Mahoraga hadn't been taken out.
So next, the ones about to be taken out… were most likely going to be them.
"Its adaptation speed is really this… fast?"
Even Jogo's Ultimate Form hadn't managed to kill Mahoraga, and this was probably because Mahoraga had long since adapted to "flames." In truth, from start to finish, Jogo had only used two moves against Mahoraga, one of which was just now.
Who could have imagined that Mahoraga, having adapted only once, could withstand Jogo's full-power [Ultimate Form]?
The same went for Toji Fushiguro's attacks.
Fushiguro had indeed never struck at Mahoraga before, but the course of the earlier battle had probably let Mahoraga adapt to the category of "physical attacks." The Split Soul Katana's strikes had also been classified by Mahoraga under "physical attacks."
And as for Mahiru's "Idle Transfiguration"… Mahiru's Cursed Energy was largely canceled out by the "Positive Energy" that Mahoraga inherently possessed, which in turn halved the effect of Idle Transfiguration's attacks.
"Uh, is there any new move left to try?" Beside Mahiru, Hakari Kinji looked at Mahoraga standing atop the meteor in the distance and let out two dry laughs.
Was there any left?
That was what he asked aloud, but Hakari Kinji and Itadori and the others all knew they basically had no more high-firepower new moves to bring out.
If only Yuta were here, if only Satoru Gojo hadn't been temporarily sealed by the Prison Realm… or else, if only Mahiru and Jogo weren't Cursed Spirits but humans.
Jogo dropped down from the sky.
"Mahiru! Is there still a way?" she shouted at Mahiru. "If not, we should retreat! If we flee beyond the distance that Shikigami can track, it won't give chase, right?!"
Jogo was reminding Mahiru that it was time to pull back.
Mahiru didn't want to see the citizens of Tokyo slaughtered—Jogo understood that—but if the situation was truly hopeless, she didn't want Mahiru to throw her life away meaninglessly.
But upon hearing Jogo's words, Mahiru gently shook her head.
"There's still a way," the girl said softly. "It's just a bit troublesome."
She looked at Mahoraga, her tone so calm that it gave Jogo a faint sense of foreboding.
"Hey, what are you planning to do…"
"From here on, everyone, please help me hold Mahoraga back… for about five minutes." Mahiru said softly, her blue hair fluttering in the wind. "In any case, thank you all."
"Hey, Mahiru, answer me first—"
"Sure!!—" Hakari Kinji laughed loudly, cutting off Jogo's questioning. "I love your enthusiasm!"
Cursed Energy surged into the sky.
Hakari Kinji said no more, and before anyone could react, he turned into a shooting star and charged straight at Mahoraga.
His hands formed a seal.
Domain Expansion.
—[Idle Death Gamble].
Because he had just hit a jackpot not long ago, as he now expanded his Domain, at the same time that he pulled Mahoraga into the subway, he entered the "Probability Mutation" state where his "winning probability" skyrocketed!
Mahiru wanted five minutes.
And his jackpot state lasted exactly 4 minutes and 11 seconds!
"Riichi!" Before Mahoraga could react, the man pointed both hands at the sky. "And then!!"
—[One Shot, One Soul]!
The infinite Cursed Energy brought by the jackpot descended once again!
"...?" Mahoraga let out a puzzled sound.
Hakari Kinji's Domain instilled the game rules of "Idle Death Gamble" into every object within the Domain. And Mahoraga clearly didn't particularly understand what this "pachinko" thing was.
The Domain vanished, and it returned once more beneath the night sky.
The Domain had ended the instant it began. Hakari Kinji, carrying infinite Cursed Energy, collided with Mahoraga once again.
Bam!
Mahoraga swung a fist, snapping both of Hakari Kinji's arms and sending him flying.
Hakari Kinji was startled.
This time Mahoraga's attack had aimed for his head! Clearly the opponent had already figured out his ability and found his weakness.
Immediately after, Mahoraga teleported to follow up, the Sword of Extermination slashing toward Hakari Kinji's head.
A black shadow suddenly flashed past.
Maki Zenin, wielding the Playful Cloud, viciously swung the three-section staff into Mahoraga's body, knocking it off balance and saving Hakari Kinji.
Mahoraga let out a furious roar and swept its arm across in a backhand.
Maki raised the Playful Cloud to block, but was hammered far away by that immense force, crashing heavily into a building.
Seeming to sense something, Mahoraga quickly turned its head, meeting eyes with Toji Fushiguro, who wielded the Split Soul Katana and had already closed in to point-blank range.
"Starting to adapt to my lack of Cursed Energy now?" the man grinned, smiling unexpectedly. "How annoying. If only I had that blade."
