The special-grade curse Kenjaku had kept in reserve for the Shibuya Incident.
Akuroo-Ootake.
Just like the incarnated Tamamo-no-Mae Geto Suguru had unleashed in the final battle during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, a special-grade vengeful spirit grows stronger the higher the public recognition and fear surrounding its target.
As you could guess from the name, which seemed to fuse the two yokai Akuroo and Ootakemaru from the old legend of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, the origin of Akuroo-Ootake was widely known.
Which meant:
-KWA-GA-GA-GA-BOOM!
It was strong.
"Ghk!"
Yuji threw a punch at Akuroo-Ootake with all the momentum he had, only to be flung backward by a tremendous recoil.
The hand that had been clenched into a fist was tingling numb. This was no ordinary power.
"I definitely landed that hit!"
It wasn’t as if there had been no damage. A fist-shaped dent had sunk into Akuroo-Ootake’s chest. And yet the one who took the bigger hit was the attacker.
Yuji had never lost in a straight contest of strength before, but this thing was different. For someone who prided himself on toughness, it was a pretty shocking experience.
While Yuji was still puzzling over the nature of the [technique], Choso’s [Piercing Blood] broke through the sound barrier and aimed for Akuroo-Ootake’s head.
-Tsssss!
[Piercing Blood] struck the head of Akuroo-Ootake, which didn’t even bother pretending to dodge.
For a moment it looked like the outer shell might be pierced by the high-pressure stream, but then a strange recoil burst from the impact point and scattered the blood line.
Akuroo-Ootake casually healed the shallow wound, then raised a hand overhead.
"!"
In the legend, Ootakemaru was said to rain wind, thunder, and fire upon a body of iron.
The power befitting one of Japan’s three great evil spirits unfurled from Akuroo-Ootake’s outstretched hand.
-Wiiiiiiing
A roiling sphere like a black cloud formed, crackling with sparks.
It was a straightforward, slow attack, but one packed with terrifying force.
Just before the thunderstorm burst from the sphere, Choso and Yuji each threw themselves in different directions.
-BOOM!
The discharged lightning slammed into the spot they had occupied a moment earlier.
A bolt of lightning carrying physical force struck down, carving a crater into the ground.
"It’s not just one [technique]!"
Before they could even recover from the shock of nearly dying, Akuroo-Ootake came charging in with a huge axe in hand.
For a body that big, it moved awfully fast.
Yuji reflexively started to block the axe, then remembered the sensation from before and twisted his body instead of meeting it head-on.
-Whoosh!
The instant Yuji ducked aside, sparks flared along the path the axe had cut through the air.
Sweat slid down Yuji’s forehead at the sight of the flying embers.
If he hadn’t dodged, that would’ve been bad.
Red Bind
-Shrrrk!
The blood rope Choso sent flying bound Akuroo-Ootake’s body the moment an opening appeared.
There was an ominous cracking sound, but for a brief moment the thing’s feet were pinned.
The brothers lunged at the immobilized Akuroo-Ootake.
-THUD!
-Slash!
Yuji’s dropkick smashed into Akuroo-Ootake’s jaw at the same time Choso’s blood blade tore across its torso.
Akuroo-Ootake’s head snapped back, and flesh along its side was sliced away.
Seeing clear damage at last, color returned to Yuji and Choso’s faces.
"Keep going!"
The moment they moved in to batter that iron body again—
-PAAAANG!
A massive shockwave exploded outward, blasting the charging pair backward.
The blood rope was shredded to pieces, and Akuroo-Ootake, now free, sent a fist flying at Yuji as he rolled across the ground.
From a prone position, Yuji kicked upward with a rising heel, his body rebounding off the ground to meet the huge fist.
-KRAAANG!
"Gah!"
He avoided a direct hit, but that same recoil wrapped around his leg again and sent Yuji flying.
"It feels like pounding a bouncy ball!"
He didn’t know the principle behind it, but ever since the start, every attack had been met with a counter at the moment of impact.
The more force they put into it, the stronger the recoil that came back—and in the end, the one getting hurt was the attacker.
Continuing a close-quarters fight was not a smart choice.
Choso, who had created some distance, seemed to have read Yuji’s mind and tried a ranged attack.
"Then once more!"
[Piercing Blood]
The beam of blood fired from Choso’s hand struck dead center in Akuroo-Ootake’s chest.
