The air changed.
It was subtle at first—just a fleeting chill, a slight shift in pressure that made the hairs on Yohan's arms stand on end. But then came the feeling, as if something ancient and primordial had opened its eyes and stared directly at him.
A yokai.
His body reacted before his mind could even process it. A shiver raced down his spine, crawling like an electric current up to the nape of his neck, leaving his skin prickling. His Six Eyes—that newly acquired power that turned the world into a constant flow of energy—caught the disturbance in the air before he even turned his head.
And then he saw.
About a kilometer away stood an abandoned factory, its decaying structure and shattered windows casting elongated shadows in the late afternoon light. But it wasn't the architecture that caught his attention.
It was what was inside.
A sinister, purple haze—almost imperceptible to normal eyes—cloaked the place like a veil of cursed energy. Ripples of malevolent power pulsed outward, as if the building itself were breathing.
"That presence..."
Yohan clenched his fists, his muscles tensing involuntarily. He had already noticed small energy disturbances around the school in recent days—tiny fluctuations, as if something were testing the boundaries of reality. But this?
This was different.
This was deliberate.
And if Aira Shiratori was missing right now...
"Dammit! The Silky Acrobat!"
The name slipped from his lips like a curse. His mind raced at breakneck speed, connecting the dots with the urgency of someone who already knew the disaster that was coming.
"I know where she is!"
Without hesitation, Yohan broke into a sprint, his feet pounding the asphalt hard enough to leave marks.
Kouki, who was still beside him, barely had time to react.
"H-Hey! Gojo-san?!"
But he was already gone, his body moving with superhuman agility, weaving past startled students and vaulting over a courtyard bench without slowing down.
Running straight toward a yokai was, by definition, a terrible idea.
But Yohan wasn't acting on impulse.
His brain worked frantically, piecing together and rearranging the fragments of what he knew:
The Silky Acrobat was a yokai obsessed with Aira, wanting to protect her—and would, consequently, give her life for her.
Aira Shiratori was one of the first victims and also another important character in the original storyline of Dandadan.
If he was at the beginning of the story, then the other elements hadn't fully manifested yet—the Kur or the Kito family—they would still be lurking in the shadows.
But that also meant he had a chance.
If he could stop this from becoming canon now, maybe he could prevent a cascade of events that would lead to far more dangerous battles in the future.
'Please, let my reasoning be right!'
His heart pounded wildly—not just from running, but from the possibility that he might be making a fatal mistake.
Kouki, still frozen in the middle of the hallway, watched Yohan's figure disappear into the distance, her mind spinning in frustrated attempts to understand what had just happened.
"What… was that?"
She stared in the direction he had gone—the path leading to the outskirts of the school, where the old abandoned factory stood.
A place all the students avoided.
A haunted place.
And then, as if pushed by an external force, she began to run after him.
Yohan could already smell the stench of rot and rust in the air as he approached the factory.
The cursed energy was now palpable, like a weight on his chest.
"If I'm right..."
He leaped over the crumbling wall, landing silently in the inner courtyard.
The air grew thick, saturated with the yokai's spiritual energy. The pink light enveloping the factory pulsed like a sickly heart, casting dancing shadows on the decaying walls. It was as if the very environment was twisting, shaping itself to the will of the Silken Acrobat.
"Ayase!"
The voice echoed again, sharp and desperate. Yohan glanced away for a moment and spotted Aira Shiratori, her pink hair swaying as she struggled against the yokai's grip.
"Let me go!"
Aira kicked and punched at the pale, elongated arm holding her, but the Silken Acrobat only laughed—a sound like the creaking of a rusted door.
Without a second thought, Yohan charged forward.
An hour earlier, while listening to Kouki play the piano, a thought had crossed his mind:
If I have the Six Eyes... does that mean I also have the Limitless?
The logic was simple. The Six Eyes weren't just a perception ability—they were the key that allowed Gojo to wield his unparalleled technique, the Limitless, with absolute perfection.
