The spiderlike Mahito kept reshaping and creating limbs, disrupting Chiyo Shin's attacks on the transfigured humans.
The five transfigured humans nimbly evaded Chiyo Shin's pursuit as well, using their ability to climb walls to keep attacking Nagi Yoshino, who was under their protection.
Faced with transfigured humans who had once been people, Yuji Itadori and Junpei Yoshino could not bring themselves to strike decisively. They could only focus on driving them back.
Especially when they saw the transfigured humans weeping and begging them to end their suffering.
Yuji Itadori and Junpei Yoshino's fury toward Mahito burned even hotter.
"Mahito!"
Seeing that he could not hurt the transfigured humans, Chiyo Shin stopped fixating on attacking them. He raised his hand and fired five white Annihilation spheres at Mahito.
Mahito flipped out of the way, and all five white Annihilation spheres missed.
"Fuck," Chiyo Shin cursed under his breath when he saw his attacks miss.
This was the first time the sheer destructive power of his cursed techniques had left him fighting with his hands tied.
Things might have been easier back on the surface.
But he had gone deep underground to save someone, and the cramped space prevented him from fully using either of his two cursed techniques.
Expanding his domain was out of the question.
Even overusing Collapse or Vibration alone could bring down the ground above them.
Chiyo Shin looked at the holes his Annihilation spheres had just blasted open. Clods of earth kept falling from above, and he realized he would have to cut back on the white light, too.
Was he supposed to deal damage with Stillness and Golden Repair?
An idea suddenly flashed through Chiyo Shin's mind.
"Itadori, Yoshino, keep your mom safe! We're heading back to the surface!" With that, Chiyo Shin crouched and touched the ground with Golden Repair.
"Mahito, enjoy being buried alive!"
Mahito immediately sensed trouble, but it was already too late to stop Chiyo Shin.
The instant Junpei Yoshino wrapped Nagi Yoshino in his shikigami, Moon Dregs.
Golden Repair activated as well, rapidly restoring the damaged material underground with Chiyo Shin at its center.
Before Mahito could escape, he was buried underground along with the transfigured humans.
In less than two seconds, Chiyo Shin and the other three were back on the surface.
Streetlights illuminated the road as though the attack had never happened.
"Is Mahito dead?" Junpei Yoshino asked dazedly, looking down at the ground beneath his feet.
"I'm not sure. Even if he isn't, he won't be getting out anytime soon." Chiyo Shin answered Junpei Yoshino while watching the Curtain around them, which had not disappeared.
Was he still alive? Did he have an accomplice? Was there some special medium?
For the moment, Chiyo Shin could not tell which it was.
To be safe, they needed to leave quickly. "Now's not the time to discuss that. We need to get back to school."
Before he finished speaking, the shadows beside the road writhed, and their surroundings rapidly changed.
A powerfully built cursed spirit holding a huge butcher's cleaver appeared before them.
Chiyo Shin could hardly believe it. How could a special grade imaginary cursed spirit show up now, with its domain already active?
There was no time to think. Several huge blades materialized out of thin air and slashed toward them.
Chiyo Shin instantly activated Stillness, enveloping everyone.
The cleavers stopped outside it, unable to advance another inch.
Though the cleavers had stopped, Chiyo Shin's expression grew increasingly grim.
This butcher cursed spirit wasn't really trying to cut us. It was using its domain to keep wearing down Stillness and force me to maintain it.
Chiyo Shin understood. There was no way this was a coincidence. This bastard was helping Mahito, too.
Before he could channel cursed energy into reinforcing Stillness, the ground beneath Chiyo Shin suddenly split open. A drill burst out and transformed into Mahito's head.
"Hahaha! I almost died. To thank you for sparing my life, mwah!" Mahito's mouth stretched out, passing through Stillness to kiss Chiyo Shin's face.
A wave of revulsion swept over Chiyo Shin at the sight.
He frantically reinforced Stillness with cursed energy, but the butcher cursed spirit outside intensified its domain's erosion of Stillness as well.
Right before Chiyo Shin's eyes, Mahito's mouth planted a kiss on him.
"Got you! This is love!" Another mouth grew on Mahito's face as he said crazily, "Idle Transfiguration."
A peculiar surge of cursed energy rose from the mouth pressed against Chiyo Shin's face.
I've touched it. Chiyo Shin, just what kind of soul do you have?
Wait, what is this thing?! A soul?
The smile vanished from Mahito's face. With a chopping strike, he instantly severed the elongated mouth kissing Chiyo Shin's cheek, then sprawled on the ground, dry-heaving as he mumbled, "How can a soul as twisted as yours exist in this world?! Chiyo Shin, you're definitely not human!"
Lying on the ground, Mahito vomited out every miniature human stored inside his body.
But throwing them up did little to ease his suffering. Probing Chiyo Shin's soul had shaken his very understanding of souls.
Mahito lay on the ground for a long time before finally getting up.
He stood and was about to say something else when Kenjaku's voice suddenly came from beside his feet. "That's enough, Mahito. You've learned what you needed to. Time to retreat."
Mahito looked down. A small cursed spirit was looking up at him as it continued, "If you don't leave now, the people from Jujutsu High will be here."
"All right, all right, I know. I'm leaving." Mahito kicked the messenger cursed spirit away, then looked up at the furious Chiyo Shin and grinned. "Hehe, Chiyo, you twisted freak. I'll be taking my leave."
With that, his arms turned into wings, and he took to the air.
The special grade imaginary cursed spirit butcher trapping Chiyo Shin abruptly vanished into the shadows as well.
The domain disappeared.
The Curtain vanished with it.
Chiyo Shin released Stillness and furiously scrubbed the cheek Mahito had kissed with his sleeve.
"Chiyo, are you okay?" As soon as he could move, Yuji Itadori hurried to Chiyo Shin's side and looked at him anxiously. He knew how horrifying Mahito's ability was.
Rather than answering, Chiyo Shin looked up at the black speck receding into the sky and snarled, "The next time I catch you, I'll make you wish you were dead."
"Looks like you're fine." Yuji Itadori smiled.
Just then, Itadori's phone rang. It was Ijichi.
Yuji Itadori answered, and Ijichi's worried voice came through. "I finally got through! Are you all okay? Is anyone injured?"
Yuji Itadori glanced at Chiyo Shin and, faced with his clenched fist, reported that they were safe. "Mr. Ijichi, nobody's injured. Just some damage to public property."
"That's good. Stay where you are. We're beside house number 208. We'll be right over."
"Okay." Yuji Itadori hung up.
Chiyo Shin sat down right on the ground.
Before long, five cars pulled up in front of them.
Ijichi got out, greeted everyone, and directed the personnel to clean up the battlefield.
Kento Nanami headed straight toward Chiyo Shin.
"Mr. Nanami, I let my guard down this time." Looking at Kento Nanami, Chiyo Shin felt he had let him down.
"Apologies won't solve the problem. What did you learn from fighting Mahito?" Kento Nanami remained focused on the facts.
"Quite a lot, actually." Chiyo Shin gave Kento Nanami a faithful account of the fight, except that he replaced the kiss with a touch.
After listening to Chiyo Shin's account.
Kento Nanami found the attack baffling. He could not quite pin down Mahito's objective.
"Everything's taken care of. Let's go." Ijichi's voice interrupted Nanami's thoughts from a distance.
"Great." Chiyo Shin sprang up from the ground and ran over to the cars.
Unable to make sense of Mahito's actions, Kento Nanami could only leave it at that.
Before you continue