No matter how invincible it looked, it couldn’t possibly keep firing [technique]s back to back. With that much power and effect, there had to be some kind of limit.
And with this piercing force, it should definitely break through.
Or so he thought—
-Pssshhh...
With a fading hiss, [Piercing Blood] died out once again.
Akuroo-Ootake still stood there, solid and unmarked.
It was a stark contrast to the two brothers, who were already battered to hell from rolling across the ground and getting smashed by shockwaves.
"Haa..."
Despair washed over them.
There was no weakness in sight.
"What the hell is this thing?"
"I kept it in reserve for Shibuya. It’s one of the most valuable pieces in my curated collection."
What was even scarier was that Kenjaku still didn’t seem interested in stepping in himself.
As a curse user, he might have even more curses on par with that one, and his own personal strength was nothing to scoff at either.
With Geto Suguru’s body and [technique], plus the experience Kenjaku had accumulated over a thousand years, it was impossible to even imagine how strong he was.
Even though he was exhausted, Choso—who had once been subdued in Shibuya—felt a deeper chill at that thought.
"Worried I might step in?"
"Shut up."
"Don’t worry. Even if I look like this, I’ve got other things I’m focusing on right now, so I’m not exactly free."
Fortunately, he didn’t seem inclined to interfere.
He had been doing nothing but watching the battle from the sidelines, and every so often he’d form some strange hand sign, as if his attention were elsewhere entirely.
"Maybe now’s our chance to commit some filial impiety?"
"I’m not falling for that. So please, just shut up. Every time I look at you, I feel like killing you."
"Haha."
Of course, even in that state, subduing an exhausted Choso would be no trouble at all. Choso wasn’t stupid enough to walk into such an obvious trap.
With Kenjaku’s attention diverted, Choso began thinking about how to deal with the curse in front of him.
"Fire and lightning are dangerous, but as long as we don’t get hit, it’s fine. They’re slower than I expected. What bothers me most is..."
The strange recoil they kept feeling every time they landed an attack.
If they couldn’t solve that, they’d wear themselves out before they ever managed to tear the enemy down completely.
How could they land a perfect counter?
While Choso was lost in thought, Yuji came over and whispered, "I think I know what that thing’s ability is."
"You figured it out?"
"It’s [recoil]."
That much was obvious.
The name itself was basically "counter spirit," after all.
And if you considered that the model behind it was Akuroo, a symbol of rebellion, it wasn’t hard to see.
"I know it’s a [technique] that stores up shock and reflects it back. The real question is how to break through it."
"The timing is weird."
"What?"
Choso’s eyes widened.
-----------------------------------
Yuji had been able to spot Akuroo-Ootake’s weakness thanks to his experience in Shibuya.
The curse user Awasaka Jiro, whom he had fought as a duo with Megumi, had a [technique] similar to this one.
Though this [recoil] was a higher-level version of Awasaka’s [reversal], the principle behind it pointed to the answer.
After the first exchange, Yuji kept watching the timing of the recoil.
Trying to take in the principle, the scale, and the speed all at once, he eventually caught a clue.
"Remember when we were bound by the rope and hit it all at once? The shockwave went off later."
Up until then, the recoil had been triggered almost immediately after an attack landed, but that one had been different.
Instead of countering the instant the blow landed, it released only when the next attack came in.
From that, Yuji formed two hypotheses.
One: it could accumulate shock and control the counter so it came out whenever the user wanted.
That theory was naturally discarded as more data piled up. Compared to its movements, the reaction speed that triggered the recoil was absurdly fast.
If it really had a speed that even he couldn’t properly react to, then Yuji should have been split in half by the axe long ago.
That left the second possibility.
"It has a limit to how much shock it can digest."
"!!"
What if it didn’t simply return the force it received, but converted it into its own cursed energy first and then released it?
Then it would need time to digest shock beyond a certain threshold. That would explain the delayed reaction.
It felt like all the puzzle pieces were clicking into place.
"...And if you’re wrong?"
"Then we deal with that when we get there. Even if it’s not that, we can still deal some real damage."
For now, this was the only conclusion they could work with.
-BOOM!
Lightning flew between Yuji and Choso as they huddled together.
They managed to dodge, but the power was still terrifying.
