[It happened too fast, too brutally, and far too decisively.]
[Not only did the curse users on Suguru Geto's side fail to react, but everyone from Jujutsu High was also stunned by the sudden, bloody execution.]
[Nanako, who had been holding up her phone to film Panda with a spoiled expression, and Mimiko, who had been clutching her Teru Teru Bōzu in gloomy silence, seemed to have been frozen in place. The two girls, who had been complaining a second ago about this backwater place, now found their minds completely shut down by the overwhelming visual shock.]
[Their mouths hung open, expressions of sheer, contorted terror frozen on their faces. Their throats felt as though invisible hands were clamped around them, preventing even a single complete scream.]
[Their legs trembled violently beyond their control. Finally, their knees buckled, and they collapsed like mud onto the cold earth mixed with Larue's blood and brains.]
["Gulp..."]
[Standing at the rear, Takuma Ino, who was still only a grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer, watched the blood gush from the headless corpse and involuntarily swallowed hard. With an unmistakable tremor in his voice, he quietly asked Kento Nanami beside him.]
["N-Nanami... was Senior Li... always this terrifying...?"]
[There was no question that Ino meant "terrifying" in two senses.]
[One was the sheer overpowering strength that had crossed the limits of space in an instant and burst a head with a single strike. The other, which sent an even deeper chill down his spine, was Li Shunchen's resolve and coldness as he swung his blade to kill, as naturally as eating or drinking.]
[After all, Ino had not graduated from Tokyo Jujutsu High's main campus. His knowledge of you was limited to the dependable senior who always gently treated injured juniors in the infirmary and patiently