So what exactly is the situation right now?
Thanks to the efforts of those three—Jogo, Hanami, and Kin-chan—everyone on the internet across all of Japan now knows that Mahiru and her group have settled down and made themselves at home in this area.
On the sorcerers' side, there are two factions.
One faction is the old guard. When they heard that Mahiru had settled down here and was even brazenly passing herself off as a local earth god, they all flew into a super-ultra rage, frantically clamoring to send people to deal with Mahiru and the others.
The other faction is Satoru Gojo's faction—that is, the Tokyo Jujutsu High faction—and they are now Mahiru's allies.
The old guard kept egging the Gojo faction to hurry up and send people to deal with Mahiru, but the Gojo faction said the matter of the black hole still hadn't been resolved, and if they wanted it done they could go do it themselves—pretty much going all-in on a "let's pretend we don't know Mahiru is over there" approach.
As a result, the situation Mahiru and her group are in right now is rather peculiar.
Every sorcerer knows where Mahiru is, and they all know that Mahiru and her bunch of Cursed Spirits are brazenly settling into an area—even with a hint of carving out territory and gathering followers.
But amid all the chaos and turmoil, not a single person came to this area to make trouble. Even the sorcerers who had previously been dispatched here for disaster relief were all obediently reassigned elsewhere.
And just like that, this whole region became Mahiru's domain.
As for why Yuji and the others came over here—it wasn't really that they had nothing better to do and came to hang out with Mahiru.
It seemed Yuji's side had gotten a lead on Megumi Fushiguro, but for some reason had hit a snag, which was why they'd come to Mahiru for help.
Incidentally, it seemed Naobito Zenin and Mechamaru had already been found, and they were both still alive—which was a good thing.
But what was rather exasperating was that the hibernation pod Mechamaru and Naobito were in had been designed to be somewhat sturdy, and rather precise too, so opening it rashly might cause an accident. So the sorcerers were now racking their brains, studying how to open the hibernation pod without harming the two of them.
So when Yuji came to see Mahiru tomorrow, it was possible this matter would come up as well.
After all, with her Domain, Mahiru could surely fish the two of them out unharmed.
In any case, no matter how you sliced it, tomorrow Mahiru had to go out and get to work.
"Kaori, there's an important piece of common knowledge I need to tell you." Patting the girl on the shoulder, Mahiru put on a serious face. "In Neon, there are actually hundreds of girls named Kaori."
The girl slowly typed out a question mark.
"So having the same name is perfectly normal," Mahiru added.
Kaori had in fact known Jujutsu Technique before she died, but the jujutsu world had no intelligence indicating that "Kaori is a sorcerer." So all the way until her death—until her body was taken over—Kaori had kept her identity as a sorcerer concealed.
Mahiru and Yuji had arranged to meet tomorrow, and the meeting spot was in one of the nearby villages, not too far away.
The girl had only just crossed over into this world; on the surface she seemed very calm, but inside she was extremely tense.
Mahiru worried that if the girl went on like this, problems might arise, so she'd asked Jogo and the others to take the girl out for a stroll tomorrow.
When that time came, she might just run into Yuji.
In truth, making sure Yuji and Kaori didn't meet tomorrow would actually be quite simple.
But since she'd decided to keep Kaori and raise her as… uh, as a daughter, Yuji and Kaori meeting was only a matter of time.
So whether it happened sooner or later didn't really matter.
What's more, Yuji's spare attention was rather low right now; if he didn't get suspicious on the first meeting, it'd be even harder for him to get suspicious afterward.
"One more thing, little Kaori—do you really not want to learn Jujutsu Technique?" Mahiru asked earnestly.
Mahiru had long since explained to Kaori that she wanted to obtain something she desired from Kaori, and to this little Kaori had agreed. But when Mahiru explained to her "what Jujutsu Technique is" and asked Kaori whether she wanted to learn it… little Kaori hesitated.
"If you learn Jujutsu Technique, you'll be able to protect yourself in the future," Mahiru said. "Although I'll protect you forever, I also hope you'll have at least a little ability to protect yourself."
"Sorry, big sister Mahiru." Little Kaori, all soft and meek, shrank back slightly. "Could you give me some time to think it over?"
Ah, that's fair too. Kaori had only just crossed over into this world, and everything before her eyes had changed; right now she was surely full of fear and confusion. To press the girl into making even more decisions at a time like this really was too unkind.
"It's all right, you have plenty of time to find your own rhythm." Mahiru reached out and stroked Kaori's head, smiling gently and softly. "I'll protect you forever."
