22:19.
In front of the Avenue entrance to Shibuya Station on the Inokashira Line.
“So Gojo Satoru has been sealed. It feels like I’ve been bewitched by a fox.”
“It does to me too. But even if it’s a fake, Geto is involved, so there’s probably a cause there.”
Nanami Kento, a first-grade jujutsushi, had joined the Zenin group.
He had finished recovering the bodies of the assistant supervisors, including Ijichi, sending out support requests, and sharing the situation with the camp.
His tone was calm, but his expression was more rigid than ever.
‘The culprit’s freezing technique is high-level. Not someone I can handle.’
Anger surged at his own helplessness, at his coworker’s gruesome death.
For a moment, he even thought about losing his head and going to hunt down the killer who had murdered Ijichi, but he had no choice but to put his duty as a jujutsushi first.
More important than searching for a curse user hiding somewhere, whose strength would mean certain defeat in a direct fight, was entering Shibuya and rescuing Gojo.
“As for me, I’d rather use the decline of the Gojo family as an excuse to have a drink...”
While Maki watched Nanami’s mood carefully, she stayed quiet, but the Zenin clan head, Naobito, was not like that.
Both were first-grade jujutsushi. And since Naobito was the head of the Zenin clan, his standing in the field was higher, so he didn’t care at all whether Nanami’s face twisted or not.
Even after several people close to him had died, he was still cracking jokes about the family, and Nanami’s poker face cracked just a little.
“Old man, shut up already. If you’re not motivated, go home.”
“Go home...? Isn’t that what you should be doing, Maki?”
Even after Maki shot him down, Naobito just chuckled and threw it back at her.
Nanami didn’t like Naobito’s behavior, but on that point, he agreed.
“What do you think, first-grade jujutsushi Nanami?”
“Maki, this time I have to agree with Naobito.”
Even if Maki’s actual ability was above Grade 4, at best she was only around the level of a Grade 2 jujutsushi.
Now that they knew there were special-grade vengeful spirits swarming inside, and a curse user of comparable strength wandering somewhere in this area, there was no way the weakest among them would be able to protect herself properly.
“I’d be more useful than the drunk, at least.”
If only Naobito weren’t drunk.
“Have you been drinking?”
“I haven’t drunkeeeen. Hic.”
What a damn situation.
A drunken first-grade jujutsushi and a second-grade jujutsushi with almost no cursed energy.
Nanami let out a sigh inwardly, feeling like he’d been stuck doing a group project alone.
‘Maybe I should’ve come by myself.’
The only hopeful thing was that Ino and the others, who were working hard somewhere, and Yoshino might also join them.
Even if the variables had tangled things up and pushed them away from the original plan, he had no doubt they would handle it well.
As they descended the stairs, hoping to add even a little more usable firepower, something appeared in front of them.
“!!”
An enormous amount of water surged in and filled the ground beneath their feet.
The special grade vengeful spirit resembling a red octopus, standing on the water’s surface, opened its mouth.
“Where is Yoshino Junpei?”
-----------------------------------
Before anyone could even answer the question thrown at them out of nowhere, one person moved first.
Whiiir
“You’re slow. Even at getting trapped.”
The moment Naobito’s hand reached Dagon after closing the distance in an instant, Dagon was trapped inside a transparent frame.
Then Naobito’s fist shot out and smashed into Dagon, sending him flying.
Boom!
‘Fast...!’
‘A technique? I can’t even see it with my eyes...’
Even Nanami, a first-grade jujutsushi, couldn’t follow the speed with his eyes.
That was the true power of Projection Sorcery, which was considered the strongest among the Zenin clan’s many inherited techniques, aside from the Ten Shadows Cursed Law.
A technique that divided one second into 24 frames, set movement accordingly, and accelerated the body to match. It could be applied not only to the user but also to the opponent, making it possible to impose a “penalty” and trap them in frames for one second, just like that.
As a bonus, it was also the technique that had earned Naobito the title of the fastest jujutsushi.
Rustle
Dagon rolled across the floor and slammed into the wall before getting back up.
It wasn’t unharmed, but it still hadn’t broken through the toughness that had endured Gojo Satoru’s blows more than once.
Naobito clicked his tongue at the overwhelming recovery and resilience born from that massive cursed energy.
“You’re sturdy, curse.”
“I’m not a curse.”
“Do you even know how many frames per second animation runs at?”
Dagon’s body reddened further with rage, veins bulging, but Naobito ignored him and continued expounding his theory.
“My name is Dagon.”
“This current trend of cranking up resolution and frame rate...”
“Hanami, Jogo, Mahito too...”
“4K this, 60fps that...”
“We have names!!”
“Don’t you think that’s tasteless!!”
The two of them, each talking only about their own thing, collided and sent spray flying everywhere.
Papatatata!
Naobito’s rapid strikes were blocked by the streams of water Dagon summoned.
Nanami leaped in after him, aiming the blade in his hand at Dagon’s neck, but Dagon raised an arm and blocked it outright.
Then Maki thrust her spear from below, only for Dagon to catch it and unleash a kick.
Clang!
Maki was blown backward by the tremendous impact.
