Notes: The spoils of war.

Chapter 13

Present Day

"Why is there such a high-ranking devil here?" Kamo asked, his expression concerned. "And whose barrier is that?"

"It's probably coming from whoever is working with that devil," Megumi guessed.

Inumaki coughed.

"You know something?" Kamo asked the Ten Shadows wielder.

Megumi frowned. "I think it's the S-rank devil that Gojo-sensei saw before. The one that rescued the devil he had defeated and was interrogating." His sensei had terrible art skills - apparently seeing very well did not equate with drawing what you saw just as good. Even so, it was recognizable to him from Gojo's scribbles as well as Itadori and Kugisaki's verbal descriptions.

"Tuna mayo." Inumaki agreed with him.

Megumi looked up at the barrier blotting out most of the sunlight. It cast a near-nighttime pall over the section of forest it covered. "We might not be able to reach Gojo-sensei through this. I'm not sure Mei Mei's crows will be able to transmit through the barrier, so even if we could find one and try to speak to it, it likely wouldn't work."

"Bonito flakes."

"Yeah, it might use domain expansion on us, if it's like the first one Gojo-sensei fought. We should head toward the edge of the barrier and try to-"

Retreat as well as Megumi's suggestion was cut off as the devil moved behind Kamo, reaching out to strike at him.

"Don't move."

It was frozen by Inumaki's word magic, at least for a moment. Kamo recovered quickly from the near-attack and manipulated his blood into a shuriken shape.

The hardened blood glanced off the devil's head. Apparently even that part of it was tough enough to take no damage from the attack, strong as it had been.

Comboing off of him, Megumi had Nue divebomb the devil. This time, the creature held up an arm to take the brunt of the electric wing attack. Megumi darted in as it was blocking to land a blow with one of his magic weapons from shadow storage - this time a sword. The blade pinged off its leg where he had tried to unbalance it by severing it at the knee.

"Tch." It's a tough one, Megumi thought.

The devil spoke then, in pure gibberish. Megumi only knew a few words of Infernal, but it didn't appear to be speaking that language. He was stunned when the words suddenly formed themselves in his mind, as if by telepathy. By the looks on Kamo and Inumaki's faces, they heard the same voice in their own heads: Stop it, foolish children.

"This is creepy," he voiced aloud.

"It's just the devil talking nonsense. Ignore it!" Kamo advised them.

Megumi wasn't so sure. "It's not just a low level devil though."

"Stop!" Inumaki's speech was directed at the devil, who was once again attacking with what looked like balls of entangled plant roots. The word magic worked, and the wooden spikes hurtling toward each member of the group paused their sudden growth.

"Convergence: Piercing Blood!" Kamo's heavy attack hit the devil in the face, slightly nicking one of the eye roots. The attack actually appeared to bother the devil, unlike Megumi's own which it had brushed off. Was Kamo going easy on me earlier?

"Hurry!" Kamo took off running toward the ruins they had come from. "It will heal and be after us again soon enough."

Inumaki coughed again. Megumi hoped the other mage's throat still had at least a bit more word magic in it. He pulled out a vial of some liquid and downed it. Probably something to help alleviate the pain. The Ten Shadows wielder liked their current strategy of having the word mage stop the devil while he and Kamo attacked it before retreating as it unfroze to keep distance between them. But he worried how long Inumaki could keep using his magic before it became ineffective against the devil or wore his throat out entirely.

The devil's objective in appearing was still a mystery, but Megumi felt certain there was one. There was also a high chance that Gojo and Yuta were already moving in to assist. Depending on the qualities of the barrier, the situation may even be resolved quickly. Still, it was a priority to find Todo, the strongest mage available inside the barrier.

Using their strategy again, they headed toward the center of the forest, where Todo and Itadori had begun their fight. Megumi sent Nue at the devil, but Inumaki only coughed up blood instead of using his magic. He had reached his limit. Megumi released his hold on Nue as the bird took a shot straight through one wing from the devil's right arm. He couldn't afford to lose that shikigami.

Kamo took a direct hit from the devil as well, and fell down the exterior stone stairs of the ruins. There was some moss covering them but not everywhere. It had to hurt. "Kamo, are you still alive?" Megumi shouted.

There was no answer. The word magic his senior had used wasn't particularly strong, but his throat had given out anyway. Was this the difference between them and an S-rank? Seeing only one option left, Megumi clenched his fists, knuckles facing outward, and prepared to utilize his strongest, yet-untamed shikigami.

