Reverse Cursed Technique

"You really gave me a scare..."

With lightning continuously pouring from his eyes, Hajime Kashimo looked at Hanami with newfound respect.

Being reborn really had been the right decision for him.

After all, he had never known that, besides Sukuna and Satoru Gojo, someone else in this world could force him to use [Mythical Beast Amber]...

Though part of that came down to the embarrassing fact that his own strength was lacking.

"But thanks to you..."

His clawed hand, formed from lightning, reached into the vapor surrounding him, condensed from the thunderclouds.

Under Hanami's incredulous gaze, Hajime Kashimo produced a strangely shaped short blade from somewhere...

[Special Grade Cursed Tool: Inverted Spear of Heaven]

Shhk-!

The sharp blade sliced through flesh.

As Hajime Kashimo seized the Inverted Spear of Heaven and stabbed himself, its effect forcibly terminated [Mythical Beast Amber], the forbidden technique he could use only once in his lifetime, whose activation should have been completely irreversible...

The lightning faded, and Hajime Kashimo put the Inverted Spear of Heaven away again.

Hanami stared at Hajime Kashimo, who stood before it with a gaping hole in his chest and blood trickling from his mouth, utterly unable to fathom what he was playing at.

Whatever the case, that feeling is gone now...

He's incredibly weak right now. I have to kill him immediately!!

Once Mythical Beast Amber was deactivated, Hanami also sensed the terrifying pressure and vast cursed energy disappearing from Hajime Kashimo's body.

Without the slightest hesitation, Hanami transformed its hands into a pair of sharp wooden blades and charged straight at Hajime Kashimo, intending to slit his throat in a single stroke.

Even if he had used some special means to survive its [Flower Offering: Falsehood], injuries that severe surely left Hajime Kashimo unable to fight again...

Watching Hajime Kashimo remain completely motionless as it closed the distance, Hanami grew increasingly certain of its judgment.

"You really are strong."

"What a shame."

The sharp wooden blade sliced through Hajime Kashimo's throat.

As blood sprayed out in an arrowlike stream, Hanami declared its victory:

"I won, jujutsu-"

BOOM--!!!!

A heavy fist wreathed in lightning slammed squarely into Hanami's face.

"That's the third hit."

Hajime Kashimo's voice rang out, and Hanami stared incredulously at his slit throat.

But where was the cut it had just inflicted on Hajime Kashimo's smooth neck?!

Between them, there was only a surging bolt of lightning, flickering with blue-green arcs...

The accumulated positive and negative charges had met the cursed technique's activation conditions.

A sure-hit lightning strike would erupt inside Hanami!!

"Thank you for the wonderful performance."

Blue-violet lightning exploded from Hanami's abdomen. The unavoidable, unstoppable, lethal strike aimed straight at [Flower Offering] on its left arm, piercing half its chest and tearing the cursed-energy-infused Flower Offering in two.

Crimson sap mingled with the purple-black blood unique to cursed spirits dripped onto the pristine sea of flowers.

Before Hanami could howl in pain, Hajime Kashimo's next heavy punch smashed through its cheek...

Bam-shhk-!!

The devastating blow sent Hanami flying, its entire body convulsing as it crashed onto the ground of its own domain.

Though it was the domain's master, all it could do now was clutch the torn left half of its body and lie helplessly in the sea of flowers, stained red by its blood.

"Reverse... Cursed Technique..."

It stared at the positive cursed energy coating his hands, continuously spilling outward and giving off wisps of vapor.

Hanami finally understood why Hajime Kashimo had survived that supposedly fatal blow-

He had mastered Reverse Cursed Technique!

And he could even output it externally!!!

"That really was a close call... though you did make me work up a little sweat."

"You lived up to my expectations, but there's no reason to keep you alive anymore."

Hajime Kashimo rolled his neck and loosened up his body. Roughly two-fifths of his cursed energy reserves remained.

It was not much, but it was clearly enough to deal with Hanami, who was gravely injured and no longer able to fight.

Yet just as he lifted his foot and took a step forward, Hanami, who should no longer have been able to use its cursed technique, suddenly raised a hand:

"[Illusory Realm: Fear]!"

The sea of flowers beneath his feet released a wave of incredibly gentle energy in an instant.

Caught off guard, Hajime Kashimo found the scenery before him completely transformed...

"This is..."

Ruined city buildings surrounded him, with chaotic slash marks across the battlefield and raging fluctuations of cursed energy threaded with electricity...

And there stood [Ryomen Sukuna] in Hanami's place, his four arms folded as he stared arrogantly at him...

Hajime Kashimo had returned to the battlefield where he had died-

[Shinjuku]

"Cough, cough... it worked..."

Struggling up from the ground and rapidly repairing its mangled body with cursed energy, Hanami coughed up two mouthfuls of blood and let out a heavy sigh.

Seeing Hajime Kashimo frozen in place, it knew its cursed technique had taken effect.

As long as that illusion of fear holds him up... I can...

The tree stumps used to transport Hanami's body sprouted beneath its feet. In just a few seconds, it could use them to travel a great distance and escape this harbinger of calamity's attacks.

It truly could not understand. Who exactly was this jujutsu sorcerer who had suddenly appeared, completely absent from Kenjaku's intelligence?

Could he be outside help brought in by Satoru Gojo?!

"Cough, cough-cough, cough..."

It clutched its chest and coughed violently.

Whatever the case, Hanami had survived...

Hadn't it?

Surging cursed energy suddenly gathered around Hajime Kashimo's hands.

Before Hanami could begin to understand what was happening, Hajime Kashimo had already charged his right fist and driven it straight toward its face:

Space warped, and black lightning surged forth-

Faced with [Ryomen Sukuna], the person he feared most deep in his heart, Hajime Kashimo answered with a [Black Flash] powered by his maximum cursed energy output.

"Black Flash!!!"

The instant the Black Flash, imbued with space-distorting power, black lightning, and Hajime Kashimo's own electrical cursed energy, struck Hanami's face, the entire outer shell of the domain it had constructed from its cursed energy and barrier shattered with a sharp crack!

The shattered domain shell vanished into the air like Hanami's broken resolve. Though the grievously wounded Hanami escaped using the tree stumps that completely covered its body, it no longer had the strength to teleport again.

The cursed energy left on the ground would give Hajime Kashimo the perfect trail to track it down-

Death was the inevitable outcome of its defeat as a member of the cursed spirits' side...

Hanami closed its eyes, and its thoughts sank into slumber along with its consciousness...

In the final instant of its life, the figures of its three companions flashed before its eyes...