Chapter 150 - Desperate Straits — Megumi Fushiguro's Reverse Cursed Technique

The sea churned. Piranha burst through the surface, and in the sunlight their interlocking teeth gleamed a bone-white that made the skin crawl. Naobito Zenin was down on one knee in the sand, one hand pressed against a severed right arm, the veins on the forehead standing out in sharp relief.

Not a sound. Naobito endured the searing pain and drove the one remaining fist into the sand.

"Falling Blossom Emotion!"

An invisible barrier of Cursed Energy exploded outward from Naobito's body. The hundred-odd piranha charging at the front touched it and were pulverized by the rebounding force into fine red fragments. A mist of blood and viscera rained across the beach.

Kento Nanami spun and cleaved the massive shark lunging from behind, then rolled into the barrier in one fluid motion. He tore off what was left of his tie and wrenched it tight around the wound on his thigh, deep enough to show bone. Sweat stung his eyes. His jaw clenched against it. Ten seconds. That was all.

Nanami gripped his blunt blade and fixed his gaze on the outside. Beyond the barrier, the school of fish stretched without end, a black, heaving mass with no visible limit. Naobito had lost an arm, and the Cursed Energy was in shambles. This Zenin Clan secret technique, built specifically to counter sure-hit effects, had shrunk to barely two meters across.

Once this shell shattered, they'd be gnawed to bone fragments within three seconds. Maki wiped the blood from the corner of one eye, gripped Playful Cloud, and glared up at Dagon floating overhead watching the spectacle. The deadlock had to be broken. Toes dug into the sand.

"Eight Gates, Third Gate — Gate of Life, open!"

Green steam erupted from Maki's body. The shockwave sent sand and several piranha flying. The calf muscles surged and split the uniform's trouser legs clean apart. Maki launched forward like a cannonball, straight out through the barrier and into the swarming mass of fish.

"Get out of the way!"

Playful Cloud swung in a full arc. More than ten sea creatures detonated on the spot, flesh and blood flying in every direction, tearing a path through the flood by sheer force. But it wasn't enough. Dagon looked down from above, too idle to even raise a hand, and simply extended one thick tentacle into the water. The sea surged violently upward.

More than ten giant squid, each over ten meters long, burst through the surface. Their sucker-lined tentacles lashed in from every direction. Too many. Maki gritted her teeth and twisted clear of two. The creature's Cursed Energy was endless. In midair, there was no leverage, no way to dodge everything. One tentacle cracked hard across her back.

Maki coughed up a mouthful of blood and was sent flying, rolling more than ten meters across the sand. Playful Cloud slipped free and lodged in the shallow water nearby.

"Maki!" Naobito roared and started to charge out.

But the Falling Blossom Emotion barrier had nothing left. Fractures spread across it in an instant, and it shattered. The endless swarm seized the opening and descended on all three of them. Nanami forced himself upright and levelled the blunt blade across his chest. Was this the end? He had almost stopped breathing. Then, from the clear sky overhead, came the sound of something cracking apart.

Dagon snapped its head upward. The shriek died in its throat. In the Domain barrier wall, an external force had smashed open a crack several meters long. The murky air from the ruins outside came howling in. A figure dropped through. Megumi Fushiguro stood up and shook the water weeds from his head.

He swept a glance across the wreckage on the beach, took in Naobito's severed arm and Nanami's blood-soaked state, and then looked up at Dagon hovering in midair.

You old bastard. This is what you called a "big sandbag" for me to practice on?

He cursed inwardly.

This is a Special Grade Cursed Spirit's fully manifested Domain.

"Megumi?!" Maki pushed herself upright and spat out blood and sand. "What are you doing here!"

"Dad sent me for backup."

Megumi kept his expression flat and took a step forward through the water. He crossed both hands and formed a seal. Without neutralizing the sure-hit effect, they'd be ground down sooner or later. The only option was to counter a Domain with a Domain.

"Fall back," he said coldly.

The shadow beneath his feet came alive, spreading outward like ink.

"Domain Expansion."

"Chimera Shadow Garden."

Thick black mire flooded the surface of the sea in an instant, forcibly carving out a territory of shadow inside the barrier of sunlit beach. Two completely different Domains clashed in the air above, and the atmosphere warped around them. The weight lifted from Nanami's body all at once. Leaning on the blade, breathing in deep gulps, the iron tension in his shoulders finally eased.

Dagon's octopus face twisted with fury.

"You dare — die!"

It shrieked. The flesh on its chest peeled back as vast Cursed Energy poured wildly into the seawater. Dagon raised both arms and drained every drop of water from the entire Domain, channelling it into a massive water tornado that bore straight down on Megumi. Overwhelming Cursed Energy. Enough to crush this presumptuous patch of shadow into nothing. The tornado crashed down.

A huge gash tore through the black mire. Megumi's legs buckled. Both knees hit the ground, and the crack of breaking bones rang out clearly. The crushing water pressure pinned him flat, and blood seeped from all seven orifices. The weight was enormous. Blood flooded Megumi's throat.

This thing's Cursed Energy is far beyond mine. The Domain is almost gone.

"Megumi!" Maki dragged herself forward on a broken leg.

Nanami and Naobito pushed to the front as well, throwing themselves between Megumi and the onslaught.