A pat on his shoulder turned his head. "Pickled mustard leaf," Inumaki spoke hoarsely from his side. Blood trickled down his chin.

"Inumaki! Any more and you'll-"

"Blast away!"

The words took effect, shooting the devil backwards and into some of the collapsing ceiling of the ruins. But the effort cost Inumaki, who fell to his knees coughing up blood.

As the devil rose, Maki arrived on the scene, taking a slice at its head with - was that Miwa's sword?

You can't cut me with such a sword. The devil's thoughts once again intruded in their minds.

The sword snapped in two and Maki stepped back. Megumi ran in to take a swing at the eye branches, managing to slice one with his own sword. Maki got his silent message. As the devil healed its wound, Megumi swiftly reached into his shadow storage and pulled out a new weapon for Maki: the S-rank magic weapon Playful Cloud.

The blow she gave the devil flung it out of the ruins and back through many meters of trees, landing in the stream near the center of the forest, even though it had blocked the blow with its right arm. Megumi's hands formed the seals to summon his Divine Dogs. Both attacked simultaneously but did little damage. The devil turned its attention to the white dog. One blow sent it reeling, and then a tree shot up sharply, growing into it. The shikigami was destroyed.

Thinking quickly, Megumi combined the power of the destroyed dog with the one still in play: Totality. Though he would never be able to summon the white dog again, the power and magic it left behind when destroyed would be inherited by the other shikigami he could still summon. The dog attacked the devil's injured right arm, this time taking a small chunk out of it.

Maki's attack with Megumi's sword from earlier did not surprise it, but his own attack with Playful Cloud did. As it reeled back, the two Zen'in switched weapons.

"Never make me use a three-section staff again. It's so hard to use!" He coughed, some blood trickling down from his mouth.

"Megumi!" Maki called to him.

One look at his chest told him the source of her concern. A plant had sprouted from his gut, no doubt planted there by the tree-like devil.

A spike of wood rushed toward her but she avoided a fatal injury, taking it through one arm. Still, the situation was not looking good. Divine Dog Totality vanished just as it was about to take the devil from its blind spot too. Megumi had been forced to dispel the magic, the plant growing from his stomach causing too much pain to continue the spell.

The bud I planted in you loves mana. The more you use magic, the deeper in you it will grow.

"How nice of you to explain," he stated dryly.

I hear it's more effective once explained.

A yes, the classic showing of your hand to strengthen a spell. He should have guessed as much. It was unlikely the devil cared much whether or not he continued living.

Maki's next attacks lacked their former sharpness - her injured arm was slowing her down. Once again, Megumi found himself facing near-certain death. It was almost a reflex at this point to begin forming the seals to summon the doom of not only the devil but himself as well.

"Megumi, that's enough." Maki spoke even though she was being grappled by roots protruding from under the streambed. "We've done our job. Time to tag out."

Looking up, the shikigami user saw twin splashes land in the stream - Itadori and Todo had arrived and broken Maki free. The two of them would continue the battle in their place.

xXxXx

Fushiguro was in bad shape, Yuji noted as he and Todo arrived on the scene. And Maki wasn't much better off.

"You good, Itadori, my friend?" Todo asked, picking up Maki who apparently couldn't stand any longer.

"Yeah!"

"Stop Itadori!" Fushiguro called to him from where he half knelt and half sat in the streambed. "That's not the kind of enemy we-"

"Panda," Todo interrupted as the magically animated doll appeared behind Fushiguro. He handed Maki to him. "Take those two and get out of the barrier if you can. Otherwise, stay near the edge. Gojo and Okkotsu should be trying to break it right now if they can't get through."

"Don't worry," Yuji said when he saw Fushiguro open his mouth to protest.

"You see it too, don't you," Todo said to the dark-haired mage as Panda reached out a paw to him. "He's beginning to spread his wings. He must find his own way. That is where he stands."

Yuji grinned and flexed an arm. Sparring with Todo throughout the week as well as here during the event had sharpened him, but a fight against a real, strong enemy was where he would see how much those efforts had borne fruit.

"Itadori," Todo warned, crossing his arms from where he stood on the bank of the stream. "I won't interfere until you successfully use black flash. No matter what happens. If you can't use black flash, then I'll watch you die."

"Got it." Yuji was prepared, well used to Todo's harsh training methods by now. He watched as the devil eyed up both himself and Todo.

So, what's your move?

