Making a move! Brother?

Inside the Curtain.

A black shadow slammed into Aoi Todo from the side, sending him flying.

"So fast!"

His body flipped twice in the air before his back snapped a fir tree as thick as the mouth of a bowl, sending wood chips flying.

He grunted, landing on one knee and sliding nearly two meters before coming to a stop.

A bone blade had sliced open his left shoulder, and blood dripped down his arm onto the ground.

He glanced down, then raised his head and spat the bloody foam from his mouth onto the ground.

"Tch."

He pushed himself up off the ground and scanned his surroundings.

The Cursed Tools that had been embedded in the rubble a moment ago.

The mirror Cursed Spirit's area attack had cleared out every usable swap target.

Only one remained.

On the ground about seven paces behind Aoi Todo, a katana stood quietly embedded among the broken stones.

Its blade was long and slender, its hilt wrapped in dark cord. Kasumi Miwa had placed it there earlier.

Aoi Todo glanced at the sword, then at the three Special Grades opposite him that had regrouped, and grinned.

"These guys really do deserve to be called Special Grades."

"They figured out how my Cursed Technique works that quickly."

He drew his gaze back, lowered his head, and exhaled, his voice dropping a little.

"...If only I had a brother to work with."

"Too bad... I've never found a brother I could really sync up with."

Before he had even finished speaking.

The mirror Cursed Spirit opposite him moved.

Without any warning, all the fragments on its surface went still in an instant, as though it were gathering power.

The next second, a dark beam shot out of its center, aimed straight at Aoi Todo's chest.

Aoi Todo reacted incredibly fast.

His peripheral vision swept over the katana behind him, and with almost no time to think, he clapped sharply with his right hand.

Clap!

He vanished from his spot, swapping places with the katana.

The dark beam passed through where he had just been standing and blasted a crater nearly two meters across into the ground.

Dirt and broken stones flew up, and a wave of heat washed over his face.

Aoi Todo appeared where the katana had been, gripped its hilt with his right hand, and pulled upward hard.

But at the very instant he pulled the sword out of the ground.

He caught a shadow in the corner of his eye.

At some point, the lump-of-flesh Cursed Spirit on his left had moved to his side, its dozen or so twitching arms spreading at once like a bow drawn taut.

Aoi Todo's eyes flew wide.

There was no time to clap.

The lump-of-flesh Cursed Spirit's attack crashed down, all those arms hammering into his chest and abdomen at once.

The force erupted like a spring compressed to its limit, sending his entire body flying backward.

The bones in his chest made a dull sound, and the scene before his eyes stretched into blurred lines.

He gritted his teeth and tried to adjust his posture in midair, but the force was too fierce. His body was completely out of his control, as though a train had struck him and sent him flying.

A second later, he hit something.

It felt completely different from hitting a tree or a wall, more like crashing into a mass of soft, springy air.

A force spread from the point of contact, evenly bleeding away his backward momentum layer by layer, like water washing over the surface of a rock.

With his back pressed against that invisible cushioning force, his body was held steadily in place.

"...Hm?"

Aoi Todo froze for a moment.

He blinked, then blinked again, and the scene before his eyes steadied once more.

He looked down at himself, then turned his head to look behind him.

A figure stood behind him.

His right hand was raised, all five fingers spread, his palm facing Aoi Todo's back.

A faint silver sheen covered that hand, like a thin film of condensed moonlight, stretching from his fingers to his palm. It lingered for about a second before slowly fading.

Wangchuan withdrew his hand and slipped it back into his trouser pocket.

"You're Aoi Todo, right?"

Aoi Todo's feet touched the ground. His gaze lingered on Wangchuan's face for two seconds, then his lips curved into a grin that grew wider and wider.

"...Hahaha!"

He burst out laughing.

"Hahahahaha!"

"You! You're Wangchuan!"

"I never expected this! You're our backup!"

Wangchuan looked at his injured face, smiling so broadly that he hardly looked injured at all, and the corners of his own mouth lifted slightly.

"Who else did you think it would be?"

Aoi Todo was about to say something else when Wangchuan suddenly raised his right hand, his palm facing Aoi Todo's chest.

A silvery-white light spread from Wangchuan's palm, and as it fell over Aoi Todo.

The wound on his shoulder, the slash along his left ribs, and the bone-blade cuts on the back of his hand healed visibly, the bloody redness fading and the flesh closing without leaving even a scar.

Aoi Todo looked down at the back of his hand, raised it and turned it over a couple of times, then felt his shoulder and let out a low exclamation of wonder.

"Oh!"

He looked up at Wangchuan, his expression a mixture of surprise and the excitement of someone who had discovered treasure.

"You can even output Reverse Cursed Technique!"

"What an incredible man!"

Wangchuan withdrew his hand and said mildly, "I'm all right."

Just as he finished speaking, something whistled through the air from the side.

The shadow Cursed Spirit's bone blade had already thrust to within two meters of Wangchuan.

Wangchuan did not turn his head.

He merely raised his left hand and moved his fingers slightly.

The bone blade stopped abruptly in midair, as though it had struck an invisible wall.

An unseen force yanked the shadow Cursed Spirit off course, sending its entire body flying sideways into a broken tree in the distance with a dull thud.

Wangchuan lowered his left hand as well.

"It knows to attack at a time like this."

He tipped his chin toward the three Special Grade Cursed Spirits opposite them, which were readjusting their stances.

"No wonder you couldn't beat them. These aren't ordinary Special Grades."

Aoi Todo stopped smiling and nodded.

"Yeah, they're stronger than ordinary Special Grades."

"And..."

He raised his hand and pointed at the mirror Cursed Spirit directly ahead.

"That one has a Special Grade Cursed Object inside it."

Wangchuan's gaze settled on the mirror Cursed Spirit.

Its surface was still rippling, reflecting distorted images of the surrounding ruins, but deep within its core, a dark red, finger-shaped object could faintly be seen rotating slowly.

Wangchuan fell silent for a moment.

"...Sukuna's Finger."

"Yeah." Aoi Todo nodded. "That's the thing."

"No wonder."

Wangchuan exhaled softly, drew his gaze away from the finger, and glanced at Aoi Todo.

Aoi Todo caught his look, and his mouth spread into a grin again.

"So, brother!"

"Shall we?"

Somewhat speechless at that form of address, Wangchuan pulled his hand out of his trouser pocket.

"Huh?"

"Doesn't that put us in the wrong generations?"