As if determined not to give them a moment to plan, Akuroo-Ootake’s fierce assault continued.
"I don’t have many techniques with big enough impact to matter. If it’s this thing’s [technique], even [Supernova] might not hold."
Having dodged the axe, Choso decisively gave up on manipulating blood outside his body and shifted to boosting his physical abilities instead.
[Piercing Blood] had exceptional piercing power at a single point, but in terms of raw impact, it wasn’t actually that strong.
Breaking through Akuroo-Ootake’s [technique] would have to be Yuji’s job. Yuji was the one closer to a power type.
"It’s fine if I’m not the one who gets to be the hero. If my little brother walks a better path than I do, nothing could make me happier."
-Whip! Whip! Whip!
Dodging the vicious barrage coming at him, Choso cleared his throat and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Yuji! You have to do it!"
"Got it!"
It had to end in one blow.
If they kept trading meaningless hits, they’d only get hurt worse.
And as always, at the decisive moment, Yuji showed his true worth as the one who could finish things.
-Goooo...
While Choso drew its attention, Yuji gathered cursed energy into his fist and concentrated.
What he needed to finish it without giving the enemy a chance to counter was black fire.
He couldn’t intentionally fire off [Black Flash], but after so much fighting his body was burning hot, and for some reason he felt like he might actually pull it off.
"It’s not just the [technique]. Its toughness is on par with, or even above, that wild mountain vegetable."
The opponent was strong. Strong enough to stand apart from any curse they had faced so far.
And yet Yuji had also grown tremendously after walking through countless death lines.
Now was the time to prove that growth.
He reflected once more on the stage he had climbed to reach this point.
On the days when he had shattered a wall so solid it seemed impossible to break, with nothing but his bare hands!
-Whoosh
Perhaps sensing the ominous momentum, Akuroo-Ootake, who had been focused on Choso, turned its head and fixed Yuji with a stare.
It didn’t know what he was about to do, but if it just stood there, nothing good would come of it.
Ignoring Choso, who still hadn’t landed any meaningful damage, Akuroo-Ootake gathered a maximum-output black cloud above its head.
Exactly as the brothers had intended.
"[Crimson Scale Dance]—Load!"
The doping [technique] of Red Blood Manipulation, which manipulates the composition of blood to boost physical ability.
But this time, the target was not Choso.
-Krrrk
The reason Yuji and Choso were brothers.
The blood they inherited from the same parents.
Under Choso’s control, it burned through Yuji’s entire body, and red markings rose around Yuji’s eyes.
Ordinarily, blood flowing through another person’s body cannot be manipulated.
Choso knew that, but he had always entertained the possibility that maybe—just maybe—it could work on a brother who was not an ordinary human. On a life artificially created, like the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings and Sukuna’s vessel.
-Thump!
"Hah, hah...!"
It was the right answer.
The bond carried by blood made possible what should have been impossible, and the gamble they had taken in a desperate situation succeeded brilliantly.
Yuji’s body, already beyond the bounds of ordinary humanity, climbed to an even higher level.
His body temperature rose from the boiling blood and his heart hammered in his chest, but this level of strain was still bearable.
As the sweat evaporated, Yuji’s form vanished in a burst of steam.
-BZZZZT!!
The lightning Akuroo-Ootake unleashed destroyed everything in the space ahead of it.
But even that looked slow to Yuji’s sharpened eyes.
He sprang out like a compressed spring, moving through a sensation where everything seemed frozen in place.
-Tap! Tap!
Yuji slipped past every point the lightning touched with movements that looked like flashes of light.
In an instant he reached Akuroo-Ootake’s front, and his back hand flew with all his strength.
With nowhere left to retreat, Akuroo-Ootake swung its axe. It collided with Yuji’s fist, and
black fire bloomed.
[Black Flash]
-KWA-GA-GA-GA-BOOOOM!!!
The sound of bare hand and axe colliding was impossible to believe, and dust billowed up from the ground.
The clash seemed for a moment like it might become a test of strength, but soon it tipped entirely to one side.
It could not withstand the power of a maximum-output [Black Flash] combined with [Crimson Scale Dance].
-Clang!!
"Aaaaaaaah!!!!!"
The best punch of Yuji’s life, unleashed since the day he was born, shattered the axe and punched straight through Akuroo-Ootake’s solar plexus.
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