"Jujutsu Tech shamans are my responsibility."

"The dead––"

"Don't lead the living. I don't know if you've noticed, but society has fallen past that point."

Emiya and Nanami faced each other in a stand-off. The two of them, Touji, Fujino and Higuruma were gathered in the trio's apartment. After agreeing to work together, Itadori had asked the group to help him search for his classmate, Fushiguro Megumi, in the barrier colony. Emiya and Fujino had thus dragged Touji and Higuruma with them to the Nana-Fushi-Emiya apartment on the pretence of searching.

After collecting Nanami, Emiya had fully intended to then drag the entire group with him to the barrier colony's border and sneak them out with Rule Breaker. The idea of cancelling the jujutsu behind the barrier just long enough to allow someone through had arisen from Itadori's description of the player named Angel; if Angel could theoretically pass through the barrier without being noticed by Kogane, then Emiya could do the same. Rule Breaker originated from the Age of Gods and embodied Medea's divinity, so it could more than negate a man-made practice of mystery like jujutsu. Even if Kogane noticed Emiya use prana, it as a shikigami wouldn't be able to contribute to mankind's consciousness.

Unfortunately, Touji's excited mouth had moved faster than Emiya, revealing to Nanami how and why Touji's son – and Itadori – were in the barrier colony.

"I understand your protectiveness of common society," Nanami deadpanned, "and I too support the growth and development of those still alive, but the dead need to interfere in this conflict where other dead people are wreaking havoc. One must fight fire with fire."

"The kids will be fine without you," Emiya lied through his teeth. "I have business outside of this barrier colony, which means you do too."

Fujino gently added, "Itadori-kun's plan sounds solid, and he has the support of his friend and senpai. After freeing Gojou-san, they'll be safer than ever."

Nanami frowned. "They need adult supervision."

"Gojou-san is an––"

"He really isn't."

Emiya exhaled sharply. He needed to leave the barrier colony, hunt down Okita, and work together to arrange Kenjaku's death. Since Okita's last attempt to influence a user of Six Eyes into killing Kenjaku had failed, Emiya harboured no hopes that a repeat attempt would succeed. Now that he confirmed his target was Kenjaku, Emiya itched to complete his mission and be free of this cursed world. Literally.

"Fushiguro-san and I won't tell a soul about your…strangeness," Nanami offered. "We'll make a binding vow."

Touji squawked. "We will?"

"Should we break this promise," Nanami continued, "our juryoku will suffer a penalty equal to the amount of juryoku – or anything else – you've been using to keep us alive. The penalty would undoubtedly be fatal."

Emiya eyed Touji. "…If the penalty instead cost you your physical vitality, would you swear the same oath?"

Touji crossed his arms. "If it were possible, then yes, completely." His son needed him. The time had long passed where Touji had to start making up for his disgracefulness as a father.

Emiya beckoned them closer before holding out his hand. Prana surged through him, through the nerves in Nanami and Touji's bodies, into their very minds as Emiya incanted in English.

"Per this covenant, tilt the scales in my favour by all means: that on the tongues of gossip sits silence; on kinesics, paralysis; on inscription, inflammation. Let this oath flow through Fushiguro Touji and Nanami Kento as water."

A geas required consent on both sides. Once Nanami and Touji had reached a point where their desire to keep Emiya's secrets matched Emiya's, a third-rate magus like him could bind them with the curse.

Nanami's hair rose as Emiya finished. "You've merely limited our ability to communicate your uniqueness."

Touji shook off the strange ritual. "What happened to penalties, tough guy?"

Emiya wordlessly pivoted out of the apartment, Fujino and Higuruma following him. He ignored Touji's ringing accusations that he was softer than he tried to be otherwise. Emiya had little to gain from arguing with the dark-haired man.

When Emiya, Fujino, and Higuruma neared the colony's barrier, Fujino softly spoke up. "Senpai, how do you plan to disguise your actions now, without Fushiguro-san?"

