Divine General Mahoraga

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Night settled over the busy streets.

Maki and Mai held their mother's hands, enjoying the freedom of being outside the estate.

When they passed a toy store, Mai looked through the thick glass with obvious longing, but she said nothing.

"Buy them all," their mother said suddenly.

Mai flinched and waved both hands at once.

"No, Mother. I don't really want toys."

Lies, masks, hiding what one wanted.

That was the first lesson Mai had learned after becoming old enough to understand the Zenin Clan.

"We're not buying them because you like them," her mother explained calmly, looking down at her daughter. "We're buying them because the clan head ordered it."

If they like something, buy it.

That had been Itsuki's order before they left.

She carried out Itsuki's order seriously, though there might have been some genuine maternal affection beneath her obedience.

"...Okay."

"I understand, Mother."

At the Zenin estate, inside the meeting room.

"Withdraw the surveillance on Shoko."

"And the curse user I told you to find. Have you found him?"

Itsuki rested his chin on one hand, his tone casual.

The day's baiting operation had gone exactly as Shoko guessed. His real target had been Suguru Geto.

But among the curse users, there was another target he had wanted to draw out.

Unfortunately, that one had not taken the bait.

"Reporting to the clan head... n-not yet."

The sorcerer responsible for the search stood rigid, face lowered nearly to his chest, his voice trembling.

Silence swallowed the vast meeting room.

Sweat rolled down the man's forehead. His back was soaked through, and wordless fear grew thicker with every breath.

Then came a wet sound.

Drip. Drip.

Hisashi Zenin, the Grade 1 sorcerer assigned to track the curse user, clenched his teeth and endured the pain where his left arm had vanished.

Itsuki's scarlet eyes held no emotion.

Compared with the almost approachable way he had spoken to Shoko during the day, he might as well have been another person.

"Three months ago, I gave you the portrait and the information on the target's cursed technique."

"Three full months, and you found nothing."

His gaze settled on the one-armed man.

"The next time I ask, if you still have no information, kill yourself."

"Yes!"

Hisashi bowed at once, not even daring to stop the bleeding.

Losing an arm instead of his head was already fortunate enough.

Naobito, watching from the side, felt the same.

For one brief moment, he even thought the vicious boy had shown rare mercy today.

After more than half a year under Itsuki's rule, they had gradually learned what his version of mercy looked like.

Once that matter was handled, Itsuki turned back to the old notebook in his hands as if no one else were present.

Monitor certain children.

Search for Sukuna's fingers.

Find a woman with stitches across her forehead.

One order after another left Itsuki's mouth, each one baffling to the people around him.

No one dared question him.

"That will do for now."

He rose from his seated position and loosened his shoulders.

Then he slowly formed a hand sign and said quietly, "Drive every living thing within five hundred meters away."

The underground vault destroyed by Max Elephant had not yet been rebuilt.

The moment Itsuki spoke, no one needed Naobito to urge them. Everyone scattered as fast as they could.

Like ink dropping into clear water, Itsuki released the cursed energy he had been suppressing.

In that instant, he became the absolute center of the massive estate.

Five hundred meters away, sorcerers and non-sorcerers alike felt crushing pressure settle over their chests.

"Furube, yura yura."

As Itsuki murmured, the shadows beneath the lamplight began to boil.

"Mahoraga!"

Not far away, Naobito shouted, cold sweat breaking across his face.

No wonder Itsuki had ordered everyone to retreat.

This was a Ten Shadows Technique subjugation ritual.

Naobito's fists tightened without him noticing, his heart pounding.

In the entire history of the Zenin Clan, no user of the Ten Shadows Technique had ever subjugated the strongest shikigami.

A massive figure burst from the shadows, radiating violence.

Its upper body was bare and corded with muscle. Above its head floated a wheel-like treasure resembling a ship's helm.

An unsheathed blade was bound to its right arm, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.

Its face was feral, teeth clenched, and the branchlike growths stretching from its eyes looked like two pairs of small demonic wings.

At its feet, Divine Dog: Totality lifted its head and howled, as if welcoming its descent.

"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga."

Itsuki looked over the strongest shikigami and recited its full name with a soft laugh.

The next instant, as he was still admiring it, Mahoraga swung the blade bound to its right arm straight toward him.

This was a solo subjugation ritual cast by Itsuki.

He would either succeed, or Mahoraga would kill him.

The aftermath of the sword strike carved a long trench into the ground. The meeting room shook like it had been hit by an earthquake, then collapsed.

"Not bad. Very good."

Standing on the ruins, Itsuki was completely unharmed.

His scarlet eyes brightened. Mahoraga's destructive power satisfied him.

Mahoraga paused for the slightest instant, then leapt.

Its steel-like left fist and the Sword of Extermination bound to its right arm crashed down like a storm on the spot where Itsuki stood.

As long as the caster lived, Mahoraga's attacks would never stop.

Explosions continued without pause, and the cracked ground spread outward like a growing spiderweb.

"Everyone, fall back!"

"Begin emergency evacuation!"

Five hundred meters away, Naobito shouted orders at the sorcerers around him.

He understood Mahoraga's terror better than most.

Several hundred years ago, a Zenin head who possessed the Ten Shadows Technique had summoned this strongest shikigami and forced a mutual death with the head of the Gojo Clan.

And that Gojo head had been just like Satoru Gojo today.

A Limitless user born with the Six Eyes.

Naobito's feelings about Itsuki's sudden ritual were complicated.

Worry. Fear. Terror.

And immense expectation.

If he succeeded...

Then Itsuki Zenin would become the undisputed strongest head in Zenin history.

As time passed second by second, the place where the meeting room had stood became a bottomless pit.

The pit was crisscrossed with trenches and buried in broken stone.

At the bottom, Itsuki remained in a phased state, watching the wheel above Mahoraga's head and counting its rotations.

Clang.

With another clear ring, the wheel that had been turning since Mahoraga began attacking came to a stop.

The Sword of Extermination swept past, wind slashing across Itsuki's face.

He twisted sharply, but pain tore through his chest.

Two and a half minutes.

That was how long Mahoraga had needed to break through Kamui: Phasing, exactly as Itsuki had predicted.

Kamui, converted into a cursed technique by the will of this world, was not invincible.

Mahoraga's greatest strength was not its attack power or defense.

It was its terrifying ability to adapt to all phenomena.

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