The headquarters had been subdued.
Subjugation of the Kamo and Zenin clans was complete as well.
Just when it seemed like everything was proceeding smoothly—
an anomaly occurred.
In the center of Tokyo.
It appeared on an ordinary day, just like any other.
"What is that...?"
"I have no idea..."
Everyone saw it.
There, where a deep darkness that swallowed light without leaving a trace lurked.
A massive black pillar, utterly out of place with the surrounding landscape, as if it had been cut from another space and dropped here, pierced through the clouds and rose high into the sky.
"That feels... insanely dangerous."
"Should we poke it...?"
"Hey! Don’t go near it!"
Ordinary people who could not see curses, and even those who had only barely stepped onto the path of jujutsushi, were thinking the same thing.
That an indescribably ominous cursed presence was emanating from within it.
And in truth, their hunch was not wrong.
Inside that place was soon to become a hellscape where an unprecedented slaughter would unfold.
A barrier assembled from a patchwork of the most dense and superior [barriers] Tengen had installed across Japan.
A site Kenjaku had selected by traveling all over Japan for a thousand years.
And the players, savoring the lingering afterglow of their awakening within the allotted time.
"So Sukuna’s in there?"
The strongest man from four hundred years ago, still hungry for the thrill of battle.
"That sounds delicious. It’s making my teeth ache."
"This time for sure....!"
"......"
Famous sorcerers who had left deep marks on history over the long course of time.
"...This is disgusting."
A lawyer who had turned his back on the law and sunk into darkness of his own accord.
"What is that? Some kind of bamboo shoot that’s been aging for five hundred years?"
A comedian from behind a folding screen who still could not let go of his dream.
Some because they could not rid themselves of lingering regrets from life.
Some because they wanted to break away from society and realize themselves.
Different motives, same destination.
They were all heading to the same place.
Into the giant black pillar spanning a fifteen-kilometer radius.
"Hello! I’m Kokane!"
November 8.
06:02.
[Culling Game], begin.
Back at the Kamo house, Yaga appeared before Junpei and the others, his face grave.
"Ah, Principal Yaga."
"Did you finish the job?"
"We did subdue them, but then Kenjaku....."
"I have something to say about that."
Before they could even explain what they had seen, Yaga led them into the meeting room with a dark expression.
There, all of the key forces on the Jujutsu High side had gathered.
Megumi, Todo, and Nobara, who had gone to the Zenin clan. Along with Okkotsu and Mai.
"Why do you all look like that?"
"We fought."
"If you knew what we went through, you’d be shocked."
"Save that for later. We have something more important to discuss."
When Megumi cut him off flatly, Yuji and Choso, looking dejected, took their seats.
Once everyone had gathered, Yaga got straight to the point.
"Tengen-sama has been taken."
"!!"
Those who knew about Tengen were shocked, but Junpei only tilted his head.
He had only recently stepped into the world of jujutsu, so he knew Tengen existed, but not how important Tengen was.
To Junpei, Tengen was just some being he had never met and didn’t even know what they did.
'Is it really that serious?'
Yuji, however, was in a different position.
He had just heard the full outline of Kenjaku’s plan from Kenjaku himself.
"Did Kenjaku do it?"
"Most likely. There are witness statements saying a man with a scar on his forehead and wearing robes was seen."
"He was just fighting us a moment ago!"
"Whatever method he used, he clearly dismantled the barrier remotely."
Only then did Yuji and Choso understand what Kenjaku had been doing earlier.
Kenjaku, who had stalled them by throwing Akuroo-Ootake at them and not fighting directly, had been focusing on dismantling the barrier all along.
And the reason he fled the moment Junpei arrived must have been because that job was finished.
After they explained the entire conversation from earlier, Yaga clutched his head and let out a deep sigh.
"From the start, we were dancing in the palm of his hand. The higher-ups were bait."
"He stirred up internal conflict to divert our attention."
"No wonder the orders themselves felt so sloppy. So that was all planned?"
Kenjaku’s aim of provoking internal strife had been brilliantly achieved.
Starting with the Kamo clan, then the higher-ups, then the Zenin clan—he had extended his claws to isolate Jujutsu High and force them into rebellion.
He had launched a coup to prevent internal conflict at a critical time, only to create internal conflict anyway.
While everyone was busy tearing at each other, he had secured his true objective: Tengen.
"But that’s strange. Isn’t it too fast?"
When Nobara raised the question, everyone nodded.
Even with that bizarre teleportation ability, he went back and forth alone and snatched Tengen’s true body from deep underground?
Impossible. Even if a lot of manpower had been diverted to the extermination team, the rule had always been not to neglect guarding Tengen, the most important figure of all.
Remote barrier dismantling wasn’t impossible given Kenjaku’s skill... but it still felt off.
"Not impossible. He had help."
At the mention of an accomplice, Yaga felt a stress headache coming on.
Just thinking about that woman still made his teeth grind. She had contributed to Geto’s fall, then wandered overseas instead of taking missions, and now she had betrayed them too.
She really did collect every possible sin.
"Who is it?"
"It has been confirmed that special-grade sorcerer Tsukumo Yuki has allied herself with Kenjaku."
Silence fell over the meeting room.
Shocked by the revelation that someone of special-grade caliber had betrayed them and joined forces with Kenjaku, no one spoke first.
The one who broke the long silence was Okkotsu, who had barely made himself known until now.
"Are you sure...?"
"Certain. The cursed tool users she attacked all testified unanimously that it was Tsukumo Yuki."
"Why?"
".....I can understand why, if it were my teacher."
"Todo?"
When everyone was still half in doubt, Todo—the only one here who knew her personally—nodded.