"I'll figure it out." Emiya focused his magic circuits. "Our current priority is searching for Majin. Rule Breaker!"

KRRR!

Fshhhhh….

They stepped through the barrier in the blink of an eye, the open world before them.

Fujino watched her senpai dismiss his noble phantasm, fractionally tired compared to him just a moment before. "I have a form of clairvoyance, senpai. I can detach my vision to that of a bird's eye view."

Emiya perked up. "What's your range and how long can you use it for?"

Fujino shook her head. "I've yet to test my limits as a counter guardian. Shall I…?"

"Wait," Emiya advised. "Let's head to Shibuya and start searching for traces of Majin from there. In the meantime – Fujino, Higuruma; tell me what you're capable of."

X

The group travelled to Shibuya, then — with Emiya's nose — eventually followed traces of Okita's abnormal nature to Tokyo's mountainous outskirts where a Buddhist temple campus vanished into misty slopes. A sign identified the property as Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu Tech School. Similar to a bounded field, Emiya recognised a hypnotic barrier encircling the grounds, not only visually concealing the area from uninvited visitors but also mentally suggesting the weak-minded to turn away as if nothing was there. More than that, the temples in the campus constantly changed position under the barrier's influence to obscure safe routes to valuable locations.

Fujino's clairvoyance located Okita lounging atop a temple's karahafu eating away at a skewer of oden, and Emiya carried the group to the same roof.

"Oho, Emiya? You've acquired another pet I see – and what's this?" Okita leapt to her feet. "A kouhai?"

"Higuruma isn't mine," Emiya corrected at the pet comment.

Fujino bowed. "Asagami Fujino. Please treat me well, Majin-senpai."

"Higuruma Hiromi," the lawyer followed. "I'm fated to die by Asagami-ojou-chan's hands."

"Majin," Emiya cut to the chase, "where is Kenjaku?"

"You have no idea how hard I've worked," Okita groaned, "but I finally did it! While some shamans gave a prison box to an ancient guy here for safekeeping and worked together to protect him, I searched for a tool called the Inverted Spear of Heaven that they apparently needed to open the box. I eventually left the spear in the shamans' path to 'discover,' and they finally found it! They've just retrieved the prison box and have jetted off to open it in a canyon somewhere!"

Emiya pinched his nose bridge. "Majin, what."

"A Six Eyes user was in the box, Emiya, I had to free him––"

"If using a Six Eyes shaman failed last time, then what makes you think––"

"He also has something called Limitless, which makes him apparently super strong!" Okita defended. "Stronger than even you!"

"He better be," Emiya hissed. If shamans had "found" a means of freeing Gojou without Angel, then Itadori's mission had just gotten simpler. Not that Emiya cared. "That still doesn't answer my question."

Okita pouted. "You can't expect me to keep track of Kenjaku and search for a fancy spear at the same time."

Ever the lawyer, Higuruma intervened before Emiya could burst a blood vessel. "Majin-san, is the ancient person you spoke of called Tengen?"

"That's the one!"

"Then Kenjaku will eventually come here," Higuruma determined. "Perhaps with the shamans of this area all focused elsewhere due to the prison box, your job has been made easier. Tengen is alone somewhere 'here' as Majin-san said, and based on Itadori-kun's information, Tengen's deteriorating ego doesn't allow them to notice anything outside of their 'shrine.' We can lie in wait here and ambush Kenjaku."

Okita coughed. "Not all shamans left this place; a couple are sticking close to Tengen for the oldie's protection. If we wait to ambush Kenjaku here, we risk those shamans noticing our abilities."

Fujino hummed. "Who are we killing?"

