Yuta Okkotsu, who had been surrounded on all sides, suddenly vanished from the center of the battlefield the next instant.
In his place stood Aoi Todo.
Aoi Todo's towering figure abruptly appeared on the battlefield, while Yuta Okkotsu had somehow moved to its edge, far from the encirclement.
No one had seen clearly what had happened.
"Huh???" Yuta Okkotsu still hadn't processed what had happened. He looked at himself, then at Aoi Todo in the center of the battlefield, and let out a puzzled sound.
"Was that... Todo activating his cursed technique?" Noritoshi Kamo murmured, already having a guess.
Aoi Todo had activated Boogie Woogie, successfully swapping his position on the battlefield with Yuta Okkotsu's in an instant.
The others from Kyoto Jujutsu High also looked in confusion at Aoi Todo, who had appeared in the center of the battlefield. What exactly was he trying to do?
"I told you, Yuta Okkotsu is someone I've acknowledged. I won't allow underhanded tactics against him. Five of you ganging up on him alone-are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Aoi Todo's voice was so loud that it shook the leaves off the surrounding trees in a frenzy.
The Kyoto Jujutsu High group nearly started cursing.
Seriously, man, do you even hear what you're saying?
Who was surrounding whom here? If he'd arrived any later, all five of them might have ended up flat on the ground.
"I remember you saying that you wouldn't use underhanded tactics against Yuta Okkotsu. What does something you, Aoi Todo, said have to do with me, Noritoshi Kamo?" Noritoshi Kamo still hadn't given up and tried to reason with Aoi Todo. Unfortunately, Aoi Todo had no interest in listening to reason right now.
"What? Are you making a fool of me? I don't care about any of that. If you keep getting in my way here, I'll kill you." Aoi Todo fixed his eyes on Noritoshi Kamo with an extremely vicious expression.
Aoi Todo raised his head and shouted at everyone in the encirclement.
"Listen up, all of you! I don't care what you were doing just now, but if you still plan to stay here and get in my way, I'll kill every last one of you! If you don't want to die, get the hell away!" Aoi Todo's roar echoed endlessly through the valley. His fierce gaze, coupled with his six-foot-three frame and muscles that formed a demonic face across his back, made him look overwhelmingly intimidating.
"As for you, Yuta Okkotsu." Looking at Yuta Okkotsu a short distance away, Aoi Todo suddenly reached up and tore his shirt apart like paper, revealing his muscular body.
"Let's have a real man's one-on-one, my friend." Aoi Todo laughed and pointed at Yuta Okkotsu, then took his opening stance, his eyes filled with fighting spirit.
Across from him, Yuta Okkotsu had just spent so long taking a one-sided beating from Tokyo Jujutsu High that he, too, was now desperate for a thoroughly satisfying fight.
"Osu!" Yuta Okkotsu called back to Aoi Todo.
Then he returned the tachi he had seized earlier to Kasumi Miwa.
"Here's your sword back. Sorry, I didn't mean to." As he spoke, Yuta Okkotsu even bowed deeply to Kasumi Miwa, very politely.
"Yay!" Kasumi Miwa beamed as she got her sword back. If she had really lost it, it would surely have made her already strained finances even worse.
Afterward, he casually took off his other sword and set it aside, coated his fists in cursed energy, and took a fighting stance just like Aoi Todo.
"Come on!!!"
As those words fell, without relying on any outside power, the two male bodies collided like wild beasts in the open-air valley, beginning a contest of pure strength, every punch striking flesh.
Facing Yuta Okkotsu, whom they simply couldn't beat to death, the Kyoto Jujutsu High group had already been thinking of retreating. Now, Aoi Todo's outburst gave them an entirely legitimate reason to withdraw.
"All right, time to run."
Mai Zenin immediately grabbed Kasumi Miwa by the collar and started running away without the slightest hesitation.
We're out of here, guys~~~~ We're out of here~~~~
"Hey-Mai, are we really just running away like this? Isn't that a little rash?" Kasumi Miwa said, stumbling as Mai forcibly dragged her along.
"What else would we do? Wait for Todo to catch us and beat us up? Besides, we're not the only two running. Look for yourself." Mai Zenin turned her head slightly as she spoke to Kasumi Miwa.
Kasumi Miwa looked back toward where they had been fighting. Only Yuta Okkotsu and Aoi Todo remained there now.
Oh, no, there was also that stubborn fool, Noritoshi Kamo.
Mechamaru and Momo Nishimiya had also decisively fled the battlefield the moment Aoi Todo finished speaking.
Since Momo Nishimiya was flying, her retreat was especially fast. By now, she had nearly flown out of sight.
Meanwhile, Noritoshi Kamo, who was still on the battlefield, had wanted to discuss their next move with his nearby teammates after his attempt to talk Aoi Todo around failed.
But when he turned around, he discovered that there was no one left behind him. His teammates had long since fled.
A gust of wind swept up a few withered leaves. He opened his mouth, but couldn't say another word.
The taut thread of Noritoshi Kamo's composure finally snapped. He drew a deep breath and held it in for a long while, but in the end, he could only flee the battlefield like his teammates.
Fuck the mission. How could he get anything done with this bunch of vermin?
Meanwhile, seeing this, Kasumi Miwa simply stopped looking back. Holding her recovered sword tightly to her chest, she continued fleeing with Mai Zenin.
"Uh... all right, then."
"That's more like it... This Yuta Okkotsu is too much of a monster. Since we can't beat him, we'll switch to someone easier. That Maki Zenin, for instance, is a pretty good choice. She's just a Grade 4 Sorcerer, weak as anything. For two Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerers like us, taking her down will be a piece of cake."
"Huh? Maki? Can the two of us really do it? Just looking at her stance, I get the feeling she's terrifyingly strong." Kasumi Miwa swallowed. When Maki and Mai had traded insults that morning, she had hidden behind Mai Zenin. The murderous aura Maki had exuded in her fury, as though she might charge up and slash anyone in sight at any moment, had left a deep psychological scar on her. She still hadn't forgotten it.
"Of course we can."
"Maki? She's just small fry."
"An ordinary person who doesn't even have cursed energy, needs glasses just to see cursed spirits, and can only swing cursed tools around wildly. After struggling for all these years, she's still Grade 4. I don't get why she even wants to be a jujutsu sorcerer. The two of us can just go beat her up and take her down." Mai Zenin waved a hand as she spoke, a smile still on her lips, as though she didn't care at all.
Kasumi Miwa looked at Mai Zenin. Although her tone was utterly unconcerned, she could sense that whenever Mai mentioned Maki, her eyes would involuntarily darken.
"Mai, you seem to really hate your sister, but you also seem to know her especially well..."
"Ummm... can I ask why?" After hesitating for a while, Kasumi Miwa finally voiced the question she had been holding in for so long.
Mai Zenin fell silent. She didn't answer immediately; her pace merely slowed a little. After a while, she said softly:
"It's all her fault. She's the one who left me all alone." Her voice was very quiet, scattering as soon as the wind touched it, yet there seemed to be something very heavy hidden behind it.
She offered no further explanation and simply kept running into the distance, hoping to find some trace of Maki Zenin.
Before you continue