"I need to get off work."
Kira Nanami checked his watch. It was 7:15.
He raised his head and stared at Geto Suguru, lowered his wrist, and the cursed energy around his hands began to boil.
The Prison Realm.
A Special Grade Cursed Tool.
Kira Nanami could feel a bone-chilling aura from it. He could also sense Gojo Satoru's cursed energy inside.
"My, my. How terrifying. Anyway, I'm getting out of here."
Geto Suguru waved the cube in his hand, placed the top of his skull back over his head, and tied the seam shut with thread.
"But once the Prison Realm seals someone, it can never—"
Bang!
The Prison Realm in his hand suddenly slammed into the ground and could no longer be moved by even an inch.
Geto Suguru narrowed his eyes and said meaningfully,
"As expected of Gojo Satoru."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dark cursed energy exploded across the shattered fifth underground level. The world split into points and lines. Wherever Kira Nanami's power touched, points broke along their lines and everything shattered.
"Maximum: Uzumaki."
Geto Suguru retreated several steps. Several Cursed Spirits in his hand converged, screaming and trembling as they compressed into his palm. The concentration of cursed energy rose rapidly until it became a tiny black sphere, darkness so deep it resembled a black hole.
A Maximum technique was the pinnacle of jujutsu outside of a Domain.
Gather the consumed Cursed Spirits into a single point... and then
release them.
Geto Suguru flicked his hand lightly. The black sphere became a blur. It was an attack condensed from the lives of several Grade 1 Cursed Spirits, like thunder, like a lightning bolt. The pressure wave tore through the corridor. Glass shattered pane after pane. In an instant, the black sphere was already in front of Kira Nanami.
Boom!
It exploded violently. Cursed energy ran rampant, blasting Kira Nanami away. He rolled twice across the ground, shoved Sheer Heart Attack away from where it had been guarding his chest, braced one hand against the floor, rose, and sprinted. Circling around Geto Suguru, he ran past the Shinkansen tracks and around the broken walls and ruins. Uzumaki after Uzumaki crashed toward him, each striking the exact place Kira had occupied a moment earlier. The earth trembled and the air wailed.
Geto Suguru swept his left hand outward. Thousands of Cursed Spirits, tens of thousands of arms, and countless pupils emerged from the void, screaming and roaring like some makeshift deity.
Cursed Spirit Manipulation. At the height of his power, Geto Suguru had once controlled more than ten thousand Cursed Spirits and unleashed the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
Forty minutes remained before time was reshaped.
Kira Nanami changed his footing. He left an afterimage in the air as he charged directly into the sea of Curses, vanishing from sight in an instant.
Geto Suguru could not detect Kira Nanami's aura. He had no idea where Kira was.
Kira Nanami had been concealed. It was Hoshino Ei's cursed technique!
Geto Suguru looked all around, searching desperately, but still could not find him.
Behind!
A warning from the depths of his soul saved him. Dozens of black arms shot from the void and wrapped around his back. In the next instant, Kira Nanami appeared behind him, turned sideways, and swept up his right hand. Pale-pink light flashed, and every arm blocking his path was blown apart.
"Gara Gara."
In Kira's eyes, Geto Suguru had already become a line. All Kira needed to do was sever that line.
"She Luo."
Snake Head.
A hoarse voice sounded beside his ear, and Kira Nanami's movements abruptly froze.
"Blood Manipulation: Blood Arrow."
Dozens of blood arrows tore through the night and shot straight toward Kira Nanami.
A black Divine Dog appeared beside him and bit the blood arrows apart. Fushiguro Megumi released the talons of the bird carrying him and dropped from the air. The long blade in his hand danced, cutting blood arrows down one after another beneath him.
"Gara."
Kira Nanami had already broken free of Snake Head's restraint. The cursed energy around his hands swelled to an unprecedented level. Black Flash, Black Flash, Black Flash—black fire leaped and burned, the purest and most beautiful light, carrying incomparable power, resolve, and perseverance as it slashed toward that point.
"Gara!"
"Maximum."
Using the brief pause in Kira Nanami's movement, Geto Suguru had already condensed a new Uzumaki. Thirteen Grade 1 Cursed Spirits, twenty Grade 2, and forty-one Grade 3—this was his strongest attack, nearly half of his entire collection compressed together into cursed energy of the highest possible density.
"Uzumaki."
At the same time, Geto Suguru's other hand had already touched Kira Nanami's chest. Black cursed energy flickered and seeped toward Kira's soul, spreading over it.
"Idle Transfiguration!"
Two vast masses of cursed energy collided.
Section 126.
—
"You don't know what kind of Curse I am, do you? Looks like you're not very smart."
"You know, in this world, idiots always die first."
The enormous insect-shaped Cursed Spirit bent down. Its huge compound eyes reflected Itadori Yuji with open contempt and mockery.
"Can't you guess what kind of Curse I am?"
"Aren't you just a grasshopper?"
Itadori Yuji tilted his head and looked at its grasshopper-like torso, grasshopper-like wings, and grasshopper-like head, speaking in genuine confusion.
This... this brat.
He's smart!
