"Clang!"
With a casual wave of Sukuna's hand, the utility pole holding the loudspeaker snapped with a crackle.
Fushiguro and Kugisaki looked up in the direction Sukuna faced, their mouths twitching.
At one corner of the rooftop stood a mysterious figure who had appeared unnoticed, wearing a black cloak patterned with red clouds and a wooden spiral mask. One foot hung over the edge as he tilted his head to look down at the three below.
Fushiguro: Was the mask really necessary?
Kugisaki: Did this guy actually find time to change into cosplay before taking over the Broadcast Room?!
"Boom!"
Before Fushiguro and Kugisaki could react, Sukuna's slash blew the roof clean off the building.
Rubble scattered, and the mysterious figure's murmurs drifted out of the lingering dust.
"How many floors must a bag of rice be carried up..."
"A bag of rice must be carried up two floors..."
Why was an Obito cosplayer stealing Pain's lines?!
The complaint flashed through Fushiguro's mind as he hurried toward the collapsing building with Kugisaki.
With all three of them working together, they might actually have a chance.
But Sukuna's frenzied figure leaped into the air ahead of them both.
"Boom!"
A terrifying blast of wind pulverized the rubble amid the rain, tearing the building apart as it collapsed further.
"Heh, your cursed technique's pretty interesting, brat!"
Sukuna kept his hands in his pockets as he studied the deranged brat before him with mocking eyes.
Never mind the two nobodies behind him whom he could casually crush. This brat was different.
He had deliberately aimed the slash that tore through the building at the "mysterious figure's" dangling leg, yet there wasn't the slightest sign of a hit or injury.
Sukuna slicked back his rain-soaked hair with both hands, his lips curling. "It's not often I get to be free. I'll cut loose and play with you!"
There was no doubt that the mysterious figure dressed as Obito was Jiahao, who had timed his entrance perfectly.
Only when the three-finger Sukuna charged right up to him did Jiahao, leaning beside a shattered metal window frame, lift his head and reveal a sliver of scarlet beneath his mask.
"Don't talk so big. It only makes you look weak."
"Boom!"
A fist imbued with immense cursed energy smashed through half the building, its terrifying shock wave surging beyond the grounds.
Rather than use his slashing technique, Sukuna had deliberately closed in to test him again with hand-to-hand combat.
Just as before, the punch failed to inflict so much as a scratch on the arrogant brat.
His fist passed straight through Jiahao's body as though striking empty air.
Arriving a moment late, Fushiguro and Kugisaki cried out in disbelief, "Kamui?!"
He wasn't just cosplaying Obito's outfit-he was cosplaying his ocular powers too?!
Could those Sharingan actually not be colored contacts?
Wang Jiahao, you were doing this for real?!
In a matter of moments, every punch and kick Sukuna unleashed passed straight through Jiahao's intangible body.
Sukuna realized that Jiahao's cursed technique resembled Satoru Gojo's: both were space-time techniques that rendered most physical attacks ineffective.
Just as Sukuna pulled back his fists and feet to test him with a close-range technique, the intangible body turned solid, and a devastating right fist churning with black-and-red cursed energy shot out!
"Hao Flash!!!"
"Boom!!"
In that split second, Sukuna looked as though he had collided head-on with a speeding locomotive!
Agonizing pain tore through his abdomen. Sukuna involuntarily spewed blood, his entire body becoming a blur that seemed to skip frames as he was blasted dozens of meters away.
The already tottering building collapsed completely in the wake of that punch.
Fushiguro and Kugisaki rapidly retreated, raising their arms against the flying rubble and shock wave.
They exchanged a glance, their faces filled with shock and bewilderment.
Jiahao might be a poser, but the bastard was fucking strong!
"Tap, tap, tap..."
At the center of the collapsed building, Jiahao emerged with the hem of his cloak slightly dirtied, stepping through shattered reflections in the rainwater.
Listening to the system announce a string of increases in Valor Points, Jiahao grinned beneath his mask.
Looking at the silent Sukuna opposite him, blood staining the corner of his mouth, Jiahao taunted him further. "Tsk, tsk. As expected of the King of Curses. You've got some strength."
"I meant to punch you in half just now, but who would've thought..."
Jiahao shook his head slightly and sighed. "It really is hard to judge how much force to use when you want to step on an ant without crushing it."
[Valor Points +89] [Valor Points +99] [Valor Points +999]
"Heh heh, hahahahaha!"
