Kuwa-gagagagagwang!!
As the two techniques collided, the shockwave swept through the surrounding area.
Concrete and rebar shattered into fragments and scattered through the air.
Amid the thick clouds of dust and the gusting wind, the two men sprang forward without wasting a single breath.
Whack!
Junpei’s fist was blocked with one hand, and Sukuna’s counter landed cleanly on his jaw.
A single strike backed by Itadori Yuji’s superhuman body, Sukuna’s martial skill, and cursed energy reinforcement.
Junpei’s head reeled back for a moment, then he used the recoil to smash a headbutt into Sukuna.
Boom!
"Kheh-heh!"
Even with both arms up as a guard, Sukuna let out a delighted laugh at the impact.
He quickly hooked an arm around Junpei’s neck and forced him down, then started driving knee strikes upward with enough force to cave his skull in.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Fshhk!
Black scales shot out from Junpei’s arm in an instant, trying to pierce Sukuna’s body, but with a deft bit of neck control, Sukuna slipped every one of them away.
Even if Junpei tried to rip his arm free with brute strength, the gap in raw physical specs was too wide. It was useless.
The damage wasn’t severe, but Junpei found the situation deeply unpleasant.
Tap!
With his neck still pinned, Junpei’s leg floated up into the air and kicked out in a bizarre arc that seemed to ignore the laws of physics.
This was impossible to dodge.
So Sukuna chose to meet it head-on instead of guarding.
Thud!
"[Dismantle]."
Dudududududu!!
Countless slashes that acted directly on the target shredded Junpei’s body and forced him back.
As fragments of black scales scattered into the air, the jellyfish that appeared behind him seized Junpei’s body and hurled him at Sukuna.
'Fast, but almost offensively straightforward....'
Whirrrr
"!"
Even while flying through the air, Junpei twisted his body freely and changed direction midair.
Sukuna’s guard opened at the unexpected angle, and Junpei’s flying kick slammed into the opening.
Crack!
"So that’s how it is?"
As he was blasted backward, Sukuna saw it.
The small ray-like tails clinging to the soles of Junpei’s feet.
The air-walking trick Zenin Toji had shown a few times before. By shrinking the size while increasing the number and controllability through a binding vow, Junpei had made it possible to use it in midair.
Drip, drip...
Sukuna licked the blood running down from his forehead with his tongue and loosened his body with a series of cracking stretches.
In pure hand-to-hand combat, he had the slight advantage. Not only was there a clear physical gap between Itadori Yuji and Yoshino Junpei, but Sukuna’s own output and martial skill were layered on top of that.
Even if those double layers of armor meant direct damage wasn’t getting through, poison didn’t work on him either, so overall he still held the upper hand.
And yet Yoshino Junpei was narrowing that gap with absurd, unpredictable methods.
'And that jellyfish too. Ever since it fired off that big technique, it hasn’t stepped forward once.'
Even accounting for its unprecedented strangeness, it was odd for a shikigami user to come forward and brawl in close quarters.
Maybe it simply didn’t want to expose a weakness. But what if it had a hidden move?
'I’ve avoided touching it as much as possible because of that absorption ability, but.... maybe I should test it.'
"[Dismantle]."
Slash!
The flying slash carved across the jellyfish’s body and left a wound behind.
It hadn’t been cut clean through, and it was already regenerating by absorbing the remnants of the slash.
So that wasn’t the answer after all.
"Tch."
"It won’t work."
"[Bullet]."
Several spikes formed by twisting the jellyfish’s tentacles shot toward Sukuna.
Tap! Tap!
As Sukuna evaded the attack with a flashy back handspring, one of the spikes came into view—big enough to match a normal person’s torso.
At that size, it wouldn’t just punch a hole through him. It would skewer him outright.
"Kehihihit!"
The use of three shikigami at once. Enhanced output and cursed technique precision. Unknown abilities still hidden.
Everything about it was interesting.
For the first time in a long while, Sukuna’s brain was flooding with dopamine at the sight of a worthy opponent.
"....."
By contrast, Junpei was not enjoying himself at all.
