Sealing and the Board

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

✦

Clack. Clack. Clack.

In the dim, narrow space, countless white skulls trembled and rattled without pause.

Gojo lay on his back atop the floor piled with bone.

He fiddled with the bandage at the corner of his eye while using the Six Eyes to observe the inside of this unique prison.

"Physical time doesn't flow here. That's a pain."

The skulls surrounding him were formed from countless rare curses.

At the moment, Gojo felt as if he had been placed inside a closed domain that operated twenty-four hours a day.

Or rather, wrapped inside a living barrier.

"This is bad. I'll have to leave all that trouble to them."

"Well, things tend to work out once you get there."

"I'll get a proper nap first."

His tone sounded relaxed.

But in those blue eyes, appearing and disappearing beneath the bandage, gravity had settled deep.

...

9:44 p.m.

Shibuya, Meiji-Jingumae Station.

At the subway entrance leading toward the fifth basement level, Mei Mei, Ui Ui, and Yuji suddenly stopped.

"Can you hear me, Yuji Itadori?"

A strange voice came through the earpiece used to contact the assistant managers.

Yuji froze, then yanked the earpiece off and smashed it against the floor.

Clang!

Its quality was unexpectedly good. The earpiece bounced off the ground completely intact.

"Wait, wait!"

The mechanical voice inside the earpiece spoke urgently.

"I'm not your enemy. I'm Mechamaru from Kyoto Jujutsu High!"

"Mechamaru..."

Yuji murmured in recognition, and his grip around the earpiece loosened slightly.

"There is no time to explain in detail. Listen carefully."

"Satoru Gojo..."

"Has been sealed."

Hearing the disastrous news from the earpiece, Yuji stood there blankly, suspicion written across his face.

Surprise passed over Mei Mei's face before she asked in a low voice, "Do you have proof for that information?"

"Sorry. None at all."

Mechamaru's calm mechanical tone continued from Yuji's open palm.

"If I must give a reason, the fact that I can communicate with you now is the evidence."

"Only if my main body died, and Satoru Gojo was sealed..."

"Only when both conditions were met would the triple insurance I left outside activate."

"I died more than ten days ago..."

Cold sweat slid down Yuji's forehead.

"Then the cursed tool that sealed Gojo-sensei..."

"Is in the hands of either Itsuki Zenin or Fake Suguru Geto?"

"Yeah," Mechamaru answered. "That's right."

"I can't confirm which one took the Prison Realm in the end, but Satoru Gojo has definitely been sealed inside it."

The terrifying battle that had unfolded on the fifth basement level earlier...

The fact that Mechamaru's insurance survived the aftershocks long enough to witness Gojo being sealed was already incredibly lucky.

After listening to Mechamaru's simple explanation, the three temporarily chose to believe him.

"Itadori, you need to inform the sorcerers outside the barrier that Satoru Gojo has been sealed as soon as possible."

"Have Jujutsu High prepare and call in more support."

"Mei Mei, please use your crows to investigate as much as possible..."

"Find out who took the Prison Realm."

Based on the information available, Mechamaru spoke in the steadiest way he could.

Yuta and that gambler were both in Shibuya, but even with them there, they were far from enough against Itsuki Zenin.

Mei Mei's Black Bird Manipulation allowed shared vision.

Sending crows to check the Prison Realm's location was far better than sending sorcerers near those two monsters.

"Please."

"For the future of the jujutsu world..."

"Risk your lives."

Mei Mei took the giant axe Ui Ui handed her and rested it lightly on her shoulder.

"I can help."

Her gaze swept Yuji's palm and the earpiece in it as if by accident, and her voice warmed slightly.

"But Mechamaru, your bank account hasn't been frozen yet, has it?"

...

Fifth basement level, ruined subway tunnel entrance.

Kenjaku and Itsuki walked side by side through the darkness, stepping over piles of broken stone.

Kenjaku temporarily could not take away the Prison Realm before it finished processing the Six Eyes' information.

Itsuki had no time to wait there, so he stored it in the void and walked with Kenjaku for a short distance.

"Old friend's strength truly is bottomless."

Kenjaku accepted the processed Prison Realm that Itsuki tossed over and sighed with narrowed eyes.

He had withstood the combined attack of Satoru Gojo and Yuta Okkotsu, two special grade sorcerers, with room to spare.

The terrain and the ordinary humans had forced both of them to restrain themselves.

But still...

He was terrifyingly strong.

What Kenjaku cared about even more was something else.

What exactly had happened when Gojo's domain shattered in one second?

When the barrier broke, Kenjaku had only seen Gojo with one arm severed and Itsuki completely unharmed.

His peripheral vision swept across Itsuki's indifferent face, and Kenjaku wisely did not ask.

If it were that easy to draw out the other party's trump card, he would not be a thousand-year-old mastermind forced to watch someone else's expression.

According to Kenjaku's current judgment, the old monster inside Itsuki Zenin...

Was probably around even with Sukuna at full strength.

So...

The situation was still under control.

"Oh?"

Kenjaku raised an eyebrow and looked toward the darkness at the other end of the tunnel, where the sound of rushing wind grew piercing.

"That seems to be Mei Mei, the upperclassman who was rumored with you at Jujutsu High."

Kenjaku narrowed his eyes toward Itsuki and teased him.

"Should I hold back? I don't mind letting her leave."

"Do as you like."

Itsuki's indifferent expression did not shift. His scarlet pupils remained cold.

Kenjaku shrugged and curled his lip.

"What a heartless man."

As expected, not using the Prison Realm against this old monster had been the correct choice.

After Itsuki revealed part of his strength at the Goodwill Event, Kenjaku had considered it before.

Putting aside the fact that Itsuki Zenin already guarded against him, the strict conditions needed to seal him were almost impossible to meet.

Kenjaku could not even imagine what character might trigger Itsuki's memories.

Itsuki glanced at the Prison Realm Kenjaku was playing with and answered silently in his own mind.

Unless the brain somehow stole the body of a figure from Itsuki's old world's fiction powerful enough to drag out years of memories...

Even then, there might only be a one percent chance of sealing him.

"Yuta Okkotsu and Kinji Hakari are here. It should be difficult for you to work."

Itsuki spoke calmly.

"I will leave this area to you for now. I'll go deal with those two."

Kenjaku only had one final step left.

Safely absorb Mahito, then launch the large-scale summoning ritual.

At this stage, Itsuki would not let those two break the balance of the battlefield.

Mahito needed to evolve.

Yuji...

Needed the same.

Itsuki stepped into the void, and his body vanished from where he stood.

...

In the empty Kamui Dimension, Itsuki silently reviewed the battle.

Changes had already happened, and the direction of the plot was becoming unknown.

Now he could not only consider the development of the original story. He needed more independent judgment and more pieces on the board.

The surveillance and insurance Mechamaru left on the fifth basement level...

Kenjaku had truly failed to discover them.

But Itsuki had the Mangekyo, and White Zetsu had already taken control of Mechamaru's real body.

They had noticed the oddity hidden in the ceiling long ago.

The reason Mechamaru's device successfully witnessed Satoru Gojo being sealed was that Itsuki had secretly protected it several times.

And it was not only Mechamaru's insurance.

Urging Kenjaku to act...

Stopping Gojo in advance from awakening Suguru Geto's lingering soul...

Those had been deliberate too.

✦

✦

✦

Want to keep going?

You can read ahead on my Patreon, with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🔑

https://www.patreon.com/c/EliasVane