22:40.
Near Exit 3 of Tokyo Metro Shibuya Station.
"Huff, huff......"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I think I just need to rest a little."
Nobara, having nearly finished off all the transformed humans while circling the station, was breathing hard.
"Looks like we’ve cleaned everything up, Inumaki-senpai?"
"Salmon."
Inumaki nodded, but he looked pretty spent too. He fumbled in his pocket with trembling fingers, pulled out a throat lozenge, and swallowed it.
Wiping the blood off her hands with a grimace, Nobara recalled what had just happened.
Nobara’s reversed technique, [Bloom].
A technique that could remotely pour reversed cursed energy through a medium torn from the original body.
Thanks to that, no matter how far away the target was, she could check the condition fed back through the medium and support her allies at the right moment.
The button from Junpei, scorched black as it burst with heat during the fight. And Yuji’s button, which looked just as bad.
At the signal that a comrade’s life was hanging by a thread, Nobara had forgotten the battle and hurriedly poured in reversed technique.
She’d almost been in danger after burning through nearly all her cursed energy, but thankfully Inumaki’s quick cover had kept her safe.
'Where are you, and what are you doing...?'
Yuji looked mostly fine, but Junpei was the problem.
She’d dumped in all three remaining stocks just to barely keep him alive, but there was no doubt he was in a dangerous state.
Was he okay? Was he even alive? She was so worried she felt like she might go insane.
As she stood there anxiously, two young schoolgirls came into view.
"Where is it?"
"I’m sure we heard fighting from this way."
The two looked to be middle school age at a glance.
They seemed like ordinary civilians who’d simply gotten lost, but Nobara felt an odd sense of déjà vu from them.
Strangely enough, the two girls were far too calm.
There was no sign they were trying to evacuate. If anything, they looked like they were scanning the area with burning eyes, searching for someone.
They are definitely not normal.
"Hey, you two!"
"?!"
When Nobara shouted, the two flinched and kept their distance with hesitant little steps.
"W-What is it?"
"Shibuya is dangerous right now. You should be getting out, not hanging around here. What are you doing?"
"Uh, well......"
The two couldn’t answer properly.
That only made them look more suspicious.
And more than anything, the vile cursed aura leaking off them was incredibly irritating.
'Curse users? Kids that young...?'
"Konbu! Konbu! [Dangerous!]"
Not knowing who the two were, Nobara hesitated, but Inumaki was different.
He recognized their faces from last year.
The girls who had been glued to Geto Suguru’s side during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
"Huh? You mean they themselves are dangerous? Not that they’re in danger?"
"Salmon! [Exactly, so knock them out already!]"
Seeing Inumaki urgently gesturing and thumping his chest in frustration, Nobara’s expression hardened.
There must be a reason he was saying it that strongly. Fine. Arrest them first.
Making up her mind, Nobara quickened her pace and closed the distance.
"W-What do we do, Nanako?"
"What do you mean, what do we do!"
As if expecting this, the girl with yellow hair moved first.
With a look of annoyance, she dug into her pocket, pulled out a smartphone, and pointed it at Nobara.
A pose like she was taking a photo.
'A picture?'
Before Nobara could even analyze the enemy’s ability, her body moved first.
Crack!
The nail infused with her cursed energy flew in a straight line and sniped the phone camera with pinpoint accuracy.
The phone, shattered with a nail embedded in it, slipped from the girl’s hand and fell.
"Tch! Mimiko!"
"Y-Yeah!"
"Don’t move."
Next, the black-haired girl tried to do something with the doll she was holding, but Inumaki’s cursed speech stopped her cold.
With their main weapon gone and unable to move, Nobara’s hammer came crashing down on the two girls’ heads like a bolt of lightning.
Thud! Thud!
"Ugh."
"Hwaaa......"
With a clean double bonk to the head, the two middle school girls lost consciousness and collapsed.
"Nice one, Inumaki-senpai."
"Cod roe. [You too, senpai.]"
Rip!
To be safe, Nobara even stomped on Mimiko’s doll and smashed it to pieces, then bound the unconscious pair with cable ties.
"Hah. So even kids like this are curse users?"
"Salmon. [Definitely.]"
"You’ve seen them before?"
"Salmon. [Yeah.]"
"Last year? When that Night Parade thing happened?"
"Salmon, salmon. [Yeah, yeah, that’s right.]"
As Nobara chatted idly while checking their belongings, something slick and unpleasant caught on her fingertips.
"...!"
Sukuna’s finger.
Why did they have this...?
Before she could even wonder, a huge crash rang out behind her.
KWAANG!!
"!!"
At the same time, the button from Junpei that she had carefully kept against her chest also crumbled into charcoal.
Rustle......
"Ah......"
With a vacant look, she gathered the remains and tried to piece them back together somehow, but they only slipped through her fingers.
No matter how desperately she poured in cursed energy, no white lilies would bloom again.
