"Come and have a look, fresh and hot octopus balls~"

“Fried noodles! Fried noodles with seafood~”

"Would you like some delicious strawberry daifuku? Look here~"

“…”

The Tama City Summer Festival has begun. The streets where the festival is held are decorated with various wisteria flowers and colorful ribbons. People are coming and going around, and it is very lively. Countless tourists are wearing beautiful festival costumes and strolling and shopping on the streets.

According to the process of previous years, the first day of the celebration was for tourists to eat, drink and have fun. Various vendors had made preparations early. Starting at 10 a.m., the celebration avenue was filled with various carts. In the gaps between each section of shops, there were also various jugglers, live singers and traditional folk performances invited by the Tengxian Sect.

As for stamp collection activities, mobile sticker distribution activities, and even some character cosplay activities are also starting one after another.

Norose Kugisaki and Yuji Itadori were overwhelmed by the sight and soon they had a pile of boxes of different sizes in their hands. Norose Kugisaki had a wreath made of wisteria petals on her head, while Yuji Itadori put the wreath around his neck as a necklace.

Izawa Sugi followed them. He did not buy a wisteria wreath, but just left his hair in a gradient of blue and purple with flowers blooming naturally underneath - if anyone asked, he would say it was a wig.

At this moment, Izawa Sugi is holding an ice cream developed by the locals of Tama using wisteria flowers.

As someone who once drank the toxin from the vine as tea, Izawa Shan naturally found it very novel when he saw the vendor selling it, and he immediately bought one to taste.

I just thought I would taste the familiar wisteria flower flavor, but until Izawa Shan finished eating, I didn't find that there were wisteria flower toppings in the ice cream.

Looking at Izawa Sugi's astonished expression, Kugizaki Norose couldn't help laughing: "You're overthinking it. How could the merchant really put wisteria flowers in it? Printing wisteria petals on the outside of the box and using edible pigments to make a gradient color is already the limit! I was deceived many times when I first arrived in Tokyo."

Izawa Shan was speechless, but after a few seconds he smiled: "That's right, large doses of vine flowers are poisonous and are indeed not suitable for development into food."

"Ah? Poisonous?"

Yuji Itadori, who was eating wagashi made from wisteria flowers, looked at Izawa Sugi and Kugizaki Norose in horror. The wagashi in his hand was in the shape of a translucent jelly with a wisteria petal inside, which looked extremely beautiful.

Izawa Sugi smiled and said, "It's a large dose. One or two petals will be fine."

Izawa Sugi is the host of the entire Tama City formation. He can sense the status of the formation more quickly and conveniently when he travels around Tama City, while Yuji Itadori and Norose Kugizaki are his little assistants.

Once Izawa Sugi finds a curser who needs to be dealt with, Norose Kugizaki or Yuji Itadori will contact Kento Nanami, who will directly arrange personnel to take action.

For example, at this moment, Ize Shan, who was throwing the ice cream wrapper into the trash can, suddenly looked up at a certain place. He closed his eyes slightly and sensed it, and said softly: "Number 48, 20 meters north, there is a curser. The opponent seems to be walking towards the southwest. The target is an old woman...?"

Kugizaki No Rose's face turned serious: "Got it."

She quickly called Nanami Kento, and after a few words, Norose Kugizaki asked Izawa Sugi, "Can you find out the old woman's facial features?"

Izawa Sugi was concentrating on sensing. There were too many people, and the other party was also consciously avoiding the sight of the people around them. Izawa Sugi had to constantly communicate with the surrounding plants from a distance...

"Her hair is tied up, she looks thin, she's wearing a kimono, and she has a Buddhist necklace around her neck... Eh? She has an accomplice, a tall young man. This guy, ah, looks a bit like a dead person who has been robbed!"

Nanami Kento quickly thought of a wanted curser through Kugizaki No Rose's retelling: "Oh, it might be Granny Ogami and her puppets. I'll let Ino go and fight them."

Kento Nanami selected five to seven free-roaming sorcerers based on their strength, who can go to the location reported by Izawa Sugi at any time to capture the sorcerer.

Almost all of those cursers were caught by Izawa Sugi through the formation as soon as they got off the station or drove into Tama City. However, according to the plan agreed upon in advance, Nanami Kento's pursuit force could not be too strong.

Izawa Sugi reminded Nanami Kento: "Leave a little gap, don't catch it too quickly or too sharply, give them some illusions, let the cursers think that we are just checking strictly and hiding so that they can't be found. Otherwise, what if the remaining cursers don't fall into the trap?"

What if Nozomi finds out that Tama City is heavily guarded and changes his mind to launch the attack in Tokyo? That would be troublesome.

Nanami Kento said he understood, but he raised an objection: "If they hide and harm people..."

Izawa Sugi: "Don't worry, I will make them think they are still being hunted, so they won't have time to hurt anyone."

Hearing what Izawa Sugi said, Nanami Kento could only look at Izawa Sugi with the same eyes as he looked at Gojo Satoru: He is indeed a big shot on the same level as Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru, no wonder he dared to sign directly and let Gojo Satoru pay ten times the overtime pay.

The first day passed without incident.

Nanami Kento's capture team captured more than a dozen cursers, and there were some casualties on their side. Doctor Ieiri Naoko had already arrived at the medical center set up in advance, so there were no casualties.

