Kaito Hibiki firmly believed that anything occurring before 10:00 AM was a crime against humanity.
Unfortunately, Gojo Satoru did not share this philosophy.
At 7:00 AM sharp, Kaito found himself standing in the middle of the school's training grounds, a cup of black coffee in one hand and his hands shoved deep into his green cargo pants. The morning air was crisp and cold, but the heavy, burning knot of Cursed Energy in his chest kept him comfortably warm.
"Alright, my explosive student!" Gojo clapped his hands together, standing next to a wooden tree stump. Placed perfectly in the center of the stump was a single, empty can of peach soda. "Your lesson begins now. Your objective is simple: destroy the can. But—and this is a very big but—you cannot leave a single scratch on the wood beneath it."
Kaito stared at the can. He took a sip of his coffee. "You woke me up at the crack of dawn to play recycling center?"
"I woke you up to teach you how not to accidentally murder your friends," Gojo corrected cheerfully. "You have a massive reserve of Cursed Energy. When you attack, you just throw it all out like a tidal wave. I need you to compress it. I need a sniper rifle, not a carpet bomb."
Kaito sighed, setting his coffee cup down on the grass.
He understood the theory. Thanks to the hazy memories of his past life, he understood the physics of sound better than anyone. But applying it with Cursed Energy was different. His energy wanted to be loud. It wanted to expand and destroy.
Kaito took a breath and extended his right index finger.
Pop.
A tiny Cursed Disk, no larger than a coaster, materialized just inches from his fingertip. It hummed rapidly, glowing with a bright blue light. Kaito narrowed his green eyes, focusing entirely on the soda can. He imagined the sound wave shrinking, narrowing down into a microscopic point.
Resonance: Needle.
A sharp, high-pitched ping echoed across the field.
The soda can vanished. It didn't just crumple; it was atomized.
However, the wooden stump beneath it—and about ten feet of dirt behind it—also exploded into a massive cloud of splinters and dust. The shockwave blew Gojo's hair back, though the debris harmlessly bounced off the teacher's Infinity barrier.
Kaito winced as the dust settled, looking at the crater he had just carved into the earth. "Oops."
"Too loud," Gojo said, wagging a finger. "You compressed the sound, but you didn't compress the energy fueling it. You let it leak. Try again."
For the next two hours, Kaito destroyed twelve stumps, four boulders, and accidentally blew the leaves off a centuries-old oak tree.
By the time Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara arrived at the training grounds, Kaito was sweating. He was sitting on the grass, massaging his temples. The sheer mental effort of holding back his massive Cursed Energy felt like trying to pinch a fire hose shut with his bare hands.
"Morning!" Yuji yelled, waving a bag of meat buns. "Whoa, what happened here? Did a meteor hit the training field?"
"Just cargo-boy throwing a tantrum," Nobara scoffed, though she looked at the series of craters with a poorly hidden glint of awe. "You're going to have to pay to fix the landscaping, you know."
"I accept cash, credit, and apologies for insulting my pants," Kaito shot back, his lopsided smirk returning despite his headache. He accepted a meat bun from Yuji. "Thanks, pinky."
Megumi walked past them, his dark eyes analyzing the destruction. He knelt by one of the craters, touching the pulverized dirt. "The cuts are getting cleaner," Megumi noted quietly. "The first crater is messy. The last one is almost perfectly cylindrical."
Gojo beamed, ruffling Megumi's spiky hair. "Ten points for Fushiguro! Kaito is learning to tune his frequency. He's got the raw power of a Special Grade, but the finesse of a sledgehammer. We're fixing that."
Raw power of a Special Grade. The words hung in the air. Nobara stopped chewing her food. Yuji blinked in surprise. Even Megumi stiffened. In the Jujutsu world, 'Special Grade' wasn't just a title; it was a warning label for anomalies that broke the rules of reality.
Kaito just shrugged, taking a bite of his meat bun. "I just make noise. Don't let the blindfold guy hype me up too much."
