Yuta Okkotsu leaped high into the air. With a tremendous sonic boom, he tore through the air like a cannonball hurtling at high speed and charged out of the encirclement, becoming a blur and leaving only a huge, cracked crater in the ground.
His surging cursed energy and high-speed movement sent an enormous blast of air exploding outward, flinging dead leaves and gravel into the sky.
Momo Nishimiya, who was hovering in midair on her broom, felt a tremendous force surge up from below. The blast hurled her upward as though an invisible hand had slapped her hard. She swayed wildly in midair, her face turning crimson, and nearly tumbled straight down, going from a little girl to little-girl paste.
"Eek-! What the hell-!" Momo Nishimiya clung tightly to the broom beneath her, her short little legs flailing in the air as she tried her best to keep her balance.
On the ground behind him, Kasumi Miwa simply stood there dumbly, letting the powerful wind pressure buffet her face and toss her bangs into disarray.
"Huh-what just happened?" Kasumi Miwa's eyes had completely lost focus, turning into a pair of standard dot eyes.
She had not even seen how Yuta Okkotsu vanished from in front of her. All she heard was a tremendous bang, and then he disappeared right before her eyes, leaving only a huge, cracked crater where she had originally been standing.
That speed... it's already beyond an ordinary Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer. No, even plenty of Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerers aren't that fast. Mai Zenin was utterly shocked.
"Quick-catch him! Don't let him get away!" Noritoshi Kamo was the first to react. He flipped down from the branch and hurriedly called for everyone to continue pursuing the fleeing Yuta Okkotsu.
Once everyone from Kyoto Jujutsu High recovered, they all chased after Yuta Okkotsu in the direction he had fled.
Tokyo's Yuta Okkotsu had tied down every member of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Great, they took the bait. The corners of Yuta Okkotsu's mouth lifted slightly as he secretly rejoiced over Kyoto Jujutsu High's pursuit.
Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, countless large screens showed every corner of the competition grounds, yet Yuta Okkotsu alone was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, Miss Mei Mei, is something wrong with your crows? Why can't I see Yuta?" Satoru Gojo asked Mei Mei beside him.
"Well, the crows go wherever they want. They all have minds of their own, and I can't interfere. Besides, the grounds are so big that there are bound to be blind spots. Yes, that's exactly it." Mei Mei remained unmoved, fielding Satoru Gojo's question without a blush or a skipped heartbeat.
She had indeed accepted money from the higher-ups, who had commissioned her to deliberately avoid Yuta Okkotsu while monitoring the grounds so their plan could proceed.
As for fobbing off Satoru Gojo, what was a little lie for money?
What?
Her conscience?
How could a conscience matter more than money?
"So that's how it is? All right, then." Satoru Gojo had actually already guessed more or less what was going on. Seeing that he would get nothing out of Mei Mei, he could only drop it.
Back to Yuta Okkotsu.
That explosive dash had only been meant to escape the encirclement. Now that he was out, Yuta Okkotsu slowed his running speed slightly, no longer pushing it to the limit as he had earlier. He kept his speed at a level that Kyoto Jujutsu High could just keep up with, all to keep them firmly on the hook.
Seeing Yuta Okkotsu gradually slow down, everyone from Kyoto Jujutsu High felt a surge of delight.
"He's slowing down!" Noritoshi Kamo shouted.
"Everyone, speed up! He can't hold on much longer!"
They thought the astonishing speed Yuta Okkotsu had displayed while breaking out was merely a brief burst of power, that he had already been giving it everything he had and could not sustain it for long. His slowing down now meant he was nearly exhausted.
Little did they know he was just walking the dogs.
Everyone from Kyoto Jujutsu High accelerated again, steadily closing in on Yuta Okkotsu.
Listening to the footsteps behind him grow faster and closer, Yuta Okkotsu showed no trace of panic. He simply maintained his current speed and steadily pressed onward.
Flying through the air on her broom, Momo Nishimiya was the fastest and also the closest to Yuta Okkotsu.
She gathered cursed energy into her broom and activated Tool Manipulation to unleash her strongest attack, sending wind blades infused with cursed energy slicing toward Yuta Okkotsu.
The wind blades struck Yuta Okkotsu and sent him stumbling, throwing his stride into disarray. But a careful observer would have noticed that the wind blades had not even torn the hem of his clothes.
"It worked!!!" Momo Nishimiya was feeling quite pleased that her attack had hindered Yuta Okkotsu's movements.
