Bonus for 200 PS
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“That brat…”
The air reeked of scorched earth and blood.
After unleashing Malevolent Shrine at full power, Sukuna was now suffering the inevitable cursed technique burnout that followed a Domain Expansion.
For the moment, he couldn’t use his slashing technique.
Still, Sukuna stood firmly atop the ruins.
His four crimson eyes narrowed as he stared at the enormous pale shikigami in the distance.
Mahoraga.
It had already adapted to slashing attacks twice, and the pressure radiating from its body was enough to make the air feel heavy.
Wind swept dust across Sukuna’s curse-marked face.
A thousand years ago, during the Heian era, the King of Curses had stood above an entire age, crushing both sorcerers and curses beneath him.
And with his experience, Sukuna could clearly sense the tremendous cursed energy raging inside Mahoraga’s enormous body.
Combined with the information Atsushi had just revealed about Mahoraga’s adaptation, Sukuna immediately understood the basic mechanics of the ability.
“So it’s something along the lines of Yamata no Orochi…”
His gaze shifted.
“But that shikigami isn’t the interesting part.”
Sukuna’s four eyes cut through the drifting dust and locked onto Atsushi in the distance.
Blood Manipulation…
There’s nothing unusual about the technique itself.
But that brat’s cursed energy is strange.
He cut straight through a shikigami that had already adapted once to slashing attacks.
Even I couldn’t tell how he did it.
And he seems to know everything happening here before it happens.
Is he trying to use me?
A worm like him?
How irritating.
But the battlefield didn’t give Sukuna any more time to think.
Mahoraga had now completed a second adaptation to the concept of slashing attacks.
Atsushi had been pulled away by Todo’s Boogie Woogie, instantly leaving Mahoraga without its previous target.
The strongest shikigami turned its empty gaze.
Then it locked onto the nearest presence that still radiated overwhelming danger.
Ryomen Sukuna.
Mahoraga moved.
Its enormous body tore through the air and burst from the cloud of dust left behind by its previous punch like a cannon shell.
After two turns of the wheel, its body had become even larger and more durable.
It charged Sukuna with a roar.
Both fists blurred into a pale storm.
Each punch carried enough force to pulverize steel, and within an instant, Sukuna’s comparatively slender frame disappeared beneath the barrage.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Heavy impacts thundered through the ruins.
Visible rings of compressed air exploded outward from the center of the exchange.
But the current Sukuna only possessed the cursed energy of roughly four fingers.
Without his signature slashing technique, he couldn’t match a fully restored and continuously evolving Mahoraga in a direct contest of physical strength.
In fact, that was exactly why Sukuna had immediately used Malevolent Shrine earlier.
After only a brief exchange, he had already recognized the enormous gap between their current physical capabilities and cursed energy output.
Now that his Domain had ended and his technique was burned out, that disadvantage became impossible to hide.
After blocking only a handful of attacks, Sukuna’s feet carved two deep trenches through the ground.
Then Mahoraga’s overwhelming strength sent him flying backward.
“Brat!”
But even while being completely overwhelmed, Sukuna suddenly did something unexpected.
He didn’t shout at Mahoraga.
Instead, while flying backward, he turned his head toward Atsushi in the safer area and raised his voice.
“You’ve got nerve.”
“Even I ended up dancing to your tune.”
As though he had finally seen through Atsushi’s intentions, Sukuna made a decision no one on the battlefield expected.
He stopped defending.
At the same time, the black markings covering his face began fading away like sand scattered by the wind.
His four cruel crimson eyes closed.
Then the additional eyes disappeared completely.
“Three fingers and one vessel aren’t worth this much trouble.”
“If they die, they die.”
Sukuna’s arrogant voice echoed across the ruins.
“But brat…”
“Enjoy whatever time you have left.”
“The next time we meet, I’ll kill you myself.”
Then his presence vanished.
The King of Curses had willingly surrendered control of Itadori Yuji’s body.
He knew Yuji could seize control again the moment Sukuna tried to kill Atsushi.
And rather than continue allowing himself to be used under those restrictions, Sukuna simply abandoned the fight.
He was willing to sacrifice the three fingers Yuji had consumed.
He was even willing to abandon Fushiguro Megumi.
The instant Sukuna’s consciousness sank back into the depths of Yuji’s soul and control of the body changed hands, Mahoraga was already in front of him.
Its massive fist came down.
But when the wind from that punch swept through his pink hair, there was no trace of Sukuna’s arrogance left on the boy’s face.
Only Itadori Yuji.
And Yuji had only just regained consciousness.
Confusion briefly clouded his expression.
The shadow of Mahoraga’s fist swallowed his entire field of vision.
The blow was powerful enough to crush stone and steel alike.
Yuji’s physical body was far stronger than Atsushi’s.
But even he couldn’t survive a clean, unguarded hit from a fully restored Mahoraga.
He’d simply leave behind a slightly more substantial mess.
And because control of his body had only just switched back, Yuji’s mind hadn’t fully caught up.
His body couldn’t react.
He couldn’t dodge.
Mahoraga’s fist descended.
Clap!
Boogie Woogie activated.
BOOM!
Mahoraga’s killing blow slammed into a tree trunk that had suddenly appeared in Yuji’s place.
