Battle

They walked into the building.

Darkness surged in from every direction like water, engulfing them. Suguru Geto released a low-level cursed spirit that could emit light. A soft glow hovered above their heads, illuminating a few meters of the path ahead.

Cracks and holes covered the floor. Traces of illegible graffiti and slogans remained on the walls, ravaged beyond recognition by time and damp. The air smelled of mold, rust, and an indefinable rot.

Suguru Geto led the way, with Haibara following behind. Their footsteps echoed through the empty building.

The entrance to the second basement level lay on the eastern side of the building: a half-open iron door with a huge dent in it, as though something had slammed into it from inside.

Suguru Geto stopped before the door.

He could feel it.

Just beyond the door. The area his cursed spirits could not sense was right here, on the other side of the iron door, in the darkness, less than ten meters away.

It was waiting for them.

Suguru Geto took a deep breath, reached out, and pushed the door open.

Beyond it was a descending staircase. They went down one step at a time, and with every step, the air grew colder and heavier.

At the bottom of the stairs lay an enormous underground chamber.

Suguru Geto raised the glowing cursed spirit. Its light spread forward, illuminating the chamber.

Then he saw it.

The cursed spirit.

It had no fixed form. It resembled a mass of constantly churning black mist, contracting and swelling like a breathing heart. Things occasionally surfaced on it: faces, hands, eyes. Then they immediately dissolved, merging back into that chaotic darkness.

Objects lay scattered on the floor around it. Clothes, shoes, phones, and things Suguru Geto did not want to identify.

Those were the missing people.

Yu Haibara sucked in a sharp breath.

Suguru Geto heard a faint sound from behind him, like something being crushed. It was Haibara grinding his teeth.

The cursed spirit moved.

It had sensed their presence. The black mist began churning faster, and the faces and hands surfaced more frequently, more distorted, more agonized. Then it made a sound.

Not a roar or a howl, but something more terrible, like countless people weeping at once. The sound surged in from every direction, flooding their ears, burrowing into their bones, piercing their brains like needles.

Yu Haibara covered his ears, his expression twisting.

Suguru Geto did not move.

He stood beneath the glow, watching the cursed spirit, the churning darkness, the faces appearing and vanishing.

Suguru Geto reached down and drew the Cursed Sword at his waist.

"Haibara," he said calmly. "Get behind me."

Yu Haibara lowered his hands from his ears and moved behind Suguru Geto, his teeth clenched.

Suguru Geto raised his sword.

The black mist suddenly contracted, as though gathering strength, then lunged at Suguru Geto with incredible speed.

In that instant, Suguru Geto saw its true form.

Deep within the mist was a face.

Not a human face, not an animal's face, but something indescribable, pieced together from countless expressions of suffering. Those expressions kept shifting: anger, fear, sorrow, despair.

Special Grade.

A genuine Special Grade.

Suguru Geto swung his sword.

The blade sliced through the air. Cursed energy poured from its edge, forming a silvery-white arc that slashed into the black mist. A gap opened in the mist, but it immediately closed again, impossible to sever, like water.

It was too fast.

Before Suguru Geto could swing a second time, it was already upon him. The black mist spread open, ready to swallow him whole.

Suguru Geto leaped back, releasing three cursed spirits to shield him. The instant they touched the mist, all three vanished. They were not killed but "swallowed," sucked into the darkness without leaving a trace.

It was eating.

No, it was absorbing.

A thought flashed through Suguru Geto's mind. This cursed spirit's cursed technique was not merely "convergence," but also "devouring." It could absorb other cursed spirits' cursed energy and make them part of itself. That was how it had grown from an ordinary cursed spirit into a Special Grade in just a few months.

"Haibara, get back!" Suguru Geto shouted.

Yu Haibara had already drawn his own Cursed Tool, a short blade etched with simple runes. He did not retreat. Instead, he stood slightly behind Suguru Geto to one side and took a defensive stance.

After devouring the three cursed spirits, the mist grew a little larger. It churned more violently, the faces emerging from it clearer and more agonized. Then it lunged again.

Faster this time.

Suguru Geto had no time to dodge. He held his Cursed Sword across his body and formed a barrier of cursed energy before him. The instant the mist struck the barrier, he felt an enormous force slam into his chest, as though someone had smashed him with an iron hammer. He staggered back several steps, nearly falling.

Yu Haibara charged forward.

"Haibara!"

Haibara did not hear him. Or rather, he heard him but did not stop. He swung his short blade at the edge of the mist. The blade sliced through a small part of it, but that part immediately closed again, as though it had never been cut.

