Sukuna

Megumi formed a bird hand sign. As the Rabbit Escapes dispersed under Kinji Hakari's cursed energy strikes, roaring thunder and bird-shaped cursed energy erupted in an instant—but those two attacks nearly drained all the cursed energy from Megumi's body.

Boom! Boom!

It hit... He doesn't care at all—but I, I won.

Deliberately, he had reinforced the rumbling thunder with cursed energy. While repairing his insides, the precise construction required more time to use the reverse cursed technique, and human ears would ring in the face of such deafening noise.

Drain every last bit of cursed energy!!!

"Max Elephant!!!"

This was the moment Megumi had been waiting for—the instant Kinji Hakari let down his guard.

A jackpot would remove Hakari's cursed energy cap, but it would not grant him extra reaction time. To make this plan work, to have Max Elephant crush Hakari into the sea of shadows while he was suffering from tinnitus and underestimating his opponent, Megumi had been putting up meaningless resistance all along.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

Megumi gasped for breath, his cursed energy completely exhausted. He could only maintain his domain through sheer force of will. He waited—for Hakari to lose consciousness because of his domain—for the instant his reverse cursed technique ended. Even if waiting like this put a tremendous strain on his body, none of that mattered now.

He had to win.

But—no matter how strong his will was, what could not be done simply could not be done.

Finally, the instant Hakari's time ran out—a white domain space appeared at the center of Megumi Fushiguro's domain.

"Domain Expansion!"

"Idle Death Gamble!!!"

Hakari's domain was a functional domain specialized for speed and resistance. Just as his oxygen-starved brain was about to shut down, Hakari expanded his domain. In a fleeting 0.1 seconds, his cursed-energy-filled domain replaced Megumi Fushiguro's domain—and the moment Megumi saw Hakari, his domain shattered and his cursed energy ran dry. He lost consciousness.

Before Megumi could crumple to the ground, Itadori rushed forward, caught him, and gently laid him down.

"Hm?"

If he remembered correctly, this guy had just passed out from the pain caused by his cursed energy trait, hadn't he?

He recovered that quickly?

"Hey! Itadori!"

Itadori looked startled at being called, and Hakari immediately continued.

"Tell me about yourselves."

The "Itadori" listening to Hakari turned his head and looked at the bare-chested Hakari.

"Your head's held too high."

?

The instant he heard those words, Hakari sensed that the cursed energy in the Itadori before him had changed in that instant. Warned by a gambler's intuition, Hakari immediately dashed sideways. His palm flew off in response, and the "Itadori" standing across from him was now completely different.

Ignoring the pain, Hakari fired a pachinko ball at "Itadori."

The pachinko ball, now in probability shift mode, began its animation the instant it struck "Itadori." The "Itadori" who knew the rules... no, he should be called Sukuna now, naturally understood that he had entered the pseudo-consecutive sequence of probability shift mode.

As the music began to play, Hakari's body shattered like glass.

"Ha! Revived again!!"

As his palm returned, Hakari recalled what he had heard from Okkotsu during his second year about matters related to Jujutsu High.

That vessel for Sukuna—so it was this guy standing before him.

Sukuna pushed back the hair hanging over his forehead with one hand, turning his original hairstyle into a slicked-back one.

"Come on, draw as much as you want—I'll tear you to pieces after you hit the jackpot."

"...You bastard..."

Hakari gritted his teeth and stared at Sukuna. Sukuna had his own concerns as well. If he wanted to kill the man before him, all he had to do was crush his head, but... the domain rules stated that he was invincible.

Perhaps this gambling addict was like Mahoraga—a guy who could suddenly revive even after being sliced into tiny pieces.

But—even if that was the case, Sukuna could keep attacking him for four minutes and eleven seconds, until he died.

Sukuna stood there with both hands in his pockets, but the pressure radiating from his cursed energy was nearly enough to suffocate Hakari.

"You're Sukuna, aren't you?"

"Ha—are you going to draw or not?"

Sukuna yawned, squinting at Hakari.

"..."

As Hakari fell silent, his left hand was severed without warning. His detached arm flew into the air, framing Hakari's stunned expression.

"Next is your neck... Hurry up."

I can't see any cursed energy trajectory at all...

Hakari gritted his teeth and fired a pachinko ball at Sukuna.

Sukuna tilted his head aside, dodging the golden pachinko ball. Immediately afterward, just as the red door beside him was about to clamp down on him, it was shredded into dust by Cleave.

However, at the same time—two 6s appeared behind Kinji Hakari—and Hakari's figure appeared before Sukuna. Amid shattering glass, Hakari's fists relentlessly struck at Sukuna, yet they could never so much as touch the hem of his clothes.

"What's wrong? Come on~ Come on~"

Hakari gritted his teeth. Then—as the speeding train passed Noborito Station, it finally arrived at Shin-Yurigaoka Station, symbolizing a jackpot—

6! 6! 6!

As the background characters sighed, a monstrous surge of cursed energy erupted from Hakari's body. Then—using the acceleration from his cursed energy, he kicked at Sukuna, but that kick, brimming with immense cursed energy, still struck nothing but air.

Sukuna had vanished?

Hakari nervously looked from side to side and spotted Sukuna standing atop a streetlamp some distance away—

Megumi Fushiguro had vanished too?

Though he had no idea what the other side was plotting, Hakari was currently in his 4-minute-and-11-second invincible state!

Kicking off the ground, Hakari instantly appeared before Sukuna. The fist he threw crumbled into countless fine particles the instant it neared Sukuna, but when it struck Sukuna's cheek, his reversed cursed technique had already regenerated the fist—

"Ugh! You bastard!!!"

Sukuna immediately raised a hand and pressed his palm against Hakari's abdomen—Cleave instantly cut Hakari's waist and abdomen into several chunks of flesh. Sukuna had originally intended to spread the attack further, but Hakari had already retreated far away. Sukuna stroked his struck left cheek, a smile appearing on his face.

"Domain Expansion." "Domain Expansion."

—?

Sukuna suddenly heard another declaration of Domain Expansion. Before Malevolent Shrine could unfold, Sukuna turned his head and looked toward Xuan, who was floating in midair some distance away with a golden ring above his head.

"Dark Surge Eight Settled Waters." "Malevolent Shrine."

Though Xuan's domain had been activated later, it unfolded before Sukuna's domain. The domain spaces of the two open-barrier domains interfered with one another, simultaneously disrupting their technique effects, nullifying their sure-hit effects, and preventing them from using the techniques granted by their domains.

"Nice to meet you, King of Bullying the Weak in Shibuya."