The word kill snapped Choso out of his emotional haze.
The blood-red energy around his hands flared back to life as he thrust himself between Kashimo and Yuji.
“Touch my brother, and I will tear you apart!”
Kashimo didn’t even look at him.
His eyes remained fixed on the small mouth that had manifested on the back of Yuji’s left hand.
“What did you say?” Sukuna’s voice rasped from the skin.
Kashimo grinned.
Though he couldn’t see the curse’s true face, he could feel the cold, suppressed fury behind the words.
A secret plan, exposed in broad daylight.
Kashimo cast a brief glance toward Julian.
“The kid was right on the money.
You really were planning to hop bodies.”
Yuji stood frozen as the realization crashed through his mind.
His hand trembled, forgetting for a fraction of a second to suppress the manifestation.
“What are you talking about?
What is Sukuna planning?!”
Kashimo sneered.
“Don’t tell me you forgot.
Did the vow erase your memory that completely?”
“What vow?!”
Julian, standing a few paces back, wiped a drop of cold sweat from his forehead.
It was fun laying out future knowledge to shock canon characters, but dropping Sukuna’s ultimate secret right in front of the King of Curses himself was playing with live ordnance.
Sukuna wasn’t known for his mercy.
If the curse managed to break free right now, Julian’s run would end before he even reached Sendai.
Yuji’s mind raced, digging through the dark haze of his memory.
The juvenile detention center.
His heart had been ripped out.
Inside that murky, flooded space within his mind, Sukuna had offered him a deal to restore his life.
There were conditions.
An agreement.
He had tried to refuse, but Sukuna had forced the contract through.
Upon waking, the memory had been sealed away by the vow’s own internal rules.
Yuji’s eyes went wide.
“I remember…
I remember!”
Inside Yuji’s innate domain, Sukuna’s expression darkened into pure malice.
Impossible.
The contract had been sealed within his domain under absolute conditions.
No third party could have witnessed it.
How could an ordinary, unknown human know the exact terms?
Sukuna’s mouth on Yuji’s hand shifted, its gaze locking straight onto Julian.
“Brat,” Sukuna’s voice echoed, cold and sharp.
“Where did you get that information?”
Julian offered a weak, polite smile, taking a small step back behind Kashimo’s shoulder.
“Heh…
would you believe me if I said I guessed it, Lord Sukuna?”
Silence answered him.
Nobody in their right mind would buy that excuse.
Kashimo laughed mockingly.
“You’d better execute your little plan fast, Sukuna.
Otherwise, it’s over before it starts.”
Yuji slammed his right palm over the mouth on his left hand.
“Shut up!
I won’t let you hurt anyone else!”
A Binding Vow relied heavily on strict phrasing and specific conditions.
Once the terms were exposed, countermeasures were simple.
Yuji didn’t need to unravel the vow itself; he only needed to prevent the trigger.
The command required Sukuna to speak the word Enchain out loud.
As long as Yuji focused every drop of his willpower on suppressing his body, Sukuna wouldn’t be able to form a mouth, let alone utter a single syllable.
Inside the domain, Sukuna felt the walls of Yuji’s consciousness closing in, heavy and suffocating.
The physical mouth on Yuji’s hand began to dissolve back into skin.
Sukuna glared through Yuji’s fading vision at Julian.
This insect had ruined months of meticulous setup.
Yuji let out a ragged breath, feeling the internal pressure subside.
Before he could relax his guard, a single, clear command echoed through the air.
“Enchain.” Find the original chapter at g.com.
Kashimo’s eyes flared with sudden light.
A thick, suffocating wave of malevolent Cursed Energy flooded the street, cold enough to turn the surrounding air rigid.
The markings spread across Yuji’s face like black venom.
The gentle, determined expression vanished, replaced by an expression of absolute, ancient cruelty.
“Hahaha!” Kashimo burst into a wild laugh, his staff crackling with electricity.
“There you are!”
Choso’s breath caught.
The warm, earnest brother standing beside him a second ago was gone.
In his place stood a calamity incarnate.
“Sukuna!” Choso roared, lunging forward with his bare hands.
He refrained from using Blood Manipulation, terrified of causing permanent damage to Yuji’s physical frame.
Kashimo moved simultaneously, bringing his iron staff down in a lethal overhead arc reinforced with pure electrical output.
Sukuna didn’t move an inch.
He simply raised his eyes.
“Dismantle.”
Invisible, razor-sharp force slashed outward in a wide arc.
Sensing the sheer volume of lethal energy coming toward them, both Choso and Kashimo checked their momentum, leaping backward to clear the blast zone.
The concrete street between them was sliced into clean, geometric slabs.
Sukuna didn’t follow up.
Under the rules of Enchain, he was strictly forbidden from killing or injuring anyone during his one minute of control.
The defensive slice was merely a deterrent to buy two seconds of space.
Taking advantage of the distance, Sukuna raised his right hand, grabbed his left pinky finger, and ripped it clean off.
Blood sprayed across the pavement, but Sukuna didn’t flinch.
He channeled every thread of his soul and energy into the severed digit, compressing his existence into a single cursed object.
A fraction of a second later, Sukuna vanished from the spot.
Before Julian could even register the motion, a heavy, clawed hand clamped onto his jaw, lifting his feet clean off the ground.
Julian stared in sheer terror at the black-marked face hovering inches from his own.
Sukuna held the bloody, severed pinky finger right above Julian’s open mouth.
Wait a minute!
Julian’s mind screamed in absolute panic.
What about Megumi Fushiguro?!
Why me?!