Nothing Happened (Seriously, Nothing Happened)...! (4)

"That's a Nephilim? Ugh. A monster's got no business sparkling like that—it's freaking disgusting."

"Ruri. Let's go with Plan D. Wasanbon!"

Finely ground sugar powder billowed from Minseong's pipe, spreading through the air in a pale, glittering haze.

"Just leave it to me. RURI FIRE!!!!"

The moment their team leader snapped her fingers, a tiny spark leapt into the empty air.

KRAKOOOOOOOM!

You light a fire while powder is hanging in the air. A dust explosion erupted at once, slamming searing heat into the sea-turtle-like Nephilim. The blast packed enough force to put most explosives to shame—a secret technique that could incinerate a Class III Nephilim like a Lobster-Caviar-Bear's-Paw without breaking a sweat.

"Did we get it?"

"You idiot. Don't you dare say that. That's a revival incantation that brings even dead guys back to life!!"

Ruri's words proved prophetic. Even after their seamlessly coordinated jujutsu assault, the turtle's head didn't so much as flinch.

A deep rumble rolled through the earth. If anything, the attack had only given the creature the push it needed to haul its disc-like body fully out of the ground.

Its carapace was vivid blue jade. Its plastron, lustrous white nacre. A brilliant gradient of blue, vast beyond all reason. Larger than an elephant, larger than a whale—larger even than most Class IV Nephilim. A colossal divinity too immense to take in all at once.

You've got to be kidding me. Don't tell me Minogame woke up because of the Gujiga?

I couldn't help a bitter smile. The song that hadn't even worked on a baby blue turtle—why the hell had it worked on a Divine Beast? Maybe eating that Nephilim soup had something to do with it.

Either way, three students jumping a Class V Nephilim at the same time had exactly zero chance of winning. No—even if three of the Seven Asterisms, the strongest sorcerers alive, joined forces, they still wouldn't win.

This wasn't some ordinary monster. It was a god.

In Jujutsu Gwi-hwan, eight Class V Nephilim appear, starting with Moby Dick, the First Beast that destroys rather than conquers. Every time one of them descends, it takes the episode-boss slot. The only person who ever brought them down alone, subjugated them, and sealed them away was the King of Jujutsu of old. Meaning that in an era without the protagonist—his reincarnation—any encounter with one of these things demanded no small number of sacrifices.

A clear, crystalline cry rang out. Freed from its seal, Minogame let the sound unfurl with pride, and then it began to rise into the sky.

If a turtle god punches through the barrier, the entire surrounding region will become a land of oblivion.

The name Minogame comes from the old Japanese tale of Urashima Taro. The fisherman Urashima Taro is guided to the Dragon Palace by the turtle Minogame he once saved; when he returns to the real world, three hundred years have passed, and no one remembers him. Following the tradition that turtles are messengers of the Dragon Palace, the Class V Nephilim Minogame unleashes a great jujutsu that invites people into its cursed domain: the Abyssal Dragon Palace—Abyss R'lyeh.

Those transported to the Dragon Palace, a void where the concept of time does not exist, are forgotten in everyone's memories. Every recollection connected to that person is manipulated and distorted on a worldwide scale. Until Minogame, on a whim, spits them back out centuries later, not a soul remembers they ever lived. And of course, by then, reality will have forgotten them long ago.

A transcendent great jujutsu, worthy of the epithet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Fifth Beast That Sinks Into Oblivion. Put simply, it was a straight upgrade on Thanos's finger snap.

The turtle Divine Beast's sacred light fell first upon Gamram Minseong's head.

"Huh. The hell is this. My body's floating?"

Like someone being abducted by a UFO, he was sucked straight into the blue jade embedded in the turtle's shell.

Kiiiiing—

"Poroe!"

Poroe of the wind shot toward him to help—and was swallowed by the same pillar of light.

A moment later, the two of them became points of radiance and were transmitted to the Abyssal Dragon Palace. Great.

My head went fuzzy for a second. Then I turned to Damcheong Ruri, my only remaining teammate, and apologized.

"Sorry. I really did appreciate you inviting me onto the team so readily."

"Kyaah—? Wait. What are you doing?"

A clear chiming cry rang out again. I shoved Ruri into the place where Minogame's light was falling, and her body shot upward.

"J-just you wait. I'll-I'll-I'll curse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you for this!!"

Even as she was sucked in, Ruri flailed her arms so fast they left afterimages.

She became a single point of light and was transmitted to the Dragon Palace. Great.

I furrowed my brow against the successive headaches, glared at the Minogame in front of me, and drew the Changgun Sword.

"Knew it might come to this. Good thing I ended up alone in the Blue Jade Forest."

I had no idea whether Beomseong Iltu—the strongest one-on-one technique there was—would even work on a beast they called a god. If I'd had allies with me, I wouldn't even have been able to test whether it was possible.

Thank god I was a loner.

I was certain of one thing. This was the one fang that could cut even a Divine Beast in two.

