Zenin Toji.
Fushiguro Megumi's biological father.
It was a name that had once struck fear into the entire jujutsu world.
The reason he enjoyed such a fearsome reputation was simple.
Zenin Toji had once defeated Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru during their high-school days in order to seize Tengen's Star Plasma Vessel.
Gojo Satoru had not yet fully mastered Limitless at the time, but he and Geto Suguru had already earned the title of the "strongest duo."
The only reason they were not called the "strongest trio" was that Kira Nanami had been a total slacker back then.
If you could lie down, why bother carrying?
He coasted all the way to graduation.
Defeating those two was enough to establish Zenin Toji's title of Heavenly Restriction Tyrant.
Every person in the world, whether a jujutsu sorcerer or not, possessed at least a tiny amount of cursed energy. Zenin Toji, however, had gone to the opposite extreme. There was not a trace of cursed energy in his body.
He was similar to Zenin Mai, yet went even further: Heavenly Restriction had been taken to its absolute limit in Zenin Toji.
It stripped away the cursed energy he should have possessed and, in exchange, granted him an incomparably powerful body, one whose physical capabilities far surpassed even those of Curses.
But in the end, Gojo Satoru still killed him.
And yet now, today, in this subway station piled high with corpses, Kira Nanami once again sensed Zenin Toji's presence—that rattlesnake-like chill and malice.
Zenin Toji.
A born tyrant.
Now, through Granny Ogami's Seance Technique, he had returned to this world.
What kind of jujutsu resurrection was this...? The thought had barely crossed Kira Nanami's mind when his vision went black. It was like being hit head-on by a truck, like having a ten-thousand-pound mountain smash into his chest. Kira's head dipped, his body went rigid, and blood surged up his throat.
This guy... He stared into Zenin Toji's eyes. The right side of his face suddenly darkened. Boom! The wind from a fist tore straight through the wall beside him with unstoppable force.
Kira twisted aside to avoid the blow, drew a breath, and advanced instead of retreating. He closed the distance in several steps. Cold light flashed in his right hand—a finely crafted knife, its sharp blade seemingly flowing with the light of a new-moon night, a bloody aura from the forest coiling around it.
A Grade 1 Cursed Tool.
"Gara Gara."
Points and lines took shape in Kira's eyes in an instant. His right hand swept sideways, and the sharp knife followed the path of the breeze like a nimble sea swallow, lightly pecking at Fushiguro Toji's throat.
Black fire erupted violently!
Zenin Toji leaned back slightly. Suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backward. An old man stepped forward in his place and met Kira's Black Flash head-on.
The man was already bald, short in stature, with a thick handlebar mustache.
Boom—
The pressure wave exploded outward. A huge crater was plowed into the ground, and black cursed energy sprayed wildly through the air.
To Kira Nanami's surprise, the old man blocked it. His right hand rose beside his face, stopping the knife from point-blank range, stopping that overwhelming force and terrifying aura, stopping Kira Nanami's Gara Gara, stopping his Black Flash.
In all these years, this was the first man to take Kira Nanami's move head-on and stop it. Even Sukuna, as powerful as he was, had had his heart torn out several times by this strike.
Yet this man blocked it. He blocked Kira Nanami's killing blow.
"We used to be so free."
The next second, Kira Nanami was kicked squarely in the chest. His body paused, and even the air seemed to freeze. After that brief stillness, the air began flowing again, and Kira Nanami turned into a blur that flew backward, smashing a gigantic hole through the wall.
"Just like that."
The old man showed a sleazy grin. His name was Awasaka Jiro, a sixty-one-year-old veteran.
Section 122.
"An only child who wanted his sick mother to live a little better, so he had no choice but to become a curse user."
Lies like that came to him as naturally as breathing.
"That's how it should be."
He turned to Fushiguro Toji, who stood nearby with his head lowered, patted him on the shoulder, and said happily,
"Exactly like this. We'll defend our freedom. Freedom is the most precious thing in the world. No one has the right to restrict our freedom. This is how it should be. This is the true essence of jujutsu."
His grin spread wider. Getting carried away, he waved his arms and legs as he declared,
"We were born free! I'm never fucking retiring! As long as I'm alive, I'll keep abusing the weak forever. This is our freedom! This is the land of freedom!"
"That's it, brother." Awasaka patted his brother's shoulder and said joyfully, "I'll hold Kira Nanami here. You go kill him. We are righteous. We are free."
"O... okay."
The man kept his head lowered. His pupils widened slightly as he answered in a low voice.
"Then—"
Awasaka suddenly froze in the middle of speaking. He struggled to say something, but no sound would come. A bloom of blood spread across his chest. He turned to look at Zenin Toji, who lowered his head and said to him,
"Who the fuck are you?"
How... how was this possible?
Zenin Toji had retained his own consciousness?
Granny Ogami stared in shock at everything unfolding before her. It felt as though common sense itself had collapsed.
Cold sweat ran down her body. Her formerly calm gaze was no longer benevolent. It was filled with terror and disbelief.
To be safe, Granny Ogami had not copied the "information of the soul" from Zenin Toji's corpse. She had only read the "information of the body."
So how had this happened?
How... how could he possess self-awareness?
Zenin Toji propped his chin thoughtfully, pulled his hand out of Awasaka's chest, looked over his current body with some hesitation, and broke into a delighted smile.
The old man's corpse collapsed weakly to the floor, the light gradually fading from his eyes.
Awasaka's cursed technique was Inverse. It could reverse the strength of incoming attacks, though it had both an upper and lower threshold. Kira Nanami's earlier strike had already come infinitely close to that threshold. And this monster, whose flesh itself had become a curse, was even more terrifying.
With a single strike, he had punched straight through him.
"Haha... I don't really understand the details either, but my body is pretty special."
"This guy's soul couldn't control my body, could it?"
The soul had lost to the body...
Before Granny Ogami could react, she saw a fist rapidly growing larger in front of her. There was no time to dodge. It merely touched her lightly.
Boom—
Half her head turned into bloody pulp from that one blow.
Zenin Toji flicked the blood from his hand and turned his gaze back toward Kira Nanami.
After being reborn, he had recovered a small measure of reason, but for the most part he still acted on instinct.
Hunting the strong was his instinct.
Kira Nanami shook his head and held out a hand.
"Come on, Fushiguro. We never finished our last fight."
—
On the lowest level of Shibuya Station.
Kenjaku sensed the changes in the auras throughout Shibuya Station and set an eye-covered cube on the ground. So far, everything was proceeding according to his plan.
He looked at the Prison Realm in his hand and fell into thought.
After some time, he suddenly spoke.
"You're here."
Light from outside cast a shadow into the station. Someone stood in front of the light, and that shadow seemed ready to engulf the entire subway.