21:06.
Tokyo Metro Shibuya Station.
Shashashashak
“Aaaagh!!”
“It’s cockroaches!!”
“No, not just cockroaches! Cannibal cockroaches!!”
The cockroaches that had crawled up from beneath the platform moved in perfect formation, threatening the non-sorcerers.
There was a clear pattern to their ranks, but their movement was still chaos. Reinforced by Kuro'ushi’s cursed energy, the cockroaches had even had their appetites warped to match their master’s.
Less than a few seconds after Kuro'ushi joined the melee, the non-sorcerers who’d had some part of their bodies gnawed off screamed in agony and rolled across the floor. Countless cockroaches also tried to cling to Gojo as he chased Jogo, only to be blocked by [Limitless], falling off and latching on again in endless repetition.
Gojo pinpointed Kuro'ushi’s location and lunged at him in a flash, but Kuro'ushi, hidden among the swarm, kept evading him while using the crowd of cockroaches as a double shield.
With high-speed movement using [Blue] effectively sealed off, there was no way to beat Kuro'ushi at tag.
“[Blind], [blind], [blind].”
[Earthworm Writhing Order].
The shikigami Kuro'ushi summoned clung to Gojo and self-destructed. When the grotesquely swollen lower belly of one shikigami burst, sticky fluid splashed across the floor and surrounded the terrain around him.
He hadn’t expected much from it, but it did at least restrict his mobility a little.
Kuro'ushi’s arrival changed more than that.
Thwack!
“Tch!”
“Hahahaha!”
The swarm of cockroaches had become even more of a nuisance.
Jogo and Dagon, whether out of some strange sense of teamwork or not, weren’t attacked by the cannibal cockroaches, and that led to ambushes using the darkness as cover.
When the cockroaches clinging to [Limitless] blocked his vision, attacks wrapped in cursed energy came flying in from outside his field of view. They still weren’t landing any effective hits, but Gojo could no longer be expected to dominate in close-range exchanges like before.
“I like the taste of iron.”
They’re keeping the non-sorcerers alive. Are they trying to split my attention!
Jogo and Dagon had been restraining their slaughter of the non-sorcerers to an extreme degree until now. They knew that once their human shields were reduced any further, they’d be dead meat.
Dagon’s [Swarming of the Deadly Tides] had cursed energy limits outside of a Domain, and it can’t launch precise attacks. Jogo, despite his superior firepower, was no different. Their only option was to wrap themselves in cursed energy, hit and run, and buy time.
But Kuro'ushi was different. The cockroaches, acting separately from their body, were spread across a vast area in huge numbers, and before long they blended in with the non-sorcerers lined up on the platform and became one with them.
Small in size and possessing a swarm’s nature, the cockroaches were perfect for creating this kind of situation.
A satisfied smile bloomed on Jogo’s face.
Now then, what are you going to do, Gojo Satoru!
It was impossible to peel those cockroaches off one by one with martial arts alone. If he used his technique, the non-sorcerers would get caught up in it and wouldn’t survive.
Of course, he knew Gojo Satoru was a man with a certain amount of cold rationality. He was even less the type to feel guilty over lives he couldn’t save. If he could save a greater number of people, he was the sort of man who’d readily watch a small sacrifice happen.
But right now, with enemies and allies he had to protect mixed together so chaotically that they could no longer be distinguished, he had clearly been driven to the edge.
The people you have to abandon won’t include “the people killed by Gojo Satoru,” will they? You’re a jujutsushi!
The longer you drag this out, the more victims there will be.
Even if the number drops, they can just keep sending more humans in from above. And there was still the insurance policy Mahito would bring soon enough.
Think. Focus. And hesitate.
Until your nerves are pulled taut and you no longer have room to use your technique!
“[Imaginary Technique], [Hollow Purple].”
“What!?”
Gojo Satoru’s choice was to gamble everything on all or nothing.
But he had his reasons too.
Expanding a Domain still carried risk, and it was unclear whether it would even work on the cockroaches controlled by Kuro'ushi.
There was also the problem of his technique burning out afterward. If he kept fighting with martial arts alone, the casualties would only increase, and he still wouldn’t be able to handle the cockroaches.
So the first thing Gojo had to target was the caster controlling the cockroaches: Kuro'ushi.
If Kuro'ushi died, control over the cockroaches would naturally collapse.
He suppressed the output as much as possible and increased the density of the technique, aiming to snipe Kuro'ushi hidden among the non-sorcerers. He had already located the bastard with his Six Eyes.
The idea came from Choso’s [Piercing Blood] that had been fired at Gojo again and again from earlier. Condensed cursed energy gathered at the tip of Gojo’s fingers.
Keep the range as narrow as possible. Even with his output reduced to around fifty percent because of the binding, it still had enough power to blow the head off a special-grade cursed spirit.
“Move, Kuro'ushi!”
“Too late.”
The moment Kuro'ushi’s fleeing head was caught through a gap between the non-sorcerers, the purple sphere gathered at Gojo’s fingertips shot out at terrifying speed.
A technique that fired a virtual mass created by colliding [Blue] and [Red].
A laser as thick as two stacked finger joints tore through the air, leaving a lingering trail behind it.
Fwoosh!
