Fear spread wildly through Tokyo Colony No. 1 like a plague.
In less than twelve hours, the situation across the entire Shinjuku area had undergone an earth-shattering shift.
The ancient incarnated sorcerers, who had once considered themselves at the pinnacle of the food chain while casually slaughtering modern awakened sorcerers and civilians alike, were now shivering in dark corners like frightened quails.
A monster far more unreasonable than any of them had emerged in this purgatory.
A dark-haired young man without a shred of cursed energy, wielding a flaming longsword and mowing down ancient sorcerers as if he were slicing cabbage.
"Run... Whatever you do, don't run into that non-sorcerer with the red sword!"
"That guy isn't even human! He took out the Fujiwara clan's Grade 1 sorcerer with a single strike!"
"He's a madman! A total psycho who kills purely for the sake of killing! He doesn't even care about points!"
Panicked rumors spread rapidly through the barrier, leaving every ancient sorcerer fearing for their life.
They even began banding together for safety, no longer daring to roam about arrogantly as they had before.
Meanwhile, inside an abandoned subway station within the colony.
Yuji Itadori, clad in a hooded sweatshirt that concealed most of his face in shadow, carefully made his way across the platforms.
Having infiltrated the barrier as an undercover agent after faking his death, his primary mission was to keep a low profile, search for clues regarding the Angel, Hana Kurusu, and destroy the barrier's core.
Yet, as he walked and took in the gruesome sights along the way, deep shock and anger welled up within him.
Mutilated corpses littered the ground.
Some were innocent civilians, but the vast majority—and those who had met the most gruesome ends—were incarnated sorcerers dressed in ancient attire.
Their causes of death were eerily identical: all had been cleanly felled in a single decisive strike by an extraordinarily scorching blade, without the slightest hesitation or waste of motion.
Even the cursed spirits or shikigami inside them had been vaporized into nothingness by the sheer heat.
'These slash marks... and this lingering, oppressive heat in the air, scorching like the sun...'
Yuji Itadori crouched beside the corpse of an ancient sorcerer who had been severed at the waist. Gently touching the charred edge of the wound, his pupils contracted sharply.
'It's Senior Yoru!'
Yuji took a sharp breath. Though he had long known how terrifyingly strong Yoru was, seeing this scene of wholesale slaughter with his own eyes still made his scalp tingle.
'Did Senior come here to destroy the barrier... or did he come to wipe out everyone inside?'
Just as Yuji was marveling in silence, faint footsteps suddenly echoed from deep within the tunnel behind him.
Yuji whipped around, cursed energy surging in an instant as he dropped into a combat stance.
However, upon seeing the figure emerging from the darkness, his tensed frame relaxed immediately, and delight flashed in his eyes.
"Senior Yoru!"
The newcomer was indeed Yoru.
He still wore his black haori, though its hem was inevitably flecked with spots of dark red blood.
Shiranui rested casually in his hand. Though the flames on the blade had subsided, its lingering, chilling heat still warped the light in the air.
"Yo, Itadori. Looks like your 'dead man' infiltration went pretty smoothly."
Yoru walked up to Yuji, patted his shoulder, and smiled faintly with his deep-crimson eyes.
"What's the matter? Seeing all these bodies spook you?"
Yuji scratched his head, giving an awkward laugh.
"I wouldn't say spooked... It's just that you kill way too fast, Senior."
"I walked all the way here and couldn't even find a living soul to question. You chopped every single one in half."
Yoru gave a noncommittal shrug.
"For fossils whose hands are drenched in innocent blood, the most effective form of communication is cutting them down."
"Besides, only by scaring them witless and driving them to cower in the shadows will the truly big fish lose their cool and surface."
Yoru put away his smile, his expression turning solemn.
"While clearing out that trash up above just now, I snagged a captive and squeezed out some useful intel."
Hearing there was intelligence, Yuji immediately pricked up his ears, his expression growing serious as well.
"Is it a lead on 'Angel'?"
"No, 'Angel' is lying low. There's no concrete news yet."
Yoru shook his head, gazing thoughtfully into the depths of the subway tunnel.
"Instead, I heard about another very intriguing guy."
"Inside this barrier flooded with slaughter and chaos, someone is actually trying to establish 'order.'"
Yuji froze for a moment, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"Order? Establishing order inside the Culling Game, where mutual slaughter is literally encouraged?"
"That's right."
The corner of Yoru's mouth curled into an amused arc.
"His name is Hiromi Higuruma, a modern-day lawyer whose cursed technique awakened recently."
"He carved out a courtroom right in the central zone of this colony."
"Whether they're ancient sorcerers or modern awakened ones, anyone who commits an unforgivable crime within his court is forcibly judged—stripped of their cursed technique, or even their life."
Yoru looked at Yuji, his tone becoming quite solemn.
"According to my intel, he has already executed no fewer than thirty vicious sorcerers this way. His strength runs deep; even powerful ancient incarnated sorcerers dare not provoke him lightly."
"Itadori, your mission has changed."
Yoru pointed toward the section of the tunnel leading into downtown.
"Stop blindly looking for 'Angel.' Go find this Hiromi Higuruma!"
Yuji knitted his brows slightly, asking in confusion.
"Find him? Why? Isn't he judging everyone indiscriminately?"
"Because he is a man of principles and bottom lines. In a hell like this, a person like that is more precious than any Special Grade Cursed Tool."
Wisdom gleamed in Yoru's eyes.
"He possesses an exceptionally powerful domain and cursed technique. More importantly, he desires to rebuild order in this broken world."
"Find him. Tell him the truth about the Culling Game, and tell him about Kenjaku's plot."
"With that sincerity of yours that can move anyone, I believe he will definitely become your most reliable ally in this colony!"
Hearing Yoru's reasoning, Yuji Itadori's eyes lit up instantly. He nodded hard, his blood boiling with determination once more.
"Understood, Senior!"
"I'll go find him right away. I'll definitely bring him over to our side!"
Watching Yuji's driven figure vanish quickly into the depths of the tunnel, Yoru smiled with satisfaction.
He knew Hiromi Higuruma's harsh judgment rules might be invincible against those blood-soaked ancient sorcerers.
Yet when facing an utter fool like Yuji Itadori, whose heart was pure to the absolute extreme and who would willingly sacrifice himself for others, those rules were bound to hit a brick wall.
"Go on, Itadori. Win over that stubborn lawyer with your purity."
Yoru slowly turned around and directed his gaze toward another direction in the colony.
Ominous purple lightning flickered faintly across the sky there, and a terrifying surge of cursed energy—one that gave even him a pang of trepidation—was frantically coalescing.
"As for me..."
Yoru tightened his grip on Shiranui's hilt once more. In his deep-crimson eyes, the patterns of the Transparent World began to spin wildly, and a ferocious fighting spirit—far surpassing anything before—surged skyward from his body!
"Let's go meet the true apex predator of this colony."
In this nightmare barrier cloaked in blood and dread, Yuji Itadori set out on a path of judgment in search of order and allies.
And Yoru, facing the purple lightning that filled the sky, boldly drew his blade toward an ultimate death match fierce enough to make even ancient gods tremble!
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