Mockery

A black afterimage shot straight out of a second-floor window of the unfinished building, like lightning tearing through the night!

It moved so fast.

It whipped up a terrifying force-twelve hurricane in its wake!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The special police officers at the front were swept clean off their feet before they could even see what it was!

Riot shields shattered in midair!

The windows of dozens of police cars exploded simultaneously under the sonic boom!

Crack! Crash!

Glass fragments rained down in a torrential shower!

"Aaaah!"

Screams and alarms rang out together!

"What's happening?! Open fire! Open fire!"

The special police captain roared frantically from the rear!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Countless bullets sprayed wildly toward the afterimage!

But against his staggering speed stat of 4,552, the bullets might as well have been crawling!

Yagami Jue moved through the hail of bullets as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.

He did not even attack anyone.

The air currents generated by his sheer speed alone tore the entire encirclement apart!

"Is this... absolute speed?"

Leaving a long afterimage in midair, Yagami Jue broke through the police line in an instant.

He glanced back at the encirclement, now reduced to utter chaos.

A mocking smile curled his lips.

"The authorities really are a disappointment."

The next second.

His figure vanished completely into the vast darkness.

He left not a single trace behind.

Less than two minutes after Yagami Jue left.

Whoosh!

A tall man wearing a black blindfold, his white hair sticking up in spikes, appeared out of thin air beside Ijichi.

He was carrying a paper bag bearing the Kikusuian logo.

"Oh dear, oh dear. Looks like I missed quite the show."

Satoru Gojo took a bite of his daifuku, his tone flippant.

"Mr. Gojo! You're finally here!"

Ijichi looked as though he had found a lifeline and nearly burst into tears.

"An incredibly terrifying guy just broke through our lines! We couldn't even get a clear look at him!"

"And the presence of Sukuna's Finger... has disappeared too!"

Satoru Gojo ignored Ijichi's tearful account.

He tilted his head up slightly. Though he wore a blindfold, his Six Eyes seemed capable of seeing through everything.

He stared in the direction Yagami Jue had gone, his smile growing wider.

"No cursed energy residue..."

"A sonic boom caused by pure physical kinetic energy."

"And a speed so high that even ordinary cursed energy detectors couldn't pick it up."

Satoru Gojo stuck out his tongue and licked the cream from the corner of his mouth.

"Interesting..."

"Looks like a truly remarkable little monster has appeared in Sendai City."

"I really want to say hello to him soon."

The next day.

Sugisawa Third High School.

Yagami Jue arrived in the classroom on time, just as he always did.

As though the killing machine who had torn the police line to shreds last night had not been him at all.

He rested his head on his desk and closed his eyes.

As his constitution skyrocketed, he found himself needing less and less sleep.

But he still enjoyed thinking with his eyes closed.

I'm out of money. Where should I go to make more next...

Yagami Jue weighed his options.

Just then.

Asakura Yuki turned around from the seat in front of him.

She looked utterly exhausted today, with deep circles beneath her eyes, and even her legs seemed to tremble slightly.

But her eyes were brighter than ever.

"Yagami..."

Asakura Yuki bit her lip. Her voice was weak, but carried a note of determination.

"Thirty kilometers... I finished it."

Yagami Jue opened his eyes slightly and glanced at her.

"Oh."

Just one word.

Utterly indifferent.

The expectant expression on Asakura Yuki's face froze again.

To finish those thirty kilometers last night, she had run until her legs cramped, until she vomited, and had even crawled home at the end!

She had thought she would at least earn a word of approval from Yagami Jue.

Instead, all she got was that single, icy word.

An overwhelming sense of hurt welled up in her.

"Don't... don't you have anything else to say?"

Asakura Yuki's eyes reddened, her voice edged with tears.

"Say what?"

Yagami Jue sat up straight and looked at her coldly.

"Tell you how great you are? Praise you for being such a brave little girl?"

"Asakura Yuki, is there something wrong with your head?"

Yagami Jue's words pierced the girl's heart like knives, without a shred of mercy.

"This isn't playing house!"

"Did you run thirty kilometers just so you could come to me for praise?"

"You ran thirty kilometers so that when you encounter a monster, you can run a little faster than everyone else! So you can survive!"

"If your motivation is to earn other people's praise."

"Then you can get lost right now."

"Because sooner or later, that pathetic vanity of yours will get you killed."

The entire class fell dead silent.

Everyone was stunned by Yagami Jue's cold, brutal words.

Asakura Yuki sat motionless in her seat.

Tears slid down her face in silence.

But this time, she did not argue.

Because she knew Yagami Jue was right.

