Deep within the Tombs of the Star Corridor, if not for the lack of sky overhead and the scattered pinpricks of torchlight, one might have felt as though they had entered another world.
This was Tengen's underground domain, the very heart of the barriers throughout Japan.
But just a few steps away from completing the merger, the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai... hesitated!
All she had to do was walk a few more meters, cross that line, and enter the room where Tengen waited. Then everything would be over.
"What's wrong, Riko?" Suguru Geto asked with a gentle smile.
"I..." Tears shimmered at the corners of the girl's eyes. "I still want to be with everyone after all! I want to laugh with everyone, and... travel all over the place together!"
"I want a wonderful future, too. I don't want my life to stop here!"
Her maid, Kuroi, was the first to speak. "Whatever you choose, miss, I'll always support you."
Suguru Geto recalled the private conversation he had shared with Satoru Gojo not long before, and quickly gave his answer as well. "In that case, let's go back."
"Let's go back, Riko." Driven by youthful conviction, Suguru Geto cast aside Jujutsu High's teachings and the "responsibility" forced upon him by the higher-ups of Jujutsu Society, making a promise of his own. "We'll make sure you can live your life."
"Because we're the strongest." Suguru Geto smiled until his eyes narrowed to slits, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
"Yes!" The girl nodded emphatically, tears of happiness filling her eyes.
Bang! Bang! Then came two gunshots, along with two unfamiliar fluctuations of cursed energy.
"All right, thanks for your hard work, everyone. Time to break it up!"
Suguru Geto and Kuroi stared, dumbstruck, as the girl's body suddenly jolted forward before collapsing limply to the floor, her eyes closed.
Blood seeped from the wound at her temple.
Shoichi Kano grimaced as he fiddled with the USP Pistol in his hand, a wisp of smoke still rising from it.
Honestly, this was his first time firing a real gun. He hadn't expected it to be so difficult to control. His first shot had missed completely-it was nothing like those TV scenes where people hit whatever they aimed at!
So he had used cursed energy to steady his arm for the second shot, allowing him to strike Riko Amanai precisely in the left temple.
"What..." Suguru Geto stared blankly at the human and cursed spirit who had barged in. "What's going on?!"
"What do you mean, what's going on?" Shoichi Kano blew the smoke from the muzzle, propped his cheek against his gun hand, and rested his other hand on his hip as he tilted his head at Geto. "Oh, you mean this..."
Kano figured that since he had taken over Toji Fushiguro's role in this part of the original story, he ought to deliver the man's line, too.
So he grinned and uttered the words that left Suguru Geto stunned. "Our companion killed Satoru Gojo."
"Miss!!!" Only then did Kuroi snap out of her shock and register Riko Amanai lying on the floor, her fate unknown.
Slit-Mouthed Woman lightly pressed a mechanism on the short black rod in her hand. With a mechanical clatter, it rapidly extended and locked into shape, becoming a long-handled scythe with a silver-gray blade, a black shaft, and a skull ornament at the point where the blade met the shaft.
An eerie special grade cursed spirit like Slit-Mouthed Woman, armed with a scythe-shaped cursed tool that looked like the Grim Reaper's weapon, really did carry something of a terrifying soul-reaper's aura!
She casually swung the cursed tool a few times, sending several gray blades of cursed energy shooting out and forcing Kuroi back as she tried to rush forward and retrieve Riko Amanai's "corpse"!
This special grade scythe cursed tool, the Wrongful Death Blade, had no particularly special function. It simply converted cursed energy channeled into the weapon into "blade waves" with a splash effect, neatly making up for Slit-Mouthed Woman's lack of AOE options!
Although Kuroi could neither see cursed spirits nor the cursed tool shrouded in a cursed spirit's aura, she could vaguely sense the blade waves coming toward her, so she instinctively stopped.
Then the blade waves exploded against the concrete floor of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, kicking up clouds of dust that obscured everyone's vision.
Suguru Geto immediately formed a hand sign. Black spatial rifts appeared behind him, and vast numbers of Centipede Cursed Spirits poured out, forming a sea of insects!
"Then you can die right here!!!" Suguru Geto's movements were fueled by his fury and desire to avenge his closest friend, making this attack even fiercer and faster than usual!
Next came his signature cursed spirits: the incredibly tough Rainbow Dragon, and the four-eyed, kimono-clad Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate!
Normally, he should have acquired Slit-Mouthed Woman by this point. But thanks to the butterfly effect caused by Shoichi Kano, Suguru Geto had failed to subjugate her. As though "fate" were compensating him, he had instead acquired Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate ahead of schedule, a spirit he would only have possessed during his time as a "cult leader."
Under its master's command, the long dragon with white scales and green eyes had already swept through the smoke, leading the sea of Centipede Cursed Spirits toward Kano and Slit-Mouthed Woman.
