Yuji Itadori was breathing hard, his chest heaving. He shook the blood from his knuckles and stepped over Choso, unconscious on the ground. Following the faint ripple of Cursed Energy, he kicked open the iron door at the end of the corridor. In the corner, the last boundary marker carved with runes gave off a dim, dark-red glow.

"Finally found it."

Yuji gathered his strength.

BANG!

The dark-red stone marker exploded. Yuji held the pose of a sweeping kick. The layer of frenzied green steam coating his body lurched to a sudden halt, then scattered in an instant, like a balloon that had been punctured.

"Cough!"

A mouthful of bloody spittle hit the floor. Yuji's legs gave out. One knee dropped into the rubble. This was the price of forcing the Gate of Life open. Even with a body hammered into something monstrous, the backlash in that short a window nearly drained him completely.

"Hah... hah..." Yuji gulped air in great heaving breaths, eyes lifting to the boundary marker foundation reduced to powder before him.

Finally done with that. He needed to regroup with Megumi and the others. This should have been the last boundary marker in this underground sector. He gritted his teeth and pressed both hands into the rubble, trying to push himself upright. His left leg engaged. Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up like a row of steel needles.

BOOM!

A scorching wave of air exploded directly against the side of his face. A Cursed Spirit with a volcanic head materialized out of nowhere beside him, a blinding dark-red pillar of fire erupting from the center of its palm. Too fast. Yuji felt like half his body had been thrown into a furnace. The sheer force launched him like a cannonball.

BANG!

He slammed into a load-bearing wall over ten meters away. The surface spiderwebbed with cracks.

"Wagh—" Yuji vomited a mouthful of blood, his body sliding down the wall and collapsing into the rubble.

His vision started going dark. He couldn't summon a single ounce of strength from anywhere in his body. What the hell? The temperature and speed of those flames, several times more extreme than anything he'd run into before. Jogo strolled out of the smoke at an unhurried pace. Fanaticism and contempt filled his eyes.

"I thought that worthless thing could buy a little more time." Jogo split his mouth open, baring a full set of jagged teeth. "But you smashed the marker faster than I expected."

Jogo could feel the anomaly inside this kid. An aura that made even his soul shudder. Ryomen Sukuna. Jogo walked up to Yuji and crouched down.

"Doesn't matter." Jogo slowly spread one palm open. Lying there quietly were several withered fingers.

Yuji's eyes narrowed. His gaze locked on them. Sukuna's fingers? What was Jogo trying to do? Yuji desperately wrung out whatever strength remained in his muscles, trying to throw a punch. His arm only twitched uselessly twice.

"Eat them." Jogo let out a cold laugh, grabbed Yuji's jaw, and forced the fingers into his mouth. "Awaken our king — completely!"

Gulp. At the same time. Fifth floor underground at Shibuya Station, deep behind the ventilation duct at the Fukutoshin Line platform.

BANG!

A blunt blade wrapped in bandages slammed hard into the wall. Riding the rebound, Kento Nanami slid back several meters and touched down steady. He pushed the goggles that had slipped down his nose back into place. His gaze fixed directly ahead.

"It seems our luck isn't particularly good." His voice was low.

"Hah! What's bad about it? We found the marker, the mission can still be completed." Naobito Zenin lifted the gourd flask and threw back a long swig, liquor catching in the white-flecked beard.

Beside them, Maki Zenin gripped the Special Grade Cursed Tool Playful Cloud in both hands, dropped into a low stance, and settled into an attacking posture. Directly in front of all three of them stood a dark-red boundary marker covered in carved runes. But the marker was not the problem.

The problem was the creature squatting on top of it: a bloated, vaguely humanoid torso with enormous octopus tentacles fanning out around it. The Ocean Disaster Curse, Dagon.

Originally existing only in Cursed Womb form, Dagon had absorbed the collective fear of all Japan, fear of oceanic mutations, nuclear waste contamination, the endless terror of the deep sea, and not only completed its transformation ahead of schedule, but now radiated a level of Cursed Energy several times more terrifying than an ordinary Special Grade.

Dark-green mucus seeped across the surface of its skin. Every breath it drew brought a pungent, fishy stench.

"Wooo, " Dagon let out a deep rumble like a whale's cry, thick tentacles slapping the ground with restless irritation.

"We end this fast." Nanami snapped his wrist. His suit jacket was already soaked through with sweat. "The total volume of Cursed Energy in this thing is abnormally large."

"I'll go first!"

The words had barely left Naobito's mouth before the figure vanished from the spot entirely. Projection Sorcery! Divide a single second into twenty-four frames, the moment contact was made, the opponent was forced to obey those same frame rules, or be frozen for one full second.

WHOOSH!

The speed was so great it pulled afterimages through the air. Dagon had only just raised one tentacle to block when Naobito's palm was already pressed flat against its slick forehead. The rule took effect. Dagon's massive body lurched rigid all at once, like a specimen sealed inside a glass panel.

"Now!" Maki caught the opening. The muscles of both calves swelled in an instant.

BOOM!

The floor tiles beneath both feet shattered outright. Maki shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. Playful Cloud carved an exaggerated half-circle through the air, trailing a piercing shriek, and hammered into Dagon's flank.

"Ratio Technique — Collapse."

