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Rewinding a few minutes, inside the Juvenile Detention Center, at the center of a drained indoor swimming pool.
Boom!
Like a small missile exploding upon impact, a conical scar was sharply gouged across the bottom of the pool amidst the roaring sound.
In a flash, shattered concrete flew and dust billowed. Two figures flew backward in the dim light.
Upon closer inspection, they were Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori.
Megumi Fushiguro managed to adjust his posture mid-air, planting his feet to brake and halt his retreat. Yuji Itadori, in contrast, fared much worse, tumbling and crawling for over ten meters before managing to stop.
His left hand, including the wrist and everything below the forearm, was completely gone. The cut was smooth and clean, as if done by a laser. He could only use a torn strip of cloth from his uniform to tightly bind the wound and prevent excessive blood loss.
Their enemy was a humanoid... or could only barely be called humanoid. It had two arms, two legs, and two shoulders carrying a head.
But everything from the neck up was completely Cursed Spirit in form: a gaping, crimson mouth with no nose above it, and four eyes distributed across gourd-shaped black pustules that bulged from the forehead and extended backward like dreadlocks.
It was hideous, but undeniably powerful.
At least for the current Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro, they were no match for it at all. Even if they weren't defeated immediately, their death was only a matter of time.
Especially with Yuji Itadori having lost an arm, he could barely control his most basic bodily balance. This burden placed on Megumi Fushiguro was equivalent to fighting a Special Grade Cursed Spirit while dragging a disabled person.
No, it couldn't even be called a fight. If one had to find a metaphor for their current predicament, they were merely mice being toyed with by a cat.
This was evident from the way the Special Grade Cursed Spirit was flailing its limbs.
"Hey, Sukuna! Didn't I tell you that if I die, you die too? Hurry up and think of something!" Yuji Itadori roared.
[I refuse~ Anyway, even if you die, I'll still have eighteen soul fragments. Besides, this body, which I can't freely control, annoys me greatly. If you force me to switch out, I'll kill that brat next to you first.]
"I won't let you get away with it!"
[Heh heh, I thought so. Then good luck! If you get distracted talking to me again, that brat with you is truly going to die~]
The noise in his mind disappeared. Yuji Itadori took a deep breath, adopted a fighting stance again, and his lips moved.
"Fushiguro."
"Huh?"
"I have a plan. I'll hold this guy off. You take Kugisaki out first. Once you successfully get out, flash me the signal."
"Hah? What kind of joke is that? Even the two of us together can barely stop it. If you stay by yourself..."
"Yeah, I know. So... please."
"..."
"..."
"Understood."
After a brief silence, Megumi Fushiguro nodded slightly, then gave up fighting and turned to run in the opposite direction.
...
A few minutes later, Yuji Itadori, now completely reduced to a punching bag, slumped breathlessly against the base of the pool wall. The Special Grade Cursed Spirit's figure, slowly closing in, was reflected in his increasingly murky eyes. A large, fan-shaped patch of spiderweb-like cracks was deeply indented into the solid concrete wall behind him, centered around his body.
In addition to the left arm that was severed at the start of the fight, all five fingers on his right hand had also been cleanly severed. Countless other bruises and wounds covered the rest of his body, and the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth indicated organ rupture.
He was truly about to die this time.
But perhaps there was some truth to the saying, Heaven leaves no road blockaded.
A-wooooo—
A long, drawn-out wolf howl pierced through the layers of obstruction, as if crossing time and space, entering the indoor pool and rousing the last flicker of life in the dying Yuji Itadori.
He recognized the sound. It was the sound of Fushiguro Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique's Brave-puppy... No, it was the sound of the Divine Dog.
Fushiguro would only make the Divine Dog howl like that if they had successfully retreated. That was Fushiguro's signal!
In that case...
A look of relief curved the corner of his bleeding mouth. Yuji Itadori slowly closed his eyes.
His consciousness sank beneath the water, and black, undulating patterns appeared on his face. When his eyes opened again, it was another person entirely.
The King of Curses from a thousand years ago—Ryomen Sukuna.
"Hmph~ I didn't think this brat would actually hold out. How annoying."
He exhaled and gently pushed himself up from the indentation in the wall. The wounds on his body rapidly healed under the effects of Cursed Energy, and even the bloodstains vanished as if they had never existed.
Ryomen Sukuna stretched his body and pondered for a moment, then hooked his finger toward the Special Grade Cursed Spirit nearby, who had stopped and looked stunned and wary, sensing danger.
"Come with me. We'll chase after them and kill the other brat..."
CRASH!!!
Before he could finish speaking, the ceiling above shattered with a roar, the colossal noise drowning out the latter half of Sukuna's sentence.
The man and the Cursed Spirit both looked up in astonishment. The fiery red setting sun shone through the massive hole in the roof.
A figure bathed in golden spiritual pressure stood rigidly straight on the pile of rubble directly beneath the hole. He seemed to be carrying another person in his arms.
"Yosh~ We made it, we made it. See? Flying is definitely faster than running, right?"
"Ugh... yes..."
Despite suffering no physical harm, Saeko Busujima's legs couldn't help but feel slightly stiff as she was set down from Hanakain Reiji's arms and stood firmly on the ground.
It was fast, yes, but this method of travel was far too exaggerated. It was completely the movement pattern of a jet fighter! Is this what a Special Grade is like?
"Are you alright?"
Seeing the Kendo girl's face looking somewhat strained, Hanakain Reiji tilted his head in confusion.
"I intentionally slowed down... uh, like a dandelion gently floating over. Otherwise, it would have been instantaneous."
He even carefully chose his analogy.
Saeko Busujima "..."
"Alright, alright, business first. So, where is the Special Grade Cursed Spirit?"
Gently patting the girl's shoulder, Hanakain Reiji stood on the pile of rubble and looked down.
He looked right into the eyes of both Ryomen Sukuna and the Cursed Womb: Death Painting, who were also looking up.
Emmm~
"So, which one of you is it? Or is it both of you?"
Hanakain Reiji asked curiously.
He felt that both of them were roughly equally lame. The bald little guy was perhaps slightly worse, but still, he didn't want to attack the wrong person.
"Strictly speaking, it's both of them."
Saeko Busujima became hyper-alert the moment she saw Ryomen Sukuna. The sword bag landed gracefully, and a gleaming silver katana appeared in the girl's hand.
"That's Ryomen Sukuna. He is currently controlling the officially designated vessel, Yuji Itadori, a second-year at Jujutsu High."
"Officially designated vessel? Oh, I think I understand..."
Hanakain Reiji nodded slightly, indicating he had a general grasp of the situation.
However, just as he was about to point and assign the execution targets, Ryomen Sukuna, controlling Yuji Itadori's body, could no longer restrain himself.
"This feeling... an Onmyōji?!"
Like a floodgate opening and clearing the blockage, thousand-year-old terrible memories instantly surged into his mind.
He clenched his right fist, gathering a massive amount of Cursed Energy—enough to instantly kill a Special Grade Cursed Spirit—gritted his teeth, leaped up, and punched straight for the young man's face.
The entire process occurred in zero point zero something seconds, too fast even for Saeko Busujima to react.
And then—
The fist, containing terrifying Cursed Energy, was lightly parried by a single finger that had shed its golden spiritual pressure wrapper.
It was a full-power strike, yet the finger didn't budge an inch.
Hanakain Reiji clicked his tongue softly.
"Dude, why are you acting like you have XYY Syndrome (d*wn syndrome)?"
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