Chapter 124: To Untie the Knot, One Must Seek the Person Who Tied It

Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

A thin drizzle fell over the street outside Kinema Cinema, blurring the neon signs and turning the pavement into a dull mirror. Cars passed through the wet road with soft hisses, their headlights sliding across the puddles like pale ghosts.

Yuji Itadori stood beneath an umbrella, staring up at the cinema's sign.

Beside him, Kento Nanami adjusted his glasses with one hand. His expression was calm, but there was nothing relaxed about him. The man looked like he had already filed the entire situation into categories of risk, procedure, and necessary action.

"The scene is quite gruesome," Nanami said. "Are you prepared, Itadori-kun?"

Yuji's grip tightened around his umbrella.

This time, he did not rush in blindly.

After the juvenile detention center, he had learned one thing very clearly. Courage without thinking was not bravery. It was just a faster way to die.

He lowered his voice and asked inwardly, "Asuramaru, is there a Cursed Spirit inside?"

A moment later, Asuramaru's voice answered from within him.

"No Cursed Spirits. But there are two interesting things on the rooftop."

Yuji let out a small breath.

"That helps a lot. Thanks, Asuramaru."

Nanami had already started walking toward the entrance.

Yuji hurried after him. "Nanami-san, wait for me!"

The inside of the cinema was dark and cold.

The smell hit first.

Even though the bodies had already been removed, blood had a way of lingering. It clung to the air, metallic and stale, seeping into the carpet and the upholstery. The theater lights had been left low, casting the rows of seats in a dim, sickly glow.

Yuji followed Nanami down the aisle until they reached the seats where the attack had occurred.

Blood stained the chairs in ugly patches.

The victims had already been taken back to Jujutsu High, where specialists would handle the examination. What remained here was the aftermath. The kind of silence that came after screaming had stopped.

Nanami looked over the scene briefly, then turned and pointed toward one of the passageways.

"Can you see it?"

Yuji followed the direction of his finger.

At first, he saw only the dark carpet and damp footprints from their shoes. Then, after focusing, something else came into view.

Faint traces of Cursed Energy.

They looked almost like footprints, smeared across the floor in uneven trails.

"Whoa," Yuji said. "I see it."

Nanami glanced at him, and for a moment, a faint trace of surprise crossed his face. It vanished almost immediately.

"Good. However, if you intend to work independently, seeing it is not enough. You need to sense its presence before relying on your eyes."

Yuji deflated at once.

"Can't you give me a few more compliments? For encouragement?"

"I do not praise, and I do not belittle," Nanami replied evenly. "That is who I am. At one point, I mistakenly believed society operated under the same principle."

He paused.

"However, that is irrelevant. Let us pursue the trail."

Yuji clenched his fists with renewed energy.

"Right! Let's get fired up and go!"

Nanami started walking.

"Let's finish this efficiently."

Yuji's smile stiffened.

I feel like we're not compatible at all.

Still, he followed.

The trail of residual Cursed Energy led them through the silent cinema and up toward the rooftop. The farther they went, the heavier the air became. Not because of a curse's pressure, but because of something wrong.

Something twisted.

When they finally pushed open the rooftop door, the drizzle greeted them again.

Yuji stepped out, then froze.

Two figures stood there.

At first glance, they looked like Cursed Spirits.

Their bodies were warped beyond recognition, flesh swollen and reshaped into grotesque forms. Their limbs bent unnaturally. Their skin had stretched and bulged in places it should not have. They no longer looked like anything that belonged to the human world.

Yuji's throat tightened.

These were the "interesting things" Asuramaru had mentioned?

His voice sounded dry even in his own head.

"Asuramaru... are these two the interesting things you were talking about?"

Inside him, Asuramaru's lips curled faintly.

"These two are not Cursed Spirits."

Yuji's breath stopped.

"They are genuine humans."

The rain pattered softly against the rooftop.

Asuramaru continued, calm and merciless.

"The shape of their souls has been altered by some kind of Cursed Technique. Their bodies merely followed."

Yuji stared at the two things before him.

Humans?

He looked again, desperately searching for even one trace of the people they used to be. A face. A gesture. A pair of eyes that still understood fear.

He found almost nothing.

But Asuramaru had no reason to lie.

That meant someone had done this.

Someone had taken living people and twisted them into this.

A heavy heat rose in Yuji's chest.

Nanami lowered his umbrella and set it aside, his gaze fixed on the two figures.

"I will take the one on the left," he said. "Itadori-kun, you handle the one on the right. If you determine you cannot win, call me immediately."

