Mahiru had decided this world was insane.
What had once been a perfectly good Jujutsu Kaisen setting, she'd single-handedly wrecked into this mess — the kind of thing that made listeners' hearts ache and onlookers weep.
Fortunately, that didn't dampen her enthusiasm for joining the fun one bit.
Once she'd confirmed the merchandise was all Magical Girl goods starring her own kids, the girl didn't hold back — with one sweeping gesture, she bought three whole boxes of magic wands to show her support.
Kenjaku watched from the side, amused, and didn't interrupt her fun.
"I'm back!" Mahiru shoved the door open and loudly announced her arrival.
"Ah! Teacher!" Little Itadori's eyes lit up at the sight of her, and she scrambled over, delighted, launching herself onto Mahiru. "You're back! I thought you'd be gone way longer!"
Little Itadori and little Fushiguro were usually busy — they were often off exterminating Cursed Spirits somewhere or other. Today was the exception, though. Someone had to mind the inn, after all, and someone had to guard Tengen. With Kenjaku out, the hot spring inn's four kids were left running the place on their own.
"Wow, you actually got this place up and running?" Mahiru looked around, faintly impressed.
In "the modern world," their hot spring inn was still, at best, being used as a private villa — she hadn't expected Kenjaku's side to actually open it for business.
Being out in the middle of nowhere meant foot traffic wasn't heavy. But when Mahiru had come in, she'd spotted a few elderly guests, freshly out of the baths, playing xiangqi in the courtyard.
"Hehe." Little Itadori slid down off Mahiru, planted her hands on her hips, and puffed out her chest. "I'm the waitress today, you know."
"Oh, how impressive." Mahiru reached out and ruffled that pink head of hair.
Just then, there was a commotion at the door.
The black-haired little girl was hauling in the boxes Mahiru had just bought, setting them down on the floor one by one, huffing and puffing.
Little Fushiguro straightened up, glanced down at her own face printed on the boxes, and flushed red, eyebrows twitching. "Why did you buy all this merch?"
"Because I'm your fan," Mahiru said, perfectly straight-faced.
"I'm throwing it all out. I don't want a fan like you."
"Little Fushiguro's so cold."
"Ugh, an unreliable grown-up like you… future-me definitely won't like you."
"Oh? Ho-ho," Mahiru raised an eyebrow. "Wrong guess. Future-you relies on me quite a lot, actually."
Mahiru had never hidden the existence of the different timelines from Kenjaku and the girls. Little Itadori and little Fushiguro both knew Mahiru came from a world further along the timeline, in the future.
"Teacher, teacher, so, um," little Itadori bounced excitedly beside her, "what's future-me like? Am I strong? Do I help you out?"
Mahiru sat cross-legged and said, "Hmm… future-you is a delinquent who goes to pachinko parlors and plays pachinko?"
Little Itadori's eager smile froze. "What's pachinko?"
"It's a bad thing," Mahiru said sagely. "When you grow up, you must never, ever touch that stuff."
"Oh, oh… okay…"
They chatted for a while, caught up on old times. Then the pink-haired and black-haired girls dashed out of the room — apparently off to hunt Cursed Spirits again.
Before leaving, little Itadori shyly asked Mahiru if she could take them to see "the modern world" sometime — they wanted to see what things looked like ten years down the line.
All Mahiru could do was give an awkward smile and dangle the promise — she'd take them someday.
In truth, though, she currently had no way to bring anyone but herself across time. She'd been working on that problem for a long while, without any progress.
Mahiru stood at the doorway, watching the two small figures dash off into the distance. "Is it really okay, letting the two of them go alone?"
"Relax." Kenjaku smiled sweetly. "The missions I assign them are always hand-picked with care."
Mahiru rubbed her chin. "Speaking of which, now that the Culling Game's process here has ended, Cursed Spirit attacks should've dropped off, shouldn't they?"
The woman nodded. "A lot fewer, yes. But there are still quite a few."
"Hm? Why are there still so many?"
Were these homegrown Cursed Spirit attacks?
"We kidnapped Tengen so the Culling Game can't keep encroaching on this world through the [Passage], and it can't spawn any more Cursed Spirits, either," the woman said. "But the enemy can still open a space-time tunnel and drop Cursed Spirits into this world directly."
