An unplanned variable

"An emergency? We'll head over right now."

Inside the training hall, the two Grade 2 Sorcerers sparring with wooden training weapons set off almost as soon as they received the message.

As sorcerers kept on standby at Jujutsu High, their duty was to respond to all kinds of emergencies.

"The barrier technique failed? Sounds like there's an intruder."

Standing six foot three and packed with muscle, the Grade 2 Sorcerer who had put on his uniform first typed on his phone, asking the supervisor outside for details while consulting his companion, who was still tying his shoes.

He was hardly surprised by an emergency at the Goodwill Event.

Before becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, he had always worked as a fitness instructor.

Although that dull, tedious job had nourished his body, his soul had never stopped yearning for more.

That was why his muscular physique, combined with the defense-focused [Steel Wall] cursed technique he had awakened, had put him on the same footing in just six months as the Grade 2 Sorcerer beside him, who had been working for two years.

"No idea. Maybe one of the cursed spirits they released escaped the barrier. Makes sense they'd call us in to keep it from wrecking the plants..."

"Wrecking plants?"

"I have no interest in that."

The low, hoarse voice belonged to none of the sorcerers or assistant supervisors in the building.

Yet it came from right behind the two men, picking up where the crouching sorcerer had left off...

"What..."

The muscular sorcerer holding the phone turned toward the voice.

But before his head had even turned halfway, a rough, inhuman hand clamped over his face.

Whoosh-BOOM!!!

A brief, violent torrent of molten flame erupted from Jogo's palm. Scorching air tore through the atmosphere with a piercing shriek. A blinding flash followed, and the deafening blast of igniting flames robbed the crouching sorcerer of both sight and hearing before he could understand what had happened.

When he rubbed his eyes, channeled cursed energy to strengthen his body, and stood up, he turned to see nothing but a charred human body, half its torso blackened and smoke rising from every inch of it, crashing heavily to the floor with a dull thud...

Dead.

A Grade 2 Sorcerer had died, just like that.

The one-eyed humanoid cursed spirit standing before him, not even half his height, had taken the life of a jujutsu sorcerer who had exorcised countless cursed spirits with nothing more than a raised hand.

His vicious grin and casual flick of the wrist made it seem as though he had done this countless times and found nothing unusual about it.

"Damn you! You filthy-"

Drawing the cursed tool dagger at his waist, the Grade 2 Sorcerer neither retreated in fear nor begged for mercy. In the cramped changing room, he poured all his cursed energy into the blade's tip and launched a desperate attack at Jogo, less than two meters away.

But as his dagger drew closer, all this experienced Grade 2 Sorcerer saw in Jogo's eye was utter contempt and mockery...

That eye, that expression...

It was as though Jogo was mocking his decision as the most mistaken, most foolish choice he could have made-and the one least likely to succeed...

A sudden surge of heat struck the Grade 2 Sorcerer's right cheek.

At some point, the metal locker beside him had melted, warped, and cracked under intense heat. A spore clung to it, writhing and breathing like a plant, its shell constantly venting scalding air as it waited, poised to strike at Jogo's command.

"You're still useful. Tch."

Jogo clicked his tongue in displeasure and slightly bent his two raised fingers. Under his control, the spore containing compressed molten fire opened a tiny slit and attacked...

Pff-

The sputtering sound of something melting and vaporizing echoed through the changing room.

Before the Grade 2 Sorcerer could even see what had happened, his entire knife-wielding arm vanished into smoke within a pillar of flame powerful enough to slice the whole changing room in half...

Whoosh-fwoosh-

The burning spore dissolved into smoke and dust.

Under Jogo's manipulation, the remaining cursed energy magma turned into gas toxic to humans. His arm melted away and his voice raised in agonized screams, the Grade 2 Sorcerer never noticed the change in the air. His face flushed crimson as he dropped to both knees, losing control of his body...

"Fragile humans."

Jogo's huge, rough, scalding hand seized the helpless sorcerer by the neck. With a forceful movement of his shoulder, the floor beneath the kneeling sorcerer's knees cracked, driving shards of tile into his skin with wet sounds of tearing flesh.

Faced with a human a head taller than himself, Jogo chose the most humiliating, brutal way to destroy his pride.

He would readily kill ordinary people who could not control cursed energy.

But for jujutsu sorcerers, Jogo would not grant such simple "mercy."

Curses were curses precisely because they excelled at tormenting and toying with human hearts.

Trampling a jujutsu sorcerer's dignity was exactly what Jogo loved doing most...

"He's taking forever. Can't that guy move any faster?"

He walked out of the changing room. As agreed, Mahito was currently carrying out the mission to steal [Sukuna's Finger] and the [Cursed Womb: Death Paintings].

Until Mahito arrived to finish things up here, Jogo could only sit around, killing time in boredom...

"Shit. If that bastard breaks through the Curtain, we're all finished."

"Hanami, don't you die."

Through the skylight above the training hall, Jogo could see that the earthen-yellow Curtain covering the entire Goodwill Event competition grounds had fully descended.

He stood and waved his hand, planting several spore traps capable of firing enormous pillars of flame around the area. Judging by the time, the Grade 1 Sorcerer who had lost contact with the Grade 2 Sorcerers would arrive soon.

