A harsh autumn wind ripped across the gravel roof, snapping the heavy dark fabric of Ren's uniform jacket.
He sat perched on the concrete ledge, his boots swinging out over the three-hundred-foot drop. The sirens and wet, echoing crunches from the streets below were swallowed by the altitude, leaving nothing up here but the rushing wind.
In the dead space hanging over the drop, a translucent blue interface flickered into existence. The sterile light washed across his face, reflecting in his dark eyes as he scanned the scrolling text.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Mass Purge - Aberrations ]
Condition: Eradicate 50+ irreversibly transfigured humans in a single combat zone.
Reward: +10,000 System Points.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Guardian of the Weak ]
Condition: Secure the direct survival of 100+ non-sorcerer civilians.
Reward: +5,000 System Points.
[ SYSTEM BALANCE UPDATE ] Current Balance: 66,500 SP.
Ren swiped his hand through the air. The blue panels shattered into dust and faded into the dark sky.
He let out a slow breath, watching the white mist plume in the chill air. "Ten thousand for the monsters, five thousand for the people," he muttered to himself.
Points definitely helped.
Closing his eyes, taking in a long, freezing breath of the autumn air. When he opened them again, the clarity of his Complete Heavenly Restriction was still there, but the overwhelming sensory overload had finally dialed back.
He slowly stretched his arms above his head, the joints popping in a satisfying sequence, before rolling his shoulders. The pitch-black fabric of his Jujutsu High uniform pulled tight against his newly optimized musculature.
"I think I'm finally getting used to this new strength," he muttered to himself, flexing his hands and testing his grip. The air resistance against his fingers felt as tangible as water. He could calculate the exact density of the concrete beneath his boots without even trying. "And all the other shit that comes with it."
He dropped his arms, his posture shifting into a relaxed readiness.
"Alright," Ren breathed out, stepping up to the edge. "Let's get going now."
He didn't brace for the fall. He just stepped off the ledge and let gravity take him.
The wind roared past his ears as he plummeted down the side of the towering Shibuya office building. Halfway down the massive drop, he twisted his body in mid-air, spotting a rusted fire escape jutting out from the adjacent brick wall. He reached out, his bare hand clamping onto the metal railing.
The steel shrieked and bent completely out of shape under the sheer kinetic force, but it successfully arrested his momentum in a fraction of a second.
Ren swung his body weight forward, released the rail, and dropped the remaining three stories. He landed in the narrow alleyway below with a heavy, muffled thud, the asphalt instantly spiderwebbing beneath his boots.
Before the dust could even settle around his ankles, Ren froze.
Narrowing his eyes, his gaze piercing through the gloom of the alley toward the flickering streetlights of the dark streets ahead.
"Kugisaki?" he muttered.
...
Nobara's chest heaved. Blood dripped from a cut above her eye, stinging as it ran down her cheek. She gripped her hammer, legs planted wide.
Behind her, Nitta lay crumpled against a brick wall, clutching her side. Dark red soaked through the manager's white shirt, dripping onto the asphalt. Nitta was gasping, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to stay conscious.
"Aww, is the manager crying?" Haruta giggled. He skipped in a slow, mocking circle around them, spinning his hand-sword.
"I barely even cut her! You guys are so fragile. It's no fun at all!" Nobara gritted her teeth. This guy wasn't a powerhouse, but he was impossible to hit. Every time she swung, he slipped away like water, dodging with an unnatural kind of luck.
Now, with Nitta bleeding out, Nobara couldn't step forward to attack. She was completely pinned down playing a human shield.
"My turn!" Haruta cheered. He kicked off the ground and launched himself straight at Nitta, manic grin wide. Nobara braced herself, ready to take the blade. She locked her legs and waited for the pain. It never came.
Ren didn't feel himself run. It was like stepping through an open door. One second he was at the end of the street; the next, the air simply parted around him. He materialized directly behind the leaping curse user — no wind-up, no crash.
Just a silent, instant shift. The blonde man was still mid-air, grin stretching across his face. Ren raised his hand and clamped his fingers around the thick ponytail.
He stopped moving entirely. The grip anchored him mid-leap, killing his momentum in a fraction of a second. The sudden halt jerked him backward, boots slapping the pavement.
The hand-sword froze inches from Nobara's face. The giggling cut off. The street went dead quiet. The curse user stood frozen, eyes wide.
He tried to turn his head, but the grip on his hair was a vice. His brain failed to process it. Nobody had been there a second ago. Nobara blinked. She lowered her hammer just a fraction, staring past him at the familiar uniform.
Her mouth parted. Ren didn't look at her. He stared at the back of the man's head, expression flat.
"You're really loud," he said. The hair bunched in his fist. With a casual heave, he swung his arm up and threw the man into the air.
The asphalt instantly cratered under Ren's boots from the violent shift in leverage. A sharp crack of displaced air whipped through the alley as the man was ripped from the ground. The curse user's manic grin contorted into wide, breathless panic. He didn't even have the breath to scream; the sheer G-force pinned his voice to the back of his throat as his limbs flailed wildly against the ascent.
The man launched upward, a flailing blur clearing the four-story roofline across the street before the ink-black curtain swallowed him entirely.
The pale hand-sword plummeted a second later, cracking against the asphalt and skidding into the gutter.
Ren lowered his arm. A slow, even plume of white breath curled from his lips into the chill air. He stepped forward, his boots crunching steadily over the pavement.
A few paces away, Nobara remained locked in her wide stance. Her knuckles stretched bone-white around her hammer's grip. Her chin pointed straight up, her eyes wide and fixed on the empty patch of dark sky above the streetlights.
Ren stopped in front of her. He wrapped his hand over the iron head of her mallet and pushed it down. Her rigid shoulders sank with the motion, dragging her gaze back to eye level.
"You okay?" he asked.