In this world, there is a marvelous thing called 'instinct.'
To 'instinctively' sense danger, to 'instinctively' feel that something is off, to 'instinctively' learn and grasp certain things, or to 'instinctively' realize that the other person is one's own kin.
"I'm sorry, big brother, I got too worked up just now!" Little Kaori bowed to Yuji Itadori in apology, looking all aggrieved.
Looking at the little girl apologizing, Yuji felt thoroughly uncomfortable all over—as if he were the one who ought to be apologizing.
"Uh, it's fine..."
Sigh—what a guilty conscience.
And Mahiru, watching from the side, was still struggling to keep a straight face.
Absolutely hilarious.
Of course, Yuji hadn't seen through little Kaori's true identity.
But clearly, in terms of sheer presence, Kaori had already become Yuji's apex predator.
"By the way, Yuji, do you still remember where your grandpa's ashes are?" Mahiru blinked her eyes. "I figure anyone who could produce such an outstanding grandson must surely be an outstanding person too. If I get the time, I'll go pay my respects..."
Bang! As Jogo led little Kaori away, he casually rapped the head of the loose-lipped Mahiru—whose mouth had no off-switch—making her let out an "Ow."
The gist of it was probably, "Don't forget what I told you earlier."
But Mahiru was only joking.
After all, Yuji would surely be able to recognize what the old man looked like.
"So then, what's the situation right now?" With the messing-around over, Mahiru put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to look at Yuji. "Where's Fushiguro? Actually, it just so happens I've got something to discuss with her too."
All Mahiru knew was that Fushiguro had been spirited away. What happened afterward, she had no idea. In any case, Toji Fushiguro wouldn't harm Fushiguro, so she hadn't paid it much mind at all.
Besides, just because Toji didn't care about his son didn't necessarily mean he wouldn't care about his daughter.
Maybe she'd even get to witness the hilarious sight of Toji suddenly mutating into a doting daughter-slave.
"Did something happen?" Mahiru asked.
And Yuji and Nobara Kugisaki, thus questioned, wore rather ugly expressions.
"Fushiguro's situation right now..." Yuji started to speak, then hesitated. "...isn't great."
"Hm?" Mahiru was taken aback. "Not great? Has she gone missing?"
Huh? What did "not great" mean?
Had she been hurt, or had she vanished?
Sure, Toji was a bit of a scumbag, but he surely wouldn't sink so low as to raise a hand against his own child?
What had happened?
"Missing—no, she's not missing. We can reach Fushiguro anytime. But..." As though it were something hard to bring up, Nobara Kugisaki covered her face. "Toji's been impersonating Megumi Fushiguro... to take out loan-shark loans..."
...Huh? Mahiru opened her mouth, unable to process it for a moment.
"...What?"
After Mahiru had turned Fushiguro into a girl, she became "Fushiguro Maki." But the identity of "Megumi Fushiguro" hadn't actually been discarded—it had simply been kept on the shelf all this time.
—After all, at the time Satoru Gojo and the others still believed that as long as they killed or captured that blue-haired Cursed Spirit, the "curse" on Fushiguro could be undone, so keeping this identity was tantamount to preserving a fallback in life.
And so it remained even now.
If Mahiru agreed to turn Fushiguro Maki back into Megumi Fushiguro, then Fushiguro could still go on living under the identity of "Megumi Fushiguro."
But no one had expected Toji Fushiguro to be such a degenerate—the very first thing he did upon coming back was use his own son's ID card to milk loan sharks.
It was utterly shameless to the extreme.
"We absolutely have to find that guy fast..." Fushiguro Maki sat in the passenger seat, grinding her teeth. "I really shouldn't have trusted him even a little..."
Nihon at this time had online lending that wasn't all that well-regulated; fly-by-night online loans were everywhere, and thanks to social problems, the underworld and loan sharks were likewise commonplace.
And one thing all these loans had in common was—their verification wasn't very strict.
A family member could handle it on one's behalf.
Back when Fushiguro Maki had been spirited away by Toji, the two of them held an all-night father-and-son heart-to-heart.
—Actually, it wasn't especially long.
