Inside the combat zone, the air crackled with desperate intensity.
"Plummet!"
Toge Inumaki's roar echoed through the trees. The command hit Hanami like a falling mountain, driving her massive frame deep into the earth and creating a jagged crater that swallowed the surrounding flora.
"Puh—!"
In the wake of the strike, Toge coughed up a spray of fresh blood. His throat felt as if he had swallowed glowing embers; the sheer gap in power meant the backlash of his Cursed Speech was tearing his body apart.
But his sacrifice wasn't in vain. He had bought his comrades the opening they needed.
As Hanami struggled to rise from the pit, a barrage of attacks rained down like a localized storm.
Panda shifted into Gorilla Mode, his massive paws glowing with dense cursed energy. "Unblockable Drumming Beat!"
Megumi Fushiguro's hands weaved a complex shadow-sign. "Ten Shadows Technique: Max Elephant!"
The great beast trumpeted, unleashing a deluge of water from its trunk that rivaled a flash flood. Simultaneously, Noritoshi Kamo clapped his hands together. "Blood Manipulation: Piercing Blood!"
Nobara hurled her nails like shrapnel, each strike carrying the kinetic force of a high-caliber round.
BOOM!!!
The coordinated assault engulfed Hanami, blooming into a small mushroom cloud of dust and debris. However, as every sorcerer knows, smoke is rarely a sign of victory.
As the dust settled, the students saw only a dense, impenetrable sphere of intertwined roots and armored vines. The "shield" slowly uncoiled like a nest of waking serpents, revealing Hanami—entirely unscathed.
As the most durable of the four Disaster Curses, these attacks were nothing more than a mild annoyance.
THUD!
Hanami's form blurred. In a heartbeat, Panda, Noritoshi, Megumi, and Toge were sent spiraling backward, struck by a force they hadn't even seen coming. They hit the earth hard, the breath driven from their lungs.
"You bastard!"
Maki Zenin lunged from the shadows, her naginata whistling toward Hanami's neck. The curse didn't even flinch, casually raising a wooden forearm to block the blade.
Maki's pupils contracted, but she didn't falter. She spun the weapon, unleashing a flurry of slashes so fast they left trails in the air.
"Finally, someone interesting," Hanami's telepathic voice resonated in Maki's mind.
The two blurred into a high-speed exchange, the shockwaves of their clash peeling the turf from the ground. Hanami was genuinely shocked; this girl had almost zero cursed energy, yet her physical prowess rivaled a Special Grade.
Maki, however, felt a sudden, sickening numbness spreading through her limbs. She leaped back, gasping for air, and realized with horror that small, grotesque flowers were blooming from her thigh.
Hanami, the master of nature's stealth, had planted her seeds in the heat of the fray.
"Those are Cursed Buds," Hanami's voice echoed with a cold mockery. "Normally, they feed on a sorcerer's cursed energy. But since you have none, I made a small adjustment."
Maki's vision blurred. "Poison?!"
"Correct."
Without hesitation, Maki swung her blade, slicing the buds away along with a layer of her own flesh.
"Useless. The toxin has already entered your bloodstream."
Maki leaned on her naginata, her body swaying as her strength failed. But just as Hanami stepped forward to deliver the finishing blow, the two "best friends" finally crashed onto the scene.
Seeing his comrades broken on the ground, Yuji Itadori's heart flared with a righteous, incandescent fury.
"You bastard! I'm going to kill you!"
Yuji sprinted forward, his fist wreathed in cursed energy and raw anger.
Divergent Fist!
The double-impact sent Hanami skidding back, though she flipped and landed gracefully. "The Vessel of Sukuna..."
"Yuji, watch out!" Maki shouted through gritted teeth. "It uses Cursed Buds to poison you and drain energy! Be careful!"
Yuji tightened his grip. "Got it!"
Todo placed a heavy hand on Yuji's shoulder. "Brother! Only we can stop this thing now!"
"Let's show this ugly freak the power of our friendship!"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
The two charged in perfect unison. Hanami, perhaps influenced by some strange sense of battle-spirit, chose to engage them in a pure martial exchange rather than unleashing her more devastating techniques.
In the heat of this "Jujutsu Brawling," guided by Todo's eccentric but brilliant tutelage, Yuji achieved a state of absolute focus.
BLACK FLASH!
And once the dam broke, the flood followed.
Todo activated Boogie Woogie, using the physical disparity between him and Yuji to completely scramble Hanami's spatial awareness. They traded places in a dizzying rhythm, hammering Hanami's face with a relentless barrage of Black Flashes.
"Come on, Brother!"
"Right behind you, Best Friend!"
They roared in unison: "THIS IS OUR BLOOD-BOILING COMBO!"
With a synchronized strike, they landed a dual Black Flash that snapped off the new branch growing from Hanami's head. Hanami could only wonder in confusion: What is this 'bond' and 'friendship' they keep shouting about?
The Outer Perimeter
Away from the students, Souma Gojo and Kenjaku were locked in a duel of a different caliber. Or rather, Kenjaku was enduring a one-sided demolition.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"
A concentrated blast of repulsion vaporized half of Kenjaku's torso. He spiraled through the air, his Reverse Cursed Technique working overtime to knit his organs back together before he hit the ground.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!"
The sudden pull snapped Kenjaku back toward Souma like a yoyo. Souma was already there, his fist cocked back, eyes cold.
CRACK!!!
The punch to the gut folded Kenjaku in half. He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood, his ribs shattering under the pressure.
He couldn't win. He knew it. As a thousand-year-old sorcerer, Kenjaku believed he could at least stall Satoru. But against Souma, he felt as powerless as an infant.
"I know your plan," Souma said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "Hanami creates a distraction, and Mahito slips away to steal the fingers."
"I was going to hunt them down first, but you were kind enough to stand in my way."
"Since you're so eager, you can die in their place!"
"Bastard! Don't you dare look down on me!" Kenjaku roared, his pride finally snapping. He clapped his hands together. "Extension Technique: Wing King!"
Several pairs of translucent, blood-red wings sprouted from Kenjaku's back—beautiful, yet grotesque. Bolstered by the Rot Technique: Wing King, Kenjaku's speed and power spiked, finally allowing him to keep up with Souma's movements.
Souma's eyebrows shot up. "A variation of Blood Manipulation... Rot Technique? You can use that too?"
Kenjaku sneered. "I created the Death Paintings. Why would you think their abilities are beyond me?"
"Tch." Souma let out a dry laugh. "You think that's enough?"
BOOM!!!
Souma vanished, the air around him detonating in a massive sonic boom.
Typically, the Gojo brothers relied on Blue for high-speed travel. But Souma had mastered a different theory: if Blue pulls and Red pushes, then running them in opposite directions creates a microsecond-level blink.
"What kind of speed is this?!" Kenjaku's eyes twitched.
By the time his brain registered the threat, Souma's hand was already closed around the blood-wings. With a brutal yank, Souma tore them right off Kenjaku's back.
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