Chapter Text
“Do you see anything?” Hasume asked as she was lifted higher into the air.
Sumire had reactivated Lapse: Blue at her fingertips, the invisible pull holding Hasume securely as they ascended through the night sky. The wind tugged at their clothes, cool and sharp, carrying the distant noise of the city far below as Shibuya shrank beneath them.
The plan they had settled on was similar to one the higher-ups had requested earlier. They would rise to the apex of the first veil and act as an information hub. With both of their cursed techniques working in tandem, they would gather as much information as possible about what was unfolding across Shibuya and relay it to Ijichi, who would then pass it on to the other teams scattered throughout the city—keeping everyone informed, coordinated, and, hopefully, alive.
And—
Hasume would finally try the technique she had been preparing for.
Her domain.
“Equilibrium.”
Training with Kosuke had always revolved around this, because from the very beginning he had seen the potential in a technique like hers. Hasume hadn’t truly understood why until she made a binding vow—until she accepted the trade-off that would define her domain.
“If you give up your domain’s barrier and sure-hit effect,” Kosuke had explained, “which is already guaranteed through the cursed technique you imbue into it, then we can expand the domain’s range to nearly a thousand meters. It’ll stop being a closed space and become something much larger—basically a massive extension of your cursed technique.”
“The streets are infested with people and transfigured humans,” Sumire observed as they approached the highest point of the first veil, her eyes glowing faintly as her technique filtered through the chaos below. “And the curses and curse users that were in the subway have already dispersed…”
“Hm,” Hasume murmured, her gaze drifting outward, beyond Shibuya, toward the rest of Tokyo stretching endlessly into the night.
It felt surreal. Millions of people lived out there, entirely unaware. People riding trains home to warm meals, others stepping out to drink and laugh, some already asleep in their beds—while the city beneath them burned quietly with cursed energy and death.
“You know,” Sumire said as they slowed near the top of the veil, “the moment you open your domain, all of Tokyo will see it, right?” She glanced at Hasume. “It’s like–a thousand meters in diameter.”
“Yeah,” Hasume replied evenly. “I know.” She tilted her head slightly, eyes lifting to meet Sumire’s. “But what are the benefits?”
“Saving a ton of sorcerers’ lives,” Sumire answered without hesitation, a small smile breaking across her face. “That’s worth far more than the public noticing.”
That belief echoed something Kosuke had drilled into them during training.
“If you can activate a veil, do so. Don’t make an issue of it,” he had said. “But if you can’t, don’t let the fear of being seen stop you—especially you, Hasume. Your domain is big for a reason. The larger the area, the more lives you can protect. Public opinion can shift. Lives don’t. You’re either alive or you’re not.”
“Anything interesting you see?” Hasume asked again.
Sumire narrowed her eyes, her vision sharpening as she sifted through the dense ocean of cursed energy below them. “Not really. It’s hard to tell who’s a sorcerer and who is an enemy just by the amount of cursed energy alone… and it’s even harder to read from this far away.”
She paused, then turned slightly toward Hasume. “Hasume—doesn’t your technique read a person’s good and bad karma before applying a blessing or a curse?”
“Yeah,” Hasume answered.
“Then that means we can use your technique to differentiate more clearly,” Sumire said, a spark of excitement lighting her expression. “Curse users would have more bad karma than good. Sorcerers would have more good karma than bad.”
“Yeah, but what about morally gray sorcerers?” Hasume countered. “Like Naobito Zenin.”
Sumire’s expression tightened.
There was something neither of them wanted to say aloud.
They’d both heard enough stories from their father—about the Zenin Clan, about the way Naobito ruled it—to understand what “morally gray” often meant in practice.
“I can’t see the specifics of the karma they’ve accumulated,” Hasume said finally, choosing a middle ground. “So to be safe… we just won’t bless them.”
It was a compromise. And probably a biased one.
