At dusk, Sugisawa Third Middle School was enveloped in a strange stillness.
Megumi Fushiguro stood in the shadow of the street trees at the school gate, raising his hand to check his watch—4:17 PM. Thirteen minutes remained until school let out, yet the campus was eerily quiet.
This ordinary public middle school seemed unusually silent today, a stillness that felt wrong.
He wore a black student uniform, his hands in his pants pockets, his back straight. His hedgehog-like hair cast a thin shadow in the dusk, and his eyes, inherited from his father, calmly scanned the campus walls. Two Jade Dogs crouched quietly at his feet—Jade Dog Black alert with ears pricked up, Jade Dog White timidly nuzzling his calf.
"The special-grade cursed object, 'Ryomen Sukuna's Finger,' is sealed in a box inside the old school building," the voice of assistant supervisor Ijichi Kiyotaka came through the earpiece, carrying a constant undercurrent of tension.
Megumi Fushiguro grunted in acknowledgment and shifted his gaze to the old building deep within the campus. It was a three-story wooden structure, its exterior paint peeling, most of its windows broken—it looked out of place next to the modern school buildings surrounding it. According to the information, the building was fifty years old and had been abandoned for three years since the new school building was completed, used only for storing old items.
Because of this, the Jujutsu Headquarters had decided to seal Sukuna's Finger here—inaccessible, hard for ordinary people to stumble upon, and protected by basic barriers.
"This should have been handled by a more experienced sorcerer," Ijichi continued, "but Gojo-sensei insisted that you lead this mission. He said… 'It's time for Megumi to handle a special grade on his own.'"
Megumi's mouth twitched slightly. That teacher again.
He was fifteen this year, having enrolled in the Tokyo Jujutsu High less than a year ago. Although, with Gojo's help, he had already tamed nine shikigami, which was considered outstanding among the younger generation, facing a special-grade cursed spirit and a special-grade cursed object alone was…
"Understood," he answered curtly, raising his hand to lower the earpiece. "I'll resolve it before school ends. Has the evacuation been completed?"
"The school was notified to dismiss early. Most students have already left. However, there might still be students from the Paranormal Research Club in the old school building—they like 'investigating campus ghost stories' and often sneak in there after school."
Megumi frowned. Ordinary people caught up in a special-grade cursed spirit incident had a survival rate approaching zero.
"I'll go check," he said, ending the communication and heading toward the school gate.
Jade Dog Black and Jade Dog White silently followed. Their size was a circle larger than ordinary dogs, but under the cover of a simple curse, ordinary people would see them as two particularly strong large dogs.
Passing the playground, Megumi heard a suppressed laugh. He turned his head and saw two boys in middle school uniforms crouching behind the basketball hoop, holding flashlights and voice recorders, their expressions a mix of excitement and nervousness.
"Hey, you two," Megumi approached. "Time to go home."
Both boys were startled. One of them looked up and saw Megumi's Jujutsu High uniform. He was stunned for a moment, then suddenly showed an expression of realization. "You're… you're the one who came to investigate the supernatural incident in the old school building?"
Megumi didn't confirm or deny. "It's dangerous there. Leave immediately."
"But we got evidence!" The other boy, with a buzz cut, excitedly held up his phone. On the screen was a blurry video—in a second-floor window of the old school building, a faint, humanoid shadow writhed. "Look! It's the legendary 'Old School Building Ghost'! Our Paranormal Research Club has been looking for it for three years, and finally—"
The words didn't finish.
A dull roar came from the direction of the old school building.
Not a physical impact, but a vibration at the level of cursed energy. The air visibly rippled, like a pebble dropped in water. The sand on the playground stirred without wind, kicking up a fine mist of dust.
The smiles on the two boys' faces froze.
Megumi spun around, his hands already forming a seal. Jade Dog Black and Jade Dog Black both lowered their front halves, a threatening growl rumbling from their throats.
"Go," Megumi said without looking back, his voice cold. "Now. Run out of the school immediately. Don't look back."
This time, the two boys didn't hesitate. They didn't even bother to grab their school bags and ran desperately toward the school gate.
Megumi no longer watched them. All his attention was focused on the old school building.
The building was "waking up."
This wasn't a metaphor. Dark purple vein-like lines spread across the surface of the wooden exterior walls. The window glass was clouded with a murky fog from the inside. The roof tiles trembled slightly, making a small clattering sound. The most striking thing was the second-floor room—the wall of the entire room was bulging outward, as if something was about to break through the building from within.
