Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 121 - Maki and Mai's Revenge

Aoi Todo clung to Toji and sobbed, barely able to catch his breath.

Toji patted Todo's broad back, then turned and walked toward Maki.

One second ago, his face was flushed with tears and raw emotion. The instant he turned, all of it drained away.

The warmth in his eyes dropped to zero.

He walked up to Maki and Mai.

The two sisters were staring blankly toward the high school's main gate.

"That old bastard just got sent home like that?" Toji kept his voice low.

Maki's grip tightened around her spear shaft. "This is the high school. It would put Principal Yaga in a difficult position. We can't kill a Three Great Families elder here."

Mai's eyes were faintly red.

Toji reached out and laid a hand on each of their shoulders.

"You just need to answer one question. Do you want revenge or not?"

Both girls went still for a moment. Then they nodded.

Toji smiled.

"Once we're past the school gates, it's not school business anymore."

He turned and headed for the exit. "Follow me."

Maki and Mai looked at each other.

Neither said a word. They dropped their training equipment and fell in behind him. All three vaulted straight over the rear wall.

On the mountain road below.

Three black sedans wound their way downhill in a single file.

Ogi Zenin sat in the back seat of the middle car. He had just changed his pants.

A faint, sour stench lingered inside the car and wouldn't clear.

He clenched his teeth. The veins on the backs of his hands stood out like cables.

The humiliation was unbearable.

He had to get back to the main estate immediately.

He would bring it before the elders' council. Those two bastards' names would be struck from the clan registry entirely, and a clan-wide extermination order issued.

And Fushiguro Toji. That man had to die. He was already calculating how to pressure Jujutsu Headquarters into branding everyone at the high school as Curse Users.

A sharp shriek of tearing air came from above.

The car roof caved in.

The force was immense. All 4 tires blew out at once.

The wheel hubs ground against the asphalt and threw off blinding sparks.

The car slid sideways for over a dozen meters, smashed through the guardrail, and stopped with half its body hanging over the cliff edge.

The two cars fore and aft slammed on their brakes and piled into each other.

The airbags erupted. Ogi Zenin's head snapped forward and the world went spinning.

He kicked open the crumpled door and rolled out onto the road.

Green, scorching steam swallowed everything around him.

"Who's there! You dare ambush a Zenin Clan convoy!" Ogi Zenin yanked out a half-broken blade. His legs would not stop shaking.

The steam thinned. Toji touched down, one hand gripping Maki and the other gripping Mai, feet hitting the asphalt and pressing 2 shallow craters into it.

He let go. Both girls found their footing.

Toji dusted off his palms and looked up. "A Zenin Clan convoy? Good. You're exactly who we came for."

Ogi Zenin got a clear look at his face and backed up two steps until his spine hit the car hood.

Toji didn't spare him another glance. He turned to the sisters. "Go ahead."

Maki raised her spear.

Mai drew her revolver, thumbed the hammer back, and chambered a round.

They walked forward side by side.

Ogi Zenin's composure cracked. He wheeled on the other two cars and screamed. "Get out! Everyone out, stop them!"

Car doors burst open. A handful of survivors from the Hei and the Kukuru Unit spilled out onto the road, some half-crawling.

They had weapons in their hands. Their feet did not move. Not one of them took a step forward.

Toji stood where he was. His gaze swept over them.

Cold. Empty. The way a man looks at a pile of meat that happens to be breathing.

The small fry's hands started shaking. Weapons clattered to the asphalt. A few knees buckled and they went down where they stood.

Ogi Zenin had nowhere left to go.

Back against the cliff edge, he jabbed a finger at Toji, his voice cracking into a shriek. "Fushiguro Toji! What do you think you're doing? I am the Grand Elder of the Zenin Clan! Kill me, and the clan will hunt every last one of you down!"

Toji stuck a finger in his ear and dug at it.

"Old man. I made them a promise. Once they were strong enough, they'd kill you themselves. I don't have much going for me, but I keep my word."

Maki's legs drove into the asphalt and she was in front of Ogi Zenin in an instant.

"You wretch! I am your father!"

He swung the broken blade down at her.

Maki stepped inside it. The spear came around in a full arc and connected with his right arm.

The snap of bone was clean and sharp in the night air.

The blade hit the ground. Ogi Zenin clutched his arm and screamed.

Mai raised her pistol and pressed the muzzle against his knee.

Pulled the trigger.

The bullet, laced with Cursed Energy, punched through bone.

Ogi Zenin dropped to his knees.

Maki didn't pause. She reversed the spear. The tip drove upward under his jaw and through his skull.

Whatever he was trying to shout died in his throat.

His body shuddered twice. Then it stopped.

She pulled the spear free. Blood ran down the blade and dripped onto the asphalt.

Maki stood breathing hard, shoulders rising and falling. Mai holstered her gun and turned away to wipe her eyes.

The two sisters held each other. The tears came and didn't stop. More than a decade of it, being ground into the dirt and called worthless. The mountain that had been sitting on their heads their whole lives was finally gone.

Toji said nothing. He waited.

When they were done, he walked over to the few men still kneeling on the road and looked down at Mai. "These ones. Did they ever give you trouble back at the estate?"

The small fry pressed their foreheads to the asphalt and kowtowed until the skin split. None of them dared breathe.

Mai studied them for a moment, then shook her head.

Toji kicked the nearest one in the shoulder and sent him sprawling.

"Get out of here. Go tell Naobito that if he wants revenge, he can come find me at the high school himself."

They scrambled upright, piled into the one car still running, and floored it.

Up above the cliff, on a thick branch.

Satoru Gojo sat cross-legged, peeling the wrapper off a daifuku.

No blindfold. His blue eyes tracked the three figures on the road below.

The Six Eyes had caught every detail.

He stuffed the daifuku in his mouth, chewed twice, swallowed, and dropped from the branch.

"Clean work. That guy doesn't care about rules at all when it comes to looking after his own."

Satoru Gojo brushed the powdered sugar from his hands and started back toward the high school.

"Not that I mind. That's actually exactly how I'd handle it."

Across the city, in an underground chamber beneath Tokyo.

Kenjaku stood looking down at Mahito, who had just regrown the lower half of his body at his feet. A phone rested in Kenjaku's hand.

The screen showed more than a dozen unread encrypted messages, every one of them from cabinet officials he controlled.

The new front was already in place.

And now the high school had handed him something extra: the scandal of a Zenin Clan elder dead on a mountain road.

Interesting.

➤ Next: The Goodwill Event, Part Two