Chapter 22: Collision Course

Team West moved cautiously through a narrow valley carved between towering stone ridges on the eastern side of the battlefield. 

Trees clung to the slopes, their roots exposed like veins gripping rock.

Cyan and Kevin scanned constantly, eyes sharp.

Megumi Honda walked slightly ahead.

“Anything?” he asked without turning.

Cyan stopped.

She closed her eyes.

Her cursed energy expanded outward — a steady, controlled pulse.

Like a ripple in still water.

Five hundred meters in every direction.

Every insect, shifting leaf, fluctuation in cursed energy- anything in range would be detected.

Cyan inhaled slowly.

“…Still nothing.”

Megumi nodded.

“Then we—”

His instincts screamed.

“Scatter!”

They split instantly.

A beam of compressed cursed energy detonated where they’d been standing, uprooting trees and tearing a trench through the valley floor.

Megumi Honda weaved through falling debris—

A figure appeared in front of him mid-air.

Yuki Gojo.

“Miss me?”

His kick came down like a guillotine.

Megumi crossed his arms to block—

The impact thundered through the valley.

He was launched backward, skidding across stone before crashing through a cluster of trees.

Across the battlefield—

Cyan turned just in time.

Yukino Gojo materialized in front of her.

No sound. No warning.

Just presence.

Cyan dropped instantly—

Slipping into a nearby shadow.

Yukino’s eyes narrowed.

Cyan emerged behind her, fist coated in cursed energy—

She struck.

Her punch stopped inches from Yukino’s face.

Cyan was left suspended. 

Blocked by something unseen.

Yukino didn’t look back.

“Your attacks can’t reach me.”

She pivoted—

And threw an uppercut, that exploded into Cyan’s ribs.

The force lifted her off the ground and sent her crashing through trees and stone.

Kevin reacted instantly.

“Dice Game.”

A spectral die appeared in his palm.

It rolled.

Stopped.

Six.

A Rope Dart materialized — sleek, metallic, its tip humming with technique-nullifying energy.

Kevin swung and launched it.

The rope dart sliced through the air—

It tore through Yukino’s Limitless barrier.

For the first time—

She moved.

Dodging.

The rope dart embedded into a tree behind her.

Kevin rushed to Cyan’s side.

“You good?”

Cyan winced but nodded, already channeling Reverse Cursed Technique: Bones realigned, pain faded.

“I’m fine.”

Yuki landed beside his sister.

Megumi Fushiguro was nowhere in sight.

The twins stood side by side now.

Megumi Honda reemerged from the smoke, wiping blood from his lip.

“This is bad,” he muttered.

Yuki smiled faintly.

“They're not here for the flag.” said Kevin

Silence fell.

Cyan’s eyes sharpened.

She understood instantly.

This wasn’t a tournament clash.

This was coordinated, deliberate, and most of all targeted.

She stepped forward slightly.

The air felt heavier.

Megumi Honda lowered his stance.

“We hold them here,” he said quietly. “Until Team North finds us.”

But Cyan already knew.

The way they’d split them instantly, or how they ignored the objective. The way Yuki looked at her a day before.

This wasn’t a match.

It was an execution.

The assassination attempt had begun.

 

Twin Singularity

Yukino vanished.

Space folded—

She appeared behind Cyan.

But Cyan was already gone.

Her body melted into a shadow an instant before impact.

Kevin didn’t hesitate.

He hurled his rope dart toward Yukino, the nullification tip slicing the air—

A blur intercepted it.

Yuki’s heel smashed into the chain mid-flight, redirecting it into the ground where it cratered stone.

“Too slow,” Yuki said lightly.

Megumi Honda launched forward, Playful Cloud gripped in both hands, cursed energy flooding through the special-grade tool.

He swung with full force.

The twins split apart at the last second—

The staff struck the ground.

A sonic boom split the valley.

The ground fractured outward in a violent shockwave.

Trees ripped from their roots. Stone lifted into the air. The valley trembled like it had been struck by artillery.

Dust filled the battlefield.

 

 Cyan emerged from shadow mid-air.

Her hands moved in a precise sequence.

“Shadow Garden: Gravity Fold.”

The floating debris halted.

Then— compressed, twisted, and folded inward.

And shot the condensed mass toward the twins.

