Ren flicked the blade to the side, scattering the residual ash. He sheathed the sword and kept walking.
The hours dragged. Ren treated the trek through Kawasaki's industrial sector as a tactical sweep. He bypassed the main roads entirely, sticking to the service alleys, abandoned lots, and the spaces underneath elevated train tracks.
At 1:15 AM, he found two dog-like curses fighting over a dead rat near a closed auto shop. He took the first one's head off before it noticed him, then drove the blade straight down through the spine of the second as it tried to scramble away.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3]
[Reward: +5 System Points]
At 3:40 AM, a lanky, multi-jointed curse tried to drop on him from the roof of a toll booth. Ren sidestepped the ambush without looking up, letting the creature slam into the asphalt. Before it could recover, he buried Nightfall into its chest cavity and twisted the hilt.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3]
[Reward: +5 System Points]
He didn't use flashy martial arts. He didn't waste energy on acrobatics. It was just raw, brutal efficiency. Step, slash, kill, move. His body didn't fail him. The Heavenly Restriction absorbed the physical strain effortlessly. His breathing stayed level, and his heart rate barely spiked.
But he found himself staring blankly at the ash dissolving on the pavement longer each time before forcing his feet to move to the next target.
By 6:00 AM, the sky turned a flat, pale gray. The temperature dropped, leaving a cold dampness in the air. Ren stood in a rusted scrapyard on the edge of the city.
He wiped a streak of dark ash off his cheek with the back of his hand, looking down at the dissolving remains of a heavy, tortoise-like curse.
By 8:00 AM, the city was fully awake. The low rumble of commuter trains echoed overhead, and the streets filled with early morning traffic.
Ren stood in the deep shadows beneath a concrete highway overpass, completely out of sight from the pedestrians walking a block away. He rested the flat of the scabbard against his shoulder. At his feet, the bottom half of a bloated, insectoid curse slowly dissolved into ash.
A loud, distinct chime rang in his head. The blue holographic interface expanded directly in front of him.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3]
[Reward: +5 System Points]
[Milestone Progress: Exorcise 100 Grade 3 Curses — 97 / 100]
Ren exhaled slowly, watching his breath form a faint cloud in the cold morning air. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. 8:07 AM.
"Three more," Ren muttered to the empty underpass.
Before he could take a single step out from the shadows of the overpass, the phone in his hand vibrated violently.
The screen lit up. The caller ID simply read: Nanami Kento.
Ren suppressed a groan. He swiped the green icon and brought the phone to his ear, keeping his voice perfectly level. "Nanami-sensei. Morning."
"Where are you?" Nanami's voice came through the speaker. It wasn't actively angry, but the deep, flat baritone carried a severe, unmistakable undercurrent of impatience. "Ieiri-san informed me your medical evaluation concluded hours ago. If you took the express train, you should have been back in Kawasaki by dawn."
"Yeah, about that," Ren lied smoothly, his mind working in overdrive. "I grabbed the wrong transfer at Shinagawa. Ended up on a local line going the opposite direction. I just got off at the station. I'm literally five minutes away."
Nanami let out a slow, deeply exhausted sigh. The sound of a car door slamming echoed in the background.
"Get to Satozakura High School immediately," Nanami ordered. The professional courtesy in his tone was completely gone, replaced by the crisp, rigid cadence of a sorcerer stepping onto a battlefield.
"The situation has drastically escalated. Yoshino Junpei has erected a veil over the school gymnasium. He is actively attacking the students."
Ren's grip tightened on the phone. The timeline was completely fractured. Mahito had already made his move.
"Where is Yuji?" Ren asked.
"He broke protocol and engaged the target," Nanami stated bluntly. "I am en route, but the traffic is completely deadlocked. Get there, Ren. Do not let Itadori fight alone. And if you see the patchwork curse... do not approach him. Run."
Click. The line went dead.
Ren lowered the phone. The morning air suddenly felt suffocatingly heavy. If Yuji was already inside the school fighting Junpei, Mahito was waiting in the wings.
"Three," Ren muttered, his dark eyes scanning the grim industrial lot across the street. "I just need three."
He didn't run toward the school. He bolted in the opposite direction, diving straight into the rusted maze of an abandoned shipping yard.
The ambient negative energy here was dense, smelling of rotting fish and old oil. Ren didn't bother masking his presence. He let his footsteps crunch loudly against the gravel, actively drawing attention.
A chain-link fence rattled violently to his left.
A mass of shifting, tar-like sludge pulled itself over the fence, forming into a crude, canine shape with two mouths. A Grade 3.
Ren didn't slow down. He drew Nightfall in a single, fluid motion. The dark blade hissed through the cold air. He stepped directly into the creature's path, ducking a snapping jaw, and drove the sword straight up through its center of mass.
The curse split in half and dissolved.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3] [Milestone Progress: 98 / 100]
He kept sprinting. Deeper in the yard, wedged between two rusted shipping containers, a grotesque, multi-limbed curse was gnawing on a stray cat. It looked up, its bulging eyes locking onto him.
It shrieked, launching itself forward off the metal walls.
Ren pivoted on his heel, swinging Nightfall in a brutal, two-handed horizontal arc. The Grade 1 steel effortlessly sheared through the curse's torso mid-air. It hit the ground in two dissolving pieces.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3] [Milestone Progress: 99 / 100]
"One more," Ren breathed, his boots sliding against the damp gravel as he rounded the final container.
A massive shadow fell over him. A bloated, tick-like curse dropped from the top of the container, its heavy, segmented body aiming to crush him flat.
Ren didn't step back. He planted his back foot, gripping the hilt with both hands, and thrust the blade straight up.