Yuji Itadori knelt amidst the ruins, gritting his teeth as he endured the agonizing, tearing pain radiating from his right shoulder.
He glared at the man closing in on him like an asura, his eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and rage.
"I only have two companions! One is Megumi Fushiguro, and the other is Nobara Kugisaki! But neither of them is here right now!"
"If you're looking for them or anyone else, you've got the wrong guy!"
"I'm Yuji Itadori, just an ordinary high school student who got dragged into this disaster!"
Yuji practically screamed these words at the top of his lungs.
He was trying to prove his innocence and maintain his resolve in the face of this near-insane man.
Hearing Yuji's words, Choso paused mid-stride.
A flicker of complex struggle and pain passed through his hollow eyes.
'An ordinary high school student?'
"Don't insult my intelligence with such a ridiculous lie."
Choso's voice grew low, as if being squeezed from the depths of his throat.
"Eso and Kechizu... my two younger brothers... they would never lie to me about family."
"They told me themselves that there is a strange scent coming from you."
"It's a call of the blood... something that makes them feel incredibly close to you, something they can't help but want to be near!"
Choso snapped his head up, his gaze locking onto Yuji's pupils, which had dilated in shock.
"The blood of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings is unique in this world!"
"It is the sole proof of us leaning on and supporting one another through endless pain and curses!"
"If you were just an ordinary high school student, how could you possibly carry that scent?!"
Yuji was completely stunned.
His mind went blank for a moment.
'Eso? Kechizu?'
'Are those the two oddly dressed guys Brother Yoru brought back to Jujutsu High?'
'I have a bloodline scent that feels familiar to them?'
'How is that possible?!'
He had grown up in Sendai, living alone with his grandfather. Although his grandfather had tried to tell him about his parents on his deathbed, he had died before he could speak.
His origins had always been a mystery.
'But no matter how mysterious it is, I couldn't possibly be related by blood to monsters that were clearly twisted by curses, right?!'
"I... I don't know the people you're talking about! And I don't know why they'd think that!"
Yuji shook his head violently, trying to banish the absurd thought from his mind.
"The only thing inside me is that bastard Sukuna's soul! I'm nothing besides that!"
"Ordinary?"
At that word, Choso suddenly broke into a neurotic laugh.
His laughter was thick with mockery and rage.
"That power inside you... that terrifying aura that can coexist with and even suppress the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna... You call that ordinary?!"
Choso lunged forward, the concrete floor beneath his feet shattering instantly.
"Your physical strength surpasses even common cursed spirits! Your resistance to toxins, your monstrous recovery speed—"
"Every single bit of it proves one thing!"
Choso extended his right hand, pointing directly at Yuji's heart.
"You aren't a normal human being at all!"
"Just like me, you are a monster meticulously crafted by that demonic man to achieve some ulterior motive!"
*Boom!*
Choso's words struck Yuji's mind like a bolt from the blue.
'A monster?'
'Artificially created?'
Yuji's pupils constricted violently.
He recalled his superhuman physical abilities, how easily he had swallowed Sukuna's finger, and his bizarre adaptability when facing cursed spirits...
'Was none of it a coincidence?'
'Am I really a monster created for a purpose, just like this man said?'
"No... it's impossible..."
Yuji muttered to himself, the firm light in his eyes finally beginning to waver dangerously.
"Since you refuse to admit it, I will use the most direct method to awaken the bloodline within you!"
Seeing the hesitation in Yuji's eyes, Choso's patience finally snapped.
Burning with fury, he no longer held anything back.
*Vwoom!*
An even more violent, red cursed energy erupted from Choso, forming a visible crimson storm around him.
"Blood Manipulation: Blood Blade!"
Choso thrust both hands forward.
The blood floating in the air instantly transformed into dozens of sharp, crescent-shaped blades. They shrieked through the air, swarming toward Yuji to tear him apart!
"You bastard!"
Sensing the suffocating threat of death, Yuji snapped back to reality.
Now wasn't the time to obsess over his origin! If he didn't fight with everything he had, he was going to die right here!
"Aaaaah!"
Yuji let out a defiant roar. Despite the piercing pain in his right shoulder, he rallied every scrap of cursed energy remaining in his body.
Blue light flared wildly around his fists, like two beasts about to burst from their cages.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Instead of retreating, Yuji charged forward bravely into the storm of blood blades!
He utilized Divergent Fist's unique double impact to its limit. With every punch, he shattered an incoming blade with precision.
But there were too many blades, and each one carried Choso's terrifying cursed energy.
*Slash! Slash! Slash!*
After just a few exchanges, Yuji's body was riddled with a dozen new wounds of varying depths. Blood rained down, staining his uniform a deep crimson.
"Too weak! You're too weak!"
Choso stood his ground like an asura of life and death, his hands dancing as he commanded more and more blood into the fray.
"If this is all you've got, you don't deserve to carry my brothers' scent!"
"Now... just die!"
Choso roared, slamming his palms together.
All the scattered blood responded to a powerful summons, swirling together above Yuji's head to form a massive sphere of blood over two meters in diameter!
"Secret Technique: Supernova!"
With Choso's cold declaration, the massive sphere plummeted like a meteor, bearing down on Yuji with cataclysmic pressure!
Looking up at the crimson-shrouded sky and feeling the despairing weight of the attack...
Yuji Itadori clenched his fists tight.
His mind became clearer than ever before.
Images flashed before his eyes: Megumi Fushiguro's stoic face, Nobara Kugisaki's smile, Gojo-sensei's carefree attitude, and finally...
...the image of Brother Yoru's back, the man who always stood in front of everyone, as invincible as a god.
"I... I can't die here!"
"Regardless of what I am... or what secrets are hidden inside me..."
"I have to live! I have to save Gojo-sensei! I have to see everyone again!"
*Boom!*
Just as the massive blood sphere was about to crush him...
...a strange, dark, and endlessly violent cursed energy suddenly erupted from within Yuji!
This power didn't belong to Yuji's blue cursed energy.
Nor was it Sukuna's wicked curse. It was something else...
A terrifying aura, as if an ancient bloodline that had slumbered for a millennium had finally been awakened at the brink of death!
"What?!"
Standing in the distance, Choso felt the sudden explosion of power, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably—a primal shudder and resonance born from the depths of his blood!
'Just what kind of monster is hidden inside this boy?!'
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