"Uh…" How to put it. When Mahiru woke up and found herself in a strange place, she got super anxious and had been researching just what this whole time-travel thing was about.
…So she hadn't really noticed that, in the hearts of her original friends… she was, in fact, already dead.
So when she saw Jogo's strange expression, Mahiru nearly burst out laughing and blurted, "Why the long face—don't tell me someone died in your family?"
Thankfully, she held it together.
Only then did it dawn on her that the one who had died was, in fact, herself.
"So like I said, I'm not dead." Mahiru hastily waved her hands. "I time-traveled."
Jogo folded his arms and stared out the window, ignoring her.
"Really, ugh… I give up—I'm not dead, see? …Sis, dear sis, don't be mad, okay—"
Mahiru shook Jogo's shoulder. "Next time I go off to die, I'll give you a heads-up in advance—"
Jogo: ...
Jogo: ?
Jogo: Is that even something a human would say?
"Could you maybe talk a little more like a decent person?" The white-haired girl was so exasperated she laughed. "You still want to die, huh? You want to die that badly, huh?"
Mai was driving up front, rubbing her nose, listening to the two of them bicker in the back but not daring to say a word.
"Fine, fine, my bad, I apologize, I've got something serious to say." Mahiru waved her hand and pointed at herself. "Anyway, you believe I'm Mahiru now, right?"
Jogo turned his head and looked the person before him up and down.
The appearance was still little Kaori's appearance, but the expression, tone, and mannerisms were indeed all that infuriating blue-haired Cursed Spirit.
Jogo nodded.
"Okay, just believe me then. Listen, I actually traveled back from the past." Mahiru leaned nervously close to Jogo's ear.
When Mahiru had suddenly realized she'd returned to the Tokyo of twelve years ago, she too had been utterly dumbfounded for quite a while.
Back then she'd thought she really had died—just like after she died in her first life and was resurrected in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, she'd assumed that after dying she had transmigrated yet again.
But after studying it carefully, she discovered that wasn't it.
She hadn't died. She had simply traveled through time.
It was probably while she was killing the Mahoraga—she'd carelessly gotten swept by the Black Hole into a time turbulence, and that was what flung her into the past. The proof was that her body's appearance hadn't changed, and the Cursed Techniques and marks on her body were all still preserved.
So what was she to do?
Having transmigrated to twelve years ago, the girl's first reaction was, of course, to figure out how to get back.
Since she'd crossed space-time by means of the Black Hole's Singularity, then if she wanted to return the way she came, she could only count on a Black Hole.
So under cover of darkness, in the small hours, she slipped into a town, unfurled her Domain, gave it everything she had, and forcibly kneaded a Singularity into being with the Anti-Gravity Technique—but alas, that Singularity was both crude and incomplete.
The Anti-Gravity Technique was, after all, a notch weaker than the Limitless or Yuki Tsukumo's Star Rage… and at the same time she didn't have, like Kenjaku, a whole Culling Game barrier backing her up.
So for now she couldn't knead out a Black Hole capable of traversing time—basically she couldn't even manage a tenth of one.
In the end, all she could do was use this faint time turbulence, employ Idle Transfiguration, and temporarily connect her soul to someone in the modern era whom she was familiar with and who happened to be compatible with her… kind of like making a phone call.
Only then could she briefly come back.
As for why the vessel happened to be little Kaori, she wasn't quite sure—probably because Mahiru was using little Kaori's Anti-Gravity Technique.
"Besides, communicating across space-time burns through a ton of Cursed Energy, so I probably can't keep it up for long." Mahiru made a phone gesture by her ear. "But seeing that you're all okay puts my mind at ease."
Actually, after Mahiru opened her eyes and found she'd been shifted into a different space-time, what worried her most was the safety of Jogo, Itadori, and the rest of them.
Hearing Jogo say that everyone was still alive, she finally relaxed a little.
"Mm, no one's dead, that's true." Jogo curled his lip and jerked his chin toward the car window. "But it'd be way too soon to say things are going well."
The girl followed his gaze and was instantly stunned.
The car had driven onto an elevated overpass, and gazing far into the distance, among the ranges of distant mountains, a colossal worm taller than the mountains themselves was steadily pushing forward—and ahead of the worm, there was still someone fighting against it.