"You can talk?" Yuji recognized the devil as the one which had appeared at the end of Gojo's fight, but it had not spoken then. "If so, there's something I want to ask you. Is there a devil in your group with a human form and patchwork face?"

And if I said that there is?

Yuji launched himself at the devil, rage fueling him. His first kick to the neck of the devil landed firmly, but didn't seem to have much effect. Black flash, Yuji thought, aiming a punch as a follow up.

"Crap!" The attack's timing had been off. A solid hit, but no black flash. His magic was still lagging behind his punches in his 'divergent fist' style. Todo had warned him this would not be effective against high ranking foes or mages and had been earnestly instructing him all afternoon until they had noticed the interruption of something abnormal and rushed over to find Fushiguro and Maki in danger.

Todo smacked him across the face. "Anger can cause you to mishandle your mana, even if it feels like it gives you a boost of energy. Your friend Fushiguro is hurt, and worst of all, our bonding time as best friends was interrupted. So I understand better than anyone why you would lose your cool. But now is not the time. Suppress it for now."

He followed this statement up with another smack to the face. Most normal people would think they were in the middle of a falling out, but this was just Todo being Todo. Yuji was accustomed to it by now. "Any more distractions?"

Yuji shook his head. "Nope." Thank you, my best friend Todo! Wait, had he really just thought that? Without giving their exchange further thought since that wasn't his strong suit anyway, Yuji stood facing the devil, concentrating on it intensely before his next punch.

What looked like black light flashed forth from where his fist made contact with the devil. His earlier punches, in the same style but lacking those sparks, had done little to even phase the thing, but this one dealt some damage.

"There it is," Todo said from the sidelines proudly. "Congratulations brother. You will be strong!"

Yuji grimaced as he saw the devil almost instantaneously grow a new arm. "It can heal itself?"

"Devils and demons are different from us - they're from different planes of existence. They can heal themselves without learning any hard-to-master high level spells like us. It's child's play for an S-rank like this one," his best friend explained. "But its magic is undoubtedly weakened. If we can get its head, then it's game over."

At that moment, as the two posed similarly to face off against the devil, it ripped the covering off its left arm, revealing what looked like a bud on its shoulder. A ranged tree root attack flew at them, and they rose high into the air on it. The battle had reached a second stage.

xXxXx

"Hey, wake up. Wake. Up."

Nobara squinted. When had it gotten so dark? Someone was leaning over her. It was Mai, that watered down version of Maki whom she strongly disliked. Beyond her, leaning heavily on her broom but apparently recovered from being knocked out was Nishimiya. Nobara was about to worry the two would beat her down again when a voice she recognized sounded behind her.

"Good, you got her up."

Sitting up so suddenly that her vision spun and Mai had to hop backward so the two of them didn't bash heads, she turned and saw Okkotsu Yuta carrying Miwa over one shoulder. Though he was tall, he was slight of frame, but her weight appeared not to bother him at all - he must be using mana reinforcement to make it look so effortless.

"Ugh, my head," Nobara complained, putting one cool hand to her forehead as she struggled to her feet. "Wait, why are you here?" she asked Okkotsu. He wasn't participating after all.

The copy mage pointed up at the dark sky. "Someone interrupted the event and cast a barrier around the place. Gojo-sensei couldn't pass through, but I could. Are you able to help her to the barrier?" he asked, shrugging Miwa off his shoulder and laying her gently against a nearby tree. "Inumaki used his magic to make her sleep so it likely won't wear off for a bit."

The forest floor vibrated, and birds flew up from their disturbed homes. Nobara sensed something immense nearby as well as another strong presence toward the center of the forest.

"We can handle it," Nishimiya assured him. She had hopped on her broom and Mai was assisting her in draping Miwa's unconscious form behind her.

Okkotsu barely acknowledged her assertion. He was looking toward the birds flying up from the forest. The ground vibrated again. Were the trees themselves moving? Nobara swore they were. "I have to go," he told them. "Please be careful. There may be other threats I was unable to spot. But right now, Todo and Itadori are fighting one of the S-rank devils Gojo-sensei saw previously."

The trek back toward the castle which they could not see went well. That was, until they reached a place where the forest melted into cobbled paths and stairs leading up to the hill upon which Castle Suga stood.

"Hey, hey, hey." A man holding a cleaver approached them. He was bald and wore what looked like a blacksmith's apron over hakama pants and no shirt underneath. "Where is Gojo Satoru?" Upon seeing those approaching him were just four women, one of whom was unconscious, his face fell in dismay. "That depraved monk… they tricked me!"

