On the tatami mat, the air still held an intimate warmth and a trace of subtle sweetness.
Chen Tian carefully moved Kitagawa—who was exhausted, covered in sweat, and already closed her eyes, feigning sleep—off his body and gently onto the thin blanket beside them.
As soon as she left his warm embrace, Kitagawa groggily opened her eyes.
Strands of wine-red hair clung to her sweaty neck, and her large eyes, wearing red contacts, held a hazy, watery sheen.
She languidly stretched out her arm and wound it around Chen Tian's neck, pulling him closer to her.
She leaned in close to his ear, her warm breath carrying a succubus-like temptation. Her voice was soft and seductive: "Do you... want to... go again?"
Chen Tian lowered his head and pressed a soft kiss on her slightly pouted, glistening lips.
"No," his voice was low, carrying the hoarseness of intimacy, yet sober. "I have to go to Shibuya."
"Eh?" Kitagawa was stunned for a moment. She followed his gaze to the simple clock hanging on the wall.
The hands clearly pointed to: 22:10.
Most of the haze in her eyes instantly cleared. She remembered the shock of the alley and the portal earlier, the anomaly in the Shibuya sky, and the mission of her "superhero" boyfriend.
Chen Tian gripped her wrist, gently removing her slender arms from his neck.
He rose sharply. Their clothes were scattered beside the tatami mat.
He bent down, picking up his dark jeans and an ordinary black hooded T-shirt, quickly putting them on.
The simple clothes instantly concealed the toned lines of his body, transforming him from an intimate lover back into that young man with a hint of wild arrogance in his demeanor.
Kitagawa propped herself up, sitting on the tatami. She paid no mind to the blanket slipping down to her waist, leaving a large expanse of snow-white skin exposed in the warm indoor light.
She watched Chen Tian fully dress, watched him walk toward the empty living room wall.
With a slight thought, the air silently tore!
A ghostly blue cross-shaped rift appeared out of nowhere, with familiar electric arcs jumping at the edges, and a deep, starry vortex inside—the portal to Shibuya was open again.
"Ten-kun!" Kitagawa's voice called out, carrying a hint of tension but more of pure excitement and trust.
She clenched her small fists and powerfully waved them at Chen Tian's back. "Go get 'em! Punch the bad guys flat!"
Chen Tian paused slightly, then turned his head. The living room light illuminated half of his profile. White, tousled hair fell over his forehead, and a warm smile played on his lips.
"Mhm," he responded, his voice clear. "Wait for me to come back."
With that, he hesitated no longer, raising his foot and stepping into the starlight-flashing cross-shaped rift.
His figure was instantly swallowed by the starlight.
After a slight tremor in the air, the rift was sealed as if wiped away. The ghostly blue electric light flashed and vanished, and the living room wall returned to its original state, as if nothing unusual had ever happened.
Only a faint scent of ozone, residual from the tearing of space, remained in the air, proving everything that had just occurred.
On the tatami mat, Kitagawa Marin sat alone.
The blush on her face hadn't faded. The lingering fatigue made her limbs still slightly weak, but her large eyes, wearing red contacts, shone with an astonishing brightness, burning with a strange flame mixed with excitement, pride, and a hint of secret worry.
She looked down at her body, her charms fully exposed, but she didn't care.
"Haaaah!" She suddenly cheered, as if pumping herself up.
Then, she sprang up from the tatami mat with full energy, rushing barefoot "thump-thump-thump" toward the kitchen, completely disregarding how "revealing" she was.
Her goal was clear: the refrigerator!
She yanked the refrigerator door open. It was packed with groceries bought over the weekend. The cold air rushed out, making her slightly pull back her neck, but her excitement didn't diminish at all.
"Ten-kun will definitely be hungry when he comes back from the fight!" she muttered to herself, staring at the full shelves of ingredients, her small fists clenched, a look of anticipation on her face.