Seeing this, Noritoshi Kamo immediately adjusted his strategy and issued orders to everyone.
"Everyone, attack Yuta Okkotsu!" As he spoke, he acted without hesitation, raising his bow again and nocking a full five arrows this time.
Under the effects of Blood Manipulation, the five arrows flew from the bowstring, trailing five dark red streaks through the air as they shot off in different directions.
Like living creatures, the arrows constantly corrected their trajectories, flying with precision to surround Yuta Okkotsu.
Faced with five sharp arrows coming from every direction, Yuta Okkotsu was forced to stop. He swiftly drew his sword and began spinning nonstop on the spot like Ultraman.
"Tornado destroys the parking lot-!!!" His blade formed a white ring of light as he spun three full times. All five arrows were knocked away by Yuta Okkotsu's spinning attack and fell helplessly to the ground.
" Hiss, I think I spun myself a little dizzy..." Yuta Okkotsu tapped his somewhat woozy head. A few stars seemed to be circling before his eyes...
Seeing that he had achieved his goal of tying down Kyoto Jujutsu High, Yuta Okkotsu simply stopped running. They were now very far from where the Grade 2 Cursed Spirits had gathered. Presumably, the others had already exorcised most of the cursed spirits. Even if Kyoto Jujutsu High wanted to steal points, it was too late.
Yuta Okkotsu stood where he was, the hem of his uniform fluttering without wind in the cursed energy he emitted, and faced off against Kyoto Jujutsu High.
"He stopped. Has he finally run out of cursed energy?" Noritoshi Kamo murmured.
"Yuta Okkotsu, give up resisting," he urged Yuta Okkotsu. In his view, Yuta Okkotsu already had nowhere left to retreat.
Yuta Okkotsu merely raised his sword, answering him through action.
"Sigh... why keep struggling pointlessly?" Noritoshi Kamo sighed.
His sigh had barely faded when a gunshot rang out, and a bullet tore through the air toward Yuta Okkotsu's back.
Without even turning his head, Yuta Okkotsu swung his sword backward and split the incoming bullet in two.
"Don't give him a chance to breathe!" Noritoshi Kamo shouted.
There was not the slightest gap between their attacks. Before the bullet even hit the ground, Mechamaru raised his palm and abruptly fired the cursed energy cannon he had long been charging within it at him.
Mechamaru now seemed to have become a mobile artillery battery. A barrage of cursed energy beams compressed to the utmost shot toward Yuta Okkotsu, each carrying searing heat, almost forming a dense curtain of light in midair.
Alongside the densely packed, compressed cursed energy blasts came Noritoshi Kamo's homing arrows, trailing streaks of blood.
He no longer held back. One arrow, three, five... nearly every arrow in his quiver was fired within just a few breaths.
Even Mai Zenin, hidden in the shadows, took advantage of the gaps to coldly fire several sneak shots from extremely tricky angles.
Countless attacks poured down like a torrential rain, sweeping toward Yuta Okkotsu from every direction with a terrifying air of destruction.
Yuta Okkotsu did not move. No, more accurately, he already had nowhere to escape.
Whichever direction he fled, he would run straight into an attack. The overwhelming beams and arrows had blocked every angle around him, weaving an impenetrable net of destruction.
The countless destructive attacks struck Yuta Okkotsu, engulfing him completely.
Boom-!!!
With a tremendous bang, a violent explosion erupted where Yuta Okkotsu stood under the barrage.
The blast sent waves of air spreading outward. The powerful shock wave left everyone unsteady on their feet, and Kasumi Miwa had to drive her blade hard into the ground just to barely steady herself.
The explosion turned soil and gravel into clouds of dust that filled the sky, completely blocking everyone's view. None of them could see what was happening at the center of the explosion.
"Did it work? Did we... go a little too far?" Kasumi Miwa asked timidly, gripping her sword.
"It should have worked!!!" Noritoshi Kamo's slightly weak voice came from beside her.
"That's right. Every attack should have hit Yuta Okkotsu in that instant." Mechamaru's robotic voice also drifted over slowly.
"No one could survive taking an attack of that magnitude head-on." Noritoshi Kamo slowly straightened up and spoke with absolute certainty. He firmly believed that Yuta Okkotsu had already been blasted to pieces by their attack.
In other words, their mission was complete.
Kyoto Jujutsu High had won!!!
Before you continue