The atrium of the department store reeked of stale sweat and old blood. It was the scent of a kingdom built on fear, a kingdom that had just crumbled in a matter of seconds.
Shin stood over the broken form of Daigo Koga. The man known as "King" was no longer screaming. He couldn't. With his cervical spine shattered, the only thing Daigo could control was the frantic darting of his bloodshot eyes. He lay in a heap of his own limbs, twisted at angles that made the survivors huddled in the corners gag.
Shin didn't look at the crowd immediately. He wiped his hands on his pants, a casual gesture that terrified the onlookers more than any threat could have. They flinched, expecting the new conqueror to issue his first command.
Shin grabbed Daigo by the collar of his expensive, filth-stained fur coat and dragged him toward the center of the room. He tossed the paralyzed sorcerer onto the tiled floor like a bag of wet trash. Daigo landed with a wet thud, his mouth opening in a silent gasp for air.
Shin turned to the survivors. They were a pathetic bunch, starved and traumatized, eyes wide with the terror of prey realizing the predator had just changed skins.
Shin: "He is paralyzed from the neck down. He can't move. He can't use his technique."
Shin looked down at Daigo, whose eyes were pleading for a quick death. Shin ignored it.
Shin: "Do what you want with him."
Without waiting for a reaction, Shin turned his back on the scene. He walked toward the shattered glass entrance where the evening light spilled in. Behind him, the silence held for a heartbeat, then broke. It started with a whisper, then a sob of rage, followed by the shuffling of feet moving toward the paralyzed King.
Maki Zenin was waiting outside. She leaned against a crumbled concrete pillar, a katana of some kind with fur resting on her shoulder. Her burn scars looked stark in the twilight, a map of the hell she had walked through. She didn't look at the survivors. She was looking at the skyline of the Culling Game.
Maki: "Took you long enough."
Shin: "Had to make sure the trash didn't stand back up. We moving?"
Maki pushed off the pillar, her eyes cold.
Maki: "Colony 1. Megumi is there. We need points to get Tsumiki out before the deadline kills her."
Shin adjusted his grip on Playful Cloud. Without his Inventory system, the cursed tool felt heavy in his hand, a physical weight to replace the digital interface he had sacrificed.
Shin: "Lead the way."
They moved.
It wasn't a run. It was a blur. To the curses and players loitering in the ruined streets of Tokyo, the duo didn't look like humans. They looked like glitches in the world. They possessed zero Cursed Energy, meaning they had no presence to sense. They were invisible until the moment they struck.
The Tokyo Colony was a nightmare of overgrown vegetation and destroyed infrastructure. Curses roamed freely, and players hunted each other in a desperate bid for survival.
An hour into their trek, they were ambushed near a collapsed overpass. A sorcerer with wild, matted hair jumped from the shadows, clapping his hands together.
Sorcerer: "Domain Expansion: Iron Maiden's Embrace!"
Black energy erupted from the ground, forming a spherical barrier designed to trap them inside a sure-hit killing zone. The sorcerer grinned, expecting to feel his technique lock onto their cursed energy.
His grin faltered.
The barrier formed, but Shin and Maki were standing on the other side of the wall.
The sorcerer blinked, confused. His sure-hit effect hadn't triggered. It couldn't trigger. A Domain Expansion targets Cursed Energy. To the barrier, Shin and Maki were no different than the rocks or the lampposts. They were inanimate objects.
Shin stopped walking and looked back at the dome.
Shin: "He looks confused."
Maki didn't hesitate. She walked right through the barrier wall as if it were made of smoke. The sorcerer screamed as she invaded his sanctuary, panicked by the impossibility of it.
Maki: "Transfer the points."
She didn't use her sword. She simply kicked his knee backward. The snap echoed under the bridge. The man fell, vomiting from the pain.
Shin stepped through the barrier a second later, swinging Playful Cloud casually. He stopped in front of the weeping sorcerer.
Shin: "You heard her. Transfer your points to Megumi Fushiguro. Now."
The man fumbled with his Kogane, sobbing as he transferred his hard-earned score. Once the transfer was complete, the light left his eyes, not from death, but from the realization that he was back to zero.
They left him there.
Shin glanced down at his hand. During the brief scuffle, a piece of flying concrete had grazed his forearm. It was a shallow cut, nothing life-threatening, but blood was trickling down to his wrist.
Shin stared at it. He waited.
In the past, a blue notification window would have flashed in his peripheral vision. [Minor Damage Detected. Auto-Recovery Active.] The skin would have knitted itself back together in seconds.
He stood there for five seconds. Ten.
The blood kept dripping. There was no blue light. No digital chime. Just the dull throb of raw nerve endings exposed to the air.
Shin reached into his pocket, pulling out a stray strip of cloth from the sorcerer he had just beaten. He wrapped the wound tight, using his teeth to tighten the knot.
Shin: "Right. No more safety nets."
Maki watched him, her eyes tracking the makeshift bandage.
