Since entering the Black Hole came with the need to resist gravity, Mahiru naturally had to find some way to obtain an anti-gravity Technique for herself as well.
She definitely wasn't going to learn Satoru Gojo's "Limitless," because without the "Six Eyes" and Satoru Gojo's own caliber of power, basically no one could ever wield Limitless properly.
And so, her foremost target was still that anti-gravity Technique in Kenjaku's hands.
But there was no way she could just pluck the anti-gravity Technique directly off of Kenjaku.
So she set her sights on Yuji Itadori's mother instead.
In fact, Kenjaku's anti-gravity Technique had originated from Yuji Itadori's mother—Kaori Itadori.
No—calling Kaori Itadori Yuji Itadori's mother wasn't quite right, either. Long ago, Kenjaku had hijacked Kaori Itadori's body, then, under the identity of "Kaori Itadori," married Yuji Itadori's father and thereby gave birth to Yuji Itadori.
So, in the general sense, Kaori Itadori had already died the very moment Kenjaku took over her body. The true "Itadori's mother" was, in fact, Kenjaku.
But the Technique most certainly belonged to Kaori Itadori herself, and right now Mahiru was scheming after it.
Don't forget—earlier, while the girl had used her rapid-learning method to learn Urogi Kyoko's Jujutsu Technique, she had also picked up the Spirit-Calling Granny's Technique along the way.
If she could get hold of Kaori Itadori's remains, then she could use the Spirit-Calling Technique to summon forth the soul of Kaori Itadori from before her body was hijacked. That way, Mahiru could learn the anti-gravity Technique from Kaori Itadori's soul.
That was why, a moment ago, Mahiru had asked that question that sounded just a touch impolite.
"My mother?" Yuji Itadori blinked, dazed. "What kind of question is that?"
"Ahem, it's just... uh, it's just that I figured—since Big Brother Itadori has such a good personality, then the Auntie Itadori who gave birth to Big Brother Itadori must have been a very good person too, right..."
Because she had a guilty conscience, Mahiru's voice even turned a little more demure.
Blinking her big eyes, she told a lie: "So... I just wanted to go and pay my respects..."
It sounded a bit like a load of nonsense.
The girl had no choice but to lie... it would be stranger if she didn't lie right now.
Any normal person who heard that someone wanted to dig up their mom's grave would surely get angry, wouldn't they?
So Mahiru didn't dare say it outright, and could only inquire about it on the sly.
Though, in truth, she couldn't even be sure whether Yuji Itadori's mother's body had safely made it into a grave at all.
Cremation or burial wasn't the issue; the main thing was that this body had once been hijacked by Kenjaku, so that body might very well still be in Kenjaku's hands even now.
If that really were the case, then Mahiru would have no choice but to switch to some other approach.
Fortunately, Yuji Itadori blinked and gave the very answer Mahiru had been hoping for: "Mom, she... her ashes are buried in a grave!"
Mahiru's eyes lit up: "That's wonderful!"
"Uh, uh?" Yuji Itadori went blank again. "Wonderful... in what way?"
He still hadn't grasped just what sort of wicked deed Mahiru was up to.
"No, I mean—being able to pay my respects to your mother, Big Brother Itadori... I feel so honored!" Mahiru waved her hands.
"Ah, oh... is that so?"
Mahiru's innocent, adorable appearance really did look so well-behaved that it always made people instinctively lower their guard.
So although the boy instinctively felt that something was off somewhere, in the end he chose not to dwell on it.
Who could ever have guessed that Mahiru had her eye on his mom? Ahem.
Mahiru cleared her throat inwardly.
Saying she "had her eye on it" sounded a bit unpleasant, but this time, Mahiru really wasn't just messing around for fun.
The matter of rescuing Yuki Tsukumo—even setting aside Mahiru's personal feelings—was something she absolutely had to see through, because Yuki Tsukumo was a textbook Special Grade combat asset who would definitely play a huge role in the events to come.
She might even become the key to clearing Jujutsu Kaisen.
Ah, she could hardly hold herself back.
After getting the news that Yuji Itadori's mother's ashes still existed, Mahiru's little scheme was already growing hard to keep in check.
She really had to hurry and go confirm it.
The girl had landed a Black Flash, and the boost from her "No-Self" state was slowly fading—yet her own understanding of Jujutsu Technique, of the soul, and of Cursed Energy had already climbed another step higher. She felt that many things she couldn't do before, she could now give a try.
When it came to the technique of "extracting bodily and soul information"... Mahiru was confident that her own "skill" was absolutely superior to the Spirit-Calling Granny's; even using nothing but the dregs of ashes, she could probably pull off a perfect spirit-calling.
Her only fear was that Yuji Itadori's mom's body had been swapped out and the ashes weren't the real thing—that would be the most troublesome scenario of all.
...She really had to hurry and go take a look!
"Ahem, ahem, ahem, um, you two—actually, I've still got some rather important business to take care of." Mahiru coughed a couple of times. "So I'm going to have to excuse myself for a bit."
"Important business?" Yuji Itadori tilted his head, then his eyes went wide. "Right! You're right! Fushiguro is still in the hands of that man who calls himself Fushiguro's father! We have to go find her!"
Ah, right—now that you mention it, that really is the case.
Things had been so hectic just now that she'd carelessly forgotten all about Fushiguro, who'd been spirited away by Toji... Right now there was no telling where Fushiguro even was.
"Right, right, right—we still have to go find Big Sis Fushiguro."
Mahiru readily went along with it.
"You've all got my contact info anyway, right? I'll give you one of my clones to serve as an alarm." Mahiru tossed Yuji Itadori a little blue token. "If anything urgent comes up, get in touch with me—I'm off!"
Her head full of nothing but the matter of Yuji Itadori's mom, Mahiru—after confirming that her Technique's fuse-out had finished—hurriedly rose to her feet, ready to take her leave.
And it was right at this moment that their phones chimed—they'd received an internal message from Jujutsu High. Yes—this time, Mahiru's phone could receive the message too.
The fact that the girl was a Cursed Spirit had already been exposed.
For her to still be receiving Jujutsu High's messages under these circumstances... could only mean that Yaga, too, now regarded Mahiru as one of his own.
"They were hijacked?" Yuji Itadori stared at his phone, slightly stunned, then abruptly shot to his feet. "A curse user has appeared and made off with Jujutsu High's cursed objects and prisoners?!"
Mahiru had seen the message too.
The Black Hole's original trajectory was set to pass through Jujutsu High. To protect the cursed objects in the storehouse, Jujutsu High had moved some of the important ones out of the warehouse ahead of time, transferring them toward a Jujutsu High safehouse outside Tokyo.
And just now—roughly ten minutes ago—while they were locked in their showdown with the Black Hole, the prison transport carrying Urogi Kyoko and the Spirit-Calling Granny was waylaid; the two prisoners were rescued away, and at the same time, the Jujutsu High convoy responsible for transporting the important cursed objects was robbed as well.
The two culprits who had appeared before the two convoys this time were both said to be extremely formidable.
According to eyewitness reports, one of them was a young man wielding a long staff, with lightning-like Cursed Energy crackling all over his body; the other was someone with their body concealed within a hood, of a build leaning toward feminine, whose Jujutsu Technique could interfere with—and even annihilate—the Jujutsu Techniques of other sorcerers.
"?" Reading the message, Mahiru froze right where she stood for a moment.
No way...
At the sight of the intel, the names of these two people sprang up at once in Mahiru's mind.
Wasn't this the angel Hana Kurusu... and Hajime Kashimo?!
Had Kenjaku actually dragged these two out as well??
____
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