The cabin felt tighter now.
Not physically.
Something else.
Like the air had gotten heavier just from a single thought forming.
Takeru sat still.
No jokes. No movement.
Just looking forward.
Across the aisle, Yuji noticed it immediately.
Yuji Itadori
He straightened slightly.
"…What?"
Takeru didn't answer.
Instead, he looked past him.
Past the present version.
Past the familiar face.
To something else sitting in the same space.
The older Yuji.
Not separate in location—separate in time.
Like two layers of the same person existing too close together.
Yuji met that gaze too.
Older Yuji didn't smile.
Didn't speak.
Just looked back.
Then both of them frowned at the same time.
No hostility.
No confusion.
Just understanding.
The kind that doesn't need explanation.
Megumi noticed the shift immediately.
"…They're synced."
Hakari leaned forward slightly.
"…That's not good, right?"
Nanami's voice was quiet.
"…No."
Uraume didn't move, but her eyes sharpened slightly.
Fred slowly raised a sign from the seat behind them:
"Timeline overlap detected."
Takeru finally spoke, voice low.
"…We've got thirty days."
Yuji didn't ask "until what."
Neither did anyone else.
Because somehow—
they already knew the answer.
Older Yuji exhaled slowly.
"…Yeah."
Younger Yuji swallowed.
"…Thirty days for what?"
Silence.
No one answered him.
Not yet.
Takeru leaned back again, staring at the ceiling of the plane.
Not relaxed.
Not panicked.
Just focused.
"…Then we don't waste them."
The plane continued forward through the sky.
And for the first time in a while—
nobody joked.