Sakurada Niji wasted no time and hurried toward the location he had sensed.
-How was this possible?! When he saw the true forms of those two masses of cursed energy, his mind went blank.
They were two special grade cursed spirits.
One was tall and white all over, wearing loose black training pants with its muscular upper body bare. Withered branches jutted upward like horns where its eyes should have been. Irregular black markings covered its exposed body, and white cloth wrapped its left arm.
The other cursed spirit was shorter, wearing a yellow top patterned with black spots. It had stubby limbs, pants that were loose around its thighs and extremely narrow around its calves, and a head shaped like a teapot. Steam puffed from the volcano-like structure on its head. It had one large eye, and its mouth was full of teeth as black as charcoal.
Hanami-Jogo. Why were they here?!
The two cursed spirits reacted differently to Sakurada Niji's arrival. One charged straight at him, while the other watched from the sidelines and guarded three humans.
Sakurada Niji was about to take out his phone and call Satoru Gojo when Jogo rushed him.
"Human! Special Grade Sorcerer! Let me turn you to ashes!" Jogo roared, a savage grin on its face and its black-toothed mouth stretched wide.
With that, Jogo charged at Sakurada Niji wreathed in flames. Sensing the rising temperature, Sakurada Niji had no choice but to evade. He immediately used Flash Step, trying to draw the fight away from the station to avoid hurting innocent people.
Hanami remained where it was, guarding the three humans. There was no telling what it was thinking.
Human, do not attempt to contact your companions, or these three of your kind will die. A string of strange sounds rang directly inside Sakurada Niji's head, leaving him with a sickening sensation like severe motion sickness.
"Kehehehehe! Why are you running?!" Laughing wildly, Jogo hurled several streams of flame at Sakurada Niji, forcing him to dodge with Flash Step.
Did Kenjaku realize three special grade sorcerers would interfere with his plans, so he decided to eliminate me, the weakest, ahead of time?!
Sakurada Niji had no time to dwell on it. He hurriedly dodged Jogo's flames.
"Ember Insects!" Several purple flying insects with mosquito-like proboscises erupted from the volcano-like part of Jogo's head and rushed at Sakurada Niji.
A homing attack. I needed to detonate them early!
Sakurada Niji flung out Space-Severing Lines and wove them into a net, successfully intercepting Jogo's Ember Insects in midair.
"Interesting! Kehehe!" Using its cursed technique, Jogo created several volcanic vents on the wall behind Sakurada Niji. Fierce flames erupted straight at his back.
The instant Sakurada Niji felt the scorching heat behind him, he used Flash Step to close in on Jogo. While its enormous eye still looked slightly bewildered, he drew his sword and slashed at it with Godspeed.
A streak of black light flashed past. Jogo dodged the slash and unleashed a burst of cursed energy, raising the temperature around it.
Sakurada Niji had to use his cursed technique to fix the surrounding air in place, then instantly escape the area of erupting heat.
Feeling Skyward Support grow warm in his hand, Sakurada Niji's nerves tightened as though he were plunging down a roller coaster.
This was difficult. And I had no idea what Hanami was planning. Even in the original story, its thoughts were the hardest to fathom.
"What are you thinking about, Jujutsu Sorcerer?!" With both hands covered in flames, Jogo hurled fireballs at Sakurada Niji, firing them like a machine gun.
Sakurada Niji hurriedly blocked them with Spatial Barrier. Repeated use of Flash Step would tear his leg muscles, and without Shoko there to support him, he could only use it sparingly.
Spatial Barrier lasted less than three seconds before shattering. Sakurada Niji could only sprint away, dodging the fireballs shooting at him from behind.
The fireballs kept chasing him, leaving him constantly exposed to their roasting heat.
Sakurada Niji charged power in his fingers and fired Framework as he dodged. Its web-like structure spread open in front of Jogo, intercepting all its fireballs and detonating them in midair.
"I'll wear you down until you die, Jujutsu Sorcerer! Let's see how much cursed energy you have!" Jogo laughed wildly as it continued firing at Sakurada Niji.