"He's not hyping you up," a new, nervous voice interrupted.
Everyone turned.
Standing at the edge of the training field was a thin man in a dark business suit, wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He looked pale. Extremely pale. He was sweating profusely, clutching a manila folder to his chest like a shield.
"Ijichi," Gojo said, his playful tone vanishing instantly. The sudden drop in temperature was palpable. "What is it?"
Kiyotaka Ijichi, the assistant director, swallowed hard. His hands were shaking.
"Emergency," Ijichi said, his voice trembling. "West Tokyo City. Eishu Detention Center. A Cursed Womb has appeared over the facility."
Megumi's eyes widened. "A Cursed Womb? In a populated area?"
"Yes," Ijichi nodded frantically. "There are non-jujutsu sorcerers—inmates—still trapped inside. But that's not the worst part. Based on the residual energy readings... the Cursed Womb is highly likely to mutate into a Special Grade Curse."
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the field.
The fun, lighthearted atmosphere of the morning evaporated. Yuji looked confused, clearly not grasping the severity of the term 'Special Grade'. Nobara gripped the handle of her hammer, her knuckles turning white. Megumi's expression darkened into absolute dread.
Kaito stopped smiling.
His Innate Technique made him sensitive to frequencies. Even though he was miles away from the Detention Center, he could suddenly feel a faint, disgusting vibration traveling through the ground beneath his boots. It felt cold, sticky, and overwhelmingly malicious.
"Gojo-sensei," Megumi said, his voice tight. "You're coming with us, right?"
"I wish I could," Gojo sighed, running a hand through his white hair. "But the higher-ups are sending me on a business trip to Kyoto. I leave in ten minutes. Ijichi is going to drive you four to the site."
"Wait, us?" Nobara choked out. "You're sending four first-years to deal with a potential Special Grade?!"
"Your mission is strictly search and rescue," Ijichi clarified quickly. "Verify the survivors, get them out, and retreat. Under no circumstances are you to fight the Curse. If it hatches, you run. You absolutely do not engage."
Gojo stepped forward, his towering presence casting a shadow over the four teenagers. He looked at Yuji, who was frowning in determination. He looked at Megumi and Nobara, who were bracing themselves for a nightmare.
And finally, Gojo looked at Kaito.
"Kaito," Gojo said quietly, his tone devoid of all jokes. "I told you earlier that if you lose control, you'll level a city block. Inside that Detention Center, there are innocent people. If you unleash a tidal wave of sound in an enclosed space, you will kill the curses, but you will crush the humans too."
Kaito looked down at his hands. He felt the heavy, stellar knot of energy burning in his chest, begging to be let loose.
"I know," Kaito muttered, his green eyes sharpening into cold, hard emeralds. "I'll keep the volume down."
"Good," Gojo smiled faintly. "Now go. And don't die."
Twenty minutes later, Kaito was sitting in the back of a black sedan, crammed next to Yuji and Nobara as Ijichi sped toward West Tokyo. The sky outside the window seemed to be turning a sickly shade of gray, thick with incoming rain.
Kaito reached into his cargo pants, pulling out a piece of gum. His hands weren't shaking, but the energy inside him was vibrating at an agitated frequency.
He remembered the feeling of dying in his past life. He remembered the void.
He popped the gum into his mouth, his jaw setting in a firm, unyielding line. He wasn't going back to the void. And he wasn't going to let any of the three teenagers sitting next to him go there, either.
Time to see what a real monster looks like, Kaito thought, as the massive, ominous walls of the Eishu Detention Center loomed into view.
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It was raining by the time they arrived at the Eishu Detention Center. The sky was the color of bruised iron, and the air was thick with a damp, suffocating dread.
Kaito stepped out of the black sedan, his combat boots splashing into a shallow puddle. He looked up at the towering concrete walls of the prison. The feeling he'd gotten back at the school—that nasty, malicious vibration—was a hundred times worse here. It felt like standing next to a massive, rotting subwoofer playing a bass drop made of pure evil.
