Star Rage

"Before that..."

Yuki Tsukumo asked, "I want to know what your goal is."

"To live."

Kaneki answered honestly, "To live without a care."

His goal wasn't complicated at all. He just wanted to live in this world without a care.

"Without a care..."

Yuki Tsukumo murmured.

Then she tore off her right arm. Blood sprayed as she handed the bloody limb to Kaneki.

"Thanks."

Kaneki thanked her.

He had only just taken it when he saw her severed arm begin regrowing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He hadn't even started eating yet.

The new arm had already begun to take shape.

Then...

Kaneki turned away, reinforced his mouth with cursed energy, and started taking huge bites.

To him, the bones were like cartilage.

They shattered with a single bite.

"My cursed technique..." Yuki Tsukumo flexed her newly regrown arm and asked, "You know about it, right?"

Kaneki swallowed the last mouthful, dry-heaved twice, and said, "[Star Rage]."

"It lets you give yourself virtual mass without putting too much strain on your body."

"You can also create a shikigami by turning your cursed technique into a cursed tool."

"That shikigami... is the only target besides yourself that you can apply the technique to."

The ability essentially let her imbue herself with imagined power.

For example...

It could turn an ordinary punch into a blow with the impact of a truck.

The increase in mass depended entirely on her own conscious will.

Her density increased.

But...

Her body's durability didn't increase along with it.

In simpler terms...

Star Rage could make you an excellent boxer, giving you a heavy punch that almost no one could withstand.

Almost.

It could make you unbeatable when it came to throwing punches.

Provided you didn't run into a broken defense like Satoru Gojo's.

Its only flaw was that the technique could only affect the user and the shikigami formed by turning the technique into a cursed tool.

If...

It could be used on surrounding objects...

Then this technique would be every bit as powerful as Limitless.

Verdict:

Maxed-out offense.

But no defense or ranged attacks.

Kaneki asked, "Can you summon a shikigami formed by turning a technique into a cursed tool whenever you want, just like with the Ten Shadows Technique?"

"That's right."

Yuki Tsukumo answered.

As she spoke...

Cursed energy surged, and a mechanical-looking, serpentine shikigami resembling a chain of vertebrae appeared out of thin air, slowly circling her.

"Then how do you create a shikigami by turning a technique into a cursed tool?" Kaneki asked, looking at [Garuda].

"I'll teach you later."

She looked at Kaneki and said, "Right now, what matters more is how much information you gave Kenjaku."

Kaneki began recounting everything.

Honestly...

He hadn't revealed much. Most of it had concerned Kenjaku himself.

For example...

How he would fight Fumihiko Takaba, then be killed by a single slash from Okkotsu.

Aside from that, there was Satoru Gojo dying at Sukuna's hands after being unsealed.

And Okkotsu taking over Gojo's body to fight Sukuna.

He had deliberately steered things toward the impression that Sukuna won in the end.

As for that...

Kenjaku had his own way of weighing things up.

He knew perfectly well that after Satoru Gojo's death, Jujutsu High's remaining forces weren't strong enough to oppose Sukuna.

And...

Kaneki was going to such lengths to save these people.

In Kenjaku's eyes, he was gathering as much fighting strength as possible to deal with Sukuna.

No matter how many there were...

They were still just a swarm of ants.

"If..."

After hearing him out, Yuki Tsukumo considered what Kenjaku might be thinking. "If it were me, I'd cut off every possibility of unsealing Satoru Gojo."

Without Satoru Gojo...

Nothing Jujutsu High tried would make any difference.

Kaneki nodded. "He only has two ways to make sure Satoru Gojo can never be unsealed."

"First, prevent Angel, who can extinguish all cursed techniques, from being reborn through incarnation."

[Incarnation].

It had been explained clearly in the notebook.

So...

He didn't explain it again. "As for the second..."

"Find Tengen and take the Back of the Prison Realm from her. It's essentially the back door. Once he has it, nothing we do will let us break the seal and release Satoru Gojo."

The place where the Prison Realm was kept would definitely change.

Even if it didn't...

They would still have a hard time diving eight thousand meters down into the Japan Trench.

"Most importantly..."

Kaneki looked at Yuki Tsukumo. "Tengen was already part of Kenjaku's plan."

"Finding Tengen won't be that easy for Kenjaku either, will it?" Yuki Tsukumo asked.

She had once been a Star Plasma Vessel.

She knew enough about Tengen.

"For anyone else, finding Tengen really wouldn't be easy," Kaneki said. "But..."

"For Kenjaku, it'll take a few hours at the earliest, or a few days at most."

In the original story...

Kenjaku hadn't taken long to infiltrate the Tombs of the Star Corridor.

"Then let's hurry and find Tengen."

Yuki Tsukumo stood as she spoke, grabbing Kaneki and preparing to leave.

She knew perfectly well...

Without Satoru Gojo, they were finished.

After all...

One of the most important methods of dealing with an Open-Barriers Domain was still in Satoru Gojo's hands.

Simply reversing the domain's internal and external conditions wouldn't hold it off for long.

"There's no rush."

Kaneki said, "Let's wait a little longer."

"For whom?" Yuki Tsukumo asked.

Kaneki answered slowly, "Yuta Okkotsu and Choso."

"I anticipated from the start that this might happen, so I had Yū Shinji call Okkotsu back before the Shibuya Incident."

With just the two of them...

Kenjaku might wipe them both out, just like in the original story.

"Choso?"

She knew who Okkotsu was, but she had never heard of Choso.

"Choso."

Kaneki said, "He's one of the [Death Painting Wombs]."

"On the way from the Secret Gate to the Tombs of the Star Corridor, there's a [Cursed Warehouse] where cursed tools and cursed objects are kept. The other [Death Painting Wombs] are stored there."

"He can sense their locations."

What he meant was...

Choso could lead them to the Tombs of the Star Corridor.

As he spoke...

He took out his phone and checked the time. "Unless something's gone wrong, Okkotsu should be here soon."

The moment he finished...

They both sensed an immense amount of cursed energy.

They turned to look.

Okkotsu appeared at the end of the road, wearing a white Jujutsu High uniform.

Behind him...

Stood Choso, his hair tied into two wildly spiking pigtails.

A moment later...

They reached the pair, and Okkotsu smiled as he greeted them.

"Ms. Tsukumo, Kaneki."

"You didn't tell Jujutsu Headquarters you were back, did you?" Kaneki asked.

"No..."

Okkotsu shook his head. "But..."

"With Jujutsu Headquarters' reach, it probably won't take them long to learn that I'm back in Japan."

"This is urgent."

"Let's find Tengen first."

Now that Yuta Okkotsu and Choso had arrived, Yuki Tsukumo interrupted the conversation and pulled the two newcomers along.

"If you have any questions, I'll explain on the way," Kaneki added from beside her.

Then...

The four of them headed toward the Cursed Warehouse with Choso guiding them.

On the way...

Kaneki focused on the key points as best he could, telling the newly arrived Okkotsu and Choso about the future he had seen.

As well as...

Their battle plan for when they encountered Kenjaku.

He had prepared two plans.

First: they reached the Tombs of the Star Corridor without encountering Kenjaku and successfully met Tengen.

Whether they had to trick her or rob her...

As long as they could get the Back of the Prison Realm from her, they would leave and let Tengen fend for herself.

"Leave her behind?"

Yuki Tsukumo was a little surprised to hear that.

She only knew Tengen was female because she had picked it up from Kaneki's pronunciation.

In Japanese...

"He" and "she"...

Were not only written differently, but pronounced completely differently too.