Juvenile Detention Center

Tokyo Jujutsu High.

"Shin, everyone's waiting for you. Hurry up," Megumi Fushiguro urged outside Chiyo Shin's door.

Chiyo Shin scrambled around inside. "Coming, coming!"

Watching Megumi Fushiguro call through the door, Kugisaki asked, "Is he always like this?"

Before Megumi Fushiguro could answer, the door suddenly opened.

Chiyo Shin rested a hand on the door, the Bone-Binding Umbrella strapped to his back and First Generation Moon tucked at his waist. He raised his chin slightly. "The great Chiyo Shin makes his dazzling entrance!"

"So cool!" Itadori's eyes lit up.

Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki both thought, These two idiots.

The four wasted little time on pleasantries. With an urgent mission ahead, they headed to the school gate, climbed into Ijichi's car, and sped off.

Eiki Juvenile Detention Center, West Tokyo City.

Screech.

Ijichi told the four in the car, "Get out. We're here."

The four climbed out one after another.

Ijichi got out and led them forward as he explained, "Let me go over the current situation again. About three hours ago, a Window confirmed the appearance of a cursed womb.

"After evacuating ninety percent of the nearby residents, we sealed off the entire Juvenile Detention Center.

"But five people are still inside with the cursed womb. If it hatches, it could reach special grade.

"That's the situation as it stands."

Itadori still didn't quite understand Ijichi's explanation. "I still don't know what a special grade cursed spirit is."

Left with no choice, Ijichi explained, "Put it this way. Assuming cursed spirits could be killed with ordinary weapons, here's how the grades would compare.

"A wooden club could handle a grade 4 cursed spirit. A handgun should work for grade 3.

"A shotgun might barely handle grade 2. Even an armored vehicle might not deal with grade 1, and special grade would require a missile bombardment."

After listening to Ijichi's explanation, Itadori said, "Doesn't that mean we're in trouble?"

Ijichi adjusted his glasses. "Normally, sending Chiyo Shin alone would have been enough for this special grade mission. But there are people inside the Juvenile Detention Center, so we need other jujutsu sorcerers besides him-that means you-to handle that part.

"Also, if you encounter a special grade cursed spirit and Chiyo Shin isn't with you, you must run. Follow your instincts. Only once you've ensured your own safety should you search for survivors and rescue them."

"Excuse me, where is my son, A-Zheng?" A voice came from beyond the police cordon. They turned and saw a middle-aged woman.

Itadori was about to approach her.

Ijichi stopped Itadori and said quietly, "She's a relative of someone inside."

After speaking to Itadori, he walked over to the cordon and explained, "All we know right now is that someone released poison gas. That's all we can tell you."

Tears fell from the middle-aged woman's eyes.

The sight left Itadori feeling awful. He turned and said, "Fushiguro, Kugisaki, Chiyo, we have to save them."

Only Kugisaki answered. "Of course."

Chiyo and Fushiguro were largely indifferent. The Juvenile Detention Center was a gathering place for scum to begin with.

Seeing that they were ready, Ijichi said, "I'm going to lower the Curtain. Be careful in there. Born from darkness... purify all."

The four arrived at the dormitory entrance.

Fushiguro summoned his shikigami first. "Divine Dogs!"

"If there's a curse, they'll warn us."

Chiyo Shin had never wanted to save scum in the first place. At the entrance, he kicked the door clean off and walked in ahead of the others. "Let's make this quick. You go save those people. I'll handle the cursed spirit."

Kugisaki snarked, "He really knows how to show off."

Following Chiyo Shin inside, the others froze in place, staring at their surroundings in disbelief.

Chiyo Shin immediately noticed something was wrong and warned the three behind him, "It's an innate domain. Stay close to me. Don't wander off."

None of them objected to Chiyo Shin's instructions.

They passed through a long corridor and entered a spacious room.

Three twisted corpses greeted their eyes.

Itadori hurried forward to check their identities. On the clothing of one relatively intact corpse, he found a tag bearing the name Gang Qizheng.

It matched A-Zheng, the son the middle-aged woman outside had mentioned.

