"Satoru Gojo was sealed? That's truly astonishing." An aged yet powerful voice rang out.
Two men and a woman stood at the entrance stairs of a subway station, chatting.
One of the men wore a suit and tie, his blond hair combed impeccably.
The other was an old man with white hair and a handlebar mustache. Leaning against the wall with a faint flush on his face, he looked slightly drunk.
The last person was a young woman in red glasses, her long dark green hair tied in a high ponytail. She carried a long-handled naginata over her shoulder.
"By the way, why are we waiting here?" Maki Zenin, her high ponytail standing upright, asked.
"Ijichi called me not long ago and told us to wait. There are more reinforcements coming," Kento Nanami, dressed with meticulous precision, answered.
"Didn't they say we were splitting up? Why would there still be reinforcements?" Naobito Zenin said.
"Now that the Curtain has been lifted," Kento Nanami answered steadily, "the operation ahead will only become more dangerous."
"It's always good to have someone watching your back."
"Ah, if reinforcements are coming, then Maki, you should head back." Naobito Zenin waved dismissively at Maki Zenin.
After saying that, he tilted his head.
"Right, Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer Nanami?"
"Maki, on this matter, I agree with Mr. Naobito," Kento Nanami said calmly.
"I'm still more useful than this drunk," Maki Zenin said with some displeasure.
Kento Nanami paused and looked at Naobito Zenin.
"You've been drinking?"
"I haven't..." Naobito Zenin raised his head and let out a drunken burp. "Burp..."
Kento Nanami frowned slightly and turned away.
Good thing there are reinforcements...
He silently rejoiced inwardly.
Just then, a voice came from around a nearby corner.
"Senior Maki? Mr. Nanami?"
Megumi Fushiguro, the black sea-urchin-haired suicide bomber, came around the corner and approached them.
"So you're the reinforcements." Maki Zenin adjusted her glasses.
But Megumi Fushiguro looked confused.
"What reinforcements?"
Maki Zenin was confused as well.
"You aren't the reinforcements?"
"I'm not." Megumi Fushiguro shook his head firmly. "I just happened to be passing by and heard you talking."
"No, Ijichi said the reinforcements were a strange man wearing a strange mask, with fluorescent patterns on his skin. His Cursed Technique lets his voice appear inside other people's heads."
"What a useless Cursed Technique," Naobito Zenin commented.
"I think that's a pretty good command-type Cursed Technique," Maki Zenin shot back.
The Zenin Family.
One of the Three Great Families of Jujutsu Society, and also the most feudal and rigidly hierarchical among them.
In the Zenin Family's eyes, those who were not Zenin were not sorcerers, and those who were not sorcerers were not human.
Everyone in the Zenin Family had their value roughly determined from birth, and once their Cursed Energy and Cursed Technique awakened, that value was completely fixed.
Those who inherited the family's Cursed Technique could stand above all others, while those with inferior techniques became lowly servants.
As for Maki Zenin, who possessed no sorcerer abilities and had a Heavenly Restriction that left her with even less Cursed Energy than an ordinary person, she had lived a miserable life beyond the imagination of normal people.
Not bothering with the Zenin Family's internal affairs, Kento Nanami asked Megumi Fushiguro.
"Where are the other two?"
Megumi Fushiguro answered.
"Senior Ino withdrew. Itadori and I split up."
"I understand. Then come down with us." Kento Nanami nodded and checked his watch. "We're still waiting for one more person. Let's wait a little longer."
"I'll wait another five minutes..."
Suddenly, everyone looked up toward a point in the sky.
Accompanied by a flapping sound, a huge Butterfly flew over from above.
The Butterfly clung to the back of a masked man, making it look like a winged backpack.
"Strange mask..." Maki Zenin pointed. "So that's him?"
Kento Nanami answered uncertainly.
"Probably?"
Soon, the Butterfly carried Morien down from the sky.
