(Pov Satoshi)
The two of us ran down the stairs back into the subway and began looking around. I wasn't entirely sure whether we would find the others; it depended on how much of a hurry Kenjaku had been in. In the original timeline, after killing Yuki and using Cursed Spirit Manipulation on Tengen, Kenjaku left Choso behind without killing him, even though he could have. So there was a chance he had ignored the three death womb paintings and focused on grabbing Yuji to wake up Sukuna.
We rounded a corner into an almost empty hallway, where only a single figure stood. The figure had long white hair and wore a loose top with small lines crisscrossing the entire surface. His arms were partly exposed and revealed multiple lines of stitches along them. On closer inspection, he wasn't alone; there was a figure trying to crawl away from him before his body suddenly began to shift and ultimately explode, covering the hall in blood.
The figure finally turned, revealing the cruel face of Mahito, the curse of humanity. He noticed us standing there, and his smirk grew as he licked the blood off his fingers. Yuji was the first to react to the scene.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU, MAHITO?!" He shouted.
"THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT, I CAN HEAR YOU FINE, ITADORI YUJI!" Mahito yelled back.
Children are so loud these days. At least now I could make sure Mahito was dead. I just needed to get the Soul Split Katana from the worm. I reached up, but my hand only met empty air. Where's my worm?
Oh, right when I stopped protecting myself to stop the flame arrow, the slashes hit the worm as well. He had been alive, but before I woke up, he must have returned to my stomach to heal. Tapping my gut, I could feel the little hard spot the small guy made when he was being stored, so at least he was still alive, but now I was going to have a much harder time.
I leaned down to speak to Yuji before he ran right at the taunting curse. "Yuji, I don't have access to my cursed tools. I'll create openings for you to strike." I whispered, doing my best to prevent Mahito from hearing. "Keep a cool head here, don't let him get to you," I added before preparing to fight.
I ran forward to engage while Yuji trailed behind, cursed energy blazing to life. Mahito had been prepared, though, as he unleashed multiple transfigured humans filling the hall and blocking my sight of him. They weren't very tough, but that clearly wasn't their point. I couldn't let my guard down. Mahito was likely waiting to ambush us once we got through.
When I reached the first transfigured human, I punched it down, and the same went for the others. As I finished the last one, I instinctively ducked, dodging a swing from Mahito. These transfigured humans had been even weaker than normal, clearly a distraction to lower our guards before Mahito struck.
What was shocking, though, was that I could see a second Mahito fighting with Yuji already. He had split himself to fight both of us, but that also meant his power was split, and his soul could only reside in one of the clones. The question was which one had the technique?
At this point, after our first fight, Mahito must know he can't use Idle Transfiguration on Yuji without being hit by Sukuna. My soul was protected, but not to the same degree as an angry King of Curses, and I didn't have access to my cursed tools yet so that I couldn't do any damage anyway.
I backed up half a step and assumed a stance I was more used to fighting with weapons than with pure hand-to-hand, but I was no slouch; I could hold this curse long enough. The Mahito in front of me stared, and despite the smile, I could see the anger in his eyes. It seems he hadn't forgotten his near-death experience at my hands and was looking for revenge.
"Ready for round two, Satoshi?" Mahito asked with a weird little giggle before he charged forward, his arms changing into long blades. I dodged his swings before grabbing his leg and twisting it the wrong way.
"I've been waiting all night, Mahito." I crouched down and shot my right foot upwards into his chin, lifting the curse off the ground. I spin forward, and before Mahito can regain his footing and punch him in the gut, I knock him further back. By the time he landed, though, Mahito was already moving, showing no damage from my attacks.
Given that he was a cursed spirit, the only way to defeat him would be with cursed energy, not to mention his knowledge of the soul meant that unless you could damage the soul directly with your attacks, you'd only slow him down, as Nanami had been at the school. I currently have neither capability, as even though I could theoretically damage the soul, I didn't have the cursed energy to do any damage or target the soul when I'm not using the Split Soul Katana.
So all my attacks were useless right now, just temporary distractions, but that wouldn't stop me. Mahito changes his arms once more, his hands extending into the shape of a baseball bat. He swung it towards me, and I managed to dodge it, but after I moved, a hand morphed from the edge and made a grab at me.
It only grazed me, but even with such little contact, I could feel his technique trying to take effect. It was gross, like being touched by someone with the sweatiest hands in the world. It was no wonder Sukuna tried to kill him for it earlier.
