Chapter 111: Everyone Falls Apart?
"Zzzzzzt…"
The dead tone of the severed communication line scraped through the silence.
Yuji Itadori stood frozen in the middle of the ruined street, staring at the small Mechamaru communicator in his palm. The mechanical insect had gone dark. Its faint blue glow was gone, leaving only a lifeless shell of metal between his fingers.
It felt like a flame had just been snuffed out.
"Yami?!"
Yuji suddenly clenched the communicator and shouted into it, his voice shaking despite himself.
"Where are you?!"
"Where's Gojo-sensei?!"
"What happened down there?! Answer me!"
Static.
Nothing else.
The hand holding the communicator slowly fell.
"This has to be a lie…"
His eyes widened, unfocused and lost.
"Yami-senpai is so strong. He's always…"
His throat tightened.
"How could he just…"
He could not finish.
It wasn't only Yuji.
Everyone there had the same disbelief carved into their faces.
Megumi Fushiguro stood in silence, his jaw clenched so tightly that blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He didn't seem to notice. His mind kept replaying Yami's words, his lectures during training, his calm smile, his back as he stood in front of Special Grade Cursed Spirits as though they were nothing more than passing rain.
That man had faced Ryomen Sukuna without lowering his head.
That man had sliced through curses, domains, and the arrogance of the higher-ups themselves.
And now…
He had vanished?
Just like that?
"Don't screw with me."
Nobara Kugisaki swung her hammer into the nearby wall.
Bang!
Fragments of stone scattered across the ground.
Her eyes were red. Tears gathered at the corners, but she refused to let them fall.
"Damn it, Yami! You lying bastard!"
Her voice cracked with rage.
"What about the celebration feast?! What about the barbecue you promised us?!"
She struck the wall again.
"You don't get to dump this mess on us and disappear like some cool tragic hero!"
Her shout rang through the empty street.
No one answered.
Despair spread among them like black water.
Satoru Gojo had been sealed.
Yami was missing.
The two strongest pillars of the Jujutsu World had fallen on the same night.
Everyone understood what that meant.
The curses that had hidden in fear would no longer hesitate. The curse users crawling in the shadows would bare their fangs. The higher-ups, those rotten old men who had been held in check by overwhelming power, would immediately move to reclaim their authority.
From this moment on, no one would shield them from the full malice of the world.
"Everyone, calm down."
A steady voice cut through the suffocating air.
Kento Nanami adjusted his glasses. His face was pale, and there was grief in his eyes, but his tone remained controlled.
He knew better than anyone that now was not the time to collapse.
"You all heard his final words."
The others slowly looked at him.
Nanami's voice was quiet, but firm.
"He said, 'Wait for me to come back.'"
His gaze passed over Yuji, Megumi, Nobara, and the others.
"He did not say goodbye."
"He said he would come back."
That sentence struck them harder than any shout could have.
Yuji's fingers twitched.
Megumi's eyes flickered.
Nobara bit her lip.
Nanami looked up at the Curtain still hanging over Shibuya, his expression grim.
"That means he is not dead."
He paused.
"He has only been taken somewhere we cannot reach right now."
A crackle burst from the communicator.
Then a familiar voice forced its way through the unstable channel.
"That's right."
The signal was weak, breaking apart at the edges, but the determination in that voice pierced through the static.
"I believe in Yami."
Everyone froze.
"Yuta-senpai?"
Yuji looked up sharply.
From somewhere far away, Yuta Okkotsu's voice continued through the line.
"That guy doesn't make promises he can't keep."
His tone was gentle, but beneath it lay steel.
"I can't get back immediately, but I know this much. Yami isn't someone who would lose to this kind of ending."
"He's somewhere we can't see."
"Somewhere we can't reach yet."
"And he's probably still fighting to come back."
The line crackled again.
"So until he returns…"
Yuta's voice grew heavier.
"We hold the line."
"Hold Tokyo."
"Hold Jujutsu High."
"Hold the world he chose to protect."
Yuji lowered his head.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he wiped his eyes hard with the back of his hand.
When he raised his head again, the fear in his expression had not disappeared.
But something brighter had risen beneath it.
"That's right."
His voice was hoarse.
"Yami-senpai is still fighting."
His fists clenched.
"Gojo-sensei is still waiting for us to save him."
"So how the hell can we stand here crying?"
Rumble!
Before his words could fade, the street shook violently.
Black portals tore open across the surrounding blocks one after another, splitting the air like festering wounds.
Then came the roars.
Cursed Spirits poured out.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
They came in every shape imaginable. Some crawled across the road with too many arms. Some flew between buildings with torn wings. Some dragged half-formed bodies behind them, shrieking with glee as they lunged at anything alive.