After landing, Morien swept his gaze across the people present and suddenly froze for a second.
Megumi Fushiguro?
Why was he here?
But his surprise lasted less than a second before Morien quickly understood.
Because he had asked Ijichi to call and tell Kento Nanami's group to wait for him, the two groups that had originally entered the subway station one after another had ended up together.
Morien stroked Fortune-Collecting's fur.
"This is called the butterfly effect." Morien smiled at Fortune-Collecting. "A butterfly effect brought about by a Butterfly is the real butterfly effect."
Fortune-Collecting happily flapped her Butterfly wings.
Father's joke was so funny.
Her threshold for laughter seemed rather low.
The Fortune-Collecting Mother Insect released Morien and flapped its wings behind him.
Morien took two steps forward, and his voice appeared in everyone's minds.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Morien."
Morien gave a simple introduction.
"Mo... ri... en?" Maki Zenin tried it out and found that Morien's name seemed somewhat difficult for them to pronounce.
Oh, right. Japanese doesn't have the R sound.
"Practice a little more. If you really can't manage it, you can call me Mask," Morien said considerately.
"Haha, so you're a kid who watches Kamen Rider." Naobito Zenin laughed.
"Haha, you watch it too?" Morien replied with a smile.
"Yeah, it's great." Naobito Zenin had no issue showing off his youthful mindset. "I watch magical girl shows too."
A tough man with a maiden's heart.
They introduced themselves one by one.
Morien shifted his gaze to Megumi Fushiguro.
"Mr. Fushiguro, may I see your Rabbit Escape?" Morien asked.
"Rabbit Escape? Why?" Megumi Fushiguro asked in confusion.
"Because I use summons too." Morien pointed to Fortune-Collecting behind him. "My summons are also controlled by bringing out large numbers of Shikigami at once."
"Huh? Isn't your Cursed Technique just sending messages?" Naobito Zenin asked doubtfully.
"Hehe, you tell me." Morien did not answer.
Naobito Zenin asked bluntly.
"I don't want to guess. Can't you just say it directly?"
"When we become enemies someday, I'll reveal my hand to you then," Morien answered.
Naobito Zenin was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, you've got guts, brat."
After hearing Morien's explanation, Megumi Fushiguro glanced at the little Butterflies surrounding him and the huge Butterfly behind him. After thinking for a moment, he nodded.
"I understand."
He raised both hands, using their shadows to form the shape of a rabbit, and softly uttered a command.
"Rabbit Escape."
The shadow beneath his feet rapidly spread, and thousands upon thousands of fluffy white rabbits burst out from it, densely packed together.
From afar, it looked like a gigantic mass of white cotton suddenly swelling outward, quickly expanding to nearly the height of a two-story building.
Among the Shikigami of Megumi Fushiguro's Ten Shadows Technique, Rabbit Escape was the only one that could be summoned in great numbers while consuming almost no Cursed Energy.
So even showing it off briefly before a battle was no burden to him.
Looking at the dense mass of fluffy white fur, Morien opened his arms and casually caught a rabbit, giving it a rub. The feel was quite nice.
He looked at Fushiguro.
"Can you give me one?" Morien asked expectantly.
"They're summoned from shadows," Megumi Fushiguro explained. "Once the Cursed Technique is released, they turn back into shadows."
"Even if I wanted to give you one, I..."
Halfway through his sentence, Megumi Fushiguro's eyes suddenly widened.
He saw Morien reach out and brush Rabbit Escape's fur with a palm wrapped in strange Cursed Energy.
At once, Megumi Fushiguro, as the summoner, immediately felt that Shikigami leave his control.
"Th-this... how is this possible..."
Megumi Fushiguro muttered.
Because they had been summoned in such large numbers, his connection to each Rabbit Escape had actually been quite weak.
But effortlessly seizing complete ownership of one Rabbit Escape was something Megumi Fushiguro had never imagined possible.
This person...
He was the nemesis of all Shikigami users!