“That works for me,” Sumire replied, glancing down at Hasume as she held her aloft with Lapse: Blue, her fingertips steady despite the strain.
A brief silence settled between them. Not uncomfortable—just heavy with anticipation.
They both knew what came next.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Hasume laughed nervously. “You’re making me anxious.”
Sumire scoffed, then chuckled. “What? I’m just excited to see it in action instead of on the training field.”
“Well, I am too,” Hasume admitted, her tone softening, “but I’m anxious because this will be the first time real people—real actions—will be draining my cursed energy.” She exhaled. “Not just those two idiots—Kosuke and our dad—using my domain as an excuse to beat each other up.”
She hesitated. “I just hope I have enough.”
“You will,” Sumire said immediately, her voice warm and certain. “I know you will.”
“Okay, okay—I’ll do it.”
Hasume shook her head once, as if steadying herself, before letting her gaze drop to the veil standing beneath them. The faint shimmer of cursed energy rippled across its surface, reflecting dim city lights far below. Her expression softened for only a second before settling into something calm and resolute, the kind of seriousness that came when there was no room left for hesitation.
She drew in a slow, deliberate breath.
Both hands rose to her chest at the same time, her movements careful and practiced, as if she were following steps etched into her muscle memory. Her index fingers and thumbs met, forming two identical “ok” symbols. Then she twisted her right hand, mirroring the left, and slid it beneath the other, aligning them perfectly.
The air seemed to tense around her.
“Domain Expansion: Equilibrium.”
Cursed energy detonated outward in a controlled burst. From Hasume’s back, a massive yin and yang symbol erupted into existence, unfurling like a living thing as it rose above them. It expanded rapidly—smooth, precise—until it reached a full diameter of one thousand meters, its vast form slowly beginning to rotate.
The symbol spun steadily, silent and immense, looming over the entirety of Shibuya like a celestial seal.
From the ground, it lit up the night sky.
Every person standing within that thousand-meter radius—every sorcerer, curse user, and curse—was now inside Hasume’s domain.
Outside the veil, Megumi had just finished relaying Shoko Ieiri’s location when he instinctively looked up. The sight froze him in place. The massive yin and yang turning overhead stole his breath for a moment, before a small, almost disbelieving smile tugged at his lips. High above, faint but unmistakable, he could see two figures hovering beneath it.
Nobara, standing with Nitta after parting ways with Maki and Naobito Zenin, felt the sudden glow wash over the streets. She glanced skyward, took in the spinning symbol, and smirked. She didn’t need to ask who had done that.
Inside a department store, Panda and Kusakabe paused mid-evacuation as light spilled through the tall windows, casting strange shadows across the walls as civilians hurried down stairwells.
Shoko Ieiri, driving alongside Principal Yaga toward Shibuya to establish a medical station after Gojo’s sealing, narrowed her eyes as the symbol reflected off the windshield.
Inumaki, managing crowds along the main streets and only moments removed from Yuji’s presence, looked up and felt his chest tighten.
Nanami, carrying the injured Ijichi beyond the veil, saw it too.
But those deep underground—Mei Mei, Ui Ui, Maki, Naobito, Yuji, and the curses and curse users responsible for the chaos—did not.
Hasume let out a strained grunt as she clenched her jaw, the weight of her domain settling fully onto her. Over a thousand people were now within her reach. Somewhere in that tangled web were sorcerers, curse users, and curses alike.
She forced herself to breathe—slowly, rhythmically—until her pulse steadied.
To her, it felt like hoisting an enormous weight onto her shoulders at the start of an endurance trial. Heavy, yes—but manageable. Her body was fresh, her cursed energy abundant, burning eagerly beneath her skin.
“Alright,” Sumire said, her voice steady despite the magnitude of what surrounded them. “Now identify our friends.”
Hasume’s domain responded instantly.
