The shattered school building.
"Araki, what happened?"
Yuji Itadori still couldn't wrap his head around it.
The lively Junpei Yoshino, who had chatted so happily with him, had actually been Araki Itsuki's doing.
Had all those memories and wonderful moments been false, mere illusions?
With Mahito pinned beneath his foot, Araki Itsuki explained what had happened to Yuji Itadori, then concluded, "The information I showed you was real, and so were those experiences."
"Although Sako was playing Junpei Yoshino, he had the same memories and personality. That made him the real Junpei Yoshino."
"I'll introduce you two once we're done here."
"Thank you, Araki!"
Yuji Itadori nodded solemnly. He wanted to be friends with Junpei Yoshino and help that poor boy.
But Mahito was more important right now.
"Killing people purely for your own sick amusement, keeping them in the dark and making them experience the pain of being betrayed by someone they trusted."
Yuji Itadori stepped forward, fury blazing in his heart. His expression twisted, and dense cursed energy gathered around his clenched fists.
"Araki, I'm going to kill this bastard who toys with people's hearts myself."
Beneath Araki's foot, Mahito spat out a mouthful of blood and laughed mockingly. "You're just a brat hiding behind Araki Itsuki, and you dare talk that big?!"
Thud!
Araki Itsuki suddenly stomped down. Brutal force slammed into Mahito's already battered head, driving it deeper into the ground.
"Isn't that a pretty pathetic attempt to provoke us?"
A teasing smile curled Araki Itsuki's lips. "But I'll allow it."
"Mahito, you're a cursed spirit born from humanity's hatred and fear of other humans, with a unique cursed technique that can alter souls. You must think you're special."
"Every kid goes through a phase like that, thinking they're one of a kind.
"Now let me show you how ridiculous you are with a dose of harsh reality."
Araki Itsuki lifted his right foot. Mahito immediately activated his cursed technique, forcibly maintaining the shape of his soul to restore his injured body.
Once his fractured head returned to normal, he braced both hands against the ground and tried to climb out of the hole.
But the moment half his head emerged-
Thud!
Araki Itsuki kicked him right back down.
"Hahaha!"
"I was just messing with you!"
"Haha!"
Mahito's freshly restored, stitched face was kicked back into the hole by Araki Itsuki.
His fingers gripped the broken chunks of concrete in the hole. Veins bulged as he crushed them, sending gray dust spilling down, while his sharp nails dug into the flesh of his palms.
But none of that compared to the humiliation and rage inside him.
He wanted to feed Araki Itsuki through a meat grinder, pulverizing his flesh bit by bit. He wanted to tear out his tendons and bones, eat his flesh, and drink his blood.
Araki Itsuki, I swear I'll kill you!!!
The unrestrained, mocking laughter overhead trampled Mahito's dignity and personhood into the dirt.
"All right, all right. I'll stop teasing you. Come on out."
Only after a long while did Araki Itsuki stop brutalizing Mahito and leave him alone.
Looking at the visibly uncomfortable Yuji Itadori beside him, Araki Itsuki smiled and said:
"Itadori, these curses are rotten to the core. Don't you go soft on them."
Yuji Itadori's gaze darted between the wildly laughing Araki Itsuki and the utterly battered Mahito. He nodded nervously.
I don't care. Whatever Araki Itsuki says is right!
Mahito healed his injuries, grabbed the edge of the hole, and climbed out, looking utterly bedraggled.
The sick, playful smile had vanished from his stitched face. In its place was endless hatred and murderous intent, cold as ancient ice.
"We're the true new humans, pure and unmasked. You're nothing but chaos made up of tangled emotions."
"So what if we're cursed spirits? Does that mean we deserve to die?"
Yuji Itadori was about to argue with him, but Araki Itsuki stopped him.
"Isn't that obvious?"
Mahito fell silent. Since the moment of his birth, he had never felt such intense hatred and fear.
This bastard is evil in its purest form!
Yuji Itadori stepped forward. "Mahito, you take people's lives whenever you please. I'm going to slaughter you!"
The chill on Mahito's face remained unchanged. How could such a paltry degree of hatred compare with his own?
"Don't you mean exorcise me, Jujutsu Sorcerer?"
"If you can do it, go ahead and try."
