About ten minutes later.
After strolling through Tokyo Jujutsu High for a while, Mukuro arrived in front of a shrine gate.
"Tengen, you should be able to hear me, right?"
With his hands in his pockets, he stood at the entrance and spoke softly into the shrine.
He could not be sure anywhere else, but Tokyo Jujutsu High was Tengen's closest home. He should be able to sense his call easily.
A few seconds passed.
There was no reply, but Mukuro still pushed the shrine door open.
The moment he did, the scene in front of him changed. What should have been a normal shrine interior turned into one massive tree after another, thick and towering.
Below that was a road. There were over a thousand shrine gates like this inside Jujutsu High, but most of them were just decoys.
Only one of them could truly lead to the Tombs of the Star Corridor, and the forbidden storage vault that sealed away extremely dangerous cursed objects.
The gate's location changed every day. Only Tengen, the one who created the barriers, knew which gate led to him.
Yet now, at Mukuro's call, he directly set the gate in front of him as today's path to the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
"What brings you here?"
As Mukuro jumped down onto the road, the gate behind him closed quietly.
He had not even entered the Tombs of the Star Corridor yet, but Tengen's thumb-like form appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
His tone was the same as before. It still sounded like a kind old man, but his voice now carried a faint, unreal feeling.
Tengen remembered Mukuro clearly. He also understood his strength and pride. He was someone he did not need to guard against, and most likely could not guard against anyway.
"It's nothing important. I just wanted to take a look inside the vault. If you're busy, you can leave. Don't mind me."
Mukuro shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, then walked step by step toward the warehouse built along the road.
With enough time, he could find it himself. Still, since he could come directly through Tengen's barrier techniques, it was obviously easier.
"Busy is not really the word… but that vault isn't something you can enter whenever you want, is it?"
Tengen had spent over a thousand years alone, and he had long grown used to boredom.
Sometimes, waking up and using his barrier to watch what was happening outside was his only entertainment.
But he never interfered with the outside world. Especially now, when he had almost lost what little human emotion he had left.
The only reason he said anything was because Mukuro was here, and because some part of him still remembered what it meant to be human.
In truth, even if Mukuro emptied the entire vault in front of him, he would not care.
"Master Tengen?!"
When Mukuro easily opened the forbidden vault's doors, two shikigami wearing kimono were standing guard inside.
They had been Tengen's servants for many years, assigned to protect this place. But since they had no real strength, their presence here was no different from decorative statues.
Their true job was to stand watch, and report to the outside world each day to confirm the vault was still safe.
"Thank you for your work."
Tengen only nodded to them.
"Sukuna's fingers, and the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings…"
As soon as Mukuro walked in, his eyes swept across the room.
Special grade cursed objects like those were not hard to find at all. After only a few glances, he spotted what he came for, lying quietly in its place.
'So they didn't steal them ahead of time. That means for some reason, they delayed their plan. Or changed it completely…'
Mukuro stood in front of Sukuna's fingers, rubbing his chin as he pondered.
Should he just take every special grade cursed object they wanted?
The thought flashed through his mind, but he rejected it immediately.
Kenjaku's main goal, as far as he knew, was to revive Sukuna. The fingers were something he had to obtain. If Mukuro pushed him too hard, who knew what he would do to force Jujutsu High to hand them over.
Besides, the fingers would end up in Yuji's stomach sooner or later anyway. Letting them take them was fine.
As long as they were not idiots, they would not dare cause trouble inside Jujutsu High.
And with only ten or so fingers, Sukuna could not stir up anything big while he or that white-haired idiot was around.
Then what about tracking them through the fingers instead?
But with how cautious they were, they would probably inspect the fingers first, then tear away anything attached to them before taking them away.
Neither Mukuro nor Satoru could stay at the school forever to prevent an invasion.
And among the special grade cursed spirits, there was still Hanami, who was especially good at hiding her presence…
Mukuro fell into silence.
After thinking it through and getting nowhere, he took three transparent jars out of the forbidden vault.
"Uhh…"
The two guards froze and exchanged looks.
Without the principal's permission, nothing in the vault could be taken out. If it was taken, it had to be reported. That was the rule.
But now their master was standing right beside the man taking cursed objects away. That left them stuck.
"Report it truthfully to Principal Yaga."
Mukuro saw their hesitation and made the decision for them.
"Yes!"
They finally relaxed. Right in front of him, they began contacting the outside.
"By the way, did you evolve successfully?"
After stepping out of the vault, Mukuro asked Tengen a question, more out of habit than concern.
"It's hard to say… I suppose you could call it a failure. The me you're seeing now is not truly me. The real me has already merged with the world…"
That was why Tengen had been slowly losing what little humanity he had left.
Only inside his barrier could he maintain a clear mind and a stable form like this. In reality, he was everywhere. He had become something vague and ungraspable.
Lately, Tengen sometimes felt like he heard someone calling him. Then he would briefly lose awareness. But it happened so quickly that he wondered if he had simply dozed off, or gotten distracted while watching the outside world.
Since nothing happened afterward, he never thought much of it.
"Evolution always comes with risks. The fact you can still keep your awareness is already impressive."
It was exactly what Mukuro expected, so he only patted Tengen's shoulder lightly.
A twenty-eight-year-old man, comforting someone who had lived for over a thousand years.
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