Under the night sky of Shibuya, the body of Kenjaku, wearing the face of Suguru Geto, turned to ash before Satoru Gojo and completely dissipated.
Was it all over?
Gojo looked down at the cold, heavy cube in his hand, then at the mass-produced [Prison Realm]s held by the students around him, and fell into a long silence.
What was this?
After all that effort, they had fought for nothing?
The thousand-year-old final boss was just this?
"What the hell is going on..." Gojo scratched his head, feeling as though all his strength had been swung at empty air.
The group exchanged bewildered glances, at a loss over this anticlimactic ending.
However, amidst this eerie silence...
Rumble—
The ground beneath their feet began to shake violently without warning.
It wasn't an ordinary earthquake.
It was a pulsation echoing from the very depths of the earth, one that made the soul tremble, as if the entire Japanese archipelago were churning.
An indescribably ominous aura rapidly surged from deep underground, saturating the air of the entire world.
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep—!"
...
Meanwhile.
In the deepest reaches of Jujutsu High, a forbidden ground that even Satoru Gojo could not easily set foot in—the Tombs of the Star.
In a place that should have been completely empty, Kenjaku's brain, marked with its signature stitches, floated quietly in mid-air.
Before him was an ancient entity that no longer resembled a human, having merged with the barriers of the entire Tombs of the Star.
Tengen.
"You have lost, Kenjaku," Tengen's voice, carrying the vicissitudes of time, echoed throughout the space.
"Your clone has been exorcised by Satoru Gojo. Your plan to seal him has failed."
"Failed?" Kenjaku let out a series of chuckles, the sound dripping with absolute delight.
"No, no, no, Master Tengen, have you misunderstood something?"
He slowly turned to face Tengen.
"Who told you that everything I set up in Shibuya was to seal Satoru Gojo?"
"That Suguru Geto was nothing more than a target to draw fire from the very beginning."
"My true goal..."
"Has always been you!"
As soon as the words fell, several figures emerged from the shadows of the Tombs of the Star.
They were ancient curse users long forgotten by the era, each exuding a stale yet overwhelmingly powerful cursed energy completely different from modern jujutsu sorcerers.
One of them looked at Tengen with complex eyes. He had once witnessed Tengen's growth and even briefly cooperated with him. It was he who had guided Kenjaku through the secret passage that bypassed all the barriers to reach this place.
"Do it!"
With that command, the ancient curse users unleashed their cursed techniques, launching a fierce assault on Tengen!
However, Tengen merely watched quietly, making no move to fight back.
Because he knew these attacks were also just a feint.
The true killing blow was coming from Kenjaku!
Kenjaku's mouth curled into a wide grin as his body began to execute a cursed technique that did not originally belong to him.
[Idle Transfiguration]!
Tengen instantly realized what was happening, his voice laced with horror for the first time. "It's the Inner Demon! You absorbed that new generation Special Grade Cursed Spirit!"
"Correct, but unfortunately, there's no prize." Kenjaku spread his hands, a twisted smile on his face.
"That brat was indeed a genius. He willingly offered up a piece of his soul and his cursed technique, all just to see a grander fireworks display."
"Now, this power to reshape souls is mine!"
Besieged by the group, Tengen could only watch in despair as Kenjaku pressed a hand against him.
Yet, Kenjaku's primary target wasn't him at all.
The formless power of [Idle Transfiguration], utilizing Tengen's barriers, pierced through the Tombs of the Star. Its target was shockingly...
The one hundred and twenty million ordinary citizens of Japan!
"What are you doing?!" Tengen completely lost his composure. "I will never cooperate with you! Even if I have to shatter the barriers, I won't let you succeed!"
Before he could finish, Tengen's voice abruptly cut off.
Because Kenjaku's body had transformed into a streak of light, forcefully crashing into his core!
"Shatter them? Too late!"
Kenjaku's voice now overlapped with Tengen's, creating an eerie duet that echoed across the heavens and the earth!
"Forced assimilation!"
In the next second, leveraging Tengen's barrier network that spanned all of Japan, the effects of [Idle Transfiguration] blanketed the entire country in 0.01 seconds!
A forced, nationwide evolution had begun!
Countless ordinary people who were eating, sleeping, or working suddenly felt a sharp, agonizing pain in their brains, as if they had been brutally branded with a red-hot iron!
The previously untapped regions of their brains were violently restructured to form jujutsu circuits!
Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido...
In countless cities and towns, screams rose one after another.
People watched in terror as lines of blood-red text uncontrollably materialized before their eyes.
[Culling Game]
[Rule 1: After awakening a cursed technique, Players must declare their participation at a colony of their choice within 19 days.]
[Rule 2: Any Player who violates the previous rule shall be subject to cursed technique removal.]
[Rule 3: Non-Players who enter a colony will immediately become Players and shall be considered to have declared participation.]
[Rule 4: Players score points by ending the lives of other Players.]
[Rule 5: Points are determined by the Game Master (GM) and indicate the value of a Player's life. As a general rule, Sorcerers are worth 5 points and Non-Sorcerers are worth 1 point.]
...
Panic instantly saturated the entire nation.
Inside the Tombs of the Star, Kenjaku, having completely seized control of Tengen's power, let out a maniacal laugh.
"Hahahaha! This is the jujutsu world I desired! A new era brimming with infinite possibilities!"
He spread his arms wide, reveling in the power surging through his body.
"The game has begun, so how can we lack sufficient pieces?"
He clenched his fist tightly.
Relying on Tengen's power of infinite evolution combined with the power of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit he had assimilated earlier, he forcefully recalled and reconstructed the cursed energy residues of previously exorcised cursed spirits!
Jogo, Hanami, Mahito...
Those once-exorcised Special Grade Cursed Spirits opened their eyes once more!
Only this time, they were merely puppets thrown onto the chessboard.
...
Shibuya.
Satoru Gojo felt the earth's lament, the forceful twisting of the entire nation's rules, and the familiar yet foreign presence of Kenjaku radiating from the depths of Jujutsu High.
He understood everything now.
From the very beginning, he had been treated like a fool, a pawn played in circles.
An unprecedented fury swallowed Gojo's reason.
Boom—!
A terrifying amount of cursed energy, enough to warp space itself, erupted from his body!
The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch, and the surrounding air let out groans of unbearable pressure!
He was going to kill that bastard Kenjaku!
Right now! Immediately! At once!
Meanwhile, in the chaos not far away, Nanako and Mimiko watched the burning city with excitement gleaming in their eyes.
They quietly pulled out the six [Ryomen Sukuna's Finger]s given to them by Kenjaku, their gazes locked dead onto Yuji Itadori in the distance.
The mission had to be completed! Master Geto's body had to be reclaimed!
...
At this moment, all of Japan was thoroughly reduced to a living hell.
Countless newly awakened jujutsu sorcerers, having lost control due to their forced awakenings, wildly unleashed their unmanageable powers in the streets. Cities sank into seas of fire and screams.
"Ken—ja—ku—!"
Gojo's roar nearly tore through the heavens.
Just as he was about to move, a hand gently rested on his shoulder.
It was Ian.
"Don't rush," Ian said, his face maintaining its usual unfazed expression as he surveyed the chaotic world before them.
"It's not every day we get the grand opening of such a magnificent game. Why the rush to find the GM?"
"Besides, you won't be able to find him right now anyway!"
"Just sit back and enjoy the show."