A Narrow Encounter

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Two legs.

Four arms.

An elephant's trunk.

Black pupils.

Prayer beads around its head and monk robes draped over its massive body.

The hulking thing that tore its way through space was unmistakably a special-grade cursed spirit.

"A warning," Kenjaku said, smiling from beneath the protection of the curse. "Do not get too close to me."

He lifted a hand toward the creature towering over him.

"This is a divine curse from ancient India."

"Its technique is called Obstacle Removal. A conceptual special-grade cursed spirit known as Ganesha."

A supersonic thread of blood broke through the incoming horn.

Ganesha raised all four arms and effortlessly crushed the two attacks aimed at Kenjaku.

Its own nature already brushed against the realm of concepts.

With Kenjaku revealing its technique and strengthening it through that disclosure, Ganesha had reached its peak.

Nanami and Yaga stopped, their expressions turning grim.

They knew three of Kenjaku's techniques.

Body hopping through his brain.

Cursed Spirit Manipulation.

Gravity control.

As the visible guards, their purpose had never been to kill Kenjaku outright.

They were here to draw out his remaining cards.

Now, with an unknown special grade summoned so casually, they were nearly out of answers.

"Cannon fodder should understand its place," Kenjaku said.

His tone cooled.

"Do not think too much. We can meet again in your next life."

Ganesha roared and attacked.

Cursed energy surged upward. The wind from its four arms alone was enough to chill the blood.

It did not even need to close the distance.

While protecting Kenjaku, Ganesha launched a tide of palm strikes through the air.

Nanami's blade screamed under the impact, and the hands gripping it went numb.

Yaga's sunglasses cracked. Blood streamed from both fists.

High above, Choso and Ino were not spared either.

Both fell from the air, warm blood running down their foreheads.

It was strong.

Too strong.

The four of them steadied themselves and pushed their cursed energy to the limit.

Their mission was not finished.

After one brief exchange of glances, all four moved again.

Blue flame surged along Nanami's blade as he bent low and leaped.

The forced weak point imposed by his technique reflected across the cracked surface of his glasses.

He swung with everything he had.

"Ratio Technique: Collapse!"

Yaga was a master who created cursed corpses.

Panda was the perfect masterpiece he had made with his own hands.

To avoid the higher-ups' suspicion, Yaga had produced very few cursed corpses over the years.

His rank as a Grade 1 sorcerer did not come from relying on those creations.

It came largely from the iron fists capable of knocking lumps onto Satoru Gojo's head.

Yaga and Nanami attacked from the left and right.

Choso, boosted by blood wings, raised his hand and aimed directly at Kenjaku beneath Ganesha.

"Blood Manipulation: Canal!"

It was a move Choso had created himself, outside the recorded forms of Blood Manipulation.

Using blood as the link, he separated his fist and wrist and fired the severed limb through the air.

"Auspicious Beasts Summon: Ryu!"

Ino's trump card, a dragon-shaped shikigami formed from a massive amount of cursed energy, roared as it descended.

It was powerful enough to stand beside the meaning of a Maximum technique.

Kenjaku watched them calmly.

"The final struggle of dying men."

Ganesha's technique was Obstacle Removal.

Every technique that entered its attack range would be treated as an obstacle.

Nanami's technique forcibly created weak points.

When two rules collided and neither held a perfect advantage, the answer came down to whose cursed energy was greater and whose rule was stronger.

Four arms swung.

Afterimages tore across the hall.

Nanami and Yaga hit the ground with severe injuries.

Ryu was destroyed.

Choso's severed hand dropped uselessly to the floor.

To crush the last hope in their hearts, Kenjaku had activated his six-second gravity mechanism at the same time Ganesha attacked.

It sealed away the final escape route for Nanami and Yaga.

"Be grateful," Kenjaku said, looking down at the two men bleeding before him. "At least you were killed by the combined assault of two special grades."

