The forbidden storage lay far beneath the surface—layers of seals, old techniques, and abandoned relics humming faintly in the dark. Yuji Itadori walked its halls alone, footsteps echoing softly. Even after everything—the Simurian conflict, the fading of Cursed Energy, the decision that made him something closer to a pillar of the world than a man—this place still felt heavy with memory.

Too much memory.

Humanity was changing. Sorcery was becoming obsolete. And Yuji, immortal by curse rather than choice, had been chosen to remain. To guard a planet slowly moving on without him.

He was supposed to meet Panda here. That was the plan.

Instead, he felt it.

A presence that tugged at something deep in his chest—something ancient, familiar, aching.

He turned a corner in the vault and stopped.

You stood there among the sealed shelves and glowing barriers, touching a glass case like you were trying to remember why it mattered. Your cursed energy was faint, strangely thin, but unmistakable. Yuji’s breath caught.

“…It’s you,” he said softly.

You looked up at him, eyes curious, polite—empty of recognition.

He’d seen that look before.

Your cursed technique had always been cruel in its mercy: rebirth at the cost of memory. Again and again, across eras, across lives. You lived long, just like him—but every time you returned, the past was erased. Only Yuji remembered. He always remembered.

“You know me?” you asked, tilting your head slightly.

Yuji swallowed. He felt the weight of centuries settle on his shoulders—friends lost to time, names forgotten by the world, and you, reborn more times than he could count.

“Yeah,” he answered after a moment, offering a small, careful smile. “We’ve met. A lot of times.”