Chapter 29 – Finger Hunting
Kenjaku had hidden Sukuna's fingers in a hideout not too far from Kyoto.
The place turned out to be an ancient temple buried deep in the Japanese countryside, far from any major roads or villages. Moss-covered stone steps led up the hillside toward the structure, the surrounding forest thick enough to swallow sound.
At first glance it looked abandoned. That illusion didn't last long.
The walls were covered in script. At a distance it looked vaguely like kanji, but the moment we got closer the differences became obvious. The strokes were wrong. The structure didn't follow any linguistic pattern I recognized. Natasha confirmed it quickly.
It wasn't Japanese. It wasn't any language at all. Some kind of ritual script.
The entire place felt wrong to my senses. Normally, my perception could pick apart the structure of barriers without much effort. Even complex ones had a certain presence, a signature that gave away their shape and function. This one didn't.
To my senses the barrier felt like a void. The structure itself was difficult to detect, and whatever lay beyond it was completely hidden. The usual feedback simply… wasn't there. It was like staring into empty space.
Impressive.
It was a shame Kenjaku was such a slippery bastard. I would have loved the chance to sit down with him and pick apart what he had learned after a thousand years practicing jujutsu. Demonic power wasn't exactly the same as cursed energy, but it was close enough that the systems were compatible.
The proof was walking behind us.
Sukuna followed the group in silence. He had apparently grown bored after realizing none of us were going to rise to his provocations. Without his usual solution – killing everyone until the problem disappeared – there wasn't much he could do.
The binding vow held him in check.
I had actually lied to Gojo earlier. Twice.
First, I was fairly confident Sukuna would accept another binding vow if it meant getting another chance to fight me. His pride alone would practically force him to take the deal.
Second, even if he refused, I still had a way to contain him.
Plan B.
If things had gone differently, I could have simply dumped him on an empty planet somewhere. No people. No civilization. Nothing he could use to hurt anyone. Then, whenever I felt like it, I could shove the remaining fingers down his throat and complete the process before handing him over to the Company.
Honestly, an isolated enough island on Earth would probably have worked. But I had no reason to risk it.
Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. In an ideal scenario, Gojo would simply hand over the finger he had hidden, we would collect the ones Kenjaku had stashed away, and the mission would be finished weeks before the month Sukuna had agreed to follow my orders ran out.
Then I could move on to the next objective.
Recruiting Shoko Ieri.
We continued deeper into the temple, following Wanda as she walked ahead of the group. She had taken the information directly from Kenjaku's mind, and now she guided us through the twisting corridors with quiet certainty.
The ancient sorcerer himself floated behind us. Wanda's spell still held his mind captive, keeping him docile and unresponsive. Vibranium shackles locked his arms and legs in place, their dull metallic surface absorbing any stray energy that touched them. Fingercuffs had been added on top of that, preventing him from forming hand signs even if he somehow woke up.
We had even placed a gag in his mouth.
Just in case.
Sukuna was simple. Brutal, arrogant, and straightforward. He wanted to fight me again, and eventually he would try. If he thought I might refuse, he might push the situation to force my hand, but he wouldn't bother with elaborate schemes when he already knew I would accept.
Kenjaku was the complete opposite. Subtle. Patient. Always thinking three steps ahead. As much as I trusted Wanda's spellwork, I wasn't taking any chances with someone like him. If he slipped away and took a new body, tracking him down again could take months.
Maybe years.
And I wasn't interested in spending that long cleaning up the same problem twice.
Stepping past the barrier, I immediately felt two presences deeper inside the cave. They were familiar. Not close enough that I could identify them instantly, but similar enough that I was certain I had sensed them during the chaos in Shibuya. Considering where we were, it wasn't hard to guess who they belonged to.
"Natasha, Petra," I said. "You two engage Uraume. I'll handle Mahito."
"We got it," Petra replied with a short nod.
I turned toward Wanda next.
"Keep watch over Kenjaku," I told her. "Don't worry about the fight."
Then I faced Sukuna.
"You are to protect her with your life."
Wanda wasn't fragile. She could handle herself just fine. As a devil firmly within the high-class tier, she was durable enough that most conventional human weapons – and even weaker superhumans – simply couldn't hurt her.