Maki: "You get used to the pain. Eventually."
This pattern repeated itself as the night wore on. Brute strength users found themselves overpowered. Tech users found their sensors useless. Shin and Maki were the ultimate counter to the Jujutsu world. They were anomalies that the rules couldn't account for.
But even anomalies need fuel.
After hours of relentless travel and violence, the physical toll began to mount. Their bodies, stripped of cursed energy reinforcement, relied entirely on biological stamina. They needed calories.
They found a convenience store that was miraculously half-intact. The windows were blown out, but the shelves stood upright.
Shin vaulted the counter, rummaging through the scattered goods. He was looking for protein, something substantial. Maki wandered the aisles, grabbing colorful packages.
Shin paused, holding up a vacuum-sealed block of tofu.
Shin: "Are you just going to eat junk food?"
Maki ripped open a bag of potato chips, pouring crumbs into her mouth.
Maki: "Are you really going to judge me eating junk food at this time? Calories are calories."
Shin sighed, peeling the plastic off the tofu.
Shin: "...Fair enough. Here, try this Tofu. I think this store lost power only recently seeing as how this thing is still warm."
Maki didn't even look at it. She grabbed a chocolate bar.
Maki: "No. I just want this."
Shin: "Whatever."
Shin took a bite of the bland, lukewarm tofu. It wasn't good, but it was food. As he chewed, he noticed a shadow shift near the shattered glass of the entrance. It wasn't a curse. It was too small.
Shin lowered the tofu.
Shin: "Hello. You hungry?"
A child stepped out from the darkness. He couldn't have been more than seven years old. His clothes were rags, stained with soot and grime. His face was gaunt, eyes hollowed out by days of starvation.
The boy stared at the food in Maki's hands, then nodded slowly.
Shin felt a pang of something old in his chest. A remnant of the man he was before he gave up his humanity. He snatched the bag of chips and the chocolate bar from Maki's pile. She didn't protest, though her eyes tracked the movement with cold calculation.
Shin crouched down, extending the food.
Shin: "Here."
The boy lunged. He grabbed the bag and tore it open with his teeth, shoving chips into his mouth so fast he choked.
Shin: "Jesus, kid must've been starving."
He watched the boy eat for a moment, waiting for him to slow down.
Shin: "Where's your family?"
The chewing stopped. The boy looked down at his dirty sneakers. He didn't say a word. The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. It was an answer louder than any scream. They were gone. Everyone was gone.
Shin stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked at Maki.
Shin: "Maki, you know any shelter we can take this boy to?"
Maki didn't look at the child. She kept her eyes on the street outside, scanning for threats.
Maki: "Not in this chaos. We might find a group, but most are dead or hiding."
Shin looked back at the boy. He was licking the salt off his fingers, trembling.
Shin: "Hmmm. Maki, let's bring the kid along."
Maki turned to him. Her expression was stone.
Maki: "No. We're busy already plus watching the kid will be annoying."
Shin: "We can't just leave him."
Maki: "We are hunting ancient sorcerers. We are walking into death traps. Bringing him is a death sentence for him and a liability for us."
Shin clenched his fists. He knew she was right. That was the worst part.
Shin: "What should we do then?"
Maki gestured to the shelves.
Maki: "Leave the kid here. It's better than endangering us plus there's food and drinks here. He has a better chance hiding in a hole with supplies than running with us."
Shin looked at the boy one last time. The kid was small. Fragile. In the world of the Culling Game, he was already a ghost.
Shin: "...Alright."
Shin emptied his pockets, leaving the rest of the scavenged food in a pile next to the boy.
Shin: "Stay here. Don't make a sound."
The duo headed out into the night, leaving the child amidst the spilled chips and the silence of the store.
As they continued forward, the wind carried a sound from behind them. It was a high, thin wailing. The cry of a child realizing they were alone again.
Shin didn't look back. Maki didn't break stride.
The cries echoed off the concrete walls of the dead city, growing fainter with every step, until eventually, there was nothing but the sound of their own footsteps.
They walked in silence for another mile, crossing the boundary into the next district. The air here felt different. Heavier.
Suddenly, a massive boom echoed in the distance. A shockwave rattled the windows of the buildings around them.
Shin stopped, looking toward the smoke rising a few kilometers away. He couldn't sense the Cursed Energy, but he could feel the vibration in the asphalt through the soles of his shoes.
Shin: "That sound like a friendly chat to you?"
Maki squinted, her enhanced vision picking out a winged silhouette in the sky far above the smoke.
Maki: "That's a shikigami. Looks like Nu. Megumi is busy."
Shin spun Playful Cloud in his hand, the heavy red staff cutting the air with a low hum. The depression of the convenience store vanished, replaced by the thrill of the hunt.
Shin: "Finally. I need to hit something that fights back."
Maki: "Try not to kill him before we get the points."
They broke into a sprint, heading straight for the fire.