Itadori Yuji and Mahito.
Had fate not twisted,
had Junpei not survived at that “branch point,”
the two who should have become irreconcilable enemies stood facing each other.
“Don’t run away again.”
“I had business to take care of earlier. I’ll play with you properly this time.”
Their connection was not that deep.
Ideologically, they utterly rejected each other, but they had barely ever crossed paths until now.
Junpei’s miserable death, which should have been the spark that ignited their conflict, had long since vanished beyond some nameless timeline. Nagi’s death took its place, and fate wrote Yoshino Junpei’s name into the empty slot of the adversary.
And yet,
the moment they saw each other, both felt a strong revulsion.
Itadori Yuji believed that anyone, simply because they were human, should be allowed a proper death.
Mahito, by contrast, mocked fate, the social rules surrounding human beings, and looked down on all of it from beneath his feet.
There could be no coexistence between the two under heaven.
Disgusting trash.
A clueless brat with flowers in his head.
That was all they thought of each other, nothing more and nothing less.
“Right here, right now, I exorcise you!”
The force driving Itadori Yuji in this place was his sense of duty as a jujutsushi.
“This is going to be fun to kill. A fine appetizer.”
By contrast, the force driving Mahito was the instinct of a curse.
On a battlefield where each tried to kill the other, their motives were different,
but the way they stood looked strangely alike.
Swish
Gwooo
Drawing on their past fight, both sides had already prepared countermeasures against the other.
Yuji intended to pile on damage against Mahito’s shape-shifting body until he could bring him down.
Mahito, having predicted that, had abandoned transformation and was trying to overwhelm Yuji in hand-to-hand combat with his purest, strongest form.
“Itadori is my natural enemy if [Idle Transfiguration] doesn’t work. Even if I spread out my soul, all I’m doing is increasing the number of targets.”
He might be able to have some fun with guerrilla tactics, using expendable body parts or modified humans that could be chopped off and discarded, but...
right now, Mahito was starving for the thrill of battle.
“I’ll pierce your heart!”
What he wanted was not a hunt, but a pure exchange of violence.
Through that, he would refine his soul and advance one step further as a curse.
It was a splendid mindset for a seeker exploring his own nature.
Whoosh
As they faced off in their stances, the first to strike was Mahito.
A fist packed with heavy cursed energy shot out.
The moment Yuji thought he would be hit,
the fist sliced through empty air, and Yuji vanished from Mahito’s field of vision.
Srrrk
Knee release.
A technique from taido that removes the preparatory motion.
Yuji let the tension out not only from his knees but from his hips and shoulders too, slipping smoothly beneath Mahito’s feet as if he were collapsing.
His posture stayed low.
He did not kill the flow of force, but turned it and sent it flying in a spinning strike of taido.
Smack!
The manji kick.
That exquisite kick slammed cleanly into the side of Mahito’s face.
“Ghk!”
Without missing the opening as his stance broke, Yuji rose at once and, as he planted his foot, drove forward into a deep kick.
The weight-loaded strike sank deep into Mahito’s abdomen.
Thud!Slash!
But Mahito, proving he was no easy opponent, transformed his arm even as he fell backward and sent out a cutting blow.
Yuji barely managed to evade it, but the follow-up was cut off, leaving a deep wound in the floor.
That was no force to ignore.
“Not bad. Keep going. Round two....!”
Licking the blood that leaked from his split lip, Mahito smiled with a feral edge.
His soul had been chipped away, but the damage was still bearable.
“He’s definitely gotten stronger. In less than two months, too.”
Only two hits, but that was enough to tell.
Just as he had grown, Itadori had not been standing still either.
Both the strength of his cursed energy and his control over it were on a completely different level from before.
At this rate, there was no way to beat Itadori in a straight-up physical brawl using only martial arts.
And yet, Mahito was still confident he would win.
He still hadn’t even brought out his real method of fighting.
“As a ‘human,’ you’re finished. I’ll show you how curses fight.”
Slash!
Mahito’s transformed arm whipped out like a lash and cleanly cut through the inside of the subway car.
Yuji leaped upward to avoid it, and then a modified human stock came flying at him.
Unlike what Yuji expected—that it would immediately transform and come after him—the stock remained quiet, pinned into the wall, and Yuji’s mind raced.
“Transformation...? Or an explosion?”
As Mahito intended, his thoughts deepened and his body’s reactions naturally slowed.
The flesh that exploded after a delay grazed Yuji and flew past him.
“Kgh!”
One second later and chunks of flesh would have been torn off.
While his attention was drawn, Mahito’s fist dropped from above and aimed for Yuji’s side.
Bang!
With superhuman reflexes, Yuji dodged the attack and, in turn, grabbed Mahito’s elongated body and began crushing it.
Crrrk
“Oh dear.”
At the ominous sound, Mahito immediately severed the transformed part of his body.
Moving lightly as he stepped from structure to structure, the severed flesh crawled back on its own and reattached itself.
Delayed release of cursed energy. Severing and rejoining the body. All of it was a technique he had newly created.
“If I’m careless, I really will die. Let’s limit my main attacks to the modified humans.”
Even while smiling casually, Mahito’s spine was just as chilled.
Itadori’s blows, as his natural enemy, were not something he could ignore. If he took even a few clean hits, not only would his soul be worn down, but if [Black Flash] landed, he might actually lose.
The pure martial arts he had planned to use at the start had already been abandoned long ago.
So he changed his objective.
As someone who valued the soul over the body, he would start by grinding down Itadori Yuji’s soul.
“Hey, isn’t that a student?”
“Why is a kid over there...?”
“!!”
“Perfect timing.”
Hearing the sounds of Mahito and Yuji’s fierce battle, three ordinary men who had been hiding in the station revealed themselves.