"Chousou and Tsukumo Yuki," Okita recalled, "but they're out of our reach. I've tailed shamans to Tengen's location and broken Tengen's defence down into two parts: a door hidden in this campus that opens to an array of moving doors, and a door among them that leads to an underground shrine. Should you enter Tengen's shrine without an invitation, you'll be redirected to a blank white space. Tsukumo and Chousou are currently in Tengen's shrine, so we can't draw the two of them out and kill them without Tengen noticing."

Emiya clicked his tongue. "The shamans who left this place won't be gone forever. While they're occupied with Gojou, we need to summon Kenjaku to us quickly. We need to kill Tsukumo, Chousou, and Tengen before their observations of us can impact mankind's consciousness."

Okita gaped. "Why would you want to kill Tengen!? If they die, the barriers that protect jujutsu society will collapse!"

"Kenjaku needs Tengen," Emiya pointed out. "If he notices that Tengen has vanished, he'll expeditiously show up at Jujutsu Tech to pin down Tengen's status no matter what. If you oppose killing Tengen, then the next best solution is abducting Tengen."

Fujino hummed. "Even if we manage to ambush and kill Kenjaku without alerting locals in the vicinity, Alaya will still send us off later down the timeline or to a different mission if we can't disguise the cause of Kenjaku's death as a part of the status quo."

Higuruma ran a hand through his hair. "I see that serving as a counter guardian isn't easy."

Okita put her hands on her hips. "Ahhh I don't want to think anymore! What's the game plan?"

Apparently, the best plan that three counter guardians and a lawyer could all conjure was…

Honesty!

Kidnapping!

And the power of friendship!

Yeah, humanity was screwed.

Okita led the group to the shrine's door and into a white space where, sure enough, a baffled four-eyed humanoid materialised to stare at them, tensing. Due to the lack of other company that could qualify as "Tsukumo Yuki" or "Chousou," Tengen had apparently isolated a normal person like Emiya, an odd curse like Okita, and unremarkable curse users like Higuruma and Fujino in a sunyata barrier that was separate from Tengen's two guards. This allowed Tsukumo and Chousou the empty space needed to face bigger potential threats like Kenjaku alone…and granted Team Alaya the privacy to talk. Otherwise, Emiya and his allies would've had to quickly kill Tsukumo and Chousou and kidnap Tengen without attempting dialogue.

Okita held up a hand. "Don't move, we're not going to hurt you!"

Way to keep the victim calm, Majin.

Tengen crossed their arms, the edge of their lips slanting. "What are you?"

Well, the counter guardians' disguises hadn't been foolproof from the start.

Fujino met their gaze. "The effect of a timeline where mankind's negativity would bring its downfall."

"Now I've seen everything," Tengen remarked. "To think I'd meet curses and curse users from the future that function as mankind's warning."

Emiya chuckled humorlessly. "Curses, as in 'cursed spirits?' That's only partially correct for us."

"Hm. It is true that I cannot sense much juryoku from you specifically."

"You currently exist because of juryoku." Emiya's lips twisted. "That energy is all you know. Your vessel has become one with the world, making you closer to a spirit than a human. You have become something that functions as the planet's sense of touch, one uniquely designed for 'perceiving' juryoku."

"However," Okita continued, "you tread unstable ground. Until your jujutsu fully evolves your identity past that of a 'human,' you are not one with Gaia; indeed, so long as you do not merge with mankind, you are not attuned to Alaya, either. You are like someone who was born in a world of colour, yet can only see in black and white. We are the red you perceive as grey."

"I assumed you were curses and curse users because…" Tengen played along, "…that's all I've ever known? Interesting theory."

"Then allow me to ask you this," Emiya prodded. "If Kenjaku's plan succeeds, would this world's humanity be merging with you, or would you be merging with humanity?"

"In the end, all of our consciousness is shared."

"You answered it yourself." Prana crackled around Emiya. "You would be merging with humanity. The result would be a collective consciousness whose negativity could destabilise the world. Japan's downward spiral for destruction would become a global reality. Which is why we're not a warning."

He raised a hand.

"We're the safeguard. I am the bone of my sword…!"

