"Choso!!!"
The now-solidified crimson conduits extending from the enormous monster's slender limbs had pinned Choso firmly to the ground.
His abdomen.
His chest.
Both arms.
Both legs.
Each had been pierced through.
Like prey caught in a spider's web, he was completely unable to move.
Blood instantly soaked his entire body as thick crimson fluid continuously poured from his mouth.
The sudden turn of events left Yuji and the others stunned for only a moment before they sprang into action.
"Let him go!!!"
The muscles of Yuji's mutated arm bulged violently as he clenched his teeth and slammed his fist with all his strength against one of the blood-red limbs, barely the thickness of a fist.
"Divine Wind!"
Mei Mei attacked from the side.
Yet even the full-force strike of a Grade 1 sorcerer accomplished nothing.
"Draw Sword: Crescent Iaido!"
Yuta and Kusakabe simultaneously swung their blades in powerful slashes.
CRACK!
Fragments scattered outward, flashing with an eerie crimson glow.
A glimmer of hope appeared in Yuji's eyes—
Only to vanish immediately.
The damaged blood conduit regenerated at astonishing speed, empowered by Kenjaku's seemingly endless cursed energy.
Meanwhile, Choso's presence continued to weaken as he lay on the ground.
"Let him go!"
"LET HIM GO!!!"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Yuji roared in desperation.
He punched with all his strength until the recoil tore open his fists and left them mangled and bloody.
But the more unstable his emotions became, the less capable he was of entering the state necessary for Black Flash.
Then—
The situation changed once more.
The blood-red conduit Yuji was attacking suddenly swelled several times larger.
Under everyone's horrified gaze, a human face emerged from within it.
A woman's face.
A ring of black stitches wrapped around her forehead.
A strange smile rested upon her lips.
Yuta, Nobara, and the others did not recognize her.
But somewhere deep within Yuji's fragmented memories, he had seen that face before.
It was his mother.
Kaori Itadori.
Meeting Yuji's gaze at close range, Kenjaku's eyes seemed to pierce through flesh and stare directly into his soul.
The grotesque face stretched itself out from the blood conduit, tearing free little by little as it approached the frozen Yuji.
Speaking in a voice impossible to identify as male or female, Kenjaku sighed with intoxicated satisfaction.
"Ah... Yuji."
"You've grown remarkably well."
"Yuji!"
Yuta reacted first.
His expression sharpened instantly as he drew his blade and slashed toward the malicious face approaching Yuji.
BOOM!
An overwhelming repulsive force erupted.
Before Yuta's slash could even land, his body instinctively tensed—
And he was blasted away instantly.
In the horrified eyes of Kusakabe and the others, Mirai suddenly appeared before them.
The strongest combatant on Jujutsu High's side—
Yuta Okkotsu—
Hadn't even been given time to react before being casually sent flying hundreds of meters away.
Standing within the encirclement of the Jujutsu High sorcerers, Mirai did not spare any of them a glance.
His cold eyes remained fixed upon Kaori Itadori's face.
Calmly, he said:
"I don't want to hear your pointless reminiscing."
"Hurry up."
"And if you fail to meet my standards..."
A dangerous gleam entered his eyes.
"I'll kill you myself."
Kenjaku turned toward Zenin Mirai.
The corners of his mouth rose as if preparing to respond.
Then he abruptly fell silent.
Because he sensed something even more terrifying beginning to awaken.
CRACK. CRACK.
The already oppressive sky instantly filled with intersecting spatial fractures.
Especially around Mirai's true body.
Countless rifts tore through space itself as violent storms erupted around him.
The savage cursed energy he had been suppressing all this time was finally beginning to spill into the world.
His jet-black hair whipped wildly in the wind.
The purple glow of the Rinnegan shining from his eyes made him appear less like a human and more like a god—or a demon.
THUMP!
THUMP!
THUMP!
The members of Jujutsu High who had been preparing to retreat suddenly collapsed to their knees, sweat pouring down their faces.
The pressure emanating from Mirai's cursed energy felt even more overwhelming than that of Kenjaku, who now embodied the assimilated cursed energy of hundreds of millions of humans.
It felt as though the heavens themselves were collapsing upon them.
The pressure was so immense they could no longer move their legs.
"Hurry."
Mirai's command descended like divine judgment.
Kenjaku's expression twitched.
The grotesque face looked almost like a wronged wife being scolded.
Unwillingly, Kenjaku turned back toward Yuji.
