Silence fell once again in the room after Kenjaku's absurd declaration.
The idea of having been watched by a third party since being in his mother's womb might seem stupid, even insane. However, that possibility couldn't be ruled out.
But why remain open to that eventuality?
Because it was Kenjaku who said it.
This person had desecrated corpses to achieve their goals and had schemed for millennia in the shadows of the jujutsu world.
As for the reasons behind it all… a simple whim.
They just wanted to see the result of a theory they had one fine morning, nothing more.
For such a person, spying on someone for decades wasn't impossible if they deemed it necessary or entertaining enough.
All that to say that Jin didn't take the words of the individual occupying his wife's body as a mere provocation or joke.
Jin kept that possibility in mind.
Kenjaku was methodical, patient, and extremely calculating by nature.
It wasn't absurd to imagine Kenjaku having orchestrated Wasuke's meeting with the ideal partner for Jin's birth.
'In the worst-case scenario, Kenjaku might even be connected to the birth of Jin's father,' he thought, grasping the full extent of the malice of the being inhabiting his wife's body.
However, Jin forced himself to regain control and pulled his head away from the comfortable cleavage of his wife.
Strangely, Kenjaku didn't hold him back when he tried to free himself from her embrace.
She observed all of this with interest before crossing her arms under her generous chest.
"I won't ask for your real name, nor what your goal is," Jin began, maintaining eye contact with Kaori.
"Oh really? You're talking as if you're in any position to demand anything here," Kenjaku interrupted, narrowing her amused eyes at him.
Another clear act of provocation.
However, the former employee didn't fall into the sorcerer's trap a second time.
Jin silenced every impulsive emotion and continued, with an expression as serious as during his first meeting with Gong.
"Don't play with me, 'Kaori,'" he said, emphasizing his wife's name.
Kenjaku's apparent amusement stopped. A reaction Jin interpreted as a good sign and which encouraged him to go on.
"You would have killed me a long time ago if that's what you wanted. So tell me—what do you want from me and from Yuji?" he declared, looking his interlocutor straight in the eyes.
Kenjaku was no longer smiling.
Their gazes locked for a moment before Kenjaku's lips slowly parted.
"I don't want anything more from you… or at least, that's what I should have thought," she said, turning away from Jin.
Her eyes drifted toward where Yuji was, after stepping away from him.
She seemed to let complex emotions show for a brief moment before turning her attention back to Jin once more.
"Jin… you've probably already figured it out from what you said, but I'm not Kaori, nor the one you loved before," she declared, still with her back to him.
"However, I enjoyed the time spent by your side. That's why I'm asking you before I leave."
Kaori turned toward him and extended her hand.
"Join me. You have good potential, and I have the experience necessary to help it bloom properly, but also…"
Kenjaku's voice carried a slight hesitation—something Jin never imagined seeing in her.
It was as if she was about to say something that wasn't part of her original plan.
After that short pause, Kaori's face sketched a smile Jin had never seen before in the memories of his former self.
"I could… no, w-we could continue being together. Isn't that what you wanted? To have Kaori again? Think about it seriously," Kenjaku declared, still holding her hand out to Jin.
Manipulation?
The word surged in Jin's mind after this proposal to "live together."
Yet the idea was swept away by the sincerity Kenjaku seemed to exude at that moment, as well as by the cold logic of her subsequent actions.
Why the hell would Kenjaku lie?
She was in a position of strength, and only a weak person would resort to such a tool during a verbal exchange.
'Indeed, she's sincere,' he thought, plunging his gaze into Kenjaku's.
"No," Jin answered, shaking his head.
Kenjaku sketched a self-deprecating smile after her ex-husband's reply.
"Indeed, you still love her—"
Kenjaku didn't finish her sentence, because she felt a hand tighten around hers.
The millennium-old sorcerer's eyes widened as she felt Jin's hand on hers.
"No, because I don't want Kaori Itadori… I want *you*," Jin declared, plunging his gaze into Kenjaku's.
"W-what?!" Kenjaku let out, her face turning red.
…
The darkness.
Everything comes from nothingness, and so it was for this new consciousness that appeared within it.
How much time had passed?
A day?
A week?
Perhaps even several months?
That information held no importance for her, because she was happy.
At every passing moment.
She could feel the good intentions of the two cores orbiting around her.
One fed her with obsessive, addictive love. While the other considered her something to protect.
Beyond that touching aspect, she could feel her strength increasing every second.
Slowly, but surely.
That was why the new consciousness appreciated this place.
She didn't want to leave it.
At least, that was a naïve idea.
From one day to the next, "knowledge" began to flow into her mind, coming from those two cores.
Both were fragments, even unstable, and the knowledge they transmitted remained deeply anchored within her.
Among them, one phrase marked the consciousness deeply in the darkness of the void:
Cogito, ergo sum.
A banal phrase. Yet it posed a central, non-negligible question to this consciousness in the void.
Does she exist?
Are the emotions transmitted by the cores real? Can she protect the "mice" of the two men who had fed her knowledge?
Is it even true that Jin loves her?
The consciousness experienced an existential crisis, but the reflection around that phrase also brought her a deeper understanding of herself.
Jin had read a lot in his free time, thanks to his Reading skill.
That skill was the key that allowed the consciousness to access several literary works and solidify her individuality.
Thus, the existential crisis was not a harm to this disembodied consciousness.
It was a blessing.
Cursed energy originates from the negative emotions experienced by living beings.
The consciousness in the void had once been flooded with love, but the doubts now within her were exactly what she had been missing to complete her evolution.
This idea may seem strange, but it is completely natural. The consciousness knows how pleasant it is to be loved, but that sensation is now tainted.
She didn't want that doubt.
She wanted to be loved sincerely by her creator!
"C-cogito, ergo sum," a childish voice echoed in the cold chamber of corpses, one month after her arrival.
Nayuta awoke much earlier than Jin had anticipated.
"N-Nayuta? Is that my name?" she muttered while looking at her name engraved on the side of the surgical table.
…
Author's note: If you want a bonus, we need to reach 830 stones.
And just so you know, I don't write on Saturdays (enjoy the bonus when the opportunity arises).