22:50.
Ino-Kashira Line, Shibuya Station Avenue.
Somewhere among the burned, collapsed ruins.
Junpei slowly pushed himself up from within them.
Shhhhhhh
The jellyfish shikigami could no longer be called Sediment Moon.
As the tentacles of the maw-like shikigami spread wide, a tremendous flow of cursed energy rose from that side.
Black mist rippled as the cursed energy scattered by the aftershocks of the battle gathered and rode the maw-like shikigami back into Junpei.
Ssssss...
His bones, crushed beneath the rubble, knitted back together.
Burned skin, charred black, peeled away and fresh flesh grew in its place.
Even his eyelids, melted shut, opened again and regained their light.
Junpei was returning from the brink of death.
Jogo, who had been staring blankly at the unknown sight, was suddenly gripped by unbearable fear.
"I have to kill him right now!"
"Fire Bug!"
Insects shot from the tips of Jogo’s fingers and flew straight at Junpei.
Junpei showed no sign of blocking them, still standing there and exhaling smoke from his whole body.
Then the maw-like shikigami, which had vanished into the air a moment ago, appeared in front of him and intercepted them.
Boom!
The Fire Bugs exploded one after another against the maw-like shikigami’s surface.
The heat and shock made the black smoke around it writhe and scatter slightly.
It staggered for only a moment before the maw-like shikigami rippled again, and the aftereffects of the explosions were all swallowed into it.
Shhhhhhh!
Once the absorption was complete, the maw-like shikigami drifted peacefully through the air as if nothing had happened.
The impossible sight froze Jogo’s thoughts for an instant, and Junpei’s figure vanished from his field of vision.
Thud!
Junpei’s fist, which had closed in without warning, drove into Jogo’s solar plexus.
"Ghk!"
Pow!
The force of the blow, beyond anything before, smashed into Jogo’s face and sent him flying far away.
Junpei’s heel came down on the back of his head as he dropped to his knees, and even as his face was driven into the ground, Jogo desperately tried to resist.
Fwoosh!
A beam of lava burst from the top of Jogo’s head, melting concrete and devouring the ground beneath it.
That seething heat soon punched up through the earth and turned the surroundings into a sea of fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of craters erupted from the ground, spewing lava as they engulfed Junpei and the maw-like shikigami.
Beyond the boiling heat, their figures could no longer be seen.
No matter how much of a reverse technique user he was, there was no way he could withstand firepower like that.
But expectations exist to be shattered.
"!!"
Junpei’s hand burst through the lava and seized Jogo by the collar.
Before he could even be shocked, Jogo was yanked into the air by that iron grip.
Only after rising to a dizzying height, where even Shibuya’s tallest building looked like a dot, could he see it.
Yoshino Junpei’s body recovering at a speed far beyond the rate at which it was being destroyed.
"Fully automatic reverse technique!"
"You got half of it right."
Beyond the black helmet with lava dripping from it, Junpei was smiling in a way that sent chills down the spine.
As his vision flipped and he felt himself falling, Jogo thought of someone.
"Gojo Satoru...?"
Crash!
Jogo’s body, launched high into the air, was slammed back into the ground once more.
"Was that all you had, curse spirit!"
Amid Junpei’s cackling mockery, Jogo clenched his eyes shut without meaning to.
---------------------------------------
The pinnacle of the Sea God’s art.
Void-Form, Unchanging Demon Sea Moon Jellyfish - Akasha anuttara mapari.
As soon as the consecration ended, Junpei knew it instinctively.
"This is my destination."
A gu poison born by devouring itself inside a jar.
Even after breaking out of the narrow world that had confined it, it was still hungry.
"Devour everything that stands in your way!"
As if to prove that purpose, the maw-like shikigami greedily swallowed everything in sight the moment it was born.
Dust-like cursed energy scattered around it, and even the enemy’s gathered curses were taken in without exception.
Absorption of curses.
That was the maw-like shikigami’s ability.
Like a venomous insect that turns the prey it devours into its own power, the cursed energy it absorbed flowed back to its master.
Jogo had interpreted this as a fully automatic reverse technique, but the reality was a little different.
Rather than leaving reverse technique to the maw-like shikigami as some kind of external hard drive, Junpei himself had awakened reverse technique through his own ability.
If the maw-like shikigami refined the cursed energy it swallowed and sent it back as his own, how he used it was entirely up to him.
To put it another way, it was an endless battery. One that stole every bit of visible power in the area and used it for itself.
Thanks to that, the cursed energy flowing through his body had risen to a far greater output and capacity.
"I can use Black Scale and Yellow Spot just fine. Pointing Lamp Jaw might be a little different, though...."
Since the shikigami had been born from Sediment Moon as its base, he could naturally use the abilities of the three shikigami it had devoured.
Its form had changed, but that was still true.
He probably could use that thing too.
The ultimate I had longed for.
I can do anything. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, over and over.
The first feeling Junpei experienced now that all of this had become possible was joy.
"How far can I go?"
The core of cursed energy he had seized at the end of life.
He could feel it. The me before awakening this and the me now were different beings altogether.
An overwhelming sense of omnipotence ran down his spine.
Far below, he could see the pitifully collapsed curse spirit.
Even that monster that had once seemed impossible to beat now felt infinitely small.
Just a slightly dangerous toy he could play with in the palm of his hand. Something he could manipulate however he wanted.
With joy so intense it felt like his head might burst, Junpei surrendered his body to the air.
"I’m sorry, Nanami. Senior Maki. Naobito."
