Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 26 - The Greatest of All Time vs. The Greatest of the Modern Age (Patreon)

Above the ruins, the wind howled.

The greatest sorcerer in history versus the greatest sorcerer of the modern era.

A head-on clash, begun!

"A challenger?"

Meguna gently stroked the horrifying wound on their chest, the gash so deep it exposed bone.

As the King of Curses, undefeated under heaven since the Heian era, this was the first time in a long, long life that they had tasted, so directly and so undeniably, the overwhelming effect of a soul-severing cut.

There was no denying it. That agony striking straight at the soul stirred within this high-and-mighty king a long-absent, impossible-to-suppress fury.

"You got lucky with a sneak attack — and you're enjoying yourself quite a bit."

"Megumi Fushiguro."

"In my eyes, you are nothing but a maggot."

"Even if you wriggle more than the other maggots..."

Meguna stretched into a wide grin, fangs bared. Cursed energy surged alongside a terrifying pressure that blasted a shockwave through the surrounding air.

"You are still a maggot unworthy of a name!"

"Right now — I will pound you down to your maggot form!"

White steam rose from the Reverse Cursed Technique, repairing the physical damage from the Black Flash and the blunt impact at a speed visible to the naked eye, visibly terrifying, visibly fast.

The surface flesh closed rapidly. But the area the Split Soul Katana had carved still carried a deep ache that clung to bone and refused to fade.

Even Meguna, invincible, insufferable Meguna, could not help raising their guard against this young man by a full twelve measures.

It seemed that Megumi Fushiguro's most threatening trump card was no longer the Ten Shadows Technique alone.

Cursed energy condensed once more in the King of Curses' palm, ready at any instant to strike.

Facing the death-pressure that would cause an ordinary sorcerer to collapse on the spot,

not a trace of fear appeared on Megumi's face. Instead, an utterly brazen grin spread across it.

"Oh? Then why are you still wearing that face?"

"You could assimilate everything about War Criminal Megumi into your own image."

"Don't think that means I'll go easy on you."

"I have received professional training!"

Megumi Fushiguro's grin vanished in an instant, replaced by absolute killing intent.

The shadow tide surged. A second peerless cursed blade, radiating an ominous aura, came crashing out from the depths of that endless dark tide!

Megumi grabbed the hilt of the Inverted Spear of Heaven with a reverse grip. The strange half-blade caught the light and threw back a deadly gleam.

The tip did not tremble. It locked, unwaveringly, on Meguna's face, a face identical to his own.

"Whether it's you, who seized this body —"

"or that War Criminal Megumi who wallowed in despair and willingly gave up resisting..."

"I am a perfect match for both of you!"

CRACK!

The words had barely left his mouth when Sukuna's offensive came crashing down.

The fist smashed directly into the guard bracing the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Yet that earth-shattering, monstrous force still poured entirely onto Megumi's body.

Blasted him flying several meters in an instant.

Dust erupted. Rubble scattered.

Megumi's figure crashed into the crumbled walls, utterly disheveled.

Meguna held the follow-through of the punch and watched the figure they had sent flying with a single strike.

All four crimson eyes showed a trace of genuine puzzlement.

"Hey, you're this weak?"

Sukuna watched the Megumi who had nearly been killed in one hit, confusion flickering in those eyes.

Didn't he manage to block the cursed word strike at Jujutsu High just yesterday?

How did one exchange today push him to this state?

Just as Meguna's suspicions were stacking up,

Megumi didn't strike back with words. He simply adjusted his stance, slowly, silently waiting for the show to begin.

Within those dark eyes hidden in shadow, a flash of fanatic excitement glinted.

In the yandere world, after Hei Hui fished Toji's soul back,

the current two-star Toji was no longer the puppet that had only carried out simple kill commands in a daze.

Toji was the top-tier killer who had reclaimed the tyrant's mindset.

As Toji's master, Megumi had absolutely no need to divert attention on the ever-shifting battlefield to issue micromanagement commands.

When it came to sniffing out openings, Toji was far more powerful and sharp than Megumi ever was.

From just a moment ago, Megumi hadn't even called out the Dad Armor combination yet.

He had been waiting for exactly this.

Waiting for Toji.

Dad only, sneak attack, take two!

The cold gleam of the Split Soul Katana flashed. Sukuna sharply caught that faint cursed-tool energy ripple.

Even the battle-hardened King of Curses, pupils contracted.

Instantly spinning, intending to create distance to handle the ambush.

Cursed energy condensed at the feet. Both legs exploded with force. Sukuna's figure shot straight up from the ground, silhouette becoming a streak of blood-red light rocketing skyward.

In the blink of an eye, Sukuna had risen level with the peak of Shinjuku's tallest surviving structure.

Yet even looking down from that height, surveying the entire ruins spread out like a tiny chessboard below,

not a single trace of the ambusher could be found in any of those four flickering eyes.

The cursed energy signature that had flashed by moments ago had vanished without a trace.

It was only when the King of Curses, in the brief weightlessness of that extreme ascent, looked down,

that they saw it again. That massive silhouette, clinging like a nightmare to the underside of their own body.

In this moment, suspended high in the open sky, the King of Curses, that face forever written with arrogance and mockery, finally showed something that had never been there before.

Genuine astonishment.

Because War Criminal Megumi had never possessed the mindset to prepare a Special Grade cursed tool.

That War Criminal Megumi, who only knew how to drown in despair. Whose mind was filled with nothing but giving up.

In that head, there had never been a debater's mindset, the kind that stops at nothing for victory.

Even through a full day of ceasefire, War Criminal Megumi had not reminded Sukuna once,

remember to buy an oxygen tank.

Yes. An oxygen tank.

Thanks to the continuous supply from that oxygen tank, