Even so, there was still a Reinhard standing right next to him.
Last time, it had been Reinhard who pinned him down and handed Gojo the opening.
And now.
If Reinhard stepped in his way, there wouldn't be so much as a sliver of hope for escape.
So before the Sword Saint showed up, he had to run. Now.
The world was wide, but the list of people who could make him eat dirt came to maybe two or three names. He refused to believe his luck would rot twice in a row.
Whoever violates my rights, I won't let them walk away...
On his way out, Regulus cast a long, heavy look at the black sphere, and let the promise settle somewhere cold inside him.
But he'd barely turned when a teasing voice drifted into his ear.
"My dear friend, where do you think you're off to?"
Regulus swiveled his head with the stiffness of a rusted hinge, and there stood Gojo, casually planted atop a stunned-silly Black Dragon, beaming at him.
Without a heartbeat's pause, Regulus kicked up a cloud of dust to screen Gojo's view and bolted.
"We're all friends here. Sit down, have a chat, catch up on old times. What's the rush?"
Gojo watched him struggle with mild amusement, a faint smile on his lips.
Regulus clearly wasn't in the mood to humor him. He tore off into the distance, Authority pouring into his legs, speed climbing to a terrifying pitch.
Gojo was faster.
"Come back with me."
"Even you can't use that ability twice in a row, can you?"
Regulus whipped his head around, glare venomous.
"Why don't you try it and find out."
Gojo smiled, and lifted his index and middle fingers, crossing them together again.
"Unlimited Void."
Regulus's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"Piss off!"
The roar came out shredded with terror.
And at the moment Regulus braced for that awful space to swallow him again...
Nothing happened.
The world around him stayed exactly as it was.
The despair on his face dissolved in a blink and flipped into blazing triumph.
"I knew it. You can't actually pull it off back-to-back..."
"Just kidding."
Gojo stuck his tongue out at him.
The light around them dimmed.
Both of them were standing in that eerie, too-familiar space.
Regulus's smile stayed half-formed, frozen in place. Staring at the surroundings he knew too well, his mouth twitched, and his expression twisted into something worse than tears.
Gojo seized the moment and snapped his fingers.
Every motion, every flicker of emotion on Regulus's face, locked in place. He stood there like some grotesque little clown.
"Done. Clocking out."
Stepping back out of the domain, Gojo surveyed the pile of lifelike "figurines" with a satisfied grin.
"Betty, come help me pack up."
"Wait, wait!"
"I haven't filmed it yet! That's the Sin Archbishop of Lust, there's a bounty on her too, I'm not missing this!"
From a distance, Gojo spotted Felt sprinting over with something that looked like a crystal ball clutched in her hand.
"Film it?"
"What is that thing?"
"Oh, this is the good stuff. Comes out of Kararagi, they call it a Recording Crystal. Supposedly the Great Sage put it together back in the day."
"You pour mana into it and it records whatever's in front of you, stores it away clean."
Ah. So a phone camera, Gojo thought.
"You didn't film me using that thing, did you? Because if you did, we'll have a problem."
"Nope, nope. I'm not an idiot. Steered clear of you the whole time."
Felt hoisted the crystal ball proudly.
"All right, Betty, help me line up the shot. Let's get the Great Rabbit and the Sin Archbishop in frame first."
Betty pulled a sour face and got to work, reopening the tear into the pocket dimension.
Felt gripped the crystal ball the way a modern girl would hold her phone for a selfie, with the dragon-shaped Capella and the churning mass of Great Rabbits sliding into the rift behind her.
"Moshi moshi."
"That should be a clear shot. Come on, Reinhard, say hi to everyone."
For the sake of credibility, Reinhard, knight of the realm and paragon of virtue, was once again being used as a reference point.
"What should I say, Miss Felt?"
"Just a normal hello, that's all."
"Hello, everyone. I'm Reinhard."
He gave the crystal ball a small wave.
"Welcome to the live execution of the Sin Archbishop of Lust, plus one of the Three Great Mabeasts, the Great Rabbit!"
"The one you just saw fighting Margrave Roswaal was the Witch Cult's Sin Archbishop of Lust, Capella."
"You should've heard her introduce herself earlier..."
Felt rattled on like a war correspondent, commentary flowing without a hitch.
Off to the side, Gojo watched the whole production unfold and turned a puzzled look on Betty.
"When we were watching the fight earlier, was she filming the whole thing?"
"Probably, I suppose."
Betty thought for a second, then gave an uncertain shrug.
"If she ever drops out of the running for the throne, she's got a real future as paparazzi."
"Paparazzi? Is that a Mabeast's offspring?"
"Not that kind of thing. It's a profession from back home. People who sneak around getting hidden footage of famous people, stuff the public isn't supposed to see."
"Felt's quick on her feet, and she's handling that crystal ball like it was made for her. Honestly, she's a natural."
"Sounds like a dull line of work."
Betty delivered her verdict flatly.
Over on the other side, Felt was wrapping up her broadcast.
Capella and her rabbit retinue were unceremoniously dumped into the pocket dimension like so much trash.
Having captured all of it for posterity, Felt clapped her hands and beamed.
"That went great. Two more bounties coming my way!"
"Great Rabbit and the Sin Archbishop of Lust, you know, the Witch Cult really has been a blessing for me. The bounties alone are ridiculous, and that's not counting everything else."
