Chapter 174 - Alliance of Five Special Grades

Tokyo, an unknown barrier. An abandoned elevated highway.

"Pffft."

Blood sprayed across the crumbling concrete wall like a fountain.

"Fifty-three."

The hulking figure known as Shura flicked the red-and-white pulp from both hands and dropped the modern sorcerer's corpse off the bridge pier like a piece of trash.

Shura turned toward the companion lounging on the roof of an abandoned car. "Boring. So boring. Is this really the best modern sorcerers have to offer? Not one of them earned me so much as a light sweat."

On the car roof, a pale-faced figure was toying idly with an eyeball. The leader of the association, Ashiya Kurobuchi.

"We did sleep for a thousand years before waking into this world."

Ashiya yawned. "How could these monkeys, raised in a greenhouse and fed on scraps, ever compare to our Five Traitors association from the Heian era?"

Below the pier, a woman covered in tattoos stood on the chest of a dying player, her high heel grinding the person's ribs apart one slow press at a time.

"Aaagh—!" The scream rang out and echoed beneath the vast empty overpass.

"Scream louder."

The woman licked her lips. Purple Cursed Energy gathered at the tip of her foot. "You modern people — other than your pretty screaming, you're completely useless. You couldn't even handle ten percent of my Cursed Energy?"

The other two members: one crouched on a streetlamp, polishing a katana. The other had dissolved into the shadows, nothing visible but a pair of crimson eyes. Five people. Five Special Grades. Even in their own era, this had been a society of madmen that made people's blood run cold at the mere mention of the name.

After being awakened by Kenjaku and thrown into the Culling Game, they hadn't treated it as any kind of survival game. It was simply a one-sided slaughter festival.

"The score's already past three hundred."

The swordsman on the streetlamp spoke coldly. "The living prey inside the barrier keeps thinning out. Aside from the five of us, most of what's left are rats hiding in the sewers."

Ashiya stood and casually crushed the eyeball in hand until it burst. This game needed an upgrade. Staying in this ruin to butcher the weak was a flat-out insult to Ashiya's noble bloodline.

"Since the small fry here are mostly cleaned up, let's go take a look at another barrier."

A cruel smile pulled at the corner of Ashiya's mouth. "I heard that fellow called Ryomen Sukuna has revived. I'd very much like to pay him a visit."

"Leader. There's something strange coming from over there."

The swordsman on the streetlamp spoke up suddenly, gaze cutting toward the far end of the overpass. All five looked at once.

"One-two! One-two! One-two! Youth! Invincible!"

The booming chant sliced through the dead silence of the street like a knife. Toji Fushiguro, wearing his signature green spandex suit, was moving along the overpass in exaggerated lunge stretches, five reps per second, steady as a metronome. Lunging and stretching. Inching forward. Drenched in sweat. Damn. What kind of rotten barrier was this, half a day wandering around and not a single living soul in sight.

Whatever happened to finding "Angel"?

Did these cowards hiding in the dark not even have the courage to face the blazing force of youth head-on?

"Kogane, why can't I find any people!?"

Kogane did not respond. The notification came back flat: "Player Toji Fushiguro, current score: zero points."

Zero points. The corner of Toji's eye twitched. Shameful. Absolutely shameful. Him, the Blue Beast of Konoha, the number-one taijutsu instructor at Jujutsu High, half a day into the game and nothing to show for it.

He'd just been bragging in front of Megumi, swearing on his life that he'd sweep the entire Culling Game with the iron fist of youth. And now he couldn't even find a punching bag. If that little brat Naoya ever found out, the ego inflation would reach orbit.

"No good. I need to find someone to ask about Angel's whereabouts."

Toji took a deep breath. "Megumi and Yuji should be in the middle of some passionate fighting right now, shouldn't they? I can't fall behind — not as the elder!"

That was when he felt a gaze from up ahead. Toji stopped and looked up. Thirty-odd meters out, four strangely dressed figures were staring down at him from above. Blood and severed limbs covered the ground. A thick, iron-heavy reek hung in the air. His gaze swept across the bodies. Not ordinary thugs. These were sorcerers who killed without blinking. Toji's eyes narrowed.

What did these people think human life was worth?! At the far end of the overpass, the five members of the Five Traitors were staring at him like he'd grown a second head.

"What is that outfit?"

The tattooed woman frowned, face twisted in open disgust. "A green spandex suit? Has modern people's sense of fashion rotted into something as ugly as a pile of shit?"

"No Cursed Energy."

Shura rolled a neck. "Can't sense so much as a trace. This is just an ordinary monkey, not even a sorcerer."

