“Is it okay to leave Kamo-senpai behind by himself?”
“Aside from Todo, he’s the strongest among us. He’s perfect for tying Junpei down.”
The Kyoto students left Kamo, who had volunteered to keep Junpei pinned in place, and moved through the forest together.
They were speaking in calm tones, but everyone except the robot Mechamaru had their faces twisted into frowns.
That was only natural. Their carefully laid plan had fallen apart, and the situation was looking very bad.
Todo, who had been supposed to hold off the Tokyo students by himself and buy time, had been knocked out in a single blow the moment the match began.
They hadn’t exactly been counting on Todo’s cooperation anyway, so that part could be let go. But Nishimiya being eliminated was a painful blunder.
She was the only one who could fly and scout from the air, which meant she had been given the crucial job of locating Itadori and the second-grade cursed spirit and relaying the information.
Unluckily, she ran into Junpei and was retired on the spot.
They knew it the moment they saw him.
That’s a monster.
As if proving that the title of first-grade jujutsushi hadn’t been handed to him on a whim, Junpei crushed their plan with overwhelming force.
So far, the abilities he’d revealed included poison, high-speed flight, and long-range attacks.
What was frightening was the possibility that he still had more unknown abilities hidden away.
Junpei, a complete rookie as a jujutsushi, was the biggest variable on the field, and in the end that variable had driven them into a corner.
“Our numbers are... 3 to 6?”
“A two-to-one difference...”
“At this point, can’t we just call it over?”
Before the match began, the Kyoto students had been given an advantage.
With Junpei and Yuji added in, the numbers became 6 to 7, which meant they would receive 1.5 times the points for exorcising lower-grade cursed spirits.
But now that three of them had effectively dropped out, that advantage was meaningless.
“Still, I don’t want to lose. Especially not to Maki.”
“M-me neither!”
“I didn’t come all the way to Tokyo next year just to lose.”
Even so, their fighting spirit had not gone out yet.
They had already given up on assassinating Itadori Yuji in their heads, but the exchange event was still going on.
From the call between Kamo and Junpei a moment ago, they had learned that Junpei had started acting on his own without telling his allies.
The other side didn’t know their objective, so they would probably focus more on searching for cursed spirits than on battle.
They could avoid combat as much as possible, shadow them secretly, and snatch the second-grade cursed spirit out from under them. Or Mai and Mechamaru could snipe Itadori Yuji from long range the moment he showed an opening...
“Bark!”
“Damn it, we’ve been found!”
“Everyone, get ready!”
Before they could even come up with a detour, Megumi’s divine dogs sensed them.
With Nishimiya out and Kamo busy tying Junpei down, the one with the advantage in tracking was Fushiguro Megumi, the shikigami user.
Three Tokyo students appeared beyond the divine dogs.
“Only three?”
“They could’ve split into teams like us. There may be more backup. Be careful.”
“Salmon.”
Zenin Maki, Fushiguro Megumi, and Inumaki Toge.
It was the result of the team assignments based on balance.
Junpei, who could fly, was paired with Panda, Yuji, and Nobara, who were strong in close combat and good at dealing with cursed spirits, so they could take down the second-grade cursed spirit.
Megumi, an all-rounder who also had shikigami and was good at both scouting and fighting, was paired with Maki on the front line and Toge in support to keep Kyoto in check.
That was the basic strategy.
“I’ll take Maki. I want to enjoy this one-on-one.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll keep an eye on Fushiguro.”
“I-I’ll do my best too!”
They each chose their opponents and charged.
“Senpai, you can handle it, right?”
“Don’t you go getting hurt, kid.”
“Salmon roe.”
Before long, everyone except Maki, who vanished into the trees following Mai, collided.
“Nue.”
“Sword Option - Boost On.”
“New Shadow Style - Simple Domain.”
-----------------------
Three arrows came chasing after Junpei through the air at high speed, cutting through the wind with shrill whistles.
Even if he tried to change direction and dodge them, the arrows bent their trajectories in defiance of physics.
“[Bullet]!”
Even though they could twist their paths and ignore inertia, the arrows’ kinetic energy had already been drained from keeping up with Junpei’s acrobatic flight.