He didn’t know how many fingers Sukuna had eaten, but that clearly wasn’t the end of it. As expected, the title of the strongest sorcerer in history hadn’t been earned by luck.
He was already using Yuji’s body, which made it hard enough to unleash killing blows, and on top of that he kept thinking about the comrades still buried in the rubble, making it difficult to focus on the fight.
As if sensing that, Sukuna’s delighted laughter stabbed into his ears.
"What’s the matter, Yoshino Junpei? Where are you looking, leaving me all alone?"
"Is this fun?"
"Of course it is! Let’s rampage to our hearts’ content!"
"[Dismantle]."
With a sweep of Sukuna’s hand, invisible slashes once again raked around Junpei.
Boom!
At a single gesture, the ground caved in and chunks of asphalt and dust burst upward.
As Junpei was knocked away by the impact, Sukuna’s right hand had already closed in and touched him.
'[Dismantle], huh.'
A slash that triggered instantly on contact was coming.
Junpei quickly twisted his body to avoid being pushed back, but he failed to react to the next attack.
'It’s not a slash!'
"You’re still green, brat."
[Dismantle] was a feint.
The slashes from before had all been bait. The moment Sukuna confirmed that Junpei had mentally ruled out striking as an option, he moved.
Sukuna’s hand forced its way in brutally, ripping away the armor covering Junpei’s upper body, and at the same time he fired a short, heavy punch with crushing force.
Pow!
"Cough!"
A close-range blow landed on Junpei with no armor left to protect him.
Spitting blood as he staggered back, Junpei clenched his teeth and swallowed the pain.
In front of him, Sukuna’s right index finger pointed at him with a thin, vicious smile.
[Dismantle].
Slash!
This time he saw it.
Junpei raised his arm to block and charged at Sukuna at terrifying speed.
With one foot half lifted off the ground, he skimmed through the air freely and drove a punch into Sukuna, slamming him into the wall of a building.
Crash!
The moment Sukuna tried to rise, the jellyfish’s tentacles wrapped tightly around his body.
The transparent tendrils constricted with enough force to crush him, and once lifted, he was swung around like a hammerhead and smashed from side to side.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Kihit!"
Even as his vision flipped upside down, Sukuna never lost his easy grin.
He wrapped [Dismantle] around his entire body like a barrier and tore the tentacles apart, then used the recoil from being swung to rocket straight at Junpei.
Junpei, who had been waiting, swung his fist with all his strength at the incoming Sukuna at the exact right moment.
Boom!
The shockwave from the collision of the two strongest fists shook all of Shibuya.
The buildings that still remained nearby had long since been reduced to dust by the continuing battle.
With the distance between them closed once more, the two began a savage exchange that spared neither body nor life.
Block, strike.
Their blows flew back and forth at speeds no eye could follow, and their battle had now stepped into the realm of the inhuman.
Buildings collapsed, every kind of structure was flung through the air, and the entire street was plunged into a cauldron of chaos. Between them, only blurred afterimages and the sound of rupturing air could be heard.
The few who witnessed that mythic battle from afar trembled, and the heat of the two combatants showed no sign of cooling.
Even so, there was still a gap in strength, and both Sukuna and Junpei could feel it.
Sukuna, the King of Curses who had fought the strong of the past for decades. Junpei, who had not even been a sorcerer for two months.
No matter how much Junpei had climbed into the ranks of the strongest, there were still weight classes in this world. The unmistakable King of Curses who had ruled the golden age of jujutsu was not an easy opponent.
There was a difference in basic martial skill, cursed energy control, and even in the ability to read the flow of battle.
The gap in experience could not be ignored.
Clang!
Because of the relentless hand-to-hand combat and slashes, the fortification was already in tatters.
Just lasting this long against Sukuna’s output was worthy of praise.
Taking advantage of the opening, Sukuna’s knee strike targeted a weak point and shattered the armor, while at the same time a blue beam fired from the jellyfish’s mouth came crashing down on Sukuna from above.
KWAANG!
"Hwahahahat!"
