Maki stirred awake, her eyes groggy and her head spinning. She lay on a cold stone floor in a dark, still-aired chamber as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Soon, that air was displaced by the swinging of a heavy iron door opposite her. The room was neither big nor small, maybe a bit bigger than her bedroom. Her mind wandered to her capture, and she berated herself for her carelessness before quickly dismissing the thoughts. They were of no use to her at the moment.
A soft light spilled into the darkness as the door dragged across the ground. The light was briefly blocked as a number of figures spilled into her humble abode.
"She's awake. Not surprising considering her pact," a man said. It wasn't a whisper, but it was equally quiet. Another man grumbled as they walked in behind the man. He was slightly shorter but also slightly wider than the tall and lanky first man. A third, quiet observer closed the door. A fourth observer stood in the corner of the room. Maki guessed by his attire that he was a simple katana-wielding bodyguard.
A dim tub light flickered to life above, illuminating Maki and her three guests. They were all old, wrinkly, and each bore looks saying 'I'm better than you'. They were the same looks Maki had revived during her entire time in the clan. The man's look in the middle of the small semicircle of old geezers was even more familiar. It was a look Maki had seen before, from the Zen'in representative among the higher-ups.
"I seldom tolerate misconduct, child, but today I will do so. You disobeyed the clan and know you have a chance to rebuild the bridge you burned when you left." The higher up said. The worst part of the encounter for Maki wasn't the belittling tone or the smug looks. No, it was the fact she wasn't restrained in the slightest: no rope or chains, just a subtle feeling of drowsiness from the sedative. The message conveyed was clear.
She wasn't a threat. Even if she was free to move and fight, she couldn't harm any of them enough to make it worth tying her to anything. And Maki just had to sit there and wait. She, too, knew she couldn't improve her situation by attacking.
"I'm not doing anything for you. Even if you'd asked nicely to begin with." Maki said with a snarl. The men on either side of the higher-up looked amused, to Maki's irritation, while the man himself looked as if she hadn't spoken in the first place.
"Are you aware of the effects of my technique?" The Zen'in asked as he crouched down to her level. Before Maki could respond with some scathing remark, he continued.
"Of course not. Not with your… education." His index and middle finger stretched out. They hummed with cursed energy to an extent even Maki's near nonexistent sensory abilities picked up. His fingers began to glow red as he methodically brought them to her hand. Before he could make contact however, he and everyone else in the room, heard a boom. It felt like the very foundations of the Zen'in clan were shaken as a man burst into the room.
"Sir! There's been an attack!" The common soldier shouted in an almost scared tone.
"I can see that! What are their numbers? Is it the Gojo?" The higher up shouted in return, clearly irritated that his plans had been interrupted.
"No. There's only one of them. The clan head has already mobilized the Hei. And you may have just heard their fate." The messenger informed the higher up, he tisked in frustration before pausing to think.
"You two-" he said, pointing at the messenger and the bodyguard stationed in the room's corners. "Stay here. Now come." The last part was directed to the other two higher ups. The three scurried out of the room with the large metal door slamming shut behind them.
The two men turned their attention to her, but neither said a word. They waited like that for a long time, looking at each other. Maki's gaze was decidedly more hostile.
Another rumble shook the Zen'in estate, the two men looking worriedly upwards. Maki grinned at them before laughing a bit to herself. The men looked toward her now, their worry turning to annoyance.
"I always thought I'd be the one to slaughter you Zen'in filth. But I guess someone beat me to the punch. At least I still enjoy the looks on your faces!" Maki ended her taunting with a vast, almost hysterical laugh.
The man who'd acted as a messenger stomped over to Maki, anger clear in his face. He raised a fist to the woman, but before he could swing, something clouded Maki's vision.
Suddenly, she was on a beach. Clear blue water crashed calmly into the sand, and waterfowl flew peacefully above. Maki stood still, taking in the scene. In front of her stood a familiar face. Mai, her twin sister, stood submerged to her ankles in the water, wearing a long black, sleeveless dress.
She reached out to Maki, who came back in return. They were too far to make contact, but Mai disappeared before Maki could close the distance. Maki's hand was left grasping as the vision also faded away.
Opening her eyes, Maki found the Zen'in still reeling back a punch. But it looks so much slower than before. Like he was moving through water, Maki, her arms and legs free of restraint, moved as if they hadn't been her entire life. It was as if a fog had cleared and a boulder weighing her down had finally crumbled.
One moment, the man stood ready to strike. The next, Maki's fist was planted in his face. Maki's punch pushed him into the nearby stone wall before it smashed his head between the two surfaces. A crater was formed in the wall before she pulled her hand from the bloody mess. The other man guarding over her flared his cursed energy, shouting as a simple domain formed under his feet. He unsheathed his sword and struck as he chanted the name of his attack.
Maki ducked the familiar blow before her left hand came up to snap the man's forearm with a flick of her wrist. The man's technique was subpar to say the least. She and Isamu weren't even in the same universe. The swordsman dropped his blade which Maki swiftly snatched out of the air before dragging it across his throat just as quickly.
Maki walked over to the door as she wondered where this strength and speed had come from. Was it Mai's doing? Probably considering the vision. But Maki wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth too much. Maki tried to turn the metal door handle, only to find it locked.
Sighing, she crushed the knob in her hand and pulled sharply. The entire locking mechanism was exposed before Maki tore it all out. Swinging the door open, she found two more men outside guarding the long hallway. Maki's new sword found a home in the man's gut to her right. The man to her left grabbed a knife with surprisingly fast reflexes before stabbing it toward Maki.
