We're back! I'm glad to get the motivation to post after going through a slog of school work. I have this chapter be a but more lengthy for the lack of posting, and I have another ready to go up next week. I'm not sure how much I'll get done after that, but I'm really loving the anime right now, especially with this Jogo fight and Mahoraga being teased. Enjoy!


Sprinting through the hallways of the many stations of Shibuya, Shohei Gojo, Maki Zenin, and Naobito Zenin trounced over the corpses of transfigured humans Maki had been killing all night while on standby. Naobito of course was trying to reach the bottom of his drink during that time.

The team of sorcerers were diving deeper into the city to do their part in the disastrous night of death and chaos amongst the sorcerers and civilians, and the detrimental sealing of Satoru Gojo.

"Hey," Shohei called to the elderly sorcerer several paces ahead of him and Maki. "I've been tracking his movements here for a while now, and Kento Nanami is about to collide with us on this track."

A discolored, pale, quadrupedal transfigured human burst from the ceiling, on course to crash into Maki. She twirled her spear in a glint of steel, showering Shohei in a splatter of red blood without skipping a beat in her stride. The tall boy was untouched thanks to Gravity Field parrying the spatter.

"Thanks for the heads up," Maki scoffed, wiping a small drop of blood from her own eye. "But you mean the grade-one sorcerer Megumi was partnered with tonight?"

"I knew you had it. But yeah. Yuji's part time mentor. I've joined him on a few missions recently for the Mechamaru case and a time or two before. Gojo wanted him for my promotion mission to grade-one, but he was on hiatus from sorcery work then," Shohei recalled as he scanned the area even further around them, catching sight of only weak stray curses and transfigured humans.

"Where is he now, brat?" Naobito demanded as he literally kicked the head off a curse as they all turned another corner.

Without another word the grade-one sorcerer rounded the corner and laid eyes on the small group searching for him.

Kento Nanami was a tall, deceivingly well built man with a well kept part in his blonde hair. He almost always was seen in his staple tan business suit, blue dress shirt, light leather shoes, and a yellow and black polka dotted tie which was the only non-typical thing about his uniform appearance.

His small eyes were masked behind a pair of armless sunglasses, but the worry marks decorating his eyebrows displayed his stress of the night, as jujutsu work was a primary stressor in his life. He also was missing his blazer, revealing the leather holster of his blunt cleaver shaped short sword wrapped in the same pattern cloth as his tie. His dress shirt was rolled up to his elbows, revealing his large forearms and costly wrist watch, indicating he was on overtime, a binding vow that amplified his cursed energy when over a self employed clock.

"Nanami-san!" Shohei waved to his fellow grade-one sorcerer across the expansive hallway, glad to see a reasonable and capable ally to ground himself in the pandemonium of the night. Naobito was no responsible adult to rely on, even if he was a strong Clan head.

"Gojo-san," Nanami called, straight to the point, but with a powerful voice. The four of them merged together and slowed their sprint to a calm walk further down the station, no destination in mind besides the heart of the city or B5 floor where Satoru was sealed.

"So you three have mobilized too? I'm glad I found you." Nanami glanced at his watch. "I had just encountered an enemy curse user alongside Kugisaki and Nitta-san not too long ago."

"Are they alright?" Maki spoke up, walking between Nanami and Shohei to distance herself from Naobito. "They split off from us to check on Ijichi."

"I intercepted his attackers," Shohei informed the man, wanting him to know all that occurred so far.

Shohei thought Nanami had one of the keenist, seasoned, rational minds of any sorcerer he's worked alongside. If anyone could make a game plan for the shit show of Shibuya, Shohei was confident it was him.

"They were both pretty gender fluid. A monk with white and pink hair and a guy with a large pony tail and strange face markings." Shohei dug into his memory as thoroughly as he could while thoughts raced through his mind endlessly since the night began.

"The ponytailed curse user severely wounded Nitta. She will be out of commission for the rest of the night, but she is conscious. Kugisaki was relatively unscathed and still doing what she can."

"That's not the best, but that's good enough." Shohei and Maki shared a look, glad their friend Nobara was safe for the time being.

"However," Nanami interjected, cutting short their small rejoice with a tone serious even for the cut and dry man. "I think the severity of tonight should not be underestimated. The curse user I dispatched may have been only dangerous when sneaking around in the shadows, but there are more powerful things and people at play. So powerful that Satoru Gojo was sealed in one fell swoop."

"I agree," Shohei grimaced, flashing back briefly to the bridge with Ijichi. "The monk curse user was something scary. They were vastly more powerful than any stray dog curse user could or should be. They were also crafty enough to escape me in a flash without a wisp of a trail left behind."

"Satoru Gojo really has been sealed, huh?" Naobito finally spoke up. The group began their descent down a deep stairwell. "I can hardly believe it."

"Me, too," Nanami agreed, scaling the steps ahead of the pack. "Geto-san is involved, though, even if he is a fake."

"Didn't I tell his drunk ass Satoru was sealed?" Shohei whispered, glaring at the back of Naobito's head, turning to Maki. Then Nanami's words really struck his mind. "Wait! Suguru Geto?"

"Indeed," the suited man confirmed. "I understand your shock, all being said with you and the current second-year's fight with him during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. His defeat at the hands of Okkotsu and death by Gojo himself."

Flashes of that night further crammed Shohei's mind alongside the treachery of Geto, him leaving Maki, Panda, and Inumaki on the verge of death, and the heartache he put Satoru through even to this day. Safe to say Shohei was no fan of Suguru Geto.

"I pray it is a fake," Shohei muttered, his knuckles turning white from his clenching fists. "If it is him, I'm gonna level this city with him buried underneath."

Right next to him, Maki was the only one to catch what he said.

"Hey," Maki barked quietly. "You need to get your head in the game. You've got too much on your mind already. I can see it behind those bangs. You don't need to be on a warpath too. Especially over the ghost of some guy who thinks 'Monkey' is a good insult."

"Mmm," Shohei hummed, half hearing what Maki said. His mind swimming in a sea of thoughts drowned out Maki.

"Hey!" Maki quietly lashed again, this time gripping the large boy's arm and halted him on the staircase. This contact jolted him out of his stupor and made him acknowledge her. "I'm dead serious. Gojo's out of the game. Our allies are dropping left and right. We don't know where all our friends are. Powerful assholes are running this city right now. I know you can't always help it, but you need to lock in. No playing games tonight."

"I know Maki," Shohei stammered, blindsighted by her bluntness.

"Well you're not acting like it. You're the freshly promoted grade-one sorcerer here. You're a goddamn big boy. Put on your big boy pants. Civilian lives aren't the only ones on the line here. This is bigger than any of us and we are at risk all the same. If you're not gonna have my back in this like I'm watching yours, and I have to rely on strangers and drunk old men, I think you need to leave the front lines."

Maki did not wait for Shohei's response, and instead turned back to the others as she scaled the stairs.

Shohei trailed after her haphazardly, opting to scan the surroundings to keep his mind off his thoughts and on task to make her happy.

He caught a glance of very few curses and transfigured humans around them still, but only one near ahead of them that they will assuredly encounter. It was barely more than a flyhead.

Shohei clocked back into the conversation of the sorcerers with no threat in sight.

"I wouldn't mind letting things be and bearing witness to the decline of the Gojo family," Naobito pondered, chuckling to himself as he stroked his mustache.

Shohei was ready to kick the man down the stairs and pray he broke his hip so he could be sent home. Even if he only drank away the pain, he would at least be away from Shohei. He reminded him with every word out of his mouth of the higher ups, hiding behind their screens, prying and picking his every thought over and over of the attack on the Gojo clan estate.

