Kashimo still had plenty of confidence in his own strength.
Sure, he'd lost to Mahiru once before, and psychologically he'd accepted that defeat without complaint. But if you asked what he truly believed deep down, Kashimo still thought that in a straight fight, his raw power outmatched hers.
That was exactly why he dared to talk to her in such a threatening tone.
His goal hadn't changed one bit. No matter what, he was going to fight Sukuna.
He had no idea Sukuna might now wield the power of forty fingers. If anything, that news would probably have gotten him even more excited. There was nothing he wouldn't do for the chance to fight Sukuna.
Sukuna had pulled a dirty trick on him once, barring him from any challenge for a full month. He'd been furious at the time, but willing to wait it out. Except then, in the blink of an eye, Sukuna was simply gone. On the battlefield, he'd been Devoured by the Black Hole. Everyone assumed he was dead.
Kashimo had been stunned speechless.
Wait, weren't you supposed to be the strongest in history? How did you die that easily?
And it wasn't just Sukuna — Mahiru had died too. Sukuna was the man he most wanted to fight; Mahiru was the one he most wanted a rematch with, to wipe out his old humiliation. Now, in an instant, both of them were gone. So he'd spent over a month lost and restless, effectively vanishing from Jujutsu High's radar for that whole stretch.
Then, not long ago, Mahiru came back — and brought news with her: Sukuna wasn't dead. He'd simply gone to the future world.
Not dead? Then I'm coming for you, Sukuna! Kashimo was fired up all over again. The one person in the whole world who wanted to fight Sukuna most had his blood pumping again.
But how was he supposed to find Sukuna? Crossing timelines meant he needed Mahiru — no one else could do it.
Sure, once Mahiru came back, part of him wanted nothing more than a rematch to erase his old shame. But there was no helping it — settling that score ranked below fighting Sukuna on his priority list. And fighting Sukuna meant he needed Mahiru's help.
So, arrogant as he looked right now — smashing up Jujutsu High's parking lot, cursing out everyone from top to bottom, even standing here mouthing off threats at Mahiru herself about what he'd do if she refused to send him across timelines — the truth was, if she actually took him up on a fight, he'd have to hold back, terrified of hurting her badly enough that she'd never be able to cross timelines again.
"So you'd better wise up and not force my hand," Kashimo said, sitting atop the pile of car wreckage with his legs crossed, looking every bit the swaggering thug.
It was all an act. All warfare is deception — that's what the strong do.jpg
Mahiru paused, mouth half-open, caught off guard for a beat.
She knew Kashimo might look dense, but he was sharp underneath it all. She wasn't about to write him off as a fool.
Still, his acting needed a little more polish.
Mahiru's eyes narrowed as she caught the tell. A corner of her mouth curled up in an amused smile. "Oh? Are you threatening me?"
"What else would this be?"
"You want to fight Sukuna, don't you?"
"If you know what's good for you, hurry up and agree. I can help you fight Sukuna — that benefits you too, doesn't it?"
"Oh, how unfortunate." Her smile widened. "We're not exactly short on fighters who could take on Sukuna. If you don't want to miss out on the enemy you've been chasing for a century, then it's you who'll have to beg us."
Something in Kashimo flinched.
Whether Jujutsu High actually had the firepower to take on Sukuna, he had no idea. What he did know was that Mahiru had probably already seen through his bluff.
Stubborn as ever, he kept up the bravado despite the cracks showing through. "Beg you? Don't make me laugh. I came here to threaten you—"
Mahiru cut him off flatly. "You really think a threat that weak is enough to make me do anything for you?"
"...I—"
"Dream on, Kashimo. Even you don't believe what you're saying." Her smile faded, her expression darkening. "Without my help and my say-so, you're never getting anywhere near Sukuna. And when Jujutsu High does move against him, who fights is entirely my call."
She raised a finger and pointed at the ground in front of her.
"Now. This instant. Get down off there, clean up the mess you made, and bow to the Assistant Supervisors standing over there and apologize." Mahiru's mouth twisted, her eyes merciless. "You'd better take this chance while it's offered, because next time, earning our forgiveness won't be as simple as an apology."
"Uh... us...?" Ijichi and the others jumped, startled to suddenly find themselves involved.
"You—!" Kashimo ground his teeth, looking furious, blue-white arcs of electricity crackling to life all over his body. The whole atmosphere turned tense.
Behind Mahiru, Miwa quietly tugged at her sleeve.
"U-um... Mahiru," she leaned in close, voice dropped to barely a whisper, "pushing him like this... is that really okay?"
Miwa had seen firsthand just how monstrous Kashimo's power really was.
She knew exactly how strong he was, how ruthlessly this walking disaster could kill without a second thought. Was it really wise to provoke someone this dangerous?
Worry gnawed at her, and she swallowed hard.
