The silence following the collapse of the Morin Hotel was heavy.
As the physical walls returned to their peeling, moldy reality, the team stood in the wreckage of what used to be a supernatural loop.
Okarun sat on the floor, his five afterimages flickering like glitching holograms before finally snapping back into his spine with a wet, thumping sound.
"Okarun, breathe!"
Momo knelt beside him, her hands glowing a fierce pink. She could feel the "Eternity" energy inside him—it wasn't like the Sukuna power, which was sharp and jagged.
This was heavy, a dense weight that felt like trying to swallow a lead ball that was also a mile wide.
"I'm... I'm okay,"
Okarun wheezed. His skin was pale, and for a moment, his eyes remained as multiple pupils before settling back into two.
"The hotel... it's all in here. But it's stagnant. It's not moving us forward."
Aki Hayakawa watched them with a mixture of awe and genuine fear. He had seen powerful Devils, but he had never seen a human delete a concept.
He stepped forward, handing Okarun his coat.
"Don't let Makima see you like this. If she knows you can erase Devils instead of just killing them, she won't just use you as a hunter. She'll use you as a vault."
They spent the next few hours in a daze.
Denji and Power were mostly excited about the promised "celebration meat," but Momo stayed glued to Okarun's side.
She realized that every time he absorbed a new power, he lost a little bit of his "human" anchor. He was becoming a map of every world he touched.
The "celebration" took place at a crowded ramen shop.
The steam from the bowls acted as a veil of peace that was shattered the moment a man in a long coat stood up at the neighboring table.
"Is it true?"
The man asked, his voice gravelly.
"That you ate my grandfather's legacy?"
Before anyone could move, a side of the restaurant exploded in a hail of gunfire.
The "Leathers," Akane Sawatari's henchmen, had surrounded them.
"Ayase-san, now!"
Okarun roared.
As the bullets tore through the air, Okarun didn't just move.
He activated the Phase-Step Mirror.
Suddenly, the restaurant was filled with five Okaruns.
One Okarun stood in front of Denji, his hand outstretched as he "Phased" the incoming bullets into the floor.
Two Okaruns grabbed Aki and Himeno, pulling them behind the reinforced counter.
The fourth Okarun created a "Cutting Phase" barrier around Momo.
The fifth—the "Prime" Okarun—launched himself directly at the man who was currently pulling a sword handle out of his own forehead: Katana Man.
Katana Man vanished in a blur of speed, his draw-dash aiming to decapitate everything in its path.
Normally, he would be too fast for any human to track.
But Okarun's afterimages were anchored in the "Eternity" loop.
He wasn't just reacting to where Katana Man was; he was occupying the space where Katana Man would be.
"I can see the seams of your speed!"
Okarun's voice boomed from five directions at once.
As Katana Man swung, Okarun's afterimages performed a synchronized strike.
The Sukuna-energy within him surged, turning his spatial cuts into the legendary Dismantle.
Instead of a simple punch, Okarun's afterimages left "flickering" slashes in the air.
When Katana Man passed through them, his uniform was shredded by invisible razors.
The Snake Devil, summoned by Akane to swallow Okarun, lunged from a portal—but Okarun's mirror-clones didn't flinch.
The Sukuna-marks on Okarun's arms flared blood-red.
One of his afterimages reached out and grabbed the Snake Devil's tongue.
"You're a spatial summon,"
Okarun grinned, a terrifying, Sukuna-like expression crossing his face.
"That means you're just another door for me to walk through."
The restaurant floor buckled as Okarun began to pull the Snake Devil's energy into his "Mirror" system.
He wasn't just fighting—he was beginning to weave the power of the "Curse" into the "Devil" energy, creating a hybrid power that even Makima hadn't predicted.