Chapter 100: The Shibuya Incident
October 31, 2018.
8:38 PM.
A Curtain with a radius of four hundred meters had descended over Shibuya.
Halloween night, a night that should have belonged to costumes, music, flashing lights, and crowds drunk on celebration, had become something else entirely.
A slaughterhouse waiting to open.
Satoru Gojo entered the Curtain at Shibuya Hikarie alone.
His silhouette disappeared into the darkness, tall and solitary beneath the black barrier hanging over the city.
He knew it was a trap.
Everyone knew it was a trap.
But he still went.
Because as long as Satoru Gojo stood at the center of the enemy's attention, everyone else would have the chance to tear open the battlefield from the edges.
At the same time, at Meiji-jingumae Station, another team was already moving.
Yuji Itadori.
Megumi Fushiguro.
Takuma Ino.
The three of them charged down into the underground station, acting as the vanguard.
"The Curtain's base point is underground."
Ino kept his voice low, his expression grim beneath his mask.
He admired Kento Nanami, and perhaps because of that, even his way of giving instructions had taken on a similar strictness.
"We find it, destroy it, and open a way out for the civilians. Fast and clean."
The moment they entered the subway station, a wave of stench struck them head-on.
Rot.
Sweat.
Blood.
And beneath it all, the rancid smell of cursed energy.
The empty platform echoed with a sharp, high-pitched buzzing, like thousands of insect wings scraping against their eardrums.
Megumi narrowed his eyes.
"It's here."
His shadow stirred.
Divine Dog: Totality emerged from the darkness beside him, black fur bristling as a low growl rolled from its throat.
"Hehehe... humans."
A hulking figure blocked the ticket gate ahead.
It was a massive cursed spirit with the features of a grasshopper. Compound eyes bulged from its face, its mouthparts clicked wetly, and its powerful hind legs bent beneath it like loaded springs. The cursed energy leaking from its body was easily Grade 1.
Ko-Guy.
The Locust Curse.
"Delicious humans," it rasped.
Yuji stepped forward and cracked his knuckles.
"Which one of you is in charge here?"
After Yami's hellish special training, Yuji's entire presence had changed. His stance was lower now, more stable. His breathing was smoother. There was no nervous flailing, no wasted movement.
He looked ready.
The Locust Curse tilted its head.
"I am... clever."
Its mouthparts opened and closed.
"Lord Grasshopper... is clever."
Then it leaned forward, saliva dripping.
"Are you food?"
"Ino-san, Fushiguro."
Yuji raised his fists, cursed energy flickering around his knuckles.
"You two go ahead."
Megumi frowned. "Itadori, don't push yourself."
Yuji grinned, all white teeth and confidence.
"Relax. I'm not who I was before."
He glanced toward the Locust Curse.
"And besides, Yami-senpai told us to make it quick."
Megumi stared at him for half a second, then nodded.
"Let's go."
He and Ino rushed forward, cutting around the side of the station.
Ko-Guy's legs tensed as it tried to intercept them, but Yuji moved first.
His body snapped forward like a released spring.
The kick landed squarely in Ko-Guy's abdomen.
Bang!
The massive cursed spirit was blown several meters back, crashing through a ticket machine in a spray of metal and sparks.
"It hurts!"
Ko-Guy tore itself free, compound eyes trembling with rage.
"You... are not ordinary human!"
Acid sprayed from the mouth on its abdomen, hissing as it splattered across the floor.
Yuji slipped aside.
His movements were smooth, almost animal-like.
Yami's voice echoed in his mind.
"Yuji, your strengths are your physical ability and your tolerance for pain."
"But don't mistake toughness for skill."
"Watch the flow of cursed energy. Concentrate everything into one point. Breath, muscle, blood, cursed energy. Compress it all."
"Then let it explode."
Yuji inhaled.
His cursed energy gathered.
Not scattered.
Not delayed.
Compressed.
The moment Ko-Guy lunged, Yuji moved toward it instead of retreating.
His fist cut forward.
Black Flash.
Space distorted for a fraction of a second.
Black lightning erupted.
The impact struck Ko-Guy's armored exoskeleton and shattered it like dry clay.
Half of the curse's body burst apart in a spray of dark blood and broken shell.
"So... strong..."
Ko-Guy collapsed, disbelief still frozen across its insect-like face.
Yuji lowered his fist and exhaled.
"One down."