Hearing my provocation, Minogame seemed to take the blasphemy personally. It unleashed a bombardment of cursed energy so vast that calling it a pillar of light felt like an insult to its scale.

The next instant, the turtle spirit let out an involuntary cry.

The reason was simple. A transparent slash was tearing through the light, surging toward it.

Without a sound. Without a voice. The God-Slaying Sword found Minogame.

Unlike when I had cut down Hwang Seonpung or the princess, not a single drop of blood spilled. Instead, the turtle god's colossal body shattered with a clear, crystalline note, as if it were a work of glass. Blue fragments lodged themselves in the barrier, glittering like morning stars.

I couldn't even form a word. So the power of Beomseong Iltu changed depending on the opponent. The enormous recoil made my entire body scream. Having just swung a sword that could kill a Divine Beast, I clung by a thread to a breath that wanted to snap and a consciousness that wanted to go with it.

The fading Minogame's voice soaked into my eardrums. Whether it was telepathy, or whether I could hear the turtle's words because of the Gujiga, I couldn't tell. Either way, it had clearly gotten the wrong idea. Badly.

I'm not even your master.

I'm just an extra. A nobody.

Felt like I'd just stolen someone's pet right out from under them.

As if it had read my mind, the turtle god's voice grew fervent.

Before I could get a word of explanation out, Minogame left a box behind—an object nestled within—and faded away into light.

"Huh—?"

"Urgh. My head. Felt like I was sinking somewhere really deep......!!?"

A moment later, Minseong and Ruri, freed from the Abyssal Dragon Palace, muttered to themselves. Poroe cocked its head as well, as if it had no idea what had just happened.

Kiiing?

"That's right. You shoved me in so you could save yourself!!"

Standing beneath a megalith that had been restored as if it had never been broken, Ruri jabbed a finger at me, her lips pushed out in a pout.

"Ugh?! Kim Beom, did you get hurt fighting it?"

Then she saw me frozen in place with my arms crossed, my whole body throbbing, and the worry crept in. She was so easy, I swear.

"Swordsman. Where'd the turtle go? That didn't seem like any ordinary Nephilim."

I looked him dead in the eye.

"A turtle? Listen closely. There was never any such monster to begin with. You two collapsed after eating Nephilim soup, remember?"

Ruri ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Minseong stared at each other blankly, as if they'd just woken from a midsummer night's dream. Ruri was the first to move, pinching Minseong's cheek.

"We did? Hey. Did you throw in something weird again!? Like those hallucinogenic mushrooms last time!"

"Well, I did mix in a lot of nutmeg and hemp seed. My Lady, have mercy!"

"Augh, stop throwing in stuff that hasn't been properly tested."

So they'd decided to write off the descent of a turtle god—and being sent to the Dragon Palace—as a hallucination. Even I was having a hard time believing it was real, that Minogame had been so cleanly resealed.

A Divine Beast that even the protagonist of Jujutsu Gwi-hwan had to bust his ass to take down... and I one-shotted it.

The only proof it hadn't been a hallucination was the box in my pocket....

A back alley, somewhere out of the way.

"Ghk. Kh. The investigation's still ongoing. I-I don't know. I don't know who killed Demon Slayer Hwang Seonpung!"

The man's throat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was being crushed by hair that looked as if it were alive.

"A Jujutsu Bureau investigation detective doesn't know?"

A woman in black, her dark circles heavy, asked the question with a little giggle.

"It's true. My senior said it was the appearance of a new big-shot villain. Ghk. Gaaah. Please, spare me. Please—"

Snot and tears streaming from every hole in his face, the man begged for his life.

"Sis. Pretty sure he's tellin' the truth, y'know~? Should I let him go~mel?"

The investigator's face, which had just lit up with the hope of survival, drained immediately into despair. A chameleon beastman, his eyes rolling independently of each other, stood there in an aloha shirt.

The hair woman and the chameleon man both belonged to the most vicious rogue sorcerer syndicate there was: the Bad Friends Alliance. The investigator's chances of walking away were slim.

"Tsk tsk. No useful information?"

The hair woman pressed him, and the investigator wracked his brain with everything he had left.

"Wait. The first person to find the body was a male student from Seonggwan Academy. They said he's with the Namgung."

"Namgung? That Namgung? The great clan? He didn't kill him, did he?"

"H-he's a non-sorcerer, so that's impossible. My senior said—ghhhk."

"The academy genre's gone downhill. See, this is why I was right to drop out."

The chameleon man cut in, snatching a moth out of the air with his long tongue.

"Sis. No way Seonpung-hyung gets taken down by some brat swordsman in the first place. What do we do~mel~~?"

"He did find the body before we got there and made us look like fools. That's a fact. Let's kill him."

The hair's grip loosened, and the man ran with every ounce of strength he had left. Looking bored by the sight, the hair woman yawned and murmured,

"You think that's the right call, don't you?"

The girl who had been quietly watching from beside them, her mouth hidden by the muffler wrapped around her neck, swung a great scythe without a word.

Ghk—! In that same instant, the man's body was split clean in two.