…

..

.

All of Tengen's barriers fell.

Okita hadn't been the only one aware that Tokyo's shamans had left Tsukumo and Chousou behind to guard Tengen; Kenjaku had also immediately responded to the news from his spying curses by racing for Jujutsu Tech. Between shamans, Getou's cult, other curse users, and curses, Kenjaku had been dealing with sabotage, direct attacks, and competition in stealing the Prison Realm from Tengen's hands. Battles that rivalled those in barrier colonies had torn Tokyo apart in everyone's attempt to possess the Prison Realm. Kenjaku was the last to admit he was being spread thin. Learning that the shamans had discovered a way to unseal Gojou had been a shock and the final push for Kenjaku to accelerate his plans. While curse users and curses had been chasing the shamans ferrying Gojou's prison to a canyon, and while Emiya's group had been talking to Tengen, Kenjaku had been initiating a fight with Tsukumo and Chousou in another sunyata barrier.

In the few minutes Emiya's group had been chatting, a fight between semi-grade warriors had exploded to life at a pace where attacks were being exchanged in fractions of a second.

And when Tengen's barriers fell, their fight reached its climax in the branches of a sacred tree as Tengen's underground shrine materialised in the centre of Jujutsu Tech campus.

B-B-BOOM!

Okita gazed up to see the top of the tree explode with juryoku on a scale that rivalled a volcanic eruption. The air in the underground shrine displaced outwards into a vacuum that blew the ceiling of the shrine off and more, the centre of Jujutsu Tech's campus shooting up kilometres into the sky—

Before, inevitably, the vacuum sealed shut and air displaced back in as a wall of debris.

—BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMmmmmm…!

Okita couldn't make out the shouting that had suddenly consumed the top of the sacred tree, but she could make a strong guess at the content with Tengen's sudden disappearance into Emiya's reality marble. The explosion had slammed Okita, Fujino, and Higuruma to the ground, and only the former two's hardiness as counter guardians and Okita's bodily protection of Higuruma had spared them the brunt of the blast.

Okita shook off rubble and helped Fujino and Higuruma stand up. "While Emiya is suppressing Tengen, the three of us need to quickly take down Kenjaku!"

The plan's first step was to exhaust Kenjaku to the point where he couldn't perform a domain expansion.

Above them, the body of Tsukumo suddenly went flying across half of the campus without Tengen's manipulation of Tsukumo's surroundings to support her. Chousou likewise couldn't race to assist her as, with Tengen's disappearance, the sunyata barrier that Tengen had dropped Chousou in as a reserve had vanished. Wherever Tengen had constructed the sunyata barrier, the location was lost in an underground maze deep beneath the earth from a time when Tengen's shrine had been under initial construction. It would take time for Chousou to discover what had happened and track down the battle's location.

Okita pointed as she drew Rengoku. "Higuruma, alert us if Tsukumo is awake or if Chousou appears!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Asagami-chan, with me!"

Kenjaku dusted himself, irritated from the temporary loss of his cursed techniques after being tricked into having his domain expansion dismantled by Tengen, even incompletely. Still, Tsukumo and Chousou had to be down for the count, so Kenjaku skipped past checking if they were nearby and conscious in favour of hastily scanning the roots of the sacred tree. Tengen's body should be in the roots, but with the sudden dispel of their barriers, anxiety shot through Kenjaku. Had the ancient humanoid discovered a means of suicide and chosen to die rather than fall into Kenjaku's clutches? When he peered down the sacred tree, a shining line of darkness split his sight.

"Wha—?"

"MAJIN-SAN BEAAAAAAM!"

Shing!

Bang bangb angbangban gbangbangbang—!

A white void suddenly flashed around Kenjaku and Okita as the latter summoned them to her realm of nothingness, a point where nothing existed before or beyond it and where Rengoku's beauty as a sword of darkness could shine. When Okita shot a brilliant black beam at Kenjaku, the full weight of a different power slammed into him, making itself known.