But as my Bishop, she was the most vulnerable member of the group.
Petra was physically stronger. A melee fighter by nature, her devil body had grown to provide raw combat ability. Natasha was stronger as well, both because the Queen piece granted an all-rounder boost and because she still trained her body even though she preferred ranged combat.
Wanda's power was devastating, but it demanded focus. And both enemies waiting for us inside were dangerous.
Mahito and Uraume were both T6. Either one of them would have been a difficult fight for her if she could devote her full attention to it. Trying to fight while simultaneously keeping Kenjaku unconscious would push things too far.
I would rather lose the bonus objective than see her get hurt. Not that I actually believed either of them could get past Sukuna.
Sukuna sneered at the order, but the binding vow still held.
So he obeyed.
We reached the main chamber quickly.
The space opened suddenly, the narrow cave corridor giving way to a room far larger than the mountain above should have allowed. The walls stretched high into darkness, supported by thick stone pillars arranged around the chamber. Ornamental lights burned atop them. Their glow spilled downward in pale circles, casting long shadows across the uneven stone floor and leaving the upper reaches of the cavern swallowed by darkness.
At the far end of the chamber stood Uraume. He watched us approach with cold, steady eyes. Then his gaze shifted. The moment he noticed Sukuna, the expression on his face changed to unmistakable shock.
"Master?" he said.
Sukuna didn't hesitate.
"Uraume," he said calmly. "Kill them all."
I glanced at him, watching carefully for any hint of calculation behind the order. He didn't know exactly how strong Natasha and Petra were, but his senses should at least have told him they weren't weak. Anyone with even basic supernatural perception could feel the power rolling off them.
More importantly, he knew I was here. Even if Uraume somehow managed to beat them, Sukuna had to know I would step in before his servant could kill any of my girls. Hell, if Uraume attacked Wanda directly, the binding vow would force Sukuna himself to intervene and kill his own follower.
And yet he gave the order anyway.
Without hesitation.
Without concern.
I wasn't surprised. Not exactly. Sukuna saw empathy as weakness. Bonds as pathetic. Loyalty as something the strong forced upon the weak through fear and domination. But a part of me – the part that saw my peerage as family – still found it revolting.
Uraume was completely loyal to him.
Devoted.
And Sukuna had just sent him to die. For nothing.
Uraume didn't need to be told twice.
The moment Sukuna gave the order, he moved. He dashed forward across the chamber, frost spreading across the stone beneath his feet as his cursed technique activated. The temperature in the cavern plummeted instantly, cold air rushing outward in a wave that turned the moisture in the air into drifting crystals of ice.
Petra stepped forward to intercept him. Natasha shot upward, lifting off the ground and taking position in the air where she could support the fight from range.
I ignored them both. Instead, I pointed toward the far corner of the chamber where I could feel the second presence lurking. A small orb of destruction formed at the tip of my finger. It hummed quietly for a fraction of a second before I flicked it forward.
The sphere streaked across the cavern toward Mahito.
"I was hoping to give you a little surprise!" Mahito laughed.
He twisted his body aside at the last second, the orb of destruction carving a hole through the stone behind him as he dodged. At the same time, his arm stretched outward, flesh reshaping itself into a long bladed limb that shot toward my chest.
I didn't give him the chance to close the distance. A wall of destruction appeared between us.
Mahito's blade struck the barrier.
The reaction was immediate. He shrieked in pain as the edge of his transformed arm touched the surface of the energy. His flesh began to unravel where it made contact, the destructive force eating away at it before he could pull back.
Mahito retreated several steps, clutching his arm as it slowly regenerated.
Now he watched me carefully.
Cautiously.
I wasn't surprised.
While I still wasn't skilled enough to erase souls outright – at least not without condensing my Power of Destruction or activating my Devil Trigger – I had reached an important threshold. One my memories recognized as a milestone.
I could hurt his soul.
Normally Mahito's technique, Idle Transfiguration, allowed him to reshape his soul freely, making conventional attacks nearly useless against him.
But my power didn't care about that. That alone made one of my most powerful offensive abilities even more dangerous.
It also made my plan to recruit Shoko feel far more urgent.