His expression looked more downcast than anyone had ever seen it.
"You said she was your teacher."
"Even when she was teaching me, my teacher was never ordinary. She didn’t take normal missions. She traveled overseas and devoured all kinds of texts."
"That sounds irresponsible."
"She didn’t want the status quo. She never told me the details, but I think....she dreamed of a world without curses."
"Does that even make sense?"
"It does. Curses are born from humans who lack cursed energy."
Either all humans become sorcerers,
or all non-sorcerers are killed.
Or else, humanity as a whole breaks free from cursed energy.
Yaga could agree with that much.
"Maybe she saw something in Kenjaku’s plan."
"From what I heard then, his goal was the return of the Heian era. I don’t know whether a world ruled by curses and curse users is really what she wanted."
"Maybe Kenjaku’s final objective isn’t that at all."
"He called himself an evolutionist. Said the people of this country needed to advance to the next stage."
"He said he was discarding the plan to assimilate Tengen with all of Japan, didn’t he? Then there’d be no reason to kidnap Tengen."
"Who knows. He could have been lying."
"In the end, we’ve just come full circle."
Even with everyone here pooling their heads together, no clear conclusion emerged.
Their lives were far too short to understand the madness of a sorcerer who had lived for a thousand years.
"At the very least, one thing is clear. His plan may be aimed not just at Tokyo, but at all of Japan—maybe even the entire world."
Otherwise, Tsukumo Yuki would have no reason to cooperate.
Just as everyone nodded in agreement—
"Yaga, are you in there?"
Led by Gakuganji, Utahime and Kusakabe burst into the meeting room.
"Principal Gakuganji. What is it?"
"Good, everyone’s gathered. This is urgent."
"More urgent than what we’re discussing now?"
"A massive curtain has appeared in the center of Tokyo."
So it had begun.
Everyone swallowed hard.
"Is it similar to the one in Shibuya?"
"The principle is the same, but the scale is on another level. No matter what we do, we won’t be able to break it. We also can’t contact the people who went inside."
"What’s happening inside...?"
"We believe it’s the same as what you told us then."
Five hundred people granted jujutsu by Kenjaku’s Idle Transfiguration a week ago.
Past sorcerers who had made contracts with him a thousand years ago and become cursed tools after death.
They had been out of sight for a while, but they were surely inside there.
That was when it happened.
Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong!
With a noisy alarm, something appeared above Junpei and Yuji’s heads.
"What the hell?!"
"Hello! I’m Kokane!"
The bizarre thing, identifying itself as Kokane, began chattering away without regard for the stares around it.
"I’m the interface connecting the Culling Game and the players! A little while ago, I came to announce that the [Culling Game] has officially begun!"
The Culling Game?
Was that the name of Kenjaku’s plan?
No, more importantly—players?
"We don’t know anything, so why are we players?"
"Wasn’t it only those Kenjaku gave techniques or cursed objects to who became players?"
Even when Yuji and Junpei asked, Kokane gave no answer.
After briefly thinking over the reason, they soon arrived at the answer.
"No way...."
Junpei, whose brain had been altered by [Idle Transfiguration] and awakened a [technique].
Yuji, who had swallowed Sukuna’s finger, a cursed object, and awakened to cursed energy.
—
Those whose brain structures are non-sorcerers but who possess a [technique], like Yoshino Junpei. Those who swallowed cursed objects, like Itadori Yuji. They will be forced to fight one another in order to deepen their understanding of cursed energy.
Both of them are prototypes for [Culling Game] players.
"Because the conditions are the same, the system is treating us as participants?!"
"This is absurd....!"
The sorcerers were left speechless by the ridiculous turn of events.
Whether they liked it or not, they had been dragged into Kenjaku’s plan.
With bitter smiles on their faces, Junpei and Yuji watched as Kokane opened its mouth wide.
Brrring
On the tablet screen, accompanied by the electronic chime, were the words: {A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Culling Game}.
It seemed to be a common notice issued to all players who had been forced into the game.
"What a nasty joke."
"Should we read it first...."
Everyone crowded together and focused on the screen.
The rules written in small text were as follows.
-0. The [Culling Game] prioritizes continuity above all else.
-1. Within nineteen days from the official start of the [Culling Game], each [player] must declare participation inside a colony (barrier).
-2. Any player who violates the previous rule will have their [technique] stripped away.
-3. If a non-player enters a colony, they will be regarded as having joined the [Culling Game] and treated as a player.
-4. Players gain points by taking the lives of other players.
-5. Points refer to the value the game master (administrator) places on a player’s life. As a rule, a player with no points is worth 5 points if they are a sorcerer and 1 point if they are not.
-6. If a player kills another player, they can obtain that player’s points.
-7. If there is no change in points within nineteen days after participation or point acquisition, that player’s [technique] will be stripped away.
"Stripped of their [technique]?"
"A kind of binding vow, I guess. From the moment you step in, your life is considered wagered on the game system."
"So it says stripped, but what it really means is death."
"What about people with no [technique], like me or Maki-senpai? Or someone with more than one [technique], like Okkotsu-senpai?"
"I don’t know... but I don’t really want to know."
The most hotly debated point was the keyword "stripped of their [technique]."
It was an absurdly vague clause, but one they couldn’t simply ignore, which made it all the more unpleasant.
They didn’t know how it would apply to special exceptions, but they certainly didn’t want to test it. Anyone could see this was a rule built on the assumption that people would die.
But the rules still weren’t over.
-8. A player who accumulates 1,000 points can spend them to obtain the game master’s authority.
The instant they saw it, they knew.
That this was the real purpose of the game.
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