Absolute Strongest

"Hello, it's me."

"Teacher Satoru Gojo, what's wrong?"

"What? Senior Kento Nanami actually said I turned into a monster?!"

Araki Itsuki, with his striking sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, was on the phone with Satoru Gojo while a slightly tense and uncomfortable Kento Nanami stood beside him.

"How could such a thing happen? I'll take a picture and send it to you."

With a smile on his face, Araki Itsuki then put his arm around the shoulders of the tense Kento Nanami, took a selfie, and sent it to Satoru Gojo on the other end.

"All right, all right, I see it. Nanami just got back to work and might be a bit out of shape, so Araki should cut him some slack."

Hearing Satoru Gojo's reassuring voice from the other end of the line, Kento Nanami went frantic inside: You didn't see a damn thing!

"Okay, then we're going back to work."

Araki Itsuki smiled, hung up the phone, and handed it back to Kento Nanami.

Kento Nanami adjusted his glasses and suddenly said, "Come to think of it, a tiring day has made even an aging middle-aged man like me hallucinate.

I really want to get off work."

"Daijobu daijobu."

Araki Itsuki waved a hand to comfort him.

After being baptized by the energy of the Death Omen Star, Araki Itsuki's physical body and soul no longer existed; instead, he had turned into a kind of energy organism or, rather, a conceptual organism.

In other words, his current body was simply a physical body, a vessel of flesh and blood shaped just to adapt to daily life.

That was why he could alter and repair his flesh at will.

"JoJo, human abilities really do have limits!"

With that exclamation, Araki Itsuki looked back toward Mahito, who was standing there like a fool, muttering endlessly to himself.

"No, no, no!"

"I truly, genuinely touched the soul!"

Suddenly, Mahito pulled out a few Transfigured Humans shrunk down to the size of his palm, crudely and violently transfiguring their souls.

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

Covered by Mahito's cursed energy, those three Transfigured Humans swelled violently, turning into huge branches that slammed toward Araki Itsuki's body.

"Look, look, look!"

"This is the soul I've changed!"

Araki Itsuki sighed, spinning his body to dodge the attack of the Transfigured Humans, and mocked the deranged Mahito:

"Since you are so stubbornly unyielding, let me use the cruelty of reality to crush your faith in the soul!"

The tiles beneath Araki Itsuki's feet cracked. His body vanished instantly, reappearing at Mahito's side. The muscles on his arm tensed up as his iron fist struck like a cannon.

Bang!

Mahito's body smashed against the sewer wall like a tattered rag, stirring up foul mud and crumbling bricks.

"So fast!"

Kento Nanami stood in the distance, astonished by Araki Itsuki's speed.

Mahito healed the injuries on its body and immediately transformed its lower limbs into deer legs, the explosive speed kicking up a gust of wind.

Its body bowed as it lunged straight toward Araki Itsuki's chest, both hands coated with cursed energy with the intent to touch Araki Itsuki's soul.

Yet Araki Itsuki sneered, quickly stepping back to make Mahito's hands grab empty air.

At the same time, he clasped his ten fingers together into a giant hammer and swung it with tremendous momentum toward Mahito, who was now completely exposed from behind.

Bang!

A huge pressure wave whipped up, and Mahito was forcefully redirected by the irresistible, overwhelming strength, slamming straight into the concrete floor beneath Araki Itsuki's feet!

Araki Itsuki shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped down on Mahito's stitch-covered face, twisting its expression with the sole of his shoe.

"I'm telling you, you guy aren't even as good as Jogo."

"Every day you just know how to hide in the sewer, manufacturing the illusion that you're strong by bullying ordinary people."

Mahito desperately pushed up against the shoe sole that Araki Itsuki pressed down like a giant elephant.

"That's not it, I'm just growing, just learning..."

Bang!

Yet before it could fully retort, Araki Itsuki delivered another heavy kick.

The ground beneath his feet cracked even further, a terrifying spiderweb spreading wildly outward.

