Elephant God

The instant Gu Yanzhi's fist smashed into Mahito's face, time seemed to compress into a single infinitesimal point.

His three-meter-tall transfigured human body poured all its strength into that punch-the combined physiques of six to seven people, muscle fibers personally honed by Mahito, and a synchronized explosion of power through his entire torso, from his lower back to his shoulders.

His fist tore through the air with a piercing, almost earsplitting crack. A shock wave burst outward from where Mahito stood, shattering the few windows left at the end of the corridor. Glass fragments whirled through the air, and the entire corridor trembled under the lingering force of that punch.

Mahito was driven into the floor, his limbs mangled.

Gu Yanzhi knew that blow could not hurt his soul. As long as his soul remained undamaged, Mahito's body could recover.

Before the dust had settled, Gu Yanzhi turned his head, all four eyes locking onto Itadori and Nanami, who were still frozen in place.

"What are you standing there for?!" His voice erupted from his malformed vocal cords. "Don't you want to kill him, Yuji Itadori?!"

Itadori snapped out of his daze.

He had no idea why this transfigured human had suddenly turned on Mahito, but now was not the time to think about that-Mahito was the cursed spirit who had killed Junpei and countless ordinary people.

This was their best chance to kill him.

Cursed energy gathered around his right fist, enveloping it in a ball of eerie blue light.

He pushed off with both legs and shot toward the dust in a blur, his launch leaving spiderweb cracks in the floor tiles beneath his feet.

Nanami moved at the same instant.

His blade sliced through the air with a shrill whistle as he plunged into the dust right behind Itadori.

Itadori's cursed-energy-clad fist slammed down from above while Nanami's cleaver swept in from the side-both attacks aimed at the spot where Mahito's ruined body lay.

But before the dust cleared, Itadori and Nanami suddenly felt an irresistible force surge out from its center.

It was a purer kind of repulsive force, acting directly on space-as though an invisible, enormous palm had swept toward them head-on, flinging everything within reach away.

They lost all control of their bodies and were violently hurled backward, along with the broken bricks, glass shards, and billowing dust around them.

Itadori's back struck the corridor wall, smashing a deep crater into it. Broken bricks tumbled down beside him.

Nanami barely managed to adjust his posture in midair. He plunged his cleaver into the floor to steady himself, its edge gouging a crack several meters long through the masonry as sparks scattered on either side.

The force swept away the dust in an instant.

An enormous arm appeared before them-extending out of empty space, its five fingers spread, each as thick as a tree trunk. A strand of dark prayer beads hung from its wrist, the fist-sized beads covered in densely carved Sanskrit script.

The hand simply stood guard before Mahito's ruined body, its fingers curling slightly to shelter him beneath its palm as he rapidly healed.

Neither Itadori's full-strength blow nor Nanami's cleaver had left so much as a mark on it.

The rift in empty space was widening.

The hand slowly extended farther, followed by a wrist, a forearm, an elbow-and finally an entire body stepped out of the rift and landed on the corridor tiles, making the whole school building shudder.

Four arms, each as thick as the branches of a century-old tree, with dark brown keratin covering their joints and the contours of knotted muscles clearly visible beneath their skin.

An elephant's head slowly rose, a strand of enormous prayer beads hanging across its chest.

Watching the cursed spirit step out of empty space, Gu Yanzhi felt a sudden jolt of shock.

Four hands, an elephant's head, prayer beads-its appearance, its entrance, and its oppressive presence immediately brought a name to mind.

Elephant God.

The special grade cursed spirit Kenjaku had summoned during his battle with Yuki Tsukumo after the Culling Game began, an entity known as a "divine curse."

Kenjaku had made his move.

In the original story, Kenjaku had accompanied Mahito to the school, but he had remained hidden in a corner, letting Mahito erect the curtain while he suppressed his own presence and concealed his identity.

He was the most adept puppet master at hiding himself in the entire world of Jujutsu Kaisen, never revealing his trump cards to anyone lightly.

But now Mahito was on the verge of death.

If he did not intervene, Mahito-a crucial component of his future plans-might truly die here. To keep Mahito alive, he had no choice but to reveal himself.

Itadori slid down from the crater in the wall, braced one hand against the floor, and looked up at the four-handed, elephant-headed giant.

Nanami pulled his cleaver free and stood beside him. Sweat soaked the tie wrapped around its handle. His expression remained composed, but the knuckles of his sword hand had gone white.

"This presence..." Nanami kept his voice extremely low, as though afraid of disturbing something that should never be disturbed. "It's special grade."

Itadori did not answer.

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. Mahito alone had been difficult enough to handle, and now another special grade cursed spirit had appeared-and judging by its oppressive presence alone, this elephant-headed monster might be even more dangerous than Mahito.

By then, Mahito had regenerated his upper body.

Dark purple cursed energy still writhed slowly over his shoulders, filling the last few cracks.

He had recovered completely.

But he did not look at Itadori or Nanami.

From the instant his eyes regenerated, they had remained fixed on Gu Yanzhi without straying even a fraction-the creation he took the greatest pride in.

He stared relentlessly at Gu Yanzhi, who floated in midair.

Losing control of Idle Transfiguration made him uneasy-no.

He had always believed he was the puppet master, that every human and transfigured human was a toy in the palm of his hand.

But this transfigured human-this special-grade transfigured human he had spent dozens of hours personally refining, reshaping every organ inside and out-had defied him from beginning to end.

His commands reached him, but sank like stones into the sea, eliciting no response.

For the first time, that loss of control taught Mahito what it meant to feel "unsafe."

He had to kill this aberration.