22:02.
Below Shibuya C Tower, first floor.
Crackle
“So the thing that just got lifted was only the Curtain that doesn’t let sorcerers in, right? We broke three of them including Ino’s...”
“Maybe they set up one Curtain with three layers, or the first one was a decoy. Either way, sorcerers can move freely through Shibuya now.”
“I wanted to ask this old man a few things, but it doesn’t look like he’s waking up. Maybe I should link up with Ino...”
Just as they were discussing their next move, Megumi spotted someone falling from the C Tower rooftop.
It was Ino Takuma, unconscious.
“Ino!”
Whoosh
Nue, summoned by Megumi, first deflected Ino’s fall and slowed his speed, and just before he hit the ground, Yuji rushed in and caught him in time.
Once Yuji had safely taken Ino’s body into his arms, he could finally see his face.
It was a mess.
His face looked as if it had been smashed repeatedly with a blunt weapon, and his right eye had burst open, with thick fluid mixed with blood running down it.
Fortunately, he was breathing, but it was strange he was still alive at all.
“Ugh...!!”
“What about Ino?”
“He’s fine... well, not fine, but he’s not dead.”
Ino’s skill was above semi-grade 1. Excluding the outlier that was special grade, he was strong enough to rank among the upper tier.
And yet he had been beaten this badly without even getting a chance to fight back.
Did that mean the enemy had some hidden trump card? That young man and the old woman hadn’t looked that strong.
“I’m going to go beat the crap out of them.”
“Itadori. I get how you feel, but hold back. Our top priority is...”
“...Gojo-sensei.”
With a face full of anger, Yuji tried to head for the rooftop, but Megumi stopped him.
Now that they knew the enemy’s strength was beyond expectations, moving recklessly would be a bad play.
Besides, now that the Curtain had been lifted, there was a chance the enemies had already fled.
“Let’s get Ino out of the Curtain first.”
“...You take Ino and get out of the Curtain. I’ll go into Shibuya Station first.”
That was probably the best plan.
There was no need for both of them to go together.
But right now, acting alone in Shibuya...
After weighing whether to send Yuji off by himself, Megumi decided to go along with it.
Now that the Curtain had been lifted, the other sorcerers would gather here too.
Nanami, who had gone outside, Zenin Mai’s group, and Junpei as well. If the first-grade sorcerers, the strongest forces, converged, one of them would be able to meet up with Yuji.
“Don’t die.”
“I won’t.”
“See you later.”
“Yeah!”
Watching Yuji’s back as he ran off into the distance, Megumi formed a hand sign.
Ino would need rest for a while, but emergency treatment was something he could manage with his own power.
“[Round Deer].”
The deer shikigami approached Ino, pouring positive energy from its entire body.
--------------------------------
21:44.
Beside Exit 13 of Tokyo Metro Shibuya Station.
“.......”
Standing before Ijichi’s cold, frozen corpse, Nanami clenched both fists tightly.
Even in death, it seemed he had tried to prioritize contact until the very end, because only the right arm holding the phone had broken unnaturally through the ice and stuck out.
The fear, despair, and apology he must have felt in his final moment.
All of it was written across his face in a way that was almost grotesquely clear.
Clang!
Nanami shattered the ice and carefully gathered the body into his arms, then closed Ijichi’s eyes for him.
Nanami’s face, as he carried Ijichi’s frozen corpse toward the camp, was hidden in shadow and hard to make out.
There was no way he could ever, in this life or any future one, feel anger at his own incompetence.
There was no way.
Only one thing remained.
The evil that shoved this reality in my face...
-------------------------------
22:04.
Between Tokyo Metro Meiji-Jingumae and Shibuya.
The moment Mei Mei’s axe came crashing down on the heads of the curse user and the wild cursed spirit duo, the sound of the Curtain lifting reached them.
“Big sister.”
“Yes. It seems the Curtain has been lifted.”
Itadori and Yoshino must have done well. Their potential was certainly excellent.
And with the tracks secured, there was nothing left to stop their advance.
To make Gojo Satoru owe her a debt—just how valuable would that be? Mei Mei stepped forward in high spirits, already imagining the amount that would be deposited into her account once everything was settled.
“My heart is fluttering.”
Mei Mei’s team entered the tracks on the fifth basement floor of Shibuya Station.
And then...
“You’re faster than I expected.”
Waiting for them on the other side was Kenjaku.
------------------------------
22:06.
The street in front of Shibuya Station’s premises.
Yuji, who had been running, came to a stop at the sight before him.
“Aaaaaah!!”
“Help meee!!”
The street had already turned into hell.
After Gojo had been sealed, Mahito had been free to roam the surface and inside the station, unleashing a flood of transfigured humans.
Just the number in front of Yuji’s eyes alone was already in the dozens, maybe even over a hundred, as the transfigured humans assaulted ordinary people.
“I can’t just leave them! But I can’t save everyone! What am I supposed to do?”
The final objective was to recover Gojo, but his duty as a sorcerer held his feet in place.
The station and Gojo were right there, just ahead of him, but he had always been obsessed with a person’s “proper death,” and he couldn’t ignore a scene like this.
Should he ignore them and run straight into the station, or should he take the extra time to eliminate the transfigured humans and protect the civilians?
Just as he was leaning one way, familiar voices reached his ears.
“Cod!”
“Inumaki-senpai!”
“Itadori...?”
“Kugisaki too?!”
“Salmon, salmon!”