Soul damage was rare, and extremely difficult to counter.
That made me dangerous. But it also meant that if someone else managed to use it against me, the consequences could be just as severe.
Behind us, Natasha and Petra continued their battle with Uraume.
Sukuna's servant had adapted quickly. A thin layer of ice spread across the stone floor of the cavern, turning the ground into a treacherous sheet of frost. Every step threatened to slide out from under anyone trying to move quickly across it.
Petra had responded by abandoning the ground entirely. Her wings beat in short, powerful bursts as she maneuvered through the air, darting forward in rapid lunges whenever she saw an opening. The change kept her from losing her footing, but it also came with a cost. Without solid ground to launch from, she couldn't push her speed to the absurd levels she normally could.
She was still more than fast enough to keep up with Uraume. But she couldn't simply move faster than the servant could react. And that small window of reaction time was all the ice user needed. Shards of frost and spears of ice continued forming around Uraume as he moved, lashing out whenever Petra closed in.
Above them, Natasha circled the fight, and the moment she found a clear angle, she fired. Each shot streaked through the air before detonating into bursts of flame wherever they struck. The explosions filled the chamber with sudden flashes of orange light, forcing Uraume to keep moving constantly to avoid being engulfed.
He was just barely fast enough. Each time he paused to counter Petra, another blast forced him to reposition before the fire could reach him.
But even from a quick glance, I could tell what Natasha was doing.
She wasn't trying to hit him.
Not yet.
She was shaping the battlefield.
Every explosion scorched another patch of stone, every forced movement pushed Uraume a little further into the position she wanted. Slowly, methodically, she was herding him.
Building a trap.
Whether Uraume had noticed that yet, I couldn't tell.
In front of me, Mahito moved carefully through the chamber. His movements were quick but deliberate, circling as he searched for an opening. His eyes never stopped moving, watching my hands, my stance, the surrounding space – clearly wary of another barrier appearing without warning.
I assumed he had at least seen part of my fight with Sukuna earlier. If he had, then he already knew one thing. Trying to overpower me directly would be suicide.
Mahito's technique meant he didn't need to win a straight fight. But it required one crucial condition. He had to touch me. And I had no intention of letting that happen.
The problem for him was that he didn't know I understood exactly how his ability worked. As far as he was concerned, I was just another opponent relying on durability and raw power.
Which meant he was probably counting on catching me off guard. Waiting for the moment when I relaxed my guard for even a fraction of a second.
And that wasn't going to happen.
Tendrils erupted from the ground where I had been standing just a moment earlier, the stone splitting open as twisted, flesh-like extensions burst upward in a sudden ambush. They whipped through the air where my torso had been, stretching and twisting as they tried to follow my dodge.
I was already moving. The moment I cleared the space, a barrier of destruction snapped into existence between us. The tendrils recoiled instantly, retreating before they could brush against the surface of the energy.
Even Mahito wasn't reckless enough to let his body touch that again.
"That technique of yours is annoying," Mahito sneered.
I ignored him. Instead, I focused on the spell I had already prepared beneath his feet.
The circleless casting activated instantly.
A violent gust of wind erupted from the ground below him, the sudden pressure blast throwing him upward like a ragdoll. Mahito twisted in midair, his body reshaping as he tried to stabilize himself by extending and flattening his limbs.
He didn't manage it fast enough.
An orb of destruction was already waiting for him. The sphere shot upward and struck him squarely in the torso before he could complete the transformation. The impact tore through his body with a crackling pulse of energy, ripping away chunks of his form as he was hurled further toward the cavern ceiling.
The real problem with fighting Mahito here was never that I couldn't kill him. I absolutely could. At almost any moment I chose.
The issue was collateral damage.
Somewhere inside this temple were Sukuna's fingers. They were supposed to be indestructible. But "supposed to be" wasn't the same as certainty. And I had no reason to believe the Power of Destruction wouldn't eventually overcome that durability if I used enough force.
Destroying even one of them would mean failing the mission. Which meant I had to keep my attacks precise.
That meant forcing Mahito into a position where he couldn't dodge. And the safest way to do that was to throw him into the air, where his ability to maneuver was limited.
