As Hasegumo plummeted from the ceiling, the Nightmare Bat—battered by the force of his strike—began to disintegrate. Its body dissolved into a cloud of tiny bats, wings fluttering desperately as they attempted to scatter and flee.
"Blue."
Down below, Satoru Gojo caught sight of the escaping creature. With a casual flick of his wrist, he clenched his right hand into a fist.
The brilliant azure light of Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue erupted, creating a localized center of gravity that sucked in every last bat. In an instant, they were crushed into nothingness.
THOOM!
Hasegumo hit the ground hard, stabilizing himself with one hand. He rose slowly, shaking off the dust.
"Huh? Satoru? Aren't you guys supposed to be in Hokkaido? That's over a thousand kilometers from here."
"Who knows? We just sort of ended up here," Gojo said with a lazy wave of his hand. "Forget that. Where are the others?"
Hasegumo pointed toward the jagged hole in the ceiling. "Still up there." As he spoke, his eyes scanned the perimeter, taking in the grim surroundings. His brow furrowed. "Curse users?"
"Probably not any known ones," Gojo replied, glancing over at Suguru Geto. Geto's opponent was a mess—beaten so badly he was barely recognizable. Shoko Ieiri and Utahime Iori stepped forward to join Geto, surrounding the man whose mask had been shattered during the one-sided beatdown.
Gojo picked his nose and casually flicked a bit of debris at the man's face, which was already swollen like a prize-winning pig. "Hey, what 'church' did you say you were with again?"
"The... the Star... Star Religious Group," the man stammered. He was clearly terrified, his voice hitching as two loose teeth clattered onto the concrete floor.
"Oh. Whatever." Gojo turned to Geto, whose breathing was finally beginning to level out. "Want to kill him, Suguru?"
"No... let Yaga-sensei handle it." Killing him wouldn't change what had happened. Handing him over to Masamichi Yaga might yield more intel—and potentially save more people.
"Shoko, Utahime, let's search over there," Geto said, his composure regained. "A place like this is bound to have records of their experiments."
"I've never seen Suguru that angry before," Gojo remarked as he and Hasegumo sat cross-legged on the floor, exchanging intel.
"Any normal person would be," Hasegumo said, tracing lines in the dirt with his finger. "Using humans for large-scale experimentation like this... it makes standard curse users look like benevolent saints."
In the distance, Mei Mei approached, leading Nanami and Haibara.
Haibara stared at Hasegumo. Aside from some slightly tattered clothes, the senior was completely unscathed. He couldn't help but marvel, "We couldn't even protect ourselves against that thing, and Senpai exorcised it all on his own?"
"It was thanks to Mei Mei's strategy," Hasegumo corrected. "If she hadn't come up with that plan to create an opening, I'd probably still be sitting up there scratching my head."
Mei Mei reached them, her voice smooth and light. "Creating an opening requires an executor with the strength to capitalize on it. Even if the opponent were willing to fight me head-on, I couldn't have done what you did."
"Oh, stop the mutual ego-stroking," Gojo grumbled, looking annoyed. "I'm the one who crushed the thing with my technique, yet you're acting like you beat it to death yourself."
"Right, right. Satoru did a great job too. I'll buy you some nice Kikufuku when we get back," Hasegumo said in a tone one might use to soothe a fussy toddler. Gojo looked like he wanted to punch him.
Hasegumo quickly dropped the playful act as the rest of the group gathered. "Alright, everyone's here. Let's split up. Suguru is already looking for clues with Shoko and the others. Satoru, you and I will handle the remaining sorcerers in the facility."
He spoke as if he were discussing what to have for dinner—a casual confidence that left no room for doubt.
"Mei Mei, take Nanami and Haibara and start releasing the civilians. But don't let them leave just yet." As they turned to go, he added one final warning: "Stay alert. There might be hostile sorcerers hiding among the captives."
"Look at you, barking out orders like a proper 'Lord Hasegumo,'" Gojo teased. He was still prickly, but since the logic was sound, he didn't argue.
"I'm the only adult here, after all," Hasegumo replied softly before turning to finish his task.
Mei Mei's group moved through the facility, opening cell after cell. "It's okay now," Haibara would say to every person he found.
But as the captives emerged—people with hollow, numb eyes—no one spoke. They didn't even move. They simply stood in the cramped corridor or sat on the floor, weeping silently.
Haibara felt a lump form in his throat. The words "It's okay now" felt like lead in his mouth. Is it? Is it really okay?
Kento Nanami worked in silence, his face an unreadable mask. He performed his duties with robotic efficiency, showing no outward emotion. But when a small girl began to sob in front of him, he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and gently wiping away her tears.
The sound of sonic booms echoed through the underground plaza as powerful cursed energy signatures flickered and died. Hasegumo eventually reappeared, slinging two unconscious sorcerers over his shoulders.
