A Young Girl's Ten Shadows

By Special FX and Icura

~o~

Chapter 4: Encounters

~o~

In a room within the Zenin compound, the sliding doors were left open to expose the tranquil yard to his sights while Naobito Zenin poured himself a drink of his finest sake. From the gourd to a little cup, the clear drink streamed down. Normally, he preferred to drink straight from the source to get a satisfying amount swishing in his mouth, but there were times when a minimum amount of decorum was necessary to maintain, especially since he wasn't alone.

Across the wooden table in front of him, Tanya sat in a seiza, her legs neatly folded underneath her. The small cup in front of her was filled with soda that many of the clan children enjoyed, but she hadn't even so much as touched it.

It had been three months since the summit of the three great clans, but the young girl had not changed much in that time. Always eager to please and obedient, it put into perspective that perhaps he should have left his own children to grow outside of the clan during their formative years. It was an idle thought that he quickly dismissed, however, since it was more of the girl's nature rather than her upbringing. With her rapid growth and the achievements she gathered since joining the clan, even the elders were starting to look at her as more than just another little girl.

Taking a sip of his sake, he glanced through the open doors on his right. The yard that stretched out before him was made with meditation in mind, consisting of immaculately trimmed grass, a rock garden, and a koi pond. The pruned bushes and trees only further cemented the sense of peacefulness, calming both the heart and mind.

When Naobito turned his gaze back to Tanya, he found her still sitting at attention, her cup untouched. It was a rare treat in the clan since these drinks were heavily restricted, but he supposed that since she was born outside the clan, it wasn't anything special for her. In any case, her stoic expression only seemed to implore him to speak, amidst the sounds of the cicadas.

"Do you like Pepsi instead of Coca Cola?"

"I don't enjoy any soda," she simply replied. "I prefer coffee instead."

"I see…"

Naobito coughed into his fist, more to clear the air than any actual physical need. He recomposed himself.

"In these last three months since the summit, you have done well."

"You are too kind, Naobito-sama."

"My words are not kind. It is just a reflection of what you have achieved," he said. "Be proud. I have not said these words even to my own sons."

That was just how dazzling her talent was.

Like all of the famous jujutsu sorcerers throughout history, she had been blessed at birth. Her talent was impeccable, and yet in spite of that, she still worked just as hard as the talentless. It was common for a young, talented sorcerer to grow arrogant and complacent—his youngest son for one—but that did not apply to her. Every day, without question, she worked hard to polish her talent to its maximum potential.

As someone who had dedicated most of his life to jujutsu, he could not help but be captivated by her tremendous growth, even as he secretly resented it.

"Naobito-sama…" Tanya quietly began. "While I'm delighted with your praise, what is it that you actually wish to speak to me about? Is this about your television settings again?"

"I may be old, but I do learn." Naobito held up the cup of sake in his hands and downed it all in one fell swoop, mostly to hide his embarrassment. Setting the cup down, he said, "I only asked that one time because there is a lack of this knowledge in the clan. Now, that lack has been filled and satisfied."

In fact, whenever a clan member had problems with their television, they usually came to him. However, as the clan head, he was typically busy so those idiots often resorted to simply bashing their television set over the top. If it still didn't work, they would just hit it harder until it broke and then buy a new one to replace it. Absolute fools, the lot of them, but new television sets had a very low impact on the clan's finances so he didn't bother with addressing it.

In order to clear the air and atmosphere, he poured more sake into his cup, letting his calm and graceful actions wither away the time. Indeed, the girl showed no signs of discomfort from her seiza unlike his youngest son. Naoya could learn a lot from her. His talent was nothing to scoff at, but his arrogance held him back as surely as any. Instead of working on polishing his talent, the boy wasted his time on pointless displays of superiority.

If he had the time and effort, he would reign the boy in, but what was the point of that when the boy had no chance of even contesting the Gojo heir?

For the sake of his ambition, he needed to continue to focus on fostering Tanya's growth instead. She worked hard, perhaps even too hard, and was at risk of burning out. It was a classic trap for youth, to discover something new and pursue it with a blazing fervor before eventually burning themselves out early and wasting their potential. It was not public knowledge, but rumor had it that even the Gojo boy was starting to become rebellious to his own clan elders.

"Tanya," Naobito said, his voice carrying the weight of his experience. "Your dedication and hard work has not gone unnoticed. Even the clan elders have spoken up in your favor, despite your unseemly origins."

