"Impressive."
"It's similar to high-level Yin Attribute teleportation magic, except there's no magical fluctuation whatsoever." Reinhard studied Gojo, his tone earnest.
"That's because it isn't magic."
"It's a miracle." Gojo tipped his sunglasses up, grinning.
"Indeed it is." Reinhard nodded without a shred of irony.
"See, that's your problem, Reinhard. You're too serious. Life's going to pass you by if you keep that up."
"I've always thought of myself as rather humorous, actually."
"Ha! I take it back. You're hilarious."
They were still talking when Gojo grabbed him again and warped. Several jumps in rapid succession, and the two of them materialized beneath the Flugel Tree.
"Wait here. I'll go get the others."
Gojo gave the instruction and vanished.
Teleportation didn't drain his Cursed Energy the way expanding a domain did. Even so, chaining this many jumps back-to-back, round trip after round trip, would have killed any other Jujutsu Sorcerer outright. Only the Six Eyes made it possible, regulating each expenditure of Cursed Energy down to the finest grain.
He repeated the process just as he had with Reinhard, ferrying the remaining members of the group one by one. With Reinhard guarding the arrival point and Betty holding down the departure side, there was no real danger for Subaru or Felt in the gaps between trips.
"From here, the rest of the distance is short."
"Same order as before. Reinhard, you're with me first."
"Then Meili. Once you arrive, start rallying Mabeasts to track down the Witch Cult."
"Got it, big bro." Meili nodded. "Those people reek of the Witch's scent. They shouldn't be hard to find."
"After that, Subaru, your group. Betty comes last, with me."
Assignments dealt out, Gojo gripped Reinhard's shoulder and warped again.
A few jumps later, they stood deep in the forest near Arlam Village.
"This is the spot."
"I'll have Meili here in a minute."
True to his word, the girl appeared before Reinhard moments later.
"Alright, Meili. The rest is on you. Whether we find those Witch Cult fanatics depends entirely on how well you perform." He paused, letting the smile on his face sharpen. "And if you can't find them, you'll be starting daily study sessions when we get back. Same curriculum Felt went through for her etiquette training."
The confidence drained from Meili's face like water through a sieve.
She'd watched Felt's lessons from the sidelines. Every agonizing second of them. If that kind of torture landed on her, it would be a death sentence. Felt had only struggled because she'd grown up wild in the Slums, allergic to structure. Meili had been raised by beasts. The idea of sitting still for formal instruction was incomprehensible on a biological level.
"I will find them." Her voice came out hard as iron. "Absolutely. Without question."
This wasn't bluster. It was survival.
"Good. I believe you." Gojo flashed her a thumbs-up and disappeared.
Felt was waiting on the other end, arms crossed, shivering.
"Achoo!" She rubbed her nose. "I'm starting to regret tagging along."
"If you're not worried about Elsa sneaking into the mansion and kidnapping you for leverage over Meili, I can send you back."
The name alone made Felt's mouth twitch.
That woman was no joke. You never saw her when things were calm, but Felt had no doubt Elsa was out there somewhere, watching them from the shadows. The moment she noticed Reinhard and Gojo were both gone, the odds of her making a move skyrocketed.
"On second thought, I'll stay." Felt lifted her chin. "I'm not the kind of person who makes trouble for other people."
Pure bravado over raw fear, and Gojo saw right through it.
"Sure. Like I don't know exactly what kind of person you are."
He turned to Subaru. "You two sit tight. I'll be right back."
Gone again. Another chain of warps, and Felt landed beside Reinhard and the others.
A crowd of Mabeasts had already gathered around Meili. Every shape and size imaginable, with more still bounding through the trees toward them from every direction.
"Big bro, just give me a little more time. I'm still calling them in..."
Meili's voice pitched higher than usual when she spotted Gojo, nerves bleeding through. The specter of etiquette lessons loomed large.
"Take your time. No rush."
"What did you say to her?" Felt squinted at Meili's pale face. "She looks terrified."
It didn't add up. The girl might play the quiet wallflower, but anyone who knew her true identity understood the reality: behind that innocent exterior lived a killer every bit as cold as Elsa. Fear wasn't supposed to be in her vocabulary.
"I told her if she couldn't find the Witch Cult, she'd be joining your study sessions."
Felt's expression darkened. So she was part of the threat. Wonderful.
"Unbelievable." She shot a glare at Reinhard. Lessons. This was all his fault.
Reinhard accepted the look with a serene smile, utterly unbothered.
Gojo waved them off and headed back the way he'd come.
Two warps in, he stopped.
In the distance, where the Flugel Tree should have been clearly visible, a wall of dense, heavy fog had rolled in from nowhere. It blanketed the area in a rough circle, maybe ten kilometers across, swallowing the tree and everything around it.
Was there fog when I left?
The thought came and went. He shrugged it off and warped straight into the mist.
Thick as it was, the Six Eyes cut through it like it wasn't there. Visibility was a non-issue.
But the instant he materialized inside the fog bank, a shriek tore through the sky above him. Piercing, ear-splitting, the kind of sound that rattled the air itself and echoed long after it should have died.
