Inside the underground passage of Shibuya Station, Exit B3.
Kento Nanami's blonde hair, usually combed back with meticulous precision, was now a disheveled mess plastered against his forehead.
His signature khaki suit jacket had long since disappeared.
His white shirt, soaked through with blood and sweat, clung tightly to his body, outlining muscles that trembled slightly from extreme exhaustion.
*Splurt!*
Nanami expressionlessly swung the short blade wrapped in charms.
His Ratio Technique accurately struck the weak point of a Grade 2 cursed spirit that had lunged at him, cleaving it in two instantly.
The black residue of the curse splattered like rain across the water-logged tile floor, letting out a sickening "hissing" sound.
"Help! Save us!"
"Monsters... they're everywhere!"
Behind Nanami, hundreds of terrified civilians huddled together.
They screamed and wept in despair, like lambs trapped in a slaughterhouse, pinning all their hopes for survival on the blood-soaked man before them.
Nanami did not look back.
He simply pushed up the cracked goggles on his nose and tightened his grip on the notched blade.
After being rescued from Dagon's domain by Yoru, he should have retreated to the rear for medical treatment immediately.
But as a responsible adult, he could not turn a blind eye to the innocent civilians trapped beneath Shibuya.
Thus, he had taken it upon himself to evacuate those at Exit B3.
However, he had underestimated the sheer brutality of the Shibuya Incident.
With the awakening of Sukuna and the fall of Jogo, the balance of cursed energy throughout Shibuya had been completely shattered.
Countless cursed spirits lurking in the shadows, like sharks smelling blood, began to swarm toward the areas where the living gathered.
Within a mere ten minutes...
Nanami could no longer remember how many times he had swung his blade or how many spirits he had exorcised.
His physical strength was draining at a visible rate, and his cursed energy—already nearly spent—was teetering on the edge of total depletion.
"Huff... huff..."
Nanami gasped for air; with every breath, his lungs felt a searing pain as if they were being rubbed raw by sandpaper.
'Is this... the limit?'
His vision began to blur.
Under the weight of extreme fatigue and blood loss, his mind uncontrollably began to flash back to memories he had buried deep in his heart.
A distant, peaceful place.
Kuantan, Malaysia.
After quitting his life as a jujutsu sorcerer and spending four years as a corporate slave in ordinary society, that was the shore he most yearned to escape to.
He had pictured the scene in his dreams countless times:
Building a small house by a golden beach.
Buying all the books he had always wanted to read but never had the time for.
Waking up every day to the sound of the waves, with no endless overtime, no sickening cursed spirits, and no despair of seeing comrades die before his eyes.
Just peace. Absolute peace.
*BOOM!!*
Suddenly, a deafening explosion jerked Nanami out of his daydream and back to reality.
The wall of the underground passage shattered violently, sending debris and rebar flying in all directions like cannonballs!
"Aaaaah!"
The civilians behind him screamed in terror.
Amidst the billowing dust...
A massive, serpentine Special Grade cursed spirit covered in pitch-black scales emerged, radiating a suffocating stench and overwhelming pressure.
Its cold, vertical pupils fixed onto the group of living prey, its forked tongue flicking in the air as it greedily tasted the scent of fear.
'A Special Grade...'
Nanami instantly recognized the curse's rank.
In his prime, he might have been able to fight it using his Ratio Technique.
But now, facing this sudden behemoth, he felt a profound sense of helplessness.
*Hiss!!*
The snake curse gave its prey no time to breathe.
Opening a maw large enough to swallow a car, it lunged toward the densest crowd of civilians with a foul wind and terrifying speed!
"Run!"
Nanami roared, squeezing every last drop of cursed energy from his body.
His legs pushed off with explosive force as he threw himself into the path of the snake curse.
"Ratio Technique: Collapse!"
Nanami leapt high, his blade descending with desperate resolve toward the curse's vital spot.
However, the defense of a Special Grade cursed spirit far exceeded his expectations.
*Clang!*
The blade struck the black scales, leaving only a faint white mark without even producing a spark!
