A feeding frenzy

Yagami Jue looked at the densely packed attribute points, a crazed sneer curling his lips.

Even without activating the Eight Gates, he was now strong enough.

With his strength alone exceeding a hundred thousand, a single punch could probably smash even a Curtain to pieces.

As for Sukuna, the King of Curses...

"Heh. Once I've saved enough money to open the Fourth Gate, I'll show him who's really the boss."

Yagami Jue was busy hyping himself up when his stomach suddenly betrayed him with a thunderous rumble.

"Fuck. Evolving just once takes this much out of me."

He rubbed his empty stomach, pushed open the door of the confinement room, and walked out.

Outside.

Satoru Gojo was crouching on the ground, drawing circles. His eyes lit up the moment he saw Yagami Jue emerge.

"Jue! You're finally awake!"

"If you'd stayed asleep any longer, the heat coming off you would've baked the infirmary door dry."

Yagami Jue ignored his quip and held out a hand.

"Money."

Satoru Gojo froze. "Huh?"

"No shit. I'm hungry."

Yagami Jue looked utterly matter-of-fact.

"I endured tremendous suffering to keep your Jujutsu High from getting demolished in my sleep."

"You owe me protection money... no, compensation for emotional distress, right?"

Satoru Gojo covered his forehead, looking thoroughly defeated.

"You really can't go three sentences without bringing up money."

"Come on. To celebrate your 'release from prison,' I'll treat you to the finest barbecue in Shinjuku!"

Shinjuku, an upscale barbecue restaurant.

Yagami Jue had already polished off fifty plates of premium Kobe beef all by himself.

The waitress attending them stared in disbelief, the tongs trembling constantly in her hand.

"Is... is this customer the reincarnation of a starving ghost?"

"Fifty plates! That's several million Japanese yen worth of beef!"

Yet Yagami Jue kept eating furiously, the sound of bones crunching between his teeth especially jarring in the quiet private room.

Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro sat across from him. Watching him eat, they silently set down their chopsticks.

"Suddenly... I don't feel qualified to eat."

Itadori muttered under his breath.

"That digestive system isn't human anymore."

Megumi Fushiguro offered an objective assessment.

Only Nobara Kugisaki stared at the bill in anguish.

"Gojo-sensei, is this meal going to eat up all our mission pay for next month?"

Satoru Gojo waved a hand with a smile. "Relax, relax. We can expense it to the higher-ups anyway."

Yagami Jue drained the last mouthful of beef bone marrow and patted his stomach, finally looking satisfied.

"All right, we've eaten. Tell me, what's this really about?"

He gave Satoru Gojo a sidelong glance.

"You never do anything unless there's something in it for you. Bringing these deadweights along on purpose can't mean anything good."

Satoru Gojo's smile faded a little, and he lowered his voice.

"There's been a series of strange disappearances around Shinjuku lately."

"The Window's investigation indicates that all the missing people had contact with a boy named Junpei Yoshino before they died."

Crack!

The spoon in Yagami Jue's hand instantly bent out of shape.

His gaze grew unfathomably deep.

So it had happened after all?

That idiot Junpei. Even after the beating I gave him, it looked like Mahito had still set his sights on him.

"What's the mission?"

Yagami Jue asked coldly.

"Bring Junpei Yoshino back. If he refuses to cooperate... you're authorized to kill him on the spot."

There was a trace of cold ruthlessness in Satoru Gojo's voice-the resolve of the strongest.

"Kill him, my ass."

Yagami Jue stood with a cold snort.

"That kid's one of mine. Let's see who dares kill him."

"I'll take the mission, but I want a cut."

"One hundred million for catching that stitch-faced cursed spirit."

Satoru Gojo shrugged. "No problem. If you can catch him, money isn't an issue."

"But..."

Satoru Gojo gave Yagami Jue a searching look.

"Be careful of that Mahito guy. His Cursed Technique can touch the soul directly."

"Touch the soul?"

Yagami Jue reached the door of the private room, stopped, and looked back with an outrageously arrogant grin.

"My soul's harder than diamond."

"He wants to squeeze it? He'd better be ready for that rotten claw of his to shatter from the backlash!"

With that, Yagami Jue vanished from the private room.

The room's window rattled violently, and a faint trail of white vapor lingered in the air.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned complex somewhere in Shinjuku.

Junpei Yoshino knelt on the floor, trembling all over as he stared at the sight before him.

Before him stood three thugs who had already been turned into mutated monsters.

They were the people he had once dreamed of getting revenge on.

But now, looking at their twisted bodies and hearing their agonized screams, Junpei felt not a shred of pleasure.

Only endless terror.

"Well? Junpei."

Mahito sat on the windowsill, swinging his long legs, an innocent smile on his face.

"Doesn't revenge feel wonderful?"

"If you want, I can teach you a more advanced form of 'evolution.'"

