Ryu Ishigori

Sendai's streets felt especially oppressive beneath the barrier. The late-autumn wind swept through the halls, rustling the fallen leaves along the roadside.

Xuan stood there lazily, his hands spread open. He sized up Ryu Ishigori before him—the iconic pompadour was indeed far more striking than it had looked in the manga.

"Hey, can we keep things peaceful? At least for now."

Xuan's eyes remained fixed on Ryu Ishigori's movements, though a casual smile appeared on his face.

"Even though I just crawled out of the ground myself, I haven't had enough of this modern air yet. Rather than fighting, I'd much rather use the stuff in this shop to properly wet my tongue."

Ryu Ishigori did not respond. Instead, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and placed it between his lips.

Click.

"Haa—"

The cigarette tip glowed with flame. As Ryu Ishigori took a deep drag and slowly exhaled, a ring of smoke drifted through the air.

"I never experienced anything like this in my previous life."

"Mm... We're both ancient sorcerers. Even if incarnating gave us memories, why not take some time to try things like this for ourselves? Subjective experiences, after all."

Xuan studied Ryu Ishigori. The other man's cursed energy control was quite good, but that total amount—he should hold back a little.

Ryu Ishigori slightly closed his eyes, as though savoring this gift from the modern age.

"Haa... Both your wariness... and that overflowing cursed energy of yours are telling me something."

Ryu Ishigori's gaze gradually sharpened. He snuffed out the cigarette in his hand.

Bang!

A burst of force, a sprint, a swinging punch.

It all happened in roughly half a second. His cursed-energy-infused fist shot out with a sonic boom.

"I told you... can't we be a little more peaceful?"

Xuan casually caught Ryu Ishigori's fist. His expression darkened, and then fine lines of blood appeared one after another across the captured fist. Ryu Ishigori reacted at once, throwing back his head as he unleashed a blast of cursed energy.

Xuan gathered cursed energy at the point of impact, but the extremely violent output still burned a large hole through his clothes.

Ryu Ishigori looked at the wound on the back of his hand, nearly cut down to the bone. Gritting his teeth, he looked up at Xuan.

"Condensing cursed energy and firing it outward is something any ordinary sorcerer can do.

"My technique—compared to normal cursed energy discharge, it reaches farther and is much easier to control. It's like changing a game's spell system from fixed ARPG spells to customizable sandbox spells."

The fine blood lines across Ryu Ishigori's palm had already been stitched shut by that body's astonishing recovery ability. Part of the reason was that Xuan's technique had not been fully unleashed. Only now could Ryu Ishigori sense the gap between himself and the man before him.

"Pompadour, do you know something?"

Xuan tore open his clothes where they had been burned through, exposing his muscular, well-built body.

"After we started fighting, I learned your technique before I even learned your name. That's rather rude—I mean, you're the rude one!"

"Ryu Ishigori."

Ryu Ishigori remained where he stood, every inch of him on guard against the man before him. Those who reincarnated through incarnation would reshape their bodies into the state they had been in "before death" or when they were "at their strongest." Like the old man named Dhruv whom he had seen earlier—his strength had nothing to do with his physical condition, so after incarnating, he had become the scrawny old man form he was more familiar with.

Therefore, although the man before him looked no older than twenty, his cursed energy was terrifyingly immense—whether this was his "before death" form or his "strongest" form, Ryu Ishigori felt unmistakable pressure from him.

Ryu Ishigori had seen genius sorcerers before, and he himself had not been the strongest of his era—his strength was only partial: the strongest output, the strongest physique? Whatever the case...

"I'm Xuan, the strongest sorcerer of the Muromachi period."

Fuck, he's someone from the history books. Damn it.

Ryu Ishigori had sensed long ago that something was off. The man before him had seemed inexplicably familiar—perhaps from some book, perhaps from some stage play—but when he truly heard that name, Ryu Ishigori still broke into a sweat.

"What? Judging by that expression, you know me?"

"...I saw you in a book once."

"What did it say?"

"A sorcerer who possessed multiple cursed techniques. The strongest sorcerer with no enemies. The one ranked first beneath Sukuna."

"Oh? Sounds like a pretty subjective record."

Seeing Ryu Ishigori's expression turn serious, Xuan simply waved a hand dismissively.

"Whether I had enemies... whether I was truly the one ranked first beneath Sukuna—I came here to prove those things."

"...Are you dissatisfied with your life too?"

During this brief ceasefire, Ryu Ishigori stood still and looked at the man before him.

"How should I put it... My life was too much of a failure. No opponents, no worthy achievements. So what if I defeated every sorcerer of the Muromachi period? There was no way I could ever fight Sukuna."

Ryu Ishigori took out a comb and gave his raised pompadour a few more strokes, fixing it back into shape.

"So you agreed to Kenjaku's offer."

Xuan did not answer, merely nodding.

"Ha... Looks like we're the same kind of person. Your dissatisfaction is stronger—and greater—than mine."

"My first life was more or less 'eight-tenths full.' I had worthy opponents, and I had decent women too."

Ryu Ishigori pulled out another cigarette.

Click.

"From birth to death, I'd never experienced the feeling of truly being suppressed by someone. But this morning, when I held a 'cigarette' in my mouth for the first time, when I finished smoking one for the first time and tasted that lingering sweetness in my mouth, I finally understood..."

Huff—

Ryu Ishigori let out a long breath.

"There was no dessert in my life."

"No... it's not the same."

Xuan waved a hand, then clenched his fist.

"I still haven't..."

Xuan, who had been far away just a moment ago, appeared before him in the blink of an eye.

"Had my main course!"

"So fast?!"

Boom!

Xuan instantly arrived before Ryu Ishigori. His swinging punch sent Ryu Ishigori flying, and before Ryu Ishigori could hit the ground, Xuan had already appeared at his side.

"Dog: Eight."

Before he could retaliate, Xuan's palm slammed toward Ryu Ishigori's chest. Dense slashes burst into a spray of blood across his chest. Ryu Ishigori winced in pain—then immediately fired a Cursed Energy blast. Xuan twisted aside to evade it, while Ryu Ishigori seized the chance to kick Xuan away. Using a ground-hugging slide to escape close-range combat, he raised a finger and aimed it at Xuan's body.

"Granité Blast."

"Dog: Release."

As the energy shot from Ryu Ishigori's fingertip, Xuan had already raised his palm. A black shape flashed past, and a slash cut toward Ryu Ishigori's second Cursed Energy blast. The Cursed Energy-forged slash split the Granité Blast apart in midair—then, having been weakened, was evaded by Ryu Ishigori with a quick sidestep.

"It was weakened... I held back, but the speed couldn't keep up."

Xuan turned in midair and landed. He had held back, not intending to kill Ryu Ishigori, but no matter what, the "slashes" unleashed by the black and white Divine Dogs were still too slow. After all, the enhancement gained by combining black and white into Totality was far from one plus one equaling two.

Hmm... I'd probably need to increase the Cursed Energy used for Black & White fivefold to unleash slashes comparable to Totality's.

After a brief moment of thought, Xuan raised his hand again.

"Dog: Release."