A declaration of war

Back at Jujutsu High, Ijichi reported the mission's outcome to Satoru Gojo, including the errors in their intelligence.

"There weren't any low-level cursed spirits inside. Instead, a Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit appeared. Under Mr. Kamo's supervision, Okkotsu and Inumaki successfully exorcised it..."

"I'm terribly sorry! After checking, we confirmed that someone had overlaid another Curtain... on top of mine."

Cold sweat trickled down Ijichi's temples. This was a serious incident. If anything had happened to the students, he would have been held accountable.

"This was entirely my fault. I'm willing to accept any punishment..."

Fortunately, Satoru Gojo didn't give him a hard time. After reassuring Ijichi and telling him to calm down, he slowly explained.

"It wasn't your fault. Asahi was there too. If even he didn't notice, whoever put up that Curtain must be incredibly skilled."

But despite what he said, was there really a Curtain Kamo Xu couldn't see through?

Had he failed to notice, or...

Satoru Gojo leaned against the wall, silently pondering who could act so brazenly right in front of Kamo Xu, a man fiercely protective of his own.

What a tough mystery, Geto...

Satoru Gojo and Masamichi Yaga stood in the corridor, talking as they looked out at the scenery.

"We still haven't found any trace of Geto. Maybe you and Kamo really were worrying over nothing." Masamichi Yaga stroked his neatly trimmed stubble, watching the students horse around as they headed back to their dorms after class.

"I checked the scene myself. There's no doubt about it. That was Geto's cursed residue," Satoru Gojo replied, his tone more serious than ever.

Seeing his attitude, Yaga became absolutely certain that what he said was true.

This guy was always spouting nonsense. He rarely spoke seriously, so the situation must really have been grave...

"Geto..."

Suddenly, the barrier around Jujutsu High rippled violently. Satoru Gojo, whose senses were the sharpest, immediately realized someone had intruded.

This presence... Suguru Geto!?

Beside him, Yaga roared too. "Fuck, we were just talking about him, and now he's here!"

"Notify every student ranked Semi-Grade 1 or above to assemble at the circular road by the main gate immediately! Prepare to engage!"

"And Kamo Xu! Get him over here too! Tell him to stop playing with those damn little steel balls!"

A birdlike cursed spirit descended from the sky, its enormous body blocking Okkotsu and his three companions as they left class.

Before Yuta Okkotsu could marvel at the giant bird's size, a narrow-eyed man in a monk's robe dropped from high above. The giant bird cursed spirit landed right after him, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"This place hasn't changed..." The man in the monk's robe raised a hand to shade his eyes and gazed at the familiar campus, struck by how quickly time had passed.

In the blink of an eye, the time had come to fight it to the death...

"Someone from the school? Doesn't look like it..." Maki Zenin unwrapped her cloth bundle and drew the cursed tool inside, her body tensing as she prepared to engage at any moment.

Panda silently put on his gloves, which bore cute panda designs. Toge Inumaki lowered his collar too, revealing the Cursed Speech User markings around his mouth.

Bleurgh...

The birdlike cursed spirit opened its mouth. Three more people were hiding inside-two girls and one... man?

The man looked so flamboyant that, if his bare upper body hadn't exposed those powerful muscles, it would have been hard to tell what gender he was.

What if they got it wrong and he identified as a Walmart shopping bag? They'd get labeled for that.

"Master Geto, so this is To... kyo? Eww, how tacky..."

One of the girls, slightly tanned and dressed in a flashy gyaru style, clambered out excitedly. But once she saw the scene before her, that excitement ebbed away like the tide.

The other girl had already stepped out of the bird's mouth. She looked helplessly at her blunt sister. "Nanako, be polite..."

"Huh? You think so too, don't you, Mimiko?"

"Enough. Hurry up and get down!" The person who was presumably a man pinched his chin as he spoke, seeing that the girl still hadn't come down.

"Aren't you cold?" Nanako quipped, looking at the sultry-faced man wearing nothing but a ragged pair of pants.

If she hadn't heard they were coming to Tokyo, she would have preferred to stay inside the bird's mouth in weather this cold.

But once she came out, all she saw were three country bumpkins and a... panda?

"Oooooh, there's a panda! So cute!"

She raised her phone and snapped several pictures. Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all!

On Jujutsu High's side, Panda, Toge Inumaki, and Maki Zenin could tell these visitors meant trouble and immediately fired back.

"Hey, who the hell are you guys? If you're intruders, our great Lord Yuta won't let you get away with it!"

"Kelp!"

Yuta Okkotsu: ?

Bruh? Buddy? You're using me to start this fight?

Maki Zenin hadn't intended to join the nonsense, but since everyone else was pushing Okkotsu forward, she couldn't fall behind. She slung her sword over her shoulder. "You assholes had better crawl back where you came from, or you'll get pissed off and beaten up..."

"By Lord Yuta."

At the words "Lord Yuta," Inumaki and Panda immediately nodded along, one boy and one panda.

Okkotsu alone was left standing there, utterly bewildered.

Yuta Okkotsu: Huh, huh, huuuuh????

While the Jujutsu High students were still shouting, Suguru Geto moved.

He warmly clasped both of Yuta Okkotsu's hands and greeted him enthusiastically before the boy could react.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Okkotsu. My name is Suguru Geto."

So fast! I couldn't even see him move. When did he get there?

After a brief daze, however, Okkotsu's innate people-pleasing instincts kicked in, and he politely returned Suguru Geto's greeting.

"H... hello."

But Suguru Geto's attention wasn't on the conversation. His grip on the boy's hands subtly tightened.

Cursed energy. Such immense cursed energy!

That dark curse, that tremendous power he could sense through these hands!

How... exquisite~

"You possess truly exceptional power..."

Suguru Geto opened one eye and smiled, intoxicated.

