"Master Ogi—!" Ranta screamed in grief. Without a moment's hesitation, he activated his innate technique again. "Curse... I'LL KILL YOU—!"
—Divine Authority!
Lightning flashed across the sky, and the heavy rain obscured everyone's vision. A single, blinding arc of silver pierced the darkness. A fraction of a second before Divine Authority fully took hold, Mahito hurled the Mirokuji Kirigiri forward with the devastating force of Odin throwing Gungnir!
Ranta's eyes were locked on Mahito, but in the next heartbeat, his entire field of vision was engulfed by the sheer glint of the massive blade.
"Ranta!"
A squad member violently yanked Ranta backward. The Kirigiri's blade screamed past his ear, narrowly missing him. The technique Ranta had just fired off was instantly interrupted.
Mahito vaulted forward, instantly closing the distance to Ranta's side. No one had even registered his movement. Just seconds ago, half of his neck had been severed; they all thought he was dead. Nobody expected him to not only survive but immediately retaliate with such ferocious speed.
Mahito raised one hand, splaying his fingers to completely cover Ranta's face. In that moment, Ranta's entire world shrunk to the intricate lines of Mahito's palm—he felt exactly like the monkey trapped in the palm of the Buddha.
"Don't you dare!" a booming, muffled voice roared.
A colossal force slammed directly into Mahito's forearm. Mahito's arm snapped instantly with a sickening crunch. The sonic boom of the impact blew away the surrounding rain, sounding like the deep, abyssal call of a whale echoing in the ocean.
The man who had pulled Ranta back had struck at the exact critical moment. He didn't use a Cursed Technique Release; he simply threw a punch, driving his bare fist into Mahito's outstretched arm. Mahito's attack speed was undeniable, but this man had perfectly seized the micro-window of opportunity to counter, his hawkish eyes tracking the movement like a predator hunting a hare from the sky.
Mahito's eyes darted sideways. Beneath his hat, his mismatched eyes glowed faintly in the downpour. A massively built, middle-aged man stood before him. Wild, coarse hair cascaded down his back, bristling like the stiff fur of a wild boar. Standing well over two meters tall, he had the immense, hulking frame of a grizzly bear, his muscles packed so densely he looked like he was carved from solid rock.
A prominent cross-shaped scar marked his forehead. Beneath thick eyebrows, eyes filled with overwhelming authority glared directly back at Mahito's demonic gaze, completely unflinching.
"Hei Unit. Special Grade 1 Sorcerer. Jinichi Zen'in."
"I won't give you another chance, Curse. Face the wrath of the Zen'in!"
Jinichi grabbed his own kimono and, using just the raw strength of his fingers, violently ripped the garment apart. Instead of tossing it aside, he tied the shredded fabric around his waist in a tight knot using the sleeves.
His bare upper body revealed a thick chest and heavily corded muscles. The torrential rain battered against his skin like a storm crashing into a mountain. He stood entirely upright, staring down at Mahito with the imposing presence of a titan looking at an ant.
The second Special Grade 1 Sorcerer!
The Zen'in clan boasted four Special Grade 1 Sorcerers in total, and now they were stepping up to face him one by one. This meant Mahito had nearly slaughtered his way through the entire Zen'in elite hierarchy single-handedly.
Mahito raised his broken arm. Idle Transfiguration instantly snapped the shattered bone and torn muscle back into place. He flexed his fingers, clenching and unclenching his fist. Good as new.
"I look forward to it," Mahito said.
Jinichi Zen'in unleashed a primal roar! The sheer volume of his war cry shattered the rain curtain around them. The concussive soundwaves radiated outward, instantly swallowing Mahito. Mid-roar, Jinichi drew his fist back. His colossal muscles swelled beneath the downpour. As he moved, Mahito could physically see the striations in Jinichi's muscles rippling like a raging river, all the kinetic energy funneling directly into his fist.
Then, Jinichi hurled that catastrophic punch straight at Mahito. ONE! STRIKE!
Mahito immediately tried to dodge. The visual mass of Jinichi's flexing muscles was enough warning that he couldn't tank this hit head-on. But the moment he lifted his foot, his body locked up.
—Divine Authority!
Ranta, despite narrowly escaping death, hadn't retreated in fear. He locked his eyes onto Mahito, pouring every drop of his focus into maintaining the technique, forcing Mahito to freeze at the worst possible moment.
