The Angel, the natural enemy of incarnated bodies, had been excluded.
They were left with no choice but to subdue Kashimo through pure physical combat.
"Get up, Kurusu!"
With her mind going frantic, Nobara shook the unconscious Kurusu over and over, but there was no sign of her waking up.
Injuries could be healed with cursed technique reversal, but regaining consciousness was something only the person herself could do.
Since Kashimo had promised not to kill her, her life was probably safe, but it looked like they could no longer count on her intervention.
"Focus on the opponent in front of you!"
With a thunderous shout, Kashimo charged the three of them.
Even though his body was still a little creaky because his injuries hadn’t fully healed, his movements were still impossible to let down your guard against.
Kashimo’s feet shot in over the guards Yuji and Megumi instinctively raised.
Bang!Crack!
"Ghk!"
Because his cursed energy carried the property of electricity, even blocking it would still leave them shocked.
It was, quite literally, impossible to defend against. Unless they had cursed energy output on the level of Hakari or higher, they couldn’t ignore Kashimo’s cursed energy trait.
From behind their spasming arms, a nail fired like a bullet and aimed for Kashimo.
Whoosh, whoosh!
"So there was a reason you stayed back there. Too ordinary...."
Kashimo easily dodged Nobara’s attack, then seemed about to lecture them like the old man he was, but at that moment someone’s hand grabbed his ankle.
Yuji, having endured the shock through sheer physical toughness and grit, was glaring up at him from below.
"...!"
With that stubborn strength, Kashimo was slammed into the ground before he even had time to admire it.
The impact was so strong it gouged the earth beneath his back. This wasn’t the kind of brute force he could protect himself from with cursed energy reinforcement.
Just as his breath was knocked out of him, a huge mass came crashing down on top of him.
[Eight Trigrams]
Thud!
Stretching out his arms to catch [Eight Trigrams], Kashimo let out a groan under the crushing load on his arms.
The adult African elephant that served as the model for [Eight Trigrams] weighed three to six tons.
Its exact weight couldn’t be reproduced because the technique lacked the necessary precision, but it could imitate it.
The weight of the [Eight Trigrams] Megumi had summoned came to about 2.4 tons, and as Kashimo caught it with both arms while lying on the ground, a nasty sound came from his left elbow.
Crack!
"....!"
It hadn’t broken, but there was definitely a fracture in the bone.
If he kept taking this, he’d be crushed to death.
He’d have to push himself a little.
"Grrraaaah!"
Letting out a battle cry, Kashimo hurled [Eight Trigrams] away with all his strength.
Megumi and Yuji, who had rushed in to land follow-up attacks, threw themselves aside to avoid the incoming [Eight Trigrams].
"He reinforced his body that much! Catching [Eight Trigrams] wasn’t a coincidence!"
Kashimo sprang back to his feet, and the two of them clashed again.
Yuji, having received a short staff-type cursed tool from Megumi’s shadow, thrust for Kashimo’s solar plexus.
Swoosh!
Kashimo twisted his body to dodge, and his flurry of counterattacks filled Yuji’s field of vision.
Just when he thought there was no way to avoid it, a masked bird flying down from above cut between them.
Powdering, smashing!
"Fushiguro!"
"Don’t try to defend! Keep your distance!"
[Nue], having taken the attack in Yuji’s place, was immediately unsummoned.
Just like when it had been hit by Kashimo’s lightning at the start, if it took any more damage than that, it would be destroyed for sure.
The moment [Nue] melted back into the shadows, Kashimo’s wrist swept through the empty air where it had just been.
The tips of his fingers were glowing blue now, as if enough charge was finally gathering.
"Don’t let it hit your head. The lightning will come right after."
Last time it had been his side, so there’d been a chance to survive. But if lightning hit his head, it would be instant death.
Instead of defending, Yuji focused entirely on evasion, and sparks flew behind his back.
Crackle!
The ionized molecules were still lingering.
"Try dodging this too!"
The power was weaker, but the sure-hit effect remained the same.
Even if it didn’t blow off a limb, it was enough to render him unable to fight.
Or so he thought—
Crackling!
The lightning veered off into the wrong place instead of striking Yuji directly.
"Why...!"
When Kashimo fired lightning, he transferred positive charge to his opponent and released the negative charge he held within himself.
Because lightning naturally flowed toward lower charge, guiding the attack where he wanted it required a high level of control, and lightning fired along a newly ionized path was especially sensitive to changes in the environment.
For example, a sharp, electrically conductive object lying nearby.
"Heheh, you think I was scattering those nails for no reason?"
The nails Nobara had thrown at Kashimo earlier.
They hadn’t dealt direct damage, but the ones that had fallen to the ground had acted like lightning rods and drawn the lightning in.
