The afternoon hours were always fleeting. As the sun slid inch by inch toward the mountains, shadow crept over the world. The temperature dropped. The cicadas went quiet. The evening breeze picked up, slowly clearing the clouds, and the leaves rustled as if in mourning.
In some dark corner, layer after layer of bandages were being wound around his hand. Between the gaps in the stone tiles, droplets and smears of blood were scattered everywhere.
Nanami Kira was treating his own wounds. Mei Mei's Bird Strike had been devastating—even with Sheer Heart Attack taking the blow, the blow had fractured two ribs in his chest and disrupted the flow of his Cursed Energy.
With injuries like these, unless he resorted to that, taking on this many sorcerers with Killer Queen alone would be difficult.
Kira despised conflict. Fighting made you powerless. Victory left you hollow. Defeat left you in despair. Combat was the most pointless, most senseless thing in the world.
He'd retreated from the cinema for now. He knew he'd walked into a trap. Their battle was meaningless—the real puppet master was watching and laughing.
Why? Why is the school hunting me?
Why? Why did Junpei look at me with such fear?
Something went wrong somewhere. Something went wrong...
Kira checked his watch. Six in the evening. Dinnertime.
And he still hadn't eaten lunch.
He despised disruptions to his schedule. The extra time tacked onto his day for no reason was nauseating—like cockroach droppings, like the grime wedged under a fingernail.
Was the Arrow discovered? Is that why they're after me?
Impossible. His seal had always been impervious. The Arrow emitted no trace whatsoever—they couldn't even detect its existence. Even if Hoshino Ei reported it directly to the school, evidence was required. There was no way this many sorcerers would be mobilized on one person's word alone.
This was the scale reserved for a Special Grade Curse User.
Kira gnawed at his fingernails until they cracked. His usually placid expression had fractured into something anxious. He recognized the danger sign. He'd always been the kind of man whose emotions stayed hidden—never once had he let them show.
But here he was: brow clenched, teeth tearing into his own fingers in some dark corner, cowering like a beaten dog. What a disgraceful sight.
Not desperate enough yet... not desperate enough yet...
Kira sensed footsteps beyond the wall. Faint. A competent sorcerer could suppress their CE fluctuations well, but this one's output was unstable—a clear beginner.
Grade 3 at most.
The realization brought no relief. If the jujutsu world was deploying even Grade 3 sorcerers, the hunt was at full strength—no effort spared.
And the Windows—those meticulous informants—would locate him before long.
Getting closer... hasn't spotted me yet...
Kira stepped silently around the corner.
"Don't move."
The man froze. He turned around trembling, and found a pink figure standing soundlessly behind him, head tilted, its skull-emblazoned left hand resting on his shoulder.
"I know you have an alarm talisman on your chest. Deactivate it."
The sorcerer obeyed without hesitation. Middle-aged, big-nosed, beady-eyed—thoroughly weaselly.
"K-Kira-sama, I'm just a small-time sorcerer, I mean you no harm... Please, just think of me as nothing and let me go..."
Killer Queen's left hand clamped down on his shoulder, and the man lost all will to speak.
"I ask. You answer."
The man nodded.
"Why is the school trying to kill me?"
"Because... because you killed people."
"Killed... killed who?"
"You don't know?"
He was terrified, remembering the whispered assessment: Nanami Kira—more like a curse than the curses themselves. In his mind, this was a monster—killed people and still played innocent.
"Killed who? I'm asking you! When and where—tell me everything you know!"
Killer Queen twisted his arm and slammed him to the ground, cratering the floor. Its left hand pressed his face into the concrete, grinding it side to side. Crimson pupils blazed:
"Don't answer a question with a question!"
"Crow Town, residences 22 through 123—" His voice shook, his whole body convulsing: "As of 2:30 PM today—massacred. Every last one of them."
The words tumbled out in a torrent:
"We first received word that you'd left the school without authorization. By that point, you'd already been gone nearly half an hour."
"Two sorcerers were dispatched to your home—no trace of you."
His pupils trembled, his eyes pinched shut, his lips quivering—every part of him shaking:
"We then expanded the search to your neighborhood and found Crow Town completely deserted."
"Every resident had vanished into thin air. We confirmed with the local police: 101 registered inhabitants of Crow Town. All missing."
"And at the scene... at the scene—"
He swallowed.
"The only CE signature detected was your shikigami's—K-Killer Queen's."
Kira's expression went blank. He drew a deep breath, stomped his foot onto the man's head, grinding it into the dirt, and ground out each word through clenched teeth:
"What. I. Killed. Were. Cursed. Spirits."
"N-no Cursed Spirit signatures were detected."
The man wailed, tears and snot everywhere. He clawed at the ground, sobbing:
"Only yours... The school believes you escaped custody and committed this mass killing. They've concluded you're connected to the cinema incident two days ago—that you may be colluding with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit!"
"That's everything! I swear I'm not lying! Please let me go!"
Kira released him and stepped back.
No Cursed Spirit signatures detected. Impossible. That many creatures, that scale of battle—any Cursed Spirit would leave traces...
Unless those monsters really were human.
"Money, I need money..."
"Receipts—do you need receipts?"
He recalled the senseless phrases, the grotesque grins, the dark heads peeking around the corner one by one.
Were those people?
No—they were abominations remade from people. They'd lost every shred of humanity. They couldn't be called human. Killing them was no different from exorcising a curse.
But the school didn't know that. They hadn't been there. They'd never seen the truth. In the entire world, aside from whoever orchestrated this, only Nanami Kira knew what had really happened.
Without cursed signatures, the school could only conclude the victims were people. Living, breathing people.
Even a single intact body could have cleared his name.
But Killer Queen never left bodies behind. The instant it touched a target, everything was reduced to ash.
Not a shred remained.
The enemy had accounted for even Killer Queen's properties. Just as Hoshino Ei had said—she loved him, and understood him better than anyone.
Kira bit down hard on his finger. At last, the full picture assembled:
The cinema incident placed him under house arrest for two days, seeding initial suspicion.
Hoshino Ei's visit was bait—provoking him into breaking out and rushing home, deepening the suspicion.
Once home, he'd do exactly as she predicted: take that street toward the cinema and walk straight into the stage she'd prepared.
Transforming him into a deranged Curse User.
He suddenly remembered something Hoshino Ei had said:
"Since you want a peaceful life, I'll destroy it for you. Tear apart everything you have. Reshape every last inch of you, every patch of skin... Ah, what bliss that would be!"
Nanami Kira was indeed favored by fate. His sixth sense had warned him to stay away from that street.
And now, that same sixth sense told him:
"This is only the beginning."
"You don't yet know what that woman did during the two days you were locked away."