On the rooftop of Sugisawa Third High School in Sendai City.
The night wind howled, making Yamada's black trench coat flap loudly.
Standing opposite him, Sukuna withdrew all his arrogant laughter. His two pairs of eyes were locked tightly onto Yamada.
In a thousand years, this was the first time someone dared to look down on him with such a contemptuous posture. It was also the first time he sensed such a thick threat of death from a human who had absolutely no detectable Cursed Energy fluctuations.
That sense of oppression didn't come from Cursed Energy, but from an absolute suppression of dimensions, as if a giant dragon were looking down on an ant trying to show its claws.
"Crush my bones inch by inch?"
Sukuna's lips curled into an extremely cruel arc, the black marks on his face twisting as his muscles tensed.
"Are the insects nowadays all this boastful? Although I don't know what trick you used to hide your Cursed Energy, in the face of absolute violence, any trick is futile."
Boom!
Before he finished speaking, the concrete rooftop beneath Sukuna's feet exploded.
Using the terrifying reaction force, his figure turned into a blurred afterimage, instantly crossing dozens of meters to appear right in front of Yamada.
Although this vessel had only swallowed one finger and his power had only recovered to one-twentieth of its peak, that violent kinetic energy was still enough to turn an elephant into meat paste.
"Die!"
Sukuna clenched his right fist and, carrying a sharp wind, smashed it down toward Yamada's face.
Facing this thunderous punch, Yamada didn't even bat an eye. He stood on the railing at the edge of the rooftop, his hands still tucked in his pants pockets.
Just at the moment the fist was less than an inch from the tip of his nose, Yamada's left foot rose slightly, striking second but arriving first.
Bang!
A dull thud exploded in mid-air.
Yamada's left foot kicked against the fist Sukuna had swung.
Two forces of pure physical strength collided violently at this moment.
The air was extremely compressed, then turned into a visible white shockwave that swept outwards, shredding the wire mesh and water tank on the rooftop.
"What?!"
Sukuna's eyes widened, a flash of unbelievable shock passing through them.
The counter-shock force coming from his fist was not something a human should possess.
That power brutally tore through his muscle fibers and shattered his finger bones.
Crack!
The sound of bone breaking rang out.
Sukuna's right arm bent backward at an extremely eerie angle under this plain-looking kick. The massive kinetic energy backlash sent him flying backward.
Rumble!
Sukuna's body smashed through the concrete floor of the rooftop, broke through two load-bearing walls on the top floor of the teaching building in succession, and was finally embedded deep in the ruins dozens of meters away, kicking up dust everywhere.
Megumi, watching from the side, was dumbfounded. He hadn't even clearly seen the movements of their exchange. He only saw the arrogant King of Curses rush up, and then fly back even faster.
"Down already? I haven't even used ten percent of my strength."
Yamada lightly jumped down from the railing, his leather boots crunching on the rubble. He walked step by step toward the ruins where Sukuna had crashed, his eyes cold.
A violent coughing sound came from the ruins.
"Cough... Hahaha!"
Sukuna pushed away the stone slab pressing on him and stood up shakily.
His broken right arm, under the activation of Reverse Cursed Technique and accompanied by a puff of white smoke, instantly recovered as before.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his lips, and the look in his eyes as he watched Yamada was no longer one of contempt, but was completely ignited by a fanatical desire for battle.
"Fantastic! Your physical strength... it's even more perfect than a Heavenly Restriction! Killing you and chewing the taste of your flesh will surely be an exquisite feast!"
Sukuna's hands snapped together in front of his chest, and a blinding light of Cursed Energy swirled around his fingertips.
Since he couldn't gain an advantage in hand-to-hand combat, he would use his Cursed Technique to tear the opponent into pieces.
Dismantle!
Swoosh... Swoosh...
Several invisible slashes instantly tore through the air, covering the area where Yamada was standing.
This was Sukuna's most basic yet most lethal slashing Cursed Technique.
Facing this unavoidable web of slaughter, Yamada stopped his steps. In his left eye, a faint purple glow quietly flowed. Circles of concentric ripples appeared, and six black tomoe slowly took shape within them.
