Round two

Xia Xia looked perfectly composed, but in truth, the pressure had become overwhelming. He had clearly given it everything he had, yet Fate's Call had still been forced out of him in an instant.

Raikiri automatically activated Mythical Beast Amber upon receiving fatal damage, allowing its wielder to turn his body into a storm of cursed energy and cling to life, but...

Just one hit, and I was already going to die?

Yorozu, you really are one sweet woman.

Wrapped in lightning, Xia Xia had nothing left in his heart but admiration and murderous intent.

He considered the possibility of trading his life for hers.

Getting out alive was already impossible. What came next was simple: he just had to cut loose and raise hell.

Why not say something?

"Is that all you've got, Yorozu?"

He laughed wildly.

"So weak, so hollow. How could such feeble power ever make Sukuna fall for you?"

"Looks like romance isn't the only thing you're a failure at."

Good. My body was searching for a way to escape, but my will rejected that line of thought.

It worked beautifully.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

His inexplicable remarks left Yorozu briefly stunned. She had never expected him to run his mouth even on the verge of death.

"I said, this is all you amount to!"

The Demon Blade, wreathed in lightning, finally regained its former glory. Hajime Kashimo's power restored it to its true peak, and Xia Xia sliced down the flying liquid metal, leaving it to wither away.

Sweep, Prairie-Fire Slash, North Wind, Swallow Returns, Seeing One's True Nature, Horizontal Waltz, Dual-Aspect Ambush...

Xia Xia counted the attacks in his mind.

Yorozu was bleeding.

These seven slashes were different from the earlier ones. Imbued with lightning-attribute cursed energy, they cut through the liquid metal enveloping her and rendered her cursed energy defenses useless.

Yet her powerful body still hadn't suffered any injuries severe enough to hinder her movements. This veteran had one hell of a health bar.

At that moment, Xia Xia truly displayed his special grade strength. His fighting style was somewhat ugly, but Mythical Beast Amber would not betray its wielder's resolve to offer up his life. It greatly amplified his power.

His fifteenth attack was complete, and every strike had inflicted effective damage.

Then the next one...

The bonus trait "Shatter" activated.

[Shatter: After every 15 instances of effective damage you deal, your next attack has a chance to critically hit, ignoring the target's armor and causing penetration, then resetting.]

Once he swung this sword, his cursed energy would be exhausted. It wasn't that Xia Xia lacked sufficient reserves, but that he was ready to stake everything on his next strike.

I had to kill her.

To get a worthwhile return from this simulation, this slash had to kill her and fulfill the condition.

To reach victory, I would...

"I hereby make a binding vow."

From Xia Xia's mouth, filled with blood and lightning, came a voice as terrifying as a vengeful ghost.

He had always felt that the binding vows he made in simulations lacked imagination. If it were up to him, he would be far more ruthless:

"My soul goes to Warhammer!"

"My flesh goes to Fourth Sister!"

"I will die after this battle!"

"With that as the price, I make this binding vow: amplify my next attack, consume everything I have, and grant it the power to cleave space in that instant, the power to be unavoidable and strike without fail."

After finishing those words, Xia Xia felt unbearable malice and terror. He was being watched. Beings from the dark abyss and the filthy sea of souls had turned their gaze upon him.

Just as when he had risked his life to kill Izumino, he indulged his twisted sense of humor and recited in his mind:

Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne.

Crimson madness grew like rampant weeds, yet his heart remained clear and pure. In the instant before death, Xia Xia saw the sight Amabuki Xia Xia had once seen.

A maple tree laden with red leaves.

Every leaf upon it was a human life. Human lives were like withered leaves swaying in the wind, destined sooner or later to fall.

Death was the law of nature.

"Tell me, does anything in this world endure forever?"

[Demon-Repelling Edge • Maximum Technique • Maple]

Yorozu's body gradually became transparent, with a scarlet dotted line across it.

Please cut along the dotted line.

Xia Xia swung his sword.

His pale eyes could no longer see. Otherwise, he would have seen the faint blue glow coating his blade, delicate as fireflies on a summer night.

Not as Amabuki Xia Xia, but as Xia Xia, he once again unleashed the swordsmanship that could sever causality.

Yorozu saw only blank white before her, followed by a thunderous roar loud enough to deafen her.

A raging torrent swept through; the towering edifice teetered.

There was no dodging it.

Had it worked? Bloody marks had already begun appearing on Yorozu's body. That was the terror of this killing stroke: its slash had reached its target before the sword was even swung.

The Warp was sacred, wasn't it?

Someone who set out today had already died over twenty years ago, then reached their destination forty years later.

How would you face a death that occurred in the past, present, and future, all at the same instant?

"Commendable."

[Perfect Sphere]

Yorozu created precisely that.

Even though, for some unknown reason, all the cursed energy in her body had become difficult to control, even though her injured fingers couldn't perform delicate adjustments, she was still herself. She, of all people, could do it.

An object with an absolutely smooth surface did not exist in this world.

But wasn't cursed energy something that created miracles? As long as she wanted to do it, she could.

What appeared before Yorozu was a black moon.

Because of its unique nature, light was swallowed upon striking it, never able to reach the reality of reflection.

Although that earth-shattering sword light split it apart in less than a second, it had still cushioned the blow.

Although Yorozu had been cut through the waist, she still had a chance to heal herself with Reverse Cursed Technique.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Yorozu had been lucky after all.

Her body hadn't been completely severed in two. A barely perceptible layer of flesh still connected the halves.