The blade flashed, and Toji cut Mahoraga in half at the waist with a single stroke.
Cutting it in half was useless.
Mahoraga let out a mighty roar, sound waves mixed with Cursed Energy exploding thunderously and blasting Toji away.
Boom!!—
An enormous pink pillar of fire descended from the sky, completely engulfing Mahoraga.
The magical girl in the sky gritted her teeth. "Damn it!"
They couldn't hold it back.
Truly, it was hard to stop.
A monster like Mahoraga seemed practically born to exist for the purpose of wiping out Special Grade Cursed Spirits like them.
Yet this Mahiru girl still didn't want to run even now—did she really have to die here to be satisfied?
Among all these people, if you asked who had spent the most time with Mahiru, it was undeniably Jogo. And by Jogo's understanding of Mahiru, by her subconscious intuition…
When Mahiru had just said "there's still a way," her expression had absolutely not been right. This wrongness made the ominous premonition in Jogo's heart grow more and more intense.
Mahiru… you…!
"You bastard, don't tell me you really don't want to live anymore?!"
"...What's that supposed to mean?" Hearing Jogo's voice, Mahiru's brow twitched. "Why do you make it sound like I'm about to hang myself?"
Who would want to die? Don't normal people all want to live?
How could she want to die?
To be fair, she was probably the one who cherished her life most among everyone present. Back when she had first transmigrated over, in order to find a way to survive amid Kenjaku's schemes, she had struggled desperately for a long while.
Now, having finally made it to this point, having finally drawn closer and closer to the life she wanted… how could she possibly want to die?
Wouldn't that be pure nonsense?
Over on the battlefield, Mahoraga grabbed Hakari Kinji's arm and flung him away like a Meteor Hammer, making him disappear into the night.
Flames couldn't stop it; vines couldn't stop it.
The white Divine General's form blurred, and in an instant it arrived before the shelter building packed with refugees.
The people before the glass curtain wall were so frightened by its intimidating aura that they dared not move, unable even to cry out.
Mahoraga lowered its head, locking eyes with Mahiru, who blocked its path.
1 minute 13 seconds.
This was now 1 minute and 13 seconds since Mahiru had said "help me buy time"—still 3 minutes and 47 seconds short of the five minutes Mahiru hoped for.
It was truly too hard.
Holding it back for five minutes was truly too hard.
The gap between a Mahoraga whose wheel had turned and one whose hadn't was simply too vast.
Once a Jujutsu technique had been adapted to, a Jujutsu Sorcerer was no different in essence from an ordinary person before Mahoraga. Even if Satoru Gojo were here, if he were completely adapted to, it would be no different.
"No, I don't want to die…"
Someone in the shelter, voice trembling, let out an almost weeping sound.
Legs going weak, bodies shaking, faces pale as death, some even wailing loudly…
No one, after witnessing Mahoraga's might, could watch the monster close in below the building at this moment without feeling despair in their heart.
"What in the world is that thing…?"
"Boo-hoo, a nightmare… this has to be a nightmare, right?"
"Help, please, save us…"
"Lady Angel… please, save us…"
Snap.
Mahiko lightly snapped her fingers. The sound of the snap pierced through the chaotic weeping, restoring silence to the world in an instant.
An indescribable warm current flowed through everyone's hearts.
Mahoraga opened its mouth—it was puzzled.
And before it, Mahiru formed a seal, revealing a slightly helpless smile.
"Starting the clock now: 3 minutes 45 seconds." the girl said, a halo appearing above her head. "During this time, let's fight to the death."
Domain Expansion—[Ten Thousand Sounds Harmonize the Heavens].
"Roar!!" Sensing danger, Mahoraga gathered Cursed Energy into the Sword of Extermination and swung out a slash.
Clang!!—
An enormous bronze clock appeared, blocking Mahoraga's slash.
"??"
This was a Construction Technique.
Mahoraga didn't understand what this technique was, but it was astonished, unable to comprehend how the girl before it had produced yet another new technique.
Was this technique something the girl had possessed all along?
No, it seemed not…
This technique was more like—
"Come on!" Mahiko spread her hands wide, breaking into a smile. "The party's starting!"
The hands of the bronze clock began to turn—3 minutes 45 seconds, the countdown began!
Mahiru's Open Domain manifested for the second time tonight.
Unlike the Domain she had expanded earlier when fighting Kenjaku, this time her Domain truly relied upon the crowds of the several surrounding shelters… thousands upon thousands of people gathered together—this time, Ten Thousand Sounds Harmonize the Heavens was the genuine, complete version!
