Inside the gymnasium, an assortment of sports balls levitated around Maru while the electronic equipment began to glitch out. Masaki guessed that the man's ability had something to do with anti-gravity, but threw the idea away, since he barely had any time to process what was even happening.
Instead, a memory of his only loss entered his mind. The time he had been forced to flee for his life while facing Yuji Itadori.
Rushing in, Maru easily overwhelmed the ageing sorcerer with blinding speed and strength, pummelling the curse user again and again before sending him crashing through the gymnasium wall and out into the outdoor swimming pool. Slowly approaching the old fool, Maru's mere presence caused the water to start bubbling down below.
Feeling the heat begin to cook him, Masaki leapt out of the pool moments before it exploded. With his hand held forth, Maru seized the moment and froze the airborne water around Masaki, trapping him in a prison of ice.
Unable to get over how devastating the man's ability really was, Masaki realised that Maru's cursed technique somehow distorted the natural laws of order.
Before Maru could deliver the finishing blow, Sudugi intercepted his punch with Hanayagi. However, the sheer power behind Maru's punch shot both Masaki and Sudugi into the ground below.
Looking up as Maru landed right in front of him, Sudugi noticed that his teammate was fighting entirely unconscious.
Watching from above, Cross honestly did not think the situation was bad. He could not have cared less if Sudugi harmed his brother. Jujutsu sorcerers were not all the same. Even here among the humans, he guessed there had to be radical factions, people who wanted to use the aliens but not to accept them. If that was the case, it would only provide him with a stronger justification for starting a war. So all he needed to do was make sure Maru did not kill any Earthlings, even if they were curse users.
Sudugi, realising the same thing, refused to let Maru become the spark that ignited a conflict between the two races. He attempted to wake Maru up by screaming at him, only to be immediately subjected to the mental confusion ability.
Smashing his sword on the ground to bring himself out of the trance, Sudugi pleaded with the alien, reminding Maru that they were going to be neighbours.
Stunned by what he had just heard, tears began to swell in the eyes of Cross. Launching himself down in between his brother and Sudugi, Cross intervened, finally calming his brother down with a few words. Watching the two of them collapse behind him, Cross got annoyed and demanded to know what he thought he was doing now.
Elsewhere nearby, bloodied and injured, Masaki fled into an alleyway to hide from the jujutsu sorcerers.
Sadly for him, he was confronted there by Usami. Realising that it was the teacher from the jujutsu school, Masaki asked if he was going to tell on him now. However, Usami simply began to remove his glove while preparing to repeat his previous statement. Placing his hand, which had a seal of snake eyes and fangs tattooed onto it, over the old man's mouth, Usami commanded him not to move.
Rushing in while the old man stood there stunned and unable to move at all, Usami landed a quick right hook before stomping the old fool's face into the floor.
Meanwhile, Cross grabbed Sudugi by the scruff of his uniform and began interrogating him about how he knew the meaning behind the word neighbours, asking whether that was what they called it here.
Sudugi repeated what Maru had told him. It was a friend who understands the things that are important to you.
Getting angrier, since he really did not understand what was going on with Maru or why he would spill something like that, Cross declared that Samurans and humans could never truly understand one another and become neighbours. The Japanese had been living peacefully on a path laid out for them ever since the last incident. They did not understand suffering anymore. They did not have to constantly think about protecting their own lives. Instead, they were given everything they needed to be a great human from the time they were born. He was sure that Sudugi looked down on refugees like them as dangerous, filthy beings. So even if Sudugi wanted to be neighbours with him, they would refuse.
A little while later, Usami, who had left Mino to deal with Masaki, met up with Cross and Maru, who had been loaded into an ambulance. Usami mentioned that he would really like to treat Maru here on Earth, to avoid revealing any injuries to the Samurans, but Cross refused.
Walking over to his brother, he peeled off Maru's eye patch and began removing his own headband.
A little while later, in the hospital, someone slipped into Sudugi's mind, and he woke suddenly, sweating on the hospital bed. Seeing this, Cross, who was now disguised as Maru, called out to him from across the room.
Sudugi asked how Yuka was and was told that she was having a quick check-up, but was perfectly fine. Maru then brought up how he had thought his brother was going to be here too, and Sudugi asked if he was always like that.
Interested in what Sudugi actually thought of him, Cross asked what he meant, only to be told instantly that his brother was always in a foul mood, something he immediately defended.
With that out of the way, Sudugi apologised to Maru for accusing him of plotting something serious and invading their world. He had been close-minded, and at the end of the day he was sure the Samurans had their own reasons.
Alarmed by the fact that Maru had also used his cursed technique, Sudugi asked whether he had been punished for it yet. Before the two of them could talk about it any further, Yuka rolled in.
From there, the three of them later visited an amusement park that Maru had wanted to see in his own time. Cross had not realised that Maru wanted to do something like this, so he begrudgingly spent the day with the group at the park.
While they were resting, he caught a small boy's balloon before it could float away. Realising that the child was on his own, they asked where his mother was. After sending Sudugi off to the lost child desk, Cross and Yuka stayed with the boy until his mother arrived.
When the boy began crying, Cross scolded him for it, since it was not as though his mother were dead, which of course only made him cry harder. Frustrated, Cross performed a set of acrobatics to cheer him up, drawing applause from the people nearby. When his mother finally did arrive, the boy gave his Halloween balloon to Cross before they left.
During a discussion afterwards about the origins of Halloween and about faith, Yuka revealed that she knew Cross was posing as Maru, and asked whether he believed in a god. Cross answered that the Samurans did have a religion, and revered a divine being.
Yuka then brought up the fumi-e, and admitted that she struggled to understand why Christians had once refused to step on an image of their god, even under the threat of death. The fumi-e, at its most basic, had been used by the Japanese government throughout history to uncover Christians and their sympathisers.
Cross countered her by asking whether she could trample on something living instead of a tablet, which gave her an entirely new perspective on it. He then accused shallow-minded people like Yuka of having trampled on the Samurans' way of life, and warned her to prepare for retribution.
Pretending she had not just heard him declare war on her species, and determined to change his mind, Yuka invited him to go somewhere with her the next day.