Although Jogo was confident he could defeat and kill his opponent, time was limited for this operation, and he had no specific information about the enemy's cursed technique.

So Jogo chose the safest-and most underhanded-approach...

"Ambush the reinforcements? Not bad, not bad."

"You're smarter than I expected. At least you're above the level of a five- or six-year-old."

A sudden fluctuation of cursed energy and a voice came from behind Jogo.

Just as Jogo had appeared behind those two Grade 2 Sorcerers, Hajime Kashimo had silently appeared behind him.

But...

Jogo was no Grade 2.

Jogo swiftly flipped his palm, and scorching flames bloomed in his hand-

The flames gathered far faster than he could speak.

Whoever stood behind him, as long as it wasn't Satoru Gojo, would first have to take the full explosive force of a fireball to the face...

The problem was that the answer came in the form of a close-range elbow strike.

Hajime Kashimo forced his way into the opening before the flames in Jogo's palm could close. His left arm, wrapped in blue-white arcs, smashed straight through the searing ball of fire that should have exploded.

Jogo's attack was broken by savage lightning and the tremendous force of an elbow driven into his chest. A dazzling flash of electric charge erupted at the point of contact, and his cursed spirit body was hurled backward, smashing through the training hall's sturdy brick wall...

"Damned jujutsu sorcerer..."

Jogo rolled to his feet amid the shattered bricks.

Killing intent gathered in his savage lone eye. He slammed both palms downward, and the ground abruptly swelled!

Three miniature volcanic vents burst through the floor. Magma surged like a living thing, turning half the training hall before him into a scorching hell!!!

He no longer held back or concealed his presence.

Jogo went straight for the kill. He intended to murder this jujutsu sorcerer who had dared hurt him before Satoru Gojo noticed and came over!

"A molten tsunami?"

An orange torrent of flame descended in an overwhelming wave, but Hajime Kashimo merely narrowed his eyes, not treating the scorching fire as a threat...

He could clearly see twelve flying insects in neat formation, concealed within the orange-red flames...

Those were Jogo's true killing move:

"Go, Flame Glint Bugs."

Sound waves arrived first, with explosions close behind.

The chain of explosions razed the entire training hall, sending smoke, dust, and flames billowing into the sky.

In the distance, Utahime, Satoru Gojo, and Yoshinobu Gakuganji all turned in unison toward the towering blaze behind them. Without question, none of the three knew what had happened...

But Satoru Gojo had fought Jogo before.

He pulled aside half his blindfold. Through his azure eyes, he recognized Jogo's cursed energy signature...

And...

"Dead?"

A column of black smoke poured from the volcanic opening atop Jogo's head as he breathed heavily.

The elbow strike had not been particularly powerful, but the electric arcs had thoroughly numbed his right arm.

The circulation and output of his cursed energy were noticeably obstructed. It seemed there were Grade 1 Sorcerers at Jujutsu High who could pose a threat to him.

"Suguru Geto's information was right after all. I underestimated these jujutsu sorcerers..."

Before Jogo finished speaking, a flash of lightning lit up the smoke.

Hajime Kashimo walked out of it unscathed.

Stimulated by electric charge, his speed had risen beyond human limits. Though the explosions had scorched several patches of his clothes, his skin and flesh remained untouched.

"A little pressure, but still not enough."

Hajime Kashimo rolled his neck, his expression so relaxed it was almost languid.

He had yet to get serious. The fight was only just beginning to warm up.

But when he looked at Jogo, his opponent no longer had any desire to fight.

"I won't forget you. I'll come back for your life."

Jogo stomped hard on the ground, sending a ring-shaped shock wave of magma spreading outward and forcing Hajime Kashimo to jump back and create distance.

Seizing that opportunity, Jogo had already formed a hand sign...

The air ignited.

Dozens of enormous fireballs fell from the sky like meteors, their light and heat threatening to consume everything.

Jogo had fused the broken bricks in the surrounding ruins into several meteor-like masses of varying sizes. In the time the shock wave bought him by flinging Hajime Kashimo away, he had already vanished into the smoke and dust...

He was not afraid of Hajime Kashimo.

But that did not mean he was not afraid of Satoru Gojo.

A disturbance this large was almost certain to draw Satoru Gojo's attention.

Although this could give Hanami more time to fight, the price might be Jogo's death at Satoru Gojo's hands...

Jogo did not dare gamble.

Even if the possibility were only one in ten thousand, he was unwilling to take that chance.

Because Satoru Gojo would turn that possibility into a hundred percent certainty...

"Quick to run, aren't you?"

Hajime Kashimo shrugged. He had originally wanted to force Jogo to use Domain Expansion and thereby draw out his own potential.

But clearly, his opponent was so terrified of someone at this school that he had no desire to keep fighting...

Still, this was fine too.

Moving swiftly to the rubble of the training hall, Hajime Kashimo rescued the dying Grade 2 Sorcerer from beneath a pile of bricks.

He had no power to bring back the dead.

But those who survived had to carry the will of the departed and keep moving forward.

That was Jujutsu High's school motto.

And it was why he had stepped in to save him.