A juvenile detention center.
The corner of Mahiko's mouth curved up ever so slightly.
In the original story, this was the place where Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki — the three-person protagonist squad — faced their first real brush with life and death.
A Special Grade Cursed Womb had appeared inside a facility that housed juvenile offenders. The higher-ups had issued orders sending three first-year students, barely a month into their enrollment, to investigate whether any survivors remained inside — officially framed as a rescue operation, a quiet effort to 'smuggle' survivors out from under the Cursed Womb's nose.
Well. That was what it looked like on the surface.
In reality, it was a trap.
The upper echelons of the jujutsu world had never had any intention of letting Yuji Itadori live. Sukuna's vessel — a ticking time bomb that could be seized by the King of Curses at any moment — was a threat as long as it breathed. Leaving him alive meant danger. Getting rid of him meant peace of mind.
The problem was that Satoru Gojo had thrown himself in the way, hard, and strong-armed a temporary reprieve for Yuji: let him eat all of Sukuna's fingers first, then he could die. The higher-ups had agreed through gritted teeth — but they had never once truly given up on finding an opportunity to eliminate him.
This juvenile detention center mission was that opportunity.
The jujutsu higher-ups had deliberately sent Yuji there to die.
As an aside: the Special Grade Cursed Spirit inside had been cultivated by Kenjaku using one of Sukuna's fingers.
Kenjaku had seen the higher-ups' plan coming from a mile away, and had quietly steered them toward sending Yuji in to be killed — so while the higher-ups waited on the third floor, Kenjaku himself was positioned on the fifth.
In the original story, the three of them entered the detention center and were rapidly overwhelmed. The Special Grade Cursed Spirit's power was far beyond anything a first-year student could handle. Yuji made the call to stay behind and hold the thing off while Fushiguro dragged Nobara out first — and then finished it by letting Sukuna take the wheel.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit was dealt with. But after Sukuna took over, Yuji fell into unconsciousness and couldn't wrest his body back — so Sukuna, with nothing better to do, went looking for Megumi Fushiguro. He beat Fushiguro half to death, tore out Yuji's own heart as a hostage, and came within a hair's breadth of forcing Fushiguro to summon Mahoraga and blow them all up in a mutual kill.
In the end, Yuji had clawed his way back into control and cleaned up the whole disaster at the cost of his own life.
Of course — as the protagonist — Yuji hadn't actually stayed dead. He came back later.
But that was a matter for later.
The point was: all three of them had walked the edge of death and back. Yuji had died once. Fushiguro had come a breath away from self-destructing. And Nobara... Nobara had barely held on too. Taken together, Mahiko honestly wouldn't have been surprised if any one of the three had actually died in there.
This time? Even more so.
In the original they'd all survived — but this time? The butterfly effect was in play. All three of them going into that detention center was still every bit as dangerous, and anyone dying wouldn't be the least bit surprising.
"..."
Mahiko turned it over and over in her mind, thoughts churning — and absently took another lick of her ice cream.
Beside her, Nobara was still on the phone, voice too low to make out, but her expression was getting worse by the second.
A little while later, the call ended.
Nobara let out a long, deep breath, tucked her phone into her pocket, then turned back to look at Mahiko. Her expression had gone soft again — deliberately, carefully soft — carrying just a trace of apology.
"...Sorry, something urgent came up. I have to go," she said, pausing briefly. "Can you make it back on your own?"
"Of course, of course!" Mahiko nodded, crunching off the last bite of her cone, tilting her head back with the most guileless, well-behaved smile she could produce. "Go handle your business, Nee-san. Don't worry about me."
Nobara looked at her for two full seconds, brow creasing slightly, clearly not entirely settled — but in the end, she didn't say anything more. She reached out and ruffled Mahiko's hair.
"My name is Nobara Kugisaki. If anything happens, contact me."
"Mm!"
She left quickly, her pace sharper than when she'd arrived, and turned the corner — disappearing into the crowd.
Mahiko watched her go, watching until that retreating silhouette had vanished completely from sight.
And then, quietly, her expression changed.
Her brow knit into a serious frown.
So. What should she do now?
The question, honestly, wasn't complicated.
Mahiko's survival objective had always been singular: stay alive, live well, and eventually take out the brain-jar — cut herself free from the person controlling her, once and for all.
If she was following that roadmap, then the people from Jujutsu High were figures to be avoided, not engaged head-on — and certainly not figures she should be sticking her nose in for.