Crash!
The Domain warped reality; the ground beneath became a void, and Mahiru and Mahoraga both fell downward together.
During the fall, Mahoraga went around the clock to attack Mahiru.
The girl pressed her palms together then released them, and countless rabbits surged out from between her palms like a flood, forcibly shoving Mahoraga away.
"Rooaar!—"
Mahoraga struggled a couple of times but couldn't break free, so it roared out an air cannon, blasting apart the flood of rabbits.
The remains of countless rabbits scattered in all directions.
Among the falling building debris, Mahoraga leaped repeatedly, appearing before Mahiko once again.
"Todo Aoi!" Mahiru raised both hands, smiling, her eyes blazing. "Lend it to me!"
Mahiru's fully expanded Domain covered an extremely wide range, naturally encompassing Todo Aoi and the others. As Mahiru's words fell, Todo Aoi found an electronic screen appearing before his eyes—
"Room Owner [Mahiru] requests to borrow your technique [Boogie Woogie]. Borrow duration: [3 minutes 42 seconds]."
Todo Aoi laughed and reached out to tap the [Accept] button.
An inexplicable soul-link activated, and a winged envelope flew out from the electronic screen, turning into a streak of light that entered Mahiru's body.
Snap.
A light flashed in the girl's eyes.
Smiling, she clapped her hands together.
She swapped positions with a certain stone behind Mahoraga.
The Divergent Sila Divine General's terrifying attack completely missed.
"??"
Remember when Mahiru first dealt with the Black Hole? Even then, the girl had already learned the technique of quickly "borrowing" others' techniques.
"Boogie Woogie" was still "Boogie Woogie."
But this was Mahiru's Domain. When both objects being swapped were within the Domain, "Boogie Woogie's" swap speed and efficiency skyrocketed. Even though Mahoraga had already adapted to this technique, it couldn't react immediately—it had to keep adapting.
Mahoraga looked up, gazing at Mahiru's figure.
And then it was even more shocked.
Within this Domain space where reality and space were warped as if in an illusion, the tens of thousands of people who had originally been in the shelters were all falling together, just like Mahiru and Mahoraga.
Everyone was plunging toward a bottomless abyss.
They shouted and screamed, at a complete loss.
Their eyes focused on the blue-haired girl.
"Jogo! Hanami!" The girl spread her arms wide and shouted with a smile. "Help me too!"
Beep. Beep.
Two requests were approved in an instant.
The tens of thousands of falling people each erupted with dazzling brilliance, transforming to don cool armor or gorgeous dresses.
They were shocked, they were stunned, and after their confusion, thanks to the Domain's soul-link, they understood their own situation.
And so they were ecstatic.
No more commands were needed, no more instruction. Fear transformed into excitement, pain evolved into fighting spirit.
Everyone understood intuitively, accepting Mahiru's orchestration, and aimed the guns or magic wands in their hands all together toward Mahoraga.
Ten thousand beams of radiant light fired in unison, the void dyed in seven-colored hues.
Mahoraga was engulfed in the seven-colored firelight, letting out a ferocious, furious shout.
What is "Ten Thousand Sounds"?
The shared direction of ten thousand hearts may be called "Ten Thousand Sounds."
What is "Harmonized Song"?
When the multitude strums in unison following the Angel, singing one song together, that is "Harmonized Song."
Tens of thousands of light beams slammed into the Divergent Sila Divine General, battering it into a bloody mess as it plummeted downward.
These tens of thousands of seven-colored beams were, in essence, an aggregation of Jogo's and Hanami's techniques. Because each individual beam's power was actually quite small, it was more easily adapted to—but for that same reason, it could cause Mahoraga even more trouble.
The myriad radiant lights poured down like a torrential downpour, converging to slam into the white monster.
The bronze clock counted down—3 minutes 9 seconds.
Under the endless assault, the wheel above Mahoraga's head trembled ceaselessly and finally turned with a "click." At the same time it crashed to the ground—it had completed its adaptation.
Bathed in the seven-colored storm, it slowly straightened up, thinking the farce was over, only to find the girl had already closed in right before it.
"Nanami! Maki Zenin!" Mahiru clapped, swapping the Playful Cloud into her hands. She swung it with all her might.
Mahoraga counterattacked with Positive Energy.
As a result, the tens of thousands of people above clapped their hands together, and the fully-adapted Mahoraga was once again forcibly swapped. Mahiru aimed at Mahoraga's golden-ratio point, swung the Playful Cloud with all her strength, and smashed it flying.
Clap, swap, smash away.
Clap, swap, smash away again.
