At the same time. Eishu Juvenile Detention Center.
Rain washed over the rusted barbed wire, and the air was filled with a nauseating, fishy stench.
Inside the building, the dim corridors seemed endless.
"Run! Fushiguro! Take Kugisaki and run!" Yuji leaned against the cold wall, gasping for breath.
His left wrist was empty, and blood was gushing out from the smooth cut, staining the puddles on the floor red.
Just a few minutes ago, the three of them had stepped into the Domain hatched from this Cursed Womb.
There was no warning, no time to react.
This pale Special Grade Cursed Spirit, with a bizarre smile on its face, just casually waved its hand, and Yuji's entire left hand was severed instantly.
Nobara had already fallen into an unknown abyss, her fate uncertain.
Megumi stood a few steps away, his whole body stiff.
The Divine Dogs he summoned didn't even have the courage to growl under the monster's pressure.
Before this Special Grade Cursed Spirit, these greenhorn rookies weren't even fit to be food.
"I'll stay behind to hold it off! Once you find Kugisaki, leave immediately! As soon as you're out, I'll hand over control of my body to Sukuna!" Yuji roared at Megumi, enduring the agonizing pain of his severed hand.
Megumi clenched his teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms.
He knew this was the only way for everyone to survive right now.
He gave Yuji a deep look. "You must survive!"
Leaving those words behind, Megumi turned and rushed deep into the corridor to find his missing companion.
After confirming Megumi had left, Yuji took a deep breath and turned to face the monster floating in the air, which was watching him with a mocking gaze.
"Come on, you bastard."
Yuji clenched his remaining right hand, covering his fist with the faint Cursed Energy in his body.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit let out a piercing, strange laugh, and a ball of Cursed Energy condensed at its fingertips. The space around the ball distorted due to the compression of energy.
It had no intention of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with this broken human, it wanted to use the most direct method to blast this insect into powder.
"Sukuna! Come out!"
Yuji screamed frantically in his heart, trying to hand over control of his body.
But deep in his mind, the voice belonging to the King of Curses was full of malicious mockery. "I refuse. Even if you die here, at most this part of my soul will dissipate along with you. But before you die, I want to see you torn to pieces with my own eyes and see that look of despair on your face."
Yuji's heart sank, his eyes widening as he watched the Cursed Energy ball, powerful enough to vaporize him, whistling toward his face.
At that critical moment.
Buzz!
The air in the corridor suddenly vibrated eerily.
The space in front of Yuji seemed to be forcibly torn apart by a pair of invisible hands.
A pitch-black vortex with distorted ripples around the edges opened up before his eyes without warning.
Kamui!
The Cursed Energy ball crashed into the black vortex. It made no sound and was silently swallowed whole.
The vortex closed.
A tall figure clad in a black trench coat stood in front of Yuji.
Leather boots stepped on the puddles, making a crisp sound.
"It's been a month. How did you get yourself into such a mess, kid?"
Yamada had one hand in his pocket and tilted his head slightly, glancing at Yuji's severed left hand, his tone carrying a hint of nonchalant teasing.
Yuji stared blankly at the man who had suddenly appeared, his mind going blank for a moment.
"It's... it's you! The one who saved me on the school rooftop!"
Yuji recognized this terrifying man who could even grind Sukuna under his heel.
The suffocating feeling of facing death from just now miraculously vanished the moment he saw Yamada.
"Stand back, your blood is getting on my shoes."
Yamada withdrew his gaze and looked up at the Special Grade Cursed Spirit floating in the air.
The smile on its face was distorted and eerie. From its chest, the aura of a Special Grade Cursed Object belonging to Sukuna's finger faintly emanated.
Seeing its attack inexplicably neutralized, the smile on the Special Grade Cursed Spirit's face vanished.
It couldn't sense any Cursed Energy from Yamada, but its biological instinct made every fibre in its body scream in alarm.
"Ahhh!"
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit let out a roar of rage, and its figure vanished instantly from the spot.
Its speed was twice as fast as when it had severed Yuji's arm, its claws aimed straight for Yamada's throat.
"Too slow."
A split second before the claws could reach Yamada's neck, his right hand shot out from his pocket like lightning.
Snap!
Yamada's fingers clamped tightly onto the Special Grade Cursed Spirit's face, crushing its entire pale face in his palm.
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit's terrifying forward momentum was forced to a halt in mid-air by this grab.
"This is what you call a Special Grade?"
Yamada looked at the monster in his hand, which was struggling frantically and flailing its limbs to attack him, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.
"Aside from its speed being barely passable, its strength is pathetic. It's not even as good as a wild boar."
"Awooo!"
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit frantically channeled the Cursed Energy in its body, attempting to unleash a Cursed Energy blast at point-blank range to blow Yamada's arm off. But Yamada didn't give it the chance.
"Quiet down."
Yamada applied force with his palm.
A green light filled with vitality and the power of creation erupted from his palm.
Yang Release Chakra!
Cursed Energy is a collection of pure negative emotions, while Yang Release is the purest positive life energy. When these two diametrically opposed forces met, it was like fire meeting oil.
Sizzle!
Yang Release Chakra surged from Yamada's palm into the Special Grade Cursed Spirit's body. The negative Cursed Energy that made up its body began to disintegrate on a large scale in the face of this vibrant power.
In just three seconds, this Special Grade Cursed Spirit, which had made Yuji feel despair, was forcibly "purified" into a puddle of foul-smelling black water in Yamada's hands.
Clang.
A withered, dark-red finger fell into the puddle, making a sharp sound.
An instant kill.
Yamada let go and bent down to pick up Sukuna's finger.
Behind him, Yuji was dumbfounded. He knew this man was strong, but being strong to this extent had exceeded the limits of his understanding.
That was a Special Grade Cursed Spirit that had thrashed their three-person team. But in Yamada's hands, it didn't even last three seconds?
"Kid."
Yamada turned around and tossed the withered finger to Yuji.
"Go ahead and eat it."
Yuji caught the finger in a scramble and subconsciously gulped. "This... just eat it like that? What if Sukuna comes out?"
"He wouldn't dare."
Yamada's gaze fell on Yuji's cheek, and the Hexagrams in the depths of his eyes faintly emerged, piercing through the flesh to look directly at the soul residing within.
"Isn't that right, Sukuna?"
On the right side of Yuji's cheek, a mouth full of fangs suddenly split open.
Sukuna's voice came from within. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, you damn bastard. Once I find all twenty fingers..."
"So what if you find them all?"
Yamada interrupted his threats, stepped forward, and patted Yuji's shoulder, though he was actually speaking to Sukuna inside.
"If you dare say another word, I'll twist this kid's head off right now, and you won't even have a chance at resurrection."
Sukuna's mouth instantly closed and vanished from Yuji's cheek, becoming completely silent.
Watching this, Yuji's admiration for Yamada reached an incomparable level.
The King of Curses, who was always screaming in his head about killing people, was actually scared into silence by a single sentence.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor.
Toji strode over, carrying the unconscious Nobara on his shoulder, with Megumi following behind.
Seeing the black water all over the corridor and Yamada and Yuji unharmed, Toji grinned. "Boss, you're pretty fast. I just finished fishin' people out from below, and you've already dealt with the Special Grade Curse."
Yamada glanced at Nobara on Toji's shoulder.
"Everyone's here, so let's go. The air in this place stinks too much."