Unluckily, none of the three had enough cursed energy to even see Mahito, and they waved at Yuji, who stood in the center of the chaos, without any sense of danger.
“Student! It’s dangerous over there! Come with us—”
“Run!!”
“You like tennis?”
Before Yuji could stop him, Mahito strode toward them and reached out his hand.
Tap, tap, tap. With just a light touch, one victim became a flesh racket with eyes, nose, and mouth scattered all over it, while the other two curled inward and turned into hideous flesh balls covered in hair.
It was a cruel, grotesque sight that might have made someone with a weak stomach throw up and faint.
“Nooooo...”
Most horrifying of all was that, even in that state, they were still alive enough to let out faint voices.
“Stop it!”
“When this happens, you’re supposed to shout START instead of STOP, Itadori Yuji!”
Yuji shouted with a rigid expression, but Mahito only looked delighted as he bounced the ball and swung the racket around.
Then he tossed the flesh ball upward, jumped, and smashed it squarely with the center of the racket.
Paang!
“That’s called a service ace, Itadori!”
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
With a tearing whistle, the ball was launched at incredible speed toward Yuji.
He dodged immediately, but the flesh ball, bouncing off the walls and floor, kept changing shape and size as it tried to cling to him.
This couldn’t be helped.
“Gweeeeh...”
“I’m sorry...!”
Smack!
Yuji’s counter punched straight into the front of the ball as it flew at him covered in spikes.
Human flesh and blood burst into the air, and when that briefly blocked Yuji’s vision and created an opening,
“Too bad, that’s a fault. But here comes the second serve!”
Paang!
The second launched ball slammed into Yuji’s chest.
“Kgh!”
Mahito pursued Yuji as he was driven backward by the force.
The racket in his hand had already transformed into a giant baseball bat.
“Cleanup hitter, ready to go!”
Once he was close enough, Mahito planted one foot, kicked with the other leg, and prepared to rotate his waist.
The bat, pulled back over his shoulder, accelerated with the rotation of his legs, waist, and arms, aiming straight for Yuji’s head.
Swoooosh!
In a moment, with a satisfying crack, that head would be smashed to pieces.
Neither the arrogant Sukuna inside him nor Junpei, who had once been determined to kill Mahito, could do anything in that situation.
Just as Mahito was certain of his victory and the bat reached the point of impact,
[Black Flash].
The black flame blooming from Yuji’s fist, thrust out in an instant, shattered the flesh bat.
The shockwave did not stop there; it was strong enough to crush the wrist and elbow of the arm holding the bat.
Crunch!
“Ugh....”
Mahito retreated, dragging along the arm whose bones had been blown apart and left dangling.
To think he would counter a high-speed attack coming at him while his vision was blocked. And with [Black Flash], no less.
He had thought it was his decisive blow, but Yuji’s concentration and physical ability were truly absurd.
Yuji rose, wiping the blood from his face, and the light had vanished from his pupils.
“Mahito... you are a creature that should not exist.”
The only emotion reflected in those blackened eyes was unmistakable killing intent.
Three people. Three innocent people had been turned into something worse than dead right before his eyes, and he had been forced to smash them apart with his own hands.
This should never have happened. He would not accept it, and he could not allow it to continue.
Mahito’s strategy of wearing down his mental state had worked, but at the same time it had also ignited the anger he had been holding down.
“Yeah. Of course. I’m a curse.”
This was not going to be easy.
But how long could that resolve last?
If you crossed your limit, would you still be able to be angry at me then?
“For the record, all these humans died because of you, you know?”
“Bullshit.”
The two men, glaring at each other, collided again.
--------------------------------
22:09.
Basement level 1 near Exit 12 of Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School Shibuya Station.
At the same time Yuji and Mahito were facing off on the other side, a rather interesting matchup was unfolding here as well.
“Where are Yoshino Junpei and Kugisaki Nobara?”
At the question from the pale man with twin braids, Choso, Grade 2 jujutsushi Fushiguro Megumi shook his head.
“I don’t know. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“I see.”
He could guess the other side’s identity.
The incident at Yasohachi Bridge. Back then, Yoshino and Kugisaki had handled the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, hadn’t they?
And the fact that he was specifically looking for those two, plus the fact that he had an actual body...
He was probably the last remaining one of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.
“If you don’t know, then leave. I’d rather not kill you.”
Tense, Megumi was about to form hand signs, but unexpectedly, Choso avoided the fight.
Unlike a pure curse filled with unconditional hatred for humans, he was half human. More than that, he wasn’t the type to enjoy needless slaughter in the first place.
Even when Gojo was sealed, Choso had lacked any real enthusiasm; his only interest was hunting down the enemy who killed his younger brothers, and he didn’t want to waste strength on pointless fights.
But unlike Choso, Megumi was burning with motivation.
“This guy’s strong, just from the look of him. I can’t leave him to those two...!”
“I said I’d let you go. Why aren’t you leaving?”
“What’s the number and positioning of your allies?”
“......”
After glaring at Megumi for a moment, Choso quietly brought both hands together.
“So you insist on drinking your punishment. I can’t understand it.”
“Why do you keep talking like you’ve already won?”
He was a strong opponent, but not one he couldn’t beat.
Since awakening his domain, Megumi had instead trained with ruthless intensity, and he was confident in himself.
Now that he had subdued all nine shikigami except the final one of the Ten Shadows Cursed Law, he was the one who had made the most dramatic growth after Junpei among the four of them.
“Annoying...”
“I’ll somehow make this guy combat-ineffective!”
Megumi formed his hand signs, and Choso drew blood together.
Chants spilled from each of their mouths as their techniques collided.
“[Ten Thousand Elephants].”
“[Thousand Blood].”
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register