Chapter 40 (Patreon)

“Shoko, so you finally decided to come out on a mission?”

Ragnar Kagenou walked up to her, reached out, and pulled her to her feet.

“As if that’s ever happening. I value my life way too much for that,” Shoko Ieiri said as she brushed the dust off herself.

“In that case, what are you doing in London? Don’t tell me you really came all the way out here for a vacation.”

Ragnar looked at her curiously.

Shoko let out a helpless sigh.

“I actually did come here to relax for once, but who would’ve thought I’d run into this kind of disaster? In theory, cases involving Cursed Spirits overseas are supposed to be pretty rare. I honestly have no idea what’s going on...”

Halfway through, Shoko suddenly seemed to realize something. She turned sharply toward Ragnar, suspicion written all over her face.

“Wait. Ragnar, what are you doing here?”

Ragnar shook his head with a wry smile.

“Sigh... it’s a long story.”

“Then make it short. Stop dragging it out and tell me already,” Shoko shot back.

Ragnar took a breath and gave her the short version.

“I came to London this time to hunt down a special grade curse user.”

“This one’s slippery. It’s been running from place to place the whole time, and I’ve been chasing it all the way here...”

Before he could finish, Shoko frowned and cut in, piecing it together on her own.

“So let me get this straight... this sudden outbreak of Cursed Spirits all over London—could it be because you backed that special grade curse user into a corner, and now it’s lashing out in desperation and turning the whole city into a battlefield?”

“Not exactly. I’ve only been chasing it for a few years.”

Ragnar narrowed his eyes slightly, as though recalling the whole mess, then answered in an almost casual tone.

“All it really did was force it to keep moving through country after country across Europe.”

Then he gave a light shrug, as if that were a perfectly minor detail.

Shoko stared at him in disbelief.

“What do you mean, ‘that’s all’? Do you even hear yourself? That’s practically all of Europe!”

Just thinking about it made her want to sigh.

This guy was absurdly calm. Being chased by Ragnar Kagenou for years, and only now had that curse user finally decided to risk an all-out confrontation.

Shoko covered her face.

“Thank God I’ve never gone on missions with you people. Every time it’s either a special grade Cursed Spirit or some ridiculous catastrophe. Who’s supposed to survive that?”

“You make it sound worse than it is. Special grades are only so-so, really. There just aren’t that many truly troublesome ones.”

Ragnar said it with a completely serious expression.

Hearing that shameless humblebrag, Shoko almost wanted to smack him across the head.

“For you people, sure. But at Jujutsu High, other than you and Gojo, who wouldn’t be staring death in the face if they ran into a special grade?”

Then her gaze shifted to the armor he was wearing.

“Where did this golden armor come from? It’s ridiculously flashy.”

As she spoke, she tapped it with her fingers, producing a clear clang, clang.

“It looks nice, but can it actually protect you?”

After all, gold was a soft metal. Making armor out of it sounded unreliable no matter how you looked at it.

“This isn’t ordinary gold. It can block part of the flow of cursed energy, and its physical durability isn’t bad either.”

“I see...”

Shoko pulled out a cigarette and tried to light it, but no matter how many times she tried, the flame wouldn’t catch in the mist.

“So... you’re heading off to deal with that special grade curse user now?”

Ragnar took the cigarette from her hand and answered, “Of course. Once it’s defeated, the curses roaming this city should start disappearing too.”

Shoko gave him a strange look.

“Don’t tell me you’ve started smoking too.”

“That would be a no.”

Ragnar shook his head, then added, “You should smoke less. It’s bad for your health.”

“I’m a doctor. Do you think I don’t know that?” Shoko replied flatly.

She was already used to it.

At this point, she probably couldn’t quit even if she wanted to.

“I still have no idea how someone like you became a doctor.”

Shoko smiled faintly.

“By using my brain, obviously. I passed the exam fair and square, you know.”

Ragnar looked at her and said, “Don’t tell me your qualifications were forged.”

With a snap of her fingers, Shoko grinned.

“That’s right. Impressive, isn’t it?”

“Very impressive.”

Ragnar gave her a thumbs-up.

“So, want to come with me? I can give you the credit for taking down the special grade Cursed Spirit and the curse user.”

Shoko immediately shook her head so hard it was practically frantic.

“No. Absolutely not. I don’t care about the credit. Standing next to you is the most dangerous place I could possibly be.”

Ragnar smiled.

“It’s fine. No one’s killing you while I’m around.”

Shoko looked thoroughly unconvinced.

“Fine, then I’ll stop trying to persuade you. I’ll at least wipe out the Cursed Spirits around this area first.”

“Yeah... sorry for the trouble.”

“There’s no need to be polite with me. Once this incident’s over, I’m coming to find you for a free meal.”

“Let’s make one thing clear first. I do not have enough money to take you somewhere expensive.”

“Is that so? Then now I’m even more curious.”

The next moment, countless golden ripples spread through the air, dazzling and magnificent.

They shimmered one after another, flooding the surroundings with a radiant golden glow.

The dark street—once swallowed whole by such dense mist that even the wind seemed unable to disperse it—was instantly torn open by that brilliant light.

The fog retreated at a visible pace, vanishing like morning mist beneath sunlight and revealing the true shape of the street beneath it.

Then the Noble Phantasms of the Gate of Babylon began to rain down.

They descended in overwhelming numbers, blanketing the entire street in an instant.

Each Noble Phantasm shone with its own distinct brilliance, carrying terrifying force as it smashed into the ground one after another.

For a time, explosions and thunderous impacts echoed without end, roaring through the night until it was almost deafening.

A moment later, the mist cloaking several streets had been completely blown away, and the Cursed Spirits lurking within it had all been torn to pieces beneath the rain of Noble Phantasms.

When the street finally came back into view, it was almost unrecognizable.

The once-flat roads had been blasted apart, now littered with craters of every size.

The buildings on both sides looked even worse. Some had collapsed entirely into heaps of rubble, while others were left with only half a wall standing, as though a single gust of wind might finish them off.

Ragnar looked over the devastation and tilted his head slightly.

“Hmm... I may have overdone it a little.”

But well...

This was all Tokiomi’s fault anyway.