Chapter 99

Cut off from contact and starved of intel within the curtain, the members of the Zenin team scatter to track down Ijichi. On the way, Nobara and Akari run headlong into Haruta Shigemo, who turns out to be alarmingly strong, his odd technique steadily wearing them down. As he readies to claim yet another victim, Nanami steps in to halt the slaughter.

Coming back from delivering Ijichi to safety, Nanami swears to himself that helplessness has never once gnawed at him and never will, that he merely endures amid the world's cruelties, and he silently seethes at the enemy over both Haibara and Ijichi. The curtain blocks signal and leaves the squad blind, so they break apart to search. Battling Transfigured Humans inside the station, the team hears from Akari that Ijichi seemed to come under attack mid-call. Maki sends Nobara and Akari off to check on him and stays behind with the idle Naobito, well aware the managers matter with phones dead. Though she cannot imagine Gojo falling, an uneasy feeling gnaws at Maki.

On Shoto Bunkamura Street, Shigemo blocks the pair's path, delighted to finally meet a girl after killing off so many male managers. Marking him as the one who got Ijichi, Nobara has Nitta pretend to duck into one subway mouth and escape through a second. Shigemo cuts the scheme off by flinging his blade, which Nobara knocks aside before charging, reading him as a mid-range type. He slips her swing and asks whether they have crossed paths before, a memory she has but denies.

Somehow Shigemo senses Akari never truly hid. Fleeing through the station, she passes his wall-mounted hand-sword cursed tool without noticing, and it leads him right to her, where he drives a soccer kick into her sternum. As Nobara moves to help, the sword falls into his hand, letting him nick her front leg, pull her gaze to her wound, and then slam a right hook into her jaw that leaves her dazed. She drops to her knees, disbelieving how perfectly each blow lands. Shigemo taunts her, owning that even he cannot explain his uncanny technique, and admits he kills for nothing more than the fun of it. He slices the downed Akari to provoke Nobara, and just as he goes to finish her, both sense a crushing presence: Nanami strides in and fixes the killer with a livid glare as Shigemo wonders aloud if those not in black suits count as targets too.