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Ijichi finished chanting the incantation, and a massive, dome-like black Veil began to wash over the detention center, sealing them off from the outside world. The sudden shift in atmospheric pressure made Kaito wince.
Megumi stepped up to the metal gates, interlacing his fingers to summon his white Divine Dog. "Remember the plan," Megumi said, his voice tense. "The dog will remember our scent. It'll lead us back out. We find the survivors, verify their status, and we leave. We do not fight."
"Got it," Yuji said, slapping his cheeks to hype himself up.
"Lead the way, Fushiguro," Nobara added, gripping her hammer.
Kaito didn't say anything. He just pulled his hands out of his oversized cargo pockets and cracked his knuckles. He could feel the star-like core of energy in his chest burning hotter than usual, reacting defensively to the oppressive aura of the Cursed Womb.
Megumi opened the door, and they stepped inside.
Instantly, Kaito stumbled forward, clapping his hands over his ears.
"Kaito?" Yuji asked, turning around in alarm. "Are you okay?"
"Loud," Kaito hissed through gritted teeth. His green eyes darted frantically around the room.
They weren't in a prison block anymore. The architecture had completely warped into a twisted, impossible maze of rusty pipes, concrete platforms, and endless, dark corridors that defied gravity. They were inside an Innate Domain.
But for Kaito, the visual horror was secondary. The sound was the problem. To his highly sensitive ears, the Innate Domain was a giant, enclosed echo chamber amplifying the Cursed Womb's frequency. It was a deafening, metallic screech that bounced off every wall, threatening to split his skull open.
"My technique..." Kaito breathed heavily, lowering his hands. His lopsided smirk was completely gone. "I can't pinpoint anything. The frequency is bouncing everywhere. It's like trying to find a specific drop of water in a hurricane."
"Just stay close," Megumi ordered, though he looked equally unnerved. Megumi turned to look behind them.
His eyes widened in absolute horror.
The door they had just walked through was gone. Only a solid wall of rusted pipes remained.
"The door," Nobara whispered, her face going pale. "It's gone. How do we get out?"
"The dog," Megumi said quickly, pointing to his Shikigami. "It remembers our scent. It can find the exit."
"Good boy!" Yuji cheered, aggressively petting the fluffy white dog. Nobara joined in, sighing in relief.
Kaito didn't join them. He kept his eyes locked on the dark abyss ahead, his jaw clenched. Don't use the sledgehammer. Don't level the building. Gojo's words echoed in his mind. But as the four of them pressed deeper into the twisted labyrinth, Kaito realized that holding back in a place like this was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done.
They found the bodies ten minutes later.
Or rather, what was left of them.
Mutilated corpses were tangled in the rusted pipes. Yuji rushed forward, checking the nametag on a severed uniform. His face fell into an expression of pure grief and anger. It was one of the inmates they were sent to save.
"I'm taking his body back," Yuji declared, gripping the corpse's uniform. "His mother is crying outside. I can't just tell her he died and leave him in this hellhole."
"We don't have time for a dead body!" Megumi snapped, grabbing Yuji's shoulder. "We need to confirm the others and get out. Leave him!"
"I'm not leaving him!" Yuji yelled back, shoving Megumi's hand away.
"Both of you, shut up!" Nobara hissed.
"No, seriously, shut the hell up," Kaito interrupted, his voice dropping to a deadly, quiet whisper.
Yuji and Megumi froze.
Kaito wasn't looking at them. He was staring at the space right beside Megumi's Divine Dog. A split second ago, the dog had been sniffing the ground. Now, half of its body was simply... gone. Embedded in the concrete wall like it had been violently smeared across the room by an invisible force.
The ambient noise of the Domain—the deafening screech that had been giving Kaito a headache—suddenly vanished.
It was replaced by an absolute, terrifying silence.
Then, a new sound. A wet, squelching footstep.
