Natural Enemy? Reaper

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"Everyone..."

Yuji looked up at the three of them, moved beyond words.

"So you're the bastard bullying my little brother?"

Nobara put one hand on her hip as cursed energy rose around her.

"Heh. Another group of sorcerers rushing over to die."

Their cursed energy output had not reached special grade, and they were not vessels for some monster.

To Mahito, all he needed was one light touch of Idle Transfiguration to kill these flies.

Ignoring Yuji's attempt to stop her, Nobara strode forward.

"Idle Transfiguration!"

Perfect timing. She had walked right into range.

Killing her should deal quite a blow to Yuji.

Strange cursed energy rose in Mahito's hand as he charged forward with a savage grin.

The stitched-face cursed spirit Nanami had mentioned.

Nobara raised her head and met Mahito's malicious eyes. The corner of her mouth lifted in a villain-like smile.

"I have no interest in touching a creep like you."

With a crisp snap of her fingers, Nobara coldly spoke two words.

"Resonance."

The long nail previously driven into the clone erupted with cursed energy that pierced the soul.

The feeling of being impaled through the heart and bones fed back from the clone to the main body.

Mahito's true body froze as if struck by lightning, his eyes rolling white.

Yuji was not his only natural enemy.

Pain continuously flooding his soul reminded Mahito that a second natural enemy had appeared.

Boom!

Divine Dog: Totality, with its sharp fangs.

Maki's descending blade.

Yuji's furious iron fist.

The instant Mahito lost consciousness, the three attacked in perfect coordination.

Megumi and Maki's attacks were not the real problem.

Yuji's cursed-energy-wrapped fist struck the soul directly.

Purple blood shot from Mahito's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Immersed in agony, Mahito approached the edge of death.

The storm-like beating did not pause for an instant.

If the enemy was weakened, kill him.

Nobara pulled out nail after nail and brought her hammer down.

Yuji and the others kept attacking, locking down Mahito's main body and preventing him from escaping.

Death.

That one word filled Mahito's mind as thoughts churned.

...

"Action Beam!"

Along with that absurdly lively tone, a blazing beam of cursed energy shot straight into the battlefield.

Boom!

The terrifying attack, which included Mahito within its range, exploded violently.

White Zetsu stepped through smoke and flying debris with a cigar in his mouth and lifted Mahito out of the rubble.

Mechamaru's real body had needed puppets to fire cursed energy rays.

White Zetsu, with the body of a cursed spirit, used his flesh directly as a cannon.

The smoke and bloody hole in his palm healed in an instant.

No Reverse Cursed Technique was required.

As long as his cursed energy did not run dry, his flesh could almost be called immortal.

Toji's body had been unable to absorb cursed energy, which was why its wounds could not recover.

"White Zetsu?!"

His entrances were always this unexpected.

Maki, Nobara, and the others looked at White Zetsu, who had saved Mahito, with shock and uncertainty.

"Sorry, everyone. This guy can't die yet."

White Zetsu casually shook Mahito by the back of his neck.

"Why?!"

"Why would you save that animal?!"

Blinded by anger, Yuji ground out the words, then seemed to realize something.

"Right. Of course."

"In the end, White Zetsu, you were never really our companion."

"You're just a cursed spirit who doesn't care about human life."

"Itadori..."

Maki, Nobara, and Megumi looked between White Zetsu and Yuji with complicated expressions.

White Zetsu narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression cooling.

He opened his mouth as if to explain, but in the end, he said nothing.

This was fine.

After all, Pink Gorilla was an indispensable part of Itsuki's plan.

When the time came, White Zetsu would not have to feel conflicted.

This was fine.

"Idle Transfiguration!"

Gratitude?

A life-saving debt?

Mahito had no conscience to speak of.

The instant White Zetsu lost focus, Mahito launched a killing strike.

If the soul was destroyed, even a cursed spirit would die.

Mahito did not dare appear in front of Itsuki Zenin again, but venting on this attendant was still possible.

Malice spread wider across his mouth, and dense cursed energy rose in his palm.

"Watch out!"

Nobara and Maki shouted at the same time.

Even Yuji, who had just cursed White Zetsu, showed obvious worry on his face.

Tap.

Mahito's blood-covered hand lightly touched White Zetsu's side.

The next second, the smile on Mahito's face froze, and his expression went blank.

"Guh!"

Pools of purple blood poured from Mahito's mouth and nose, and his mind blanked again.

To Mahito, his technique was his worldview.

Did the body contain the soul?

Or did the soul wrap itself in flesh?

Mahito's answer had always been the latter.

The soul came before the body and mattered far more.

But the instant Mahito, who treated the soul as everything, touched White Zetsu...

That ancient, heavy, boundless presence...

That vastness like an ant looking up at a mountain with no end...

It was the essence of a soul even more terrifying than Sukuna's.

An understanding that completely surpassed Mahito's dimension.

Forget destroying it.

Mahito had only stepped one foot into the other party's soul domain and taken one hurried glance, yet he was already gravely wounded.

...

"You really are an idiot."

White Zetsu let go and stepped on Mahito's head.

He wiped the blood from his black robe with open disgust and kept mocking him.

"You dared touch Uncle Zetsu's soul. You're lucky that didn't kill you."

If judged purely by soul quality, no one in this world surpassed White Zetsu.

Not even Itsuki.

If a cursed spirit's body and technique were not impossible to steal, White Zetsu controlling Mahito's body would be true invincibility.

Whoever he touched would die.

White Zetsu's large foot ground back and forth across Mahito's face, leaving a trail of black shoe prints.

"Hey. You're not dead, are you?"

White Zetsu spread his hands, sounding slightly helpless.

If Mahito died here, the rest of the show could not continue.

"Hey. Hey. Hey."

His gentle wake-up service consisted of kicking Mahito in the face again and again, sending blood splashing everywhere.

Nobara, Maki, and the others watched Mahito's neck twist nearly one hundred and eighty degrees while blood kept flowing, and their mouths twitched.

Was White Zetsu really here to save him?

It felt like he was being harsher than they had been.

"Cough... cough!"

Mahito lay on the ground, writhing through the liquid like a maggot.

The eyes he suddenly opened still contained lingering terror.

"What... what are you?"

Mahito looked at White Zetsu, his face filled with horror.

Was this really a curse born from human negative emotions?

That kind of soul essence...

Mere humans...

The hatred of a planet.

This was the existence of a higher species.

This was not a natural enemy.

This was a reaper.

Mahito could not stop that thought from rising.

"Good. You're awake."

White Zetsu did not answer. He patted his chest and lit another cigar.

Step. Step.

He walked forward, took a deep drag, then swung hard.

Bang!

Mahito was kicked a hundred meters away. White Zetsu slowly exhaled a stream of smoke.

Pure physical contact could not hurt Mahito.

White Zetsu seemed to have used lethal force, but in truth he had only sent him far away.

"Itadori, go. That guy isn't dead yet."

White Zetsu no longer used the nickname Pink Gorilla, nor did he look at Yuji.

Yuji pressed his lips together and rushed wordlessly in the direction Mahito had flown.

Nobara, Maki, and Megumi were just about to follow.

Terrifying cursed energy rose.

"Domain Expansion: Thousand-Burial White Sovereign Souls."

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