Boom—— Boom—— That figure clashed against the gargantuan thing, the collisions making the earth and mountains shudder.
Mahiru's mouth fell open. "A Special Grade Cursed Spirit and… Yuki Tsukumo?"
"Yeah," Jogo nodded. "The Culling Game's system just stopped evolving, but it hasn't disappeared."
You could even say it was extremely resilient—and a real pain to deal with.
In the original story, the Culling Game had ended anticlimactically to begin with; in theory it would only end once all the players had quit the game or died. The Culling Game was essentially an incubator—once the ritual reached a certain point and the game ended, the "assimilation" of all humankind would begin.
And this time, the Culling Game's rules were even more different from the original.
"Little Gold." Jogo raised his hand.
A firefly flew out—just a little speck of light, better looking than that fat bug from the original.
Jogo said, "Pull up the rules," and a panel appeared before their eyes. "There," said Jogo. Mahiru blinked.
The rules… still looked incomplete.
Can't leave the game… kill to earn points… touted as a long-term operation…
These were all the same as in the original.
But this time, because the Culling Game directly blanketed the whole of Japan, the players were divided into "high-level players" with combat ability and "low-level players" without combat ability—that is, ordinary people.
Players could earn points by killing people or killing Cursed Spirits, and these points—could actually be used to redeem items in everyone's personal "System Shop"!
Holy crap! Why is there even a System Shop!
Has this Kenjaku been reading too many transmigration novels?!
Even a System Shop showed up!
By earning points, even ordinary people who originally had no Cursed Energy could redeem "Cursed Energy" and become Jujutsu Sorcerers—no need to even think about it, this was Kenjaku's method of blending Spirit Descent into the barrier.
You could even pick out the exact Cursed Technique you wanted!
For two million points you could even pick a Ten Shadows Technique!
"Who on earth would pick such a garbage technique!" Mahiru said loudly. "Not worth it! Refund!"
"Is that really the point…" Jogo was speechless.
The source of the Cursed Techniques was the Spirit Descent of the game system's barrier; the source of the Cursed Energy was probably the game itself. The Culling Game system would rely on the ritual to generate an enormous quantity of Cursed Energy, supplying it to people—and being fed back by them in turn.
In the original, if a person's score stayed unchanged for too long, they would die. Kenjaku used this method to force people to slaughter one another and seize each other's scores.
And this time, although the rules were imperfect, the existence of the System Shop undoubtedly gave many greedy, wicked people the urge to kill.
"And to stay alive, players have to periodically spend points to buy a [Lesser Monthly Card]; to maintain their Cursed Energy, they also need to buy a [Greater Monthly Card], plus an [Access Pass] and rewards…" Jogo said, flipping through the system pages.
"That's so twisted." Mahiru snarked.
This way, even the most ordinary person would have a mandatory, fixed "point expenditure."
If they couldn't buy the "Lesser Monthly Card," that person would go straight to bankruptcy and be cut down.
Although buying a Lesser Monthly Card required very few points, the game covered the whole of Japan… with so many people, even if each only had to spend one point, it would still be an astronomical figure.
"Right now it's Jujutsu High and the officials working together to maintain order… but how could it be that simple? Many places have already fallen into complete disorder, and the innocent people with no will to fight are now all gathering in those main safe zones."
Jogo sighed. "Luckily, ninety-nine percent of the game's players right now are weaklings—that's the only reason things haven't spun completely out of control."
The safe zones were organized by Jujutsu High. Mahiru's side's "territory of the Cursed Spirits" was also a large safe zone.
Now they had to guard against malicious players while constantly hunting Cursed Spirits and Curse Users for points. They had to maintain order and manage people while staying wary of Rime and the others who had gone into hiding.
Rime and the rest, in hiding, seemed to be secretly carving out their own turf in many places and building up their own legions.
Because the Cursed Energy circulation system of the Culling Game barrier was self-sufficient, apart from some very special Cursed Energy, most Cursed Spirits could rapidly renew and iterate—in countless numbers, essentially inexhaustible.
Actually, this was even good news.
After all, the more Cursed Spirits there were, the more continuously points could be produced.
In the original's Culling Game, a score of a hundred was already a lot, and you could add a new rule.
