Inside the subway station.
It was already packed with passersby who had no idea what was happening.
All the exits were tightly sealed by eerie, thick tree roots. People were packed together like sardines, finding it difficult even to turn around.
Gojo Satoru stood by the tracks.
Even with three Special Grade Cursed Spirits standing across from him, his posture remained relaxed.
"You didn't need to go to all this trouble. It's not like I'm going to run away."
Gojo Satoru had his hands in his pockets, acting as if he were chatting with friends, completely ignoring the murderous intent hanging in the air.
On the other side of the tracks.
Cursed energy surged wildly beneath Hanami's shoulders, while Jogo's scorched yellow teeth ground together.
"If I ran away, you'd just slaughter every human here."
Gojo tilted his head slightly, scanning the terrified, screaming civilians through his blindfold.
"Am I right?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth.
With a loud clatter, the platform gates suddenly swung wide!
To compress Gojo's space, even more people were being driven down like cattle.
Chaos erupted.
Those in the back pushed those in front, and those in front screamed as they lost their balance.
"Help me!"
"Stop pushing! I'm going to fall!"
Amidst the desperate cries, a massive crash rang out!
A massive number of civilians were shoved onto the tracks like trash being dumped, instantly filling the empty buffer zone between Gojo and the Cursed Spirits.
Living flesh became the cruelest of shields.
Watching this, a cruel light flickered in Jogo's lone eye.
"The answer is—it's the same even if you don't run!"
A split second later, the killing intent exploded!
Choso, who had remained silent until now, was the first to strike.
He slammed his hands together, and blood that had been compressed to its limit burst from his fingertips.
"Blood Manipulation: Piercing Blood!"
Pfft!
A beam of red light tore through the air.
The highly compressed bloodline instantly pierced the heads of several unlucky souls. Red and white brain matter splattered as the bloody wind blasted toward Gojo's face!
However, when the Piercing Blood—strong enough to punch through steel plates—approached Gojo.
It seemed to hit a wall, immediately bouncing off and turning back into ordinary blood.
Simultaneously, Jogo and Hanami moved.
Without hesitation, the two trampled over the bodies of the civilians, charging forward like a pair of heavy tanks.
They weren't using their innate techniques on their fists; instead, they were coated in a strange, liquid-like flow of cursed energy.
It was the trump card specifically designed to counter 'Infinity'—
[Domain Amplification]!
By coating their bodies in cursed energy without using a technique, they could neutralize Gojo's untouchable defense.
"Die!!"
From left and right, two fists carrying the momentum to crush mountains slammed toward Gojo's temples.
Bang!
The fists stopped just a few centimeters from Gojo's skin, as if they had hit an invisible wall.
Zzzzt—!
A piercing grinding sound echoed.
A strange dark green light erupted from the point of contact.
The high-density cursed energy of Domain Amplification was frantically neutralizing the Infinity on the surface of Gojo's body.
"It's getting through!!"
Jogo's eye widened; he could see it clearly.
Though extremely slow, the fists were indeed tearing through the defense and approaching Gojo's flesh!
Even if it was only a few millimeters!
For the 'Strongest,' who had never been touched, this was a weakness!
"Roar!!"
Sensing this sliver of opportunity, Hanami let out an excited roar.
Its free left fist suddenly surged forward, likewise coated in the fluid-like Domain Amplification. With a boom that tore the air, it delivered a pincer attack from the other side!
A pincer attack from both sides!
However.
The man at the eye of the storm moved.
Amidst this horrific pincer attack capable of grinding steel into powder, Gojo Satoru slowly raised his hand.
He simply brought his hand to his chin and rubbed it gently twice.
His brow furrowed slightly, and his expression was almost... pensive.
Boom!
They missed.
The moment the bloody fists were about to touch Gojo, his figure vanished like a ghost, instantly reappearing on the platform behind them.
"I see."
Gojo lightly brushed his sleeve.
"So you've hooked up with Curse Users to pull these tricks. Using Domain Amplification to neutralize my technique, then using the crowd to prevent me from opening my domain... Is that your strategy?"
With the attack missing, Jogo instantly became irritable.
He casually grabbed a terrified civilian with no mercy in his rough palm.
Pop!
Like crushing an annoying bug, the person's skull shattered instantly.
Blood splattered, and the screams of the crowd were heart-wrenching.
"I guess you won't listen until I show you what's what, will you?"
"Don't you run!"
Jogo shook the blood off his hand, his lone eye glaring at Gojo as he shouted arrogantly.
"Thinking up excuses already? Before all these humans end up dead?"
The temperature on the platform seemed to plummet in an instant.
It was the extreme cold brought by pure murderous intent.
"To be honest, I'm quite surprised."
Gojo's hand slowly rose, his long fingers catching the edge of his unchanging black blindfold.
"I mean..."
The blindfold slipped down.
In that moment, it felt as if the sky had collapsed.
Those translucent, azure eyes were exposed to the air, swirling with a coldness enough to freeze the soul.
It was the gaze of a god looking down upon ants.
"To think you actually dreamed you could defeat me with such meager methods."
...
Meanwhile, inside a hotel suite.
Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows lay Tokyo's bustling yet chaotic night view.
Inside the room, the air conditioning was blasting.
Hayashi En sat on a leather sofa with his legs crossed, a modified tablet in front of him.
The screen displayed a real-time feed from the subway station transmitted through Mechamaru's miniature reconnaissance devices.
"Ssss—ah!"
Hayashi En took a satisfying sip of iced cola, watching the high-definition azure eyes on the screen with a hint of excitement.
"That's more like it. That's the real Gojo Satoru."
As a reincarnator who knew the plot well, Hayashi En had been looking forward to this scene for a long time.
In his past life, he could only watch the anime or read the manga through a screen; while exciting, there was always a dimensional wall.
But now, this was a real, live broadcast. The sheer pressure was enough to give someone goosebumps even through a screen.
"But, it's about time to get moving."
Hayashi En stood up and let out a long stretch, his joints popping and cracking.
"Any later, and there won't be anything left of Hanami but scraps."
...
The center of the battlefield.
Gojo Satoru lowered his stance slightly, like an arrow ready to fly from a bow.
In those azure eyes, there was no mercy, only a pure desire for destruction.
"Hey, you weed over there. This is our third time meeting, isn't it?"
"To think you dared to underestimate me."
Gojo took a step forward. The terrifying pressure made the three Special Grade Cursed Spirits gasp for breath.
"Then let's start by exorcising you first."
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