Chapter 182 - Exorcising Yorozu, Tengen Stolen Away

Yorozu forced calm onto her face. Her cold gaze swept the group gathered in the basement. On the surface they looked numerous. But a closer read made it obvious, just a pack of underwhelming modern sorcerers.

That Megumi kid had decent Cursed Energy. The pink-haired brat next to him smelled strange. The white-clad one with the long blade on his back had Cursed Energy strong enough to feel prickly. As for the one with the mechanical arm and the blond guy, just looking at them was irritating.

Find the weakest one first. Get them under control, break out, and find my lord Ryomen Sukuna. Yorozu's gaze swept the room and locked hard onto the muscular man in the green spandex suit. This man had not a single trace of Cursed Energy on him. A complete monkey. Zero Cursed Energy. Yorozu laughed coldly inside.

A piece of trash who couldn't even touch the threshold of the jujutsu world, and yet dared to stand here running his mouth. You'll be the first.

"A lowly creature with no Cursed Energy, you think you're qualified to bark at me?"

Yorozu manipulated Tsumiki's body and raised the right hand. Liquid metal surged from the fingertips, solidifying in an instant into a sharp metal spear. Yorozu didn't spare Toji a second thought. One kick off the ground and the spear drove straight for his throat.

Megumi's expression shifted violently. On instinct he almost cried out, but then he remembered exactly what kind of monster his old man was and swallowed the words back down. Toji stood where he was without so much as a blink. The spear stopped less than half an inch from his face.

Not because Yorozu held back. It was because Toji had extended two fingers and pinched the speartip steady.

"What?" Yorozu froze.

This was high-density liquid metal. Even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit couldn't catch it bare-handed.

"Kid, this body isn't yours to wreck."

Toji grinned, showing a full set of white teeth. "Eight Gates — Fifth Gate — Gate of Limit, open!"

Green steam exploded from his body all at once, compressing the basement air until it cracked with a thunderous boom. Yorozu caught a flash of green light. The metal spear snapped in two with a sharp CRACK. Then a fist the size of a sandbag was already in her face.

Toji had held back eight parts of his strength, he wasn't about to damage Tsumiki's body, but the remaining two parts were more than enough to make an ancient sorcerer pay dearly. The fist landed squarely against Yorozu's cheek. Yorozu went flying like a burst burlap sack and slammed hard into a load-bearing wall. Chunks of plaster peeled away. Dust came raining down.

Yorozu lay face-down on the ground, skull buzzing, every organ feeling like it had shifted out of place. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. How could a monkey with no Cursed Energy possess this kind of raw, purely physical destructive force? Yorozu bit down and lifted her head, face full of disbelief. She'd kicked a steel plate. That much was clear.

The green-suit was a monster, there was no fighting him head-on. Switch targets. Yorozu's gaze passed over Toji and landed on Fumihiko Takaba, who was posing with a comb like a superhero. This guy had been clowning around off to the side the entire time. Cursed Energy almost nonexistent. Looked like some stand-up comedian who had wandered in off the street. Yes. Him.

This had to be the most useless weakling in the entire room.

"Die!" Yorozu snapped up from the ground and wrung out every last drop of remaining Cursed Energy.

Liquid metal condensed into dozens of razor-sharp throwing knives and launched toward Takaba in an overwhelming volley. This time Yorozu gave everything. Pin this clown to the wall, and the chaos would cover an escape through the ceiling. The knives screamed through the air. Takaba was about to become a pincushion.

"Takaba-san, watch out!" Yuji Itadori cried out.

Takaba wasn't even slightly flustered. Just watched the blades coming in and rubbed his chin.

"If you go out in the rain without an umbrella, you'll catch a cold, you know!"

Takaba shouted and produced from nowhere a clear plastic umbrella printed with little yellow ducks, snapping it open with a pop in front of him. Then something bizarre happened.

Those metal throwing knives, capable of punching through steel plate, the instant they touched the little yellow duck umbrella, turned into limp, soggy noodles. They slapped to the ground one after another, giving off a faint scent of scallion oil. Yorozu's eyes went wide enough to fall out of her head. What kind of technique is this? How did my liquid metal turn into noodles?

This defies all logic of jujutsu!

"Hey, you're way too worked up, let me comb your hair so you can cool down!"

