The courtyard had long since emptied, the Hashira dispersed back to their respective duties. Satoru had vanished immediately after the dismissal, mumbling something about 'beauty sleep'.
Mitsuri, however, remained rooted in the walkway by the courtyard.
Her hands were clutched tight to her chest, cheeks flushed a brilliant red that refused to fade. She had faced dozens of demons in the time she had been in the Corps. Trained until even her unusual strength failed.
Yet nothing compared to the chaos in her chest.
"He said… love at first sight…" she whispered, barely louder than a breeze. Her heart thumping so loud she thought that Ubuyashiki-sama would hear it from where he was. "D-does that mean… could it be…? Ahh, have u finally found my—!"
Her voice cut off into a squeak as she nearly bounced in place, her joy mixed with panic. 'What if he was just teasing? What if he meant it? W-what if he h-held my hand?!'
Kyojuro's booming voice broke her spiraling thoughts.
"MITSURI! WHY ARE YOU STARING INTO THE DISTANCE?!"
She yelped, spinning around. Kyojuro smiling wide, just as bright as always, utterly oblivious to the storm of emotions brewing inside her.
"I- no! Nothing! I was just… uhhh, thinking about my next mission." She stammered.
"EXCELLENT!" Kyojuro declared. "A MISSION IS TIME TO GROW. SATORU-SAN IS A STRONG INDIVIDUAL. MASTER UBUYASHIKI BELIEVES YOU CAN LEARN MUCH FROM HIM!"
"L-learn?" Mitsuri's voice was low.
"Yes!" Kyojuro clenched his fist with conviction. "PERHAPSE HE WISHES FOR YOU TO LEARN A NEW STYLE OF FIGHTING, OR A NEW KIND OF DISCIPLINE."
"Disciplined… isn't what I'd call Satoru-senpai…" Mitsuri muttered, a blush creeping onto her face as memories of Satoru's smile and his shameless words came rushing back.
Kyojuro laughed, clearly missing her meaning. "WHATEVER THE CASE, KNOW THAT I WILL PROTECT EVERYONE! EVEN IF I MUST STAND AGAINST THE STRONGEST OF THE TWELVE MOONS."
Mitsuri gave a small smile. 'That's not it at all… this isn't about fighting.'
Far from the courtyard, in the quiet chambers of the Ubuyashiki estate, Kagaya sat with his wife Amane, their children playing quietly in the background.
She poured tea for him, her gaze lingering on his serene smile. "You maneuvered him well, husband," she said gently. "But Mitsuri? She's only recently joined the Corps. Why have you tied their paths together?"
Kagaya's eyes, once clouded with illness, now gleamed faintly with health Satoru had restored with his mysterious ability. His voice was calm, but there was some gravity behind it.
"Because," he murmured, "that man carries a darkness deeper than any curse. I can feel it in the air around him, a presence he keeps caged. A thing that hungers for ruin and slaughter. He wields his strange power with little effort, but effort isn't the same as control."
Amane's hand stilled over the teacup. "You fear he may fall to this darkness?"
"Yes." Kagaya's smile softened, tinged with sorrow. "But Mitsuri… her heart is unlike any other. Pure, kind, endlessly loving. If anything can prevent him from falling to darkness, it will be her."
Amane looked out of the window where sunlight filtered through the wisteria trees. "You're gambling her heart then?"
Kagaya's fingers brushed over hers. "No… I'm gambling on love Amane. And I've always believed love is the one force that even demons cannot defeat."
[Scene Break]
I wasn't an idiot.
Kagaya obviously sent Mitsuri with me as part of his plan. Probably something along the lines of: 'She's going to anchor your humanity.'
Fortunately, I didn't feel like murdering innocent villagers, eating babies, or being a Fraud King. I may have Sukuna's powers but I definitely didn't get his personality.
Thank fucking god for that. Gojo Satoru's personality bleeding into mine was bad enough already. I was a habitual line stepper and professional procrastinator in my past life.
With Gojo's personality bleeding into that… I was an even more extra version of my past self with the power to back up my trolling and somewhat lazy lifestyle.
I shudder at the thought of adding the Fraud King's personality on top of all that. I'd have probably ended up like that asshat back in chapter 2. Ching Ping whatever his fuckass name was.
I thought about my next moves now that I had most likely been scammed into being a Hashira by Kagaya.
I needed to get my hands on a sword fighting technique. Luckily this was Japan and Kendo was popular. I could probably make a joke breathing style just to fuck with Temu Jackson.
With my baseline physical abilities I could keep up with 99.99% of the demons just with physical strength alone. Bring my innate techniques and domains into the equation and it would be GG no RE even for Muzan himself.
I stood deep in the woods a while away from the headquarters. Closing my eyes I willed the charge to happen. My face itched as two extra eyes formed on my face, tattoos crawled up and down my neck and arms.
