The three of them fell silent for a long time.
In the end, Maki was the first to break the heavy atmosphere.
"What's out there?"
Maki pointed outside the island.
From where they were, all they could see was the occasional wave crashing against the island, along with a thick fog.
"I don't know, but it's probably better not to go there."
Inoue shook his head.
"Why?"
Maki asked in confusion.
"I tried. There's only dense fog out there, you can't see anything, and even if you try to swim away, you just end up swimming back to the island."
"So the exit of this Domain can only be inside the building at the center of the island?"
Maki looked toward the ancient building in the center of the island.
At the same time, she began thinking about how to take Inoue out of this Domain with them.
Unlike the two Jujutsu Sorcerers, Inoue was clearly not going to last much longer.
Therefore, Maki felt that getting Inoue out safely was more important than exorcising the hypothetical Cursed Spirit that had yet to show itself.
"Actually..."
Inoue hesitated.
After realizing that the true nature of this Cursed Spirit might have originated from people's fear of Cthulhu, he had a guess.
However, he was not a professional after all, and he did not dare speak that guess out loud.
If he misled the two people in front of him, it would be very dangerous.
As a member of the Assistant Supervisors, Inoue had also dealt with Jujutsu Sorcerers before.
He had seen Jujutsu Sorcerers die.
The Assistant Supervisor regulations also clearly required information to be specific and accurate.
Because in the past, there really had been cases where Jujutsu Sorcerers died because of incorrect information.
"Stop hemming and hawing. Are you a man or not? Just say whatever you want to say."
Straightforward as always, Maki hated this kind of hesitation the most.
If you want to do something, then do it immediately.
Dragging things out would only increase the chances of failure.
"Salmon roe." [Don't worry about it.]
Toge placed a hand on Inoue's shoulder and comforted him.
Although he did not know why Toge said salmon roe, the reassuring tone still helped Inoue relax a lot.
That's right, he was practically done for anyway, so what was the point of hesitating?
He should just say everything he knew and let the Jujutsu Sorcerers, who were experts at exorcising Cursed Spirits, make the judgment.
Was there any better option now?
"Actually, I think this might not be a Domain, but a dream."
Inoue stated his conclusion.
"A dream?"
"Salmon roe?"
Maki and Toge both revealed puzzled expressions at the same time.
"That's right, a dream. I once heard a senpai say that a Domain is the spiritual world of one's inner self, and an external Domain is created by a Cursed Spirit with Cursed Energy, which means a Domain has a limited range.
But I clearly remember that I never stepped into any place in the village that looked dangerous enough to be a Domain.
On the contrary, before coming here, I had already set up a tent and gone to sleep in an abandoned courtyard."
Inoue recounted to the two of them what he had done in the village yesterday.
"Now that you mention it, we also came here after falling asleep."
Maki felt that if this was a dream, then her own experience made sense.
Because if she had been brought here or teleported here, there was no way she would have been completely unaware of it.
Panda also would not have given no reaction at all.
Moreover, the Thousand Machine Umbrella had been right beside her, and if it had been teleportation, it would have been hard not to bring the Thousand Machine Umbrella along too.
"Salmon."
Toge nodded in agreement.
"Then how do we get out?"
Maki asked Inoue directly.
"I remember there's a way to wake up from a dream in movies, which is to die in the dream, but I..."
Inoue's voice grew softer and softer.
After all, that was just a method from a movie, and no one could guarantee that it would work.
What if he died in the dream and his body outside turned into a vegetable?
What if his spirit died directly, and then his body died soon after as well?
"Mustard leaf." [Leave it to me.]
As if sensing Inoue's doubts, Toge stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder.
"You have a way?"
Inoue looked at Toge with hopeful eyes.
Toge nodded, then turned to look at Maki.
Maki also understood what Toge meant.
"Go ahead."
For her, who had no cursed tool in hand, testing the possibility of this theory was undoubtedly the best choice.
Toge reached out and pulled down his zipper, revealing the mouth marked with snake eyes and snake fangs on his face...
Late at night, Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Eichi and Artoria sat facing each other at a joined desk, going through the mountain of documents piled on top of it.
The contents of these documents were extremely complicated.
There were reports on Cursed Spirit traces submitted by the Assistant Supervisors.
There were mission schedules for Jujutsu Sorcerers.
There were application forms requesting support from nearby areas.
There were approvals for Jujutsu Sorcerers' rewards for exorcising Cursed Spirits.
There were compensation forms for public facilities damaged by Jujutsu Sorcerers during battle...
The endless paperwork gave Eichi a headache.
Fortunately, with Artoria, who had once ruled a country, by his side, Eichi was able to quickly understand how the Jujutsu World operated.
Eichi's desire to take control of the Jujutsu World had never been mere talk.
He had always been putting it into action.
After years of accumulation and development, Eichi dared say that if he wanted to seize control of the Jujutsu World, he would definitely succeed.
Two of the Big Three Families, the greatest powers in the Jujutsu World, would support him.
The retainers of the Zen'in Family and the Gojo Family would also have nothing to say.
Local families such as the Shinkage-ryu, the Tsuchimiya Family, and the Isayama Family would also support him.
So now, the foundation was already in place.
What remained was talent and systems to build the skyscraper on top of it.
Therefore, Eichi first planned to understand the Jujutsu World's specific operating mechanisms.
For example, how the Assistant Supervisors operated, how they coordinated with local areas to evacuate civilians, and where the high rewards for Jujutsu Sorcerers came from... These were all things that had to be understood in order to control and change the Jujutsu World in the future.
After all, if you did not understand these things and then forcefully replaced a group of people directly, what if after some time the people carrying things out at the local level realized that you actually understood nothing, and then simply reverted to the old ways?
For them, it would only be a matter of changing some figures and putting the charm of statistics to work.
There was no way Eichi could secretly send people to investigate the whole world every single day.
"Finally done."
Eichi rubbed his somewhat stiff shoulders.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
"...Come in."
Although his tone was calm, Eichi was secretly praying that no new documents had arrived.
"Eichi-sensei, there's a support request and a report that need to be reviewed."
It was Rika who came in.
In order to become the woman who would stand behind Yuta and hold up half the sky for him in the Jujutsu World, Rika was also diligently learning about the state of the Jujutsu World.
His prayer failed, and Eichi helplessly accepted the application form and report that Rika handed him.
The next second, Eichi's expression turned serious.
The support request had been sent by Nitta Akari, one of the Assistant Supervisors Eichi had specifically assigned to the first-year students.
The report had been submitted by Ieiri Shoko.
Its contents were the research results on the Octopus People that Nitta Akari had sent over.
"Originally human... affected by jujutsu... modified..."
Eichi picked out the key words.
'Could it be that Mahito has appeared?'
At the mention of this kind of modification, the first person Eichi thought of was Mahito.
On top of that, among the disaster Cursed Spirits who had appeared alongside Mahito in the original story, there was Dagon, whose style was similar to an octopus and Cthulhu.
So it was indeed possible that Mahito had created these Octopus People.
"Ria, let's go. Time to stretch our muscles a bit."
Thinking of this, Eichi stood up at once.
The other disaster Cursed Spirits did not matter, but Mahito absolutely could not be allowed to escape.
"Alright, after sitting around for so many days, my body is getting a little rusty."
Artoria sensed the seriousness in Eichi's tone and stood up as well.
Before leaving, Eichi also called Suguru, telling him not to sleep, and to get up and join the fun.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)