Anyone with negligible cursed energy—ordinary civilians—was filtered out without effort. What remained was the battlefield itself, both sides laid bare. Friend and foe blurred together, distinguished only by intent, action, and the karmic weight they carried.
Her technique began to sort them.
Those with predominantly good karma.
Those with predominantly bad karma.
Hasume mentally pulled up the roster Ijichi had briefed her on before everything had spiraled out of control.
Yuji Itadori.
Megumi Fushiguro.
Nobara Kugisaki.
Maki Zenin.
Panda.
Inumaki Toge.
Nanami Kento.
Naobito Zenin.
Ino Takuma.
Mei Mei.
Ui Ui.
Principal Yaga.
Shoko Ieiri.
Kusakabe Atsuya.
Ijichi Kiyotaka.
Nitta Akari.
And the other assistant supervisors scattered across Shibuya.
These were the ones she needed to protect.
She quickly made her decisions. Five yang talismans would be assigned to sorcerers currently in direct combat. Three yin talismans would be reserved for enemies. Of the twenty blessings and curses she could apply, fifteen would go to sorcerers and assistants. The remaining five would be used against their adversaries.
But first—priority.
“Sumire, help me confirm who’s engaged right now,” Hasume said.
Together, they worked through it—tracking fluctuations in cursed energy, movement patterns, positions within Shibuya—slowly refining the picture.
“Yuji’s fighting,” Sumire said, focusing through her Prism technique. “He’s moving fast… and whoever he’s facing has significantly more bad karma than good.”
“Yeah,” Hasume murmured. “I can feel it.”
Her domain responded to her intent.
“I’ll prioritize those currently in battle.”
Yuji Itadori received a yang talisman.
Maki Zenin received a yang talisman.
Nanami Kento received a yang talisman.
Inumaki Toge received a yang talisman.
Mei Mei received a yang talisman.
“The rest who aren’t actively fighting will receive blessings.”
Megumi, Panda, Nobara, Kusakabe, Ui Ui, Ino, and nine assistant supervisors across Shibuya were marked with a single decree:
“The recipient of this blessing shall not die, effective until midnight, October 31st.”
She deliberately withheld that blessing from those bearing yang talismans, trusting the talismans themselves to keep death at bay.
The remaining talismans and curses were turned outward.
Without exact identification, Hasume let the domain decide—filtering by accumulated bad karma and direct engagement with sorcerers.
Choso received a yin talisman.
Haruta received a yin talisman.
The Smallpox Curse received a yin talisman.
Kenjaku.
Jogo.
Dagon.
Mahito.
Uraume.
Were each branded with a curse:
“The recipient of this curse shall be found and promptly executed or exorcised, effective until midnight, October 31st.”
Hasume was pushing herself to the absolute limit.
Across Shibuya, the balance shifted. Sorcerers felt strength surge, certainty settle, or fate itself bend away from death. Enemies felt the opposite—pressure, dread, inevitability.
Yuji smiled when he felt it, even as he fought for his life inside a cramped station restroom.
Finally, Hasume exhaled.
“That’s everyone I could reach,” she said, her expression sharp with focus as she maintained the domain. “I couldn’t do anything for transfigured humans, curses or non-sorcerers.”
She lifted her gaze, eyes steady.
“Keep watching. If situations change, we adjust the blessings, curses, and talismans accordingly.”
“Alright, I’ll call Ijichi to update him,” Sumire said, confirming it aloud more for herself than anyone else. Without lowering her focus, she lifted her free hand, slid her phone from her pocket, and dialed Ijichi’s number. She set the phone to speaker, the small click of the setting change sounding far louder than it should have in the charged air around them.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No answer.
Sumire’s brows knit together as she glanced down at the screen, thumb hovering uncertainly before she tried again. The same result—endless ringing, unanswered.
“He’s not picking up…” she muttered, frustration creeping into her voice before she raised it slightly so Hasume could hear. “Is he inside the veil? He’s not answering his phone.”