Immeasurable, free of obstacles, infinite.

The radiant beam of a counter guardian…who had forgotten the name of her ultimate finisher in the heat of the moment, but at least her attack had still landed!

Just as quickly, the realm of nothingness melted away, and Rengoku furiously stitched the air between Okita and Kenjaku as they danced across the sacred tree's shattered branches, which were now plummeting to the ground as host to a mid-air battle. Kenjaku grit his teeth without the support of cursed techniques to defend himself, resorting to taijutsu and shielding his body with juryoku to buy time for his cool-down to expire. It spoke to his millennium of combat experience that he was keeping up with Okita blow for blow in a martial arts battle — until the air, the falling tree branches, the very fibres of his body suddenly warped.

Like the image of Kenjaku falling was merely a photo.

A flat sheet to be twisted and torn—

Then released, permitted to collapse like a woman crumbling to her knees in tears.

"Bend. Bend! BENNNNNDDDD!"

Splat.

Kenjaku slammed into the ground as a bloody, dismembered body, soon followed by Okita's acrobatic landing and baffled hum.

"I'd think he'd use a cursed technique at this point. Oh well, I'll take it! Higuruma!"

Just as Kenjaku felt his cursed techniques slowly return, a prosecutor's voice cried out with authority:

"Domain Expansion: Deadly Sentencing!"

A small courtroom suddenly flooded their surroundings, placing Kenjaku in the defendant's podium, Higuruma in the prosecutor's podium, and Okita and Fujino in the spectators' seats. As Higuruma recited his domain's rules, Kenjaku instantly healed himself with reverse cursed technique and summoned curses to attack Higuruma, only for the curses to vanish in the blink of an eye as if Kenjaku had never summoned them at all.

"…And acts of violence are prohibited here," Higuruma finished, "save for verbal violence. Judgeman, please begin."

A large shikigami with eyes stitched closed and weight scales for arms floated up behind Higuruma. "Kenjaku is under suspicion of replacing Getou Suguru's brain with his own. This act violates Law No. 45 of 1907, the Penal Code, Article 190, where a person cannot damage, abandon, or unlawfully possess a corpse, the ashes, or hair of a dead person, or of an object placed in a coffin."

What the—

After all the shamans, curses, and curse users Kenjaku had vigorously fought or evaded, who were these people suddenly ambushing him!?

"You have three options as a defendant," Higuruma stated, "silence, confession, or denial."

Kenjaku's brow twitched. "Ha?"

Ancient as he was, Kenjaku hardly acquainted himself with the modern legal system. Judgemental eyes stared at the stitches across Getou Suguru's forehead. Everyone could strongly assume what manner of "evidence" Judgeman had in its possession.

"Silence it is," Higuruma determined.

The prosecutor unsealed Judgeman's evidence to whip out a camera recording from Shibuya Station dated 9:30 PM on October 31, 2018. So long as photos or recordings of an event existed at one point, Judgeman had access to them — including a CCTV tape that had been reduced to collateral damage following its inception. The recording crackled to life in a video player conjured by Higuruma's domain, displaying a white-haired man hunched awkwardly in front of a dark-haired monk peeling his scalp off.

"It's a cursed technique that allows me to hop between bodies by switching brains…" the recording of Getou Suguru spoke.

Okita unprofessionally snorted. The man just had to monologue!

"Not once does that recording state my name!" Kenjaku reflexively hissed, mind racing.

After fighting Tsukumo, Chousou, Okita, and Fujino one after the other, Kenjaku's strength had plummeted below what he needed to perform his own domain expansion and win a domain clash. He had already wasted a significant amount of his juryoku to protect his body from Okita's noble phantasm and Fujino's ultimate telekinetic attack. With a critical glance, Kenjaku minded the fact that the disparity between a domain's dimensions and the space it occupied in the real world usually made it difficult locating a domain's barrier – however, the barrier of Higuruma's straightforward domain was likely the courtroom's walls. Kenjaku could risk deploying his own domain long enough to puncture his opponent's barrier and escape through the hole. Then he could figure out his enemies' abilities from even ground.