"Go home if you're not gonna help," Maki spat, repulsed by the old man.

"Go home, huh?" Naobito questioned, still petting his chin. "That's what you should be doing, Maki. Right, grade-one sorcerer, Nanami-dono?"

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Shohei leapt down a chunk of the stairs, ready to drag Naobito by the nose hairs down the rest of the flight.

"Gojo!" Nanami halted.

"Shohei!" Maki lashed.

Both dove between Shohei and Naobito, blocking them from breaking out into a scuffle.

"Keep talking you ignorant, delirious, liver spotted bastard. Say one more thing so I can cave your head in," Shohei barked, half shoving his way through Nanami and Maki to not hurt them, but get to Naobito.

The old man stood laughing his deep slurred cackle at the sight of Shohei acting lashing out.

"Like you could or would lay a finger on me you brat," Naobito roared in laughter, wiping a tear. "All this ruckus at such a terribly inconvenient time, all just because your useless little rebel girlfriend is here fighting. Fighting a man's fight instead of staying at home where she belongs and should have never left."

Shohei shoved a hand swirling with energy and force forward to attack Naobito, but Nanami swatted his hand away, pinning it to Shohei's side. Maki shifted in the struggle, blocking Naobito from Shohei's view.

"Shohei!" Nanami rounded on the boy, his cool demeanor loosening as he displayed his authority. "Cut out this childish behavior or leave. Act your age."

"You know what," Maki spoke up, indignant. "Leave. Go help somewhere else. I don't need you fighting on my behalf. Especially with this drunk idiot that you know you're above."

"You're drunk?" Nanami whipped to face Naobito, a vein throbbing in his temple. The last thing he needed was one of the few powerful allies he had to be intoxicated.

"Not eeeven one sssip," Naobito slurred, swiftly depositing his gourd back on his belt before he belched a raunchy burp.

"But Maki," Shohei murmured, some small look of betrayal creasing his face. His curled lip fully spiraled into a pitiful frown. "You shouldn't have to put up with his act. He's completely out of line."

"You're out of line trying to attack him," Maki bit back, sticking her face to Shohei's, forcing him to his back foot. "And I know what I do and don't have to accept, but right now isn't the time for fighting intolerable pricks like him. I don't care about what he has to say. We've got bigger shit to deal with. So leave if you're gonna act just as big a fool as him. We don't need two idiots getting in the way, no matter how strong you are."

Shohei fell back one step, reeling at Maki's words. He glanced at Nanami, avoiding his gaze, but clearly agreeing with Maki. Naobito was dawning a hatefully smug grin at the bottom of the stairs.

"Okay," Shohei said shortly, floating to the bottom of the stairs, barging past Naobito.

Shohei turned the corner and made his way to a window outlooking the streets below. Shohei glanced back at the three sorcerers watching him go, until they snapped their heads to attention.

Further down the atrium was the cursed spirit Shohei previously sensed, cowering behind a support column.

"Nanami-san." Maki stood at the ready, spear in hand.

"Yes, I see it," the man confirmed.

"I've known it's been there," Shohei sheepishly spoke up. "It's no real harm."

"I'll take this one," Nanami continued, drawing his wrapped, dull sword.

The curse emerged, his meaty three fingered hand reaching around the column to peek its head out. It was bright red with a massive round head, round bug eyes staring blankly at them all. Several long tentacles draped over its mouth, little black circles decorating each. Its stubby caterpillar like body was draped in a white robe, obscuring much of it.

"Bwoohoo…" it muttered nonsensically. "Bwoo…"

In an almost silent, motionless flash, Shohei whipped his head to where Naobito stood beside the curse.

"You guys are a bit too slow." The man held an image of the curse in hand, looking back at the others. Curse muttered stunned nonsense in the frozen frame.

A sinister grin spread across Naobito's cruel face as he cackled manically, punching the frame. The curse rocketed from the frame, back to typical and proper dimensions and size.

