Before there was even time to marvel at Junpei’s new shikigami, a tremendous mass of tree roots burst up from the ground and built a wall.
The roots that split Megumi and Yuji apart shot into the air, then encircled Hanami and Junpei.
Before long, the two of them were trapped in a space resembling a colosseum.
“Junpei, it’s dangerous!”
“Yoshino!”
Yuji and Megumi were pounding on the wall from outside, but it didn’t look like it would break anytime soon.
Until now, Hanami had been creating roots using only cursed energy, but this time it infused the plants around it with cursed energy and used them as conduits, improving the efficiency of its control.
It loved plants, so it didn’t want to manipulate or destroy them. But this time, it had to.
So far, while dealing with the three of them, it hadn’t been able to focus on any one opponent.
If it used its trump card, it could wipe them all out at once, but it wanted to avoid that if possible.
That was why it would focus on this man here. It would butcher him with everything it had, then clean up the remaining two.
Hanami launched countless roots at Junpei, firing them through the air.
Its Moonlit Wave couldn’t block a piercing attack. Escaping this prison with Bloom was still far off.
Having successfully sealed off the two shikigami other than Black Scale, Hanami was confident of victory.
Crack!
But the branches snapped uselessly the moment they touched Junpei’s body.
Hanami was momentarily thrown by the sight of an attack that couldn’t even push him back, and Junpei swung the chainsaw attached to his arm.
KRAKAKAKAKAK!
In terms of hardness alone, Hanami had already lost.
On top of that, Junpei’s cursed-energy vibration sent the branches scattering like autumn leaves.
Junpei advanced with a deadpan expression, swinging his chainsaw as if he didn’t care about the attacks flying toward him at all.
The sight of him armored in black scales and grinding apart everything that blocked his path was like a berserker, or a knight in iron armor from the Middle Ages.
[Then I’ll just crush him!]
Abandoning killing power, Hanami focused solely on mass and structure, endlessly pulling more roots from the ground.
Before long, thick, tough roots seized both of Junpei’s arms and legs, stopping him in place.
To crush him as he stood there, Hanami poured cursed energy into the roots and charged forward.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Hanami’s heavy barrage pounded Junpei’s body from all sides.
His expression couldn’t be seen beneath the black helmet, but faint groans leaked out from inside.
“Even if it doesn’t pierce, there’s no way it can absorb all the impact!”
That grotesque armor wasn’t like that jellyfish from before.
It was strong against stabbing and slashing attacks, but because it was so hard, it couldn’t disperse blunt force. The flesh beneath the armor had to be accumulating damage.
“You think I’ll just sit here and take it!”
Junpei clenched his teeth and transformed the Black Scale on his right arm, enlarging the chainsaw.
As the range of the blade widened, his right arm was freed from the roots, and he swung the chainsaw wildly at Hanami, now close enough to reach.
KRRRRRRRT!
[Aaaagh!]
“Does it hurt? You bastard...!”
Junpei’s black chainsaw let out a chilling shriek as it horribly carved through Hanami’s body.
Wherever the vibrating blade touched, Hanami’s outer shell crumpled like tofu, its defenses meaningless.
Hanami’s severed right leg and left shoulder rolled across the ground.
Even so, Hanami did not stop throwing punches.
My total cursed energy is higher. If this brawl drags on, he’ll be the one who tires first.
So before the poison fully spreads through his body and makes it impossible to turn back, I’ll strip away all his cursed energy.
Just like jujutsushi hunt curses—until they’re completely still!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Kiiiiiiing!!!
Hanami’s fists hammered Junpei’s helmet again and again.
Junpei’s chainsaw drove into Hanami’s side with a ghastly sound.
Either one was a fatal wound, but neither of them stopped first.
[Aaaagh!!!]
“Hraaaah!!!!”
The cries of curse and human crossed over each other as they landed lethal blows on one another.
Ignoring the wounds carved into their own bodies, they focused only on killing the other.
Their savage, inefficient, desperate exchange had an addictive pull that kept the two of them fighting as if possessed.
How long had they been fighting in that frenzy?
The first to collapse was Junpei, whose cursed energy reserves were running low.
Junpei’s head slumped forward, and the chainsaw buried more than halfway into Hanami’s side stopped moving as its form faded away.
