"How rude. This is pure love."
Amidst his opponent's ferocious onslaught, Yuta Okkotsu found his opening, guided by his sharpened combat instincts.
Rika's arms curved slightly, shielding Yuta beneath her massive frame. Mahito continued to fire his soul-bullets in a relentless barrage, riddling Rika's body with dozens of bloody holes in an instant. Yet, he remained unable to pierce that wall of flesh to reach the boy inside.
Between the sparks of gunfire, a supreme technique manifested.
"Cursed Energy—Burst!"
The moment Rika vanished, Yuta's hair stood on end. Dropping into a low, strained stance, he unleashed his ultimate move. A tidal wave of cursed energy, crackling with arcs of blackish-blue lightning, erupted from his body in an indiscriminate explosion.
In truth, there was no profound theory behind this move. It was a raw "explosion of ki" similar to those in Dragon Ball—a simple technique any sorcerer or curse could theoretically perform.
The destructive power of a Cursed Energy Burst depends entirely on the volume of energy the user is willing to expend. The reason most sorcerers and curses avoid it is because it is incredibly inefficient; it consumes a massive amount of energy but lacks the focused, lethal impact of a strike concentrated at a single point. It is even less effective than a specialized technique that alters the energy's properties.
But for the current Yuta, it was perfect. Expending just half of his total reserves was enough to achieve a world-shaking effect.
Wherever the wave of energy passed, trees snapped like twigs and stones were pulverized. A hemispherical crater over twenty meters in diameter gouged the center of the Curtain. The site looked as though it had been struck by a localized, miniature "Almighty Push."
Viewed from above, the crater was a desolate void. Only Yuta remained, leaning on his blade to support his trembling frame, kneeling in the dirt and gasping for air.
"Hah... hah..."
"Is he dead?" He scanned his surroundings, wiping the sweat from his brow with his right hand. Channeling such a titanic amount of energy at once was a massive burden on his system; he wouldn't be able to pull off a second one anytime soon. Still, according to his observations, Mahito's smaller "isomer" forms shouldn't have been able to withstand an attack of that magnitude.
If I rely on Rika, the power increases, but the charge time is longer and the range is narrower. With that guy's speed, he would've dodged it easily. Yuta stood up slowly, steadying his breath. It cost me half my energy, but if it killed him, it was worth it. Now, for the rest—
Before the thought could finish, the whistle of a projectile cut through the air. But before the sound even reached his ears, a matte-white blade had already skewered Yuta's heart from behind.
"Ha... ha... HA!"
A manic cackle erupted, accompanied by a surge of malignant cursed energy. As Mahito's figure stepped out from the treeline, Yuta looked up at his enemy in shock. The curse's energy felt even stronger than before, and the profound malice woven into it made Yuta's stomach churn.
"Right now, all I want to express to you is... my gratitude!"
Mahito's victory speech was punctuated by a reckless release of energy. Though he had expended a great deal of his soul, the realization he found at the threshold of death had pushed his strength to a new level. He was in an excellent mood.
"Still, you had half your energy left? How dangerous." Mahito flicked his arm, and the blade retracted into his limb. "A pierced heart is a fatal wound for a human, right?"
"I could kill you with my technique, but I feel like this is more dramatic." He walked forward slowly, looking down at Yuta as blood soaked through the boy's shirt. "You were stronger than me, but your combat awareness is pathetic."
Mahito cupped his hand like a microphone and held it to Yuta's lips. "Interview time! How does it feel to be 'counter-killed' by someone weaker than you?"
"How it feels...?" Yuta went silent. Five seconds passed, then ten. Finally, he actually answered. "I guess I'm not as good as I thought. But..."
"How... how did you dodge it?" Yuta asked, clinging to his final breath. "With your strength split into those fragments, how could you possibly survive that explosion?"
"How did I escape? Well..." Mahito brought his right hand to his mouth, acting like he was about to reveal the secret. However—
"Bleh-bleh-blehh!" He suddenly put his hands to his ears and wiggled his fingers, making a face like a bratty seven-year-old. "Did you really think I'd tell you?"
"Heh. It looks like... I really am going to die this time."
"Wait? The wound is healing?" Mahito wasn't fooled. Despite his arrogant "winner" persona, he hadn't let his guard down for a second. The moment he saw Yuta's chest beginning to close, he stopped his mocking. His right hand shifted back into a blade, and he swung it down for a final coup de grâce. "Go think about it in Hell!"
Mahito didn't tell Yuta, so I'll explain it to you all. As a cursed spirit with the highest growth potential, breaking through in battle was second nature to him. The closer he got to death, the more inspiration flooded his mind—the so-called "Gift of the Heavens."
The moment Yuta's energy began to burst, Mahito saw his life flash before his eyes. In that micro-second of hyper-accelerated thought, he found his salvation: he sacrificed four of his clones, using them to "relay-throw" the final fragment out of the explosion's radius.
Since cursed energy is visible to sorcerers, Yuta's vision had been obscured by his own massive output. He could confirm his energy hit something, but he couldn't see Mahito's movements.
