Stepping through the barrier, Shohei's senses were flooded.

He and Inumaki rammed into a mass of people crammed against the inside border of the veil. Shohei took several accidental elbows and shoulders to the body.

"Excuse me!" the boy shoved away several citizens surrounding him, sure to lessen Gravity Field to not harm anyone. They all surged back from the tall boy, stumbling over one another in the stampede.

Shohei plucked the shorter Inumaki from the crowd, preventing him from getting washed away in the sea of people. He gripped the boy's collar, lifting him and placing him by his side like a claw machine grabbing a plushie.

"Salmon roe," Inumaki gasped, scanning at the gathered crowd.

"Too many," Shohei sighed, overwhelmed with the mass of people before him.

All civilians were dressed up for Halloween to some degree. Movie references, monsters, and celebrity imitations were plastered across everyone's clothes and faces.

Taking charge, Shohei stepped up to the crowd watching him and Inumaki. "We are here to help!"

His voice was suffocated by the overlapping muttering and talking of the crowd.

"Mustard leaf." Inumaki handed Shohei a bullhorn.

"Thanks." Shohei took the megaphone and cleared his throat. "Excuse me!"

The crowd's drone died down to a murmur, then silence.

"We are here to help!" Shohei gestured to himself and Inumaki. "We are with Satoru Gojo. The man that was being called for."

At the mention of Gojo, a surge of hushed murmurs rippled across the crowd. Ranging from concerned, agitated, eager, or scared.

"While he deals with the issue baring you all from coming and going as you please, we are here to help him help you. We are trying our best to hurry along with this issue. All we can ask of you right now however is to remain calm, don't wander too far into the city, and follow our instructions if and when we ask so of you. If you comply, we will make it through this night without another bump in the road."

Shohei passed off the bullhorn and hurried through the crowd, Inumaki trailing behind him. Members of the crowd tried to stop and question them, but many returned to their business and heeded the advice of staying near the barrier.

"Salmon." Inumaki threaded through bodies behind Sho.

"Thanks. I just said what I imagined they wanted to hear. Something generic to calm them. We can't go answering all the specifics though. How would we explain the veil or curses?"

The boys made it through the bulk of the masses, making it to a wide open street where people in the distance were still flocking to the border of the veil.

"Well. Now that we've subscribed ourselves to helping out, where do we start?" Shohei looked around like something would lead him to a decision.

"Bonito flakes," Inumaki grunted, also looking around, lost.

"Too many people," Shohei agreed. "But that hopefully means there isn't a lot in the midst of the city or underground. That's where I imagine most of the enemies to be. Panda said Kusukabe expected there were some special-grades in the basements of the city."

Shohei reached out, looking underneath the surface. His large sensing reached about half the curtained off city from the edge he was at. If he were at the center, he'd be able to see almost all of the city. The curtain was 800 meters wide and his sensing was a mile wide, letting him sense all in the curtain's borders.

"How about this," Shohei offered, turning to Inumaki. "I fly to the middle of the city. I scope out the scene, seeing who and what is where, because I can't even sense Satoru right now. After that, I return and we head out of the curtain and relay what we've seen. I'm sure I'll catch something the managers didn't."

"Kelp." Inumaki nodded, returning to the crowd of people.

"Flare your cursed energy twice for my attention and three times for an emergency," Shohei called after him. Toge gave a thumbs up over his shoulder.

Shohei dismissed the concept of subtlety for the night. Hundreds of people are trapped by a massive mysterious curtain and surely several have seen curse users, and maybe even curses if they were in danger.

Shohei took off like a rocket, flying past the building tops and cruising into the night sky, blackened even further by the veil, only illuminated by the glowing city. Shohei propped himself in the middle of the city sky, confirming all he could visually see before landing.

There were no plumes of smoke rising into the sky from some explosion or fire. There were no buildings tumbling into rubble. There were no massive cursed spirits or shikigami running rampant. The city looked overall peaceful as a massive buzzing city on halloween night could.

Shohei then began his descent to the ground in a leisurely float. He touched down in some back alley and began examining further. From here Shohei saw much.

Curse users were wandering all about in back streets and underground areas. Cursed spirits were scattered through the city, lying low and staying hidden oddly enough. Worst of all, there were transfigured humans. Their energy signature was so similar to cursed spirits, that Shohei only was able to tell the difference because he had encountered them before. The presence of the transfigured humans meant only one thing. Mahito was present in Shibuya.

Shohei, at the thought of Mahito, took further notice of the mass of cursed energy signatures completely east in the city and barrier, two of which he wholeheartedly recognized. Inside these smaller barriers, which didn't bother concealing what was inside from sensing, to the east of the veil were three enemies and Gojo.

