Jujutsu Kaisen: Tickless

"The sea doesn't kill you. It rewrites you."

Kamo stood firm, blood weaving into arcs across his arms and torso — but they frayed in the air. The cursed terrain Dagon imposed didn't just flood the field physically — it rewrote natural laws. Gravity twisted sideways. The reflection of Kamo's own blade showed a version of himself already dead.

He grit his teeth and snapped his wrist.

"Pierce!"A sharpened spear of blood launched forward—

But Dagon simply turned his head. A jellyfish-shaped shikigami made of salt intercepted it mid-air, the spear dissolving on contact like ink in water.

"That wasn't real," Miwa muttered, paralyzed again. "That didn't just happen, right?"

"This isn't happening," Kamo corrected. "It already did. We're watching a drowning that hasn't caught us yet."

Inomaki's curse mark flickered bright again.

"Stop."

The sound warbled in the warped air. Dagon winced — only for a moment — then grinned wide, his mouth expanding like a cave entrance. Teeth within teeth within voices.

"Speech sorcerer. I've tasted your kind before."

Tentacles surged forward. Kamo shoved Renji aside just as coral-tipped tendrils speared into his arm, dragging him sideways through a wall of water hanging mid-air. Miwa screamed.

Inside the compound, time ran in loops.

Hallways repeated endlessly — same ceiling crack, same drowned mirror. The Kyoto students trying to escape found themselves back at the same room every turn — an impossible non-Euclidean overlay of the domain.

Renji clutched his chest. His commands weren't working consistently — some rebounded, others delayed by seconds, coming out of sync with reality.

"We're in a temporal loop," he said."Or we're echoes… and the real us is already dead."

Miwa slapped him.

"No. We're here. We bleed. We're not dead yet."

Blood dripped down her sword hand — not from battle, but from her own fingernails digging into her palm.

"I promised I wouldn't be useless again."

"I won't."

The old principal arrived, electric guitar in hand, channeling cursed energy like thunder.

"Get back."His voice was thunder on sandpaper.

He strummed once — the cursed soundwave shattered the seawater dome surrounding the inner yard. Dagon reeled, briefly displaced by the spiritual shockwave.

"Sea-born monster… I played hymns at funerals of worse than you."

Dagon surged upward.Rain began to fall sideways.The air hissed with fish oil and static.

Gakuganji shouted, "Kasumi — go for the throat!"

Miwa rushed forward, cursed sword drawn — her body shaking, soaked, bruised.

Her blade could not pierce Dagon's hide. But she didn't care.

She slashed upward — blade grinding against coral — then ducked low, her footwork trained and clean, a Kyoto blade-style feint.

She leapt, blade reversed.

"I don't have CE!" she screamed."But I have rhythm!"

Her blade struck an eye on Dagon's side — not a killing blow, but a wound that broke the loop.

Blood sprayed in a vortex.The domain shimmered.

Through a burst of black water, Kamo staggered out — bleeding, arm dangling useless, but alive.

He bit his tongue and forced blood from his mouth, using it to carve a trap sigil in the air with one finger.

"Bind: Thousand Needle Net."

Lines of cursed blood lashed out, tightening around Dagon's torso like a spider web. For the first time — Dagon grunted.

"You bleed," Kamo said."That makes you mortal."

Dagon's mouth widened again.

"No. I bleed because I remember.""I remember the drowned. I carry their seconds in me."

Dagon snarled, his domain starting to warp more violently. Walls of saltwater thundered inward. The school grounds cracked. Spectral versions of the students flickered in and out — versions of themselves screaming, drowning, dying — possible futures clawing at their present forms.

Miwa couldn't look away.

Renji clutched his chest, muttering commands to himself just to stay anchored in this version of time.

Kamo's blood sigils began to snap.

And in the distance… the sea began to recede.

A sign. A warning.

Something worse is coming.