The road to it had been long, but the result came in an instant.
Just like the journey to restore Human Order, the hunt for the Special Grade Cursed Spirits ended all at once.
We sat down on the ruined street and took a brief rest.
Once I let myself believe it was truly over, all the strength drained out of my shoulders.
"You worked hard."
Geto approached riding the Red Dragon, a Cursed Spirit in the form of a white oriental dragon.
Not a speck of dust clung to him. He looked immaculate.
"You too. You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"No. You look fine too, Kadoc. It sounded like things got pretty chaotic all over the place..."
Geto dipped his head with an awkward smile.
It looked like he was greeting the two Koyanskayas standing behind me as well.
"A lot happened. But I'm fine."
"That's a relief."
"Ah. Sorry to ask this of someone who's already done more than enough, but Mahito... ?"
When I asked carefully, Geto smiled.
A black space opened behind his back, and Mahito stepped out.
His eyes were unfocused.
His shoulders hung limp.
He was so docile it looked almost unreal.
'It worked.'
The moment I saw the target, my eyes sharpened on their own.
Just seeing that he'd been successfully subdued made fresh vitality surge through my body.
"So you succeeded."
"Thankfully. Just in case, Yuta copied the technique too. He can use [Idle Transfiguration] without any problem."
"Is there any chance he pulled something while being subdued?"
"You mean, since it's a technique that manipulates the soul, he might have prepared some insurance in anticipation of being subdued? I was wary of that too, so I checked him thoroughly. Don't worry."
"That's good to hear."
I let out a long breath and stood up.
Now I could finally relax.
Kenjaku, and Mahito too, the one who had bothered me most.
We had filtered out two of the worst evils imaginable.
Now only Sukuna remained.
Once we dealt with him, it would be over.
The peaceful everyday life I'd wanted so badly was finally within reach.
"Would it be alright if I visited Jujutsu High tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'm resting tomorrow too, so come by whenever it's convenient for you. Just not too early."
"That's one thing I'm incapable of doing."
We looked at each other and smiled.
Once all that tension drained away, the only thing I wanted was to wash up and sleep.
Wash up, then sleep.
Yesterday, the moment I got home, I didn't even have time to do anything else.
I had only been moving around with Servants at my side, but still...
It had been a tense situation for the first time in a while, and the fatigue hit harder because of it.
Maki and Mai seemed more exhausted than usual too, probably because it had been their first large-scale live battle.
So instead of going to Jujutsu High, I rested.
'Times like this, you rest.'
I left the family at home and headed out with only the pair on duty for the day.
Ibuki-douji and Shuten-douji.
I'd abruptly changed the duty rotation by my own judgment last time, so they'd ended up covering two months.
The duty period had been long, and I needed to give them some separate reward too.
My body was overflowing with energy, but my mind was tired.
The balance felt off, and every step came with a strange sense of dissonance.
That said, it wasn't like my head was spinning.
It wasn't like I felt so weak I'd collapse if I moved a little, either.
It just felt... strange.
That was all.
"My lord. Are you sure you're alright? Even if you made plans, if you're tired, you don't have to go."
"She's right. If you're really worn out, why not put it off until later?"
"I'm fine. You two are the ones who fought on the front lines."
The two Servants folded their arms and worried over me, but I went to Jujutsu High anyway.
It wasn't serious enough to stop me.
'It's quiet today.'
The Assistant Director had to be exhausted today too, so I clung to Ibuki and flew through the sky.
I was in Ibuki's arms.
Shuten was cradled in mine.
By the time we arrived, the place was unusually quiet.
Quiet enough to make me think there wasn't a soul around.
"You're here?"
Still, after walking around a bit, I ran into Geto.
I'd contacted him in advance, so of course he'd come to meet me.
"Yeah. Did you get some sleep?"
"The best sleep of my life. But what brings you all the way here?"
"I had a favor to ask of you, Geto. Yesterday was too chaotic, and everyone was too tired, so it didn't feel like the right time."
"Ah, right. Go ahead. No need to hold back."
Geto blinked and nodded.
His expression plainly said, Go on, spit it out.
"It's nothing else, really. I was hoping you'd use [Idle Transfiguration] on me."
"What? What do you mean by...?"
Geto's eyes went wide.
I'd just openly asked him to tamper with my soul. Anyone would be startled.
Shuten-douji and Ibuki-douji, who had come with me, reacted the same way.
This was the first time I'd told them.
So I had to explain at length: how I'd felt strange ever since the moment Mahito ambushed me at the airport, how something about it kept bothering me, and everything else.
When I finished, Geto smiled as if he understood.
"So, in short, you want a checkup. You really had me wondering there."
"Was I that all over the place?"
"Enough to be genuinely alarming. Still, if that's all, it shouldn't be difficult."
Geto immediately brought Mahito out.
Shuten-douji and Ibuki-douji still looked worried, but outwardly they stayed calm.
"Listen, little one. If you so much as harm Master, you know what happens, right?"
"Don't worry. I'm not enough of a piece of trash to harm my benefactor."
Geto laughed when he saw the dangerous smile on Shuten-douji's face.
Since he had no intention of harming me, he didn't tense up at all.
"Mahito. Check him."
"Alright. I'll see whether it matches the normal shape of a soul."
The summoned Mahito stepped in front of me.
Like Tengen after being subdued by Kenjaku in the Culling Game, he seemed to retain his intelligence.