But Mahiru looked utterly unbothered, completely confident.
Having said her piece, she crossed her arms and tilted her head back to look up at Kashimo atop the wreckage, expression perfectly calm. Then she held up three fingers. "I'll count to three."
"You little—" Kashimo gritted his teeth, gripping his staff tighter as the electricity around him surged.
Mahiru didn't so much as blink. "Three..."
The crackling arcs superheated the air around them; the Assistant Supervisors scrambled backward.
Mahiru folded down one finger. "Two..."
"Are you seriously trying to start a war?" Kashimo's eyes narrowed.
Sweat soaked through the back of Miwa's clothes.
"One..."
"Tch." Kashimo clicked his tongue.
The crackling lightning died out in an instant.
With a single push, the boy leapt down from atop the towering pile of wreckage.
"Just you wait." Kashimo bared his teeth at Mahiru, then spun around, hoisted up a piece of car wreckage, and jogged off toward the junk pile in the distance.
Obedient as could be.
"Uh..." Miwa and Ijichi stared, wide-eyed, watching Kashimo dash back and forth, clearing away every wrecked car, utterly dumbfounded.
Back and forth, back and forth, until it was finally done. Kashimo returned to stand before Mahiru, visibly irritated. "Now what?"
Mahiru said nothing, just raised a hand and pointed at Ijichi and the others off to the side.
Kashimo followed her gesture and clicked his tongue.
Reluctantly, he gave the Assistant Supervisors the barest hint of a bow — really just a slight nod, nothing more. "Sorry."
"N-no, it's fine! Really, it's fine!" Ijichi, flustered by the unexpected apology, waved his hands frantically.
Kashimo turned back to Mahiru. "Now what? You satisfied yet?"
"Not bad." Mahiru smiled, stroking her chin with a nod. "But we're not done yet."
"What?"
"Come here, Mr. Ijichi." Mahiru waved him over. "Put together a full list of every bit of trouble Mr. Kashimo's caused, every bit of damage he's done since he's been around — and bring it to me."
"You—!" Kashimo's eyes went wide. "I did exactly what you told me to!"
"Oh? But I never said an apology would settle everything. That was only the beginning." Mahiru spread her hands, her smile carrying a faint edge of menace. "I hear you've caused quite a bit of damage since I came back. If you want to join our ranks against Sukuna, you'll need to make up for every single wrong you've done. Wipe the slate clean with just a sorry? No such luck."
"You bastard..." Kashimo was furious enough to grind his teeth to dust, his face cycling through green, white, and red.
Watching from the side, Miwa thought for sure Kashimo was about to explode.
But somehow, he actually managed to hold himself back.
Everyone watching was stunned.
None of them had imagined Mahiru could rein in Kashimo's temper so effortlessly. Nor had they realized just how much fighting Sukuna meant to him.
Mahiru settled back, sipping tea at her leisure. Ijichi hurried off to have someone draw up the list, exactly as she'd asked.
It didn't take long. The list arrived.
Ijichi carried it over in his arms, but his hands trembled and the scroll of paper slipped free, unrolling across the ground in a long, sprawling stretch.
The whole endless length of it was nothing but a detailed record of Kashimo's destruction. "That much?" Miwa's jaw dropped.
Kashimo's face went pale.
Mahiru picked up the list, gave it a quick scan, and nodded in satisfaction. She looked up to meet Kashimo's eyes with a wicked grin. "Time to teach a certain lawless little troublemaker a proper lesson," she said, baring her teeth in a smile. "Causing this much damage comes with a price... and I'm going to make sure you never forget it."
A chill ran down Kashimo's spine.
For all the ominous talk, Mahiru didn't actually intend anything too extreme.
At his core, Kashimo was chaotic neutral — he didn't cause trouble for trouble's sake, he just didn't hold himself back much. And in the middle of a war-torn era like this one, any sense of following the rules had gone right out the window.
He was, after all, a man of an older age — one where it was kill or be killed.
Understandable, really. Perfectly understandable.
But now that he'd landed in the modern era, on Mahiru's turf, and wanted a place in her camp against Sukuna, he'd have to play by her rules.
The bare minimum being: no causing trouble, right?
Take Toji Fushiguro, for example — look how well-behaved he was these days. In life, he'd been a mercenary who'd kill anyone for the right price, a thoroughly dangerous man. But now? He knew when to back down, when to keep his head low. Sure, he slacked off constantly, but Toji never caused trouble, and he'd become one of Jujutsu High's strongest assets.
Now that was someone who understood how things worked.
Kashimo, meanwhile, was every bit the delinquent who feared nothing and bowed to no one.
That kind of troublemaker needed to be put in his place — needed a proper lesson.
Mahiru certainly welcomed a fighter as strong as Kashimo joining her side — but before that, she was determined to whip him thoroughly into shape. Otherwise, she wouldn't rest easy.
