7:41 p.m.
Spacetime.
Time and space.
"Sheer Heart Attack."
Kira flung out a small blue car. It smashed into Sukuna's face, and a massive explosion burst open with a thunderous roar.
Using the recoil, Kira Nanami flew backward, slammed into a wall, and slid down to the floor, leaving behind a thick pool of blood.
The fifth underground level had already collapsed, joining the third and fourth levels together. Kira Nanami barely pushed himself upright amid the ruins. Black cursed energy covered his body as Reverse Cursed Technique healed his injuries, while Hoshino Ei supported him.
7:42 p.m.
Kira Nanami watched the explosion blooming in the air, watched crimson cursed energy flower, watched dense slash marks carve across Sheer Heart Attack's skull. His fingernails began to grow.
The Sukuna of the present had launched no attack. That was a fact.
—Those severed sections of space had not been cut long ago. They had not been prepared in advance.
They had not been severed in the past, nor were they being severed in the present.
Then they could only have been severed in the future.
In the future, the not-too-distant future, Sukuna had to cut through those sections of space.
And so cause and effect closed its loop. And so fate fell into place.
That was the ability of his shikigami.
Across spacetime, from the future, he swung his blade at the past.
Slash marks left in the future would appear in the same places in the past.
That was the ability of his shikigami.
If Amber Mansion severed the causal connection between past and future, then Sukuna's slashes were the opposite:
causal inversion.
The effect was placed before the cause. The result came first, and the explanation followed afterward. The slash mark existed first—the result—and only later would Sukuna swing his blade, providing the cause that explained it.
"Reverse Order."
That was the name of his shikigami.
Whether in defense or offense, Sheer Heart Attack stood at the very top. Ordinary slashes had great difficulty damaging it.
After Kira Nanami's arm was cut off, it regained its freedom again.
It had no idea how many times it had regained its freedom by now... Every time it got loose, it would soon be hauled back to jail, like a thief caught by the police.
If Sheer Heart Attack had possessed a mind of its own, it could only have marveled at the cast of characters inside Kira Nanami's body... Every return felt like coming home.
It charged with unparalleled momentum. Lightning seemed to rise from its wheels as an enormous sonic boom tore through the air. Ordinary slashes could do nothing to it, every other living thing nearby had already been killed, and Sukuna had no target to switch to.
Compared with his original body, the spiritual incarnation's regenerative ability was vastly reduced. Again and again Sheer Heart Attack rammed into Sukuna, and every collision blasted open a hole in his body as wide as a bowl.
It raced through the blood. Red light flashed in the eye sockets of its black skull as it drove again and again toward Sukuna's head.
"Look over here!"
It roared. Suddenly, a tiny line appeared across its body.
Sukuna watched it calmly, the corners of his mouth lifting in a quiet smile. His soul regenerated, two arms shooting out at once to seize Sheer Heart Attack from both sides.
He pulled outward.
Using that line as the dividing point, Sheer Heart Attack split into two halves.
For the first time. For the first time in history.
Sheer Heart Attack, which had seemed as though it could never be destroyed, had been cut in half.
The Sukuna of the future had slashed at the present once again.
He severed space, and Sheer Heart Attack split in two along that shattered space.
Sukuna dropped it, raised his head, and narrowed his eyes in irritation.
Kira Nanami was already far away.
7:43 p.m.
How interesting.
Sukuna stepped forward and headed outside.
A black Divine Dog blocked his path.
Fushiguro Megumi.
Fushiguro Megumi held his long blade angled toward the ground. Black cursed energy boiled around him, and his cold eyes stared straight at Sukuna.
The overwhelming presence crushed the words from his throat. Terror that struck directly at the soul squeezed his nerves without pause, and his heart hammered under unbearable tension—it was that terrifying. Facing Sukuna's soul was ten thousand times more frightening than facing his flesh.
But Fushiguro Megumi still stood there, back perfectly straight.
"Move."
"Don't think I'm unwilling to kill you."
Sukuna lifted his chin slightly and said impatiently,
"Fuck off."
