Sitting down next to his sister, Sudugi admitted that she had gotten a great deal stronger. But because of that, he would work even harder himself, so that one day he could give the ring back to her.
Ten years earlier, unlike his sister, Sudugi's more prominent relationship had been with his grandmother, Mari Zedan. She had told him that he was just like her. He naturally grew stronger through loss. Still, it was a double-edged sword, so she warned him to be careful, and to learn how to leave things behind.
One day, after stumbling inside, Sudugi had overheard the conversation between Yuka and Yuta about the ring. Afterwards, he found his grandmother outside and asked for one of his own, explaining that it was a protective ward. Mari let him know that he did not need it, because he was strong.
Then, at the age of eleven, his mother gave him the ring.
He did not understand why. He was told it was because he needed it the most. It was the Gojo clan's decision, and what he wanted was irrelevant.
Unable to accept that, he ran through the woods, deeply hurt by the idea that he needed a charm for his own protection. Then and there, he vowed that one day he would make them say that he did not need that ring. After all, he was Mari's grandson.
He apologised to Yuka in his own mind for what had happened, and promised that he would only hang on to the ring for a little while longer.
Back in the present, Yuka looked down at him, confused about what he could possibly have meant by that.
Then the kidnapper's voice echoed through the room. In his eyes, they were idiots, and all idiots should die.
Black lines shot out from his body across the expanse of the room, and both of the sorcerers realised that the man meant to leave with the children right now. Getting back up onto his knees, he told them that he already had a buyer.
Maru opened his third eye. It caught everyone off guard as he stared directly into the eyes of the now thoroughly confused kidnapper.
Seconds later, the man simply dropped to the ground unconscious, hit by a wave of whatever Maru's power was.
Snapping their heads back around, both sorcerers remembered the rumour they had heard about aliens, and asked outright whether Maru happened to be one.
In the Kyoto Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Mino could not understand why Usami was setting aside the Ministry of Health's regulations. He brought up the fact that the aliens might carry pathogens or an infectious disease that could affect people in ways nobody could predict.
Usami saw it differently. He pointed out that they knew nothing about the aliens' religion, their language, their history or their culture. If they started treating them like a disease, the aliens could declare war in an instant. They did not understand how their biology worked, and sending a group of heavily built men at them could set them off. As far as Usami was concerned, all of this came down to luck from here on out.
A nearby door opened, and two aliens entered the room. The first, a tall and imposing individual, introduced himself as Jabaloma, a diplomatic envoy, and introduced the second as Cross, the dispatch officer. With a smile on his face, Jabaloma extended his gratitude to the people of Earth for how kind they had been.
Caught off guard, Usami could not believe that they already knew how to speak Japanese. Calming himself down again, he welcomed the large Samuran and introduced himself as the acting minister of foreign affairs.
Deep in thought, Mino could not understand how they already spoke Japanese either. He wondered whether they had spoken English in America, and why the Americans had not informed Japan about it.
Turning the same thing over himself, Usami assumed it was all on purpose. Ever since the treaty had been set up, Japan had been uncooperative on every issue, so they could not expect the international community to help them now. On top of that, since the Samurans had learned their language, they held the upper hand when it came to gathering intelligence.
Putting that aside for the moment, Jabaloma asked whether it would be all right for another representative to be present. That confused Usami, who did not really understand why they would even want to ask first.
Jabaloma announced that it was because the concept of this representative being unarmed was meaningless. He exuded such an aura that they could not let him attend unless the humans first understood that he had no hostile intentions.
Following that, a presence that shattered every expectation entered the room, drowning both Usami and Mino in a wave of pure disbelief and despair.
Later on, after the meeting had concluded, Mino could not relax. He knew exactly how bad the entire situation really was. That being was something on par with Ryomen Sukuna, a special grade.
Special grade covered a wide spectrum. Being considered on the same level as Sukuna did not necessarily mean being stronger than him. Yuji Itadori and Yuta Akatsu and a number of others had been given that ranking from the very beginning, and over time they had grown into something far more extreme. There were multiple rankings hidden inside special grade. The ranking itself only meant that the subject had the potential to become a global threat, not that they already were one.
The Samurans as a whole, though, could certainly be considered a global threat. Fifty thousand of them arriving above any nation on Earth was a threat by simple arithmetic.
Usami continued, bringing up how easy it would be for them to take over the country if they really wanted to. The original plan of concealing the Samuran and letting him accompany jujutsu sorcerers to school and out on missions would not have been such an issue if it had ended there.
Still, he ended up assigning the Akatsu siblings to do the job. Mino did not think it was the greatest idea, given their age.
Trying to calm him, Usami stated that the Samurans were not invaders. The aliens were refugees.
Mino could see where he was coming from, at least a little. They certainly fit the ordinary definition of a refugee. But he felt as though they were holding back some crucial detail.
Ever since the paranormal resolution sixty-two years earlier, six years after Sukuna's defeat, Japan had been fairly satisfied with how everything had played out, and had even joined in the surge of nationalism that had grown in the United States at the time. They could not repeat those same mistakes. The current diplomatic style was superficial, based on formalities alone. If they kept to the current path, both sides would end up in a kind of flexing contest, showing off what they could do until eventually the worst case scenario played itself out. War.
Unable to disagree with the sentiment, Usami knew that war was the one thing that had to be avoided at all costs. They had to strive for true harmony. As adults, it was extraordinarily hard for them to open their hearts to the Samurans, and that was why they needed the spirit of the new generation.
Mino, who had not expected him to drop that on the table, double-checked that they really were going to entrust the entire fate of Japan and the world to a couple of teenagers.