Toji Fushiguro briefly got the lowdown on how he'd been resurrected and how many years it had been; meanwhile Fushiguro Maki kept her guard up against her father a little, only to be somewhat moved by her old man's sudden words—"This time I want to live honorably all over again, to be a good man"—and so she fell for Toji's nonsense and let down her guard.
As a result, Toji turned around and vanished.
What appeared instead, one after another without cease on Fushiguro Maki's phone, were text-message alerts confirming successful online loans and loan-shark loans.
Only then did Fushiguro Maki discover that Toji had swiped her "Megumi Fushiguro" ID card.
The fly-by-night loans Toji had sought out were all shady—after all, only by "borrowing" shadily could one "collect" shadily. The loan officers, on first glance seeing Megumi Fushiguro's ID card, and on second glance seeing someone ten-tenths—well, nine-tenths—identical in looks to Megumi Fushiguro, stamped it through on the spot.
The even funnier part: the family contact Toji filled in for Megumi Fushiguro was actually Satoru Gojo.
And so, the Megumi Fushiguro of now—was already nearly five hundred million yen in debt.
"Holy crap, that's some fast borrowing." Mahiru let out a gasp of astonishment.
So now they were looking for Toji.
Toji was no easy man to find, and even once found, he couldn't be caught. Fushiguro Maki had no choice but to turn for help to the legendary Toji-catcher, Satoru Gojo. That time, Satoru Gojo had just been on a break between bouts of dealing with a black hole; upon hearing of this, he first failed to hold it together and laughed uproariously for half a minute before finally pointing Fushiguro Maki down a clear path.
He told her to go to Mahiru for help.
So Mahiru was now also part of their party.
And Mahiru wasn't in great shape either.
Because she too found it rather hard to keep a straight face, but seeing Fushiguro Maki's gloomy look, she could only force herself to hold it in.
Toji really was too rotten for words.
"This way you don't even need to change back—just stay a girl, why don't you."—he'd even said as much at the time.
Indeed, if Toji Fushiguro didn't repay the money, then Megumi Fushiguro would become a legendary defaulter recognized by the underworld and the straight world alike.
If Fushiguro Maki didn't want to change back, then it was no problem; but if she did want to change back... she'd be in for a world of suffering.
"We absolutely must find that guy!" Fushiguro Maki seethed through gritted teeth. "There's no way we can let him keep messing around like this!"
But Toji was hardly so easy to find.
Toji's no-Cursed-Energy trait rendered all detection methods based on Cursed Energy completely useless—he was practically a born hider. Even Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes would struggle immensely.
In a situation like this, a police dog sniffing out a scent was more useful than a sorcerer glaring around to find "Cursed Residue."
Fortunately, Toji Fushiguro seemed to have no intention whatsoever of hiding his whereabouts; the jujutsu assistants contacted the relevant personnel and actually managed to locate Toji in a supermarket's security camera footage.
They hurried over at once.
Behind the supermarket counter was an old woman in her sixties; when Mahiru and the others rushed over, the old lady's head was still bubbling with little bubbles of bliss.
"Have you seen this person?!" Fushiguro Maki showed the old woman a photo of Toji Fushiguro.
The old woman's eyes lit up at the sight. "Oh my, isn't this my Megu-chan?"
"...?" Fushiguro Maki jumped, thinking for a moment that her own identity had been recognized.
But on closer look, the old woman's eyes weren't on her at all, but on the Toji Fushiguro in the photo.
And so Fushiguro Maki's expression turned to horror.
"Wait... you mean to say..."
"Aiya... Megu-chan really is such a good boy..." The old woman cupped her cheeks, all bashful. "He understands an old lady's hardships, and he can appreciate an old lady's charms too..."
There was no need to listen any further to know what had happened.
Fushiguro Maki's face went pale, her expression gradually shifting from horror to an utter breakdown, and then, with a scream of "AAAAAH—," she went running out.
Yuji and Nobara Kugisaki looked at each other, at a loss for what expression to put on.
And Mahiru, biting her lower lip to force back her laughter, leaned in toward the old woman.
"Could you tell me the details?... Pfft... Hahahaha..."
Sorry—in the end she couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
Because it really was just too depraved.
____
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