The young girl seemed to both bristle and perk up at that, finally looking her age for once.

"I believe in acknowledging and rewarding diligence," he continued. "Therefore, in recognition of your recent achievements, I will grant you one request."

The carrot should be used for well-behaved children who exceeded expectations. Unlike with his sons, there was no need for the stick with her. Not only did she surpass his lofty expectations, but she was obedient as well. He did not expect her to ask for much anyway. Most likely, it would be a chance to see her parents again. He had planned on limiting her contact with her parents so she could develop more of an attachment to the clan, but one brief meeting should be fine.

"Thank you, Naobito-sama," Tanya replied with a slight bow of her head. "Then… I would like to have a computer with an internet connection."

"Hm?"

Naobito could not help but be surprised, but then again, when had she ever acted like a typical child?

"You don't want to see your parents?" he dully asked, more out of curiosity than anything.

"There is no need for me to trouble mother and father right now," she dutifully replied. "A computer with an internet connection will suffice, if it is at all possible and within budget."

Naobito snorted in response.

"How much do you think we spent on you already? What more will a single computer matter? You will have it within the week."

"I would like top of the line specs, if you can."

"Specs?" Naobito asked, looking confused.

"Specifications. I am referring to the computer components," Tanya explained. "Please pay special attention to the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, RAM, and hard drive storage space. If the operating system, Windows 95, is available, please purchase me a copy as well. Hopefully, the Japanese version is available, but if it hasn't been released yet, the English version is fine for now."

"...is this what I sound like when I talk about television and animation?" Naobito mumbled to himself.

"If you need me to explain each part in depth, I would be happy to do so."

"No need." He waved off. "I'll have someone take you to the store later so you can buy it yourself."

"And the internet connection?"

"You can use one of the landlines for a dial-up connection."

"Isn't that only 56 kilobytes per second?" She frowned. "Isn't there something faster?"

"Faster?"

"Cable internet." Seeing the confused expression on Naobito's face, Tanya muttered to herself, "I suppose broadband technology hasn't been commercialized yet…"

"The more I listen to you, the less I understand."

"I see," Tanya replied with a chastised expression. "I was simply being thorough with—"

The bamboo sliding door to the room suddenly slid open, cutting her off mid-sentence with a loud swoosh. A small figure casually stepped into the room, his presence seemingly commanding everyone's attention before even uttering a single word. Wearing nothing but a simple blue hoodie and a pair of black shorts, Satoru Gojo smirked.

"Heeeeey Tanya-chan, I'm here to hang out!"

Naobito found himself at a loss for words as he watched the Gojo brat casually walk inside the room as if he owned the place. He couldn't help but watch as the bane of his legacy strode over to Tanya and took a seat at the table next to her with a smug grin on his face. The girl in question, on the other hand, looked as if she had just bitten into a sour lemon.

"What are you doing here?" Tanya hissed in both anger and exasperation.

"Weren't you listening? I got bored so I came to hang out."

More footsteps could be heard and even some shouting as a few more Zenin clan members promptly showed up at the door next. Most of them were lower branch members who typically acted as guards and sentries at the entrances of the compound, though there were even a few members of the Hei with them.

"N-Naobito-sama, please forgive us!" One of the Hei stammered as he lowered his head. "W-we tried to stop him!"

"Don't blame them too much, old man," Satoro Gojo flippantly replied with a smug grin. "They really did try their best."

Naobito clicked his tongue. "Damn brat."

It wasn't a surprise that none of the front gate guards nor the Hei members could stop the Six-Eyes brat from entering. Once the Gojo brat activated his cursed technique, he was already beyond reach at that point. That wasn't to say there weren't ways around Infinity, but without the proper cursed technique or cursed tool at hand, there wasn't anything that could be done about the brat. He had heard rumors about the boy being a particularly rebellious case, but he didn't expect it to go this far.

The Gojo clan elders were probably having an aneurysm by now. The thought of that, at the very least, amused him greatly.

The next time he met with the Gojo clan, he would need to make a few snide comments about their lack of control in regards to their little prodigy. Perhaps he would even rub it in their faces about how obedient the Zenin clan's own prodigy was. Anytime he could lord something over those Gojo bastards was an absolute victory in his book.

"So, you wanna hang out, Tanya-chan?" Satoru asked with a grin.