Hiding her dismay that this guy wanted to fight her sensei, which had to mean he was either a complete nutcase who vastly overestimated his power or very strong indeed, Nobara grasped her hammer and reached for her few remaining nails. "Nishimiya, try to get Miwa past the barrier and see if there are any other reinforcements."

For once, the older mage didn't argue with her, but did as she ordered. Mai, for all that Nobara disliked her, strung up an arrow. She must have picked up her undamaged fallen ones after being left defeated by Maki. Together, the two of them went on a run, the man with the cleaver screaming at them as he chased them, saying some nonsense about making things out of their corpses.

xXxXx

Running with mana-enhanced speed, Yuta made his way toward the source of the shaking ground. It was difficult to see from the ground, but his view while falling through the air earlier had made it clear - a massive demon had dug its way up from underground into the forest. Sprouting abnormal and likely dangerous plants from its back, it lumbered on four legs at a glacial pace due to its sheer mass. The closest thing Yuta could think of to compare it to was a very ugly turtle carrying a small forest on its shell.

"Rika, let's go." His childhood love appeared as she had at the time of her death at eleven years old. Though she appeared as a spirit and had no physical weight, he swore he could feel warmth emanating from her slight yellowish glow as she seemed to float along beside him as he ran. Yuta didn't have any copied ability that could make him fly, but he could warp up high again and look for the head of this demon, or other weak spots on it as he fell.

Based on the direction the demon was heading, its head was facing toward the center of the forest. Not good. He needed to prevent it from reaching the other S-rank that Itadori and Todo were taking on.

Warping again, he landed on the 'shell' and attempted to attack the head with a downward blow from his katana. Plants behind him reached out before he could do so, and he directed the attack at them. The reaching vines were chopped easily enough but more just took their place. Chopping through them with his sword would be a continual effort, leaving him no time to try to stop the demon in its tracks.

Still synced with Rika, he called on one of his copied abilities - fire. This time, the vines withered and died, blackening under the sustained blast he breathed out on them. The whole patch appeared dead, until Yuta noticed the other foliage on the back of the demon was steadily creeping toward him over the blackened crust he had just roasted.

Taking a deep breath, he poured more mana into the attack, blackening a wider swath of the plants on the behemoth demon's back. While it would still creep back, this time it would take much longer. Judging by what he had seen from the sky, he knew the area was immense. How much of even his vast mana reserves would he run through if he tried to take out all of the foliage on the demon's back?

As long as he was synced with Rika it wasn't an issue, but if that limited time ran out it would be. Was it worth his time and energy to blast all the foliage now while he had the firepower to do so? It didn't appear to hurt the creature in any vital way, so likely not.

Mind made up, he turned back toward the head of the creature. Even its pointed jaw, monstrous as an entire building, looked like a turtle's. He slid down the side of the demon's cracked and earthy skin, digging his katana in to maintain balance. Reaching the top of the creased eye, he found he was able to stand above the eye as though it were a ledge, the creature was so disturbingly large.

If he lay down, would he be able to swing his katana into the eye itself? The answer was no. A vice-like grip around his ankle dragged him up from where he was lying and squeezed. Only the vast supply of mana at his disposal allowed him to reinforce the ankle enough to not be crushed.

Twisting in midair, and thankful for Maki's insistence he join her in intense workouts weekly, he plunged his katana into the offending vine and yanked. The vine severed and dropped him toward the ground, which lay a good thirty meters below him.

Yuta caught himself with another warp, and then quickly switched to his fire magic. This time, he took his time and thoroughly scoured at least half of the shell of its foliage. The creature continued its slow and plodding pace, not seeming to care as the forest on its back was burned. It did not appear to be a very smart demon. If it was indeed an S-rank as Yuta suspected, it would have earned that rank mostly for its toughness and sheer size.

He clambered back down the side of the creature's face, this time moving to stand on the lower eyelid instead of the upper. From here, he could thrust his mana-infused katana straight into its brain. At least he hoped.

"Yuck." He had touched the eye itself only glancingly, but it was wet and slimy and gross. With no hesitation, he drove his katana right into the eye.

