The next day arrived with an ominous chill.
Tsumiki went off to school as if it were any other day, but Toji and Megumi headed straight for Yasohachi Bridge. Toji had taken the precaution of calling Souma Gojo earlier: leaning on the man's uncanny ability to "predict" the future to gather a few vital pieces of intelligence.
"Yorozu... a woman obsessed with the King of Curses," Toji muttered to himself, weighing the intel. After a brief internal assessment of her recorded strengths, he reached a comfortable conclusion. He could probably, likely, most definitely wipe the floor with her.
Under the shadow of Yasohachi Bridge, Megumi Fushiguro stared at the cursed spirits crawling over the rusted girders and felt his throat go dry.
Toji glanced sideways at him, a mocking smirk playing on his lips. "What? Scared already?"
"Are you kidding?" Megumi snapped, bracing himself. "I was personally trained by Satoru Gojo. These low-level curses are nothing!"
"Divine Dogs!"
Megumi clasped his hands together in the shape of a wolf's head. Shadows pooled like spilled ink at his feet, swirling and thickening until two large hounds, one black and one white, lunged out from the darkness.
"Oh? Look at you, actually making an effort," Toji remarked.
"Watch and learn. Dogs, go!"
With a sharp command, the two Divine Dogs shot forward like streaks of lightning. In less than five minutes, the air was filled with the sound of rending flesh and the dissipating hiss of vaporized curses. Their claws tore through the minor spirits with clinical efficiency.
Megumi lifted his chin, looking quite proud of himself. "Well?"
"They have the combat strength of a Grade 1 curse. Not bad," Toji commented dryly.
"Hey! If you're impressed, just say it. Acting like a tough guy just to save face is embarrassing, you know!"
Because the tragedy of the original timeline had been averted, Megumi's personality was significantly brighter. In front of Toji, he felt comfortable enough to trade barbs without the weight of resentment.
Toji merely looked away. Little brat. Just wait until you see what your old man can actually do.
As they ventured further under the bridge, the ground beneath them suddenly gave way. Toji's reflexes were instantaneous: he grabbed the back of Megumi's collar and hoisted him up like a kitten. With a series of gravity-defying leaps, Toji navigated the collapsing terrain and landed steadily on solid ground. Megumi, however, was left dizzy from the sudden centrifugal force.
When the boy regained his senses, the scenery had changed entirely. They were no longer under a bridge in suburban Tokyo. They stood in a subterranean world: a cavern of dark, crimson stone where stalactites grew like living, pulsing organs.
"Where are we?" Megumi asked, his voice echoing in the gloom.
"An Innate Domain," Toji said, his hand moving toward the hilt of his weapon. "A space created by a massive amount of cursed energy to buff the user's technique."
"Domain... Expansion?" Megumi stammered.
"Essentially, yes."
At that confirmation, Megumi's face drained of color. Domain Expansion: the pinnacle of sorcery, the ultimate art. According to his teacher Satoru, only a handful of sorcerers in the entire world could even dream of manifesting such a thing.
"How can there be a Domain here? We have to run! We need to... wait, no, the interior of a Domain is reinforced. We can't escape!"
Toji clicked his tongue at Megumi's panic. "Relax. It's just a crude, garbage Domain. There's no sure-hit factor attached to it."
Megumi's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What do you mean 'garbage'? This is a Domain Expansion!" He looked at Toji with exasperation. "I forgot: a weak sorcerer who got beaten so badly he lost his job probably wouldn't understand how terrifying this level of power is!"
Toji's eye twitched. "..."
At that moment, a figure emerged from the crimson mist. It was a man-sized, muscular creature that looked like a grotesque mermaid from a dark fairy tale. As it approached, the sheer pressure of its cursed energy rolled over them like a tidal wave.
Megumi's Divine Dogs whimpered, backing away as their fur stood on end. "A... Special Grade!"
Megumi was stunned. He thought he was coming along to see the world, but he had run into a final boss immediately after leaving the starting village. They were dead. They were absolutely dead.
The Special Grade curse looked at them, its face twisting into a hideous, distorted grin. A boy with such rich cursed energy would taste divine, and as for the other one, the one with zero energy? He would make a fine toy to break apart.
Schwing!
Megumi suddenly felt his body go weightless as he was tossed onto the soft, furred back of a Divine Dog. When he looked up, the scene was already over. His "weak" father was standing there, a massive blade resting on his shoulder, casually holding the dripping, severed head of the Special Grade curse in his other hand.
"So weak," Toji grunted. "This definitely isn't Yorozu, is it?"
"Eh?" Megumi's brain stalled. What had just happened?
As the curse's body dissolved, a dark, purple-black finger dropped onto the stone floor. Toji looked surprised but picked it up anyway.
Suddenly, a violent, razor-sharp slash whistled through the air toward Toji's neck. Along with the attack came a woman's furious scream: "Drop Lord Sukuna's finger, you wild monkey!"
Toji snapped his blade up to parry, but the sheer force of the impact sent him skidding backward across the cavern floor. He tumbled, adjusted his posture in mid-air, and landed firmly beside Megumi.
Looking up, he saw a woman approaching. She was completely nude, her skin shimmering with an eerie light. Megumi immediately looked away, blushing furiously. Toji, however, showed no such modesty, casually sizing her up with a disinterested gaze.
Yorozu's face contorted with rage. "You insolent creature!"
Toji interrupted her. "That body isn't yours, is it? I'm curious: how can you manifest through an incarnation when the cursed object's seal hasn't been broken?"
Souma had given Toji the rundown on how incarnations worked, but he had mentioned that the seals usually had to be removed first.
Yorozu's expression shifted into one of manic, wide-eyed obsession. "Because of love, of course! It was the presence of Lord Sukuna's finger that whispered to my soul and woke me from the seal!"
"Right... you're a complete lunatic," Toji sighed.
Megumi peeked out from behind his hands. "Who is she?"
"A powerful sorcerer from a thousand years ago," Toji replied. "She liked to cut off the heads of handsome men and hang them up to dry in the sun."
Megumi felt a cold sweat break out. The sheer cruelty of the description was enough to make his stomach turn. Yorozu giggled, her beautiful face masking a bottomless malice.
"They were just toys to amuse me. Is that not a wonderful way to live? Speaking of which, you two aren't bad. Perhaps you could be my new playthings."
Megumi's anger flared, his shadows churning violently. "What's funny about that? What's amusing about it? What do you think life is?"
Yorozu, a woman who had committed countless atrocities, didn't even blink at the boy's moral outrage. However, Toji, the former "Sorcerer Killer," felt a bit of a cold sweat himself. It had been eight years since he retired from that life, but Megumi's righteous glare still felt like a personal callout.
"Enough talking," Toji said, his voice dropping into a lethal register.
He lunged forward with the Soul Liberation Blade, his speed so explosive it defied the human eye. Yorozu's eyes widened in genuine shock. Zero cursed energy, yet he can move like this?
BOOM!
Toji's fist buried itself in Yorozu's abdomen before she could even raise a hand. Her body curled into the shape of a shrimp as the wind was blasted out of her.
No! That's wrong! He's faster than I thought! That was an afterimage! Looking at Toji's mocking grin inches from her face, Yorozu finally realized what kind of monster she was dealing with. She would have to use everything she had, or she would truly die here.
......
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Note: there are 137 total chapters