The curse slammed into another pillar across the room, dust and debris filling the air.

"Damn. I knew it made him fast, but wow," Shohei muttered, stunned by the old man's technique.

"Did you see that?" Maki asked Nanami.

"No," he admitted.

The dust settled and the pitiful curse laid amongst the rubble of the pillar, sweating, crying, moaning in pain.

The curse curled, and then lurched. It spat up a sea of human skeletons, nearly reaching across the atrium to where Naobito still stood.

"Sick," Shohei reered, reminded the shameful little creature was still an abominable creature bred from the strife of humanity.

"How many people have you eaten?" Naobitio ridiculed.

The curse began meekly crawling over the bones, struggling before its dying breath. It muttered to itself.

"Jogo…Mahito…"

Shohei's heart dropped at the name. Cold sweat erupted across his face. His mind exploded in thought once again. No thought of any day before or after that night. The night of the attack on the Clan estate. All thoughts flooded his mind, indiscriminate and incoherent. His breathing hitched and sped up. All that truly, clearly crossed his mind was his father's head spilled across the ground. Hanami looming over him. His mother's twisted and mangled form lunging for his throat. Mahito grinning his detestable, haunting leer. How his hands reached to touch, grasp, twist, bend, rend Shohei's flesh. His lip throbbed with pain as fresh as the night he earned it.

"Hanami…Hanami!"

A paralyzing shiver raced down his back. Shohei's knees buckled and he stumbled on the spot, barely staying upright. He wanted to retreat, to flee, to run. But he stood there, a scared little boy.

"Shohei! Shohei!" Maki called to the boy, her words not penetrating his mind.

Shohei watched as the curse shuttered violently, spasming. Its cursed energy flared. The energy grew in quantity to vast amounts as large as the other disaster curses. The same malicious energy sobered Shohei enough to hear Maki fruitlessly calling his name.

"How dare you kill Hanami?!" it roared, its meek little voice growing into a growl deeper than any abyss.

It jerked upright, shedding its own skin, leaving it behind in a mass on the ground. It sprouted from a Curse Womb to another unregistered special-grade curse. Its chillingly similar aura was undeniably similar to Mahito and Hanami. Like a new sibling in their vile family.

"I see now," Naobito chirped, gazing up above. "You were so weak because you were only a Curse Womb."

Above them all hovered the curse reborn. It now stood with a tall, wide, humanoid stature similar to Hanami. Its head was starkly shaped like a whole octopus, tentacles and all. Small blank, beady, green eyes regarded them all with what only could be described as arrogant disdain. His outer flesh was nearly the same red, now with a tan flesh on the interior of the body. Small wings sprouted from his hips, the membrane deep black like his midsection.

The curse raised a thick finger towards the sky, a swirling ball of water conjured behind its head. It flung its finger to the ground, and the ball erupted in a torrent of expanding water.

The atrium was being flooded. Maki was almost washed away before spearing a pillar and flinging herself to balance upon her spear. Shohei rocketed towards the ceiling, fearing any touch or contact with the curse or any of its techniques.

"What a vast amount of water," Maki gawked, stunned by the attack. It must've all been more than Megumi's Max Elephant ever produced.

"Cursed spirit," Naobito said, not a drop of water on him, but a massive stack of frames in hand. He brushed away the frames of water and went on. "Do you know how many frames there are in one second of animation?"

"It's not 'cursed spirit.' I am Dagon," the deep voice of Dagon declared, still propped up in the air.

"There's a modern tendency to raise resolutions and frame rates," Naobito went on unphased.

"There's Hanami, Jogo, and Mahito, too," Dagon informed him. Shohei flinched at their names.

"Upscaling to 4k, and 60fps frame interpolation…" Naobitio seamlessly continued as Dagon interrupted, talking over him.

