The lowest level of the base.
A man sat in front of an old, crackling CRT television.
Watching the footage the curses sent him like CCTV, he brushed his finger over the scar on his forehead.
"So you’ve come."
The three figures on the screen.
The failed product, the Heavenly Restriction, and the cursed boy.
Even if they weren’t on the level of "him," the strongest card in his hand, they were all formidable opponents.
The other side had clearly sharpened their blades and come prepared.
"The Four Heavenly Kings, no, the Three Heavenly Kings have arrived!"
"If we’re being precise, we’re the demon king’s army."
"Then what’s my play role? I think I’d rather be the clown, if I had a choice!"
Even in a situation that was serious by any measure, Kenjaku’s head was full of cheerful fantasies.
Because the three of them, walking into this place with firm resolve, looked exactly like the hero party he’d once seen in a game.
A hero, a warrior, and a blood mage. Not bad.
"Are you planning to take all of them on by yourself?"
"No.... Since they came all this way, I should at least entertain them. I’ve done a little tinkering with the siege barrier."
"A divide-and-conquer setup?"
"It’s a tournament. Want to join in too?"
When Kenjaku, seated in his chair, crooked a finger, a figure hidden in the darkness stepped into view.
White hair, androgynous features, and even the monk’s robe he always wore.
Uraume, who had somehow ended up serving as Kenjaku’s escort, wore a face like they’d just bitten into shit.
"Why do you always look so miserable?"
"Because I’m always miserable. I hate sorcerers, and I hate you too."
"In that spirit, I’ve got my killer one-liner ready to melt your frozen heart."
"Don’t."
"What do you call ice when it dies?"
"I said don’t."
Uraume covered their ears with a look of genuine disgust, but Takaba’s terrible joke had no intention of stopping.
"Dai(Die)bing(氷)!"
"......"
Uraume was left speechless, and Takaba burst out laughing to himself as if he’d found it hilarious even now.
Kenjaku, chiming in beside him and doing a Sukuna impression, was just a bonus.
"Uwahahahahaha!! Uwahahahahaha!!"
"Keheheheh!! Uraume!! That’s too funny!! Find my belly button for me!!!"
"Sukuna-sama would never say that!"
Uraume’s eyes twisted fiercely at the insult to their master, but no punishment actually came.
Annoying as he was, they needed this guy if Sukuna-sama was going to be fully revived.
Until then, they had to keep him happy.
....And there was also that relationship they couldn’t bring themselves to say out loud.
-What are you gonna do about it, you rice-cooking maid? I even had a kid.
Humiliating as it was, Kenjaku and Uraume were clearly in a superior-subordinate relationship.
They didn’t want to lose their temper and hear that kind of thing again.
Uraume swallowed down the roar that was about to burst out and glared at Kenjaku.
"Kraaaah, Uraume!! If you look at me with eyes like that...."
"Enough. I asked what you’re going to do."
"You and me. We’re going in together."
As if all the teasing had been a lie, Kenjaku quickly returned to his usual easygoing demeanor.
"Who’s the target?"
"We’ll have to go in and see, won’t we? The labyrinth I designed is still unstable, so I don’t know where it’ll spit us out. Who fights who is random."
"You’re still joking around."
"I’m not joking. I’m serious. It’s not something I can control."
That was no lie.
They’d been too pressed for time to fine-tune every detail of the "dungeon."
Though, in truth, that had been part of the plan.
"But why two people? They’ve got three."
"There’s an uninvited guest. I’m thinking of leaving that one to them."
The Okkotsu group didn’t seem to know it yet, but there had been one presence trailing them since a little while ago.
Something not naturally born like Jogo, yet packed with just as much power and resentment. More than enough to pique his interest.
Would he be able to beat the one-in-three odds and meet the opponent he wanted?
It all depended on luck, but for some reason, it felt like a good picture would come out of it.
"What about me?"
