Mahito lowered his head as he passed under the gate, the incursion to Jujutsu Tech went perfectly as Geto had planned. The sack that rested on his back contained both the death paintings the monk demanded and all of the Sukuna's fingers the sorcerers had gathered. The curse couldn't believe how easy it has been to infiltrate the building's basement, Hanami and the others have been the perfect decoy to distract the occupants so that he could wander around the school undetected.

A moribund wheeze made him shift his attention to the ground. Well, almost undetected.

The two former guards of the deposit laid down on the cold floor, their aspects horribly transfigured by the human-like curse. They weren't an issue at all, so much so that Mahito wondered why put such low-grade shamans to guard special-grade cursed objects.

He chuckled to himself, checking the loot he managed to get his hands on. Mahito twirled one of the rotten relics between his fingers, that was one less loose end, and the King of curses could not possibly refuse them anymore once they'll offer him the fragments of his power back. "That's mission complete." He talked to himself, the Sun was setting on the human era, and from what Geto told them, the 31st of October would be the day the metaphorical clock will hit midnight.

Cursed spirits will then rule as the new humanity.

A gust of wind slightly moved some of his grayish hair over his face. As he blew the rebel strand out of his sight, a feather slowly descended through the air. Mahito diverted his eyes from the cursed object to follow the plume hovering left and right, a feather? Down in a basement?

A foreign feeling pervaded his consciousness and his skin crawled at the strange burning sensation at the base of his neck. The curse looked above him where the feather supposedly fell from, nothing but darkness stared back at him. What he felt was not fear, but rather an ill curiosity derived from it that made him delighted instead of frightened. What kind of danger was creeping in the shadows like a cunning burglar?

He glimpsed behind him with anticipation, just as his chin aligned with his shoulder blade, he was met by the sole of a shoe impacting full force on his cheek. The blow made his head rotate 270 degrees counterclockwise, his neck audibly snapped in a blood-curdling crack, and Mahito's visage was now facing backward, hanging to the side. He heard something slide into the concrete floor behind him, or in front of him? Sure this new perspective was confusing.

"You know it's rude to break other people's necks without introducing yourself first?" He complained sardonically, grabbing his dangling skull and putting it back in its place. His gray eyes were met by the majestic spectacle of glowing white wings growing out of a human, his menacing turquoise irises embedded in a dark red sclera glaring at the curse with hatred.

His energy was anomalous and the aura he emanated was making it hard to breathe. Fortunately for Mahito, he didn't need to intake oxygen to live. "Not a talkative type are you, sorcerer?" The curse persisted, waiting for an answer that never came.

"As much as I'd like to chat, my friends are waiting for me outside." Mahito took a few steps forward, "So if you excuse me, I-" white fire erupted from the human arms, and the curse childishly puffed his cheeks in annoyance after being cut off mid-sentence.

"Hey! If you want to talk, just say so!" Then he remembered, Geto told him about this.

Well, well, now this is thrilling.

~ 22 minutes before the incursion ~

"Now let the sister school exchange event... BEGIN!" Gojou shouted into the mic, earning the groans of the fellows inside the monitor room.

"Gojou, they can hear you well enough! Don't yell into the microphone, Goddamn!" Masamichi scolded the younger teacher, who in turn showed no signs of remorse for his actions. Gakuganji simply exhaled his disapproval at the man's antics, not that he could do anything about them anyway, it was better to just let him be. Utahime, however, had other ideas.

"Tsk, you're worse than a child." She said with clear irritation in her voice, something that didn't go unnoticed by Gojou who immediately seized the opportunity to annoy her one more time. So he did, she retorted testily and they went on to another one-sided tease session, much to the exorcist's amusement. Gabriele stared at the bottom of the empty cup he held, he should have burned the school down when he had the chance, instead he was stuck in a room to bear with two "adults" and their petty arguments. He landed his sights on the monitors, the Tokyo team sprinted through the trees as a compact group while Kyoto just got inside the forest and immediately broke the formation. Toudou was already missing at the start, the exorcist could tell even from the two rapid encounters they had before the event that he wasn't keen on teamwork.

