The Weakest and the Strongest

"Cough... What a lousy bargain."

Mei Mei knelt on one knee amid the cold ruins, the fingers gripping her long-handled battle axe trembling violently from overload as blood continuously seeped through the gaps between them.

That Divine Wind, which had sacrificed hundreds upon thousands of crows to forcibly trigger Black Flash, had successfully shaken Ashiya Dōman—but it had also temporarily drained her cursed energy.

Across from her, Ashiya Dōman, occupying Mizuki Makoto's body, swayed unsteadily. The bluish-gray corpse markings on his cheeks had cracked grotesquely from the Black Flash's impact, and dark red blood dripped from his chin, splashing into glaring crimson stains on the ground.

"A mortal miracle... truly sweet." He laughed hoarsely, but the greed in his double-pupiled right eye grew ever more frenzied. "But miracles are miracles precisely because they cannot be replicated. Your little calculations have finally run their course."

The "Special-Grade Onmyoji" Ashiya Dōman slowly raised a hand.

Even injured, the abyssal difference in cursed energy quality between a Special Grade and a Grade 1 still made the surrounding air suffocatingly oppressive.

"Todo! Mizuki! We're here!"

At the tunnel entrance, Kamo Noritoshi's blood arrow tore through the air like a red falcon, only to be directly flung aside by a viscous, mercury-like cursed energy barrier one meter from Ashiya Dōman.

Everyone from Kyoto Jujutsu High had arrived, yet the situation had not improved with their numbers.

Utahime Iori stared at the miniature Special-Grade disaster zone before her, her face ashen.

It's actually... a Special-Grade Sorcerer?! Then with Mechamaru absent, Miwa and Nishimiya can't participate in a battle at this level at all. No, even Noritoshi and I...

As the team leader, Utahime Iori found herself missing that white-haired bastard more intensely than ever before.

At a time like this, when the students are facing certain death and she, their teacher, can do nothing, she would even be willing to shorten her lifespan if it meant that "the strongest bastard" would descend from the heavens.

Even if he would mock her miserable state with that arrogant face of his, even if he would turn everything upside down... as long as he was here, this despairing cursed energy suppression would vanish in an instant.

Unfortunately, reality had no such divine savior. There was only nauseatingly viscous cursed energy in the tunnel, and a group of children being pushed toward the brink of death.

Gojo, you bastard, where the hell did you run off to at a time like this?!

Utahime gritted her teeth and forcibly crushed that nearly weak expectation.

Other than Noritoshi and me, the Grade 2 and Grade 3 students absolutely cannot get close. No, even Noritoshi and I...

"Don't approach recklessly!" Utahime Iori ordered sharply, sweat soaking her temples. "Ordinary cursed techniques are completely useless against a Special Grade... and that's Mizuki's body. We can't just blast it apart!"

"So this is what they call... a Special Grade..."

Unreasonable, capable of destroying a nation alone... powerful beings who have completely surpassed the realm of [humans] and are regarded as [monsters].

Zenin Mai tightly gripped her gun, her knuckles white from the overwhelming sense of helplessness.

This wretched feeling called weakness is... the worst.

"Mai-chan, lacking strength is because of talent, but weakness isn't. It's because your 'stake' isn't heavy enough. If you could use all your hatred for this world as the price, you could probably even create that Special-Grade cursed tool that slaughters souls."

That had been one of Mizuki Makoto's casually cruel jokes.

"That bastard really got me into a mess," Mai cursed under her breath, but her gaze became incomparably resolute in that instant.

She tossed aside the lightweight revolver in her hand and pulled a heavy, icy anti-materiel rifle from the supply case Kamo Noritoshi carried.

"Teacher, I might have a way." Mai looked at Utahime Iori.

Utahime froze for a moment, looking at this weak student who could not even defeat a Grade 2 cursed spirit.

"Some... bastard used Miwa and Mei Mei as examples to teach me. Use a [Binding Vow] to amplify the effects of a cursed technique and achieve a 'miracle' that would otherwise be impossible."

"That's another fee to collect, then—if he survives." Mei Mei barely propped herself up with her axe in the distance, a faint, cold smile in her eyes. "To think he used my life as teaching material without permission. Gojo and his disciple, those two..."

"A [Binding Vow] is not something to be toyed with, but... if you've made your decision." Utahime Iori watched Zenin Mai for a second, then formed a hand sign as the technique known as [Solo Forbidden Area] fully activated. "Gojo, you bastard! That bastard disciple you taught! If anything happens to her, I'll kill you!"

[Solo Forbidden Area]—Cursed Technique Amplification. Target: Zenin Mai!

Under Utahime's technique amplification, Mai closed her eyes. She sensed the extremely thin yet pure Construction cursed energy within her body and began establishing an ultimate [Binding Vow] in her mind.

[Abandon infinite duration.]

[Construct no more unnecessary matter.]

[Use the cursed energy and mobility of my body for the next six months as the price.]

[Completely abandon physical destruction. Pursue only the piercing of the soul.]

"Construction Cursed Technique—Inscription: Soul-Piercing."

Blood instantly spilled from Mai's lips. For someone who had only just touched upon an ultimate Binding Vow, overdrawing three months of her life force and cursed energy was already the limit of her body.

Her cursed energy no longer flowed into the rifle chamber. Instead, it transformed into an illusory, transparent ripple carrying a chilling aura, slowly condensing around the specially made armor-piercing bullet.

It was a "conceptual weapon" that transcended three-dimensional matter, designed specifically to target the soul.

Ashiya Dōman seemed to sense some ominous threat. He suddenly turned his head, and for the first time, alarm appeared in his double pupils. "That little girl... is touching upon 'soul construction'?"

He tried to raise his hand and deal with the gun-wielding figure first.

Smack!!

At that moment, Todo Aoi unleashed the last of his will, burning his soul to forcibly activate his cursed technique.

"Your opponent is me—!!"

Three consecutive swaps! Todo used his broken body to forcibly block Ashiya Dōman's attack route, like an insurmountable human shield.

That one-second opening.

"For this shot, I paid quite a bit of 'tuition'... you bastard teacher, listen up!"

Mai fiercely pulled the trigger.

Boom—!!

The recoil of the heavy sniper rifle directly shattered Mai's shoulder, sending her body flying backward like a kite with its string cut.

But the bullet, burning with the flames of her soul, completely ignored the cursed energy barrier on the physical level under Utahime's amplification and the power of the [Binding Vow].

In that instant, the bullet "phased."

It passed through the cursed technique the demon monk Ashiya Dōman tried to raise before himself, passed through Mizuki Makoto's suffering shell, and with a shriek that tore at the soul, drilled precisely into the core of Ashiya Dōman's ancient soul.

"Uwaaaaaah—!!!"

Within the Soul Wasteland, Ashiya Dōman, who had been about to forcibly crush Mizuki Makoto's consciousness, suddenly exploded through the chest.

A brilliant white radiance flashed out of the void, and a piercing shriek tore through the dead silence of the domain. It was a bullet gleaming with cold white light. It ignored the domain's sure-hit rule and, bearing an almost tragic intent to kill, brutally pierced the Special-Grade Sorcerer's soul.

You've got to be kidding me. In the end, you're the one who came to save me, Mai!?

The petrifying pressure that had once seemed so invincible crumbled in an instant.

Mizuki Makoto rose to his feet again upon the soul's violet waters. Feeling the shock brought by that bullet, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

"...So you could do it after all, you lazy bum."

Add bookmark

Return to contents

Report chapter error

Share with friends: