Killer Queen finally tore free of the blood-net's restraints. Crimson slit-pupils flashed in the darkness, and in an instant it appeared behind a Kamo retainer—
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Silent detonations rippled through the crowd. Killer Queen was a fish loosed into a pond—sorcerer or Cursed Spirit, it made no difference. Touch meant injury. Contact meant death.
The beast tide had surged up to Kira. Cold, malevolent breath washed over his face.
Black Cursed Energy gathered in his palm. One sweep of his left hand.
The world seemed to drain to monochrome. The charging beast collapsed into a line, and at a single point along that line he struck—snapping it cleanly in half.
The creature's head and body separated instantly, erupting into layer upon layer of blood mist.
Kira wore that same placid expression. He tilted right, dodging the talons of the hawk behind him, and his right hand slipped into his inner jacket pocket. Out came a slender knife streaming silver light. He drew it along the hawk's belly in one smooth stroke, spilling its innards.
The same small knife he had always used to trim his nails.
Just as meticulously as he groomed those nails, every motion was precise, every cut exact. He moved through the horde in evenly spaced steps, black Cursed Energy flaring, red blood rising.
One shikigami after another fell. One step after another, he pressed forward.
Gakuganji—no, Chou Fei—was just ahead.
His expression was calm. He might have been smiling. He might have been weeping. The wrinkles on his face folded and creased like so many writhing earthworms. Half of one eye was lost to shadow—like the most sinister of ghosts.
"Nanami Kira..."
"I curse you. Curse you to wander for the rest of your days."
"Curse you to never know peace."
"Never know a moment of quiet."
"My curse will follow you always. It will never die."
Shlick.
The blade in Kira's hand slashed upward, splitting him in two.
"Hoshino Ei."
He flicked the blood from his hand and raised his eyes to Hoshino Ei among the Tokyo students. She still wore that same smile—serene, graceful, head slightly tilted, her clover earring catching the light.
"Whatever your goal was, you've won."
He flicked his wrist. Killer Queen leapt from the pile of corpses, tracing a smooth arc through the night sky.
Yuji Itadori tried to push Hoshino Ei out of the way, but she pushed him aside instead.
She watched Killer Queen racing toward her. Her nose twitched—greedily drinking in the scent—and a sickly smile spread across her face.
"See you soon, my dear Kira-sensei."
Blood sprayed once more.
The summer cicadas had been grounded by the sudden downpour, their wings soaked through, clinging to stalks of wheat that drooped just as miserably. They'd gone silent. All the world had gone silent.
Only the thunder remained—rolling from one end of the sullen sky to the other, as the wind and rain drenched the summer night.
Suguru Geto leaned against a great tree, bamboo umbrella raised, wooden sandals on his feet, watching the distant chaos with an air of leisure. He felt the Cursed Energy surging from Kira and smiled.
"Geto. Did you figure out Nanami Kira's disguise a long time ago?"
Raindrops struck Jogo's body and evaporated instantly. Steam rose in continuous plumes, crowding around him until he looked like a boiling kettle.
"I only suspected."
Geto nodded slightly, speaking idly. "Back in high school, Geto, Gojo, and Nanami Kira were all in the same year. Kira was a few years older—he'd joined the school partway through for some reason. We never knew anything about his past. Only that he came from Sendai and had those uncanny shikigami."
"That was when I first began to suspect his real strength. Unfortunately, even after leaving Jujutsu High, I never managed to gauge his true level."
"Gojo probably saw through it ages ago. He has the Six Eyes—they see through all techniques. He just never said anything. They must have reached some kind of private understanding."
Yes. Gojo had seen through it long ago. That was precisely why he'd asked Kira to serve as a teacher. The exchange at the time had gone:
"Because of my Heavenly Restriction, I have Cursed Energy but can't use any techniques."
"Let's go with that—but there's no one in this world more qualified than you."
"So that's why you said at the hot springs that day—'Nanami Kira is no simple man.'"
Jogo nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly slapped his own head, sending shockwaves through the surrounding steam. "So the Special Grade Cursed Spirit you cultivated that day—it was to test Nanami Kira's strength?"
"More precisely, to test the strength of either Sukuna's vessel or Nanami Kira."
Geto twirled his bamboo umbrella, spinning the raindrops away. "Unfortunately, neither test bore fruit. Nanami Kira is far too cautious. Even in the empty, witness-free environment I deliberately created, he refused to reveal his techniques."
"He's kept it as his trump card—something he'll never play unless he's truly cornered. He didn't even use it last time, fighting Hasegawa Kaede—because Aoi Todo was at the scene."
"As I've said before: only when his quiet life is destroyed."
He watched the curtain of rain, the pavilion swaying in the storm, his gaze distant.
"Only then does he become a monster capable of killing everything."
"Yo, Geto."
Geto turned. A white-haired man emerged from the underbrush, one hand holding up a hollow-eyed boy like a man gripping a baby chick.
"Is that tonight's midnight snack?"
Geto frowned.
"No way—it's my toy."
Mahito dropped Junpei carelessly on the ground, leaned in close to study his face, and grinned ear to ear. "What a fun little toy~"
"You got it?"
"Got it."
Mahito shook the small box in his hand.
"Good." Geto turned his gaze back to the Zenin compound, watching the sheets of rain, and smiled. "Everything went exactly as planned. Hoshino Ei's calculations were flawless."
"Regardless." He extended his right hand beyond the umbrella, feeling the cool touch of rain, his gaze reaching far. "The jujutsu world will fall tonight—and a new King of Curses..."
"...will be born from the corpses!"