Floating just a few feet away from them was a creature that looked like it had crawled out of a nightmare. It had a pale, humanoid body with a twisted, grinning face on its chest. It didn't exude an aura. It exuded an atmosphere. The sheer weight of its Cursed Energy brought Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara to their knees, their bodies trembling from instinctual, primal terror.
It was a Special Grade Curse.
Move, Kaito's brain screamed. Move!
He snapped his fingers. Three sleek, black-and-blue Cursed Disks materialized in front of him.
The Special Grade tilted its head, aiming a finger at Yuji. A concentrated blast of pure Cursed Energy shot out, aimed right for Yuji's chest.
"Playback!" Kaito roared.
He threw his hands out. Instead of firing an offensive shockwave, Kaito used the disks to create an acoustic barrier—a wall of solid sound pressure in front of Yuji.
The Curse's attack slammed into Kaito's sound wall. The collision was catastrophic. The shockwave shattered the concrete beneath their feet and sent Kaito sliding backward, his combat boots digging trenches into the floor. The acoustic barrier held, but the sheer force of the Special Grade's attack fractured one of his disks.
It's too strong, Kaito realized, his arms shaking from the recoil. If I don't use maximum output, my disks will break. But if I use maximum output in this hallway... the ricochet will liquefy Yuji and Megumi's internal organs.
Before Kaito could adjust his strategy, the floor beneath Nobara simply opened up, swallowing her into a dark, swirling portal.
"Kugisaki!" Yuji screamed.
He lunged forward, pulling a cursed weapon—a large combat knife—from his belt. He swung at the Special Grade with everything he had.
The Special Grade didn't dodge. It didn't even block. It simply moved its hand in a blur.
Blood sprayed across the rusted pipes. Yuji stumbled backward, his eyes wide with shock. His left hand was gone, severed cleanly at the wrist.
"Yuji!" Megumi yelled.
Kaito cursed violently. He canceled the barrier, sending his remaining two disks flying toward the Special Grade's head.
Resonance: Needle! Two ultra-compressed, sniper-like blasts of sound fired from the disks, piercing the Curse's shoulders. The acoustic pressure tore massive, gaping holes through the monster's pale flesh.
But the Special Grade just smiled. Its flesh bubbled and warped, regenerating the massive wounds in less than two seconds.
"It can heal," Kaito gritted his teeth, feeling a cold sweat break out on his forehead. This was impossible. He couldn't use his massive reserves to blow it to pieces because his friends were in the blast zone, and his precise attacks were useless against its regeneration. He was completely nerfed.
"Fushiguro! Kaito!" Yuji yelled, clutching the bleeding stump of his wrist. His face was pale, but his golden eyes burned with desperate resolve. "Go find Kugisaki! Get her, and get out of here!"
"Don't be an idiot!" Megumi shouted. "You'll die!"
"I'll hold it off!" Yuji insisted, pushing himself back to his feet. "Once you two are outside the barrier, give me a signal. Use your wolves, Fushiguro! Just give me the signal, and I'll switch with Sukuna. He's the only one who can kill this thing."
Kaito stared at Yuji. The kid was missing a hand, bleeding out, and planning to unleash the King of Curses. It was suicide.
But Kaito looked at the Special Grade. He looked at the narrow, enclosed walls around them.
"He's right," Kaito said, his voice hard.
Megumi whipped his head around to glare at him. "Are you insane?! We can't leave him!"
"If I go all out here, I will kill you both!" Kaito grabbed Megumi by the collar of his uniform, his green eyes burning with frustrated intensity. "I can't fight this thing without destroying the building! We need to find Nobara and get out so Sukuna can tear this place apart. It's the only play!"
Megumi stared at Kaito, his teeth grinding together so hard Kaito thought they might crack. Finally, Megumi looked away, summoning his black Divine Dog.
"Fine," Megumi whispered. He looked at Yuji. "Don't you dare die before we get out."
"I won't!" Yuji promised, holding up his remaining hand in a fighting stance.
