Seeing Mortis clutch her chest with both hands, panicked yet adamant in her refusal, Toyokawa Sakiko's lips curled upward all on their own—and a crisp laugh slipped out.
"Pfft."
A sly, triumphant glint flashed through her eyes. She lifted a hand and waved it airily.
"Alright, alright. I'm kidding."
Of course she had no intention of using Mortis as a test subject.
That was just payback—an arrow returned for the one Mortis had shot at her earlier.
Hearing that, Kocho Shinobu and Nagasaki Soyo exchanged a look and chuckled softly as well.
They were clearly just playing along with Sakiko's joke.
In their minds, Sakiko would never gamble a teammate's safety on an experiment.
However, right as everyone relaxed—and Mortis finally let out a breath—
Wakaba Mutsumi's expression remained perfectly calm. She slowly turned her head, her gaze sliding over Sakiko, Soyo, and Shinobu as they laughed, and asked with faint confusion,
"So that was a joke?"
The laughter cut off like a guillotine.
Sakiko, Shinobu, and Soyo all froze, then turned in unison to stare at Mutsumi.
There wasn't the slightest trace of humor on Mutsumi's face. Just moments ago, she had genuinely started mapping out the feasibility and steps of using the technique on Mortis.
"H-Hey!"
Mortis's heart shot straight back into her throat. Her voice went sharp with terror and disbelief.
"You weren't actually going to use me for the test, were you?! No way—no way, right?!"
Mutsumi looked at her.
Then a gentle, almost parental warmth appeared on her face—obviously slipping into "performance mode."
"Don't worry."
"You're a Shadow born from my expectations—something that fell out of my own desire. How could I possibly hurt you?"
Mortis shuddered violently, her face twisting in horror.
She sucked in a cold breath and scrubbed her arms hard, as if trying to rub away the goosebumps erupting all over her skin.
Then she flailed a hand, teeth aching as she snapped,
"Hey—don't say that in some deadbeat-parent voice! It's giving me chills! You're not even Morinami Minami's real daughter!"
Mutsumi blinked, neither confirming nor denying, and returned to her usual wooden calm.
Sakiko couldn't help herself—another puff of laughter escaped. Shinobu and Soyo followed suit, laughing too.
After the brief bout of chaos, Sakiko took a deep breath and reined in her smile.
She raised both hands and clapped twice, loudly.
The sharp sound pulled everyone's attention back into alignment.
"Alright," Sakiko said, sweeping her eyes over them. "Jokes end here. We're on the clock. Let's test Mutsumi's Potential Avatar—now."
Soyo sobered up as well, nodding. "Since we can't use Mortis, we need a different Shadow. So… we go to the subway Impression Space? Take a cab over?"
Sakiko shook her head, decisive. "Too slow."
The otherworld navigation app only allowed direct entry into the cognitive world when you were near a Palace's range.
That was exactly why she'd gone to all the trouble of finding this seam between reality and cognition—because it made everything easier.
In the real world, if they didn't want to draw attention, they'd have to obey real-world rules. In the seam, they didn't need to take the normal route.
Sakiko beckoned everyone closer. "Come on. Gather around me."
Soyo, Shinobu, Mutsumi—and Mortis, who looked extremely unwilling—moved in.
The complete-version Gojo Sakiko wrapped them all inside the boundary of her Limitless with exquisite control.
Meanwhile, the younger Gojo Sakiko used Blue to manipulate space directly—compressing the space ahead and dragging the entire group forward in one smooth, violent glide.
In an instant, the world became smeared into black-red color blocks and blurred lines.
Because they weren't "moving" so much as the space around them was being folded, the macro-level speed was absurd—accelerating continuously under Blue's sustained pull, almost reaching the threshold of teleportation.
And yet inside the Limitless shell, it was eerily tranquil.
Soyo stared at the light streaking backward, startled to realize not a single strand of her hair lifted. Shinobu, ever sharp, noticed she didn't even need to balance her center of gravity.
