Mahito was nothing if not patient.
With the detached curiosity of a scientist observing specimens, he watched Kadoc. It was an exercise in human observation.
He maintained his distance, ensuring the Servants remained oblivious. To stay undetected, he relied solely on a mundane tool provided by his human collaborators: a high-powered scope.
His companion, Jogo, found this slow approach distasteful, yet...
The flame-headed curse tried to understand. Patience was a virtue necessary for a leader.
Mahito didn't provoke the Master's circle. He didn't raise their guard by targeting the collateral figures nearby. He committed no foolish acts that might ignite the powder keg before the time was right.
His objective was singular: the white-haired youth, Kadoc.
After nearly a decade of waiting, the opportunity finally presented itself.
A crowded airport teeming with humans. A solitary visit to the restroom. It was a mundane coincidence, yet all the cards had fallen into place.
Of course, the variable of risk remained, but Mahito chose to ignore it. The instinct of a Cursed Spirit—the primal urge to trample and curse humanity—had finally clawed its way to the surface.
Mahito mapped Kadoc's path with precision.
He divided his physical form into microscopic fragments, blending his presence into the ambient noise of the crowd until it was virtually nonexistent.
His Cursed Technique was Idle Transfiguration. By touching the soul, he could reshape flesh into any nightmare imaginable—or alter his own form at will.
Objects. Animals. Even a translucent, gelatinous mass.
In this fluid state, Mahito slithered through the airport's plumbing like a phantom serpent, tracking Kadoc's position. A double hidden in a remote area carried ninety percent of his presence; the true core, slithering toward the target, possessed less than ten.
Discovery meant certain death. But the smallest fragment was the vital one.
Thirty minutes after Kadoc arrived at the airport, the moment struck.
'There!'
Success. Mahito felt his hand, reaching out from the depths of the toilet drainage, make contact with Kadoc.
The target was a living anomaly—a being that destabilized Cursed Energy. To bypass that defense, Mahito thrust his hand toward the Master's internal organs. While the target could neutralize Cursed Energy, Mahito gambled that it couldn't be erased instantly. He needed only a fraction of a second.
However.
"Wait, what?"
The moment his hand touched the Master, it didn't transfigure. It disintegrated. His limb exploded with a violent pop, and his Cursed Technique was snuffed out before it could even activate.
A startled, idiotic sound escaped him, but only for a heartbeat. His body acted on pure survival instinct, recoiling in retreat.
The body of a Cursed Spirit is comprised of Cursed Energy, not blood and bone. When his Cursed Energy was destabilized, his physical form literally burst.
It was entirely outside his calculations.
'I didn't think the potency was this high...!'
Now a mere jelly-like blob three centimeters in diameter, Mahito scrambled back into the drainage pipe, sweating literal beads of cursed power. He knew the Master could neutralize Cursed Energy—he had witnessed it several times—but he hadn't expected a Special Grade's form to dissolve upon contact.
The reality far exceeded his imagination.
'Ambushing him like this won't work.'
He needed something stronger. Something chaotic. A subtle assassination was impossible; he would have to overwhelm the Master with sheer, destructive scale. Yet, doing so would alert every Jujutsu Sorcerer in Japan.
It was a tactical dead end.
'My preparations were insufficient.'
The ambush was a failure. While disappointing, Mahito at least came away with data. He now understood the exact intensity of that Cursed Energy neutralization.
'Is there a technique that can neutralize a neutralization? Probably not. The best option for now is simply to increase my output. Or perhaps... use a human proxy.'
He formulated a counter-strategy as he crawled through the sewer pipes. There would be another chance. He wasn't entirely disheartened, but one strange sensation lingered in his mind.
The technique had failed, yet... it felt as if he had grazed the Master's soul. Or perhaps he hadn't.
"How bothersome."
Mahito grimaced, his form sinking deeper into the filth until he was completely masked by the grime. He slid further into the dark.
It had been dangerous. The second I heard the concept of Idle Transfiguration, an instinctive chill of mortality washed over me. What if I hadn't been wearing my neutralization Mystic Code? I saw the future where my body would have detonated or twisted into something unrecognizably horrific.
