Yeah, the tower was toast. Rubbles scattered everywhere, and the stink of blood just hanging in the air like come sniff me. The spiral wards—that meant to keep out nosy idiots—looked like they'd been sliced up by someone who didn't give a damn thing about old magic. Not just busted, but rewritten. Like someone scrawled their own graffiti over sacred text.
Akashi got there first. Tch..Tch...What a mess What a mess,Professor Shima looked like he'd been through a blender and slumped against a pillar, barely holding on, his cane in pieces. His face was... god shit, one eye just gone and it fried into a black with a twisted scar.
"They knew me," he croaked out, voice like sandpaper. "But they were... newer."
Akashi knelt down, trying to piece it together. "Newer? Not the old Spiral Sect freaks?"
Shima's head moved, slow as molasses like what the Fuck bro didn't you just listened to what i told you now and you repeating it again... "No... not your mother's enemies."
And then, right there, that old man just had to drop the bomb at right in the middle of akashi's head...."They were yours."
The Glyph
Megumi and Ijichi barreled in not long after. One look at the courtyard and they both just stopped dead like FUCKKKKK...
Something nasty was scorched into the outer wall. A spiral, but not the right kind. This one twisted backward—nine tongues curling in, swallowing their own tails.
Megumi squinted, muttering, "What the hell is that supposed to be?"
Akashi stepped up, and—well, something in him just... clicked. Like a tuning fork in his bones. His Spiral brand started glowing, and for a crazy second, the glyph on the wall pulsed back, like it was answering.
"It's not a curse mark," Akashi said, voice weirdly hollow. "It's... a counter-sigil. Like a command."
Megumi shot him a look like a pistol. "A command for what?"
Akashi just stared. He was remembering stuff's like his mom humming lullabies when he was a kid. That sound at the end, spiraling off into nothing.
"Rebirth... to devour the False Spiral."
Later – Medical Wing
Shima made it, but just barely. The old man's last words kept echoing:
"You're the Tenth Spiral, Ryuunosuke... but there might be an Eleventh."
"Born of rejection, not resonance."
"If the Spiral comes back... it'll eat itself."
Akashi stood outside, fists digging into the wall. "False Spiral...?"
He glanced over. Gojo was lurking, looking all mysterious and smug.
"You knew?" Akashi called him out.
Gojo just tilted his head, all casual. "Had a hunch. Your technique wasn't stabilizing. It was syncing. Like tuning up for something bigger."
Akashi's jaw clenched. "So I'm not the last. I'm just the warning shot."
Even Gojo's grin faded. "Looks that way."
That Night – Nobara's Dorm Roof
Nobara was up on the roof, stargazing or maybe just hiding. Akashi hauled himself up next to her.
"You ever feel like you're just a fuse waiting to blow?" he asked, kinda half-laughing.
"Only every day," she shot back, not bothering to look at him.
He let out this long sigh. "Feels like something's coming. Not just for me. For everyone."
She shrugged. "Then we smash it first. No big deal."
She gave him a sideways glance. "You're not alone, Spiral boy. So, quit with the lone wolf act."
He tried to smile, and yeah, it didn't quite land. But it was something.
"Thanks, hammer girl."