"What should I make? Ramen? Curry? Or pan-fried dumplings?" She tilted her head, her wine-red hair swaying with the motion. The little devil horns on her head gently wobbled as she began to seriously select the ingredients.
In the center of Shibuya, the once-boisterous Halloween celebration site had become an inferno.
Piercing alarms mixed with screams and shouts. The rumble of collapsing buildings was continuous. The air was suffocating, filled with the smell of char, blood, and a heavy scent of Curses.
In the center of this chaos, on a relatively open patch of scorched earth.
On the ground was a massive pool of rapidly carbonizing, smoking sludge, vaguely retaining the outline of twisted, octopus-like tentacles—it was the recently finished Special Grade Curse, Dagon.
A figure crouched beside the sludge.
He was stocky, his head resembling a miniature, active volcano. In place of his eyes was a single, large, cold eye, devoid of emotion, staring at the remains of his companion on the ground.
He reached out and grabbed a handful of Dagon's flesh, which was rapidly carbonizing. The warm chunks of flesh quickly lost color in his palm, becoming scorched, brittle, and finally turning into dust that sifted through his fingers.
"You died, Dagon." His voice was like two rough stones grinding together, frigid and without a single ripple, as if merely stating an irrelevant fact.
He stood up and casually swept away the residual charcoal in his palm, the ashes drifting away on the Curse-infused wind.
"Our souls," the gigantic single eye turned toward the three figures standing silently beside him, his words resolute, "can achieve rebirth without relying on humans."
"Farewell, in the wilderness a hundred years from now."
As his words fell, the gigantic single eye abruptly snapped to the side!
The cold stare, like a material dagger, instantly locked onto the blond middle-aged man among the three figures—Nanami Kento!
A terrifying, scorching killing intent, as if capable of burning a soul to ashes, erupted without warning! The scorched earth beneath Jogo instantly cracked and melted!
No warning, no afterimage!
The blond Nanami Kento's pupils contracted violently. Before his Cursed Technique could fully deploy, the hand of the Curse was already pressed against his abdomen!
"The first one."
The frigid declaration was like the whisper of the grim reaper.
Boom!!!
Explosion! Like a volcano suppressed for ten thousand years instantly erupting in his abdominal cavity!
An indescribable, terrifying heat and shockwave poured out from that hand!
Nanami Kento's entire being, along with the space he occupied, was instantly swallowed by a raging torrent of crimson flame!
The flame was a molten deluge condensed to its absolute limit!
The blond figure was evaporated into nothingness before he could even let out a scream, leaving behind only a terrifying, bottomless crater at the spot, its edges flowing with molten rock!
"Na—!!!"
The woman beside him—Zenin Maki—only managed to utter one syllable!
Jogo's figure vanished from the spot as if teleporting!
He appeared right beside Maki. The stone hand that had just ignited Nanami Kento casually, as if brushing off dust, gave her shoulder a light pat.
A miniature, highly compressed ball of molten fire instantly generated and detonated at the point of contact!
Even fiercer than before! More explosive! A pillar of crimson fire shot toward the sky, engulfing Maki and the ground beneath her in a raging molten vortex! The flames formed a violent, swirling dragon of magma! The woman's figure twisted, carbonized, and disappeared in the crimson heat!
The last one was the white-haired old man who had lost his right arm—Naobito Zenin!
His experience allowed him to react instantly! The moment Jogo locked onto Nanami, his shriveled body darted toward Jogo at an incredible speed, attempting to get behind him!
However, the instant his feet touched the ground, his pupils shrank to needlepoints!
Behind him, on both sides, two small volcanoes had silently and suddenly emerged! Their craters were aimed directly at him, with thick, destructive lava churning inside!
"Hoh!" Naobito only managed a short gasp of alarm.
Two molten deluges, like furious crimson dragons, violently erupted from the two craters! They blasted his position precisely and without any blind spots, intersecting perfectly!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
A terrifying heatwave and shockwave swept through! Naobito's figure was instantly submerged and devoured by the fiery-gold molten torrent! Not a single trace of resistance was left!
