"You think you can just come and go as you please?"
"Did you ask me, you brain?!"
Suguru Geto's voice, sounding like a vengeful spirit crawling out from the depths of hell, carried a bone-chilling rasp and madness that echoed through the cold, oppressive darkness of B5F.
Kenjaku's left face instantly twisted to the extreme due to overwhelming terror.
He could clearly feel that this body of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Manipulator, which he thought he had completely controlled, was escaping his grasp at an irreversible and terrifying speed!
It wasn't a simple muscle spasm or a common nerve reflex.
It was a genuine counterattack of the soul!
'How is this possible?!'
Kenjaku roared frantically in his mind.
'His soul should have completely dissipated the moment I took over his body!'
'Why?! Why does he still retain such complete consciousness and power?!'
A thousand years of plotting had given him a profound understanding of the relationship between the soul and the body that far surpassed normal people.
In his understanding, no matter how powerful a jujutsu sorcerer was, the moment their body died and their brain was replaced, the soul's extinction was an irreversible law of nature.
Just like the Noritoshi Kamo he had killed, there shouldn't have even been a sliver of room for resistance!
However, he had miscalculated one thing.
Just what kind of psychological metamorphosis and soul reshaping had Suguru Geto undergone during these past ten years that were forcibly changed by Yoru!
In the parallel timeline where Yoru did not exist, Suguru Geto had ultimately walked the path of divergence from Satoru Gojo.
But he had not fallen into extreme self-loathing and absolute hatred for non-sorcerers like in the original history.
Because in that summer when Riko died, and that autumn when Yu Haibara fell in a pool of blood...
There was once a man who used a blade of blazing fire to forcefully cleave through the despairing haze in his heart!
The man named Yoru had not only saved Riko and Yu, but also delivered a heavy punch when his convictions were on the verge of collapsing, knocking him back onto the right track!
'Is your justice simply shouldering all the sins by yourself?'
'If that's the case, what's the difference between you and those high-and-mighty rotten oranges?!'
That deafening roar was like a red-hot iron nail, driven deep into the core of Suguru Geto's soul!
Therefore...
Even if he later cooperated with Satoru Gojo to play the part of a defector to draw out Kenjaku, and even allowed himself to be killed by Satoru during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to go underground...
His soul always maintained the purest sense of the Great Cause and clarity!
How could a powerful soul that had been polished and tempered across ten years of time...
Be easily erased by a mere thousand-year-old brain?!
"Get... out!"
Veins bulged like earthworms across the right side of Suguru Geto's face.
His right hand, which was deathly gripped around his own neck, did not weaken; instead, the force grew stronger and stronger!
*Creeeak!*
The stomach-churning sound of grinding bone rang out.
Kenjaku could feel his own cervical vertebrae being crushed bit by bit!
If this continued, the body would become a breathless corpse under Suguru Geto's frantic self-mutilation without anyone else even lifting a finger!
'Damn it... damn it!'
Kenjaku's single eye was bloodshot as he cursed this unpredictable variable in his heart.
'Since you want to die so badly, then I'll grant your wish!'
In the final moment between life and death, Kenjaku's thousand-year survival instinct finally overcame his greed for this Special Grade body.
He gritted his teeth and made a ruthless, self-sacrificing decision.
He would sever his own ties to survive!
No, to be precise, it was a 'decapitation' to survive!
*Splat!*
Kenjaku actually forced the last of his cursed energy to shatter several key meridians in his own right arm, attempting to break free from the death grip of Suguru Geto's right hand.
However, he still underestimated Geto's resolve.
"Trying to run?"
Suguru Geto's raspy voice rose again, carrying a madness that sought mutual destruction.
"I told you... today, you die here!"
In the brief moment of weakness caused by the ruptured meridians in the right arm...
Suguru Geto's right hand suddenly shifted upward, grasping his own skull at an incredible angle!
Specifically, the edge of the stitches!
"What... what are you doing?!"