"...are you an idiot?"

"Oof, so cold!" Satoru replied with mock hurt in his voice as he held a hand over his chest, as if heartbroken. The girl in question did not look impressed. "By the way old man, since you're getting her a computer, can I get a Nintendo too?"

Naobito had to actively stop himself from trying to split the brat's skull open. As much as it annoyed him, he couldn't do much even if he tried. He would only be making a spectacle of himself in front of everyone by trying to punch through Infinity. Only a fool would take a fight that he couldn't win.

~o~

Tanya sighed. How did it end up like this?

As it turned out, Satoru Gojo was indeed an idiot.

A flippant, egotistical idiot of the highest order, but that was at least somewhat reasonable since he was just a child. A spoiled and arrogant juvenile, but still just a child in the end. Quite frankly, were relations between the clans even that bad? She knew about the bloody history between their clans in the past, but perhaps it was a lot more civil now in modern times. He was allowed to walk into the Zenin compound without being attacked after all. Instead of the deadly rivalry she had imagined, it seemed more like the type of rivalry between industry competitors.

In a way, it did make sense why they exaggerated the extent of the rivalry to her.

To appeal to young children, it was normal for people to inflate certain aspects in order to make them more excited and drive competitive spirit. After all, a friendly competition would sound far worse to a child than a heated and volatile rivalry. Although she had thought that she had shown enough maturity to Naobito to be spared those distortions, it looked like the clan head was still viewing her as a naive child. Considering her current age, it was reasonable, she supposed. A little humiliating, but reasonable. She would have to show more in the future to get him to overcome his inherent biases without being dismissed due to her age.

Of course, that didn't solve the main problem at hand, which was still Satoru Gojo. While he may be a spoiled child at this point in time, it wasn't hard to imagine that, if his arrogance wasn't brought to heel soon, he would grow up to be an idiot of the highest order. Despite the exaggerations that had probably been told to him as well, he still walked straight into a rival clan's home without a single care in the world. What if the Zenin clan had really been trying to kill him?

It was enough to make her head hurt.

Sure, the Hei said that they tried their best to stop him, but she could read between the lines. They basically did all that they could to stop him without actually hurting him. After all, causing harm to the Gojo heir would undoubtedly cause an all-out war with the Gojo clan and result in a repeat of the bloody history between their respective clans. If the clan leader, Naobito, had any real intention to, Satoru's decapitated head would probably still be in that room propped up for display.

If Satoru Gojo kept going like this, he was going to get himself killed in the very near future without having a chance to grow up, and that was absolutely something that she did not want to happen. Even though her previous speculation about their respective clan's relations had been debunked, Satoru's untimely death could change that in an instant and plunge jujutsu society into a civil war that she would have to be at the forefront of. While clan relations weren't too bad right now, she wouldn't put it past Naobito's ambition to take advantage of Satoru's death and her own existence within the clan by escalating things into full-blown conflict.

A hostile takeover. It would be a typical power play in order to grow the Zenin clan's influence by taking the chance to remove and absorb a suddenly weakened historical rival.

Problem child or not, Satoru Gojo's existence was still a deterrent for any possible civil war between their two clans. Under the current conditions, Naobito seemed to be content by growing the Zenin clan's influence by simply having her surpass Satoro Gojo as a jujutsu sorcerer. While having to compete against a genius prodigy—even if he was an idiot—wasn't an easy assignment by any means, it beats having to fight in a bloody clan war any day. Even if it was possible to resolve the ensuing war in a timely manner—unlikely as that was—she would still need to deal with the chaotic aftermath and the rampant curses that would have had free reign to grow during the civil war.

Tanya did not want to risk her life fighting in a war again.

No, she very much preferred her current lifestyle and had absolutely no interest in flipping that on its head. Satoru Gojo had potential, that much was obvious; he had the Six-Eyes and the Limitless technique, but that did not mean that he was invincible. As long as he didn't become a warmonger in the future, peace would remain. However, his arrogance and complete disregard for danger were not helping his chances of survival in her eyes, especially when it came so early in his life when he obviously had not reached his full potential yet.

Naobito looked like he had been ready to skewer Saotru on the spot before she had stepped in, but thankfully, relations between the clans hadn't deteriorated enough for him to act on any impulses. She didn't know what Naobito was planning, but he had even allowed the Gojo heir's request in the end after some negotiation between the two. The only reason she had even agreed to hang out with the idiot in the first place was to get him away from Naobito as quickly as possible before he did something even more idiotic.

