Location: Sugisawa Third High, Tokyo.Status: Level 3 Veil deployed. Unregistered cursed object disturbance.
The evening stank of cursed energy.
Sugisawa Third's rooftop was a battlefield — and Megumi Fushiguro, first-year sorcerer, wasn't winning.
He moved between shadows with his divine dogs flanking him, CE sparking at his fingertips. The cursed spirits were swarming, drawn to the half-digested remnants of Ryomen Sukuna's finger, still radiating malevolence like a dying sun.
"Why didn't they evacuate the school earlier…" Megumi hissed, back slamming into a vent pipe.
Below him, Yuji Itadori — idiot track star turned cursed object delivery boy — was holding the cursed finger like it was a damn hot potato.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Yuji screamed, ducking a flying spirit.
"Put it down!" Megumi shouted. "You're feeding them by holding it!"
Yuji dodged, tripped, rolled — a blur of panicked speed. But the spirits weren't interested in Megumi anymore. They wanted the vessel. The flesh.
One got too close.
Crunch.
A cursed dog's jaw shattered the spirit's spine.
Megumi clicked his teeth. Not fast enough.
Then the veil rippled.
Gojo Satoru arrived like a thunderbolt in human form — his cursed presence flattening the air itself. Eyes hidden behind the blindfold, smile casual.
"Oh? Things escalated without me again."
He looked around.
"You must be Itadori Yuji."
Yuji blinked, breathless. "Who—"
Boom.
The roof cracked behind them.
A larger curse — grotesque, stitched with mouths — crashed down.
Too late. The curse surged forward, reaching for the finger in Yuji's hand.
And Yuji… made the split-second call.
He swallowed it.
"Wait—DON'T—"
Too late.
The moment the finger hit his stomach, reality convulsed.
The cursed spirit that lunged at him froze mid-air. Then exploded into red mist — without even being touched.
A silence fell. Not natural. Not empty.
Devouring.
Then he rose.
"...Tch. What decade is this now?" a voice sneered — older than rot, smoother than silk. Sukuna.
He cracked his neck inside Yuji's skin. Licked his lips. Grinned wide.
"So... I'm back, am I?"
Megumi backed up. Gojo's posture didn't shift, but his fingers flexed slightly.
"Welcome back, Sukuna."
Yuji's body chuckled — Sukuna stretching inside his new cage. Flexing his fingers like they were borrowed gloves.
Then he paused.
"Wait. There's… another presence here."
The rooftop wind stilled. Every pigeon within three blocks vanished from sound.
"Not you," Sukuna nodded at Gojo. "Someone… wrong."
Below the rooftop, near the school courtyard…
A figure stood in the fog.
Akira Rensetsu. Drenched from the rain that hadn't started yet. No CE output. No killing intent. Just stillness — like a second frozen in rewind.
The echo of his footsteps hadn't reached the rooftop yet.
But Sukuna already felt him.
"…You smell like refusal," Sukuna whispered from Yuji's mouth, grin growing. "Like something that didn't die right."
Gojo blinked. His Six Eyes narrowed. His mouth twitched.
"Akira?"
Yuji's body twitched — lips curled by Sukuna's presence. But his eyes — they weren't looking at Gojo anymore. They were staring past him.
Down.
Toward the courtyard.
"There," Sukuna purred. "That broken little second… The one who refused to die."
Gojo turned.
Nothing there.
Just fog.
But his Six Eyes saw something else — something wrong with the timeline. Like a ghost with mass. Like a paradox in flesh.
"Akira…? That can't be…"
⟢ Below, at the edge of the school
Akira stepped through the veil like it wasn't there.
He wasn't glowing.
He wasn't pulsing cursed energy.
He wasn't even breathing hard.
He was just… wrong. Like a second of time that someone taped back in after cutting it out.
Kido's words echoed in his skull:
"Observe. Record. Don't intervene. If Sukuna manifests — run."
Akira didn't run.
He walked.
Rooftop – Moments Later
The air warped when he stepped up.
Megumi staggered. "Who—?"
Gojo didn't even look away. "Akira Rensetsu. He's not supposed to be active."
Sukuna licked his teeth. "No. He's not supposed to be alive."
Akira's eyes didn't glow. But the Echo behind him did.It shimmered — same face, no soul. Floating just behind his shoulder like a second skin waiting for a turn.
Sukuna tilted his head.
"What are you?"
Akira looked at Yuji — not seeing him, but what was inside.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"You ever die in a thousand ways, little time-rat?" Sukuna asked, voice soft. "I did. In pieces. But you — you broke yourself."
"Only once," Akira replied. "But I remember every time I shouldn't have."
They stared at each other.
One was a king.The other, a ghost.
Gojo didn't move.
Megumi was frozen.
Yuji's body twitched — like the cage was cracking.
"He's reacting to the Echo," Gojo muttered. "This is bad…"
Sukuna stepped forward.
Yuji's form distorted — black ink writhing down his arms. Mouths opened on his shoulders. Nails cracked into talons.
"I want it," Sukuna whispered. "That moment inside you. The one that lived too long."
The Echo behind Akira moved on its own — tilted its head.
"It's not yours," Akira said.
"It was never yours either," Sukuna hissed. "You stole it. Ripped it out of your timeline and wrapped yourself in the skin."
"I didn't survive because I wanted to," Akira snapped. "I survived because I refused to die that second."
"Then give it to me," Sukuna grinned, stepping close. "Let me kill you properly."
He raised his hand.
Gojo vanished.
Reappeared between them.
"Try it," he said. "I dare you."
Sukuna laughed — loud, violent. It echoed like a funeral bell.
"You think I'm scared of you, Six Eyes?"
"No," Gojo replied. "I think you're curious."
And he was right.
Because Sukuna didn't attack.
He looked back at Akira.
"You're not whole," Sukuna whispered. "You're just an Echo that won. But echoes fade. And I never forget the taste of a broken soul."
Akira didn't blink. "Then come taste it."
And right then…
The Echo behind Akira moved without permission.It stepped in front of him. Raised a hand.
And every cursed talisman within 3 kilometers burned black.
"Shit," Gojo muttered. "He's activating—"
Akira tried to grab it — but it wasn't his anymore.
The Echo raised its other hand.
"Clockwork Mausoleum: Incomplete Domain."
Time cracked.
For exactly 1.9 seconds, the world forgot how to move.
Birds froze in air. The clouds stopped rolling. Gojo's Six Eyes saw infinite versions of Akira collapse in and out of the timeline — blinking, dying, resetting.
Then — silence.
The Domain collapsed in on itself — not broken, but aborted.
The Echo vanished.
Akira collapsed, bleeding from the nose, ears, and eyes.
Sukuna smiled. "…Delicious."
Gojo stood over Akira's body. Not dead. Barely conscious.
"You weren't supposed to be here yet," Gojo said.
Akira, eyes unfocused, whispered:
"Neither was he."