"Anyone caught your attention, Gabri-Kun? Come on, tell me. Tell me." Gojou shoved his elbow into Gabriele's side, the exorcist ignored him at first as much as he could, but once he got more insistent with the shoves he had no other choice but to address his question.

"Not yet, I'd wait until we see some action." He replied without taking his eyes off the screens.

The pink-haired teenager would be an easy answer, but he also wanted to see how Megumi and Nobara would fare against students more experienced than them. Maki was a big question mark, too. She was still on high alert around him keeping her guard on all the time, surely he'll keep an eye out for the girl.

"Do we know anything about the Kyoto students?" The exorcist asked.

"Only about those that participated last year, which are Toudou Aoi, Kamo Noritoshi, and Nishimiya Momo." Gabriele nodded, his mind registering every useful information that came out of the sorcerer's mouth: the three major clans, the recommendation system, thus the function of the exchange event. "Heard you had quite a rough acquaintance with Toudou-san. He's as exuberant as he's promising, a worthy successor to his mentor. Whatever you did sure had him so impressed that he started bombarding the higher-ups with three letters a day asking for your admission at the event."

"Three letters a day, for a month?!" He looked at the teacher incredulously.

"A month and eight days to be exact, and it amounts to 114 in total. Talk about commitment." Gojou giggled a bit, "Oh, speak of the devil..." He pointed at the screen, Gabriele followed thereafter and saw a huge cloud of dust covering half the camera's field of view.

Itadori ran through the woods in the middle of the group, Maki was explaining to him the team tactics they agreed upon to scout for the big prize. Two separate squads would cover more terrain than one ever could, even he could have thought of that. Not that it mattered to him, he had a whole other role in this stage of the event. As they went forward with their plan, they encountered an arachnid curse on the way dandling off its web string.

"It's a small fry." Panda commented, Maki whirled her weapon in response ready to attack the creature, every curse counts here, better to put themselves ahead of the competition.

"Senpai, Stop!" Megumi alarmed everyone, as soon as Itadori stopped a great mass of air blew the cursed spirit away, and a battle cry announced the presence of the Kyoto berserker in front of them. "Great! You're all here!" Toudou shouted, a huge smirk plastered on his scarred face as he watched all the Tokyo team in battle stance, finally, something that satisfied his warrior's heart.

"Come at me all together!" Yuuji, as if a gun went off like at the beginning of a 100m sprint contest, darted towards the strongman and bashed his right knee across his shit-eating grin while the rest of the group scattered in different directions, now the first-year had to keep Toudou occupied as long as possible. He used his opponent's body as a trampoline to push him a few meters away. Toudou seemed unscathed by the blow as he spat on the ground, much to Itadori's surprise.

'Seriously? I thought I landed a good one.'

"Nice speed!" the Kyoto powerhouse said, cracking his knuckles, "I'll return the favor, first-year. Guard like your life depends on it!" He dashed forward with a pace that shocked the teenager with pink hair who instinctively put his arms up. Just as Toudou was about to hit him, the spider-like curse from before swang in front of him, getting obliterated in the process. Although the spirit cushioned some of the blow's force, Itadori was knocked back by the sheer strength behind the punch and flew through a tree and into a solid trunk. Yuuji found himself without any air in his lungs, coughing the little that was still inside his organism. He watched his right arm in fear, sure that the strike would have blown it off if it wasn't for the first getting in the way. The teenager struggled to get up, but a heavy stomp laid him back against the tree. And he got stomped again...and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again until he felt his consciousness leaving his body.

"Gojou," Gabriele called the sorcerer beside him, "something's wrong with the camera feed." He made a small nod to the monitor on the left.

"So you noticed too." The adult replied with a low voice. Since Itadori got separated from the rest of the group, the video feedback on his general position has been faltering more and more. To add more suspicion, neither were any of the Kyoto students shown on the screen, couldn't they be more blatant about it. "I didn't think they could act this quickly, but at this rate, I'd be surprised if he was still alive."

"You think it's too strange to be a coincidence?"