She gazed at her crystal ball the way a miser eyes gold.
"Miss Felt, if anyone else heard you say that, they'd get the wrong idea."
"Eh, whatever. No strangers around, and the line's not leaving this room."
Felt waved the concern off lazily.
"Right, Roswaal?"
Roswaal, currently a man short a few limbs, was half-sprawled on the floor. A rueful smile crossed his face.
"Please don't poke fun at me, Miss Felt."
"Everything I've done must look like a joke in your eyes and your companions'."
"Oh, I wouldn't put it like that. For a long time, we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out what on earth you were after."
Gojo drifted over and gave him a companionable pat on the shoulder.
"All right, this whole mess is wrapped up. Let's clean up and get some sleep. Anything else can wait until morning."
He yawned.
Being dragged through something like this in the dead of night did a real number on a man's rest.
"If you don't get proper sleep, you'll age faster," he muttered, rubbing his face.
"Oh, and this also gives our dear count time to put his thoughts in order. Tomorrow, we'll hear the full story of what made him pick this particular road."
"No running away, count. I suspect Capella, currently stuffed into that pocket dimension, is deeply regretting her choices right about now."
"I won't run."
Roswaal shook his head with a calm smile.
"You are my greatest hope at this point. I wouldn't throw that away on something foolish."
"Good, then it's settled."
"Come on, Reinhard. I'll help you get the villagers back where they belong."
Gojo waved the Sword Saint over.
"I appreciate the help."
"Don't start. I'm the one who asked you to pull them out in the first place."
The two headed off toward the hiding spot.
Felt and the others trickled away to their own beds.
Only Subaru lingered, Emilia still on his back, silent. He stood there a long moment, watching Roswaal without saying anything.
"Is there something you want to say to me, Subaru?"
Roswaal regarded him with that same mild smile.
"Be grateful Satoru is the one running this."
"If it were me..."
Subaru paused. His eyes were cold.
"I wouldn't let you off this easy."
Roswaal took the threat without the slightest shift in expression. The smile on his lips didn't waver.
"My apologies."
Against that unshakeable calm, Subaru had nothing more to say. He left it at that, and carried the unconscious Emilia off toward her room.
One by one, everyone drifted away, until only Roswaal remained, lying alone in the open.
He tilted his head up toward the sky.
In the deep black above, his narrow eyes flickered with a loss he hadn't shown before.
...
The next day.
Wrapping up the night before had carried them into the small hours. For Gojo, who on an ordinary day could sleep comfortably until midmorning, that was pushing things.
So when he finally opened his eyes, the afternoon was already well underway.
He shuffled out of his room rubbing sleep from his face, and found everyone else long since up.
"Morning, everyone."
He scratched at his unruly hair and offered the greeting through a yawn.
"Any later and you could've called it dinner."
Betty kept her eyes on the Cursed Technique she was studying, tone flat.
"Nice. Consider it dieting."
He glanced around at the rest of them.
"You all look like you've been waiting a while."
Not vanity talking. They were literally gathered in front of his door. It would've taken effort to miss them.
"We were going to wake you up, but Betty said to let you rest."
Subaru shrugged.
"Betty did not say that. Betty merely observed that without proper sleep, a person's judgment suffers..."
"I know, I know. My Betty is the most considerate little thing."
Gojo scooped her up like a doll and nuzzled her cheek.
"Get off, you haven't even brushed your teeth or washed your face..."
Betty pushed at him with the force of a kitten declining affection, meaning none at all.
After a good round of that, and a firm march off to clean up, the long-awaited "trial" finally began.
Though "trial" wasn't quite right.
"Interrogation" was closer.
Questioning Margrave Roswaal, supporter of Royal Candidate Emilia, about the string of strange things he'd been doing and what exactly he was playing at.
In a room hastily put in order, Roswaal sat at the head of a long table, with Gojo and the others lined up at the far end, the two sides set cleanly against each other.
"On short notice, this is the best I could arrange. My apologies."
Roswaal held onto his host's composure, a trace of apology in his voice.
Last night's fight had carried the villagers clear of the worst of it, but the aftershocks had still reached some of the closer houses.
Today that had set off a bit of panic.
From the villagers' perspective, waking up to find your house gone was not a normal Tuesday.
Rooms large enough to comfortably seat everyone for a proper talk weren't exactly abundant.
"Skip the preamble. Let's get to it."
Of everyone in the room, the person most invested in what Roswaal had been up to was, unsurprisingly, Subaru.
Every one of Roswaal's schemes had been aimed at Emilia.
He wasn't about to sit quietly through one more.
"Not much by way of an opening line, I know."
"But since Subaru's in a hurry, let's keep it simple."
Gojo picked up the thread with a smile and turned to Roswaal.
"Roswaal, start from the beginning. Walk us through your goal, and the reasons behind everything you've been doing."
"If your memory needs a nudge, I can help. We can start from when Emilia's insignia got stolen..."
"There's no need."
Across the table, Roswaal gave a gentle shake of his head.
"I've made my decision. There's nothing left to hide."
"I'll tell you everything, start to finish."
His voice was level, without a ripple.
As he spoke, a thick, heavy book emerged from somewhere and settled on the table in front of him.