The fight had long since crossed the point of exhaustion and entered something far worse, where every movement felt forced and every breath came heavier than the last, yet none of us could afford to slow down for even a moment.
I was the worst offender of it. My cursed energy reserves were barely enough at this point that I could reinforce myself, let alone use RCT to heal and Domain Amplification to fight against Mahito.
Healing Megumi earlier, then using RCT to fight Mahito, then opening my domain, again RCT to fend off Mahito's sneak attack and then heal myself again. I was not dangerously low on cursed energy anymore, I had practically become a dead weight.
If only I still had both Jogo's and Dagon's reserves.
At least Mahito wasn't faring better either, he stood in front of us, visibly worn now, his body no longer shifting as smoothly as before, the damage we had inflicted finally beginning to show despite his constant reshaping.
Even so, he had grown stronger during the fight, and I could feel it clearly in the way his cursed energy pulsed after landing those Black Flashes, yes as in plural, the curse managed to land two more after he almost knocked me out inside the domain clash.
He was improving mid-fight, the worst kind of enemy one can face, those protagonist-type enemies who figure shit out randomly and the next second, by either the power of friendship or plot, they pull a victory.
This dude was like them. And it irritated me to no end. And yet, he wasn't flipping the table just yet.
Not when it was three against one.
Jumping had quickly become one of my favorite sports. If I were to survive Shibuya, I'm entering into professional jumping tournaments as long as my side has more people.
After gods know how many beatings, we finally were able to wear him down to the point he once again had trouble controlling his technique and his reserves were down as well.
"Let's end this." Nobara spun her hammer in the air and grabbed it with a grinning face, eager to be just done here and go home.
I wasn't as confident as her though, because this was exactly like before, a wounded and cornered animal is the most dangerous after all, and this was a freaking curse.
And that was exactly when everything shifted. I felt it, and so did Todo. Nobara was the only one who couldn't.
"Everyone back." I shouted, and this time around they moved in unison, having figured out that between the three of us, my instincts were always on point.
And sure enough, the change in Mahito's cursed energy was immediate and unmistakable, a sudden spike that made my instincts flare in warning before I even saw what he was doing.
Mahito's expression twisted into something desperate and maniacal as his mouth opened unnaturally wide once again and hands began to form within it.
"Shit..." Nobara by now caught on to what was happening and cursed. She swore she'll be learning any form of anti-barrier domain technique once she was out of here.
My body tensed. If he succeeded, it was over. Being the only one with a Domain of my own, it fell onto me to handle this, however, I didn't have the reserves anymore.
I could feel how little I had left, my cursed energy barely holding together after everything I had pushed it through tonight, hell it's a miracle I did even this much, those Black Flashes kept me going, but there has to be a limit, and I had reached mine.
My mind recalled Todo also had an anti-domain technique, but that wouldn't last much against a real domain.
'F*ck...'
Knowing I had no choice and the result might be no different either way, I forced myself to gather what remained inside me and joined my hands together.
Even if it broke me, I had to—
And that when I felt a sudden sensation of lightness onto me, the same kind I had felt a few more times earlier.
And before I knew it, before either mine or Mahito's domain were to expand, the ceiling above us came crashing down on us, out of nowhere.
"What the F***" Nobara cursed, grabbing me from my back collar and practically choking me to death while dragging me back, barely missing the collapsing rubble.
The sound came first, a violent rupture above us, followed by a torrent of destruction as the entire structure gave way.
However, it wasn't just rubble, there was also blood and ice.
All of it came crashing down in overwhelming force, flooding the space with a chaotic surge that disrupted everything. Mahito, caught directly beneath it, was crushed mid-expansion, his domain collapsing before it could fully form.
A coincidence? I guess not.
Something definitely strange is going on here with me feeling that strange lightheaded sensation and then an invisible hand flipping the table like it was made of cheap plastic.
I staggered back, coughing at the sudden pressure Nobara pressed on my neck, greedily taking in air while sending a glare at the girl.
"What! I was helping you." She shrugged.
She did it on purpose, didn't she?