"I'm convinced of it, besides..." Gojou spied behind him hidden by the back of his seat at the woman with the big braid, the supposedly impartial director of the event, sitting in the middle of the room with her eyes closed in deep concentration. "It is surprisingly easy to get your way when your pockets are full." He turned again to the exorcist, he was sure Itadori could survive any potential attack on his own, however, should he face all the opponent's team alone the probability of him arriving at the end of the battle outside of a body bag was very narrow. The Italian remembered what Gojou told him in the hallway, being the vessel of the King of Curses must not be very popular amongst the sorcerers, no wonder they'll want him dead.

But killing him now would be a waste without feeding the young man the indestructible fingers first. He couldn't let that happen.

"What are we gonna do?" He asked. Fortunately for him, Gojou had already thought of something.

"The bathroom is not too far from here. Just go right once you're out of the room, then straight down the corridor and turn left at the end of the long row of windows. It should be the third door on your left." The teacher loudly instructed him, enough to get everyone's attention on them. The exorcist raised a brow in confusion as Gojou simply gave him a slight nod in response, then he eventually understood and got up from his seat.

Slowly Gabriele paced to the door, slid it to the side, and excused himself out of the room. As he looked left and right in the deserted hallway, his phone vibrated in his pocket, guessing by the two short pulses someone must have sent him a message. Gojou smiled after the exorcist wrote a two-word reply a few seconds after his, Itadori indeed needed a guardian angel looking after him at the moment.

~ back outside ~

It gets boring after a while, staying above all the action on her broom when everyone else was beating each other up below her feet. But it's all for the better, Momo couldn't fathom what she'd do if a nasty cut should ever disfigure her cute visage, she'd lose her mind probably. "Yeah, continue straight that way. Toudou-kun's there, though." She notified her classmate on the other end of the phone call, the principal was very clear about not letting Sukuna's vessel live to see another day, and luckily for them, they didn't have to look around for long.

"Not a problem," Noritoshi responded, his voice coming out distorted by the phone speakers. The witch kept the call open, in case one of the opposing team showed up to save their comrade while they were busy with the vessel.

So she stood vigilant from above as she scanned around the perimeter, everything was tranquil until four gunshots echoed in the woods. Gosh, she hoped to wrap things up as quickly as possible.

Then she heard Toudou's voice thundering, matching the loudness of Mai's pistol. Momo knew this would have happened, getting in the brute's way would have only pissed him off more than he already was, which was detrimental to their tactics. They were such a hassle, now the mission's success was entirely in Toudou's hands as the rest of her teammates ran off into the wilderness.

She followed them with her eye, the witch couldn't really leave Toudou alone but they couldn't start hunting down cursed spirits without Momo scouting from the air, either. She sighed, they were off to a rocky start. If only they had left the giant be like she told them to.

"Hang in there, me. You're as cute as ever today." She said to herself.

A flutter of heavy wings suddenly distracted her for a moment, her chin immediately went upwards to gaze at the blue sky in search of an explanation of sorts. Birds could trespass the barrier easily, although they'd usually circumvent it as they're more perceptive of the obstacle than the average person, this must have been huge, judging by the sound they made. And worst of all, no animals were soaring in the sky today.

"Scary..." she whispered as a giant raptor appeared behind her back.

Megumi watched Nue taking down the oblivious sorcerer in astonishment, how she didn't notice his shikigami was beyond him. "Nice job, Fushiguro." Maki cheered, without the broom-riding girl they no longer had an air advantage over them regarding curse spotting. They rushed to an open space, Megumi aimed to intercept their rivals and stall them in order to let Panda and the others eliminate curses with fewer drawbacks and get them ahead of the competition.

"Itadori... danger..."

The young man abruptly stopped in his tracks as a voice interfered with his thoughts, his eyes darted around as he looked for the only person capable of speaking into his mind. The message wasn't very clear, he must be very distant at the moment.

"Everything alright?" Maki asked in concern.

"It may be just my imagination, but I think Esposito talked to me." Megumi responded, if the exorcist was indeed trying to communicate with him, it could only mean that something sinister was occurring. 'No, if something was happening he would have told us face to face unless he doesn't want to be seen outside.' Then he had an epiphany. Itadori, danger, the higher-ups never saw him as anything more than a threat to the Jujutsu world. They are likely using the chaos of the group stage to execute Itadori in secret, Gojou understood that and sent Gabriele outside to warn us. Fushiguro gritted his teeth but held one glimmer of hope. Once they leave the natural cover of the forest foliage, Itadori should be relatively safe for the remaining time of the event. They must find the cursed spirit boss and fast.