"Master!"
Raiko slammed open the door to the men's restroom, her voice laced with panic.
I was lucky to be alone. If there had been a bystander, her grand entrance would have caused a public relations nightmare.
"Raiko. Relax. I'm okay."
"Are you truly unharmed? I felt the sudden presence of a vile insect and rushed as fast as I could..."
"It fled. I never imagined one of them would try to crawl out of the plumbing."
I forced a smile, acting as if it were a triviality. It had been close, but in the end, the intruder was the only one who had suffered. The fact that Mahito followed us to the airport to stage a hit was a problem, but...
I doubted he'd try the same thing twice. We couldn't let our guard down, but he had failed once, and he knew now how lethal approaching me directly could be.
'Wait, was that the technique he used in the original series?'
During the Shibuya Incident in Jujutsu Kaisen, Mahito fought Itadori with his main body while sending a clone to deal with Kugisaki Nobara. During that fight, his clone was hit by her resonance and forced to flee toward the subway where the original was hiding. Or perhaps it was during his battle against the duo of Itadori and Todo Aoi. In either case, he had split his existence. He likely used the same trick here.
"You're certain you're okay? You aren't just putting on a brave face for me?"
Raiko asked as she pulled me into a crushing embrace. My face was buried between her heavy breasts, the warmth and humidity fogging my senses. I hugged her back, patting her spine to soothe her.
I really wanted to reach down and squeeze her rear.
"Let's get out of here. If we linger, people will start staring, and everyone will get worried."
"Yes, Master. I will coordinate the others to begin the tracking immediately."
"It's fine. We probably won't catch him anyway."
Mahito used the drainage system to ambush and escape. Once the trail went cold in the sewers, catching him was impossible. We'd have to rip up the airport's entire plumbing system, and likely the walls as well, just to have a chance. And even then, there was no guarantee. It would be burning down the house just to catch a flea.
"But..."
"It's okay. We'll look for the next opening."
I led Raiko out of the restroom with my arm around her waist. I decided then and there—Raiko would be the one for tonight.
"Master, are you injured?"
Koyanskaya of Darkness—our Foreigner—was the first to ask as we reached the others. I gave her a nod of reassurance. I told them honestly: Mahito had appeared, and I had only survived because the Mystic Code's output had been upgraded recently.
"I'm alive because of you two—Foreigner and Assassin. Thank you."
If those two hadn't consistently maintained and upgraded my Mystic Codes, I would have been skewered by Idle Transfiguration. High-ranking sorcerers could survive a touch because they protected their souls with Cursed Energy. I was just an ordinary human. A direct hit would have made my body go pop instantly. I'd be nothing but a pile of warped meat.
"Big Brother, are you sure you're okay? I heard outside... it was a technique that messes with your soul, right?"
"Maybe you should have a sorcery-based check-up just in case?"
After the Servants vented their worries, Maki and Mai approached me, their voices trembling with genuine concern. Their natural physical affection and the fear in their eyes made me realize just how much they cared.
"I'm truly fine. Let's talk more when we get home."
I ushered my sisters and Servants toward the exit. We had planned to take the train, but Raiko had already rented a van. It took longer to drive, but it was far more comfortable. We arrived back at our apartment without having to struggle with our luggage in public.
"I will return the car and come right back."
"It would be worrisome to send Raiko alone. I will accompany her, so please be at ease."
Raiko dropped us off at the entrance and drove off, with Ushi-gozen as backup. I waited inside with the others. Once Raiko and Ushi-gozen returned, we finally gathered in the living room.
I took the head of the table, while the others settled around me.
"Mahito showing up now was unexpected, but it's not entirely logically impossible," I began, opening the floor by mentioning the name of our attacker.
In terms of the Jujutsu Kaisen timeline, his birth felt recent, but that was as much as I knew. His exact manifestation date was never specified. Thus, him appearing now wasn't a narrative error. He simply wasn't supposed to ambush someone in an airport restroom.
"The fact that he knew our exact route means there's a collaborator. Or, he's been hovering near us this entire time," said Koyanskaya of Light, our Assassin.
