Because You're Weak

Megumi Fushiguro rode on Nue's back, his soaked black hair plastered to his forehead, rain blurring his vision.

He ordered Nue to climb rapidly, trying to gain control of the skies-even the slightest advantage would do.

But Sukuna's speed exceeded his comprehension.

The figure on the ground below one second appeared directly above him the next.

"What!?" Fushiguro's pupils contracted.

Sukuna spread both arms in midair, a cruel smile on his face.

"Too slow."

Before his words had faded, both fists rained down.

Every punch carried terrifying cursed energy, tearing through the curtain of rain and slamming into Nue's back.

The shikigami let out a piercing wail and pitched toward the ground.

Fushiguro was jolted off Nue's back, falling like a kite with its string cut.

He barely managed to adjust his posture in midair, forming hand seals again-

"Great Serpent!"

A giant python burst through the water from the shadows, opening its enormous maw to bite Sukuna in midair.

The timing was precise: the very instant Sukuna could not move in the air.

Caught in the python's jaws, Sukuna braced its mouth open with both hands and studied the shikigami with interest.

"This power..." He tilted his head. "Interesting. Someone in your era actually knows how to use this cursed technique?"

In that instant of distraction, Nue steadied itself again, caught the falling Fushiguro, and gently set him on the ground.

The moment Fushiguro landed, he pointed at Sukuna. "Nue, attack!"

Nue let out a shrill cry, arcs of electricity dancing over its body.

It dived like an arrow, hurtling with the power of lightning toward Sukuna, who was wrapped in the python's coils.

BOOM!!!

Lightning collided with cursed energy in a burst of blinding light. The rain evaporated in the heat, and white mist spread.

But when the haze cleared, Sukuna was still smiling.

Not a scratch on him.

"Hmm..." Sukuna looked down at his chest. The gruesome hole was still there.

"A fine ability, but its user is too weak."

He suddenly exerted force with both arms.

Rrrip!

The giant python coiled around him had its head torn apart by brute force.

The shikigami screamed soundlessly, its body gradually dissipating.

Sukuna dropped from the air, both feet landing on the ground and splashing up muddy water.

He looked at Fushiguro, all four eyes narrowing at once.

"Done playing?"

The next second, he appeared before Fushiguro.

His speed was so extreme that Fushiguro's eyes could not track his movements at all.

A fist slammed into his abdomen.

"Ugh-!" Fushiguro doubled over, his organs feeling as though they had shifted, gastric fluid mixed with blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

It was not over.

The second punch struck his cheek.

The sound of bones breaking was clearly audible.

The third punch hit his chest, breaking his ribs.

The fourth punch, the fifth, the sixth...

He battered Fushiguro from the east wall to the west wall, from the ground into the air, then smashed him back down.

Utter domination.

Overwhelming strength.

Fushiguro could barely manage to coat his body in cursed energy, forming the most basic defense.

But against Sukuna's attacks, that defense was as thin as paper.

Damn it... this isn't working at all.

I'm still too weak, and too naive.

Through the excruciating pain, Fushiguro realized his own powerlessness.

He had thought he was already strong. He had thought that with the Ten Shadows Technique, with Nue and Great Serpent, he could at least buy time, at least...

But he had been wrong.

Before a true monster, he was still a child.

Sukuna's final punch drove Fushiguro into a wall.

The concrete wall cracked, and Fushiguro lay embedded in it, blood streaming from his head as his consciousness began to blur.

The rain kept falling, washing the blood from his face.

Sukuna walked up to him and looked down at him as though regarding a dying fish.

"Is that it?" Sukuna tilted his head, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "You have a stronger trump card, don't you? I can feel it."

Fushiguro opened his eyes, his vision already somewhat blurred.

But he knew what Sukuna meant.

Mahoraga.

The most powerful, most dangerous, and most uncontrollable shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique.

Once he summoned it, only death awaited him.

He must never use it unless he was in a desperate situation.

And now, he was!

Fushiguro raised his hands with difficulty, crossing them before his chest.

"Furube, Yura Yura..."

