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Shibuya Station:
The vengeful cursed spirit, Rika Orimoto, was carrying heaps of humans out like dolls.
She had been ordered by her beloved Yuta to take these extras away, so she was doing it as fast as she could so that she could return to Yuta.
Yuta, meanwhile, was busy fighting against multiple curse users who were responsible for trapping Satoru Gojo.
The floor they were fighting on had been cleared of humans by Rika, and now the battle taking place there was getting way too chaotic.
Miguel, Larue, Tohihisa (Fake Gojo), Kenjaku, and a horde of cursed spirits under his control were currently engaged in a battle against Yuta Okkotsu... and Rika Orimoto, who occasionally intervened by ditching her human-saving duty, only for Yuta to order her back again.
[Blast Away!]
The cursed spirits surrounding Yuta exploded.
Miguel and Larue, who were right behind the curses, were caught in the explosions and sent flying.
Tohihisa rushed in for close-quarters combat. He had been trying to use [Blue] to inflict some serious damage, but the Special Grade kid in front of him would simply clap his hands and change places with one of his teammates.
Miguel, Larue, and even Kenjaku were caught up in [Blue], and now, aside from Kenjaku, who had healed himself with [RCT], both Miguel and Larue were severely injured and were unable to perform well against Yuta, whose overflowing CE reserves gave him an absurd reinforcement boost.
Yuta saw the incoming Gojo and jumped back.
As much as he hated to admit it, right now he didn't have a way to defeat this Fake Gojo with the [Limitless] technique.
His best option was to keep him at bay, steal the weird box-looking thing, and run away.
He had already made the Fake Gojo hesitate to use his more destructive techniques.
He just needed to stall now.
While jumping away, however, Yuta suddenly felt an invisible force pulling him back.
The Fake Gojo had a smirk on his face, and Yuta realized that it was his opponent's doing.
Tohihisa hadn't had this body for long, but the memories from the body had already told him what it could do.
By using [Blue] to infuse his punches with the attractive force of the technique, Tohihisa was pulling the fleeing Okkotsu toward him and was preparing to strike him.
Yuta clenched his teeth and prepared himself for the punch.
BAM!!!
The punch landed cleanly, and Yuta's body was sent flying, crashing into the nearby wall.
That wasn't the end of Tohihisa's attacks.
The Fake Gojo rushed toward the Special Grade sorcerer and prepared to punch Yuta again.
Yuta, still injured, rolled away and dodged the attack.
[Blue]
A miniature [Blue] near Tohihisa pulled Yuta back, causing the kid to get kicked away by the Fake Gojo.
"I am getting used to you now, kid."
"yUtA!!!!!!!"
Rika cried out in rage and rushed toward Tohihisa.
Tohihisa snorted in response and stood his ground.
The mindless cursed spirit rushed toward him, only to stop inches away from him.
"What? Can't come near me?"
Tohihisa smirked and threw a [Blue]-infused punch at the Special Grade vengeful cursed spirit.
CLAP
However, the instant the punch was about to connect, Rika's figure blurred and vanished.
In her place, Suguru Geto appeared.
Tohihisa's eyes widened as the punch struck the unsuspecting Geto.
Tohihisa heard a cracking sound before seeing Geto sent flying and crashing into the ground.
Yuta, who had now healed himself using [RCT], watched the scene and immediately shifted his gaze toward the [Prison Realm].
Without thinking twice, he rushed toward the cursed tool.
Miguel and Larue noticed this and rushed in to stop Yuta, though both were swiftly dealt with by Yuta and Rika.
Tohihisa saw the sorcerer and cursed spirit heading toward the trapped Gojo and went in to stop them.
"Rika-chan!"
Yuta called out to Rika, who immediately understood what Yuta was asking her to do and turned toward Tohihisa, ready to attack him.
"You don't learn, do you?! You can't defeat me!"
Tohihisa declared loudly and prepared to deal with the incoming cursed spirit.
However, this time his gaze was also on Yuta, and just as he suspected, Yuta was about to clap.
Whenever he did that, his teammates switched places with him and appeared in the line of attack.
Realizing this, Tohihisa decided to stop his attack.
It wasn't like the cursed spirit could even graze him anyway.
However, Tohihisa suddenly found the scenery in front of him change.
He looked around in confusion and immediately spotted Rika, her claws piercing through Geto.
"Geto-sama!!!!!"
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Geto saw the claws piercing through his body and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"You have been awfully hard on me... Yuta Okkotsu."
Yuta didn't say anything.
