Like he'd lost his soul

Kyoto... was completely shrouded in blood.

The liquid churning across the ground, the mist filling the sky-it was all blood...

Kamo Xu stood alone at the very center of this hell, his head bowed.

The hand he had raised for Domain Expansion had quietly fallen at some point. He silently watched the blood on the ground barely reflect his own appearance, neither human nor ghost.

"How pathetic, [Yang Xu]."

As he spoke, his gaze met his own eyes in the reflection.

"You couldn't protect anything." He laughed, a harsh, hoarse sound squeezing out of his throat.

Everything he had changed, everything he could not change, became blades that pierced his heart.

Pain...

He wasn't sad, wasn't angry, no longer thought of changing anything.

Confusion, exhaustion, numbness...

He could no longer find any meaning in his existence. Everything would proceed "normally."

The wheels of fate rolled over his spine. At first, he had still been able to walk forward with his head held high.

But his mother was gone...

His will wasn't that strong. One insignificant setback, one sudden departure, was enough to bend his back.

"Useless..."

The domain dissipated, and the bloody mist filling the sky quickly condensed into a brief shower of blood.

He stood in the rain, splashes of blood staining his trouser cuffs, and tilted his face up to feel the drops strike it.

"It doesn't matter anymore. If that's how it is, I might as well defile this ridiculous plot with my own hands..."

I'll kill "Suguru Geto" myself and destroy his body...

I'll kill Mahito and make sure he never finds peace, not even in death...

I'll wipe out every cursed spirit and clear away every curse...

And the plot! All I have to do is kill every last main character, and then...

[Become an extraordinary jujutsu sorcerer.]

Kamo Xu fell silent. The killing intent that had suddenly surged within him died in an instant.

This was a binding vow-words Kamo Kimie had unconsciously spoken as she became a monster, words the blood-soaked man had engraved in his heart.

A curse had quietly descended upon him, but this was one of only two things his mother had left him.

His mother wouldn't want him to slaughter the innocent...

Kamo Xu laughed again. The wounds on his body began to heal, gradually restoring his flesh.

The eye that had been crushed in its socket grew back, but its color had changed completely.

It was no longer clear, shining black. Instead, it sat in its socket like a dull, blood-red gemstone.

His mismatched eyes made his face look utterly eerie, like a ghost drifting through the world.

Kamo Xu took a hair tie from inside his clothes. It was the one Kamo Kimie had used when she first tied his hair herself. Now... it was his turn to learn from his mother and take care of his own hair.

Slowly and methodically, he gathered his tangled hair and smoothed it out.

The process was slow and somewhat clumsy, but his trembling hands arranged the strands one by one until not a single hair was out of place.

He, who had always been impatient, suddenly found patience. He tied a ponytail, checked his reflection below, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Mom was right. This really does look much better."

He had to take care of his appearance. He couldn't keep dressing so shabbily.

He had to live a happy life, find a good girl to marry, eat properly, and become an extraordinary jujutsu sorcerer.

"Yes, I'll do it. I, [Yang Xu], swear."

Every cursed spirit in Kyoto had been slain. There was no reason to remain here.

He checked the obstruction in his cursed energy flow after ending his domain.

It didn't affect the blood controlled by his soul, so he condensed blood into a disc, stepped onto it, and slowly flew toward the Shinjuku battlefield.

He had cursed spirits to kill. They were all wonderful things that could help him become extraordinary...

"What! Kamo Xu left Jujutsu High without permission, then went to Kyoto and wiped out all the cursed spirits?"

Masamichi Yaga had been busy dealing with cursed spirits when he suddenly received a call from Kento Nanami.

He had never expected to hear such shocking news when he answered!

One person had annihilated every cursed spirit. If anyone other than Kento Nanami had told him, he would have thought it was a joke.

Kento Nanami couldn't help pressing a hand to his forehead, then pushed up his glasses with two fingers on the frame.

"Yes. That cursed technique and cursed energy were unmistakably Kamo Xu's. After arriving at the Kyoto battlefield, he suddenly opened an enormous domain that covered the entire city, then activated his cursed technique and exterminated every cursed spirit."