The entire trunk exploded into splinters.
Dozens of meters away, in a relatively safe part of the battlefield, Yuji suddenly appeared in front of Todo.
Todo’s hands were still together from the clap.
Yuji snapped fully awake.
Cold sweat instantly soaked through his uniform.
“Sukuna seriously just quit?!”
Nobara stared at Yuji, already sweating from the near miss herself.
She carefully checked his face.
No curse markings.
No extra eyes.
Sukuna was really gone.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!
He decides to bail now, of all times?!”
“…Sorry, Kugisaki.”
Yuji scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“Sukuna was…
pretty pissed.”
“But before we switched, I told him that if he attacked anyone other than that shikigami, I’d take control back even if it killed me.”
“So I guess that’s why he did it…”
Yuji had come within inches of being reduced to paste by Mahoraga.
Yet all he did now was clench and unclench his fists, feeling his still-racing heartbeat.
There wasn’t a trace of resentment toward Atsushi, even though Atsushi was the reason Sukuna had abandoned the fight.
Atsushi couldn’t help feeling a little impressed.
This guy really is something else.
“Anyway…”
Yuji stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes.
Then he looked at the massive man beside him.
“That ability that instantly switches positions…”
“That’s your cursed technique, right?”
“Seriously, thank you.
If you hadn’t saved me just now, that punch would’ve definitely…”
Todo raised one finger.
“Save the introductions and thanks until we’re alive.”
His sharp gaze remained fixed on the dust cloud in the distance.
“That monster…”
“It’s coming.”
Todo’s voice turned serious.
“With Sukuna gone, it probably realized there’s no longer anything in that area dangerous enough to threaten it.”
“So now that it’s acting on its killing instinct again, its priorities have shifted back to Fushiguro, who’s still suspended near death…”
“And the head of that Special Grade curse that’s still alive.”
With that, Todo grabbed his uniform and tore it off.
The black Jujutsu High jacket split apart and hit the ground.
His granite-like physique was fully exposed.
Violent blue cursed energy surged from his waist through every muscle in his body, burning around him like flames and making the air hum.
Then he bent down and picked up a fist-sized stone from the rubble.
“Let’s kill that shikigami before it adapts to my technique!”
Yuji’s voice immediately regained its energy.
“Got it!”
“Yeah.”
Sukuna abruptly abandoning the battle hadn’t been part of Atsushi’s calculations.
But looking at Mahoraga, which rewarded him with 600 EXP and 200 gold every time its wheel turned…
Atsushi had no intention of backing down.
The instant Todo finished speaking, the muscles in his arm bulged.
He poured cursed energy into the stone.
Then he threw it.
The rock shot toward Mahoraga like a bullet fired from a cannon.
Fwoosh!
Wrapped in cursed energy, it tore through the air with a sharp sonic crack.
Its speed reduced it to little more than a blur as it flew straight toward Mahoraga’s face.
Just before impact…
Clap!
Todo slammed his hands together.
Boogie Woogie!
Todo’s enormous body instantly switched places with the high-speed stone.
In less than a heartbeat, the harmless projectile vanished.
Todo appeared directly in front of Mahoraga instead.
And he inherited all the momentum the stone had carried.
Todo threw everything into one punch.
Cursed energy flashed.
The enormous kinetic force of the thrown stone, combined with Todo’s own momentum and physical power, magnified the strike dramatically.
His fist crashed into Mahoraga’s broad pale chest like a battering ram.
BOOM!
A huge shockwave exploded from the point of impact.
Mahoraga’s massive body was actually forced half a step backward.
But that was only the beginning.
No words were necessary.
The moment Todo had picked up the first stone, both Itadori Yuji and Atsushi had already understood the plan.
Each of them grabbed a stone from the surrounding rubble.
They poured cursed energy into them without restraint.
Then, standing on opposite sides, both drew their arms back.
They threw.
Two stones screamed through the air toward different sides of Mahoraga’s enormous body.
Fwoosh!
Fwoosh!
The instant both entered range…
Clap!
Clap!
Todo struck his hands together twice in rapid succession.
Space twisted.
Itadori Yuji and Atsushi vanished from where they had been standing.
A heartbeat later, both appeared beside Mahoraga, perfectly inheriting the momentum of the projectiles they had replaced.
“Divergent Fist!”
Yuji struck first.
His fist slammed into Mahoraga’s body.
Two separate impacts rippled through the shikigami’s flesh.
First came the raw physical blow.
Then came the delayed burst of cursed energy.
“Blood Manipulation, Crimson Binding!”
Atsushi didn’t attack immediately.
Instead, blood surged outward under his control.
It twisted into thick crimson restraints that wrapped tightly around Mahoraga’s enormous body.
But the difference in cursed energy was simply too great.
Even after taking Todo’s full-force strike and Yuji’s Divergent Fist, Mahoraga tore its arms free almost instantly.
The blood restraints snapped apart.
Then its enormous pale hands moved.
It ignored Todo.
It ignored Yuji.
And reached directly for Atsushi.
Atsushi’s eyes narrowed.
Mahoraga wasn’t just some mindless beast attacking on instinct.
It could tell.
Of everyone here…
Atsushi was the only one who could actually hurt it.
(To be continued.)