At the same time, Naobito’s hand touched the opening that had been exposed.
Whiiir
Once again, Dagon was trapped in a frame, and Nanami’s blade and Naobito’s fist struck him in succession.
Kwachazazang!
With the sound of the frame shattering, Dagon was hammered again and again before his body was driven into the ground.
Then Maki, who had been bounced away a moment earlier, charged in fiercely, swinging her spear at Dagon.
Dagon summoned a water barrier and surrounded himself with it.
“A water barrier. So you can still use an overabundance cursed-energy technique?”
“It does deal damage. It’s just absurdly sturdy.”
“Then...”
They just had to beat him down with speed.
Papatatatatata!!
Attacks that gave Dagon no room to use his technique rained down without pause.
Maki’s spear, Nanami’s blade, and Naobito’s fist relentlessly shaved away at the water barrier surrounding Dagon and closed in on his body.
It was only because their opponent was the absurdly tough Dagon that it didn’t look as dramatic, but none of the three attacks could be dismissed.
Clang!
Nanami’s blade, the first to break through the water barrier, slammed into Dagon’s side.
The strike of the Ten-Strike Technique, which divided the target into a 7:3 ratio and dealt an unavoidable blow. Even though it hadn’t cut through, the hit carried a heavy resonance that shook Dagon’s body.
Sensing that momentum, the jujutsushi’s expressions brightened and their fighting spirit rose.
They were far behind in both speed and numbers.
If they kept taking hits like this, it was obvious they’d all be worn down and lose eventually, but Dagon wasn’t just taking it quietly either.
‘No chance!’
Boom!
Dagon exploded the water barrier to blind them and shot into the air.
With that, he escaped the encirclement that had been tightening around him.
Then, just as he was about to form hand signs for a counterattack,
“I can fly too. If I were you, I’d run upward as well.”
Naobito’s kick, launched from behind, smashed into Dagon’s head.
Kwoooang!
Speed is mass.
As if proving the saying, Dagon’s body slammed into the ground and rolled around from the force.
Before he could recover from the aftershock of the blow and the disorientation of being spun around, the next attacks were already coming in.
The more Projection Sorcery was repeated, the faster Naobito became.
Because the initial speed was carried over in the process of dividing one second into 24 frames.
Now, with the acceleration stacked from the ongoing battle, Dagon couldn’t even perceive Naobito’s attacks.
‘Too fast! Maybe even faster than Jogo!’
“I can’t let you have your way.”
Dudududududududu!!!
Fists thrust out at subsonic speed shattered both of Dagon’s hands as they were driven into the ground.
Just when victory for the jujutsushi side seemed certain if they didn’t let up,
Naobito’s momentum suddenly cut off.
“Domain Expansion.”
With his broken fingers replaced by the hand signs drawn on his stomach, an enormous amount of cursed energy burst forth and the scenery around him changed.
A beach at a peaceful resort.
It was a beautiful landscape, with lush greenery and a pure white shore in striking harmony.
It held the kind of allure that made you feel as if, if you failed to recognize the savage nature hidden beneath that beauty, you’d be dragged under and drown.
Tangonpyeongseon
Many people overlook it.
That the mother sea is not so gentle.
The wrath of nature toward humanity washed over them.
------------------------------
Slash
Before they could even register it, flesh was being torn away.
When they looked back at the place where blood had spilled, there were already distorted fish shikigami everywhere, clashing their teeth.
The wounds weren’t deep, but the problem was the overwhelming numbers.
“Saruruyonggun.”
The endless army comes from the sea, the source of life for all things.
Inside this domain, Dagon’s shikigami kept rising without end, regardless of the user’s cursed energy limits.
Countless fish shikigami of all shapes and sizes united as one and shot out to strike their master’s enemies.
Kwadududuk
“Ghk!”
“Maki! The moment you sense them, knock them away! You barely have any cursed energy, so at least do that...”
The jujutsushi, flustered, tried to respond in a hurry, but the battle had already turned long ago.
From the earlier fight, Dagon had analyzed the enemy’s strength and adjusted the number of shikigami accordingly.
Less than one unit for Maki, who was the weakest and couldn’t land a single effective hit on him.
About three units for Nanami, who had frightening power.
And the rest, after excluding a total of three units’ worth of numbers...
went to the most dangerous one, Naobito.
‘The shikigami aren’t slowing down...!’
Naobito, holding out against the assault with [Flower Falling], the anti-domain technique passed down through the Three Great Families, was sweating coldly.
Because of the effect granted by the domain, it wasn’t easy to block the endlessly attacking shikigami with nothing but cursed energy wrapped around his body.
On top of that, maintaining [Flower Falling] required him to keep his posture from breaking, which inevitably created openings, and Dagon, who feared Naobito the most, did not miss them.
“Ghk!”
As Naobito was sent flying, a swarm of shikigami the size of a sheep’s belly clung to Nanami and tore at him.
Only the sound of flesh being chewed and blood spraying could be heard; Naobito’s figure, buried under the fish shikigami, was no longer visible.
With two first-grade jujutsushi suppressed, Dagon’s attention turned to the remaining Maki.
