[Kyoto Outskirts, Large Freight Parking Lot Entrance]
Under the dark night sky, thousands of motorcycle lights and high-end sedan headlights illuminated the parking lot in a dense grid. Looking down at the powder-keg atmosphere of the assembly from a distant hill, Satoru Gojo scratched his head in annoyance.
"Ugh, hey! What the hell happened to that Zenin brat? He said he was just going to grab his weapon and come right back."
"I wonder. He's certainly late. I'll try calling him now."
It was at the moment Shoko pulled out her cell phone to dial Hachiro's number.
Suguru Geto, who had been squinting at the center of the parking lot, stiffened and spoke up.
"Uh... wait. Take a look down there."
"...Huh?"
Gojo followed Geto's gaze, and his expression froze.
"There are nearly ten thousand of these thug bastards swarming down there. But they aren't one single group anymore. They've split right down the middle, and the atmosphere looks incredibly hostile."
"You're right... Wait, are they taking things out of their cars? Sashimi knives? Spiked baseball bats?"
As if mocking the brief silence, the sound of things shattering erupted, and the scene instantly descended into chaos.
"...What? Those idiots are hacking at each other with their gear?! What the hell is going on?"
It was just as Gojo said. The mob of ten thousand yakuza and bikers had split into two massive factions, screaming as they swung weapons like knives and steel pipes at one another, beginning a bloody civil war.
"Emergen-cy! This wasn't in the plan! What do we do, what do we do?!"
"What do you think? Call them, Shoko! Get Hachiro and the Assistant Directors too!"
**
[Kyoto City, Late-Night Net Cafe]
Thwack—!! Crash!
With the loud noise of chairs and keyboards being smashed, I rolled across the floor and backed away.
'Ah, shit. I messed up.'
I rubbed my throbbing cheek, feeling a surge of bitter regret.
It was my own fault. I'd been throwing the 'Zenin' name around instead of 'Kuroda' just to look tough in front of the jujutsu higher-ups and snag some easy benefits or coast through annoying chores. Now, the weight of the Three Great Families' name was biting me in the ass.
"Die, you trashy Zenin rat!!"
Gokudo Flower let out a spiteful scream, her entire body cloaked in dense Cursed Energy as she threw a brutish punch. I summoned the Dharma Wheel above my head, crossed my arms to firmly guard against her strike, and put some distance between us.
Wham!
"Gugh."
'They say even a basic strike coated in Cursed Energy feels different depending on the person, and they're right. If Gojo's attacks make my brain rattle until I want to puke, then this Gokudo Flower woman feels like she's hitting my bones with a heavy blunt instrument!'
Gokudo Flower swung a massive upper-cut. I quickly ducked and pivoted to the right, her fist carving through the air with a heavy gust.
Whoosh!
"You little... Just die!"
Her enraged shoulders heaved, and this time, a straight punch flew directly toward my face. I reflexively backstepped, raising a tight guard to deflect the impact.
Thud!
The initial probing phase of the fight.
But after trading blows and clashing guards a few times, a strange sense of dissonance set in.
'Wait? For a boss who unified the Kansai yakuza, this girl is surprisingly bad at fighting.'
She might have been able to crush ordinary non-sorcerers through sheer Cursed Energy and intimidation, but when it came to the high-level psychological warfare or technical depth required in a duel between sorcerers, she was incredibly shallow.
"Hyaaaaah!!"
Driven by rage, she threw a wide right hook.
I easily ducked beneath the clumsy trajectory, drove a rapid counter-jab into her chin, and without hesitation, buried a roundhouse kick into her solar plexus.
Crack—!
Slide— Crash!
"Urgh...!"
"Dammit. I've spent too much time brawling with regular thugs, so my fists just flew out first. Hell."
Crashing into a pile of chairs, Gokudo Flower slammed against the wall of the net cafe and collapsed.
Just as I was about to approach her fallen form.
Ring, ring—! Ring, ring—! Ring, ring—! Ring, ring—!
A loud ringtone erupted from her pants pocket. Grimacing, the collapsed Gokudo Flower pulled out a red flip-phone and answered the call.
"Hello."
"Hey! Mind your phone manners. I have to take this, so wait a second!"
It's the unwritten rule of halting a real-life PvP match when a phone rings. I stood with my hands behind my back and waited patiently.
The frantic, desperate voice of a man echoed through the net cafe from the red phone.
"—Boss! Gokudo Flower! What the hell are you doing not being here?! You said we were going to wipe out those old geezers today! If you aren't here, we're seriously going to get smoked!!"
Clutching her aching solar plexus, Gokudo Flower replied in a strained voice.
"...I get it. I'm coming soon, so just shut up and wait."
Click.
She snapped the red phone shut, slid it back into her pocket, and staggered to her feet. Then, she picked up a blue phone that had been sitting on a desk.
"Just surrender quietly already."
That was the moment I took a step toward her.
"...Maximum Technique."
"What?"
A chilling jujutsu incantation flowed from Gokudo Flower's lips as she flipped open the blue phone.
"Centralization—Star Topology."
Click!
The moment she pressed the dial on the blue phone.
Beep! ~ Beep!
Inside the dim net cafe, hundreds of computer monitors began to flicker and turn on simultaneously, as if having a seizure.
From every computer tower, a deep blue aura—Cursed Energy—began to smoke and rise.
Whirrrrrrrr—!!
At the same time, the negative energy filling the space began to churn. That ominous energy, which had been spreading in all directions, reached toward her like a spiderweb and was sucked into her body all at once.
"...!!"
From her entire body, which had looked haggard and exhausted just moments ago, an astronomical amount of Cursed Energy began to pour out, defying all common sense.
'Looking purely at the volume of Cursed Energy, she's much higher than any of us three. I've never seen anything like this before...'
As I dropped my guard in shock and prepared to strike at any moment, she curled her bloodied lips into a grin.
"Too late. Forget about the start of a technique or whatever—listen clearly to what I have to say before you try anything, you Zenin rat."
Her voice was laced with a toxic mix of certainty and dread.
"You. Surely you saw the news recently? About that famous celebrity who took their own life because of malicious comments on an anonymous internet board that crossed the line?"
"..."
I didn't answer. Even in this moment, in 2005, it was a known fact that human malice hiding behind anonymity was poisoning the internet.
"Curses don't just accumulate in the places we know in reality, like schools or workplaces. That invisible space of the internet itself has become a massive landfill where the filthiest, most horrific curses of humanity accumulate in real-time."
Her hand holding the blue phone trembled slightly.
"What happens when this piles up day after day for one year, five years, ten years... for decades, through the blood vessels we call the internet network? Someday, within that sea of anonymous boards and hate comments, a horrific, massive Cursed Spirit that humanity can't even handle might be born and crawl right through the monitor."
"...So? What is it you're actually trying to tell me!"
As I shouted in my frustration, Gokudo Flower—who had absorbed the Cursed Energy born from the internet's malice—smirked down at me.
"What else?"
Her snow-white hair floated upward in the zero-gravity of the blue monitor glow and the storm of Cursed Energy.
"I'm saying you're fucked."