Suguru Geto

Kaneki wanted to slip into the shadows.

His cursed technique had already been exposed, so there was no point hiding it anymore!

However.

Instead of sinking into the shadows, he slowly floated upward, defying the law of gravity.

"This is..."

Kaneki's heart lurched.

Kenjaku deftly dodged the ranged attacks and answered with a smile, "Kaori Itadori's Anti-Gravity Cursed Technique. You know about it, don't you?"

Then.

He softly intoned, "Cursed Technique Reversal-Gravity."

As he began chanting, Kaneki started falling toward the ground.

At that moment.

Kenjaku raised his right hand high, then slammed it against the back of his left hand as the final word left his lips!

He used the same move on Kaneki that he had used against Yuki Tsukumo.

Smack!

Boom!

A crisp slap and a thunderous crash rang out in succession.

Thick clouds of dust billowed outward, obscuring everyone's vision.

As though he could see through the dust, Kenjaku remarked, "Someone with a little skill has shown up..."

As he spoke.

An enormous palm emerged from a rift in the space behind Kenjaku and slammed forward.

Before the palm had even finished descending.

It blew away the thick dust, revealing Kusakabe and Utahime standing in front of Kaneki.

Utahime was unharmed.

Kusakabe had blocked with his sword.

Blood covered his face.

His legs were bent in a squat, and a deep crater lay beneath his feet.

Seeing the enormous palm descend.

Kusakabe's expression changed sharply, and he shouted, "Run!"

He did not need to tell them.

The other two had already started fleeing the moment they saw the enormous palm coming down.

All three narrowly escaped the slap.

That strike.

Also put an end to Ken Kaneki's plan to escape through the shadows.

Everyone saw a massive cursed spirit resembling an elephant appear, sheltering Kenjaku beneath it.

"This special grade cursed spirit."

Kenjaku looked at Kaneki and asked with a smile, "You recognize it, don't you?"

"A curse born of an Asian deity, capable of removing [all obstacles]."

Of course Kaneki recognized it.

This cursed spirit's true name was unknown, but Jujutsu Kaisen fans called it the Elephant God.

It had an elephant's head, a human body, and four arms.

Kusakabe and the others all looked grim upon hearing that.

They immediately realized that the special grade cursed spirit before them had a conceptual ability.

Now.

Kusakabe's New Shadow Style might not work.

The New Shadow Style.

Was a means of survival for sorcerers without cursed techniques.

It was a school of jujutsu founded by the sorcerer Ashiya Sadatsuna during the Heian era.

Its original purpose was to protect the weak who lacked cursed techniques from curses.

At its core was Simple Domain, also known as the domain of the weak.

It could neutralize the guaranteed-hit effect of an opponent's domain.

Kusakabe.

His full name was Atsuya Kusakabe.

Satoru Gojo, Kento Nanami, Mei Mei, and others considered him the strongest Grade 1 Sorcerer outside the Three Great Families.

After all.

He had no innate cursed technique.

He had reached that level through the New Shadow Style alone, which was enough to show just how proficient he was in it.

Take that away from him.

And Kusakabe had no way to fight.

Whoosh!

Nearby, Noritoshi Kamo fired several more arrows at Kenjaku, hoping to test the cursed spirit's technique.

However.

Kenjaku did not even look.

The Elephant God above him merely lifted its thick, prayer-bead-adorned palm, and the incoming arrows stopped flying toward their target.

Instead.

They changed direction and began floating upward.

Then...

Kaneki, Kusakabe, and Utahime all began floating helplessly into the sky.

Unlike Kusakabe and Utahime, however, Kaneki drifted toward Kenjaku.

In an instant!

Kaneki came up with a countermeasure.

-Summon the untamed monster!

"Furube, yurayura." Kaneki clenched both fists and recited the sacred chant to summon Mahoraga.

However.

Kenjaku showed no reaction to this, nor did he try to stop him.

He simply.

Watched him with a smile.

Kaneki immediately sensed something was wrong.

Sure enough, even after he finished the chant, he failed to summon Mahoraga.

"Looks like..."