Inumaki and Nobara, who were driving off transfigured humans and rescuing civilians, looked up at him with their usual expressions.
After parting with Junpei, she had joined up with Inumaki, who had been pulled off the front line, and was helping with civilian rescue.
“Where’d you leave Fushiguro?”
“He’s gone inside the Curtain because of circumstances.”
“So you’re acting alone?”
“Yeah. We need to rescue Gojo-sensei fast.”
Yuji had already been worried, and knowing those two were here put him at ease.
He nodded and was about to jump down from the track when Nobara grabbed him.
“Why?”
“Junpei said he was coming to meet up with you guys. Looks like you crossed paths. Wait here and go together.”
“But time’s tight. We don’t know when they’ll move Gojo-sensei.”
“.......”
“Why are you acting weird all of a sudden?”
“Are you really going alone? That place is a nest of monsters. You could die.”
After fighting that white-haired curse user, she had learned one thing: in Shibuya, you absolutely must not go anywhere alone.
There was always the chance of getting wiped out by an outlier opponent, but at the very least, she decided it was better to have more bodies than to lose strength one by one.
The same went for Yuji, whose personal combat ability was outstanding.
And yet, as if he had already made up his mind, Yuji shook his head.
“It’s okay even so.”
“You really...”
“If I can do the work of one person, then I don’t mind dying. It doesn’t have to be me who saves sensei.”
He felt like he understood what his role was here.
To stop more people from dying. To keep this country from falling apart.
As long as he functioned properly as one “part,” it didn’t matter who was the one to see it through to the end.
“Haah...”
“Sorry. I’ll try my best not to die. If it comes to it, Sukuna’s there too, right?”
The way he gave an awkward grin as if nothing were wrong irritated Nobara.
“This guy, that guy, they’re all the same...!”
The attitude of being willing to throw away their own lives whenever they wanted was deeply annoying.
Junpei, who had sent her to a safe place but was now trying to push deeper in. Yuji, who was trying to enter the station alone.
Honestly, now she felt like she understood why men died so quickly.
They were idiots, but there was nothing to be done.
They were sorcerers, people who lived face-to-face with death at any moment. Right now, Shibuya desperately needed idiots like them.
And it was her job to help keep those idiot men from dying as much as possible.
“You hand over your button too.”
“Huh?!”
Grabbing Yuji by the nape and tearing off his button, Nobara stuffed it into the pocket on the opposite side so it wouldn’t mix with Junpei’s button.
This time, there was no tender farewell like before.
They were the same comrades, but since she was dating the other one, the difference in affection was obvious.
It was a relief that Junpei had been the first one to show her this. If not, even if she pretended otherwise, she would have felt pretty hurt.
“It’s a remote reverse cursed technique. If you look like you’re about to die, I’ll save you. So try not to get hurt too badly.”
“...Thanks, Kugisaki!”
“Just hurry up and go, you idiot.”
With a hard slap to his back, Yuji vanished like the wind into the station entrance.
Letting out a long sigh, Nobara casually smashed the transfigured human that lunged at her with her hammer, then called out to Inumaki loudly.
“Inumaki-senpai! Let’s do our best too!”
“Salmon, salmon.”
She prayed desperately that her main force would hold out before the two idiots died.
Then, gripping her hammer once more, she charged back into the chaos.
--------------------------------
22:05.
In front of Exit 13 of Tokyo Metro Shibuya Station.
After parting with Nobara, Junpei was flying off to meet Yuji and Megumi when a man blocked his path.
“.....”
“You are...”
Junpei tensed at the sight of the man who had suddenly appeared and stood before him.
It was a face he didn’t know. And yet, somehow, it felt familiar.
Unlike his neat sweater, his clothes were stained with blood in several places, making him look like someone who had just killed a person.
He had memorized the faces of everyone dispatched to Shibuya. There was no information on a man like this.
That meant he was either a civilian or a curse user.
But there was one thing that stood out as especially strange.
What the hell is this guy? He doesn’t have a speck of cursed energy.
Everyone is born with cursed energy, whether a little or a lot.
But not a trace of cursed energy could be felt from the man in front of him. It was the opposite of a case like Maki, from whom a faint but unmistakable trace of cursed energy still flowed.
It was like looking at an inanimate object, a rock or a tree.
And then there was that unsettling body.
Even with loose clothing on, his musculature was so clear that the outline beneath it showed through.
Junpei had never seen a body so trained before, and he never would again.
As Junpei was still watching him closely, the man vanished in an instant.
“So fast...!”
He had barely had time to admire the speed beyond expectation when Junpei sensed something chilling and quickly formed a hand sign.
“Trans...”
Bang!
“Gah!”
A fist swung from outside his field of vision and slammed into Junpei’s temple.
It was a surprise attack made even more effective because it exceeded expectations in both speed and power, and because it slipped past his cursed-energy-based perception.
He managed to guard with the arm overlaid by a partially summoned [Moonlit Wave], but he couldn’t fully block the impact, and his body was sent rolling across the ground by the force.
Junpei grabbed his numbing arm and got back to his feet, then turned toward the direction the attack had come from.
The man was smiling.
He was a killing doll who said nothing and focused only on battle.
And yet, the way he seemed to be enjoying the situation made Junpei feel as if his organs were twisting inside him.
Crack
“He’s looking down on me...”
The moment Junpei formed a hand sign, the man rushed at him again.
Zenin Toji versus Yoshino Junpei.
The first round of the hellish battle ahead had begun.
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