“You’re the weakest.”
“Ghk!”
An eel shikigami shot out from Dagon’s stomach, baring its jaws wide as it lunged at Maki.
He had underestimated her so badly that the attack was strong, but straightforward and simple.
Maki swung her spear and cut down the shikigami coming straight at her, then felt a chill run down her spine.
‘Two...?'
A follow-up attack, hidden behind a large shikigami that blocked her vision.
And the moment she noticed it, it vanished, clearly carrying a sure-hit effect.
As Maki braced herself for the follow-up and drew every muscle in her body tight,
“Domain Expansion.”
- Chimera Shadow Garden
A massive vortex of shadow surged up from the water’s surface.
With the sound of water bursting, Megumi appeared from within the vortex of shadow.
At the same time, the newly formed domain inside the domain began a tug-of-war, and the sure-hit effect in Dagon’s domain vanished.
Instantly catching the trajectory of the shikigami, Maki leaped upward to evade the attack and rushed toward Megumi.
“Maki-senpai! Here!”
As if no signal was needed, Megumi pulled the thing Maki wanted from his shadow and tossed it to her with perfect timing.
Ordinary cursed tools hadn’t been able to land a single effective hit on Dagon until now.
But if it was “that thing” stored inside Megumi’s shadow...
- A special-grade cursed tool, “Playful Cloud”
A pure concentration of force slammed into Dagon’s shoulder blade.
Baaak!
“.....!”
“What a disgustingly cocky underclassman!”
Unlike before, Maki’s attack, no longer restricted in movement, gouged a hollow chunk out of Dagon’s flesh.
With the sure-hit effect gone, it almost seemed like victory was within reach.
Rubbing his regenerated shoulder, Dagon glared at the one who had turned the situation around.
‘That guy and I are in a domain tug-of-war. If I want the sure-hit effect back, I have to kill that boy first!’
He had thought this would end quickly once he unleashed his domain, but the stalemate dragging on only made him more irritated.
With Naobito’s life or death still unclear, the first target he had to eliminate was Megumi.
Immediately, two eel shikigami Dagon summoned shot straight toward Megumi.
Swish
Megumi hadn’t stepped into the domain without preparing for this either.
A new, incomplete shikigami pulled from the shadow roared with only half its head visible.
Grrrooooaaar!
The tiger’s roar echoed across the entire beach, and a hazy curtain formed around Megumi.
The eel shikigami flying toward him froze the moment they touched the curtain, and the person waiting for an opening immediately cut off the shikigami’s heads.
“Nanami!”
“Where are the other two?”
“Ino dropped out midway, and Itadori is acting alone.”
“....Do you have a plan? For now, focus on maintaining the domain.”
“Yes...!”
Nanami had endured Saruruyonggun’s assault for more than a minute.
He had lost one eye, but it didn’t seem to be seriously affecting his movement yet.
‘He survived?’
Just as Dagon was frowning in disbelief that he could endure that, Naobito’s kick slammed into his back.
‘This man too!’
“It’s only one right arm, but it’s a 71-year-old relic, so it’ll fetch a high price!”
With everyone who had scattered now gathered together, if Megumi kept his domain active to suppress the sure-hit effect and Nanami, Naobito, and Maki attacked together, exorcising Dagon might not be impossible.
But there was one major problem.
‘I’m already running low on cursed energy from fighting that Cursed Womb: Death Painting earlier!’
At this rate, he could probably maintain the domain for about five more minutes.
Could they kill that octopus with its monstrous toughness within that time?
As expected of Megumi, who always assumed the worst and acted accordingly, his judgment was quick.
“Nanami.”
“What is it?”
“Can you lure that octopus into my domain?”
“.....! Why? You’re the most important piece here. There’s no reason for you to take on the danger yourself.”
Megumi’s newly tamed Round Deer.
If it was Round Deer, which radiated positive energy from its entire body, then any ordinary curse would die instantly the moment it touched it, as the cursed energy composing its body would be erased.
“Just once. If I can touch him, we have a chance.”
Given that octopus’s toughness, it probably wouldn’t go that smoothly, but Megumi thought he could at least inflict a fatal wound.
After hearing Megumi’s plan, Nanami deliberately shouted loudly.
“Everyone regroup! We have to get out!”
He made sure Dagon, who could understand human language, could hear him.
He was baiting the predator’s instinct not to let fleeing prey escape.
When that bastard got desperate, when his eyes narrowed onto the prey right in front of him and his field of vision shrank.
That would be the moment to strike back.
Maki and Naobito didn’t fully understand the plan, but they moved at once.
What lay beneath that was trust in a first-grade jujutsushi.
“You think I’ll just let you?”
As Maki and Naobito, who had been in a standoff, pulled away, Dagon instantly closed the distance.
For the sake of the feint, he also didn’t forget to punch a hole in the barrier for real.
‘A little closer...!’
Just as everyone waited for the moment Dagon would step into the shadow,
Srrrk
“!!!!!”
They witnessed it.
The last survivor of a family erased from history.
The one who had overcome death.
The one who now sought to become a god.
The flesh revealed,
that pulse!!
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