Chapter 64 (Patreon)

Tokyo.

A golden radiance tore across the sky, swallowing the area in an instant.

Suguru Geto, who had been locked in battle with Rika Orimoto, felt the blinding light flash across his vision.

“…Dawn?”

Rika turned her head toward the glow.

“No… wait, this is—”

Geto’s expression changed.

The connection had vanished.

The two Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirits in Kyoto, along with more than a thousand lower-grade cursed spirits, had all been erased from his control at once.

“What happened…? Was it that light?”

Who could wipe out every cursed spirit in Kyoto in a single instant?

Ragnar Kagenou?

No.

That should be impossible. He was still in Tokyo. Even for him, activating a cursed technique across three hundred and seventy kilometers should be—

Geto’s eyes narrowed.

“…What exactly is going on?”

——————

Shinjuku.

Countless hemp ropes hung from streetlights, overpasses, and rooftops, each one tied into a noose.

They swayed silently in the air.

Several assistant managers from Jujutsu High had already been caught and left hanging from them.

Swish!

A series of sharp claw strikes cut through the ropes.

The suspended sorcerers dropped to the ground one after another.

“Cough, cough! I’m… I’m alive!”

They clutched their necks, desperately gasping for air.

“Who’s there?” Mimiko Hasaba snapped, noticing someone had interfered with her cursed technique.

“I’ll be your opponent.”

Panda dropped down from the overpass and raised his fists in a boxing stance.

Mimiko stared at him coldly.

Several hemp ropes appeared around Panda at once.

“Then let’s see how long you can—huh?”

Panda moved with surprisingly nimble footwork, dodging through the ropes one after another.

Then—

His short, round leg slipped right into a noose.

“Uwah!”

“Caught you.”

Mimiko pulled the rope tight, leaving Panda hanging upside down beneath the overpass.

“So cute! Wait, don’t move! Let me take a picture!”

Nanako Hasaba instantly appeared in front of him, phone already raised, snapping photos from multiple angles.

“Take a picture of your own head!” Panda shouted.

“Now, now, don’t get angry, Panda-san. We’ll let you down once the fight is over.”

Nanako struck another pose in front of him, clearly enjoying herself.

“Help! Toge!”

Not far away, Toge Inumaki stared at Panda in silence.

Even he looked a little tired.

Still, he stepped forward, opened his mouth, and said—

“Fall.”

Plop!

The hemp rope snapped instantly.

“Ow… that hurt!”

Panda had landed head-first.

A large bump immediately rose on top of his head.

“Thanks, Toge!”

Inumaki nodded and popped a throat lozenge into his mouth.

Nanako quickly backed away as black markings spread over the camera of the phone in her hand.

Mimiko also tightened her grip on the hemp rope, watching Panda with caution.

Boom!

Just as the two sisters were about to move again, a loud crash sounded behind them.

They turned at once.

“What?!”

Miguel slowly crawled back to his feet, smoke rising from his body.

Nanako shouted, “Miguel?! What are you doing?!”

Miguel rubbed the back of his head.

“What does it look like? I’m getting beaten up.”

The next instant, Satoru Gojo appeared behind him.

“You’re pretty tough.”

Gojo attacked again, but Miguel blocked with the Black Rope.

Gojo’s eyes shifted toward the rope in Miguel’s hand.

A rope woven with a special curse… It disrupts my technique.

Miguel was even more shocked.

The Black Rope was being burned away faster than he had expected.

“Less than half left already…!”

Miguel shouted, “Do you have any idea how many decades it takes the sorcerers in my country to weave one of these?!”

Gojo replied flatly, “Why would I know that? If it’s so precious, maybe don’t use it.”

A cursed spirit suddenly appeared beside Gojo.

“Heh heh heh!”

Gojo did not even turn his head.

“You’re in the way.”

Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.

The cursed spirit was crushed in an instant, and the force shattered the glass windows of the buildings on both sides of the street.

The sight of Gojo’s technique left Nanako and Mimiko visibly shaken.

Miguel, meanwhile, remembered what Geto had told him.

Gojo Satoru’s Limitless interferes with matter at an atomic level. He controls space itself with terrifying precision through cursed energy. And the thing that makes that possible…

Those eyes.

Miguel gripped the Black Rope tighter.

“Ten minutes until the objective is complete. Guess I’ll spend the rest of it running for my life.”

He swung the Black Rope, tearing an outdoor air-conditioning unit free and hurling it at Gojo.

But against Gojo’s automatic Limitless, the air conditioner never even reached him.

Miguel immediately used the Black Rope to swing between buildings.

Gojo vanished.

Then he reappeared directly in front of Miguel, grabbed him by the neck, and threw him back onto the rooftop.

While Gojo was beating Miguel down with rapid close-quarters strikes—

A dazzling golden light flashed across the city.

Everyone present instinctively closed their eyes.

Miguel, already battered, was blinded for a moment.

Gojo kicked him away without hesitation.

Then he looked toward the source of the light with the Six Eyes.

“…That came from Kyoto.”

Miguel did not care where the light came from.

His own survival mattered more.

“I almost died just now. Looks like I really have to fight while retreating.”

Using a nearby low-grade cursed spirit for support, Miguel forced himself back up.

Then he muttered under his breath,

“If I die here, Geto, I’m haunting you first.”

——————

Meanwhile, at a square in Shinjuku.

Injured jujutsu sorcerers were being carried in one after another.

Akari Nitta took charge of a newly arrived casualty and called out to Shoko Ieiri as she passed by.

“Ieiri-san, this one needs treatment too.”

Shoko glanced at the wounded Jujutsu High student.

“Lay him over there for now.”

“Understood.”

Shoko moved on to treat the sorcerers in critical condition first.

There was no other choice.

None of them could use Reverse Cursed Technique. Shoko Ieiri was the only one present who could apply it to others.

Nitta spoke gently to the sorcerer lying on the ground.

“Don’t worry. Ieiri-san will treat you.”

Shoko looked at the endless stream of injured sorcerers being brought in.

Her expression remained calm, but her voice was tired.

“…I hate this.”

She exhaled softly.

“You really never stop making trouble for other people, Geto.”

——————

Suguru Geto summoned the weapon-storage cursed spirit that had once belonged to Toji Fushiguro.

The cursed spirit opened its mouth and spat out a three-section staff.

Special Grade Cursed Tool: Playful Cloud.

Geto caught it and rested it lightly in his hand.

“Looks like throwing numbers at you won’t work.”

His smile faded.

“I’ll handle you myself.”

Rika Orimoto gathered cursed energy throughout her body, reinforcing herself.

Her stance lowered.

Her breathing settled.

It was not a sorcerer’s stance.

It was martial arts.

Geto watched her movements with interest.

“Oh? Hand-to-hand combat?”

Rika did not answer.

Her cursed energy swelled silently.

Geto spun Playful Cloud once, his tone calm and almost conversational.

“Well, it hardly matters.”

He looked at her with that same gentle, twisted smile.

“Humans climbed to the top of the food chain, then started inventing beings above themselves and calling them gods.”

His grip tightened around Playful Cloud.

“Don’t you think that’s absurd?”

Rika’s eyes sharpened.

Geto’s voice lowered.

“Why worship imaginary gods and Buddhas…”

He stepped forward.

“…when jujutsu sorcerers exist right here?”