One signature was the massive and endless signature of Satoru Gojo, and the second was the unnaturally natural signature of Hanami. The two others were similar to Hanami in sinister intent, more than likely being other special-grade curses. One being larger in energy amounts and possessing this intense liquid magma type appearance, and another feeling both human and curse-like, but more unique than either. Amongst them all were dozens and dozens of humans.

"So they are behind this all," Shohei grimaced, his fists clenched at his side.

A surge of cursed energy flared. Shohei immediately scanned for where Inumaki was, but it was from the east by Gojo and the others.

The energy was from Gojo, and in the surge, Hanami's signature vanished.

"Oh," Shohei chirped, stunned. That interaction meant only one thing. Gojo killed Hanami.

Shohei stood there, his mind muted with racing thoughts. Thoughts of the cursed spirit he hated, possibly the most of any curse. The curse who opened his eyes to curses being more than monsters rooted in negativity. Thoughts of them being killed by the man who led him to meeting that exact curse on the worst night of his life.

He was sure he was glad the curse had been exercised, and relieved to see that his mentor now owned the tide of battle, but deep down Shohei mourned for the lost life. Deep in his subconscious, Shohei shed a single tear for the curse that had only wanted to be more than a monster.

A surge of cursed energy dragged Shohei's consciousness back into his body.

Shohei raked his palms over his face and sucked in the sobering cold air of the night. "They deserved it," he convinced himself. "Besides. It could've been three times we've met tonight, and three times they met Satoru. It was bound to happen."

Shohei shoved aside his thoughts and examined the speeding mass of cursed energy rolling into Shibuya, directly on course to meet Satoru in the train station. Mei Mei's team was deployed to a station with curtain's sprouting up just north of the main veil. They must have seen or sent this train.

"A train?" Shohei muttered, studying the speed and size of the energy. Then his stomach dropped as he recognized the trademark scarred and warped energy. "A train full of transfigured humans and their maker."

And those poor puppets and their vile puppeteer Mahito were flooding into the station full of normal humans, Satoru, and the remaining curse and mysterious signature. A small army of reinforcements just arrived to assist the fight against Satoru and tear apart those humans.

"I've gotta get word to a manager if Mei Mei hasn't already." Shohei rocketed from the back alley, and sped through the veil border closest to him.

His sensing range was reconfigured. All in Shibuya now barred from view, but the whole world before his sight again.

One of the energy signatures he was hoping to see surged in the distance before him, but it was being converged on by two others. Two curse users.

Shohei tore through the air, screaming like a jet engine, "Ijichi!" The bland, dark haired man looked up from his clipboard and pulled the phone from his ear. "Move!" A figure crept from the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Shohei's voice was lost in the wind. "They're right behind you!"

Ijichi caught only a glimpse of what the boy was hollering. Unaccustomed to battle as an auxiliary manager, Ijichi was slow and weak. A blade glinted in the night and the man had no inkling of what was happening.

Shohei threw his hand out, gravity twisting and grabbing Ijichi. Shohei yanked his arm askew and threw the man across the bridge, away from his attacker.

The curse user, now visible, glanced up into the night sky. Shohei met his eye and crashed into him like a fallen meteor, pinning him to the ground. The man had long blonde hair, shining even in the dim street lights, tied up in an askew ponytail. He was wearing an odd black one piece, but even more odd were the three purple marks under each of his eyes.

"Who are you?" Shohei gripped the small feminine man by the collar of his revealing shirt and wrist, grappling the odd sword with a literal hand for a handle, in hand. "Why are you and the curses attacking Shibuya on such a large scale?"

"A little too firm of a grip don't you think," the man whined like a child, squirming under his grasp. "This is why I hate fighting strong people. Get me out of here already." And as he spoke that last request, a spark of cursed energy erupted from beside Shohei.

"Shit," Shohei cursed in his head. In seeming slow motion, he turned to the shadows where his attacker was hidden. "How could I forget about the second signature?"

"Ijichi!" Shohei barked, then against remembering his ally surely in the blast radius of this massive brewing attack. Shohei leapt from the curse user and to Ijichi behind him, across the bridge.

The brisk air of autumn plummeted into temperatures colder than any lone winter night. One's breath fogged the air, toes and fingers were numb from a slight breeze, and ice erupted like an explosion over Shohei's back.

In a flash, action unfolded and settled as quickly as it began. On the bridge there sat a small glacier where Shohei once stood over the curse user, engulfing where Ijichi was as well. No figures encaptured in the attack could be seen, as the ice was opaque.