"Wait!"

Nanami paused.

Yuji's voice came out sharper than he intended.

"Nanami-san, these two aren't Cursed Spirits. They're humans!"

Nanami turned slightly.

"Humans?"

His tone did not change, but his attention sharpened.

"Itadori-kun, what makes you say that?"

Yuji hesitated.

Gojo had warned him not to reveal Asuramaru's existence. Even Nanami, reliable as he seemed, could not be told casually.

Yuji clenched his jaw.

"I figured it out using my Cursed Technique."

"Your Cursed Technique?"

Nanami's brow furrowed.

He did not know the details of Yuji's Cursed Technique. Gojo had deliberately avoided explaining it, which already implied there was a reason it had to remain hidden.

Nanami looked back at the two distorted figures.

At first, they seemed indistinguishable from Cursed Spirits. But now that Yuji had said it, certain details became harder to ignore.

One of them still wore a wristwatch.

A broken, ordinary wristwatch strapped around a warped arm.

A trace of the life it had once lived.

Before Nanami could say more, one of the transfigured humans let out a strangled roar and charged.

Nanami drew the blunt cleaver from his waist in a smooth motion.

"Even if they were once human, they have been reduced to irrational beasts." His voice was steady. "At this stage, all we can do is end their suffering."

He stepped forward.

His Cursed Energy sharpened.

With his Ratio Technique, Nanami divided the target in his vision, identifying the weak point with mechanical precision. His cleaver flashed once, then again.

The transfigured human's limbs were severed in clean, brutal strikes.

It collapsed heavily onto the wet rooftop.

Yuji's opponent lunged at him at the same time.

He should have moved.

He should have drawn Wind or Arcana.

He should have disabled it immediately.

But his body hesitated.

A human.

This thing in front of him was human.

Could he really strike it down?

That split-second hesitation was enough.

The transfigured human's fist slammed into him, sending him skidding across the rooftop. Pain burst through his ribs. He rolled, caught himself on one knee, and wiped the blood from his nose with his arm.

"Asuramaru!"

His voice trembled with urgency.

"Is there any way to save them?"

Inside him, Asuramaru answered without emotion.

"The shape of their souls has been altered. It was likely caused by a Cursed Technique. Reversing it would be extremely troublesome."

Yuji's face tightened.

"But it's not impossible."

His eyes widened.

"Then how?"

Asuramaru's reply came cold and direct.

"Find the one who did this. Kill them with Arcana. Turn them into a Seal mask."

Yuji went silent.

Asuramaru continued, voice laced with faint mockery.

"Then make the culprit fix the mess they created. To untie the knot, one must seek the person who tied it. That may leave a small chance."

A pause.

"You really are an idiot."

Then Asuramaru stopped speaking.

Yuji did not get angry this time.

The words settled inside him.

A way.

There was still a way.

The anger in his chest no longer burned wildly. It became something more focused. He pushed himself up from the wet ground and raised his fists.

"I'll save you."

The transfigured human staggered toward him again, letting out a cracked, inhuman groan.

Yuji stepped forward.

Cursed Energy wrapped around his fists.

He did not aim for the head. He did not aim for the heart.

He aimed only for the limbs.

His fist struck first.

Then the delayed impact of Divergent Fist followed.

Crack.

The transfigured human's arm bent at a sickening angle.

Yuji moved again, gritting his teeth, striking with controlled force. One limb after another broke beneath the twin impacts. Finally, the transfigured human collapsed, unable to move.

Yuji stood over it, breathing hard.

He had won.

But there was no satisfaction in it.

Nanami watched him quietly from a short distance away. He did not ask what Yuji was hiding. He did not press for the details of the Cursed Technique.

Instead, he took out his phone and photographed the transfigured human he had disabled.

When the image appeared clearly on the screen, Nanami's gaze lowered slightly.

The photo captured details the naked eye had missed.

A human remnant.

A shape that had once belonged to a person.

"It seems the opponents we are facing may indeed be human, as you said."

Yuji turned toward him quickly.

Nanami put the phone away.

"However, we will need Shoko-san at Jujutsu High to examine them before we can reach a definitive conclusion. For now, we need to send these two back."

"Examine them?" Yuji asked, his voice tightening. "But they're still human..."

Nanami cut him off, not harshly, but firmly.

"Be rational, Itadori-kun."

Yuji froze.

Nanami looked down at the two motionless figures on the rooftop.

"Only by determining why they became like this can we prevent more victims from suffering the same fate."

.....

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