What had happened to them was completely beyond their control.
No warning signs. No buildup. It just... happened.
Who could deal with that?
"Yeah, I did find out a few things." Gojo nodded. "Last night I went to the Forbidden Library to find Betty. Wanted to ask her about the time reversal."
"And when I started telling her that I'd gone through a time reversal..."
He was mid-sentence when that strange sensation crept back in. The moment he felt the shift in the air around him, Gojo knew. Whatever had happened in the Forbidden Library the night before was about to play out again.
Right on cue.
A dark, slender hand, delicate as a woman's, materialized inside his chest cavity, rippling with that same eerie distortion.
This time, armed with experience, he didn't bother activating a domain or anything of the sort. Instead, he watched. Quietly. Carefully.
Once might not be enough to learn anything. But twice? Three times? If that hand kept showing up, sooner or later he'd catch something, pick apart whatever trick lay behind it.
Under his silent observation, the black hand crushed his heart again.
Blood surged up his throat and out past his lips. Gojo immediately began channeling Reverse Cursed Technique, converting his Cursed Energy to mend the damage.
Beside him, Subaru flinched at the sudden spray of crimson. "Gojo! What happened? Are you okay?"
With one round of practice under his belt, the heart repair went faster this time. He'd finished before Subaru even stopped talking.
"That's what happened to me last night. Some force is trying to stop me from talking about what we've been through."
"You mean the time reversal we went through, reliving everything from the start..."
A wet, muffled crack echoed from somewhere inside Gojo's body, and blood erupted from his mouth again. Subaru froze, completely lost.
Gojo, on the other hand, was on the verge of laughing out of sheer frustration.
Fine. Being forbidden from telling anyone about the time loop, having his heart crushed as punishment for trying... he could accept that. Silencing measures. Sure.
But why the hell could Subaru say it out loud while his heart was the one getting destroyed?
Pure double standard.
What kind of special treatment was this? Was this the gap between a protagonist and a supporting character?
He held up a hand to stop Subaru from saying anything else. Once his heart was whole again, Gojo fixed the other boy with a complicated look.
"Be honest with me. Do you have some kind of connection to the Witch Cult? Or are you involved with... someone?"
"What are you talking about?" Subaru's face scrunched up in confusion. "You were literally the first person I saw when I got transported here. We've been together the whole time. How would I be connected to the Witch Cult?"
That bewildered expression left Gojo with nothing to say. Because everything Subaru said was true. Not a single hole in it.
He'd watched with his own eyes as Subaru appeared out of thin air in that plaza. And from that moment on, they'd barely been apart. There had been zero opportunity for contact with anything like the Witch Cult.
Gojo said nothing. He repaired his heart one more time.
Once the healing was done, he grabbed Subaru and headed straight for the Forbidden Library.
He opened the door with practiced ease. Betty sat in her usual spot near the entrance, nose in a book.
The moment she spotted Gojo and Subaru, she clamped a hand over her nose.
"Barging in without knocking again. You have no manners whatsoever." She glared at them both. "And what exactly are you two trying to do? Turn Betty's Forbidden Library into a witch's garden? The stench you're carrying is unbearable."
She raised a hand, ready to expel them on the spot.
"Hold on, Betty." Gojo pulled Subaru forward. "I just have a few questions. I'll leave when I'm done."
"He's got the witch's scent on him too, right?"
"Correct. Not as strong as yours, but obvious enough." Betty kept her nose pinched, clearly committed to maintaining the pose until they were gone.
"Wait... the Witch of Envy?" Subaru pointed at himself, eyes wide.
"Who else can claim the title of 'witch' these days?" Betty replied flatly.
"You already know why I reek of it." Gojo leaned in. "But he was never attacked. So why does he carry the scent too? He had it even before I did."
He laid out the situation regarding Subaru's condition, hoping to hear Betty's analysis.
There was no other option. When it came to Cursed Energy, Gojo was the undisputed authority. But anything involving witches? He was flying blind. He'd only just gotten a handle on Mana itself. A being that existed only in the pages of history wasn't something he could research on his own.
"Who knows what he did to earn a witch's special attention." Betty pursed her lips. "Being watched so closely by a witch... you two really are a pair of walking disasters."
"Though, if everything you've told me is true, then judging from what you've both experienced, the scent might intensify with death. You've already felt that firsthand, haven't you?"
Death.
True enough. Any normal person would be long dead after having their heart crushed multiple times. Each appearance of that hand made the scent grow stronger, and that tracked.
But on the first loop, that night...
Gojo was absolutely certain he hadn't been attacked by anything strange.
As for Subaru...
He turned to him, serious. "Think carefully. That night, the first time around. Were you attacked by anything?"
Subaru frowned, racking his brain. "I really don't think so. Everything was normal, same as always. Right up until I went to sleep, nothing felt off. I didn't feel any pain during the night either. I just woke up and everything had changed."
Betty shrugged. "Then Betty doesn't know. Figure out the rest yourselves."
"Honestly, you've gone and ruined the air quality in here. The Forbidden Library has terrible ventilation, you know..."
