None of You Are Getting Away

What was going on? Had he just done something? Why had they suddenly turned hostile?

Amid the deathly silence and standoff, Gu Mo was completely bewildered, with no idea what had happened. After several seconds, he decided he needed to do something to break the silence. All he could do was keep a polite yet not-too-awkward smile on his face and tilt his head.

"Sorry, what are you talking about... I don't really understand."

However...

Under the preconceived misunderstanding, regardless of what he actually meant, every word and action of his in this situation was especially prone to being overinterpreted...

In entirely the wrong direction, of course.

Just like now—

Seeing the man opposite him suddenly become "stiff," his smile instantly turning "cold," Fushiguro Megumi became even more convinced of his theory. So that was it! The moment the other party saw the Special Grade Cursed Object, he had immediately prepared to make a move.

And after being exposed, he was immediately ready to turn hostile!

Looking at Gu Mo's "stiff" expression and his tilted head with that half-smiling look, he swallowed hard. For some reason, he suddenly felt immense pressure, cold sweat faintly appearing on his forehead.

Though he lacked his teacher's strength, insight, and experience, he still possessed basic logic. The person before him looked like an ordinary man, but he was definitely not ordinary. Rather, it was because he could not see through him that he had reached the wrong conclusion.

So the other party was undoubtedly far stronger than he was.

If such an enemy attacked, Fushiguro Megumi had little confidence in being able to stop him, especially with three burdens behind him, two of whom were unconscious... He had no chance even in a fair one-on-one fight. How was he supposed to fight while protecting three people?

The only option seemed to be holding on as long as possible until his teacher arrived.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

Receiving no answer, Gu Mo felt even more awkward, especially with this high school student staring at him like he was a class enemy. The pressure was really getting to him... Come to think of it, what kind of development was this? Had they somehow reached the part where they discovered he was actually the final boss?

"..."

"..."

Fushiguro Megumi still said nothing, but after being mocked again by the mysterious man's "cold" and "taunting" words, his tension rose another level. The cold sweat on his forehead steadily increased.

Was it coming?

"Hey, what's going on with you two... Don't you know each other?" The high school boy behind him also sensed the dangerous atmosphere. Holding the girl in his arms, he stood up and asked in an anxious, agitated voice, trying to stop the terrifying conflict that was about to erupt.

He did not know who the man opposite them was. At first, he had assumed he was with Fushiguro Megumi, so he had not asked any questions. But now, it seemed the two belonged to entirely opposing camps!

"Itadori, take them and get out of here!"

Fushiguro Megumi did not turn around or explain. Every muscle and nerve in his body had tensed completely, and his entire being had entered a battle-ready state as if facing a great enemy.

"I..."

"Go! Leave now! You won't be any help if you stay!"

"...Damn it! Then what about you?" The boy named Itadori gritted his teeth. He knew the other party was telling the truth. In this kind of situation, he would only be dead weight. Staying would only make things worse, and he still had two unconscious friends to take away.

But he was worried about Fushiguro Megumi too. The situation was obvious: the person opposite them seemed terrifying, and Fushiguro Megumi was no match for him.

"You go first! I'll catch up with you later!"

Fushiguro Megumi gritted his teeth. He knew Itadori was worried, but this was exactly when he needed to be decisive. Otherwise, neither of them might be able to escape later.

"Say, are you two done talking?"

Gu Mo had been listening patiently, but he could not help interrupting them now. The scene before him felt strangely familiar—the classic back-and-forth that always appeared in TV dramas. He really could not resist making a sarcastic remark.

"If you keep wasting time like this, I'm afraid none of you will be getting away..."

Did they think this was a Magical Girl transformation? During their exclusive close-up time, the enemy would just stand around and watch without attacking?

Of course, it was only a sarcastic remark. There was not much he could do anyway.

However.

At the exact instant Gu Mo's words fell—

The corridor ceiling above Fushiguro Megumi's head seemed to melt abruptly. A massive cursed vortex appeared, and a huge, hideous body descended from above with heavy shadows and crushing pressure, bearing down with the force of Mount Tai!

"Watch out—!!" Itadori, behind him, saw it clearly. His pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints, and his scream cracked in the next moment.

But it was too late. Fushiguro Megumi had instinctively focused all his attention on Gu Mo, and he had inevitably been distracted while speaking to Itadori behind him. His reaction was naturally a beat too slow. By the time he raised his head, the hideous sight reflected in his eyes was already right before him.

There was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to dodge.

Boom—!!

With a deafening crash, the entire building seemed to shake. Dust billowed, and debris flew everywhere.

Gu Mo instinctively raised an arm in front of himself. Once the dust dispersed, he looked ahead and froze. The stretch of corridor before him was now completely empty, littered only with broken bricks and shattered concrete.

Fushiguro Megumi had vanished from the corridor, disappearing together with the monster that had launched the ambush and fallen from above.

Neither of them was anywhere in the corridor.

At the spot where the window had previously shattered, however, a huge hole had been blasted through the entire wall, as if explosives had detonated there. Even the ground nearby had collapsed, with a large portion broken apart. It was a horrifying sight.

Moonlight streamed in through the hole.

There was no need for an explanation. Anyone could tell at a glance where the vanished high school student and the monster that had fallen from above had gone. Terrifying force had smashed through the wall and sent them outside...

As for the other boy, he had been blown away by the sudden impact and thrown to the far end of the corridor.

The boy named Itadori painfully pushed himself up from the ground, struggling to rise. His whole body hurt. He first instinctively glanced at his two friends beside him, who were still unconscious on the floor, then looked toward the other side of the corridor.

The corridor had nearly been split in two at its center. Cold moonlight poured in through the shattered hole beside it, like a curtain dividing two separate worlds...

