Chapter 96: Jogo's Rampage
"Toho-Senpai?"
Kento Nanami's voice was dry and shaky with disbelief as he spoke tentatively.
He had a deep impression of Toho Hiroshi, the Upperclassman who was once brilliant and peerless, yet defected.
Meanwhile, Yu Haibara, standing nearby, snapped back to reality after the initial shock of surviving near-death and witnessing Dagon being instantly killed, upon hearing Kento Nanami's words.
He looked closely at the eyes visible through the eye-holes of the swirl mask. Although they had transformed into an unfamiliar ripple pattern, the familiar feeling deep within that gaze, combined with this terrifying, powerful strength... "Toho-Senpai! Is that really you?"
Yu Haibara was far more agitated than Kento Nanami. The words practically burst out of him, his voice filled with the joy of surviving a disaster, the excitement of meeting an old acquaintance far from home, and years of pent-up confusion. "Senpai! Where have you been all these years? We... we've all been worried about you!"
He struggled to take a few steps forward, but his injuries made him stumble.
Toho Hiroshi slowly turned around. The gaze of the Rinnegan fell upon Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami. That gaze was calm and still, showing neither the joy of reuniting with old friends nor any ripple of emotion, as if he were merely looking at two insignificant strangers.
This cold stare was like a bucket of cold water dumped on the excited Yu Haibara, freezing him in place.
Kento Nanami, meanwhile, gripped the short sword in his hand more tightly, becoming highly vigilant. He keenly sensed that the temperament of the "Dongfang-Senpai" before him was worlds apart from the person he remembered.
"Leave here."
Toho Hiroshi spoke, his voice muffled by the mask, low and indifferent, devoid of any emotion. "This battle is not one you can participate in."
He neither admitted nor denied his identity. Yet, this warning seemed to be an implicit confirmation of something.
Having said this, he ignored the two of them and cast his gaze toward the depths of Shibuya, where stronger and more chaotic Cursed Energy fluctuations were coming from.
His figure began to blur, as if dissolving into the water's surface, about to vanish once more into the Kamui swirl.
"Senpai, wait."
Yu Haibara called out reluctantly, "Geto-Senpai... Gojo-Senpai too... What exactly is going on!"
However, Toho Hiroshi's figure did not stop, completely disappearing into the distorted swirl, as if he had never appeared.
Only the deeply confused and heavily wounded Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara remained standing there, exchanging glances, their hearts filled with immense shock and an even deeper mystery.
Toho Hiroshi's appearance was like dropping a heavier and more unpredictable piece onto an already chaotic chessboard.
He saved them, yet he was more unsettling than the enemy.
"Nanami-Nanami... Just now, that was..."
Yu Haibara looked at Kento Nanami, seeking confirmation.
Kento Nanami pushed up his cracked glasses, his expression extremely grave. He looked at the spot where Toho Hiroshi had vanished, slowly nodding, then shaking his head. "It was him... but perhaps, he is no longer the 'Toho Hiroshi' we knew."
Zen'in Naobito, standing nearby, suddenly spoke, "The way he is now, he might be more dangerous than a Special Grade Cursed Spirit."
The night in Shibuya became even more confusing due to Toho Hiroshi's brief appearance.
The battle to rescue Gojo Satoru and fight the Curse Users continued, but a new shadow had fallen over everyone's hearts... Just as Toho Hiroshi used Amaterasu to completely annihilate Dagon and briefly confronted Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara, that cold, vast Cursed Energy fluctuation, like a massive stone dropped into a calm lake, rapidly spread ripples across the entire Shibuya battlefield.
Deep within the underground station platform, Kenjaku, who had been leisurely watching the chaotic drama he orchestrated, suddenly had the composed smile freeze on his face.
He spun his head violently, his gaze seemingly penetrating layers of concrete barriers, looking toward the direction from which the power originated.
In those eyes that had witnessed the vicissitudes of a thousand years, unconcealed astonishment and a trace of instinctive fear appeared for the first time.
"This Cursed Energy... so unfamiliar, yet carrying an unpleasant sense of familiarity... It's so immense it's suffocating, practically an existence on another plane."
Kenjaku muttered to himself, unconsciously rubbing his chin with his fingertips. "Who is it? Besides Satoru Gojo, does this era have another monster like this? No, this feeling is completely different..."
Almost simultaneously, Shoko Ieiri, who was being protected by Masamichi Yaga and treating the wounded in a relatively safe area, abruptly paused while lighting a cigarette.
The cigarette slipped from her fingers, but she didn't notice.
The cursed energy residue that swept through her mind was bone-chillingly cold, vaguely overlapping with a blurred figure from her memory. But the warmth was long gone, replaced only by heart-stopping emptiness and power.
"Is this feeling... a delusion?"
Shoko Ieiri frowned slightly, a ripple crossing her usually calm face, but the groans of the wounded before her quickly forced her to compose herself. Nevertheless, the seed of doubt had been planted in her heart.
Masamichi Yaga was on high alert, his robust body instinctively shielding Shoko Ieiri, his expression severe: "Shoko, did you feel that? A very ominous presence... Something formidable has entered."
"This magnitude of Cursed Energy... it seems to be... that guy Hao."
Meanwhile, Jogo, who had just fought a fierce battle with Choso and was already greatly depleted, was immersed in anger and grief over the demise of its companion, Hanami.
Suddenly, its single eye widened, and scorching steam erupted from its volcano-like head due to the extreme emotional fluctuation.
"Dagon... Dagon's presence... is gone?"
Jogo's voice was distorted by fury. It clearly perceived that the Cursed Womb companion—Dagon, who symbolized the ocean and the collective, and possessed potential for growth—had its Cursed Energy instantly crushed and annihilated by an even more terrifying power, completely erased from this world.
"Who? Who did it!!"
Jogo's roar shook the entire underground space.
Kenjaku retracted his gaze from the distance and turned toward the almost uncontrollable Jogo. His tone returned to calmness, yet carried an inflammatory implication: "To dispose of Dagon so cleanly, here in Shibuya, besides the sealed Satoru Gojo, there is likely only the master of that anomalous Cursed Energy just now. If I'm not mistaken, it should be him... 'Toho Hiroshi,' the one whose whereabouts are a mystery."
"Toho Hiroshi..."
Jogo chewed on the name, its rage boiling like magma in its chest.
It remembered the name. Kenjaku had mentioned him as a variable, a Curse User who potentially possessed Special Grade strength but whose allegiance was unclear.
Now, this variable had not only appeared but had also directly taken the life of yet another companion!
"Unforgivable! I will burn him to ashes!"
"The matter of awakening Sukuna is up to you."
Jogo completely rampaged. After handing over all the Sukuna's Fingers it had treasured to Kenjaku, it didn't even bother coordinating with Kenjaku's plan. Vast Cursed Energy erupted, and its figure transformed into a blazing streak of light, rushing headlong toward the last location where Dagon's Cursed Energy had vanished, following the powerful and repulsive cursed energy residue.
Wherever it passed, concrete melted and the air warped, leaving behind a scorching path of destruction.
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