"Night Guy!!!"
The effect of "Mythical Beast Amber" was powerful and straightforward: it transformed his cursed energy and applied it to his own body, granting him a physique beyond human limits.
The price of this powerful cursed technique was that his body would disintegrate once the technique ended.
Sukuna had now taken over Megumi Fushiguro's body. Faced with the sudden kick, he immediately reinforced himself with cursed energy.
But in the original story, Sukuna had needed the "Bath" just to barely suppress Megumi Fushiguro's soul. He had even needed to kill Tsumiki Fushiguro to crush Megumi Fushiguro's soul completely.
Now, he had the will but not the power. With his cursed energy output insufficient, he took the full force of Hajime Kashimo's strike under "Mythical Beast Amber."
The impact boomed like a bomb going off.
Sukuna flew straight into the middle of a building, and countless other structures collapsed in his wake.
Hana Kurusu's eyes nearly popped out at the sight. She had been about to embrace her beloved Megumi, only for some peashooter to suddenly jump out and interrupt her!
"You bastard! How dare you hurt my Megumi!!"
Hana Kurusu shouted furiously.
Hajime Kashimo's appearance had now changed completely. Horns sprouted from his mutated body, electricity gleamed in his eyes, and amber lightning patterns covered his skin. Blazing lightning swirled around him as he shed his human form and took on the appearance of a mythical beast.
He merely rolled his eyes at the noisy Hana Kurusu. "Where did this quacking duck come from? What a pain."
"No one gets to interrupt this fight. Stay out of the way!"
Hana Kurusu had already been angry, and now her face flushed with fury.
"Megumi is the most important person in my life!"
"Jacob's Ladder!"
Angel's goal had always been to drive out these incarnated ancient sorcerers.
Her primary objective, however, was still to eliminate the Fallen-Sukuna.
So taking out Hajime Kashimo along the way was no big deal.
But in his current state, Hajime Kashimo's speed and strength had already reached their peak.
Without hesitation, he kicked Hana Kurusu, Angel's host.
By the time Kinoshita arrived, all he saw was Roku transformed into a mythical beast and Hana Kurusu flying away.
"Seriously, bro?"
Angel was the most important part of Kinoshita's plan. After all, her "Jacob's Ladder" dealt true damage plus critical hits against Sukuna.
And you just kicked her away?
Kinoshita covered his face, unable to bear looking at this guy.
That was exactly the sort of thing Roku would do.
"Dismantle!!!"
As the sudden slash came, Hajime Kashimo instantly ducked, looking toward Sukuna with delight.
"I knew you wouldn't die that easily!"
"Ryomen... Sukuna!"
Although Sukuna was using "Reverse Cursed Technique" to heal himself, Fushiguro's soul was resisting, making the process extremely inefficient.
He glowered at Hajime Kashimo, looking as though he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
"Sukuna, everyone says you're the strongest."
"I want to ask you: are the strongest always lonely?"
Hajime Kashimo stood atop the building, his form still continuously changing and refining itself.
Sukuna looked at Hajime Kashimo with irritation and said flippantly, "Listen, bro..."
"Are you even strong?"
"Heh...!" Hajime Kashimo seemed quite satisfied with that answer. His figure flickered, and he vanished instantly.
Amid the explosive crashes of their fists colliding, another building was destroyed.
Kinoshita constructed an Exoskeleton capable of clinging to surfaces, but even going all out, he still failed to catch up to Hana Kurusu.
Fortunately, when he saw that Itadori had arrived and caught Hana Kurusu securely, Kinoshita finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Itadori! Thank goodness you're all right!" Kinoshita called out in greeting.
In this timeline, Kinoshita had fought Mahito alongside Itadori and Todo, so he trusted Itadori reasonably well.
Besides, Itadori himself was straightforward by nature.
He immediately called back, "Mr. Kinoshita! You're all right too! I was really worried about you!"
"I'd love to catch up on everything that's happened, but this is an emergency..." Kinoshita scratched his head and got straight to the point. "We need your strength and Maki Zenin's."
Kinoshita pointed at the two figures fighting fiercely above the building.
"Right now, Hajime Kashimo is fighting Sukuna. Since Sukuna only just took over Fushiguro's body, his soul is unstable. In other words, he's in an extremely vulnerable state."
"As long as..."
Kinoshita stopped halfway through.
Itadori asked in confusion, "Maki? She's not here, though?"
Kinoshita froze. It seemed the timeline was still somewhat different from what he had expected.
Although the First Barrier now had a top-tier fighter like Kinji Hakari gathered within it, Maki, on the other hand, had actually failed to make it here.
"Never mind! As long as Hana Kurusu can..."
He had yet to finish.
A mouth appeared on Hana Kurusu's body. It belonged to Angel, the ancient cursed technique from a thousand years ago that shared Hana Kurusu's body.
"No. Hana Kurusu is dying. That guy's kick pulverized her internal organs," Angel explained.
Kinoshita covered his face.
That made sense.
Even Sukuna couldn't take a kick from Roku in his "Mythical Beast Amber" state without suffering.
Even if Roku had held back, Hana Kurusu was a jujutsu sorcerer with little physical prowess. It was already fortunate that she hadn't died on the spot.
"All right, then Hana Kurusu can't join the fight. If we can't kill Sukuna here, we'll still need you to rescue Satoru Gojo," Kinoshita reasoned calmly.
Soon, the two figures above the building smashed apart again.
Sukuna grimaced as he suppressed Fushiguro's attempts to resist inside him. Looking around, he saw that the group from Jujutsu High had arrived.
Kinji Hakari stared at Sukuna in midair and muttered incredulously, "You've got to be kidding...!"
"Is that the kid who's the head of the Zenin Clan?"
"What am I supposed to do about legalizing my casino!?"
At that thought, Kinji Hakari frowned and instinctively searched for Kinoshita.
After all, Kinoshita had said he had a plan.
"I'm out of ideas. All we can do is see whether Hajime Kashimo can beat Sukuna," Kinoshita told Kinji Hakari.
"What?!" Kinji Hakari's temper flared immediately. "You fucking played me?"
Seeing the two about to get into it, Panda stepped between them. "Don't fight. Sukuna's already here. We can only take things one step at a time."
"Speaking of which, isn't Sukuna about to lose?" Kugisaki asked, watching Sukuna get beaten back again and again.
Hajime Kashimo's "Mythical Beast Amber" was certainly overwhelming, and he had seized the initiative by landing that flashy flying kick squarely on Sukuna.
If only it really were that simple...
Kinoshita licked his lips and pointed toward the sky. "Sukuna's subordinate is here."
At his words, everyone looked up at the sky.
It was Uraume, the little femboy who was neither sweet-smelling nor soft.
"Mr. Kinji Hakari, please stop him!" Kinoshita urged anxiously. "Roku can't withstand Uraume's attacks!"
Before you continue