I was also worried that, if I let this fight drag on long enough, Mahito might decide to use his Domain Expansion. Self-Embodiment of Perfection was uniquely lethal. Anyone caught inside it could have their soul reshaped instantly the moment Mahito touched them.
That wasn't a risk I liked. Not for myself. And definitely not for the others.
If he tried to deploy it, I had already decided what I would do.
Finger or not, I would accept the risk. And blast him out of existence before the domain could fully form.
I had the orb shoot forward toward Mahito's remains, the sphere accelerating through the air before expanding slightly at the last second – just enough to ensure it would swallow him completely.
He tried to react. His body warped and spread outward, flesh stretching and twisting as he attempted to expand around the attack and slip past it. But the adjustment came too late. The sphere of destruction swallowed him.
For a moment the orb glowed brighter as it consumed what remained of Mahito, its surface rippling faintly as the destructive energy tore through his body and soul alike. I was mildly surprised the first hit hadn't already killed him. But then again, he wasn't considered Special Grade for no reason.
Still, the exchange reinforced something I had already known.
I needed to keep practicing Staining.
Staining was an idea I had developed after thinking about how Scion's Stilling beams worked. When Scion fired those attacks, the effect didn't always end when the beam disappeared. The disintegration lingered, continuing to unravel whatever the beam had touched long after the original strike had ended.
I wanted my Power of Destruction to replicate that behavior.
If I succeeded, even a glancing hit would become lethal. The destruction would spread outward from the point of contact, consuming whatever it touched until nothing remained.
Unfortunately, the concept was easier than the execution.
My first attempts had been deeply flawed. The energy itself seemed to resist the idea.
The Power of Destruction was exactly what its name suggested – pure annihilation. It wanted to erase things immediately, violently, and completely. Forcing it to delay that destruction long enough for the effect to spread required an incredible degree of control. Much more than I had originally assumed.
The technique was still far from being usable in actual combat. But I had made progress. With enough time to concentrate, I could manipulate my demonic power carefully enough to produce a weaker version of the effect.
It wasn't practical in the middle of a fast fight.
Yet.
But the practice had another benefit. It forced me to refine my control over what exactly my destruction erased. That level of precision was something Sirzechs was famous for. His ability to destroy only the specific thing he targeted – leaving everything else untouched – was legendary even among devils.
I was nowhere near that level. But I had managed to apply a crude version of the same principle earlier. When I erased the cursed energy binding the Prison Realm together. That was what had allowed me to free Gojo without destroying the artifact itself.
Behind us, Natasha finally cornered Uraume.
The servant had been locked in another close exchange with Petra. Ice crackled under their feet as the two clashed again and again in quick bursts of movement. Petra's wings snapped open and shut as she adjusted her position midair, darting forward with sudden lunges that forced Uraume to react on instinct.
The ice user was struggling. Even with the frozen ground limiting Petra's footing, her raw speed was still superior. Uraume had managed to land a few precise strikes during the exchanges, sharp blasts of ice that grazed Petra's guard or forced her to retreat before she could finish an attack.
Petra was keeping up well, but her lack of experience in prolonged, real battles was beginning to show. Her timing wasn't perfect yet. She sometimes pressed advantages too aggressively or hesitated half a beat too long before capitalizing on an opening.
And that meant she was coming out slightly behind in their clashes. Even though she was physically stronger.
High above them, Natasha finally found the moment she had been waiting for.
One shot rang out.
This one was different. Lightning crackled around the projectile as it left her weapon, the air splitting with a sharp hiss as the round crossed the chamber far faster than her earlier attacks.
It punched cleanly through Uraume's leg.
The impact shattered the ice beneath him, forcing his stance to collapse for a fraction of a second. That tiny moment was all Natasha needed. While Uraume tried to regain his balance and heal the wound simultaneously, three more shots followed in rapid succession. Each one wrapped in crackling lightning.
They slammed into his chest before he could fully react. Unlike the first shot, these didn't punch through. The rounds buried themselves inside his torso.
Then they detonated.
Thunder cracked through the cavern as the lightning charges exploded from within his body. The blast forced a ragged gasp from Uraume as he puked blood onto the frozen ground, his reversed cursed technique immediately working to repair the catastrophic damage to his internal organs.