Kenjaku smiled and pointed at the Elephant God behind him. "You still don't understand it well enough..."

Hearing that.

Kaneki immediately understood.

Had it treated his ritual to summon Mahoraga as an obstacle and removed it?!!!

This...

Was a conceptual cursed technique!

As though he had read his mind, Kenjaku said, "It isn't as powerful as you think, but interfering with you is well within its capabilities."

After all.

It had only been five hours since Kaneki awakened his cursed technique.

Even without any interference.

With his rudimentary control over cursed energy, Kaneki would have struggled to summon Mahoraga.

As Kenjaku spoke.

Kaneki continued drifting helplessly toward him.

"Your greatest mistake," Kenjaku said as he watched him, "was failing to stop me from taking over Suguru Geto's body."

"Dumbass!"

Kaneki could not hold back the curse.

He enunciated it perfectly!

In terms of age, he was a little younger than Itadori-exactly nine months younger.

And Suguru Geto?

He had spent ten years as a curse user.

When he defected from Jujutsu High at the end of 2007 and became a curse user, how old had Kaneki been?

Four, at most.

Besides.

He had been a "monkey"!

Never mind whether he could even travel freely at that age.

Even if he had gone to the Time Vessel Association, they would have attacked him, a "monkey," before he could get a word out!

How could he dare take that gamble?

He could have gone if he had awakened his cursed technique, but the whole problem was that he had not!

His only chance to intervene had been Christmas Eve, December 24, 2017.

The day of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

He had gone to Shinjuku to find Satoru Gojo.

He had made it there, only to be stopped by the police, and his backup plan had failed to go live.

He had paid.

To have the material he prepared in advance played on a giant 3D LED screen.

But.

For some unknown reason, the content had never been shown.

His money had been refunded, too.

As for.

Going to Jujutsu High?

Even now, he still could not find its location.

It was not on any map, either.

The original story had at least specified where Kugisaki's grandmother lived, and he had spent a long time asking around there before finally meeting her in person.

Hearing that.

Kenjaku's expression turned cold.

The Elephant God behind him seemed to sense his anger and slammed both hands toward Ken Kaneki!

Just as Ken Kaneki was about to be crushed into a pulp, Itadori's heart-wrenching scream still echoed in his ears.

At that critical moment.

A long, white, serpent-shaped shikigami with clearly defined joints shot toward the Elephant God like a spear.

Though launched later, the spear reached its target first.

It pierced the cursed spirit's chest before its palms could fully close around Kaneki.

Squelch!

Blood sprayed out like a fountain.

The cursed technique was interrupted as well.

Kaneki began falling toward the ground, while the shadows beneath him churned like spring water.

As soon as Kaneki landed.

He could use the momentum of his fall to slip swiftly into the shadows.

Kenjaku's face darkened.

But he did not give Kaneki a chance to escape.

As he raised his hand, an extremely small vortex formed in his palm, countless cursed spirits intertwining and fusing together within it.

Seeing this.

Kaneki's expression tightened.

He desperately twisted his body in midair, trying to keep it from striking his abdomen or head.

Cursed energy originated in the abdomen.

Reverse Cursed Technique, meanwhile, was activated by the brain.

As long as neither was destroyed, his knowledge of how Reverse Cursed Technique worked would give him a chance to reproduce Satoru Gojo's "return from the dead"!

The next second!

Kenjaku fired an extraordinarily dense blast of cursed energy!

The blast tore straight through the left side of Kaneki's torso, obliterating his left arm along with it.

The sight.

Closely resembled Toji Fushiguro's fatal injury.

Only the area destroyed was not quite as large.

Then, despite his grievous injuries, Kaneki managed to slip into the shadows and vanished completely.

"Was I too late..."

Yuki Tsukumo spoke with a grim expression.

In contrast, Kenjaku wore a delighted smile. "Yes... you almost made it in time."

No sooner had he finished speaking.

The shikigami Yuki Tsukumo had hurled.

-Garuda.

Suddenly moved on its own, lashing out at Kenjaku and the special grade cursed spirit whose body was regenerating.