Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 18 - The Arrival of the Conqueror King
"Hungry, ahhhhh—"
"Hungry, ahhhhh—"
Under the heavenly light, two new screams rang out.
No longer Uraume's solo. Now three voices tangled together in a chaotic trio.
The vessel, and Tsumiki Fushiguro, who had become assimilated with the vessel, both caught the effects of Jacob's Ladder to varying degrees.
That golden radiance poured indiscriminately over every individual bearing a cursed energy signature.
Like sunlight falling on all things equally.
Under its output, their forms began to dissolve as well. Their outlines grew blurred and translucent in the heavenly light, as though the radiance might swallow them at any moment.
A complete, total overwhelm of technique performance.
"Holy shit, it's that supreme nine-gate technique Jacob's Ladder!"
Megumi couldn't hold back the shout.
Which meant,
"It's Hana Kurusu..."
In an instant, the heavenly light falling over the vessel and Tsumiki Fushiguro slowly faded. From searing to thin, from full-body coverage to a few trailing threads of light, and then gone entirely.
The vessel and Tsumiki Fushiguro both collapsed to the ground at the same time, gasping in great heaving gulps.
Terror and lingering dread still haunted their eyes, but underneath that was something else. A hollow, dazed blankness. The look of people who had just survived something they shouldn't have.
"They're roughly Megumi's friend and sister, I suppose."
"If I killed them, Megumi would hate me, wouldn't he..."
Hana Kurusu seemed genuinely troubled by this, brow creasing slightly. In the end, Hana Kurusu shook her head and lowered the hand aimed at the two of them, letting them keep their consciousness and walk away alive.
The fierce heavenly light narrowed.
Only a single beam remained, still shining down on Uraume, pinning Uraume hard to the ground, completely immobile.
Beyond that, nothing else in the scene moved.
"Wait, is it over already?"
Megumi watched the vessel and Tsumiki Fushiguro go quiet and compliant, but kept his guard up anyway. Worried the obsessive Anti-Gravity System might flare back up and come lunging at him any second.
But the two of them seemed to genuinely let it go.
The vessel was first to raise its head. Unwilling, yes. But underneath the unwillingness was something closer to relief.
"Losing to the strong — I accept this defeat wholeheartedly."
"Megumi Fushiguro Hui is yours!"
The vessel's tone still carried plenty of discontent. But the vessel relinquished Megumi Fushiguro Hui all the same.
"That's it? That easily?"
Megumi blinked.
"If I'd known, I would've taught Resolute Megumi Fushiguro to set some Binding Vows and just had him catch all these creatures like Pokémon."
Watching the scene in front of him, Megumi suddenly felt like all his own maneuvering had been a bit unnecessary. In the end, one beam of heavenly light solved everything.
Still, he had gotten to eat the vessel's popsicle. On the whole, not a bad deal.
"Because I have already lost."
"So I must think like the weak."
The vessel answered with complete seriousness.
The vessel's gaze finally lifted to Megumi's face. The earlier fanaticism was gone. The possessiveness was gone.
"The weak must submit to the strong."
"Agreed."
Tsumiki Fushiguro, sharing the same admiration for strength, agreed with the vessel's reasoning and finally settled down from the fighting.
In a moment, let Resolute Megumi Fushiguro take over for me, and be with Hana Kurusu. Let the right to use Megumi Fushiguro Hui belong to the strongest.
"Can I call this a roughly repaired worldline?"
Megumi propped a cheek in one hand, watching the scene before him with an expression stuck somewhere between laughing and crying.
The fighting-tournament-for-marriage hadn't grown more chaotic from Uraume's intervention. Jacob's Ladder had just brute-forced its way in and settled the whole thing in one move.
"Hungry, ahhhhh, "
Uraume's screaming still rang without end through the domain.
Uraume's body convulsed violently inside Jacob's Ladder's pillar of light. The skin peeled away in scorched black flakes, like paper catching fire, exposing vivid red muscle and stark white bone beneath. And it kept dissolving under the sustained radiance. Rising as pale wisps of smoke. Dispersing. As though the entire person was being erased from this world inch by inch.
Watching this utterly absurd scene unfold,
Even Toji, who had just regained consciousness and was able to think again, currently inhabiting Megumi's body, twisted into the classic mismatched wide-and-narrow eye expression, murmuring "is this real," staring at Uraume being burnt nearly to ash by Jacob's Ladder.
"Who even is this?"
Uraume's earth-shaking display had successfully left Ten Shadows Toji completely baffled. Pure bewilderment written across that face.
"Hey, you called me out of the shadows again."
"Was it to deal with an opponent like this?"
Beneath the heavenly light, Uraume was truly.
Almost burnt out.
That face, once cold and haughty, showed absolute panic for the very first time. The melting skin flapped as Uraume heaved upright and howled:
"SAVE ME, CONQUEROR KING SUKUNA, SIR!"
"COME SAVE ME QUICKLY!"
Conqueror King?
Megumi caught that title again instantly.
His mind linked every thread of evidence together in a flash. The rift in Okinawa. That peering gaze. Uraume's appearance. And the name Uraume was screaming right now.
Every fragment snapped into a complete picture.
So this uninvited guest was the Sukuna who had been watching Megumi through the rift in Okinawa.
Megumi hadn't expected the confrontation to come this fast.
"Perfect timing, I haven't even used my big move once yet!"
Megumi clenched both hands into fists again. Positioning them at his chest in a high-low offset, taking the form of an ancient ritual posture.
"Furube, "
A familiar stance. A familiar chant.
An entirely different ultimate move.
"What I've got now is no suicide infantry anymore!"
"Yukura yukura!"
The instant the chant fell, the shadow tide beneath Megumi's feet began churning violently.
Within the pitch-black domain, a second holy light descended, completely overtaking the radiance of Jacob's Ladder.
Not the golden-yellow of Jacob's Ladder. This was pure, uncontaminated white.
It surged from the core of the shadow tide straight up into the sky, piercing through the clouds. The wheel blazed with brilliant light. Like a blade descending from the heavens, cleaving open a domain of absolute white sanctity amid the pitch-black shadow tide.
Beneath it, a pale and powerful giant hand thrust forward.
Ten fingers spread wide, as though embracing the sky, beseeching strength from the heavens.
Then came the wings replacing its eyes.
Slowly emerging from the shadow tide with an irresistible force, like a divine miracle invading from another world.
The cold gleam of the Sword of Extermination cut through the shadow tide. The wheel returned to its place, descending slowly, fitting into the groove behind the giant beast's back, flush and seamless.
Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
Formally descended into the barrier in a posture of submission.
That once untameable greatest shikigami now stood quietly behind Megumi. Head lowered. Presence restrained. Like a loyal guard awaiting the master's command.
"Three attacks trimmed down, Hui, let's see what you've got."
Megumi stood on the battlefield: Toji draped over him, Inverted Spear of Heaven in the left hand, Split Soul Katana in the right, Mahoraga carried on his back.
"Come on then, Sukuna, I've got quite the score to settle with you!"
Watching the space beside Uraume within Jacob's Ladder's range begin to warp, as though something was squeezing into this world from the void, Megumi instantly understood. Conqueror King Sukuna was about to arrive.
He coiled into his stance, ready to release everything together with Mahoraga.
Sword of Extermination. Split Soul Katana. Inverted Spear of Heaven.
Three cold gleams.
All of them dissolved by the killing intent spilling from within the rift.
➤ Next: Kids, Come Back — I've Got More Fighting Sukuna to Do