"That’s welcome news! I was bored out of my mind, too!"
無為転変-다중혼(多重魂)
발체(撥體)
-
Kwa-gagagagagwang!
From Mahito’s hand, the transfigured humans he had gathered together erupted in every direction as their bodies violently rejected the form they’d been forced into.
The toothy masses of flesh swept up bits of the surrounding terrain as they flew toward Junpei.
Junpei’s right hand flashed toward the center of the oncoming lump of flesh.
Sshhhrk!
The mass was split cleanly into left and right halves.
From within it, Mahito, who had been waiting for his chance, sprang up with a startled expression.
At the airborne Mahito, poison thorns fired from Junpei’s hand.
Pyu! Pyu!
"Huh....?"
The projectile speed was nearly twice what it had been when Junpei first used it.
Mahito tried to shrink his body to dodge, but the thorns struck him squarely and sent him crashing to the ground.
The poison spread through his body in an instant, interfering with his control over his flesh, and Junpei’s uppercut was already waiting beneath him.
Paaak!
'What the hell? Why is he so fast?'
Rolling across the ground, Mahito kneaded the poisoned area and stretched his soul.
He still clearly couldn’t perceive the shape of the soul. Neither his strikes nor the poison produced the kind of resonance Itadori Yuji’s did.
And yet he was absurdly fast and hard. Too much so to answer properly.
Mahito was stunned by Junpei’s growth, as if he had become a completely different person in just three hours.
"You were pretty upset earlier, huh? Where the hell did you crawl out from?"
"I came back from hell to kill you."
Soon, Junpei’s assault came crashing down without pause.
Speed surpassing Jogo’s. Power on par with Itadori Yuji’s.
The vicious barrage gouged, tore, and crushed Mahito’s body from every angle.
Whenever he hardened his body to guard, the black-scale knuckles punched straight through the defense.
He twisted a broken arm into a blade and aimed for Junpei’s heart, but it was repelled by the double armor of black scales and [Sediment Moon], snapping uselessly in two.
As Mahito desperately transformed his body into a slime-like shape to slip away, Junpei’s sword came down over his head.
Sshhhrk!
Mahito’s body was split in half.
Even when he tried to stitch himself back together, the poison made the join refuse to hold.
'Damn it, I don’t have time to transform!'
Mahito pushed power into the substitute body rather than the real one and tried to throw Junpei off.
Even knowing that Junpei couldn’t damage the soul directly, the fact that he kept insisting on close-quarters combat meant he must have some hidden trick up his sleeve.
It wasn’t dealing heavy damage, but at this rate they would never reach a proper exchange.
'As long as I can touch him once, I win!'
I’ll catch him off guard and make contact.
That was what Mahito thought, right before the sword slash that skimmed over his head shredded the decoy.
Sshhhrkkrkrk!
The decoy was cut to ribbons and collapsed, losing all strength. It had been minced so thoroughly that recovering from the damage looked hopeless.
The sight sent a chill down Mahito’s spine.
'If he grinds me down with firepower, even I.... That was dangerous.'
Fine. I admit it.
You’re stronger than me right now.
But being stronger doesn’t mean you always win.
"Junpei...."
When Junpei turned around with blazing eyes, the figure that appeared before him was his dead mother, Nagi.
With blood pouring from her lower body and a faint, sorrowful smile on her face, Junpei’s steps came to a halt.
Mahito seized that opening and reached for Junpei’s back.
"It took a lot of work to make her. I’ve never used transfigured humans like this before."
He was striking at the source of Junpei’s trauma, shattering his soul for just a moment.
Mahito, having carefully kneaded a transfigured human into the shape of Yoshino Nagi, smiled brightly at the victory that was about to come.
Shuruk
"Huh?"
He didn’t even realize that the hand he had extended had been swallowed by a black jellyfish that appeared in midair.
He hurriedly tried to touch Junpei with his other hand, but Junpei had already vanished from sight.
He wouldn’t lose his reason. This was a strike packed with cold anger, compressed and held down.
Junpei dropped low, spun, and his roundhouse kick blew Mahito’s jaw off.
Tookwaang!
"Debogek!"
Mahito flew bouncing and tumbling away while screaming in a ridiculous voice.
He tried to get back up and steady his stance, but his balance wouldn’t return, and he collapsed where he stood.
Sensing something wrong, Mahito checked his body and realized that parts of him had turned to smoke and were being sucked somewhere else.
"Huh?"
"The reason I only fought you with my fists was because I wanted to punch that obnoxious face of yours myself."
This wasn’t the kind of injury he could casually ignore and cover by kneading his soul.
The power that composed his body had been sucked away whole.
Different principle, same result: an attack no different from directly carving away the soul.
'Why? How? A human can do this?'
"The only reason you’re still alive is because I felt like it. Got it?"
Junpei looked down at Mahito with eyes as cold as ice.
Eyes exactly like a predator hunting prey.
In that instant, Mahito was seized by an unbearable fear for the first time in his life.
"Why......?"
"Because I wanted to break every last thing about you. Until you were crying in despair. I was planning to play with you a little longer, but I changed my mind."
Shurururuk!