Tch... Kenjaku had accessed the Jujutsu Association's sorcerer assessment records directly. He knew everything that old man Gakuganji had recorded.
Then these two were already prepared for my Domain Expansion. Hanami might have taken those hostages specifically to stop me from using it.
Sakurada Niji felt his cursed energy steadily draining, while Jogo showed no signs of fatigue.
I'd test it first.
"Domain Expan-" A wave of dizziness interrupted Sakurada Niji's Domain Expansion, followed by Hanami's voice.
Human, do not attempt to expand your domain, or these humans will die.
"...Just what I'd expect from cursed spirits... How despicable." Sakurada Niji stared hard at Hanami as he delivered his verdict.
Then he combined Flash Step with Godspeed and rushed straight at Jogo. With only a thin layer of cursed energy protecting his body, he faced the intense heat radiating from Jogo's cursed energy head-on.
When Sakurada Niji closed in, Jogo hurriedly released Ember Insects to force him away. Sakurada Niji did not dodge. He charged straight into them, slashing repeatedly with Skyward Support and cutting every insect apart. The cursed technique extending from his blade fixed them in place. Only after he had pursued the retreating Jogo out of the area did the immobilized Ember Insects explode in midair, bursting into dazzling sparks.
"Have you gone mad, Jujutsu Sorcerer?!" Jogo retreated again and again. Sakurada Niji's relentless attacks left it scrambling, and it could only keep raising the surrounding temperature in an attempt to force him away.
Sakurada Niji ignored it all, gripping Skyward Support tightly even as the heat turned it red-hot. Despite his cursed energy protection, his palms were scalded into a bloody mess. If the temperature rose any further, contact with the more heat-conductive blade might soon burn his hands to charcoal.
"Cursed spirit! You're going to die!" Sakurada Niji drove Jogo into a corner-or not quite a corner. After he used New Shadow Style Maximum Iaijutsu, his expanded Simple Domain enclosed the surrounding ten meters.
New Shadow Style Maximum Iaijutsu combined the principles of Godspeed, Flash Step, Flash Walk, and Fixing Cursed Technique. The instant his domain touched an enemy, Fixing Cursed Technique would briefly immobilize them. Flash Step combined with Godspeed would then bring Sakurada Niji straight to the target held by his domain, where he would deliver a Godspeed Iaijutsu slash.
In a flash, Sakurada Niji vanished and appeared in front of Jogo. His blade carved a wound that nearly passed through its body and out its back.
What a shame. The blade was too short.
Jogo was horrified. It hurriedly spewed flames at Sakurada Niji, then retreated at speed and began healing itself.
Sakurada Niji entered a state of absolute calm. He used Flash Step to dodge the flames and kept pressing Jogo.
But Jogo had bought itself enough time. Once Sakurada Niji slipped past the flames, he saw Jogo forming a hand sign with both hands.
"Domain Expansion-Coffin of the Iron Mountain!"
As Jogo's words fell, cursed energy erupting from its body enveloped the surrounding space. Mountains manifested from that energy rose from the ground one after another, joining together until they formed an enclosed underground lava lake.
The surrounding heat quickly singed Sakurada Niji's hair into curls.
Sakurada Niji sheathed his sword, assumed a New Shadow Style stance, and defended with New Shadow Style Simple Domain Guard.
He had developed it by combining New Shadow Style Simple Domain with Fixing Cursed Technique: Spatial Barrier. It was his strongest means of countering Domain Expansion without a domain of his own. Within New Shadow Style Simple Domain Guard, the opponent's sure-hit effect disappeared, and even deliberately aimed attacks would be blocked. Its drawbacks were that it could only defend and consumed enormous amounts of energy.
"Jujutsu Sorcerer! Kehehe! How much longer can you last?!" Jogo's wounds had already vanished. Cursed spirits could naturally repair themselves with cursed energy, since their bodies were made of negative energy.
"Take a guess." Sakurada Niji curled his lips at Jogo in mockery.
"Still talking tough-Ember Insects!" Jogo summoned a huge swarm of Ember Insects and began bombarding Sakurada Niji.
