October 30.
Record—October 31, 2018, 19:00.
A Veil with a radius of four hundred meters appeared, centered on Tokyu Department Store, Toyoko branch.
"This Veil traps ordinary civilians inside."
Ijichi Kiyotaka's brows drew even tighter together. The man, normally cautious and serious to begin with, looked graver than ever, the deep furrow of his brow pulling at the lines on his face.
"In other words, jujutsu sorcerers can enter and leave freely."
He explained this carefully.
"What about phone signals?"
"They're blocked. If you want to make contact, you have to leave the Veil, or rely on assistant supervisors to relay information in person."
Tch...
Kira Nanami checked his watch.
It was seven in the evening.
His fingernails had begun to grow.
They always grew uncontrollably whenever something exceeded his expectations. According to the diary he had written that morning, he should have been doing his nail care right now.
He looked again at the decorations covering the Toyoko branch.
The enormous building, stretching across a vast area, had been decorated in a gaudy riot of colors. Posters of anime characters were pasted everywhere, and the banner at the very top read:
Hey, hey, hey! Everyone knows how wonderful the 2D world is, right...?
Ah.
There was an anime convention being held here.
Kira Nanami rubbed his forehead.
No matter how he looked at it, this was not a suitable place for a duel.
What kind of villainous Cursed Spirit chose a battlefield like this? Wouldn't it be embarrassing to shout attack names like "Idle Transfiguration" or "Blood Manipulation" here? Wouldn't explaining your cursed technique to empty air be unbearably cringeworthy too?
Kira Nanami really did not understand these otaku.
He sighed again.
"Where's Gojo Satoru?"
Gojo was not away on a mission today.
Ijichi Kiyotaka slowly exhaled, looked Kira Nanami in the eyes, and answered seriously,
"A Window has already infiltrated the Veil. Every person they encountered was repeating the same sentence: 'Bring Gojo Satoru here.'"
"This is an attack targeting Mr. Gojo."
"So when do we move?"
Fushiguro Megumi asked from the side.
"We hold our positions and remain outside. We've been divided into four groups. Ino-kun, Fushiguro-kun, and Kira-kun form the Nanami Team. Mei Mei, Itadori, and Hoshino Ei are one group. Grade 1 Kusakabe and Panda are another. The Zenin clan head, Zenin Maki, and Kugisaki Nobara form the final group..."
Ijichi looked at Fushiguro and said in a low voice,
"This is the higher-ups' decision."
He enunciated every word.
"To minimize casualties as much as possible, Gojo Satoru will suppress the Shibuya disturbance alone."
Silence.
Deathly silence.
The autumn wind howled, and the branches whimpered.
Kira Nanami let out a derisive laugh.
That was how the jujutsu higher-ups did things.
A very smart decision.
Any companion would only become a burden to Gojo Satoru.
Gojo was at his strongest when he fought alone.
How clever.
How flawlessly calculated.
"So we stay here... That's the order from above."
Kira Nanami patted Ijichi on the shoulder, walked past him, and headed straight toward the center of Shibuya.
"Hey, hey, Mr. Kira Nanami!"
"Don't move. Your shoulder has already been turned into a bomb."
That was, of course, a lie.
Kira Nanami's retreating figure stood stark against the autumn wind as his voice echoed behind him.
"The people at the top are all pieces of shit."
"So cool!"
Grade 2 Ino raised a thumb in admiration.
"Fucking awesome!"
If the enemy's goal was to lure Gojo Satoru out, then regardless of the costs and benefits, they could not allow that plan to succeed.
Kira Nanami did not know Kenjaku very well, but he knew Geto Suguru.
Neither of them was simple.
Without absolute confidence, they would never make a move against Gojo Satoru.
So unlike everyone else, who regarded Gojo as invincible,
Kira Nanami knew Gojo would lose this time.
He would definitely lose.
Thinking about it carefully, why had Kenjaku colluded with Amber Mansion and gone to such lengths to seal Kira away?
It had all been preparation for this event!
From this, one conclusion was obvious.
Kira Nanami would play a decisive role in this battle.
So he had to work overtime again today...
The sun hung low on the horizon.
Autumn days were short, and it did not take long for the sky to become completely dark.
The air was oppressively heavy. Violent wind flooded through the upper levels of the buildings.
Kira Nanami looked at the dim sky and felt a genuine chill.
A storm was brewing.
Only now did Kira Nanami finally realize that autumn had truly arrived in Shibuya.
Today was October 30.
It had been exactly one month since the first time he set the timed bomb.
Two hours remained.
At exactly nine o'clock, time would rewind.
Coincidence?
No.
Kira Nanami preferred to believe this was the favor of the Goddess of Fate.
But it was only many days later that Kira Nanami learned this had not been favor at all.
It was a new curse.
If a god truly existed, then this was nothing more than a boring, low-grade joke she had played.
An irritating joke.
That sudden palpitation in his heart one month ago must have been because of this incident.
Kira Nanami thought this silently.
He took out his phone, selected an account, and typed a message.
"You should leave this place first."
Only after finishing did he belatedly slap his forehead.
There was no signal here...
Suddenly, Kira Nanami stopped walking and narrowed his eyes.
This was the Fukutoshin Line Platform.
He could sense Gojo Satoru's presence nearby, below this line.
"How interesting."
He clapped his hands.
His face remained expressionless, but his gaze turned cold.
The subway station was extraordinarily clean and quiet.
Then, throughout that enormous space, one small head after another suddenly poked into view.
Densely packed.
Layer upon layer.
Packed impossibly close together.
By Kira Nanami's conservative estimate, there were around four hundred of them.
All were humans who had been transformed into monsters.
At that moment, dark light glowed in their eyes as they stared at Kira Nanami like predators watching prey.
"As expected of an anime convention. These cosplays really have soul."
Pitch-black cursed energy erupted violently from Kira Nanami's body like a black sun.
Pale pink light flashed.
From within that sun, Killer Queen seemed to be reborn, its crimson eyes gleaming with the savage light of a beast.
'Geto! Geto! Geto! I don't care who you are. I'll slice out your brains, cut off your fingers, and carve every inch of your skin to pieces...'
It was the oath Kira Nanami had sworn back in Amber Mansion.
"Come on, you disgusting things."
Kira Nanami spread both arms, his voice carrying far through the station.
"Geto Suguru, hide inside the house and go ahead and unleash those disgusting plants. The zombies are coming to eat the brains inside your head."