"Takaba, you wait on standby and come out when the time feels right. From olden times, the clown was the ‘joker.’"
"Joker...."
After being given a vaguely impressive codename, Takaba seemed to accept it well enough.
He’d also considered using Takaba’s long-kept opening act this time, but decided against it.
This stage wasn’t suited to a guy who couldn’t kill people.
Leaving him in reserve as insurance for any unforeseen circumstances was best.
"Let’s go."
He was looking forward to it.
What would happen in this "dungeon" from here on out.
"Let’s curse each other."
In the chaos even he didn’t yet know, he wondered how they would run wild.
"This is...."
Following Choso’s guidance, the Okkotsu group arrived before a bizarre structure.
Beyond the entrance, decorated with the skulls of all kinds of animals, waited a cave with its black maw gaping wide.
"What terrible taste."
"So this is the kind of thing he can make."
Anyone could tell it was an artificial building made through jujutsu.
If this hadn’t been part of the mission, it was the kind of place they’d never want to enter.
It made him wonder why they hadn’t discovered it sooner.
"He probably noticed too. Before you got here, there was a barrier in this area that hid presence."
"So he was keeping other people from finding it."
"The fact that he’s removed the barrier now means he’s finished preparing to receive guests."
It didn’t feel good.
Even if it looked smooth on the surface, it meant they had to play along with the board he’d set up.
No matter what waited ahead, there was nothing they could do about it.
"This doesn’t look like something we can smash physically."
"Wouldn’t it work if I, as someone treated like an inanimate object, went in?"
"That’s a method only you can use. You’re not going in alone."
He might even be able to detect someone like Maki, who had no cursed energy at all.
Kenjaku was a barrier user on par with Tengen.
There was no way someone with that level of godlike skill would fail to account for a variable like that.
"We have to assume there’s a chance we’ll be separated like when we entered the Culling Game."
"Understood."
"Everyone enters at the same time."
Kenjaku, a barrier user on par with Tengen, had personally created this masterpiece.
A "dungeon" modeled after the barrier of Hongsung Palace.
At Okkotsu’s command, they threw themselves into it without hesitation.
-Swoosh!
The sensation of pushing through soft darkness came, and the scenery around them changed.
The presence of the comrade beside him vanished in an instant, and just as the sight before him, which had shown nothing at all, began to brighten—
"Maki-san? Choso?"
Okkotsu found himself alone in a desolate landscape.
Meaningless white stone pillars jutted up everywhere, covered by a transparent dome.
The space inside the barrier was the size of an entire floor of a building.
There was no living thing in here except Okkotsu.
"Maki-san and Choso are... I don’t know where they went."
They were there, but it didn’t feel close, and it didn’t feel far either.
This strange space seemed to interfere with detection.
Since they’d entered together, he’d find them if he searched, but they were probably separated just like him.
In a situation like this, regrouping had to come first.
As Okkotsu wondered how he could get out of this unidentified barrier, something caught his eye.
"That is..."
At the top of the tallest stone pillar rising from the center of the barrier, something had been embedded.
It looked like a stake, or maybe an altar, a strange object wrapped in bandages covered with chaotic writing.
As Okkotsu studied it, he remembered something he’d heard before about Shibuya.
"No matter how strong a barrier user Kenjaku is, he can’t maintain several siege barriers like this by himself."
The curtain-like barrier that covered Meiji-Jingumae Station and Shibuya.
The medium of the barrier, and the guardian assigned to protect it.
Aside from the lack of a guardian, this situation was similar to that one.
"If I destroy that, I’ll be able to find the other two!"
"Rika!"
At Okkotsu’s shout, [Rika] sprang forth, and just as he charged to destroy the medium—
-Gloop
Someone broke through the barrier and entered.
"Oh, a boss fight right from the start."
"....!"
At the familiar voice, Okkotsu’s face stiffened.
How could he ever forget?