That was why they were both currently outside, walking down one of the busy streets of Tokyo after having been driven and dropped off. Their chaperone had even stayed behind in the car to wait until they were finished.

It was still morning. With hardly a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining down on them enough that the thought of bringing a hat briefly crossed her mind. The bustling streets of the big city hummed along with the rhythm of everyday life as cars zoomed by on the road. Satoru led the way as they meandered through the busy sidewalks, passing by a street performer along the way, his guitar strumming a catchy melody that the Gojo heir started humming to.

"Man, old man Zenin sure is a pain," Satoru suddenly brought up as he put his hands behind his head. "Can't believe he made me make a binding vow just to hang out with you."

"...did you really expect anything less considering the circumstances between our clans?" she dryly asked while giving him the side-eye. "You should be grateful that he even agreed to your request after that ridiculous stunt you pulled."

Satoru turned his head toward her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Pfft…the look on both your faces though!" He laughed in that smug, playful way of his. "It was totally worth it."

Tanya had to fight back against the urge to strangle him.

"…I'm assuming you didn't mention anything about your little stunt to your clan beforehand?"

"No, I did," Satoru casually replied. "I told them I was going to hang out with a friend."

"Ah, so you just conveniently decided to leave out the most important details."

Satoru just grinned at her.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Tanya said in exasperation as she shook her head. "Stupid beyond belief."

"How mean!" Satoru whined while play-acting a flinch as if he had been struck. "And after all that trouble I went through to break the princess out of her castle too," he added with a playful pout.

Tanya narrowed her eyes and gave him her best glare. Unfortunately, based on the sly smile on his face, it did not seem to have much of an effect. How strange. It had been quite effective during her time training the 203rd, though she supposed that she was out of practice.

At the very least, having the chance to walk around Tokyo again was nice, so she was at least grateful for that. Perhaps she'd even take the opportunity to stop by some old familiar places from her memories of her first life. Though technically, would they still be considered old at this point in time?

As they rounded a corner, the city's skyline loomed overhead, casting long shadows across the street. Their journey fell into a comfortable silence as Satoru led the way through the city's urban labyrinth while she followed closely behind. They stopped at an intersection and waited for the light to turn green while Satoru impatiently tapped his foot against the ground, rubbing the soles of his sneakers against the concrete.

"Where are we going anyway?" Tanya decided to ask out of curiosity, breaking the silence.

"There's this arcade I like," Satoru answered as he watched the cars zip by the intersection. "You ever been to an arcade before?"

In her first life, when she was younger, she had spent a fair amount of time at arcades. It was a popular pastime among students during her youth, and she was no different. Tanya Zenin, however, was a young girl who had been born in a rural village before getting adopted by a traditionalist clan of jujutsu sorcerers. Therefore, she never quite had the chance to visit an arcade, outside of the two solitary cabinets that were always occupied at the village's grocery store.

"A little."

"Hmm…" Satoru playfully hummed as he rocked back and forth on the soles of his feet, his hands buried deep within his pockets. He turned toward her and grinned. "Looks like your first time's going to be with me then. I wonder if you can even manage a single win…"

"If you wanted a challenge, you wouldn't have asked me."

"True enough," he nonchalantly agreed.

The streetlight changed green and they resumed their walk.

"Still, want to make a bet?" Satoru mischievously asked as they crossed the street.

"...that depends," she warily replied. "What are the terms and conditions?"

"Hmm…" Satoru hummed as he gave it some thought. "How about best of five? Loser pays for snacks. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

"Fair enough." It was a trivial enough bet, especially since both of their clans had more than enough wealth to easily buy out the ownership of the arcade entirely in the first place. Besides, the chaperone had given her enough money that she would have had a hard time using it all anyway.

They turned the corner, and the first thing that she noticed was a storefront with signs that had colorful designs. The neon signs above the entrance flickered to life as they approached, illuminating the sidewalk with a rainbow of colors even with the sun fully out. Excitement seemed to buzz out from within as Tanya was reminded of the sounds of old, retro-style arcade games.

"This is the place I was talking about," Satoru pointed out. "Come on, let's head inside."