The spikes Junpei fired in return intercepted the three arrows and shot toward Kamo.
“[Purification].”
Quickly bursting a blood pack, Kamo hardened the blood into a shield to protect himself.
While the spikes bounced off after striking the center of the shield, Junpei closed in quickly, leaping down from Moonlit Wave’s back and forming hand signs again.
The attack just now had exhausted all of Kamo’s arrows.
It wouldn’t be impossible to keep forcing him into long-range combat, but because of [Purification], landing a clean hit was not easy.
So he’s a blood-manipulation sorcerer. He’s not just using his own blood—he’s replenishing it with blood packs too.
If this dragged on, Kamo would collapse from anemia first. But Junpei didn’t want to win in such a drawn-out way.
If he wanted to clear this area quickly and link up with Yuji’s group, he needed to take a gamble.
Now that the opponent had lost his long-range options, he would finish him head-on with a decisive dose of poison.
“[Last Moon].”
The jellyfish shikigami stretched out its tentacles and aimed for Kamo’s flank from the side of the shield.
Just as he thought contact had been made, an arrow stained with blood shot out from beyond the shield as it collapsed and could no longer hold its form.
Junpei wasn’t the only one hiding a knife.
The last arrow he’d secretly held back!
Junpei hurriedly threw himself behind Last Moon.
-Shiiik!
-Paat!
The arrow Kamo threw lodged itself into Last Moon’s outer shell.
It sank deep enough for translucent fluid to leak out, but the soft gelatinous body quickly repaired itself and the arrow dropped away.
“It can regenerate too.”
“So that was all the arrows you prepared.”
“Don’t underestimate me. When did I ever say I was bad at close combat?”
Crimson Blood Manipulation - Release.
Blood surged through Kamo’s body, raising his physical abilities to a higher level.
His fist vanished from sight and slammed into Junpei.
“Last Moon!”
-Thunk!
Kamo’s fist was deflected by Last Moon, which ignored physical impact, and bounced away.
Junpei was about to thrust in right after, but Kamo also threw down a gamble here.
He’s not the kind of opponent you can beat by holding back. I’m putting everything into this!
He burst every blood pack he had all at once, and with Crimson Blood Manipulation he blocked Junpei’s vision while also sealing Last Moon’s movements.
Last Moon was bound tight by ropes of blood. Junpei’s vision was briefly blinded as blood got into his eyes.
With a clear opening in front of him, Kamo’s fist aimed for Junpei’s blind spot.
-Thwack!
“Kuh!”
He’d defended with cursed energy, but the impact still had a satisfying weight to it.
Junpei clutched his stinging side, then immediately summoned Last Moon and sprayed poison around them.
Kamo, who had been about to follow up on Junpei’s broken stance, sensed something off and retreated instead of pressing forward.
“You can scatter it in the air too...!”
“If you come in, I’ll show you hell.”
“So that’s how you covered for the weakness of a shikigami user whose own physical strength is lacking. More capable than I expected.”
“I’m not grateful for the praise. It’s not like we’re the kind of people who should be chatting so casually, are we?”
“........Why are you going this far?”
For a brief moment, the battle entered a lull.
They faced each other and began to talk.
“I don’t know what Itadori Yuji means to you, but he is clearly a threat to the future. Do you even understand how many people will die if Sukuna revives?”
“Yuji can control Sukuna. Is there any guarantee he’ll even be consumed?”
“And there’s no guarantee he can endure if he swallows more fingers than he already has. For the safety of the jujutsu world, and indeed all of Japan, Itadori Yuji must die now, while he still carries Sukuna’s fingers.”
“On the other hand, he could become a savior. He could control Sukuna and use that power to save more people than Sukuna would kill. Why do you only think in negative terms?”
“Because that is the responsibility of those who stand above others. You must always assume the worst and act accordingly.”
His mother, cast out and forced to leave the family in the end because she was only a concubine.
Himself, made heir because he was a bastard who nonetheless possessed the family’s inherited technique.
If he became head of the family and swallowed the Kamo clan whole, surely his mother would be able to come back too. He would make that happen.
So he must never lose his dignity. He must never be defeated.
He thought that to himself, but he did not say it to Junpei.