Still, opening a time tunnel probably wasn't easy on Sukuna's end either. Lately they'd only dropped a handful of Cursed Spirits through — few enough that little Fushiguro and little Itadori together could handle most of it.
"Ohh, so that's the trick. Persistent, aren't they." Mahiru's expression cleared with understanding.
It seemed Sukuna wasn't willing to give up his grip on this world.
Then again, that Kenjaku over there could actually open a space-time passage and drop Cursed Spirits across timelines on a mass scale… That was absurd.
Here Mahiru had tried everything and could only manage to send herself across, while the phantom Kenjaku over there could apparently send whoever it wanted, whenever it wanted.
How on earth was he pulling that off?
"Ugh," Mahiru covered her face. "Of course — the almighty Lord Chaos and Harmony strikes again."
Still, in a roundabout way, that was good news. It basically confirmed to Mahiru that bringing people along across timelines was possible.
Afterward, she could try seeking help from the Chaos and Harmony technique the same way, or she could reverse-engineer however the phantom Kenjaku managed his own crossings.
Assuming there'd eventually be a final showdown with the phantom Kenjaku's side, being able to bring others across time was a prerequisite for it. Mahiru couldn't take on that many enemies single-handedly — especially not with a Sukuna who might be packing forty fingers' worth of power waiting on the other side.
"So, anyway, we've been chatting this whole time and you still haven't said why you came back." The woman tilted her head. "You showed up out of nowhere — gave me quite a start."
"Oh, right." Mahiru stretched. "The reason I'm back is to get my hands on Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation?"
Mahiru explained her plan to the woman.
"Ah, I see." The woman nodded in understanding, then smiled and suggested, "Then why not just kidnap Suguru Geto directly? Much more convenient."
Mahiru estimated it would take roughly five to nine hours to copy Cursed Spirit Manipulation — she could kidnap him for a day and return him afterward.
Mahiru's expression turned rueful. She didn't want a fight, but she had to admit — it really was a good plan. Her time was running short, after all.
Getting Cursed Spirit Manipulation the peaceful way… was doable. But Mahiru didn't want to waste any more time on it.
"In that case…" Mahiru said, "go cause some trouble again and lure Satoru Gojo away first. Then I'll go kidnap Suguru Geto."
"Sure, sure." Getting to cause mischief again, the woman pressed her palms together with a beaming smile, looking thoroughly delighted. "Don't worry, I'll definitely give them *"
With that settled, Mahiru flopped backward, sinking entirely into the tatami.
"Anyway, tomorrow's problems are tomorrow-me's problem. I'm going to sleep," she announced listlessly. "Crossing through time is exhausting."
"Sure, sure, sure." The woman laughed despite herself, rose, and brushed off her hem. "Your room's been ready for a while now. Come with me."
But the moment she stood up—
BOOM! RUMBLE—!!
From far away — or rather, from the very edge of the horizon, impossibly distant — came a muffled rumble, like someone setting off thunder at the edge of the sky.
"Hm? What was that?" Mahiru asked reflexively.
But almost immediately, she frowned. Wait, no. She'd felt something familiar.
"Ah." Kenjaku let out a soft sound of realization.
The two of them exchanged a glance, and in almost the same instant, understood what was happening.
They stepped out the door, crossed the courtyard, and made their way to a spot with a clear view of the distance—
In the direction of Tokyo, a massive black cloud hung low over the sky. It was thick, tar-black, roiling with lightning inside, bolt after bolt splitting across it.
And beneath that cloud, it was raining… no.
"Uh…" Mahiru grimaced.
Dense, sheet after sheet — it was Cursed Spirits, an absurd number of them, falling like rain.
The distance was too great — too far even to hear anything from Tokyo — but there was no need to hear it. Just the sight of that black silhouette of endless Cursed Spirits pouring down was enough to fill in the screaming and the running for your life in your head.
Mahiru didn't know what to say. "Didn't you say… that the Cursed Spirits coming through the space-time passage were only a trickle?"
"Ah… it really was only a trickle before," the woman said, snapping out of her shock, her tone somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. "This is the first time it's ever been this extreme."
Yes — that was, in fact, a passage formed by space-time turbulence, which was also why Mahiru had been able to sense the disturbance from so, so far away.
Now that the Culling Game system could no longer cross this world's boundary by even a single step, the phantom Kenjaku of the future world had once again come up with a countermeasure.
Back and forth, back and forth. Just like a game of Go.
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