Takaba poked his head out from behind the umbrella and hurled the pink plastic comb with full force. The comb traced a wobbly, lopsided arc through the air. Yorozu instinctively tried to dodge, and found her body locked in place as if some irresistible rule had seized it completely. Not a single muscle would move. The comb hit her squarely in the forehead.

THUD!

A completely unreasonable force detonated on impact. Yorozu felt like a fully loaded dump truck had hit her head-on. She toppled backward and crashed to the ground, unable to get up for a long moment. What kind of place is this? What species of monster are these modern sorcerers? Yorozu's composure shattered entirely.

"Nice work, comedy man!"

Toji burst out laughing and gave Yorozu absolutely no time to breathe. He flashed across more than half the room in an instant and planted a foot squarely on Yorozu's chest. Yorozu struggled to gather Cursed Energy. Toji reached back into Chimera's mouth, drew out the Inverted Spear of Heaven, and drove it into Tsumiki's shoulder without hesitation. The Special Grade Cursed Tool's forced-cancellation effect activated immediately.

The Cursed Energy churning inside Yorozu cut out all at once, like a power source yanked from the wall, snuffed out completely.

"You..." Yorozu stared daggers at Toji, face full of fury and refusal.

"Shut up and get out of my daughter's body."

Toji turned his head toward Hana Kurusu in the corner. "Kid, now's your chance! Give her another full cleanse!"

Hana Kurusu snapped back from the absurd battle just witnessed and quickly nodded. The wings spread open once more.

"Jacob's Ladder!"

The blinding pillar of light descended again. This time there was nothing in its way, it struck directly onto Yorozu's soul. Yorozu's anguished wail echoed through the basement. Resentment, fury, grief, all of it tangled together. But under the double-layered forced cancellation of Angel's absolute purifying light and the Inverted Spear of Heaven, every last bit of struggle was futile.

A few seconds later, the screaming stopped dead. The black residue dispersed completely into the air. Toji pulled the Inverted Spear of Heaven free. Tsumiki's eyes stayed closed, breathing steady. This time, not a single trace of Cursed Energy remained on the forehead. Megumi hurried over and checked his sister's pulse. He let out a long breath. His back was already soaked through with cold sweat.

"This time it's really clean."

"Of course it is. When the old man steps in, no ancient sorcerer stands a chance."

Toji rubbed his nose with a satisfied look and clapped Takaba on the shoulder. "Your technique is something else, kid. Train with me next time, I'll make sure your body becomes just as unbreakable as your jokes!"

Takaba gave a goofy grin and was just about to say something.

"Alright, drop the chatter."

Toji cut it off and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. He looked toward Yuta and Todo.

"Yuta. Todo."

He pointed at Tsumiki on the bed and Kinji Hakari slumped against the wall. "You two escort Tsumiki and this idiot to Tokyo Jujutsu High's safe house. Anything gets in your way on the road, cut it down."

Yuta nodded. "Leave it to us, Toji-san. What's your next move?"

Todo knocked a fist against his chest with the mechanical arm. "My best friend's sister is my sister!"

"We need to go have a word with that brain-in-a-jar who calls himself Kenjaku."

Toji rolled his neck. "Anyone who dares set their sights on my family, I'll chop them up and feed them to the dogs."

Megumi stood up. "The front gate of Prison Realm is still in Kenjaku's hands. If we're going to save Gojo-sensei, we have to find him."

Just as everyone was about to work out the specific route, Toji's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. Suguru Geto. Toji answered and put it on speaker.

"Jie, what's the situation on your end? I've already dealt with our girl here, the ancient sorcerer that was possessing her has been put down."

No immediate response from the other end. Just the sound of labored breathing, and the howl of wind sweeping through rubble. Several long seconds passed.

"Toji..."

Suguru Geto's voice came through hoarse. Bone-deep exhaustion in it, and a chill that couldn't be concealed.

"What happened?"

Toji's voice dropped low.

"Tengen..." Suguru Geto took a long breath. "Kenjaku has taken Tengen."

Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto the phone. Toji said nothing. He knew what it meant. Tengen was the cornerstone sustaining the barrier over all of Japan. Once Tengen fell into Kenjaku's hands, there would be nothing left standing in the way of the plan to merge all of Japan's humanity.

"We couldn't stop him."

Suguru Geto's voice was thick with self-reproach.

"His power exceeded what we anticipated. Choso is gravely injured. And Yuki Tsukumo — in order to cover our retreat —"

A pause.

"Status unknown."

➤ Next: Three-Pronged Advance