Amid endless rolling hills, blue and white ceaselessly swapped positions and clashed. Tens of thousands of people lined up along the ridges, clapping their hands, the applause echoing through the valleys.
"Roar!!—" Mahoraga was truly getting frantic now.
On the bronze clock that replaced the moon in the sky, the hands turned minute by minute, second by second.
Its innate instinct told it that it must not let the clock reach zero, but there was nothing it could do—because adaptation, too, required time.
With the bronze clock counting down at 2 minutes 46 seconds, Mahoraga's wheel began its fourth turn, and it became completely immune to Boogie Woogie and the physical attacks of the special-grade cursed tool.
And so Mahoraga was thrown into a pool of blood.
Around the blood pool, tens of thousands of people dressed in black robes like a cult slit their wrists to offer blood, the blood flowing into the pool and gathering into a pond.
The blood was sticky and viscous, imbued with Blood Manipulation, so Mahoraga struggled to break free and was even dragged into the depths.
With the bronze clock counting down at 2 minutes 5 seconds, Mahoraga's wheel turned for the fifth time.
Then it was locked away deep within a factory.
One Mahoraga doll after another came off the factory assembly line, and tens of thousands of workers continuously hammered nail after nail into the dolls along the line.
The soul-agony multiplied a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold, made Mahoraga scream miserably, its voice resounding throughout the entire Domain space.
1 minute 34 seconds, the sixth turn.
Mahoraga was pecked at by sky-filling, electric-arc-wreathed bird Shikigami, each of these black birds carrying out a suicidal collision.
The attacks came like a raging storm, their suppressive force unparalleled.
But this time, perhaps because Mahiru's Cursed Energy was drying up and the offensive weakened, Mahoraga actually found a gap and struck Mahiru with Positive Energy, nearly annihilating ninety percent of the girl's body.
It felt it was about to win and began to laugh smugly, and at 1 minute 10 seconds, it turned its wheel for the seventh time.
Then, in the next scene, within an endless gaming hall, tens of thousands of people sat in perfect unison before pachinko machines, chaotic game BGM filling the space.
The sheer number of players compensated for the uncertainty of probability.
The moment one person hit the jackpot, infinite Cursed Energy plus fully-automatic Idle Transfiguration descended upon Mahiru's body.
The girl's injuries instantly healed, causing Mahoraga's smug laughter to distort into stunned silence.
Once, and again. Once, and once more.
In order to adapt to the different techniques, Mahoraga's wheel turned time and again.
Finally, Mahoraga truly couldn't take it anymore. With the bronze clock counting down to its final 12 seconds, Mahoraga turned its wheel for the ninth time and actually adapted to Mahiru's Domain itself.
Its Cursed Energy began to be able to erode the very existence of Ten Thousand Sounds Harmonize the Heavens.
No matter how Mahiru switched her techniques, she could no longer suppress Mahoraga, nor could she stop her own Domain from collapsing.
Everything fell quiet.
The scene changed into a wasteland shrouded in darkness.
With the final twelve seconds remaining, the girl faced Mahoraga a short distance away and raised her hand, a dazzling light gestating at her fingertips.
—[Husk]
This was a move Mahoraga had never adapted to.
Although in essence it was all Idle Transfiguration, what it output was vastly different.
"So that was her plan…"
At the horizon, both Jogo and Itadori were watching, their expressions astonished and worried.
Even further away, the remnant soul of Kenjaku—who had died but whose consciousness had been restored at the last moment by Mahiru's Domain—was able to witness this battle against Mahoraga after his own death, and was likewise weakly astonished.
Could Mahiru really fight Mahoraga to such a degree?
Was Mahiru's final winning trump card the [Husk] in her hand?
Throughout the duration of the Domain Expansion, Mahiru seemed to have been secretly accumulating this single [Husk] the whole time—this was actually just their guess, and it might not be the case, but it truly was the last option they could think of.
Apart from this, they couldn't imagine what other method Mahiru had to take down Mahoraga.
Please. Mahiru, succeed.
Please defeat it, you have to defeat it… all hope rests on you…
The countdown—7 seconds left.
The [Husk] in Mahiru's hand blasted out with a roar, shooting toward Mahoraga.
But it still was of no use.
Mahoraga's Positive Energy could still counter Mahiru's techniques, not to mention that Mahoraga had already adapted to Mahiru's Domain—any attack that relied upon Mahiru's Domain had lost its effect against Mahoraga.
The [Husk] was melted away by the Positive Energy.
Mahoraga came before Mahiru, and the Sword of Extermination easily, without any suspense, pierced through Mahiru's chest.
"Pfft—"
The sound of being impaled was so grating. She was forcibly nailed to a cross in the wilderness.
