Zero Chance of Victory

New chapter is live.

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

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The full moon hung high in the sky.

Soft moonlight spilled across the earth, and invisible night winds twisted into disorder.

High above, a loose white robe snapped in the air.

Itsuki, who had promised to deal with Yuta and Hakari, stepped from Shibuya into Tokyo in a single stride.

Above Jujutsu High.

White Zetsu's body, confined inside the school, happened to be an excellent coordinate in the void.

Itsuki looked down coldly at the vast complex a thousand meters below.

Terrifying scarlet cursed energy rose from him, and the void beneath his feet visibly twisted and writhed.

The Kamui Dimension opened beside him. From the early form of the Gedo Statue, a giant blood-red tail stretched out.

The same terrifying cursed energy surged over the enormous tail.

"Culling Game."

"Scattered Flowers."

"The Threshold of Passing."

"Between Life and Death."

As the final chant fell, brilliant red light bloomed in Itsuki's pupils.

"Hollow Technique Extension: Drop."

Boom!

The sound was like a nuclear detonation.

The void beneath Itsuki's feet was torn open into an abyssal maw nearly a hundred meters across.

Inside that split in space was darkness deeper than the night itself.

The gaping tear slowly spread downward. Countless void rifts several meters wide opened layer upon layer.

A terrifying pull, like a black hole, erupted.

The moment the countless rifts drew near, the buildings on the ground began to collapse and rise.

The roaring never stopped.

An apocalyptic scene unfolded over Jujutsu High.

Boom!

A scarlet pillar of light condensed from enormous cursed energy erupted from the Gedo Statue's giant tail.

It looked like a world-ending beam from science fiction, or molten volcanic fire unleashed after sleeping for countless years.

The attack did not strike Jujutsu High.

Instead, the scarlet ray cut past at an angle and vanished into the night sky, dragging a long tail of flame behind it.

...

Shibuya front line.

The massive barrier held more than ten thousand people captive.

Outside it, large numbers of transfigured humans thrown out by Mahito were moving, and curse users hidden in the dark were beginning to stir.

It was not only ordinary civilians dying or being injured.

Large numbers of Jujutsu High sorcerers who had entered the barrier had also suffered casualties.

As principal of Jujutsu High, Yaga arrived at the front line only one step later than Gojo, Yuji, and the others.

So did Shoko, as medical personnel.

At the temporary open-air infirmary, several assistant managers worked beside Shoko to help with treatment.

Ring. Ring.

Yaga frowned and took out his phone.

When he saw the specially marked number, an ominous feeling rose in his chest.

"Hello..."

As the frightened voice on the other end explained, Yaga's already heavy face darkened further.

The number Yaga had marked belonged to one of Jujutsu High's guards assigned year-round to protect the Tombs of the Star Corridor.

He had barely hung up when the sharp ringing sounded again.

"The headquarters..."

The grating voice of Jujutsu High's higher-ups delivered their latest order to Yaga.

One attack had struck Jujutsu High.

The other had struck near the headquarters, far away from the school.

Those two locations were precisely where Itsuki had launched his previous attacks.

...

Shibuya, third basement level.

Unlike the ruined fifth basement level, the corridors on the third level were brightly lit. Occasionally, groups of two or three humans rushed past.

Beneath the vast pit was darkness with no visible end.

At the edge of the hole, Kinji Hakari shoved away the rubble around him and shook his dizzy head.

Rattle.

He stood and patted stone dust off his bare upper body.

Hakari's memories still stopped at fighting that androgynous sorcerer with the bob-cut hair.

Then Itsuki Zenin had blasted him away with a spatial tear, sending him all the way through to the third basement level.

Aside from a somewhat hazy head, Hakari's bare torso had no obvious injuries.

That was thanks to the strange effect brought by his Innate Domain, Idle Death Gamble.

For nearly four minutes of invincibility, his entire body remained under the automatic healing of Reverse Cursed Technique.

The instant he was injured, cursed energy automatically triggered and repaired the wound.

"Pah."

Hakari spat bloody saliva onto the ground.

His gloomy gaze turned toward the pit at his feet.

"That monster underground..."

"The odds really are pitiful."

Even without seeing Gojo being sealed, the silence at the bottom of the pit and the disappearance of Gojo's enormous cursed energy were enough for Hakari to analyze the result of the battle.

Without the one known as the strongest participating...

Hakari hesitated over whether he should leave the barrier right now.

"Hakari-san."

Yuta's weak voice came from behind him, and Hakari spun around sharply.

"You scared the hell out of me."

"For a second, I thought you brought that monster up with you."

Hakari patted his chest, still shaken, then started walking toward the exit.

He did not want to keep playing a gamble with no winning odds.

"Hakari-san, please help me!"

A line of blood hung at the corner of Yuta's mouth, and his pure-white uniform had been stained red.

He looked at Hakari's back with determination and a trace of pleading.

Without Hakari's help, Yuta's hope of taking back the Prison Realm would be completely gone.

Hakari stopped.

"My whole life has burned for gambling and the arena."

He pushed his scattered hair back with both hands, and his low voice rang out.

"I don't mind betting everything I have on a gamble with almost no chance of winning."

"But what stakes can you put on the table?"

"And I was expelled from Jujutsu High a long time ago. Stop calling me your upperclassman."

Hakari did not look back. After speaking, he continued toward the stairs leading up.

"Go back, Okkotsu. That monster isn't something you can handle."

With that final warning, given out of kindness, Hakari vanished from the third basement level.

Yuta stared at the back that disappeared from view. His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Leaning against the cold wall, Yuta's expression dimmed.

Yuta knew Hakari was right.

Hakari already hated Jujutsu High's higher-ups, and he had been expelled a year ago.

Asking him to risk his life fighting for the same school that had damaged his life...

Yuta could not bring himself to force him.

He did not want Hakari pushed back to the edge of danger either.

And Yuta understood that brief underground battle better than anyone.

Itsuki Zenin was another kind of invincible, one not inferior to Satoru Gojo at all.

Ring.

Feeling lost, Yuta blankly took the phone from his pocket.

"Ijichi-san."

Signals from outside could not reach inside the barrier. Yaga still had to remain in the rear and protect Shoko and the others.

Ijichi had entered the barrier to deliver information to Yuta.

"Okkotsu, this is the latest order from the higher-ups."

"A large portion of the school has been destroyed. The area around headquarters was also attacked."

"The higher-ups are ordering you to return to the school immediately and ensure Master Tengen's safety."

Yuta's expression changed.

"But Gojo-sensei..."

"Itadori has already delivered the information," Ijichi said. "Principal Yaga wants you to protect Master Tengen first."

"The barriers protecting all of Jujutsu High, and even the barriers covering all of Japan..."

"Master Tengen's safety has to be the top priority now."

Ijichi's impersonal voice delivered Yaga's words.

"And..."

"If possible..."

"Ask Kinji Hakari to go to headquarters and protect the higher-ups."

Even though the request did not come from Ijichi himself, asking an expelled student to protect them was so absurd that Ijichi's guilty voice sounded as if he were embarrassed on the higher-ups' behalf.

Crack!

Yuta nearly crushed the phone in his hand.

Yuta, who had always treated people gently, let out a low curse for the first time.

"Damn it."

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