The thought was skin-crawling, but irrefutable.
"He must have monitored us from beyond our detection range. Otherwise, it would be impossible for none of us to notice a trace of him until now."
"Yes. Collaborators or surveillance—it's safe to assume both. We need to expand the patrol radius immediately."
"And just how wide a range are we talking about?" Shuten-douji asked, her eyes glittering dangerously.
The gentle, leisurely smile she usually wore had sharpened into a blade. She looked ready to tear the curse apart with her bare hands.
Assassin thought for a moment. "Ideally, the entirety of Adachi Ward. At the bare minimum, a five-kilometer radius around our home. What are your thoughts, Master?"
Five kilometers every single day. For a Servant, it was doable, but it was an incredibly grueling schedule.
"I appreciate the concern, everyone. But let's take a deep breath, alright?"
Idle Transfiguration was dangerous, but it wasn't the first time my life had been on the line. I had faced suffocating, terrifying odds before. Moments that were so desperate they defied logic. It hadn't always ended well, but we had overcome countless hurdles together.
Compared to those past catastrophes, this was actually somewhat mild.
I reminded the Servants of this fact. In their anger, they had temporarily forgotten the weight of our shared history.
"...You're right, Master. I was overreacting," Assassin sighed, nodding her head. The bloodthirst in the room dissipated, and the other Servants looked a bit more grounded.
Maki and Mai looked a bit confused, not having been part of those past lives, but they accepted the conclusion.
"Yeah. Still, I agree we should pay more attention to safety."
"And how would you like us to proceed?"
"Instead of being in Spirit Form as backup, let's have the active bodyguards stay manifested. Two Servants should be enough."
The brief window of time it takes to shift from Spirit Form to physical form... that was the vulnerability we needed to close. The Mystic Codes were working perfectly. Having a Servant visible and by my side at all times should solve most problems.
"And since they might target Maki and Mai, I'd like at least one of you to stay with them."
"Then we shall move in trios. That's perfectly manageable. In fact..."
Assassin looked around and smiled. Usually, such an assignment would be seen as a burden, but for them, it was a prize.
"Rotating every day is a hassle. How about weekly rotations?"
"A week is too short. Surely a month is more reasonable?"
"A month is far too long to wait!"
"Oh, it's not like we're being separated. It's just a matter of who's on high alert, right?"
"Ibuki-douji has a point. Look at it this way: when it's your turn, you get to stay glued to him for longer. And we still see him at home every day anyway. As long as we stick close..."
Spark of rivalry flew between the five Servants, excluding Assassin. It finally felt like things were back to normal.
"Well... I guess we can relax," I muttered.
"Looks like it," Maki agreed, her shoulders finally losing their tension.
It was enough for now.
Buzz. As our discussion wrapped up, my phone vibrated. It was a call from Naoya.
—Big Brother? Do you have a moment to talk?
"Yeah, Naoya. Perfect timing."
—Pardon?
I explained the incident with Mahito to a bewildered Naoya. Since he was on my side now, he needed to know what to watch out for.
—I see... A Cursed Spirit playing tricks? How incredibly presumptuous. And annoying.
Naoya muttered with a sigh. His irritation was palpable over the line.
"A sorcerer of your level wouldn't be taken out instantly, but be careful regardless."
—Yes, sir. Thank you for your concern. Now, about those Curse Users we discussed... I've caught three and have them 'preserved.' Where should I bring 'em?
Naoya asked politely. So that was why he called.
Curse Users. I had planned to use them without much thought, but after the Mahito incident, they felt like a more urgent necessity.
"You know Tokyo Jujutsu High, right? It might be inconvenient, but could you bring them there?"
—Ah, that's no trouble at all. Don't you worry about it. If you want, I can bring 'em today.
"That would be great. Thanks."
—Understood. I'll head out immediately then. See you soon.
I told him I was counting on him and hung up. I needed to let the Jujutsu High staff know as well.
'Strange. I feel surprisingly energized.'
I immediately dialed Yaga's number. My heart was beating slow, yet strong.