“Call Nitta,” Hasume said without hesitation, her attention still split between the city below and the constant strain of maintaining her domain. “She should be outside the veil.”
Sumire nodded and immediately dialed Nitta’s number.
The ringing stretched on, long enough for unease to settle into her chest.
Still nothing.
Her shoulders sagged slightly as she lowered the phone. “Looks like she’s inside the veil too…” she groaned, dragging a hand across her face before looking back up at Hasume. “Is there anyone outside the veil we can talk to?”
Hasume thought for a brief moment, eyes narrowing in concentration. “Ms. Ieiri,” she said. “She was supposed to be setting up a medical base outside the veil.”
Sumire didn’t waste a second. She dialed again.
This time, the phone rang only once before it clicked, and a familiar, softer voice answered on the other end.
“Hello? Sumire?” Shoko Ieiri said, her tone calm but distracted, as though she were speaking while her hands were already busy elsewhere. “Do you need something?”
Relief washed through Sumire as she straightened. “Yes—Ms. Ieiri. Hasume and I are in the air over Shibuya right now, and we’ve gathered a lot of information about what’s happening across the area. I can’t get ahold of Ijichi or Nitta. Do you have a way to connect us with an assistant supervisor or anyone who can relay information to the teams inside the veil?”
There was a brief pause on the line, followed by a quiet, breathy huff.
“So that’s you two in the sky…” Shoko said, a hint of dry amusement in her voice, though it was strained at the edges. “I have Principal Yaga with me right now—he can help coordinate. I’ll put the phone on speaker, but give me a moment. I’m tending to Ijichi and Ino.”
Sumire froze.
“Ijichi…?” Her eyes widened as she instinctively leaned closer to the phone. “Wait—you’re treating Ijichi? Was he injured?”
“Yes,” Shoko replied, setting the phone down nearby as the sound of movement filtered through the speaker. “Someone has been deliberately targeting assistant supervisors throughout Shibuya. I’ve only just finished setting up the medical station, and I’m already overwhelmed with injured—and dead—assistant supervisors and sorcerers.”
Her voice hardened slightly.
“Whoever we’re facing knows exactly how we respond to large-scale incidents like this.”
“That would most likely be Geto’s doing,” Principal Yaga said, his voice cutting in with unmistakable weight. There was no mistaking the anger beneath his calm.
“Dammit…” Hasume muttered, her eyes narrowing as the situation sharpened in her mind.
Sumire turned toward her immediately. “What’s wrong?”
Hasume exhaled through her teeth, her focus snapping downward. “Yuji’s getting beaten to hell down there,” she said, voice tense. “I can feel the yang talisman burning through its reserves. I’m having to funnel more and more cursed energy into it just to keep him standing.”
Her fingers curled slightly at her side.
“I might have to switch him to a blessing instead—just to keep him alive.”
The line went quiet.
Sumire could practically feel Shoko and Yaga stiffen on the other end.
Hasume didn’t give herself time to hesitate.
Through her domain, she made the adjustment—swift, precise, and costly. Yuji’s yang talisman dissolved into a blessing, the same one she had given to those not engaged in active combat. She could only hope that the blessing, combined with Yuji’s overwhelming good karma, would be enough to keep him alive.
But the exchange demanded a price.
Ui Ui’s blessing was stripped away and replaced with Yuji’s former yang talisman.
Sumire swallowed, watching the subtle shift in cursed energy ripple outward.
“There’s another fight,” she said suddenly, her Prism technique locking onto a dense knot of energy. She pointed downward. “Ground level—one of the station buildings.”
Hasume followed her gaze. “Nanami, Maki, and Naobito Zenin,” she said after a moment. “They’re engaged with a curse. Given the numbers, it’s probably one of the main ones involved in this mess.”
She inhaled slowly. “I need to adjust the allocations again.”
Within the domain, changes were made.
Dagon’s curse was revoked and replaced with a yin talisman.
