diff --git a/src/core/anonymize-utils.ts b/src/core/anonymize-utils.ts
index 57452b6..f5088e7 100644
--- a/src/core/anonymize-utils.ts
+++ b/src/core/anonymize-utils.ts
@@ -531,11 +531,12 @@ export class ContentAnonimizer {
       const replaced = replaceTerm(content, c, asciiContent);
       if (replaced !== content) this.wasAnonymized = true;
       content = replaced;
-      // Masks and changed boundaries can introduce later matches. Re-index
-      // only after a real change, never once per absent term.
+      // Masks and changed boundaries can introduce later matches. Invalidate
+      // the original-text index and check remaining rules directly; rebuilding
+      // the index after every change costs more than those presence checks.
       if (content !== previous) {
         asciiContent = asciiContent && /^\p{ASCII}*$/u.test(c.mask);
-        candidates = this.termPresence?.candidates(content, index);
+        candidates = undefined;
       }
     }
     return content;
diff --git a/src/core/term-presence.ts b/src/core/term-presence.ts
index 934344d..471e53b 100644
--- a/src/core/term-presence.ts
+++ b/src/core/term-presence.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
  */
 export class TermPresenceIndex {
   private groups: { indices: number[]; characters: string[] | null }[] = [];
+  private searches: { indices: number[]; pattern: RegExp }[];
 
   constructor(private readonly patterns: RegExp[]) {
     for (let index = 0; index < patterns.length; index++) {
@@ -23,27 +24,20 @@ export class TermPresenceIndex {
       }
       this.groups.push(group);
     }
+    this.searches = this.groups.map(({ indices }) => ({
+      indices,
+      pattern: new RegExp(indices.map(index => `(?:${patterns[index].source})`).join("|"), "iu"),
+    }));
   }
 
   candidates(content: string, after = -1): Set<number> {
     const found = new Set<number>();
-    const remaining = this.groups.map(group => group.indices.filter(index => index > after))
-      .filter(indices => indices.length);
-    let offset = 0;
-    while (remaining.length) {
-      // Fixed-width inputs contain no captures or quantifiers. Removing a
-      // discovered group avoids revisiting millions of identical CSV values.
-      const search = new RegExp(remaining.map(indices =>
-        `(${indices.map(index => this.patterns[index].source).join("|")})`).join("|"), "giu");
-      search.lastIndex = offset;
-      const match = search.exec(content);
-      if (!match) break;
-      const selected = match.slice(1).findIndex(value => value !== undefined);
-      for (const index of remaining[selected]) found.add(index);
-      remaining.splice(selected, 1);
-      // Another group's match may start inside this one. Search from the next
-      // code point, not from the end of the match, to retain nested candidates.
-      offset = match.index + (content.codePointAt(match.index)! > 0xffff ? 2 : 1);
+    // Each immutable group is tested independently, so overlapping matches
+    // cannot hide candidates. Non-global regexes retain no search position.
+    for (const { indices, pattern } of this.searches) {
+      if (indices.some(index => index > after) && pattern.test(content)) {
+        for (const index of indices) if (index > after) found.add(index);
+      }
     }
     return found;
   }
diff --git a/test/term-presence.test.js b/test/term-presence.test.js
index 63c7544..8e0445b 100644
--- a/test/term-presence.test.js
+++ b/test/term-presence.test.js
@@ -67,6 +67,24 @@ describe("term candidate index", function () {
     expect(new ContentAnonimizer({ terms: ["Alice=>first"] }).anonymize("Alice")).to.equal("first");
   });
 
+  it("handles many matching rules and late cascades within the normal deadline", function () {
+    this.timeout(10000);
+    const names = Array.from({ length: 120 }, (_, i) => `Researcher${i} Laboratory Department`);
+    const terms = names.map((name, i) => `${name}=>Person${i}`);
+    terms.push("Person119=>FinalPerson", "@Person0=>Contact");
+    const input = names.map(name => `@${name} contributed to this research.\n`).join("").repeat(3);
+    const expected = names.map((_, i) => `${i === 0 ? "Contact" : i === 119 ? "@FinalPerson" : `@Person${i}`} contributed to this research.\n`).join("").repeat(3);
+    expect(new ContentAnonimizer({ terms }).anonymize(input)).to.equal(expected);
+  });
+
+  it("can reuse candidate groups after an absent search and with different cutoffs", function () {
+    const index = new TermPresenceIndex([/Alice/iu, /AliceSmith/iu, /Smith/iu, /研究/iu]);
+    expect([...index.candidates("nothing")]).to.deep.equal([]);
+    expect(index.candidates("AliceSmith 研究").has(2)).to.equal(true);
+    expect([...index.candidates("AliceSmith 研究", 2)]).to.deep.equal([3]);
+    expect(index.candidates("AliceSmith", -1).has(0)).to.equal(true);
+  });
+
   it("does not index quantified, capturing, or escaped user patterns", function () {
     for (const term of ["a.*b", "a+b", "(Alice)", "a\\.b", "a(?=b)"]) {
       expect(compileTerms([term]).every(c => !c.literalPrefilter), term).to.equal(true);