"How dull."

The swordsman closed both eyes, interest gone. "I thought it might be a big fish. Turns out it's just some brain-dead idiot who wandered in and got lost. Shura, crush him on your way past, don't dirty my blade."

Shura let out a cold laugh. "I'm a picky eater. But since this one delivered himself to our door, I'll show a little mercy and rip him in two, make some nice streamers out of him."

Ashiya crossed both arms and made no move to stop it. A monkey with no Cursed Energy. Whether it lived or died was utterly inconsequential. Ashiya didn't even have the interest to spare it a glance. Shura's thick legs started moving, advancing toward Toji like a heavy tank rolling forward. With every step, the concrete surface cracked beneath the weight.

"Hey. Green monkey."

Shura stopped ten meters out and looked down at him. "That stupid look on your face, are you here to be a clown?"

Toji ignored it. He was stretching. Left leg forward, right arm raised high, his whole body bent into a strange arc.

"Hoo..." A long, slow exhale. Then he snapped upright, flashed two rows of gleaming white teeth, and gave Shura a thumbs-up.

"Hey! Nice to meet you, hope we get along! I'm the Blue Beast of Konoha, the most hot-blooded taijutsu instructor at Jujutsu High, Toji Fushiguro! Have any of you seen someone called 'Angel'? If you have, do me a favor and let me know!"

Shura froze. The tattooed woman and the swordsman in the distance froze too. What on earth was this idiot talking about? Could this person not read the room? Were the bodies strewn across the ground just decoration?

"Ha? Blue Beast?"

Shura snapped back, then burst into howling laughter. "Hahahaha! You're killing me! Are you out of your mind, monkey? You think this is some kind of kid's game?!"

The look in Shura's eyes went savagely cruel in an instant. Finishing this person off right away suddenly felt like a waste. Shura wanted to crush every bone in this body piece by piece and drink in every desperate scream. Shura let out a roar. Black Cursed Energy exploded from the massive frame. That enormous body launched toward Toji like a cannonball.

A fist the size of a cooking pot drove straight for Toji's face. One punch. Enough force to flatten a heavy truck into scrap metal. In the distance, Ashiya let out a yawn and moved to turn away. It was over. And yet.

THUD!

A dull, heavy impact. No screaming. No sound of shattering bone. Shura's fist, the one capable of splitting mountains and cracking stone, had stopped dead in midair. Shura's eyes went wide. The gaze locked. Impossible. The Special Grade Cursed Energy enhancement Shura was so proud of. Blocked. What had stopped that fist was one of Toji's hands.

Toji was still holding the same thumbs-up pose. His left hand had simply risen, casually, to catch the blow. Not a single inch of movement. The green spandex suit snapped and rippled in the gust.

"Whoa whoa whoa." Toji dropped the smile. His tone went flat with displeasure. "Interrupting someone mid-question is not a good habit, you know. Didn't your parents ever teach you to show some reverence toward the blazing spirit of youth?"

Cold sweat broke out over Shura instantly. Something was wrong. That palm felt like it was cast from iron. Worse: when Shura tried to pull the fist back, the wrist was locked in a grip like a vice. Completely immovable. Shura had Special Grade physical strength.

"Let go!" Shura bellowed. The left fist condensed a surge of even more violent Cursed Energy and hammered toward Toji's temple.

"Too slow."

Toji sighed.

"Punches this soft, even Megumi hits harder than that. Looks like your youth has been completely wasted."

The words had barely landed. The blood and qi inside Toji's body ignited.

"Gate of Opening — Open!"

BOOM!

Green steam erupted outward. Shura's vision blurred. Shura hadn't even seen Toji move before a killing pain tore through the gut. Toji's right leg had already landed, clean and hard, against Shura's side, right at the waist.

CRACK!

The sound of splitting bone rang across the entire overpass. That body of over two meters folded. Like a high-speed train had hit it head-on. The whole frame buckled into a sharp U. A torrent of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs sprayed from Shura's mouth.

Three thick concrete bridge pillars. Shura blew through all three in succession, then hit the distant rubble with a final, thundering crash. The tattooed woman turned and stared. Then sneered.

"An ordinary person did that to you? Shura, you really are going backwards."

"Damn monkey... I got careless!"

Shura bit down hard. Reverse Cursed Technique activated in an instant, knitting the wounds shut.

"You filthy monkey, I'm going to wring your neck!"

"I'll tear your limbs off one section at a time, and stuff them into your own mouth!"

➤ Next: Two Instant Kills