Jinichi's fist smashed directly into Mahito's face. The bamboo hat was blown clean off. Mahito's facial features violently caved in. The catastrophic kinetic force scrambled his brain into a thick paste. His body was launched backward uncontrollably, the sheer impact fully lifting him off his feet. He was about to be blasted across the courtyard like a cannonball.
But Jinichi refused to let him go!
Ranta's Divine Authority only worked within his direct line of sight. If Mahito was blown backward, he would exit Ranta's field of vision, and the paralysis would instantly break. Having finally secured this opening, there was no way Jinichi would let the Curse escape that easily.
The moment Mahito's feet left the ground from the impact, Jinichi lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar with one hand. With his other hand, he brought down the hammer!
One strike! Two strikes! Ten strikes! Twenty strikes! A relentless barrage of devastating punches!
Roaring furiously, Jinichi unleashed an endless combo of heavy blows. His fists rained down on Mahito's body like meteors. Mahito was suspended in the air like a bloody punching bag, his flesh detonating with explosive cracks from every single impact. The overlapping, sickening sound of meat being pulverized became a continuous roar, echoing like a raging tide.
Yet, it was Jinichi, the attacker, whose expression began to falter.
Despite being beaten into a horrifying, gory pulp, Mahito still retained his humanoid shape. His immaculate clothes had been shredded into bloody rags, and his hat was long gone, but his mutilated flesh continually exploded and then instantly regenerated, weathering the relentless barrage and waiting for the right moment.
Mahito's body violently convulsed. Ranta's eyes suddenly flooded with blood. Unconsciously, Ranta stretched his hands outward—not to form a hand sign, but as a pure autonomic reaction. His Divine Authority was a rare technique that required no hand signs to maintain. He was making the gesture for one horrifying reason:
"Master Jinichi!" Ranta screamed. "Don't stop hitting him! This Curse... it's still struggling!"
The surviving Hei members watched in stunned disbelief. One couldn't help but yell, "Are you joking?! Even a Special Grade with top-tier regeneration would be completely annihilated by now!"
Only Jinichi, who was actively burying his fists into Mahito's flesh, knew Ranta was telling the truth. Mahito wasn't dead. Not only was he not dead, but his regeneration speed was actively *accelerating*. This monstrous Curse, who had nearly wiped out the Zen'in clan, wasn't even fully matured yet. He was still adapting. Still evolving!
One of Ranta's eyes suddenly ruptured. Blood streamed down his cheek, but he only let out a pained scream, refusing to tear his gaze away. The Divine Authority held firm.
Jinichi couldn't help but glance back at Ranta.
Ranta's Divine Authority was incredibly powerful—practical and highly effective, serving exceptionally well as both a support and offensive tool. But even such an elite technique had limits. It couldn't bridge a massive gap in pure strength. In the original timeline, when facing a monster with Heavenly Restriction, Ranta had blown out his own eyes and eventually died from the sheer recoil of overworking his cursed technique.
Now, Ranta was walking down that exact same path. He was pouring his absolute limits into suppressing Mahito's movements, but as Mahito pushed back harder, the strain on Ranta's eyes became too much. They became bloodshot, and then one exploded. If he didn't deactivate the technique immediately, the backlash would kill him just like it did in the original story!
But having come this far, how could he possibly back down?
"Master Jinichi!" Ranta roared with everything he had. "Don't worry about me! Just kill it! Kill it right now! It's visibly evolving! Before it gets any stronger... please—!"
Ranta's remaining eye bulged violently, on the verge of popping. But Jinichi had already snapped his head back forward, throwing another punch. The barrage wasn't over. Not yet!
*I will use the time Ranta bought with his life to kill this Curse!* Jinichi hardened his resolve.
Even Cursed Spirits had limits to their regeneration. Even Special Grades. Though this 'King of Curses' far surpassed any spirit recorded in history, he had to have a ceiling. Jinichi firmly believed that.
And so, his objective was simple. Use pure, absolute violence! Pulverize him until there was nothing left to regenerate!
Jinichi let out a guttural, earth-shattering roar. His Cursed Energy boiled past its breaking point, exceeding his absolute limits! Despite the torrential rain and the cracking thunder above, Jinichi suddenly couldn't hear a thing. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, yet the surface of his mind was as calm and pristine as a glassy lake.
Surrounded by the corpses of his comrades, and with the most promising junior of the clan burning his life away to buy him seconds, Jinichi finally crossed the threshold into the realm he had always dreamed of.
He felt the core of his Cursed Energy pulsing like a beating heart. With every beat, the rippling waves of energy flooded his body. Every bone, every drop of blood, every fiber of muscle began to evolve, rapidly elevating to a higher plane—like a seed sprouting violently after the spring rain.
