The smell inside the detention center was suffocating, a toxic mixture of wet concrete, pulverized rust, and the metallic stench of iron.
Deep inside the ruined ground floor, the corridor had collapsed into a graveyard of concrete slabs and twisted rebar. Water dripped rhythmic beats from broken pipes above, splashing onto cold silver puddles scattered across the floor.
Those puddles were motionless.
Five meters away, half-buried under a fallen support beam, lay the Metalloid. Its heavy, mechanized chassis was cracked down the center. The brilliant blue conduits that had once pulsed along its frame were completely dark, reduced to dull, lifeless glass.
Sora slumped against a shattered load-bearing pillar, his shoulder pressed hard against the exposed steel wire inside the wall.
His lungs hitched with every shallow, ragged breath.
Cold sweat ran down his forehead, stinging his left eye, but he didn't even have the strength to lift a hand to wipe it away.
His cursed energy reserves were entirely gone.
Zero.
Completely dry.
'My body feels like lead poured into an iron casting.'
A few steps ahead, the Special Grade curse loomed over the narrow hallway.
It didn't look human.
Its gray, leathery skin stretched tight across an asymmetrical torso, and five unblinking, milky-white eyes were clustered randomly across its skull.
The curse's elongated right arm ended in curved, obsidian claws that dragged along the floor, leaving deep gouges in the tile with a sound like nails scraping across glass.
It tilted its head.
A joint in its neck snapped with a wet, wooden crack.
It stepped forward.
The physical pressure of its cursed energy rolled down the corridor like a tidal wave of ice water.
The air grew impossibly thick, making Sora's chest ache under the raw weight of it.
I really hate overworking, Sora thought dully.
His fingers twitched against the concrete.
Nothing happened.
Not even a microscopic bead of metal moved.
'This is why I told Gojo field work is a scam.'
The curse raised its arm.
The obsidian claws glinted under the flickering overhead fluorescent light.
Sora didn't blink.
He simply watched the claw begin its descent.
Trajectory. Straight through the sternum.
Speed. Subsonic.
Reaction capability. Non-existent.
CRACK!
The structural ceiling directly above the curse violently detonated.
A torrent of shattered concrete, ceiling tiles, and cloud-like plaster dust exploded downward.
Through the falling debris, a shadow cut through the air at terrifying speed.
"SORAAA!"
A voice thundered through the enclosed space, raw, frantic, and bursting with unfiltered kinetic energy.
Yuji Itadori plunged through the hole, his body rotated into a full axial spin in mid-air.
Both of his hands were wrapped tightly around the thick, wrapped hilt of Demon-Slaughterer, the heavy, broad butcher blade Gojo had handed him before the mission.
Yuji brought the weapon down in a brutal, two-handed overhead arc, riding gravity straight into the curse's shoulder.
BOOM!
The Special Grade moved before the blade could connect.
Its spine bent backward at an unnatural ninety-degree angle, its torso warping out of the strike's path like fluid spilling out of a glass.
Demon-Slaughterer slammed straight into the reinforced concrete floor instead.
CLANG!
Sparks erupted in a brilliant yellow burst.
The shockwave of the physical impact blew the surrounding dust outward in a perfectly circular ring.
The floor split open, cobwebbing outward for three meters as Yuji skidded across the tile, his sneakers grinding down to tear up chunks of linoleum before he dug his heel in to stop his momentum.
He spun instantly back into a forward guard, holding the heavy butcher knife diagonally across his chest.
"Missed!" Yuji barked, his breathing heavy, his chest heaving under his red hood.
Sora blinked slowly through the haze of settling concrete dust, his head lolling slightly against the wall.
"...Why did you come back, idiot?"
Yuji didn't turn around.
His amber eyes remained locked onto the grotesque, multi-eyed face of the curse rising back to its full height.
"Because you said you'd meet us outside!" Yuji yelled back, his shoulders tense, his knuckles white against the weapon's hilt.
"And you weren't there!"
Sora let out a dry, rasping exhale that was supposed to be a laugh.
"Details," Sora muttered softly.
