Speculation and Crêpes

After everything was over, all that remained in the basement was swirling dust, tumbling rubble, and a muffled groan someone was desperately trying to suppress.

At that moment, Toho Tetsu also emerged from a mysterious state.

Just moments ago, he had landed another Black Flash. This time, he had not passed out. Instead, he had experienced the entire process from start to finish.

At the instant he unleashed the Black Flash, he clearly sensed the flow of every bit of cursed energy within his body. It felt as though a microscope had been placed inside him, leaving nowhere for even the smallest currents to hide.

Unfortunately, the sensation came and went quickly. His cursed energy soon returned to its usual state, but that profound feeling had already been deeply etched into his mind.

Perhaps there would be another chance in the future...

After confirming that the cursed spirit's presence had completely vanished, he put away Fudōmaru despite his lingering regret, then immediately turned and ran toward Utahime Iori.

Once he released the excessive cursed energy reinforcement, even his calves trembled slightly. But he could not spare any attention for that now. He hurried to the girl lying on the ground.

Her eyes were tightly shut. Cold sweat had seeped from her forehead and soaked her hair, while her face was twisted tightly as if she were enduring some unbearable torture.

That made his movements gentler. He carefully reached a palm still smeared with a little blood toward her shoulder.

"Senpai? Are you okay...?"

The instant his hand touched her body, she shuddered violently before struggling to open her eyes.

"Is it... taken care of?"

"Yeah, it's taken care of. Do you feel unwell anywhere? Are you hurt?"

Seeing the worry and concern in his eyes, the girl instead felt a trace of guilt welling up inside her.

She did not know why that cursed spirit's technique had such an effect, but the black mist had clearly enveloped both of them. If she had felt pain, then Toho Tetsu should have felt the same pain as well.

Yet he had endured it and exorcised the cursed spirit, while she could only hide to the side and wait for everything to end. This was no longer merely a difference in strength...

Seeing her remain silent, Toho Tetsu grew even more worried.

"Senpai? Are you all right? Should I contact Jujutsu High and have someone come over right away?"

Hearing nothing but concern in his voice, Utahime felt her nose sting. Still, she stubbornly shook her head, then held out her hand for Toho Tetsu to help her slowly rise to her feet.

"It's nothing... I just can't get used to that feeling yet. You were hit by that black mist too, right? Did you see it as well...?"

Seeing that she could still move with difficulty, Toho Tetsu let out a slight sigh of relief.

The cursed spirit's attack could make people see illusions and feel pain, but it seemed that it had not actually caused any physical damage.

Normally, he was mild-tempered. But whenever he thought of Utahime being hurt because she had gone on a mission with him, it was truly hard for him to remain calm.

But now was not the time to talk about that.

"I think I saw an illusion at the time... I don't know where it was, but it was within some collapsed ruins..."

He paused halfway through. He did not mention seeing Utahime, the others, and those people from the future lying dead. Instead, he brought up something more important.

"And there seemed to be a huge humanoid monster in the ruins. I don't know if it was a cursed spirit, but it felt terrifying."

Hearing this, Utahime, whom he was supporting as they walked out, froze. A flicker of surprise appeared on her face.

"You saw that monster too?"

Too?

Upon hearing that word, he realized that things might not be as simple as they had imagined. If the monster's ability merely dragged people into illusions, then they should have seen different scenes.

"Could it be..."

"Yes, I saw that monster too. I also seemed to be in a city in ruins, except there were some other people around me whom I didn't recognize, and they were hiding from that monster's attacks with me."

Halfway through speaking, her body trembled, as though the pain she had just experienced was returning.

"But that monster was too huge. My last memory in the illusion was a giant fist smashing down at me."

Seeing her grow pained again as she recalled that scene, Toho Tetsu tightened his grip on her hand slightly and comforted her in a low voice.

"It's okay, Senpai. It was only an illusion... That cursed spirit has already been dealt with."

Although he comforted Utahime with those words, his heart sank to the bottom. By now, he could almost conclude that there was definitely something wrong with that cursed spirit's technique.

The people Utahime did not recognize might have been their future selves, as well as the characters who appeared at the beginning of the main story.

They had also been attacked by that monster. Judging by the timeline, it was likely something that had happened before the point in time of his illusion.

And they had probably been wiped out completely, which was why he had seen their corpses.

In other words, the technique appeared to do nothing more than drag people into illusions and make them suffer the pain they felt before death, but in reality... it might even possess a slight ability to foresee the future.

Perhaps what they had seen in those illusions was something that might happen in the future.

But that did not make sense either. Wasn't the final boss of the original story supposed to be Ryomen Sukuna? Why had an unfamiliar monster he had never seen before appeared?

And even if it were such an enormous cursed spirit, there should have been ways to deal with it. Why would they end up facing such a future?

Unable to figure out the connections, he could only keep the matter in mind for now. He helped Utahime to the entrance of the abandoned hospital and contacted Jujutsu High.

Soon, several cars arrived. A few Assistant Supervisors got out together, and after he helped another female Assistant Supervisor escort Utahime into a car, he returned to the hospital entrance.

Several Assistant Supervisors were recording and observing the conditions inside the abandoned hospital when a stern middle-aged man wearing black square-framed glasses approached him.

"Mr. Toho, so according to what you said... you encountered a semi-first-grade cursed spirit and defeated it?"

Toho Tetsu nodded. He could more or less guess that the middle-aged man was skeptical. After all, they had never expected something like this to happen before coming here.

Honestly, if they had not been considerably stronger than ordinary Sorcerers, they might have met with disaster this time.

It reminded him of something that would happen in the future.