No matter how much you hide or run, you can’t escape the range of the Six Eyes. Reflecting that simple truth, Kuro'ushi’s headless body collapsed to the floor.
The non-sorcerers caught in the path of [Hollow Purple] were unharmed.
Thud!
“W-what is that...?”
“The cockroaches are running away!”
“Crush them!”
With their cursed energy and control gone, the cockroaches were no longer a threat to the non-sorcerers.
Most of them fled humans and returned to the dark cracks they’d come from, following their natural instincts, while the rest were trampled to death under the shoes of the excited non-sorcerers.
“Kuro'ushi...”
As Jogo stood there in a daze, Gojo Satoru prepared to fire that same [Hollow Purple] again.
Using the non-sorcerers as shields and dodging around them was reaching its limit. The wider the open space became, the more that monstrous mass would snipe in and exorcise him with a single blow.
He’d tried to pressure Gojo, only to hand him an even more effective weapon. Even in a situation like this, Gojo’s absurd growth was enough to make Jogo want to stab God if God existed.
When the hell is Mahito coming!
The instant Jogo squeezed his eyes shut,
Kiiiiiiik!
the train that had departed from Meiji-Jingumae Station arrived.
“There he is!”
Jogo smiled in relief. By contrast, Gojo’s expression froze cold as ice.
A train at this exact timing? Something was wrong. And that cheerful shout of “There he is!” was wrong too.
Most of all, that ragged cursed spirit wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
Gojo sensed something ominous and tried to finish this quickly, but the crowd of non-sorcerers who spotted the train swept around him.
The mysterious supernatural phenomena that had been happening all this time. The mass deaths of people.
The minds of the non-sorcerers who had already witnessed so much slaughter were—
already at their limit.
“It’s the train!”
“We’re saved!”
“The train is my bride~ The train is my bride~”
“I’m getting on first! Don’t get in my way!”
“Huh? This bastard’s losing it again!”
“Move! Move!”
The non-sorcerers, driven mad, charged toward the train.
As if the hope whispering to them said that if they could just get on this train, it would all be over. They’d survive. They’d get out of here. That hope seemed to reflect in their eyes.
But what greeted them was despair wearing the mask of hope.
The ordinary people inside the train were visible through the automatic doors. For a brief moment, the non-sorcerers were glad to see survivors, but the instant they saw those faces, their thoughts stopped.
They couldn’t hear the voices through the glass, but the shapes of their mouths were plain enough to read.
Every one of the people twisted with fear and pain was saying the same thing.
Save me.
Run.
Don’t get on this train.
As the doors opened, the non-sorcerers clinging to them spilled out, and grotesquely distorted figures chased after them.
They were the transfigured humans Mahito had made.
“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
The platform descended into chaos once more.
“Again!?”
“Jogo~ Dagon~”
Leaving Gojo clicking his tongue behind him, Mahito leapt down from the train.
Smiling brightly, he was genuinely enjoying himself right now. The atmosphere of this Fukutoshin Line platform, saturated with cursed spirit malice, suited him perfectly.
Human fear and death, blood everywhere—this place was nothing less than a playground to him.
“Ahh... the air tastes sweet. It’s packed with fear. Looks like not killing all the passengers was the right call.”
“Good timing. You came at just the right moment.”
“Humans are best when you leave a few alive. On weekends, you let them loose and hunt them. What was it again? I saw it in a manga... were they called Celestial Dragons?”
“Drowning them in the sea and watching them die sounds pretty good too.”
“What about Kuro'ushi?”
“Dead.”
“Figured. Honestly, he didn’t really feel like a comrade anyway, did he?”
Mahito and the transfigured humans he had brought with him.
And somewhere above, the ordinary people were now falling down.
The battle against Gojo was finally hurtling toward its last act.
------------------------------
21:22.
Tokyo Metro Meiji-Jingumae Station, Basement 5.
“Damn it!! Damn it!! Goddamn it!!”
Mei Mei’s group and Yoshino’s group were running along the tracks, cursing bitterly over having lost Mahito.
Now that they’d confirmed the enemy was heading for Shibuya Station, they were on their way to secure the tracks in that direction.
“Is it really okay not to head to Shibuya right away?”
“Even if we go now, we won’t be of any help. Gojo Satoru is there. I don’t know what scheme the enemy has cooked up, but all we can do is trust that he’ll pull it off.”
“So we’d just be in the way.”
It wasn’t a pleasant situation, but it made sense.
Gojo was strongest when he was alone. If they carelessly stepped into that battle of a different order, they’d end up as meat shields or hostages, just like the non-sorcerers.
Even Junpei, who had grown strong enough to be proud of it, couldn’t work up the nerve to rush in recklessly.
So Mahito and the other special-grade cursed spirits are there too.
He wanted to run there right this second and lend his strength to the teacher.
But all he could do now was intercept enemies bursting out beyond the Curtain.
He was thinking, as before, that he should have done anything possible to stop Mahito, when something strange latched onto his ear.
“Whoa!?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh, something’s on my ear.”
Junpei brought a hand up to the unknown object covering his right ear.
What he felt was the cold touch of metal.
Just as he thought it felt like one side of a headset and tried to pull it off,
[Can you hear me? Yoshino Junpei.]
“!!”
The emotionless voice of a robot slammed into his eardrum.
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