In this dense primeval forest, the moment Mahito hit the ground, he suppressed his presence. Using the trees as cover and his small size to hide, he crawled into Yuta's blind spot and waited for the perfect moment to strike.
It was a hair's-breadth escape; had he been even a fraction slower, his final fragment would have been vaporized. But he had made it, and he had secured the kill while Yuta was recovering.
Mahito had lost four-fifths of his soul, while Yuta had only used half his energy. Yet, Mahito was the winner. Winning isn't about who has more "MP" or more "ultimate moves" left in the tank; the one who is left standing is the victor.
But, as you know, I have to say "however." In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen—or any world, really—fighting with a "toying" mindset, mocking a "certainly dead" enemy, and stalling for a speech is not only lame, it almost always leads to a reversal. And usually, that reversal means death.
Yuta's carelessness allowed Mahito's sneak attack to land. But Mahito's arrogance was about to cost him just as dearly.
Back on the battlefield, an anomaly occurred.
To use a MOBA analogy: it's like you've been winning your lane through superior kiting and trading. In the last team fight, you perfectly dodged the enemy's ultimate, forcing them to burn their Flash and Ignite just to limp away. You're one ability away from the kill, and the enemy refuses to recall, stubbornly sitting under their tower to lifesteal off minions.
Confident, you crash a massive wave of minions into the tower, preparing for the dive. Suddenly, the enemy jungler leaps out of the brush. You burn everything to get the kill, only to be gunned down by the jungler. As your screen goes gray, you watch the enemy top-laner level up from the minions you brought them, surviving with a sliver of health and taking all the gold.
That was exactly how Mahito felt right now.
Just as his blade swung out, there was a sharp Clap!
In an instant, a muscled powerhouse appeared where Yuta had been. An uppercut imbued with Black Flash slammed into Mahito's gut, sending the curse spiraling into the air, coughing up blood.
Simultaneously, Yuta appeared at the edge of the forest outside the crater. He looked back to see the man who had swapped him out, feeling a slight shiver at the wink the man gave him.
It was the Grade 1 sorcerer who had been nearby, drawn by the commotion: Aoi Todo. "No thanks necessary, boy."
"Tch." Yuta stood up, spitting out a glob of bloody phlegm. The hole in his chest had already been closed by Reverse Cursed Technique. "Then let's finish this together."
On the other side, Rika's silhouette loomed in the trees. Her terrifying eye was wide open, and a massive amount of cursed energy was pooling in her maw. With a piercing shriek, she unleashed a blast of energy like a Tri-Beam, firing a pillar of light straight at the airborne Mahito.
Mahito didn't panic. He shifted his shape, preparing to turn into a bird and fly out of the blast zone. As Yuta had noted, a linear, small-scale blast has a lower hit rate against a fast target.
But his luck had truly run out today. Just as he was about to bank away, Toge Inumaki reached the edge of the clearing. He yanked down his high collar and roared:
"DON'T MOVE!"
During the time Mahito spent mocking him after the sneak attack, Yuta had used the silence to stall for time, pretending to be in shock.
In reality, the time between a heart being crushed and total brain death was more than enough for him to heal the damage with Reverse Cursed Technique. However, the massive blood loss was affecting his clarity. At that moment, Yuta wasn't thinking about how to escape; he had only one thought: kill the curse before him, no matter the price, no matter if he lived to see the end of it.
Rika.
What is it?
Thank you for always protecting me. Thank you for loving me. Lend me your strength one last time. I want to kill that guy, and after that, I won't need anything else.
My future, my soul, my body—you can have it all.
From now on, we can truly be together forever.
I love you, Rika.
Let's go together.
That was the conversation held in the depths of his soul. Yuta, believing himself to be the one cursed, offered his entire existence as a sacrifice to Rika to break the limits of his vow. Rika had quietly manifested in the distant trees, carrying all of Yuta's remaining energy, charging her ultimate attack.
Yuta had intended to take Mahito's blade head-on to lower the curse's guard, ensuring Rika's hit would land. Whether he survived that hit wasn't even part of the calculation.
"To be killed by an attack like this? Give me a break!"
A roar from the distance shattered Yuta's reverie.
In front of the frozen, mid-air Mahito, a grayish-yellow, circular volcanic vent appeared. A torrent of molten lava erupted from it, colliding with Rika's energy beam. Although the lava was instantly pushed back by Rika's overwhelming power, it bought the necessary seconds.
The moment the Cursed Speech wore off, Mahito dove for the ground.
In the crater, Todo, Yuta, and Toge all turned toward the source of the roar.
Wearing a yellow-spotted vest, the volcano-headed Special Grade curse—the one who only plays in the "High-Tier Lobby"—had arrived. Jogo.
"Filthy sorcerers!" Lava bubbled and hissed from the three vents on his head, manifesting Jogo's incandescent rage. "You were a hair's breadth away from destroying the hope of our future!"
"I'll kill you all!"
In the blind spot of his vision, far removed from Jogo's domineering, explosive presence, a 178cm silhouette had quietly appeared behind him.
"My, isn't it lively here?"
_______
+50 chapters on: patreon.com/Shinobi_Scrolls