Haruta’s yin talisman was stripped away and replaced with a curse.
No other adjustments were necessary on the sorcerers’ side—for now.
“Are there any other developments?” Yaga asked over the phone, already stepping away to relay what information he could to the few assistant supervisors still reachable.
“Yes,” Hasume replied, her gaze shifting rapidly across the city. “Mei Mei and Ui Ui are fighting a curse underground—likely along the Fukutoshin Line heading toward B5. There’s someone stationed there with an overwhelming amount of bad karma.”
Her eyes moved again.
“Nobara and Nitta are in a station building near Bukamura Street. Megumi is on the surface, heading toward Nanami’s location. Panda and Kusakabe are evacuating civilians from a department store. Inumaki is managing the crowds on the main streets.”
“Confirmed,” Yaga said firmly. “Keep the updates coming.”
Suddenly, Hasume felt it.
Not pain—not yet—but absence.
A hollow sensation tore through the far reaches of her awareness, like a lung collapsing inside a body that had been breathing just fine moments ago. Somewhere within Shibuya, a void had opened inside her domain. An unmistakable dead zone, where her influence simply… ceased.
Her breath hitched.
There was only one explanation.
“You also need to be aware of what could happen when you hold your domain for long periods of time during a major incident,” Kosuke’s voice echoed in her memory, calm and instructional, spoken during training as though this were merely a theoretical concern. “If someone opens a closed-barrier domain within your open-barrier domain, it creates a hole inside yours. Anyone inside that space is completely cut off from your influence.”
The memory sharpened.
“It’s different from veils. That’s the real weakness—aside from your own exhaustion, and the fact that you can’t move the domain once it’s deployed.”
Hasume swallowed.
“Someone used a domain expansion,” she said aloud, her voice steady but tight.
Sumire reacted instantly, snapping her gaze downward and sweeping across Shibuya with heightened focus. Her eyes locked onto the building Nanami, Maki, Naobito—and the curse—had been fighting in moments earlier. There it was: a dense, immovable presence of cursed energy, thick and unmistakable, pressing outward like a sealed container under pressure.
A domain.
“Where?” Principal Yaga asked sharply over the phone.
“Nanami’s location,” Sumire replied, her jaw tightening. “Maki and Naobito too. They’re inside the enemy’s domain.”
Hasume clenched her fists. “My influence can’t reach them while they’re inside it,” she added quietly. “They’ll have to escape on their own.”
“And Megumi’s approaching it right now…” Sumire said, dread seeping into her voice.
She hated this—every second of it. Ino had nearly died. Yuji had nearly died. And now Nanami, Maki, and soon Megumi were stepping into something just as lethal, if not worse.
“I suspect he’ll try to infiltrate it,” Shoko said over the phone, her tone grim. “If anyone inside needs help.”
Sumire exhaled sharply through her nose. She hated that answer. She hated all of this. The thrill from earlier—of power, of spectacle—had long since vanished. This wasn’t a demonstration anymore.
This was real. And people were paying for it.
“He just did,” Hasume said suddenly.
Everyone went still.
“I felt his blessing shatter,” she continued. “It’s gone.”
Sumire forced herself to breathe and turned her attention elsewhere, desperate for something—anything—that wasn’t spiraling out of control. Yuji was still unconscious in the station, unmoving. Mei Mei appeared to have defeated her initial opponent and was now engaging something stronger along the tracks. Nobara and Nitta hadn’t moved. Inumaki, Panda, and Kusakabe were still guiding civilians to safety.
No relief. Just persistence.
Then—
“Someone’s approaching,” Hasume said, tension snapping back into her voice. “Faster than a civilian. They aren’t on the deployment list.”
Her eyes narrowed. “They’re an enemy.”
Sumire turned back toward the newly formed domain, scanning its edges. But she frowned. “I don’t see anyone.”