He no longer dared waste time speaking.
The monstrous face drew infinitely closer to Yuji's frozen body.
The pressure surrounding him felt like sinking into a bottomless swamp.
Yuji gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
Every muscle in his body trembled.
Every cell seemed to be screaming.
Even so—
He continued struggling to raise his fist.
Then—
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
Six elongated arms suddenly emerged from the blood conduit.
They seized Yuji's arms and legs, locking him firmly in place.
The remaining two hands grabbed his mouth and forced it open to its absolute limit.
The corners of his lips split.
Blood trickled out.
Saliva spilled uncontrollably from his mouth.
Kenjaku laughed madly.
His face suddenly shrank to the size of a fist—
And shot directly into Yuji's open mouth.
"Blood Manipulation: Supernova!!!"
Choso roared through a mouthful of blood.
Though gravely wounded and pinned to the ground, his twisted face was filled with fury.
"You will not harm my little brother!!!"
Blood markings spread across his entire body.
The blood scattered across the battlefield exploded like countless stars.
The destructive power was terrifying.
For Choso, family meant more than life itself.
At this moment, he unleashed the strongest attack of his entire existence.
The exploding droplets surpassed the limits of a Grade 1 sorcerer's technique and reached the threshold of Special Grade power.
Yet—
The relentless barrage failed to stop Kenjaku's advance.
Having only barely reached the level of Special Grade, Choso was not even worth Mirai's intervention.
Mirai did not bother stopping him.
Choso watched in horror as Kenjaku disappeared into Yuji's body.
His eyes nearly split apart from despair.
"NO!!!"
The colossal cursed spirit stretching endlessly across the sky visibly began to shrink.
Three seconds.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
The monster's head disappeared entirely into Yuji's body.
Then its torso followed.
The hundreds of millions of faces filled with fanatical devotion poured into him one after another.
Like a balloon being inflated, Yuji's body began to swell.
His shirt exploded apart.
The violent trembling in his pupils silently conveyed agony beyond description.
"Blood Manipulation: Crimson River!"
Choso screamed.
He tore off his own limbs.
A bridge formed from dense blood.
His severed arms and legs stretched toward Yuji's body.
"Not happening."
Uro appeared first and blasted Choso's severed limbs away.
People who were useless were easily discarded.
Uro understood that lesson well.
She knew what her boss intended.
Naturally, she wanted to prove her value.
Inspired by Choso's determination, the Jujutsu High side seemed to recover something they had lost.
Courage.
Yuta returned.
Higuruma and the others, who had barely adapted to the pressure, charged forward once more.
Like praying mantises attempting to stop a chariot.
Facing a mountain humanity could never move—
They attacked anyway.
Because they could not simply stand by and watch their comrades suffer.
"Bravery alone has no meaning."
A sigh echoed through the battlefield.
"At some point, you should learn to face reality."
A terrifying shockwave of cursed energy erupted outward from Yuji's body.
BOOM!!!
The pupils of every sorcerer from Jujutsu High contracted violently.
They stared in disbelief at the figure who had attacked.
It wasn't Zenin Mirai.
It was Yuji Itadori.
No—
It was Kenjaku, now occupying Yuji's body.
Kenjaku lowered his head and examined his fist.
Softly, he murmured:
"The cursed spirit is me."
"The sorcerer is me."
"The non-sorcerer is me as well."
A game spanning a thousand years had finally reached its conclusion.
The collective cursed energy of all non-sorcerers.
The terrifying cursed spirit born from Tengen's assimilation.
And the special body personally cultivated and perfected by Kenjaku.
This—
Was the ultimate creation he had dreamed of for a millennium.
Kenjaku turned toward Mirai.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"My old friend."
"It's been quite some time."
An intense hunger rose within Mirai's eyes.
As though he wished to devour the being before him whole.
"Indeed."
"The fruit has finally ripened."
Kenjaku seemed to understand exactly what Mirai was thinking.
Yet a strange expression of compassion appeared upon his face.
The game was complete.
Only one final obstacle remained.
He brought his hands together before his lower abdomen.
His right hand rested atop the left.
The tips of his thumbs touched.
It was the mudra of Cintāmaṇi-Cakra Avalokiteśvara.
Vast blood-red cursed energy surged outward.
Kenjaku's voice echoed like a sorrowful prayer.
"Domain Expansion..."
A moment later, the world trembled.
"Final Shore — Womb Profusion."
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