"Are you alright Haruta," a voice spoke from the shadows. An androgynous monk with chin length white hair emerged besides the curse user. They had a single blob of plum pink across the back of their head matching their dark pink eyes. Those pink eyes now looked down on the curse user in a vaguely condescending, but overall neutral expression.

"You held back," Haruta noted, sizing up the size of the attack's collateral like it were flimsily constructed art. "I thought you were strong, Uraume," he shrugged.

"Would you have liked to be caught in the crossfire?" the monk droned, not removing their eyes from the small glacier. "Either way. The Gojo boy is utterly unscathed, but his companion however." The monk gestured to the ice.

Shohei burst from the far end of the glacier, kicking it open like it were just a flimsy door. In his arms was a frost bite ridden and unconscious Ijichi. Shohei himself was unscathed just as Uraume said.

"Ijichi," Shohei spat, slightly shaking the man he barely managed to shield with his body. Stygian Void defended him perfectly, but it didn't stop the ice from surging around him to Ijichi.

Shohei glanced back at them, panic plaguing his face for his friend turning to animosity at the sight of them. Shohei clutched Ijichi close to him and took off, not as explosive as he would on his own, hesitant of fast speeds with the damaged man in his arms.

"You better run," Uraume muttered to Haruta, taking their leave already. "He's quick. Once he gets his ally out of danger, he'll assuredly come for us."

"What about the others in suits, like that man," Haruta asked, gesturing all around the veil.

"Dip inside the city. Make the boy lose track of you in the hustle and bustle. After that you can come back out to finish the managers." Uraume lunged into the shadows again, smothering their cursed energy and leaving no trace of residual energy.

"Sounds like a plan," Haruta chuckled, hurrying through the veil, one of their purple marks under their eyes hollow.

Off in the sky, Shohei cradled Ijichi, trying to shield him further from the cold whipping wind.

"Dammit," Shohei blamed himself. "I should've just flown at you with Gravity Conductor rather than getting scared and using Stygian Void. Maybe then I could've swooped you up in time. Or maybe I should've just gone for that monk. I could've blocked it better then. Hell, why didn't I just bat you aside again. A twisted ankle or broken rib from falling off the bridge would've been better than this. At least I would've been the only one getting hurt."

Shohei glanced down at the unconscious man. Frost clung to his eyelashes and hair, making it look as white as the monk's. His lips were purple and his skin raw red, peeling, and already blackening on the edges.

"That ice user was different from any curse user associated with the curses so far. Stronger too."

Shohei scanned the horizon, looking for the medical tent. Shoko Ieiri and Principle Yaga set up a base in the far south west of the veil, but close enough for those injured to be transported to. Shoko could assuredly fix up Ijichi, but he probably wouldn't be back in action all night.

After soaring from the northeast to the southwest, skirting around the veil, familiar lights and lamps flickered in the distance. Two signatures well known to Shohei came into his view. Shohei made a steady dive to the building top, gently touching down amongst several cursed puppets defending the medical tents.

"Shoko!" Shohei called out. The woman hurried from the tent, Yaga trailing behind her.

It was as sturdy and defended as an on the spot medical tent could be. It was a jumbo tent propped up on top of a small building. Cursed puppets littered the ground below, around, and atop the building, defending it from any intruders or stray curses.

Shohei met Yaga and Shoko at the entrance of the tent. Yaga took Ijichi from Shohei's arms as Shoko checked for a pulse, raised an eyelid to shine a small light, and gently raised a hand to her eye to examine the damage.

"It was a curse-user," Shohei spat, trying to make sense of the lightning quick series of events. "I was confronting one when a second surprised me. I was distracted by the interrogation of one that the second got off an attack. A big glacier. I'm unscathed, but I failed to do more than soften the attack on Ijichi."

"You did your best Shohei," Shoko assured, directing Yaga to lay Ijichi on the nearest gurdy. "The damage is somewhat severe, but nothing I can't fix. He'll be on his ass the rest of the night though."

"And what of the two curse-users," the principal spoke up, trading places with Shoko as she retreated into the tent.

"The first was retreating into the veil when he left my range of sensing. The other as good as disappeared, masking their trail better than I've seen anyone do before. They were strong. Not just in the attack, but their demeanor, their unassuming appearance, and their skill."

"No good," Yaga sighed, rubbing his goatee in meditation. "We may be in deeper shit that we could've first thought if we have enemies like that on our hands."

"I'm heading back in, Yaga-sensei," Shohei declared, shuffling back to the rooftop edge. "I left Inumaki alone and things were only escalating when I left. A train of transfigured humans and the patchwork curse Mahito rolled into the station. Satoru is battling them and two more special-grades surrounded by civilians. That's why I left. Spread word to the other managers. Maybe they can inform the other sorcerers quicker than I can, but I'm gonna try spreading the news to whoever I find."