But he didn't react fast enough. Petra was already moving. She surged forward in a blur of motion, her blade flashing in the pale cavern light. The dagger drove straight through Uraume's eye. Steel punched through bone and into his brain before erupting from the back of his skull.
The servant went still.
"Disappointing," Sukuna sneered. "I expected better from him."
I decided against engaging him. Any argument I could make about how horrible it was to send his own servant to die for nothing would fall completely flat. Sukuna's worldview simply didn't allow for that kind of reasoning. He genuinely didn't care.
I gestured to Wanda.
"Do you know where he kept the fingers?" I asked.
She nodded.
"There is a box hidden behind a secret compartment in his room," she said. "Follow me."
Kenjaku's room was deeper inside the cave, tucked away in a narrow passage behind the main chamber. The space was cluttered with objects gathered over what must have been centuries.
Shelves lined the walls. Ancient scrolls, ceremonial blades, cracked masks, and strange artifacts were scattered everywhere. Some items were unmistakably Japanese – lacquered boxes, old talismans, faded calligraphy brushes – while others looked far older and far more foreign.
A bronze figurine that reminded me of something Greek sat beside a carved idol that looked vaguely Persian.
It seemed Kenjaku hadn't spent the entirety of his thousand-year life in Japan.
Wanda led me to the far side of the room. At first glance it looked like nothing more than another section of bare stone wall. Then she gestured toward it.
The barrier covering the surface was incredibly subtle. Even standing right in front of it and focusing on it directly, I could barely detect the difference between that section of the wall and the natural stone around it.
Kenjaku's craftsmanship was impressive. Without Wanda pulling the knowledge straight from his mind, I probably would have walked past it without noticing anything unusual.
She brushed the barrier aside with a small pulse of magic. Behind it was a narrow compartment carved into the rock.
Inside sat a small engraved box.
The container was covered in intricate runes that spiraled across its surface in tight, interlocking patterns. The moment I looked at it I could feel the faint pressure of cursed energy radiating from within.
I glanced at Wanda.
"Safe?" I asked.
She studied the runes for a moment before nodding.
"They suppress Sukuna's cursed energy," she said. "They won't trigger a failsafe."
That was good enough for me.
I lifted the lid.
Inside were three of Sukuna's fingers.
They looked exactly as unpleasant as I expected – shriveled, rotten-looking things with darkened skin stretched tight around the bone. Each one pulsed faintly with cursed energy so thick it was almost visible, the oppressive aura leaking out the moment the box was opened.
"Gross," Petra said.
"Tell me about it," Wanda muttered.
I picked up the box and turned toward Sukuna.
He didn't even try to hide his eagerness.
The moment I held it out, Sukuna snatched the container and grabbed the fingers. Without hesitation, he shoved all three down his throat and swallowed them in one smooth motion.
The reaction was immediate.
His cursed energy surged. The pressure in the room increased noticeably as the power within him swelled, the air itself seeming to grow heavier for a moment as the fragments of his strength reintegrated into his body.
I studied him carefully.
It was a significant boost.
Not enough to beat me – not even close. But if he had possessed these during our earlier fight, he wouldn't have needed his Domain Expansion to push me into using my Devil Trigger.
Sukuna wiped his mouth and grinned.
Then he looked at me, eyes gleaming with open challenge.
"Only one left."
Another shorter chapter. I've been super busy lately and that doesn't seem like it will change in the near future. So I decided to put this out now since I don't know when I'll be able to find the time to write again.
I'll try to put out at least one chapter a week, but I can't make any promises.
Onto (arguably) better news, we are approaching the end of Book 1. I'll still finish with the MCU and at least 1 more world after JJK, but after that I'll put this story down for a bit and try my hand at something else. I'm having a blast with it, but I do feel it has been running out of steam, so I figured I should let it breathe for a bit before we go to the next major and set of minor worlds.
As for what I'll do, I'm not sure yet. I kind of want to pick up my Resident Evil story again, but I had some problems with the build and redoing it from scratch will be a pain since I manually added a lot of characters.
I'm also considering writing something that is not WC-related. Either using other CYOAs or something else entirely. So let me know if you are interested in that.