As they stepped through the entrance, Tanya was immediately greeted with the sounds of beeping machines and dramatically voiced lines. Flashing lights danced across the walls, casting a kaleidoscope of colors onto the rows of arcade machines that lined up the room. It brought back memories of her school days back in her first life, though those memories were hazy at this point.

At this time of day, when most of their player base was in school or at work, it was practically empty except for a few customers and staff workers. In fact, they were the youngest kids at this time, but from the way that some of the staff either ignored or smiled at Satoru, it was easy to tell that he was a regular here.

They passed by rows of racing games, their screens filled with high-speed action. From the opposite corner of the room, the glow of dance machines beckoned with their rhythmic beats and flashing dance floors. There was even a section with crane games filled with prizes of stuffed animals. However, Satoru walked past all of them without so much as a glance. Eventually, he led her to a series of arcade cabinets featuring 3D fighting game characters duking it out with fists and punches. However, the 3D polygonal look was simplistic and blocky, barely resembling human beings.

The title of the game was familiar to her, though she didn't remember it looking this bad.

"Let's play this." Satoru took a seat in the nearest one. There was only one set of joystick and buttons on the machine, but he quickly pointed to the arcade cabinet next to him. "These two are connected so we can play against each other."

Tanya took the seat in the machine next to his.

"You need me to show you how to play?"

"I can figure it out."

"Suit yourself," Satoru replied with a shrug. "First match will be for practice."

She inserted a 50 yen coin into the coin slot and pressed a button, starting it up.

The sight of the pixelated graphics and old-school soundtrack did elicit a nice sense of nostalgia as she accepted the challenge from Satoru and entered the character selection screen. She actually vaguely remembered playing this game before, though this was only the second iteration. By the time she was already a working adult, she remembered there being at least four more sequels, all of which looked far better than the blocky polygons that made up each of the characters' faces.

More than that, the sequels were far more complicated in mechanics if she remembered correctly. This version didn't have some of the staples of future fighting games like move canceling and such. However, until she actually got into a match, she couldn't know for sure.

With both of their characters highlighted and selected, the match soon began on a randomly selected map that took place on a grassy plain with a castle in the background. Honestly, with how bad it looked, she would have preferred if they had played a 2D fighting game instead since it would have far more details on its drawn art than these early 3D animations. The two fighters quickly appeared on the screen as the words "Round 1" were displayed prominently in the middle of the screen.

On the left side of the screen, Satoru had chosen a gorilla of a fighter, packed with so many polygon muscles that it looked more like a mount of blocks than anything else. For her own character on the right side, she had chosen a simple businessman with glasses. It even had an intro where the character was pushing his glasses up on his nose with two fingers.

Tanya tensed up as the round began. However, unexpectedly, Satoru didn't rush his character over to beat on her own character. Instead, he stayed on his side of the screen. When she glanced questioningly at him, he merely smirked at her.

"It wouldn't be fun if I beat you right away since you chose a weak-looking guy. I'll give you a minute to practice."

Since the counter started from 99 seconds, that meant that she only had two-third of the time to practice. Even less since it was already ticking down by the time he said that. However, she quickly pressed all the buttons one by one to figure out which was which. Two punches, two kicks, and the joystick for movement. A quick quarter-circle with left punch shot out a different move than usual, and the same happened with a backward half-circle with right kick. It was pretty simple since, even in the future, quarter-circles and half-circles were fighting game staples that endured the test of time.

At the thirty second mark, Satoru made his move.

He raced across the screen with his gorilla-like character, chambering back and charging up a massive punch. Tanya pressed back on the joystick to force her character to block, but the punch smashed through her block, sending her character flying back across the screen. Her health bar was practically deleted of more than half, making it show more red than green. As her character got up, Satoru charged his character at her again. However, this time, she made her character duck and sweep out his leg, knocking the gorilla down.

From there, it became rapidly apparent to her that Satoru was just spamming the same move over and over, focusing on the highest damage move set that was slow and easy to dodge, going for an all-or-nothing playstyle. While there was nothing inherently wrong with that, she still couldn't help but find his playstyle mildly annoying to play against. Ultimately, Satoru managed to knock out her character with only a couple of seconds left on the timer.

However, unlike the first round, she was ready for him in the second one. Knowing what moves that he was going to do, she was able to counter him easily. The third round was even easier.

"Let's go again!" Satoru shouted heatedly, looking at the prominent 'You Lose' on the center of his screen. "You just got lucky!"