Shohei soared off the building ledge, giving one last wave to Yaga.

"Good luck Shohei!" the man called after the boy.

Shohei slipped through the midnight black curtain, much of Shibuya falling back under his gaze. More than any signature catching his attention, instead a bellowing call rang across the surface of Shibuya.

"Na! Na! Miiiiin!" Itadori's voice thundered across the city. "Nanamin, are you there?! Gojo-sensei was sealed!"

"What?" Shohei gasped to himself, aloft in the night sky. "No way in hell."

Shohei couldn't sense the station where Gojo was last fighting, but the massive aura exuded by his signature that anyone could sense from miles away was indeed gone. Shohei never would have thought something like this could happen. How could it happen? Surely the curses weren't this skilled and cunning. They were strong, but the assorted curse-users had to be the main force behind this.

"Megumi. Everyone!" Shohei muttered, faced with the reality that everyone was in true danger now.

With their spearhead of power sealed, the curses posed a greater threat than ever. Almost no sorcerer present in Shibuya was of a high enough caliber to handle one of those disastrous curses, let alone the students. The curse-users were also at large in the city, and even if there were no others at the level of that one white-haired monk, they were still dangerous. And that wasn't mentioning the endless curses and transfigured humans scattered in Shibuya.

Shohei searched the southwest of the city or nearby allies, catching sight of Maki's miniscule signature alongside Naobito Zenin's. Near them was Auxiliary Manager Akari Nitta and Nobara exiting the curtain.

Shohei plunged to the ground, aiming for the two Zenin. He swooped onto the pavement beside the two sorcerers.

"Maki, ugly geezer," Shohei greeted, hurrying up to them. Naobito scoffed with a drunk hiccup.

The old head of the Zenin clan had neck length silver hair slicked back. His small black eyes were almost glazed over from the small gourd of liquor he held in one hand. His long thin mustache that was cropped to two perfect points was freckled with dew drops of alcohol. He wore a layered japanese-style uniform even down to his zori sandals. It was all grays, dark blues, blacks, and whites. A outfit as old and conservative as the man himself.

Maki approached Shohei coolly, their hands meeting with a firm, reassuring grip. They briefly examined each other, seeing no injuries.

"You really are a disgrace of a Zenin," Naobito muttered into his gourd, eyeing the interaction. "Fraternizing with a Gojo clan runt."

"You heard Itadori too?" Maki asked, ignoring her uncle. Shohei looked deep into her eyes and saw her stoic face almost betray an ounce of worry for Gojo.

"Yeah. That's almost the least of our worries though," Shohei continued, bothering to look to Naobito. He should inform him as well as he was there to help, unlike the attack on the Gojo estate.

"Curses, curse-users, and transfigured humans are running about in and around Shibuya," Shohei said. "A powerful one attacked me and Ijichi outside the veil. Their accomplice and them got away while I was rescuing Ijichi. There are surely more."

"Nitta and Kugisaki left our group to check in Ijichi," Maki said, remaining composed, but a sweat drop forming on her brow. "They heard him being attacked on the phone before the call ended."

Shohei bashed himself across the head. "Of course he was on the phone with someone," Sho cursed, remembering he had the phone up to his ear. "I should've made him call for backup."

"Nothing we can do about it now," Naobito burped, waving the news away like his bad breath.

"Well what can you do you useless drunkard," Shohei spat, stepping up to the old man. "You're finally forced to crawl out of your dim dark hole to help the world, and you chose to do so buzzed?"

"Mind your tone little boy," Naobito gurgled, head tilted back, swigging his gourd. "I'm not some imbecile to push around because you're cranky and the only other sorcerer in your clan to do anything besides prune trees and get murdered."

Shohei's already writhing cursed energy surged with a spike of frustration as he stood eye to eye with the man, his eyes drilling a crater into the man's soul.

"Got something to say sonny?" Naobito chuckled, proud of the upstart he goaded out of Shohei.

"He's drunk, and was always a bastard," Maki offered, gripping Shohei's arm. "You're bigger than this. We've got more pressing matters." She pulled him away to face her. "What are we gonna do with Gojo sealed and all of Shibuya still in pandemonium?"

Shohei smothered his energy and his distaste for the man to think.

"Well," Shohei grit his teeth. "We all were just on standby. We all are in the veil now. It's simply time to move in and do what we can. Whether that's freeing Satoru, saving innocents, or killing enemies along the way."

"Then let's get moving," Maki agreed. "Can you still walk in a straight line?" she looked over her shoulder to Naobito.

"Keep up you bunch of green horns," the elderly man said, taking off deeper into the city without a second thought. The two students followed his lead.