Gojo's mind caught up immediately. The fog. That was the source.
But identifying it could wait. He locked onto Betty's Cursed Energy signature and shot toward it.
"El Minya!"
Deep in the fog, Betty was sprinting full tilt, Subaru's hand clamped in hers. Overhead, Yin Attribute mana condensed into arrows of violet crystal and screamed toward a massive shadow gaining on them through the white haze.
The arrows vanished into the fog. A roar followed, fury laced with pain.
"What is that thing chasing us?!" Subaru shouted, and in the same breath scooped Betty off the ground, threw her over his shoulder, and broke into an all-out run.
"You idiot, put me down!" Betty hammered her fists against his back. "How am I supposed to cast like this?!"
Bouncing on his shoulder with every stride, she couldn't aim, couldn't focus, couldn't do anything but flail.
"Then what am I supposed to do?!"
Panic drove the words out in a rush. Fumbling, he shifted her from his shoulder to his hip, tucking her under his arm the way he'd seen Gojo carry him once before.
"AAAAH! Is your brain broken?! Put me DOWN!"
Betty's teeth clenched hard enough to crack enamel. The indignity was almost worse than the monster.
"Oh. Right."
It finally clicked. He set her down.
"Can you handle that thing?"
"If I can't, I'll feed you to it. You can come back anyway."
Betty steadied herself, still fuming as she snapped at him.
"Any chance there's a painless way to go?"
Subaru's cheek twitched. He kept his voice low.
Since the last loop, since the Witch Cult, one lesson had seared itself into his mind with absolute clarity: dying was never, under any circumstance, something to look forward to. The first two times had been dumb luck. Slipping away in his sleep, no pain, no awareness. But being thrown to whatever lurked in that fog? He could picture it perfectly. Teeth closing around him, bones splintering, the slow wet crunch of being chewed alive. The thought alone made his stomach lurch.
"How about I just kill you right now?" Betty's eyes narrowed. "At least I'd make it quick."
The look on her face said she meant it.
Subaru's nervous laugh died in his throat. He shut up.
Satisfied, Betty turned her attention to the fog.
Rotten luck. That was all she could call it. Everything had been fine when Gojo left. Minutes later, the fog had crept in from all sides. Fog at night wasn't unusual. The merchants camped beneath the Flugel Tree hadn't thought twice about it, just stoked their fires a little higher.
No one had expected what was hiding inside.
"One of the Three Great Mabeasts. The White Whale." Her voice was flat, clinical. "A monster created by the Witch of Gluttony using her Authority."
"White Whale?" Subaru stared blankly. He'd never heard the name.
"If you don't want to spend your entire life as a fool, pick up a book once in a while. I doubt Emilia needs a fool fighting on her behalf."
The cluelessness in his voice was more than Betty could stomach.
Before he could respond, a low bellow erupted right beside them.
Betty moved on instinct. A sphere of black mist exploded outward with her and Subaru at its center. Shamak. Their forms dissolved into nothing. Simultaneously, a volley of crystal arrows lanced toward the source of the sound.
This time, no cry of pain answered. The arrows struck something, or nothing, and silence followed.
Betty dragged Subaru a few paces before dispelling the Shamak.
The moment the dark haze lifted, Subaru collapsed to his knees, gasping and retching.
"Honestly."
Betty's lip curled, but she didn't move from his side.
She was a creation of a Witch, same as the White Whale. As a Great Spirit of Yin, she didn't fear the creature. If anything, her power dwarfed it. The only nuisance was the fog itself: it concealed the whale's position and carried an effect similar to mana poisoning.
Beyond that? If the White Whale showed itself, it would become nothing more than target practice.
But the beast wasn't stupid. It had sensed the threat she posed and refused to engage head-on, lurking in the fog instead, probing for openings, waiting for a moment of weakness.
"Fine. Hide if you want." A cold smile crossed her lips. "We'll see who runs out of luck first."
The whale could skulk all it liked. Once Gojo came back, its misery would begin in earnest.
"What did you say?"
Subaru was still recovering from the Shamak, shaking off the disorientation. He hadn't caught her words.
Then the sky screamed.
A piercing wail, sharp enough to split the air. The White Whale's cry. The same one that had been chasing them.
Except now it sounded different. Less hunting. More hunted.
Betty's smile widened. Called it.
"I said, Subaru..."
"Are you the unluckiest person alive?"
"First the Witch Cult. Now a giant Mabeast."
"I step away for five minutes and you stumble into all of it."
Gojo's voice drifted down from above.
Wind followed. Not natural wind. Currents of air surging past with purpose, pulling, gathering. The thick fog that had choked the landscape began to peel away, drawn toward a single point as if some invisible force were inhaling the entire cloud.
"Is this your first day knowing him? And did you already forget about the Mabeast bite from last time?" Betty folded her arms.
Subaru wiped his mouth and dragged himself to his feet.
"It's not like I'm doing this on purpose."
Above them, the invisible pull continued its work, devouring fog in every direction.
It didn't take long. Every last wisp was stripped from the air.
Without the fog's veil, under the pale wash of moonlight, the world around them finally came into focus.
...
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