However, the results remained the same.

"One more time!"

"Again!"

"..."

As another victory sign flashed over her screen, she glanced over at Satoru.

"Had enough yet?" Tanya asked with a sufficiently bored expression. It was one thing to play a game together, but this was starting to get repetitive. Instead of trying something different, he was just using the same character and the same style of play.

"You…"

"If you play like this, I'm surprised you can win against anyone." When she saw Satoru's stricken face, she paused. "...you have played against other people before, right? Actual people, not the A.I."

"...it's not my fault," Satoru eventually replied as he looked away. "Nobody from the clan ever wants to play, and it's always empty here when I come."

"When do you usually come here?"

"In the morning."

"You only come here in the morning?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Then of course there would be nobody here," Tanya said exasperatedly. "Everyone comes after school or work so it would be in the late afternoon or evening."

"Ah." Satoru looked faintly annoyed as he brushed a hand through his hair. "I always have to go home before then, otherwise my mom would start nagging again."

"Can't be helped then." Tanya shrugged. "If you still want to play, you need to change up your style and adapt to your opponent."

"Nah, I'm bored of this game. Let's play something else instead."

~o~

"Why… Why can't I win!?"

Satoru Gojo's depressed cry rang out from where he was sitting in the racing arcade cabinet. He sent a baleful look at Tanya who was sitting in the paired cabinet next to him.

"Stop being a sore loser," Tanya replied with a disaffected air. Even this racing game's graphics consisted mostly of flat 2D drawn art where even the feeling of speed was dubious at best. As someone who had experienced the future of gaming—as much as she could anyway, considering the responsibilities she had at the time—it was the same as going back in time to play pong against people of that era.

It wasn't even a challenge.

"Agh! You said you didn't even like video games!" Satoru pointed at her accusingly. "What gives!?"

"Perhaps you're just not that good," she answered, bemused.

One of Satoru's eyes twitched in response.

"One more game!" He heatedly replied. "I'll win this time for sure!"

"Hmm…" Tanya hummed with a smug smirk on her face. "Should I go easy on you this time then?"

"Don't you dare! I don't want any handicaps!"

~o~

In the end, she stopped counting how many times she had won after her twentieth victory across a variety of different games.

If they hadn't run out of coins, she was pretty sure Satoru would have just kept challenging her until he finally won. Fortunately for her, he still needed to keep some money left over in order to pay for snacks. Perhaps it was childish of her, but defeating him over and over again did bring her some satisfaction after all the hassle he put her through. It must have been because her body was still that of a child. Yes, that was it.

While she still had plenty of money—enough to play all day in fact—she had no desire to spend it all here or to let the other boy start borrowing money from her.

"Tch." Satoru clicked his tongue as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm winning next time, ya hear me?"

"That's a bold claim to make, considering how many sets you lost in a row."

"Ugh…" Satoru made a face. "Whatever. I'm going to get some snacks from the vending machine. You want anything?"

Tanya glanced over at the vending machines in the corner of the room. It was a pretty standard selection of chips and candy bars. It had been a while since she had a chance to have something sweet, and he was paying since he had lost.

Very tempting…

"Some chocolate would be nice," she eventually settled on.

"Anything specific?"

"Not really."

"Alright, I'll choose something good for you then. Be right back."

Tanya took a look at the clock hanging from the wall in the meantime. They had already been here for more than a couple of hours.

"Here, catch." Satoru tossed a candy bar through the air that she deftly snatched into her hands.

"Thanks," Tanya replied as she peeled open the wrapper and took a bite. She hadn't had a chance to have any chocolate since joining the Zenin clan so she made sure to savor it.

"Yeah, yeah," the Gojo heir lackadaisically said as he bit into his own candy bar. "So where do you want to go after we eat?"

"A train station."

~o~

"Why did you want to go here?"

"Someone might die here in the future."

"Oh?" Satoru sounded excited. "A premonition?"

"A memory."

"Hah?" His brow furrowed. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"It doesn't need to."

Tanya proceeded to ignore Satoru Gojo's subsequent questions as they stood on the train platform. It was practically empty, but that was likely because they had been playing arcade games for hours, causing them to miss the morning rush since it was now closer to noon. However, she ignored all of that as her eyes were focused on a particular spot on the train tracks.