His attack clearly bothered it this time. It let out an earth-shaking roar and blinked to dislodge him. Ripping the katana free after pulsing one more blast of mana down its blade, Yuta leapt off the edge of the demon's lower eyelid, plummeting toward the ground thirty meters below. This time, instead of warping back to the top of the shell, he reinforced his legs and landed hard on the forest floor. If you can't go over, go under, he thought, and ran beneath the beast.

There was little room under the creature compared to its size. Perhaps a gap of five meters or so. If it lay down to crush him, Yuta would have to warp away, or else burn through a vast amount of mana to prevent himself from being crushed.

Running through the trampled trees beneath the creature, Yuta looked up for an opening, a chink in the armor perhaps. The undershell was segmented. Maybe if he aimed his attacks there…

He let out a blast of pure magic, directed from his finger. Not a spell or one of his copied innate magics, just raw mana. The blast hit its mark and chips of bone and chunks of earth fell around Yuta. He dodged them along with the black ichor now leaking from the demon's underbelly. The creature let out another roar but continued on its path. Yuta redoubled his efforts, sprinting beneath the creature and blasting all the segment cracks he could. Black blood soon pooled in a wake behind the demon. It stopped moving and its shell moved rapidly downward toward Yuta.

The dull creature's eye looked at the copy mage in surprise as he appeared next to it, having warped out of the danger zone. It felt like a small earthquake as the body of the creature's underbelly met the forest floor, and Yuta put one hand on a nearby tree to keep himself upright.

Now that the creature had collapsed in order to crush him underneath it, he had a clean shot at the eye. Pointing one finger, he blasted power from it again. The beam went in one eye and out the other side of the creature's head, shooting off into the empty forest beyond, cracking through the tree trunks and shrubs which lay beyond the demon.

The demon didn't let out a sound in its death throes, nor did it thrash about, further destroying the forest. Yuta stood, breathing hard, and after a few minutes the corpse began to disintegrate - absolute proof the demon was dead in at least this dimension and would not be climbing back from the Abyss any time soon.

Light steamed down and Yuta squinted, eyes having long ago adjusted to the dark pall cast by the barrier overhead. A small, far away dark dot stood in the sky, aura blazing with power. Gojo had broken through the barrier. Yuta's own work was done, and he could rest easy. The king would take care of the rest himself.

xXxXx

Nishimiya Momo was thankful the barrier broke when it did. She had run into an oddly dressed guy around her own age wielding a sword that held his hand. "It's nice, right?" he asked her as she attempted to edge around him on the path toward the castle. "Juzo made it for me. You probably met him earlier. He said I'm unreliable, so even my katana should hold my hand."

Okay, this guy was totally weirding her out. She was about to risk flying higher, even if it meant Miwa might die if she for some reason fell off, when light returned to their dim world. She sighed in relief, even as the blond in front of her panicked.

"For real? It's hardly been half an hour!" He dashed off yelling "I'm out of here!" Momo was not sorry to see him go, and set down her burden in the makeshift clinic that was being set up near the forest. Inumaki had made his way there and was currently being treated for his own injuries. Glancing back, she hoped Nobara and Mai were okay.

xXxXx

"Well then, where to go first?" Gojo Satoru said to himself, standing in the sky and looking down at the forest down below him. Cracking the barrier had taken him half an hour. Some might consider that fast, but he considered it slow. This further confirmed his speculation that a highly skilled mage was working with these S-rank devils, as non-humans typically had little use for barrier magic and were unlikely to have refined it to such a high level.

His uncovered eyes could clearly see Yuji's growth over the afternoon of training with Aoi. The two worked well together and should be okay even up against an S-rank. Yuta had done a good job with the other high-ranking foe, which now lay disintegrating where he had slain it. "In that case, let's start… with you." He appeared behind the bald man with the cleaver whom Nobara and Mai were doing an admirable job of stalling despite their beatendown states from their earlier fighting.

The man ran at him screaming some nonsense, but his arms and legs twisted around, half crushed by Satoru's magic. "We need this one alive for questioning. Try not to let him die," he explained to Nobara and Mai. The two seemed to understand and went to get help from the medical clinic being set up just outside the barrier, led by Shoko and Arata.

The guy that was with Nishimiya and Miwa had fled. All that was left was the S-rank, which he knew from prior experience was very good at running away. "In that case, let's get a little crazy." Forming the seals, he created Blue, then Red, and smashed them together, creating the imaginary mass of Hollow Purple. The blast carved a straight path toward the devil - Yuji and Aoi were smartly standing aside, he noted. The trench it left in the earth made it difficult to tell if the devil had been completely destroyed or gotten away. Satoru was certain he had at least hit some part of it, but at such a distance, even the Six Eyes could not ascertain whether or not it had been a kill-shot.