The grasshopper Curse immediately treated him as a formidable enemy.
"You're a smart brat."
It buzzed its wings and said solemnly,
"But I'm smarter..."
"Smart people don't say they're smart."
I-Is that true?!
Mr. Grasshopper covered his mouth in shock.
"W-Who taught you that?"
"My teacher. He also taught me that when you fight an enemy, you should shout like this: ORA ORA!"
Several minutes later.
Itadori Yuji stood on the grasshopper's corpse and flicked the blood from his hand. His right hand rested against his abdomen, his left hand planted on his hip, and he tilted his chin upward and struck a suitably cool pose.
"Yuji, hurry!"
"Osu!"
Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer Mei Mei and her younger brother were already waving to him from ahead. Word that Gojo Satoru had been sealed had spread. The three of them had formed a team responsible for supporting Kira Nanami.
Itadori Yuji was about to step forward when his ear suddenly began to itch.
"Don't come closer! Don't come closer! Don't come closer!"
"Can you hear me, Itadori? I'm Mechamaru."
"But by the time you hear this, I'll already be dead. This is the contingency I left behind. Its activation condition is that Gojo Satoru must first be sealed. Because you are the person least likely to be the traitor, I hid this contingency on you."
"But—"
"Please. Do what I tell you right now!"
"Get out of here! You—go as far away as you can! Hurry! There isn't much time left. Before I died, I saw something. Before I died, I saw... and you happened to be nearby at the time. Sukuna..."
"I always thought the Shibuya Incident was meant to seal Gojo Satoru... No. It's more than that. Their objective is more than that."
"What they want goes far beyond that."
"Run! Hurry and run!"
"There's no time left!"
"B-But..."
Itadori Yuji looked at the densely packed Curses ahead. At their front was a lump resembling an octopus or a jellyfish. It opened its mouth and spat out skulls, torsos, skeleton after skeleton, piling them into a small mountain.
A Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Humanity's fear of the ocean—
Dagon.
"Looks like I can't get away." Itadori wiped the cold sweat from his face.
—
On the fifth underground level.
Two enormous masses of cursed energy collided.
Uzumaki was like a black hole, like a colossal wave. Black Flash was the long blade that split the wave apart, the meteor that streaked across the black hole. But waves retreat only to return, tides recede only to rise again, and even a black hole will eventually swallow the brightest meteor. In this pure clash of cursed energy, Kira Nanami lost.
"It's over."
Idle Transfiguration was simply too insidious. Even though Kira Nanami deliberately wrapped his soul in cursed energy, a clash at this level still left parts of his soul exposed. Idle Transfiguration seized that opening, slipped inside, and altered part of Kira Nanami's soul. Through it, his physical body was affected. That single loss of strength
allowed Uzumaki to break through the edge of Black Flash and crash into Kira's chest. His entire body twisted, bones shattered, organs shifted out of place, and blood flowed backward through his vessels.
Yet Kira Nanami still stared at Geto Suguru. Even though his body looked ready to break apart at any moment and his life flickered like a candle in the wind, his face remained expressionless. His emotions did not waver. He simply stared at Geto Suguru and looked into his eyes.
He was not worried, because he had starlight. No words were needed. No discussion beforehand. No plan. Starlight would always shine on him, because this was their promise.
"The Love of My Life."
Time flowed backward. Kira Nanami's body returned to its state from thirty minutes earlier.
Boom.
Gara Gara, carrying Black Flash, chopped into Geto Suguru's shoulder. One arm flew away. Vast force erupted through his body, flesh rolling and swelling until he looked like a grotesquely bloated corpse, his entire body expanding before the immense cursed energy blasted it into clouds of blood mist.
Kira Nanami drove a straight kick into Geto Suguru's abdomen and stomped him violently into the ground.
"There's still half an hour until I get off work. And you said I couldn't save anyone?"
Kira picked up the Prison Realm from the ground, tilted his head, looked down at Geto Suguru, and spoke softly.
"I said you couldn't save anyone."
Geto Suguru sounded weak, but that same lazy voice drifted up from beneath Kira's foot.
"There's half an hour until time is reshaped again, isn't there, Kira-kun? That's your guarantee. That's why you're so confident."
It was like a bolt of lightning exploding through Kira's mind.
How did Geto know...? How did he know about this? Amber Mansion... no, Amber Mansion only knew that my cursed technique was related to time... How does he know?
How does he know?
Who? Who told him...?
"Our target... has always been you, Kira-kun."
Geto Suguru laughed, roaring with delight.
"Come out! I fulfilled my promise. Kira is right here. Now it's your turn!"
"King of Curses!"
A familiar presence appeared, familiar yet strange, powerful and eerie. There was no physical body, only pure pressure on the level of the soul.
It felt like an invisible mountain pressing down on everyone's hearts, pressing into the deepest parts of their souls until every soul began to tremble.
"Who gave you permission to order me around?"
Kira turned and met a pair of eyes so indifferent they were almost inhuman, filled with arrogance, wildness, and unrestrained pride.
There was no flesh. Kira could not sense a physical body at all.
He knew what this was.
And the realization sent a chill through his entire body.