At the bewildered Kashimo, Nobara hurled her hammer with all her strength.
The iron hammer spun through the air with terrifying momentum.
Kashimo twisted his head to dodge it, and beneath him Yuji and Megumi surged in.
A low sweeping kick and a swung staff pressed in low and mid, respectively.
Just as he jumped high to avoid them, [Divine Dogs] burst from the shadows and struck Kashimo midair.
Crash!
Even Kashimo couldn’t endure an unavoidable attack in midair, and he took the hit and rolled across the ground.
And then more nails rained down on him.
[Hairpin]
Pew!
"Kuh!"
The cursed energy exploding in midair pierced through Kashimo’s left hand and pinned it to the ground.
With the first decisive hit of the battle, Yuji and Megumi’s momentum flared.
"Whoa, it works!"
"That guy can’t use cursed technique reversal! Keep pushing!"
Convinced they had the advantage, Megumi clenched his fist.
"[Divine Dogs] didn’t use a release attack when they made contact. He must have spent a lot of cursed energy on the ionization!"
Crushing the air inside the warehouse with voltage—what kind of sane person even thinks of that?
Even if he was confident in cursed energy control, using that much while his body was in bad shape meant he had to be reaching his limit soon.
And since they’d taken away his weapon, they had the advantage in reach.
"Besides, for some reason he isn’t using his technique."
The lightning that cut through the air and the ionization were all attacks carried out solely through the properties and control of cursed energy.
If he still wasn’t using it even after being pushed this far, maybe there was some serious penalty attached to it.
Probably he was saving it for Sukuna or Yoshino.
"Then this is our chance."
"I’m going in!"
"Don’t leave me out!"
Nobara, who had been watching from behind, joined in as well.
Just as everyone rushed toward the sprawled Kashimo,
"Heh heh, you still haven’t broken out of the mindset of small fry?"
After the first round, [Yuun] had been taken from him.
Kashimo always carried stored charge in that weapon, which was practically an extension of his own limbs.
It was to make up for the cooldown time it took to build up charge on his opponent.
"You’re not the only ones storing up charge."
Thanks to the marked cursed energy, he could always tell where [Yuun] was.
Right now, with everyone charging toward him in the same direction, he had lured all of them onto the line between [Yuun] and himself.
Crackle!
It wasn’t a lightning strike fired from Kashimo himself, but a return current that drew the charge stored in [Yuun] back to its owner.
The lightning that cut through the air was fired once again.
Where the straight-line attack swept through, there were huge holes punched through everything in its path.
Cough
Thud
The three of them narrowly escaped instant death, but the [Divine Dogs] that had been running at the very front were not so lucky.
With its spine and head completely shattered, [Divine Dogs] was destroyed, leaving its power behind and departing from Megumi’s side forever.
Psssh....
"Ah...."
It was a shikigami he had spent more than ten years with, since childhood.
He had lost something closer to family or a friend than a subordinate or a tool.
Megumi, coughing up blood as he collapsed, twisted his face in grief.
"Divine... Dogs...."
"F...Fushiguro... snap out of it...!"
With Nobara squeezing out every last bit of strength she had to draw out cursed energy, she poured in all her remaining stock and executed cursed technique reversal.
The dangling flesh of his abdomen was restored as his body was repaired back to its original state.
In front of them, as they got to their feet on trembling legs, Kashimo laughed in good spirits.
"Excellent. You’ve got good comrades."
"...."
"But that strange cursed technique reversal must be your last one, right?"
The annoying dog shikigami had been destroyed, and their means of recovery was gone too.
Both Kashimo and the Jujutsu High side were battered and ragged, but the reality was different.
They no longer had any way to endure his sure-hit lightning.
And yet there was still no sign that the fighting spirit in their eyes had gone out.
"Don’t talk like you’ve already won...!"
Especially Megumi, who had lost [Divine Dogs], was burning with deep anger.
There had been a reason he’d deliberately brought them to the warehouse.
In case of the worst possible situation, to pull out his final move.
"Domain Expansion."
[Chimera Shadow Garden]
The shadows spreading from beneath Megumi’s feet filled the entire warehouse.
Up, down, left, right—every inch of space was dyed black, trapping the four of them inside.
And behind Megumi, who had completed his domain, a giant skeleton with only its upper body remaining appeared.
"I see. So you were a sorcerer of that level."
"Let’s finish this."
The final round began.
There was no room for tricks now.
Only the collision of power against power remained.
Shrrrk!
Megumi’s clones, each gripping a different weapon, rose up from beneath the shadows.
Looking just like Megumi and each wearing the same ominous expression, they kept disappearing and reappearing as they swarmed Kashimo in a grotesque assault.
Whirl, smack! Smack!
