The weak, the strong, and the dead

The ground was cold. The blood was cold.

When Megumi Fushiguro and Junpei carried Ino out of the Veil and arrived as promised at the overpass rendezvous point Ijichi had established earlier, all they found was a scene of devastation.

"Mr. Ijichi..."

Junpei clenched his fists anxiously. Of all the Assistant Supervisors at Jujutsu High, he was closest to Ijichi.

He hoped nothing terrible had happened to his senior, but the blood before him, already beginning to congeal, weighed heavily on his heart.

"Someone's hunting unarmed Assistant Supervisors around the perimeter."

Megumi Fushiguro saw through their intent at a glance-this was no spur-of-the-moment attack, but an organized, deliberate slaughter.

Assistant Supervisors had virtually no combat ability. Even a good man like Ijichi, who trained hard and did everything he could to become a sorcerer, was only at the level of a semi-Grade 4 Sorcerer...

"Junpei, check their locations. See which Assistant Supervisors are still moving."

"Go help them. Don't get caught up in fighting. If you can get them out, do it immediately."

"I need to meet up with Itadori. I can't leave him to go to his death alone!"

Megumi Fushiguro patted Junpei's shoulder and handed him the sword-shaped Cursed Tool he carried. Then, his face dark with fury, the boy headed back into the depths of the Veil.

He couldn't let Mr. Ijichi's sacrifice be in vain.

He had to work with everyone to rescue Gojo!

"Nitta, stop."

Meanwhile, the Assistant Supervisor Nitta and Kugisaki, who had also come looking for Ijichi, stopped on a street outside the Veil.

A mocking laugh, thick with leering amusement, drifted out of the distant darkness. Beneath the flickering streetlights, Kugisaki spotted a rather scrawny figure:

"Wow~ A girl in a suit-"

"This is great~ It's been nothing but gross men along the way. I was getting so sick of them~"

The speaker was small and pale, with long blond hair tied in a side ponytail that hung behind his neck. He looked like some street punk with an alternative fashion sense.

His purple eyes roamed up and down Kugisaki and Nitta as he licked the corner of his mouth. The three pinkish-purple inverted triangle markings beneath each eye stood out sharply under the lights.

"Who's this exhibitionist?"

Kugisaki mocked the man's outfit: a loose black one-shoulder top left his right shoulder bare, paired with a short sword whose hilt was a purple-black demonic hand. This guy who had suddenly appeared struck her as effeminate, yet possessed of a sly cruelty.

"Nitta, hide somewhere. I'll take care of him."

Joking aside, judging by the cursed energy emanating from him and his bloodstained blade, Kugisaki was certain he was a Curse User working for Suguru Geto.

To keep the defenseless Nitta from being caught in the crossfire, Kugisaki took the initiative, attacking with her hammer and nails.

He doesn't look strong, and his movements aren't particularly quick.

Following her instincts as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Kugisaki assessed his appearance and quickly fired three nails, using the opening as he dodged to close the distance.

But faced with the incoming nails, he made two moves in succession that caught Kugisaki off guard:

He hurled the blade with the purple-black demonic hand straight at them, intercepting all three flying nails.

Now unarmed and empty-handed, Haruta Shigemo showed no fear of the hammer-wielding Kugisaki and ran straight toward her.

"You threw away your weapon and you're still charging me? Think you can look down on me?!"

Kugisaki frowned and fired another three nails at Haruta's face. But this time, to her surprise, he merely tilted his head slightly and easily avoided the nails that should have struck him.

"Hah!"

With the distance closed, Kugisaki gave a sharp cry, raised her hammer, and swung it straight at his face.

But Haruta proved far more flexible than she had imagined-with a twist of his waist and a backward lean, he effortlessly evaded the blow.

"Quit running! Hold! Still! Right! Now!"

Kugisaki attacked with every pause in her words. Yet for some reason, her hammer only grazed past his body each time, every strike avoided through Haruta's extraordinary "luck."

After that flurry of attacks, Kugisaki hadn't landed a single hit on Haruta, while he had severely drained her stamina.

"Oh? You didn't hide? Interesting, very interesting!"

Scurrying toward the cultural arcade nearby, Haruta Shigemo saw through Nitta's plan-

She had never intended to hide and wait for Kugisaki's fight with him to end. She meant to use the arcade as cover, escape through the emergency exit to the east, and pass on information.

"Running? Where do you think you can go?!"

In front of the escalator, Nitta lay helpless on the ground. Haruta caught up and drove a vicious kick into her stomach.

With the tendons in her ankle already slashed by his blade, she had even less strength to stand now. She was kicked into the foot of a wall like a soccer ball, clutching her stomach and gasping for breath.

"You bastard!"

Kugisaki strode forward and tossed even more nails into the air, ready to fire-

If aimed shots can't hit this guy, I'll overwhelm him with numbers and block every escape route!

Haruta Shigemo moved.

Faced with the barrage of nails Kugisaki fired at him, he simply flung his demonic-hand sword away and spread his arms wide, welcoming this "baptism."

The densely packed nails whistled past, slipping through the gaps around his body. Under Kugisaki's incredulous gaze, Haruta evaded her indiscriminate barrage without so much as a scratch...

"How is that poss-"

Before Kugisaki could finish, a sudden pain tore through the flesh of her back-

The demonic-hand sword Haruta had thrown had somehow circled behind her, striking in the instant she froze.

This custom Cursed Tool, made by Juzo Kumiya, possessed a highly unusual trait-the sword could move freely like a living creature. Without Haruta needing to approach in person, it could launch surprise attacks from directions his opponent would never expect.

And Kugisaki's assessment had been correct: Haruta had very little strength. That was why Juzo Kumiya had made the weapon exceptionally light, even enabling the demonic hand to grip Haruta's palm on its own for greater friction...

So when the demonic-hand sword returned to Haruta's hand, that was when he was at his strongest.

"Hehe~ Die~!"

Haruta grinned viciously and swung his blade at point-blank range, but this time, it was his attack that suddenly missed.

"Moon Dregs."

A cold voice rang out. The instant Haruta turned toward the sound, several sticky, venomous tentacles struck him squarely in the chest.

A jellyfish-shaped [shikigami] abruptly appeared beside Haruta and Kugisaki. As the powerful blow sent Haruta flying into a nearby wall, the boy who had finally arrived in time could at last brace himself against the wall and catch his breath...

"You're..."

Kugisaki looked at the boy standing beside the emergency exit, leaning against the wall and breathing hard.

He was certainly wearing a Jujutsu High uniform, but she had never seen him before.

Very soon, however, the appearance of another figure dispelled her doubts entirely-

A tall, lean, middle-aged man, a mature and dependable adult-

Grade 1 Sorcerer, Kento Nanami-

Was now striding toward them in fury!!