The lava rampaged, and the scorched earth melted into boiling sludge.
Jogo stood in place, not even sparing a glance at the three areas of destruction where the lava boiled.
The expression of the giant single eye remained indifferent, as if he had just casually crushed three bothersome insects.
His icy voice was clearly audible amidst the crackling of the flames and the distant clamor of disaster:
"The third one."
The scorched earth at the edge of the lava pits still hissed, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of high-temperature burning and thick Cursed residue.
Jogo's giant single eye coldly swept over the three lava-ravaged areas, confirming the complete annihilation of the ants.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A tsunami-like surge of heavy, suffocating Cursed Energy, filled with malice, suddenly spread out!
Jogo's giant single eye abruptly widened! A trace of emotion, which could only be called "startlement," flashed in the depths of his pupil!
"The aura of Sukuna's Finger..." The voice, like grinding rock, carried an unbelievable pause.
Without any hesitation, his stocky body instantly transformed into an afterimage, shooting toward the source of that terrifying aura! Only distorted, high-temperature air and the three deep lava pits were left in his wake.
Jogo's figure had just vanished around the corner.
Right next to the spot where Naobito Zenin had been swallowed by the lava, the air tore open without warning!
A ghostly blue rift appeared out of nowhere, with the familiar blue electric arcs jumping at the edges, and a deep, starry vortex swirling within.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Three figures were violently flung out, crashing heavily onto the scorched earth, which was hot but no longer flowing with lava.
It was exactly Kento Nanami, Maki Zenin, and Naobito Zenin!
The three slumped to the ground in disarray, their faces still etched with the horror and confusion from the moment before death descended.
They looked blankly at their hands and feet—aside from the injuries and exhaustion from the previous fight with Dagon, there was no sign of the expected carbonization or evaporation! Forget fatal injuries, there wasn't even a trace of a burn!
What the hell is going on?!
A foot, wearing the classic red-and-black AJ 1 sneakers, stepped firmly out of the ghostly blue rift and onto the charred ground.
Then, Chen Tian's figure emerged from the split starry sky.
He wore a simple black hooded T-shirt and dark jeans, his white, tousled hair lightly fluttering in the Curse-infused hot wind.
His face was devoid of expression, as cold and indifferent as the steel jungle of a Shibuya night. He casually glanced at the three dazed people on the ground.
"Are you alright?" His voice was calm, even carrying a touch of aloof coldness.
Kento Nanami was the first to react. He forcefully suppressed the surging horror and wariness toward the unknown, sharply propped himself up, his gaze sharp and tightly focused on Chen Tian: "May I ask who you are?"
Before Chen Tian could answer, Maki Zenin beside him let out a short cry of surprise, pointing at Chen Tian and blurting out: "Nanami-senpai! You don't recognize him?! He's that super hot celebrity recently! Nero!"
Her face was full of shock, but the shock in her eyes was quickly overtaken by a mix of "seeing a top idol" excitement and an unbelievable sense of absurdity.
This person who walked out of a spatial rift and saved their lives was clearly the new-generation idol who was trending across Japan—Nero—the one on TV and billboards!
Kento Nanami and Naobito Zenin, who was struggling to sit up, were stunned simultaneously: "A celebrity?"
The two exchanged a look, seeing the confusion and the cracks in their worldview reflected in the other's eyes.
To silently spirit the three of them away from the inevitable lava explosion at the hands of a Special Grade Curse like Jogo? Has the bar for being a celebrity... gotten this ridiculously high?!
Chen Tian ignored their complicated looks.
He slightly tilted his head, his gaze cast toward the depths of the ruins in the distance—the very source of that terrifying Cursed Energy explosion just now, and the direction Jogo was rushing toward.
The lingering distorted fluctuations in the air and that heavy, mountain-like malicious Cursed Energy curved his lips into an arc of excitement.
"Heh... has it begun?"