His legs were like tightly coiled springs, and the corner of his mouth stretched into a sadistic sneer.
I am the Oni King of a thousand years ago! Shuten-doji!
What an ignorant brat! To think you dare challenge me!
"Here I come..."
The roof of the shrine's main hall exploded.
Shuten-doji closed in on Xu Fu at terrifying speed, his spiked club and long sword swinging down at the same time.
Xu Fu did not move. Mahoraga behind her lived up to its master's trust. The Sword of Extermination blocked the falling long sword, while its other, weaponless hand shot out and caught the spiked club as it smashed down with a roaring gust of wind.
The horrifying brute force made the ground under Mahoraga's feet sink and tremble slightly, but it did not harm Xu Fu in the slightest.
Mahoraga's Sword of Extermination suddenly turned gold. Shuten-doji keenly sensed something wrong and decisively let go of the long sword in his hand.
The next instant, the Sword of Extermination, wrapped in a layer of golden positive energy, cut straight through Shuten-doji's long sword and tore open Shuten-doji's breastplate at the same time.
Mahoraga gripped the spiked club tightly and yanked Shuten-doji back, raising the Sword of Extermination high before swinging it down once more.
This time, Shuten-doji let go of the spiked club as well. While twisting aside to dodge the Sword of Extermination, he kicked Mahoraga hard in the head. The remaining half of the broken blade fell back into his hand, and he swung it like lightning. At the same time, Mahoraga twisted its waist and drove out a heavy punch.
With a thunderous bang, Shuten-doji took Mahoraga's solid punch straight to the chest. His body flew backward like a cannonball, smashing through the shrine's main hall. At the same time, however, a sword wound appeared across Mahoraga's neck, and its head began sliding off—only for it to raise a hand and press it back into place.
"That sword of yours... the power on it seems specially made to counter me?"
Shuten-doji returned completely unharmed. His long tongue licked over his lips, and despite taking Mahoraga's punch head-on, he looked as though nothing had happened.
"But if it can't hit, then even the sharpest sword is no different from scrap metal."
Mahoraga could not understand the other party's rambling, much less respond aloud.
The wound on its neck had already healed. As long as it was not killed in a single instant, no matter how gruesome the injury, Mahoraga could recover in the blink of an eye and gradually adapt to its opponent's attacks.
It charged. That distance vanished beneath Mahoraga's stride in a breath, and the Sword of Extermination went straight for Shuten-doji's head, as if to repay him for nearly cutting its own off.
"Ihihihi!"
Shuten-doji laughed, as though mocking Mahoraga's rashness and ignorance.
A translucent giant serpent suddenly burst out of the ground and wrapped tightly around Mahoraga's body and arms, preventing its Sword of Extermination from swinging down no matter what.
"Don't look down on the 'child of the dragon god,' you big idiot!"
For some unknown reason, this Shuten-doji cared greatly about the bloodline said to have been inherited from Yamata no Orochi or Kuzuryu, and placed enormous importance on the title "child of the dragon god."
The serpent phantom, both majestic and vicious, bit into Mahoraga's shoulder.
Venomous snakes injected venom into their prey through their fangs. That was exactly what this serpent phantom was doing.
Mahoraga's body grew misshapen, swelling with massive edema. The next second, those swollen lumps suddenly burst, spraying large amounts of pus laced with snake venom.
Two giant serpents coiled around the ground, forming a massive "bowl" filled with pus. Shuten-doji sat cross-legged atop one of the giant serpents, scooped up a cupful of pus with a sake cup, and poured it into his mouth.
"Pah! This sake tastes awful! Hahahahaha!"
Laughing, Shuten-doji tossed away the sake cup in his hand.
This pus-sake had the effect of restoring and strengthening Shuten-doji, but Shuten-doji himself did not seem to realize that. He only drank it as ordinary alcohol.
One lotus after another bloomed from Mahoraga's wounds.
These lotuses were also part of Shuten-doji's curse. The giant serpent's venom also had the effect of paralyzing nerves, but if the enemy was the type that would not be paralyzed by snake venom, these lotuses would grow from the enemy's wounds instead, restraining their movements while draining their life force.
Sensing Mahoraga still struggling behind him while wrapped in the giant serpent, Shuten-doji said with slight surprise, "You really are stubborn..."
Then he raised a hand and pointed at Xu Fu, revealing an amused smile.
"Your shikigami can barely protect itself now. So what will you do, little girl?"
In Shuten-doji's eyes, Mahoraga was already at the end of its rope.