He could figure out that this black-haired dude was the leader here.
He was quite respected within the group, so much so that the [Limitless] user on the enemy's side was holding back a lot just to make sure they didn't hit this guy.
Yuta's katana swiftly moved as he cut off multiple strands of Geto's hair.
"Rika."
"oKay~"
Rika threw Geto away, sending him flying, before standing protectively in front of Yuta.
"Rika-chan, can you give me a doll?"
"Yes."
Rika opened her belly storage and handed Yuta a straw doll.
Yuta took the hair he had cut off from Geto and proceeded to pin it onto the doll.
Tohihisa, who had caught Geto, placed their leader on the ground as Geto healed himself with [RCT].
Miguel and Larue gathered near the two of them as well, and all four of them eyed Yuta.
Yuta eyed them back.
Simultaneously, everyone's gaze moved toward the [Prison Realm].
It was still stuck to the ground.
"So much effort, and the [Prison Realm] is still not ready for you to steal away. Such bad luck."
Geto remarked with a smile on his face.
Yuta didn't say anything and simply looked at the straw doll in his hand.
[Resonance]
Yuta struck the nail with CE.
"GAH!!!!"
Two screams echoed simultaneously.
"So it was like that."
Yuta muttered.
Both Geto and Tohihisa clutched their heads as unimaginable pain coursed through their bodies, especially through their heads.
The [Straw Doll] technique that Yuta had copied from Nobara Kugisaki was a technique that caused direct damage to anyone whose CE-containing object was pinned to a straw doll and then struck.
Since Yuta had used Geto/Kenjaku's hair for the technique, it hurt Kenjaku.
But Tohihisa was also affected because his body hop had been performed through Kenjaku's technique, and the brain that had been modified by Kenjaku's technique still carried that same CE signature.
"Geto-chan! Tohihisa-chan!"
Larue panicked upon seeing the two of them fall to their knees.
Yuta looked at the scene.
The similar stitch marks did seem suspicious to him, so he decided to test his theory, and luckily, his guess was correct.
Yuta was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a wave of maliciousness hit everyone.
Even Yuta, who was often the cause of nauseating feelings thanks to Rika, felt this maliciousness, and every fiber of his being told him that it was dangerous.
"...Sukuna?"
For the first time since he started fighting Geto and the others, Yuta panicked.
If Sukuna was unleashed, then he didn't even want to imagine how much destruction he could cause.
'I need to get out there and help!'
Yuta immediately thought about leaving.
But his gaze moved toward the [Prison Realm], which was still stuck to the ground.
He couldn't leave yet.
While this was going on, Geto and Tohihisa were healing themselves with [RCT].
Geto looked at Yuta and Rika warily.
Thanks to the sudden emergence of Sukuna, the Special Grade kid was slightly distracted.
But Geto knew that this wouldn't last long, and the boy could snap back at any instant and cause damage without even approaching them.
Even his trump card, a [Six Eyes] and [Limitless] user, was not safe from the technique that the boy had just used.
'The ability to copy cursed techniques... Yuta Okkotsu... no, Rika Orimoto can be a problem. We also need to relocate now that Sukuna has emerged...'
Kenjaku's brain started working toward finding a solution.
Yuta Okkotsu was a troublesome opponent with no proper strategy for dealing with him.
He was individually strong, and if they ganged up on him, the boy had a technique that swapped places with one of them, making them take the damage instead of him.
His CE reserves also seemed almost limitless, and the vengeful Cursed Spirit around him was a nuisance as well.
The [Prison Realm] was still stuck to the ground, but Kenjaku didn't know how long that would last.
There was also the fact that the Special Grade sorcerer in front of him now possessed a technique that could injure both him and Tohihisa in a moment.
And now that Sukuna had emerged, the boy would be in a hurry to go back and save his friends.
Kenjaku took a deep breath, stood straight, and stretched.
His body was still feeling the slight aftereffects of [Resonance], but Kenjaku knew that he couldn't delay for much longer.
For the first time today, Kenjaku's aloof smile disappeared and was replaced by a completely serious expression.
"Miguel, Tohihisa, Larue, sorry."
Kenjaku apologized before making a hand sign.
[Domain Expansion: Womb Profusion]
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A/N: Greetings, everyone. I would like to start with an apology for such a long delay. And thank you to all who waited and still came back to read.
I am literally swamped with a mountain of work and have not even been able to get 3 hours of sleep a day. Life is too hectic right now. I can still not promise proper updates. Just know that whenever I get some time, I will try to write.
Once again. Sorry and Thank You.