The sound of footsteps shifted their attention to their left. After they shared a brief knowing glance, Maki and Megumi sprinted to chase off whoever had the misfortune of running past them.

Gabriele sat on the tallest building's ledge with his legs left at the mercy of the void below, before him stood the entirety of the battleground. Although they were basically at Fall's door, the day was pleasantly warm as the sunshine kissed his skin, something that he found himself enjoying lately. From time to time, those moments of blessed solitude were interrupted by flashes that illuminated acres of land, and loud explosions which reverberated in his ears.

It looked like the students were going at it, he even recognized Panda jumping on the roofs nearby as he fought the robot, what was it called? Mechamaru, if he remembered correctly.

The phone he left at his side went off again, the vibration making it slide down to his doom. The exorcist, attracted by the buzzing, glanced to his right and watched the device approaching the oblivion with each tremor. In a matter of a second, his mind went first blank, pried off by any thoughts, then his face contorted into a terrified grimace. As if a red alarm blinked itself present, his body swiftly reacted out of instinct and snatched the phone just before it could fall off the cliff.

His muscles relaxed as he breathed the stress away, now that it was safe in his hands. The phone vibrated again, Gojou's name appeared on the lit-up screen with two new messages, what does he want now?

Gabriele unlocked the device, the chatroom read as such:

Bendato

Today ~ 11:37

~ warn Megumi-kun and
stay above the ground and avoid contact with crows

Understood ~

~ how cold
we're 1-0 down

Please, stop ~

11:42

I've informed the team ~
I'm heading back

~ no, keep an eye on Itadori
don't worry ill make up an excuse

11:49

~ 1-1!
also we were right about the camera feed, the director was bribed smh
good job assistant

I'm not your assistant. ~

~ treat urself a drink at the vending machines
U earned it

New messages

11:52

~ missed call 0:06

are u still by the vending machines?
could u get me a snack ty

This fucking idiot. He was literally there five minutes ago! Gabriele pinched his nose bridge in irritation, in his head he started to sympathize with every person who had to deal with the tall moron to this day and on. He reluctantly got up and stretched his back all the way, careful to not lose his balance on the slightly inclined rooftop. As the wings began to form feather by feather, the exorcist was deciding whether to go collect the snack or go straight to the monitor room. You know what? Who cares? He wasn't one to be petty over trivial things, but the vending machines were near the school's gate, exactly on the opposite side of where he was at the moment, and Gabriele wasn't going to waste energy and money, especially when he was certain the blindfolded imbecile won't pay him back any time soon.

The exorcist moved the fully developed wings up and down, ensuring himself that the divine essence was flowing at a steady rate, so to avoid falling face first into the ground mid-flight.

Just as he was about to take off though, white fire burst out of two of his left digits.

Initially, Gabriele didn't put much thought into it, sorcerers were hunting low-level curses in the forest below him, a sudden spike in cursed energy or just a cursed spirit lurking near him could make the divine essence react violently. Then he noticed that the crests of the flames were all pointing southeast, which concerned the exorcist. With it being pure essence, the fire cannot be affected by weather like wind or rain. Only a strong emission of cursed energy could sway it. Exorcists exploited this fire property to uncover the hidden dens of the curses by basically using it as a compass.

Gabriele concentrated the excessive essence on a single finger to get a much clearer read. After that, he diminished the flames to two phalanges, then just one phalanx. The theory says that the dimension of the fire is indirectly proportional to the amount of cursed energy necessary to make it move. In easier terms, the smaller the flame, the harder it is to affect. A fourth grade, for instance, cannot move a flame as big as two phalanges while a second grade can do that easily.

This technique is used to determine the grade of the cursed spirit. Unfortunately, the flame passed all three tests.

'A first grade or higher.' The exorcist frowned, Masamichi said the cursed spirit boss was a second grade. Unless Toudou decided to unleash his full potential, the event was about to get a turn for the worse.