Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai Barrier.
If the barriers in Tokyo were a hunting ground fraught with danger, then Sendai at this moment was a meat grinder completely out of control.
Rumble!
A commercial building over ten stories high collapsed with a roar.
Amidst the sky-filling dust, tens of thousands of thumb-sized black cockroaches surged out like a bursting flood, covering the sky and the earth.
Wherever they passed, whether it was reinforced concrete or civilians shivering in the ruins, everything was turned into white bone amidst a chorus of skin-crawling gnawing sounds.
Special Grade Cursed Spirit: Kurourushi.
This calamity, born from humanity's fear of cockroaches, held a Festering Life Sword condensed from countless insect eggs. It let out a terrifying hiss, commanding the swarm to submerge the street ahead.
In the middle of the street.
Wearing a white Jujutsu High uniform, Yuta gripped his katana with both hands, panting heavily. His white clothes were stained with the purple blood and slime of Cursed Spirits.
To protect the civilians behind him from being devoured by the swarm, he stood firmly on the front line, his sword swings already slightly sluggish due to high-intensity exhaustion.
"There are too many, I can't kill them all."
Yuta gritted his teeth as Reverse Cursed Technique circulated rapidly within his body, healing the flesh grazed by the Festering Life Sword. But he knew very well that if he took half a step back, the survivors behind him would instantly become bait for the swarm.
"Then blow me up along with the insects!"
A look of determination flashed in Yuta's eyes as he prepared to forcibly release Rika's full manifestation.
Just as he was about to form a hand seal, without warning, a black crack split open in the space above his head.
Two slender figures stepped out from the void, landing steadily on the roof of an abandoned bus less than ten meters in front of Yuta.
"Insects, no matter how big they grow, are nauseating to look at."
A cold, lazy voice rang out abruptly across the noisy battlefield.
Yuta's pupils shrank, and his hand gripping the sword suddenly tightened.
He recognized the newcomer. The mysterious black-haired youth who, in Megumi's description, had crushed a Special Grade Cursed Spirit with one hand and taken away the Prison Realm.
Kurourushi clearly sensed this suddenly intervening unfamiliar aura as well. Its instincts as a Special Grade Cursed Spirit made it feel extreme danger.
It let out a sharp roar, and the black sea of insects that was originally surging toward Yuta instantly changed direction, turning into a massive wave of black insects dozens of meters high, crashing down toward Yamada.
"Boss, this thing looks a bit disgusting."
Toji stood behind Yamada, frowning in distaste, but the Inverted Spear of Heaven in his hand was already prepared to drink blood.
"Stay still."
Standing on the bus roof, the deep red hexagram totem in Yamada's right eye suddenly erupted with a blinding blood-red light.
Amaterasu!
Whoosh!
A ball of pitch-black flame ignited out of thin air in the very center of the rolling swarm. At first, it was just a spark, but upon contact with the cockroach swarms composed of Cursed Energy, this black fire was like an extremely hungry beast, exploding in size with the wind.
Screeech!
The shrill cries of insects echoed through the night sky. The black karmic fire spread wildly along the dense formation of the swarm at a speed that defied the laws of thermodynamics.
In just a few seconds, that massive wave of insects dozens of meters high was actually completely ignited by the flames of Amaterasu, turning into a black wall of fire.
Countless Cursed Spirit cockroaches struggled violently in the black flames, carbonizing and finally turning into black ash drifting through the sky.
"This... what kind of fire is this?!" Yuta, standing behind, widened his eyes.
Those Cursed Spirit cockroaches with extremely tenacious vitality were completely erased from existence without even lasting a second.
Seeing the swarm it had painstakingly nurtured burned to nothing in an instant, Kurourushi let out a furious roar.
Wielding the Festering Life Sword covered in insect eggs, transparent thin wings grew from its back. It turned into a streak of black light, lunging straight for Yamada's throat.
Yamada snorted coldly, "Hmph."
The deep purple Six Tomoe Rinnegan in his left eye narrowed slightly.
Bansho Ten'in!
A violent gravitational field erupted instantly.
Not only did Kurourushi's forward speed not decrease, but it was also forcibly pulled by this gravitational force, crashing straight toward Yamada's palm in an unbalanced state.
