The courtyard had been loud.
Too loud.
Voices layered over voices. Questions, laughter, arguments, disbelief.
Then everything stopped.
Because something wet hit the stone.
Plop.
A piece of flesh.
Small.
Fresh.
Impossible.
No one moved.
Then another fell.
Plop.
Then another.
Then more.
Strips.
Chunks.
Blood spotting the courtyard stones.
Young Utahime covered her mouth.
Haibara's smile vanished.
Young Nanami's posture hardened instantly.
Shoko's eyes sharpened.
Then—
an eye rolled across the ground.
Stopped.
Facing upward.
Yuji froze.
Every bit of color left his face.
"…No…"
He knew that eye.
Another mangled fragment landed nearby.
Suit cloth attached to ruined flesh.
Yuji's breathing broke.
"…Nanami…"
Inside Takeru's mind—
even Sukuna went silent.
Then:
"…How tasteless."
The sky twisted.
A grin formed before the body did.
Stitched skin.
Mocking eyes.
Hands flexing with joy.
Mahito descended laughing.
"…Awwww, what faces! Did I interrupt the reunion?"
He spread his arms.
"…I brought souvenirs."
The temperature of the courtyard changed.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Everything recoiled.
Yuji stepped forward shaking.
Choso moved instantly beside him.
Gojo's expression became empty.
Geto's eyes narrowed.
Yuta's cursed energy rose.
But Takeru was already walking.
Slowly.
Silently.
Tears in his eyes.
Mahito noticed.
Then smiled wider.
"…Ohhh, you remember too? Good! Trauma shared is trauma doubled—"
He never finished.
Takeru crossed the distance in one step.
No flourish.
No cursed technique callout.
No speech.
His fist went through Mahito's mouth.
Out the back of his skull.
The impact shattered the ground beneath them.
Mahito's body convulsed.
Still alive.
Trying to reform.
Trying to laugh.
Takeru grabbed his head with both hands.
"…No."
Then he tore.
Arms ripped free.
Torso split.
Legs crushed under heel.
Every piece that moved was pulverized again.
Every attempt at regeneration was met instantly.
Mahito screamed.
Begged.
Lied.
Laughed.
Then only screamed.
Yuji stood frozen.
He had wanted vengeance once.
What he saw now wasn't vengeance.
It was eradication.
Takeru's Black Flash detonated point blank.
Then another.
Golden sparks mixed with black.
Mahito's soul buckled.
"WAITWAITWAITI—"
Takeru slammed both palms together on Mahito's skull.
Nothing remained whole enough to speak.
Silence.
Only ragged breathing.
Blood on snowless stone.
Somewhere beyond death—
Mahito's fading consciousness was dragged elsewhere.
Toward the version of his body that existed in this rewritten timeline.
Unknowing.
Unwanted.
Memory following form.
Takeru stood over the remains.
Hands shaking.
Tears falling freely now.
He looked at the eye on the ground.
At the cloth.
At Yuji.
At nothing.
Then his knees buckled.
He collapsed forward.
Unconscious before he hit the stone.
Yuji moved first.
"…TAKERU!"
Choso was beside him instantly.
Gojo arrived in a blur.
Yuta right behind.
Young Nanami stared at the ruined fabric fragment on the ground.
Young Haibara looked at him, confused and frightened.
Young Geto whispered:
"…What did that thing do…?"
No one answered.
Because some grief cannot be explained.
Only recognized.
Inside the fallen silence—
even Sukuna said nothing.