“I’m not a sorcerer by birth, so I have no idea what the hell your family means or what that damned responsibility is supposed to be. The reason the jujutsu world is going nowhere is because rotten water like you sits at the top.”
Mountains and rivers change as the years pass, and so does the world.
As the world changes, the people filling it must change too.
Junpei thought that if you only chased stability, you’d end up rotting in place.
By that logic, the bullying he’d suffered could be justified too.
Itto, with his good grades and rich home, was upper class. He, gloomy and quiet in a single-parent household, was lower class.
There had to be a reason the teachers at school never touched Itto.
Was he supposed to endure that bullying simply because Itto might rise to a high position in the future and command people?
In the end, were the unfortunate supposed to be cursed and sacrificed for everyone else’s stability and the preservation of the system?
The same went for what he had heard about Maki before the match.
She had been persecuted for having no cursed energy, for being a woman, for not possessing the inherited technique, and had finally run away from home.
After all that, she had only just begun to stand on her own, yet her clan’s interference had forced her to remain a grade-four jujutsushi.
Was that also a sacrifice for the family’s stability and face?
Unacceptable.
That was nothing but the dregs of the soul, an empty illusion.
Those who refused to acknowledge change and diversity and shut themselves away in their own little world...
were no different from the dead in spirit.
“Just because you’re chained to a burden doesn’t mean you get to force it on other people too. The jujutsushi I know save people, and sometimes kill them, based solely on their own judgment and convictions. Not because of how outsiders look at them.”
“What do you know...!”
Just as Kamo was about to shout back, he suddenly felt his strength drain away.
Faint black spots bloomed across his body, staining his flesh here and there.
Why...? I wasn’t hit by any attack...
Sinking to the ground, he only then realized that the cursed energy around him had been filled with an unnatural quality.
Right before the lull began, Junpei had checked the direction of the wind.
Since spreading poison directly to where Kamo stood would make it easier to notice, he had deliberately sprayed it into the air and let it drift naturally toward Kamo.
By the time the arrows ran out and he was forced into close combat, Kamo had already been poisoned.
“So that’s why you were humoring the conversation...?”
“Looks like the poison’s only taking effect now. It’s not a method I use often since the effect is pretty weak.”
Junpei strode over and grabbed Kamo by the collar.
“There’s no one in this world who deserves to die. I hope you learn something from this.”
“Ah...”
With that, Junpei wrapped cursed energy around his fist and drove it cleanly into Kamo’s jaw.
Kamo Noritoshi.
Forfeit in the exchange event. Eliminated.
-------------------------
As Junpei defeated Kamo and the other students’ clashes were also gradually coming to an end, there was one group that had yet to fight at all.
While bloodshed raged in every other corner, Itadori’s group was wandering through the forest.
That was because Junpei, who should have been guiding them, had left the airspace and was busy fighting Kamo.
“Junpei isn’t answering...”
“What the hell is that Yoshino bastard doing on his own?”
“Still, I think we’re roughly at the midpoint now?”
After a lot of scrambling, they had finally reached the vicinity of the boss cursed spirit they’d released.
“If we go by the plan... it should probably be somewhere around here.”
“Is Fushiguro’s group okay?”
“Trust your comrades. They’re not the kind of people who’d get taken down easily.”
“Let’s go! We’ve got this in the bag! For Maki-senpai!”
The moment they took a confident step forward, an ominous cursed energy was felt beyond the trees.
“The boss cursed spirit...?”
“Good. Let’s grab it and head back for the party!”
Nobara and Yuji, lacking experience, tried to charge in, but Panda stepped in front of them.
“Wait! It’s way too strong for a second-grade cursed spirit!”
The total amount of cursed energy they could sense at a glance had long since surpassed second-grade level.
Did the teachers make a mistake? Or was this someone’s scheme?
They didn’t know the cause, but something was wrong.
Before their hardened faces, the owner of that energy appeared.
Two tree branches sprouted where eyes should have been.
Black patterns were etched across its white, solid body.
Its left arm was wrapped in cloth and hidden from view, but even so it radiated a sinister aura.
[At last we meet, humans.]
Hanami, the special-grade cursed spirit born from the forest, stood before them.
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