And now, faced with danger, he had no choice but to test that theory.
The Silken Acrobat's black hair stretched like serpents, slicing through the air toward him at deadly speed.
And then...
Time seemed to stop.
Or rather, Yohan's mind accelerated.
The Six Eyes processed everything in the blink of an eye—the trajectory of the threads, the density of the cursed energy, even the flow of the air around them.
And then, as if something inside him awakened, a realization exploded in his mind:
"Infinite distance."
"Hah? A brat like you trying to lay a finger on my Aira!? I won't allow it!"
The yokai's black hair stretched out like spears, ready to pierce through him—
But they stopped.
Just a few centimeters before touching his body, the threads froze midair, as if they had hit an invisible wall. The Silky Acrobat blinked in confusion.
"What...?"
Yohan looked down at his own hands, feeling a swirling current of energy around them.
And then, he understood.
The Limitless.
The technique that manipulated space on an atomic level, creating an insurmountable barrier between him and any threat.
It worked.
A slow smile spread across his face.
It wasn't a smile of relief.
It was a dangerous smile.
The smile of someone who had just realized they wielded absurd power.
"Looks like you won't be touching me anytime soon."
The Silky Acrobat snarled, her eyes narrowing into crimson slits.
"What... are you?"
Yohan adjusted his sunglasses, and for the first time since arriving in this world, he felt in control.
"Someone who won't let you take her."
The world slowed down once again.
With a simple raise of his hand, Yohan's mind accelerated to superhuman speeds, processing information in fractions of nanoseconds. The Six Eyes analyzed the flow of cursed energy around him, calculating trajectories, densities, and possibilities in a whirlwind of data that would be incomprehensible to any ordinary person.
And then, as if a veil had been torn from his understanding, a new layer of power revealed itself:
"Infinite convergence creating a distance composed of negative numbers."
The formula arose in his mind as an absolute truth, as clear as his own name.
He understood.
With a fluid motion, Yohan rotated the cursed energy at his core, compressing it into an infinitesimal point before him. The air distorted, as if space itself were being pulled into an invisible vortex.
"Blue!"
Gojo Satoru's attraction technique—the ability to create an artificial gravitational force that warped space-time.
The effect was immediate.
Aira Shiratori, still trapped in the Silken Acrobat's grip, was violently torn from the yokai's claws, her body yanked toward Yohan like metal to a magnet. Her eyes widened, her hair whipping wildly as the rushing wind enveloped her.
Just as she neared, Yohan dismissed Blue with a thought, dispelling the attraction before the crushing force could harm her. At the same time, he reached out, wrapping her in a layer of the Infinity to cushion the impact and neutralize most of the weight and inertia from the motion.
Aira fell into his arms with a soft "Oof!", her eyes wide with shock and confusion.
"W-Who...? What...?"
But Yohan didn't answer. His mind was busy analyzing what had just happened.
'It's difficult.'
His version of Blue was crude, imperfect. If he had used too much energy or didn't have the Six Eyes to calibrate the technique with absolute precision, the results could have been catastrophic.
'I could have crushed her by accident.'
A chill ran down his spine.
He hadn't mastered this power yet.
But there was no time to hesitate.
Before the Silken Acrobat could react, Yohan expanded the Infinity around them, enveloping himself and Aira in an intangible barrier.
The yokai's black hair lashed against the invisible force field but stopped abruptly inches from their bodies, as if hitting a steel wall.
The Silken Acrobat shrieked in frustration, her black eyes burning with hatred.
"What is this barrier?! How can a lowly human worm stop me?!"
Yohan ignored the insults, keeping the technique active as he helped Aira to her feet.
"Are you okay?"
She shook her head, still dazed, but gave a weak nod.
"Y-Yeah... but who are you? And what is that thing?!"
Yohan smiled behind his sunglasses.
"Long story. First, let's get out of here."
But before they could move, the Silken Acrobat laughed.
