Viltrumite, Is Your Mightiest Chat Group Fake?

"Itadori said I was as handsome as you."

"More or less. You're only slightly inferior to me."

In high spirits, the adult looked up at the spot in the sky where Leon had been.

"I didn't believe Yuji when he told me, but he can actually fly."

"Something like that would be easy for me, but I've never seen anyone do it without cursed energy."

"I'm an alien. Flying is normal, isn't it?"

Leon explained as he looked at the puzzled Satoru Gojo.

"There's no need to make such a fuss. What if your world has people like that too?"

"No matter what, that's impossi—"

Just as Satoru Gojo was about to continue, the phone in his pocket rang.

"Ijichi's rushing me. I'll leave things to you, then."

He slowly floated into the air and said:

"Leaving the teaching to someone else really does make me a little uneasy~ The students won't get to see the genius and handsome me. I wonder if they'll still have the motivation to study."

"It's fine. I was trained using methods that can be replicated."

Leon tapped his combat suit with his thumb.

"Back in my hometown, there are fifty others who became as strong as me through the same method."

Don't ask why there were only fifty.

"How reliable."

Satoru Gojo vanished from the spot.

At the same time, a woman's voice came from the dense shadows behind Leon, cast by a shrine-style building.

"He went to cover the gap I left. Even missing a single day during this period is a real headache."

A long-haired woman with dark circles beneath her eyes stepped out.

Shoko Ieiri, one of the very few healers capable of using the Reverse Cursed Technique on others.

Today, Leon needed her to stand by as the school doctor.

"I really don't understand what kind of training requires me, someone who treats severe injuries, to be on standby."

She looked at Leon, her usually indifferent gaze carrying a rare trace of amusement.

"Use that thing from earlier. Fly me over there."

Leon rose into the air, grabbed her, and slung her over his shoulder.

"Do I smell smoke?"

"Nonsense. I've been quit for five years now."

The two swiftly flew toward the meeting point.

They were going to use the wisdom of the older Viltrumite generation to turn this jujutsu technical college into a top-tier university.

"Still not here?"

The six students from the technical college had already run beneath the shade to escape the heat. Itadori kicked a small stone away.

A mouth appeared on his face.

"Brat, Leon probably saw me swallow another finger and got scared, didn't he?"

It was Sukuna.

"But if you ask me, this special training of yours is pretty laughable. A ridiculous cursed corpse, a woman, and a woman no different from a monkey. That useless rice-ball filling can only be called trash. Only the sea-urchin head is somewhat interesting."

He formed an eye at the corner of Itadori's eye and swept his gaze over the group.

"As for you, since you don't even have a cursed technique, just give the body back to me."

Seeing that no one present refuted him, Sukuna, seated atop a pile of bones within Itadori's mind, nodded.

Has my aura truly cowed them?

But then he noticed something was wrong. The other five weren't looking at Itadori, but behind him—

Sukuna formed an eye on the other side, and then he saw Leon floating in the air.

Just like that night, Leon's eyes held Sukuna within them.

"Finished? When I'm not around, this stray dog sure gets excited about talking."

Sukuna's eyes and mouth did not retract, but he stopped looking at anyone.

"Why aren't you talking again? Don't like it?"

Leon set Shoko Ieiri down, stepped closer, and patted Itadori's cheek.

"Itadori, can he hear me right now?"

"It's fine. If he doesn't want to listen, I can broadcast it directly into that space."

Leon nodded and turned his gaze toward the remaining five students.

They were still stunned by Leon flying over. Among them, Nobara stared at his face and muttered:

"A mixed-race guy. Itadori really wasn't lying to me."

Leon clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention, then said:

"As an outside instructor with no cursed energy, and with Mr. Gojo apparently having a rather poor teaching reputation, I imagine you all have quite a few doubts about me."

"How about this? I'll invite the teaching assistant I approve of most—Sukuna, whose credentials everyone acknowledges—for a fight with me."