[Ghk...!]
Confirming that its enemy had lost consciousness, Hanami let out a death rattle and sank to the ground.
The terrifying thing about Junpei’s chainsaw was that not only was its physical killing power extreme, but it also injected poison through the blade.
Hanami’s body had been poisoned, not to the point where it couldn’t move, but it was right on the edge.
[No choice, then. I’ll lose a lot of it, but...]
Slice! Slice! Slice!
Hanami cut away all the areas Junpei’s cursed energy had spread through.
Curse spirits are made purely of cursed energy. That meant as long as they had enough cursed energy, they could regenerate from anything short of a wound that killed them instantly.
Of course, that much loss still had to be reduced.
This time had truly been dangerous. In the fight, more than half of its abundant cursed energy had been shaved away, and the process of expelling the poison and regenerating had caused even more loss.
[Mahito... was this what you meant by telling me to enjoy the fight?]
It remembered what its companion had said—that in battle, while trying to kill an opponent, he felt his soul grow full.
That was the curse’s instinct, he’d said, and the more one acted on that instinct, the more it burned as a pure motive.
[Not bad. It was hard, but... fun.]
It had been a fight with its life on the line, but the satisfaction of winning in the end felt intoxicating.
Was this what it meant to be human?
After all, perhaps we are the ones who...
[...are the true humans.]
Hanami gave a faint smile and rose to finish off the unconscious Junpei.
There was no need to fight the two outside any longer.
The original mission had been to buy time while Mahito infiltrated the school. If it kept fighting here, it couldn’t guarantee a perfect victory for itself either.
It had enjoyed the thrill of battle enough. Now it was time to return to its true self.
[Goodbye, Yoshino Junpei. I doubt I’ll ever forget you.]
Just as it thought that and was about to drive down a sharp branch,
Junpei, who had suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed the branch in Hanami’s eye with both hands.
[What...!]
“Black Scale!”
Before Hanami could even resist, black scales spread at incredible speed over Junpei’s entire body.
Then Junpei pressed his whole body against Hanami.
[There was definitely damage...!]
“Now die already!”
Technique Expansion-
Resonant Ember Prison
The armor of Black Scale wrapped around Junpei’s entire body vibrated at terrifying speed without missing a single beat, pulverizing Hanami’s flesh.
-------------------------
“Hah... haah! Khh, ptui!”
Junpei, breathing hard, spat out the phlegm caught in his throat.
Thick blood dripped from his nose.
Black Scale, which could change shape according to Junpei’s will and convert its tremendous defense into offense, was as powerful in performance as it was costly to use.
Just maintaining it required an enormous amount of cursed energy, and to alter its form, he had to wring his brain dry and force his cursed energy through it.
It felt like his own brain cells were vibrating every time the chainsaw did. He was almost grateful to Hanami for dragging him here so they could settle this quickly.
The expansion technique he’d used at the end had been the result of scraping his cursed energy and concentration down to the bottom.
“Well, still... I won.”
With the tension gone, Junpei leaned against the wall of roots, which was slowly collapsing.
Hanami’s corpse, its entire front shredded apart, had not yet disappeared, but its cursed energy was fading, so it probably didn’t have much time left. The poison had gone in properly too, so this was really the end.
Thinking that, he suddenly wanted a cigarette.
Junpei fumbled in his pocket, then, with trembling hands, put a cigarette to his lips and lit it.
“A shikigami that can be used with cursed tools... I wonder if Gojo-sensei would tell me what makes that possible?”
Normally, Junpei’s shikigami technique could only summon one shikigami at a time.
That was why he had dismissed Bloom every time he summoned Moon.
But Black Scale was different.
When it was still changing shape, it had to be treated as a shikigami, but once its form was fixed, it was considered a cursed tool.
Which meant he could summon another shikigami.
He couldn’t do anything about the blows that landed on his body, but once the brawl started, Hanami had fortunately focused only on his head.
Junpei had summoned a small Moon inside the helmet to cover his head, minimizing the damage to his skull.
It had been a feint to create an opening by pretending to pass out.
After taking a deep drag and exhaling the cigarette smoke, Junpei gave a dry laugh at the metallic taste of blood running down his nose.
“Guess... this kind of thing really doesn’t suit me.”