Without even realizing it, her original reason for running so desperately had turned into a desire to earn this cold boy's approval.

"I... I understand."

Asakura Yuki lowered her head and roughly wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

"Tonight... I'll run forty kilometers!"

Watching the girl stubbornly turn her back on him.

Yagami Jue snorted inwardly.

Not completely hopeless, then.

Just then.

Someone shoved the classroom door open.

Yuji Itadori rushed in excitedly.

"Has everyone heard? Something huge happened at that unfinished building in the south of town last night!"

Yuji Itadori possessed extraordinary physical stamina, and his voice was particularly loud too.

"I heard from someone at my grandpa's hospital that a monster broke right through the police cordon!"

"They said the monster had no eyes and ran as fast as lightning!"

The entire class immediately erupted into chatter.

"Seriously? How could monsters possibly exist!"

"Isn't this just another ghost story your Occult Research Society made up?"

Only Yagami Jue remained slumped over his desk, an almost imperceptible sneer curling his lips.

A monster?

If I ran at full speed, I'd blind the whole lot of you mere mortals!

Still, Yuji Itadori's words reminded him of something.

The plot was about to begin.

According to the original story.

Yuji Itadori's grandfather would die tonight.

And tonight, to save his older schoolmates from the Occult Research Society, Yuji Itadori would swallow Sukuna's Finger!

If I remember correctly.

Those two unlucky fools from the Occult Research Society will undo the seal on Sukuna's Finger at this school tonight.

And attract a huge number of cursed spirits!

Yagami Jue narrowed his eyes slightly.

This was an absolutely perfect opportunity to rake in an insane amount of money!

Although he had already recovered one Sukuna's Finger.

According to the original story, another finger was hidden in this school!

As long as I kill every cursed spirit drawn here tonight...

I should make at least a few tens of millions, right?

At that thought, Yagami Jue's eyes instantly blazed with fervor!

Night fell.

The fourth floor of the classroom building at Sugisawa Third High School.

The entire school was shrouded in deathly silence and an eerie atmosphere.

Sasaki and Iguchi, the older students from the Occult Research Society, were hiding in an abandoned classroom, studying the shriveled finger wrapped in yellow talismans on the desk by the faint light of a flashlight.

"Wh-what exactly is this thing?"

Iguchi's voice trembled. "It feels so cold around here..."

Sasaki's face was deathly pale too, but her curiosity still overcame her fear.

"Itadori said it's a Special Grade Cursed Object. It's really dangerous."

"But... but I really want to see what's inside..."

She reached out with a trembling hand and slowly peeled away the yellow talismans.

Hiss!

The instant the yellow talismans were completely torn away!

A torrent of purplish-black cursed energy, so dense it was nauseating, erupted like a fountain!

"Aaaah!"

The two screamed in terror and stumbled backward!

At the same time.

Drawn by the presence of this special grade cursed energy.

The cursed spirits lurking around the school, and even throughout Sendai City, began surging madly toward Sugisawa High School like sharks scenting blood!

On the rooftop.

Yagami Jue sat on the railing, toying with the [Blue Steel Knuckle Dusters] in his hand.

He looked down below.

Within his field of vision.

Hundreds upon thousands of grotesque, foul-smelling low-grade cursed spirits swarmed over the school walls.

Several massive grade 2 cursed spirits even smashed through the school gates, roaring as they charged inside!

"Finally."

Yagami Jue stood up and rolled his neck.

It gave a series of sharp cracks.

He gazed down at the scene below, like a vision straight out of hell.

There wasn't a trace of fear in his eyes.

Only a feverish lust for money!

"Let the grand cash-out banquet begin!"

Boom!

Yagami Jue drove off with both legs!

The rooftop's concrete railing shattered beneath his feet!

Like a black meteor, he hurled himself straight from the fifth-floor rooftop, crashing down toward the dense swarm of cursed spirits at ground level!

"Time to hunt!"

BAM-!!!

The instant Yagami Jue hit the ground.

1,360 points of raw, ferocious strength, combined with gravitational acceleration!

The impact blasted a terrifying meteor crater over ten meters across into the concrete at ground level!

Rubble and dirt sprayed wildly in every direction like buckshot!

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

The dozens of grade 4 and grade 3 cursed spirits caught closest to the impact.

Didn't even have time to react before the terrifying shock wave and flying rubble tore them into black ash that filled the air!

[Ding! Killed 20 grade 4 cursed spirits. Earned 200,000 Japanese yen!]

[Ding! Killed 15 grade 3 cursed spirits. Earned 300,000 Japanese yen!]