Chapter 225: My Friend, Hold on Tight to My Body!
Even after death and being reduced to the form of cursed objects under the influence of a [Binding Vow], Ryomen Sukuna, who was able to leave behind exactly twenty fingers, is absolutely the most unique existence in the world.
This, of course, is not because Sukuna's toes also looked like fingers, but because in addition to naturally possessing four arms that surpassed ordinary people, his cursed energy volume also completely exceeded the upper limit that a single Special Grade cursed object could contain.
In that era, Ryomen Sukuna as the "Strongest" possessed a level of dominance countless times greater than that of the modern "Strongest," Gojo Satoru.
Their powers were both overwhelming for their respective eras, with the only difference being: Ryomen Sukuna could completely disregard the lives and feelings of others, belonging to a state of pure freedom, while Gojo Satoru was bound by all sorts of rules and restrictions.
Kenjaku always believed that a lion trapped in a cage could not be considered a lion at all, yet he also had to thank this lion for locking himself in a cage; otherwise, he would have had no chance to achieve his plans.
Similarly, in his eyes, Emiya was also a lion trapped in a cage.
Even though Kenjaku had once collaborated with Yorozu, who lived in the same era as Ryomen Sukuna, at that time he didn't have the courage to directly seek out Sukuna to state his intentions. One didn't even need to think to know that the result would absolutely be Ryomen Sukuna becoming interested in Kenjaku personally, followed by a violent clash.
How could someone so self-important allow a person whose background was completely unknown to display schemes and plans in front of him?
On the other hand, Kenjaku was actually very interested in the reason why Ryomen Sukuna was divided into twenty equal parts. After all, in the jujutsu world, the existence of the soul can be considered an objective fact.
Those sorcerers who only turned into a single Special Grade cursed object had their souls attached to it, but what was the deal with Sukuna being split into twenty parts? Was the soul also divided?
If it were feasible, Kenjaku even wanted to simultaneously create two incarnations of Sukuna to see if they would fight each other to distinguish the real from the fake. Unfortunately, a special individual like Itadori Yuji, who could successfully incarnate and suppress Sukuna, was not so easy to create, let alone another one.
Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Gojo Satoru and Emiya—two freaks he had no way of restraining—had appeared in this era, Kenjaku wouldn't have wanted to release another
uncontrollable monster at all. Fortunately, Sukuna, who would never follow rules, would surely clash with the other two, which counted as a "fighting fire with fire" solution.
At this moment, there were four fingers inside Itadori Yuji's body, plus the twelve fingers Kenjaku had stolen from the [Cursed Warehouse] of Jujutsu High and spent a long time collecting...
Out of the total of twenty fingers, sixteen had now been gathered.
Although strength cannot be directly assessed by cursed energy alone, as long as Sukuna could fully recover sixteen fingers, he could at least return to his peak period—with more than half of his total combat power. Moreover, the massive amount of cursed energy poured in at once would completely shatter the defense mechanism on Itadori's body, allowing Sukuna to instantly gain control of the body. Even if Itadori could regain control in the future, this time would be enough for Sukuna to accomplish many things.
As for how strong a sixteen-fingered Ryomen Sukuna would be? Kenjaku, having never truly fought him, could not reach an effective conclusion. At the very least, he was definitely several times stronger than a Special Grade cursed spirit like Jogo; their combat power simply could not be measured on the same level.
However, even though Kenjaku was sufficiently confident in Sukuna's strength, he still didn't think Sukuna could deal with Gojo Satoru and Emiya simultaneously; that was an almost impossible task. So Kenjaku's expectation for Sukuna was simple... as long as the other party could stall for a long enough time to allow him to further advance his plan, it would be fine.
Combat, or whether to kill someone, was never the goal Kenjaku sought. As long as his long-held expectations could be achieved, it wouldn't matter even if he completely let go of all hatred to form an alliance with his enemies.
There was no need to worry anymore; the next step of the plan could begin immediately...
As the Sukuna fingers held in Kenjaku's hand gradually approached Itadori's mouth, Itadori, trapped in mid-air by the barrier technique, immediately shook his head in resistance, but such a farcical action was destined to change nothing.
Fortunately, for some reason, Kenjaku's movement wasn't that fast—at least just fast enough for Fushiguro Megumi to react to the situation.
"Normal Summon... [Nue]!"
The owl, carrying lightning as it swooped from the sky, was blocked by a barrier the moment it approached Kenjaku. And it was in that instant, as Kenjaku slightly shifted his gaze toward Nue, that Fushiguro Megumi, sword in hand, slashed the Sukuna fingers out of Kenjaku's grasp from another direction.
"Leave this place quickly, Itadori!
Since the opponent's target is you and the Sukuna inside your body, you can't stay here!"
Fushiguro Megumi stood alone in front of Itadori, shouting.
One had to know that even without total control of the body, Sukuna could open mouths from anywhere on Itadori's body at any time. This meant that as soon as the Sukuna fingers approached Itadori, they could be directly absorbed by Sukuna.
In the past, when accommodating Sukuna's fingers, even with just one, markings of cursed energy overflow would inevitably appear on Itadori... If he really swallowed a large number of fingers at once, the result would surely be as the opponent said: Sukuna would occupy Itadori's body.
Back when Emiya-sensei successfully suppressed the Sukuna inside Itadori, the opponent only had the power of three or four fingers. If Sukuna's power suddenly surged from four to over a dozen, Fushiguro Megumi couldn't be certain his teacher could suppress it.
To suppress Ryomen Sukuna without endangering Itadori's life, one's actual combat power would have to be more than a level higher than his. Fushiguro Megumi didn't dare to imagine Emiya's true combat strength so exaggeratedly, nor was he willing to cause such trouble for his teacher.
"But if I leave, Fushiguro, you..."
"Don't worry about me! Believe in Emiya-sensei; it won't be long before he handles that cursed spirit and breaks out of the Domain. At that time, this guy is the one who should worry.
The most important thing right now is you and the Sukuna inside you... You just need to stay far away from the battlefield!"
Before Itadori could truly speak, Fushiguro Megumi had already provided a logical explanation for everything, giving him no basis for a reasonable counter-argument. As for the problem of Itadori still being controlled by that strange barrier technique and unable to move normally, it was also easily solved—
THUD!
A figure on all fours quickly ran over from a distance and headbutted the Itadori in mid-air, then precisely let him land on his own back.
"Hold on tight to my body, friend... I'm going to start accelerating!"
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