Chapter 140 - Shibuya Melee — Clash

"Help! Don't let them in!"

The convenience store's roller shutter bulged inward from the impact. The civilians huddled behind the shelves, backs pressed hard against the freezer units. Outside, hundreds of Transfigured Humans packed the commercial street, ramming the iron door with their skulls, over and over.

BOOM!

A gash split open in the roller shutter. A grayish-white arm reached through and grabbed the nearest man by the collar.

"Found you..."

A wet, muffled laugh.

"Let go of him!"

Yuji Itadori came charging from the street entrance. He stomped the pavement apart, vaulted more than twenty meters in a single bound, and drove his knee into the back of the Transfigured Human's skull. The head exploded. Rank, bloody flesh splattered across the roller shutter. Yuji landed and didn't look back. His gaze swept the full length of the street.

Those things still wore scraps of human clothing. One Transfigured Human even had a backpack on, its deformed fingers locked around half a bus ticket. These weren't Cursed Spirits. They had all been human once. Mahito again. Fury shot straight up his spine to the base of his skull. Yuji ground his teeth hard enough to hear them grind.

That face covered in suture lines rose out of his memory, grinning, kneading lives between its fingers like clay. Not one more step toward that convenience store. Mei Mei stood at the rear with her giant axe resting on her shoulder, her gaze passing over Yuji as she counted the numbers on the street with calm, methodical eyes.

"Sis, do these Transfigured Humans have bounties on them?" Ui Ui asked from behind her.

"Headquarters probably won't pay per unit." Mei Mei brushed the hair from her forehead. "But since this falls under the Shibuya mission, we should be able to bundle a quote. Three hundred of them — even at bargain rates, that's at least..."

"Mei Mei!"

The veins on Yuji's forehead stood out. Is this really the time to be counting money?! Mei Mei raised a single finger.

"Friendly reminder. They're weak, but there are over three hundred of them, and they still have human souls inside. Don't burn yourself out. I won't collect your corpse for free."

At the far end of the street, the densely packed Transfigured Humans all turned their heads at once. The next second, they shrieked and charged.

"I don't plan on dying."

Yuji clenched both fists. His toes dug into the soles of his shoes. Toji-sensei always said fists aren't for showing off power. The weaker the life, the more it deserves someone standing in front of it. Protecting the weak, that is youth!

"Eight Gates Released Formation..."

His blood surged, his muscles locked, and the asphalt beneath his feet cracked inch by inch.

"First Gate — Gate of Opening!"

BOOM!

Green steam detonated outward. The Transfigured Human at the front never even registered him. Yuji was already inside the horde. His shoulder drove through the first monster's sternum. His right fist punched straight through the second's abdomen. The Cursed Energy compressed along his knuckles detonated all at once.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Five or six Transfigured Humans in a straight line burst apart simultaneously. The flesh hadn't even hit the ground before Yuji spun into a sweeping kick. The shockwave ripped gravel from the road, and more than a dozen monsters snapped in half at the waist. Three gaping, twisted mouths lunged from his left. He dropped low, let them pass over him, and drove both fists into the ground.

CRACK!

The pavement heaved upward. Seven or eight Transfigured Humans launched into the air. Yuji launched off the collapsing road surface and rocketed skyward, his fists coming down in a relentless hammering downpour.

"Get out of my way!"

Every punch that landed, another body exploded. Yuji didn't hesitate. Not once. He knew some of these people might still be alive inside. He knew his fists were demolishing transfigured human bodies that had once belonged to someone. But Mahito had already broken their souls beyond any repair. Hesitate for one second, and the people inside that convenience store get dragged out and torn apart.

At least let them die quickly. At least stop them from hurting anyone else.

"All of you — stop!"

His roar buried the monsters' shrieks. Yuji landed in the center of the horde, pulled his right fist back to his hip, and drove Cursed Energy through the Eight Gates' meridians to the point of his knuckles. He stepped. He punched.

The pressure wave exploded forward along the ground. Dozens of Transfigured Humans were blasted off their feet in a wall of impact, and a path of raw flesh opened up through the middle of the commercial street. Ui Ui's small face went tight.

"Sis, is he really only Grade 2?"

"A disciple of that man isn't something you measure by grade..."

Mei Mei narrowed her eyes, her gaze locked hard onto the green figure rampaging through the tide of bodies. That physique. That growth rate. A top-tier investment target. No, a premium asset that hadn't even gone public yet. If Yuji Itadori survived Shibuya, his value would multiply at least tenfold. Getting in early on a private arrangement, no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't lose.

"Yuji."

Mei Mei spoke up.

"For high-value commissions going forward, you can come to me first. I'll give you twenty percent off."

"I don't have time to talk business right now!"

Yuji grabbed the last Transfigured Human by the ankle, swung his full arm in a wide arc, and hurled it into a wall a dozen meters away.

BOOM!

