"All right, where are you now? Your timing's perfect—Satoru Gojo just opened his Domain."
A small Cursed Spirit flew at Hajime Kashimo's side, and the voice coming from within it was Kenjaku's.
"You've still got plenty of time left."
"Satoru Gojo? I couldn't care less if I run into him." Hajime Kashimo let out a yawn. "All I'm hoping is that tomorrow I really do get to meet Sukuna."
He looked off into the distance. The distance… didn't seem to be that medical clinic after all. "Tch, wrong place again."
Mahiru had been keeping the whole matter of Tsumiki Fushiguro in mind this entire time.
It was just that, before this, she'd had to keep stringing Kenjaku along, and she'd also been relentlessly hunted by the sorcerers' side, so she'd never been able to find the chance.
All she could do was use a clone to keep a bit of surveillance on Tsumiki Fushiguro's condition, to prevent some butterfly effect from causing the Tsumiki Fushiguro who was originally supposed to come to harm during the Shibuya Incident to come to harm ahead of schedule. Fortunately, that hadn't happened.
And now, Mahiru finally had the opportunity to make her move.
"What's the situation with this medical clinic of yours?"
The moment Mahiru walked in, she sensed that the atmosphere here was a little off.
Seeing the girls heading off to rescue Tsumiki Fushiguro, Toji Fushiguro felt his interest wane and didn't tag along. There was a contract binding him anyway, so Mahiru couldn't be bothered to manage him.
"You've had a power outage here?"
"Mm." An unfamiliar-looking jujutsu assistant sighed. "We can still hold out, but it's tough going."
The blackout was because of the earthquake.
Several of the important power stations around Tokyo had ground to a halt.
At present only a small amount of power could be supplied, and that power was prioritized for the large hospitals and important wards.
This medical clinic was fairly small, so its priority was bumped toward the back of the line.
Some patients couldn't be separated from their machines, so the hospital could only rely on its own diesel generator for power.
In fact, pretty much all of Tokyo was in this same situation.
Everyone could only rely on their own private generators to supply their own power; if you didn't have a generator yourself, then you were stuck in the predicament of having no electricity at all.
All of Tokyo had now plunged straight into a world that was at once modern and primitive.
"It's right over there—do you see it?" The jujutsu assistant pointed at a distant mountaintop, which seemed to have some kind of large facility on it. "That's a major power station. Originally, 70% of central Tokyo's electricity was generated there."
"The generating equipment over there is broken now."
"The power lines and the like have all been salvaged, but the power station is still paralyzed."
As Mahiru walked through the hospital, she could see the patients here—some of them were even bedded down on the floor in the corridors.
All of them casualties caused by the earthquake.
Mahiru walked on, lost in thought.
As for Fushiguro Maki, who followed behind Mahiru, her mood was nowhere near as carefree.
——"Want me to just go ahead and save your sister while I'm at it?…"
Words like that… were so flippant that Fushiguro Maki simply couldn't bring herself to believe they were true.
Was it really true…
Her sister… was going to be saved?
Indeed, come to think of it carefully, Mahiru could alter another person's body at will, could even alter another person's Technique. Mahiru could pull off so many unbelievable things—perhaps she really could save Tsumiki Fushiguro.
But… what about the price? What about the difficulty?
What about that whole process of tumbling through hell countless times, digging up the truth of what had happened back then, and only after enduring untold hardships finally reaching the ultimate goal?
Even Satoru Gojo couldn't figure out just what curse Tsumiki Fushiguro had been afflicted with.
Here was a difficulty practically deserving to be called an unsolved mystery, and yet someone could breezily toss out words like, "It's no big deal, I'll save her while I'm at it."
An unprecedented sense of unreality surfaced in Fushiguro Maki's heart. Like waking from a dream. Like an illusion.
And so, as she now followed behind Mahiru, watching the girl's long blue hair sway back and forth with each step, her expression was almost vacant.
"Oh, it's this room, right!"
"Yes." The jujutsu assistant responded to Mahiru. "This is Tsumiki Fushiguro's room."
Mahiru gently pushed open the door and walked in; a fresh breeze blew toward her.
It was a very clean ward, and upon the snow-white bedsheets slept a quiet, beautiful girl, like a sculpture. This sleeping beauty was, of course, Tsumiki Fushiguro.
The ward was so clean that it was obvious it was tidied up regularly.
The people of Jujutsu High cared for the sleeping girl meticulously.
And although the girl had already slept for a very, very long time, her body hadn't taken on the sickly look of those patients long bedridden and paralyzed—on the contrary, her complexion was very good. This was because there was some unfathomable, mysterious Cursed Energy within her, protecting her body.
The reason Tsumiki Fushiguro had fallen comatose was that Kenjaku had placed the soul cursed object of the ancient sorcerer "Yorozu" into Tsumiki Fushiguro's body.
Whether it was intentional or not that Kenjaku had chosen Megumi Fushiguro's sister as the vessel for incarnation, who could say.
And "Yorozu," like Zen'in Mai, was a powerful sorcerer who used a Construction Technique.
Her strength was extraordinary, ranking among the top few of all sorcerers; while her body was possessed by the cursed object, it was also protected by that cursed object, so naturally Tsumiki's complexion was very good.
"Hmm…" Mahiru stroked her chin.
She felt that she really should have come to save Tsumiki Fushiguro earlier, but… saving her now still counted as not too late, she supposed.
Mahiru reached out, about to stroke Tsumiki Fushiguro's forehead. And it was at this very moment, just as her hand had risen, that it was suddenly grabbed by someone.
Mahiru was startled and turned her head to look at the girl beside her, who was lowering her head and gripping her wrist.
Mahiru could feel that Fushiguro Maki's grip was very tight, and that her shoulders were also trembling slightly.
"Mahiru… if… if you really can save her," the girl bit her lower lip and, choking back sobs, lifted her head to look at Mahiru, bean-sized teardrops already sliding down both of her cheeks, "I'll give you anything you want of mine… no matter what it is… anything at all."
None of it mattered…
As long as Tsumiki Fushiguro could be saved, she was willing to pay any price.
So please… I'm begging you, Mahiru.
Please, succeed…
"Uh." Mahiru gave a wry grin and reached out, ever so carefully pushing the girl's hand away. "Family of the patient, please don't get worked up just yet—step aside for a sec, ha…"
"Really!" Fushiguro Maki abruptly took a step forward. "As long as you can save her…"
Pat.
Mahiru touched Tsumiki Fushiguro's forehead.
Then, she gave Tsumiki Fushiguro's forehead a light flick.
"Ow!" The girl on the hospital bed winced in pain, knitting her brows and clutching her forehead. She opened her eyes. "Who's that…?"
The now-bewildered Tsumiki Fushiguro and the tear-streaked Fushiguro Maki looked at each other.
The next second, the latter's emotions went completely out of control, and she rushed toward Tsumiki, hugging her tightly.
Tsumiki, a look of utter bewilderment on her face, was held tight, gazing at Mahiru, Yuji Itadori, and the others, her face full of questions like "Who are you all," "Who's the one hugging me," and "And why am I here in the first place."
As for Mahiru, she stepped back a couple of paces to leave the space to the two girls who'd finally reunited, spread her hands toward Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki, and gave a shrug.
See? It was just something done while I was at it—isn't that right?
____
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