Before the nightmare of the Morin Hotel, there was a brief, deceptive window of "normalcy" in the Public Safety apartment.
The morning after their first night in the "sofa-fort," the awkwardness hadn't disappeared—it had simply evolved into a domestic routine.
Okarun was in the small kitchenette, his hands glowing with a faint violet hum as he practiced his precision.
"Okarun, if you 'Phase-slice' the eggs one more time, we're going to be eating yellow mist for breakfast,"
Momo grumbled, sitting at the small table and trying to brush the knots out of her hair.
"Sorry, Ayase-san!"
Okarun yelped, pulling his hand back.
"It's just... the Sukuna energy is like a constant itch under my skin. If I don't let a little bit out, I feel like I'm going to pop."
Momo stopped brushing and looked at him.
Truly looked at him. The violet streaks in his hair were more prominent now, and his eyes had a sharpness that wasn't there back in Kamigoe.
She stood up and walked over, placing her hand over his glowing palm.
"Then let it out into me,"
She said softly.
Okarun froze.
"W-What?"
"The purification,"
Momo explained, her own pink aura beginning to shimmer.
"When I filter your energy, it stabilizes both of us. It makes the 'Golden Line' clearer. Here, look."
She closed her eyes and focused.
As her psychic energy merged with his chaotic Phase-energy, a holographic projection of the Golden Line appeared between them.
It was a shimmering, frayed rope of light that stretched into the kitchen wall, pointing toward a home they couldn't see.
"It's getting stronger,"
Okarun whispered, his heart racing.
"But it feels like it's being pulled by a current. This world... it's trying to swallow the path."
To keep their skills sharp, they didn't just wait for missions. In the dim light of the apartment, they practiced a "Sync-Move."
Momo would throw heavy objects—books, pans, even the small fridge—using her psychokinesis, and Okarun would have to Phase-Step through them without breaking his momentum.
"Faster, Okarun! The Devils in this world don't telegraph their hits like the Aliens did!"
Momo shouted, sending a flurry of kitchen chairs toward him.
Okarun blurred. He moved with a grace that was half-ballet, half-car-crash.
He felt the Phase Devil's spatial awareness expanding.
He wasn't just seeing the room; he was seeing the potential spaces he could occupy.
"I can... I can see where they're going to be!"
Okarun shouted. He stepped between the atoms of a flying chair, appearing on the other side and catching Momo in a playful, high-speed spin.
They ended up on the floor, panting and laughing, the furniture scattered around them in a chaotic mess that would surely confuse Makima's "birds."
For a moment, the terror of the JJK world and the cold manipulation of Public Safety felt miles away.
It was just two teenagers from Kamigoe, leaning on each other in a world that didn't want them.
"We're going to make it, right?"
Okarun asked, his voice small.
Momo leaned her head on his shoulder, her pink aura warming the cold tile floor.
"We have to. My grandma is probably wondering why the laundry isn't done, and your alien magazines aren't going to read themselves."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a mobile. It was unusable here but there were pictures of her world.
"We keep eating Devils, we keep refining the line. We don't stop until we're standing on the shrine steps."
The moment was interrupted by a loud thumping on the door.
"HEY! GHOST-BOY! BOSSY-GIRL! AKI SAYS WE HAVE TO GO TO A HOTEL!"
Denji's muffled voice roared from the hallway.
"THERE'S A BIG BRAIN DEVIL OR SOMETHING! PACK YOUR BAGS!"
Okarun stood up, the violet glow returning to his eyes, more intense than ever.
The domestic peace was over. The Eternity Devil was waiting, and it was time for Okarun to find out just how much space a soul could truly occupy.