The folks at Jujutsu High weren't exactly known for overflowing sympathy.
But watching Hajime Kashimo now, they genuinely felt for him.
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak...
Ever seen a hamster running in its wheel?
Right now, on Jujutsu High's massive training field, a cage two stories tall was spinning at breakneck speed.
Arcs of electricity leapt and crackled; the wind howled.
The blue-haired young man was gritting his teeth through pure fury, sprinting madly inside the cage.
The sight was so stunning that every staffer or sorcerer bustling in and out of Jujutsu High, passing through the field they had to cross, would stop dead in their tracks to watch — paying silent tribute to the young man shedding blood, sweat, and tears for Japan's power grid.
"What in the world is that?" muttered a passing third-year dropout turned gambler, his voice flat with disbelief.
"Isn't that... isn't that fucking Hajime Kashimo?!"
"What the hell got into that walking disaster's head, coming to Jujutsu High to run laps in a wheel for fun?!"
"What is going on?!" Hakari Kinji passed by — and stared, stunned. Yuta Okkotsu passed by — and his jaw dropped.
Before this, when Mahiru had been dragging Kashimo around for labor reeducation, she hadn't made a big show of it, so not many people actually knew about it.
But now that Mahiru had plopped him down on Jujutsu High's plaza and set the little wheel spinning, pretty much everyone knew — what state the once heaven-and-earth, I-alone-am-supreme, boundlessly arrogant Hajime Kashimo had been reduced to.
"Terrifying..." Panda felt cold sweat soaking his back, even though he couldn't actually sweat. "What did Mahiru even do to him... what did she do... to turn Hajime Kashimo into an idiot? That's downright terrifying!"
Well, it couldn't be helped — who told Kashimo he'd fight no one but Sukuna?
This time, it was basically a case of holding Sukuna's name hostage to bring the whole lot of them to heel.
But this time, having Kashimo run the wheel to generate power wasn't purely for Mahiru's own twisted amusement, nor simply to humiliate him.
Teaching Kashimo some manners was only part of it.
The other part was that Japan genuinely needed power right now, especially in the four districts formerly controlled by the United States. Her battle with them had caused such massive collateral damage that the facilities there were wrecked — the rebuilding effort had shrunk those four districts down to three, and resources like electricity were in dire short supply.
Mahiru had him running the wheel here because they genuinely needed the power he generated.
"Thank you for the power supply, Miss Mahiru," said the official in charge of electricity beside her, mopping his brow with a handkerchief in gratitude.
Say what you will, but the sheer amount of electricity Kashimo generated through running and his lightning Cursed Technique was staggering.
It powered not just those three districts, but also topped up the electricity for all eight districts Jujutsu High already controlled.
Tokyo now even had a power surplus at times, so much that at night they had to turn on neon lights just to burn off the excess.
Now it was evening. Standing atop a high-rise and looking out into the distance, the war-torn, disaster-riddled city of Tokyo — scarred and pockmarked all over — was suddenly dotted with lights of every color.
The contrast felt almost surreal.
Inexplicably, the citizens of Tokyo found their spirits lifted, as though they could see a glimmer of hope for rebuilding their homes.
Even though that hope was nothing but an illusion.
Who could have guessed those lights were only there because Kashimo had run too fast and generated a surplus?
Anyway — many thanks to young Kashimo.
"As long as you can guarantee he won't cause trouble, that's fine," Yaga said, rubbing his temples after hearing Mahiru's report, utterly exasperated but going along with her regardless. "Let's move on to the other matter you came here to discuss."
"Oh, right," Mahiru said, kicking her legs on the sofa.
Yaga's expression turned serious. "We really haven't found any other remains of Suguru Geto's body. If you want to learn Cursed Spirit Manipulation, I'm afraid you'll have to go back to the past."
"Oh," the girl said, unsurprised. "I don't know how many days I'll be gone. At least for this week, I'll need you all to hold the fort."
"Just go, don't worry about it."
Had she known she'd need it now, she would have learned Cursed Spirit Manipulation back then.
But hindsight was pointless.
Not to mention, back then, in order to kidnap Tengen, she hadn't been able to reveal Idle Transfiguration in front of Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo.
Well, might as well go again now.
The girl's reasoning was simple.
People studied jujutsu and trained their Cursed Energy, but ordinary people had limited talent — it was hard for them to grow truly strong. So rather than push further on raising Cursed Energy, Mahiru figured it'd be better to arm them with Cursed Spirit Manipulation instead.
With Cursed Spirit Manipulation, people could capture whatever Cursed Spirits they wanted, and their combat strength could rely on those spirits instead of being limited by their own talent.
Actually, maybe Mahiru wouldn't even need to teach people the technique itself.
She could try turning Cursed Spirit Manipulation into a cursed tool instead — something like catching Pokémon with Poké Balls. People would just need to hold the tool, and they could capture Cursed Spirits one by one.
Then in battle, they could go, "I choose you, Kuchisake-Onna!" or "Rainbow Dragon, use Tackle!"
"Jujutsu Sorcerer" would instantly become "Cursed Spirit Trainer" — completely solving the problem of ordinary people's combat strength being crushingly limited.
The thought made her plant her hands on her hips, grinning — she felt like an absolute genius.
At the hot spring inn, Jogo stood off to the side with her arms crossed, watching in silence as Mahiru made preparations for the crossing.
Setting up a Barrier to contain Temporal Turbulence leakage — check.
Confirming the direction to the past world — check.
Placing dummy anchors around the area for opening a Domain — check.
The girl clapped her hands together.
That was when Jogo finally spoke. "Actually... I've wanted to ask you this for a while now. Your body's changed."
"Hm?" Mahiru turned back. "What do you mean?"
"Your body. It's not a Cursed Spirit's body anymore."
"Oh, right, that. It's because of what happened with Mahoraga before..."
"So you're not afraid of positive energy anymore, huh?" the white-haired girl said, looking at Mahiru. "Can I do that too?"
"Uh..." Mahiru choked for a second.
Did Jogo want an upgrade too?
Strange. Mahiru never got the sense Jogo was the type to be anxious about her own strength.
Turning Jogo and Hanami and the rest into this new form like herself... the girl honestly hadn't considered that.
"Maybe... once I'm back, I'll figure something out?" Mahiru said, gesturing at the Barrier she'd just finished setting up, her tone conciliatory. "It shouldn't take long."
"Mm," the white-haired girl nodded. "Be careful, then."
"Sure~ Don't worry, there's nothing dangerous about it..."
In the past world, even the Culling Game itself was suspended — what trouble could there possibly be?
Mahiru figured she'd be back before long... Wait, no. The girl's easy smile suddenly froze.
She'd just remembered something important.
"Am I... still dead over there?"
Since going back to the past world wouldn't put her up against any real conflict, the girl had been feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
But thinking it over carefully, the identity she'd used to interact with Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto — "Miwa Ran" — was already dead.
Dead as dead could be — they'd even held the funeral.
If she went back now, how was she supposed to get Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation without stirring up a mess?
...
Ugh...
She didn't want to fight Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto... but did that mean she'd have to disguise herself as Miwa Ran again, pop up in front of them, and go with a "Ha ha ha, just kidding, turns out I'm not actually dead"?
Damn it. She could already tell this was going to get messy.
____
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