He Runs, It Chases

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Jujutsu High's second action team was led by Grade 1 sorcerer Atsuya Kusakabe.

Its members were Panda and Toge Inumaki.

After entering Shibuya's first Curtain, Kusakabe, proudly committed to avoiding real work, had kept circling the surface.

The terrifying cursed energy fluctuations underground far exceeded the pressure of any special grade he had known before.

Even after receiving the assistant managers' notice and learning the target was on the fifth basement level, Kusakabe had no intention of going down.

Toge Inumaki, the Cursed Speech user, was busy cleaning up transfigured humans and curses along the perimeter.

The simple-minded Panda had been coaxed by Kusakabe into performing a surface patrol mission to protect civilians, which was really just another way to avoid the main battlefield.

Panda bent down and pulled a human out of the rubble, only to suddenly feel heat spreading down from above.

Even from far away, Panda's soft fur stood on end.

"Wh-what is that?"

Kusakabe's voice rang out, terrified to the extreme.

Inside the dim Curtain, a blazing wheel of rolling flame suddenly lit up.

A falling meteor howled down from a hundred meters in the air.

Scorching currents wrapped around it, dragging a long tail of flame.

The crowd collapsed into despair, screaming, praying, and breaking apart.

Just as White Zetsu had said, Shibuya at this moment was hell.

...

Standing on the roof of a high-rise, Itsuki watched the falling meteor with interest.

At the perfect moment, the scarlet in his right eye lit with an eerie purple glow.

He had not been toying with Jogo.

The movement of Itsuki's robe proved he still existed in reality.

The meteor was nearly upon him when Itsuki spoke calmly.

"Almighty Push."

Hum.

The falling meteor froze for an instant, then shattered completely.

Boom!

The explosion that blasted into the sky swept across nearly one-third of Shibuya.

Meteor fragments scattered everywhere like a rain of falling stars.

As for Jogo...

Standing on top of the meteor, he did not even have time to deliver his final words.

He scattered with the broken stones across all of Shibuya.

"Not bad."

Itsuki spoke calmly.

It was unclear whether he was evaluating Jogo's Maximum technique...

Or the first display of the Rinnegan's power.

...

On another battlefield, far from the subway platform, Sukuna controlled Yuji's body and looked through the pillar of fire toward Itsuki Zenin a thousand meters away.

"How arrogant."

The moment those words fell, the Sword of Extermination flashed coldly toward Sukuna's neck.

Splurt.

The cursed-energy-reinforced steel-like arm was cut off by the blade in passing, and Sukuna retreated a hundred meters in a flash.

His wrist regenerated in an instant.

Looking at the shikigami before him, Sukuna's expression grew slightly more serious.

After several probing attacks, he had roughly understood Mahoraga's terror.

A body similar to an infinitely regenerating Yamata no Orochi, plus a horrifying ability to adapt to all phenomena.

Sukuna stared at the wheel above Mahoraga's head and frowned slightly.

It represented a perfect cycle and adjustment.

Every time that thing turned with a clear sound, Mahoraga understood his slashes more deeply and adapted further.

Mahoraga could also change the nature of its cursed energy, distinguishing between human sorcerers and cursed spirits.

It was the strongest possible answer after seeing the opponent's move.

"Annoying."

First came the finger Nanako had fed Yuji.

Then the ten fingers Jogo had shoved down his throat.

At this moment, Sukuna had recovered the strength of fifteen fingers.

"Dismantle."

He raised an arm toward the charging shikigami, and thousands of invisible blades erupted from his fingertip.

Splurt.

Mahoraga did not turn away. It did not even dodge.

The shikigami charged straight through the dense net of blades without losing speed.

Blood burst from the cuts, but the wounds repaired at terrifying speed.

One second.

Two seconds.

With time measured in seconds, the scars left by Sukuna's slashes on Mahoraga grew shallower and shallower.

Chime.

