Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 19 - Kids, Come Back — I've Got More Fighting Sukuna to Do
"Release."
Faster than Megumi could move.
A technique incantation drifted out from the void, reaching every person present with perfect clarity.
Beneath the dignity befitting a king, yet laced with something that made Megumi's heart involuntarily waver,
Languor.
As if a fully built-out Megumi amounted to nothing more than an insect before the Conqueror King.
Dust kicked up and grazed the tip of Megumi's nose.
The slash had begun?
Megumi felt no impact. Heard no sound of air being torn.
He simply became aware, in one particular moment, that the world in his field of vision was changing.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the Domain shell — shattered completely.
Split clean down the middle, the cross-section smooth as a mirror.
It scattered through the air like broken glass, refracting one last burst of light, then dissolved into pinpoints and vanished, as if it had never existed.
"It cut straight through two Domains?!"
Megumi's gaze chased the trajectory of the slash, watching it continue to extend.
Through the boundary of the Domain. Through the streets. Through the buildings. Through the skyline of Tokyo.
Forward without end, a perfectly straight line stretching to infinity across the canvas of the world!
Until it surpassed the furthest limit of Megumi's vision!
The maximum range of a normal eye is roughly 5 kilometers.
Objects beyond that distance blur from too narrow an angle or from atmospheric scattering, and eventually vanish at the edge of sight.
And yet in Megumi's field of vision,
The slash had already grown nearly blurry at the edge of his sight. And still showed no sign of stopping.
Like Moses parting the sea. Splitting heaven and earth.
A fissure sunk dozens of meters into the ground kept extending, carving a wound across the earth's surface deep enough to cut to the bone.
This slash, it was as if it had been engraved directly into the city of Tokyo itself.
Every building along its path split neatly in two.
The reverberations rolled out like a mountain collapsing, like the earth coming apart.
Megumi had been trying to work out why Jacob's Ladder hadn't stopped the slash that Conqueror King Sukuna sent lashing out.
By ordinary logic, Jacob's Ladder dissolves all cursed energy techniques.
A slash fell within the domain of cursed energy. It should have broken down under that radiant light.
But having now witnessed the slash's effect in its entirety,
Megumi finally understood.
Just how overwhelming an enemy he was facing.
The familiar fissure appeared again.
A deep-blue rift opened silently in the air, a crack from beyond the world, as if gazing into this one.
Uraume's figure had already vanished. Where Uraume had been lying, only a human-shaped scorch mark remained.
It seemed that while the slash was still extending, the Conqueror King had collected Uraume, pulled into the rift at the last possible moment, dragged back from the edge of death.
And within the fissure, Megumi finally saw clearly, for the very first time, exactly what the Conqueror King standing before him truly was.
What manner of existence this truly was.
That figure stepped out from the rift slowly. Each step sent a faint tremor through the ground, like a giant walking.
In sheer physical size alone, already on par with Mahoraga.
Four arms blotting out the sky, seemingly containing a power sufficient to tear heaven and earth apart.
The entire figure emerged completely from the fissure.
A demon god descending upon the world.
"Savor it well."
"Little monk."
From within the slash that had split Tokyo from end to end, the Conqueror King's taunt rang out once more.
"What the hell?"
Looking at the scar cutting across everything before him, stepping into the ruined corner of Tokyo, Megumi's expression was exactly like Itadori's when he heard "you are my special."
The scar extended from beneath his feet, through streets, through buildings, cleaving rivers, racing all the way to the horizon.
A slash scar that might never disappear.
Probably just a passing whim of the Conqueror King.
That thought flashed through Megumi's mind. Then a chill crawled up from the base of his spine.
Conqueror King Sukuna had deliberately aimed so the slash missed Megumi and the others. Let them survive.
So they could witness the true gap in power with their own eyes.
The chasm stretching before him seemed to remind Megumi of exactly that.
The gap in strength was just like that chasm itself.
"So this is the Conqueror King?"
Hajime Kashimo stepped slowly out of the settling dust and stood shoulder to shoulder with Megumi, taking in the overwhelming difference alongside him.
"But..."
Kashimo's voice paused, then dropped lower, and grew more resolute:
"A jujutsu sorcerer can't flee the battlefield!"
"That's the thinking of a coward!"
The shadows beneath Megumi's feet surged and swelled, releasing every ally held within the tide of shadow.
Itadori vaulted out from the shadow tide. Ryu Ishigori followed close behind.
Even Resolute Megumi Fushiguro, the most hard-pressed among them, forced themselves upright in that moment. Even knowing full well their strength was no match for Conqueror King Sukuna.
But the duty they carried as sorcerers of Jujutsu High still put them at the very front.
No one asked: can we win?
Because the answer was probably everyone cosplaying as speed bumps together.
But Megumi had no way to retreat.
Because behind him were the lights of ten thousand homes.
If the Conqueror King threw out another slash like that, the entire island nation would be struck down.
"Damn it, the whole city is still watching."
"Just let me look cool one more time!"
Megumi gritted his teeth, eyes locked onto the Conqueror King's right hand rising slowly, winding up, it seemed, for another slash powerful enough to split heaven and earth.
All Megumi could do was get ready to be diced into pieces.
He pushed his cursed energy to the limit. Sharpened his perception to the extreme.
Even buying one more second would be worth it.
Conqueror King Sukuna could not be allowed to unleash another slash of that range.
He could only do everything possible to hold that hand back.
"Ignite your mechanism — Inverted Spear of Heaven!"
Megumi drove the cursed blade hard toward the Conqueror King's figure, trying to stop something, anything.
But the anticipated second attack never came.
What came instead was a second fissure.
A nearly identical rift, appearing directly in the center of Sukuna's field of vision.
Like an invisible blade, it forcibly cut the Conqueror King's attention away from Megumi.
This fissure brought every movement of Conqueror King Sukuna to a halt.
"Impossible — how does this one know it too..."
The right hand Sukuna had raised froze in midair. Conqueror King Sukuna, whose power was absolutely crushing, stood before this brand-new fissure.
And let show an expression of sheer astonishment.
Crossing over from a parallel time-space, the fissure carried with it a familiar voice.
"Tch. Still too late, huh?"
What emerged from the fissure was a hood, one that concealed the wearer's presence entirely.
It covered most of the face, leaving only a sharply defined jawline visible.
The fabric swayed lightly in the wind, worn and weathered, as if its owner had already crossed countless battlefields before arriving here.
A mysterious hooded figure, holy crap!
It's Emperor Hu, we're saved!
...
...
(Kids, a word from the author~)
➤ Next: The Stacking Emperor