Bloodline

Shibuya outskirts.

At this moment, the stifling atmosphere was nauseating. Screams and the thunderous roar of collapsing buildings rose and fell without end. The civilian evacuation had reached its final stage, but a bloated figure the size of a barrel blocked the Kyoto Jujutsu High group rushing back from the subway station to provide support.

Curse user, Jiro Awasaka.

"Piercing Blood!"

Noritoshi Kamo let out a low roar, and the bloodline accumulated to its limit at his fingertips shot forth like a red laser, striking Jiro Awasaka squarely in the chest.

"Useless."

A sneer appeared on Jiro Awasaka's face, wrinkled like old leather. He did not even bother to dodge. The impact, powerful enough to pierce steel, left only a faint red mark on the surface of his skin.

Momo Nishimiya circled overhead, swinging her broom to send several wind blades formed from cursed energy at him. Yet they, too, left nothing more than marks on his skin.

"How is that possible...?"

Kasumi Miwa's hand trembled around her sword. She had never seen such bizarre defense. The more powerful the attack, the weaker its effect on him became.

"Bzz—bzz—"

Kokichi Muta's urgent voice suddenly came through the tiny communicator by Kasumi Miwa's ear:

"Miwa, calm down and listen to me. This guy's technique is called Inverse. The higher the attack power, the lower the damage it deals. Conversely, the lower the attack power, the greater the damage."

"Inverse?"

Kasumi Miwa froze.

"That's right. It's a technique designed to target the 'strong.' Kamo and Nishimiya's full-force attacks are nothing but a drizzle to him. But—" Kokichi Muta's voice was low and firm. "Miwa, you once asked me whether you were weak, whether you were holding everyone back. Now is the time to prove yourself."

"Don't reinforce your body with cursed energy. Get rid of all your killing intent. Use your 'weakest' self to defeat him."

Kasumi Miwa took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Every moment of training in the back hills of Kyoto Jujutsu High flashed through her mind, along with that pale, thin boy.

"Miwa, what are you doing?! Get out of there!" Noritoshi Kamo stared in shock as Kasumi Miwa actually lowered her Simple Domain stance and walked blankly toward Awasaka.

Jiro Awasaka let out a cold laugh and raised a heavy fist wrapped in dense cursed energy. "You're courting death, little girl."

At the instant that fist was about to smash Kasumi Miwa's skull, she moved.

She did not retreat or defend. She merely extended the sword in her hand at an incredibly slow speed, so slow that even an ordinary high school student could clearly follow it. There was no whistle of wind, no fluctuation of cursed energy. The force behind the strike was not even enough to split a watermelon.

"Pfft."

A soft sound rang out.

Before Noritoshi Kamo's horrified eyes, that ordinary sword pierced straight through Jiro Awasaka's chest without the slightest resistance. Awasaka's once-impenetrable defense completely collapsed in that instant, because Miwa's attack was too weak—so weak that it fell beyond the limits of the Inverse technique.

"You... How is this possible..." Jiro Awasaka coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

"I am weak. But the weak have the right to kill too." Kasumi Miwa's gaze had never been colder. She sharply drew her blade and slashed across Awasaka's neck in one fluid motion.

With his technique backfiring from his own power, Jiro Awasaka's massive body crashed heavily into a pool of blood like a broken iron tower.

"I won... I won." Kasumi Miwa leaned on her sword and dropped to her knees, gasping for breath as tears finally spilled from her eyes.

"Well done, Miwa." Kokichi Muta's voice carried a trace of relief through the communicator.

Shibuya Station, B1.

The stairs leading to the surface were covered in corpses, and the air was thick with the smell of rust.

Naobito Zenin, Maki Zenin, and Mai stood back-to-back amid the ruins. They were in terrible condition. To clear a path for the Kyoto Jujutsu High group returning to provide support, Naobito's right arm had been severed, the barrel of Mai's revolver glowed faintly red, and the cursed tool in Maki's hands was covered in cracks.

Blocking their way were three shadows radiating the presence of Special Grades.

Choso, Eso, and Kechizu.

"The old man of the Zenin Clan really is fast." Choso spoke coldly. The markings on his forehead looked savage and terrifying in the dim light. "But with your injuries, how many more times can you use your technique?"

"Convergence—Piercing Blood!"

The blood arrow at Choso's fingertips shot out with a piercing whistle. Naobito forcibly activated Projection Sorcery, turning into a string of afterimages as he narrowly evaded along a twenty-four-frame trajectory. Yet the instant he landed, the ground beneath his feet exploded.

It was Kechizu!

That grotesquely twisted monster lunged out from the shadows, spraying corrosive pus from its mouth.

"Cover him!"

Maki Zenin roared, sweeping her cursed tool and forcibly driving Kechizu back.

"Bang! Bang!" Mai followed with two precise cursed-energy bullets, but they only delayed the enemy's advance.

"You're looking to die." Eso's technique unfolded behind him in an instant, countless black blood needles sealing off every escape route.

Just as despair descended, a black afterimage fell like a meteor through a hole in the B1 ceiling.

"Boom!"

Yuji Itadori.

After setting down Shiyue Shuo, he had rushed back to the battlefield without stopping, arriving just in time.

"Die."

Choso spat out the two words coldly.

"Boom!"

With a thunderous crash, Yuji Itadori's heavy fist collided head-on with Choso's Piercing Blood. The shockwave from their cursed-energy clash instantly shattered the surrounding broken bricks and rubble.

"If you want to kill them, you'll have to get past me first!" Yuji Itadori stood before the Zenin Clan members, veins bulging across his fists—the precursor to an impending Black Flash.

Choso stared at the boy before him, and his cold pupils suddenly constricted.

This feeling...

In that instant, Yuji Itadori's punching stance, his pounding heartbeat, even the faint scent of blood radiating from his body—all of it became keys forcibly prying open Choso's long-sealed bloodline perception.

"This feeling... why?" Choso's movements stiffened. He felt the blood in his body roaring wildly, as if it had encountered a close relative lost for years.

"Bang!"

Yuji's fist slammed solidly into Choso's chest. Yet Choso did not retaliate. He only stared fixedly at Yuji as an illusion known as Nonexistent Memory flooded into his mind like a burst dam.

Within that illusion, there was no slaughter in Shibuya, no cruel techniques. Around a dinner table beneath the setting sun sat Eso, Kechizu, and himself. And the boy seated at the far end, smiling as he divided food among them, was unmistakably Yuji Itadori.

"Yuji... little brother?"

Choso let out a pained roar, clutching his head with both hands. The violent fluctuation of his emotions threw the cursed energy within him into chaos.

"Brother?" Eso and Kechizu cried out as they rushed forward. They had never seen Choso show such vulnerability.

"Now's our chance, run!" Though Yuji Itadori did not understand the other side's strange behavior, he keenly seized the opportunity to retreat.

Naobito Zenin gave the boy standing amid the ruins a long look. Without wasting words, he retreated rapidly toward the exit with the remaining Zenin Clan fighters, supported by Mai and Maki Zenin.

Kokichi Muta's mechanical puppet darted rapidly through the shadows, mapping out a route for them that avoided the main cursed-spirit forces.

"Eso... Kechizu..." Choso slowly raised his head. The killing intent in his eyes had been replaced by heavy confusion. "Stop."

"Why, Brother?" Corrosive saliva dripped from Kechizu's deformed mouth.

"I'm going to ask that man for answers." Choso looked toward the depths leading to B5, where Kenjaku was. "If he really is our brother, then all of this... is a conspiracy."

The three figures became streaks of blood-red light in an instant and shot toward B5.

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