Chapter 21: The King of Curses' Deal
Drip. Drip.
The black spherical barrier stood in the rain like a sealed tomb, radiating a suffocating despair that made the air around it feel heavier with every passing second.
Yuji Itadori knelt in a shallow pool of rainwater, blood dripping steadily from the stump of his severed wrist and staining the ground beneath him red.
His desperate pounding against the barrier had achieved nothing.
If anything, it had only worsened the wound.
Now there was only pain.
Pain, helplessness, and that voice.
"Want to save him?"
"Give me your body..."
Yuji's fingers dug into the soaked earth until his nails cracked. His whole body trembled, not from fear, but from the crushing mixture of rage and powerlessness boiling inside him.
He could not hear what was happening inside the Domain.
But he could imagine it.
That guy who always smiled so gently, who carried that strange black sword and moved with impossible calm, was in there right now, fighting alone in a hell made for slaughter.
A true Special Grade.
A monster that had nearly killed all of them the moment it got serious.
"Fushiguro! There has to be a way, right?!"
Yuji whipped his head around, his eyes bloodshot.
"You have a way, don't you?!"
Megumi Fushiguro was slumped against the ground, blood still leaking from the corner of his mouth. The Divine Dog at his side had long since vanished after suffering too much damage.
He stared at the barrier with his nails digging so deeply into his palms that fresh blood had begun to gather there.
"There's... no way."
His voice came out hoarse, thick with despair.
"That's a living Domain."
He swallowed hard.
"Once it seals from the outside, the only ways to break it are for the person trapped inside to destroy it... or for the cursed spirit itself to release it."
Megumi's breath shook.
"Otherwise, no one gets in."
He lowered his eyes.
"And inside a sure hit Domain..."
His jaw tightened.
"Yami probably won't last even one minute."
One minute.
In a world where death was always just one step away, a single minute felt longer than a lifetime.
...
Inside the Domain, things were even worse than Megumi imagined.
Not a one sided execution.
Not yet.
What raged within was a savage, brutal death match.
"Cough!"
Yami suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of tissue, his body staggering violently.
The pressure was too heavy.
Inside the Domain, the very air felt denser, thicker, as though every movement was being dragged down by a hundred invisible hands. Swinging his sword here consumed far more strength than normal.
And on top of that, the sure hit slashes woven through the Domain kept carving into his body from every direction.
If not for Total Concentration Breathing Constant, which reinforced every part of his body, and the newly awakened Thunder Breathing, which had sharply raised his speed and reaction time, he would have been carved apart already.
"ROAR!!!"
The Special Grade roared in fury.
It could not understand.
This human was clearly dying.
His body was already covered in wounds. There was hardly a patch of unbroken flesh left on him.
So why?
Why was that crimson black blade still cutting into it again and again?
"Thunder Breathing, First Form."
Yami's voice was low and ragged.
"Thunderclap and Flash."
His body vanished in a burst of scorching golden light.
"Eightfold."
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Inside the cramped Domain, eight folding arcs of lightning erupted at once.
By forcefully pushing his body beyond its limit, Yami changed direction eight times before the sure hit attack could fully close in, severing every tentacle aimed at him in the process.
He did not stop.
"Sun Breathing, Third Form: Raging Sun!"
The golden lightning twisted into a deep crimson blaze.
A single blood red arc flashed through the darkness.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Black smoke rose instantly from the cursed spirit's severed flesh. The wound had been charred and branded shut by the heat, unable to regenerate.
"What?"
Yami panted heavily, vision blurring.
His brain was starting to starve for oxygen. Blood loss was dragging down his consciousness. His ears rang so badly that the whole world sounded distant and warped.
Still, he could not fall.
He knew it with absolute clarity.
If he collapsed here, the barrier would disappear.
And Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara outside would all die.
"Come on, you bastard!"
A fierce light flashed in Yami's red eyes.
The muscles in his legs were already stretched so tightly they felt ready to tear.
This move would destroy his lower body if he pushed it too far.
But there was no room left to care.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form."
"Thunderclap and Flash."
A pause.
Then, with the last of his restraint gone
"Godspeed."
Boom!!!
The air exploded.
Yami vanished completely, leaving behind only a streak of golden red light that pierced straight through the cursed spirit's defenses.
Pfft!
Half of the cursed spirit's shoulder was cut away.
"GAAAAAHHH!!!"
The Special Grade went mad.
It felt it now.
Death.
This dying human truly had the power to kill it.
Buzz!
The cursed energy inside the Domain surged violently.
The fleshy walls around them began to writhe and bulge. One grotesque mouth after another opened across their surfaces, each one condensing dense cursed energy.
The curse was about to unleash its maximum output.
It intended to erase Yami completely.
...
Outside the Domain, though no sounds could pass through, the sheer pressure leaking from within made the air tremble and sent icy fear down the others' spines.
"Yami..."
Yuji knelt in the rain, forehead pressed against the cold ground.
Right now, he was nothing.
Not a hero.
Not a sorcerer.
Just useless trash watching someone else die in his place.
"Do you want power?"
That voice came again.
It slid through his mind like poison, drenched in mockery, temptation, and absolute superiority.
"That brat's about to die."
"Just a little longer."
"If you give me your body, I'll rip that worthless curse to pieces."
Yuji's body stiffened.
He knew exactly who was speaking.
Ryomen Sukuna.
The King of Curses.
A monster a thousand times more dangerous than the Special Grade inside.
Yuji's eyes trembled.
Then, in his mind, he asked one question.
"Will you kill Fushiguro and Kugisaki?"
"Huh?"
Sukuna sounded amused, as if he had just heard the funniest thing in the world.
"That depends on my mood."
His laugh was low and cruel.
"But I can tell you this much..."
"That brat with the sword will die immediately if no one saves him."
Silence.
Yuji closed his eyes.
Yami's figure flashed through his mind.
The way he had turned back at the last second.
The way he had forced them all out.
The blood on his body.
That quiet, resolute look in his eyes.
Yuji's hands clenched.
Then he opened his eyes again.
"Deal."
The word came out steady.
"Just this once."
His pupils darkened.
"Save him."
"Hehehe..."
Sukuna's manic laughter burst through the depths of his soul.
"You chose this yourself, brat."
Boom!!!
A terrifying surge of cursed energy erupted from Yuji's body like a volcano tearing itself open.
Megumi's head snapped up.
The instant he looked at Yuji, horror flashed across his face.
Yuji's aura had changed completely.
It was no longer human.
What stood there now was pure ancient malice.
"Yuji?!"
Megumi shouted instinctively.
"Yuji?"
The thing standing in Yuji's body slowly lifted its head.
Its face was now marked with black lines, and its eyes burned with cruel red amusement.
"That brat's asleep."
It tore off the soaked hoodie hanging from its body, revealing a lean, corded torso.
Then it looked up at the black barrier and grinned, exposing a mouth full of white teeth.
"Let me see..."
Its voice dripped with disdain.
"The thing that cornered that brat."
Sukuna stepped forward onto the ruined ground.
The King of Curses had descended.
Standing in the rain, he slowly raised one finger toward the Domain.
His grin widened.
"What kind of trash are you?"
...
[TL: Check out my newly Released fanfic]
[TITLE: Starting in One Piece with Vector Manipulation]