The night that had already become a nightmare sank deeper into hell.
Megumi's pupils tightened.
"That bastard Kenjaku…"
The shadows beneath his feet writhed.
"He's trying to pin us down with sheer numbers and finish destroying Shibuya."
"Good."
Nobara spun her hammer in her hand and smashed the skull of a Cursed Spirit that leapt at her from the side.
The creature burst apart.
Her eyes were sharp and bloodshot.
"Then let's give him a proper answer."
Another Cursed Spirit came at her.
She drove a nail through its face.
"When that bastard Yami gets back…"
Her lips pulled into a fierce grin.
"He's treating us to the most expensive barbecue in Tokyo."
Yuji cracked his knuckles.
"Agreed."
Megumi's shadow expanded.
Divine Dog: Totality emerged with a low growl, black fur bristling.
"Don't die before then."
"Tell that to yourself," Nobara snapped.
And just like that, the despair broke.
They were still scared.
They were still wounded.
Their strongest protectors were gone.
But in the middle of a ruined Shibuya street, the students of Tokyo Jujutsu High lit a new fire inside themselves.
Not because hope had been handed to them.
Because they refused to let it die.
Not far away, Ui Ui looked up at his sister.
"Sister, what should we do now?"
His gaze drifted toward the burning ruins of Shibuya.
"Mr. Yami is gone. The final payment…"
"Don't be silly, Ui Ui."
Mei Mei rested her massive battle-axe against her shoulder. Her expression remained elegant, her long braid swaying behind her as the faint light of distant fires reflected in her eyes.
"That young man hasn't breached the contract."
She took out her phone and glanced at the enormous deposit that had already arrived in her account before the operation began.
"He's merely late."
Ui Ui blinked.
Mei Mei's smile deepened.
"And buying into a promising stock when everyone else is panicking is exactly when the returns are highest."
She tucked her phone away.
"We continue working."
"When he returns, I'll settle the account with interest."
"As expected of Elder Sister," Ui Ui said, eyes sparkling.
Elsewhere, Atsuya Kusakabe took a long drag from his cigarette.
He looked at the cursed spirits spreading through the ruined streets, then at the unconscious civilians still scattered across the area, and finally at the students preparing to throw themselves into yet another battlefield.
He exhaled.
"Seriously…"
His shoulders slumped.
"The two strongest guys go offline, and now even I can't slack off properly."
He flicked the cigarette to the ground and crushed it beneath his heel.
His gaze sharpened.
"But if those kids are willing to charge straight at Special Grades…"
He loosened his sword in its sheath.
"We adults can't look too pathetic, can we?"
Maki Zenin stood nearby, silent.
Her grip on her long blade tightened until her knuckles turned white.
Panda noticed the look in her eyes and called softly, "Maki?"
She did not turn around.
"I'm going to get stronger."
Her voice was colder than the night air.
"Since Yami isn't here, I'll become someone who can take a Special Grade's head."
Panda fell silent.
Maki's eyes burned.
"A failure of the Zenin family?"
"Trash with no cursed energy?"
Her fingers tightened around the hilt.
"I'll use this blade to make every one of them shut their mouths."
She took a step forward.
Then another.
Ahead of her, the curses gathered thickest.
She walked straight toward them.
She did not have Yami's impossible talent.
She did not have a system, Sun Breathing, Moon Breathing, or a sword that burned like dawn.
But she had stubbornness.
She had rage.
And she had a body that refused to break.
"When he comes back…"
Maki lowered her stance.
"I'll make sure he sees it."
The first Cursed Spirit rushed her.
Her blade flashed.
Its head flew.
"That I can stand beside him too."
Across Shibuya, the battle reignited.
Yuji threw himself into the swarm, each punch carrying the echo of Black Flash.
Megumi melted into the shadows, Divine Dog tearing through curses at his side.
Nobara's nails flashed through the air, hammer strikes ringing like gunshots.
Nanami moved with brutal efficiency, cutting down curses one after another as though calculating overtime on a battlefield.
Mei Mei's crows swept through the sky.
Kusakabe drew his sword.
Maki carved a path through the dark.
And deep in the shadows, countless eyes watched.
Curse users.
Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
Ancient sorcerers who had slept through the centuries.
Creatures and monsters that had cowered under the weight of Satoru Gojo's existence now began to stir.
The balance of the Jujutsu World had shattered.
The lid had been ripped off.
An unprecedented storm was gathering.
Not only over Tokyo.
Not only over Shibuya.
Soon, all of Japan would be dragged into chaos.
The Shibuya Incident was not over.
Far from it.
It had only just begun.
.....
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