Ren stared at the blue panel hovering in the dim light of his dorm room. He reached out, his hand passing harmlessly through the holographic text detailing his new 'Soul Immunity' trait.
It wasn't a glitch. The System had genuinely recognized his brief, opportunistic strike on Mahito as dominating a Special Grade.
He dropped his hand, letting out a sharp exhale. Mahito was the one wildcard in the upcoming Shibuya timeline that he hadn't fully figured out how to counter.
The curse's ability to instantly kill or disfigure with a single touch was a nightmare for a close-quarters fighter like him. Now? That threat was completely, fundamentally neutralized.
"Okay. Focus," Ren muttered, shaking his head to clear the shock.
He looked back up at the balance tracker. 41,595 System Points.
It was a massive leap from the roughly sixteen grand he had scraped together hunting in Kawasaki earlier that morning. His mind immediately ran the math.
He needed exactly fifty thousand points to upgrade his tool to a special grade, plus who knows how much extra to imbue it with Reverse Cursed Technique. He was only eight and a half thousand points short.
He dismissed the interface with a quick swipe of his hand. The blue light vanished, plunging the room back into natural afternoon shadows.
Sitting around calculating point deficits wasn't going to bridge the gap.
More importantly, Shoko had explicitly warned him that Gojo was on his way back from Kyoto.
If he wanted to see Maki before the world's most annoying teacher returned to crash the party, he had to move right now.
Ren pushed off the mattress, grabbing Nightfall's dark scabbard and securing it back in the system inventory, He unlocked the deadbolt and slipped out into the empty hallway of the second-year dormitories.
The walk to the athletic fields was quiet. The adrenaline from the chaotic fight with Mahito was finally bleeding out of his system, replaced by the terrifyingly efficient physical recovery rate of his Heavenly Restriction. His muscles felt perfectly loose, the heavy fatigue completely gone.
As he crested the small stone path overlooking the main training grounds, he spotted her.
Maki was still running drills. She had swapped the wooden naginata for a solid steel training staff, her movements a violent, perfectly calculated blur. Panda and Toge were nowhere to be seen.
Ren didn't call out right away. He just leaned against the chain-link fence, watching her pivot and strike the air with lethal precision.
Even completely exhausted, there was a sharp, undeniable elegance to the way her body moved.
She finished a brutal combination with a heavy downward strike, the steel staff stopping mere inches from the dirt. She held the stance for a second, her shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths, before slowly standing up straight.
"Stop staring," Maki called out, not even turning around.
Ren smiled, pushing off the fence and walking onto the dirt field. "Can you blame me?"
Maki finally turned, resting the heavy staff against her shoulder. Her face was flushed from the intense workout, but her sharp, wire-rimmed glasses caught the afternoon sun. She tried to maintain her usual fierce scowl, but the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
"You took your time getting back," she noted, her tone attempting to sound completely casual.
"Nanami didn't run you into the ground?"
"Nanami is a saint compared to your teacher," Ren replied smoothly, closing the distance between them. "He actually respects standard working hours."
Maki let out a short, genuine laugh, shaking her head. "I told you he was the only functional adult we have on staff." She looked him up and down, her sharp eyes scanning for any hidden injuries or signs of blood.
"You're sure you're okay?."
"I'm completely fine," Ren promised, stopping just a foot away from her. He kept his voice low, the teasing edge dropping into something much more sincere. "I actually just came to collect on a promise."
Maki blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "What promise?"
Ren smiled, reaching out to gently tug a loose strand of dark green hair behind her ear. "You left me a voice note saying you were going to exorcise my ghost if I died today. Since I survived the assignment... I figured I earned a proper welcome back."
"I didn't say anything like that," Maki shot back instantly. She leaned her weight against the steel staff, crossing her free arm over her chest with a dismissive scoff.
Ren tilted his head. A slow, dangerously amused smirk spread across his face as he reached into his jacket pocket. "Are you sure? Because I have it saved. The audio quality is surprisingly crisp. Let me just pull it up—"
"Whatever, idiot. You're just making things—"
Maki stopped.
Her brain finally caught up to the timeline of last night. The bathroom mirror. The oversized black t-shirt slipping off her bare shoulder. The visible mark on her neck. The furiously defensive voice note she had recorded immediately after hitting send.
The absolute, ironclad confidence completely vanished from her posture. A brilliant, violent shade of red instantly flooded her cheeks, sweeping down her neck and lighting up the tips of her ears.
"Wait," Maki choked out, her voice suddenly losing all its lethal bite. She took a quick half-step forward, pointing an accusing, slightly trembling finger at his pocket. "Don't. Do not take your phone out."
Ren let out a low laugh, leaving his hand in his pocket but taking a step closer. "So you do remember. I was starting to think I hallucinated it. Though, honestly, I've looked at it about twenty times today, so I'm pretty sure it's real."
"Shut up," Maki hissed. She cast a frantic, panicked glance around the empty dirt field, as if Panda or Toge might magically emerge from the tree line just to eavesdrop. "I told you never to bring that up again! I only sent it so you would finally go to sleep!"
"And I appreciate the effort," Ren said smoothly, closing the last bit of distance between them. He reached out, his hand settling comfortably on her waist. "It was very motivating. Kept me completely focused."
Maki groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. She aggressively dropped her forehead against his shoulder to hide her burning face. She didn't push him away, though her free hand reached up to grip the front of his jacket tightly.
"I actually hate you," she muttered into the fabric.