Maki stepped back behind the door, the knife deflecting off of it with a 'clink'. Maki then raised a foot and kicked the door. It bursted off its hinges and smashed into the man, sandwiching him between it and the wall. Maki reclaimed her sword without a care for the man impaled by it as her mind wandered. She wondered what she'd find on the surface. Just who in the world was attacking the Zen'in, and winning?
——
"Stellar Array. A technique-" Naobito stumbled as blood gushed from his abdomen. His speech was cut off as another tiny object pierced right through his left knee. He caught himself on a large piece of debris sticking up from the rubble the main building of the Zen'in clan estate had been reduced to.
He took a seat, leaning on the stone as he coughed up blood. This didn't stop him from explaining his conclusions, however. "A technique… which allows for the formation of tiny spheres of cursed energy… within the user's cursed energy aura. Despite being no bigger than a grain of rice, they hold the mass of a large boulder. The appearance of these spheres, being that of the stars in the night sky, gives the technique its name."
"So you've figured it out, old man." The young man said. His hands were in the pockets of his blue jeans, his white hoodie long since stained with blood.
"Yes," Noabito said with a grin, his teeth stained red and his face torn apart by the small white stars. It was his will alone that kept him alive. "You're him. The star of the sun, moon, and stars squad formed during the golden age of jujutsu."
"Spot on!" The juvenile attitude of the clan killer aggravated Naobito, but he supposed it was meaningless anger. Nothing more could be done. The Hei were defeated, his son was slaughtered, the higher ups were killed in an instant, and now he faced the tiger his clan had starved and betrayed long ago.
"Do it then, brat." Naobito spat out with no small amount of spite. The Star of the Heian Era raised a finger, pointing it at Naobito with a single star on the very edge of his finger nail. The ball of ultra-dense cursed energy shot out like a bullet, but before it could finish off the man's 71-year-long life, it was swatted out of the air by a red and black three-section staff.
——
The last thing the head captain of the treasury saw before his departure from the mortal realm was a large metal door flying towards him like a frisbee. It struck him in the neck, cleaving his head from his body while the door was wedged into the wall. His head sat completely still on the door turned projectile while the rest of his body slumped to the ground without a sound.
His coworker shot up from behind his desk, only to see the bottom of a shoe. His head was swiftly splattered onto the wooden wall behind him. Maki took a set in the desk as she dug her foot from out of the splinters of the wall. She wasn't even able to wipe the blood from her shoe before she had to roll backwards off the desk. A wave of pressurized water shot over her as she rolled before pushing off the ground with one hand. She flew into the air towards her new attacker.
She stared at him with judging eyes as he readied his technique again. Only for his palm to be sliced through and half of his forearm to be shaved off. The man screamed in agony for a split second before Maki plunged her sword through his heart. Leaving the blade, Maki locked eyes with a large double door at the end of the long hall.
She headed towards it casually, her eyes peeled for any more pesky Zen'in. Finding none, she pushed the door open. The moment the rooms light hit her eyes, a man rushed her, knife grasped in both hands as he roared, or instead screamed. With a flick of her wrist, the man, or rather young man, was disarmed. His knife flew into the air before being caught by Maki. The blade wasn't in her hand for a moment before it was lodged into the attacker's foot.
Maki followed up quickly with an elbow to the face, breaking his nose but not much more on account of Maki holding back. The man screamed as he fell backward from the punch, the knife in his foot keeping him in roughly the same spot despite the pain. Maki raised her foot and slowly started pressing it into the man's chest. If he didn't talk, he would be crushed. That much was clear.
"What's the most powerful weapon you have?" Maki glared at the man as she questioned him. Her gaze was cold and ruthless in the Zen'in's eyes. The boy held up a hand as he answered. Maki nodded before kicking him in the nose, breaking it almost beyond fixing and knocking him unconscious and stepping over the… intern, maybe? Maki headed for the back of the Zen'in clan armory.
After sorting through the lesser weapons ranging from third to first grade from which she found nothing interesting, she discovered a black sphere surrounding a wooden box wrapped in chains at the very back atop some shrine or something. It seemed to be some barrier technique. Was it maintained by one of the Zen'in or was it some self regulating thing? Maki had no idea but assumed the ladder as she figured most Zen'in had died by now.
She wound up a punch as she hoped for her strength alone to be enough to shatter the technique. But as her fist made contact, she didn't feel anything. Her arm flew right through and crashed into the locked chains. They shattered, as did the box. Her hand dug through the mess before finding what she was looking for.
"Now just one more thing," Maki muttered as she turned her gaze to the rest of the room.
——
Maki stood before Naobito before the clan head registered that he was still alive. He hefted the special grade cursed tool with a smile of fondness. She flicked it around her body at incredible speeds, finally growing used to her newfound speed, before she snapped into place. She didn't exactly know why she'd saved Naobito or why she now squared up to this unknown figure. All she knew was that this new body of hers bore its fangs at the strongest around. And Maki was inclined to agree.
"I'm impressed! My stars move pretty fast. Maybe this era isn't completely mind-numbing after all." The man in blood-stained white said with a laugh. His cursed energy glowed with several dozen stars of pure cursed energy. They were so bright that even Maki's cursed energy-less eyes could make them out. With no further ado, Maki pushed off the ground, cracking it for several feet behind her, and swung playful cloud strike for the man's head.