"I'm taking this body back," Itadori murmured.

Standing nearby, Kugisaki asked in confusion, "Huh? What?"

"He's that woman's son. His face is still mostly intact. I'm taking him out," Itadori said firmly.

Megumi Fushiguro walked up beside the corpse and grabbed Itadori. "Leave the body for now. There are still two people whose status we don't know."

But Itadori replied, "If we come back later, the way here might be gone."

Megumi Fushiguro's tone hardened. "I'm not telling you to come back later. I'm telling you to leave it. I didn't want to save this scum to begin with. Now that he's dead, I want to even less."

Furious, Itadori grabbed Megumi Fushiguro's collar and shouted, "Someone died, and you're standing here making callous remarks! We just promised his family outside that we'd help bring him back!"

Megumi Fushiguro knocked Itadori's hand off his collar. "Did you read the information you were given before coming here?

"This is a Juvenile Detention Center. Gang Qizheng ran over and killed a little girl, and he'd been caught driving without a license twice.

"I know you want to save more people. But what if someone you save kills someone later?!"

Itadori pointed at Chiyo Shin and shouted at Megumi Fushiguro, "Then why did you and he save me back then?!"

"Hey, there's a time and place for arguing. Chiyo, stop them already." Kugisaki hurried forward to intervene.

Chiyo Shin was unconcerned. "It's fine, Kugisaki. Once they've aired it all out..."

Before he could finish, a vast pool of darkness surged up beneath Chiyo Shin and Nobara Kugisaki, swallowing them in an instant.

Seeing the two disappear, Megumi Fushiguro and Itadori stopped arguing.

"Impossible!" A sense of dread hit Megumi Fushiguro as he stared at the spot where Kugisaki and Chiyo had vanished. He looked around for his Divine Dog.

Only then did he discover that, at some point, it had been beaten down to nothing but a head embedded in the wall.

Megumi Fushiguro immediately sensed danger. "Itadori, run! Find Shin!"

Before his words had faded, a cursed spirit radiating an overwhelming pressure stood between Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro.

Neither could move.

In the dark space.

"Kugisaki! Kugisaki, where are you?" Chiyo Shin called as he drew First Generation Moon, casually slashing through the cursed spirits in the darkness.

Fortunately, after calling for a while, Chiyo heard the sounds of fighting some distance to his left.

Pinpointing the direction, Chiyo Shin rushed toward the sounds.

"You've got to be kidding!" The moment Kugisaki landed, she found herself surrounded by three cursed spirits with astonishing cursed energy fluctuations and countless smaller ones.

There was no sense of time passing in the dark space.

Constantly dodging and weaving among the cursed spirits, Kugisaki felt her stamina draining rapidly. Keeping up grew harder, and few nails remained in her pouch.

Kugisaki fired another three nails at the surrounding cursed spirits, but they did little to deter them.

The three slightly higher-grade cursed spirits in particular stayed hidden in the darkness, darting out to attack now and then. Not one of the nails Kugisaki fired back had hit them.

With no nails left in her pouch, Kugisaki stared at the cursed spirits eyeing her hungrily and remembered her happy days with Saori.

"Get down!"

Kugisaki dropped instinctively.

A broad slash swept over her head in an instant.

The surrounding cursed spirits were all cleaved apart.

Chiyo Shin walked over, helped Kugisaki up, and treated her with Golden Repair. "Good thing I wasn't too late."

Feeling her injuries slowly disappear, Kugisaki braced her hands on her legs and laughed. "Haha, I almost died. Thanks, Chiyo."

Click. Light spilled into the dark space ahead.

Chiyo Shin looked up at the sound. A door stood open where the light shone, and Megumi Fushiguro was running toward them. "Oh, Megumi. You got here fast."

Megumi Fushiguro first had his Divine Dog send a signal, then told Chiyo Shin, "Shin, we're almost out of time. Hurry and find Itadori. He let Sukuna out to protect me and fight that special grade cursed spirit. You're the only one who can stop them."

Chiyo Shin tucked First Generation Moon back at his waist. "Got it. Megumi, I'll bring Itadori back, no matter what."