"Tch, so there really was a problem after all."
Maki set Toge down, then transformed her Thousand Machine Umbrella back into its twin-bladed greatsword form.
The two of them had not gotten far.
A four-armed, elephant-headed Cursed Spirit, dozens of meters tall, blocked their path.
This Cursed Spirit also radiated Cursed Energy on the level of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
"Three Special Grade Cursed Spirits in the same place? Could that fox-eyed, weird-haired guy be here?"
In the Jujutsu world, there were many Jujutsu Sorcerers who could use Cursed Spirits as shikigami.
However, there were almost no shikigami users capable of controlling Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
So when three Special Grade Cursed Spirits suddenly appeared in the same place, Maki immediately thought of Suguru.
She remembered that guy from a few years ago who had snatched her sister Mai's lollipop.
He had made her sister cry and throw a fuss. What a pitiful Cursed Spirit Manipulation user.
At the time, to get revenge for her sister, Maki had ridden a shikigami Eichi had lent her to play with, and chased that weird-haired guy together with the main force for quite a while.
However, Maki quickly dismissed the idea herself.
Although Maki had only met Suguru a few times, she knew he had a good relationship with Eichi and Satoru.
Although he occasionally called people "monkeys" and showed contempt toward some, he was usually a gentle person.
As she was thinking, the Elephant-Headed God in the distance began bringing its four arms together in pairs.
Seeing this, Maki stopped thinking.
She immediately launched an attack on the Elephant-Headed God.
The next second, a tremendous force suddenly pressed down on Maki.
Alert, Maki swung her sword at the sudden change before her.
But she was still sent flying high into the air by the Elephant-Headed God's invisible attack.
'What happened? Is this guy's Technique?'
After landing from high above, Maki stared warily at the Elephant-Headed God.
'I need to figure out this Cursed Spirit's Technique first. Otherwise, I won't be able to get close.'
For a close-combat fighter like Maki, an enemy she could not get near was undoubtedly the most troublesome kind.
Behind Maki, Toge pulled down his collar again.
His condition was already very poor.
His throat felt as if it had been slashed over and over with a knife, then thrown into sulfuric acid.
His Cursed Energy consumption was also extremely high.
But at this moment, he could not care about any of that.
He wanted to use the last of his strength to create an opening for Maki to exorcise this Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Even if he could not withstand the backlash this time.
The moment Maki charged again, just as Toge opened his mouth, preparing to use his final Cursed Speech, a reassuring figure descended from the sky.
Boom.
Mahoraga landed from above in a heroic pose.
Its knees, harder than steel, smashed a huge crater into the ground.
The next second, that incomparably reassuring figure stood in front of the two of them.
"Mahoraga! Is Eichi-sensei here?"
Maki slammed on the brakes, barely avoiding crashing into Mahoraga's thigh.
"Kelp."
Toge also voiced his agreement happily.
On the other side, on Panda and Akuro-Ō's battlefield,
Panda, whose head had transformed into a triceratops, charged at Akuro-Ō once again.
Panda and his shy triceratops sister were desperately trying to create an opportunity to escape the battlefield.
Pfft.
Akuro-Ō seemed to have grown bored.
He brought his axe down onto the triceratops beast's bone armor.
Panda's head was nearly split in two.
"Huff, huff, is this... the end...?"
Panda lay on the ground, wanting to take one last look at the night sky of his bear life.
Whoosh.
The sound of an axe slicing through the air rang out.
Panda knew everything was about to end.
Clang.
The sound of weapons colliding came from in front of him.
Panda struggled to raise his head.
He saw Artoria, dressed in blue and white skirt armor, standing in front of him and blocking the attack with her invisible sword.
"You did very well. Leave the rest to me."
Artoria turned around and gave Panda, who lay on the ground covered in wounds, a reassuring smile.
As if sensing Artoria's emotions, Panda smiled as well, then tiredly closed his eyes.
He knew he was safe.
On the other side, Eichi also used the lingering Cursed Energy left behind by the Elephant-Headed God to lock onto Kenjaku's location.
"Long time no see, Kenjaku."
Eichi's figure descended from the sky.
The reason he immediately concluded that Kenjaku was here, was because Eichi recognized the two Cursed Spirits below.
These two Cursed Spirits were Special Grade Cursed Spirits Kenjaku had used when he possessed Suguru's body.
On one hand, before Gege's biological son, Sukuna, went on a rampage, the Special Grade rank had still carried tremendous weight.
That was true even among Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
So Eichi had an impression of these Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
On the other hand, the way these two Special Grade Cursed Spirits had exited before was far too sloppy.
That made Eichi remember them even more clearly.
Special Grade Cursed Spirit Akuro-Ō Ootake had been killed by a truck.
Although that truck had come from the effect of Takaba's Technique, that way of going out was absurd enough.
Special Grade Cursed Spirit Elephant-Headed God had been kicked to death by Yuki with one ball.
Garuda had rolled itself into the shape of a soccer ball.
Then Yuki delivered a powerful shot, and then... the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Elephant-Headed God fell.
The total screen time of those two Special Grade Cursed Spirits had not even added up to a minute.
"Azuma Eichi."
Kenjaku turned around and looked in Eichi's direction with a solemn expression.
He had not expected to run into Eichi here.
'If I'm running into him here, then he must have hurried over to provide support after receiving the news.'
Kenjaku thought to himself.
'It seems that girl named Maki is quite important to Eichi.'
Kenjaku felt that he had gained another useful piece of information.
Kenjaku looked at Mahoraga, who had appeared in front of Maki and Toge in the distance, and became even more convinced of this judgment.
'It seems that in the future, Maki can be used to deal with Azuma Eichi, and perhaps the other two girls adopted by Eichi can be used as well.'
At that thought, the corners of Kenjaku's lips curled upward.
At the Special Grade level, it was already difficult to settle things through raw power alone.
Except for Sukuna.
So every piece of usable information was extremely valuable.
At this moment, Kenjaku's mood, dampened by the loss of his new toys, improved quite a bit.
He even felt that obtaining this information meant it was not a loss even if he lost the other two Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
After all, he still had plenty in his private stockpile.
Some losses were acceptable.
But methods that could be used against Eichi and Satoru were not something he could obtain just by losing a few Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
"You still remember me."
Eichi tilted his head.
He had thought that this guy only had Satoru and Suguru in his heart.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter."
After speaking, immense Cursed Energy surged out.
Dark shadows began to spread.
On the other side, Kenjaku did not remain idle either.
He clasped his hands together, and an incredibly fast blood arrow shot toward Eichi's head.
"Blood Manipulation?"
Eichi tilted his head and dodged the attack, then waved his hand, and a pure white Dharma Wheel appeared above his head.
Maximum Technique: Ten Shadows Treasure Wheel.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)