Elsewhere, Yuka told her brother that he was making a stupidly large leap to think that aliens had arrived on Earth. Sudugi could not shake it, though. Ever since the security treaty, all diplomatic missions with aliens had been Japan's responsibility.
According to what the kidnapper had said, aliens were being treated as special grade, on par with Ryomen Sukuna. Even though the kidnapper was as low as they came, they could still more or less trust his judgement on the business he was in. The Japanese human trafficking trade was enormous, generating billions every year. And yet the kidnapper had been about to quit it because of an incoming invasion.
Sudugi's point was that if a man like that was really quitting, then it had to be serious. On top of that, he reminded her, she had seen for herself just how different Maru was.
Yuka joked that there were a lot of weird people out there. Sudugi could not get past the fact that the man literally had a third eye in the middle of his forehead.
Sadly, they could not simply go and check whether he really was an alien, because of the way Usami had introduced Maru to them, as an inspector from a state party to the security treaty. Even if he was an alien, Sudugi knew they were not going to share vital information with foot soldiers like the two of them.
Yuka had no intention of checking with Usami in the first place, and rather wanted to sneak off and find out herself. Sudugi still found it all pointless, and pointed out that he did not even trust Maru yet. So she brought up somebody she knew he could trust. She reminded him of the kidnapper, a man who might have a little more knowledge in store.
Moments later, the pair were meeting with that same kidnapper in a secure location. To get in and speak to him quickly, the two of them had lied and claimed that the man was carrying an explosive.
Inside the truck, after a few verbal jabs from either side, the kidnapper, whose name they still did not know, was asked how he had known about the aliens in the first place.
According to him, essentially any information managed digitally would eventually be leaked, especially information from government offices that were scrambling to fix their systems after the AI regulations had been put in place.
He went to continue on the subject of the aliens, but Yuka cut him off, unable to believe the entire premise of aliens being real. Stunned, since he had assumed that pretty much all jujutsu sorcerers knew about them, he asked how people who already worked with the paranormal every single day could at the same time deny the reality of this. All they wanted was a little confirmation that the aliens were really here.
He indulged the siblings, letting them in on the fact that fifty thousand Samurans were floating above them as they spoke.
Sudugi found it hard to accept that something the size of an entire football stadium could be right above them without anyone noticing. But the man thought it had to be some sort of barrier technique akin to the curtain. If not that, then some piece of advanced alien technology they had no concept of yet.
Either way, since the Samurans had travelled through space, he assumed they could be self-sufficient on the ship to a degree. Eventually, though, they had to hit a limit and resupply. According to him, that was happening tomorrow, at eight o'clock in the evening, in the Kuruyama Highlands. If the barrier technique's visual effects were what made the ship invisible, then it might weaken enough for them to notice it while the supplies were being loaded on.
Having drained the man for all of his information, the siblings left, telling Mino outside that it was now safe to enter the truck.
Walking off together, Yuka said that it had gone pretty well. Sudugi let her know that it might seem that way, but that to the adults controlling the intelligence, what they had just done was basically treason. After all, they both knew what happened to curse users who committed horrible crimes. It was likely that all the man had wanted was to cause a commotion and then escape without anyone noticing.
Roughly twenty-four hours later, just before eight in the evening in the Kuruyama Highlands, the siblings made their way slowly through the humid, damp forest, climbing towards the top of the mountain.
Noticing his sister watching the ring hanging around his neck, Sudugi clutched it and told her that he had not given it back yet.
The three clans had all treated Mari as though she were some sort of failure, he said, but she never gave up, and she destroyed them all with her true power. Yuka found that a wild way to put it, given that their grandmother had massacred an entire clan in a few minutes. That aside, Sudugi announced that he wanted to be just as powerful as she was one day.
Pondering on that, and on her own ideals, Yuka felt as though the two of them were both chasing after their own version of the truth. She had wanted him to give the ring back. And this entire time, he had always wanted to give it back to her. She wondered whether perhaps that was why they both wanted to get stronger.
Then she strolled out of the treeline and realised that no, it was not that at all.
Looking up as a torrent of air rushed over them, both of the siblings stared at the monolithic spaceship floating directly overhead.
This was the special grade case on par with Ryomen Sukuna, someone their grandparents had only just barely been able to defeat in the past. Sudugi was not sure why they had come to Earth now, but no matter what happened here, it was up to them, as jujutsu sorcerers, to take care of it.
Both of their grandparents had passed on, and they knew that they would not stand a chance the way they were now. So, while staring up at the future laid out ahead of them, the siblings promised each other that they would become just like them. Like Mari Zedan and Yuta Akatsu.