The mapari’s tentacles trembled as they began to draw Mahito’s body inward with a powerful pull.
As his limbs broke apart and turned to smoke, Mahito shuddered at the sensation of being sucked away.
"Just die here."
"Aaaahhh!"
I’m going to die. If this keeps up, I really will die.
But why would I just take it?
I only need to kill him before I’m fully pulled in.
'You think you’ve already won!'
While thrashing about, Mahito secretly formed hand signs with a tiny hand inside his mouth.
Domain Expansion-
自閉円頓裹
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Hands clasped around Mahito spread outward and constructed the domain.
Black Flash, which he had experienced in battle against Yuji.
Because he had grasped the core of cursed energy, that sensation had become even sharper, allowing for faster activation and the domain’s repulsion.
But Junpei had already anticipated this as well.
"Domain Expansion."
"!!"
屍海領元靈
His second domain since birth.
But there was already an unbridgeable gap in mastery between Mahito and Junpei.
And Junpei, who had already once experienced a tug-of-war over a domain against Sukuna, was not about to be pushed back by Mahito now.
Black Flash, and even greater awakenings than that. He had already walked those roads.
The difference in power was overwhelming. A proper tug-of-war was impossible.
Soon, the barrier closing Junpei’s domain shattered Mahito’s barrier, and—
Paaat!
Mahito found himself in darkness so deep he couldn’t see an inch ahead.
"Huff.... Huff...."
It was cold.
He couldn’t see anything.
Even a pressure like the kind one feels at the bottom of deep water was crushing his whole body.
As Mahito trembled and gasped for breath, Junpei’s low voice reached him.
"Absorption of curses. That’s the new ability I gained."
"So what if it is.....?"
"Ordinary cursed energy and low-grade curses get refined into my own cursed energy, but where do guys who have proper ‘techniques’ go?"
Right here. To the deepest part of my stomach.
"A realm where I grow endlessly stronger by devouring them. No one can escape the sea of corpses I rule."
Whoooosh
The surroundings lit up, and giant gaping shikigami appeared before Mahito’s eyes.
Each one wore a muscular armor resembling an insect’s carapace, and hot waves of heat roared up from within it.
Flames spilled from mouths packed with dripping, poison-slick teeth.
He didn’t know about the insect armor, but that flame was familiar to Mahito.
It was unmistakably the proud ability of a comrade he had seen many times before.
"Jogo...?"
"Don’t be too upset. You’ll be right beside him soon enough."
The gaping maws drew closer and closer out of the darkness.
Each one carried the techniques of Yorozu and Jogo, and their power was so immense it was impossible to resist.
Within this hellscape smeared with poison and heat, Mahito’s true face was gradually laid bare.
"Ah.... Aaaah...."
Kwa-jajajak!
The gaping maws swarmed all at once at Mahito, who was groaning like a lost child.
Even if he tried to resist desperately, there was no way to resist a sure-hit attack.
They bit, burned, and smashed. The attacks of every shape and kind tore Mahito’s body to shreds like paper.
"Aaaahhhhh!!"
Before long, Mahito’s pitiful screams were drowned out by the gaping maws and could no longer be heard.
---------------------------------
"Can you hear me?"
"Aah.... Uuua...."
When the domain was lifted, Mahito’s condition was horrifying.
Burned and bitten all over, with all his limbs torn away, he looked absurdly ruined.
His cursed energy had apparently run dry too, because his body had shrunk into the shape of a child.
This was what he looked like after being driven to the edge of a cliff.
Even though he had acted as if he had risen above everything in the world, as if he only cared about amusement, Mahito had ultimately been nothing more than an immature child.
To fully absorb the helplessly writhing Mahito, Junpei slowly stepped forward.
"At first, I wanted to become like you."
I was saved by your indifference toward others.
I admired that power, that mindset, and tried to imitate it.
And yet, was I the only one who thought we were equals?
"After our relationship twisted, I lived only to kill you."
That killing you with my own hands was my atonement.
That because this happened through me, I had to take responsibility.
That was how I hypnotized myself, and lived obsessively.
"In the end, everything about me came from you."
You made me.
You gave me a reason to live, and made it possible for me to come this far.
"Because you’re the mirror that reflects me."
"Uuuh.... Aaaah...."
As Junpei’s words continued, tears welled in Mahito’s writhing eyes.
The distance between them kept shrinking.
Only then did Mahito understand what kind of razor’s edge Junpei had crossed to reach this point.
"So many things happened. Laughing, crying, longing.... All those connections, the human heart you kept denying, brought us here. How does it feel?"
"A-ah, aaah.... D-don’t come closer!"
"My life won’t be without trials just because you’re gone. But now it’s fine."
I won’t waver anymore.
I won’t agonize over finding a reason, and I won’t run away because I don’t want to be cursed.
Even in that moment, I’ll exist wholly as myself.
"Thank you. For letting me remain ‘me.’"
"Nooooo, don’t come any closer!!!"
"You’re no longer needed in my world."
What’s with that face? Scared? Oh, that’s a shame.
You can’t stir anything in me anymore.
Let’s celebrate the day I was reborn, freed from your existence.
"Aaaahhhhhhhhh!!!"
Happy birthday, Mahito.
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