"I got slightly delayed."
"Yeah, I noticed!"
The curse reacted.
It didn't slide across the floor.
It simply ceased to be in its current location and reappeared two meters to the left, its long arm sweeping in a brutal horizontal arc straight for Yuji's neck.
The sheer air displacement created a whistling scream inside the narrow corridor.
Yuji shifted his weight instantly, thrusting Demon-Slaughterer broadside to catch the blow.
BANG!
The force of the strike hit like a high-speed vehicle impact.
Yuji's teeth slammed together, a grunt forced from his throat as the raw kinetic energy lifted him off his feet.
His boots struck the ground ten feet away, carving two deep, smoking furrows into the foundation before he slammed his left back foot down against a fallen beam to anchor himself.
Sora's eyes narrowed.
His mind automatically processed the physical mechanics of the collision despite his fading consciousness.
No cursed energy behind Yuji's strike.
Pure physical muscle density and leverage.
His skeletal structure is taking the full shock of a Special Grade's output.
He can't sustain a prolonged guard against that kind of mass.
"Yuji," Sora called out, his voice sharp, devoid of its usual lazy cadence.
"I'm fine!" Yuji yelled, shifting his footing and resetting his center of gravity.
"I can take him!"
The curse shrieked, a sound like metal tearing under tension, and lunged forward again.
It drove its left palm forward in a piercing thrust aimed straight at Yuji's torso.
Yuji ducked beneath the strike, the wind from the blade-like fingers ripping his hood back, and drove his shoulder straight into the curse's midsection, attempting a heavy tackle to throw off its balance.
THUD!
The curse barely budged.
It felt like hitting a solid wall of iron.
The curse's free arm whipped down toward Yuji's spine.
Sora clicked his tongue.
"Annoying."
Sora focused every remaining thread of his willpower.
Deep inside the right sleeve of his uniform jacket, something stirred.
It wasn't a pool of metal.
It wasn't even a solid object.
It was a single, thread-thin filament of silver liquid metal, less than a millimeter thick, pale, shivering, and barely a foot in length.
It was the absolute microscopic scrap he could squeeze out of his bone-dry core.
Sora flicked his index finger.
"Back!"
The silver thread shot out from beneath his cuff like a needle-thin whip.
It snaked through the air and wrapped twice around Yuji's waist.
Sora pulled his arm backward with everything he had left in his upper body.
Yuji was yanked violently backward by half a meter.
CRASH!
The curse's downward claw strike missed Yuji's spine by half an inch, smashing straight through the floorboards where Yuji had been standing a fraction of a second before.
Concrete fragments and dust sprayed into the air like shrapnel.
Yuji tumbled backward, catching his footing beside Sora, his lungs burning as he gasped for air.
He glanced down at the silver thread coiling around his stomach in shock.
"You still have metal?!"
"A wire's worth," Sora wheezed, a drop of cold sweat dripping off his chin.
"Don't expect a fortress."
The Special Grade withdrew its arm from the destroyed floor.
It turned slowly toward them, its five milky eyes focusing entirely on the two boys.
Then, its aura changed.
The malicious pressure doubled.
The atmospheric pressure dropped drastically, making the hair on Sora's arms stand on end.
The curse's body swelled slightly, black veins bulging beneath its gray flesh as cursed energy visibly radiated off its skin in thick, distorted waves.
It stopped playing around.
The initial engagement was just curiosity.
Now it's executing.
"Yuji," Sora said.
His voice was dangerously quiet, stripped of all humor.
"Yeah?"
"When I open a gap, take Kugisaki and run."
Yuji didn't hesitate.
He didn't even look back.
He raised Demon-Slaughterer, bringing his left hand up to reinforce his grip on the handle.
"No."
Sora raised a tired eyebrow.
"No?"
"We're both getting out," Yuji said firmly, lowering his center of gravity.
His gaze was fixed on the curse.
"I'm not leaving another person behind. Not today."
For a long second, the only sound in the ruined hall was the dripping of water and the distant hum of rain outside the building.
