One blow landed while he was completely unguarded.
She said she didn’t mean to kill him, but if you thought about who had thrown that punch, there was nothing light about it.
"Guhk!"
Todo’s body was sent flying and slammed into the wall of a building.
A crushing sensation curled through his abdomen, making it hard to breathe. He dragged himself up on trembling legs, and a line of fresh blood dripped from his mouth.
His internal organs had definitely been damaged by that last attack.
He had managed to reinforce himself with cursed energy just in time. If he had been even a little slower, it would have been a serious injury.
"What the hell do you think you’re doing!"
Furious, Kusakabe drew his sword and rushed out to face Tsukumo Yuki.
Looking for fairness in a fight between jujutsushi is stupid, but ambushing someone who had no intention of fighting at all was a different matter.
"Todo was trying to talk you down in earnest, and this is how you repay him?"
"On the contrary, that’s what let me do this."
"What...?"
"Because you came looking for me, I was able to decide what I need to do next."
By then, Tsukumo Yuki’s eyes had changed.
The listless, wavering expression was gone. In its place, she stared straight at Kusakabe with a dry, unwavering light.
When Kusakabe caught a glimpse of madness in those red eyes, something beyond conviction, he flinched before he could stop himself.
"The [Culling Game] has to continue. I can’t allow even one variable."
So I have to tell you.
Where the "angel" is.
"!"
Only then did Kusakabe understand.
Why Tsukumo Yuki was acting separately from Kenjaku.
"The angel is still a vessel of Sukuna. It’s practically the same as Kenjaku letting them loose."
There was no way Kenjaku didn’t know about the angel’s ability. And yet he had brought her into the present world anyway, which meant he had some other scheme in mind.
On the other hand, Tsukumo, who sincerely wanted the [Culling Game] to continue, would have opposed that.
She only shared the same destination. Since she wasn’t truly cooperating with him, she couldn’t understand why Kenjaku would deliberately release such a dangerous factor.
"You’re going to kill the angel and make sure there’s no way to end the [Culling Game] ever again?"
"That’s right. If the angel disappears, at least the [Culling Game] won’t end in this generation."
"You’re insane. You’re not even human anymore. You know that?"
"I’ve been insane for a long time."
Tsukumo brushed off Kusakabe’s rebuke as if it meant nothing and tilted her head.
"I think I’ve made my intentions clear enough."
Spilling the plan now meant she had no intention of letting them go peacefully.
If he told her where the angel was, he might survive, but that would mean betraying his comrades.
Die, or kill. He had to choose one.
"Damn it. Why can’t Yuji or Okkotsu just drop in from somewhere, even if it’s only one of them...."
With Hakari gone and Todo effectively out of the fight, if they fought now, death was certain.
If this had been the Kusakabe of before Shibuya, he might have given in and talked. Surviving had always been the top priority.
But—
"I refuse."
Rather than survive alone in such a pathetic way again, he would fall together with them.
"...I see."
The back-and-forth negotiation was over.
The moment his final offer was rejected, an enormous density of cursed energy gathered in both of Tsukumo’s hands.
It was enough to make the air around them seem distorted.
"Then die."
BOM-BA-YE (Star Rage)
Tsukumo’s fist shot forward in an instant.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary punch.
But Kusakabe, who had deployed a simple domain and taken a defensive stance, was suddenly flooded with the fear of death.
"No way...!"
Crash!
The fist tore through the simple domain like paper and kept coming.
Even after being neutralized once, its power showed no sign of diminishing.
"I can’t intercept that!"
He could automatically intercept anything that entered the simple domain, but if he tried to block that, his own body would break first.
He absolutely could not allow a direct hit, and he absolutely could not try to meet it head-on.
He rolled away desperately to evade it. A tremendous gust of wind burst over his head, and from a prone position Kusakabe thrust his sword toward Tsukumo’s leg.
Iaijutsu - Evening Moon, Draw Slash
Slash!
Because it wasn’t a strike launched from a proper stance, the cut was shallow.
Blood sprayed from the thin red line, and Tsukumo’s stamping kick came crashing down immediately after.
Boom!
"Wah!"
The ground caved in and a shockwave exploded outward.
Thrown upward by the recoil, Kusakabe drew his sword again without time to think.
Another fist came flying through the swirling gravel and dust.
Whoosh!
The sword and fist crossed paths, slicing through the empty air.
When he felt no resistance at the blade’s tip, Kusakabe immediately kicked off the ground to widen the distance.
"From the way I was cut earlier, her durability doesn’t go up."
He had already heard an explanation of her technique from Todo before coming here.
Her offense was monstrous, but her defense probably wasn’t anything special. Maybe then...
"I might actually have a shot."
Evade well. Hit well.
The winner would be decided by how well each side handled those basic requirements.
Tsukumo only needed to land one hit, so it looked unfair at first glance, but Kusakabe had a sword.