In that single, suspended moment, he reached a state of enlightenment.
Without possessing any visual-based technique, he could literally *see* the flow of Cursed Energy inside the Curse before him. He saw that while the exterior was a mangled, pulped mess, the internal flow of Mahito's Cursed Energy remained perfectly stable and untouched. He immediately understood: to this Curse, physical destruction meant absolutely nothing.
Jinichi didn't understand the mechanics behind it, but he knew exactly what he had to do.
*Sever its Cursed Energy flow, and I win! Come, my final strike!*
Jinichi paused for a microsecond. One hand tightly gripped Mahito's mangled flesh, his fingers burying deep into the muscle. He didn't immediately launch his other fist; instead, he coiled it tightly at his waist. His muscles fully relaxed, then instantly snapped into maximum tension. In that exact transition between slack and flex, he grasped true awakening.
—BLACK! FLASH!
The legendary technique of Jujutsu Sorcerers. Theoretically, any sorcerer could achieve it, and once unleashed, it was an absolute killing blow. When the delay between the physical strike and the flow of Cursed Energy is within 0.000001 seconds, it creates a distortion in space, magnifying the destructive power to the power of 2.5!
Jinichi didn't even aim for Mahito's face. He drove the Black Flash directly into Mahito's heart. Before the kinetic impact even fully registered, Mahito's Cursed Energy flow completely shattered. The Black Flash made contact, and Mahito's entire body violently detonated. Blood, flesh, and bone violently erupted outward, scattering into the night sky like a gruesome firework.
A total obliteration!
Standing amidst the rain of gore, Jinichi slowly exhaled.
But he didn't drop his guard. Ogi had thought the battle was over, dropping his guard to reflect on his sword technique, only to be ambushed and killed by a 'resurrected' Mahito. Jinichi absolutely refused to make the same mistake. He stood firm, keeping a hyper-vigilant watch over the scattered remains.
Ranta didn't dare let up either. He maintained his Divine Authority, staring intensely at the bloody pulp on the ground. One of his eyes was already completely destroyed, and he was fully prepared to sacrifice the other.
The remaining Hei members stayed on high alert, adopting a posture of zanshin, coldly sweeping the perimeter.
The relentless rain pounded the courtyard. Thunder crashed overhead. The Hei maintained absolute tension for a full thirty seconds before finally allowing themselves to slowly relax.
Only then did Ranta confirm Mahito was truly dead. He deactivated Divine Authority and let out a long, exhausted breath. "It's... finally over."
"RANTA, DO NOT RELEASE DIVINE AUTHORITY!" Jinichi roared.
*Thud.*
Ranta blankly looked down.
A hand had cleanly pierced straight through his chest from behind. The fingers were pressed tightly together into a sharp spear-hand.
"Found... you... Ranta Zen'in," someone whispered right into his ear, the breath hot and smelling faintly of orchids.
The hand violently retracted. Ranta clutched his chest, stumbling two steps forward. He stared blankly at the gaping hole in his torso. He looked ahead—one eye was completely blind from the technique's recoil, the other so bloodshot his vision was a blurry smear. He could barely make out someone sprinting toward him before his knees buckled and his face smashed into the flooded stone.
Ranta Zen'in was dead.
Jinichi aggressively scooped Ranta's corpse into his arms. Raindrops mixed with the tears in his eyes. His massive frame trembled uncontrollably.
A silhouette slowly but resolutely stepped out from the shadows.
Bones, blood vessels, nerves, organs, muscles, fat, skin. —Idle Transfiguration.
Undergarments, kimono, hakama. —Construction Technique.
A hand reached up, materializing a bamboo hat, and placed it on his head. Mahito opened his heterochromic eyes. The torrential rain hammered the hat, water cascading off the brim to shroud his face in deep shadow. Only those faintly glowing, mismatched eyes pierced the darkness, looking like will-o'-the-wisps dancing in a graveyard.
In the original story, Mahito had sustained an identical, catastrophic injury during his very first battle with a Jujutsu Sorcerer—a man named Kento Nanami.
Nanami was an incredibly experienced, powerful fighter. Facing the inexperienced, freshly birthed Mahito, Nanami had seized an opening to slice Mahito's leg, then used his technique to collapse the entire sewer system around them. Hundreds of tons of concrete and rubble had crushed Mahito into a fine paste.
And yet, Mahito resurrected, completely unharmed. He had explained it clearly back then:
[As long as the attack doesn't damage my soul, even if my body is pulverized until not a single cell remains, I can maintain the shape of my soul and resurrect myself completely unharmed.]
