Just thinking about it made me let out a long sigh.
But in the end, there was no other choice. A perfect disguise required consistency. If I appeared too smart, people would start paying attention to me.
If I looked too different, someone would eventually begin to wonder. On the other hand, if I appeared ordinary—just a small child who did not stand out in any particular way—then my existence would be far safer.
The more ordinary I looked, the less likely anyone would suspect what was truly going on.
Meanwhile, Shizuka and Rika were now ten years old. Time really passed quickly. They were currently in their fifth year of elementary school, and from the outside they looked like normal children who were growing up healthy.
However, the reality behind that appearance was completely different.
Those two girls had gone through things that children their age should never have experienced. They had witnessed the darker side of the world, faced real threats, and even experienced battles where their lives were at stake. During that process, they had also awakened their own Innate Techniques.
Experiences like that were clearly not something normal for ten-year-old children.
But for them, it had already become part of their lives.
On the other hand, Mei Mei was now eleven years old.
I slowly counted it in my head, trying to match the various fragments of information that still remained in my memory. If the current year was 2000 and Mei Mei was eleven years old, then by 2006 she would be seventeen.
Wait a moment.
Shouldn't Mei Mei have already graduated from Tokyo Jujutsu High by 2006?
The memories from my previous world felt fairly clear—or at least I had always believed so. If Mei Mei had been born in the year I remembered, then the timeline should not be progressing like this. Something in my calculations did not match.
Was I the one remembering it wrong?
Or was this world actually a little different from the one I once knew?
Damn.
An uneasy feeling slowly crept into my thoughts. I could not rely solely on memories or assumptions. Even a small mistake in understanding the timeline could cause major errors in the future, especially if it involved important figures in the Jujutsu world.
Without wasting any time, I immediately asked Mei Mei to help gather more detailed information. I requested that she search for data regarding the birth years of several important figures in the Jujutsu world.
If there truly was a shift in the timeline, then I had to know it from the beginning.
A few days later, the report I requested finally arrived.
At first, I read it calmly. But the further I read, the longer I fell silent.
There were indeed differences.
According to the information that had been gathered, Satoru Gojo and Shoko Ieiri were born in the same year as Suguru Geto—1990, not 1989 as I remembered.
That meant they were currently ten years old.
Utahime Iori had been born in 1988, not 1987 like in my memories.
And Mei Mei herself had actually been born in 1989.
In other words, the current situation was slightly different from what I had imagined. Utahime was now twelve years old. Mei Mei was eleven. Meanwhile, Satoru, Shoko, and Suguru were ten years old—the same age as Shizuka and Rika.
A difference of one year might sound small to most people.
However, in a world like this, one year could mean many things. It could affect someone's level of strength, the time they entered Jujutsu school, and even the relationships that formed between them.
I fell silent as I thought about all of that.
Could all of this be happening because the world I was in was actually a Crossover world?
A world where multiple realities mixed together, where timelines did not completely follow their original paths, and where characters from different stories could appear within the same reality.
If that were the case, then small changes in the timeline would not be something impossible.
When two or more worlds are forced to exist within the same reality, the balance of time would inevitably adjust itself.
Events that were supposed to happen in a certain year might shift. Someone's birth could occur earlier or later. Even the sequence of events I once knew might no longer unfold exactly as I remembered.
However, the real question was not merely about differences in birth years.
Was this change limited only to small details like the numbers of years?
Or would those changes spread further?
What if there was someone who was supposed to exist in this world… yet was never born?
Or the opposite—someone who should have never appeared at all, yet somehow existed in this world?
The thought made my chest feel slightly tight. If the structure of this world was more different than I had assumed all this time, then some of my knowledge might no longer be fully reliable. Information that I had always considered an advantage could easily turn into something misleading.
And in a game like this, information was the most important weapon.
Damn. But thinking about the worst possibilities for too long would not give me any answers. There were still too many things that could not be confirmed yet. Rather than getting trapped in endless speculation, it would be better for me to focus on the things I could still control.
Besides, there was something far more urgent to think about.
If the timeline could change, then threats might appear earlier… or perhaps much later than I anticipated. I could no longer rely solely on calculations based on old memories.
That was why I decided to expand my security network.
So far, the headquarters located in Akiruno City had been fairly safe. Its location was hidden, and most people were not even aware that it existed. However, a single location was not enough for the long term.
It was true that I possessed the Ten Gates Gauntlet—an item that allowed me to return to the main base whenever I needed to. With that tool, distance was no longer a major problem.
Even so, relying too heavily on a single place was not a wise decision.
There would always be the possibility of encountering someone who possessed the ability to track energy or read traces of movement. If that happened, leading them directly to the main headquarters would only create unnecessary risk.
Rather than letting that happen, it would be better to make them believe that I constantly moved from place to place.
That was why I asked Mei Mei to purchase several houses in different cities across Japan. Not too many, but enough to form a proper network of safe houses.
The location of each house was chosen carefully. They were not placed in areas that were too conspicuous, but neither were they too isolated to the point of attracting suspicion. The surroundings had to feel normal—a place where an additional house would not draw anyone's attention.
After all those properties were secured, I began my work.
One by one, those bases were strengthened with various Cursed Tools that I created myself.
Some of the tools were specifically designed to disguise the fluctuations of Cursed Energy inside the buildings, making the presence of energy within them almost impossible to detect from the outside. There were also layered defensive barriers capable of withstanding physical attacks as well as certain levels of cursed techniques.
In addition, I installed an early warning system. If someone attempted to track energy or infiltrate the base's area, the system would immediately react.
Each location was also equipped with basic survival necessities. Supplies of dried food, clean water, backup generators, storage rooms for weapons and equipment, and even a small medical room for emergency situations.
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