Hidden Inventory, Part 5

Satoru bursts into the girls' chapel shouting for Riko, startling everyone and embarrassing her in front of her classmates. The students are smitten by how handsome he is and pepper Riko with questions, and Satoru even removes his sunglasses for them, which only irritates her further. After the teacher calms the room and gives a brief scolding before handing over her phone number, Satoru seizes Riko and slips out of the chapel. She protests that he ignored her wishes, but he explains that curse users have invaded the school.

Jujutsu High is where Satoru intends to bolt with Riko in tow, yet as he sprints across a rooftop carrying her, a curse user spots them, failing to recognize the man but clearly knowing the bounty target. Misato Kuroi ambushes that same curse user from behind, demanding to know if his loyalty lies with Q or else the Time Vessel Association, and finishes a brief scuffle with a low blow beneath the belt. An impressed Suguru arrives moments later, surprised by her strength, but the exchange lets the curse user confirm the girl is the bounty before he dissolves into a puddle of mud, leaving Kuroi to wonder if it was a shikigami. Suguru phones Satoru to report the thirty-million-yen bounty posted on a dark website with a time limit.

Satoru hangs up to find himself and Riko ringed by four identical copies of the curse user. Riko guesses they are shikigami, but Satoru corrects her, naming the man a jujutsu sorcerer, an accusation the enemy denies as he forms a fifth clone and argues that professional sorcery is more peril than it is worth. As the new double takes shape, Satoru fires Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue to erase two attackers at once. He explains the figures are not shikigami but clones of the technique's true caster. When two close in, they cannot pierce his Infinity and become easy targets. Reading his foe's technique through the Six Eyes, Satoru reveals his own to generate a magnetic pull that drags the curse user toward him. He then tries to unleash Cursed Technique Reversal: Red, but it fails, forcing him to knock the man out with a punch. Riko's confusion is cut short by a text bearing a photo of a captured Kuroi. The chapter introduces the Cloning Technique user and aligns with the anime's twenty-sixth episode.