“He’s standing right next to it,” Hasume said slowly. “I can feel him.”
Sumire squinted harder, pushing her technique to its limit. “I seriously don’t see any difference in cursed energy.”
Hasume’s breath caught.
That sensation—she recognized it.
The same confusion she’d felt when Ino was attacked.
“Wait,” she said, realization slamming into her. “Sumire… this guy doesn’t have cursed energy.”
Silence.
“He must be the one who nearly killed Ino at Shibuya Central Tower.”
“What!?” Sumire snapped, disbelief flooding her expression. “That’s impossible. Everyone has cursed energy—sorcerer or not.”
“Have you forgotten about Maki?” Hasume shot back. “She doesn’t have cursed energy either. She fights with cursed tools.”
Sumire froze.
Shoko’s voice cut in, low and tense. “That shouldn’t be possible. The only person other than Maki ever born like that… was Toji Zenin.”
The name settled like a curse itself.
“But he’s dead isn’t he?” Sumire said weakly. “So then who is this?”
Hasume’s thoughts raced. “When this presence appeared, it was before Ino was attacked. The curse users Ino was fighting—their cursed energy was connected. This thing feels connected too that somehow.”
“Connected cursed energy…” Shoko murmured–thinking. “A seance technique,” Shoko finished quietly. “One of them must have acted as a medium to summon the dead–”
Everyone realized it at the same time.
Cold dread flooded the line.
They had summoned the formerly deceased Toji Zenin.
“Holy shit…” Hasume breathed. “He nearly killed Ino—and destroyed my talisman. He’s that strong without cursed energy..?”
Her eyes widened.
“He disappeared,” she said suddenly. “He’s gone—he got inside the domain!”
A chill ran through everyone listening.
Now Toji Zenin was inside a closed barrier domain.
Beyond Hasume’s reach.
Beyond her protection.
Everyone that was trapped inside that space was completely on their own—and whatever happened next would be decided without her influence at all.
“There’s someone else approaching,” Sumire warned, her voice tightening as her eyes fixed on the shifting patterns of cursed energy below. “I can’t see them clearly, but just from the density alone… they’re strong.”
“Are they an ally?” she asked, already knowing the answer she didn’t want.
Hasume didn’t even hesitate. Her domain answered before her mouth did.
“Enemy.”
The word landed heavily between them.
Three enemies. Four sorcerers. Two of them students. All but one trapped inside a domain that had already nearly crushed them once. The situation was unraveling faster than she could stabilize it.
“When they get out,” Hasume continued, forcing her voice to stay steady, “I’ll give them blessings immediately so they won’t die.” Her jaw tightened. “I just hope I’m not too late.”
To do that, she would have to reshuffle everything again.
Two blessings were stripped from assistant supervisors—decisions made in fractions of a second, cruel but necessary. Megumi’s blessing was already primed to reapply, leaving her with two spare yang talismans if the enemy below attacked the moment the domain fell.
Which felt… inevitable.
A minute later, the enemy domain shattered.
The void collapsed inward, and in the instant Hasume’s influence rushed back to reclaim the space, she acted. Blessings snapped into place around Nanami, Maki, and Megumi. At the same time, she felt Dagon’s yin talisman burn out as the curse was exorcized, its karmic weight evaporating into nothing.
She seized the vacancy and immediately bound the freed yin talisman to Jogo.
“They’re out!” Sumire said urgently. “Did you apply the effects?”
“Yes,” Hasume replied, though the constant redirection of cursed energy was beginning to drag at her chest, a dull ache forming beneath her ribs.
Then—
Megumi was hurled out of the building.
His body shattered through glass and concrete before his mind could even process what had hit him.
“He was thrown!” Sumire shouted, her grip tightening around her phone as Shoko and Yaga listened helplessly on the other end. “Give him a talisman—now! Give him a talisman!”
She couldn’t see who had done it. She didn’t need to.