His gaze fell upon Itadori again, as though he intended to peel back the skin and drag out the King of Curses from a thousand years ago.

"Itadori told me that with one more finger, you could beat me easily? Then let's try it."

Still floating with his hands behind his back, Leon said:

"Let me see how much this stray dog has improved."

My Finest Teaching Assistant, Sukuna

"What—did—you—say?!"

Sukuna was furious!

He knew that look in Leon's eyes all too well.

A thousand years ago, during the golden age of jujutsu, he had looked at that pile of worthless sorcerers in Heian-kyo the same way, watching them die one after another before him.

And now, in this age where jujutsu had declined, someone actually dared to look at him as though he were weak?

What kind of upside-down world was this?!

With Itadori's permission, Sukuna instantly took over. His furious expression twisted the markings on his face.

Leon interrupted his attempt to raise both hands.

"Let's make an agreement first, Sukuna."

"Hah?"

"If you can make me take one step back, I won't appear before you for a while. Otherwise, you'll obediently be my teaching assistant. I have use for that Reverse Cursed Technique."

This only intensified Sukuna's rage.

"One step? You dare humiliate me like this? Don't regret it!"

"Just tell me whether you accept or not."

Sukuna said nothing more and pulled away to begin the battle.

He showed nothing on his face, but during this time, he had privately been replaying his battles with Leon over and over.

Though he hated to admit it, that defense was indeed difficult for his current self to break through with close combat.

I refuse to believe I really can't hurt him.

Assessing the cursed energy within his body, he brought his hands together in a gesture resembling a tantric seal.

"Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine!"

Blackness instantly enveloped everyone from the technical college. A pile of livestock skulls slowly rose beneath Sukuna's feet.

At the center, a bizarre shrine made of teeth enclosed him.

"Oh~ It's pretty beautiful."

As Leon marveled at it, he took a screenshot and sent it to the chat group.

[Orange-Haired, Golden-Eyed Evil Human: Seems like I've seen a similar Noble Phantasm before.]

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: Is this the ability of the one called Sukuna? Is he projecting some sort of power?]

[Kansas Farm Boy: It looks pretty amazing. Want to take a hit and see what it does?]

Back in reality,

Sukuna had no desire to even look at the miscellaneous fodder dragged in with them. His entire focus was on Leon.

The effect of his domain was to apply sure-hit slashes to everything within it.

He used [Dismantle] on non-living objects and creatures without cursed energy, while applying [Cleave] to creatures with cursed energy.

Everything within range, person or object, would endure endless slashes until the domain vanished.

The domain was open, and then—he took out a loan!

An area-of-effect attack like this was completely useless for hurting that arrogant bastard.

Sukuna decided to make a binding vow, sacrificing the domain's sure-hit effect, its range, its duration, as well as the startup time and distance of his cursed technique,

in exchange for a single, maximized [Dismantle] aimed at one target!

Watching Sukuna go through a series of movements, Leon yawned.

"Hey, don't make me expect too much, okay?"

"You will pay for your arrogance, ordinary man!"

The startup was complete. Sukuna's expanded domain immediately contracted and condensed in his hand.

Closing in on Leon, he pressed his index and middle fingers together and swung them toward that infuriating face.

Dismantle!

Only then did the technical college students, who had been intimidated by Sukuna's sudden Domain Expansion, react.

Their gazes converged on the spot where the two clashed.

Even just watching such an astonishing cursed technique made them feel as though something were cutting their cheeks.

This outside instructor named Leon had arrogantly provoked the King of Curses the moment he arrived. He wasn't going to lose control of things, was he?

Then, after the flying sparks dispersed,

they saw Leon's unchanged expression, along with smoke rising from his left cheek.

After he brushed it away, a faint white mark could be seen beneath it, like the color left by a fingernail pressed into skin.

"The face again? Do you have some kind of grudge against my face?"

Leon touched his cheek.

Not bad. This attack had finally filled the remaining gap in his resistance to slashing attacks.

"But you've improved, Sukuna. Those fingers weren't eaten for nothing."