"We all…"

"They don't cause anyone any trouble when done for personal use, so that's fine. However, modern TVs have their damn frame interpolation set to 'on' by default! It's not like 'unwanted favor' has become a dead phrase already! Nothing is more lamentable than that! Creating that soap opera effect…"

"We all have names!" Dagon reared, infuriated as Naobito's droning on entered one ear and left another.

"Don't you agree that's uncultured?!" Naobito growled, getting riled up in his own right.

A flash of events occurred. Nanami, who had been out of sight since the first water attack appeared above Dagon, striking him to the ground. Maki lunged from the upturned debris and dust. Her blade was caught as Dagon shot her a belittling gaze, ready to strike her down. Naobito appeared behind him, laying a gentle hand on his back, freezing him in a glass frame once again.

Naobito twirled the frame, launching it towards Nanami, crashing down on it with a shattering of the glass. The instant the figurative glass shattered, Dagon was blocking Nanami's blade with his meaty hand.

A sudden burst of water erupted between his hand and the blade, parting the two from each other.

While Nanami and Naobito stood against Dagon in a brief standstill, Maki rushed beneath Shohei, still clinging to the ceiling corner like a spider in its web.

"Shohei," Maki called up to him. "Come down here. Please. We need your help. It'll be okay. This thing might be strong but you're stronger. It's okay to be scared, but if you don't act now, you and others will get hurt."

Shohei was zeroed in on Dagon, as still as a rock. Shohei didn't want it to notice him in case it targeted him next. It felt and looked just like the estate. He can't have a repeat of the estate. He can't do it all again.

Maki didn't know what she was talking about. She didn't understand what it was like to fight any of the disaster curses. She didn't know what she was in for. They had to leave. Shohei had to get them out of there.

Nanami was strong too, but his Ratio Technique did nothing, and the technique's whole gimmick was creating a weak point to exploit the moment of contact. He hit it and damaged it, but it was like it had boundless HP. Not the durability of Hanami, but more cursed energy than them, maybe even as much as Mahito. It can heal all Nanami, Naobito, and Maki could dish out. A war of attrition is the last thing they wanted.

"Shohei please," Maki called up to him again, panic no longer in her voice, but instead a calm plea. "I know it's scary to face something or someone who has hurt you. It feels like an unwinnable battle that will never not plague you, but in our life as sorcerers, it's our job to fight those terrible feelings. Those terrible feelings which emerge as curses, in the real physical world to not only torment us, but harm us. Now if you can't fight for yourself right now, fight for me. Fight for Nanami here and now. Fight so the others outside this building don't have to experience all this pain and suffering you're going through."

Fighting for others. That idea was sobering. Fighting so evil things and evil hands could not lay a finger on Maki. So no one can hurt young people with so much left to do in the world like Nobara, Yuji, and Megumi. So adults can live on to raise the young people to be better than them and one day do the same for those after them. To fight in that moment for the need to not fight in the future. In front of Shohei now was an evil thing that would only take away a bright future for all those in the room and all it would come across if they failed to stop it there.

Dagon stepped forward, a newly conjured ring of water swirling around him.

"I can't believe two grade-ones like us couldn't exorcise it together," Noabito said, staring across to Nanami. "What a turbulent time we live in."

"A defensive barrier of water, huh?" Naobito further noted. "Can you produce large-scale attacks at the same time, too? You have massive amounts of cursed energy, and I bet you still have other cursed techniques up your sleeve. So what should I do?"

In a uniform movement of battle hardened sorcerers, no matter the degree, all four of them lunged for the curse.

"Well that's easy," Shohei said, racing from his lonely corner.

Shohei drew Iguana Talon and released Gravity Field, encumbered no more. The four of them were on Dagon. Maki crashing down with her spear, Nanami with his sword reared, Naobito with a grasping hand, and Shohei with a lunging blade

"We'll kill you quickly before you can use your technique!" Shohei roared, driven to fight once again, his eyes ablaze with determination.