Oh.
Mahiru realized that stroking Kaori's head might be a little impolite, after all, she and Kaori weren't all that close yet. She hurriedly pulled her hand back. But, to Mahiru's slight surprise, Kaori didn't seem all that put off by it.
"I'll go boil you some milk to drink!" Mahiru put her hands on her hips, her voice turning cheerful. "Tomorrow I'll have Jogo and the others take you out for a stroll!"
Though with the whole surrounding area being an earthquake disaster zone, even if they wanted to stroll there wasn't much worth strolling around to see.
…
The next day.
It was still morning when Yuji and Nobara Kugisaki arrived at the town location they'd agreed upon.
"Is this all stuff Mahiru and her people are rescuing?" Nobara looked around.
Many of the houses in this town had collapsed, but looking at it now, there were already some wooden structures—things that looked like trees—propping those houses back up.
In the distance there were also all sorts of log cabins built from timber, with many people whose houses had been destroyed now living inside them.
Although this place had only just gone through a disaster and people had been displaced, the atmosphere in the village wasn't gloomy or sorrowful at all; everyone was actively carrying out reconstruction.
Even in the simple wooden school, the students had already started classes again.
This place was brimming with life and vitality, not at all what a disaster-stricken area was supposed to look like.
All of this… was thanks to Mahiru and her group.
Ah.
Yuji and Nobara spotted that girl with the short white hair from before… though now it was probably more fitting to call her a Cursed Spirit.
She was over there helping move things.
To be honest, it was hard not to notice her, because the thing the girl was carrying was just too eye-catching.
She was actually hauling a steel coil.
An enormous steel coil weighing twenty or thirty tons was being slowly carried on the girl's shoulder, from far off drawing nearer, all the way until she walked into the construction site. She set the steel coil down on the ground with a clang, and all the workers watching around her broke into applause, letting out cheers and clapping like a tidal wave crashing down.
"Is that a steel coil or what kind of coil?" The corner of Nobara's mouth twitched.
Wasn't that a bit over the top?
"Oh, right, she's apparently a magical girl or something." Yuji rubbed his chin. "So that seems fine, then."
How is that fine in any way—it's a huge problem, okay?
Yuji texted Mahiru on his phone to ask whether she'd arrived. Mahiru replied that she'd overslept, would be there soon, and was also complaining about why Jogo and the others had gone out without waking her up.
Since that was the case, Nobara and Yuji could only wait.
Bored out of his mind, Yuji started looking around aimlessly, and ended up discovering that there was actually a pachinko parlor right next to them.
Yuji blinked.
In Neon, pachinko parlors are a kind of disguised casino, and minors are forbidden from entering and spending money there.
Nobara Kugisaki sidled over and saw that Yuji was looking at that pachinko parlor: "What, are you interested in this kind of thing?"
Yuji cleared his throat and dodged the subject: "How could I possibly be interested in something like that…"
Actually, Yuji had once snuck into a pachinko parlor before and even gambled a round or two.
It's just that this was illegal, so he didn't quite dare tell anyone.
Nobara looked at that pachinko parlor; because of the earthquake, the shopfront was damaged and there weren't many people inside anymore.
The girl's tone suddenly turned a bit curious: "Come to think of it, how exactly do you play this pachinko stuff?"
"Mmm…" Yuji glanced left and right, and only after seeing there was no one nearby did he lower his voice with relief, "Actually, I know, you know… I snuck into a pachinko parlor and played before… do you want to hear?"
"!!!" Hearing this, Nobara was first shocked, then broke into a teasing, wicked grin. "Oh my? I never imagined that our good boy classmate Yuji had actually done such a naughty thing…"
"No…" Yuji scratched his head, trying to explain, "Back then I only tried it out a little…"
"WHAT?!?!——"
No one had anticipated it—an ultra-high-decibel little girl's voice suddenly rang out in the ears of the two of them, giving them both a fright.
The two turned their heads to look and found a girl with short black hair, of middle-school age, standing with her hands on her hips and her eyes glaring, fixing Yuji Itadori with a furious stare, as though her hackles had shot up.
"You, a minor, actually went and played pachinko?!"
The girl who had been gentle and meek all this time was now like a mother tiger with her fur bristling.
As the boy and girl stood there in shock, the middle-school girl took two steps as three, came over with a little hop, and grabbed Yuji by the ear in one yank.
Her voice was furious beyond measure.
"How dare you go and play pachinko?!"
____
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