Gojo Satoru and Fushiguro Megumi stayed inside the Fujisen sect. On the one hand, they were both believers and needed to attend meetings. On the other hand, they were also bodyguards for many believers. Especially when Geto Suguru could only be a kind and powerless leader, any disturbance that might occur in private would be handled by Gojo Satoru personally.

Megumi Fushiguro disguised himself as the Wisteria Sage and sat on a high platform at the back of the gathering, observing the believers around the clock to see if they were behaving inappropriately - to prevent any cursers from secretly controlling the believers.

Late at night, Megumi Fushiguro was finally able to relax and take a short nap.

The conditions of Yuji Itadori and Norose Kugizaki were better. One of them worked as a communicator and the other as a bodyguard during the day. Although they were tired, they also experienced the celebration activities and could relax, unlike Megumi Fushiguro who was tense and alert all day.

"Is everything alright for the evening?"

The trio rested inside Tsuki no Fujiji Temple. Kugizaki Norose looked at Tama City not far down the mountain and said, "If something happens, it will be too late for us to rush over, right?"

Fushiguro Megumi said tiredly, "It doesn't matter. At night, without TV stations and ordinary people watching, the fighting power of Master Geto will be released. He controls thousands of cursed spirits, the worst of which is level three, and there are dozens of special cursed spirits. He will control these cursed spirits to patrol the city."

Yuji Itadori stretched out his tone: "So powerful, is it the cursed spirit operator?" He thought of the chief curser in the illusion and had a new idea for passing the level, "Let's rest early, there are still two days."

That night, Yuji Itadori took the initiative to propose the idea of ​​joining forces with the curser to Gojo Satoru in the illusion.

Gojo Satoru looks at Yuji Itadori with a completely new perspective.

"Why would you want to do this, Hisahito?"

"Eh? Isn't that Geto Suguru your classmate?"

Yuji Itadori racked his brains and said, "First, contact the Curse Master to kill the General Manager together, and then fight the Curse Master, and the matter will be over, right?"

Gojo Satoru said with amusement: "Why do you think the Curse Master won't backstab me?"

Yuji Itadori: "He is your friend. I think a friend recognized by Mr. Gojo will not stab you in the back."

Gojo Satoru looked at Yuji Itadori for a long time without saying anything. After an unknown amount of time, he reached out and touched Yuji Itadori's head.

"Since Hisahito, who once hated him, has said so, I will go talk to Jie."

Yuji Itadori suddenly realized that, yes, No Rose Kugizaki died at the hands of the curser in the illusion.

But he also killed a large group of cursers. Even though it was Ryomen Sukuna who killed them crazily, what's the difference between him and him?

Yuji Itadori thought again of the time when Ryomen Sukuna came online and killed everyone. Before that, every time he entered the illusion at night, all he saw was blood. Yuji Itadori was given a heart attack by what he saw, but he could do nothing about it.

"Gojo-sensei, I won't forgive him, but that's not the case for Gojo-sensei, right? And if the union can bring a new future to the teacher and Principal Yemo, I will tolerate it."

After thinking it over again and again, Yuji Itadori said seriously: "When everything is over, I will fight him. No matter what, I have to give an explanation to Kushizaki and Fushiguro."

"This is between me and Geto. Please don't interfere."

Gojo Satoru in the illusion showed a relieved yet complicated smile.

He said, "His high self has grown up."

Hearing these words, a feeling of blessing surged over Yuji Itadori's heart.

His fantasy was about to end.

Perhaps what Mr. Qianshou wanted me to learn was this kind of calm mentality, which was to think hard about the way out and practice one's own beliefs and ideas in any desperate and crazy situation.

Even if he is destroyed by a nuclear weapon, even if he is betrayed, even if he is deceived, even if his hands are stained with blood, even if he is responsible for the lives of countless people, even if his back is bent by the guilt, he will and must try his best to survive and find hope in despair.

Yuji Itadori suddenly remembered his deceased grandfather.

——"In this world, there is a person, a thin, sick old man, without any magical power, and who does not understand the conspiracy surrounding you. He is simply worried about you, loves you, and tries to make you recognized by others. He dies surrounded by people..."

——"He loves you."

Yuji Itadori had a deeper understanding of what Izawa Sugi had said before.

When he heard this, his heart was filled with emotion and shame towards his grandfather, but when he recalled it now, Yuji Itadori could better understand the power contained in these words.

This is the flame of hope that allows him to maintain the warmth in his heart even in the harshest cold and despair.

If he were to encounter the same terrible situation in reality in the future, such as in the fantasy, his partner would die, his teacher would have problems, his senior would be detained by the Directorate, and his way of existence would be denied by everyone...

Yuji Itadori clenched his fists and thought that he could still go on.

Because he is loved and blessed, and there are countless people, living or dead, watching him, whether with expectation or hatred, he should not stop.

The morning of the second day after the celebration, Yuji Itadori woke up to the fragrance of wisteria flowers and the sound of birds.

He felt that he had crossed a long river and climbed over a steep mountain, and under the gaze of the crescent moon and stars, he stood on the Warlock's Road, a road leading to blood and death.

Principal Night Moth once said that a sorcerer has never died without regrets.

At this moment, Yuji Itadori felt that these words were absolutely true.

He can't die.

His death means the birth of Ryomen Sukuna.

So if he died, he would definitely feel great regret.

"Let's start by absolutely surviving."

Yuji Itadori waved his fist at the rising sun, whether it was towards the general manager's office, the curser, or Ryomen Sukuna.

"Fight to the death to win!"