"The Spiral isn't just some big cosmic battery. It's memory. And, let's be real, some memories? They should stay dead and buried."
—Yaga Masamichi, secret doc, eyes-only
Mongolian Expanse — The Hollow Shrine
Not a single whisper from the wind. No sand scuttling around. Even the stars seemed to be on strike.
Way out past anything resembling civilization, tucked in a canyon that looked like the earth just gave up, the Spiral Eye Shrine finally woke up after who-knows-how-long.
Those doors—round, covered in creepy Spiral runes—just groaned open by themselves.
Inside, you got this giant slab of obsidian, shaped like an eye. Shut tight. Not watching a damn thing.
Then... it blinked.
And suddenly, it's staring east. Japan's in its sights.
Tokyo Jujutsu High — Infirmary
Akashi just lay there, still as a corpse.
IVs doing their little hum. His arm? Still covered in Reika's backward glyphs, like the fight branded him for life.
He kept his eyes glued to the ceiling, maybe hoping it'd blink first.
Nobara? She stood next to him, refusing to budge since the mess went down.
"You gotta stop this," she muttered. "You keep throwing yourself in like you're some kinda cursed Duracell."
He managed a laugh—and barely.
"Then stop me."
She didn't answer, but her hand was right there. Almost touching, not quite.
The silence just hung.
Finally, Akashi broke it. "I saw something. When our domains crossed."
"A place. A shrine. It was watching me."
Elsewhere — Kyoto Branch
Gakuganji just about broke his desk with that report.
"Spiral Shrine went hot in Mongolia," he barked.
"Connected to the boy?"
Mei Mei, arms folded, cool as ever: "No doubt. The cursed script's a perfect match for the Eleventh Spiral's logs."
"So, we move?"
She paused, lips tight.
"If the Eye fully wakes up… we may not even get a shot."
Shibuya — Rooftop
Suguru Geto—well, whatever's puppeting him—stood alone up top.
Wind tried to rip the robes off his back. Down below, people just scurried around, blissfully clueless.
"The Spiral kid's waking up faster than we guessed," Mahito piped up behind him.
Geto just grinned.
"Let him. The more he stirs, the closer the Spiral gets to breaking."
"And when it does…"
"We force his hand."
Midnight — Akashi's Dream
He's back in the Shrine.
That obsidian eye, locked on him.
It didn't need to speak. The message just carved itself straight into his brain:
"To remember is to return. To return is to shatter. Come."
Akashi shot awake and gasped, chest heaving, frozen solid.
Outside, the sky wasn't right anymore.
Over Jujutsu High, a spiral cloud spun into existence.