"Fall back!" Naobito shoved Maki aside and formed seals rapidly with one hand. The last drop of Cursed Energy inside was wrung out completely, jaw set hard, and one final layer of Falling Blossom Emotion rose up.

This boy is the key to breaking the stalemate. He cannot die.

The water tornado's aftershock hit the barrier, carrying countless piranha with it. The barrier held for half a second. Then it shattered.

Naobito was seized at the waist by a massive shark and hurled far away. Nanami swung the blade to intercept, but a high-pressure jet sliced a wide gash across his chest and sent him down in a spray of blood. Maki had barely charged out when several squid tentacles coiled around all four limbs and hoisted her into midair, every bone screaming.

Total annihilation was only a matter of moments. Megumi lay face-down in the mire, vision smeared completely red. Every bone felt shattered. Not a single finger would move. The boundary of Chimera Shadow Garden was collapsing in massive sections.

Can't die here.

Is it time to use that.

No.

Megumi forced both eyes wide open. The Cursed Energy of the Ten Shadows Technique churned wildly through his mind. Power from a depth never touched before. From the deepest shadow, a beast cry echoed out. Megumi bit through the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain brought clarity back for one moment.

Using every last scrap of strength, the dislocated hands were forced together, finger bones pressing against each other with an audible crack.

"Ten Shadows Technique —" His throat was full of blood and foam, the voice barely coherent. But his eyes stayed locked on Dagon above.

"Round Deer!"

A burst of white light erupted from deep within the mire. A divine deer with four eyes on its crown broke through the darkness and stepped forward. The raging seawater all around went still. A white halo spread outward from Round Deer and swept across the entire beach. Reverse Cursed Technique.

The white light swept over Nanami's chest. The wound vanished, torn flesh knitting shut at speed without leaving so much as a scar. The wound on Naobito's severed arm stopped bleeding and new flesh closed over it instantly, depleted Cursed Energy refilling, colour flooding back into the ashen face. Maki's fractured ribs snapped back into place, and the body pushed past its limits recovered in a single breath.

"Take it down!" Megumi gasped.

Maki dropped from midair and landed solidly on the black mire.

"Beautiful work, Megumi!"

Every injury vanished, and their strength returned. With Megumi's Reverse Cursed Technique covering them, there was nothing left to hold back for. Maki reached out and yanked Playful Cloud free from the shallow water. If the Gate of Life couldn't crack this turtle's shell, then open higher. Her eyes were threaded with red.

"Eight Gates, Fourth Gate — Gate of Pain, open!"

The green steam wrapped around her body turned crimson in an instant. The surging force ruptured blood vessels, and the seeping blood vaporised on contact with the heat into a red mist. Agonizing pain tore through every bone. Maki bared a grin. Both legs bent slightly. The mire underfoot caved in with a violent crash, carving out a deep pit. Maki was already gone.

"Piercing Ox!"

Megumi spent the very last breath, rolled over, and slammed both hands hard into the mud. A heavily armored black bull in bone plating roared out of the shadow. Piercing Ox didn't charge straight at Dagon. It ran along the edge of the Domain in a wide circuit, building speed with every passing meter. The greater the distance, the harder the impact.

Dagon sensed the danger and reacted, too slowly, throwing up columns of water to block the black bull's path. Too late. After a full lap around the Domain, Piercing Ox had reached maximum speed. It lowered its head. The horns drove straight through every water column in the way. Piercing Ox slammed into Dagon's gut.

Dagon's massive body launched into the air, abdomen torn open by the horns, green blood streaming downward. Suspended with no point of leverage, Dagon thrashed wildly with its tentacles, trying to stabilize. Maki stepped onto Piercing Ox's broad back and used the momentum to launch off the ground, leaping higher than Dagon itself. The crimson blood-mist wrapped everything in red.

Both hands gripped the short handles at either end of Playful Cloud. The chain between them pulled taut and straight. This Special Grade Cursed Tool's true purpose was never to lash. It was to strangle. Maki's waist and core twisted in midair to an extreme angle, driving Playful Cloud into a frenzied spin.

"Playful Cloud: Storm Meat Grinder!"

Carrying the full force of the Gate of Pain's eruption, Playful Cloud came down on Dagon's head like a chainsaw. Dagon didn't even have time to scream. That half of its head, covered in eyes, detonated the instant Playful Cloud made contact. Green brain matter and shattered eyeballs splattered in every direction. The headless corpse, stripped of Cursed Energy, crashed heavily into the mire.

The sunlight, the beach, the palm trees, gone in an instant. The Domain barrier split and collapsed entirely. The cold, murky air of B5's platform flooded back in. Megumi went completely limp in the rubble. Round Deer and Chimera Shadow Garden dispersed at the same moment. Maki released the Gate of Pain state, utterly drained, and slowly slid down the load-bearing wall to the ground.

Nanami and Naobito leaned against each other, breathing hard, staring at the remains dissolving rapidly on the ground. They had won. They had finally put this thing down. Megumi lay face-down on the ground and slowly worked the shoulder that ached like it was about to snap clean off. That conniving old man. He stared up at the ruined ceiling.

When he got back, he was absolutely going to extort twenty servings of the finest wagyu out of him. Not one serving less.

➤ Next: The Savage Samurai — Suguru Geto's Domain