Jujutsu Kaisen: I have everything I need now!

Chapter 118 Okinawa

Okinawa.

"It's that thing again."

Kugizaki Nobara squatted on the side of a street soaked by seawater, picking up a grayish-white fragment the size of a fingernail with tweezers.

She held it up to her eyes and flipped it over in the sunlight.

Behind him, Fushiguro Megumi stood next to an overturned bus, holding a marked map in her hand.

"How much?"

"The seventeenth piece."

Kugizaki tossed the fragment into a transparent, sealed bag. The bag already contained many similar fragments, varying in size but almost identical in color and texture.

"They were all taken from those relatives. They don't dissipate after being killed; instead, they crystallize."

"The previous family members wouldn't have acted this way," Fukuro said.

"Yes. Those small fish that died before just turned into seawater."

Kugizaki stood up and dusted off his knees.

"But starting yesterday afternoon, the new family members have changed."

She looked around.

This street was attacked by Basha's retinue three days ago. Although "Window" has provided a reasonable explanation to the ordinary residents, the actual damage has not yet been repaired. Shattered glass, twisted streetlights, and asphalt road surface corroded and turned white by seawater.

A faint, fishy smell lingered in the air.

"They've become harder."

Kugizaki counted on his fingers.

"The skin is thicker than before, and the movements are faster. Most importantly, the resonance effect has deteriorated."

That's what really matters to her.

Her technique, "Resonance," transfers damage by acquiring a part of the target's body. In the previous battle to clear out Basha's Familia, this move was almost always effective—the Familia have a weak affinity with each other, and hitting one will cause the damage to spread to other nearby individuals through this affinity.

But the batch yesterday afternoon was clearly not working properly.

"The distance of the resonance transmission has been shortened by almost half." Kugizaki squeezed the sealed bag in his hand, "and the transmitted damage is also much weaker. Before, one hammer blow would fall five or six people around at once. Now, it will at most affect two or three, and they won't even be completely dead."

Fu Hei frowned and drew a circle on the map.

"They've become stronger."

"It's not just about getting stronger."

Kugizaki looked at him.

"I've become more 'independent'."

"Those previous followers were, to put it bluntly, just Basha's puppets. They were covered in traces of Basha's laws, and their connections with each other were very close. That's why resonance works so well."

"But now these new ones..."

She glanced down at the grayish-white fragments in the sealed bag.

"The connections are weakening. It's as if they're slipping out of Basha's control."

Fu Hei remained silent for a few seconds.

"Do you think Bazaar did it on purpose, or...?"

"have no idea."

Kugizaki shook his head decisively.

"But in either case, it's not good news."

She stuffed the sealed bag into her fanny pack and walked to the end of the street.

"If it's intentional, it means Basha is playing a new trick. If not, it means the familiars are evolving on their own."

Which is more troublesome?

"It's all troublesome."

Kugizaki didn't even turn his head.

"Let's go, there are still a few outposts to clear in 3-chome. Let's finish them before dark, I don't want to spend the night in this lousy place."

Fu Hei put away the map and followed.

The two walked south along the street that had been soaked by seawater. The road surface was full of corroded potholes, with shallow pools of salt water that made a sticky sound when stepped on.

After walking for about ten minutes, Kugizaki suddenly stopped.

"Fu Hei".

"Um?"

"Can you smell it?"

Fu Hei sniffed.

The sea breeze carried that pervasive salty smell, but apart from that—

Something's wrong.

A very faint smell, similar to a mixture of rust and rotting seaweed.

It doesn't taste like seawater.

It's something deeper. Like it's seeping up from the ground.

"This flavor wasn't there yesterday."

Kugizaki crouched down and placed his palm on the ground.

The surface of the asphalt is warm.

No, it's not just warm.

She could feel a very faint, regular vibration coming up from underground.

The frequency is very low, almost the same as a heartbeat.

"What is that?" Fu Hei also squatted down and placed his hand on the ground.

His expression changed.

"pulsation?"

The two exchanged a glance.

Kugizaki stood up, took out his phone, and dialed a number.

"Hey, Yuta-senpai. There's a new situation in Okinawa."

Her voice was very low.

There's something underground.

……

Tokyo, vocational high school.

10:00 AM.

On the first day of December, Maya and I took a six-hour overnight flight and train from Furano and arrived in Tokyo at 8:30 in the morning.

Without a moment's rest, the two quickly washed their faces and changed their clothes before heading straight to the monitoring room.

Bone was already waiting there.

A newly printed global energy monitoring report lay on the table, the edges of the paper still warm from the printer.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Yi Gu handed over two cans of coffee from the vending machine.

On the first day of the twelfth month, he took it but didn't open it; he just held it in his hand.

Zhenyi pulled the tab, took a sip, and leaned against the filing cabinet against the wall.

