Jail Mom, Give Me a Gun!

Kana Shizumi panted heavily. Though he had used every trick he had, the distance between them was still far too great.

Mai Zenin was just about to reach the assault rifle's grip... He gritted his teeth, prepared to put his body through more suffering and squeeze out one more round.

He would force out a Blood Arrow and let that crazy bitch have another taste!

"As long as I'm not dead, there's always a way... I'll kill her first!"

But the instant that thought settled, a shadow appeared behind Kana Shizumi.

Hanami, who had sprung out from who knew where, charged forward, crouched halfway, and scooped Kana Shizumi into its arms.

"We're leaving."

Its tone was as calm as ever. As for Kana Shizumi?

The moment he saw his big daddy entering the fight, he was completely relieved... No matter the outcome, his life was definitely safe now.

Watching the battered figure gradually recede, Kana Shizumi had initially wanted to add, "Finish her off while you're at it, boss," but Aoi Todo was already clapping his hands and chasing after them, so he ultimately gave up.

With that troublesome Grade 1 Sorcerer around, Hanami would definitely be too occupied to kill anyone to look after him... What if Todo clapped and swapped him over there?

Would telling him that he liked tall women with big asses spare his life?

With all sorts of random nonsense swirling through his head, Kana Shizumi bared his teeth and hissed in pain for a while before finally closing his eyes and letting out a soft sigh.

The final dance of two maggots had come to an end.

"Zenin, Zenin? Hey... Can you hear me?"

Aoi Todo took off his jacket and draped it over her. Kamo Noritoshi carefully lifted her chin, widening his eyes as he examined her injuries.

"It looks dramatic, but if treated properly, it won't be life-threatening... Todo, contact Jujutsu High."

"I'm already calling."

While waiting for the call to connect, Todo stepped forward, crouched down, and looked over at the former "battlefield."

The traces of residual cursed energy were faint...

That meant the opponent had not used any large-scale or particularly powerful techniques.

Assault rifle bullets, footprints from the charge, splattered bloodstains along the corridor...

Even without further explanations or clues, Aoi Todo could make a precise judgment in an instant through sheer intuition.

A brief, intense exchange.

—The opponent should have been quite weak. Firearms were enough to break through their defenses, so they were probably below Grade 2 Sorcerer level.

Then there were the injuries.

Kamo Noritoshi was naturally sensitive to blood, so his analysis was equally accurate.

"Puncture wounds on the shoulder, blunt-force trauma to the face. The cheekbone and nasal bone were both affected... There may be permanent disfigurement."

—The opponent had been extremely vicious...

But just like the previous assessment, their strength had been very limited.

After all, despite landing only two hits, they had still failed to take Mai Zenin's life. That showed their levels were extremely close.

"Moving together with a Cursed Spirit... He should be a Curse User."

"His recent activity hasn't been very frequent, but it wouldn't be strange for him to show up occasionally..."

"His strength is probably Grade 3... No, he should be at Semi-Grade 2. Firearms pose some threat to him, but not much."

Kamo Noritoshi and Aoi Todo instinctively exchanged a glance.

They reached the same conclusion almost simultaneously.

What a maggot. X2

They could ignore that guy for now.

Kamo Noritoshi swiftly treated her injuries as an emergency measure.

"The main issue is that Cursed Spirit... We couldn't have held it back even if we wanted to. By standard classification, something at that level..."

Aoi Todo nodded without hesitation and picked up the thought.

"It's Special Grade."

Beep.

The call connected.

"Utahime Iori, I have an emergency situation to report..."

Todo turned his back and began explaining the current situation. Mai Zenin seemed to have only just managed to catch her breath. She reached out and grabbed Kamo Noritoshi by the collar, speaking with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Wait, I have... something to explain, about the situation..."

"Your injuries are serious. If you talk too much, the wounds will split open."

"That guy just now... used Crimson Blood Manipulation..."

She swallowed, her expression grave.

With half her face stained in blood, Mai Zenin repeated herself emphatically.

"It was Crimson Blood Manipulation. I'm certain of it!!!"

Putting aside the developments on Jujutsu High's side for the moment.

Elsewhere.

Kana Shizumi was taken away from the hospital by Hanami. After an urgent retreat, they finally arrived at some unknown patch of wilderness.

"I'll go find you some medicine. This place is safe... The plants told me no one has come here for around three years."

In the Kyoto wilderness, beneath the shade of trees in a mountain hollow unknown even to Satoru Gojo and never surveyed by the Jujutsu World...

This was Kana Shizumi's temporary place to recover.

The man himself was half-sprawled against a tree stump, his mouth slightly open as he gasped for air.

He was covered in blood, with more than forty wounds from head to toe... But most were flesh wounds that had not pierced through.

So he merely looked worse than he actually was.

The blood loss left him somewhat dizzy, but his half-human, half-Cursed Spirit physique let him adapt quickly.

What currently hindered his recovery of mobility most was his lack of cursed energy.

Crimson Qilin Leap had drained all the cursed energy from his body in one go, leaving it literally "hollow."

"When I read the original, I hardly ever saw anyone run out of cursed energy..."

All he could say was that starting from too low a baseline was just like this.

Besides, through this experience, Kana Shizumi had gained a rough understanding of what made up the combat strength of a non-Special Grade Sorcerer.

It was probably their own ability plus cursed tools...

Why did he reach that conclusion? Just put himself in the situation and it was obvious.

Given the rule that firearms could break through a Grade 3 Sorcerer's defenses, Mai Zenin was probably equivalent to a sorcerer armed to the teeth.

Not only could she casually pull out all kinds of strange little gadgets, but with all the boosts they provided, she had beaten Kana Shizumi so badly he had been left scrambling on the ground...

And if they were judged purely by their personal strength, he could knock that crazy bitch down with one punch.

So...

Equipment was important (despair)!

He recalled how, in the original, Higuruma had confiscated Sukuna's Kamutoke with his Domain. The result had been rather awkward, but it had indeed weakened Sukuna's performance in a very real way.

So did the villain camp have any benefits? Kana Shizumi remembered that lunatic from the original who had shouted about turning Gojo into a coat rack. That guy seemed especially skilled at making cursed tools.

Give me a gun, Jail Mom!

The moment he muttered that in his heart, a ringtone sounded, and his pocket began to tremble faintly.

As time passed, the stiffness in his body gradually eased. Kana Shizumi let out a breath and pulled out his phone.

Incoming call: Kenjaku.

He had just been thinking about him, and now the call came immediately. Kana Shizumi could not help feeling suspicious.

He would listen first.

Beep.

"Unblemished, nicely done. You even learned Crimson Qilin Leap?"

Kana Shizumi's expression froze.

...Huh?

One sentence was all it took to leave the son staring dumbfounded at his father.