The night wind swept away the last traces of scorched ash along the street.
Hajime Kashimo, the Thunder God from four hundred years ago, along with the martial obsession that had consumed his life, had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash.
Ding.
A system shikigami named Kogane, shaped like a tiny winged imp, emerged mechanically from the air and announced emotionlessly, "Player Rin has killed Player Hajime Kashimo and gained five po..."
Before it could finish, Rin slightly shifted the ripples within his pale-purple Rinnegan without even lifting an eyelid.
Bang.
An invisible repulsive force crushed the noisy Kogane from afar, turning it into scattered particles of cursed energy.
Toji played with the Chain of a Thousand Miles in his hand as he emerged from the shadows at the corner of the street. Looking at the pile of ash on the ground, with not even a complete bone remaining, he grinned and said, "The strongest from four hundred years ago? They all seem to die the same way in your hands, Boss. Burned to ashes."
"The quality was too low. It didn't even make me interested in torturing him."
Rin sheathed the Kusanagi Sword and looked northeast, beyond the barrier.
In an energy dimension imperceptible to ordinary people, four immense and unyielding Special Grade presences were entrenched there. Like active volcanoes in the darkness, their cursed energy churned the surrounding air into chaos.
"The weeds in Tokyo Colony No. 2 have been harvested."
Turning around, Rin caused the space beside him to distort like ripples across water. A pitch-black Kamui vortex slowly opened, revealing a bottomless dimensional passage.
"Let's go to Sendai. There's a more sumptuous feast waiting there."
...
Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai Colony.
If the colonies in Tokyo were dangerous hunting grounds, then Sendai had become a completely uncontrolled meat grinder.
Rumble~~!
A commercial building over ten storeys tall collapsed with a deafening roar. From the clouds of dust, countless thumb-sized black cockroaches burst forth like a flood, covering the sky and the earth.
Wherever they passed, whether it was reinforced concrete or civilians cowering within the ruins, everything was reduced to bare bones amid horrifying sounds of gnawing.
Special Grade Curse: Kurourushi.
Born from humanity's fear of insects, this calamity wielded the Festering Life Sword, a blade formed from countless insect eggs. With a horrifying screech, it commanded the swarm to engulf the street ahead.
In the middle of the road, Yuta Okkotsu stood with both hands gripping his katana, breathing heavily.
His white Tokyo Jujutsu High uniform was stained with purple blood and black-green slime from countless curses. To prevent the survivors behind him from being devoured, he stood firmly on the front line, but after prolonged combat, his sword swings had begun to slow.
"There are too many... I can't kill them all..."
Yuta gritted his teeth. Reverse Cursed Technique flowed continuously through his body, repairing the wounds inflicted by the Festering Life Sword. But he knew very well that if he retreated even half a step, the civilians behind him would become food for the swarm.
Then determination flashed across his eyes.
"Then blow me up together with these bugs!"
He prepared to forcibly summon Rika's complete manifestation. Just as he was about to form the hand sign, a black fissure suddenly split open in the sky above.
Two tall figures stepped out from the void and landed steadily atop an abandoned bus less than ten metres in front of him.
"No matter how large insects grow, they're still disgusting to look at."
A cold, lazy voice suddenly echoed across the chaotic battlefield.
Yuta's pupils contracted, and his grip on the sword tightened instantly.
He recognised the newcomer. This was the mysterious black-haired youth whom Megumi had described, the man who had crushed Special Grade curses with one hand and taken away the Prison Realm.
Kurourushi also sensed the unfamiliar presence. Its instincts as a Special Grade curse screamed danger, and it let out a shrill roar.
The sea of insects that had originally been rushing toward Yuta instantly changed direction, transforming into a gigantic black wave dozens of metres high that crashed straight toward Rin.
"Boss, that thing looks pretty disgusting."
Standing behind Rin, Toji frowned in distaste, though the Inverted Spear of Heaven in his hand was already eager for blood.
"Stay where you are."
Standing atop the bus, the crimson hexagram pattern in Rin's right eye suddenly blazed with blood-red light.
His ocular power focused.
"Amaterasu."
Whoosh!
A cluster of pitch-black flames ignited out of nowhere at the centre of the advancing swarm. At first, it was merely a spark, but the moment it touched the cockroach horde made of cursed energy, the black flames transformed into a ravenous beast and exploded outward with terrifying speed.
"Screeeech!"
Shrill insect cries echoed through the night sky. The black flames spread across the dense swarm at a speed that defied all logic. In less than three breaths, the giant wave of insects dozens of metres high had been completely engulfed.
The flames of Amaterasu transformed it into a towering black inferno that connected heaven and earth. Millions of cursed cockroaches struggled desperately within the black flames before carbonising and finally turning into ash that drifted through the air.
"W-What kind of fire is that?!"
