Chapter 171 - Hiromi Higuruma

Yuji Itadori kicked the doors of the Ikebukuro Theater open. Both heavy soundproofed panels crashed down and hit the red carpet, sending up a plume of dust. No wall-to-wall Cursed Spirits. No ambush waiting in the dark. Dead center on the vast stage stood a ceramic bathtub filled with white foam. Hiromi Higuruma was bare from the waist up, eyes closed, reclining against the rim.

On the small round table beside the tub sat a glass of red wine. Yuji froze in the doorway. This theater didn't even have heating. Who takes a bath here in the dead of winter?

Before he'd left, Master Toji had roared himself hoarse on the training ground: "On the battlefield of youth, every second could bring a fatal ambush! Keep your muscles tense at all times!"

But Master had definitely never covered what to do when you found a middle-aged man soaking in a bathtub with a glass of red wine. Yuji scratched his pink hair and stepped up onto the stage.

"Hiromi Higuruma?"

Higuruma opened both eyes. The gaze behind them held a strange mix, neurotic exhaustion threaded through with calm.

"The door wasn't locked, you know."

Higuruma glanced at the shattered planks on the floor. "What you just did constitutes willful destruction of property under Article 261 of the Penal Code. Though inside this barrier, the law doesn't mean much anymore."

"I don't care about any charges."

Yuji cut straight to it. "Give me your hundred points. I want to add a rule and end this damn Culling Game."

Higuruma stood up from the tub. Water sloshed and spilled over the sides. Higuruma pulled a white towel across and unhurriedly wiped the foam from both shoulders.

"End it? Why would I want to end it?"

Higuruma swept a look across the empty theater seats. "I think it's quite good here. No backroom dealings by the powerful. No fabricated evidence. None of those hollow verdicts buried under mountains of red tape."

Higuruma pulled on a white dress shirt and worked through the buttons one at a time.

"Here, all the rules are enforced absolutely by Kogane. Strength decides life and death. Points decide standing. This is true transparency. This is the fairness and justice I've spent my whole life wanting."

"But dead is dead — where's the fairness in that!" Yuji clenched his fist. The green bodysuit pulled tight across his muscles.

Higuruma let out a slow breath.

"It seems words aren't going to get us anywhere."

A wooden gavel materialized in one hand from thin air. "Then take it by force."

Yuji drove off the ground and launched himself at the stage like a cannonball. Fast. Higuruma's eyes narrowed. This kid isn't reinforcing with Cursed Energy, running on pure physical strength? The gavel swung. Yuji sidestepped, and his fist drove straight for Higuruma's face. Higuruma stepped back half a pace. The gavel swelled larger, becoming a shield in front of the body.

BANG!

A dull, heavy impact. Higuruma stumbled back three steps, arm going numb. Something is wrong with that force. Can't fight this head-on.

"Domain Expansion."

"Deadly Sentencing."

The world around them transformed in an instant. The theater was gone, replaced by a solemn, imposing courtroom. Higuruma stood at the elevated judge's bench, gavel in hand. Yuji stood inside the wooden frame of the defendant's box. A massive blindfolded black shikigami floated at Higuruma's back, holding a set of scales.

"Within my Domain, all acts of violence are prohibited." Higuruma brought the gavel down.

Yuji tried throwing a punch. Sure enough, his body felt like it had been caught in invisible restraints, he couldn't deal damage.

"What kind of technique is this? This is incredible!"

His eyes lit up. Not afraid in the slightest, he was looking around in pure curiosity, one hand already reaching out to touch the giant shikigami. Higuruma watched the thick-skulled high schooler, and the corner of one eye twitched.

"Court is now in session."

"Defendant Yuji Itadori. You entered a pachinko parlor in Ikebukuro while under the age of eighteen, in suspected violation of the Juvenile Protection Ordinance."

Yuji blinked, then immediately raised his hand.

"Ah — yeah, I did go in. I just wanted to use the bathroom."

Higuruma looked at him. A mocking smile pulled at the corner of one mouth.

"In this courtroom, an admission is a conviction."

Judgeman brought the hammer down hard.

"Guilty! Confiscation!"

The courtroom dissolved. Both of them were back in the ruined theater. Higuruma held the gavel, eyes sharpened to a point.

"Your Cursed Energy has been confiscated by my Judgeman. Right now, you can't even manage the most basic Cursed Energy defense." Higuruma descended from the stage one step at a time. "Give up. You can't win."

Yuji looked down at his hands. Checked inward. Sure enough, that tiny, meager trace of Cursed Energy was completely gone.

"Pfft." Yuji couldn't hold it in. A laugh slipped out.

Higuruma's brow furrowed. Is this kid out of his mind?

"Confiscated my Cursed Energy?"

Yuji shook out both arms, grinning wide enough to flash every tooth. "That's great, honestly. I never really got the hang of that stuff anyway. Half the time it just got in the way of my focus."

Higuruma's gaze went cold. What unbelievable arrogance. Still this cocky after losing his Cursed Energy? No more words. Higuruma charged, gavel swinging. In midair, the gavel instantly elongated into a massive two-handed war hammer and came crashing down with a howling rush of wind. Yuji touched his toes to the ground and leaped back lightly. BOOM. A large crater punched into the marble floor.

Then the hammer head suddenly snapped free on a chain and swept across horizontally like a meteor hammer.

"Whoa!"

Yuji back-flipped; the chain grazed past the tip of his nose. The weapon shifted, spear, then hook-and-sickle, Higuruma's attacks came in an unbroken stream. Yuji weaved left and right through the barrage like an agile monkey, occasionally letting out bursts of admiration.

"That weapon is amazing — it can change shape?"

"That move is seriously cool, old man!"

Higuruma sneered and kept the pressure on. It was clear now. The kid's physical abilities were genuinely extraordinary. Reaction speed far beyond any normal person. But without Cursed Energy reinforcement, running on nothing but a mortal body, stamina would run out eventually.

"Just an ordinary person with decent physical conditioning. That's all."

Higuruma swung a heavy blow and drove Yuji back onto the escalator on the theater's second floor. "Game over."

Yuji landed on the escalator handrail. He rolled his neck. A series of sharp cracks rang out from the bones.

"Warmup's done."

Higuruma paused. Warmup? Yuji bent down and rolled up the legs of his green bodysuit.

"Master Toji says not to take these off for nothing. But you're pretty strong, old man, should be fine."

Yuji reached down and untied the two black cloth straps bound around his calves. Higuruma narrowed both eyes. What are those? Weighted sandbags? That kind of outdated training tool, how heavy could it possibly be? Ten kilograms? Twenty? Yuji casually tossed the two black metal blocks down. Both unremarkable hunks of metal traced a short arc through the air.

BOOM!

A deafening crack that shook the walls. The entire theater lurched. Dust rained down from the ceiling in streams. Higuruma's eyes went wide and locked in place. Less than half a meter from where Higuruma stood, the marble floor had been smashed into two craters half a meter deep.

➤ Next: The Verdict That Never Fell