"Speak."

Yi Gu nodded and brought up the image on the big screen.

"Let's start with Europe."

On the satellite thermal image, a certain area of the Alps is marked with a red dot and a gray dot.

"Around 11 p.m. last night, the energy signals of Di Kui and Xiao Feng overlapped at this location for about forty minutes. After that, Di Kui's signal disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Zhenyi frowned.

"It sank underground. Once it went deep into the Earth's crust, our equipment could no longer track it."

"Where's Xiaofeng?"

"Still in the same spot. Hasn't moved."

On the first day of December, I pulled the tab on my coffee and took a sip.

The cool liquid slid down my throat, and the bitter taste spread across the back of my tongue.

"Forty minutes," he said.

"Um?"

"They stayed together for forty minutes. If they were fighting, either a winner would have been decided long ago, or the surrounding terrain would have been extensively damaged."

"But the satellite images don't show any changes in the terrain," Yigu said.

He nodded on the first day of the twelfth month.

"So they are negotiating."

The monitoring room was silent for a few seconds.

"We don't know what they talked about. But the fact that two demons sat down and talked for forty minutes is itself a cause for concern." Yigu hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"Actually, I personally tend to be more optimistic in my speculation."

Zhenyi raised her eyelids and looked at him.

"optimism?"

"Di Kui just fell out with Basha, and then immediately went to Xiao Feng. This means he's looking for a new partner."

"Isn't that even more dangerous?"

"On the surface, yes." Yi Gu pushed the coffee cup beside him, "but from another perspective—if Di Kui is strong enough on its own, it doesn't need to seek out anyone else."

December 1st tapped the coffee can twice with her fingers.

"You mean, it's feeling guilty."

"Yes. The battle at Toyama Bay may have been a bigger blow to them than we imagined."

Another set of data was retrieved from the sac.

"Based on the rate at which the Water Essence is being consumed, Basha's injuries will take at least two to three weeks to fully recover. Although the Earth Demon was not injured, the fact that it and Basha combined couldn't stop you proves that—"

"They have no chance of winning if they fight alone."

On the first day of the twelfth month, he took over the conversation.

"That's why Di Kui is in such a hurry to recruit people."

"And Basha's desperate recovery in the trench may also be because she was afraid that Di Kui would succeed first."

The analysis of the spur bone was very calm.

"Ultimately, they're in competition. They all want your power, but they all know they can't handle it all alone. That's why this situation exists—"

"A situation of mutual alliances and mutual distrust."

"right."

The skeletal frame turned off the thermal imaging and replaced it with a map of Pacific Ocean currents.

"Then it's Bazaar."

On the ocean current chart, the Mariana Trench is marked by a red dashed line. The direction of the ocean currents within the dashed line is clearly abnormal—all the currents are converging towards the center of the trench.

"In the past 24 hours, all ocean currents within a 200-kilometer radius of the trench have been deflected. All the water is rushing into the trench."

"She is absorbing the source much faster than we anticipated in terms of recovery time."

"How much more?"

"About three to four times."

The monitoring room fell silent again.

Three to four times.

If it's just for recuperation, you wouldn't need this much.

"She's gathering strength." December put down the coffee can. "It's not just about recovery; she's preparing for something."

"That's what I'm worried about."

Yigu's gaze shifted from the first day of the twelfth month to Zhenyi, and then back again.

"Di Kui is trying to win over Xiao Feng, while Ba Sha is accumulating power. Both sides are making moves, but in different directions."

"Is this a case of everyone doing their own thing, or...?"

Before he could finish speaking, the phone on the table rang.

Yi Gu glanced at the caller ID and answered the call.

"...Um. Um. What?"

His expression changed noticeably within seconds.

"Wait a minute, explain yourself clearly. What pulse?"

December 1st and Zhenyi exchanged a glance.

Bone put the phone on speakerphone.

Kugizaki's voice came through the microphone, carrying the sounds of the wind and waves from Okinawa.

"It's what I said, there's something underground."

"Regular vibrations, very low frequency, about once per second. Fukuro felt them too; it wasn't an earthquake, it was more like..."

Kugizaki paused for a moment.

"It's more like something is breathing."

The second bone is looking towards the first day of the twelfth month.

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, he stood up and walked to the large screen.

He stared at the ocean current chart for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze to the location of Okinawa.

Okinawa is located northwest of the Mariana Trench.

The two places are separated by a complete underwater ley line.

"Kugizaki."

"Um?"

"When did that tremor start?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'm not sure. We only noticed it this afternoon, but it's possible it started much earlier."

December 1st's finger tapped on the underwater ridge between Okinawa and the Mariana Trench on the screen.

"Senior Yigu, please check if there are any abnormal energy flows along this ley line."