Yuji Itadori was fast. Burning with rage, he unleashed terrifying strength, crossing the distance between them in an instant and appearing before Mahito.
His cursed-energy-coated fist swung upward toward Mahito's chin.
But Mahito turned his feet into those of a deer and swiftly leaped aside.
At the same time, his cursed technique made his arm swell rapidly as though it were being inflated, transforming it into a giant arm larger than Yuji Itadori's entire body.
Thud!
The enormous arm slammed down from above. Yuji Itadori hurriedly raised both arms to block, but the blow still sent him skidding backward at high speed, leaving clear gouges in the corridor floor.
Fury on his face, Itadori quickly stopped his backward slide, stamped hard against the floor, and charged again.
Mahito's expression, however, remained cold, a stark contrast to his earlier sick, playful smile.
He reshaped himself to sprout a pair of swan wings. Combined with his deer feet, they gave him the advantage in speed, allowing him to dodge Yuji Itadori's attacks with ease.
Thud!
Yuji Itadori's cursed-energy-coated fist smashed into the wall to Mahito's right. Its tremendous force shattered the concrete, spreading countless cracks through it.
"Stop running!"
Meanwhile, Yuji Itadori rapidly considered his options. *He keeps changing his shape with his technique. Grappling moves like locks and throws won't work at all.
In that case, I'll just have to hit him hundreds or thousands of times until I destroy him!
As Mahito dodged, he too searched for a way out. *Simply imitating animal forms doesn't improve my abilities much, and I can't match this guy's hand-to-hand skills.
But the biggest problem is...
Mahito turned his head. Araki Itsuki was holding popcorn he'd found who knew where, watching their fight to the death with relish.
Noticing Mahito's gaze, he even pumped a fist to cheer him on.
My victory conditions are completely different from Sukuna's vessel's. All he has to do is kill me, but I have to deal with him and find a way to escape Araki Itsuki's clutches.
Then I'll use Sukuna's vessel and all the students in this school as hostages to secure a way out!
At that thought, Mahito grew even more frenzied. Even a cornered rabbit would bite, let alone him.
His right arm suddenly transformed into a horrifying mass of chainsaw chains, roaring as he slashed at Yuji Itadori.
Yuji Itadori hurriedly dove out of the way. Behind him, a thick reinforced-concrete pillar was easily sawed apart.
A body of flesh and blood would have been torn apart and ground into pulp in an instant.
Yuji Itadori deftly dodged through the school building, ducking and diving to evade Mahito's terrifying saw-chain attacks.
Crash!
With a deafening crash, the sturdy wall behind him groaned under the strain as a horrifying diamond-shaped gash was carved through it.
Bricks fell away, and Yuji Itadori dropped to the first floor below.
Mahito's expression remained cold as he reshaped his soul even more wildly.
He transformed his entire arm into an enormous, rapidly spinning drill bit and thrust it toward Yuji Itadori, who had just landed.
Yuji Itadori bent at the waist and twisted aside, narrowly dodging the terrifying drill. Then he seized the connecting cord of flesh with both hands, trying to yank Mahito down.
But then-
Shhk!
Countless sharp spikes erupted from the cord of flesh, piercing straight through the hands gripping it!
Yuji Itadori's brows instinctively knitted in pain.
Yet a fierce glint flashed through his eyes. Enduring the pain of his impaled palms, he refused to let go and dragged Mahito down.
Mahito hadn't expected Yuji Itadori to be so reckless. When people touched something sharp, instinct drove their bodies away before they even registered the pain.
Pulled by the cord of flesh, his body flew straight toward Yuji Itadori.
Yuji Itadori clenched his pierced, bloodied fist tightly. Dense cursed energy gathered around it as he smashed it into Mahito's head.
Blergh!
Mahito took the heavy blow and spat out a mouthful of blood, but his counterattack was already prepared.
The flesh of Mahito's abdomen churned like a pool of water, then suddenly transformed into countless sharp, slender spikes and spears of flesh, impaling Yuji Itadori at point-blank range!
With countless fleshy spikes piercing his body, Yuji Itadori opened his mouth wide and coughed up copious blood.
Mahito's expression remained cold, with scarcely any joy visible on his face.
"Let me teach you something I just learned from Araki Itsuki."
"When you're as weak as an ant, never let anger and impulse blind you."
Before you continue