"What do you think, Satoshi? I've improved since last time. It's only a matter of time until you're just a puppet ready to be sculpted." Mahito said. This meant that the Mahito I was fighting was the real one, good to know now, I just needed not to let him touch me.
"Doesn't matter, you still won't get me," I responded and charged in once more, landing multiple punches to his face. His arms went forward once more, but I caught them and tied them around each other using his own anatomy against him. I then used his arms to spin him around, then threw him down the hall, causing him to bounce and skid across the floor.
I looked over and saw Yuji finishing off the clone he had been fighting, causing it to melt and slide rapidly towards the real body, rapidly merging back into him. He stood back up, and his arms unwound before he took another stance, looking only slightly injured.
"You two can't win here, you know that, not without your precious cursed tools, Satoshi. I'll turn you into my greatest weapon and make you kill all of your students!" He yelled, slamming his hands together, and created a large, worm-like creature from multiple transformed humans.
"Let's go, Yuji, don't slow down!" I called out, and we both ran forward, bringing our fists against the worm, smashing it apart. Since these were just former humans, I didn't need cursed energy to harm them, just force, and I could create a lot of force. I could feel the adrenaline running through me again, though it was weaker than earlier, even after being healed with RCT. I had used up too much energy tonight, already fighting Sukuna.
We both clashed with Mahito, who had grown four additional arms to fight both of us at once. Our fists rained down on him and slowly began to push him back further and further. Things were looking well until he threw his arms up, and spikes shot out from his body over a dozen, heading right for us. I had no choice but to retreat, but once I did, Mahito made his move, managing to land hits on both of us, and with each one, that gross feeling got closer to my inner soul like he was searching.
I knocked his arms aside, leaving him open for Yuji, who rushed in and attacked, managing to daze the curse with his rapid punches, each one laced with his unique delayed cursed energy. I had helped Yuji train to control his Divergent Fist early so he could use it even now to keep his opponents stunned. I joined once more every time Yuji wasn't punching Mahito; I was landing my own strikes, our combined attack keeping him from being able to fight back.
Then I felt a sudden chill and a rumbling from above. At the last second, I jumped back, pulling Yuji with me. The ceiling collapsed, revealing two additional people. The first was a tall, familiar figure, Kenjaku, still inside my uncle's body, and standing next to him was a shorter body. The second had an androgynous look, short white hair, and very traditional clothing, yet their eyes were sharp as they observed the two of us.
"Shall I save you, Mahito?" Kenjaku asked, looking down at the curse, who had been partially buried in the rubble.
"You humans are all the same. I don't need any help." Mahito finally stood back up, irritation on his face. Seems he didn't like being talked down to about how useful he was.
"Enough of this, let's kill them now and retrieve Sukuna-Sama." The shorter one said, and with that, I was able to identify them. It was Urauame Sukuna's former helper back in the Heian era, with unique control over ice using cursed energy.
"Are you three idiots done talking? I'd rather continue this fight sometime tonight." I called out to gather their attention, and I could see a slight surprise in Kenjaku's eyes.
"Satoshi-Kun, it seems I underestimated you. I thought for sure Sukuna would have killed you earlier." Kenjaku said. "But I suppose certain things require personal attention."
"How is this fair at all three on two, and who is that short guy with you?" Yuji asked, with confusion evident on his face.
"Who said anything about three on two?" A new voice suddenly called out. Turning to the side, I could see a group of four people approaching.
The tallest one was easily recognizable as Todo Aoi, a third-year student from the Kyoto school. I had been expecting him to show up, so he wasn't so surprising, but the other three were much more of a shock.
It was the three death-womb paintings: Choso, Eso, and Kechizu. I had assumed they were dead, but it seems Kenjaku didn't think them worth the effort and had grabbed Yuji instead. I could see the irritation on his face and a slight twitch in his eye at his other three children approaching once more.
"You didn't think I'd allow you to harm my little brother any more than you already have?" Choso said.
"Yeah, you big jerk." Eso and Kechizu said in unison.
I couldn't help but smile as the four of them reached us, though it fell somewhat as Todo once again ripped his shirt off. He really had something wrong with him, but he was a sorcerer, so that was a given.
Now the fight was a six-on-three, and I could finally do something against Kenjaku and Uruame. This night was coming to an end. I could feel it now. I just needed to survive and get my brother back.
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Big things are happening now I'll be honest not sure how far I want to continue this series it's been harder to write chapters recently but I don't want to rush the ending. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the Culling games but I have some ideas so I hope things turn around because I want to do this properly. Anyway weird rant over next chapter all out battle.