Zen'in Naobito was well aware of his brother's ambitions, but they were laughably trivial. His position wasn't owed to having a superior son; it was owed to his own strength as a sorcerer. Ogi, mistaking the symptom for the cause, would forever chase shadows.
Yet, Ogi's gambit served a purpose. It highlighted an asset Naobito had overlooked: a second, younger Heavenly Restriction user within the clan's own walls. The "stigma" of zero cursed energy could be rebranded overnight into a mark of destiny, the sacred counterpart to the Ten Shadows. Perception was a pliable thing.
"Since the Clan Head has spoken, I cannot easily refuse," Kamo said, appearing to concede. "However, these are natural-born twins. Success is not guaranteed. Let us agree on terms after the fact."
He proposed the deal: "If you trust me, allow me to take the girls for a period of study. Regardless of the outcome, I will return them unharmed."
It was an offer they couldn't refuse. Potential gain, zero risk. Preparations were made, and Kamo left an address—not his Jishi Island fortress, but a secure, unassuming property near Jujutsu High, maintained by a caretaker puppet.
The next day, the Zen'in delivered their package: two girls of about ten, quiet and wary amidst a small mountain of luggage.
Maki had uneven, choppy short hair that somehow magnified her defiant spark. Her eyes held a restless, probing curiosity. Mai, with her neatly trimmed bob, was her shadow, quieter, more contained.
After dismissing the Zen'in servants, Kamo attempted to bridge the gap. "I am Kamo Itsuki. You may call me Mr. Kamo. What did your family tell you?"
Maki answered without hesitation, her voice clear. "Father said you can fix our problem. That we should do everything you say and not make you angry." Mai nodded in silent agreement.
"Whether I can 'fix' it remains to be seen," Kamo replied. "But the part about not making me angry is true. I can be quite terrifying." He attempted a mock-scary face. It landed with a thud of utter indifference.
'I really am better suited to a lab,' he sighed inwardly.
He gave them a tour, assigned them rooms, and presented his "welcome gifts": two adorable calico cats. They were, of course, sophisticated surveillance and protection puppets in convincing feline form. "If you need anything, tell them. They'll look after you when I'm not here."
With that, and after obtaining initial blood samples from each girl, he retreated to his basement laboratory, leaving the sisters to their new, strange environment.
Under the sterile light, his analysis began.
"Compared to Toji's blood…" he murmured, examining the spectral data through his newly-integrated Six Eyes. "Maki's body does retain residual cursed energy. It's not an absolute zero. It's a… flawed suppression. A leaky seal."
The problem wasn't that she lacked potential; it was that her body was caught in a tug-of-war. A whisper of cursed energy was present, just enough to blind her to the spirit world and act as a psychological anchor to "weakness," but not enough to be usable. Her physical enhancement was a compromise, a partial payment for a restriction not fully realized.
It was a fascinating biological and metaphysical paradox. Toji was a clean slate—a perfect, closed system. Maki was a system with a short circuit, her power bleeding away as interference.
Kamo's mind, armed with the Six Eyes' perfect perception and his deep knowledge of Blood Manipulation's power to rewrite biology on a fundamental level, began drafting solutions. He wasn't just looking for a cure. He was looking for an optimization. Could he not only "fix" the leak but enhance the physical grant? Could he turn a flawed restriction into a perfected one?
The Prison Realm sat on a shelf, a solved problem. The real, living puzzle was now in the rooms above him, and it was infinitely more compelling.
"The blood of Maki and Mai... it intertwines, yet maintains distinct separation. Fascinating. The biology of twins is a marvel in itself," Kamo mused, peering through layers of spectral analysis. "Maki's Heavenly Restriction must be the catalyst for this unique resonance. I wonder if this duality manifests in other sorcerer twins..."
Questions bred more questions, a chain reaction of intellectual curiosity that consumed him. Nearly a month slipped by in a blur of focused research before a coherent theory began to crystallize.
"The awakening might require a near-death threshold for one of them," he hypothesized, notes scrawled across a digital pad. "But physical trauma alone is insufficient. The body is a vessel; the core is the soul-link. Their destinies are interwoven. To perfect one restriction... may require manipulating the bond itself."
He paused, a profound insight dawning. "My Domain Expansion... the Scarlet Lotus Treasury Domain. It operates on the soulscape. It doesn't attack; it edits. If anything can safely recalibrate that intertwined spiritual connection, it would be that."
Upstairs, in the world of the living, a different kind of reconciliation was taking place.
Thrust into an unfamiliar world, the initial distance between Maki and Mai—born of differing responses to their shared "curse"—began to close. Maki, defiant and driven, burned with a need to prove her strength. Mai, resigned and weary, saw her sister's struggle as a futile torment.
But in Kamo's quiet, puppet-tended house, with no familiar scornful eyes upon them, they only had each other. Fear of the unknown drove Mai to seek comfort, and Maki's protective instincts, long buried under frustration, resurfaced. She moved into Mai's room. They slept curled together for warmth and safety.
Time passed in a strange, peaceful limbo. They braided each other's hair, played simple games in the garden, cared for their mysterious calico companions, and learned to cook simple meals together. Leaning against the window in the late afternoon, watching the sunset paint the sky, they could almost forget the weight of the Zen'in name.
On one such evening, as the light turned gold and violet, Maki's calico cat padded over. It dropped a small, lacquered wooden box at her feet.
Intrigued, Maki picked it up. Mai leaned in, their heads touching. Inside, resting on velvet, was a single, perfectly crafted bloom of a crimson lotus, its petals seeming to hold a faint inner light.
As they stared at the unnatural flower, Mai suddenly gasped. A violent shiver wracked her small frame. Her eyes widened, staring not at the lotus, but at a point just behind Maki's shoulder.
She slowly, painfully, turned her head.
Her face drained of all color. Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before a choked, terrified whisper escaped.
"C-Cursed Spirit..."
For the first time in her life, Zen'in Mai was seeing what her sister had always been blind to, and what she herself had only sensed as a vague dread: the invisible world of curses. The trigger—the crimson lotus, a fragment of Kamo's domain made manifest—had momentarily bridged the gap in her perception, a side effect of the deep soul-resonance Kamo was studying.
The unintended experiment was a success. And it had just unveiled the terrifying reality of their world to the more reluctant twin.