The data was quickly retrieved from the sac.

A few seconds later, his expression changed.

"have."

"Since last night, a faint but continuous energy transmission has been observed along this ley line. The direction is—"

He raised his head.

"From the Mariana Trench to Okinawa."

No one spoke in the monitoring room.

Zhenyi put down the coffee can she was holding.

"Is Bazaar sending resources to Okinawa?"

"It's not necessarily about transportation," December 1st said.

His gaze remained fixed on the screen.

"It could also be an extension."

"Extend what?"

"Her domain."

On the first day of the twelfth month, he turned around and looked at Yi Gu.

Kugizaki said that the familiars are getting stronger and more independent. The effect of the resonance is weakening.

"If family members are no longer puppets, but begin to have their own 'souls'."

"That means Basha isn't controlling them, but rather..."

"Production."

When he uttered those two words, the temperature in the monitoring room seemed to drop by two degrees.

Yi Gu slowly exhaled.

"You mean, she's turning Okinawa into her second base?"

To be more precise—

On December 1st, he looked at the energy line on the screen that stretched from the Mariana Trench to Okinawa.

"She's building a foothold."

"The Mariana Trench is her home. But that place is too deep and too far from human settlements, so she can't assimilate the surface environment on a large scale."

"So she needs a more immediate springboard."

Okinawa.

"Surrounded by the sea on all sides, with its ley lines connecting to the ocean trenches, and the island still has the remnants of her former family as its foundation..."

"The perfect fulcrum."

Zhenyi straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest.

"So what do we do now?"

"Kugizaki and the other two aren't enough," December said. "If Bazaar is really building a foothold, simply clearing out the family members on the ground won't be enough."

"We need to dig out what's underground too."

"You want to go to Okinawa?" Otsuko asked.

He did not answer immediately on the first day of the twelfth month.

He stared at the screen, silently calculating in his mind.

After Di Kui and Xiao Feng held a secret meeting in Europe, Di Kui sank underground. His whereabouts are unknown.

Basha absorbs the source in the trench and permeates Okinawa through the earth's veins.

Two lines, two directions.

If he goes to Okinawa to handle the fulcrum, then what about Europe—

"Where's Mr. Gojo?"

"On a business trip," said Yigu.

"What kind of business trip?"

"He received a request for assistance from the European sorcery community yesterday. Several towns near the Alps experienced unusual storms, far stronger than normal, accompanied by fluctuations in sorcery energy."

His flight this morning should have arrived by now.

December 1st's finger rested on the coffee can.

Gojo Satoru went to Europe.

Go and deal with the storm caused by the howling wind.

Or rather—it was drawn away by the storm caused by the howling wind.

"What a coincidence."

Zhenyi gave a cold laugh.

There was no response on the first day of the twelfth month.

He stood there, thinking for a long time.

Then he picked up the coffee can on the table, tilted his head back and drank the last sip, then threw the empty can into the trash can.

"Bone of the 'Yi' radical".

"Um."

"Contact Kugizaki for me and have her send those fragment samples back. I want to see them."

"and then?"

"Then--"

On the first day of the twelfth month, he walked towards the door.

"I'll handle the Okinawa matter."

He opened the door and glanced back at Zhenyi.

Zhenyi had already stood up straight, crushed the empty coffee can, and thrown it into the trash can.

"Don't look at me, of course I'll go with you."

There was no rebuttal on the first day of the twelfth month.

He simply nodded and walked out of the monitoring room.

The fluorescent lights in the corridor hummed, casting a white light on his face.

Okinawa.

First, remove the fulcrum of Bazaar.

As for Di Kui and Xiao Feng—

one by one.

……

College, corridor.

Zhenyi quickly followed the first day of December.

The two walked side by side down the empty corridor, their footsteps echoing crisply on the tiled floor.

"What are you thinking about?"

Zhenyi turned her head to look at him.

On the first day of the twelfth month, his gaze was fixed ahead, unfocused.

"I'm thinking about Gojo-sensei."

"Are you worried about him?"

"I'm not worried about him personally."

December 1st speaks very slowly, as if he is organizing his thoughts while speaking.

"There's nothing wrong with him going to Europe to deal with the storm. The commotion caused by the howling winds definitely needed to be dealt with."

"But the timing was too coincidental."

"As soon as Jikui met with Xiaofeng, Xiaofeng started causing trouble in Europe, and then Gojo-sensei was called away."

Zhenyi remained silent.

She understood.

"You think it's a diversionary tactic."

I'm not sure.

On the first day of December, I pushed open the door at the end of the corridor, and sunlight rushed in.

He narrowed his eyes.

"But if that's the case—"

"Their target is not Europe."

"It's us."

The sunlight shone on his face, its warmth seeping into his skin. But his eyes were cold.