Bang!
With a muffled gunshot, the signal flare released by Yoshinobu exploded into a cloud of red smoke in the blue sky.
The Goodwill Event, the group battle, officially began.
Inside the dense forest, the air instantly tightened to the breaking point.
Representing the elite young Jujutsu Sorcerers of both schools, they plunged into this vast arena.
Yuji took the lead, his legs alternating as he pushed off thick tree trunks, his figure weaving through the forest like a nimble leopard.
After the double hellish special training from Yamada and Satoru, his control over his body was no longer what it used to be.
Whoosh!
A burly figure smashed through the bushes ahead without any concealment, blocking Yuji's path.
Kyoto School third-year, Todo Aoi.
"Come on! First-year from Tokyo School! Let me see how hard your bones are!"
Aoi grinned widely, the scar across his face twisting with excitement.
He didn't use any Cursed Technique, his fist, wrapped in Cursed Energy, aimed straight for Yuji's face.
Facing this heavy, powerful blow, Yuji did not retreat.
Divergent Fist!
Yuji's right arm muscles suddenly bulged, and the Cursed Energy erupted the moment after the physical impact.
Two distinct forces collided fiercely in mid-air, erupting with a deafening shockwave.
Bang!
The surrounding fallen leaves were swept up by the gale, Aoi's burly body swayed slightly, and an unprecedented fanaticism erupted in the depths of his eyes.
"Your basic taijutsu is astonishingly solid. However, before I beat you down, I have a question I must ask clearly."
Aoi suddenly retracted his fist, striking an extremely serious pose.
"What type of woman do you like?"
Yuji was stunned, unable to keep up with this peculiar train of thought, but still subconsciously answered, "A tall woman with a big butt. I guess, like Jennifer Lawrence."
Aoi's eyes were instantly filled with hot tears.
In his peculiar brain, a memory of a school life that never existed, spent together with Yuji, flashed through
"So that's it… We are true best friends! Brother!" Aoi roared at the sky.
Just as these two muscle-headed idiots, who had inexplicably become "best friends," were about to engage in a hearty brawl, a sudden change occurred.
Hum—
A pitch-black Cursed Energy rose into the sky from the edge of the Jujutsu High barrier without warning.
Immediately after, a hemispherical curtain as murky as ink descended from the sky.
This "Curtain" operated under an extremely bizarre rule, with barrier conditions that were extremely harsh— "Refuse Gojo Satoru entry, all others may pass."
"What's going on? The sky has turned black!" Yuji looked up, sensing the nauseating smell of blood in the air.
The smile on Aoi's face vanished, replaced by the coldness belonging to a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer.
"Uninvited guests have broken in. And… they are here to kill."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the arena.
Megumi, Toge, and Noritoshi stood back-to-back in a circle, staring ahead as if facing a great enemy.
In the open space before them stood a bizarre Cursed Spirit with pale skin and eyes pierced by tree branches. Its left arm was wrapped in a blood-stained white cloth. With every step it took, the grass beneath its feet instantly withered, only for twisted thorns to grow in their place.
Special Grade Cursed Spirit, Hanami.
"Return this forest to nature. Humans are the ugliest disease on this planet." Hanami's voice sounded.
Swish... Swish...
Countless thick, sharp wooden roots burst from the ground, weaving into an inescapable net like living creatures, strangling towards the three.
Toge pulled down his collar, a mark appearing on his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Stop!"
The power of his Cursed Speech rippled out as an invisible wave, and the wildly growing roots paused briefly in mid-air.
"Now! Divine Dog: Totality!"
Megumi crossed his hands, and a massive, jet-black giant wolf shikigami roared as it rushed out, its sharp claws tearing through the thorns ahead.
Noritoshi followed closely behind, biting his fingertip to activate Blood Manipulation.
Several arrows condensed from high-density blood, carrying ear-piercing sonic booms, hit Hanami's face with pinpoint accuracy.
Boom!
Smoke and dust rose everywhere.
The three of them stared panting at the center of the explosion. With their coordination, that blow should have been enough to exorcise a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.
But after the smoke cleared, Hanami was still standing quietly in place. Their face had been blasted with a few shallow pits by the blood arrows, but under the circulation of their massive Cursed Energy, those wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
They raised their hand and tore off the white cloth wrapped around their left arm. It was an arm made entirely of dead wood and vines, with a huge, budding flower parasitic on it.
"Useless struggle."
Hanami swung their left arm violently.
Flower Offering!
A rain of petals fell from the sky, and accompanying this beautiful scene was a despair that stripped away all life.
The moment the petals touched Toge, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, coughing up large mouthfuls of blood.
"Inumaki-senpai!"
Megumi was shocked and was about to step forward to rescue him.
A wooden dragon suddenly shot out from under Hanami's feet, opening its bloody maw, biting the neck of the Divine Dog: Totality, and smashing it into the ground.
Blood…
Noritoshi wanted to counterattack, but a sharp vine that burst from the ground behind him pierced his shoulder, pinning him in mid-air.
An absolute gap in strength.
In front of a battle-hardened Special Grade Cursed Spirit, the defenses of these elite Jujutsu High students collapsed in an instant.
"Die. Return to the embrace of the earth."
Hanami walked up to the half-kneeling Megumi, raised the wooden thorn on their right hand high, aimed at his heart, and stabbed down mercilessly.
The shadow of death shrouded Megumi's pupils. He bit his lip, his hands tightly forming seals, preparing to summon the uncontrollable Mahoraga to perish together.
Just at this critical moment.
Zzzzzz—
A shriek of lightning exploded without warning in the depths of the dense forest.
A dazzling thunderbolt descended from the sky, its speed reaching the extreme.
Boom!!!
The lightning struck Hanami's raised right arm violently.
Hanami's right arm was severed at the root, the stump charred black, attached with unquenchable high-voltage electric arcs, completely sealing off their super-speed regeneration.
"What?!"
Hanami's body was knocked back repeatedly by the huge impact, plowing two deep trenches into the ground.
Their eye sockets, pierced by tree branches, stared fixedly ahead, and a sense of unprecedented trembling rose in their mind.
The destructive power contained in this lightning did not belong to the Cursed Energy system at all. It was a combination of physical destruction and mental pressure, pure to the extreme.
Amidst the sky-filling lightning and smoke, the crisp sound of leather boots crushing dead branches rang out, unhurriedly.
"A pile of rotten wood, daring to spout nonsense here."
Yamada held the Kusanagi Sword in one hand, his black trench coat fluttering in the dissipating Lightning Release airflow.
He stepped over the collapsed Megumi, his pitch-black eyes coldly locking onto the Hanami ahead.
"Yamada-san?!" Megumi widened his eyes, as if he had grasped the last straw in a desperate situation.
"Step back. This thing's blood will dirty your school uniform."
Yamada's voice was so flat that not a single fluctuation could be heard, but that arrogance, as if he held life and death in the palm of his hand, made everyone present feel their scalp tingle.
Hanami felt that undisguised contempt. As a Special Grade Cursed Spirit born from the human fear of forests, they possessed extremely high intelligence and self-esteem.