Wrapped in cursed energy for protection, Sukuna looked down at his half-charred hand and laughed with delight.
To think he would get to experience such a rewarding fight in the modern era. And against a fool who had only been a sorcerer for less than two months, no less.
'I suppose I should thank that rag.'
Sukuna was genuinely captivated by that enormous talent and potential.
Yoshino Junpei, whom he had thought a mere brat, had earned the right to be called a treasure.
"This is the first time I’ve had this much fun since I was incarnated!"
"Shut up! Don’t say that with Yuji’s face!"
As Sukuna grew hotter with the thrill of battle, Junpei’s expression twisted.
The more they fought and made contact, the more Sukuna’s emotions bled through, and Junpei knew that Sukuna was truly enjoying himself right now.
Being acknowledged by the strongest sorcerer in history should have meant something, but Junpei, who knew the filthy truth of what he was, found none of it welcome.
A being whose life was governed only by its own pleasure.
The exact opposite of the vessel, Itadori Yuji.
Though their souls were different, they were using the same body.
'Let’s fight together, Junpei!'
Sukuna, rampaging in the body of the friend who had saved him from the mud, was disgusting.
Maybe Junpei had been hoping for it.
That if he bought enough time, Yuji would come to his senses again and take back control.
But he didn’t think he could wait that long.
"Jellyfish!"
At Junpei’s call, the jellyfish appeared in midair and swallowed his body.
"Oh?"
Sukuna watched with interest for a moment, then the jellyfish that had swallowed Junpei vanished.
"!"
It wasn’t that it had moved too fast to see.
It had truly vanished without a trace.
The technique that slipped beyond the reach of the five senses and even cursed energy detection...
For the first time, it made the King of Curses feel something close to confusion.
"Where..."
Pop
The jellyfish appeared behind Sukuna’s back as he looked around.
Thud!
"Huh?"
For the first time since the battle began, a fatal wound was carved into Sukuna’s body.
-------------------------------------
A shikigami technique that could be summoned in midair without a medium.
Junpei had made useful use of that peculiarity in battle until now, but never had he taken such a huge risk.
What if he canceled the summon while inside the shikigami’s mouth?
Where would he go? Would he simply break apart and vanish?
The answer was in the innate domain.
The jellyfish was a being born from the previous month’s different "poison insects" that had been trapped inside the jar and devoured them— in other words, a shikigami.
It was a solitary creature that had escaped the jar and emerged into the world.
And Junpei had been there himself, twice.
The source of the technique. The inner world that both formed him and imprisoned him.
The moment he emerged from there, he became able to recognize the existence of a "path."
'If I can absorb, then I can release it too.'
Once he found the exit, he could enter through the entrance however he liked.
And when he came out, he could appear wherever he wanted, just as always.
The void was Junpei’s domain.
True spatial movement that ignored the laws of the world.
It was achieved by designating himself as the target of the technique’s expansion.
Of course, there were drawbacks.
Not only did the cursed energy the jellyfish had absorbed scatter away, but the sorcerer himself also consumed a considerable amount of cursed energy, exposing his weakness.
And because of the gravity of the real world, he couldn’t simply flee there and endure. The time he could remain there was barely one second.
For an all-out bombardment to work, the opponent’s perception speed had to be slower than Junpei’s.
Still, there was no denying how outrageous the technique was, even with that flaw.
After all, he had just managed to catch Sukuna off guard and land a surprise attack.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Kruuugh!"
Junpei’s relentless follow-up attacks, never missing the chance, stabbed mercilessly into Sukuna’s back.
Sukuna’s expression twisted. He had resistance to poison, but that did not mean he could ignore the pain it caused.
Seeing that, Uraume, who had been staring blankly at the battle, hurriedly cut in.
"Sukuna-sama!"
"I said I’d deal with you later."
[Vortex].
The cursed energy had not gathered properly, so the power was weak, but it was still enough to suppress Uraume in one blow.
The frozen cursed energy Uraume had launched was absorbed at the same time the beam fired from the jellyfish’s mouth shattered the ice and blasted Uraume high into the sky.