I had less than thirty percent of my cursed energy left. If I kept defending against attacks like these, I wouldn't last another thirty seconds. Sakurada Niji's mind was extraordinarily calm. Running out of cursed energy meant death, and he had already calculated when that death would come.
I couldn't just wait to die. Even if I burned to charcoal, I'd cut it one more time.
Sakurada Niji released New Shadow Style Simple Domain Guard and switched to New Shadow Style Godspeed. He wrapped his body in only a thin layer of cursed energy and endured the roasting heat. Its protection kept him from immediately catching fire, but his body began slowly cooking from the outside in.
"Kehehe! Human! Are you starting to run out of cursed energy? Watching you slowly cook is quite an entertaining pastime!" A strange smile spread across Jogo's face. It pulled at its own cheeks with both hands, cruelly watching Sakurada Niji's body cook.
Whoosh!
Jogo's head and the hands pulling at its cheeks were sliced off. Disbelief covered its face as its falling head looked toward Sakurada Niji's previous position, where his image had just vanished.
"An afterimage?!" Jogo's eye widened. With its head separated from its body, its cursed energy could no longer sustain the domain, which finally shattered into fragments that filled the sky.
Sakurada Niji had used Fixing Cursed Technique to temporarily preserve his body's condition, allowing it to hold out until after his Godspeed slash before the damage erupted. That had let him unleash an overcharged iaijutsu strike.
Sakurada Niji collapsed behind Jogo and lay motionless.
Multiplication... So hard to understand... I just couldn't learn things like mathematics...
Lying face-down, Sakurada Niji used all his strength to turn his head and look at Jogo's severed head. Only now did Jogo register what had happened.
"How dare you!!! You insect!!!" Jogo screamed madly, but it had not died. Hanami came to its side, picked up its head, and placed it back on its body.
"Just what I'd expect from a cursed spirit!" Sakurada Niji said admiringly. He was simply praising how convenient a cursed spirit's body was for combat.
"Insect! I'll make you watch me burn those humans to ashes!" Although Jogo had lost cursed energy, Hanami's reattachment of its head meant it no longer had to waste time rebuilding its body.
Jogo, I think we should leave. This sorcerer will die soon. Don't do anything unnecessary, Hanami told Jogo.
"No! Hanami, wouldn't it be wonderful if this brat turned into a cursed spirit with hatred for us in his heart? Don't kill him with cursed energy. I want to wait for him to die naturally and see what he becomes!" Jogo stared at Sakurada Niji with a crazed expression.
"Sorry... But you're worrying... over nothing... Only sorcerers... with regrets left... in their hearts... become cursed spirits. I've killed enough... I'm already... quite fulfilled... Maybe... I'll become a Buddha..." Sakurada Niji used his last strength to draw air into his ravaged body, then force it back out. The outer layers of his body were almost entirely cooked, and inhaling the scorching air had burned his throat and airways.
Multiplication... I'd already touched... the core of cursed energy...! Sakurada Niji smiled, but to Jogo, that smile was the ultimate mockery.
"Fine, human. I admire you. You certainly know how to talk tough. Hanami, bring those humans over. I'll burn them into fertilizer before he dies." Jogo's savage expression vanished, leaving only calm.
"All right." Hanami said nothing more, silently wrapping branches around the three people on the ground: Konno Yoshiko and the man and woman whose names were unknown.
Smack. Jogo slapped the unconscious man awake, then began roasting him.
"AaaAAAA!! A! A!! AAGH!!!!" A scream so agonized it scarcely sounded human tore from the man's mouth.
Sorry... But it wouldn't be long now...! Sakurada Niji stared wide-eyed at the man burning all over, his eyes straining as though they might tear apart.
"Kehehehehehehe! That expression! Wonderful!" Jogo slowly burned the man while savoring Sakurada Niji's expression.
Suddenly, everything around them stopped. Sakurada Niji slowly rose from the ground and gave the man some basic treatment.
Reverse Cursed Technique, learned.
Before you continue