Although Xu Fu said she was a Taoist, Shuten-doji did not understand the difference between onmyoji and Taoists. In his memory, onmyoji all had frail bodies and needed to hide behind a group of warriors to concentrate on casting spells. Once no one was protecting them, they were no different from trash.
Xu Fu lowered her eyes and said calmly, "Underestimating your enemy, getting careless, popping champagne halfway through... No wonder you got killed before you even brought out your true strength. You honestly had it coming."
In the original plot, Shrine Priest-san from Seimei Shrine had possessed the male lead Keitaro Gentoga to deal with the revived Shuten-doji.
He used Prophecy to converge cause and effect, restrained Shuten-doji with the bunrei of Amaterasu-omikami and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, bound his body with the forbidden curse Jubakuju, and finally sacrificed the five shikigami Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku, Genbu, and Ten'ichi—symbolizing the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—to activate a grand ritual, reducing Shuten-doji to only a head before he could get serious.
It was precisely because Shuten-doji had exited the stage too quickly that even Xu Fu, who had read the manga, did not know what other tricks the Shuten-doji before her still had hidden. If she was careless, even she risked getting turned around.
"So I'll end this quickly. Even if you have a whole body full of skills, I won't give you the chance to use them."
"Hah! Big words. I'd like to see how you plan to end this quick—"
Shuten-doji sneered, dismissing Xu Fu's words.
But before he could even finish speaking, a huge figure suddenly appeared behind him. Mahoraga, which had somehow broken free of the giant serpent's coils, grabbed Shuten-doji in a fierce hold, making it difficult for him to move.
"You! How is that possible?! You were clearly hit by my snake venom! Why can you still move?! Why do you still have this much strength?!"
Shuten-doji's face was full of disbelief. No matter how he struggled, he could not break free of Mahoraga's hold in a short time.
The reason Mahoraga was the strongest shikigami in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen was not the Sword of Extermination specialized against cursed spirits, nor its extremely powerful self-healing ability. It was because Mahoraga could gradually adapt to all techniques and curses, until it became completely immune.
For attacks that dealt damage instantly, adaptation would be somewhat slower. But sustained curses like snake venom and lotuses were things Mahoraga could adapt to very quickly.
Shuten-doji controlled the serpent phantoms to bite Mahoraga's neck and lower leg again, trying to repeat the same trick, but the snake venom he was so proud of was decomposed the instant it entered Mahoraga's body.
Shuten-doji's attention was entirely drawn away by Mahoraga, which had seized him from behind. He had no idea that the side he truly needed to pay attention to was Xu Fu's.
"NINE QI CONVERGE, BANISHING CALAMITY AND EVIL."
The sea, the beach, summer, dusk... Heavy clouds gathered toward the setting sun at the end of the sea, damp and salty waves washed against the golden sand, and the cries of seagulls seemed to pierce through the afterglow.
Without a doubt, this was midsummer. Splash in the water, build sandcastles, play volleyball, enjoy shaved ice—whether adult or child, handsome man or beautiful woman, everyone should let out their excess energy to their heart's content.
In the blink of an eye, Shuten-doji had been dragged into that midsummer dusk.
The chainsaw growled with a buzzing roar.
"I AM THE ONE WHO SLEW A GOD AT SUNSET..."
The chant continued, even drowning out the chainsaw's increasingly violent roar.
Wearing a bloodstained smile, Xu Fu ran across the seawater with the sun's glow behind her, the roaring chainsaw easily awakening buried fear.
"[EXPIRING AT EVENING, CHAINSAWING AT TWILIGHT]!"
"Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!"
With the girl's breathless battle cry, the saw blade, dazzling as it reflected the sunset's glow, chopped viciously into Shuten-doji while he was held in Mahoraga's arms. The rapidly spinning teeth tore madly into his flesh and ground it all apart.
Muscle, bone, and organs alike were all reduced to bloody, sticky, mangled, shattered pieces—an intact target sliced into diced meat so horrific it was hard to look at.
Of course it hurt. Anyone who had never felt that pain could never possibly imagine it. The agony spread through every limb and bone like exploding fireworks.
"Gaaaaaaaaah—!!"
As the victim, Shuten-doji had already begun screaming again and again, repeatedly passing out from the pain only to be awakened by it once more. His senses sharpened under the unimaginable agony, as though time itself had been stopped.
However, the truly powerful part of Xu Fu's Noble Phantasm was that it directly granted the concepts of death Xu Fu had collected to the target. When the Noble Phantasm was combined with the skill Collection of Myriad Deaths A, the instant-death rate was quite high. It was honestly super useful when farming QP nodes on the Bleached Earth.
