Modulo Chapter 6

Though still out cold, Maru crushes the aged curse user Masaki Takeda using his strange cursed technique.

While the drifting rubble holds Masaki's attention, Maru materializes at his back, baffling both the curse user and the onlooking Tsurugi. After a brief glance toward Tsurugi, Maru's third eye locks onto Masaki and fires off an ability that scrambles his mind. Jabbing a needle into his own hand to stay alert, Masaki still loses his grip on the shikigami. A rock Maru throws curves in flight to hit Masaki even as he tries to swat it down with a needle. Pressing forward, Maru herds him into the school gym, where balls float free and equipment shorts out, effects Masaki pins on Maru's technique. The memory of his earlier loss to Yuji Itadori flickers up before he reenters the fray, but Maru's dizzying speed and power flatten him within seconds, punching him through a wall and into the open-air pool.

Perched on a building close by, Cross watches and chides his brother for slipping out of control, but refuses to interfere, betting the rampage will touch off a war his side can win on Dabura's strength. The pool boils over as Maru closes in, and Masaki springs clear an instant before it erupts, only for Maru to lift his left hand and lock the flying water around him into ice, suspending him in the air. Masaki understands then that Maru's power twists the very laws of order. The decisive blow never arrives, though, because Tsurugi blocks Maru's fist with Honoyagi, the shockwave flinging both Tsurugi and Masaki aside. Realizing Maru is battling while entirely unconscious, Tsurugi will not allow him to become the spark, knowing the death of an innocent would fuel conflict far more than that of a criminal. His attempt to rouse Maru runs straight into the mind-warping ability, and as he fights it off he calls back the vow that the two of them would be neighbors. Stirred at last by that single word, Cross steps in to soothe Maru. Both boys crumple, and a frustrated Cross puzzles over why anything Tsurugi said could have touched him.