'How is this possible?!'
Nanami was horrified.
Before he could adjust his stance, the serpent's thick, powerful tail whipped around like a black lash, striking him in the waist with a sonic boom.
*Bang!*
Accompanied by the sickening sound of snapping bones.
Nanami was sent flying like a broken kite, slamming into a nearby support pillar with enough force to web the solid concrete with cracks.
"Cough... hack!"
A large spray of blood erupted from Nanami's mouth, staining his chest crimson.
He struggled to stand, but the agonizing pain in his spine meant his legs could find no purchase.
He could only kneel there, gasping for breath, as he watched the snake curse slowly close in.
The surrounding civilians had completely broken down, wailing in despair as the blocked passage left them with nowhere to run.
Nanami's vision blurred again.
At that moment, the question Mei Mei had once asked him echoed in his mind.
"Nanami, if you reach a crossroads in life..."
"Will you choose to go North, to seek a brand-new self?"
"Or will you choose to go South, to return to the self you once knew?"
Nanami gave a bitter smile.
'I... chose South.'
He had fled his identity as a sorcerer, fled the shadow of Yu Haibara's death, and retreated back into that seemingly safe society that was really just a slow, soul-eroding death.
He thought that as long as he stopped looking at the darkness, he could live a peaceful life.
'But...'
Nanami looked at the ordinary people trembling before death, seeing the desperate thirst for survival in their eyes.
He suddenly realized.
He had never truly escaped.
From the moment he chose to pick up that charm-wrapped blade again, his decision had already been made.
"An adult has an obligation to protect children."
Nanami took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.
He no longer tried to struggle, nor did he feel fear.
In his final moments, that golden beach in Kuantan surfaced in his mind once more.
"What a... pity."
It was a shore he would never reach.
*Hiss!!*
The snake curse let out an excited hiss and lunged, its maw wide open to crush Nanami!
Just as the rows of razor-sharp fangs were about to touch his body!
*Vrrr!!*
An eerie and absolute silence suddenly enveloped the entire underground passage.
The once-frenzied snake curse came to an abrupt halt less than ten centimeters from Nanami, as if it had slammed into an invisible, yielding wall.
The swirling dust, the flowing puddles, even the metallic scent of blood in the air seemed to fall into an eternal slumber.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form."
"Dead Calm."
Along with a cold, clear voice that sounded like spring water hitting stone.
A dark red figure holding a katana had appeared in front of Nanami.
Yoru's crimson eyes were as calm as a mirror without a single ripple.
He stood there quietly, his Shiranui not even fully drawn, yet he radiated an absolute pressure that brought all things to a standstill.
The snake curse's bite, powerful enough to crush steel, could not advance a single millimeter within this domain of absolute tranquility.
"Next..."
Yoru's finger lightly clicked the hilt.
"It's time to end this."
"Total Concentration: Sun Breathing, First Form!"
"Dance!"
*Ching!*
The flash of the blade was like a rising sun, instantly tearing through the eerie silence.
A perfect arc of pure black and red flames blossomed in front of the massive head of the snake curse!
*Squelch!*
Without a hint of resistance, the hardened head was cleanly split in two by the baptism of the flaming arc!
*Thud!*
The headless body crashed to the ground under its own momentum, kicking up massive clouds of dust.
Amidst the drifting dust and flickering firelight.
Yoru slowly sheathed his sword.
He turned and extended his right hand toward Nanami, who was still in a daze.
Yoru looked at Nanami's face, which was etched with shock and disbelief, and a gentle smile curved his lips—his eyes full of conviction.
"Nanami, you can't die yet."
"The beaches of Malaysia are still waiting for you."
Nanami's pupils constricted to pinpricks!
He stared intensely at the black-haired, red-eyed youth. His heart felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer, and his very breath stalled.
Malaysia?
The seaside?
How is this possible?!
That dream of Kuantan... he had only ever pictured it in the deepest reaches of his dreams. He had never spoken a single word of it to anyone!
'Yoru... how could he possibly know?!'