Just precisely 0.1 seconds before the countless invisible slashes were about to touch Yamada's body, his gaze locked onto a large concrete fragment not far ahead.
Amenotejikara!
Buzz!
Yamada's figure abruptly disappeared from where he stood. In his place was that heavy concrete fragment.
Rip!
The invisible slashing net cut fiercely into the giant stone.
The concrete was instantly dismembered into countless small fragments, turning into dust that scattered down.
"Space displacement?"
Sukuna's reaction was extremely fast. Seeing the attack miss, he immediately turned around, trying to find Yamada's location.
But as soon as he turned his head, he met a pair of purple eyes looking down from above, filled with endless mockery.
Yamada had appeared in the air less than three feet above Sukuna's head at some point. He had his hands in his trench coat pockets, his body floating as if defying the laws of gravity without the help of any external force.
"Where are you looking?"
Yamada's voice was like the whisper of a Shinigami, exploding above Sukuna's head.
Sukuna's heart tightened, and he instinctively wanted to look up to counter. But at the moment he tilted his neck back, Yamada's right leg came crashing down with thunderous force.
"Your head is raised too high."
Bang!
This downward kick landed solidly on Sukuna's cheek.
Sukuna didn't even make the motion to raise his hand to block, his entire head was forced to bend to one side by this power. His legs couldn't withstand this terrifying downward pressure, and his knees instantly shattered.
Boom!
Sukuna was stomped into the concrete floor by Yamada's foot.
The entire fourth-floor corridor collapsed at this moment, and huge cracks spread crazily from the point of impact.
The floor broke, and Yamada, stepping on Sukuna's head, smashed through the floors of the third and second levels along with countless rubble and steel bars, finally crashing heavily into the center of the first-floor lobby.
Rumble!
The teaching building shook violently, and dust rose into the sky, obscuring the moonlight.
In the center of the ruins in the lobby.
Yamada stood quietly in place, his right foot firmly stepping on the back of Sukuna's head, pinning this once-unbeatable King of Curses from a thousand years ago into the rubble.
"Ugh... damn you!"
Sukuna let out a roar of humiliation from the bottom of the pit.
He struggled desperately, trying to prop up his body with his hands, but the foot on his head wouldn't budge an inch, no matter how he channeled his Cursed Energy.
"A remnant soul of a single finger dares to bluster in front of me." Yamada looked down at the struggling Sukuna, his eyes showing no emotion.
"The slashes you take pride in are meaningless to me."
"Bastard... I'm going to kill you! I'll cut you into mincemeat!"
Sukuna frantically channeled the Cursed Energy of the single finger remaining in his body, trying to activate "Cleave" or "Dismantle."
But under Yamada's absolute suppression of strength, even twitching his limbs proved incredibly difficult.
What terrified him the most was the faint, extremely cold, high-dimensional energy fluctuation coming from the foot stepping on his head. It was a terrifying pressure that transcended the Cursed Energy system, enough to crush the soul along with causality itself.
"Kill me?"
The Six Tomoe Rinnegan in Yamada's eyes slowly rotated, his tone laced with undisguised mockery.
"Save your strength. Looking like this, worse than a dog, I can't even find the slightest interest in killing you."
Yamada moved his leather boot off the back of Sukuna's head.
The moment he lifted his foot, Sukuna, who had been roaring frantically, suddenly stiffened.
The black marks on his face began to recede quickly like a tide, and his features, which had been distorted by rage, gradually returned to peace.
The tyrannical aura belonging to the King of Curses was forcibly suppressed by another human will in less than two seconds.
"Cough, cough... It hurts..."
Accompanied by a fit of violent coughing, the youth who crawled up from the ruins rubbed the back of his head, which Yamada had almost crushed, and let out a somewhat simple-minded cry of pain.
Itadori Yuji.
This pink-haired boy, hailed as the best vessel in a thousand years, had miraculously regained control of his body after swallowing a Special Grade Cursed Object, relying on his monster-like willpower.