After Subaru vanished into the tomb, Gojo and the others settled in to wait.
What came next caught them off guard.
They'd expected the kid to come stumbling out in short order. Instead, he turned out to have more staying power than Roswaal.
Roswaal had lasted half a day before dragging himself back out, torn up and bleeding from head to toe.
Subaru, on the other hand, had been in there since morning and showed no sign of emerging. Noon came and went.
No Return by Death either.
Somehow, the kid was actually toughing it out in there.
"Roswaal, looks like Subaru's holding up better than you."
Gojo sat on a chair outside the tomb, a blade of grass between his teeth, grinning sideways at the painted man.
"If it were you, I suspect you'd do just as well," Roswaal returned lightly. "After all, both of you carry a strong scent of the Witch about you. Perhaps..."
"Not interested. If Felt ever tried to push me into something like that, I'd deck her on the spot."
"You and Lady Felt have quite the rapport."
"So what you're saying is you and Emilia don't?"
"Merely not the sort of friendship the two of you share."
Roswaal laughed softly and let the bait drift past.
"Speaking of which. If someone does clear the Trial, what exactly do they get out of it? Any idea?"
"I'm afraid not. The Witch of Greed was my ancestor's teacher. Centuries have passed since then. No one truly knows."
"I'd wager it's nothing ordinary, though. This is the same woman who could see the future."
"So she died of old age, then? Used her foresight to dodge whatever would've killed her?"
Gojo sounded genuinely curious.
"That I can't say. The only account we have is that she made her choice and walked into death on her own terms."
Roswaal spoke calmly, like a man reciting an old legend.
"Hm."
Gojo nodded, thinking it over.
While the two of them were still talking, a figure appeared at the mouth of the tomb. A thud followed. Whoever it was had hit the ground and stayed there.
Subaru.
"Well, well. Seems Subaru really does have you beat in this department."
Gojo showed no alarm. He rose unhurriedly, a smile still on his face as he turned to Roswaal.
In the glimpse he'd gotten as Subaru came out, there hadn't been any serious injuries on him. Night and day compared to the state Roswaal had shown up in.
"Perhaps he truly can manage it."
Roswaal stood as well, giving nothing away.
They started toward the tomb's entrance, but another figure reached it first.
Emilia.
She rushed to Subaru's side, voice tight with worry. "Subaru, wake up, please."
When he didn't stir, she scanned him for wounds and found none.
With nothing visible to heal, she pushed mana through him anyway, though it didn't seem to be doing much.
"Don't worry. Let me take a look."
Gojo came up beside her and touched her shoulder.
She looked up, recognized him, and moved aside.
He knelt for a brief read of the body.
"He's fine. Nothing wrong with him. Just knocked out."
Reverse Cursed Technique followed. Unconsciousness was the brain shutting down under stress. A reset was all it needed.
The technique took hold, and Subaru stirred.
The second his eyes found Gojo, they snapped wide open. His first words stopped all three of them cold.
"The Witches aren't dead. None of them are dead. I saw them!"
The sentence landed and froze the air around it.
Gojo moved on instinct the moment he heard it, scooping up both Subaru and Emilia and pulling them back from the entrance in a single motion.
Roswaal was half a beat slower, but followed.
Once they'd cleared some distance, Gojo set the other two down and turned to Subaru. "What did you see? All the Witches, in the tomb?"
He wasn't fully buying it.
Centuries had gone by. The old sages and the Sword Saint of that era were long dead. The Divine Dragon still drew breath, yes, and a new Sword Saint had risen.
But.
If the Witch of Envy was still alive, dealing with her wouldn't be anything like simple.
There was another thing.
If memory served, no two people could hold the same Witch Factor at the same time.
They'd just come face to face with several Sin Archbishops not long ago. By that logic, the other Witches shouldn't be walking around at all.
"I saw them. Not in the tomb though. It was somewhere strange."
"Big open field of grass. All the other Witches were there. Not the Witch of Envy. Looked like they were having some kind of tea party..."
Subaru's brow knit tight as he dredged up the memory, trying to piece the scene back together.
Gojo and Emilia exchanged a look.
It sounded less like something real and more like whatever Subaru had hallucinated after the Trial did a number on him.
"Subaru. The Trial you went through, what was it exactly?"
"Do you remember?"
"Trial?"
He scratched his head. "I'm not even sure it was a Trial. Nothing bad really happened to me in there."
"If anything, the only tough part was the Witches themselves."
Something in the memory made his mouth twitch.
"Tell me. What happened?"
Subaru took a moment to gather his thoughts and started walking them through it.
From what he described, it boiled down to running into the Witches and then being toyed with by some of them. A few unpleasant turns followed.
"Roswaal. When you went in, any of that happen to you?"
Roswaal had drifted over to join them. Gojo put the question to him directly.
"No. I never encountered anything resembling Witches."
"Then was I imagining the whole thing?"
Subaru was starting to doubt his own senses.
"None of that matters right now. Did you pass the Trial or not?"
Gojo's question drew another head scratch.
"I, I honestly don't know."
"I don't feel any new power or anything on me, so I'm guessing no."
"Shame."
