It was a morning of remarkably clean air. Though layer upon layer of clouds had piled up overhead, sunlight still leaked through the gaps, falling on emerald leaves and glinting there.
But Hoshino Ei couldn't muster the energy to care.
Everything that had happened recently was beyond her calculations.
Nanami Kira had gone missing. Killed several senior members of the Zenin Clan. Then, overnight, traveled to Kyoto and assassinated the principal of Kyoto Jujutsu High—Yoshinobu Gakuganji.
She knew nothing of what had happened with Shigemo the night before. All she'd seen was the official report.
The verdict on Nanami Kira had come down. The Jujutsu Oversight Department had approved the proposal. With the Zenin Clan taking the lead, a trial would be held today.
The funny thing was this: in the previous loop, Kira had allegedly killed over a hundred civilians, and it had taken days of bureaucratic process before a public trial was even submitted. In this loop, he'd only killed a handful of people—and they'd fast-tracked a trial for the very next day.
Whether the Desire Po lived or died was irrelevant to her. What truly gnawed at her mind was that she could no longer read Nanami Kira's actions at all.
Didn't he want a peaceful life? How could he be so reckless? What the hell was he thinking?!
Hoshino Ei—who had always prided herself on understanding Nanami Kira better than anyone—was mortified. She buried her face in the pillow and beat the mattress with both hands.
She couldn't even figure out what her own boyfriend—or so she claimed—was thinking. What kind of lover was she...
Ah, I want to lock him up. Lock him away—just like he locked me inside that freezer. Lock him up so he sees no one but me, every single day. Then I'd know his every thought.
The original plan had been straightforward: Kira kills everyone present, the Sukuna vessel flies into a rage, voluntarily surrenders control of his body, Sukuna revives and devours ten more fingers, and Kira is driven to the brink of despair...
That plan was now in complete shambles. Kira had chosen to destroy his own peaceful life, which meant he clearly didn't care about this afternoon's trial. He might not even show up—and the Sukuna fingers she'd stolen from the school would all have been for nothing.
It was morning. Outside the window, an oriole was singing bright and clear.
Hoshino Ei rolled over and draped a snow-white arm across her forehead.
"Is there something you need?"
Her voice was soft. Her expression, cold.
"Traitor."
Silence.
Blood mist erupted inside the room. Crimson drenched the curtains.
The morning breeze drifted in through the window. Pale gold sunlight poured into the interior, and the blood glittered beneath it.
So warm. So cold.
The clouds overhead grew thicker.
Pain. Pain beyond comparison.
The pain of a soul being completely torn in two. Ground into dirt. Carved into bone. Drowning in an ocean of agony.
Boundless. Even time died here.
In a dark basement.
Sunlight couldn't reach this place, so moss had climbed every wall. One corner leaked—water dripping, drop by drop—and where it struck the carpet, ugly colonies of mold had bloomed.
A Curtain had been deployed around the space. A Curtain no one could detect. This was one of Hoshino Ei's oldest tricks.
She loathed dark basements—loathed everything they reminded her of. Yet here she was, voluntarily sealed inside one, and had been for a full month.
A slender, delicate hand lay at the center of the basement floor. It trembled faintly, twitching, veins visible beneath the skin. Clearly bearing immense pain.
Time crawled. Only the muffled sound of water striking carpet. Everything shrouded in darkness.
A girl staggered out from the deep dark—from the depths of her own soul—and after the final step, collapsed onto the carpet.
White hair spilled like a waterfall across the crimson rug.
Something went wrong...
Amber eyes, translucent as gemstones, stared at the hand lying beside her face. Hoshino Ei murmured inside her mind:
Something went wrong.
BOOM. BOOM.
Muffled impacts thundered from beyond the door—one after another—and the entire basement shook. Dust rained from the ceiling, coating Hoshino Ei in grey.
Everything was grey.
That Cursed Energy signature—Hanami.
They'd found the hiding place of her real body. No—Suguru Geto must have known all along. She'd been using them, and they'd been using her right back.
CRASH.
Hoshino Ei forced herself upright, scooped the hand from the floor, and clutched it to her chest. The aftershock of having her soul shattered hadn't faded—she still couldn't use her technique to escape...
They had planned it all. First, kill the soul-form to weaken her soul and temporarily strip her of her technique. Then strike at her real body directly.
She braced herself, barefoot, one hand against the wall, and dragged herself toward the basement's second exit.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The impacts grew louder. The barrier shuddered, trembled, hairline cracks spreading wider and wider.
"Traitor!"
Impossible to hear—yet it echoed in her mind all the same. Hanami's voice: cold, dark, dripping with undisguised killing intent.
"Traitor!"
The impact was more violent than any before. Hanami was using brute force to smash through the Curtain.
She had volunteered for this mission alone. This was her own proposal.
Nanami Kira had been working with Hoshino Ei and the Desire Po all along.
That much was beyond question.
Kira was very likely using Hoshino Ei as bait, hoping to lure all of them out and destroy them in one sweep.
So Hanami had offered to go alone. She had never feared death—so long as the sacrifice meant something.
And killing the one who had betrayed her companions, avenging the fallen—that was all the meaning she needed.
CRASH.
The Curtain shattered. Countless vines punched through the walls and surged inside.
Something went wrong, something went wrong...
The basement was damp, thick with moss. Her newborn soul-shikigami was still frail. Hoshino Ei would stumble and fall every few steps, white hair splayed across mold and mildew.
Each time she fell, she grit her teeth, braced against the wall, hauled herself upright, and kept running.
What had happened last night? What had Kira done? No—the most critical thing was—
She could not die. Not now.
She had to escape.
She could not die. And if she must die, it would not be here.
SHRRK— Her face went white. Crimson pupils flickered.
A hole had appeared in her abdomen. A grotesque little flower poked its head through, bearing a tiny mouth.
Cursed Energy exploded behind her. The massive vines burst into bloom—every flower with a small, unnerving eye at its center.
The vines surged, swelled, crushed the basement ceiling, and rushed toward Hoshino Ei with the force of an explosion—growing faster, closer, ever closer.
From a distance, it looked like a thousand green serpents converging from every direction, lunging straight for her.
I can't die here. I can't die here!
Hoshino Ei ripped the flower from her abdomen. A chunk of flesh tore away with it. Her crimson eyes looked as if real blood were leaking from them.
She clenched her jaw, endured the soul-deep agony, and forced every last drop of Cursed Energy through her body.
Concealment!
BOOM— The green serpents snapped shut on empty air, crashing together with a deafening roar, unleashing a shockwave that shredded everything in the basement.
Walls. Floor. Ceiling. Cracks raced outward—spreading, spreading—as that terrible Cursed Energy erupted.
For a long time. A very long time. Until the wind settled and the dust cleared.
Hanami stared down the empty corridor, face dark as a storm.
She had escaped.