Haibara and Nanami watched him. He was still smiling—a calm, steady expression that seemed entirely disconnected from the tragedy surrounding them.
"Senpai... don't you ever feel sad?" Haibara blurted out. Nanami looked up too, wondering how a person could witness such horror and keep a smile on their face.
"Maybe for a fleeting second," Hasegumo said, shrugging his shoulders to drop the two men onto the ground. "But if you take every tragedy you see and strap it to your back, the weight will eventually crush the life out of you. Just do what you can." He gestured to the unconscious men. "For example, help me tie these guys up. It's a pain to do with one hand."
"Right! On it, Senpai!" Haibara said, easily swayed by the simple logic.
Is that it? Is that really enough? Nanami thought bitterly. I thought a sorcerer's duty was to protect people from curses. Instead, we face life-and-death stakes only to witness tragedies caused by other sorcerers. This job... it's nothing but shit.
His expression grew so dark and brooding that the other two instinctively gave him a little extra space.
"Yo, Nanami! Don't be such a sourpuss! Look, look!"
Ignoring the atmosphere entirely—or perhaps intentionally defying it—Satoru Gojo dumped a pile of muscular men on the floor. "I took down seven! That's more than your Gumo-senpai. Don't you think I'm a super-reliable senior too?"
And then there's this shitty senior. There isn't a single normal person in the jujutsu world. Maybe I should just quit and find a new career.
Change doesn't happen overnight; it takes the slow accumulation of a thousand tragedies. For Kento Nanami, the seeds of his future departure from the jujutsu world had officially been sown.
"The Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event is officially concluded. The winners are Satoru Gojo's team," Masamichi Yaga announced back at the school. He pulled a thick stack of vouchers from his belt and handed them to Gojo.
"Listen, everyone. I know most of you don't really care for sweets," Gojo said shamelessly, clutching the stack of unlimited-purchase vouchers. "So, the handsome Satoru Gojo will selflessly take these off your hands."
Geto didn't even have the energy to argue; he just gave a tired nod.
"Just give me my share in cash," Shoko said. She didn't care for sugar, but Gojo's smug face was annoying enough that she decided to extort him out of principle.
"Noooo problem!" Gojo chirped.
"Like hell! Hand them over!" Utahime snarled, snatching a quarter of the stack from his pocket. "We all completed the mission together; the rewards get shared equally!"
Truly, the joys and sorrows of men are not shared.
"Yaga-sensei, I object! This is unfair," Hasegumo said, raising his hand. "They got a ton of intel and multiple targets. We just got one bat."
"Yeah! Let's do a redo! Hasegumo-senpai is super strong; we won't lose a second time!" Haibara chimed in.
"Agreed," added Mei Mei, who was busy calculating how to maximize her profit margin.
Nanami sat silently to the side, his face still dark, mentally calculating if his bank account could survive through next month.
"Luck is a part of strength. Stop whining," Yaga barked, effectively ending the debate. He signaled that they should all just go out for a celebratory dinner—on the losers' dime.
"Everyone, don't be so depressed!"
Gojo hopped up onto the podium where Yaga had just been standing, waving his vouchers like a conqueror. He took a deep, dramatic breath.
"No one has stood in the heavens from the beginning. Neither you, nor I, nor the Gods themselves. But that unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on... I shall stand in the heavens!" He ended the speech by dramatically slicking his hair back with his free hand.
Hasegumo blinked. "Does he really think we don't know he's just quoting Aizen from Bleach?"
"Has the stress of the vouchers finally destroyed Gojo-senpai's sense of shame?" Haibara asked, genuinely concerned.
Nanami sighed. "It's hard to imagine these people are called the 'Strongest Duo.'"
Even Geto broke character, rubbing his temples. "How can he say that with a straight face? I'm sitting down here and I'm the one dying of embarrassment."
"Did all those sugar vouchers rot his brain?" Utahime wondered aloud.
"I suspect the glucose has finally reached his frontal lobe," Mei Mei analyzed, chin in hand.
"Sweets really are a dangerous enemy," Shoko agreed solemnly.
Gojo ignored the heckling. "Those of you with no money can't afford a high-end place anyway. Tonight, at Ontsuzoushi in Roppongi, the entire bill is on Young Master Gojo! Rejoice, mortals!"
"What kind of place is that? Is it famous?" Hasegumo asked, being out of the loop.
Mei Mei, the connoisseur of the finer things, explained, "It's a top-tier kaiseki spot. I hear it's at least 30,000 yen per person."
"Wait, Senpai is actually being that generous?" Nanami thought, his faith in the industry flickering back to life. "Maybe the jujutsu world isn't a total loss."
"Long live Lord Gojo!" Haibara cheered. "I could eat a whole cow! I haven't eaten all day!"
"Can we actually eat enough to bankrupt him?" Utahime asked, already strategizing.
Shoko nodded. "Let's give it our best shot."
"Let's move out, everyone!"
"Roger! Long live Satoru Gojo!"
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