He began chanting the incantation.

Sukuna's eyes lit up. He felt it, but just as the incantation was about to be completed-

A hand rested gently on Fushiguro's shoulder.

"It's all right now."

A gentle voice sounded in the rain, and Fushiguro's hands stopped.

He raised his head and looked beside him.

Madara Uchiha stood there, a few damp patches on his black uniform, his blood-red Sharingan watching him quietly.

The hand on his shoulder was steady, and a sense of reassurance welled up within him.

"Madara... Senpai..." Fushiguro murmured, his taut nerves finally relaxing.

Sukuna's pupils abruptly contracted.

All four eyes fixed on Madara, surprise appearing in his scarlet pupils for the first time.

He had actually failed to notice Madara approaching.

With his sensory abilities, with the experience he had accumulated over a thousand years of battle, he had not sensed this brat's presence at all before he appeared.

This was not normal.

"You're..." Sukuna narrowed his eyes. "That brat from back then."

Madara did not answer Sukuna immediately. Instead, he looked down at Fushiguro, the three tomoe in his Sharingan slowly rotating.

"Can you hear me, Itadori?"

Who was he talking to?

Sukuna frowned.

Madara continued speaking, seemingly to the air, yet also seemingly to Itadori, who slept within Sukuna. "If you can hear me, don't worry just yet. I'll save you. Megumi and Kugisaki are both fine. Don't worry."

Sukuna froze for two seconds, then scoffed.

"Hmph. You certainly are confident. Are all jujutsu sorcerers these days so ignorant of their own limits?"

Only then did Madara raise his head and look at Sukuna, his expression calm.

"Can't help it," Madara said, his lips curling into a contemptuous smile. "Because you're weak."

Sukuna: "??"

The air froze for an instant.

The smile vanished from Sukuna's face.

All four eyes widened at once, a flicker of brutality flashing through his scarlet pupils.

"Are you trying to provoke me?" Sukuna's voice lowered.

"That's far too crude. Even so, I won't heal this brat's wound. His heart is still outside his body. The moment I leave this body, he'll die."

"Oh, that." Madara glanced at the heart in the puddle, which had already stopped beating, his tone still casual.

"It's fine, it's fine. Even if you heal it, you still can't beat me. So let's not waste time."

He beckoned Sukuna with a finger.

"Come on. Let me play with you. I've been wanting to see just how much the King of Curses from a thousand years ago really amounts to."

Sukuna fell silent.

His expression became exceedingly dangerous.

He slowly clenched his fists, black cursed energy surging from his body and forming twisted malice in the rain.

"You brat..."

The words squeezed out between his teeth.

"I'll tear you to pieces and eat you bit by bit."

Madara smiled.

"Sure."

As he spoke, the tomoe in his Sharingan began spinning faster.

"Then give it a try."

Both moved at once.

Sukuna vanished from where he stood and appeared before Madara the next second, his fists striking out together.

Every punch carried enough cursed energy to shatter steel, tearing through the air, through the rain, through everything in its path.

But Madara did not dodge.

He did not even move.

Only at the instant the fists were about to touch his body-

Blue light blossomed from within him.

Susanoo.

Blue, rib-shaped bones materialized, shielding Madara inside.

The fists struck the bones with dull thuds, but could not advance another inch.

Sukuna's eyes widened again.

"What... cursed technique is this?"

Standing within Susanoo's protection, Madara looked at Sukuna through the blue bones with his blood-red Sharingan, the smile on his lips widening.

"Take a guess."

The next second, Susanoo's arm seized Sukuna's wrist.

"What!?" Sukuna tried to break free, but the blue skeletal arm remained immovable, like the strongest of shackles.

Madara watched him, the tomoe in his Sharingan spinning faster and faster.

"You know, Sukuna."

His voice was soft, yet exceptionally clear in the rain.

"In this era, you stopped being 'the strongest' long ago."

"The one standing before you now-"

Susanoo's arm began to tighten its grip.

The sound of bones breaking rang out as Sukuna's wrist was crushed by sheer force.

"-is Madara Uchiha."