Block one, and two more come flying in.
Block two, and three more come flying in.
Under the fierce offensive, Kashimo laughed happily while bleeding.
There was no need to unfold [Mihegallon].
Seeing as they had deliberately chosen the inside of a building for the fight, this domain probably didn’t have a sure-hit effect.
It would be stupid to seal off both hands just to prepare for an effect that wasn’t even certain.
"They’re not strong, but they’re hard to read. You’re making excellent use of sheer numbers."
This was the final round, so he would have to give it his all.
Wrapping his preserved cursed energy around his body without leaving a trace, Kashimo stimulated his brain with electricity and drastically boosted his reaction speed.
It was a technique he didn’t use often because of the aftereffects, but now was not the time to worry about that.
Thwack! Thwack!
Having caught all the attacks coming at him from different angles, Kashimo began to ride the flow.
He knocked aside the blade coming from the front and used its rotational force to kick away the two clones on either side.
Attacks from behind were blocked by using the clone in front as a shield.
Moving at a speed so hard to track it sparked with electricity, he looked almost like a thunder god.
As they traded blows again and again, he had reached the point where even he seemed to forget himself.
"This is fun."
It was fun.
This flowing, relentless offensive, and this moment now, when he had entered a state of no-mind and forgotten everything.
He had always wanted a fight like this.
The only thing he regretted was that the end was near.
But because there was an end, he could keep moving forward.
Always looking higher, until he found the meaning of it.
He gladly accepted the fate of endlessly pursuing strength.
"So more, more....!"
Short, but intense.
Even if he burned his own body away, he could leave a mark on the world and disappear.
That was the man known as Kashimo Hajime.
That was the conviction of the thunder god who had resolved to live a life like lightning.
Pow!
While he was lost in thought, the bodies that had been watching from the sidelines finally joined the fray.
They had kept the clones in front to guard against charge buildup, waiting until their numbers had been reduced.
"So that was the path you chose."
Even though he had mocked them for thinking like small fry, he didn’t dislike it.
He had thought he would never understand the weak, but somehow....
He felt like he was only now beginning to understand that the weak had their own kind of strength.
Even if they were still nothing more than fragile clumps of dirt.
Wobble
The ground beneath his feet, where he had been blocking and returning every attack, suddenly rippled and dropped out from under him.
With his feet trapped in an instant, a one-sided beating was unleashed on him.
He crouched low to guard, then manipulated his cursed energy to knock away the charged weapons flying at him.
Whoosh!
When the strike missed, Nobara, Megumi, and Yuji immediately threw away their weapons and rushed him barehanded.
"Just! Go down! Already!"
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"Die!"
It was a reckless barrage that threw technique and form out the window.
And precisely because of that, it synergized with their numbers and became even harder to read.
Emotion-charged kicks and punches slammed into Kashimo’s face again and again.
"Have they given up? They know charge keeps building up!"
Pow!
While Kashimo was thrown off by this dogfight with no form, Yuji’s elbow smashed into his nose.
His bones caved in and hot blood spilled out, and for a moment Kashimo lost his reason.
He knew better than anyone that there was no such thing as a noble fight.
But this kind of brawl was impossible to watch without wanting to tear your eyes out.
Blinded by rage and pain, Kashimo rotated the cursed energy throughout his entire body.
"You brats....!"
Slash!
Using his body as a coil, he spun the electric current to generate a magnetic field.
Inside Megumi’s shadows was a space of absolute nullity where no force acted. Once an external force was added, escaping was not that difficult.
Propelled high into the air by the powerful electromagnetic force, Kashimo snapped his fingers.
"It’s over!"
He had already transferred enough charge by beating them with his bare hands.
Now, if he fired the sure-hit lightning.....
Crackle...
"....?!!"
For some reason, the lightning didn’t fire, and only a weak spark jumped before nothing happened.
As he stood there in stunned disbelief, a huge deer slowly rose from the shadows before his eyes.
"Your cursed energy has already been neutralized."
[Round Deer]
This shikigami, which emitted positive energy from its entire body, didn’t just heal injuries—it also neutralized cursed energy.
It had been a gamble, since it was hard to confirm whether any cursed energy remained, but it had worked brilliantly.
Hiding it in the shadows so Kashimo wouldn’t notice was just a bonus.
Immediately after Kashimo failed to fire his lightning, Yuji leaped toward him.
"Itadori! This way!"
"Okay!"
Nobara, standing in his path, braced her hands and launched Yuji upward, and Yuji, soaring into the air, tightly cocked back his rear hand.
Everyone was reaching their limit.
So they would finish this with this one blow.
"Ha...."
As Kashimo let out a dry laugh and closed his eyes, black flames bloomed right in front of his nose.
[Black Flash]
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