Meanwhile, on the second basement floor, Mei Mei walked through a dark corridor with a massive axe resting against her shoulder.
Behind her, Ui Ui followed faithfully.
He was young, but his eyes had a coldness that didn't belong to a child, along with an almost religious adoration whenever he looked at his sister.
"Honestly," Mei Mei sighed, brushing back her long silver-blue hair. "Dirty work on Halloween. How unpleasant."
Her tone was lazy, but her eyes were already measuring every shadow.
"If Gojo hadn't paid properly, I wouldn't have even considered overtime."
Ui Ui immediately nodded.
"Elder Sister is most beautiful when she's working."
Mei Mei smiled.
"Of course I am."
Then the air changed.
It thickened.
The corridor warped.
The familiar walls of the subway station began to sag and rot. Pus seeped from the concrete. The ground softened into damp soil, and rows of old tombstones rose from the floor like teeth pushing through flesh.
"Oh?"
Mei Mei stopped.
Her expression sharpened.
"A Special Grade Cursed Spirit. And it opened its Domain right away?"
Ahead of her, an old woman-like cursed spirit emerged from the graveyard haze. It wore ancient funeral garments, its body covered in pustules, its presence heavy with disease and death.
Special Grade Disease Cursed Spirit.
Smallpox Deity.
"Domain Expansion."
Its voice came out like a death rattle.
"Graveyard."
The world closed.
Before Mei Mei could swing her axe, the soil beneath her split open.
A massive coffin shot upward and swallowed her whole.
"Elder Sister!"
Ui Ui's voice cracked with alarm.
The lid slammed shut.
A tombstone fell from above, crashing down onto the coffin with enough weight to shake the entire graveyard.
First, confinement in the coffin.
Second, suppression by the tombstone.
Third, the countdown.
Fourth, death.
A rule-based guaranteed-hit technique.
Once the tombstone pressed down and the count reached three, the victim inside the coffin would die from smallpox.
No negotiation.
No injury phase.
Just death.
Inside the coffin, Mei Mei's expression remained calm.
She swung her axe.
The blade struck the lid with a heavy clang, but the coffin barely cracked. This was a Domain's sure-hit effect, not ordinary wood and stone. Physical force alone would not easily break it.
A dull voice echoed through the graveyard.
"Three."
Mei Mei narrowed her eyes.
"This is a little troublesome."
She did have Ui Ui.
His technique was her trump card, whether through positional exchange or his Simple Domain. But against a rule-based instant-kill sequence, a single error would be fatal.
"Two."
Her fingers slid toward the talisman Ui Ui had given her.
"I was hoping to save some energy for a vacation in Singapore."
Her tone was still relaxed.
But her eyes had turned cold.
Money mattered.
Her life mattered more.
If the risk outweighed the profit, Mei Mei would cut her losses without hesitation. That was not cowardice. That was proper business judgment.
"One."
The scythe of death was about to fall.
Then the ceiling of the Domain tore open.
BOOM!
A blazing red light pierced through the graveyard from above.
The heat vaporized the damp, corpse-cold air in an instant. The soil cracked. The tombstones blackened. The rotten haze burned away like mist under the morning sun.
Something descended through the hole like a meteor.
It struck the tombstone pinning Mei Mei's coffin.
CRACK!
The indestructible marker shattered beneath the impact.
The coffin lid was blasted away.
Mei Mei sat up with her axe in hand, looking, for the first time in quite a while, faintly surprised.
A young man stood in front of her.
Black Jujutsu High uniform.
Pitch-black katana in hand.
The Nichirin blade glowed a brilliant red, radiating heat so intense that the surrounding graves began to char and collapse just from his presence.
Yami turned his head slightly.
Firelight reflected in his red eyes.
"Sorry."
There was a faint smile on his lips.
"I was in a hurry."
The Smallpox Deity recoiled, its pustule-covered body trembling as if instinctively recognizing a natural enemy.
Yami ignored it for the moment and looked down at Mei Mei.
"This Special Grade should have a decent bounty, right, Mei Mei-san?"
Mei Mei stared at him.
She had always believed money was the clearest measure of value.
But in that instant, watching the boy who had broken into a guaranteed-death Domain as though he were stepping through a paper screen, she saw another kind of currency.
Power.
Absolute power.
And it was worth more than anything.
Her lips curved.
"Yes."
She rose from the broken coffin, axe resting against her shoulder.
"That one is worth quite a fortune."
.....
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