After all, that was the spot where she had died in her first life. The sky was currently bright and clear, unlike the dark clouds of that day. Even without the gloominess, the place did not quite look the same without all the upgrades and touches that would occur years down the line. However, the core essence was still the same.

Looking down at the spot where she had once died, it was hard to say what she felt exactly. If she had to put it into words, it would be "almost nothing." Maybe it was because it seemed so far removed from her current self. In a way, she had been expecting more. Some feelings of anger? Sadness? Regret? However, nothing like that happened.

"Hm…"

Still, that wasn't her purpose for coming here in the first place. It was just a concern that she was worried about, something on the side. If she was really looking for nostalgia, she would have gone to the city she was born in rather than the place where she had died.

No, she was not looking for something, but someone instead.

"Come out!" Tanya yelled out, turning her gaze upward. "I know you're here!"

That was right! The reason she came here was to find Being X! This had been the spot where he had once descended, stopping time and taking control of the surrounding people to talk to her—or him at the time. If there was anywhere that could be considered its domain, then it could only be here where that unknown creature that thought itself as a god but was actually closer to a devil would appear!

There were too many things that were the same as the world that she had once lived in, but there were also some differences, and that could only be because of Being X's meddling. Whatever experiment he had been doing in her second life, Being X had obviously jumped to another short-sighted conclusion and created this world as a result.

The words that they had spoken to each other back then came to her as she gritted her teeth.

'If I put you into the dire straits you speak of, will your faith awaken?'

Obviously, that didn't happen to her. Quite the opposite. However, something had worked in that experiment, and Being X had implemented it into her original world, causing it to deviate to the state that it was in now.

To put it simply, Being X had created curses in order for it to act as dire straits to spur religious faith.

That meant that it would become widespread knowledge, possibly in the near future, and cause a worldwide catastrophe regardless of any and all consequences. By weakening a society where needs are met, science is advanced, and strong social positions are possible to achieve, people would cling to someone or something to relieve the drastic situation that they were in.

And who would take advantage of that? Of course, there was only Being X! Only that unknown creature would allow all this absurdity to happen!

"...I didn't think you would notice. You're more capable than I thought." Satoru Gojo glanced back behind them as his tone grew chillingly cold. "Don't interrupt my fun, weaklings."

His eyes were glowing a kaleidoscope of sapphire colors, sparkling in its unnatural beauty. The two men sitting at separate benches calmly stood up, discarding their newspaper or book carelessly. The old man—wearing a worn down jacket—began pulling out a long jagged knife while the younger man in a dark hoodie pulled out a sword from behind his bench.

The sky began to darken as a simple barrier—a curtain—began expanding from its apex point in the skies above, enclosing the area in a tinted dome.

Tanya frowned. She had been wondering why the train platform had seemed like a ghost town; regardless of the time of day, there still should have been a few passengers or at least staff members around. It seemed that she had been careless.

"Your ambush failed, but I'm in a good mood," Satoru said nonchalantly before he made a shooing motion with his hand. "If you guys scram now, I'll let you live."

"And give up on a hundred million yen?" The younger man darkly chuckled. "I think I'll pass."

A bounty?

The fact that there was a bounty on Satoru Gojo didn't surprise her. It wasn't uncommon for children of influential clans to have bounties put on them by political enemies and such. She shouldn't have even been surprised that Satoru was carelessly wandering around the city without a guard while carrying a bounty on his head. Rationality was apparently a concept that he was unfamiliar with. It was as if danger did not even register in that blockhead's brain.

Trying to keep Satoru alive seemed like it was going to be even harder than she initially thought.

"It's your funeral then," Satoru arrogantly replied with a smirk.

"I'll handle the target," the old man said. "Deal with the girl and then help me."

The man with the hoodie clicked his tongue. "As long as we're still splitting that bounty evenly."

The old man didn't reply. Tanya felt a sudden surge of cursed energy from him before his body seemed to melt into the air, disappearing into wisps of smoke until he vanished completely.

"Oh? That's a nice technique, old man," Satoru casually remarked. "Don't make this too boring for me, alright?"

Satoru was as arrogant as ever, but she didn't have the time to chastise him about it when she had her own opponent to worry about. The man's hood covered over most of his head as he approached her while holding what looked like a sheathed katana in his hands. Judging from the weapon he used, he was probably a close-ranged fighter. It was a good match-up for her as long as she maintained a distance.