In the first place, she’d run out of cursed energy, and with the connection between the body and the medium severed, there was nothing she could do.
The meaning of that was clear.
Junpei was dead.
Just now.
Thud
"Tuna kelp......"
Her body had no strength left in it.
She couldn’t breathe properly.
"Aaaah......"
She had told him not to die. Said she’d kill him if he did.
And yet why did it end up like this?
Why was he the one who went off and left her behind after sending only her somewhere safe?
Why.
"Aaaaaaaah!!!!"
It hurt.
It hurt so badly.
The fact that he had left her behind was unbearably painful.
"Kkhhhaaaaa......"
She hadn’t realized it. She hadn’t realized he’d gotten that deep into her heart.
If she’d known that the last time she saw him would be then,
she should have told him she loved him, at least.
"......"
Inumaki, too, seemed to grasp the situation at once, lowering his head with a sorrowful expression.
How much time passed?
After Nobara had been wailing for what felt like forever, her sobbing abruptly stopped.
"I have to go."
Staggering to her feet, Nobara headed toward the direction where smoke was rising, as if possessed.
"Tuna......"
Inumaki, looking worried, followed after her, but Nobara paid him no mind.
Her attention was fixed on only one thing......
"I’m going to kill him."
Her heart was burning with the resolve to take revenge on the one who had killed her lover.
--------------------------------
At that same time, two men were facing off amid the ruins of Shibuya.
"How did you wake up?"
"Thanks to a loyal subordinate."
Sukuna had shoved Yuji’s consciousness aside with the rebound from ten fingers.
Facing him directly, Sukuna was on a completely different level from anyone Junpei had encountered so far, worthy of the name King of Curses.
He was nauseatingly evil, yet at the same time overwhelming.
Surprisingly, Junpei wasn’t being pushed back by his presence at all.
He had no fear that every movement and breath could decide life or death.
Right here, right now, Junpei stood on equal footing with Sukuna.
"Thanks to you, I saw something interesting. There’s always one outstanding catch in every era, but even aside from Gojo Satoru, I never thought it’d be you."
"You think I’d be happy to hear your little evaluation? I don’t have time for this, so move. Give Yuji’s body back."
"You disgusting parasite."
At that, Sukuna’s brow twitched.
"What an arrogant brat."
[Slash]
Slash! Slash! Slash!
A visible, invisible cut flew toward him without warning.
An unexpected attack, with no hand signs or incantation, swept toward Junpei.
Before the slash could split his body, Junpei’s right hand, wrapped in black scales, moved swiftly.
Clang!
The slash that had shaved the surface of the black scales was struck by Junpei’s hand and deflected elsewhere.
It was only possible thanks to his senses and perception, both sharpened to the extreme.
Going even further, Junpei actually caught the final slash with his hand and crushed it.
Crack!
"....!!"
Even if that hadn’t been a serious attack, this was beyond expectations.
Sukuna’s lips, which had been curved in an easy smile, lifted even higher.
'I wasn’t expecting this to kill him... but how interesting.'
As Junpei strode forward, [Sediment Moon] began absorbing cursed energy behind him.
Sssssss
"Since it’s come to this, I’ll drag you out of that body."
Junpei declared arrogantly, then turned his eyes to Uraume standing behind Sukuna.
"You’re the one who pulled that stunt on Yuji and woke Sukuna up, right?"
"....."
"Let’s talk after this is over."
Uraume couldn’t say a word.
In just one hour, the gap between them had completely reversed. Now the difference was so vast that Uraume couldn’t even dare look up at him.
At the sight of someone who didn’t flinch at all in front of him, Sukuna burst into hearty laughter.
"Kahahahahah!!"
With Gojo Satoru sealed away, was there anyone left who could entertain him like this?
It seemed Kenjaku was plotting something, but even so, that was just the usual mass of mediocrities from any era.
'Originally, I planned to subdue him and switch to his body. But this won’t do. I can’t afford to hold back.'
Six fingers remained.
Even if he swallowed them all at once, it was unlikely that this brat would be pushed back like before.
Now that Yoshino Junpei’s technique had been completed, if they didn’t settle this here, the danger would be on Sukuna’s side.
Thinking of this as his last chance, his plan changed.
He would kill Yoshino Junpei before the brat’s consciousness could return.
'And I’d like to see the brat fall into despair after killing his own friend with his own hands. Kehehihit!'
With Gojo Satoru gone, the man before him was unquestionably the strongest of this era.
He wouldn’t toy with him. He would face him at full power.
"Entertain me more, Yoshino Junpei!"
"I’ll devour you, wraith!"
There would be no holding back on the incantation.
In the minds of the two strongest, only murderous intent toward the other remained.
An unleashed 120% output, with no regard for the surroundings being dragged into it!
Dragon scales, repulsion, twin meteors.
Full moon, eternal exhaustion, the wave of resonance.
"[Slash]."
"Vortex."
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