The morning sun rose over the town of Kowa, exposing the chaos of the previous night that Taro Sakamoto had tried to quietly sweep away. Inside the store, the air was still thick with the lingering scent of strange Cursed Energy. But to Aoi, Sakamoto's wife, it was nothing more than "another rowdy night of vandalism." Standing there with her usual serene smile, she gently scolded Sakamoto for the destroyed beverage cooler. Sakamoto simply nodded in silence, carefully hiding the fact that a demonic entity had nearly turned the store into a slaughterhouse.
Behind the shelves, Shin was nursing a splitting migraine. His telepathy was picking up terrifying echoes of what had transpired. He wasn't worried about the physical damage; he was worried about **"The Order"** and the **Assassin Association**. He knew that the appearance of someone as powerful as that tattooed man—Sukuna—would not go unnoticed.
"Sakamoto-san," Shin whispered, approaching Taro with eyes glimmering with anxiety. "I feel many 'heads' turning toward us... No, they aren't just hitmen. There's something 'cold' in their thoughts, something like those techniques that monster used yesterday."
Meanwhile, atop a skyscraper overlooking the city, **Ryomen Sukuna** sat regally on the edge of the roof, wearing an elegant black suit that made him look like the absolute sovereign of the underworld. He stared coldly at his sharp black nails, completely ignoring the presence of someone standing right behind him.
"Your new look is giving the Higher-Ups quite the headache, King of Curses," said a voice carrying a tone of absolute confidence and mocking indifference.
Sukuna turned slowly. Standing before him was a tall man, wearing a black blindfold, his snow-white hair fluttering in the wind. **Satoru Gojo**. Gojo wasn't there to fight—at least not yet. He was there to evaluate the "cosmic error" that had allowed Sukuna to manifest in an independent physical body, free of any vessel.
"I heard you visited a grocery store yesterday," Gojo said with a provocative grin. "Decided to retire and go into customer service? Or did you find something there that a thousand years couldn't provide?"
Sukuna laughed, a sound that shook the very foundations of the building. "Satoru Gojo... I found a human 'dam.' A man who lacks a single spark of sorcery, yet possesses a soul harder than your talismans. That fatty... he has a law against killing. I'm curious to see when that law will break under the weight of the 'execution' your council is planning."
Down below at the Sakamoto Store, a luxury black sedan pulled up to the curb. A man in the formal attire of the Assassin Association stepped out, holding a file with photos of both Sakamoto and Sukuna. The interests of the **Jujutsu High Council**—who wanted Sukuna executed—had collided with the **Assassin Association**, who wanted to eliminate Sakamoto for breaking the rules of retirement and his alleged alliance with "Curses."
Sakamoto looked through the window and adjusted his glasses. He picked up a metal ruler from the stationery shelf and slid it into his pocket.
*'Looks like today won't be a quiet day for sales,'* Sakamoto thought, sensing the coming storm.
The man in the suit entered the store, his footsteps silent on the floor Megumi had been forced to mop earlier. This was **Naka**, an envoy from the Association's Liquidation Department. Beside him stood a youth in a Jujutsu High uniform, his expression eerily cold, carrying a bundle of paper seals. **The Order** had formed an unholy alliance with the **Jujutsu Elders** for a joint cleansing mission: eliminate the retired hitman who was "harboring" illegal entities, and eradicate the threat of Sukuna.
"Taro Sakamoto," Naka said, placing an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "You've broken the golden rule. You aren't just harboring fugitives; you're harboring demons from a bygone era. The Association has decided that your existence threatens the balance of the underworld."
Sakamoto didn't move. He weighed the metal ruler in his pocket, while Shin felt a massive pressure tearing at his mind. "Sakamoto-san!" Shin screamed in terror. "That boy with him... he isn't thinking about killing... he's thinking about 'erasure'! His cursed energy is coiling around the store like a serpent!"
Suddenly, the Jujutsu youth moved. With a swift motion, he threw the seals into the air. **"Curtain: Silent Isolation!"** he shouted. A pitch-black dome descended over the store, severing it from the outside world. In that moment, the rules changed; there were no more witnesses, and there was nowhere to run.
Three assassins lunged from behind Naka, brandishing daggers coated in cursed poisons. But Sakamoto, with an agility that defied his mass, kicked a crate of tuna cans toward them. The cans flew like cannonballs, striking the assassins' foreheads with pinpoint precision, knocking them unconscious without shedding a drop of blood.
"Rule number two," Sakamoto whispered, his eyes glinting behind his specs. "No smoking inside the store."
In a blur, Sakamoto used the metal ruler—not as a measuring tool, but as a lightning-fast blade. He lunged at Naka, shattering the cigarette in his mouth with the ruler, then used the resulting air pressure to shove the Jujutsu youth away from the counter.
Meanwhile, on the roof, Satoru Gojo watched the black Curtain with a widening grin. "Oh, they started early. Are you going to intervene, King of Curses? Or will you let your 'favorite customer' face execution alone?"
Sukuna stood up, feeling a surge of raw physical power from his manifested body. "Execution?" Sukuna sneered, looking at the palm of his hand. "Those insects don't even know the meaning of the word. But I will go down... not to save the fatty, but to destroy that 'Curtain.' It's annoying my vision. No one puts a fence around a place where I stand."
Back inside, Sakamoto faced the Jujutsu youth, who began summoning a Grade 2 Curse that resembled a massive spider. As the spider prepared to spit its cursed webbing, Sakamoto reached for the "sewing supplies" shelf and grabbed a spool of thin thread.
"Shin, grab Aoi and get back," Sakamoto ordered coldly.
As the cursed threads lunged, Sakamoto began weaving a counter-net in mid-air using ordinary sewing thread, relying on his legendary hand speed that surpassed the speed of sound. Within seconds, the cursed spider was bound in ordinary cotton threads—but threads pulled at such precise physical angles that it was impossible for the creature to move without cutting itself apart.
Suddenly, the roof of the store was torn open completely.
Sukuna dropped like a meteor into the center of the fray, shattering the concrete floor. He looked at Naka and the Association's hitmen with a gaze that made their hearts skip a beat. "You've ruined the peace of this place," Sukuna said, raising a finger. "Sakamoto... I'll handle these insects. In exchange, that warm *Oden* is on the house next time."
Before Sakamoto could utter a word, Sukuna flicked his hand: **"Dismantle!"**
The invisible slash lunged, but Sakamoto—using a heavy frying pan he grabbed from a shelf—physically "hit" the trajectory of the attack, redirecting the force just enough so it only shredded their clothes and the walls behind them. Sakamoto looked at Sukuna sharply. "I told you... no killing in my store."
The King of Curses stood face-to-face with the Legendary Assassin amidst the wreckage of the shop, while Satoru Gojo slowly floated down through the gap in the ceiling, clapping his hands. "My, my! This is the best entertainment I've seen in centuries!"