I met Geto's eyes and asked, "He talks?"
"His technique and intelligence are the same as before he was subdued. The only thing that's changed is his disposition."
"Toward the good side?"
"He takes after the sorcerer, and I'm trying to become a better person. Think of him as something like an AI that obeys its user."
If that was the case, then fine.
This was a situation [Jujutsu Kaisen] had never had, so trusting Geto's word was the only real option.
Besides, I was the one who had asked for this in the first place.
Getting suspicious now would just make me look ridiculous.
"Alright. Start."
"Okay."
When I nodded, Mahito placed his hand over mine.
Cursed Energy rose over his ash-gray hand.
Mahito was a Cursed Spirit that perceived the soul.
Just seeing a soul didn't seem to require the use of his technique at all.
"Hm? Hmmm? Hnnng..."
Mahito tilted his head with his hand still on me.
Was something wrong?
I was curious, but I waited until Mahito chose to speak.
There was no point in rushing him.
At last, Mahito pulled his hand away from my chest.
"For now, the examination's done. Can I talk based on that?"
"Go ahead."
I wanted to know too, so I urged him to speak.
Mahito acting tame around a human felt deeply unnatural.
Geto too.
Shuten-douji and Ibuki-douji, who had been watching, held their breath and stayed silent.
"First, your soul. It's different from a normal human's. You're human, but it also feels like you're not."
"What?"
Different from a human.
Hearing something that shocking right out of the gate sent my concentration soaring.
It felt like one of those moments of extreme tension.
Or the instant before death, when the brain starts spinning like mad.
"A normal human soul is perfect for kneading, you know? It's like a three-dimensional object. Like one of those figures people talk about."
"And mine is neither of those?"
"It felt like mist at first, but it's closer to the sea. You can stir it if you touch it, but no matter how much you stir it, it returns to itself almost immediately."
So in short, [Idle Transfiguration] didn't work on my body?
If anything, that only raised more questions.
Just as I thought maybe that was the end of it, Mahito continued.
"But in the middle of it, there was something like light. Faint, but it felt like something tangible caught on my hand."
Something caught on his hand.
Put another way, that meant he could grab it.
"Can you catch it?"
"If nothing interferes, probably. What do you want to do?"
"Do it."
Why had I wanted Mahito's [Idle Transfiguration]?
Because there were a great many things it could solve.
And now that the chance was right in front of me, I couldn't let it slip away.
Even if it carried some risk, it was worth trying.
"Alright. Well, twisting your shape is probably impossible anyway, so don't worry. I don't know exactly what that light is, but think of it as dredging it up and amplifying it to the limit."
Mahito placed his hand over my heart again.
The Cursed Energy rising from his hand was different from before.
Denser. More structured.
It felt like the omen that came just before a technique was fully invoked.
[Idle Transfiguration].
Just as expected, Mahito activated his technique at once.
Thump. My heart slammed hard, and a wave seemed to spread through my entire body.
My blood surged harder too.
My vision brightened.
It felt like waking from sleep, not just my mind but my soul itself turning clear and sharp.
It was hard to describe, but it didn't feel bad.
At the very least, it felt nothing like dying.
Because they understood that, Shuten-douji and Ibuki-douji watched me in silence.
Geto did the same.
If anything, he looked more wary that someone might interrupt us.
As if he feared that if that happened, something might go wrong with me.
'So there really is something there.'
The bizarre sensation of something boiling inside me grew clearer.
It also felt like a thorn lodged in my chest was being pulled free.
What kind of change would come?
Or had I been mistaken all along?
As I waited in tense anticipation, my body began to swell.
More precisely, it felt that way.
'W-wait...?'
In the next instant, my body seemed to lift free and shoot into the sky.
That too was an illusion.
The ground receded, impossibly far away.
The sensation of floating upward without end, riding time and speed, was dizzying.
And fast.
At this rate, it felt like I'd be flung into space and lost forever.
Before I knew it, stars glittered all around me.
The sight of darkness, stars, and several massive planets spread out before me felt strangely familiar.
I'd never gone there myself, but I had seen it with my own eyes.
It was the beautiful scenery of outer space.
And even within that universe, I kept rising. Higher and higher.
Even in a situation where my sense of direction should have been long gone, I could still feel that I was moving upward.
Was it forward? Was it upward?
I couldn't tell.
But as I continued steadily in one direction, all kinds of scenery passed before me.
The universe changed.
The changing colors of the stars poured down toward me.
And then, at the end of it, the world was dyed black.
Nothing remained.
Was I going to die like this?
Or had only my mind been trapped in some room beyond time and space?
Countless thoughts rose and vanished in my head.
The sensation of drifting was too vast, too distant, for thought to come easily.
The end of the universe.
The darkness that came at its edge.
Within that single ending, I did not struggle. I simply let myself drift.
Strangely, I wasn't in a hurry.
I was certain that something would happen even if I did nothing.
And then, truly, that certainty was fulfilled.
White light poured down over me.
A light that felt vaguely familiar wrapped around me and pushed me away at the same time.
'How strange.'
The instant the light enveloped me and dyed me through, my mind went blank, and my consciousness slipped away as if I had fallen asleep.
Even so, I could still feel how the light seeped into me.
I could feel my body disappearing, then changing into something else.
When that process finally ended, the light vanished, and a riot of colors came into view.
At last, I returned to reality.
"...The Third Magic."
And in that moment, Ibuki-douji's whisper reached my ears.
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