"Cursed Spirit Manipulation: Rainbow Dragon!"
A steady, slightly cold voice rang out.
The two assassins, who had been grinning just a second ago, didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed into the playground by the massive Rainbow Dragon, their bodies bursting into blood and fragments.
Dust billowed into the air.
Still shaken, Riko slowly looked up.
Standing atop the Rainbow Dragon was a boy with narrow eyes, dressed in a black high school uniform, his hair tied in a peculiar bun as he looked down at her.
Suguru Geto.
Beside him, another figure stood suspended in midair.
A boy with striking silver-white hair, wearing small round black sunglasses and a high school uniform, stood with his hands in his pockets, his feet resting on empty air, his posture radiating arrogance.
Satoru Gojo.
"Hey, hey, Suguru, that entrance was way too rough. At least think about the poor girls' hearts."
Satoru Gojo landed lightly from midair, raising a hand to adjust his sunglasses. Behind the dark lenses, his pale blue Six Eyes swept over the assassins who had already been crushed into pulp by the Rainbow Dragon.
"Stop talking nonsense, Satoru. Protecting the Star Plasma Vessel is our top priority. Teacher Yaga stressed again and again that nothing can go wrong."
Suguru Geto leapt down from the Rainbow Dragon's back and walked over to Riko Amanai. He extended a hand, putting on what he believed was a gentle smile.
"Are you alright, Riko-chan? We're second-year students from Tokyo Jujutsu High, sent by Master Tengen to escort you to the Star Corridor."
Riko Amanai stared at the monstrous creature, then at the two high school boys whose entrance was even stranger than the attackers. She instinctively shrank back.
"W-Who are you people…?!"
It wasn't just her. The surrounding girls who had witnessed everything were trembling in fear as well.
...
On a bench in the distance...
Rin watched as the so-called strongest duo finally made their appearance, a hint of amusement curling at his lips.
"One plays Pokémon, the other runs invincibility cheats."
He stood up and casually tossed the newspaper into a nearby trash can.
The show was over. Time to get to work.
Rin brushed off the hem of his trench coat, then strode forward with long, unhurried steps. He slipped naturally through the crowd and walked straight toward the three figures at the center of the playground, where the atmosphere had turned awkward from the lack of understanding.
"Nice to meet you. The 'strongest' from Jujutsu High, right?"
A lazy, slightly mocking voice suddenly cut through the tense air.
Gojo and Geto turned at the same time.
The moment Gojo's Six Eyes locked onto Rin, his pupils contracted sharply beneath the sunglasses, and his hands slipped out of his pockets without him realizing it.
In his perception, there wasn't a trace of cursed energy inside the black-haired young man before him.
But this was definitely not the kind of Heavenly Restriction that stripped away cursed energy like Toji Fushiguro.
Because around this man, space itself was undergoing subtle yet undeniable distortions.
Like a black hole, silently devouring the surrounding laws.
Danger.
Extremely dangerous.
"Who are you?" Gojo Satoru's usual grin disappeared as his Limitless instinctively activated at full power.
Rin ignored his guarded stance. He walked over to Riko Amanai, took out a mint he had bought on a whim, and handed it to the girl still sitting on the ground.
"Have some candy. It'll calm your nerves."
Then he turned his head toward Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, a faintly wicked smile forming on his lips.
"Me? I'm just a kind passerby."
"And as a kind passerby… what I can't stand the most is bodyguards like you, who push a little girl straight into a pit of fire."
"..."
"...."
On the playground of Renchoku Girls' Junior High, an early spring breeze drifted through, carrying a few pink and white cherry blossom petals into the air.
Yet the atmosphere was so heavy it felt almost suffocating.
"Bodyguards like us.. who push a little girl straight into a pit of fire?"
The gentle smile on Suguru Geto's face gradually faded. His usually narrowed eyes slowly opened, revealing a cold, assessing gaze.
"Your words are rather unpleasant, sir. This is a protection mission issued by the higher-ups of the jujutsu world. It is a necessary measure to maintain the stability of all Japan's barriers."
He raised a hand, thick black cursed energy coiling around his fingertips.
"You have no trace of cursed energy, yet you appeared here without a sound. Are you an assassin from the Curse User group 'Q,' or a mercenary hired by the Star Plasma Vessel cult?"
"Do I look like the kind of fanatic who kneels and worships empty air?"
Rin stood beside Riko Amanai, not even sparing Geto a glance. He simply lowered his head, unwrapped a mint, and tossed it into his mouth.
A cool, refreshing taste spread across his tongue.
"Don't try to pressure me with that grand nonsense about 'the stability of barriers.' Only incompetent trash would pin the fate of the world on sacrificing a fourteen-year-old girl."
Rin glanced at Riko Amanai, who was still slumped on the ground in a daze.
"Calling the erasure of someone's soul 'assimilation'… you so-called righteous sorcerers really have a disgusting way of doing things."
Those words struck like a thorn, piercing straight through the belief Geto Suguru had always held—that the strong existed to protect the weak.
"…So negotiations have failed."
Geto Suguru's expression turned cold as his wrist flicked.
Roar!
A slender, centipede-like Cursed Spirit covered in blade-like protrusions shot out from the shadows behind him.
It moved like lightning, its fanged mouth snapping open as it lunged straight for Rin's throat.
He didn't intend to kill. He only planned to use this Grade 2 Cursed Spirit to restrain this arrogant man and find out who was backing him.
Facing the grotesque creature rushing at him, Rin didn't even remove his hands from his pockets.
"Watch out!" Misato Kuroi cried out instinctively from the side.
In the next instant, a chilling scene unfolded.
The centipede Cursed Spirit, thick as a barrel, passed straight through Rin's chest as if it had struck nothing but air—like passing through a non-existent projection.
Rin remained standing exactly where he was, not even the hem of his clothes disturbed.
"What?!" Geto Suguru's brows furrowed sharply.
There was no feedback from the strike. It felt as if his Cursed Spirit had hit nothing at all.
An illusion? Or some kind of special technique?
"Suguru, fall back. This guy isn't normal."
Gojo, who had been silent until now, suddenly reached out to stop Geto, who was about to summon another Cursed Spirit.
The white-haired genius had lowered his small round sunglasses halfway, revealing those brilliant Six Eyes beneath.
Eyes like a clear sky, said to appear only once every few hundred years in the jujutsu world, capable of seeing through all cursed energy and the essence of cursed techniques.
Yet at this moment, those eyes were filled with an unusual gravity.
"My eyes can't see through him."
Satoru Gojo stared fixedly at Rin, a wild, arrogant grin spreading across his face.
"No cursed energy, no sign of a technique activating. But the moment that centipede passed through him, the surrounding space folded. It wasn't an illusion. He shifted his body into another dimension."
"A spatial ability?" Suguru Geto felt his heart tighten.
"Bullseye."
"Well, it doesn't matter." Gojo cracked his neck, a sharp series of pops echoing. "Listen here, whoever you are..."
Hands still in his pockets, he strode toward Rin with long, confident steps.
___
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