Then the route hit a sharp corner.
By physics, the centrifugal force at this speed should have snapped bones.
But even through the turn, none of them felt anything at all—not even the slightest lurch.
A few seconds later, the blurred streaks abruptly stopped, and the world snapped back into clarity.
They were standing at the entrance of a subway station.
"We're here," Sakiko said lightly, dispelling the technique. The sensation of being wrapped in Limitless vanished.
Then she opened the otherworld navigation app.
[Enter]
Her thumb pressed down.
A ripple of red-black distortion spread outward from her phone, rolling across the subway entrance like a tide.
They dropped into the subway Impression Space—Layer One.
The moment they stepped onto the first layer, a Shadow—lurking in the tunnel dozens of meters to their right—caught the scent of living humans.
Its aimless drifting froze.
A bone-scraping hiss ripped from it.
"Hssss—!"
The black mass launched itself at them at full speed.
"Perfect timing—Mutsumi!" Sakiko called.
Under everyone's gaze, the Geto Mutsumi Avatar behind Mutsumi moved.
He stepped forward, passing Mutsumi with composed ease, and raised his right hand. His fingers parted slightly, palm and fingertips aimed toward the oncoming target.
The Shadow's stench of negative emotion slammed toward them—
And at the exact instant it was about to collide with Geto Mutsumi's fingertips, something changed.
The Shadow's charge cut off midair, its entire body locking in place—as if time had grabbed it by the throat.
That was only the beginning.
The next second, Geto Mutsumi subtly rotated his wrist.
His technique activated.
The Shadow's body contorted violently, collapsing inward. In under two seconds, the human-sized mass was gone entirely.
In its place: a walnut-sized black sphere, hovering above Geto Mutsumi's palm.
He lifted his hand and calmly brought the sphere to his mouth.
Gulp.
His throat bobbed once.
The black sphere disappeared.
Behind him, every face lit up with instinctive delight.
It wasn't that a weak enemy had been defeated—this was deeper than that.
It proved their earlier inference:
Cursed Spirit Manipulation held a dominion-level suppression over Shadows in this world—beings likewise born from human negative emotion.
This wasn't merely power overwhelming power.
It was a rule-based, absolute command.
If the conditions were met, absorption was forced.
Just as the group's excitement rose, the normally expressionless Mutsumi lifted a hand and pressed it lightly to her chest.
Her throat moved once.
Then she murmured—so softly it almost didn't exist.
Sakiko's joy vanished in an instant, replaced by sharp vigilance.
She strode to Mutsumi's side, eyes locked on Mutsumi's face. "Mutsumi—what is it? Are you feeling unwell? Did the technique backlash?"
Mutsumi lowered her hand from her chest and steadied her breathing.
She shook her head.
"It's just that… the taste wasn't good."
Everyone blinked.
Mutsumi frowned as if recalling it made her regret existing, then added,
"More like… unbelievably disgusting."
Her tone held no complaint—only a flat statement of fact.
The flavor didn't fit normal categories like sweet or bitter. If forced into an image, it was like shoving an entire filthy rag into your mouth—one used to wipe vomit and the sludge of a rotting gutter—and swallowing it whole.
Mortis wandered over from behind, arms crossed, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well, obviously," she said. "It's human negative emotion."
"Even if you and I are also Shadows—twisted from negative emotion—you have to understand: people's desires come in every shape. Sadness, jealousy, anger, greed… each one tastes completely different."
"If it's negative emotion that's close to our own, you'll probably find it delicious when you absorb it. But the more different it is from us—the more its nature conflicts—the stronger that soul-level 'foreign body' sensation gets."
"The harder it is to swallow. You might even feel sick."
Shinobu, razor-fast as always, seized the core issue immediately.
She stepped forward. "Then let me confirm something."
"Is this 'disgusting' sensation something you can suppress? Or does it trigger a physiological aversion—like a gag reflex—where you literally can't swallow?"
