In the center of the gym.
Satoru Gojo and the Wind God (the main body) were locked in a suffocating stalemate. Whenever the Cursed Spirit scattered blades of wind, Gojo dodged with high-speed movement, leaving behind afterimages. Each time he used the attraction of Blue to close the distance and strike, the spirit transformed its body into wind and scattered to avoid him.
During that tense confrontation, a massive Rainbow Dragon glided through the hole in the gym roof, invading the battlefield.
"Hey, Satoru!! We're here!"
As I shouted while gripping the Rainbow Dragon's horns, Satoru Gojo, landing on the floor, adjusted his sunglasses and smirked mockingly.
"Good grief, look at these latecomers~ You're pretty behind schedule, aren't you?"
"Those clones of his were quite a nuisance," Suguru Geto replied, jumping lightly off the Rainbow Dragon.
As the trio gathered in one place again, the old spirit's malevolent gaze calmed and became cold.
Ho. You are not easy opponents, it seems.
The spirit made a disturbing sound while stroking its chin. Soon, a spine-chilling bloodlust erupted from between its torn lips.
This one... will have to grind the three of you into meat at once.
Cr-crack—!
With a bizarre sound of snapping bone, two new scrawny, sharp arms burst from the shoulders of the humanoid spirit. Now possessing four arms, the spirit immediately formed an eerie hand seal without hesitation.
Domain Expansion—
Windfall Immovable Flower.
BOOM—!!
The moment the spirit's Innate Domain was deployed.
The scenery of the broken gym was painted over like wet ink. The mental image of a peaceful, vast flower garden filled with fluttering petals overwhelmed us.
But the peaceful scenery before our eyes was nothing more than a vicious deception.
At that instant, tens of thousands of invisible wind blades began to whirl through the entire blooming garden like a massive industrial grinder.
The beautiful flowerbed was instantly transformed into a gruesome executioner's block, where heads were severed and blood sprayed. Amidst the chill of the winds circling the air, the screams of the brutally broken flower buds struck my ears like auditory hallucinations.
It was a horrific, unavoidable slashing attack designed to slaughter everything that existed within the domain.
Yollotl! (Heart)
Icniuhtli! (Brother)
Eztli! (Blood) Eztli! (Blood)
Tzontecomatl! (Head)
Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts) Quicocoa! (It hurts)!@#$!@!
"What the hell is it babbling about!"
Cold sweat trickled down Satoru Gojo's forehead.
'Either Hachiro or I can withstand a domain somehow because of the secret techniques passed down through our clans. But... Suguru doesn't have a defensive measure against domains yet!'
A horrific fear gripped him that his precious classmate's life might be torn to shreds right before his eyes. Gojo hurriedly pulled his hands together, explosively emitting the Cursed Energy within his body.
"Falling Blossom Emotion!!"
The countless wind slashes trying to dig into Gojo's skin collided with the Cursed Energy of Falling Blossom Emotion and were noisily repelled. However, he couldn't perfectly block the overwhelming sure-hit wind blades being poured out by the domain.
Everywhere, his clothes were brutally shredded, and red, thread-like lacerations constantly burst across the skin of his body. Despite the pain of his flesh being thinly sliced away, Gojo gritted his teeth. Amidst the storm of blood-colored dust cruelly devouring his vision, he desperately prayed for only one person's safety.
'Please, hold on. Suguru...!'
Within that hellish storm, the old spirit spread its arms and laughed heartily.
Kahahahahat! Did you see! Did you feel it! This is the power of this Great One!
The spirit's arrogant voice echoed through the domain.
Is it not the same as Ryomen from a thousand years ago! My domain carves everything within it into pieces and drinks even your bone dust without leaving a trace!!
Gojo, who was somehow fending off the maniacally rushing wind blades with Falling Blossom Emotion, hurriedly turned his head toward where Geto was as the dust cleared slightly.
"...Huh?"
What Gojo's Six Eyes—soaked in blood from a cut on his eyelid—captured was Suguru Geto standing perfectly fine, without a single drop of blood on him.
To be precise, one step in front of Geto.
I, Kuroda Hachiro, stood tall, hiding Geto behind my back while maintaining a firm hand seal with both hands.
I grinned at Gojo and shouted.
"Old man, your voice is way too damn loud!"
"We're doing a Domain Expansion over here, too!!"
Once again, I released the name of my Innate Domain with a voice that seemed to tear through the air.
Domain Expansion—
Inverted Bright Wheel Mirror.
CR-CR-CR-CRACK—!!
The barrier I deployed ruthlessly predated upon the spirit's flower garden, expanding with an overwhelming momentum.
