[Past — Inside the Portal Dimension]
"Where are we going, misterrrr?" Rin's high, playful voice echoed strangely in the vast golden expanse.
Her words seemed to ripple in the nothingness, carried farther than they should have — as though the portal dimension itself was listening.
Radahn glanced at her — the tiny figure of the three-tailed jinchūriki, her small two-tailed cat companion perched lazily over her shoulder, tail twitching absentmindedly.
"I don't know," he rumbled, his voice as deep as the distant roar of an ocean.
Rin pouted, lips forming the start of a complaint — but before she could speak, Radahn reached a hand the size of a shield over her head and ruffled her hair.
"To a new adventure."
Rin's pout dissolved instantly, replaced by an irrepressible giggle.
"I am soo excited!"
From the side, Otsutsuki Kaguya observed them quietly.
She stood like a pale moon among drifting shards of light in the golden void, her white robes rippling even though there was no wind, her Byakugan simmering faintly in the timeless dark.
Rin turned, grinning at her.
"What? You're smiling… again~"
Kaguya allowed the smallest curve at her lips — faint, elegant, and gone in a heartbeat.
"Oh!" Rin suddenly clapped her hands. "Don't forget! You also promised to teach me!"
Radahn smiled — the kind of proud, unshakable smile that came from a man who had seen countless wars yet still carried kindness.
"Don't worry," he said. "I will."
The three of them drifted — or perhaps floated was the wrong word — through the portal realm.
Here, there was no up or down, no ground or sky. They moved on paths of gleaming motes, with rivers of molten gold flowing in the distance like veins of light through a dark cosmos.
Gravity seemed to bend and sway, and the air shimmered in impossible hues of sapphire, ruby, and amber — colors not entirely real to mortal eyes.
Then the dimension itself seemed to shift.
In front of them, threads of pure brilliance stitched themselves into the shape of an oval. The outline pulsed — at first faintly, then stronger — until it became a blinding tear in the fabric of the portal world.
Rin's eyes widened. "Whoa…"
The oval grew to three times Radahn's height, light spilling from its edges like liquid gold. Swirls of silver began to spiral inside it, spinning faster until the oval became a gate — not opening so much as becoming inevitable.
Then came the pull.
They didn't fall. They didn't leap. They were moved — as though the universe had decided their path and simply placed them elsewhere.
[Present Time — Tokyo]
Blinding white dissolved into a billion shards of neon and moonlight.
They stood on a rooftop in the heart of a modern city, skyscraper lights burning in the night, the air alive with distant horns, rumbling trains, and the electronic pulse of billboards in countless colors.
"WAAAAAH!!" Rin's voice broke the moment. "
What was the big purple ball!? Woah!! Where are we?! KAAA-KOI!!!" She twirled around to look at the city, her cat companion now wide-eyed in wonder.
Even Kaguya's gaze drifted across the skyline. She saw towers like pillars of glass, rivers of glowing machines on the streets below, giant screens casting shimmering faces into the night sky.
But Radahn's attention snapped elsewhere.
Somewhere nearby — on a building three blocks away — the air was wrong. A malice unlike anything here flowed toward him, as palpable as the heat before a lightning strike.
His helm turned. His burning eyes locked onto a figure standing atop the distant roof.
[Sukuna's POV]
'Huh… what's that?'
Sukuna's mind shifted instantly from calculating his next move in the duel with Gojo to… this.
When his gaze found the source, his breath caught—not from fear… or so he told himself.
But his body betrayed him. A tremor ran down his arm. Then another.
For the first time in memory—true memory, not host memory—he was shaking.
'Unacceptable!'
He scowled, curling his lip as his fingers twitched. The feeling crawled up his spine, butterflies replaced by knives. And beneath that… pressure. Raw, oppressive weight that seemed to crush the sky around him.
"Nh—"
A sound beside him broke through his thoughts. Uraume. She had already dropped to one knee, skin pale, breath uneven. The cold around her wavered like water.
"Uraume," his voice was sharp.
"Fall back. This isn't something you can handle."
"Kashikomari mashita…" Her voice was almost a whisper as she obeyed instantly, retreating to a nearby platform without protest.
Sukuna's eyes returned to the rooftop. There were three of them.
A girl — barely more than a child — with two tails' worth of silver-blue fur draped across her shoulder in the form of a small, feline companion.
A tall woman — skin pale as starlight, features unnervingly perfect, eyes impossibly old.
And towering between them… the source.
A giant clad in golden armour, burnished and scarred from wars older than this city.
His crimson cape billowed — but there was no wind. At his sides, two enormous swords rested easily, their edges reflecting moonlight like molten fire.
Then the giant's gaze met Sukuna's.
The eyes burned. Not glowing like some sorcerer's technique — burning like a forge that had been raging for days, heat radiating off them in waves.
The moment lasted less than half a second.
Sukuna's chest tightened. His knees threatened to soften before pure will slammed them locked. Pain built in his head, pressure turning to sharpness.
Blood welled from the corners of his eyes — and only then did he manage to wrench his gaze away.
The suffocating weight was… gone.
'An illusion?' he told himself instantly.
It had to be. No one could make the King of Curses feel that. It was a trick, a test, and he was ready to cut it down.
A low laugh escaped him — sharp at the edges, tinged with threat.
"I'm going to kill you… interrupter."
-------------
From several rooftops across, Gojo's voice cut in, dripping with sarcasm.
"Is he your friend, Sukuna?"
Sukuna's head turned, teeth bared in irritation. "Don't misunderstand this. I don't know these guys."
And though his voice was steady, inwardly he noted the quick, subtle shift in Gojo's stance when he heard that.
Gojo pushed back his hair in mock drama. "Ohhh, so the King of Curses doesn't have friends. My bad."
Sukuna sneered. "Feared by my might, you think you and these strangers are going to 2v1 me?" He tilted his head in mock pity.
"I am so scared~"
The air between the three groups crackled with potential violence. They stood locked in a triangle of suspicion — no alliances yet, but no strikes either. Not yet.
[Elsewhere — Video Room]
The crow's-eye view from Mei Mei's familiar filled the large wall projection.
The operators, sorcerers, and students gathered there should have been watching the battle of their era — Gojo versus Sukuna — but what they saw now… was something else.
No one spoke.
The only sound came from the faint static hum of the video feed. The wide rooftop shot clearly showed the moment Hollow Purple vanished.
It clearly showed three unknown figures now standing in the blast's epicenter.
Yuji broke first. "H-he dismissed Gojo-sensei's strongest Hollow Purple… by his bare hands?!!! Who the hell is he?! Or… or they?! Where'd they even come from?!"
Hakari frowned hard, not looking away from the screen.
Yuta's posture had gone rigid, his eyes sharp and calculating.
Maki's grip tightened on the shaft of her weapon; Panda tilted forward silently.
Nobody had an answer.
And in that silence, a darker realisation began to coil in the room —
that they might be watching the start of something greater… and far more dangerous… than even Sukuna.