Burning one's life force would drain it rapidly, and in less than fifteen minutes, you could run out completely… leading to certain, unavoidable death.
"Why?" I asked her quietly, searching her eyes. "Why would you want to do this? We're all doing our best together…"
"You, Nagisa… you are my world," she said, her voice steady. "I cannot live in a world where you are not with me. Do you remember when you got beaten for hours just for trying to help me escape the dogs?"
I looked away, biting my lip hard.
"Do you remember when you almost got bitten by a snake because of my weakness?" she continued. "Do you remember when… you killed an instructor because he was too harsh on me during electrocution training? Do you remember how you still stood by me… even after I killed my parents for sending me off to suffer?"
"Look, Yasuna… I didn't do all that to make you indebted to me!" I shook her shoulders, desperation creeping into my voice. "And we're not even sure this plan will work! Gojo is nothing like we imagined."
"No," she said firmly, "the burning of one's life force is a significant covenant; one the gods themselves are bound to honor. There's no way I would lose."
Yasuna… my dear friend Yasuna.
The only one, after Nakamura-sensei, who had kept me tethered to this world all these years.
I had almost broken down countless times, but their presence had been my lifeline.
"I… I… I…" For the first time in ten years, I began to cry. "I don't want to lose you too, Yasunaaaaa!"
My heart poured out everything it had locked away: all the tears, all the trauma, all the suffering, every near-death escape.
All those times I cursed fate for bringing me into this world only to suffer. All those years fighting dogs for scraps of food. All the times I wanted to cry, but couldn't because the organization had fortified my heart into an unbreakable dam.
Now that dam shattered completely.
"Yasuna… I love you too. Please, don't leave me all alone in this world… I'll break…"
Her own eyes began to glisten.
"That's not fair, Nagisa!" she said with a shaky laugh, wiping at her tears. "That's cheating—pulling the tears card."
I embraced her tightly, as if I could physically keep her from ever slipping away from this world.
She then cupped my face in her hands and kissed me again.
I suppose Yasuna had always liked me that way, but kept it buried deep inside.
Watching me and Sophia together… that must have hurt her beyond words. She must have ached silently when she saw us cuddling, kissing… Poor Yasuna.
"I… I love you very much, Yasuna," I told her, my own tears still falling. "I'll be with you forever. But no Jibaku, promise me. We will defeat Gojo Kowai with a perfect plan."
Yasuna smiled warmly, the kind of smile I rarely saw, since it was usually hidden behind her constant cheerleader façade.
"Okay…" she nodded softly. "I'll stay with you, forev—"
SPLAT.
"…"
…THUD.
"…Ya…suna?" I called to her again, my voice trembling.
"How boring," Gojo's voice came, distant and cold, like an echo from some far-off cavern. "Instead of playing with me, you're here smooching?"
In that moment, the entire world seemed to fade away, leaving only me and Yasuna in existence.
Her face still carried a faint trace of surprise, as though she hadn't fully registered what had happened, before the light in her eyes dimmed and vanished entirely.
Her body collapsed onto mine, warm and heavy, as blood sprayed from her neck and splattered across my face.
My gaze stayed on her severed head lying several feet away, motionless.
"Yasuna?" I asked again, my voice cracking. "C-C'mon, stop playing with me. Let's… let's come up with a nice plan to defeat the Saint. We have a wonderful life ahead of us, you know… Hey… Yasuna, talk to me."
"DAMN YOU!" Shizuka roared from a short distance away, her voice a raw burst of rage.
In an instant, razor-thin steel strings shot from her fingers and wrapped around Gojo's body.
With a fierce pull, she dragged Gojo toward her and then drove a powerful kick upward, launching her like a ball.
Before Gojo could hit the ground, Shizuka swung her arm violently, slamming her opponent down with crushing force.
For a single heartbeat, it seemed as if the blow might have done something… until Gojo began to twist and spin at an impossible speed.
The very strings Shizuka held began to wind back toward her, tightening rapidly.
Gojo yanked her arm, and in less than a second, Shizuka was pulled directly into her reach.
Their heads collided with a sickening, bone-jarring CRUSH.
Shizuka's eyes rolled back, blood trickling from a deep gash across her forehead.
Gojo had already secured the steel threads around both of Shizuka's hands, and now she began pulling them in opposite directions, slowly, deliberately.
Shizuka's scream tore through the air as the threads carved deep into her flesh. Blood spurted like water from a burst hose, spraying in rhythmic pulses as the steel sliced through muscle and began tearing bone apart.
And through it all, Gojo wore that same disgusting, ecstatic grin… thoroughly savoring the agony she inflicted.
With one final, violent pull, Shizuka's entire arm was reduced to mangled, shredded flesh.
Her body trembled uncontrollably, saliva spilling from her lips. Sweat poured down her face, mingling with the tears and snot that ruined her once-stoic expression.
Then Gojo drove a brutal kick into her chest. I heard the sharp CRACK of breaking ribs as Shizuka was hurled backward, her body scraping across the ground, carving deep grooves into the dirt like a lifeless ragdoll.
She struck a concrete pillar with a hollow, final-sounding thud… and then she stopped moving.
Rei had been maintaining her distance, using her technique to keep attacking Gojo from afar. But in the blink of an eye, Gojo closed the distance and appeared directly in front of her.
You could see it in her usually expressionless, mechanical face—Rei was downright terrified.
Without hesitation, she shifted into close combat, engaging Gojo directly.
"Rei!" Benimaru shouted, sprinting toward them.
He joined his sister in the fight, and together they surrounded Gojo, striking from both sides.
For a moment, it worked.
They managed to land several solid hits on the Saint.
Benimaru's fists and kicks blazed with his fire technique, each strike sending sparks scattering through the air. Meanwhile, Rei's needles whirled around her like a deadly swarm of miniature missiles, darting toward Gojo again and again without pause, and Rei throwing her own strikes in gaps.
I could see a glimmer of relief beginning to soften Rei's features… before—