"Yes. It possessed a cursed technique, and its effect was quite unusual. Specifically, it made those struck by it see a scene of themselves suffering some misfortune in the future and dying, then caused the pain they experienced at that time to manifest on their bodies."

As he explained, he told the middle-aged man everything he had observed. After listening, the man nodded, and most of his doubts disappeared.

"If that's the case, then it's very possible that the cursed spirit was born from that legend."

"A legend?"

The middle-aged man nodded.

"There has long been an online rumor that this hospital once had a messenger who declared people's deaths. But we never found any related cursed spirits in the past, so we never paid it much attention... Who would have thought it had been hiding in the basement all along?"

Seeing the lingering fear on the man's face, Toho Tetsu thought for a moment before offering a kind reminder.

"Though this may sound like I'm putting pressure on you, you should be more careful during future investigations. Try to gather and compile as much information as possible, and it would be best to note such things in mission-related information as well. Otherwise, it could easily result in unnecessary casualties."

The man's expression darkened slightly upon hearing that, but he still nodded.

After all, they truly had not handled this matter properly. If the people dispatched this time had not been exceptionally strong, it might really have led to severe casualties. Not to mention that this boy seemed to be someone the higher-ups valued greatly.

They could not make such a mistake again.

Before leaving, he specifically handed over the black device Utahime had given him earlier.

"Utahime-senpai gave this to me. It's the recorder for this mission. Please pass it along to the higher-ups as well."

After accepting the recording device, the middle-aged man nodded and watched as Toho Tetsu got into the car and left the scene.

After getting into the car, Toho Tetsu did not hear Utahime speak and assumed she had fallen asleep. But when he casually glanced her way, he discovered that she was leaning against the window, staring at the night scenery outside with a deeply dejected expression, seemingly lost in thought.

He had already noticed that this senior's behavior was somewhat strange in the basement, but he had not thought much of it then. Looking at her now, she had probably fallen into the same cycle of self-doubt again.

Thinking of that, he did not know how to begin.

Although he had affirmed her abilities before, her performance during this unexpected incident had indeed been rather ordinary. If he forced himself to comfort her, she might instead think he was pitying her.

That was not the outcome he wanted. Perhaps he needed a different approach.

As the car passed through a bustling shopping district, Toho Tetsu spotted the name and sign of a shop in the distance. An idea suddenly came to him, and he called out to the Assistant Supervisor.

"Miss Supervisor, could you stop for a moment? I want to buy something."

The Assistant Supervisor driving in the front was somewhat confused, but she still pulled the car over.

Utahime, who had been staring blankly outside, came back to herself and looked at him curiously.

But he did not explain. He simply took off his jacket, which was stained with dust and a little blood, opened the car door, and stepped outside.

Before long, he returned with three crêpes in his hands. After handing one to the pleasantly surprised Assistant Supervisor in the front seat, he placed the other two before Utahime.

"Senpai, which one do you want?"

Seeing the concern in his eyes, and recalling how she had previously said she wanted to go eat something with him, the girl's lips moved slightly. But she still turned her head away.

Seeing that, Toho Tetsu leaned a little closer and lowered his voice.

"Senpai, I know you're thinking you weren't any help again, right?"

"Wasn't that the case?"

The girl did not look at him, but there was unmistakable disappointment in her voice. This time, however, he did not comfort her. Instead, he changed the subject.

"Then how about we start studying that course tomorrow?"

Utahime's eyes widened slightly. She abruptly turned her head, but because they were sitting so close together, she found herself directly facing Toho Tetsu's face at point-blank range.

The sudden visual impact made her instinctively lean back. Her expression became flustered, yet her voice held far more energy than before.

"You mean... the barriers..."

Toho Tetsu raised one finger, signaling for her not to continue, then held the crêpe out to her again.

"Shh. Did you forget? This is our secret agreement."

At his reminder, Utahime remembered that the two of them had indeed agreed to study the possibility of turning barrier techniques into offensive techniques. However, the condition was that they would hide it from everyone else and conduct the research privately.

No one had ever studied such things before, so others might consider it a waste of time and prohibit their research, telling them to focus their efforts on more important matters instead.

That was why they had made this little secret agreement.

Only then did she finally accept the crêpe, though uncertainty still lingered in her voice.

"Can we really... do that now?"

"Of course. Senpai, you don't want to go through something like today again, do you? Then starting tomorrow, let's work hard together. Didn't we agree before? I'll grow stronger with you."

Looking at his serious expression, Utahime felt as though something had stirred in her heart.

She nodded, then took a bite of the crêpe in her hand, letting its sweetness slide down her throat and bring a little warmth back to her body.

Seeing that her mood had finally improved somewhat, Toho Tetsu smiled faintly.

The Miss Supervisor in the front, who had been watching the scene through the rearview mirror, quickly turned her head back around. Yet when she looked at the crêpe beside her, her gaze softened slightly as well.

The warm atmosphere did not last long before Utahime suddenly seemed to remember something. She looked at him hesitantly.

"I remember you still don't have a salary, right? Where did these crêpes come from?"

"Uh..."

Toho Tetsu indeed had no salary, nor did he possess any money at all. He had only realized this after placing his order with the shop owner.

The owner seemed to notice his embarrassment and smiled, saying that he could bring the money over next time when he had time. In exchange, he would have to leave some contact information or something similar.

After thinking it over, he decided it would be better not to tell Utahime about that. So he merely muddled through by saying that the owner had been kind enough to give him several for free.

Though she was somewhat skeptical, Utahime merely nodded, lowered her head, and began eating her crêpe. Toho Tetsu, meanwhile, looked out the window and began pondering everything that had happened today.

If he did not want the scene he had foreseen to become reality, perhaps... he needed to work even harder.