A gathering of the worthy

" The intel was wrong..."

"Mai..."

"How is this guy a [Mob] at all!!!"

This is bad! Kasumi Miwa screamed inwardly.

Her body slammed hard into the ground and rolled, and Maki snatched the bent katana from her hand.

"Hey, hey, hey! You can't lose focus in a fight!!"

The enlarged toy hammer smashed into Momo Nishimiya's cheek. As Kugisaki's heavy blow sent her flying, this ostensibly two-on-two fight was effectively over...

"Tch... That Cursed Speech User is still in the corner, and my broken broom can't move at high speed..."

Momo Nishimiya struggled to get up. They called it a two-on-two fight, but with neither their condition nor their weapons in their favor, they had to drag their battered bodies through the fight while watching out for Inumaki's surprise attacks and attempts to immobilize them...

So while it was called two-on-two, it was actually two-on-three.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three gunshots prolonged a fight that had already been decided.

Three rubber bullets flew out from between the branches and struck Kugisaki squarely in the neck, briefly leaving her unable to move...

"That must be her..."

Catching the unconscious Kugisaki, Maki quickly reached Momo Nishimiya and took away the two broken halves of her broom.

Without her cursed tool, neither she nor Kasumi Miwa posed a threat worth factoring into the fight...

Which meant that next...

It would be one-on-one.

"It's almost time."

The fight between Maki and Mai had only just begun, but Hajime Kashimo's fight with Kyoto Jujutsu High was already over.

Before long, the special assault organized by Kenjaku would begin.

This battle would be a turning point for quite a few people, a crucial opportunity for many to grow...

But to Hajime Kashimo, it held little significance.

Rather than intervene in the Jujutsu High students' growth, he preferred to head to the other side of the High School and reduce the sorcerers' casualties.

So Hajime Kashimo darted outside the Hunting Area without hesitation, raised his hand toward the crow overhead, and announced his [Forfeit].

Mei Mei's cursed technique had not captured his attack on the Kyoto team, so from Kyoto's perspective, Hajime Kashimo had most likely withdrawn because of his lack of strength or his cowardice.

Only Satoru Gojo could tell that Hajime Kashimo's action had a very deliberate purpose...

What is he trying to do, dropping out at a time like this...?

Satoru Gojo's inward question was interrupted by the whoosh of a flame igniting.

At the very moment Hajime Kashimo forfeited, a change appeared in the paper talismans on the nearby noticeboard used to monitor cursed spirit exorcisms...

A talisman marked "Grade 4" burst into red flames, indicating that Tokyo Jujutsu High had exorcised a cursed spirit.

His azure eyes turned toward Yoshinobu Gakuganji, whose lips were twitching slightly. Satoru Gojo found the man's expression a little strange-

Tokyo Jujutsu High had only exorcised two grade 4 cursed spirits so far. Kyoto still had a chance to catch up.

So why did Yoshinobu Gakuganji look so grave and displeased?

"How could it... be exorcised? Is Sukuna's vessel that strong? Or did Todo betray us..."

Yoshinobu Gakuganji clenched his withered fingers. He sensed the paper talisman tucked against his chest gradually crumbling into smoke and ash-

To target Sukuna's vessel, he had specifically instructed Noritoshi Kamo to use a controlled [Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirit] to help eliminate Yuji Itadori.

But now, this grade 1 cursed spirit and a grade 4 cursed spirit had been exorcised at the same time, and neither exorcism involved cursed energy from Kyoto Jujutsu High...

That meant there had to be a sorcerer on the Tokyo Jujutsu High team with semi-grade 1 strength...

If that was truly the case, then the mission to kill Yuji Itadori could already be declared a failure...

"Don't look so serious, old man! The Kyoto students still have a chance to turn things around. I've got high hopes for them too!"

Satoru Gojo teased Yoshinobu Gakuganji with a smile. Neither of them knew that the one who had exorcised that grade 4 cursed spirit and that semi-grade 1 cursed spirit was not actually a Tokyo Jujutsu High student...

In fact...

They were not even a jujutsu sorcerer.

"Salmon roe."

The cursed spirit's mangled head rolled like a ball to Toge Inumaki's feet.

Faced with the pale figure that suddenly emerged from behind the trees, Toge Inumaki immediately put distance between them without the slightest hesitation.

The oppressive presence this figure gave off...

There was no doubt about it.

[Special Grade].

"Huh? All of them were exorcised?!"

Crimson flames burned every paper talisman on the noticeboard to ashes.

Although Satoru Gojo would have loved to say this was the result of his beloved students' hard work, the problem was that unregistered cursed energy also produced red flames.

"There's an intruder."

An ocher Curtain appeared in the sky without warning, drawing every student's attention.

Neither Tokyo Jujutsu High nor Kyoto Jujutsu High had received any notice that a Curtain would be lowered during this Goodwill Event.

Everyone therefore realized at once that something was wrong.

The students of both Jujutsu High schools set aside their hostility toward one another and turned to face their common enemy...

For them, this would be an extraordinarily grueling battle-

Hajime Kashimo, of course, was an exception.

"Hanami, Mahito, Jogo... And what was the other one's name again?"

Hajime Kashimo rapidly approached Jujutsu High's sorcerer training grounds. Mentally assessing the detailed intelligence he had obtained from Mechamaru and recalling each special grade cursed spirit's abilities from Guixu Ying's influence, he established an order of priority for the targets he needed to confront.

Although Mahito, who possessed [Idle Transfiguration], was powerful in one-on-one combat and had unusual mechanics, he lacked the ability to inflict mass casualties in a short period of time.

Hanami, the [Will of the Forest], was already facing Megumi Fushiguro, Inumaki, and Noritoshi Kamo. Todo and Itadori would later give Hanami an even tougher fight, so there was no need to worry about that either.

Dagon, the [Fear of the Ocean], was still only a cursed womb and had not even directly participated in this assault, so even basic surveillance was unnecessary.

That left one special grade cursed spirit capable of both causing widespread death and destruction and single-handedly wiping out the team of jujutsu sorcerers arriving as reinforcements. The answer was obvious...

[Special Grade Cursed Spirit: Jogo]

Although later reports indicated that all the jujutsu sorcerer casualties Jujutsu High suffered during this operation were the work of "Mahito" alone.

In reality, the only reason they were determined to have been killed by Mahito was that their appearances had been distorted by the alteration of their souls.

Even Shoko Ieiri had failed to discover through autopsy that these abnormally swollen, completely mutated bodies had actually been scorched by intensely hot flames before death...

Jogo dealt the devastating blows, while Mahito finished them off and cleaned up.

Their seamless cooperation successfully concealed the fact that another special grade cursed spirit had also participated in the assault...

Although he did not want to admit it.

Hajime Kashimo had to concede that even though these special grade cursed spirits claimed to have no interest in their "own kind" and not to care about them at all, their actions showed them constantly looking out for one another...

Just like Jogo, who stubbornly insisted he did not want to take part in this assault...