The wall came down. The street went quiet. From inside the convenience store, the sound of someone crying, low and barely held in. Yuji released the Gate of Opening, braced his hands on his knees and caught his breath in two hard pulls. He confirmed the people behind the roller shutter were still alive. The killing intent in his chest eased, just a fraction. He'd saved them.

This area was safe, for now.

"Ui Ui, get the civilians out past the barrier's range."

Mei Mei glanced at the map on her phone. "Yuji, we push on toward Shibuya Station."

"Right!"

BOOM!

The ground lurched beneath them. Yuji's head snapped up. A manhole cover a dozen meters away launched into the sky. A Locust Cursed Spirit nearly three meters tall, abdomen swollen and grotesque, burst straight through the pavement. A dense swarm of insects erupted from the sewer behind it and blotted out half the street in seconds. The Locust Cursed Spirit's mandibles split open.

"Human. Are you smart?"

A vein jumped at Yuji's temple.

"I'm in a really bad mood right now."

Western commercial district.

"Everyone, heads down!"

Nobara Kugisaki snapped her arm out and sent three iron nails flying. In the air above her, Maki Zenin drove her spear through two flying Cursed Spirits at once, then torqued her whole body and swung them into another cluster, spear and all.

"Second Gate — Gate of Rest, open!"

Green steam erupted from Maki Zenin's body. She planted her foot on top of a streetlight, legs coiling tight, then exploded upward and shot more than a hundred meters into the air. The long spear punched through a Cursed Spirit's chest and kept going. In a single blink she'd strung seven monsters onto the shaft like beads.

"Nobara!"

"I know, stop telling me what to do!"

Nobara snatched up a severed wing that had dropped at her feet and pressed it hard against her straw doll.

"Straw Doll Technique: Resonance!"

THUD!

Invisible Cursed Energy traveled the length of the severed limb. The flying Cursed Spirits high above froze all at once. Black nail-marks punched outward from inside their bodies, and they exploded into blood mist, one after another. Maki Zenin yanked her spear back and dropped from dozens of meters up. Her soles gouged two long furrows into the ground on landing. Not bad coordination.

Nobara had a mouth like a blade, but she never dragged her feet in a fight. Clear out the insect swarm ahead, and the civilians at the rear could get out of the commercial district.

"Hey, old man!"

Maki Zenin turned and shouted, "How long are you planning to keep drinking?"

Naobito Zenin sat on the edge of a billboard, tipping his head back for a long pull from his gourd.

"Young people have no patience."

Three Semi-Grade 1 Cursed Spirits dove from behind the building, claws aimed straight for Maki Zenin's back.

"Behind you!"

Nobara had just raised her hammer when Naobito Zenin's figure disappeared. Slap. The first Cursed Spirit froze in midair, body pressed flat into a two-dimensional frame. Slap. Slap. The other two locked up right behind it. Naobito Zenin ricocheted off the wall and cut back and forth between the buildings, moving so fast there weren't even afterimages to track.

By the time he settled back onto the billboard, all three frames shattered at once.

"Just because this old man is drinking doesn't mean this old man has gone blind."

Maki Zenin gripped her spear and said nothing. This rotten clan. But at least the old man had real ability. Once, she never would have admitted that. But this wasn't the time for stubbornness. Naobito Zenin shook his empty gourd. His bleary eyes never left the depths of the commercial district. These small fry were pathetically weak.

If Kenjaku had the nerve to funnel every Jujutsu Sorcerer into this trap, he hadn't prepared only cannon fodder like this. The real Special Grade still hadn't shown itself. Let their guard slip now, and someone would be dead the next second. A ball of fire flared up from the south side. The blast shook the glass out of the buildings in cascading sheets.

Naobito Zenin got to his feet.

"Kusakabe's group has hit something serious."

In front of New South Entrance Station. The mutated stitched-together Cursed Spirit had just grown its third leg when a green blur swept into the battlefield on a wave of howling wind.

"The sweat of youth will never allow you to trample upon it!"

Naoya Zenin's low sweep kick snapped the Cursed Spirit's weight-bearing leg clean off. Both fists dissolved into a dense smear of afterimages. Sternum, throat, jaw, temple, every weak point hammered in rapid succession, all within a single second. The Cursed Spirit regenerated madly. Then he'd just keep hitting. Naoya Zenin's face was pure, blazing fanaticism.

Toji-sama is watching from outside the barrier! Today is the day he proves he is the one worthy of inheriting the title of Youth's Chief Disciple!

"Watch this, Toji-sama!"

Green steam roared from both arms, and raw, crackling flames bridged the gap between his fists.

"Youth's Secret Art, Simplified Version: Morning Peacock!"

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The fiery fists swallowed the Cursed Spirit whole, blasting the regenerating chunks of flesh into a skyful of scorched ash. Atsuya Kusakabe held the civilians back, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

"Can someone please tell me..."

"Why is that smug, passive-aggressive young master from the Zenin clan wearing a spandex bodysuit and screaming about youth?!"

➤ Next: A Barrier Only the Strongest May Enter