Mahito's Metamorphosis!

Inside the school building, Itadori and Junpei's battle was nearing its end.

Under Itadori's verbal persuasion, Junpei's shattered inner world was gradually being rebuilt.

"Why?! Why is the world so unfair to me?!"

"Even if you say that, my mother still won't come back!!!"

Junpei's heart continued to struggle as he recalled what Mahito had told him: that his mother would remain a vegetable forever.

Thinking of how his gentle mother had been treated like that, his heart was almost swallowed by darkness once more.

Itadori was clearly taken aback when he heard that. "Junpei, what are you talking about? What do you mean your mother won't ever come back?"

"Isn't your mother still alive and well?"

"She just fainted from excessive shock. A little treatment is all it would take—she could recover even without treatment, you know?"

Junpei's sobbing abruptly stopped. He could hardly believe what Itadori had said. "Is that true? My mother really isn't..."

Itadori immediately got angry. "You've been saying all sorts of nonsense from the very beginning! Do you really think I'd joke about your mother?"

"She's lying in the hospital right now, waiting for you to visit her!"

Junpei was shaken to the core. Mahito's face surfaced in his mind. "But Mahito was clearly a good person. How could he lie to..."

At the words "good person," Junpei suddenly recalled Mahito freely altering innocent people, casually playing with their bodies. To Mahito, those humans had been nothing more than toys.

And in that instant, Junpei's trust in Mahito wavered.

"My, my, Junpei. Being too clever isn't a good thing." Mahito's eerie smile suddenly appeared behind Junpei.

It was Itadori's first time encountering Mahito. From it, he felt a familiar pressure—the pressure of a special-grade cursed spirit!

"Junpei, get over here! That guy is dangerous!"

Mahito sneered. One of its hands rapidly swelled and stretched, and its massive arm slammed Itadori against the wall.

After its battle with Lin Mu, it had become far more adept at using its abilities, and its strength had increased considerably!

Junpei kept replaying everything between himself and Mahito in his mind, gradually seeing Mahito's true nature.

Because of the bullying at school, he had longed to be understood. That was why he had been blinded and failed to see Mahito for what it truly was!

"Sometimes, thinking too deeply can lead to consequences even worse than shallow consideration."

Mahito knew that Junpei had been shaken by Itadori's words, and that he now knew his mother had actually been fine all along.

That left only death awaiting Junpei.

"Junpei is just as much of an idiot as the idiots you despise. That's why you're going to die!"

Mahito's voice turned icy, like a cold wind from a secluded valley. "Idle Transfigura—"

"Susanoo!" A voice came from the other side of the wall.

"Boom—"

The thick wall was blasted through, and a gigantic skeletal hand shot toward Junpei.

At the same time, two silver streaks flashed past. Mahito's hand resting on Junpei was severed completely, cutting off its cursed energy before it could be sent out!

Mahito clearly remembered whose ability that skeletal hand belonged to.

"Lin Mu—!!!"

The toy that had practically been in its grasp had been taken away yet again, instantly igniting its emotions!

Mahito's face twisted into a savage grimace, as though every negative emotion in existence had surfaced upon it.

Yet it had not lost its reason. Lin Mu appearing here meant Kenjaku's plan had failed!

With the intelligence they had and the thorough preparations made, Kenjaku should not have been able to fail. Mahito knew all too well how pathologically cautious he was.

But he had still failed. That meant Lin Mu definitely possessed some new ability Mahito knew nothing about!

Lin Mu ignored the crazed Mahito. After tossing Junpei over beside Itadori, he condensed chakra once more, and a dark-blue serpent-shaped longsword appeared in Susanoo's skeletal hand.

Though the sword looked broad, it was incomparably sharp. With a casual swing, the mutated giant hand Mahito had used to seize Itadori was sliced in two!

Itadori was overjoyed to see Lin Mu arrive. "Great, Lin Mu! You got here just in time!"

"By the way, what happened to those cursed spirits outside? Did you shake them off?" Itadori abruptly asked. "This place is too cramped. It'd be dangerous if we got surrounded!"

Lin Mu merely gave a calm reply to Itadori's question. "They've all been exorcised."

Itadori was first greatly shocked, but then he remembered Lin Mu's monstrous strength and suddenly felt that it was not impossible after all.

"Really can't judge a monster like you by normal standards."

Junpei was still shaken. When that unknown giant hand had suddenly grabbed him, he had thought he was going to die.

But now, he realized that he seemed to have survived again. Even at his age, he could barely handle such extreme emotional ups and downs.

"Itadori, who is he?" Junpei asked warily.

Itadori patted Junpei on the shoulder and laughed. "Lin Mu, my companion!"

"Don't worry. He may be a monster, but... he's probably not a monster!"

Lin Mu ignored Itadori and shifted a step back.

He could clearly feel that Mahito had grown much stronger than during their first clash!

And he had very likely already mastered a Domain!

That was far earlier than in the original story, where he only grasped a Domain after fighting Itadori and Nanami. Their fight had probably been what spurred Mahito's growth.

So Lin Mu had to protect Junpei while remaining prepared for Mahito to open his Domain at any moment.

Mahito's potential for growth was indeed terrifying, but Lin Mu was not worried in the slightest. The faster Mahito grew, the greater the value he would bring Lin Mu!

"Die!!" After having his hand severed, Mahito could not be bothered to think any further. His face twisted as he altered the shape of both hands.

His two hands warped and transformed into long whips made up of several sickles!