Higuruma raised his gavel. "When Judgeman produces a picture or a video of the defendant as evidence, the subject's identity is unquestioned. Please don't insult lawyers."

BAM!

The gavel struck down, and the shikigami's mouth opened. "Guilty. Confiscation."

The courtroom vanished and Kenjaku immediately moved to strike—

Only to bonelessly stumble to the ground. With his cursed techniques including his innate technique confiscated, Kenjaku was no more than a brain disconnected from an illegally obtained puppet. The only manipulation of juryoku he could perform was anything outside of a cursed technique: Black Flash, cursed restrictions, imbuing juryoku into tools, or sealing curses into objects or puppets. None of which Kenjaku could truly do without functional limbs.

"––!"

He couldn't even vocally express his rage.

Reality shivered, and Emiya and Tengen materialised back in the real world with the former visibly exhausted. He glanced at Kenjaku's prone form while Tengen immediately restored the barriers that had collapsed with their disappearance.

Fujino finally recovered from her pain. "What do we do now, senpai? Tengen might not be connected to mankind's consciousness, but they can still relay information about us to the humans here."

Emiya glanced at Tengen who evenly stared back. "…We move on."

Okita squawked. "What?"

Emiya turned away. "I'm tired of ensuring silence from witnesses. Let's just go."

Fujino stood up, dusting herself. "And Kenjaku?"

The counter guardians looked at the mute, deaf, blind, and paralysed body on the ground.

"…Leave him to the shamans."

X

Tsukumo Yuki tapped her foot impatiently with Chousou beside her in the waiting room of Ieiri's medical centre. All of Getou's cultists and Tokyo's shamans — save for the ones in barrier colonies — were currently gathered in the only building still standing in the Tokyo campus while waiting for Ieiri to experimentally bring Getou's body back to life sans Kenjaku. The instant Tsukumo and Chousou had found their way back to Tengen's shrine and found Kenjaku's prone body, they had wrenched his brain out and obliterated it. Only Gojou's teleportation to their spot and stubborn defiance prevented a sequel with Getou's corpse. Ostensibly, Getou's body still contained his soul based on the fact Gojou had witnessed the body visibly rebel Kenjaku in Shibuya.

This resulted in a temporary truce between shamans and Getou's cultists while the antiquated higher-ups of jujutsu society raved outside the campus. The higher-ups strongly opposed any action short of Getou's immediate cremation, but with Tengen conjuring an uncharacteristically strong barrier over the destroyed campus that repelled anyone hostile against the barrier's occupants, the higher-ups were forced to stay away.

Tsukumo's impatience didn't source from Ieiri's slow, cautious experiment – but rather, from Tengen's transparent obtuseness. In the midst of deconstructing Kenjaku's barrier during Tsukumo's fight, Tengen had suddenly vanished and allowed Kenjaku to ambush Tsukumo with a disabling hit, shooting her off to the campus' edges. Yet when Tsukumo and Chousou had clawed their way back to Tengen's shrine in a hurry, the pair had found the ancient humanoid calmly explaining they had found a way to construct a domain over Kenjaku that blocked him from his abilities.

Tengen shared zero details on how.

The ancient humanoid behaved similarly ignorant when questioned on the sudden advancement of their barrier techniques to the point that they were no longer restricted to mere illusions for self-defence. See: the campus' new barrier.

They merely shared that they had received "a glimpse of enlightenment" during the battle against Kenjaku, and left it at that.

Enlightenment, her foot.

Tsukumo knew Tengen practically lived off mysteries, but considering Tsukumo's part in protecting them, she felt owed at least direct honesty. Well, she couldn't deeply complain since after Ieiri's experimental resurrection with Getou, Tengen was going to help the gathered shamans end the Culling Game. Tengen was the master of barriers, after all.