The wheel gave a crisp sound.

The adaptation speed defied common sense.

Four white wings around the eye sockets flapped, and the bare upper body contained terrifying power.

That fierce face drew closer step by step.

Left fist roaring.

Right sword cutting.

Even Sukuna at fifteen fingers had to dodge in that moment.

Mahoraga had already adapted to slashing attacks at the juvenile detention center. Now, facing a technique with greatly increased power...

It only needed one rotation to adapt completely.

"Heh."

Sukuna stared at Mahoraga's body and gave his assessment in a low voice.

"This is not the level of an appetizer."

He had originally planned to probe Itsuki Zenin, only to be stopped by one of his shikigami.

That was why Sukuna called Itsuki arrogant.

Itsuki had used his main body to deal with the flame-throwing trash and sent a single shikigami to pass time with the King of Curses.

"I have not been looked down on like this in over a thousand years."

"Interesting."

Boom!

Countless stones flew.

Every time Mahoraga charged, a building collapsed.

Sukuna's body moved like a ghost as he darted through streets and high-rises, fleeing while thinking through how to deal with Mahoraga.

Sukuna's slashes were divided into two types.

Dismantle and Cleave.

Dismantle was an ordinary invisible slash.

Cleave adjusted cursed energy output according to the target's toughness and cursed energy, becoming a killing slash.

Not only sorcerers, but special beings with no cursed energy could also be treated as targets.

Inside his domain, even a Heavenly Restriction as powerful as Toji's could not evade it.

Unfortunately, Sukuna was facing Mahoraga after it had fully adapted to slashes.

The strongest answer after the move.

Mahoraga had not adapted to two separate forms of attack.

It had adapted to slashing itself.

Even though Sukuna still had the killing slash called Cleave unused, it had already lost its purpose.

Boom!

Sukuna suddenly changed direction in midair.

In the instant Mahoraga paused, he unleashed more than a hundred cursed-energy-filled punches.

Hand-to-hand combat could not be adapted to and evaded in the same way.

It could only be called a weakness that was not truly a weakness.

Because Mahoraga itself also carried the talent to heal wounds.

Unless it was killed in one blow, Mahoraga would be as good as new the next second.

As for smashing it apart through pure physical blows...

Even Sukuna at full strength could not do that.

Splurt!

Mahoraga endured more than a hundred iron fists, then turned and swung its sword, followed by a whip-like kick.

Sukuna lost an arm and was kicked into the wall of a high-rise.

Mahoraga crashed into a crater on the ground, but by the time it stood again, the collapsed chest had already healed.

Like a merciless killing machine, Mahoraga did not pause for a moment.

It crouched, gathered power, and launched itself into the hole where Sukuna had been kicked.

The aftershock from that single leap shattered every window in the entire building.

The chase punched through the walls of three high-rises in succession.

Sukuna healed the severed arm with Reverse Cursed Technique and changed direction in the air, rushing toward a spot on the ground.

Mahoraga pursued tirelessly, determined to cut down its target.

Bang!

Stepping into a crater on the surface, Sukuna sacrificed his arm for the third time and dug something out from underground.

Nanako and Mimiko had hidden two of Sukuna's fingers.

One had already been fed to Yuji. The other had been buried beneath Shibuya.

It was a bargaining chip they had prepared for negotiating with Sukuna.

They wanted to borrow Sukuna's hand to kill the brain occupying Suguru Geto's body.

Before Jogo died, his large-scale attack, combined with the destruction caused by Mahoraga chasing Sukuna through the city, had shaken the already shattered Shibuya again and again.

That loosened the talisman wrapped around the finger and leaked its presence.

Sukuna swallowed the finger without hesitation, and his cursed energy rose another level.

"An unexpected gift. One more layer of insurance."

Sukuna grinned fiercely at the terrifying shikigami diving toward him and brought both hands together before his chest.

"Domain Expansion..."

"Malevolent Shrine."

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