I narrowed my eyes, noting it down in my mental notebook to get even with her sooner or later.
My attention went back to the collapsed rubble, the blood and ice. And of course the two figures who were in the centre of it all.
One white-haired person, seemed like a girl to me, and another man, most likely my age or older, with markings running on top of his nose and messy hair.
They were Choso and Uraume.
It was easy enough to identify them by the description alone. What I didn't get was why they were fighting all of a sudden?
I looked up to the ceiling, the entire place had collapsed. Their clash had torn through the upper floor completely, and the result was obvious at a glance. Choso was in bad shape, his movements strained, and half of his body covered in ice.
Uraume looked in much better condition if not for her blood-soaked clothes, though she was breathing heavily.
"I knew listening to Kenjaku was a mistake. That snarly gremlin had to be taught a lesson after this. Just wait till Sukuna-sama gets revived." Uraume cursed under her breath.
Clearly sneering at Choso, ready to kill him any second when suddenly a cold sensation pressed down on all of us.
My hairs stood on end as a chill ran down my spine at how uncomfortable this feeling, this sensation was.
All of a sudden, the pressure around us increased, it weighed down on us like someone had put a ten-story building on our heads.
Then the cursed energy, malicious as it comes, exploded around us. It spread across the entire area in an instant, pressing down on everything like an overwhelming weight that made my skin crawl and my breath hitch without warning.
I gulped only to find my mouth was dry. This feeling was even worse than facing Mahoraga.
I slowly turned and saw the culprit behind me.
Yuji Itadori's body rose slowly from where it had fallen, but it wasn't him anymore. Dark markings spread across his skin, taking a very familiar pattern which gave me a heart attack.
WHY.
Why now, after I was so close to leaving this shit show behind? My lower lip trembled at all the injustice of it all.
Cause what stood in front of me was no longer Yuji Itadori.
It was...
He was..
Ryomen Sukuna.
"I should commit suicide at this point..."
-x-
By the time Maki entered Shibuya Station, her pace had not slowed once, her focus fixed entirely on finding the others, yet the moment she stepped into the open corridor, she found herself pausing at the sight of someone standing there.
Because of her condition, she wasn't the best when it came to sensing cursed energy, and thus couldn't say whether a person was a curse user or a civilian. Thus, she was on her guard.
The woman looked completely out of place, her posture relaxed, her expression calm in a way that did not belong in the middle of this chaos, and for a brief moment, Maki couldn't quite place what to do about her.
The tall blonde woman turned around, spotting her, and Maki's first thoughts were simple. She's either a curse user or a civilian who had no idea what was going on.
Letting out a quiet, irritated sigh, Maki took a step forward, already preparing to tell her to leave before things got worse, but the way the woman's eyes lingered on her, especially her uniform, told Maki that this was someone who knew what she was.
"You're from Tokyo Jujutsu Tech, or are you from Kyoto?" The woman asked, showing no caution like Maki was.
"Tokyo, and you?" Maki asked, clearly defensive at the sudden revelation that the woman knew of the Jujutsu world and most likely was a sorcerer herself.
The woman pretended to think something before opening her mouth to answer, however before she could say anything, the air around them shifted all of a sudden.
An unknown pressure came crashing down on both of them out of nowhere.
The woman's eyes snapped wide open, her previously calm demeanour gone as fast as her neck snapped toward the floor they were standing on. Maki was the same.
While she wasn't the best at sensing cursed energy, even a civilian would pick up on this overwhelming pressure.
Maki's eyes darted towards the stairs, no doubt the pressure came from beneath them, from the underground floors.
The woman seemed to pick up on her intentions though and she stopped her. "No time for that girl, brace yourself. We're taking a shortcut."
Before Maki could question it, the woman clenched her fist and drove it straight into the floor.
Maki's eyes widened as the ground shattered instantly.
Before she could even curse the woman, cracks spread beneath them in an instant before the entire surface gave way, collapsing completely as both of them were sent falling down into the darkness below.
xXx
A/N : And MC just can't catch a break. This is the last deadly encounter in Shibuya though, promise. And any guess who this woman is. I mean its obvious, right .
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