Chapter 135 - Society Out of Control, a Mole?

The world was on fire. Not a metaphor. Panic is the best fuel.

On the streets of Shinjuku, an out-of-control sedan crashed into a guardrail. The owner scrambled out like a madman, pointing at the sky and screaming "monster."

Before he could run two steps, he was trampled underfoot by the chaotic crowd.

"Stop fucking pushing! You want to die?!"

Nobara Kugisaki kicked away a lunatic trying to snatch a passerby's bag.

"These bastards are harder to deal with than Cursed Spirits!"

Megumi Fushiguro summoned his Divine Dogs, forcing back several thugs smashing and looting on a street corner, his expression grim to the extreme. Cursed Spirits were surging, and they, the Jujutsu Sorcerers, had been working nonstop for over a month. Now, to make matters worse, they not only had to exorcise Cursed Spirits, but also split their attention to deal with these ordinary people driven mad by fear.

"Megumi! Nobara! Over here!"

Yuji Itadori's voice came from the convenience store across the street.

Meanwhile. At Jujutsu Headquarters, the atmosphere was as oppressive as a tomb.

"So, you old oranges sat here drinking tea all day, and the conclusion you reached is 'wait and see'?"

Satoru Gojo sat with his legs crossed.

"Lord Gojo," an elder smiled bitterly, "the current situation has already spiraled beyond our control."

"Oh?" Satoru Gojo laughed. "The strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer is right here, Japan's most elite Jujutsu Sorcerer forces are also right here, and you're telling me 'beyond control'?"

Another elder sighed, his voice dry. "The problem isn't the Cursed Spirits. It's the internet. Those videos... we can't block them."

"Huh?"

"It's not a technical issue." The elder's expression was awful.

"We tried cutting off the data sources, but the other party's methods are extremely sophisticated. The entire public network system of Japan has been locked down at the foundational logic level by an abnormally powerful Cursed Energy.

"Any attempt to delete or block information related to 'monsters' is met with a rebounding force."

He paused, then added, "Our people checked. That Cursed Energy... is very strange. And it's not just locking things down; it's more like 'feeding.' It's using the panic of internet users across Japan as sustenance, constantly growing stronger."

The smile on Satoru Gojo's face finally vanished. He understood. This wasn't a hacker, nor the prank of some Special Grade Cursed Spirit. This was a scheme. A scheme so vast it sent chills down the spine, one that had factored the entire modern social system into its calculations from the very beginning.

"What about the officials?" Satoru Gojo asked coldly. "The cabinet people should have some reaction, right? Lock down cities, issue a state of emergency — they'd at least do that much, wouldn't they?"

"..."

Inside the conference room, no one answered. The elders either lowered their heads to look at their teacups, or shifted their gazes evasively elsewhere. That deathly silence was more alarming to Satoru Gojo than any answer could have been. He stood up and walked straight toward the door.

"Gojo, where are you going?"

"To ask those 'important people' whether what's sitting on their necks is a brain, or Kenjaku's ash urn."

Satoru Gojo's figure vanished through the doorway, leaving behind a roomful of old men exchanging glances, cold sweat streaming down their faces. Half an hour later. Outside the Prime Minister's official residence, Satoru Gojo was stopped. It wasn't a Jujutsu Sorcerer who stopped him, but fully armed Self-Defense Force soldiers.

"Special Grade Gojo, without authorization, no one is permitted entry." The officer in charge was expressionless, his eyes hollow.

Satoru Gojo looked at him. Under the Six Eyes, nothing could hide. He could see the faintest residue of Cursed Energy on this officer, like an invisible thread connecting to his cerebral cortex. This thread, he had seen it before. So that's how it is. Satoru Gojo understood completely now. Kenjaku's target had never been just the Jujutsu world.

While they were locked in deadly combat with Special Grade Cursed Spirits, he had silently slipped his hand into the heart of this nation. It wasn't that Jujutsu Headquarters was unwilling to act. It was that the official channels they had been contacting had long since become the enemy's mouthpiece.

Now, the interface between Jujutsu Headquarters and the government was like sending emails to a mailbox controlled by the enemy. All intelligence and requests would be precisely filtered, intercepted, even tampered with.

"This is really..."

Satoru Gojo glanced up at the gloomy sky and muttered to himself, "Playing way too big now."

He didn't force his way in. Fighting his way in now, taking out a few controlled puppets, would be utterly meaningless, it would only alert the enemy. What the enemy wanted was exactly this: to plunge their strongest combatants into a vast ocean of handling street-level chaos, wearing them down until they were spent. He turned and left, his figure vanishing from the spot in an instant.

They had to change strategy. Since the overt rules had been overturned, they could only use off-the-board methods to break the deadlock. The school had a mole. The government had a mole. The entire world was like a wooden house hollowed out by termites, it still looked fine on the outside, but inside, it had long since rotted through.

Satoru Gojo's figure appeared on a rooftop at the school. He took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Hey? Is that Satoru? Are you joining our 'Youthful Sweat-Drenched' night run event? There's still time to sign up!"

"Toji."

Satoru Gojo's tone was more serious than it had ever been.

"Cut it out."

"Come to the principal's office. Something big has happened."

Ten minutes later. Inside the principal's office, Masamichi Yaga was not present. Toji Fushiguro stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Satoru Gojo sat in a chair, his fingers tapping the desk unconsciously.

"During the Exchange Event, Kenjaku's people were able to deploy Special Grade Cursed Spirits so precisely, fake surveillance feeds, and retreat calmly after Ryomen Sukuna awakened — I knew something was off back then."

"Mole." Toji spat out two words, concise and to the point.

"Correct. A mole." Satoru Gojo nodded.

"I've been thinking all along: who this mole could be. They'd have to meet several conditions. First, access to the school's core intelligence. Second, a method to transmit information to the outside world, and one that could perfectly bypass Master Tengen's barrier. Third..."

"...They would need the capability — or rather, their Cursed Technique would need to be able to pull off something on this scale: locking down the nation's internet, manipulating public opinion, using panic as feed."

Toji's brow furrowed. He had no interest in the convoluted schemes of the Jujutsu world, but the ability Satoru Gojo was describing sounded extremely troublesome.

"Someone who can do this... after racking my brain, there's only one."

Satoru Gojo turned his head, his gaze behind the sunglasses locking onto Toji.

"Mechamaru from Kyoto School."

➤ Next: Mechamaru's Counterattack, Toji to the Rescue