The hospital corridor had become quiet.
Night had set in, and most visitors had already left.
Yuji stood by the window at the end of the hallway, looking down at the city lights below.
Tokyo.
A city he had protected for decades.
A city that had buried most of the people he cared about.
And now…
It was still whole.
Still peaceful.
Still unaware of the disasters that were destined to come.
Yuji exhaled slowly.
"Sixty-eight years…"
That was how far he had traveled back.
Sixty-eight years before he became the strongest sorcerer alive.
Sixty-eight years before the world lost almost everyone.
His fingers clenched slightly.
Too many memories.
Too many graves.
Nanami.
Mechamaru.
Mai.
Choso.
Even…
Gojo-sensei.
Yuji closed his eyes.
For a brief moment, the overwhelming cursed energy that once shook battlefields stirred faintly inside him.
But it was still sealed.
Or rather—
Suppressed.
Only one-twentieth of his power remained available.
The rest was slowly returning.
The strange countdown floating in his vision seemed connected to it.
Yuji glanced upward again.
178 Days
22 Hours
14 Minutes
03 Seconds
Still ticking.
Still counting down.
He had no idea what would happen when it reached zero.
But his instincts screamed one thing clearly.
Something catastrophic.
Something even worse than the war he had survived.
Suddenly—
Yuji sensed something strange.
A faint ripple in the air.
His eyes sharpened instantly.
Cursed energy.
Weak.
Very weak.
But undeniably present.
Yuji turned his head slowly toward the hospital entrance.
His gaze became serious.
"That's impossible…"
In this time period, curses should be extremely rare.
At least around a normal hospital like this.
Yet he could feel it clearly now.
A small curse.
Probably born from the negative emotions of the patients.
In the original timeline…
This never happened.
Yuji frowned.
"So the timeline really is changing."
Without hesitation, he started walking.
Down the stairwell.
Out into the street.
The cold night air brushed against his face. The city was still alive with traffic and neon lights.
But the cursed presence lingered somewhere nearby.
Yuji followed the faint trace through an alleyway behind the hospital.
And there—
He saw it.
A small cursed spirit clinging to the wall like a twisted shadow.
Its body looked like a mass of melted faces.
Whispering.
Crying.
Laughing.
The curse hadn't noticed him yet.
Yuji studied it silently.
Normally, a creature like this would barely survive against a trained sorcerer.
But something about it felt…
Wrong.
Its cursed energy pattern was unfamiliar.
Not something from this era.
Yuji stepped forward slowly.
The curse suddenly turned its head.
Dozens of distorted eyes stared directly at him.
Then—
It spoke.
A broken, distorted voice echoed in the alley.
"...You shouldn't be here..."
Yuji froze.
Cursed spirits rarely formed coherent speech.
Especially ones this weak.
But before he could react—
The curse suddenly exploded.
Black mist scattered into the air.
And in the place where it had been—
A single glowing symbol appeared briefly on the wall.
Yuji's eyes widened slightly.
He recognized that mark. A mark he had not seen in decades.
A symbol connected to an enemy from the distant future.
An enemy that should not exist yet.
Yuji's voice became quiet.
"...So it's already begun."
The wind blew through the empty alley.
The glowing mark slowly faded away.
But Yuji knew what it meant.
Someone else had interfered with time.
Someone who knew the future.
And if that person truly existed in this era…
Then the countdown in front of his eyes wasn't just a warning.
It was a deadline.
Yuji looked up toward the sky.
The timer flickered again.
178 Days
21 Hours
58 Minutes
09 Seconds
He clenched his fist.
"If someone else came back too…"
His voice hardened.
"Then this timeline is already at war."
Far away—
On the rooftop of another building—
A shadowy figure watched the hospital from the darkness.
A faint smile appeared beneath a mask.
"Found you."
And for the first time since returning to the past—
Yuji Itadori was no longer the only traveler from the future.