Uraume’s arm, flailing helplessly in midair with half their body burned away and consciousness gone, looked rather pitiful.
Junpei’s hand touched Sukuna’s body, which was still convulsing.
With the troublemaker gone, it was time to absorb Sukuna.
As a cursed object, Sukuna had no chance of beating the jellyfish inside the innate domain.
The moment Junpei thought he would melt him away and send him to the volcano-headed bastard,
[Junpei?]
Yuji?
Tap!
"....!"
"What’s wrong? Didn’t you say you’d pull me out of this body?"
As if the pain had been a lie, Sukuna chuckled with his back pierced through.
"Why...?"
"Isn’t it obvious? You’d better not think the body of a brat capable of containing me is ordinary."
The abnormality of the vessel known as Itadori Yuji.
That body, made from the start to contain Sukuna, had struck at the weakness in Junpei’s technique.
From the moment he swallowed more than ten of Sukuna’s fingers, he had become like a cursed object steeped in Sukuna’s cursed energy.
"If you absorb me, then even the brat’s soul will be dragged out. So, what will you do now? Are you prepared to sacrifice your friend’s life just to erase me, this calamity?"
"......"
"Of course not. Sorcerers are that kind of people."
He was right.
Unless Sukuna once again turned himself into a cursed object and detached from the body, absorption was impossible.
Unless he could separate Yuji’s soul from Sukuna’s.
He had no resolve to kill his friend with his own hands.
'How could I?'
It was Yuji, after all.
Sukuna mocked the dazed Junpei and prepared for the final clash.
The teleportation had surprised him, but once he had seen through it, he would not be caught so easily again.
He had already shown everything a normal cursed technique could show.
"If you can endure this too, then I’ll acknowledge you."
He raised his middle and ring fingers to touch, while the rest of his fingers folded inward in a prayer-like seal.
[Domain Expansion]
[Malevolent Shrine]
Before the domain fully unfolded, Junpei steadied his mind.
He knew it the moment he saw it.
A simple domain wouldn’t be enough to oppose this. The instant he formed his stance, he would be carved apart and sliced into pieces.
The most effective way to resist a domain was to deploy one of his own.
'I can do it.'
It was his first time, but he would make it work somehow.
He could do it now.
If he was close enough to perfection!
"Domain Expansion."
[Sea of Corpses, Spirit Realm]
A temple that seals and governs demons.
A spirit that commands the sea of death.
As the two domains unfolded—
Kuwa-gagagagagwang!!
Everything nearby was swept away.
---------------------------------
"Kheuk....."
"Amazing!"
Seeing Junpei collapse, blood dripping all over his body, Sukuna burst into laughter.
They were almost evenly matched inside the domain.
But Sukuna’s domain was not a closed barrier.
To put it another way, it was like painting on empty air without a canvas.
Malevolent Shrine, whose range surpassed ordinary domains as well, tore Junpei’s barrier apart from the outside, and Junpei, losing the tug-of-war, was dragged into Malevolent Shrine all the same.
Even so, he was still alive.
The sure-hit effect inside a domain was absolute. Even if he wrapped himself in the jellyfish, that rule could not be ignored.
The reason Junpei survived the barrage of [Dismantle] and [Cleave] was simple.
[Cleave], which acted on targets with cursed energy, lost power as the gap between Sukuna and his opponent narrowed.
Realizing he had no chance in the domain tug-of-war, Junpei canceled the jellyfish’s summon and endured the slashes with nothing but the black scales and the toughness of his body, then escaped outside Malevolent Shrine as fast as he could.
If he had been any slower, he would have become meat scraps, but somehow he survived.
Whether Sukuna didn’t want to give him any opening, or whether there was another reason, he wore an expression that suggested dissatisfaction, yet he showed no reaction even after Junpei escaped the domain’s range.
Junpei had survived the domain through a brilliant emergency response, but the battle had already tilted.
To beat Sukuna, he needed something even more special.
'There’s something I’m missing. What is it?'
Sssssss...
As his body, shredded by reversed cursed technique, regenerated, Junpei checked himself over.