The commotion that followed the exit or defeat of the S-rank mostly consisted of Shoko and Yuta healing the injured mages, of which almost all the students numbered. Arata assisted where he could as well, using more conventional methods of treatment for those whose injuries were not as serious.

Yaga returned from his inspection of the barrier to report that it was still intact and had been the whole time. Ijichi further reported that the guards and staff at the castle had suffered casualties. Three C-rank mages, one B-rank, five E-ranks, who were really only used for spotting barriers and other magic invisible to non-mages, as well as two non-mage servants had been found dead. They were waiting on confirmation from Shoko, but it was all but apparent that the devil Nanami and Yuji had tangled with was involved in the break-in.

Satoru frowned. This was a serious breach. Several dangerous magical artifacts had been stolen as well, including the necklace he had sent Megumi after. The barrier he'd left around the room had been untouched as well. No one had broken it to access the room, but clearly someone had been able to enter and exit with the stolen items. "Have we gotten anything out of the rogue mage I captured?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Ijichi replied. "It's not that he's stubborn. He's just babbling incoherent nonsense. According to him, he was involved with the attack because he made a deal and was under orders. He wanted to make a rack of some sort and described the person he made a deal with as a monk kid with white hair. He wasn't even sure of the gender of the monk."

"Huh?" Satoru had a good memory for faces thanks to being born with the Six Eyes, but the description wasn't matching up with anyone he could ever recall seeing. "Must be like you said. He's just talking nonsense. Are there any mages who specialize at making people confess?"

Nanami ignored the king's line of questioning and posed one of his own. "The more pressing issue is how the devils, rogue mages, and that massive demon were able to get through the barrier in the first place."

Yaga cleared his throat. "I think it may have to do with that S-rank devil the students fought. It has a strange sense of presence, and according to Aoi it can get into plants as well. The barrier wouldn't be effective against plants."

Satoru frowned. "That is troubling." At least his students and the other clan mages were all alright - though Megumi's healing was going to take longer than a normal wound thanks to the roots that Shoko had had to remove before she could attempt healing. "So, who won the event?" he asked the room.

They all stared back blankly, and he stroked his chin in thought. If no one had won, who would choose the fun event for the end of the week? His sudden grin had Nanami looking concerned, Ijichi rapidly paling, and Yaga sighing.

xXxXx

The necklace whose stone had once been in the possession of Ryomen Sukuna glinted in the dim light of the cave. It swung by its chain from Geto's hand as he dangled it before his eyes. "The spoils of war," he murmured quietly.

Mahito had also recovered the first three of the Death Painting Wombs created by Kamo Noritoshi, the stain on the great Kamo Clan, as well as a few other artifacts that could be helpful with the barriers his group would need next month. It would still help to have a few more high-level barrier spikes though. Perhaps he could assign that task to the Death Paintings after he and Mahito found suitable hosts to revive them in.

Killing some extra castle mages had been an additional bonus for them. Hanami had taken more damage than he had hoped for but would live and recover with plenty of time to spare before the sealing date. Trapping the young mages inside the barrier, putting them in danger, and keeping Gojo out had been a good test of the barrier system.

Mahito approached. Geto doubted the devil had gotten over his warning him off of Itadori. He didn't need the devil's trust though, just cooperation for another month or so. "Hanami took heavy damage," the leader of the devils stated, as though Geto didn't already know that. "Your plan needs some rework."

"I've already come up with something," Geto replied. "Okkotsu Yuta turned out to be more of a problem than I originally anticipated. It was a good thing Hanami contracted with that demon and brought it along for the ride, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten a good test out of the barrier."

Mahito's expression twisted into a sneer. "I might have been caught taking the items, too. When did you want to activate the Death Paintings?" After a brief hesitation he dared to add "And why the pendant?"

"Hmm," Geto hummed, tucking the pendant out of sight under his robes and standing. "I'm good to go whenever. As for the pendant, I wanted to take a look at its construction. After I'm done analyzing it, it would be a nice gift for Uraume."

At least somewhat satisfied with his reply, Mahito turned on his heel and headed toward the cave entrance. He clearly expected Geto to follow after him. A cruel expression Geto didn't usually allow to cross his features made a quick appearance as he strode after the devil. Know your place, echoed in his thoughts.