"Spirals aren't meant to end. They just bury deeper."
—Ancient Jujutsu Proverb, sealed archives
Shibuya Ward, somewhere deep underground—Spiral Zone, Layer Two. October 19th, 7:22 PM.
Dust still floated, cursed and gritty, from that Echo of Kizu—a taste like old pennies and burnt ozone. Maki traced her hand along the wall, spiral glyphs finally dead and cold beneath her palm.
"This isn't just an echo chamber," she muttered. "It's a graveyard."
Akashi just stood there. At the Center of the room, looking like a statue someone forgot to dust. The glyphs on his skin—usually shifting around, flickering like ink in water—had flatlined. But here's the kicker: he didn't feel drained. He felt... heavier. Like he'd swallowed a bag of rocks.
Something squirmed inside his chest. Not the usual Dragon Tongue rage—nah, this time it whispered. Sneaky.
"There is no grave that holds truth. Only those who chose to forget it."
Not Kizu's voice. Older. Ancient, honestly. Akashi's fingers went to his throat—hey, when did that glyph show up? Shaped like a hand. Greaaaat.
—Vision Hits Like a Truck—
Reality shattered. Not around him, but *in* him. One blink, and he was somewhere else.
Old jujutsu armor, dusty and grim, hung from pegs. Scrolls bleeding down from the ceiling, literally nailed up there and dripping. A man knelt, hunched under a spiral monolith—eyes gouged out, mouth sewn shut. If that wasn't nightmare fuel, ten hands reached out from the black behind him, grabbing his head.
"The First Glyph Wielder failed to contain it."
"You are the second."
"But you will remember what he forgot."
—Whiplash Back to Now—
He would've faceplanted if Panda hadn't caught him. Good timing, big guy.
"Hey! Akashi—snap out of it! What the hell was that man?!"
His eyes flashed spiral-red (not a great look), then faded back to normal.
"I saw the First Glyph Wielder. I think... I think he buried something under Tokyo."
Maki narrowed her eyes, sharp as knives.
"So this spiral mess goes deeper than just us?"
"It's a time bomb," Akashi whispered, voice all gravel. "And I think I'm the trigger."
—Meanwhile, topside at Shibuya Station—
Yuji, Megumi—busy kicking curse butt, making sure civilians got the hell out. Nobara, perched on a rooftop, watching for barriers. Her hammer wrapped in blood-red cursed threads—honestly, looked metal as hell.
"Any word from Akashi's team?" she asked, comms crackling.
Just static. Then, a weird, broken-up whisper:
"Grave...hands...monolith..."
"Akashi? Say that again! Akashi....Akashi!!"
Nothing.
She jammed the comms into her belt. "Screw it. I'm going down there."
—Back in the Depths: Hidden Vault—
Maki got impatient—kicked at the glyph-locked door. Didn't even wobble.
Akashi stepped up, all calm. "Not about strength. It's sealed by memory."
He pressed his palm to the lock. Spiral light flared, reading his cursed energy like a biometric scan on steroids.
Then, memories. Not his. A city burning, rivers twisting into spirals, a glyph made of ten hands, buried deep in stone.
"Open," he shouted...
Door spiraled inwards. Revealed: a staircase, bones for the steps to Descent. This is the point of no return, right?
And Down they went. Air went freezer-cold, breath visible. Spirals everywhere, but now there were names carved in—thousands of names, in every language you could think of.
Panda shivered. "Bro wait... Just What are these?"
Akashi didn't even turn. "These are the Names of everyone who tried to master Spiral Glyphs And got lost."
Bottom of the pit, and—well, damn. A fossilized hand, bigger than a bus, bursting out of the floor. Not a statue it's Really Cursed. Nails carved with seals older than anyone could even pretend to remember.
Akashi placed his hand on it. The glyph on his back lit up like a bonfire and His brain? Instant overload.shit....
Now then A FLASH—Somewhere, sometime, a masked man danced on a heap of corpses, cackling. He swung a spiral-bladed sword, blood and glyphs leaking from his back, spiraling off into forever.
He looked straight at Akashi, like he could see through time.
"Oh... You're him. The one that still bleeds."
Akashi screamed and the Curtain drops.