Iaijutsu - Evening Moon
The fact that he had risen to the very top of first-grade strength without a technique meant he had reached the peak of another path.
Kusakabe’s greatest strength was that he could deploy a simple domain without any special binding conditions. And that its range was far wider than anyone else’s.
On top of that, if you added the original interception program he had built into it, there were almost no one who could beat him in a pure hand-to-hand fight.
"The moment she enters my range, I’ll cut her down first!"
Tsukumo Yuki charged toward him as he took his draw stance.
It was close, but just a little more.
Just a little more....
Now.
Draw Slash
Shin Kage-ryu’s iaijutsu was basically a technique for luring the opponent in and countering them, but Kusakabe, who had reached the peak of the art, used it in a different way.
He would deploy his simple domain after the opponent entered his range and cut them down.
Not by thinking and swinging, but by making his body react by spinal reflex.
It was an original technique created by a man who had mastered swordsmanship and the simple domain alike.
Slash-slash-slash!
And the sword had definitely cut something.
"...!"
"Goodbye."
Not Tsukumo Yuki, but some monster that had flown in from an angle he hadn’t perceived.
Garuda
The sword was already drawn.
His reaction had slowed because of the interference.
And through that opening, the incarnation of destruction surged in.
Kwooooooo!
"I’m dead."
There was no way to dodge the fist that had come this close.
As a flash of his life passed before Kusakabe’s eyes,
Smack!
He was suddenly standing behind Tsukumo Yuki.
His body moved before his mind did, and he slashed downward diagonally with the sword in both hands.
A clean sword line was drawn, leaving a lingering mark across her back.
Slash!
"Ghk!"
It was the first real, effective hit since the battle began.
It was obvious who had helped him.
"Todo! You okay?"
"Not... yet...!"
Todo Aoi.
The man who had been half-retired the moment the battle started had come back to life.
Cough
Even while coughing up blood by the bucketful, he stood firm.
There was an indescribable solemnity in the sight of him burning with fighting spirit while practically half-dead.
"Teacher. I’m deeply sorry it came to this."
"...You could’ve just stayed down and rested."
"I can’t do that. Everyone’s fighting."
What a miserable sight.
He had let personal feelings cloud his judgment and failed to account for this possibility.
No, the truth was probably that he hadn’t wanted to see it.
"This is the end, Teacher."
Tsukumo Yuki was the enemy.
Nothing else mattered now.
"From this moment on, I’ll eliminate you with everything I have."
"......"
It was a two-on-one situation.
His wounds had already been healed with reverse cursed technique, but this was becoming troublesome.
He still had confidence he could win, but if he took Todo’s technique into account, a barrage of tactics on a completely different level from before would come pouring in.
"Looks like he got worn down pretty badly fighting Laru first."
At least Todo looked like he’d go down quickly. Was that a blessing?
If they dragged things out, victory would definitely be hers, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility of something unexpected.
The last thing he wanted was to bumble through the fight and have Yuji or Okkotsu crash in.
So he would finish this quickly.
"I’m sorry, Todo."
"What... why all of a sudden?"
She didn’t want to kill a cute disciple.
She hadn’t even expected him to understand, but she hadn’t thought they would end up cursing each other like this.
So this was what was left in the end.
"Domain Expansion."
Fierce Vast Bright Star
Tsukumo Yuki’s technique, BOM-BA-YE, was "mass."
She could grant virtual mass without limit to herself and to Garuda, her cursed tool-fied shikigami.
Force is the product of mass and acceleration. If mass increases, the force applied increases as well.
In that sense, Tsukumo Yuki’s technique was high-performance, with high returns and no risk.
What would happen if that were granted to a domain?
"...!"
The moment the barrier covering the domain unfolded, Todo and Kusakabe both deployed simple domains.
They managed to block the sure-hit effect somehow, but the rate at which the simple domain was being eroded was no joke.
It would probably only be a stopgap.
"Hey, Todo! You know anything about this?"
"I’ve never seen my teacher’s domain before! This is...."
"Mass assignment."
In front of the two tense men, Tsukumo began activating the domain’s effect.
"The normal BOM-BA-YE could only assign mass to me and Garuda, but inside this domain, that changes."
Unlike sorcerers of the past, whose domains only had sure-hit effects, modern domains are built on the premise of sure-kill.
The effect of Fierce Crazy Bright Star, which achieves both sure-hit and technique expansion at once, extends to others as well.
Unlimited mass assignment.
Inside the domain, Tsukumo could instead use this property of "assignment" offensively.
The effect of mass does not affect Tsukumo or Garuda, but if the target is someone else...
"Their volume stays the same, but their mass increases, so their density rises and they can’t support their own heavy body."
"...!"
That wasn’t all.
With the technique’s precision heightened, it was even possible to tamper with the mass of the air.
"How long do you think you can hold out with a simple domain?"
If they couldn’t bring Tsukumo Yuki down inside it....
They would be crushed to death by their own weight.
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