Kento Nanami cast a startled glance at Araki Itsuki. The Special Grade Cursed Spirit that had made him feel such danger was actually this pathetic in front of him.

"Still, your Idle Transfiguration is pretty good. If you opened a medical beauty shop, business would definitely blow up."

"Mahito, be my dog!"

Seeing the unrestrained, arrogant smile on Araki Itsuki's face, an indelible sense of humiliation exploded deep within Mahito's soul.

Its soul was wailing and screaming, struggling frantically!

It was the leader of the Cursed Spirits!

It was the king of the new humans!

"Don't get too fu-"

Bang!

Before the words finished, a heavy stomp greeted it once more.

"Hahaha!"

"Are you going to be my dog?!"

"Answer me, answer me, answer me!!!"

Araki Itsuki laughed derangedly, his foot moving faster and faster as he continuously trampled Mahito, who was deeply embedded in the ground.

He dismantled its struggles and resistance in a brutal and aggressive manner.

He mercilessly trampled and crushed its dignity and personality.

Watching Araki Itsuki's deranged laughter and the ground continuously collapsing and cracking beneath his feet, Kento Nanami involuntarily took a step back.

It looked like he would have to notify the relevant departments to pay attention to repairs.

Yet just as he grew distracted, several Grade 1 Cursed Spirits suddenly attacked simultaneously from all directions, launching their assault without a moment's hesitation.

Sensing danger, Kento Nanami quickly reined in his focus, rich cursed energy coating his dull blade.

To actually space out in such a dangerous place-was it because of Araki Itsuki's strength that I subconsciously let down my guard?

His eyes quickly captured the incoming attacks and he arrived at a heavy conclusion.

"I can block at most the attacks of three Cursed Spirits at once, but the remaining ones will be fatal!"

"I could clearly have dealt with these Cursed Spirits, yet because I spaced out I lost the initiative, and now I'm being attacked simultaneously... but to die like this is just too-"

A burst of anger surged inside him. This was not the death he wanted; a failure who always gave up halfway, this time he at least wanted to die protecting a comrade!

Right as he plunged into despair, Araki Itsuki's figure suddenly appeared before him.

"Annoying ants."

Following the impatient reprimand, the Cursed Spirits attacking simultaneously from all directions were firmly grabbed by a series of purple-black, intangible giant palms.

They hovered scattered and suspended near Araki Itsuki just like that.

With the contraction of the purple-black giant palms, the physical bodies of those Cursed Spirits visibly collapsed and caved in, emitting painful wails as they struggled desperately.

Snap!

With a crisp snap of Araki Itsuki's fingers, those Grade 1 Cursed Spirits were simultaneously and tyrannically squeezed until they exploded and shattered apart.

Blood and flesh-mud spilled all over the ground.

"Tha-"

Kento Nanami had escaped disaster, but before his words of gratitude could finish, he remembered something and hurried back toward the previous crater.

Sure enough.

Mahito had already vanished.

"Sorry, Araki-kun. The enemy escaped because of my distraction!"

Afterward, looking at the crushed and killed Cursed Spirits, he grew quite puzzled: "Cursed Spirits don't like leaving their birthplace. Why would so many Grade 1 Cursed Spirits gather here?"

"And they even launched a simultaneous attack, with such clever timing."

A figure flashed through Kento Nanami's mind, but that person had already been killed by Satoru Gojo.

Araki Itsuki waved a hand indifferently: "They're just rats in the sewer, no need to care."

"Besides."

The smile on Araki Itsuki's face grew even wilder and more teasing: "Senior Nanami, do you know the cruelty of felines?"

"After catching their prey, felines don't kill them right away. Instead, they go to all lengths to toy with them, play with them, and mock them."

"In the end, amidst the prey's fear and humiliation, they cruelly bite them to death in one go."

Watching the mischievous mockery on Araki Itsuki's face, Kento Nanami felt a bit lost for a moment.

Between him and Mahito, exactly which one of them was the curse?