his face, staring at the ceiling. Beatrice.
That strange girl from the library was the only one who truly understood contracts, curses, and things that shouldn't exist. If anyone had answers, it was her.
"Tomorrow morning, I need to talk to her…" he whispered, already feeling sleep pulling him.
His eyes slowly closed.
This time, he promised himself, he would do everything differently.
Meanwhile…
Somewhere else, far from the mansion and the deceptive comfort of that repetitive daily routine, the forest breathed heavily.
Among the twisted trees, a being walked with steps too light for someone with that appearance.
Its body seemed stitched together, irregular lines marking its bluish skin as if different parts had been forcibly joined. Its face had a crooked, almost curious smile, and its eyes observed everything like someone watching an experiment too interesting to interrupt.
Around him, majus moved among the shadows, some growling, others merely lurking. None dared attack him.
He tilted his head, examining those creatures like imperfect toys.
"What a curious world…" he murmured, his voice soft and unsettling.
His fingers slid through the air, as if he could feel something invisible pulsing in that place. It wasn't mana. It wasn't exactly magic.
It was something closer.
Something familiar.
The smile on his stitched face widened.
"What different souls…" he whispered, satisfied.
He continued walking deeper into the forest, while the majus instinctively backed away, as if they knew that this being was not an ordinary predator.
It was something worse.
The stitched-looking being stopped, noticing something different among the majus.
One of them was small in stature, with a short snout and an irregularly wagging tail, vaguely resembling a dog, although its eyes were too wild for something domestic. That discrepancy seemed to amuse him.
"Ah… that's new," he said, with a low, almost childlike laugh.
He crouched slowly before the maju. The creature growled, baring its teeth, but did not recoil. It seemed confused, as if something about the being before it broke its natural instinct to flee.
The stitched hand touched the maju's head.
The instant of contact, something changed.
The creature's body contorted unnaturally, as if being remodeled from within. Its muscles rearranged, its snout lengthened slightly, its fangs grew, and a strange mark appeared on its forehead, a crooked pattern, almost like a symbol forcibly engraved.
The maju let out a strange whimper, a mixture of pain and ecstasy, before collapsing to the ground, panting.
The being tilted its head, observing the result with genuine attention.
"Interesting… very interesting…" it murmured. "You're still you… but not exactly."
The maju slowly stood up. Its eyes now had a different gleam, more focused, more obedient. It no longer growled.
It sat down.
The smile on its stitched face widened even more.
"Heh… I think this will work perfectly."
It stood up and began to walk, and the maju-dog followed without hesitation, as if that simple touch had rewritten something fundamental in its existence.
In the distance, the forest seemed to tremble slightly, as if the world had just accepted a change that should never have happened.
The stitched-looking being stopped suddenly.
His steps stopped in the middle of the forest, and the crooked smile on his face slowly widened. It was as if something invisible had touched his senses, a familiar, intense presence, impossible to ignore.
"Oooh…" he murmured, bringing a finger to his lips. "So you're here too?"
He chuckled softly, a laugh too light for the weight he carried. "What a wonderful coincidence… I found my little friend."
The dog-like maju tilted its head, alert, as if it too had sensed something in the air. The surrounding trees began to stir, leaves trembling even without wind.
Then they appeared.
Other majus emerged from the woods, one by one. Some large and misshapen, others slender, all with wild, hostile eyes. They surrounded the stitched-together being at a distance, growling, ready to attack.
He opened his arms, as if receiving guests.
"Wow… so many at once?" he said excitedly. "This world is truly generous."
One of the majus advanced.
Before he could reach him, the stitched-together being was already in motion. His hand extended into the air with frightening naturalness, as if touching those creatures were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Let's see…" he said, with genuine enthusiasm. "What can you become?"
The first maju was touched.
The second followed soon after.
Distorted screams echoed through the forest as bodies writhed, forms dissolved and rebuilt themselves into something new, something wrong. Bones lengthened, muscles compressed, eyes gained an artificial glow, marks appeared like living scars.
The stitched-together being observed everything like a child playing with clay.
"Hahaha… this is going to be fun," it said, spinning amidst the chaos. "Especially if he shows up to see."
When the last maju fell to the ground, breathing irregularly, the forest was too silent.
The modified creatures slowly rose, one by one.
And all of them, without exception, turned their eyes in the same direction.
The same presence.
The stitched-together being followed their gaze and smiled.
Okay… let's play properly now.
End of Chapter 5