Yuta's eyes widened in disbelief. Those cursed cockroaches, whose vitality bordered on absurd, had been erased from existence in an instant.
Witnessing the destruction of the swarm it had painstakingly nurtured, Kurourushi let out a furious screech.
Transparent wings unfolded from its back. Wielding the Festering Life Sword covered in insect eggs, the Special Grade curse became a streak of black light and lunged straight at Rin's throat.
"Seeking death."
Rin snorted coldly.
The Six-Tomoe Rinnegan in his left eye narrowed slightly.
"Banshō Ten'in."
A violent gravitational force erupted.
Kurourushi's charge was not merely halted. The overwhelming attraction forcibly dragged the curse toward Rin in an unbalanced state.
Just before the collision, Rin's right hand became like a blade, and blinding lightning compressed violently between his fingers.
"Six Paths: Chidori."
Bang!
The condensed Six Paths lightning pierced through Kurourushi's body. Every Special Grade cursed energy cell within it was reduced to charred ash.
The grotesque insect face did not even have time to show pain before its massive body exploded amidst the lightning, scattering countless fragments of blackened remains across the ground.
Instant death.
Another effortless one-shot.
Yuta's palms were already slick with sweat as he gripped his sword. Before, he had thought Megumi's description might have been exaggerated. But witnessing it firsthand, the suffocating pressure of seeing a Special Grade curse casually crushed like an insect was even more overwhelming than standing before Gojo Satoru.
"One."
Rin casually shook the residual sparks from his fingers and raised his eyes toward the distant skyscrapers.
"The next course should have a little more bite to it."
As though responding to his provocation, several kilometres away, atop a towering building, a massive and nearly tangible surge of cursed energy erupted.
Boom!
Standing at the edge of the rooftop was a man with a pompadour hairstyle and an old-fashioned vest. When he saw the swarm reduced to ash and Kurourushi's death, he did not retreat. Instead, a fanatical fighting spirit ignited within his eyes.
Ryu Ishigori.
The ancient reincarnated sorcerer who possessed the highest cursed energy output in the history of the jujutsu world.
"Oh? Taking care of that disgusting bug the moment you arrived? It seems tonight's dessert is even sweeter than I imagined!"
Ishigori burst into loud laughter.
The pompadour atop his head glowed with a brilliant pink light, like the barrel of a giant cannon. Cursed energy poured out of his body and compressed recklessly.
"Don't disappoint me, newcomer!"
"Granite Blast!"
Boom!
A gigantic pink beam of cursed energy more than ten metres wide erupted from the top of his head, carrying enough destructive force to obliterate everything in its path.
The air screamed from the intense friction, producing deafening sonic booms. Windows throughout the buildings below shattered one after another.
Like a gigantic railgun shot, the torrent of energy crossed several kilometres and descended directly toward the bus where Rin stood.
"Watch out! That cursed energy output is absurd!"
Yuta cried out in warning, already preparing to retreat. Even Toji frowned and tightened his grip on the Inverted Spear of Heaven, ready to leap away.
But Rin remained motionless.
He calmly gazed at the pink beam that filled his entire field of vision, his black trench coat whipping wildly under the storm created by the attack.
"A turret, huh? What a rigid way of fighting."
Shing.
A clear, resonant sword cry echoed beneath the night sky.
Rin grasped the hilt of the Kusanagi Sword and drew it without hesitation. Purple-black Six Paths lightning wrapped around the blade like a tangible substance, accompanied by the shrill cry of a thousand birds.
Lowering his stance slightly and drawing power from his waist, he faced the Granite Blast head-on. Then, with a single upward slash, he said coldly, "Break."
Swish!
A crescent-shaped blade of sword energy, dark as the night itself, burst forth.
The slash collided with the pink beam in midair. With absolute sharpness that defied all reason, the purple-black sword energy split the ten-metre-wide torrent cleanly in two.
Rip!
The Granite Blast separated perfectly down the middle. The divided streams screamed past both sides of Rin and crashed into the ruins behind him, creating two enormous mushroom clouds.
And there, standing in the vacuum between the divided blast, Rin remained completely unharmed.
On the distant rooftop, the wild grin on Ishigori's face froze.
His proud maximum output had been split apart head-on by a single sword strike.
High above the battlefield, Takako Uro, who had been observing from within the clouds using Sky Manipulation, covered her mouth in shock. Her entire body turned cold.
That had been Ishigori's full-power attack. And yet it had been cut apart by nothing more than a sword.
Rin slowly lowered the Kusanagi Sword, its tip pointing diagonally toward the ground.
He raised his head.
One eye crimson.
One eye violet.
His gaze, cold and divine, crossed the vast distance and locked firmly onto Ishigori on the rooftop.
"Finished firing your cannon? Now it's my turn."
___
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