Jogo didn't even bother looking at her. He flicked his wrist.
A geyser of fire exploded from the ground directly in Maki's path.
She barely managed to throw her arms up before the blast hit. The force and heat launched her off her feet, clothes smoking as she crashed into the dense brush. She hit the ground hard and stayed down.
"Maki…" Ren coughed, blood spilling from his mouth.
He tried to push himself upright, fingers digging into the ash, but his arms gave out immediately.
Everything inside him felt destroyed.
Nightfall lay in the grass several feet away.
Slow footsteps crunched across the scorched earth.
Jogo approached without hurry, stopping over Ren's broken body. His massive eye stared down with open contempt while heat rolled off him hard enough to blister exposed skin.
Ren could smell his jacket burning against his back.
His thoughts raced, searching desperately for anything— System, a weapon, a plan.
Nothing came.
Only then did Ren realize how badly he had underestimated this world.
Because Gojo and Sukuna treated Jogo like a joke, Ren had subconsciously done the same.
But against anyone else?
Jogo was exactly what he was meant to be.
A living natural disaster.
"You monkeys never understand your place," Jogo said quietly.
A concentrated sphere of white-hot fire formed in his palm.
The air crackled around it.
Jogo slowly lowered the white-hot fire toward Ren's face.
"Let's see how long your bones last."
The glowing sphere descended.
Even before it touched him, the heat peeled skin from Ren's cheek. His vision washed white from the glare.
His body wouldn't move.
But the System didn't need his body.
Ren accessed his Dimensional Inventory and targeted the only thing he still had left: his old Grade 2 cursed weapon tanto.
He didn't summon it into his hand.
He materialized it directly in front of his face.
The instant the blade touched the sphere, the weapon melted.
The steel flashed white-hot and detonated under the pressure, erupting into molten fragments and cursed energy.
The explosion shattered Jogo's concentrated flame attack and knocked it away from Ren's skull.
But the backlash still hit him full force.
Pain tore through his nervous system.
Ren bit down so hard his jaw cracked.
A broken sound ripped from his throat as the blast vaporized half his jacket and burned straight through the shirt beneath it.
Skin along his shoulder, collarbone, and neck blackened instantly. The smell of burnt flesh and hair flooded the clearing.
The shockwave dragged him through the dirt, leaving a smoking trail behind him.
Jogo lazily waved smoke away from his face, looking irritated by the droplets of molten metal splashed across his yukata.
"Throwing garbage at me now?" he muttered. "That's just sad."
...
The burned brush shifted.
Maki dragged herself out of the wreckage.
Her right leg buckled instantly, dropping her into the ash, but she kept crawling forward anyway.
Blood ran down her forehead onto Ren's torn collar as she reached him.
Her glasses were gone.
Parts of her sweater and skirt had burned into her skin, leaving angry blisters along her body.
Jogo stepped closer.
The crater atop his head glowed brighter as another sphere of volcanic heat formed in his hand.
Maki threw herself over Ren without hesitation.
She shielded his head and chest with her own body, gripping the remains of his jacket tightly enough.
Her amber eyes locked onto his.
The heat behind her intensified.
She leaned down and kissed him hard.
Ash.
Blood.
Smoke.
That was all it tasted like.
When she pulled back, only inches separated their faces.
Then she buried herself against his chest, arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she held him close.
The light swallowed the clearing.
...
The flames hit her back.
And the world stopped.
The roar of Jogo's fire vanished.
The unbearable heat froze into stillness.
Maki kept her eyes closed, but the smell of smoke and burnt flesh disappeared.
In its place came fresh water and blooming wisteria.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
She was standing on a paved riverside path.
A calm river drifted beside her, sunlight glittering across the surface in the late afternoon glow.
The crushing weight of cursed energy was gone.
No Zen'in estate.
No suffocating clan politics.
No cursed tools waiting to be cleaned.
Just silence.