Kaito dismissed his disks, saving his energy. He gave Yuji one last, grim look. "Ten minutes, pinky. Just survive for ten minutes."
With that, Kaito and Megumi turned their backs on the Special Grade and ran, sprinting into the twisted darkness of the Innate Domain to find their missing teammate, leaving Yuji alone with a monster he had no hope of defeating.
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The Innate Domain was a sensory nightmare.
To Kaito, it felt like running through a dark tunnel while someone banged pots and pans directly against his eardrums. The ambient Cursed Energy of the Special Grade echoed off the rusted pipes and concrete walls, creating a chaotic, deafening screech that made it almost impossible to focus.
Almost.
"Stop!" Kaito suddenly hissed, grabbing Megumi by the shoulder and dragging him behind a thick concrete pillar.
Megumi stumbled, his black Divine Dog growling softly beside him. "What? Did you see something?"
"I didn't see anything. Shut up for five seconds," Kaito ordered, pressing his back against the pillar. He closed his eyes, taking a slow, deep breath.
He pushed past the overwhelming screech of the Special Grade. He tuned out the heavy thud of Megumi's heartbeat next to him. He focused his massive Cursed Energy into his ears, filtering the acoustic frequencies of the maze.
Water dripping. Concrete groaning. And...
Clink. Clink.
Metal hitting metal.
Kaito's green eyes snapped open. "A hammer hitting nails. Two levels down, about fifty yards to our left."
Megumi didn't ask questions. He immediately took off sprinting, his Divine Dog leading the way down a twisted, gravity-defying stairwell. Kaito was right behind him, his combat boots barely making a sound against the metal grating.
They found Nobara just in time.
She was surrounded by a swarm of hideous, pale curses that looked like bloated frogs with human faces. She was swinging her hammer wildly, but there were too many of them. One of the frog-curses had its tongue wrapped around her ankle, dragging her toward the edge of a dark abyss, while three others leaped at her face.
Don't use the sledgehammer, Kaito reminded himself. Use the sniper.
Kaito snapped his fingers. A single, sleek Cursed Disk materialized just above his shoulder.
"Kugisaki! Duck!" Kaito roared.
Nobara didn't hesitate. She threw herself flat against the ground.
Resonance: Triple Needle.
The disk flared with a blinding blue light. Three ultra-compressed, high-frequency sound waves fired simultaneously. They hit the three leaping frog-curses perfectly in the center of their masses. The acoustic pressure pierced them like invisible bullets, exploding their bodies into purple ash without leaving a single scratch on the concrete wall behind them.
Megumi's Divine Dog lunged past Kaito, its jaws snapping the tongue wrapped around Nobara's ankle.
"Get up!" Megumi yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her to her feet.
"What took you so long?!" Nobara snapped, though she was panting heavily, her uniform torn and covered in grime. She looked around. "Where's the potato?"
"Yuji is holding off the Special Grade," Megumi said grimly, not letting go of her arm. "We need to get outside the barrier so he can switch with Sukuna. Run. Now."
Nobara's eyes widened, but she didn't argue.
The three of them sprinted behind the white wolf. The Innate Domain seemed to fight them, the corridors shifting and groaning, trying to confuse them. But the dog's sense of smell was absolute.
Suddenly, a blinding white light cut through the gloom. Rainwater splashed against Kaito's face.
They burst through the heavy metal doors of the Detention Center, stumbling out into the pouring rain. The black, oppressive dome of the Veil still loomed over the building, but they were outside the Innate Domain.
Ijichi was waiting by the black sedan, his eyes wide with panic. "You're alive! Wait, where is Itadori-kun?"
"Take Kugisaki to the hospital!" Megumi ordered, his voice raw. He shoved Nobara toward the car.
"Wait! What are you two doing?!" Nobara yelled, struggling against Ijichi as the assistant director tried to guide her into the backseat.
Megumi didn't answer. He stepped out into the pouring rain, looking up at the dark, imposing structure of the prison. He interlaced his fingers, taking a deep breath.
