"The seal is complete."
Kenjaku picked up the Prison Realm and glanced around.
"Where are the Cursed Spirits?"
Sōjun Minamoto said nothing, and Kenjaku didn't expect an answer. He just chuckled.
"Ah well, doesn't matter."
"At least Six Eyes is finally taken care of."
He tossed the Prison Realm into the air and caught it again. "Now then…"
Hm?
As Kenjaku caught it, the weight suddenly pulled his hand down, dragging him toward the ground. He let go just before impact.
Boom—
The Prison Realm slammed into the floor, sending cracks outward like a parched riverbed. The ground sank slightly at the impact point.
On one of its six faces, a pair of eyes turned pale blue—eerily similar to Six Eyes.
"Tch!" Kenjaku sneered and stepped forward, trying to lift it—only to find it wouldn't budge.
He shot a glance at Sōjun Minamoto, but seeing he remained motionless, Kenjaku muttered, "Guess we'll have to wait until the Prison Realm finishes its analysis."
He squatted beside it.
Sōjun Minamoto leaned against the wall, his thoughts already elsewhere.
Far away at Jujutsu High, the canopy of the Bone Tree trembled slightly, as if stirred by wind.
The sorcerer monitoring it noticed nothing unusual.
Choso, the only other companion left, looked at the two of them, his gaze lingering briefly on Kenjaku before turning to leave.
He had no interest in waiting here. He was going to kill Itadori and Kugisaki—to avenge his brothers.
Kenjaku didn't even spare him a glance.
Sōjun Minamoto, on the other hand, looked up at Mechamaru on the ceiling. A faint curve appeared on his bandaged mouth.
He was Kōkichi Muta from the Kyoto school, he also possessed a Heavenly Restriction with a Binding Vow. His frail body had to remain submerged in nutrient fluid to survive, in exchange for access to a wide area of Cursed Techniques and energy output.
He had the same puppet manipulation skills as Masamichi Yaga and specialized in long-distance control of mechs.
Suffering greatly due to his condition, Mahito's Idle Transfiguration had offered temporary relief. When Kenjaku approached with an offer to collaborate, he quickly agreed.
After delivering intel from Jujutsu High, his body was repaired. But the alliance fell apart shortly after, and he was killed by Kenjaku's group.
The Mechamaru on the ceiling had been his contingency plan—left behind to monitor Kenjaku and his team, feeding information back to Jujutsu High.
Only a single program remained in Mechamaru, triggered under very specific conditions.
And when Satoru Gojo was sealed—that condition was met...
...
Meanwhile, Itadori, Mei Mei, and Ui Ui had already entered the first layer of the barrier, searching for the tent peg.
The passage was eerily quiet, their footsteps echoing softly through the corridor.
When they reached their target, the peg—wrapped in talismans and hammered into the concrete wall—was sitting there in plain sight.
"No one guarding it?" Itadori stepped forward, knelt down, and pulled it out. It crumbled in his hand.
A barrier appeared in midair, invisible until it shattered like glass.
"The anchor's real."
The barrier was lifted too easily, making them all more uneasy.
"Itadori-kun, Itadori-kun..." A faint electronic voice crackled to life, layered with static, then gradually became clearer.
"Who is it?" Itadori shouted.
Mei Mei and Ui Ui turned toward the sound.
"It's me—Mechamaru, from Kyoto. Listen closely," the voice buzzed with urgency.
Itadori recalled their recent exchange meeting—yes, they had crossed paths. He met Mei Mei's eyes, calmed himself, and listened.
"Satoru Gojo-sensei has been sealed!"
"?!"
There was no time to question why the anchor was unguarded—the shock of the message stunned them all.
Pressed for time, Mechamaru quickly urged them to focus and start planning.
As he continued speaking, he suddenly cut off, the buzzing intensifying...
"What's wrong?" Itadori asked.
"I've been discovered," the electronic voice sounded a bit heavy.
"Huh?"
"But… it seems he didn't destroy me," the voice added, tinged with surprise.
He had just connected with the Mechamaru stationed on Kenjaku's side. The feed displayed the situation on the fifth level:
The Prison Realm had sunk into the ground, and Noritoshi Kamo was crouched beside it. Near the wall stood a figure wrapped entirely in bandages—a person? A spirit?
Likely one of the masterminds behind this incident.
There were only a few ordinary people left nearby, huddled in a corner, not in immediate danger.
The scene intel was quickly relayed back. Just as he was about to brief Itadori and the others, something caught his eye...
The bandaged man was facing Mechamaru, his mouth sunken inward, creating a warped, uneven fold.
"Hehe~"
Maybe it was just his imagination.
A faint laugh flickered through Kōkichi's mind, sending a chill down his spine.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
The priority was to get the message out.
Without going into details, they hurried out and soon encountered Panda's group. Mechamaru, nearly out of power, was passed into Panda's hands.
With the message delivered, the group grasped the severity of the situation.
Itadori took on the task of alerting the others.
Mei Mei sent out her crows to continue searching for the next anchor and break through the third layer of the Barrier as soon as possible, allowing the sorcerers to enter.
Until then, Panda's team had no choice but to hold their position and report the news to the higher-ups via their phones.
"Why not ask my cousin to heal you?"
"Cousin?"
"Oh, I mean Sōjun—Sōjun Minamoto." Panda gave Mechamaru a little shake. "He's even brought someone back to life before. Healing should be no problem for him."
Mechamaru fell silent.
Shoko Ieiri had once examined him, but couldn't cure him. He knew there were two new Cursed Healers at Tokyo Jujutsu High, but he had long stopped hoping.