A vicious aura of cursed energy surged upward, sending a chilling cold through the damp air.
Watching blood flow back into Sukuna's fist-marked abdomen and the gaping hole in his chest, Fushiguro and Kugisaki felt their scalps prickle. Without another word, they turned and ran.
Forget teaming up now. Against an enraged Sukuna, one wrong move could leave them sliced into minced meat by the collateral damage.
Sukuna completely ignored the two fleeing nobodies. His eyes held only the arrogant brat before him who had no idea how far out of his depth he was.
His heart healed itself, his aura surged even higher, and Sukuna vanished from the spot in a blink.
"I'll slaughter you, brat!"
As the rain fell, Sukuna appeared above Jiahao's head.
His savage eyes, boiling with rage, met the scarlet gaze beneath the wooden mask upside down.
Sukuna swept one arm downward, sending two terrifying slashes hurtling from above.
"Boom!!"
The blades carved a deep cross-shaped trench into the hard concrete as easily as cutting tofu.
Sukuna landed, his gaze fixed on the dark silhouette amid the dust. "So even slashes of this caliber can't touch you..."
Having worked out the technique, Sukuna's lips once again curved into that familiar mocking smile. "I see. It's not just individual body parts. You can instantly turn intangible from head to toe."
Sukuna tapped his forehead. "Thanks to this brat, I know that outfit and your intangibility technique must be Kamui."
Sukuna could read all of Itadori's memories, so naturally he recognized Jiahao's ocular technique, which closely resembled Obito's from Naruto.
At its core, the technique transferred objects back and forth between real space and another dimension, but his body would briefly become solid the instant he attacked.
"It's certainly not some dime-a-dozen technique. Your average third-rate jujutsu sorcerer might be helpless against it, but brat... just like that worthless cursed spirit earlier, your understanding of curses is far too shallow!"
"Let me teach you what a true curse is."
A space-time technique might have been virtually unbeatable for an ordinary sorcerer, but Sukuna... was anything but ordinary.
"Heh heh heh. Teach?!"
Standing in the rain, Jiahao lifted a hand to his mask and burst into wild laughter, as though some keyword had set him off. "The absolute strongest, the loneliness of standing at the top... Sukuna, let me teach you what true swagger means!"
"Such arrogance!"
Within a domain's range, even an intangible body immune to physical attacks would be marked by the domain's "guaranteed hit" and "guaranteed kill" effects.
Sukuna formed a hand seal, and a blood-red domain strewn with corpses slowly unfolded. "Brat, savor the agony of being sliced to pieces!"
Jiahao pulled away his mask with one hand, the three tomoe in his other eye spinning wildly. "I understand how you feel right now, but with only three fingers' worth of your soul, you can't withstand a single blow!"
Sukuna: "Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine..."
Jiahao: "Amaterasu!"
"Boom!!!"
The domain, already more than halfway unfurled, disintegrated instantly. The bone shrine that was about to take shape cracked and shattered!
Vivid blood sprayed as distorted space shredded Sukuna's two seal-forming arms into bloody mist!
A flash of astonishment crossed Sukuna's eyes as his domain collapsed in an instant.
Had he not reacted in time, space might have swallowed not only his arms, but his entire head as well.
The domain constructed from vast amounts of cursed energy shattered, while Itadori's primary consciousness gradually began to awaken within him.
Sukuna glared viciously at Jiahao as he fell into a pool of blood.
"Itadori!!"
Seeing the tattoos begin to fade from Itadori's body in the pool of blood, Fushiguro and Kugisaki immediately rushed over from nearby.
"Thud!"
Jiahao, his cloak slightly dirtied, suddenly dropped to one knee, seemingly from overusing his ocular powers.
"Ka... Jiahao, are you okay?!"
Fushiguro and Kugisaki supported Itadori, whose arms had been severed, and looked at Jiahao with concern.
This lunatic had never been normal, but he was unexpectedly reliable when it mattered.
"Heh heh heh. I'm fine."
With one hand braced against the ground and the other covering his eye, Jiahao let out an inexplicable chuckle. "Heh heh heh. I'm so happy!"
"It's been so long since I met an opponent who could make me use my full strength."
Fushiguro: "..."
Kugisaki: "..."
They really shouldn't have bothered asking!
Jiahao slowly stood and looked down at Itadori's blood-soaked body. "Well done, King of Curses!"
"I doubt I'll ever forget you for as long as I live!"
[Valor Points +66] [Valor Points +66] [Valor Points +666]
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