The young man named Yoshino Junpei asked Mahito, who was standing before him.
"Mahito, what kind of curse are you?"
"Humanity. I am a curse born from the hatred and fear humans feel toward one another."
Mahito, who had been conversing with Yoshino Junpei, felt the sudden explosion of Fushiguro Shin's massive Cursed Energy. Startled, he immediately sat up from his hammock.
"What is this?!"
It wasn't just the massive Cursed Energy; the sound of things being sliced also reached him in a continuous, dense barrage.
The sound of stone being sliced, bricks being sliced, rusty pipes being sliced, sewage being sliced, and the sound of Mahito's transfigured humans' flesh being sliced.
Without giving Mahito any chance to think, that mysterious and murderous sensation rapidly approached from the shadows in the distance.
He watched helplessly as Yoshino Junpei, the core of his plan, was instantly shredded by those shadows, blood and flesh splattering everywhere.
Is that shadow a Cursed Technique?!
By the time Mahito realized this, his body had already begun to experience the agony of being continuously severed.
Instinct drove Mahito to move toward the faint light shining down from the square manhole cover of the drainage canal above.
But the cross-structure of that square manhole cover likewise cast shadows upon Mahito's body, which meant they could also become Fushiguro Shin's 'Cat's Cradle'... Nanami immediately realized that Fushiguro Shin intended to solve the problem alone.
Intuition told Nanami that Fushiguro Shin must have sensed something to choose to act independently.
After all, since Fushiguro Shin was the one who handled those two special Cursed Spirits, he might be withholding some information.
Was the enemy too strong, or did he discover that the risk of the opponent's soul-transfiguring technique was too high?
Nanami had no way of determining which possibility it was for the time being.
But regardless of which one it was, it indicated that the upcoming events were not suitable for Itadori's participation.
The risk was too high for someone who had just become a Jujutsu Sorcerer; the rest needed to be handled by himself as an adult.
From the map provided by Kiyotaka Ijichi, Nanami also discovered that all the residuals pointed toward the sewer where Mahito was hiding.
It was as if saying: I'm right here, Jujutsu Sorcerers, come quickly.
Nanami adjusted his glasses and said, "Itadori, wait here for a moment. I'm going out."
Itadori wasn't completely oblivious and asked, "Is Nanami-sensei going to find Shin?"
"Itadori, I do not hold a teaching position at Jujutsu High, so do not address me as'sensei'."
"Then, Nanamin?"
"Watch it or I'll hit you. Whatever, just stay here and wait for me to return." As Nanami spoke, he stood up and straightened his suit, preparing to leave.
Right at that moment, an untimely voice rang out in the room.
"Idiot, they're preparing to abandon you now. If you don't follow them, I'll come out and go on a rampage, starting by killing the weakest one first."
The speaker was Sukuna inside Itadori's body, speaking through a mouth that appeared on the side of Itadori's face.
Whether it was Kiyotaka Ijichi, whom Sukuna singled out to kill, or Nanami, who was about to leave, they both turned their heads in unison to look at Itadori.
Itadori hurriedly covered Sukuna's mouth and said.
"I didn't say that! This guy pops out occasionally."
Though Sukuna's mouth was covered, it quickly shifted to the back of Itadori's hand, continuing its arrogant shouting.
"My patience is limited. You'd better move quickly."
Hearing Sukuna's words, Nanami's expression turned very grim. He hadn't expected the situation to turn out like this.
Though he didn't know Sukuna's purpose for insisting that Itadori follow along.
After hearing such a threat from Sukuna, Nanami couldn't just sit idly by.
Fushiguro Shin, who was presumably facing the enemy alone; Itadori, the rookie who had just become a Jujutsu Sorcerer; and the time bomb Sukuna on this rookie, who knew not when he would explode.
As expected, the work of a Jujutsu Sorcerer sucks.
While the room fell into a brief silence, a terrifying surge of Cursed Energy erupted in the distance.
And a surge of Cursed Energy of that magnitude could only belong to Fushiguro Shin, who had left alone.
In that instant, Nanami cut through the confusion in his mind and made a decision.
"Ijichi, drive! Itadori, keep Sukuna under control, don't let him come out as he pleases!"
"Yes!"
"Got it, Nanamin!"
To make Fushiguro Shin use this level of power, Nanami could only assume the opponent was a Special Grade level existence... Fushiguro Shin stopped his Cat's Cradle for a full thirty seconds and walked to where Mahito was.
He looked at the fragments of Mahito writhing and piecing themselves together all over the ground and said calmly.
"As expected, it's impossible to kill you by targeting only your physical body?"
Mahito's eyes stared at Fushiguro Shin as he questioned, "Who are you?"
Fushiguro Shin slowly drew the Cursed Tool, 'Kie', which was stored within the shadows. Drawing the blade, he answered flatly.
"That's not important. Just someone who's going to exorcise you."
Fushiguro Shin's current reason for acting was very simple: he wanted to see the extent of his current power before the Shibuya Incident, specifically when facing targets against whom his domain was ineffective or produced poor results.
Fushiguro Shin naturally knew that Mahito wasn't that easy to kill, but the price the system offered for killing Mahito was a full 150,000 experience points.
It forced Fushiguro Shin to come and experience it for himself.
Even if he couldn't kill him, using him as a sandbag was perfectly fine.
Seizing this opportunity, Mahito controlled his hands to transform and enlarge, instantly shooting them toward Fushiguro Shin in a sneak attack.
Fushiguro Shin watched Mahito's attack without a hint of panic in his eyes, instead muttering to himself.
"Even in this environment, you still won't give up on attacking me?"
Mahito felt a flicker of doubt in his heart. What did those strange words mean?
Could he still use that move from earlier at will? Did this guy have that much Cursed Energy?
Fushiguro Shin lightly swung his blade toward those massive fists, his mouth reciting.
"Ten Shadows Technique: Flamboyant Shadow."
As the blade's edge swept across Mahito's fists, they were instantly repelled in the opposite direction as if like-poles of magnets had touched, while simultaneously bursting with countless sprays of blood.
"What?"
Mahito couldn't understand what had happened as he was slammed against the wall behind him by the resulting force.
[Ten Shadows Technique: Flamboyant Shadow: When launching an attack on an enemy, it increases one's attack intensity and Cursed Energy output based on how much of their surface area is covered by shadows.]
And Mahito, by enlarging his body, just happened to allow more of his surface area to be shrouded in shadows.
If Flamboyant Shadow provided roughly a 100% boost against a normal person completely covered in shadows,
Then for Mahito, who had enlarged his body, that 100% value would be multiplied many times over.
...
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