At the same moment, Nanami appeared at Dagon's side. The blunt blade cut precisely into the point that divided Dagon's body seven to three.

BANG! BANG!

Two ear-splitting thuds detonated simultaneously. The overwhelming physical strike combined with Nanami's forced critical hit tore a massive gash open across Dagon's flank. Dark-green blood mixed with fragments of viscera came gushing out. Maki felt a surge of elation. This monster's Cursed Energy was terrifying, but it couldn't keep pace with the old man's speed. Keep this rhythm, and they could grind it down completely.

Naobito didn't stop. Closing in again immediately, the twenty-four-frame acceleration stacked to its absolute limit, moving like a pinball ricocheting madly through an enclosed space, every strike landing precisely on a vital point of Dagon's body. Speed was power. Dagon's massive frame was being batted back and forth through the air like a ragdoll, with no chance to find the ground.

"Woo... AAAAH!"

Battered again and again, Dagon let out a shrill, agonized shriek. The eyes that had been murky before were now crawling with burst blood vessels. Extreme fury and a fear rooted deep in the ocean detonated at once.

"Careful — its Cursed Energy is swelling!" Nanami shouted the warning and fell back fast.

Too late. Dagon was slammed down into the ground and made no move to rise. Instead, two tentacles crossed over its chest. The wound in its abdomen writhed and sealed at a visible rate. Water. Vast quantities of seawater surged up from beneath its feet out of nowhere.

Dagon fixed its gaze on the three humans before it. Those eyes no longer held the wild ferocity of a beast. What was there now was cold, the cold of something looking down from a great height.

"Domain Expansion."

A hoarse, strange voice spilled from Dagon's mouth.

"Horizon of the Captivating Skandha."

HUM!

A ring of pitch-black barrier expanded in an instant like a bubble, swallowing Naobito, Nanami, and Maki whole. Light blazed into existence. The chill of the subway station, the rubble, all of it vanished without a trace. In its place: a tropical beach under brilliant sunshine. Clear seawater lapped at fine white sand. Tall coconut palms swayed in a gentle breeze.

The scenery was as beautiful as a resort. But the three people standing on that sand felt ice running through every inch of their bodies. Nanami felt his heart clench hard. Caught. Pulled into the Domain. The pinnacle of jujutsu combat, inside this space, the opponent's technique would gain an absolute Sure-Hit effect. Maki gripped Playful Cloud tight, palms drenched in sweat.

"What gorgeous scenery..." Naobito stopped moving and made no further reckless push forward. The fingers clutching the gourd had gone faintly white.

The speed advantage was worthless here. Sure-Hit meant that no matter how fast you ran, the attacks would find you on their own.

"Splash."

Ripples spread across the surface of the sea. Dagon surfaced slowly from the water. Every wound had vanished. The massive frame caught the sunlight and reflected a cold metallic sheen. One tentacle rose and pointed toward the three figures on the beach.

"Die."

Without warning, the sea surface boiled. Countless Piranha Shikigami, massive, fang-laden, every conceivable size, launched from the water like a squall. They had no flight trajectory. The moment they cleared the surface, they were already directly in front of the three of them. Sure-Hit effect activated.

"Tch!"

Nanami had only just swung the blunt blade to cut down two piranhas when searing pain tore through his calf. One of the creature-fish had clamped onto his lower leg at some point and ripped away a large chunk of flesh with a savage jerk.

"Tsk!" Nanami let out a stifled grunt and split it apart with a backhand stroke.

But this was only the beginning. Tens of thousands of Piranha Shikigami blotted out the sky, sealing them in from every direction. No blind spots. No retreat.

"Get back!" Maki roared, whipping Playful Cloud in an airtight sweep.

But physical defense was pitifully weak inside a Sure-Hit Domain. Several piranhas materialized out of nowhere at Maki's back. Razor teeth tore clean through the uniform and ripped open a wound deep enough to show bone. Maki stumbled from the pain and nearly went down.

"Damn it!" Naobito let out a sharp shout and flickered into motion.

Projection Sorcery forced open, trying to use raw speed to break through the encirclement of the fish swarm.

"Too slow." Dagon's voice drifted across the water.

SPLASH!

A Giant Shark Shikigami over 5 meters long materialized directly in Naobito's path out of nowhere. Its blood-filled maw, lined with rows of backward-curving barbs, opened wide and bit down toward the old man's upper body. No dodging it. In a fraction of a second, Naobito could only wrench sideways with all he had.

CRACK!

A piercing sound of snapping bone rang across the beach.

"Old man!" Maki screamed, eyes going red.

Blood rained through the air. Naobito Zenin rolled clear of the shark's jaws in a ragged, battered heap, right arm severed at the root. Blood poured like a fountain across the pristine white sand. Naobito dropped to one knee and pressed hard against the stump, face gone ashen. The tide of battle had turned completely in that single instant.

The three who had been suppressing their opponent just moments before were all gravely wounded within 10 seconds of the Domain Expansion. Dagon drifted quietly on the surface of the sea, looking down at them from above, the way one might look at three insects about to die of thirst. The pressure of it was like a mountain landing on each of them.

➤ Next: Desperate Straits — Megumi Fushiguro's Reverse Cursed Technique