"A glyph ain't a word. It's a memory with teeth... doomed to repeat."
—Spiral Codex, Fragment 117 (allegedly)
Underground – Shibuya District, Abandoned Line 9
Somewhere way down—like, too deep for any reasonable human and the bones of Shibuya's dead subway line were humming. You know that weird, skull-itching feeling when something's about to go wrong? Yeah, that. Red lines started glowing, spiderwebbing along the tunnel walls, inching toward this torii gate that looked like it'd seen better centuries.
The glyphs pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Each throb kinda poked at something older. Something that probably shouldn't never ever wake up.
Tokyo Jujutsu High – Training Ground Theatre.
"Again!" Akashi barked, sweat dripping right off his jaw, palm slamming into cursed-reinforced steel like he had something to prove (which, let's be real, he totally did).
Steel dented. Not shattered. Not yet.
Panda let out this long, exaggerated groan.
"Bro, you've been smashing that thing for hell six hours. Go and touch the grass."
Akashi just scowled.
"So what?"
Nobara was lounging on her hammer, giving him that look.
"You're like, Gojo-level crazy right now."
"That's the idea."
He sucked in air, rolled his shoulders. Spiral glyphs flickered under his skin—barely contained, like some kinda mythic dragon itching for a fight.
"Fire glyphs run on memory," he muttered. "Can't just flex through it. Gotta feel it."
He hit the slab again. This time, red light sliced right through.
Elsewhere — Spiral Cult Safehouse, Location: Honestly, Who Knows
Inside this creepy candle-lit room, cultists (yeah, the robes and mask type) huddled around a basin of glyphfire. Their boss with mask, voice like cigarettes and sandpaper watched the flames twist into Akashi's face.
"He's almost cooked," the leader rasped. "But his heart? Still cracked."
One cultist piped up.
"So, do we jump him?"
The leader waggled a finger.
"Not yet. He needs to burn."
The fire flickered—suddenly it was a memory. Woman screaming, fire everywhere. Akashi's mom. The cult had bottled the memory, twisted it into a weapon.
"Let's see how much he remembers... and how much it wrecks him."
Flashback — Eight Years Ago
A busted alley, raining sideways. Little Akashi with barefoot, and terrified,clinging to his mom's hand.
"Stay behind me," she said.
But the spirit didn't care. It ripped through tin and rotten wood, a nightmare stitched together from spare parts and bad dreams. She had a kitchen knife. Not even a charm.
She died screaming his name.
Akashi's eyes went spiral red for the first time.
And the fire answered.
Now — Tokyo Jujutsu High, Midnight
Akashi jerked awake. Room dead silent. Moon bleeding red outside, like some cosmic nosebleed. He staggered out, sweat sticking his shirt to his skin.
"You felt that too?" Megumi popped up, already dressed like he was expecting trouble.
Akashi nodded, still catching his breath.
"Something's moving. Under Shibuya."
"A glyph."
"A memory."
Shibuya Line 9 — Unauthorized Mission
Morning. Not that it made the subway any less sketch. Akashi, Yuji, Megumi, Nobara—all at the edge, peering into the pit. Gojo? AWOL. Yaga? Busy playing politics.
Did they wait for orders? Pfft, not a chance.
"This isn't just cult weirdness," Nobara said, boot scuffing the broken stairs. "Feels planned."
"Like something's calling out," Yuji added.
Akashi's fists clenched.
"Or someone."
And then they went down..
Beneath the Earth — Spiral Gate Alpha
The squad hit this massive chamber, walls burning with glyphs. At the Dead center: The Spiral Gate and Torii made from bone and cursed iron, ringed by twelve glyphs all flaring like hell's own traffic lights.
Each glyph pulsed, faster and faster.
Akashi stopped.
Central glyph? It had his name.
Not just "Akashi Ryuunosuke."
Nah. It was Akashi, Son of Fire—Spiral-Blooded Warden.
Yuji just stared.
"What the actual hell is this?"
Akashi stepped forward, voice low.
"It's a key And a door."
Flames shot up. The gate shimmered, cracked open just a bit.
Something inside growled.
It's Not a ghost or Not even close to human.
It's Something ancient and its hungry.
A Sudden Attack — Glyphborn Spawned then Boom there the walls exploded. Monsters poured out like hell freaks stitched from scripture and bone, chanting in glyphs, eyes burning.
"FIGHT!" Akashi shouted...
Yuji crushed the first one, spine gone. Nobara popped another in the eye. Megumi dropped Max Elephant right on top of the next.
Akashi's glyphs flared, tattoos of flame coiling around his arms mid-sprint.
"Dragon Glyph: Stepfire Cascade!"
He punched then blasts of cursed fire everywhere.
Didn't matter.
More hybrids swarmed and One got too close, with claws scraping near Nobara's neck.
"NOBARA!" Akashi roared and here it comes....
His glyphs twisted, body snapping into half-dragon mode scales, fangs, the whole deal is here man.
He caught the monster's hand, snapped it like a twig.
"Touch her again and you'd become like a charcoal that burned by my wrath"
Aftermath — The Gate Widens
As the last freak dropped, the Spiral Gate cracked wider. Wind shrieked through.
Akashi staggered back, chest heaving.
"We're not ready for whatever's coming now."
Yuji grinned, wiped blood off his knuckles.
"Then we get to ready before"
Akashi stepped up, palm pressed to his name on the glyph.
The fire didn't burn.
It whispered.
"Welcome back, Warden."