The Kyoto exchange grounds were no longer festive.
They were a battlefield.
The sky was thick with dust and blooming, cursed energy. Broken barriers flickered in and out of visibility above the arena. Trees were uprooted, the ground torn, and buildings reduced to cracked silhouettes in the haze.
Where students had once stood in formation, only chaos remained.
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Haruta Shigemo swung his sword in a lazy circle, grinning wide beneath bloodstained cheeks. His body danced between cursed traps and incoming projectiles like he was untouchable. A carfree smile that knew luck, not skill, would save him every time.
Opposite him, Utahime Iori crouched low, fingers pressed against the edge of a glowing charm she had just activated. To her left, Mai Zenin aimed down her scope again, already loading the next round. Her right eye bled freely, but her hands were steady.
"Keep his attention!" Utahime barked.
Mai fired without responding.
The bullet cracked through the air, glowing faintly with infused cursed energy. It should have hit Haruta clean in the shoulder.
But it didn't.
At the last second, he slipped just enough to make it glance off, tumbling backward dramatically, landing with a laugh.
"Whew! Close one! You ladies are really making me sweat!"
Utahime narrowed her eyes.
"He doesn't dodge. He stumbles out of danger. What kind of technique is that?"
Mai grit her teeth. "Not a technique. Dumb luck."
Haruta gave a theatrical bow.
"Lady Luck's on my side. Or maybe you're just unlucky~"
He lunged forward without warning.
The sword slashed in a wide arc, nearly slicing Mai's shoulder clean through. Utahime threw a charm, intercepting the blade mid-swing, but it only slowed the impact.
Mai was knocked backwards. Blood splattered from a shallow cut on her side.
Utahime caught her before she hit the ground.
Haruta twirled his sword again. "Maybe you two should just lie down and let fate decide. I like it when my opponents surrender."
"Not happening," Utahime said sharply.
She pressed her palm into another charm. Blue light flared from the paper seal, and a protective barrier sparked up between them.
Mai stood, bleeding but unshaken.
"We hold out long enough, someone stronger will come."
"Think we can buy that much time?" Utahime asked.
"We don't have a choice."
Haruta charged again...
But he never reached them.
A thin hand clasped around his neck from behind.
He froze.
The sword dropped with a dull clang. His entire body seized, eyes wide in realisation.
"Why are you-?" he gasped.
Mahito's voice hummed behind his ear, soft and cheerful.
"No miracles can save you from this one~"
Haruta's body began to ripple.
His technique that used stocked up miracles could save his life against a great threat a few times a day.
But no amount of miracles could save someone when their very soul was already in Mahito's hand.
His skin pulsed. His limbs twitched as if trying to pull away from themselves. Then he screamed.
In a single grotesque moment, his body warped unnaturally, like flesh turned inside out, and then burst. Blood and fragments of bone splattered across the ruined earth.
Mahito let the remains slide from his fingers.
Utahime stared in stunned silence.
Mai lowered her weapon, slowly, her hands trembling slightly as she wondered if her gun could even do anything against the being that had just appeared.
Mahito turned toward them, smiling.
"Hello again~ Did I interrupt something?"
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On the other side of the arena, the sky was bleeding blossoms.
Hanami stood amidst a grove of her own making, roots twisted upward into spears and limbs, cursed flowers pulsing at their tips. Each petal hummed with repressed energy, sapping the will to fight.
Yuji Itadori gritted his teeth, pushing forward despite the pressure bearing down on his chest.
Beside him, Aoi Todo weaved through the roots, clapping mid-motion to switch places with Yuji again and again, forcing Hanami to defend from both sides.
"Don't slow down, brother!" Todo shouted.
"I'm not!" Yuji roared.
They struck from above and below in perfect rhythm.
Hanami's roots lashed out, weaving into a wall of bark and bloom. Her cursed energy soaked the battlefield, causing the earth to bloom with flowers that leeched their strength.
Yuji punched through one, letting his cursed energy burn the vines from his skin.
Hanami raised one arm, releasing a pulse of spores.
Todo blinked behind her with a clap and drove an elbow into her back. She staggered, only for Yuji to close the gap, winding up a punch.
The air tightened.
And Yuji struck.
The sound cracked through the sky like a thunderclap.
His fist collided with Hanami's torso, and the cursed energy followed, not at the same time, but an instant later.
A perfect delay.
Black Flash.
Hanami reeled backwards, her body breaking branches as she crashed through the roots she had conjured.
Yuji landed, breathing hard, his hand trembling.
Todo grinned. "Good job, brother! Just a bit more to go!"
But Hanami did not fall.
Her body regrew the shattered wood and bark, her mask-like face cracking only slightly before mending.
Her voice touched their minds once more.
"This forest will bury you!"
"We'll turn it into firewood," Yuji snapped, rushing in again, to meet Hanami's roots head-on.
Nanami arrived then, carving through a wave of branches with his blunt sword. He did not announce himself. He simply moved, landing a slash right on Hanami's arm before being pushed back by a wave of roots.
"This is getting out of hand," he said. "Don't get tangled."
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Far from the fighting, beneath a hidden temple structure just outside Kyoto, Jogo stepped through a crumbling stone corridor.
The armoury was ancient. Carved long before the modern era. Few knew it existed. Fewer still were allowed entry.
But Kenjaku had cleared the way.
He passed through the final barrier without flinching.
And in his hand, the Prison Realm pulsed faintly. Warm. Waiting.
On a pedestal ahead lay relics of Jujutsu history. Sealed cursed tools. Ancient charms. Enough power to change the balance of war.
But he wasn't here for any of those.
He stepped to the far wall and pressed the cube against the etched kanji of binding.
The wall cracked.
And opened.
Jogo smiled.
"Prison realm, huh? This thing better work..."