Hasume could feel both presences inside her domain.
She reacted instantly, binding one of the remaining yang talismans to Megumi.
As he tumbled through the air, Megumi glanced skyward, just barely catching sight of the massive yin and yang symbol spiraling overhead as the talisman latched onto him—stacked atop the blessing he’d received moments earlier.
Sumire exhaled shakily. At least he wasn’t alone in this.
That fragile comfort shattered when Jogo entered the battlefield Megumi and Toji had just left behind.
Hasume’s attention snapped back toward the building—and then her blessings detonated one after another.
“They were just killed!” she yelled, horror lacing her voice. “But the blessings activated—they’re being forced back from death!”
“Except Naobito,” Sumire said quietly.
She watched his cursed energy vanish completely.
There was nothing left to pull back.
They hadn’t given him anything.
Bias had made the choice for them.
“Confirmed,” Shoko said over the phone, her voice flat with shock. “Naobito Zenin is deceased.”
Yaga was already relaying the information elsewhere, his tone clipped and furious.
Then Sumire felt it.
A presence—wrong in a way that made her skin crawl.
“What was that?” she asked, spinning in the air as she searched Shibuya.
Hasume grimaced. “Don’t tell me something else is happening…”
Sumire’s gaze dropped toward the station.
“Two unknown individuals near Yuji,” she said slowly. “Their cursed energy is low, but I don’t know what they’re doing.”
“You’re kidding,” Hasume snapped. She was already stretched thin, her focus split between too many lives. “Watch Megumi. I’ll watch Yuji.”
Sumire obeyed immediately, shifting her attention back to Megumi as he fought—no, survived—against the monster named Toji Zenin, his cursed energy flaring wildly as he was thrown around like a rag doll.
Hasume turned fully toward Yuji.
Two unmarked presences stood over him.
Her fingers curled.
Don’t touch him.
She had nothing left for enemies except a single unused yin talisman—one curse’s worth of punishment. If they attacked, she had no way to stop them since it was guaranteed (because Yuji was unconscious)
Then—
Another presence arrived.
The same one that had killed Naobito.
The same one that had nearly ended Nanami and Maki.
Now there were three figures surrounding Yuji’s unconscious body.
“Hasume!” Sumire cried. “Add another talisman to Megumi! This guy is insane!”
Hasume’s breath shook. “He’ll be fine,” she said, her voice strained. “He has the blessing. I’m… watching Yuji right now.”
Sumire clenched her teeth. She knew Hasume was exhausted. Another yang talisman might break her entirely.
But it didn’t make watching Megumi get brutalized any easier.
Then—
That feeling returned.
Stronger.
Vile.
“Hasume,” Sumire whispered. “I felt it again. It’s familiar… but so much worse.”
“How?” Hasume asked, fear threading through her fatigue.
“I felt cursed energy surge,” Sumire said slowly. “Like a sealed object was revealed. But when it happened again… it was stronger. Ten times more concentrated than the first.”
She swallowed.
“Whatever it was… there were eleven.”
Hasume went completely still.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
“Sumire,” she said quietly, looking up at her sister as the massive yin and yang symbol churned above them, “do you understand what you just said?”
Sumire froze at the expression on Hasume’s face. “N-No… what is it?”
“…Those are Sukuna’s fingers.”
The words barely made it past Hasume’s lips.
“You said there were eleven… didn’t you?”
“Oh my god—”
The presence exploded outward.
Everywhere.
Across Shibuya, sorcerers, civilians, curses—everyone—felt it. A suffocating, malevolent aura slammed into the city like a living thing, crawling up spines, sinking into bones, whispering doom without a single word.
It wasn’t just power.
It was intent.
Sukuna had surfaced.
And Satoru Gojo wasn’t there to stop him.
In that moment, both girls knew the truth with terrifying clarity—
Hasume’s domain could no longer guarantee that everyone would make it back to Jujutsu High by morning.