Logically speaking, what did the juvenile detention center incident have to do with her?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
She didn't know Yuji. Didn't know Fushiguro. She'd only just bumped into Nobara today — they'd exchanged contact info, but what did that make them? Strangers.
And on top of that, the mastermind behind all of this was Kenjaku.
Kenjaku had personally planted a Sukuna finger inside that facility. He'd cultivated the Special Grade Cursed Spirit with it, anticipated that the higher-ups would weaponize it against Yuji, and then sat back to let events unfold — using the very cursed spirit he'd engineered from scratch as a live combat test for Sukuna.
This was Kenjaku's board. His play. And he was certainly watching it right now.
If Mahiko went blundering in and started making a mess, Kenjaku would notice the anomaly immediately.
Not good.
So the optimal choice was clear — don't intervene. Pretend she didn't know anything. Stay put, stay quiet, stay out of it.
And besides, all three of them had survived in the original story. Odds were high they'd follow the same track this time too — plot momentum wouldn't just randomly kill one or two of them because of the butterfly effect, right?
Mahiko turned this over in her head.
Then she let out a sigh.
Actually... that really was impossible to say for certain, wasn't it...
Yuji definitely wasn't going to die — that much was certain. Both Sukuna and Kenjaku needed him alive; he was too important a piece on the board.
But what about Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki?
Sukuna did have an obsession with Fushiguro — but that obsession only developed after the detention center incident was over. Right now, as far as Sukuna was concerned, Fushiguro was an ant.
And Nobara Kugisaki? Neither Kenjaku nor Sukuna gave the slightest thought to whether she lived or died.
Mahiko let out another internal sigh.
"...Haah."
This was deeply unpleasant.
Why was it unpleasant?
Why?
Mahiko stood at the edge of the sidewalk, turned the question over in her head for all of three seconds — and then, suddenly, it clicked. Her eyes lit up on the spot.
Oh. Oh. I get it now. It's not that I'm worried about those two people.
I'm fixated on that Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Ha! There it was. Suddenly everything made perfect sense.
Think about it — a Special Grade Cursed Spirit that had been fed and raised on one of Sukuna's fingers. Cultivated inside that facility for who knows how long, with time and nourishment aplenty. Whatever it had grown into was absolutely leagues above the Grade 1s and Grade 2s she'd been snacking on lately.
Holy — that was practically a banquet.
How on earth could she just walk away from that?
And if she was being properly analytical about it — setting aside the cursed spirit for a moment — she genuinely did have solid reasons not to want Fushiguro and Nobara dying in there.
In Mahiko's survival plan, Sukuna — the final boss — had never had much direct overlap with her. Dealing with Kenjaku was enough. She didn't need to pick a fight with the King of Curses.
But the world didn't run according to her plans. What if, one day, Sukuna randomly decided he didn't like the look of her and moved to snuff her out? What if some unforeseen thread of cause and effect tangled her up with that cursed king against her will?
If that day came, she'd need cards to play.
And according to countless analyses and debates from netizens in her previous life, Nobara Kugisaki's Straw Doll Technique was widely recognized as one of the Jujutsu Techniques capable of playing a game-changing role in the final battle.
All it would take was someone obtaining a small piece of Sukuna — a scrap of tissue, a drop of blood, anything at all — and getting it to Nobara. From there, Nobara could take her little hammer to it, drive a nail through, and through Resonance, send every bit of that damage directly into Sukuna's soul. Enough to make even him feel it.
Right. So. She wanted them alive. Not out of some inexplicable emotional impulse. Because they were useful. This was rational. This was sensible. This was a calculation grounded entirely in her own self-interest.
Yes.
Exactly that.
I'm not being a busybody — I'm doing this for myself.
Mahiko planted that conclusion firmly in her mind, put her hands on her hips, smiled and nodded to herself. Very sound reasoning. Extremely convincing.
Then she remembered something else, and her smile curved even higher.
Oh, right — there was also Kenjaku.
Kenjaku hadn't told her a single word about this plan. So if she went in and wrecked it right now — wrecked his perfectly laid board — that face of his, that perpetual I have everything under control face — what expression would it make?
Mahiko spent approximately three seconds on that mental image.
Then she burst out laughing.
Hahahahahahaha.
Decision made.
She tossed the last paper stub of her cone into the trash bin beside her, dusted off her hands, turned around, and started walking — toward the juvenile detention center.
"Mm-hm-hm-hm," Mahiko hummed to herself as she walked, her eyes brimming with bright, eager delight. "Just thinking about it is already so exciting — hahahahaha..."
____
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