The cursed spirit turned toward Haibara.

Suguru Geto's heart skipped a beat.

He saw something he had only heard about, never witnessed himself. The black mist spread like an enormous hand, descending over Yu Haibara's head. Haibara stood there with his short blade raised, his expression not fearful, but defiant.

Unwilling to let it end like this.

Suguru Geto moved.

He did not even know how he moved. His body acted faster than his mind. Cursed energy erupted from his core, flooding every part of him like water bursting through a broken dam. He drew a second Cursed Sword from his waist and, holding one in each hand, rushed toward the mist with incredible speed.

He leaped.

In midair, he crossed his swords and poured every bit of cursed energy he could muster into their blades. Silvery-white light burst from their edges, illuminating the entire underground chamber.

He slashed downward.

Two streaks of blade light crossed into an X, cutting savagely into the center of the mist. Not its edges, not its surface, but the face pieced together from countless expressions. That was its core.

The cursed spirit let out a shrill sound that echoed through the underground chamber.

The mist began to unravel.

It split from the center like shattered glass, cracks spreading in every direction. The cursed energy it had devoured poured through those cracks, scattering into the air.

Suguru Geto landed, his swords planted in the floor to support his body. His breathing came fast, his heart pounded as though it might burst, and cursed energy churned wildly inside him.

The mist was still struggling.

It refused to dissipate. It contracted into a smaller, denser sphere, gathering all its remaining strength into its core. Then it lunged at Yu Haibara.

One final, desperate attack, meant to take him down with it.

Yu Haibara stood motionless. Not because he did not want to move, but because he could not. In its final moments, the cursed spirit had unleashed some kind of mental attack that left his body completely rigid.

Suguru Geto saw it.

He saw Yu Haibara's eyes. There was no fear in them, only a calm acceptance that bordered on relief.

No.

Suguru Geto said it in his mind.

No!

He pulled his swords from the floor and, using the last of his strength, rushed toward Yu Haibara.

He placed himself in front of Yu Haibara.

The condensed mist slammed into his chest.

Pain.

It felt as though something was tearing into him from within. In its final moments, the cursed spirit had injected itself into his body. Not parasitism, not possession, but a more complete, more terrifying fusion.

It was trying to become one with him.

Suguru Geto felt something eating away at his consciousness. The suffering of the people the cursed spirit had devoured flooded his mind. Every negative emotion erupted in the same instant.

He fell to his knees.

"Geto!"

Yu Haibara's voice came from far away, as though through a thick layer of water.

Then he heard another voice.

"Geto!"

Satoru Gojo's voice.

That voice was close and clear, cutting through all the chaos and darkness like a blade.

Suguru Geto raised his head.

He saw Satoru Gojo standing at the entrance to the underground chamber, his sunglasses already removed. His azure Six Eyes shone in the darkness like two burning stars. Suguru Geto had never seen that expression on Satoru Gojo's face.

Not anger, not fear, but cold killing intent.

Satoru Gojo extended his hand.

"[Blue]."

The word left his lips as softly as a sigh.

Then the world turned white.

Suguru Geto closed his eyes.

He felt something pulling at his body, like an invisible hand dragging him up from an abyss. That suffering, that despair, those remnants of the people the cursed spirit had devoured melted like snow in the white light.

He heard a voice.

It was low and deep, like the tolling of a bell.

"You can't die yet."

Suguru Geto opened his eyes.

He lay on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. Satoru Gojo's [Blue] had blasted an enormous hole through the roof of the underground chamber.

Yu Haibara knelt beside him, his face covered in tears.

"Geto! Geto! Don't die, don't die!"

Suguru Geto opened his mouth, wanting to say he was fine, but no sound came from his throat.

Satoru Gojo walked over and crouched beside him. Those azure eyes looked at him, his expression calm again.

"Geto," Satoru Gojo said softly, "you really are an idiot."

Suguru Geto looked at him, the corner of his mouth twitching.

He wanted to say, Yeah, I'm an idiot. I thought I could change everything.

But he had no strength to say anything.

He simply lay on the floor, looking at the sky through the hole that had been blasted open.

The sky was blue. Blindingly blue.

He heard an ambulance in the distance, heard Yu Haibara crying, heard Satoru Gojo talking to someone on the phone.

He closed his eyes.

Before his consciousness sank completely into darkness, he thought of two things.

First: Yu Haibara was still alive.

Second: the cursed spirit inside his body had not completely dissipated. Its remnants still lingered deep within his consciousness, like a dormant seed waiting for the right moment to sprout.

He did not know what that meant.

But he knew this was not over yet.