Chapter 78

Having chosen to reject non-sorcerers, Suguru is hunted down by his closest friend. Their meeting forces the two to separate permanently, ending the bond that defined them both.

Yaga delivers the grim news about Suguru to Satoru, and neither can comprehend their ally's actions, leaving Satoru shaken for the first time. In Shinjuku, Suguru approaches Shoko while she smokes, chatting amiably about the accusations against him even as she quietly alerts Satoru. Satoru soon finds Suguru in the crowd and demands answers. Suguru repeats his aim of a world free of curses and non-sorcerers, having spared no one, not even his parents, which makes Satoru question his morality. Suguru insists their deaths carry meaning and suggests that if he and Satoru could trade places, even the impossible might become possible, before deciding to leave.

Telling Satoru there would be meaning in his death too, Suguru walks off into the crowd. Satoru begins to aim Hollow Technique: Purple at his back but cannot bring himself to fire, letting Suguru escape. Reporting to Yaga afterward, Satoru admits he failed and realizes that even as the strongest, he can only save those willing to be saved. At the former Time Vessel Association Headquarters, Suguru addresses a new congregation of Star Religious Group remnants and like-minded followers, positioning himself as a priest who frees people of curses while harvesting both money and curses. Met with dissent, he makes a brutal example of Sonoda on stage, then drops his friendly mask and commands the monkeys to obey him. Elsewhere, Satoru encounters a young Megumi Fushiguro and is unsettled by how closely the boy resembles Toji.

This chapter features Satoru's Hollow Technique: Purple, drawn but never fired. It closes the rupture between Satoru and Suguru and plants the seed of Satoru's later bond with Megumi. The events were adapted into the twenty-ninth anime episode.