Death was terrifyingly close, yet Fushiguro Megumi remained composed. Then he laughed.
"That's Gojo-sensei in your hand, isn't it? Give him back."
Many years ago, Fushiguro Megumi had been sold to the Zenin clan by his father, Fushiguro Toji. Then a suspicious white-haired man in a blindfold had suddenly appeared in front of him and said, "Be my student."
—"Fushiguro, stay alive for sixteen minutes. Use your trump card."
—"I will change all of this."
"Sukuna. Sukuna."
Fushiguro Megumi laughed and laughed until tears came to his eyes.
"Do you know that the Zenin clan has always had a Cursed Spirit no one has ever been able to subjugate?"
"You..."
He formed a hand seal.
"Exorcism ritual."
"Furube, Yurayura."
The smile vanished from his face. Cold light bloomed in his pupils, madness flickering there—complete and utter madness.
"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General—"
"Mahoraga!"
In an instant, heaven and earth darkened, and sun and moon seemed to shift.
Dim cursed energy, viscous cursed energy, boundless cursed energy surged like an ocean, like a mighty river. Wolf howls rose one after another as though welcoming the final king.
Four wings grew from its head, spreading feathers backward. Behind its skull turned a divine wheel. It had no hair, and a huge tail coiled behind its head, making its entire head resemble a whale flying through the sky.
It stood nearly three stories tall, holding a long sword. It had no eyes. Merely standing there, it seemed like a true god.
Fushiguro Megumi had not subjugated it. Strictly speaking, he had only initiated the exorcism ritual.
And because both Fushiguro Megumi and Sukuna were inside the ritual, the ritual treated both of them as participants attempting to subjugate it.
Fushiguro Megumi looked at Sukuna and raised a hand. Cursed energy gathered in his palm, and he chopped toward the back of his own neck.
Clean and decisive. The strike directly inflicted severe damage on Fushiguro's brainstem. He grunted, spat out a mouthful of blood, swayed, and began falling toward the ground.
At the instant he lost his balance, Fushiguro looked at Sukuna and whispered,
"I'll go on ahead. Keep at it."
"I'll wait for you."
He completely lost consciousness. His pulse dropped to its lowest possible level as he entered a state of suspended animation.
And so only Sukuna remained in the exorcism ritual.
Mahoraga lowered its head and looked at Sukuna.
Tch...
Sukuna looked up at Mahoraga and frowned.
—
7:44 p.m.
Section 129.
Sixteen minutes left.
Hoshino Ei's Concealment finally gave out. Carrying the gravely wounded Kira Nanami, she stumbled and fell to the ground.
The sky was oppressively dark. Shibuya Station lay beneath the evening gloom. Although it was already autumn, the air was strangely stifling. Everything seemed gray: the leaves were gray, the insects were gray, the buildings were gray, even the sky was gray.
They had already escaped outside.
Kira Nanami used Hoshino's shoulder to stand. Reverse Cursed Technique continued repairing his wounds. In only a few short minutes, his injuries had already been brought well under control.
Fate is on my side.
Kira Nanami looked toward Shibuya Station in the distance and felt the terrifying presence inside. He knew Fushiguro Megumi was most likely doomed.
Then so be it. Time would be reshaped. The only sacrifice would be Fushiguro Megumi.
Kira thought to himself, Then so be it...
"I will change all of this."
Those were words Kira had once spoken.
"Hoshino."
"I'm here."
"We're going to find Itadori."
Kira spoke softly.
A shikigami user was subject to a distance limit. As long as they got Itadori Yuji to leave Shibuya Station on his own and run into some deserted wilderness, Sukuna would naturally leave as well.
In any case, time would be reshaped sixteen minutes from now. They had to try.
There was no real danger to Kira himself. It would not interfere with his peaceful life.
This became the decision he regretted most in his entire life.
If even a trace of so-called humanity still remained in Kira Nanami's heart, then from this point onward, for the rest of his life, he would bid it farewell.
This was the lesson he took from this experience.