The worst opponent he’d defeated by staking everything on the fight.
"Kenjaku."
"We’re not meeting for the first time, are we? Not in this body."
The special-grade curse user, Geto Suguru.
No, he should call him Kenjaku now.
Aside from the stitched scar on his forehead, he looked no different from a year ago.
"Lucky me."
"Where are Choso and Maki-san?"
"They’re still alive. Trapped in barriers like you, fighting the opponents assigned to them."
This side had three.
That side had two, even counting Uraume.
There was no way Uraume could take on the two of them alone.
"Was there another comrade with you?"
"Not a comrade. I can’t say much, but maybe I should call them a vengeful spirit with a grudge against one of you."
"...What do you mean, ‘lucky me,’ then?"
"I can’t control the randomness of this barrier either. I don’t know who’ll end up fighting whom. You and I meeting was pure coincidence."
If that was true, then the reaction he’d shown earlier made sense.
It was none other than the chain of enmity that had brought them here.
Okkotsu glared at Kenjaku with burning eyes.
"Then you should have split us up from the start and picked us off one by one."
"Exactly. That would be the rational move. But then it wouldn’t be fun, would it?"
"Fun... you say... Is this fun to you? People are dying because of the Culling Game, and you think it’s funny that they’re running around not even knowing they’re being toyed with inside your board?"
"Yeah. It’s incredibly fun. It’s been a thousand years since I’ve had something like this."
There was no need for any more conversation.
With a rustle, Okkotsu drew his sword and slowly pointed the tip at Kenjaku.
"You’re trying to kill me?"
"I’m not going to kill you. If you die, Tengen-sama will go berserk."
"You know your stuff."
"Instead.... I can make sure you can’t pull any more tricks."
-Special-grade sorcerer, Okkotsu Yuta.
"I’ll subdue you here and bring the Culling Game to an end."
"I’ve been wanting to fight you with this body too."
-Curse user, Kenjaku.
"Will you still be able to do it now that you’ve lost the power you gained by cursing the one you loved?"
"I’m coming."
As curses surged out from Kenjaku’s hand, Okkotsu, sword drawn, kicked off the ground.
The clash of those with special-grade power.
The battle that had ended a year ago in Okkotsu’s victory during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was about to begin again.
And at that same moment.
Choso and Maki/Mai were also facing the opponents assigned to them.
"You."
"What is it, trash."
"I remember your face. One of Sukuna’s lackeys who laid a hand on my little brother."
Choso’s opponent was Uraume, the one who had fed Yuji Sukuna’s finger.
Even as a vague killing intent boiled up inside him, Choso stared at Uraume with calm eyes.
"Then you’ll remember that I subdued you without even breaking a sweat."
"This time... it’ll be different from then."
He remembered that day’s helplessness.
The pathetic sight of himself, unable to do anything but scream and cry, would not leave his head.
He had buried that anger, that despair, carefully until now....
And now, at last, the chance to let it out had come.
"I’ll kill you."
And by doing so, I’ll shake off the past where I couldn’t protect my little brother.
Crush them hard from the very start!
Red lines deepened around Choso’s eyes, and Uraume, holding overcooled cursed energy in the palm of their hand, exhaled.
[Crimson Blood Manipulation - Release] - [Crimson Scale Dance]
[Frost Calm]
Choso vs. Uraume.
And as for Maki/Mai’s opponent—
-Gloop
"...?"
-What’s that?
When some stringy lump broke through the barrier, they couldn’t recognize it at first.
"I...I... found... you...."
When that familiar dialect reached their ears, they thought they were hearing things.
-No way.... We should’ve killed him then...!
"You, how...."
"I came over here too."
Mai-chan. No, Maki?
Who cares.
Either way, I’m gonna kill you.
"Nice to meet ya~!"
The special-grade curse, Zenin Naoya.
Having been confined in the Zenin clan estate, he had crossed over death once and come looking for the sisters.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register