Chapter 104: Black Flash
"Of course," Mei Mei said, "all of that assumes the first possibility is correct."
She took a deep breath and smiled faintly.
"So next, we're going to run with everything we've got."
"And pray."
Ren nodded.
The next instant, he exploded forward.
His figure shot down the staircase like a bullet, sprinting toward the lower floors at nearly 120 meters per second.
Then-
Barely thirty seconds later-
He saw Mei Mei charging straight toward him from the opposite direction.
Damn it!
Ren slammed on the brakes.
At that same moment, Mei Mei, who was pouring every ounce of cursed energy into her sprint, suddenly saw a blur appear before her.
The boy.
Standing directly in her path.
One look at the grim expression on his face told her everything.
Their hypothesis had failed.
This truly was a closed loop.
Neither of them was willing to accept it immediately.
They exchanged a glance, crossed paths, and accelerated once more.
Half a minute later-
Ren saw Mei Mei running toward him again.
This time he couldn't even be bothered to stop.
He streaked past her like a gale.
Thirty seconds later, they met again.
At last, both of them came to a halt, breathing heavily.
"So what now, Miss Mei Mei?" Ren asked, hands braced against his knees.
"I... don't... know," Mei Mei admitted between breaths.
Fortunately, her oxygen-deprived lungs recovered quickly.
"This isn't what we encountered sixteen years ago."
"Either that curse's abilities have evolved dramatically..."
"Or we're dealing with an entirely different curse."
She exhaled slowly.
"In any case, once you're trapped inside a stable, sealed space like this, there are virtually no conventional methods of escape."
"The only thing we can hope for is that someone outside discovers the curse and exorcises it."
"If that happens, the space should collapse on its own."
"As for breaking the space directly from the inside..."
She shook her head.
"That's practically impossible."
After a moment's thought, she added reassuringly,
"Don't worry."
"I anticipated something like this before we came."
"If we fail to return within the scheduled time, my people will immediately contact Jujutsu High for assistance."
"So all we need to do is conserve our energy and patiently wait-"
She was halfway through her explanation when Ren suddenly raised a hand, cutting her off.
"Wait."
He turned sharply toward her.
An unusual gleam burned within his dark eyes.
His expression was so intense that even Mei Mei blinked.
"You just said... break the space, right?"
"If we destroy the space from the inside..."
"We can get out, can't we?"
"Well, theoretically, yes," Mei Mei replied, confused by his sudden excitement.
"But-"
Without a spatial technique, how could anyone directly destroy space itself?
Even Bird Strike, her ultimate attack-the technique feared as a one-hit kill that only the strongest sorcerer of the modern age, Satoru Gojo, could reliably withstand-could not achieve something on that level.
Before the thought could fully form, Ren suddenly let out a thunderous roar.
"BLACK FLASH!"
Boom!
Cursed energy erupted around him.
He raised his fist and drove it straight into the empty air before him.
The instant his arm fully extended, black lightning erupted around the fist wrapped in deep blue cursed energy.
"Black Flash is a spatial distortion produced when the timing difference between a physical strike and a cursed energy impact is less than 0.000001 seconds."
The black sparks vanished in an instant.
But unlike before, when a Black Flash faded and everything returned to normal, this time the space around his fist began to ripple unnaturally.
Following the direction of Ren's punch, Mei Mei narrowed her eyes.
Within the distorted area, she could still see wooden wall panels and white-painted walls identical to their surroundings.
Yet something was different.
Those images seemed subtly misaligned with the world around them, as if they existed on a separate layer of reality.
The sensation was akin to punching an irregular hole through a wall and glimpsing another wall hidden behind it.
Mei Mei immediately realized what she was seeing.
Without question-
That was the real space.
The actual interior of the manor where they should have been.
"You actually..." she whispered in disbelief, staring at the boy beside her.
"It really works?"
However, the breach Ren had created was only slightly larger than his fist.
A tiny "window."
Far too small for a human being to crawl through.
But that wasn't the issue.
At once, Mei Mei recalled the miracle she had witnessed through her crows during the Sister School Exchange Event.
The miracle of a boy who wielded Black Flash as naturally as breathing.
Who could unleash it at will.
Who could even use it as a method of movement.
Moments ago, he had triggered a Black Flash by striking nothing but air itself.
The very idea was absurd.
Sure enough-
Before Mei Mei could finish her thoughts-
"BLACK FLASH!"
Ren roared again.
His fist, packed with cursed energy, crashed into the air beside the first breach.
Crack!
Black lightning exploded outward once more.
The opening instantly doubled in size.
It can be done.
This can absolutely work.
As long as he kept striking.
As long as he continued unleashing Black Flashes.
As long as he continued tearing apart the fabric of the space around them-
They could escape.
It sounded like a miracle.
Yet Mei Mei's eyes shone brilliantly as she watched the focused young sorcerer beside her.
This was Ren's talent.
This was the extraordinary gift possessed by the man she had chosen as a future partner.
All the effort she had spent trying to recruit him had been worthwhile.
"BLACK FLASH!"
Ren shouted again.
Another punch exploded forward.
The rupture widened by another fist's breadth.
But just as Mei Mei watched with growing hope, her expression suddenly froze.
The opening should have been nearly three fists wide by now.
Instead-
It abruptly shrank.
By half.
Mei Mei blinked.
Then rubbed her eyes, suspecting a trick of perception.
Yet when she looked again, the breach had undeniably contracted to barely one and a half fists wide.
"This...?"
"While I'm destroying the space," Ren said, his brows furrowing, "the curse is repairing it."
"What?"
Mei Mei stared at him in shock.
"Well, if you think about it, that's only natural."
Even as he spoke, Ren never stopped moving.
Another punch smashed into the void before him.
"If it possesses the ability to create space in the first place, then repairing that space should be equally possible."
"Then... then what do we do?" Mei Mei asked, concern creeping into her voice.
"Can this still work?"
"That depends on one thing."
Ren's eyes remained fixed on the distorted opening.
"The speed at which it repairs the space... versus the speed at which I destroy it."
"So far, its repair speed is only about half of mine."
"If that ratio stays the same, we'll get through."
He paused.
Then a grin appeared on his face.
"And besides..."
"Up until now, I was only testing the waters."
"I haven't gone all out yet."
His expression sharpened.
Both hands shot forward simultaneously.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
His fists became a storm.
A relentless barrage hammering the air itself.
With every strike, waves of black lightning erupted across the corridor like a raging tempest.
"BLACK FLASH!"
"BLACK FLASH!"
"BLACK FLASH!"
The torn space expanded at an astonishing rate.
Twice as fast as before.