A sharp, almost musical sound that made the air tremble.
"You really think it's that easy to escape me, you little brat?"
And then, her hair emerged from the shadows around them, beginning to move in a hypnotic swirl.
Yohan clenched his teeth.
Using the Infinite constantly was draining his stamina faster than he'd expected. Even though the Six Eyes reduced the expenditure to an infinitesimally close-to-zero cost, it still demanded brain processing power—enough to fry it.
'Shit, I'm already running on empty...'
He needed a plan.
And fast.
Cold sweat trickled down the back of Yohan's neck as his mind frantically calculated the possibilities. His Six Eyes captured every detail of their surroundings—the pulsating cursed energy of the Silken Acrobat, Aira's vulnerable position, the fatigue weighing down his own limbs.
'Without the Reversal Technique, I can only rely on what I have left.'
The thought echoed in his mind like a red alert. Red like the blood that could be spilled if he failed now. Red like the dress of the yokai staring at them with predatory hunger.
His fingers twitched. Blue had worked before, but now? Using it this close could risk everyone's lives.
It was then that his lips curved into a smile—not one of confidence, but of desperate determination. In one swift motion, his arms rose, and before Aira could even scream, he hurled her away with all the strength his body—amplified by cursed energy—could muster.
"Go!"
The Silky Acrobat roared, her black hair stretching like tentacles toward the girl midair. But suddenly, from the deepest shadows of the abandoned warehouse, something emerged.
Teeth. First came the teeth—a mask of enormous fangs, gleaming in a grotesque smile that stretched too wide for any human face. Then the giant eyes, white as the full moon—revealing themselves in red and orange. Finally, the dark figure fully materialized, intercepting Aira in midair with movements that defied physics.
"Ah, I just want to die. Forgive me for being so pathetic."
Okarun's voice echoed, distorted, his transformed body enveloping Aira with a bizarre gentleness that clashed with his monstrous appearance. The girl froze, unable to process what was happening.
"Give me back my Air—"
The Silky Acrobat's scream was cut short by a devastating impact. Yohan had channeled his cursed energy into his fist, which now struck the yokai's face with enough force to send her flying across the warehouse. Wooden crates exploded into splinters, metal rods bent like twigs, and the creature's body slammed into the concrete wall with a dull thud.
"Pay attention!" Yohan shouted, his voice echoing through the space as fatigue began gnawing at his limbs. "Don't let that woman near Aira—protect her!"
His eyes turned to Okarun, then to the shadows where he knew Momo should be. They were unexpected allies, but welcome ones. At least until...
"Gojo-san?"
Kouki Yukishiro's voice cut through the air like a knife. Yohan felt his stomach twist. She was there, at the entrance of the warehouse, her wide eyes taking in the surreal scene—the destroyed factory, Okarun holding Aira, the yokai staggering to its feet, and him... him at the center of it all, with sunglasses that could no longer hide the supernatural glow of his eyes.
'Oh no.'
Time seemed to freeze.
Yohan felt his blood run cold as the Silk Acrobat's gigantic hand—pale as a corpse's, with elongated fingers ending in sharp claws—closed like a steel trap around Kouki's torso.
"Kouki!"
His scream echoed through the abandoned warehouse, blending with the sound of screeching metal and splintering wood. His Six Eyes captured every horrifying detail: the yokai's bony fingers digging into Kouki's school uniform, her face twisting in a mix of pain and sheer terror, her lips parting in a silent scream that never escaped.
Behind the dark lenses, Yohan's blue eyes widened until they nearly bulged from their sockets. His irises glowed with an unnatural light, pulsing in sync with the frantic rhythm of his heart. Every vein in his neck stood out as he clenched his teeth so hard he could have crushed diamonds.
The cursed energy around him began to boil, distorting the air like heat over asphalt on a summer day. The ground beneath his feet cracked, forming a web of fissures that spread in all directions.
"Let. Her. Go. You fucking bitch."