"Wait for the signal," Megumi whispered to his Divine Dog.
The white wolf threw its head back and unleashed a piercing, mournful howl that echoed through the rain and penetrated the walls of the Detention Center.
The signal. Kaito stood a few feet away, rain plastering his spiky brown hair to his forehead. He shoved his hands into his pockets, his jaw clenched so tight it ached. He kept his eyes locked on the building.
For ten seconds, nothing happened. The rain poured. The thunder rumbled.
And then, Kaito's world tilted on its axis.
He dropped to his knees, violently clapping both hands over his ears. A choked gasp tore from his throat.
"Kaito?!" Megumi yelled, rushing over to him. "What's wrong?"
"It... it changed," Kaito forced out, his whole body trembling. Blood began to trickle from his left nostril.
To Megumi, the air just felt heavy. But to Kaito, whose Cursed Technique translated energy into sound, the shift was apocalyptic.
The chaotic, metallic screech of the Special Grade Curse had been completely snuffed out. It wasn't defeated—it was swallowed. Replaced by a new frequency.
It didn't sound like a monster. It sounded like a natural disaster. It was a deep, resonating bass drop that felt like the tectonic plates of the earth grinding together. It was ancient. It was impossibly arrogant. And it was so saturated with pure, concentrated malice that it made Kaito's massive, star-like energy core shrink back in instinctual self-defense.
Ryomen Sukuna was awake.
Inside the building, the King of Curses was playing with his food. Kaito could 'hear' the shockwaves of Sukuna's Cursed Energy tearing the Special Grade apart limb from limb, laughing as he did it. The sheer output was astronomical.
Then, the oppressive aura of the Innate Domain suddenly shattered. The dark clouds above the Detention Center began to part, revealing a sliver of the evening sky.
The Special Grade was dead.
Kaito wiped the blood from his nose, taking a shaky breath as the oppressive pressure receded slightly. He slowly pushed himself back to his feet, his green eyes locked on the entrance of the building.
"He did it," Megumi breathed, a wave of relief washing over his bruised face. He took a step forward. "Yuji. You can switch back now."
But the heavy, earth-shattering frequency hadn't disappeared. It was just getting closer.
Footsteps echoed from the dark entrance of the prison.
A figure stepped out into the rain.
It was Yuji's body, but it wasn't Yuji. Dark, jagged tattoos covered his skin. His uniform jacket had been ripped open, exposing his chest. He wasn't smiling with Yuji's bright, golden retriever energy. He was smirking with a cruel, sadistic amusement, his crimson eyes gleaming in the dim light.
"Sorry," the entity said, his voice deeper, vibrating with dark power. "But he's not coming back right now."
Sukuna raised a hand and casually plunged his fingers directly into his own chest.
Megumi's eyes widened in horror. "Stop!"
Blood spurted as Sukuna ripped Yuji's heart right out of his chest, tossing the beating organ onto the wet grass like a piece of trash. Sukuna grinned, blood staining his chin.
"I'm taking this brat's body hostage," Sukuna declared, spreading his arms wide. "If he switches back with me now, he dies. So... what are you going to do about it, Jujutsu Sorcerers?"
Megumi froze, the sheer terror of the situation paralyzing him. He was out of energy. He was out of options.
But behind him, the air began to warp.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Four perfectly constructed, sleek black-and-blue Cursed Disks materialized in the rain. They hummed with a violent, furious vibration, evaporating the raindrops before they could even touch the metal.
Kaito Hibiki stepped past Megumi. His lopsided smirk was completely gone. His bright green eyes burned with the heat of a dying star. The massive reserve of Cursed Energy that he had spent all morning trying to hold back was now flooding his veins, completely unrestrained.
"Fushiguro," Kaito said, his voice dangerously low.
"Kaito, don't!" Megumi warned frantically. "You can't fight him! It's Sukuna!"
"I don't care if it's the Emperor of the Universe,or a Clown" Kaito growled, raising his right hand toward the King of Curses.