"I believe great power should be put to proper use, in service of a truly great undertaking."

"Have you ever questioned the world as it is now?"

Huh?

Yuta Okkotsu was puzzled by this stranger's question. Why was a man he'd just met suddenly asking him what he thought of the world?

But Suguru Geto paid no attention to what Okkotsu might be thinking and continued on his own. "The strong contributing to the weak-isn't that a contradiction?"

"How lamentable! What a tragedy!" Gesticulating wildly, he spoke in an exaggerated tone, his words making little sense, and draped an arm around Yuta Okkotsu's slender body.

That made Yuta Okkotsu pause. Somehow, in this man before him...

He saw a hint of Gojo-sensei?

"This plainly forces humanity to stagnate, severing the path of evolution with its own hands. Absurd!"

"Humanity must reassess its survival strategy and take a genuine step forward for our collective evolution!"

With that, Suguru Geto turned to Yuta Okkotsu, his eyes sincere.

"So, I'd like to ask you a favor..."

Hearing the word "favor," Yuta Okkotsu thought that perhaps this man wasn't actually a bad person. He asked Suguru Geto what help he needed.

Geto's smile broadened. His lips curved as he spoke in a kindly tone... and uttered something horrifying.

"I'd like you to help me... kill every Non-Sorcerer and create a glorious world populated only by true humans!"

What...

The hell...

Was this guy talking about?

"Would you mind... not filling my student's head with those anti-human ideas?" A voice interrupted Suguru Geto's drivel.

He glanced back to find white hair and a bizarre getup.

And that hairstyle, forced straight upward by the bandages around his eyes, looked just like a brush...

Suguru Geto fell silent for a moment. Had this guy regressed? Why did he look so ridiculous?

But he quickly broke into a smile and greeted the old friend he hadn't seen in so long. "Satoru~ Long time no see."

Then he looked at the crowd from Jujutsu High behind Satoru Gojo. There were plenty of familiar faces: Kento Nanami, Riko Amanai, and others he'd met before... except that guy.

Kamo Xu wasn't there.

That allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.

If that kid had been here too, he would have had to use his Maximum Technique ahead of schedule today.

His gamble had paid off. Although Kamo Xu hadn't sided with him, he hadn't chosen Jujutsu High either.

That deeply loyal guy really didn't want to kill him...

After looking around once more to confirm he truly wasn't there, Geto continued with renewed arrogance.

"I heard this year's students were exceptional. So you're the one teaching them: a Special Grade cursed human, a mutated cursed corpse, a descendant of Cursed Speech Users..."

"And~"

Finally, his gaze drifted toward Maki Zenin. His formerly benevolent smile suddenly twisted into something vicious, disgusted, and irritated, as though he'd seen some revolting creature he wanted to kill immediately. "The Zenin Clan's failure."

Maki Zenin instantly exploded. "You motherfucker!"

She raised her sword to cut down the charlatan, but Suguru Geto didn't take her seriously at all. "Watch your mouth. Monkeys like you have no place in the future I envision..."

Smack!

Suguru Geto froze. Pain stung the back of his hand-the hand he'd rested on Yuta Okkotsu's shoulder had been slapped away.

He looked at the boy in surprise. Anger showed on Okkotsu's face, and though his voice was timid, it carried unprecedented seriousness.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're saying, Mr. Geto, but I can't help someone who insults my friends."

Despite having his hand knocked away, Suguru Geto wasn't angry. Instead, he apologized to the boy. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

His expression remained sincere, but this time no one believed his bullshit.

Satoru Gojo stepped between them, separating Suguru Geto from Yuta Okkotsu, and faced the man who had once been his friend and was now his enemy.

"So? Did you come here just to say all that?"

"Of course not." Suguru Geto smiled and tucked his hands into his wide sleeves, looking cheerfully at the strongest.

The cursed energy within both men churned as they guarded against a sudden attack from the other.

By now... a wall stood between them.

There was a window in that wall, but beyond calling to each other from afar, neither could get through.

The wall wasn't thick. Either could easily break it down and step into the other's world. But that wall was called conviction, principle, choice...

Neither of them... could cross it.

"I'm here to declare war," Suguru Geto said.

He stopped looking at Satoru Gojo, almost as though avoiding him, and pulled his trademark smile into place as he faced everyone from Jujutsu High.

"December twenty-fourth, at sunset."

"We will hold the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons in Shinjuku and Kyoto. Naturally, the order will be to kill everyone we encounter."

"Let us... curse to our hearts' content!"

Everyone watched the raving madman with tense expressions, bracing for disaster. He had chosen such densely populated places for a massacre!

That bastard!

"Ah! Master Geto, that shop's sale is about to end! We have to hurry!"

Interrupted, Suguru Geto instantly dropped his crazed expression, as though it had never existed.

"Is it that late already?" he said. Thinking it over, he realized he had indeed wasted too much time and decided not to linger. Family came first, after all.

"Sorry, Satoru. They've been pestering me to take them for crepes. I have to go."

He turned to leave.

Satoru Gojo's face darkened. For Jujutsu High's sake, he issued a threat. "You think you can get away?"

Roar!!!

A cursed spirit erupted from underground-the very one that had once sent Toji Fushiguro flying with a single punch.

At the same time, countless weak cursed spirits swarmed around the students. Danger closed in from every direction!

Satoru Gojo was "stopped" on the spot, unable to continue pursuing Suguru Geto.

Geto, meanwhile, had no desire to say anything more. He cast a pained glance at the cursed spirits he was abandoning, silently calculated the further loss to his fighting strength, and left.

Leaving Satoru Gojo alone...

Alone... watching his friend depart.

If I were you, wouldn't even my impossible fantasy seem achievable?

Those words... became a curse that tormented him for the rest of his life.