It was a fair concern.
She was asking whether there might be certain Shadows whose negative-emotion "flavor" made them impossible for Mutsumi to absorb—an enemy that could shut the technique down through pure rejection.
If such a weakness existed, it would be lethal in real combat.
They needed a contingency plan now, not later.
Mutsumi understood. She stood still, closed her eyes, and replayed the process carefully.
After a moment, she opened them and shook her head.
"It's disgusting. It's revolting. It's the kind of disgusting you don't want to remember."
"But it doesn't affect how the technique works."
Everyone nodded almost in sync. The last thread of worry snapped loose and fell away.
As long as the mechanism wasn't impacted, "bad taste" was a trivial price.
With absorption confirmed, Sakiko made the call.
"Next: control. Let's see if you can fully command it."
Mutsumi nodded, shifting part of her focus.
Geto Mutsumi then… spit the black bead back out.
The sphere, swallowed only moments ago, floated in the air, then landed in his palm.
Then it began to crack.
The black shell shattered like an eggshell and peeled away, dissolving into flecks of darkness that vanished into the air.
What emerged made everyone freeze.
It wasn't the snarling Shadow from before.
It was a tiny sprite—no bigger than a hand.
She had an exquisitely pretty, human-like face, short pale-blue hair, and pointed ears. Transparent butterfly wings shimmered on her back.
She wore an extremely sexy one-piece bodysuit and thigh-high stockings—deep-blue fabric hugging her small frame—and even tiny high heels on feet no larger than fingertips.
The moment she appeared, she giggled like a wind chime.
Not a trace of hostility.
Instead, she fluttered straight to Geto Mutsumi's hand, wrapped her tiny arms around his finger, and rubbed against it.
Like a kitten pleading for attention, she made a faint, needy little sound—obedient and attached.
Soyo unconsciously leaned forward, hands clasped to her chest, eyes sparkling. "Wah… she's so cute!"
Shinobu couldn't help nodding too.
But she didn't let the cuteness dull her mind. "Where's the Shadow?"
Mutsumi lifted a finger and gently tapped the sprite on the head, then answered in a perfectly flat tone.
"This is the Shadow I absorbed."
Soyo stared, mouth slightly open, then flicked her gaze between the tiny fairy and the memory of that black mass—unable to connect the two at all.
She'd honestly thought this might be a cursed spirit Geto Mutsumi came with by default.
Sakiko watched their confusion, then tapped her own forehead.
Right—she hadn't explained.
She cleared her throat, drawing their attention, and said,
"Soyo, Shinobu—just because Shadows usually look like a black silhouette when you see them doesn't mean that's their true form."
She pointed at the sprite.
"Every Shadow actually has a concrete shape. Those shapes come from the mythologies and stories humans have passed down for thousands of years—demons, angels, fairies, divine beasts."
"In oral tradition, people poured specific emotions into those images. Each image corresponds to a particular negative emotion."
"And the reason you haven't seen these forms is simple: normally, a Shadow only reveals its true shape when it's engaging in a direct, soul-level clash with a Persona user."
At that, Mortis stepped in as well.
"Not just Persona users," she added. "We Shadows can fight each other on that level too. We can see each other's true forms."
Soyo and Shinobu exchanged a look, then nodded in sudden understanding.
That made sense.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 165)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter220)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter125)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter250)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 220
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 185
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 248
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 230
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 125
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 145
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 115
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 110
My Harem Is Indescribable 100
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 105
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 80
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 85
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 78
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 80
Checking In in Demon Slayer 85
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 100
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 85
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 90
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 75
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 80
Why did they assign me to Uma 75
MYGO Beauties 70
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 70
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 80
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 80
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 57
The Uma Musume Who Became 55
I'm Definitely Not the King of 60
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 35
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 34
I, the Elden Sword Saint 27
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 24
No One Knows Pokémon Better 18
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 20
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