Sora stared at the side of Yuji's face, at the dirt, blood, and absolute, unyielding conviction stamped across the younger boy's features.
A short, dry chuckle escaped Sora's lips.
"You're absurdly stubborn."
"I get that a lot," Yuji gritted out.
The curse moved.
It didn't step.
It burst forward, the ground beneath its feet disintegrating into dust from the sheer explosive acceleration.
"Front!" Sora commanded.
He thrust his right hand down toward the floorboards.
The silver wire uncoiled from Yuji's waist, dropping to the floor and driving itself straight into the concrete.
THWIP!
A single, needle-thin bar of liquid metal burst upward from the tiles, positioning itself directly in front of the curse's leading knee.
The curse's raw momentum slammed into the spike.
The wire was far too thin to impale the Special Grade.
The sheer weight of the curse snapped the silver needle instantly into useless dust, but the sudden point of physical resistance threw the curse's footing off by a fraction of an inch.
Its knee buckled slightly.
Its chest tilted.
Its trajectory was ruined.
"Now!" Sora barked, grabbing Yuji's sleeve with his left hand.
They bolted.
They sprinted down the narrow corridor, their boots slamming against broken tiles and fallen concrete as the curse recovered its balance behind them.
BOOM!
The sound of air being ripped apart echoed behind them as the Special Grade gave chase.
Walls on either side of the narrow hallway cracked and collapsed simply from the displacement of its movement as it surged after them like an avalanche of flesh and malice.
Sora's vision vibrated.
Black spots danced at the edges of his sight.
Every stride felt like running through wet cement.
My legs are locking up.
Oxygen intake is plummeting.
We have maybe ten seconds before it catches up to our rear vector.
Then, from somewhere further down the dark, twisting hallway ahead, a sharp, echoing sound carried through the ruined structure.
Heavy boots.
The clatter of loose stone.
And a sharp, furious voice echoing off the walls.
"Yuji! Sora!"
Nobara.
Yuji's face lit up instantly.
"Kugisaki!"
Sora let out a long, ragged exhale through his nose.
Good.
Megumi pulled it off.
She's alive.
"Don't slow down!" Sora ordered, his voice strained.
"Keep moving toward her voice!"
"Right!"
They rounded a sharp turn in the corridor.
And the world stopped.
The air three feet in front of them folded in on itself.
A black wave of cursed energy burst from the floorboards directly in their path.
Out of the darkness, the Special Grade materialized like a nightmare stepping out of a mirror, blocking the narrow escape route completely.
Its jaws split wide, revealing double rows of jagged, needle-like teeth.
A guttural screech vibrated through the corridor, shattering the remaining glass overhead and shaking dust down from the ceiling.
Sora stopped dead in his tracks, pulling Yuji back by the shoulder.
His knees wobbled violently.
His body was completely at its absolute limit.
Cursed energy: zero.
Muscle function: failing.
Yet, the tiny silver thread that had snapped earlier returned, creeping sluggishly back up his sleeve.
It gathered around his right knuckles, coiling tightly over his skin to form a crude, jagged, and fragile metal knuckle-guard.
He stepped forward, coming shoulder-to-shoulder with Yuji.
"You really don't follow instructions, do you?" Sora muttered under his breath, staring straight into the curse's five glowing eyes.
Yuji wiped a line of blood from his cheek with the back of his hand, a broad, fierce grin breaking through the dirt on his face.
He lifted Demon-Slaughterer up, resting the heavy spine of the blade against his shoulder.
"Not when you're planning on dying," Yuji replied.
Sora sighed softly.
His posture straightened, his shoulders settling back into his usual calm, analytical, and completely unbothered stance.
"Fair enough."
Sora lifted his right fist, the thin band of silver metal gleaming under the dim light.
"Target the right side of its jaw," Sora said smoothly, his eyes calculating the distance, the speed, and the exact angle of approach.
"When I breach its guard, don't hold back."
"Got it!" Yuji shouted.
The Special Grade roared, its massive claws spreading wide as it leaped forward to crush them both.
"Go!" Sora barked.
Both boys threw themselves forward into the dark.