Opening all four eyes I felt myself for any changes. Sensing nothing, I grinned and swiped a hand at a tree. The poor innocent tree was instantly cut down by my Dismantle attack.
Walking forward I placed a hand on the fallen tree. A pulse of power later and Cleave turned the tree into firewood sized chunks.
I closed my eyes again and willed the tattoos and extra eyes to fade away. I unleashed Sukuna's powers at least once a day. Just to see if the King of Curses was sneaking around somewhere inside my soul.
And in the half year that I had been in this world, I could wholeheartedly summarise that he was not.
I may not have Mahito's powers to see and touch souls but I liked to think that I'd know if some thousand year old manchild was lurking in my body.
That came out wrong… but you get my point.
With a month to do whatever before going off on that mission with Mitsuri. I spent two full days fucking with Cursed Technique Lapse Blue eventually figuring out teleportation on the second day.
At first, I could only teleport by line of sight. Given that the Six Eyes were a hax ability no lesser than the Sharingan in Naruto, I could effectively teleport insane distances.
Six Eyes also ensured that I never ran out of Cursed Energy by making sure that no energy is wasted when I use any of my abilities.
Not that I'd ever run out even without them. I had both Gojo and Sukuna's massive pools of energy after all.
Using the Blue teleportation method, I managed to get to Osaka in less than two hours. I cheated a bit by using Limitless to float high enough in the sky to get an unobstructed view of the landscape.
I watched a few students training in various dojos during my three day 'vacation' in Osaka. The unparalleled thought processing ability I had inherited from the original Gojo let me create a new style.
I didn't have a name for it yet, but I was leaning towards 'Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu'. The infamous Kenjutsu style from Rurouni Kenshin.
'Maybe I should name it Sigma Breathing… nah, that's fucking cringe. Who even uses the word sigma anymore.'
I had genuinely thought that learning sword fighting would take longer. But honestly, I forgot that I was a cheat character in a relatively low level world.
Now I had plenty of time to buy souvenirs. With three weeks and some change left to myself I just teleported all over Japan to satisfy my desire to explore the country. This took all of a week to accomplish.
Feeling a bit of boredom creeping in, I returned to the Butterfly Mansion to check up on the Kocho sisters. Upon my arrival there, I was pleasantly surprised to see Mitsuri speaking with Shinobu.
I hovered a few meters above their heads like a demented balloon. I definitely wasn't eavesdropping.
"…Shinobu-san." I missed the beginning of Mitsuri's question.
"Ara, I'm not too familiar with that sort of thing. Maybe he really meant it? I don't think he'd lie."
'Yeah, they're definitely talking about me.' I mentally noted.
"But it's so sudden! What if he thinks I'm weird because I'm stronger than most men?!"
"Hmm, he's really strong too."
'I need to work on her insecurities…' I added to my mental note.
I decided that I should probably step in before I heard something I wasn't supposed to. I know how women are with their 'girl talk'.
I lazily floated down lower and lower until I was only hovering a few feet from the ground. Mitsuri and Shinobu looked at me in shock.
"Satoru-senpai!" Mitsuri yelped.
'Senpai?' Huh… is that a good thing?
Judging from the knowing smirk Shinobu shot at Mitsuri, it probably was. I remember that lots of weebs insisted on being called senpai.
"Mitsuri-chan." I greeted back lazily raising my hand. "Shinobu."
Shinobu raised an eyebrow at the fact that I didn't use any honourifics with her name and that I used her first name.
"What's with the look? I brought everyone souvenirs." I grinned.
I pulled out a bag from behind my back and handed out a charm I picked up from a shrine on my way back. I gave Mitsuri a different charm, she blushed the second she saw it and a smile appeared on Shinobu's face.
"Here, this is for Kanae and Kanao." I handed her two more charms matching hers. "Apparently they protect you from bad luck."
Shinobu smiled at me and took the charms with a nod of thanks before quietly slipping away. Mitsuri was still holding onto the Omamori I had given her, the blush only getting brighter when she realised that Shinobu had disappeared.
"Ano… Satoru-senpai… do you know what this omamori means?"
"Hm? Just call me Satoru, Mitsuri-chan. And I think the guy at the shrine said it was for good fortune?"
"Ahh… I- it's an En-musubi… it- its… Itsforgoodfortuneinloveandmarriage!"
"Huh?" She had spoken so fast that I had barely made out what she said.
Mitsuri looked at me with wide eyes, her lips trembled, then to my complete shock she threw her arms around me in a tight hug that would have crushed me had I not had my Limitless constantly active.
She didn't seem to notice the thin layer of CE that separated us. Smiling softly, I deactivated my Limitless for the first time since arriving to this world and returned her hug.