Yukino’s eyes sharpened.

Limitless expanded around her in an invisible barrier—

The debris collided against it, grinding to a halt inches from her skin.

Kevin pressed the advantage.

He yanked his rope dart free and launched it again, aiming directly for Yukino’s blind side.

Yuki moved to intercept—

But Megumi was already there.

Playful Cloud slammed into Yuki’s ribs.

The sound was sickening.

Yuki was sent hurtling across the valley, crashing through layers of stone before skidding to a stop in a plume of dust.

Yukino teleported instantly to his side.

She caught him before he fully collapsed.

The three from Team West advanced cautiously.

“This is bad,” Yuki muttered, blood at the corner of his mouth.

Yukino smiled faintly.

“You’re right.”

She lifted him upright.

Then...

The air changed.

Both twins began to chant in unison, their hands stretching towards the sky.

“Cursed Technique Amplification…”

Their cursed energy synchronized.

“…Blue.”

A sphere of dense azure energy formed between them.

It pulsed once.

Then gravitational force exploded outward.

Everything in range pulled toward it.

Trees bent sideways, rubble tore from the ground. 

Kevin’s rope dart snapped tight as it was dragged inward.

The valley screamed.

Even the air warped.

Cyan dug her feet into the earth—

But the pull intensified.

This wasn’t just attraction.

It was collapse.

A singularity forming between the twins.

And it was growing.

The Edge of Collapse

The blue singularity detonated.

Cyan reacted on instinct.

Her shadow split beneath her feet, stretching outward like living ink.

It wrapped around Megumi and Kevin—

The three of them dropped into a shadow an instant before the gravitational collapse swallowed the valley.

The explosion tore through the arena.

Stone imploded, trees twisted into splinters, and the ground reshaped itself.

A moment later—

They slipped back out of shadow.

The valley was gone.

Dust filled the air.

Before they could reorient—

Yuki appeared behind them, without a sound.

He grabbed Kevin and Megumi by the collars—

And Yukino appeared beside him.

Space folded.

They vanished.

Cyan’s eyes widened.

It happened so cleanly she hadn’t even sensed it.

She was alone.

The dust slowly settled.

Footsteps approached.

Yukino walked through the haze.

Calm & oozing bloodlust.

Cyan steadied her breathing.

And then—

Jaden’s voice echoed inside her mind.

Break their will.

Cyan sprinted forward.

She launched a spinning kick—

It stopped against Limitless.

She flipped backward before Yukino could counter.

Her hands moved.

“Shadow Garden: Gravity Fold.”

Compressed force spiraled outward and crashed into Yukino’s Limitless.

The impact sent gale-force winds ripping through the broken valley.

Rubble tore upward again.

The two began walking toward each other.

Step by step.

Limitless against the Gravity Fold.

Two forces compressing against each other.

The pressure alone erased semi–first-grade cursed spirits that crawled from deep in the earth.

They disintegrated before even reaching them.

Cyan wrapped part of her Gravity Fold around her fist.

She lunged.

Her punch collided with Limitless.

The shockwave split stone in half.

But—

Limitless still held.

Cyan’s eyes widened when she saw Yukino raised two fingers.

Aimed directly at Cyan’s heart.

“Cursed Reversal: Red.”

She compressed it.

Condensed destruction into something small.

Precise.

She fired.

The red blast pierced through Cyan’s torso.

Blood sprayed across the stone.

Cyan was launched into the mountainside, carving a crater upon impact.

Silence followed.

Dust drifted.

Cyan coughed.

Blood filled her mouth.

Her vision blurred.

She tried to stand—but her body refused.

Her cursed energy faintly flickered, as she closed her eyes.

“…I’m sorry, Lisa…”

Footsteps approached.

Yukino stood over her.

She raised her hand again.

Prepared to finish it.

Red formed at her fingertips—

She fired.

It missed.

Yukino blinked.

She adjusted her aim.

Fired again.

Missed.

Again.

Again.

Each blast narrowly avoiding Cyan.

Yukino’s expression shifted.

She was confused.

A voice echoed from behind her.

“You won’t be able to touch her.”

Yukino turned.

Ashley stood atop a broken slab of stone.

The Inverted Spear of Heaven resting in her hand.

The air around her felt wrong.