Chapter 158 - Slaughter — Clash
It wasn't a Cursed Tool. It was something closer to a natural predator, one that operated on the level of rules themselves. A predator built specifically to extinguish Idle Transfiguration.
"All together!" The single eye in Jogo's skull held nothing but fear.
The volcanic crater above his head erupted. Dozens of high-density fireballs came down like shotgun pellets, blanketing the sky as they crashed toward Toji. At the same time, the countless tendrils behind Mahito transformed into razor-sharp bone spikes and drove at Toji's blind spots from every direction. No way out.
This was two Special Grade Cursed Spirits going all-in. A joint offensive with nothing held back.
"Too slow."
Toji didn't even glance at the fireballs or the bone spikes. He simply took one step forward.
BOOM!
The deep green steam of the Gate of View detonated outward. Toji vanished. Jogo and Mahito lost their target at the same moment.
"What?!"
THWCK!
The dull, wet sound of a blade finding flesh. Mahito looked down at his own chest, unable to believe what he was seeing. A savage wound ran from his left shoulder all the way to his lower right abdomen, deep enough to show bone. Grayish-blue blood poured out in torrents.
Toji materialized behind him, gripping the Split Soul Katana in a reverse one-handed hold. The tip of the blade was spotless, not a drop of blood on it.
"How is this possible... my body..." Mahito reached toward the wound, trying to reshape himself with his technique.
It didn't work. His soul had been cut. Like dragging a blade across a painting, no matter how much paint you layered over it, the mark of that cut would remain forever. The blade had forcibly locked his soul into a state of injury.
"Lesson two."
Toji's voice came from just beside his ear. "Don't leave your back exposed to your taijutsu instructor."
"HE'S BEHIND YOU!" Jogo's scream was pure terror.
He pressed his palms together. A massive pillar of magma came crashing down from above, striking precisely where Toji and Mahito stood. Mahito's pupils blew wide, this idiot wants to burn me alive too?! But he had no time to dodge.
Toji, however, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Without looking, he grabbed Mahito by the neck, used his enormous body as a shield, and drove him straight into the descending pillar of magma.
THOOM!
Magma slammed into flesh. A searing, acrid stench hit the air. The crackling sound of burning protein spread through the space in an instant.
Mahito let out a shrill, agonized shriek from inside the inferno. His body twisted and warped under the extreme heat, but because his soul had been locked by the blade, he couldn't fully reshape himself. He could only endure it. Raw and primal and total.
"Not bad firepower, one-eye."
Toji's voice carried out from within the flames. He walked out completely unharmed and tossed what remained of the charred Mahito aside without ceremony.
"But firepower alone won't get you a passing grade."
The words had barely left his mouth before he disappeared again. Jogo's scalp crawled. He sprayed fire in every direction, trying to force Toji into the open with a blanket barrage. A green phantom was already in his face. Too fast. Fast enough that his single eye couldn't track it. Toji's knee came up hard into Jogo's jaw.
CRACK!
The force snapped Jogo's skull back with tremendous violence. His neck bones let out a grinding crack that set teeth on edge. Then the Split Soul Katana swept upward from below, cutting a cold arc through the air.
THWCK!
Jogo's right arm was severed clean from the shoulder.
"AAAAAAGH!"
The pain drove Jogo into total madness.
"Maximum Technique—"
He wanted to use the same trick. Summon a meteor.
"During an exam, you don't get to repeat the same answer." Toji's foot came down on his chest and drove every remaining word back down his throat. "Failing student."
BOOM!
Jogo's massive body cratered into the earth. The ground caved in with a thunderous roar and left a pit ten meters across. Then a bizarre, eerie cackle drifted over from nearby. The charred husk that had been Mahito was standing up again. No, his form had changed entirely.
His body was more twisted and grotesque than before. His skin had taken on a metallic gray-black. Four enormous insect-like limbs had sprouted from his back. The wound carved out by the Split Soul Katana was still there on his chest, but the flesh around it was proliferating in something far more savage and frenzied than before.
A monster that couldn't be finished in a single blow, give him even a breath, and he would come back as something worse.
"Wonderful... this is absolutely wonderful!"
Mahito, no, the Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing, felt the enormous Cursed Energy surging through him, looked at his new form, and broke into a deranged laugh.
"This is evolution! This is the soul's true form! Thank you, old man! You're the one who showed me this whole new landscape!"
His speed and power were now several times what they had been.
"Oh? Shed your skin, have you?" Toji raised his head from the crater's edge. A look of genuine approval crossed his face. "Not bad, I love this kind of youth that breaks through even in the depths of despair!"
The Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing howled. All four limbs exploded with force. The entire form became a streak of gray-black lightning and closed the distance in an instant. Its palm, now honed to a blade's edge, drove straight for Toji's heart. The speed of that single strike had already surpassed Jogo. And yet...
"Eight Gates, Sixth Gate — open!"
CLANG!
A clean, sharp ring of metal. The Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing's palm was deflected with casual ease by the flat of Toji's blade.
"Speed is decent." Toji gave a nod. "But the power — still far from enough."
He stepped forward. An irresistible force transmitted through the blade. The Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing lost its balance entirely and staggered back. That was the opening. The Split Soul Katana left Toji's hand and traced a perfect spinning arc through the air.
THWCK. THWCK.
All four enormous limbs were severed in an instant by the rotating blade. Then Toji's fist arrived. No Cursed Energy. No technique. Just a pure, limit-breaking punch, thrown with the Gate of View open.
BOOM!
Square in the chest of the Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing. Right where the Split Soul Katana's wound had been. The deranged grin on its face froze.
Its chest took the blow like a battering ram had hit it head-on. With the point of impact as the center, its entire upper body caved inward and then exploded outward. Chunks of flesh and grayish-blue blood sprayed in every direction. Ryomen Sukuna's brow furrowed as he watched from above.
"Two pieces of trash."
"Kgh..."
In the crater, Jogo struggled upright. What he saw was the exact moment Mahito came apart. That monster, the evolved one, the one that had sent a chill through even Jogo's heart, was still just a toy in front of this man. Run. He had to run. That was the only thought left in his head.
He abandoned every last shred of fighting spirit and turned to flee this hell.
"And where do you think you're going? The make-up exam isn't over yet."
Toji's voice rose at his back like something that had burrowed into his bones. Jogo froze. He turned around slowly. Toji stood with one foot planted on what was left of the Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing, half a body at most, the remnant still writhing uselessly beneath his boot. The Split Soul Katana that had gone spinning through the air was back in Toji's hand.
"Come on. One last question."
Toji pulled his lips back, baring teeth white as bone.
"You and Mahito, which one of you can take a beating better?"
The words were barely out before he moved. A simple charge. A single swing of the blade. Jogo couldn't even manage a reaction. He only saw a flash of green. Then the world spun. He saw his own body, still standing where it had been, a corona of scattering Cursed Energy erupting from the stump of his neck. His head had taken flight.
In the last second before his consciousness dissolved entirely, Jogo looked at that man, standing there like a god or a demon. He thought of the King of Curses, enthroned high above all others. Ryomen Sukuna. I carry the power of ten fingers... Then how many fingers is this guy worth?
THUD!
Jogo's head hit the ground, rolled several times, and the light in his single eye went out completely. Dead silence.
"Master really is the strongest!"
Naoya Zenin screamed with frenzied awe.
"Dad... still makes people feel so safe..."
Megumi Fushiguro murmured to himself. Only the one called Mahito remained, convulsing wildly on the ground, still desperately trying to reshape his shattered body. But it was no use. His soul had already been carved to pieces by that blade.
➤ Next: The Puppeteer Steps Out of the Shadows