Clack! Clack! Clack!
The white, plump rabbit kept throwing punches, smashing apart the Cursed Spirits rushing at it, carrying itself with an air of absolute dominance.
Megumi Fushiguro followed close behind, striking the Cursed Spirits with his bare hands, the electric current running across his body clearing out any that slipped through.
"The number of curses is increasing! We're getting close to the finger!"
Turning a corner, Megumi Fushiguro spotted a grotesque Cursed Spirit ahead. Its body was covered in irregularly scattered eyes, arms sprouting from all over. It had grabbed two students and was trying to force them into its own body.
"The Sukuna Finger is with them!
They're still breathing—we can save them!"
But in this situation, Overlord Rabbit found itself restrained.
For something of its size, the corridor was far too narrow.
Whether it attacked to exorcise the Cursed Spirit or accidentally brought the hallway down, the two humans would inevitably be caught in the damage.
Megumi Fushiguro saw what the Cursed Spirit was doing and immediately cast aside his hesitation.
"No, there's no time! We can't hesitate! It's about to swallow the humans and the Cursed Object together!"
Lightning flickered across his body as Megumi Fushiguro charged forward.
After his secondary modification, Nue's technique could no longer tear through the air to produce lightning bolts, but it greatly enhanced his close-quarters power instead.
Every punch Megumi Fushiguro threw left a charred fist mark on the Cursed Spirit's body. The blows forced it to stop "feeding," and it began howling wildly.
But this Cursed Spirit, being one that had taken root in the school, possessed a certain level of intelligence. It resisted the urge to continue devouring its prey and grabbed the student without the Sukuna Finger, using them as a shield in an attempt to block Megumi Fushiguro's attacks.
Megumi Fushiguro had no choice but to carefully control the intensity of the current while throwing punches, all while avoiding the person the Cursed Spirit held up as cover.
That student wouldn't survive even one direct hit, and fighting like this left Megumi Fushiguro deeply frustrated.
...
Outside, Yuji Itadori listened to the constant explosion-like sounds from ahead and watched the school building tremble without end. He lowered his head, lost in thought.
"Am I really just supposed to wait here like he said?"
"What am I scared of?"
"Yeah… death is closing in. I'm scared of dying too…"
Yuji Itadori clenched his fists.
"Am I really afraid? Then why don't I feel it at all?"
"Grandpa's death… and the death about to happen right in front of me… they're not the same…"
...
...
As if he had finally reached an answer, Yuji Itadori lifted his head, his eyes firm.
"I think—
Grandpa's natural death was right!
But this kind of unnatural death—
It's wrong!"
With his resolve clear, Yuji Itadori sprang into motion. He leapt up, kicked through the window in one swift strike, and sent the Cursed Spirit locked in combat with Megumi Fushiguro crashing to the ground. Reaching out, he caught the two people the Cursed Spirit had spat out.
Seeing that there were no longer any humans attached to the Cursed Spirit, the giant rabbit seized the chance and shattered it with two heavy punches.
Then it clapped its paws together and shot Megumi Fushiguro a smug look.
Megumi Fushiguro let out a long breath.
"It must've been uncomfortable all cramped together. Good work. You can head back now…"
Watching the giant rabbit sink back into his shadow, Megumi Fushiguro turned to Yuji Itadori, who had suddenly barged into the fight.
"I was going to ask why you came, but what you did just now was pretty solid."
Yuji Itadori scratched the back of his head.
"That thing just now… was that a curse?"
"Yeah. Normally, ordinary people can't see Cursed Spirits.
Though when someone's about to die, or in situations like this, that's another story."
"Ohhh, that makes sense."
Yuji Itadori nodded.
"I've never seen a ghost my whole life."
Megumi Fushiguro found it strange how calm Yuji Itadori was after seeing a Cursed Spirit for the first time.
"You're… not scared?"
"At first, yeah. I was really scared.
But you know…
People really do die."
"Huh?"
"So I was thinking, at the very least, the people I know should get a proper death.
Though… I don't totally understand it myself yet."
Megumi Fushiguro gave a small shake of his head and pointed at the Sukuna Finger in Yuji Itadori's hand.
"That's the Sukuna Finger. A Special Grade Cursed Object. It's honestly a miracle it wasn't eaten."
"Why would anyone eat it? Does it taste good or something?"
"What kind of stupid question is that… People eat it to gain stronger Cursed Energy. It's dangerous. Hand it over."
"Yeah, yeah~"
Without thinking much, Yuji Itadori tossed the Cursed Object toward Megumi Fushiguro.
But just as the Sukuna Finger was midair—
A Cursed Spirit, three to four meters long, with four arms, four eyes, and a blue, lizard-like body, sprang from its long-hidden ambush. It burst through the wall and snapped its jaws toward the finger.
Megumi Fushiguro didn't panic in the slightest.
Compared to Akira Zenin's training, this kind of sudden encounter was nothing… No one knew how insane that guy could be. But right now, that experience was finally paying off.
Megumi Fushiguro swiftly mobilized his technique, forming the seals for the Great Serpent, Toad, and Divine Dogs in quick succession.
"Technique Expansion—Shikigami Chimera—[Swallow]!"
This was the chimera Shikigami Akira Zenin had discovered in his childhood, capable of storing Cursed Energy.
However, Megumi Fushiguro's [Swallow] wasn't a writhing worm packed with fangs.
It took the form of a Great Serpent.
The difference was that this serpent bore the intelligent head of a wolf, and from time to time it flicked out a toad's tongue.
That was why it wasn't called [Bug Eater].
If anything, Megumi Fushiguro's [Swallow] fit the idea of "chimera" far better.
The fifteen-meter-long [Swallow] surged out from Megumi Fushiguro's shadow, lunged once like a splash of water, and swallowed the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit whole before flipping back into his shadow.
As for why he hadn't used [Swallow] to clear out the earlier Cursed Spirits, the reason was simple: activating it drained him quickly. Using it just to consume low-grade curses wouldn't be worth the cost.
Megumi Fushiguro caught the Sukuna Finger, carefully checked his condition, and for once allowed himself a faintly confident smile.
[Phew… Not bad. My Cursed Energy reserves went up quite a bit.]