The streets of Shinjuku fell into a deathly silence.
The once-bustling commercial district, which had been filled with the roars of Cursed Spirits and the thunder of collapsing buildings, was now completely still.
From the mid-air position of that skyscraper as the origin point, an absolute hemispherical vacuum zone several hundred meters in diameter spread outward.
Asphalt roads, streetlights, wrecked cars, and the hundreds of grotesque Cursed Spirits of all shapes.
Everything was gone.
Behind the defensive line, Zenin Maki tightened her grip on her naginata, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
Panda and Inumaki Toge stood side by side, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
The army of Cursed Spirits that had forced them into a desperate struggle just moments ago, so numerous it brought despair, had been wiped away with a mere flick of that black-haired youth's hand.
This was not exorcism. This was absolute erasure of matter and energy on a physical level.
"Quite the grand display."
Gojo Satoru hovered in mid-air, his azure Six Eyes fixed firmly on Rin atop the rooftop.
Twelve years had passed. He had thought himself standing at the pinnacle of power, yet the destructive force unleashed by that casual gesture still made his heart skip.
That repulsive force resembled his Cursed Technique Lapse: Red, yet the underlying principle was entirely different.
On the rooftop of the high-rise, Rin paid no attention to Gojo Satoru's gaze, nor did he spare a glance for the horrified sorcerers below.
Those pale purple Rinnegan, etched with six tomoe, shifted slightly. His vision pierced through layers of darkness and locked onto the top of a signal tower two kilometers away.
Perched there was a tiny, fly-like Cursed Spirit, almost indistinguishable from the night itself.
It emitted no hostility, its Cursed Energy suppressed to the extreme. Its compound eyes were faithfully recording everything unfolding on the Shinjuku battlefield.
"A rat that hides its head but shows its tail."
Rin let out a cold sneer and casually raised his right hand, pointing toward the distant fly-like Cursed Spirit.
"Banshō Ten'in."
Two kilometers away, the space around the Cursed Spirit suddenly collapsed.
An irresistible gravitational force ignored distance entirely, dragging it through the resistance of space and pulling it into Rin's palm in an instant.
Rin closed his hand around the Cursed Spirit. The ocular power of his Rinnegan followed the faint thread of Cursed Energy within it, surging upward like a raging current as it traced back to the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.
...
On the outskirts of Tokyo, in a dim underground basement.
Kenjaku sat cross-legged on a futon when he suddenly let out a shrill scream.
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of black blood sprayed onto the low table before him. His hands flew to the stitches across his forehead as his eyes bulged from the overwhelming pain.
In that instant, the mental imprint he had placed on the scouting Cursed Spirit was crushed by a force vast as an abyss, cold and filled with a destructive, godlike majesty.
That power even traced the connection back, nearly burning through the brain inside this borrowed body.
"Those eyes… what in the world are they?!"
Kenjaku panted heavily, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.
He had lived for over a thousand years, witnessed countless brilliant Jujutsu Sorcerers, and had even been defeated twice by the Six Eyes.
But he was certain of one thing. Even Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses from the golden age of jujutsu a thousand years ago, had never possessed an ocular power capable of making one's soul tremble with a single glance.
Purple ripples. Black tomoe.
Those were not human eyes.
"That anomaly from the Star Plasma Vessel incident… not only has he not aged, his power has become even more terrifying…"
Kenjaku wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with deep wariness and fear.
Too dangerous.
Originally, he had planned to take advantage of the chaos during tonight's Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
Once Gojo Satoru killed Geto Suguru, he would seize the opportunity to take over Geto Suguru's body and obtain the Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique, allowing him to devour countless Cursed Spirits. That was the core of his plan to initiate the Culling Game.
But now, the appearance of that monster had thrown everything into disarray.
"No… I absolutely cannot expose my true self."
Kenjaku gritted his teeth and decisively severed all Cursed Energy connections with the outside world.
He knew that man's methods all too well.
Twelve years ago, he had single-handedly burned down the Star Religious Group and trampled the Jujutsu Headquarters. If his traces were discovered today, this basement and everything in it would be reduced to dust without hesitation.
"Geto Suguru's body… I'll have to wait for another opportunity."
Kenjaku rose to his feet and stepped deeper into the darkness, concealing himself completely.
…
On the Shinjuku rooftop, Rin applied a bit of force to his palm.
With a soft pop, the fly-like Cursed Spirit was crushed into a wisp of blue smoke.
He could sense that the mental thread connected to its master had been decisively severed.
"Runs pretty fast."
Rin brushed his hands together, and the Rinnegan in his eyes faded back into deep black.
He did not use space-time ninjutsu to give chase.
A mind like Kenjaku's, tempered over a thousand years, possessed countless methods of preserving his life. Even if Rin pursued now, at best he would only destroy a disposable puppet body.
To truly uproot that cancer lurking in the shadows, the only way was to let him believe the time was right and force him to reveal all his cards.
The Culling Game. The resurrection of Ryomen Sukuna.
That was the real goldmine for harvesting massive amounts of dimension points.
Killing a rat hiding in the dark now would be a waste.
Better to cast a long line and reel in a bigger catch.
Rin withdrew his thoughts and stepped off the edge of the rooftop, landing steadily on the street that had been cleared by Shinra Tensei.
Almost at the same moment he touched the ground, Gojo Satoru descended from the air as well, stopping less than ten meters away from him.
At the far end of the street, from within a shadowed alley, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed.
A young man in a gojō-kesa robe, his long hair half-loose, slowly stepped out.
A distinct scar marked his face, and his narrow eyes carried a coldness that seemed to have seen through the world, yet still clung to an extreme obsession.
Geto Suguru.
Once a top student of Jujutsu High, now a Special Grade Curse User wanted by the entire jujutsu world.
He looked at the empty street, at the massive semicircular void where even buildings had been cleaved away, and his expression froze.
"A thousand Cursed Spirits. The bait I carefully prepared to stall you… wiped out in an instant."
Geto Suguru's gaze passed over Gojo Satoru and settled on Rin, a bitter smile curling at his lips.
"Mr. Rin, it's been twelve years. Your way of greeting people is as rough as ever."
Rin looked calmly at the young man who had chosen the wrong path.
Twelve years ago, he had saved Riko Amanai, erasing the regret of the Star Plasma Vessel incident for Geto Suguru.
Yet in the end, Geto Suguru still chose to defect. Unable to endure the exploitation and persecution of sorcerers by ordinary humans, he stepped onto this dead-end path of killing all non-sorcerers.
The inertia of fate could be absurdly stubborn.
"Your show was too loud. It's a public nuisance," Rin said flatly.
Gojo stood with his hands in his pockets, positioning himself between Rin and Geto Suguru.
He looked at his former best friend. His azure eyes held no anger, only deep sorrow.
"Suguru. Stop this."
His voice was soft, yet it echoed clearly through the empty street.
"The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons has already failed. The Cursed Spirits you gathered are gone. Even if you go to Jujutsu High now to find Okkotsu Yuta, you won't be able to take Rika."
Geto Suguru looked at him, then suddenly burst into laughter.
There was no attempt to hide the mockery in it, though it was unclear whether he was laughing at Satoru… or at himself.
___
Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon.com/slept01