The embers of battle had yet to cool.
The chaos in Tokyo was being swiftly eradicated in the face of Satoru Gojo's absolute power.
Gojo's figure transformed into a streak of pale blue light, darting at high speeds through the ruined streets and alleys of Tokyo.
He looked as though he were merely performing a simple cleanup job.
Those ancient curse users who had just awakened from their long seals, before they could even announce their presence to this new era, were instantly exorcised without even catching a clear glimpse of Gojo's face.
A burly man who had just been clamoring about restoring his past glory had his body instantly compressed into a ball of meat by an invisible gravitational force.
Another curse user attempting to bewilder his mind with illusions had his head directly crushed by a giant hand that appeared out of thin air.
For the current Gojo, dealing with these so-called Special Grades was like crushing bugs.
His enhanced Six Eyes were operating at an unprecedented output, tracking that incredibly repulsive, cold aura belonging to Kenjaku.
The aura was faint, yet it wound its way through the complex urban ruins like a thread.
Ultimately, the end of the thread pointed toward a long-abandoned subway station, rather than the Tombs of the Star as he had expected.
Gojo teleported to the rusted iron doors of the shelter and kicked them open without hesitation.
A dull crash echoed through the empty underground passage.
A foul stench—a mixture of rust, mold, and stale blood—assaulted his face.
He followed the spiral staircase downward, stepping into the darkness-shrouded abyss.
At the end of the passage, behind a slightly ajar alloy door, two faint beams of cellphone light spilled out.
Gojo pushed the door open, and the sight before him made him freeze.
Inside the spacious shelter, Nanako and Mimiko were clutching the long-cold corpse of "Suguru Geto," their bodies trembling from fear and despair.
They had been abandoned here.
Seeing Gojo appear, the last glimmer of light in the two girls' eyes was instantly replaced by hatred.
"Satoru Gojo!"
"It's you! You're the one who killed Lord Geto!"
Nanako let out a shrill scream, pouring all her remaining cursed energy into the cursed tool in her hand.
Mimiko also exerted all her strength, attempting to manipulate her rope to strangle Gojo's neck.
However, their desperate attacks, which staked everything they had, couldn't even get within three meters of Gojo.
A terrifying pressure of cursed energy, strong enough to warp space itself, erupted from Gojo.
Nanako and Mimiko were instantly pinned down, unable to move, finding it incredibly difficult to even breathe.
Gojo didn't even spare them a glance.
His gaze was fixed solely on that familiar yet foreign face.
Right at that moment, the "corpse" that should have been dead spoke.
"Pfft."
The voice didn't belong to Suguru Geto; it was Kenjaku's sickening tone.
"What a touching master-student bond, Gojo brat."
"Too bad you lost."
"While you were busy cleaning up those small fries, I already completed my assimilation with Tengen, evolving into a higher state of existence that you cannot comprehend."
Kenjaku's voice was filled with flaunting and a patronizing arrogance.
"This vessel is completely worthless to me now."
"I'll give this body to you as a souvenir, along with all the useless cursed spirits inside it."
"Enjoy it well. Enjoy the evolution I have brought to this world!"
The moment his words fell, the last trace of Kenjaku's aura within the body was completely severed, dissipating without a trace.
Feeling the body temperature of Suguru Geto in their arms begin to fade, Nanako and Mimiko completely broke down.
"Waaaahhhhh—!"
Despairing cries echoed through the dead silence of the shelter.
Gojo quietly looked at his best friend's cold body, then at the two girls sobbing uncontrollably while clutching the corpse.
Boundless anger surged within his heart.
He slowly walked forward and crouched down, pulling an emerald-green bean radiating a faint aura of life from his pocket.
It was a Senzu Bean that Ian had casually handed out to him before they parted ways.
He wasn't sure if this thing would work on a body that had been dead for a year, had lost its brain, and had even been occupied by another soul.
Under Nanako and Mimiko's murderous glares, Gojo reached out and gently pried open Suguru Geto's long-stiffened mouth.
"Suguru."
His voice carried a hint of a tremor that even he hadn't noticed.
"Whether this works or not..."
"Let's try one more time."
He slowly placed the emerald-green bean into his best friend's mouth.
The Senzu Bean melted the moment it entered his mouth.
An indescribable, vast, and majestic life energy instantly swept through Suguru Geto's entire body!
The next second, a miracle occurred.
The hideous, terrifying stitches on his forehead squirmed wildly like living creatures, eventually being forcefully squeezed out of his flesh and falling off!
The necrotic, even rotting bodily tissues were regaining their vitality at a visible rate.
A hint of healthy color returned to his paper-white face.
That heart, which had long stopped beating, once again let out a dull yet powerful throb.
Thump.
Nanako and Mimiko clearly felt the returning life force in Suguru Geto's body.
They were instantly pulled back to reality from the abyss of despair, weeping tears of joy and becoming incoherent with excitement.
"Lord... Lord Geto?"
"Lord Geto!!"
Suguru Geto's eyelids fluttered slightly amidst those tearful calls.
After a violent coughing fit that sounded as if he were going to cough up his lungs, he suddenly opened his eyes.
His gaze was initially dazed and hollow.
But upon clearly seeing the white-haired man in front of him—who had taken off his blindfold and was smiling a smile uglier than crying—that daze instantly vanished.
"Satoru?"
Gojo took a deep breath and said softly,
"Suguru."
"Welcome back."
Suguru Geto's memories were still stuck on that day, on the final moment when he was killed by Yuta Okkotsu.
He couldn't comprehend the situation before him at all.
Gojo could only use the briefest of words to inform him about everything regarding Kenjaku.
Learning that his body had actually been used as a host by a thousand-year-old monster to commit all sorts of unforgivable atrocities, and that even the "family" he treasured had been ruthlessly used as pawns by that bastard, an unprecedented fury ignited within Suguru Geto's heart.
He attempted to activate his cursed technique.
Only to be surprised to find that the "vortex" within his body used to store cursed spirits had undergone an unknown mutation due to Kenjaku's prolonged parasitism.
Whether it was its capacity, intensity, or his control over the cursed spirits, it far exceeded what it was before.
He slowly stood up from the cold ground.
He gently pulled the still-crying Nanako and Mimiko into his embrace.
He looked at Satoru Gojo, and in those eyes that always carried a hint of melancholy, there was now only unprecedented determination.
"Satoru."
"This time, I won't leave you alone again."
"That guy named Kenjaku... I will exorcise him with my own hands!"