But this time was different—point inflation meant the points required to add a new rule were absurdly high, enough to make people balk.
In any case, anyway, it was just—
"Incredible." Mahiru's mouth fell open.
Isn't this way too much fun?
Uh, you couldn't really call it "fun"… using "fun" to describe such an awful thing wasn't quite right.
But purely in terms of the Culling Game's design, it really was too fascinating.
Honestly, Mahiru really wished she were in the "modern era" right now, so she could throw herself into this Culling Game and wreak absolute havoc.
Besides, since the launching of the Culling Game relied on Mahiru's Idle Transfiguration.
By all rights, then, if the girl were in the modern era, she should also be able to interfere with or even tamper with the Culling Game's barrier rules, right?
Heavens… haha. Her hands were getting itchy.
She'd already figured out how she wanted to cause trouble.
"…Assuming you can get back first." Jogo, who knew exactly what the girl was like, wore a speechless expression.
"Yeah, getting back is pretty troublesome." Mahiru agreed.
There was another question, and that was… why hadn't the Culling Game ended?
The Culling Game was indeed a long-term operation.
But right now the Culling Game hadn't been fully established yet—it was still stuck at eighty or ninety percent progress.
Why hadn't it disappeared?
Mahiru couldn't figure it out.
"Uh…" A wave of exhaustion surged up in Mahiru's heart.
This "long-distance call"… she probably couldn't hold on much longer… she might be forced to hang up.
Sure enough, it drained too much Cursed Energy after all…
Let's leave it here, then. The rest we'll talk about next time, once I've recovered.
"Anyway, I'll figure something out—whether it's getting back, or getting to the bottom of the truth about the Culling Game's current state…"
Mahiru felt dizzy, gritting through the headache as she spoke to Jogo.
The most likely bad scenario was that Sukuna might not be dead at all, which was why the Culling Game was still being sustained.
"What do you mean?" Jogo was startled. "You're leaving?"
"Yeah…" Mahiru clutched her head and waved her hand, a pained expression on her face. "If I don't leave now, my main body over there is going to end up sleeping on the roadside again… the fact that I'm still alive… for now, don't tell anyone except our companions from the Hot Spring Inn…"
If Sukuna was still alive, then such secrecy measures were a necessity.
Mahiru dropped this last line and left. Little Kaori slumped into unconsciousness, then slowly came to.
"Huh? Why…" the girl wondered, puzzled. Jogo, off to the side, let out a helpless sigh.
Damn it… Mahiru, you self-centered thing…
You're not dead… so doesn't that mean I have no choice but to try my hardest to keep living?
"Aaaagh… so dizzy… damn it."
Like a seasick person dragged onto a pirate ship and violently rocked for thirty minutes, after Mahiru time-traveled back, she felt like her brains had been shaken into a smoothie.
Dizzy to the point of exploding. Her head… her head hurt so much…
Mahiru sat on the ground and took a long while to recover. Then she hurried to flee.
This was twelve years ago, corresponding exactly to the original's "Hidden Inventory / Premature Death Arc timeline."
This was no chaotic era—Jujutsu High's system was running normally, and moreover, this timeline had Satoru Gojo in it.
Granted, it was Satoru Gojo in his youth… but as long as she couldn't deal with the Limitless, Mahiru couldn't beat him. Better to run first.
Hmm—but by rights, if she killed Satoru Gojo here in the past, would she be able to change the future?
Whether this "past" and the "modern era" she'd originally been in would actually affect each other, she really had no idea. Her gut said they wouldn't.
Otherwise, from the very moment she appeared, everything in the "modern era" should have already begun to change.
Mahiru left the town where she'd deployed her Domain, made her way into the city center, found a spot in the night market district to sit and rest her feet, and began to plan out her next steps.
Right now, what lay before her were two problems.
One was how to get back.
The other was how to thoroughly investigate the matter of the Culling Game.
Getting back… how to get back?
Study how to create a complete Black Hole?
As Mahiru mulled it over, she suddenly froze.
It hit her all at once—that time she took Maki and Mai to the Zenin estate, it seemed she'd casually saved Yuki Tsukumo's private phone number along the way!
Right. Wouldn't it be as simple as going straight to Yuki Tsukumo?
