"Hee?"
The Cursed Womb shuddered, stumbling back half a step on instinct.
Click.
"HEE!"
Half its shoulder exploded—shattering like smashed porcelain, cracks racing outward from the blast point. In an instant the entire arm disintegrated, fragments drifting through the air like grey butterflies.
But even those butterflies dissolved into nothing before they hit the ground.
The Cursed Womb howled, jerking its body backward. Cursed Energy surged toward the wound, successfully halting the chain detonation before it could spread further.
But Killer Queen pressed the advantage. It lunged forward, cratered the floor beneath its feet, wound its right fist back, and drove it straight into the Cursed Womb's face.
BOOM—
A sonic crack. The Cursed Womb became a blur, vanishing from the spot—and slammed into a distant pillar so hard the entire building shook.
"Kill... kill..."
It wrenched its arm free from the wall. Tumors rippled across its body, fleshy masses pooling at the ruined shoulder until a new hand pushed through. Within seconds, the shoulder had fully regenerated.
Dark red Cursed Energy gathered between its palms, radiating horrific power. It coalesced into a blood-colored sphere, swelling larger and larger. The Cursed Womb thrust its arm forward, and the sphere erupted into a torrent of energy over half a meter wide, sweeping toward Kira.
Killer Queen materialized in front of him, arms spread wide. The crimson flood engulfed its silhouette.
Red Cursed Energy streamed past on both sides—a river crashing against a mountain. Unstoppable force, immovable object. Killer Queen stood firm, splitting the torrent in two. The energy parted around Kira's body and punched through the wall behind him.
Two gaping holes. Through them, the red energy kept going—wall after wall shattering in succession.
The torrent finally died. Killer Queen lowered its arms. Since it wasn't an attack on the soul, there was no real damage.
But the Cursed Womb had vanished.
Hee hee hee.
Shadows swept across the walls. Kira scanned his surroundings. Nothing.
He checked his watch. 9:10.
Ten more minutes of overtime.
Fingernails. Growing.
Cursed Energy churned in his hands. No one around. He was done holding back.
He bit down hard on his nails.
Just end this already...
The attack came from his right rear. The Cursed Womb streaked out of the shadows, dark crimson nails razor-sharp, slicing toward Kira like the edge of a cold blade.
So it knows to target the user directly. Some intelligence, at least.
Kira tilted his head just enough to dodge the leading edge, shifted his feet, circled around—and in a few quick steps swapped positions with Killer Queen.
But red Cursed Energy was already coalescing in the creature's palm again. Its palm came down, slamming against Killer Queen's face.
Killer Queen hadn't dodged—it had stayed to shield Kira. That split-second delay was all the Cursed Womb needed to slip past.
Quick as a minnow, impossibly fast. Before the energy blast had even faded, the creature was already in Kira's face.
It grinned, teeth gleaming. The two eyes atop its skull rolled upward. Its right hand rose high, razor nails millimeters from Kira's throat—
Click.
Half its face began to detonate. Fire consumed its head in an instant.
Its hand froze in midair. It would never come down.
"My shikigami is called Killer Queen. It can turn anything it touches into a bomb."
"Remember that first punch? Killer Queen only sent you flying—it didn't detonate you."
"But your face had already been turned into a bomb."
"I know Special Grade Cursed Spirits have extraordinary regeneration. Even a shattered skull can reform in seconds. That's why I didn't trigger it while you were hiding—you'd have healed too quickly."
Kira tilted his head back slightly, his tone flat:
"Only when you attacked me. Only when you thought you'd caught me off guard. Only when you closed the distance yourself—right now."
"When all your Cursed Energy was focused on a single point. When you had nothing left to regenerate with."
BOOM—
Killer Queen loomed behind the headless Cursed Womb, leaning back slightly, crimson slit-pupils gleaming like a predator's eyes—the only light in the dim corridor.
"I hate overtime. I bet you hate it too."
Kira tilted his head, those calm eyes hiding endless malice:
"So why did you have to make things difficult for me?"
Fists rained down. The previous blow hadn't landed before the next was already rising. The barrage was so dense it looked like a hurricane—no, dense wasn't the right word. Viscous. The afterimages overlapped into something almost solid, a sky full of black skulls descending on the headless Cursed Womb, biting down.
Tearing through layer after layer of flesh. Blood spraying in wave after wave.
Kira didn't simply blow it to pieces. No quick end. No mercy.
He watched. Watched it thrash in the storm of black fists, wailing. Watched its bones crack inch by inch, ground to dust bit by bit.
The barrage finally stopped.
The Cursed Womb collapsed to its knees, the eyes atop its skull dimming. Its arms dropped to the floor with a low, heavy thud.
It had been beaten to death.
Kira crouched down and searched its chest cavity, following a familiar scent. He found it—a deep cylindrical hollow, and from it he withdrew a dark crimson finger.
Sukuna's Finger.
Looking at what lay in his palm, Kira's smile grew even calmer.
Someone had planted this here deliberately. A Special Grade Cursed Spirit, cultivated on purpose using Sukuna's Finger—it had to be.
The timing was too convenient.
Right when Gojo was away on assignment.
Right after Yuji Itadori had swallowed a finger just days ago.
And now another finger surfaces, at the most sensitive possible moment.
Too many coincidences. Too many "accidents." Hard not to be suspicious.
Most importantly—
Shoving a finger inside a hole?
Only those degenerate Cursed Spirits could come up with something like that.
Could someone among the jujutsu higher-ups be colluding with the Cursed Spirits...?
The motive remained unclear. Kira didn't particularly care. But—
Higher-ups, Curse Users—whoever was responsible for making him work overtime, for using him like a pawn.
They didn't seriously think tonight would be the end of it, did they?
The domain crumbled away piece by piece. Rain pattered softly. Kira smiled his calm smile.
"If you're going to work overtime, you see it through to the end."