The destructive power of a Black Flash was absolute. But the Black Flash... hadn't struck his soul. As long as his soul remained untouched, Mahito could not be injured!
"You should feel deeply honored, Jinichi Zen'in," Mahito said softly. "That Black Flash... it *almost* killed me."
Jinichi erupted. His berserk roar drowned out both the torrential rain and the thunder. "MA—! HI—! TO—!"
Mahito reached up and slightly tipped the brim of his bamboo hat. The sun-and-moon ornaments jingled sharply. A wide, manic grin split his face.
"Well, that took a while. You finally decided to... call me by my name?"
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Jinichi exploded forward. He stomped the ground so hard his Cursed Energy flared out like an actual physical storm. Having just landed a Black Flash, his Cursed Energy was flowing at an unnatural, hyper-efficient state, perfectly synchronizing with his muscles to launch him forward. He pulled his arm back, turning his entire massive body into a drawn bow, and took his first step.
In a single stride, propelled by his explosive Cursed Energy, he practically teleported right in front of Mahito.
Just as Mahito prepared to move, a pitch-black shadow materialized beneath his feet.
Cursed Technique Release: Shadow Crocodile!
This was a technique never seen in the original story. In canon, the Hei had ten members, but only four ever appeared during the Zen'in massacre, with the remaining six unceremoniously killed off-screen. But the timeline had changed. Knowing Mahito was coming, all ten members of the Hei had gathered.
"It's vastly inferior to Ranta's, but if it's just to hold you for a split second, it's enough!" the Shadow Crocodile user roared.
In Japanese folklore, the Kage-wani is a yokai that lurks beneath the ocean's surface to swallow the shadows of sailors. Once a shadow is eaten, the victim dies instantly. Even if a sailor kills the Kage-wani, they will eventually be impaled by its bones shooting up from the ground as they walk on land.
True to its name, the Shadow Crocodile technique launched attacks directly through the medium of shadows. Before Mahito could react, countless pitch-black blades erupted from his own shadow.
The shadow blades ruthlessly impaled his calves, pinning him firmly to the ground. One blade extended exceptionally far, thrusting like a spear straight for Mahito's throat! Mahito casually raised a hand, pinched the shadow blade between his fingers, and squeezed. The blade shattered, scattering like cherry blossoms.
Mahito immediately understood the technique's strengths and weaknesses. The shadow blades were incredibly sharp, but fragile as porcelain. Their attack range was completely dependent on the surface area of the shadows. And right now, in the dead of night, the entire planet was blanketed in the largest shadow possible—meaning the Shadow Crocodile was at its absolute peak!
*Coming here was the right choice,* Mahito thought. Innate technique users were incredibly rare out in the wild, but inside the Big Three Families, they were everywhere.
"This time, I will obliterate you until not even ash remains! Prepare to die!" Jinichi roared.
Crossing the distance in a single step, Jinichi loomed over Mahito. The moment Mahito was pinned, he violently tore free from the shadow binds. The holding power was pathetically weak compared to Ranta's Divine Authority, but it had bought exactly one second.
And Jinichi's fist was already coming down!
*THUD.*
Jinichi's fist violently slammed directly into Mahito's face—
—And Mahito didn't budge an inch. Completely unhurt.
Soul Creation switch: Jiro Awasaka. Cursed Technique Release: Inverse!
Jinichi felt like he had just punched a solid titanium wall. The catastrophic recoil instantly shattered the bones in his hand, reducing his knuckles to a bloody, mangled mess. He was completely unprepared for the sheer density of the impact.
In the next second, Mahito's fist punched clean through Jinichi's heart.
"How... is this... possible..." Jinichi coughed up a thick wad of blood, staring in sheer disbelief.
Before Jinichi could even draw his final breath, Mahito placed a hand squarely on top of his head. Digging his fingers in, he violently twisted. Jinichi's head was wrenched right off his neck like a stripped screw. Mahito casually tossed the severed head onto the flooded stone. The relentless rain continued to pour, washing over Jinichi's face frozen in absolute shock.
Jinichi Zen'in was dead.
Mahito casually kicked Jinichi's massive, headless corpse to the ground. He crushed the remaining shadow blades that had impaled his calves under his heel. Planting one foot firmly onto the chest of the bear-like man, Mahito opened his demonic, heterochromic eyes. Lightning flashed, painting the courtyard in stark white as the storm raged behind him.
"Come," he said. "Let's keep going."