He had brought out every last bit of his ability and won in the end.
He didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger, and it had been a ragged victory, but he had won.
He had nearly single-handedly exorcised a special-grade curse. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t happy.
“I wonder what kind of face Mahito’s making right now? Is he bawling his eyes out? Or smashing something to blow off steam?”
He hoped Mahito would be devastated when news of that curse’s death reached him.
As much as I want to kill you, you probably want to kill me too.
You were a curse to me. So I’ll become your curse too.
“You’re safe, Yoshino!”
“You okay, Junpei?”
At last, beyond the wall of roots that had collapsed to his height, Yuji and Megumi’s faces came into view.
Seeing his companions’ faces sent a wave of relief through him.
Junpei stubbed out the cigarette on a broken piece of Hanami’s head rolling nearby, then flashed a broad smile, his face heavy with exhaustion.
“What took you so long...”
[I didn’t want to use this at all...]
For a brief moment after reuniting with his companions, an enormous amount of cursed energy began to be sucked into Hanami’s dying body.
Sensing that ominous feeling, Junpei couldn’t stop his shock.
What.
It’s still.
It’s still not dead...?
“What the hell!”
“Yuji! Fushiguro! Don’t come any closer!”
Before Junpei could even shout, Hanami’s left shoulder glowed ominously and bloomed.
Literally half-shredded, Hanami staggered upright, preparing to begin that offering of flowers.
[Since I’m going to die anyway, I’ll take everyone here with me.]
--------------------------
The moment the roots imprisoning Junpei and Hanami collapsed and their figures were revealed, Yuji kicked off the ground and sprinted.
But the ominous cursed energy Hanami had absorbed and completed had already begun radiating that dreadful pressure before Yuji could arrive.
[My left arm takes the life of plants and converts it into cursed energy. But that power doesn’t return to me. It all gathers into this offering of flowers.]
Damn it, too late. It’s out of reach.
Junpei must have somehow driven that thing to the brink of death, but he was already combat-incapable.
'I just finally got the hang of it!'
Just one hit.
If I could land just one hit...!
[Mahito, Jogo, Dagon. Please watch. This is the last curse I offer to you!]
In the sensation of time slowing down, Junpei reached out toward him with a desperate expression.
He couldn’t hear it clearly, but his lips were plainly saying it.
Don’t come.
“I’ll save you! I’m saving you!”
I swore it to myself.
I swore I’d never lose. That I’d save everyone.
'I can’t be late again!'
Desperation. Urgency.
All those feelings condensed into Yuji’s fist and transformed into something new.
And then, a miracle happened.
“Am I the one who should step in here?”
Clap!
With the sound of applause coming from somewhere, Junpei and Yuji’s positions were switched.
As his vision shifted, Hanami appeared right in front of him.
It would have been natural to panic, but Yuji’s superhuman focus did not break.
The point he had found on his own to break through Hanami’s defense.
The cursed energy flowing through his body followed his movement as naturally as if it were part of his flesh.
The moment strike and flow aligned with no error, black flames bloomed.
2.5 times the usual power.
Black Flash.
Boom!
Hanami’s blooming offering exploded helplessly.
Both Hanami, who had been struck, and Yuji, who had thrown the punch, trembled at the alien sensation.
But this still wasn’t enough to finish it. More completely, more surely.
He hammered it with every punch carrying unmistakable killing intent!
[W-what is this? This makes no sense, how...]
Boom!
[Ah...]
Boom!
Yuji’s successive Black Flashes brutally burst Hanami’s half-destroyed body apart.
Its trump card had been stopped. Its cursed energy had run dry.
Looking at the fist flying straight toward it, Hanami understood.
It was over.
The memories it had built since being born and gaining self-awareness flashed before it like a revolving lantern.
It was sorry to its companions. It would have been better to leave them a final goodbye.
Still, this was a death without regret.
My proud companions.
Let’s meet again in the wasteland a hundred years from now.
I’ll go on ahead and wait for you.
[Mahito... the rest... I’m... leaving... to you.......]
As Hanami’s final, curse-like testament came to an end,
Boom!
Yuji’s fourth Black Flash blew Hanami’s head apart.
The curse born from the forest thus returned to the earth once more.
And with Hanami’s death, the Curtain covering the arena was lifted.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register