Just as Kurourushi was about to collide.
Yamada's right hand suddenly formed a hand-blade, and blinding lightning was madly compressed between his knuckles.
Six Paths: Chidori!
Bang!
The extremely compressed Six Paths lightning pierced through its body, electrocuting all the cells inside it into charred ash.
Kurourushi's hideous insect face didn't even have time to make a pained expression before its entire body exploded in the lightning, scattering countless pieces of charcoal on the ground.
Instant kill.
Yuta's palms, gripping his sword, were already covered in cold sweat. He had thought Megumi's description was a bit exaggerated before, but seeing it with his own eyes now, the oppressive feeling of crushing a Special Grade Cursed Spirit with such casual ease was even more suffocating than when he faced Satoru.
"One."
Yamada casually shook off the residual electric arcs from his knuckles and looked up at the distant skyscraper.
"The next dish should be a bit more chewy."
As if in response to his provocation—
Boom!
On the roof of a high-rise building several kilometers away, a massive Cursed Energy, almost tangible, suddenly erupted.
A man with a pompadour hairstyle and wearing a vintage vest stood at the edge of the rooftop.
Looking at the swarm burned to nothing and the dead Kurourushi in the distance, he didn't retreat. Instead, a fanatical fighting spirit ignited in his eyes.
Ishigori Ryu.
An ancient sorcerer with the highest Cursed Energy output in the history of the Jujutsu World.
"Oh? To eliminate that disgusting bug as soon as you arrive. It seems tonight's dessert is even sweeter than I imagined."
Ishigori Ryu laughed loudly, and the pompadour on his head emitted a blinding pink light like a cannon barrel. The Cursed Energy within his body poured out and compressed recklessly.
"Don't disappoint me, newcomer!"
Granite Blast!
Boom!!!
A pink Cursed Energy beam with a diameter of over ten meters, carrying terrifying kinetic energy that could destroy everything, shot out from the top of Ishigori Ryu's head.
Wherever the beam passed, the air was frictioned into a piercing sonic boom cloud, and the glass of the buildings below shattered one after another.
This energy torrent, like a railgun, crossed a distance of several kilometers and accurately blasted down toward the bus roof where Yamada was located.
"Watch out! This Cursed Energy output is too great!" Yuta warned sharply, preparing to put some distance between them.
Toji also frowned, gripping the Inverted Spear of Heaven as he prepared to leap off the bus roof.
But Yamada stood where he was, motionless. He watched the pink energy beam filling his entire field of vision, his pitch-black trench coat fluttering violently in the gale brought by the beam.
"A turret, huh? What an inflexible way of attacking."
Clang!
A clear, resonant sword chime echoed through the night sky.
Yamada gripped the hilt of his Kusanagi Sword with his right hand and unsheathed it. Purple Six Paths lightning wrapped around the slender blade like a physical substance, letting out a hiss like a thousand birds chirping together.
Yamada's legs sank slightly, and with power from his waist, he faced the Granite Blast, and with an upward swing, he slashed out with his sword.
Swish!
A crescent-shaped slash, deep as the dark night, flew from the blade.
The slash and the pink Cursed Energy beam collided violently in mid-air.
That lightning slash sliced the ten-meter-thick beam right down the middle.
Rip!
The pink Cursed Energy beam was perfectly split in two, whistling past both sides of Yamada's body and slamming into the ruins behind him, erupting into two mushroom clouds.
And Yamada, holding his sword, stood in the vacuum at the center of the beam, completely unscathed.
On the distant rooftop, Ishigori Ryu watched his attack being split head-on by a single sword, and the wild laugh on his face completely froze.
In the sky, the ancient female sorcerer Uro Takako, who was hiding in the clouds using her Cursed Technique, Sky Manipulation, to watch the battle, was so frightened she covered her mouth, her whole body turning cold.
That was Ishigori Ryu's full-power strike! To be sliced open by simple swordsmanship?!
Yamada lowered his Kusanagi Sword to his side, the tip pointing diagonally toward the ground.
He looked up, his eyes—one red and one purple—pierced through the vast distance and locked firmly onto Ishigori Ryu on the rooftop.
"You're done with your cannon. Now, it's my turn."