The late afternoon sun was warm but unyielding, spilling through the tall windows of Gojo's office in a golden wash. The light caught drifting motes of dust in the air, each one turning lazily in the stillness.
It should have been a comfortable scene, yet Maki Zen'in stood rigid in the middle of the room, hands clasped loosely behind her back. Her posture was measured, her tone ready.
"I want to take my leave," she said. Her voice held no hesitation. "I'm going to Kyoto. To see my sister."
Gojo's chair creaked as he leaned back, one arm draped over the backrest, the other idly drumming his fingers against the armrest. "And this is about what Mahito told you? You're really considering it?"
There was no point in denying it. Maki nodded once.
"He says he can cut the connection between us," she continued. "If it works, we both get stronger. If it fails…" Her eyes didn't waver. "We deal with the fallout."
Gojo's grin faltered just slightly, replaced with a sharper gaze. "You understand how dangerous that is, right?"
"I do."
He studied her for a moment longer, as if testing whether her words were posturing or truth. "So, what, are you asking me for permission?"
"I'm telling you what I'm going to do, as always, I expect you to support my decision," she replied flatly.
That earned her a low, amused chuckle. "Fair enough. But here's the thing. You may not need my approval for this. The choice is yours, Maki.
Just know that if it blows up in your face, there's no undoing it. And I won't be able to punish Mahito either. He only made a proposal, that's the beginning and end of it. "
"That's the point," she said without flinching.
The grin came back, though softer this time. "A fully awakened physical Heavenly Restriction…" He leaned back, eyes narrowing underneath his blindfold as some distant memory flickered behind them. "Reminds me of the only man to have gotten close to killing me."
The name went unspoken; Maki hadn't ever heard about such a thing, but she dared not ask either, despite the curiosity gnawing at her. The weight of it lingered in the air between them.
Maki inclined her head. "Then you understand why I have to try." All the more reason to go ahead with the procedure.
Gojo tilted his head, finally waving her off with a lazy gesture. "Go, then. Just don't make me regret backing you."
She left without another word.
The air outside was cooler, carrying the faint smell of pine from the trees lining the path. But it didn't cut through the tight coil in her chest. Convincing Gojo had been the easy part. Convincing Mai would be something else entirely.
Her sister had never fought against the clan's expectations. She had no ambitions to challenge the Zen'in's authority over her autonomy, no drive to claw her way up from the shadow they had been born into.
For Mai, survival was enough.
Maki could already hear her scoffing. 'Why risk everything for some hypothetical gain? Why push for more when you could just live quietly?'
But Maki had lived that life before. And she knew that it was no way to live at all.
Mahito's offer was dangerous, untested, maybe even foolish. But it was also the first credible path forward she'd ever had. As she was, she would only eventually get stuck as a Second Grade or First Grade Sorcerer for the rest of her life.
If it worked, Mai would also be free of her limitations, her cursed technique no longer strangled by the weight of her restriction. And Maki… her own Heavenly Restriction would finally stand at its full, unchained potential.
She would, from Gojo's own words, have the potential of a Special Grade Sorcerer, without any cursed energy at all.
She had no illusions about the risk. Twins were already an anomaly in the Jujutsu world, and tampering with their connection wasn't something that could be reversed. The fact that it could even be attempted was a miracle in itself.
But the alternative was to keep living as they had been, separate halves of something neither of them could name, shackled by an invisible bond neither asked for.
Her boots crunched over the gravel path, taking her past the open stretch of the training field.
Below, the sound of blows being exchanged echoed sharply and steadily against the quiet afternoon. She glanced toward the source, catching sight of Mahito facing Yuji across the scarred earth.
The inexperienced boy's stance was low, tight, his movements charged with intent.
Whatever had happened on his last mission had burned away any restraint; he wasn't holding back.
Kugisaki sat a short distance away, her wheelchair angled toward the match.
Arms crossed, jaw set, she didn't look like someone who had lost the use of her legs. The medics had said there was nothing wrong with her body. The damage was deeper.
Megumi was still confined to the infirmary, leaving the field feeling oddly incomplete.
Maki lingered only a moment longer before moving on.
Mahito sighed as he parried a punch from Yuji, feeling the after shock of Divergent Fist as he kneed the young sorcerer into the gut and sent him tumbling to the side, only for him to get up once more.
Yuji was like that. He had the endurance to call himself a protagonist of a battle shounen series after all.
But at the moment, he seemed to be fighting with both determination and frustration. And none of it was directed at his opponent.
He was looking elsewhere, seemingly. Despite his gaze being focused, he seemed to look beyond Mahito himself.
'He is fighting to change his fate, huh? To grow to the point where he wouldn't have to feel helpless again. Whatever happened in their latest mission, it diverted from the original story a lot.'
On the field, Mahito's attention shifted briefly mid-exchange, eyes flicking toward Kugisaki, not at her body, but further.
Beneath the surface, he saw it. A foreign shape carved into her soul, the mark deliberate and precise.
Kenjaku's work.
It was a lock, a restriction woven directly into her soul, severing her from her body's natural function.
Breaking it would require exacting manipulation of the soul itself. And doing so would almost certainly alert the one who had put it there.
Mahito's grin was slight, unreadable, even as he parried Yuji's next strike. 'So… He wants to confirm my technique once and for all? Cute~'
Yuji's fists blurred in another rush, determination boiling over into motion. Mahito met him cleanly, their strikes cracking the air between them.
Sukuna's Vessel was one of the few people who could injure him at that time, so a spar with him was actually quite fun for the Special Grade Curse.
Kugisaki's gaze never left the exchange. She was silent, but her grip on the armrest of her wheelchair had tightened.
The fight stretched on, blows ringing through the empty grounds while, far beyond the school gates, Maki's figure was already a fading silhouette against the horizon.
She didn't look back. Kyoto was waiting. And so was the choice that could change both her life and her sister's forever.