Location: Sugisawa Third High, Rooftop → Temporary Tokyo Branch Holding CellTimeframe: Minutes after Akira's Echo triggered the aborted domainStatus: Post-Anomaly Containment – Level 5
Smoke curled off the rooftop like ghosts gasping for air.
Yuji slumped, twitching, clutching his chest. Sukuna was dormant again — for now.
Gojo didn't look at him.
His eyes were locked on Akira, who lay flat on the rooftop tiles, blood leaking from his ears and the corner of his left eye.
That echo — that second self — had vanished, but the imprint it left behind didn't.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the cursed barrier like broken timeglass. Talismans still smoldered around them.
For a moment, all was silent…
…Until Gojo exhaled, and staggered half a step.
Megumi blinked. "Gojo-sensei?"
Blood.
A thin line of it ran down Gojo's temple — from his right eye.
It didn't drip. It crawled.
Like cursed time was trying to unmake his memory of the last ten seconds — but couldn't.
"Tch… damn kid," Gojo muttered, wiping it away.
The fingers on his right hand trembled. Just barely.
An incomplete domain did that?
No. Not the domain. The Echo.
Whatever that fragment was, it knew me. Not just my face — my frequency. It tried to overwrite me.
He looked down at Akira.
The boy's breath was shallow. Skin pale. But he was still there — still clinging to his second like it was oxygen.
"No way HQ lets you walk after this," Gojo muttered.
"And no way I hand you over blind."
Underground Holding Cell, Tokyo Branch
A plain, sealed room. Cursed reinforcement woven into the concrete.
Akira sat slumped against the wall. No restraints. Just too weak to move. His coat was gone. Bandages wrapped around his temples and chest. IV tube running cursed sedatives through his veins. A pulse monitor flickered on the wall.
Gojo stood outside the viewing pane, arms crossed, hair down.
Kiyotaka Ijichi stood beside him, nervous. "You want me to report to HQ?"
Gojo didn't answer.
He watched Akira's hand twitch.
And the clock on the wall blinked.
12:59.12:59.12:59.
Then — 1:00.
Only one minute passed — and Gojo's nose started to bleed.
Just a drip.
"He's still looping," Gojo muttered. "Even unconscious."
"What is he?" Ijichi asked.
"Someone who shouldn't exist. Or someone who's already died."
Gojo closed his eyes for a beat.
"And either way… HQ's gonna want his corpse."
"So what now?"
Gojo turned. His voice was calm. Cold.
"Tell them he's unstable. Dangerous. Needs monitoring before interrogation."
"But—"
"Tell them I said it."
Ijichi gulped and nodded, running off.
Gojo turned back to the viewing pane.
Akira hadn't moved.
But for a second…
…his reflection in the glass smiled.
Not Akira's reflection.
The Echo's.