Dagon boxed himself in, raising his fists to his chin, sucking in the water ring to explode, knocking them all back.

Once again, the curse was suspended in the air. Nanami and Maki were rearing from the attack, again waiting to strike, grounded.

"Of course, you can hover, too, right?" Naobito jeered, looming over the curse with a massive kick wound up.

"Well I can fly quicker than just a hover," Shohei assured above him as well, a kick mirroring Naobito at the ready.

"We'd escape upward, too," the elderly and young sorcerer agreed, kicking the curse simultaneously.

Dagon was sent rocketing to the floor, forming a massive crater in the tile where he then bounced like a ragdoll.

Naobito appeared in a blink right behind Dagon before he hit the ground a second time, already firing a punch.

The punch sent Dagon flying towards a prepared Shohei who threw a bladed haymaker that lobbed off Dagon's arm at the shoulder.

Dagon layed on the ground, half an arm already regenerated, struggling to conjure another ball of water to counter attack, but Naobito was upon him again alongside Shohei.

Dagon wildly swung to strike either, giving up conjuring his water. Shohei easily slipped the sloppy strike and gouged another chunk from the curse's back, a small wing lying limp on the floor. Naobito let loose a punch into the curse's gut that had it sputtering.

The curse stumbled aside from the combination, Naobito pursuing him, staying on the offensive. Shohei remained, readying an attack from Gravity Conductor.

Dagon threw another wild strike only for it to shatter the ground, missing Naobito as he slipped underneath it with Projection Sorcery. Twenty-four precise movements in one second, all depicting Naobito dancing around to Dagon's blindside.

"Good," Shohei thought, some semblance of tactics coming back to him. "With the use of Gravity Conductor flying me around, I can match positioning with Naobito every once and a while. It helps that our fighting styles are partially similar in regards to melee. I'm probably not as fast though, even if I applied cursed energy to my body. But maybe I'd be close enough to match a combination or two more if I applied it areinforment and Tunnel Vision on top."

"I may hate your guts, but I will admit you geezer," Shohei spoke up, his attack ready. "You really are the fastest. Besides Satoru of course."

"It's cute you think I need your praise, runt," Naobito cackled, placing a palm on Dagon. He froze Dagon again, leaving him to Shohei's mercy.

Shohei released the attack, a pillar of gravity crashing down on Dagon as he was frozen in a frame after failing to move how Naobito determined with his twenty-four frames.

"Talk to me nicer would you. I could just let this curse kill you as I flee with Nanami and Maki in hand," Shohei retorted, watching Dagon only now fully heal his arm and wing.

Dagon was mushed to the ground after being crushed under the force of a small house crashing onto him. Lying prone, Naobito bashed Dagon in the ribs with a thunderous kick that sent him flying.

Shohei rocketed over to where Dagon would land and had an axe kicked lying in wait, which crushed the same ribs Naobito already damaged as Dagon was sandwiched to the floor again.

Dagon drew his hands together in an attempt to activate a technique, but Naobito was alongside Shohei again. Dagon was once again suspended in a frame. Naobito and Shohei struck the frame with mirrored punches again, sending him rolling across the floor.

On the floor still, Dagon brought together his hands again. Naobito and Shohei were above him, crushing his hands with two lethal punches that pierced through to his stomach.

"We won't let you," Naobito politely informed him.

Dagon layed there still, his hands a mangled mess and silent. His hands fell away from his stomach, revealing a strange symbol successfully activated.

Naobito and Shohei looked up from Dagon to find themselves on a lovely island beach, complete with palm trees, lapping waves, and pleasant heat. The bright blue sky above them shined with perfect fluffy clouds.

Shohei looked back down at his feet from which Dagon was missing. Shohei scanned around him and saw the octopus man looking in the shallows of the ocean. Shohei's sensing was crammed into a sphere despite the expansive sunny day before him.

"Domain Expansion!"