Kenjaku's face, already distorted by pain, turned as white as paper from sheer terror!
He finally realized that Suguru Geto wasn't trying to strangle the body.
He was going to...
Forcefully rip open his own skull and drag the true form inside out!
"Madman... you're an absolute madman!"
Kenjaku shrieked frantically, trying his best to activate a cursed technique for defense, but under the interference of Suguru Geto's powerful soul, his resistance appeared pathetically weak.
*Crack!*
A crisp sound of bone fracturing rang clearly through the deathly silence of B5F.
Suguru Geto's right hand had already pierced deep into the line of the stitches, and blood gushed through his fingers, staining his frenzied face.
But he didn't stop for a second; instead, he tore outward even more violently!
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Kenjaku let out the most shrill and desperate scream of his entire life!
The pain of a soul being forcibly peeled from its host's flesh was a hundred times more horrific than being cut into a thousand pieces!
However, at this most critical moment...
A bolt of crimson lightning tore through the darkness of B5F without warning!
'Yoru?!'
Standing not far away, Uraume's pupils shrank. He wanted to activate Ice Formation to intercept, but found that his body was completely unable to move!
It wasn't just him.
Kento Nanami, Mei Mei, and Maki, who had just arrived at the scene...
All felt a terrifying sword intent in that instant that made their breathing stop!
It was an absolute slash that completely transcended the scope of jujutsu and even the limits of human understanding!
Transparent World fully open!
In Yoru's dark red eyes, the entire world had turned into a semi-transparent blueprint composed of countless lines and networks.
He clearly saw the extremely complex soul connection points between Kenjaku and Suguru Geto's body.
Those cursed energy threads, dense as neurons and already beginning to fuse with Geto's brain, were invisible to normal eyes.
But in Yoru's sight, they were as clear as the lines on his own palm!
Yoru's voice was very soft, yet it seemed to pierce through the barrier of the soul and ring directly in Suguru Geto's mind.
"Bear with it... for just a moment."
In that extremely brief pause when Suguru Geto's right hand exerted its final force and was about to completely flip the skull...
Yoru moved!
Sun Breathing, Ninth Form: Setting Sun Transformation!
It lacked the overbearing dominance of the First Form and the soaring wildness of the Second Form.
This strike was like the last glow of a setting sun, carrying an extreme arc as it instantly crossed the distance of space!
*Putch!*
A very slight muffled sound followed, like a blade slicing through tofu.
The tip of Shiranui, burning with dark red flames, moved with absolute precision that no machine could replicate.
Following the gap of the torn skull, it pierced ruthlessly into the junction where Kenjaku's true form and Suguru Geto's brain met!
It did not damage a single cell of Suguru Geto's brain tissue.
But the pure yang fire attached to the blade, capable of incinerating all karma...
Burned every single cursed energy thread Kenjaku used to connect to this body into nothingness!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
Kenjaku's scream reached an unprecedented pitch!
The agony of having his connection forcibly burned away made this thousand-year-old monster experience for the first time what it meant for a fate to be worse than death!
"Get... out!"
Suguru Geto's raspy voice erupted in a final roar.
His right hand suddenly yanked!
*Clack.*
The piece of the skull with the stitches was forcibly ripped off and fell to the floor.
And the culprit who had hidden in the darkness and manipulated the jujutsu world for a thousand years—
A giant brain with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a surface covered in disgusting folds—
Was finally exposed to the air!
'Run... I must run!'
The moment Kenjaku's true form separated from Geto's flesh, he couldn't care about the heart-wrenching pain; his thousand-year survival instinct made him decide instantly.
Beneath that disgusting brain, several fleshy tentacles like short legs suddenly grew out!
*Whoosh!*
Like a startled cockroach, it lunged, attempting to use the gap after Yoru's strike to flee frantically toward the ventilation ducts of B5F!
As long as he could escape this place, as long as he could find a new body...
He still had a chance to turn the tables!