I’m not getting angry for your sake right now.
There doesn’t seem to be any room for hatred to get in.
Not the cold autumn night wind, nor the noisy sounds and lights rising from below.
Right now, this world is simply......
Endlessly delightful.
"Ha."
So let’s laugh.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Unchanging right wisdom.
For the sake of the new me that will no longer waver.
I am freer than anyone in this world right now.
"Hahahaha!!!"
"You monster.....!"
Junpei came falling from above, laughing like a madman.
Jogo ground his teeth and painfully forced his body back up.
Crash!
Before he could even spit fire, a fist came in and smashed his jaw.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was basic cursed energy control, but Junpei’s level had already surpassed Jogo’s.
Jogo’s body was crushed in several places by the simple barrage of fists, and he rolled miserably across the ground.
Sssss!
"It’s hot."
Even as his fists burned from striking the scorching body, regeneration outpaced destruction.
As if pain itself no longer mattered, Yoshino Junpei’s one-sided beating did not stop.
Back when Gojo Satoru was sealed, Jogo had thought everything would go smoothly.
He had believed the balance between humans and curse spirits had been restored, and that the future ahead would be in their hands.
But some god, mocking him, had thrown a new monster in front of him to take that place.
An awakening no one had expected.
That bug crawling in the gutter, the toy Mahito had played with...
had stepped onto the same level as Gojo Satoru.
"If you think about his ability, the age of curses is over!"
Every curse born from now on would be devoured by him.
Even if Sukuna revived, could he beat this?
That thing was on a different level too.
Look at him now. Even though he could swallow Jogo whole from the moment he awakened, he hadn’t done it.
Even though he was going to kill him in the end.
The feeling of being toyed with by an unavoidable absurdity was horrifically miserable.
Before long, Yoshino Junpei had come right up to him.
"Any last words?"
"...Go to hell."
"You really do cling to your pride until the end. It’s disgusting, like you’re trying to imitate a human. You piece of trash."
At those words, Jogo’s fury exploded.
"We’re the real humans!"
The plan had succeeded, but variables kept popping up.
He had gotten rid of Gojo Satoru, and now this too.
It was enough to drive him mad with frustration.
But he could not retreat.
"For an old wish, for us to become human.....!"
Even if this body burned away to nothing.
Ziiing
With his face smeared and dirty, Jogo prepared his final strike.
It didn’t matter if he missed. It didn’t matter if he couldn’t even leave a scratch.
Even if centuries passed, my unbroken will would continue.
Whether it was that steadfastness in the face of death that moved him, or whether Junpei had simply grown interested, Yoshino Junpei smirked and stepped back.
"That’s a tear-jerking amount of guts. Fine."
I’ll humor you for your last moment.
Junpei’s hands met and formed a seal.
Wiiiiing!
The tentacles of the maw-like shikigami floating above his head shone and vibrated wildly.
All the cursed energy gathering around them converged on a single point, and the maw hidden beneath the tentacles opened wide.
"That’s...."
"If you can absorb it, you can release it too."
A sphere of flame spun and condensed at the tips of Jogo’s overlapping hands.
The maw-like shikigami spread its tentacles, and cursed energy compressed to the extreme around its mouth.
While they faced each other, a true incantation flowed from Junpei’s mouth.
"Full moon, eternal exhaustion, the wave of resonance."
Ultimate technique -
Vortex.
Then an immense light erupted, and the battle was over.
--------------------------------------
A white space with nothing in it.
When familiar figures appeared, Jogo let out a hollow laugh.
"Sorry, Hanami. Dagon."
He had failed.
He had no face to show the comrades who had trusted him.
"There’s still Mahito."
"Boo-*"
Right. There was still Mahito.
"Death, which humans dread and avoid. Even beyond it, humans still wander."
For humans, death is a mirror.
Mahito is that mirror itself.
"That’s why you put him in charge, isn’t it."
That was true.
Because he was the most curse-like, because his nature stood in opposition to humans, they had yielded the seat to him.
And because his potential was extraordinary.
Still, he didn’t know whether Mahito could beat him.
He could only hope Mahito would do well.
"When we meet again, we won’t be who we are now."
Even so, I’ll look forward to that day.
We are the true humans.
"That won’t happen."
When Jogo turned his head, what he saw was
Junpei standing there with terrifying calm.
"The world of curses you want will never come."
Again, the maw-like shikigami’s ability was the absorption of curses.
And the maw-like shikigami, though it could be filled, remained complete and unchanged.
In other words,
"You’ll live inside me."
It meant the cycle of curses, that wheel of reincarnation, could be cut off.
"...What?"
"You’re never being reborn."
If your comrades are reborn, I’ll devour them too.
And Mahito, the one still left, will be no different.
I’ll end this war with my own hands.
At that eerie declaration, Jogo let go of everything.
"Ha, ha....."
"You said it yourself. That you’d burn up my comrades and my lover too. I’ll throw those words right back at you."
Watch from inside me until you melt away completely.
With those words, Jogo’s consciousness scattered.
"Goodbye."
You scraps who wanted to become human.
There is no place left for you now.
----------------------------------
Shrrrkkk
Having absorbed all of Jogo’s remains, now reduced to dust, Junpei flexed his hands open and closed.
"...So this is what it feels like."
The joy from before had long since vanished.
Now it was time to gather up his comrades.
As Junpei trudged forward weakly, someone appeared before him.
"Amazing, kid. Amazing."
"...Sukuna."
The King of Curses had come in person.
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