The curse impaled itself entirely on Nightfall. The sheer weight of the monster threatened to buckle Ren's knees, but the Heavenly Restriction held firm. He twisted the blade sharply and ripped it out through the side of the creature's head.
Purple ash rained down over his shoulders.
The sharp, incredibly loud chime of the System instantly drowned out the morning traffic. The blue holographic interface exploded into his field of vision, the text glowing brighter than it ever had before.
[Target Eliminated: Grade 3]
[Milestone Progress: Exorcise 100 Grade 3 Curses — 100 / 100]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Executioner's Toll]
[Milestone Reward: +10,000 System Points]
Ren stared at the massive number floating in front of him, his chest heaving as the adrenaline burned through his veins. Ten thousand....
He had roughly eleven thousand points total now. It still wasn't fifty thousand. He still couldn't afford the Special Grade RCT imbuement.
"Dammit," Ren hissed, his grip tightening on Nightfall's hilt. "It's not enough—"
Before the words could fully leave his mouth, the blue interface violently flickered. The standard blue border suddenly inverted, glowing a bright, aggressive gold.
A rapid succession of new notification chimes hammered against his skull.
[HIDDEN CONDITION MET: Rapid Extermination]
[Detail: User completed a 100-target elimination milestone in under 12 hours.]
[Calculating Bonus Rewards...]
Ren froze. The cold morning air seemed to stand completely still as a fresh block of text rapidly scrolled across his vision.
[Bonus Reward 1: +5,000 System Points]
[Bonus Reward 2: Passive Trait Unlocked — 'Perception']
[Description: Through the relentless, systematic slaughter of spiritual entities, the User's brain has forcibly adapted. The User can now naturally perceive Cursed Energy, Cursed Spirits, and Residuals without the aid of external Cursed Tools.]
Ren blinked. He slowly let go of Nightfall with his left hand and reached up to his face. He grabbed the wire-rimmed glasses Satoru Gojo had given him—the ones infused with cursed energy so he could see—and pulled them off.
He didn't drop them into his dimensional inventory. He just held them in his hand and looked around the abandoned shipping yard.
The ugly, purple and black miasma staining the rusted shipping containers where the curses had died was still perfectly visible. The faint, static-like haze of negative energy pooling in the shadows of the alleyway was crisp and clear.
"Holy shit," Ren breathed out, his dark eyes wide.
"System. Show balance," Ren ordered, his voice tight.
The interface flickered, updating his totals.
[Current Balance: 16,595 System Points]
Ren let out a sharp breath. His initial 1,095 points, plus the 500 from the 100 Grade 3 kills, combined with the massive 15,000-point bonus drop. Sixteen and a half grand.
It was a massive haul for a single night of grinding, but it was still lightyears away from the fifty thousand required to manually imbue his sword with Reverse Cursed Technique.
"Doesn't matter," Ren muttered, his grip tightening on Nightfall's dark scabbard. "I have the bunker buster."
He dismissed the glowing blue screens with a wave of his hand, shoved the now useless wire-rimmed glasses deep into his jacket pocket, and bolted.
Ren exploded out of the abandoned shipping yard. His boots tearing across the damp pavement with blinding speed. He bypassed the sidewalks entirely, sticking to the edge of the road and weaving past the early morning commuter traffic.
He pulled his phone out mid-sprint, his thumb flying across the screen as he hit redial on Nanami's number. He needed to know exactly how far out the Grade 1 sorcerer was.
The call rang once, twice, and then clicked directly to an automated voicemail tone.
Ren cursed, shoving the phone back into his pocket. A localized veil was already up. It was actively jamming the cellular signals around the school.
"Dammit. I'm late," Ren hissed through his teeth, his pulse hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. "I'm already fucking late."
If Yuji engaged Mahito alone before Ren arrived, Junpei was a dead man.
He rounded a sharp corner onto a wider commercial avenue, scanning the streets for the fastest route to the high school.
Half a block down, parked haphazardly in a loading zone with its hazard lights flashing, was a sleek black sedan. It was the exact same make and model as Ijichi's car. Standing by the open driver's side door was a young woman with blonde hair tied back, wearing the standard-issue dark suit of a Jujutsu High assistant director.
She was frantically tapping away at a tablet, looking stressed as she scanned the distant skyline. Akari Nitta.
Ren didn't slow down. He adjusted his trajectory and sprinted directly toward the vehicle.
Nitta looked up just as Ren closed the distance. She jumped, her eyes going wide as a tall, dark-haired teenager rapidly approached her car.
"Whoa! Hey!" Nitta held up a hand, slipping instantly into crowd-control mode. "Civilian, you can't be here! There's a gas leak down the road, you need to clear the area-ssu!"
Ren didn't stop. He walked right past her outstretched hand, rounding the hood of the sedan.
"I'm not a civilian," Ren stated flatly. "I'm Ren. Satoru Gojo's transfer student."
Nitta blinked, lowering her tablet slightly. Her professional facade cracked into genuine surprise.
"Wait, what? You're the unregistered anomaly guy-ssu? I saw the updated faculty file this morning, but what are you doing out here? You're supposed to be—"
"Getting a ride," Ren interrupted bluntly. He yanked the passenger door open and slid into the seat.
"Get in the car."
"Excuse me-ssu?!" Nitta sputtered, completely thrown off by the absolute lack of respect for the chain of command.
Ren leaned over the center console, his dark eyes locking onto hers.
"Nanami is stuck in a gridlock. Itadori is currently trapped inside an unannounced veil at Satozakura High School with a Special Grade curse,"
"If we don't get there in the next three minutes, students are going to start dying in pieces. Drive."