"Lin... Yoru?!"
Inside the cockpit, Kokichi Muta, having just escaped death, stared wide-eyed at the figure standing on the shoulder of his giant robot.
How could he be here?
This place was protected by a barrier specifically designed to keep out jujutsu sorcerers!
And furthermore...
How could he be this strong? He severed Mahito's arm with a single strike?
That was a Special Grade physical body that even the Ultimate Mechamaru's heavy cannons couldn't completely destroy!
"Yoru!"
Mahito's face contorted instantly.
It wasn't because of anger, but because of pure terror.
That soul-deep shudder, the feeling of encountering a natural predator, made even the act of breathing a struggle.
It was the psychological shadow left from their last encounter at the school.
It was a searing pain that refused to fade, no matter how much he evolved or how strong he became!
"Why are you here?!"
Mahito roared, trying to use his voice to mask the fear in his heart.
But his trembling body betrayed him.
"Why?"
Yoru looked down at Mahito, the Shiranui in his hand vibrating slightly with a pleasant hum.
Along the blade, red patterns flowed like molten lava, radiating a suffocating heat.
"Because there is a disgusting stench here."
"The nauseating stench of someone playing with lives."
"I could smell it from dozens of kilometers away."
As he spoke, Yoru slowly raised his sword.
The tip pointed straight at Mahito.
"I let you escape last time."
"This time..."
"Leave your life behind."
Boom!
Before his words had even finished echoing, Yoru vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already right in front of Mahito!
There were no flashy movements, only a simple, clean vertical slash.
"Sun Breathing, First Form: Dance."
Swish!
A perfect arc of flame sliced through the void.
Fast! It was too fast!
So fast that even Mahito's dynamic vision couldn't track it!
"Damn it! Soul Multiplicity: Polymorphic Isomer - Flesh Wall!"
Mahito screamed in terror, instantly manipulating dozens of souls to fuse together, forming a wall of flesh several meters thick in front of him.
However...
Before that arc of fire, the seemingly indestructible wall was sliced through as easily as warm butter.
Putch!
The arc of flame cut into Mahito's chest without resistance.
A wound deep enough to see bone appeared instantly.
No blood flowed from the gash; there were only charred, blackened marks carbonized by the extreme heat.
"AAAAAAAGH—!"
Mahito let out a shrill, piercing scream.
It wasn't just physical pain—it was the torture of his soul being scorched by the midday sun!
The suppression Sun Breathing held over cursed spirits was displayed to its absolute limit in this moment.
Even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit was as fragile as paper before this blade!
The cells at the wound tried to regenerate, but as soon as they grew, they were incinerated by the residual energy of the Sun Breathing.
Regeneration... had been temporarily sealed!
"I'm not finished."
Yoru's gaze was ice-cold.
Since he had made his move, he would break the enemy completely!
"Sun Breathing, Third Form: Burning Sun."
Swish, swish, swish!
Two more crimson curved slashes, moving like mirror reflections, struck at Mahito's legs from impossible angles.
"Curse you! Curse you! Curse you!"
Mahito was pushed to the brink of despair.
He knew that if this continued, he would certainly die!
That man's blade was the natural enemy of all curses!
'Since my physical body cannot compete...'
'Then I will use my Domain!'
A flash of madness crossed Mahito's eyes.
He forced his mouth open so wide the corners tore toward his ears, and his four arms formed a bizarre hand seal.
"Domain Expansion..."
"Self-Embodiment of Perfection!"
Vroom!
Black cursed energy exploded like spilled ink, instantly swallowing everything within hundreds of meters.
Countless pale arms stretched out from the darkness, weaving together to form a closed space of despair and malice.
This was Mahito's Innate Domain.
Here, he was an absolute god.
Inside this domain, his technique, Idle Transfiguration, was a guaranteed hit!
"Oh no!"
Inside the cockpit, Kokichi Muta's face turned white.
His Simple Domain had already been shattered during that barrage of Black Flashes; now, facing a true Domain Expansion, he had no defense left!
"Yoru! Watch out! His technique can directly touch your soul!"
Kokichi shouted a desperate warning.
However, standing in the center of the domain, Mahito let out a treacherous grin.
"Hehehe..."
"If this were before, I might have been too afraid of your boiling soul to activate my domain."
"But..."
"You aren't the only one here!"
Mahito's stitched face was distorted with malice.
He knew very well that attacking Yoru's soul was a death sentence, just like last time.
Therefore, within this sure-hit domain, he concentrated every bit of the technique's effect onto a single point!
"Idle Transfiguration: Sure-hit!"
The target... was Kokichi Muta inside the Mechamaru cockpit!
Simultaneously, to stall Yoru, Mahito mobilized every ounce of cursed energy within the domain.
"Idle Transfiguration: Maximum Output - Soul Multiplicity: Super-sized Giant!"
Rumble!
Countless souls were forcibly merged, transforming into a flesh-and-blood giant dozens of meters tall that roared as it swung at Yoru.
If Yoru was delayed for even a single second, Kokichi would die!
"Will you try to save him? Or will you save yourself?"
"In this game of two choices, how will you choose?"
Mahito's laughter echoed throughout the domain.
Facing this checkmate scenario.
Yoru simply stood there, his red pupils showing no sign of panic.
He even withdrew his offensive stance with the Nichirin Sword, instead gripping the hilt with both hands and pointing the tip toward the ground.
He took a deep breath.
The originally wild, scorching aura became as tranquil as still water in an instant.
"Who told you..."
"That I only use Sun Breathing?"
Splosh—
The sound of crashing waves seemed to resonate within the domain.