"No big deal. Go back in and give it another shot. You're on your feet, you've got the energy for another round."
"You wanted to help Emilia, right? Can't quit halfway."
He clapped Subaru on the shoulder, voice warm and nudging him forward.
"Satoru, I can really do this myself."
"Let me go in. Let Subaru rest. He's only just..."
"It's okay, Emilia. I feel great. Totally fine. Trust me!"
Emilia's protest only flipped a switch in Subaru. His eyes lit up.
"Satoru, I'm counting on you again if I don't make it out, all right?"
"Go on. Leave it to me."
With that promise in hand, Subaru tore off toward the tomb like someone had jabbed him with a needle.
"Youth. What a thing."
Gojo watched him go and let out a small sigh.
Neither Emilia nor Roswaal picked up the thread. Both of them seemed lost in their own thoughts.
Lunch came and went, simple and quick.
By the time evening rolled in, Subaru emerged for the second time. He'd gone the whole day without food, and this time he wasn't walking out. He was crawling.
Twice through the tomb in one day and still in one piece. That alone was something worth noting.
But he didn't say a word this time. Whenever anyone asked, he just shook his head in silence, face closed off. Something in there had clearly gone somewhere he didn't want to talk about.
Gojo read the room and let it go. After dinner, he headed back to turn in for the night.
In his room, Garfiel sat exactly where he'd been left, still as a statue.
Gojo stretched out on the bed, and before long, a knock sounded at the door.
"It's open."
Subaru pushed in.
"So what happened this afternoon? You came out looking like you'd just seen a ghost."
Gojo didn't sound surprised. He'd been expecting this visit.
"I saw the Witch of Envy."
One short sentence. The weight behind it was enough to catch even Gojo off guard.
Most powerful figures came with qualifiers, specific feats, specific deeds.
The Witch of Envy was described by four words.
Devoured the world.
Those four words drew a line other beings couldn't cross. A different league entirely.
Even Gojo, as he was now, couldn't begin to picture what "devouring the world" actually looked like, or how anyone could do it. If the scene was beyond imagining, the gulf in strength hardly needed spelling out.
"The one who devoured the world?"
"Yeah."
Subaru nodded, dead serious.
His face had gone blank and tight at the same time.
"You said the first time that the Witches were alive. You hadn't seen her then, right?"
"No."
"The other Witches were there. Not her."
"Now that is interesting. Did you do anything different?"
"Nothing. I just went in, talked with the Witches a bit, and then she showed up. And..."
His face did something odd.
"And what?"
He sat quiet for a moment, clearly fumbling for the right words. There was an embarrassment creeping in under everything else.
"The Witch of Envy, Satella. I asked her why she gave me this power."
He tapped his chest where Return by Death lived.
"She said it was because she loved me."
For someone who'd never had a girlfriend in his life, Subaru carried the shy weight of the confession like a schoolboy.
And the line landed Gojo in his own kind of stunned.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we both came over from modern society, right?"
"Right."
"Different times, sure, but still."
"Then what's this about the Witch of Envy loving you? Does this world do love at first sight too? Or have you been sneaking off to meet her behind my back?"
"What are you even saying. There's no way I could've been meeting her behind your back. We've been together this whole time."
Subaru looked mildly aggrieved.
"And love at first sight's out. I can swear on anything, I'd never even seen her before. So it can't be that either."
"Then what is it?"
Gojo was genuinely puzzled.
"That ability doesn't pack much combat punch, but the effect's top-shelf."
"Keeps you alive. Lets you rewrite your own life. Plenty useful."
"Looked at that way, her saying she loves you isn't exactly a joke."
"I don't know either."
"I just got told that out of nowhere. I don't know what to do with it."
He sounded genuinely stuck.
"After seeing her today, I'm completely sure. That was the first time I'd ever met her."
"She had a hood on, so I couldn't see all of her face. But the aura around her was something else."
"Does she look like Emilia?"
Gojo thought about it and threw the question out.
"Well..."
Subaru turned it over. "The parts I could see. Chin, mouth. Pretty similar to Emilia, actually."
"Same build and height roughly. Hair color's obvious."
"Huh. That's weird. You weren't in this world in a past life or something, were you? Met the Witch of Envy back then, and she's been holding a torch for you ever since?"
"Even light novels wouldn't try that one these days. Way too dated."
Subaru didn't spare the critique.
"Fine. If it doesn't add up, don't force it. Having the Witch of Envy look out for you isn't the worst thing in the world."
"Plenty of people would kill for that kind of attention."
"Don't sweat it too hard. Worst case, she pops up one day and starts fighting Emilia over who's the real wife."
"Which, come to think of it, would make you a certified scumbag. Out there seducing Emilia with a power the Witch of Envy handed you."
"I, I didn't ask for any of this!"
Subaru's face went red, and the stammer came with it.
"Next time you run into her, I'd lay the sweet talk on thick if I were you."
"If she gets upset and decides to come after Emilia, there's not a whole lot any of us could do to stop her."
The words opened a door in Subaru's head he hadn't been looking at.
He really hadn't thought that far ahead.
But going by what he'd seen of the Witch of Envy today, it wasn't out of the question at all.