Junpei looked into Mahito's mismatched eyes and remembered what Yagami Jue had said yesterday.

"The price is throwing away that pathetic little bit of kindness you have..."

"Get stronger... strong enough that no one dares bully me..."

Junpei's gaze gradually grew crazed. He reached out, wanting to touch Mahito.

Just then.

BOOOOM!!!

An earth-shattering blast rang out!

The abandoned complex's entire side wall looked as though it had taken a direct hit from an intercontinental missile.

It instantly exploded into countless fragments!

A gale swept up the bricks and stones, instantly blasting several transfigured monsters in the corridor into bloody pulp!

Through the dust, Yagami Jue swaggered in with both hands in his pockets.

He stepped on the head of a monster that had not quite died yet and tilted his head slightly at Mahito.

"Yo, stitch-face."

"Playing those disgusting little games again?"

Yagami Jue grinned, his eyes blazing with the fervor of someone spotting cash.

"You're not getting away from me and my hundred-million bounty today, are you?"

"Wow, you again, Mr. Violence."

Mahito stood. The stitches on his skin quivered slightly, as though he too was trembling with excitement.

"You feel even 'harder' than last time."

"I really want to hear what sound your soul makes when I squash it flat."

Mahito swept both hands out, and dozens of enormous transfigured monsters instantly sprang from the shadows throughout the floor!

"Tear him apart, my masterpieces!"

"Masterpieces?"

Yagami Jue did not even blink at the mountains of flesh charging toward him.

He looked at Junpei, who had collapsed on the floor, his tone full of disdain. "Junpei, open those damned eyes and watch closely."

"This is my first lesson in getting stronger."

"And that is-in the face of absolute violence, numbers... mean nothing!"

BOOM!!!

Yagami Jue moved.

He did not even open the first gate.

Relying purely on his strength of a hundred and twenty thousand, he threw a punch!

At that moment, the air throughout the corridor was forcibly driven forward, forming a translucent wall of air visible to the naked eye!

Before the dozen or so monsters at the front could even touch Yagami Jue's fist.

The terrifying air pressure crushed them into a thin sheet of flesh plastered against the wall!

"Holy shit... that's insane!"

Junpei sat on the floor. Though the shock wave had sent him tumbling several times, his eyes now brimmed with fervor.

This was Yagami's strength!

This was violence that could punch through anything!

I wanted it too... I wanted that kind of strength too!

"Tsk, tsk. You really don't take care of my toys."

Mahito looked at the scraps of flesh littering the floor and pursed his lips, a little pained.

"In that case, I'll play with you myself!"

"Multiple Changes: Polymorphic Soul Isomer!"

Mahito's body suddenly swelled, transforming into a horrifying form with three faces and six arms.

Every hand was wreathed in extremely concentrated toxins and curses.

He charged at Yagami Jue with wild laughter, moving at an astonishing speed.

"You want to fight me up close?"

Yagami Jue sneered.

"I'll chop that rotten meat of yours up and feed it to the dogs!"

"Eight Gates Formation, first gate! Opening Gate! Open!"

Boom!

Another shock wave erupted.

Yagami Jue and Mahito instantly clashed in the narrow corridor.

The force of his punches collided wildly with cursed energy. The entire building shook violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bizarre as Mahito's six arms were, against Yagami Jue's strength of over a hundred thousand, every collision made him feel his bones shattering.

Something's wrong!

Mahito cried out inwardly as he spat blood.

His soul... how had it become even more solid than last time?!

My Idle Transfiguration couldn't even scratch him?!

In the instant Mahito lost focus, Yagami Jue seized the opening.

"Got you, 300 Million Gold Coins!"

Yagami Jue grinned viciously. His left hand clamped down on two of Mahito's wrists, while his right clenched into a fist.

"Reverse Lotus: Get-Rich Edition!!!"

Bangbangbangbangbang!

A barrage of piledriver-like blows exploded against Mahito's chest.

Every punch carried terrifying vibrations that seemed to rupture space.

Mahito's body was beaten like a rag doll, shrinking smaller and smaller until it finally became a ball of flesh no bigger than a basketball.

"Help! Kenjaku! Save me!"

Mahito was utterly terrified. He could feel that monstrous strength about to shatter the very core of his soul.

Yet this time, Kenjaku did not appear.

"Call whoever you want. It won't help!"

Yagami Jue raised his right foot, ready to crush him with one final stomp.

Suddenly.

A system alert blared in his mind.

[Warning! The host's stamina is being depleted too quickly, and abnormal fluctuations have been detected in the 'Gate of Life' state!]

[Forcing a kill now may cause the surrounding space to collapse, endangering the host's life!]

"Fuck, you're failing me at the worst possible moment?!"

Yagami Jue halted in his tracks.

He glanced at the surrounding buildings, where spatial rifts had already begun to appear, then at Junpei's deathly pale face in the distance.

"Tch. You're getting off easy, you bastard."