Drawing his short sword, the hooded man threw away the sheath and charged at her. She could see the cursed energy flow into his sword. In response, Tanya quickly manipulated her fingers together to form an animal caricature.

"Brave Lion."

A lion's mouth suddenly snapped up from the shadows, its razor teeth sinking into the thighs of the man above it.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The lion, shaking its head viciously, grinded and tore the assassin's flesh as the rest of the lion's body emerged from the shadow. The man tried to stab his sword into the shikigami, but the blade failed to penetrate through the lion's shadowy black mane. Splatters of blood splashed against the ground and pieces of flesh flew apart, the mauling continuing until the man's thighs were severed, sending the rest of the screaming man's body flying off to the side.

The man's legless body flopped onto the floor, blood spewing from the stumps. Delirious from pain and blood loss, he still grasped at his thighs, trying desperately to stem the leakage. However, her shikigami's paw to the throat quickly put a stop to that.

Despite the blood-curdling gurgles of the dying man, Tanya didn't pay any attention to him. If he wasn't prepared to die, he shouldn't have made an attempt on her life in the first place. Instead, her eyes were focused on Satoru Gojo who was currently standing in midair with his opponent nowhere in sight. In spite of the fact that his fight had only begun a minute earlier, it seemed that he had been faster in finishing up.

"Whoa, scary~," Satoru playfully said. "I was planning to watch you fight more, but you finished up pretty quickly. No hesitation too. Isn't this your first time?"

"I have some experience," Tanya vaguely replied as she glanced around. "Where's the other assassin?"

"He's right here." Satoru stomped downward, causing a groan to erupt from underneath him. As if on cue, the veil of invisibility dissipated, revealing the old man lying on the floor under Satoru's feet, unable to move. "Surprised?"

On closer inspection, there was actually an empty space in between Satoru's feet and the assassin's back, but the weight holding down the old man seemed to still be there. It was obvious even from a glance that the assassin was still trying to move, though his efforts proved to be futile.

"I'm sure those old geezers told you all about my cursed technique," Satoru said as he tapped his foot against the empty space. "Cool, right? He's trying to reach me, but he won't ever get there. That's because I'm creating space endlessly between us."

Indeed, it had been explained to her during one of her lessons, though in more technical terms. Infinity was the convergence of an immeasurable series; anything that approached Satoru would slow down, never reaching him. The technique would take the finite amount of space in the limited area around him and divide it an infinite amount of times. The assassin may look like he was simply frozen in place, but it was more like being trapped between the ground and the constantly dividing space of Infinity.

In mathematical terms, if zero was the destination while Infinity was active, then you could get close to zero, like to 0.01 or even 0.00000001, but would never actually reach zero.

"And here's what else you can do with it," Satoru said with a savage grin as his cursed energy suddenly spiked.

Cracking sounds echoed throughout the train station.

"Agh! No, wait—"

The old man was crushed as the ground beneath him cratered. Crimson fluid and spider web-like cracks on the ground spewed out around the crater. It had been instantaneous, not even a blink of an eye before the body turned into a smear against the ground. If anything, it reminded Tanya of the grape crushers in wine distilleries or even a hydraulic press.

Satoru hopped off his invisible stand, lightly landing on an unstained and uncracked spot on the ground. He glanced at what was once a human being and shrugged when their eyes met.

"It's a bit messy, but what can I do?"

Tanya frowned, taking a step back at the spreading red liquid.

The very nature of Limitless meant that there would always be a set distance between Satoru and everything around him. While it was mainly used for defensive purposes, Infinity could also be used offensively to push and crush anything in its way, though she didn't know the limits of that.

"So, what do you think?" Satoru asked braggingly. "Impressive, right?"

"...yes," she reluctantly admitted. In terms of cursed techniques, it could be thought of as the ultimate shield of sorts.

"Come on, tell me more. What was the coolest thing about it?" Satoru egged on with a grin. "Did it make your heart race? You got anything amazing like this hidden away?"

Tanya ignored him and glanced up instead, squinting her eyes at the discolored sky that was falling currently apart.

"It looks like whoever put up the curtain ran away."

"That's not important right now. Are you going to answer me or—hey, wait! Come back! Stop ignoring me!"

~o~

Authors' Notes:

Icura: I included math because Gege does (not) love math.

SFX: Been playing too many games lately instead of writing… I keep getting distracted!