The dark space, originally filled with arms and malice, was suddenly rippled by a layer of blue waves.
Those were no ordinary ripples.
That was a sea of silence capable of calming and embracing all things.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Dead Calm."
Vroom!
With Yoru as the center, an absolutely still surface of water expanded, enveloping both him and the massive Mechamaru.
The countless pale arms reaching for Kokichi's soul were repelled and dissolved the moment they touched this water, as if they had struck an invisible barrier.
It was the absolute defense.
Within the range of Dead Calm, any technique that entered the strike zone was neutralized!
Even the roaring flesh giant, upon entering the radius of Dead Calm, saw its movements become sluggish, as if it had fallen into a deep-sea mire.
"What?!"
Mahito's eyes went wide, his pupils nearly popping out of their sockets.
"What... what kind of technique is this?!"
"It can neutralize a sure-hit effect?!"
This was something even a Simple Domain couldn't fully achieve!
"I'm still not done."
Yoru's voice rang out again.
This time, across the calm surface of the sea, a red flash of lightning streaked by.
That was...
Crimson Flash!
"Now that the defense is handled."
"Next..."
"Is to completely shatter this disgusting shell!"
The Shiranui in Yoru's hand shifted forms once more.
It no longer held the softness of water, nor the scorching heat of the sun.
It became...
Countless wheels of sorrowful crescent moons appeared around the blade—the ultimate swordsmanship Michikatsu Tsugikuni had spent his life pursuing.
It was the most dominant and wide-reaching breathing style of all!
"Crimson Flash!"
"Moon Breathing, Fourteenth Form: Catastrophe - Tenman Sengetsu!"
Boom!
Yoru's figure vanished instantly.
In his place were countless crisscrossing giant slashes.
Each slash was accompanied by a multitude of tiny crescent-moon blades, sweeping through the entire domain like a hurricane.
It wasn't merely a slash.
It was a chaotic storm capable of shredding space itself!
Crack!
Crackle, crack!
The indestructible outer shell of the domain began to develop dense spiderwebs of cracks before this terrifying power.
"Im... impossible!"
Mahito screamed in terror.
Breaking a domain from the inside? How could such a thing be possible?!
But reality was unforgiving.
With one final streak of red lightning.
Boom—!
The entire domain collapsed instantly like a shattered mirror!
"Pfft!"
Mahito suffered a massive backlash, coughing up a fountain of blood as he slumped weakly to the ground.
His body was covered in thousands of tiny lacerations—the marks left by the moon blades.
If it weren't for the tenacious vitality of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, that single strike would have reduced him to mincemeat!
"Monster..."
"You are a true monster..."
Mahito looked at the man walking out of the ruins, completely unscathed, his eyes filled with nothing but despair.
Water Breathing for defense, Moon Breathing to break through, and Sun Breathing to suppress...
This man had no weaknesses at all!
"Suguru! Save me!"
Mahito let out a desperate cry for help, his will to fight completely broken.
At that moment, Suguru Geto, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally made his move.
Though Mahito's performance had disappointed him, he couldn't afford to let him die just yet.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation: Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit - Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate."
Boom!
At Suguru Geto's command, a massive nine-tailed fox cursed spirit appeared out of thin air, positioning itself between Yoru and Mahito.
This Special Grade Cursed Spirit radiated a nauseating demonic aura, its nine tails like giant pythons, lashing out wildly toward Yoru.
"A Special Grade, is it?"
Yoru stopped in his tracks, looking at the sky-covering tails with a cold, disdainful sneer.
"You think a mindless beast like this can stop me?"
He took a deep breath.
Total Concentration: Sun Breathing.
The temperature in the air spiked instantly, causing the water at the base of the dam to begin boiling.
"Sun Breathing, Ninth Form: Setting Sun Transformation."
Swish!
Yoru's figure traced a bizarre arc through the air, like the final glimmer of a setting sun.
It seemed slow, yet it was incredibly fast.
He bypassed Tamamo-no-Mae's nine tails in a flash and appeared directly above its head.
Then.
He slashed down!
Putch!
Accompanied by the intense heat of Sun Breathing, Tamamo-no-Mae let out a shrill cry of agony.
Its massive body was sent flying dozens of meters by the force of the impact, crashing heavily into the ground and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
While it wasn't killed instantly, the strike left a deep, charred wound in its thick skull, making even this Special Grade Cursed Spirit feel a long-forgotten sense of pain and dread.
But that brief moment of distraction was enough.
Mahito had transformed himself into a liquid and dove into the sewers, vanishing without a trace.
Suguru Geto took the opportunity to retreat as well, leaving behind only a meaningful glance.
'Yoru...'
'This variable must be dealt with as quickly as possible.'
His voice drifted away on the wind, thick with wariness.
"They sure run fast."
Yoru sheathed his blade.
He didn't give chase, instead leaping back onto the shoulder of the Mechamaru.
Looking at the dazed Kokichi Muta inside the cockpit, Yoru offered a warm smile.
"Are you okay, Gundam pilot?"
"Your toy might be broken."
"But at least..."
"You're still alive, aren't you?"
Kokichi stared blankly at Yoru.
He looked at the man who had descended like a god to save him and crushed Mahito with such overwhelming power.
His eyes grew moist with the relief of surviving a nightmare and the spark of new hope.
"Thank... thank you..."
He spoke with a trembling voice.
"Yoru... I have information... I must tell Gojo-sensei!"
"About Shibuya... about the sealing..."
"I know."
Yoru interrupted him, turning his gaze toward the dark, heavy clouds in the distance.
"Don't worry."
"Every debt."
"We will settle them all in Shibuya... once and for all!"
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