"Looking lively, huh~~"
Mahito cast a frivolous glance at Yu Haibara.
[This jujutsu sorcerer's soul suddenly feels different from earlier. Is that mist floating around it? Interesting. I wonder what it would feel like to touch...]
The instant Mahito looked at Yu Haibara, Kento Nanami suddenly appeared behind him. The cursed tool in his hand screamed through the air, empowered by cursed energy.
Mahito already knew that Kento Nanami's technique could slice straight through his cursed-energy body. So he simply sacrificed one arm to block the attack. Using the impact to propel himself forward, he lowered his head and rushed toward Yu Haibara, intending to kill him in a single strike.
But Yu Haibara had already planned his move the moment Kento Nanami acted. He charged toward Mahito as well, as if preparing to meet that incoming strike with his own fist.
Seeing their hands about to make contact, Mahito grinned.
"Idle Transfor—"
Before he could finish, a burst of cursed energy exploded from Yu Haibara's fist. The shock blasted a bloody hole through Mahito's hand, blowing all five of his fingers clean off.
Yu Haibara followed with a punch to Mahito's jaw, sending him arching backward into the air. Then he twisted his body midair and delivered a flying side kick that slammed Mahito straight into the opposite wall.
Because of Yu Haibara's unique understanding of cursed energy, his body often couldn't keep up with the speed of his own power. So Satoru Gojo had taught him to lean into that strength.
If his body couldn't keep up with his cursed energy, then widen the gap.
Launch the cursed energy first to disrupt the opponent's movements, then follow up with a cursed-energy-enhanced strike aimed at their vital points.
Normally this method was used just to interfere with an enemy's rhythm. But once he released the limits on his cursed energy output through a binding, it was essentially like firing a cursed-energy shell before his body even arrived.
Mahito peeled himself off the wall and slowly stood up.
The bloody hole in his hand had already healed. His severed right arm had regenerated, and the damage across his body had vanished completely.
"You jujutsu sorcerers are so violent... You should learn to let the soul soothe the flesh.
I wasn't healing just now. I was simply maintaining the shape of my soul. My technique works by touching a soul and altering its form."
Kento Nanami immediately rushed forward and slashed horizontally, cutting off Mahito's technique explanation. Mahito reshaped his leg into a hoof-like form and lightly stepped back, dodging the strike. At the same time, he casually tossed out several blue-and-red "walnuts."
[Idle Transfiguration]
Under the influence of Mahito's technique, the walnuts that hit the ground transformed into four distorted humans.
"I store humans inside these. But once an ordinary human's shape is changed, they die very quickly. I wonder what happens with jujutsu sorcerers?"
While Mahito continued talking, Yu Haibara suddenly kicked off the ground. The explosion of a cursed energy blast beneath his foot accelerated him forward, sending him charging at Mahito in an instant.
Mahito couldn't react in time. Yu Haibara's punch shattered his entire abdomen.
Mahito didn't care in the slightest. He immediately transformed his legs into blades and slashed upward toward Yu Haibara while reaching a hand toward his head.
But his arm was split apart again by Kento Nanami's blade as Nanami arrived. At the same time, Yu Haibara smashed Mahito's blade-like legs apart with a punch.
Mahito quickly retreated backward to Saishū's side, restoring his body once again.
"So what are you trying to prove? As long as my soul maintains a firm sense of self, I won't truly be harmed~~"
"Is that so?"
A slightly distorted voice came from the side.
The wall beside Mahito suddenly shattered. Yu Haibara had smashed straight through it, drilling into the wall and bursting out from the other side.
"Sometimes you don't need to figure out how to break the opponent's rules. You just pull them into ours!"
Yu Haibara raised his hand and drove another punch into Mahito's face.
"Cursed Technique Reversal : [Absorb]"
The moment Yu Haibara's fist struck him, Mahito felt part of his cursed energy being forcibly drawn out of his body. In a single hit, nearly twenty percent of his total cursed energy was drained away.
[Cursed spirits are essentially just condensed cursed energy. If you exhaust their cursed energy, you can erase them at the root.]
Kento Nanami rushed forward to cover Yu Haibara. His technique had terrible compatibility against Mahito, so it was difficult for him to act as the main attacker this time.
"How is it?"
Yu Haibara forced himself to steady his breathing, his body trembling slightly as he exhaled. That last strike had clearly worked. The cursed spirit in front of them now looked somewhat wary.
But in truth, Yu Haibara had just forced himself to absorb Mahito's cursed energy through sheer willpower.
The sensation was like being force-fed rancid swill that had been sitting for years, mixed with something that makes you want to vomit.
And Mahito's cursed energy felt as if several bowls of medicinal oil had been dumped into it. Beneath its coldness was a dense, pure malice. Trying to "digest" or "store" it was extremely difficult. If anyone other than Yu Haibara had attempted it, the backlash could easily have destabilized the sorcerer's mind.
"Five minutes left. Let's push harder!"
Yet once Yu Haibara finished speaking, neither of them moved.
Because Saishū, who had been sitting silently in the corner with his eyes closed, had awakened at some point.
If Mahito's cursed energy felt cold and sinister, Saishū's cursed energy felt hollow and suffocating.
"Do you know? The essence of the world is actually a tragedy."
Saishū stood up. The bones in his body rubbed against each other with a series of cracking sounds.
"Joy is quickly forgotten, but sorrow and grief remain hidden in the heart for a long time. For any soul capable of independent thought, death is almost always accompanied by regret."
Saishū seemed to recall something and suddenly paused.
"Very few people reach the end of their lives believing they can calmly welcome death... This is not because the soul naturally perceives the world through sorrow. It is because the world itself is filled with malice.
Jujutsu sorcerers, you don't need to struggle so desperately. Everything is destined to fail in the end, unless one can transform from a 'character' into a 'reader'..."