Relying on that tenuous connection, she repaired her body with the last of her cursed energy, then looked at the corpse on the ground with complicated feelings.

What a shame.

He had been brave, but unfortunately, he was only mortal.

Before meeting Sukuna, she might have found him dazzling. But having witnessed someone as perfect as Lord Sukuna, a reasonably impressive man like this could only serve as a backdrop.

"I suppose I'll remember you for a while, until I see Lord Sukuna again and forget you."

With those words, Yorozu tore open the domain and left.

Then, after flying some distance through the sky,

she crashed to the ground.

[Shatter: After every 15 instances of effective damage you deal, your next attack has a chance to critically hit, ignoring the target's armor and causing penetration, then resetting.]

Xia Xia had always been lucky.

The [Perfect Sphere], capable of blocking all physical attacks, was indeed an insurmountable barrier for him. But this attack had fortunately triggered the effect and landed a critical hit. I said it ignored armor and dealt true damage. Are you deaf?

The corpse on the ground silently sank into a scarlet vortex, leaving not even bones behind.

He seemed to have been smiling when he died.

Victory need not be mine, but I would surely have a part in it.

With Yorozu dead, Sukuna never received his signature weapon. But that didn't seem to affect anything...?

That was not the case.

This time, Sukuna was missing a finger.

That despicable man had stolen one of his fingers.

The man had died, but the finger had vanished with him.

Even though Sukuna had still taken advantage of Megumi Fushiguro's mental collapse to successfully possess his young body,

a missing finger was still a missing finger.

Moreover, the Ten Shadows Technique he acquired by taking Megumi Fushiguro's body was permanently missing one of its Divine Dogs.

An incomplete Sukuna and an incomplete Ten Shadows Cursed Technique faced the greatest crisis of their lives-the Modern Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer, Satoru Gojo.

Even though he used a binding vow to briefly make his body whole, that tiny missing fragment meant he was doomed to fall short of his peak.

It was already too late.

Time soon advanced to December 24.

That was also the day of Satoru Gojo and Sukuna's decisive battle.

The showdown between the strongest sorcerer in history and the strongest sorcerer of the modern age officially began.

The man with azure eyes pulled off the black cloth covering them. Let him show off a little longer; his students were all watching.

Would he win?

He would.

"Go get him, you blindfolded idiot."

"You have to win, Mr. Gojo."

The strongest man's answer to all their cheers was a single confident word:

"Okay."

As Ijichi raised the barrier, the terrifying cursed energy of the strongest began to blot out the sky in the direction of Shibuya.

"Nine ropes."

"Polarization."

"Crows and Declaration."

"Between Front and Back."

[Hollow Technique: Purple]

A two-hundred-percent Hollow Purple became Satoru Gojo's opening statement.

"To avoid any misunderstandings, let me make this clear first-you're the challenger in this fight."

That was what Satoru Gojo said.

"The challenger?"

"All you did was land a sneak attack."

"Now..."

"I'll start by peeling off your scales!"

Sukuna burned with fighting spirit as cursed energy began gathering in his hands.

"Then why are you still wearing that face? Are you hoping I'll go easy on you?"

Looking at the face of Megumi Fushiguro that Sukuna wore, Satoru Gojo gave his reply.

[Domain Expansion • Malevolent Shrine!]

[Domain Expansion • Unlimited Void!]

"Furube, yura yura!"

"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga!!!"

When Blue and Red collided, they produced Hollow Purple, an eruption of imaginary mass.

But the Red in the air wasn't particularly fast before detonating, just like the one that had circled the battlefield before hitting Sukuna earlier. As long as Mahoraga reached Blue before Red did, his completed adaptation would allow him to easily erase the technique and prevent Blue and Red from colliding.

Already very close to Blue, Mahoraga had begun thinking, Mission accomplished, when Satoru Gojo unexpectedly used Blue's attraction to appear directly between him and Blue!

Satoru Gojo didn't even need to select the technique's target. Mahoraga's adaptation to Blue left him completely unaffected by its attraction. An ability that had been nearly impossible to counter for a thousand years had now become the key to Satoru Gojo turning the battle around!

Mahoraga held the Sword of Extermination across his body, but still couldn't block Satoru Gojo's cursed-energy-infused punch. Sukuna finally returned to the battlefield at that moment and assumed the opening stance of Piercing Blood, intending to use a jet of water fired from his hands to detonate Red before the two techniques collided.

Satoru Gojo instantly appeared before Sukuna, but his fist couldn't stop the Piercing Blood that had already been fired!

Watching the jet of water about to hit Red, Sukuna still found time to taunt his opponent for being "too slow," only for Satoru Gojo to begin chanting again!

"Phase." "Twilight." "Eye of Wisdom." The hurried, brief incantation instantly restored Blue's output. Its tremendous attraction directly diverted the water aimed at Red, and moments later, Blue absorbed it at full power! An incantation somewhat unfamiliar to Sukuna also rang across the battlefield.

"Nine Steel." "Polarization." "Crows and Declaration." "Between Front and Back." Now, no one on the battlefield could stop Blue and Red from drawing together...

"Hollow Purple."

Sukuna still wanted to do something.

But he no longer could.

Had losing a single finger affected him that much? He didn't know, but there was nothing he could do anymore.

The King of Curses of ages past turned to dust in despair.

This time, the victor was Satoru Gojo.

With those azure eyes, the strongest sorcerer of the modern age crossed beyond the shadow that had lingered through a thousand years of history.

Now, time for some dessert.