So, how exactly would she go about it?
Naturally, she'd choose the most traditional, most effective method there was.
— Labor Reeducation! Bring it on, everyone!
And now, let's go through Kashimo's crimes, one by one!
[Month X, Day X: In order to cut off his pursuers, Kashimo destroyed the river-crossing bridge in XX City, severely disrupting the supply lines.]
Boom! Boom! Lightning burst and crackled. Sparking from head to toe, the boy punched, over and over, hammering a mountain road — one blocked by an earthquake and mudslides — back open through sheer Cursed Energy and brute force.
The construction crew stood frozen, jaws hanging open.
Reopening that stretch of road should have taken days at minimum. Kashimo had brute-forced it clear in under half an hour. It was, frankly, absurd.
Boom! With the final punch, the boy gritted his teeth and wiped away his sweat as the crew behind him erupted into wild cheers and applause.
"Not bad at all." From a branch not far off, the blue-haired girl's voice carried a teasing edge.
Kashimo glanced back, teeth clenched in resentment, but said nothing.
"Don't look at me like that. This is exactly what you owe as compensation." She fought to keep a straight face, trying to sound more serious than she felt.
No matter how hard she tried, anyone could hear the laughter she was struggling to hold back.
[Month X, Day X: For unknown reasons, Kashimo used his Cursed Technique in XX City, knocking out the city's power grid and severely delaying a rescue team's operation at a certain nursing home...]
"Tch. Why do I have to do this..."
In the hospital, Kashimo, dressed in a nurse's uniform and pinching his nose shut, was changing the sheets for an elderly patient who'd just soiled the bed.
Once the sheets were sorted, he still had to take the old man's blood pressure.
After the blood pressure, he had to feed the man his medicine.
Once the medicine was down and everything checked out fine, he had to move to the next room and do it all over again.
These were the very residents of the nursing home whose rescue he'd once delayed.
Some of the elderly, their eyesight failing, mistook the slim, uniformed Kashimo for a girl and clucked approvingly, "That new little nurse is such a hard worker."
With the blue-haired Cursed Spirit watching his every move, Kashimo had no choice but to grit his teeth and bear it.
Only once the task was finally done did he fling the nurse's uniform to the ground — clearly forced onto him purely for Mahiru's twisted amusement.
"Why do I have to do this?! I'm supposed to be a powerful fighter!" he shouted. "Sending me to kill Cursed Spirits would make way more sense!!"
"Very insightful." Mahiru smiled sweetly, crossing off a line on the list with her pen. "But that's weak-minded thinking."
And so, Kashimo's nightmare began in earnest.
Honestly, he'd rather fight, bleed, and take a beating than do any of this. Doing these chores — especially doing them on Mahiru's terms — felt like enduring some kind of humiliation.
But maybe Mahiru had a particular taste for it. The more he hated it, the more enthusiastic she got.
[Month X, Day X: Kashimo robbed a store.]
So that day, every customer checking out at that store's register got to see a blue-haired boy in a clerk's uniform standing at the entrance, shouting, "Welcome in!"
[Month X, Day X: Kashimo once cursed at a passerby!...]
So, in the most crowded stretch of Tokyo, people could watch Kashimo — wearing a vest labeled Model of Civility — handing out "polite speech" flyers to passersby with a face like death warmed over, even though the country was in the middle of a war.
[Month X, Day X: Kashimo dined and dashed!]
So off he went to a food distribution center, to boil rice porridge.
[Month X, Day X: Kashimo stomped on a kid's lollipop!]
So off he went to a childcare center, to change diapers for toddlers.
[...] Charge after charge, one after another.
Kashimo felt like he'd fallen straight into hell, suffering torment of body and spirit both.
He was going to die! At this rate! Whether it was his soul or his body — one of them was going to give out!
In any case, however long it took, however many different "punishments" he endured, at long, long last, Kashimo finally heard good news from Mahiru —
"Just one more to go."
The last one? Kashimo perked right up. A vicious grin spread across his face. "Just you wait. Once this last one's done, you'll see how I get back at you—"
Mahiru couldn't have cared less. "Don't get ahead of yourself. This last one is also the hardest one."
Kashimo's expression froze. "The hardest?"
"That's right. According to the record, you, Kashimo, on Month X, Day X, used your Cursed Technique to wipe out Tokyo's entire power grid..."
The more he heard, the more something felt off. "Wait — are you talking about the time we fought each other?"
"So, in light of what you did, the punishment we've decided on is..."
"Hey! You little— that was clearly your fault!"
"You! Kashimo! Your punishment is to serve as our generator, producing power for us for one full week!" Mahiru jabbed a finger at him, her tone brooking no argument. "Feel some shame, you electric mouse!"
____
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