Chapter 168 - Enter the Game

The heavy wooden doors of Tokyo Jujutsu High swung open. Hakari walked in first, carrying a limp Yuji Itadori over one shoulder, strides long and unhurried. Megumi followed behind, eyes locked on the back of Hakari's head, mind running through contingencies at full speed. He had to get ahead of this before Hakari opened his mouth to that idiot father of his.

Megumi pushed past Hakari and grabbed Toji, who was doing one-finger handstand push-ups in a green spandex suit, by the arm. He hauled Toji sideways into the corner by the wall.

"Dad. Listen closely." Megumi kept his voice down, peripheral vision tracking Hakari as Hakari scanned the training grounds.

Toji held up on one hand and dug a finger in his ear with the other.

"What? Megumi, you look so shady right now. Not youthful at all. A real man faces the sun head-on!"

"Shut up and listen." Megumi spoke through his teeth.

"I told Hakari that back when you strung him up in a tree and beat him, it was because you saw his physical combat talent and placed your deepest youthful hopes in him. Hakari came here to help us. Don't let anything slip."

Megumi's heart was hammering.

If this idiot opened his mouth and said something like "I hate gambling addicts," Hakari would flip out on the spot.

The Culling Game was about to start. One fewer Special Grade combatant meant one more degree of danger for Tsumiki. He couldn't afford that risk. Toji stopped his push-ups and flipped upright. He stared at Megumi for two full seconds. Two streaks of hot tears rolled down his face.

"So that's how it was! That's incredibly moving!" Toji wiped his face with the back of his hand and strode straight toward Hakari.

Megumi covered his face with both hands. He couldn't watch. Hakari looked up at Toji approaching and instinctively stepped back half a pace, hand drifting toward the pachinko steel balls in his pocket. The fear of this man was carved into his bones. Toji grabbed both of Hakari's hands and shook them up and down.

"Kinji! I'm so glad you're back!" Toji threw up a thumbs-up, teeth flashing white in the sunlight. "Those three broken ribs weren't broken for nothing. Look at that muscle definition, it reeks of sweat and hard work! I always knew you wouldn't let me down!"

Hakari went still. Looking into Toji's earnest, glowing eyes, whatever composure Hakari had been holding onto crumbled. The small knot of resentment in his chest dissolved in an instant. Hakari gripped Toji's hands back. His own eyes went red at the corners.

"Toji-sensei... I..."

"The bond between men needs no words! Let's get to training, old rules, handstand laps around the back mountain, five hundred circuits!"

"Yes, sir!" Hakari dropped Yuji on the spot and sprinted flat-out toward the front gate.

Megumi lunged and caught Yuji before he hit the ground. Watching the two of them charge off, Megumi let out a slow breath. Single-celled organisms were so easy to manage. Over the next two weeks, the training grounds became hell.

Every morning at 5 a.m., green figures were running circuits in the dark. Yuji Itadori, Kinji Hakari, Naoya Zenin, Yuta Okkotsu, Megumi Fushiguro, every combatant was grinding through brutal training. Even Panda had been stuffed into a spandex suit. Toji's goal was simple: before the game began, squeeze another ten percent out of this group. More sweat now meant less blood later.

Naoya Zenin ran at the front, muttering under his breath without pause: "Master Toji is watching me... Master Toji is watching me..."

Hakari ran at the back, dry heaving with every stride, but never stopping. The feeling of being recognized by Toji was all that filled his head. Toji stood at the center of the grounds, stopwatch in hand. Tsumiki was still unconscious. Kenjaku's cursed residue was still inside Tsumiki's body. Every night, Toji walked to the infirmary for one look at his daughter.

Every time he looked at Tsumiki's pale face, the killing intent inside him surged higher. He channeled all of it into the training.

"Too slow! Did you skip lunch?! Yuji — add five hundred squats!"

Two weeks later, at noon. A piercing alarm tore across the sky above Tokyo Jujutsu High.

"The Culling Game — now commencing."

The mechanical voice echoed across the barrier overhead. Everyone on the training grounds stopped at the same time. Yuji bent over, gasping. Naoya braced both hands on his knees and dry heaved. Toji yanked the towel from around his neck and wiped the sweat from his face.

"Get changed. War room."

Ten minutes later. Masamichi Yaga stood at the head of the long table, expression flat, and spread a massive map of Japan across the surface. Ten red circles were marked across it.