Still... if he'd known someone could literally revive the dead, he definitely would've tried again.
Was that information deliberately hidden?
That thought led to many others.
Maybe the Higher-Ups only wanted him to exist in this form. Easier to... keep him contained?
"...I don't know," he replied to Panda, voice dry and raspy.
"It's fine. Even like this, there's still hope for you." Panda seemed unconcerned, casually taking on a huge responsibility behind Sōjun Minamoto's back.
"He's turned his back on Jujutsu High. Would he really help me?"
"He's just doing his own thing." Panda looked out toward the Shibuya building.
'He will,' he thought to himself.
That was also the stance held by Yaga's direct students—when it came to Sōjun Minamoto and Riko Amanai.
...
Meanwhile, the news was sent out by Itadori using a special method. Not only did the Jujutsu High group receive it—everyone inside the Barrier was now aware.
...
The Curse Users, no longer cautious, finally rose to action.
This was the moment they had been waiting for—Satoru Gojo had been sealed.
This was it!
And it wasn't just a matter of waiting a few hours—they'd been waiting since twenty-nine years ago, from the very day Satoru Gojo was born.
Even after becoming Curse Users, they still had to live in hiding... That's why they were here today.
Gojo's sealing was just the beginning.
They would finally be free—to do what Curse Users were truly meant to do.
Next up: wipe out the Jujutsu Sorcerers.
The Curse Users were brimming with excitement.
Hidden in the shadows, Riko Amanai stirred as well. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for.
She silently approached the Curse Users, and none of them sensed a thing.
As she drew closer, Riko suddenly paused, gently bit her lower lip, and the shadows beneath her feet deepened.
Then she turned and retreated toward the ground...
...
At the edge of the Barrier, Kiyotaka Ijichi was on the phone relaying intel. The Windows had a dedicated communication line that connected directly to the higher-ups.
Panda's message had been passed to him, and from there, to the top brass.
But they had to remain outside the Barrier—any closer, and the signal would be blocked.
Tap... tap... tap...
Soft footsteps came from just behind, but Ijichi didn't hear them at all.
A skinny blond boy with a crooked ponytail was approaching, holding a strange knife. The hilt itself looked like a hand, gripped tightly in his own.
He walked slowly toward Ijichi, his shadow stretching long behind them. Raising his right hand overhead, the shadow flickered twice. The blade tipped forward—ready to strike...
Boom—
The boy was suddenly sent flying, crashing into a roadside barrier. His body bounced off hard and landed in a heap by the road.
Ijichi turned around.
"Senpai?!"
Riko Amanai smiled slightly. "Call out a few more times."
"Sen... senpai, why are you here?" Ijichi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His stomach cramped, and he instinctively clutched at it.
He was shaken both by the Curse User's sneak attack and the sheer pressure Riko brought.
He groaned internally.
At Jujutsu High, the person who stressed him out most was Satoru Gojo. Second to him—Riko Amanai.
This -senpai had been gone from the school for a few days now, and he couldn't tell whose side she was on anymore.
Just then, the phone's earpiece crackled with a prompt, "What happened? Report!"
"Nothing to report," Ijichi replied.
Riko ignored him, stepped forward, and stomped down on the ponytailed attacker as he tried to rise, slamming him back to the pavement.
She leaned in.
The short gray blade extended gently, resting at his throat.
"Wa-wait! I..."
The knife slid outward, then swept across the back of his neck. Any blood left on it was wiped clean in the motion.
"Bye-bye." She waved to Ijichi with a smile.
Her footsteps faded into the distance.
When they could no longer be heard, the body on the ground twitched slightly.
"Hahaha~"
Tears welled at the corners of his eyes. The boy sat up slowly, rubbing at his throat—the wound had vanished.
Ijichi instinctively stepped back.
Still shaken, the attacker patted his chest and then grinned at Ijichi. "Yeah... I definitely prefer picking on the weak."
He stood and began walking toward Ijichi step by step—only to realize after a few paces that he couldn't move at all.
A chillingly sweet female voice spoke behind him.
"Ah, so you're still alive after all."
"I knew the soul was untouched, and there was no technique etched into the blade," she murmured to herself in a voice only she could hear. "So what's wrong with this knife?"
"You—you were gone! I heard you leave!" His voice was full of despair.
"Obviously I lied," Riko Amanai said, stepping close again and lightly dragging the gray blade across his throat once more.
The pink triangle under his eye dimmed. One of the six had vanished—three on each side originally, now just four.
Riko narrowed her eyes, studying his lids. "So it really is tied to this... I'm taking this technique."
The gray knife moved across his skin again, four swift strokes. The final mark faded.
The soul visible in her eyes began to unravel. She glanced at the blade—now etched with a single pink triangle.
Satisfied, Riko nodded, released him, and let his body slump to the ground. Blood spread across the pavement as she looked up at Ijichi and flashed a squint-eyed smile.
"This time, he's really gone. Be careful."
"S-see you..." Ijichi stammered.
Riko gave a sweeping glance at the area, then turned and strolled off with flair.
Her destination: the Shibuya Hikarie.
"Guess I'm running back again," she muttered, blending into the shadows and vanishing in an instant.
...
On the rooftop, Curse Users and Jujutsu Sorcerers were already locked in battle.
"I need to hurry..."
Riko rushed back toward the base of the building, then suddenly looked up, her lips curling in a strange smile.
She'd sensed an all-too-familiar presence—exactly like that scar-faced man from twelve years ago.
"Kukuku~"
She leapt, disappearing into the shadows once again.