At that moment, the concept of death seemed to take on a shape of its own, something that could be perceived.
Shuten-doji's eyes saw the shadow of death, his nose smelled the scent of death, his ears caught the silence of death, and every patch of skin, every spiritual particle, could feel death wrapping around him like a tide.
This was the appointed time of death that could not be changed.
"Damn it, damn it, damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!"
No matter how unwilling Shuten-doji was, no matter how he roared, it no longer had any meaning. This could not even be called a death throe, because the moment Xu Fu's chainsaw struck him, the evening bell of death had already named him, and the gates of the underworld had opened for him.
Not even a remnant soul remained. Shuten-doji, one of Japan's Three Great Yokai, died completely just like that, and the black qi that had blotted out the sky and sun began to fade.
The chainsaw was still in Xu Fu's hand, buzzing.
"The commotion here was a little big..."
Mainly, it was the black qi that had erupted when Shuten-doji revived. The clear sky had suddenly gone dark. Ordinary people could not see it, but for Kyoto's spiritualists, it would be difficult not to notice.
Xu Fu canceled the summoning technique, and Mahoraga burrowed back into her shadow. She put the chainsaw away as well, then followed the difficult path back down the mountain.
Originally, Kubizuka Daimyojin also had another curse. In the original plot, Keitaro Gentoga had nearly killed Eiko Hozuki because of that curse.
The source of that curse was a pitiful man who discovered that the daughter he had raised was not actually his child at all. The reason his wife had married him was because her lover found it thrilling to watch another man take all the money he had worked so hard to earn and use it to raise his child. And so, at his daughter's wedding, that pitiful man used a chainsaw to kill the lover, his wife, his daughter, and everyone attending the wedding. Afterward, he brought his wife and daughter's bodies to Kubizuka Daimyojin and killed himself.
However, that man had no chance to become an evil spirit, because after death, his soul was eaten by Shuten-doji. Only the man's curse remained, and it had even been strengthened by Shuten-doji.
Later, that curse caused several more murder cases, and all of the victims' souls were devoured by Shuten-doji, all so he could break free of the seal and regain his freedom sooner.
Now that Xu Fu had killed Shuten-doji, the source, there was naturally no need to worry about the curse here anymore.
"Xu Fu-chan! Thank goodness, you're okay."
When Eiko Hozuki and the others in the car saw Xu Fu descend the mountain safely, they all let out a deep breath of relief. After all, Shuten-doji's revival had caused such a huge commotion. Although Eiko Hozuki could not see the black qi blotting out the sky, she had seen how dreadful Keitaro Gentoga's expression had become at the time.
As soon as Xu Fu returned, Yayoi Hozuki could not wait to ask, "What exactly was that?"
"You've probably already guessed the truth, haven't you? Shuten-doji, successfully revived. In order to break through the seal, he secretly used that curse to kill quite a few people. Starting today, though, he'll never have another chance to hurt anyone."
Keitaro Gentoga and Eiko Hozuki both looked shocked.
"Shuten-doji! One of Japan's Three Great Yokai? He actually existed? And he even broke through the seal!"
"Xu Fu-chan, you actually beat that Oni King Shuten-doji?!"
"Hmph~ hmph~ hmph~! That's right! Exactly~! Give me more looks and words of worship and admiration! Continue paying homage to Xu Fu-chan~! Wahahaha~!"
Xu Fu planted both hands on her hips and once again got carried away, laughing heartily.
"So yokai really do exist?" Yayoi Hozuki could not hide her curiosity. She still had not seen a yokai's true body. Until now, everything she had seen had been ghosts, evil spirits, and gods.
The Shrine Priest-san she had met at Seimei Shrine did not count. She still did not know whether he was a yokai, a ghost, or something else entirely.
"They're probably a little different from the yokai you're imagining." Xu Fu's laughter stopped abruptly, and she began explaining. "Shuten-doji was originally a human with powerful spiritual power. After his physical body died, his soul became the evil oni Shuten-doji everyone knows."
"To be able to kill Shuten-doji's true body in such a short time... I thought Seimei boy had come back again. I never expected it to be someone even more extraordinary than Seimei boy!"
A voice that belonged to none of the four suddenly rang out, inviting itself into the conversation without permission. Such people were generally known as "uninvited guests."
White hair, white robes, white skin.
He sat lazily on a rock, his eyes fixed on Xu Fu, the corners of his mouth pulled into an excited grin.
"What? Was the food in the underworld not to your taste? Why have you run back to the human world? And in such a ridiculous form, too..."
"Xu Fu."
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