"According to the game rules, these are the coordinates of the ten colonies." Yaga pointed at the map. "Kenjaku divided the playing field into ten zones. Players must fight each other inside them to earn points."

"As for the roster for this operation..."

BANG!

The door swung open.

"And me! My best friend!"

Aoi Todo walked in bare-chested. Toji's eyes lit up.

"Todo, you made it!"

"My best friend's daughter is in danger — I had to be here!"

Todo clenched his fist. Toji's eyes went red on the spot. The two men locked gazes with deep feeling. Then they grabbed each other and wept. That was when Yuji noticed the fresh wounds wrapped in bandages across Todo's body. His gaze dropped to Todo's left hand. There was nothing there. From the wrist down, it was wrapped in layer after layer of medical gauze.

"Todo, your hand..."

"Oh, that." Todo raised the left arm and glanced at it, tone flat. "Went to Kyoto to deal with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Took some effort. Its Domain corrodes flesh, so I cut it off."

Yaga looked at Todo. "The assignment the higher-ups gave you was to stall for time. You exorcised it alone."

Todo gave a thumbs-up.

"Everyone was fighting to the death in Shibuya, how could I drag my feet!"

Toji's eyes glistened with tears.

"That is the resolve of youth!"

Yuji walked over, gripped Todo's shoulder, and stared with open worry. "You're already like this, don't join the Culling Game."

Without a hand, Todo couldn't clap to activate Boogie Woogie. A sorcerer stripped of their technique wouldn't last a day in the Culling Game. Todo shook off Yuji's hand and laughed out loud. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small black metal cube.

"Click."

Todo used his right hand to fasten the metal cube against the bandages on his left wrist. It was an old mechanical metronome.

"Yuji, what do you think my technique actually is?" Todo fixed his gaze on Yuji. "As long as the soul's rhythm keeps beating, my Boogie Woogie will never stop. Right now, I'm stronger than I've ever been."

Yuji stared at the swinging metronome, eyes wide. That works? Megumi watched from the side. Todo was a madman. But right now, they needed madmen. Yaga knocked on the table and pulled everyone's attention back to the map.

"Right. Roster confirmed, time is short, assignments start now."

Yaga picked up a red pen and drew circles on the map.

"Tokyo No. 1 Colony. Yuji Itadori, Aoi Todo, Megumi Fushiguro. You three, one group."

Megumi nodded.

"Tokyo No. 2 Colony." Yaga's pen moved. "Panda, Kinji Hakari, Naoya."

Naoya Zenin grinned and cracked his knuckles, the joints popping one by one.

"Hope there'll be some interesting opponents."

"Sendai Colony." Yaga looked toward Yuta Okkotsu, standing quietly in the corner. "Okkotsu."

"Leave it to me." Yuta's voice was calm.

"Toji." Yaga spoke. "Your assignment is the most unusual of all."

"Tengen told us that the key to breaking open Prison Realm is finding a player called 'Angel.' Angel's technique can eliminate any technique." Yaga looked at Toji.

"Angel's location is unknown, could be in any colony. You'll operate alone, moving between colonies until you find her."

"Everyone else provides outside support."

"Finding someone?" Toji rolled his neck. "Doesn't sound very hot-blooded."

The image of Tsumiki's pale face in the infirmary flashed through his mind. Angel's technique could eliminate any technique, which meant it could erase the cursed residue Kenjaku had left inside Tsumiki's mind. Find Angel, and his daughter woke up.

"Even so, for Tsumiki's sake, I don't mind tearing through all ten colonies one by one." Toji walked to the edge of the table and drove his fist down onto the map. The surface gave a dull thud.

"Ancient sorcerer or modern Cursed Spirit, it doesn't matter. Anyone who stands in my way, I'll use the iron fist of youth to shatter their bones inch by inch."

Toji turned and looked at every person in the room. "Listen up, kids. This isn't a drill. It's real combat. If anyone dies, I'll drag them out of hell and beat them all over again!"

Everyone shouted back as one. "Yes, sir!"

Yaga rolled up the map and stepped back.

"Come back alive!"

Toji turned and walked toward the doors. The broad green-clad back of him filled the corridor under the hallway lights. Kenjaku, wash your neck and wait. My youth is only now truly about to burn.

➤ Next: First Battle