Sukuna tilted his head, his crimson eyes locking onto Kaito. The King's smirk widened, sensing the anomalous, burning density of Kaito's soul.
"Oh?" Sukuna said, sounding genuinely entertained. "Now this is an interesting frequency. Let's see how loud you can scream, boy."
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The rain fell in heavy, gray sheets, but it never touched Kaito Hibiki.
The four Cursed Disks hovering around him vibrated with such intense, furious energy that the raindrops vaporized instantly upon entering his personal space, creating a halo of steam around his body.
Ryomen Sukuna stood a few yards away, the bloody heart of Yuji Itadori discarded in the wet grass. The King of Curses tilted his head, his crimson eyes gleaming with sadistic curiosity. He could feel the heat radiating from the boy in the cargo pants—a dense, suffocating Cursed Energy that felt less like a sorcerer and more like a dying star.
"I've killed a lot of sorcerers in my time," Sukuna mused, his deep voice carrying easily over the storm. "But I don't think I've ever heard a soul as loud as yours. It's obnoxious."
"I get that a lot," Kaito said, his voice cold.
He didn't wait for Sukuna to strike. Kaito threw his hands forward.
Resonance: Quad-Core Blast.
The four disks screamed. Unlike the focused 'needles' he used inside the Detention Center, this was a raw, unadulterated wall of acoustic pressure. The sheer force of the sound wave tore the grass from the earth, shattering the concrete pavement and displacing the rain in a massive, invisible tunnel of destruction.
It hit Sukuna dead on.
The King of Curses was thrown backward, his feet carving deep trenches into the mud as the shockwave launched him into the reinforced concrete wall of the Detention Center. The impact was deafening. The wall cracked and caved in, burying Sukuna under tons of rubble.
Megumi stared in absolute shock. He had to cover his face just to withstand the backdraft of Kaito's attack. The output... it's completely insane. He just blew Sukuna away like he was nothing.
But Kaito didn't smile. His green eyes remained locked on the rubble. His disks spun wildly, humming in a defensive posture.
"Is that it?" a voice echoed from the dust.
A sudden, invisible force ripped through the air.
Danger. Kaito reacted entirely on instinct, fueled by the combat memories of his past life. He commanded two of his disks to cross in front of him, creating a solid barrier of compressed sound.
Clang!
Sparks flew as an invisible blade of Cursed Energy—Sukuna's Dismantle—slammed into the acoustic wall. The sound barrier groaned under the pressure, the frequency violently destabilizing. Kaito gritted his teeth, feeling the kinetic feedback vibrate through his bones.
Through the settling dust, Sukuna stepped out. His uniform was torn, but there wasn't a single scratch on his skin. He was grinning.
"Interesting," Sukuna purred. "You use sound. A wave of kinetic energy. You matched the frequency of my slash and canceled out the force. Very clever, boy. But let's see how fast you can tune that radio of yours."
Sukuna vanished.
Kaito's eyes widened. He couldn't track the movement visually—Sukuna was simply too fast. But his Cursed Technique didn't need eyes. He heard the displacement of the air. He felt the sudden spike in atmospheric pressure behind him.
"Behind me!" Kaito roared, spinning around.
Sukuna was already there, his hand raised to deliver a lethal blow.
Kaito didn't have time to aim his disks. Instead, he forced his Cursed Energy inward, flooding his own vocal cords with the burning, stellar power.
Kaito opened his mouth and screamed.
It wasn't a normal scream. It was an omnidirectional shockwave of point-blank acoustic terror. The sound was so loud it didn't even register as noise; it registered as pure, concussive agony.
Sukuna's eyes widened in genuine surprise as the shockwave hit him right in the chest. The King of Curses was violently repelled, sliding back several feet. Blood erupted from Sukuna's ears, his eardrums completely ruptured by the blast.
Kaito dropped to one knee, coughing violently. Blood dripped from his own nose and mouth. Using his own vocal cords as a conduit without a disk was tearing his throat apart, but it had saved his life.