"At least special grade…" Megumi muttered, and the shadows beneath his feet began to boil.
Among the nine shikigami he had tamed, the Jade Dogs were for scouting and hit-and-run. The crane was for aerial combat. The snake and toad were for complex terrain. The elephant, deer, and ox were heavy units. The rabbits were for distraction. And the tiger was buried—a last resort.
But facing a special-grade cursed spirit, especially in this confined old school building—
Bang!
The second-floor wall of the old school building finally cracked. It didn't explode. Instead, it seemed to "dissolve" from the inside, creating an irregular hole. A dark purple, viscous material poured out of the crack and dripped down the exterior wall. Where it touched, the wood rotted and the plaster softened, emitting a chilling hiss.
Then, through the crack, an eye opened.
It was huge, bloodshot, its pupil an irregular spiral. The eye rolled and finally stopped, fixing on Megumi on the playground.
He'd been seen.
Megumi didn't hesitate. His hands changed seals.
"Jade Dog Black, Jade Dog White—engage!"
The two shikigami shot out like arrows from a bowstring. Jade Dog Black grew in size as it ran, becoming the size of a pony, its dark fur bristling, cursed energy condensing into a dark blue sphere of light between its teeth. Jade Dog White was much more agile, not charging directly but circling to the side, its pure white fur glowing with a sacred halo in the dusk.
The special-grade cursed spirit let out a soundless scream.
The sound didn't travel through the air but pierced directly into the brain. Megumi felt a stabbing pain in his eardrums, and the smell of rust rose in his nose. He gritted his teeth, shadows spreading under his feet, preparing to summon a third shikigami—
But the cursed spirit was faster.
Countless dark purple tentacles shot out from the crack in the old school building. The end of each tentacle split into a mouth, and each mouth was filled with layers of sharp teeth. The tentacles lashed out at the two Jade Dogs like a rainstorm, moving so fast they left afterimages.
Jade Dog Black opened its mouth and fired a dark blue cursed blast, blowing away three tentacles. But more tentacles came from the side, wrapping around its hind legs, sharp teeth sinking deep into its fur. Jade Dog White tried to help but was pushed back by another wave of tentacles, its pure white fur stained with dark purple blood.
Megumi's face darkened. This cursed spirit was stronger than he had expected. Its intelligence wasn't low—it knew to take out the shikigami first.
He changed tactics, his hands forming a different seal.
"Crane—Shadow Crane!"
The shadows erupted.
A massive indigo figure soared into the sky, its wingspan over ten meters, every feather gleaming with a metallic sheen. The crane spread its wings, the wind kicking up sand and dust on the playground. Its molten gold vertical pupils locked onto the cursed spirit in the old school building, and it let out a cry that pierced the clouds and cracked stone.
The special-grade cursed spirit's movement stopped for a moment.
Now.
Megumi pressed his hands together, cursed energy frantically channeled into the shadows.
"Great Snake!"
The ground beneath the old school building collapsed. Not a physical collapse, but the shadows turning into a bottomless swamp, a massive serpent rolling within. Immediately after, a thick body burst through the earth, its scales a dark green, each one engraved with ancient incantations. The Great Snake opened its enormous mouth, its fangs dripping corrosive venom, and bit into the foundation of the old school building.
The building shook violently. The cursed spirit let out a howl of rage, and even more tentacles burst out, trying to entangle the snake. But the Great Snake's power far exceeded that of the Jade Dogs. Its thick body twisted, snapping tentacles one by one, dark purple bodily fluids raining down.
Megumi didn't stop. He took a deep breath and mobilized nearly half of his cursed energy.
"Ox—Piercing Strike!"
The shadows boiled to their limit.
The Ox, head lowered, hoof digging the ground, its iron hooves crushing the concrete floor, then burst forward like a cannonball.
At that moment, the entire campus shook.
The old school building groaned under the strain, load-bearing columns snapping, walls collapsing, tiles raining down. The cursed spirit's howl turned into a scream, and its body was finally exposed from the ruins—
A twisted, amorphous mass of flesh. Its surface was covered in eyes and mouths, countless tentacles protruding from the meat, each one twitching in pain.
On the ground lay a small wooden box. The box's lid was open, and it was empty.
Sukuna's Finger was gone.