Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 21 - Hui-Suku

"What?"

"I'm supposed to fight Conqueror King Sukuna?"

Megumi suspected he'd gotten drunk again.

If you're drunk, get out of the way, were you planning to stick around and let Emperor Hu serve you dishes?

"No, Megumi."

Emperor Hu spun around sharply. The right fist shot out and detonated a savage Black Flash that tore through the pitch-black, blasting a gap by sheer force through the tsunami of slashing attacks Conqueror King was rolling forward.

Seizing that fleeting breath of reprieve.

Emperor Hu fixed Megumi with a gaze that had weathered countless ages, voice lower than it had ever been, and began to speak.

"The mechanism needs time to accumulate."

"But stacking boxes doesn't!"

Emperor Hu swung slashing attacks and gritted out the words:

"At Conqueror King's current strength, every world would be a speed run."

"If desired, hundreds of fingers could be obtained within a single day to boost power!"

"But me — I still need to accumulate!"

Accumulation required more years.

"Though I still have confidence I can kill Conqueror King as things stand."

"The prerequisite is that Conqueror King is willing to fight to the death!"

...To the death.

Megumi's gaze snapped instantly to Conqueror King.

Would Sukuna, the greatest cursed technique user of a thousand years ago, actually run away?

Guaranteed to run, buddy.

"If Conqueror King keeps fleeing, keeps gathering more fingers while hiding."

"Then I..."

There, Emperor Hu's expression darkened and the words stopped.

The unspoken wariness was converted entirely into resistance against the incoming assault. Again and again, before Conqueror King's increasingly savage offensive, Emperor Hu held the line, forming an absolute defensive field for everyone standing behind.

"So!"

Emperor Hu's voice spiked sharply:

"I will do everything I can to keep Conqueror King occupied, chasing into every Parallel World to tear into them relentlessly."

"To delay as long as possible the collection of fingers and the growth in power."

"And you —"

Emperor Hu turned sharply, each word deliberate, as though slamming the weight of a thousand pounds onto Megumi's shoulders:

"You are going to kill Sukuna."

"One finger or five. Fifteen fingers. Even the Shinjuku Sukuna."

"Every Sukuna across every Parallel World you can reach — kill them all. Completely and utterly."

"Seize those fingers by force."

"Seal them. Preserve them!"

Emperor Hu repeated the mission:

"Kill every parallel Sukuna!"

Since Conqueror King was stacking boxes by eating fingers from Parallel Worlds, destroy every single box before arrival.

Megumi was still slightly frozen beneath that enormous flood of information.

A sharp flash of ruthlessness crossed Emperor Hu's eyes.

Without warning, Emperor Hu reached out with the left hand and pinched the one remaining little finger.

And tore it off.

BLOOD ERUPTED INSTANTLY.

Not a single brow furrowed.

That severed knuckle, still leaking a terrifying pulse of cursed energy into the air, was placed with absolute solemnity into Megumi's palm.

"This ought to count as a cursed object, more or less."

"If the moment of need arrives."

"Swallow it, and use the cursed energy stored inside."

Staring at that blood-wet knuckle resting in his palm, Megumi felt his heart exist more violently than it ever had before.

Thundering. Trembling. Leaping.

The proof of a living creature's existence, called life.

The proof of a life's existence,

Is mission.

In that moment, every thought was burned completely to ash by that blood-streaked severed finger.

"Count on me, Yuji!"

Megumi closed his grip tight around that knuckle. Their gazes met without concealment.

Reflecting that blazing fire capable of burning straight through fate.

"Ikuzo! Hui!"

"OK! Yuji!"

Having received a definite answer, Yuji Itadori revealed a long-absent smile, the smile belonging solely to Yuji Itadori, without a single shadow.

Then immediately spun back around to face Conqueror King roaring forward for the kill.

Emperor Hu gathered all cursed energy throughout the body, two fingers pressed together like a blade, and slashed viciously at the void ahead.

A SINGLE SWORD CLEAVES OPEN THE GATES OF HEAVEN!

It tore open, by sheer force, a massive rift across the solid space, a rupture leading to an unknown dimension.

Inside the severed void, chaos churned in violent currents. A savage spatial storm howled within.

Megumi stared at that void rift, the one that looked capable of shredding a person to pieces in an instant, and began to seriously question whether it could actually be traversed safely.

"Don't worry. Anchoring the transit destination is something Hei Hui will handle."

Emperor Hu's back was still turned. The voice remained clear through the roaring of explosions.

"Hei Hui..."

Hearing that name, as though it symbolized the origin of every miracle, spoken once more from a companion's mouth.

Megumi was startled for a moment. Then the eyes filled with more strength than at any time before.

No further words were needed.

This was the purest form of trust.

"We'll meet again in the future!"

Megumi drove the shadow tide once more, drawing all the companions who had long been ready into the absolute shelter of the shadow formation.

Then, alone, became a resolute black afterimage and leapt headlong into that chaotic void rift.

Behind, the world-ending roar of Emperor Hu and Conqueror King crashing together again rang out like a war drum sounding for a separate battle.

RUMBLING!

The howling wind swept past.

Once again diving from the heights of the sky, breaking through the clouds, taking in the full sweep of a familiar yet unfamiliar cityscape of ruins below.

This was Shinjuku.

But a Shinjuku dead-silent to a horrifying degree, already reduced to complete and utter ruin.

An enormous pit, unmistakably clear, like a scar gouged into the earth itself, stretched across the scene.

The mark left by the explosion of Hollow Technique: Purple.

And yet, having been transported here at all proved that Sukuna should still exist somewhere in this world.

Megumi adjusted posture mid-air, gaze sweeping rapidly across the rubble and broken walls.

The one remaining tall building.

A tottering skyscraper, amid shattered steel and ruin.

A strand of white hair hanging suspended upside down.

Those eyes...

Blood flowing in reverse.

A body with only the upper half remaining, hanging there in the most visible spot amid Shinjuku's wreckage of broken steel and crumbling walls.

As though a carefully arranged exhibit. Or the grandest trophy an arrogant conqueror displays to the entire world.

Completely exposed above the ruins.

Declaring sovereign dominion over this world.

Megumi stared hard at the scene before him.

The last trace of hope and reason at the bottom of those eyes turned to cold ash in this moment.

Nue was summoned. Megumi drifted slowly toward that white-haired corpse.

"Who's there!"

As the most loyal of attendants, Uraume had been standing guard over this trophy belonging to the master, using cold ice to preserve the wretched state of Satoru Gojo's death.

Seeing the figure approaching from the sky, ice spikes instantly condensed and launched skyward like anti-air cannon fire.

But the very next second.

Every transmission of Uraume's cursed energy was completely severed.

The cold radiance released by the Split Soul Katana cut cleanly through Uraume at the midsection, slicing that body and soul in two.

Megumi quietly came before the shadow tide and carefully drew the corpse into the shadows.

Then turned to face the disturbance behind.

In Megumi's perception, a cursed energy aura of terrifying extremity was racing this way at speed, having sensed the commotion.

The dust settled. The face of the arrival finally appeared before Megumi.

The same black hair spiked upright like a sea urchin. The same refined features. But across that face were four eyes filled with savagery, and black tattoos covering every inch.

"So that's it."

Megumi understood completely which timeline had received the transmission.

"This is the world of war criminal Meguna."

The shadow tide surged. Megumi held nothing back. Gaze and cold radiance locked simultaneously onto that malevolent figure.

"I am already... beyond furious."

➤ Next: Below, It's Shadow Too