"Oh."

Heads in the waiting room turned at Tsukumo's exclamation.

She tapped her chin. "Has anyone updated Itadori and the other kiddos on recent events? Where's that Zenin Maki who can pass through barriers?"

While blank stares met her genuine concern, Chousou panicked at her side.

"YUUUUUUUUJIIIIII––!"

Tsukumo patted his shoulder and rested her hand there while flipping her phone out. "Hey, Tengen. Restore cell reception to Tokyo."

With the entire campus essentially behaving as Tengen's personal shrine, an illusion of the four-eyed humanoid materialised before her. "That would require affecting the nature of all barriers––"

Tsukumo nudged the frantic Chousou forward, a threat lacing her voice. "You really wanna keep making my ideal man cry?"

"…It is done."

Ring!

Ring!

Itadori's voice crackled to life. "Tsukumo-san? How–– Never mind, just please send back-up!"

The shamans in the waiting room straightened to attention while Chousou gravely bellowed into the phone. "Yuuji, what's wrong!?"

"Fushiguro's family is what's wrong!" Itadori accused as a violent din nearly rendered him unintelligible. "Tsumiki-onee-san is possessed by an ancient curse user who won't leave me alone – hey! Don't touch me there! No-no-no Fushiguro-jii-san I didn't do anything I swear––!"

Kugisaki spluttered at the sounds of what couldn't be Itadori's popularity – before a wince split through the waiting room at the screech of a mic feedback loop. Coherent words eventually returned through the noise.

"This is Nanami Kento," a deeper voice deadpanned. "I assume you called for a reason. Speak."

Tsukumo hesitated. "…You don't need help first?"

"Yes. Send a child custody lawyer."

On the other end of the line, a spot of red caught Nanami's eye, and he turned. While Touji and Megumi were coordinating to subdue the possessed Tsumiki while keeping her away from Itadori, Nanami was on a nearby rooftop with a bloody cleaver, responsible for guarding the battle from opportunistic players. Between wary turns of his head, Emiya, Fujino, and Okita had manifested behind him.

"…Never mind," Nanami spoke into the phone. "Do you require help, Tsukumo-san and…others?"

Tsukumo denied it. "Not really––"

"Then Itadori-kun will call you back. We're busy." Nanami hung up and slowly lowered the phone, strangely calm. "…Archer."

Kanshou glinted in Emiya's hand. It was time.

"Don't worry about the children," Fujino consoled, and Nanami followed her gaze to Higuruma joining the fight. A domain expansion bubbled around Tsumiki and Touji in a moment where Touji had embraced his daughter in a wrestling hold and Fushiguro and Itadori had leapt back from an attack from Tsumiki. "Higuruma-san is just. Fushiguro-san and the criminal possessing his daughter won't survive, but his daughter will."

Nanami heard Emiya approaching him, and didn't flinch. He merely soaked in the sight of Itadori's improved handle on his abilities. Itadori had grown much last Nanami had seen him and was still growing.

"I don't trust Gojou-san with the Fushiguro children," Nanami spoke softly. "I deduced that––"

No, he had hoped. He had wanted to give Itadori and the Fushiguro children a better guardian than the state, Gojou, or Touji. Still, a dead man couldn't have hopes. Nanami and Touji had already lived longer than they had been fated to. After Higuruma tied up loose ends, he too would soon follow.

Nanami didn't voice his closing thoughts. He couldn't – not with his head sliding off his shoulders.

Emiya watched Higuruma's domain expansion dissolve, and Itadori and Fushiguro rushed to a faint Tsumiki's side as Fujino's eyes flashed gold. Higuruma met his guardian's gaze with an ironic twitch of his lips. Reality twisted.

To be a counter guardian was bittersweet.