"..." Jogo's mouth opened, her body frozen in place, pupils dilating.
"No…" Miwa covered her mouth and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Blood bloomed like a flower, the Domain crumbling inch by inch, blood spilling from the girl's mouth as her body, eroded by the Positive Energy, dissolved into countless grains of sand.
The girl struggled, trying to raise her hands, trying to form a seal.
Did she still want to expand a Domain? Did she want to salvage her collapsing Domain?
"Haah…" Exhaling like a beast, Mahoraga bared its teeth in a victor's smile.
It was all futile.
The wasteland too was dissolving, the horizon collapsing, the world growing smaller and smaller.
Even if she could expand a Domain a second time, what use would it be?
Mahoraga didn't think the girl before it, already struck by its blade, could make a desperate comeback.
...But, wait, why was she still alive? Although her body was dissolving, by all rights, having been struck by its blade, she should have instantly been scattered to oblivion, body and soul.
Yes, she was indeed being dissolved by Positive Energy right now.
But this Positive Energy… didn't seem to belong to it!
Mahoraga suddenly realized something was wrong and jerked its head up, only to discover that the bronze clock was still turning.
3 seconds… remained.
Whoosh…
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—
It was the sound of torches igniting…
—the sound of countless torches igniting one after another.
In the dark wilderness, countless torches lit up. Tens of thousands of people, in ragged clothes, pierced the darkness with their torches, using the firelight to form a path leading from the distance to nearby.
The world was collapsing, the edges of the wilderness drawing inward.
The people formed a long line.
They seemed to be passing something hand to hand.
Mahoraga was startled.
It heard the cry of an infant.
Tens of thousands of people formed a conveyor belt, passing a swaddled bundle from the tail of the line toward the front.
And the front of the line was in Mahiko's direction.
"You have to win…"
"Go, big sister Angel! You definitely won't lose!"
"Please defeat that evil monster…"
"We believe in you…"
The infant bawled loudly.
The people passing the infant along murmured, or encouraged, or pleaded, or expressed their trust.
The infant gradually stopped crying and began to giggle.
The unknown brings terror, and a humanlike expression of dread appeared on Mahoraga's face.
And the blue-haired girl smiled.
"I'm really sorry to them, honestly… Although I truly don't want to die, if I don't take a bit of a risk, it really isn't easy to win…"
Only after actually seeing Mahoraga did one understand just how thoroughly Mahoraga's Positive Energy countered a Cursed Spirit's body. Never mind being attacked by Mahoraga—merely standing beside Mahoraga would cause Mahiko's Cursed Spirit body to be corroded by the Positive Energy, and thus collapse and begin to dissolve.
Even if Mahiru could successfully subdue Mahoraga, she couldn't stand together with Mahoraga, let alone fight alongside it.
Positive Energy was, to Mahiru, pure poison.
So any approach toward Mahoraga, as well as any borrowing of Mahoraga's abilities—would directly bring Mahiru close to death.
But… who told her she couldn't stand to watch the deaths of those around her and of the innocent?
The girl smiled and formed a seal with both hands.
And when Mahoraga saw clearly the gesture of the girl's seal, its expression turned to shock.
"...Wait a moment." Itadori suddenly turned his head, searching behind him. "Where did Fushiguro go? Why is Fushiguro gone?"
Everyone searched, and Fushiguro was indeed nowhere to be found.
And on Mahiru's side, the giggling infant was passed to before the cross. Mahoraga stepped forward and snatched the swaddling bundle away, but when it looked down again, it found the swaddle was empty.
Only on the inside of the swaddle were three lines of words inscribed—
"Room Owner [Mahiru] requests to borrow your Shikigami [Mahoraga]."
"Borrow duration: [0 minutes 1 second]."
"Request status: [Accepted]."
"Furube… Yurayura…" Mahiru clenched both fists, one up and one down. "Eight-Handled Sword…"
With a crack, Mahoraga's Sword of Extermination blade was cracked apart by a powerful arm that appeared out of thin air.
It turned out its Positive Energy had never attacked Mahiru at all; the disintegration of Mahiru's body originated from a summoning she herself had initiated.
A magic circle manifested, and the white giant's figure slowly rose to its feet behind Mahiru.
To make Mahoraga respond to two summons at once, the person performing the second summoning had to pay a price hundreds of times greater.
Fushiguro couldn't do it.
But Mahiru, who had opened her Domain and could perform tens of thousands of summonings simultaneously—how could she possibly not be able to?
"Divergent Sila Divine General..."
In this moment, the tide turned.
—[Mahoraga].
____
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