Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 17 - That Conqueror King

Megumi suspected he'd had too much to drink.

That would explain the failing eyesight.

Because he had just spotted Uraume in the middle of this yandere battle royale.

Uraume, when had Uraume even arrived?

He blinked hard, eyelids snapping open and shut. That white figure still stood exactly where it had been.

Uraume remained perfectly still at the center of the domain, gazing down at everyone present with an absolute, contemptuous stare.

Those eyes swept across the crowd one by one, carrying no emotion whatsoever, as though surveying a colony of ants.

Every single person here was nothing more than dust to be brushed aside on Uraume's path forward.

That included Megumi.

"Somehow I get the feeling this Uraume isn't exactly friendly toward me either. Which means Uraume didn't come to join the yandere battle royale after all."

"Then could it be..."

Megumi turned around and pointed at his Kashimo.

"That Uraume came to fight you for the title of greatest crossdressing warrior?"

Uraume's arrival had thrown yet another layer of fog over an already complicated battlefield.

The original three-way brawl had already been a tangled mess. Now an unknown variable had entered the picture, and the entire battle's dynamic shifted into murky uncertainty in an instant.

"So how did Uraume even get inside the domain?"

Megumi studied the two overlapping domains carefully, his gaze combing over every inch of their boundary. No opening anywhere.

It was only when Hajime Kashimo's warning struck again that it shattered every last trace of Megumi's composure.

"Look — that crack!"

"The crack that crosses Parallel Worlds!"

Kashimo's finger shot toward the sky, voice sharp with the alertness of someone facing a mortal threat.

Following that pointing finger, high above the domain, a long narrow fissure hung suspended against the heavens.

Like a wound slashed open across the sky by a blade.

Watching those familiar ripples descend upon the space once more, Kashimo couldn't help but grind his teeth.

"That has to be the Uraume who follows that Conqueror King Sukuna!"

"That?"

Hearing the two of them refer to Sukuna with such casual contempt, Uraume erupted in instant fury.

"That? You dare use 'that' to refer to the great Conqueror King Sukuna!"

Uraume's eyes ignited with icy killing intent, blazing with the fanaticism of someone whose faith had just been defiled.

The temperature dropped several degrees in a single moment. A thin layer of white frost actually began to crystallize across the ground.

"Die!"

Uraume moved.

Fast as lightning, the opening technique almost impossible to track.

Fingers pressed to lips. A deep breath drawn in, then expelled in one violent burst. A surge of extreme-cold cursed energy poured forth, condensing in the air into countless razor-sharp ice spikes.

Like tens of thousands of blades hanging suspended overhead.

Then they cascaded down like a downpour, sealing off every possible evasion route Megumi had.

"Direct Waterfall? Interesting."

"But I'm not the same Ku as back then..."

Megumi's hands wove into a seal, shadows surging like a tide beneath his feet as he prepared to launch his counterattack.

Then he felt an unnatural chill crawl up his spine. It came without any warning, only noticed once the cold had already seeped into his very marrow.

He looked more carefully.

Ice flowers had already descended beside him while he was still unaware.

His movements began to grow sluggish. The flow of his cursed energy started to congeal. Even his thoughts felt as though they had been coated in a layer of frost.

"It's not just the variety of attacks!"

Kashimo, standing closest to Megumi, was also caught in the assault.

Ice crystals drifted down onto the surface of Kashimo's Hollow Wicker Basket, condensing a thin layer of white frost across the crimson light-wall.

Years of training had honed Kashimo's sensitivity to a razor's edge. And of everyone in the main world, Kashimo was the only one who had ever fought Uraume and emerged victorious in a direct confrontation.

Kashimo recognized it immediately. This Uraume was not the same as before.

"Even the cursed energy level has made a qualitative leap!"

Kashimo grew somber in a way that was rare.

It seemed that while stretching its claws toward countless Parallel Worlds, Uraume's strength had grown in step with Conqueror King Sukuna's conquests. Like a blade retempered again and again, Uraume had become a far more dangerous existence.

"Don't hurt!"

"Fu, shi, Guro, Hui — Hui!"

Kashimo I, with no knowledge of the situation, had clearly not yet grasped what was happening.

Kashimo I only saw someone attacking Megumi. Only saw an unfamiliar white-haired figure taking aim at the one Kashimo I loved with those ice spikes.

The body moved faster than the mind.

One thunderous leap and Kashimo I was already standing before Uraume.

Lightning condensed on those fists into a dazzling orb of light, intending to cut off Uraume's attack before striking.

"Electro —"

The lightning never landed. Uraume's figure swayed almost imperceptibly on the spot.

BOOM!

Kashimo I's ultimate technique hadn't even launched before Uraume sent Kashimo I flying with a single punch.

The surface of that fist was coated in a thin layer of frost. It detonated on impact.

"Who even are you?"

Uraume withdrew the fist without sparing so much as a glance at Kashimo I on the ground.

Kashimo I had been finished off in passing. Just like that.

"Since the Conqueror King is unwilling to act, I will handle this in place of him."

"Megumi Fushiguro, die!"

Uraume chanted the final declaration. Bone-piercing cold condensed once more at the fingertips.

Aimed directly at Megumi's throat. The certainty in those eyes was absolute, as though victory had already been secured long ago.

"Dad's here!"

Megumi snapped into battle mode instantly, just as he prepared to give this uninvited guest a taste of both elbows,

"Let go!"

"Fu, shi, Guro, Hui, Hui!"

Another urgent female voice descended from the sky.

"Now which roadside is this one from!"

Uraume turned in irritation, and the moment those frost-rimmed eyes opened, celestial brilliance blazed them into blindness.

The light was too dazzling. Too fierce. Like staring directly into the sun.

Uraume's pupils went white. There was nothing to see at all.

"Watch your eyes!" Kashimo snapped both eyes shut at once.

What Uraume now faced was Hana Kurusu's full output, charged in secret at the sidelines for the entire duration of the domain battle.

"Jacob's Ladder, maximum output!"

The scale of that heavenly radiance had already surpassed every previous form it had ever taken.

The trace of light piercing through the entire sky was as magnificent as the divine miracles described in ancient scriptures.

A massive pillar of light poured down from the crack in the heavens.

Like divine punishment descending to devour heaven and earth.

It swallowed the entire battlefield whole.

"Freezing ice..."

Before Uraume could even act, the ice flowers condensed from cursed energy melted instantly into powder beneath the heavenly light.

As someone reborn from the Heian era, there was no way for Uraume, unlike Sukuna, to shed the identity of one bound to flesh.

Beneath the heavenly light, Uraume's form began to dissolve.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Uraume was driven straight into the ground by the light. Burn marks began to appear across Uraume's body under Jacob's Ladder's relentless illumination.

The fire-scars stood out shockingly vivid against pale skin, revealing the raw red muscle tissue beneath. Muscle fibers trembled in the light.

Flesh and blood, a mangled ruin.

And finally, bare white bone.

➤ Next: The Arrival of the Conqueror King