At that moment, the others from Tokyo Jujutsu High arrived at the scene.
Footsteps sounded along the crater's edge, hurried and uneven. Panda, Maki Zenin, Nobara Kugisaki, Megumi Fushiguro, and Toge Inumaki rushed up from different directions almost simultaneously. Then they all froze.
The scene before them looked like a portrait of hell. A vast crater with a radius of two hundred meters, scorched soil, melted rock, and air thick with the choking stench of burning and blood. Mangled limbs were embedded in the crater walls, while several barely recognizable figures lay at the bottom.
Noritoshi Kamo's lower body was gone. Mechamaru's wreckage lay scattered everywhere. Aoi Todo lay at the bottom, his entire body charred, his left arm missing, the rise and fall of his chest almost imperceptible. And Itadori-both of Itadori's arms were completely gone below the shoulders. He lay at the bottom with his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling steadily.
"Teacher Kashimo... why?" Panda forced the words out of his throat, his bewilderment so tightly suppressed it seemed about to shatter.
"Mai? Mai!" Maki Zenin's voice erupted. She rushed to the crater's edge, crouched, and shook Mai Zenin, who lay at the outermost edge of the blast. Mai's uniform was scorched black, her face covered in dust and blood, her eyes closed and her lips pale. Maki's fingers dug into Mai's shoulders, her knuckles turning white. Her lips trembled, her eyes reddened, and her voice squeezed through her teeth with a tremor that bordered on losing control.
"You bastard-!"
Nobara Kugisaki's voice erupted from the other side.
She flung out several nails, sending silver arcs through the air straight toward Kashimo at the bottom of the crater. Her hammer followed with a sharp swing-the nails shot forward under the reinforcement of cursed energy, their whistles