X

X

Codes entry: Culling of Worlds

The Universe is the host and fabric of all that exists, from matter to energy to the "immaterial" such as the Root. The Universe bears no emotion and is as much defined by its contents as it does define them itself. It permits the birth of unlimited possibilities and branching timelines, or "worlds," and periodically – be it every month or century in a world – performs a Quantum Time-Lock: an anchoring of phenomena and events as a "universal truth."

However, unrestricted propagation of worlds quickly exhausts the Universe's lifespan. This threatens the continued existence of forces like Gaia and Alaya, who therefore constantly audit worlds. If a world lacks the potential to be stable, a force will cull it from existence before a Quantum Time-Lock can acknowledge it.

As an instinctive force, Alaya constantly tries to steer mankind away from extinction, but it will always prioritise its overall survival over one world.

;

A/N:

Touji, gesturing with a twisted hand: megumi, i am your father.

Megumi: that's impossible! my dad's a deadbeat chaser of vices who didn't even know my gender when he named me megumi! he's probably off in a hotel bed somewhere with two women on either side of him!

Touji: …

Author: i see your overpowered ancient menace, gege, and i raise you one lawyer

Okita and Fujino's C-rank luck is really worlds apart from Emiya's E-rank luck lmaoooo

And yeah, Emiya talked to Tengen while they were kidnapped. Tengen now knows about counter guardians and a little about bounded fields. This also wouldn't be an Emiya fic without him tracing at least one noble phantasm, like Rule Breaker!

I sadly didn't manage to squeeze a lot of Kugisaki in this fic, but I assure you that she enjoyed BAMF moments off-screen! In the war between shamans, curses, Kenjaku, Getou's cult, and other curse users, Kugisaki played a large part thanks to her remote technique, ability to taunt enemies into her range, and the fact that she only needs a strand of someone's hair to damage them. In a way, her jujutsu is like an assured-hit technique.

Shortly after Shibuya, no one outside of Kugisaki and her closest allies knew if Gojou was truly sealed, and if so, where his prison was. Once everyone started learning that Kugisaki had been the last to hold the Prison Realm, Kugisaki took advantage of that to draw enemies away from the shamans' search for nullification tools like the Inverted Spear of Heaven, when the Prison Realm was actually left in Tengen's hands. Aside from curse users and curses stuck in a barrier colony, Kugisaki had to outsmart, evade, or defeat enemies of high calibre including Kenjaku who wanted Gojou's prison tossed into the sea and were even grudgingly working together to achieve that. Kugisaki also had the higher-ups of jujutsu society on her tail with the excuse that Gojou was "responsible" for Shibuya and anyone who aided him was a criminal.

Since Naobito had survived Shibuya, he grudgingly saw reason in allying with Maki and Fushiguro against threats to the clan and to jujutsu society. A near-death experience would have even Naobito admit to the danger of special-grade curses like Jougo and by extension Kenjaku. The Zenin clan under Naobito – healthy and around to defend his position as clan head – thus quickly resolved the issue of shamans on Kugisaki's tail by politically – and physically – opposing them. A war between jujutsu clans broke out, but Mai sacrificed herself for Maki who then killed anyone who got in her way – including most of the Zenin clan who opposed her and Naobito. There is no problem that can't be solved without an application of murder and mild threatening. Fushiguro's position as the next clan head was consequently cemented.

Kenjaku eventually learned the Prison Realm was actually with Tengen, hence the curses he had spying on the Tokyo campus.

Even though they wanted Kugisaki dead, Getou's cult reluctantly developed respect for her tenacity. When Gojou – Getou's killer – was freed, the cult hesitantly heard him out before trying to kill him, since if Gojou could produce someone like Kugisaki, maybe the six-eyed maniac wasn't all that bad. Unfortunately, I couldn't help Mai or Muta Kokichi even though I really like them! Counter guardians don't save everyone, after all.

Anyway, the epilogue is up next!