Ask her how to make a Black Hole, or… just have her whip up another Black Hole—then wouldn't she be able to get back?
Granted, whether this Black Hole would be reliable remained to be seen, but the girl's mood brightened at once—she finally had a direction, which beat blundering around like a headless fly.
Besides, when it came to kneading Black Holes—work on the scale of space-time—a proper Special Grade like Yuki Tsukumo was, any way you cut it, far more reliable than her own jack-of-all-trades, cram-at-the-last-minute level.
And the other problem?
Investigating the Culling Game?
By rights, something like this could only be investigated back in the modern era. But the problem was that even in the modern era, there was probably no one who understood the arcane knowledge of the Culling Game's structure, techniques, systems, and the like.
Since she was already here… she had to consider whether this "past" world might just happen to be hiding some special resource or intelligence she could make use of…
"Hmm…" The blue-haired girl thought furiously, brainstorming. The past… things in the past she could use… or intelligence…
The girl racked her brains but couldn't come up with an answer.
But just as she was lost in thought, out of the corner of her eye she suddenly caught a figure walking past on the opposite side of the street.
The girl was first taken aback, then abruptly snapped her gaze over—
It was a short-haired woman in a pretty dress, young in appearance, looking no more than her early twenties, and extremely beautiful. When Mahiru looked over, she was carrying a bag and about to get into a taxi, with a man standing by the car, wearing an obsequious, fawning smile as he attentively saw her into the vehicle.
…Kenjaku?!?!
Mahiru's eyes snapped wide open.
Yes, that's right! It was Kenjaku!
The Kenjaku who had seized Kaori Itadori's body and was, at this very moment, moving about everywhere wearing Kaori Itadori's body!
The ring of stitches across her forehead was impossibly conspicuous—an ordinary person probably couldn't see that ring of stitches at all, or even if they did, they wouldn't pay it any mind due to the interference of Cursed Techniques.
But Mahiru was all too familiar with this guy! Right… Right!!
If you asked who in this world was most familiar with, most clear on the structure of the Culling Game, then it was without a doubt Kenjaku himself—
The Kenjaku of the modern era was long dead, and moreover he and Mahiru were like fire and water—there was no way she could ever pry intelligence and knowledge out of the modern Kenjaku's mouth.
But the Kenjaku of the past was a whole different matter!
At this moment, Satoru Gojo wasn't dead, the Star Plasma Vessel wasn't dead, and Tengen hadn't yet mutated. There wasn't the slightest sign that Kenjaku's plan could proceed. Right now, she was still in a dormant-like state—curled up in the shadows, watching how things unfolded, biding her time for an opportunity.
In other words…
Thump, thump, thump… Mahiru's heart began to pound wildly.
The girl had come up with a plan that was incredibly crazy, extremely interesting, and at the same time offered absurdly enormous returns.
Remember what Kenjaku's goal was?
He wanted to assimilate all of humanity, to create a super-massive Cursed Spirit with his own hands, because he wanted to see with his own eyes just what a Cursed Spirit that had assimilated all of humankind would look like. He was simply interested in that "result."
Haha…
Assimilation… Launching the Culling Game was a form of assimilation.
And Mahiru's Domain was, in fact, also a form of assimilation! And the most immediately effective type of assimilation at that!
On one side was the plan Kenjaku had prepared for a thousand years, bitterly waited a thousand years for, yet never saw the slightest bit of hope for.
On the other side was a stranger—the first he'd seen in a thousand years, one he couldn't see through, one who could assimilate others into her own Domain—an existence that let him glimpse hope of his plan being carried out.
Which side do you think our Miss Kenjaku would be tempted by?
Hahaha…
The girl grinned.
Right, right, right… that's exactly it!
She was fully capable, and it was entirely possible, of hijacking Kenjaku's plan here, twelve years before the modern era! Of duping Kenjaku completely!
In this timeline, so utterly different from the circumstances of her first transmigration, the one holding the most absolute information advantage was no longer Kenjaku… but her, Mahiru.
Kenjaku, back when I was born, you once tried to hoodwink me… didn't you?
"This time…" The girl's lips curled into an utterly wicked smile. "It's my turn to return the favor… hahaha…"
____
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