This couldn’t be all there was. If the structure of the technique itself had changed, then the domain should have something even more special too....
"Take this too."
■.
[Fuga]
Damn it.
What the hell is that fire now?
"Was your technique not just slashes?"
"I haven’t had much use for it. I suppose it wasn’t known?"
Flame shaped like a bow gathered and blazed at the tip of Sukuna’s fingers.
Even from far away, the absurd output made Junpei swallow hard.
At a glance, it was power beyond imagination.
Firepower that surpassed even the 120 percent [Dismantle] Sukuna had unleashed at the start of the battle.
There was no guarantee he could absorb power on that level, and if the jellyfish was completely destroyed, it would be over.
Even if he escaped with spatial movement, Sukuna would obviously follow up the instant he returned to reality.
'No choice. I’ll have to win with firepower too.'
"Take your time. It’s obvious this will be the last one anyway, isn’t it?"
"Shut up."
The technique was overheating, so this was probably the last shot he had, but that was fine.
The cursed energy spent on Domain Expansion had already been recharged by the jellyfish absorbing the slashes.
Junpei, now set in stance, loaded up [Vortex] at maximum output once more.
Drip
With blood running from his nose, Junpei formed a hand sign and chanted the invocation.
Full moon, eternal exhaustion, the waves of resonance.
"[Vortex]!"
Kuwa-gagagagagwang!!!
The two strongest techniques collided and entered a contest of strength.
A beam fired from the jellyfish’s mouth.
A flaming arrow fired from Sukuna’s hand.
"Grrraaaah!!!"
Junpei clenched his teeth and forced even more cursed energy into the technique.
He was losing in output, but if he backed down now, it was over.
He would win.
He would win no matter what!
'Yuji! Gojo-sensei!'
Nobara.
I’m coming back after I save you all, proudly.
Back to everyone.
"Aaaaaaah!!!!"
The curse of a sorcerer grows stronger the deeper the emotion behind it runs.
The sense he had gained through experiencing Black Flash.
The talent that bloomed at death’s doorstep.
The burning desire to win, wrung out in front of a formidable enemy named Sukuna.
Mind, energy, and body all harmonized, and in this moment Junpei broke through his limits once again.
"It’s not being pushed back."
The balance of victory, which had been leaning toward Sukuna, was leveled once more.
The two were now evenly matched in power.
'...What is this feeling?'
Sukuna suddenly felt sick.
'Why?'
This was, if anything, the most enjoyable moment of his life.
So why was he feeling disgusted?
Had he not, all this time, been enjoying battles with the strong?
'I’ll settle that question after I kill you, Yoshino Junpei!'
If the fight dragged on any longer, he didn’t know how the situation might turn.
Just as the impatient Sukuna moved his hand, someone watching from afar jumped into the battle.
It was Nobara, her face streaked with tears.
"Nobara?"
"That girl is...!"
With both of them distracted by the unexpected intruder, Nobara raised her hammer and nail.
At her feet lay one of Sukuna’s fingers.
"[Resonance]!"
Crack!
Sukuna’s finger was, after all, Sukuna’s body.
If you were talking about a medium, there was nothing better.
Even if she couldn’t destroy it directly, the cursed energy that traveled through that finger...
Fshhk!
"!"
...slammed into the King of Curses, who had been hiding behind Itadori Yuji’s body.
An attack that shook the soul.
As Sukuna writhed in pain like never before, the body’s original owner, Itadori Yuji, who had been quiet all this time, squeezed out his last bit of strength.
Get lost!
"You brat...!"
The touch Junpei had landed just before.
It had faintly awakened Yuji’s sleeping consciousness.
It was only a brief interference, but in a situation where the tug-of-war was this tight, it became a fatal mistake.
"No way..."
"Aaaaaah!!"
As the balance broke, the heat of [Fuga] became unstable.
Through the shapeless flames, Junpei’s maximum-output blue beam shot out.
KWAANG!
At the same instant as the strike, the time limit expired.
Slowly, Sukuna fell backward, his eyes closing as the markings on his face disappeared.
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