The mere memory of all those cursed spirits turning into ice sculptures and shattering made him shudder. If that attack had been used on people, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Also, for reasons unknown, Kamo Xu's emotional fluctuations are extreme, far beyond the normal range. He is currently heading to Shinjuku. Please be on your guard."

He truly was a dependable adult. In just a few sentences, he had conveyed everything he knew.

With his phone wedged between his shoulder and ear, Masamichi Yaga punched a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit flying before responding to Kento Nanami and acknowledging the warning.

For a little while now, these cursed spirits had suddenly become less troublesome. Previously, every move they made had been aimed at killing and fighting.

Now they were disorganized, and some had even begun quietly leaving.

Could Suguru Geto already have...

Never mind. He could leave that sort of thing to Satoru Gojo. First, he had to deal with these cursed spirits!

Just as Masamichi Yaga gathered cursed energy and prepared his next attack...

Everything suddenly changed!

An overwhelming crimson ocean surged through the entire city. Like wild horses charging forward, it stained him scarlet in an instant.

Was this... blood?

Masamichi Yaga: !

The instant the blood touched his body, he sensed a cold, sinister gaze lock onto him, as though it hovered directly overhead. He immediately froze, afraid to move.

Fortunately, that gaze passed in an instant. Yaga gasped for breath, finally understanding what Kento Nanami had meant by [extreme emotional fluctuations].

These weren't emotional fluctuations anymore. This was fucking extremism!

That dark, chilling sensation was even more terrifying than those special grade curses. What on earth had happened?

While his thoughts raced, the cursed spirits suddenly began exploding one after another, the blood shredding most of their flesh.

The weaker ones died on the spot. Those stronger ones that couldn't be dealt with immediately had their blood drained, then were finished off by a sequence of vaporization, heat loss, and freezing.

The cursed spirits... had all become debris scattered across the ground!

"That... that's it?" Yaga was so stunned he couldn't close his mouth. Everyone else was badly shaken, too.

Kamo Xu had done this alone?

That Grade 1 Sorcerer?

Even Satoru Gojo, the strongest, couldn't instantly kill an entire city's worth of cursed spirits!

Everyone instinctively looked up. A figure stood ramrod straight atop blood in midair, his outstretched hands forming the sign for Domain Expansion.

He was smiling, but even from so far away, his madness seemed to sting their skin.

Kamo Xu!

Seeing that the cursed spirits here had also been dealt with, the figure departed, heading toward the final destination-Jujutsu High.

"Hey, that was... a domain just now, right?"

"It was definitely a domain. An open domain. With strength like that, he absolutely qualifies as special grade!"

"That was terrifying. For a second, I thought a cursed spirit had locked onto me. I almost thought I was going to die..."

"Wait, hadn't he already ended his domain? Why wasn't his cursed technique burned out?"

Masamichi Yaga also watched his student's retreating back...

Asahi...

At Jujutsu High, Satoru Gojo had personally executed Suguru Geto after Yuta Okkotsu defeated him.

He couldn't put what he felt into words, but his students still needed him.

Suddenly, a streak of scarlet light descended right in front of him.

"Is it over?"

Satoru Gojo was somewhat surprised. He hadn't sensed Kamo Xu's cursed energy when he arrived earlier. So he had left Jujutsu High.

"It's over. Suguru Geto has already been..." Satoru Gojo's eyes dimmed, his voice heavy.

"Where's the body?" Kamo Xu paid no attention to Satoru Gojo's feelings.

"Huh?" Satoru Gojo hadn't followed and voiced his confusion.

"Where's the body? I need to destroy it."

"What do you mean? What are you trying to do!" Satoru Gojo immediately realized something seemed wrong with the person before him. His clothes were in tatters, as though he had just been through a major battle, yet he had hardly used any cursed energy.

And his eyes had become strange. What flowed inside one of them...

Was unquestionably a curse!

"Asahi, you've been cursed. You..."

"I know. So where is Suguru Geto's body?"

A sudden chill ran down Satoru Gojo's back. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong with Kamo Xu.

What on earth had happened? Why did he suddenly look as though he'd lost his soul?