Half of the blooming flowerbeds evaporated helplessly before that massive power. Above the empty space where the bizarre scene of slaughter had been ripped away, a grand and massive Dharma Wheel was engraved as if rising from the void, and below it, the area was filled with an absolute, ownerless silence.
The space where Geto and I stood—the sure-hit death effect that had been strangling it was now perfectly neutralized. Outside, the murderous slashes were still whirling like a storm, but within the massive Dharma Wheel surrounding us, an absolute tranquility descended that not even a single strand of wind could violate.
"Yo~ You guys planning to just stand there with your mouths open? The rules have collapsed, so feel free to fight!"
At my shout, smiles spread across the lips of Gojo and Geto.
"Got it!!"
Satoru Gojo retracted Falling Blossom Emotion and pulled his hands together, condensing a massive sphere of attraction.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Maximum Output Blue!!"
The sphere of attraction, fired like a shot put, surged toward the Wind Spirit. The spirit hurriedly gathered wind blades at its fingertips to neutralize Blue, but it was not enough to fully block the trajectory of the output Gojo had poured in.
THWACK—!
Krr-aaaagh!
The residual shockwave of Blue slammed into the spirit's face, snapping its head back violently.
Without missing that momentary opening, the massive Rainbow Dragon waiting in the air made a mindless, brute-force charge toward it.
"Bite it!"
That dragon's scales are too hard... Slashing won't work! In that case!
The spirit instinctively jumped high to avoid the Rainbow Dragon's charge and, at the same time, pulled one of its four arms back. Its fist, saturated with Cursed Energy to its limit, mercilessly hammered down toward the Rainbow Dragon's forehead.
CRUNCH—!!
"Rainbow Dragon!!"
The moment Geto cried out in surprise.
I clicked my tongue and coolly released my hands from the seal.
"Geez, I did all the work, do I have to step in too?"
SHATTER—!!
As I broke the seal, my domain, which had been in a tug-of-war, collapsed on its own. But it didn't matter. In this moment, as the spirit floated in the air from the recoil of hitting the Rainbow Dragon, the speed of my sword strike was much faster than the sure-hit effect of its domain.
Leap—!
In an instant, I leapt and burrowed into the spirit's guard. The Cursed Blade Muramasa, imbued with the light of Reverse Cursed Technique, traced the trajectory of a white moon.
SLICE—!!
All four arms of the spirit that had been trying to crush me were cleanly severed into the air in a single strike. Having lost the arms needed to form hand seals, its domain shattered like glass and was cancelled.
And before its body could even fall to the floor.
Satoru Gojo, who had moved behind it with high speed, grabbed the spirit's head with his large palm.
...Ah.
Just before its head was ripped off, a painfully slow and vivid flashback flickered through the old spirit's vision.
'A deceiver who controls and uses his own kind (Cursed Spirits) like limbs...'
'A brat who, despite looking barely twenty, wears a completed domain and exudes supreme swordsmanship...'
'And the one with the bizarre eyes that rule over space and the Limitless technique...'
....
The spirit blankly stared at the silhouettes of the three boys who were about to end its life.
And it felt the terrible horror from a thousand years ago, engraved deep within its soul, crawling up once again.
I can feel it... What is this feeling? Yes, it is a thousand years ago.
Overwhelming talent. Strength like a natural disaster.
Inside the spirit's vision, which was fading like a flickering light, the silhouettes of these three boys who defied common sense perfectly overlapped with one massive phantom.
It was the being from the Heian era a thousand years ago, from whom the spirit had been forced to tuck its tail in terror and flee across the sea.
The shadow of Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, who had driven the entire archipelago into a blood-colored fear.
Even though it had craved power so desperately.
In this land of the gods it had reached after fleeing across the ocean, had it not reigned as a calamity to all, brutally tearing and devouring countless flesh and blood?
Even so, in the end, could it still not reach that distant pinnacle...?
At the edge of its slowly scattering consciousness, the spirit coughed out a lament that sounded like a beast's groan.
"Suku... na..."
Through the gaps of the crumbling spirit's torn lips, a desperate, metallic rasp like a beast's final breath leaked out.
My original sin. An arch-nemesis it dared not even reach. And the eternal fear etched into the bottom of its soul.
Even though it had fled for a thousand years, the spirit ultimately crumbled miserably amidst a horrific scream in the face of an overwhelming despair that had merely changed its form.
Sizzzzzz—CRACK!!
The spirit's final death rattle scattered into the void.
Satoru Gojo's rough palm perfectly tore the wind spirit's head from its torso, and the head of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Quetzalcoatl became white ash, vanishing forever into Tokyo's night breeze.