Meanwhile, Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate remained at Suguru Geto's side, her purpose unclear.
"That's a pretty unoriginal way to attack." Over the past few days, Shoichi Kano had repeatedly sifted through his memories of watching this anime in his previous life, piecing together some of Suguru Geto's combat methods. Seeing him use exactly the move he had expected was therefore rather reassuring.
The swarms of Centipede Cursed Spirits crashed into the thread net Kano had laid out in an instant. Sharp threads of cursed energy shredded them in great swathes, leaving them unable to pose much of a threat.
Meanwhile, Slit-Mouthed Woman had largely familiarized herself with the feel of the long-handled Wrongful Death Blade and began swinging it fluidly. Watching her wield the polearm reminded Kano of Mei Mei, the female sorcerer who used Black Bird Manipulation and a long-handled battle-axe. Unfortunately, Slit-Mouthed Woman's movements were more straightforward, relying on a cursed spirit's raw physical prowess rather than Mei Mei's elegance.
Several flashes of blade light blossomed amid the sea of insects, exorcising the remaining Centipede Cursed Spirits.
Suguru Geto had initially intended for Rainbow Dragon to attack Kano, but upon realizing that Slit-Mouthed Woman seemed to pose the greater threat, he ordered the dragon to change course.
In Suguru Geto's mind, since there was a cursed spirit among his enemies, he could defeat it and then subjugate it with his cursed technique. Wasn't that a perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone?!
"Fuck!" Shoichi Kano had just been driven several steps backward by that hideous dragon's head when it suddenly turned and withdrew, prompting him to blurt out a Chinese curse.
Rainbow Dragon was absurdly tough. He had instantly constructed two nested layers of webbing, yet it had charged through without taking much damage at all. Even as its scales struck sparks against the sharp threads, its assault remained fierce, like a massive fish about to tear free of a fishing net.
Fortunately, Shoichi Kano had discovered that he could control his cursed energy threads not only through his hands but also after they left his body. That had allowed him to trade ground for time and secure a slim chance of survival.
Slit-Mouthed Woman could sense that Rainbow Dragon, a dragon-shaped cursed spirit, should theoretically possess a degree of intelligence. But under the influence of Cursed Spirit Manipulation, it had long since lost its independent consciousness and become an extension of Suguru Geto's will.
In her eyes, then, something that had become a jujutsu sorcerer's puppet... was no longer one of her kind!
"Roar!" The enormous, hideous dragon's head bellowed before rising into the air. It adjusted its posture slightly, then accelerated sharply into a dive, intending to use the momentum of its descent and its own hardness to injure the female cursed spirit, who was tiny compared to it.
Suguru Geto unleashed another wave of cursed spirits. A mass of bizarre insect cursed spirits lunged forward, forming an impenetrable swarm determined to engulf Shoichi Kano.
From his perspective, the unfamiliar young curse user had already been swallowed by the swarm. Only then did he have time to rescue the dazed Kuroi and move her somewhere safe for the moment.
Shoichi Kano dealt with that swarm one spirit at a time as well. The price was labored breathing, as though he had just run five kilometers, and several tears in his clothes, but he had suffered no serious injuries.
Suguru Geto narrowed his eyes toward the battlefield. He saw Rainbow Dragon still locked in battle with Slit-Mouthed Woman. Her gray blade waves had intercepted several of its diving attacks before they could land. Even bombarding her with raw bursts of cursed energy had produced no significant results because of the poor matchup.
Its combat instincts therefore led it to adopt a more conservative strategy, circling back and forth overhead in search of a suitable opening.
Slit-Mouthed Woman was furious with the oversized worm, too-it seemed to be exploiting the fact that she couldn't fly, immediately climbing higher whenever an attack failed and leaving her unable to land any particularly effective strikes.
What about Riko Amanai?
Suguru Geto soon realized something was wrong. If the young curse user before him had shot Riko Amanai dead with a pistol, there should naturally have been a body.
Yet after that bout of fighting, he couldn't find the girl's corpse. That was far too unusual! Something was clearly off!
"Looking for Amanai's body?" Shoichi Kano, looking somewhat bedraggled after weathering the waves of cursed spirits, spread his hands and flashed a thoroughly obnoxious smile. "Have you considered the possibility... that the fallout from our fight already pulverized her into bloody mist, leaving nothing to find?"
Suguru Geto froze, then suddenly realized... what this brat had said wasn't entirely impossible!
His expression grew even graver. "In that case, I'll avenge Riko."
Kano pulled out the Switchblade cursed tool he had taken from that Mr. Kobayashi, flicked out the blade, and held it in a reverse grip. "Then come and try!"
Before you continue