The doors behind them swung open with a heavy boom. Betty's eviction order had been issued.
"Let's go." Gojo didn't linger this time. There was no point. They needed to use whatever time they had to figure out what was going on. Staying stuck in this loop wasn't an option.
"So what do we do now?" Subaru asked once they were outside.
Compared to figuring things out on his own, Subaru had clearly started treating Gojo as the one calling the shots. Stronger, more capable, more composed. A natural anchor.
"For now, let's not change anything from the first loop." Gojo folded his arms. "Whatever happened that night, something we didn't notice, something that caused all of this... we let it come to us. Keep everything the same as before, right up until that night. Then we stay awake and watch. See what actually happens."
Since they'd both been asleep and oblivious when the reversal hit, the plan was simple. Do everything the same. When the night arrived, skip the sleep. Wait and observe.
Meet the unknown head-on.
That was Gojo's choice.
It sounded crude, maybe even stupid. But it was the most direct and effective approach. Face whatever that pivotal night threw at them. No tricks. No complications.
"So you're saying I should just... do everything over? Go on the date with Emilia and all that?"
"Yep."
"Keep things as close to identical as possible. You know the butterfly effect. Change too much and events could spiral away from what we experienced the first time around."
"Got it." Subaru nodded. Maintaining the status quo was easy enough.
And going on a date with Emilia again?
Forget doing it twice. He'd do it a thousand times, ten thousand times, and it would still be worth getting excited about.
"Leave it to me!" He thumped his chest, brimming with resolve.
With a plan settled between them, the rest was just letting things play out naturally.
Subaru's end wasn't a concern. The guy hadn't taken the situation to heart at all, or rather, for the time being, he didn't see a downside. More time to spend with Emilia, more chances to understand her, to build something for the future. If anything, it made him happy.
Gojo, meanwhile, kept himself busy. He spent the vast majority of his time holed up in the Forbidden Library, focused on one thing: finding clues.
Not much different from the first loop, really. His primary activity remained the same: bothering Betty.
"Seriously, how long are you planning to camp out in here?" She glowered at him over the top of her book. "Showing up like clockwork every single day. Did I wrong you in a past life?"
It was the second morning. Gojo had eaten breakfast under Rem's watchful gaze, then made a beeline for the Library.
Same as before, Betty had resisted the uninvited guest. Same as before, it was useless.
Against someone this shameless, all she could do was adapt and accept. What was the alternative? Unleash high-level magic inside the Forbidden Library?
"Of course not. Betty's always been my favorite, then and now." Gojo smiled brightly, not a shred of hesitation in his voice.
"If you like me, stay far away from me." She scowled. "This one-sided obsession of yours is what normal people call being a creep."
She'd spent so many years accustomed to solitude. And now this... this person had wedged himself into her space and refused to leave.
What truly worried Betty wasn't the reading or the endless questions. It was the fear that she'd grow used to his company, only for him to vanish one day, leaving her alone again.
If that happened...
She might genuinely break.
"By the way, Rem seems to really hate the scent of the witch too. Do you know what that's about?"
Rem's reaction had been nagging at Gojo for a while.
"Those two." Betty flipped a page without looking up. "They're the last surviving members of the Oni Clan."
"The Witch Cult slaughtered the rest."
"On the night the clan was wiped out, Ram lost her horn protecting Rem. The horn is the source of an Oni's power, and the Witch Cult cut it right off." She paused. "So how do you think she feels about anyone connected to the Witch Cult?"
"Makes sense." Gojo nodded slowly.
Her family and friends, butchered by the Witch Cult. Her own sister's strength, stolen by them. That was a grudge that ran deep enough to never heal.
Rem's wariness was more than justified.
"Not that it matters to you, though." Betty glanced up. "You can rebuild a shattered heart. Even if Rem poisoned you, it probably wouldn't stick."
"I never said Rem would do something like that. I'm actually pretty fond of her." He leaned back. "She makes incredible desserts."
"Flirtatious creep." Betty's lip curled with disdain, and she closed the book in her hands.
"So you've decided to just sit here in my Library until that day comes?"
"That's the plan. Keep everything the same. Best possible approach." Gojo stretched, lounging lazily against a bookshelf. "When the day finally arrives, we observe closely and figure out where things went wrong."
"A stupid plan." Betty didn't mince words.
"But effective, isn't it?" He grinned. "Unless the lovely Betty has a better idea?"
"Why would I waste my time thinking of plans for you? You're just a man who only has a few days left to live."
Something in that sentence seemed to strike a nerve. The little Spirit's mood visibly darkened.
"How hurtful. Here I am, spending what limited time I have left keeping you company, and that's what I get."
"Betty never asked you to do that."
"If you had any sense, you'd disappear from Betty's sight."
"Harsh as ever."
The days slipped past, and Gojo's time in the Forbidden Library yielded no new breakthroughs. He didn't bother asking anyone besides Betty about the time reversal. Having his heart crushed was harmless to him, sure, but the sensation was still deeply unpleasant.
Besides, if Betty, a Great Spirit who'd lived for centuries, didn't have the answers...
...
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