"Dying to more than a casual slap from Ganesha should be enough for you."

The words fell.

A palm print larger than a human body dropped toward them, dragging a violent gust in its wake.

"Nanami!"

Ino was strong enough to be a Grade 1 sorcerer, yet he had delayed promotion for years because he wanted the recommendation of the senior he respected most.

Only three days earlier, he had finally received that special promotion.

Recommended by Kento Nanami.

Approved by Masamichi Yaga.

Now, watching Nanami about to be crushed into paste, terror flooded Ino's eyes.

The next instant, Kenjaku's confidence shattered.

Ganesha let out a piercing death cry.

One blow.

Exorcised.

This place was inside a barrier controlled by Tengen, so teleporting a sorcerer to a precise location was not strange.

But killing a special-grade cursed spirit in a single hit was another matter.

Kenjaku's gaze passed over Ganesha's corpse and locked onto the unique shikigami curled into a sphere.

His pupils shook.

"They are not cannon fodder," Yuki Tsukumo said, raising her fist as she looked at Kenjaku. Disgust showed openly on her face. "They are heroes clearing out evil."

Despite his control over one of the Big Three Families and the pieces he had planted among Jujutsu High's leadership, Kenjaku had almost no reliable information on Yuki.

Because Yuki had been a Star Plasma Vessel candidate, the data on both her technique and her domain had been deliberately erased.

The only thing Kenjaku knew was that, on the night of Shibuya, her shikigami had pierced Itsuki's palm.

"Jujutsu High is justice and I am evil?" Kenjaku sneered. "You are a special grade, yet you still talk like a child?"

"That's my privilege as a beautiful woman, loser."

As soon as she finished speaking, Yuki charged.

Most of Kenjaku's attention remained on the shikigami that had killed Ganesha in one strike.

When Garuda rushed in from behind, Kenjaku dodged and raised his arms to block Yuki's heavy punch.

In his eyes, the shikigami was clearly the greater threat.

The next second, he understood how badly he had misread the situation.

Yuki's fist, reinforced with virtual mass, punched straight through the arm he used to block.

The remaining force slammed into the side of Kenjaku's face.

Flesh caved in.

Bone collapsed.

Blood splashed across the floor.

Kenjaku's body flew backward, vomiting blood, one ruined arm hanging limp as he carved a long red line across the ground.

He smashed through stone, earth, and ruined structures.

That single punch sent him hundreds of meters away.

While Kenjaku was blown back, Tengen moved from the shadows.

Yaga, Nanami, Choso, and Ino, all badly injured or drained, were transferred into hiding.

The roles had changed.

Yuki would probe Kenjaku's technique now, while the others recovered and waited for their next opening.

Reverse Cursed Technique activated.

Kenjaku's broken hands reformed.

The savage wound in his face closed.

He rose and looked at Yuki with a grave expression.

"So that old fox was not holding back after all."

His tone sharpened.

"You are strong."

After experiencing Yuki's technique, Star Rage, firsthand, Kenjaku had roughly grasped how terrifying it was.

It did not seem to affect the user directly.

Only at the moment of contact did it erupt with astonishing "mass."

Whether through Yuki herself or through that unique shikigami, the rules behind the technique stood above Ganesha's.

It ignored concepts and delivered maximum damage directly.

"It seems my cursed spirits are no longer useful here."

Even special-grade cursed spirits governed by lesser rules would only become targets for Garuda to destroy.

"Correct," Yuki said, raising her fist. "My cursed technique grants virtual mass to the body. Star Rage."

By revealing her technique, its output rose again.

Kenjaku's gaze grew heavy.

Yuki's expression darkened.

They were both troublesome opponents.

Like hunters meeting on a narrow bridge, they reached the same conclusion at the same time.

Cursed energy surged.

"Domain Expansion: Womb Profusion!"

"Domain Expansion: Star Rage Prize Ring!"

The two domains collided.

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