Sukuna stood still for a moment, the rain washing the blood from the sides of his face. Then, a dark, rumbling laugh escaped his lips. The ruptured eardrums healed instantly, knit back together by Reverse Cursed Technique.
"Splendid!" Sukuna laughed, spreading his arms. "You don't just use tools! You are the weapon yourself! What a fascinating mutation! But tell me, loud boy... how long can that mortal body of yours handle the heat?"
Sukuna swiped two fingers through the air.
Dismantle. Cleave.
Multiple invisible slashes descended upon Kaito.
"Playback!" Kaito yelled, his voice raspy. The four disks formed a dome around him and Megumi, projecting an intense wall of sound.
The slashes rained down. The acoustic barrier flickered and shrieked, the collision of energies creating bursts of blinding light. One slash made it through the fluctuating frequency, slicing a deep, clean gash across Kaito's left shoulder.
Kaito grunted, falling to one knee, but he kept his hands raised, holding the barrier.
"Kaito!" Megumi yelled, rushing to his side. "Stop! You're burning out your Cursed Energy!"
"I've got... plenty," Kaito panted, though his face was pale. The truth was, his reserves weren't the problem. His body was. Generating this much acoustic pressure was giving him a catastrophic migraine, and his muscles felt like they were being crushed in a vice.
Sukuna walked closer, casually observing the struggling teenagers. "You're strong for a modern sorcerer. You burn bright. But a star that burns too bright collapses on itself."
Sukuna raised his hand, preparing to unleash a massive, point-blank wave of slashes that would shred both Kaito's barrier and the boys inside it.
Megumi stepped in front of Kaito. His dark eyes were filled with a grim, absolute resolve. He pressed his fists together, his Cursed Energy flaring dangerously.
"Fushiguro, what are you doing?" Kaito rasped, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
"I'm ending this," Megumi said quietly. He took a deep breath, preparing to summon his ultimate, suicidal trump card. "Eight-Handled Sword—"
"Megumi... don't."
The dark, overwhelming frequency of the King of Curses suddenly flickered.
Sukuna's raised hand froze in mid-air. The sadistic grin vanished from his face, replaced by a look of profound annoyance. The crimson eyes faded, returning to a warm, familiar gold. The jagged tattoos covering his skin began to recede.
Yuji Itadori looked down at his own hands. The rain washed over his face.
Kaito dropped the acoustic barrier, his Cursed Disks dissolving into blue sparks. He stared at Yuji, his chest heaving. "Pinky?"
"Hey," Yuji smiled weakly. He looked at Kaito's bleeding shoulder. "Sorry about that. He's... he's really strong, isn't he?"
"Yuji," Megumi said, his voice trembling. "Don't."
Yuji looked at Megumi. The bright, golden retriever energy was still there, but it was fading fast. Without a heart, his body was running on borrowed seconds.
"Fushiguro. Kaito. Tell Kugisaki... and Gojo-sensei... that I'm sorry," Yuji whispered. "Live a long time, okay?"
Yuji's golden eyes lost their light.
His body swayed, and then he collapsed backward, falling into the wet grass with a dull thud.
The heavy, oppressive Cursed Energy that had dominated the Detention Center completely vanished, replaced by the mundane sound of the pouring rain.
Kaito stood frozen. The massive, burning knot of energy in his chest suddenly felt useless. He had enough power to level a city block. He had enough power to push back the King of Curses. But looking at Yuji's lifeless body in the mud, Kaito realized the cruelest truth of this new universe.
Power couldn't fix everything.
Megumi stood silently in the rain, his head bowed, the water hiding his tears.
Kaito reached up, ignoring the pain in his sliced shoulder, and wiped the blood from his own mouth. He stared at Yuji's body, the lopsided smirk that usually defined his face completely shattered.
I didn't make enough noise, Kaito thought, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. Next time... I won't hold back.
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(Thanks for the 2.7k views, here's episode 2. Recommendations, reviews, or anything like that are welcome)