On one side was his battered self. On the other stood that mysterious young man, still perfectly fine. Dangerous and deadly, he seemed casually cruel, as if what had just happened was nothing more than pulling weeds from the roadside...

—In reality, Gu Mo himself had not yet processed what had happened and was simply standing there in a daze. But under the preconceived misunderstanding, Itadori's imagination was growing increasingly bizarre.

The boy named Itadori could not help clenching his fists tightly. His furious gaze seemed ready to spit fire as he glared at Gu Mo. "Damn it! That's despicable!"

"..."

"..."

Wait, despicable?

Was he talking about him? Gu Mo blinked and came back to his senses. This development was getting more and more absurd. He clearly had not done anything. What exactly had the other guy imagined?

Could he think that he was controlling that monster from just now?

Hey, could they at least use some logic? Wasn't it obvious that all those monsters had been fighting over that finger? It must have gone after Fushiguro because the finger was on him. Did it need anyone to control it?!

Gu Mo was feeling a little disordered himself. In fact, ever since he had heard the term "Sukuna's Finger," tried to move closer for a look, and somehow immediately touched one of Fushiguro Megumi's sensitive nerves, making the other boy treat him like a great enemy—

He had been completely unable to understand how things had developed afterward.

Roar!!

At that moment, an excited roar came from outside, like the exhilarated cry of a beast that had caught its prey.

This was bad!

Itadori's face changed dramatically. But his body moved faster than his mind, shooting forward before he could think. He rushed to the massive hole, leaned out, and looked down. On the concrete road below, sharp chunks of debris were scattered everywhere, leaving the scene in ruins.

Fushiguro Megumi was covered in injuries, lying on the ground with blood nearly covering his face. The corner of his brow twitched constantly, whether from pain or fear was impossible to tell.

A terrifying shadow loomed over him. The huge Vengeful Spirit was hideous, misshapen, and as massive as a small hill, like some deformed land whale with ape-like arms. At that moment, it stretched out one long arm toward him and opened its blood-filled maw, seemingly preparing to swallow him together with the cursed object on his body.

"Hyaaah!!"

With an angry roar, a nimble figure appeared as suddenly as before. Using the height advantage, he leaped down through the hole above and, propelled by gravity, speed, and momentum, slammed a fist into the huge Vengeful Spirit's forehead!

Itadori did not think, nor did he have time to. The situation was far too urgent. He feared that if he delayed even one more second, he would have to watch Fushiguro Megumi get swallowed whole.

Naturally, that falling punch was not very effective. At most, it dealt a tiny amount of chip damage. Instead, it sent pain shooting through his own arm, splitting his knuckles open and drawing blood. Still, it successfully disrupted the huge Vengeful Spirit. It roared furiously, turning to swat this fly to death.

"Damn it..."

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Fushiguro Megumi struggled to prop himself up, but his body still refused to obey him. That impact had been too brutal. He had been blasted through the wall, flung outside, and slammed heavily into the ground. No matter how tough his body was, it could not withstand such a collision.

If he had been an ordinary person with no special power, he would probably have stopped breathing already. His own condition was not much better.

His ears had gone temporarily deaf from the violent shock, his eyes were bloodshot and his vision blurred, and the impact to his head had nearly knocked him unconscious. He did not even know how many bones he had broken or whether his organs had shifted...

Yet even with injuries severe enough to require immediate emergency treatment, he did not consider that at all. He struggled to stand again and shouted angrily.

"Itadori! Shouldn't you be taking your friends away right now?!"

"But what about you!!"

Itadori clung tightly to that long arm, refusing to let go no matter how the Vengeful Spirit flailed it around. His body was tossed through the air like a grasshopper tied to a string.

The next moment, the huge Vengeful Spirit furiously swung its long, ash-gray arm into a nearby platform, along with the boy clinging to it.

Bang!!

A heavy, solid impact rang out. Fine cracks seemed to appear across the platform's surface as debris scattered. That blow nearly made Itadori cough up blood, and he was flung away as his grip broke!

"Curses can only be exorcised by curses. You can't defeat it!" Fushiguro Megumi gritted his teeth. The situation was terrible, and his teacher still had not appeared. Had he stopped somewhere for a late-night snack or something? Was he really going to die here today?

This Vengeful Spirit alone was already beyond what he could deal with in his current condition...

Not to mention the mastermind controlling it, who probably had not even gotten serious yet...

Instinctively turning to look at the building beside him, Fushiguro Megumi saw that figure standing exactly where he should be, within the hole blasted open in the shattered floor. Bathed in moonlight, he looked down from above, and at last, a flicker of surprise showed in his eyes.

Yet that only made Fushiguro Megumi even angrier. It would have been better if he had remained calm and composed. Showing surprise now was an insult instead.

Because it made him feel as though the other party was one of those people seated in the upper stands of the Roman Colosseum, merely thrilled by the desperate, pathetic spectacle of those struggling below.

—Things had reached this point. He no longer had any doubts or confusion. The other party could not possibly be an ordinary person, and it was only natural to assume that everything happening now was most likely his doing!

"Tsk, tsk, this is way too ridiculous... Is this really necessary?"

Gu Mo had no idea the blame he was taking was growing heavier and darker by the second. He was merely watching the scenes unfolding below, so dazzled that he could barely take it all in. Setting aside the special effects, the immersive experience felt incredibly real.

But there was one problem: it was indeed far too exaggerated. How could a person's physical condition be this good? Fushiguro had crashed through a wall from so high up and fallen below, yet he still had the strength to talk—and shout with such force, too.

And that guy called Itadori had been swung by a huge tentacle and smashed solidly into that platform. It looked painful just watching it. Yet even after that, he was still full of energy...

Gu Mo felt that this was simply too absurd.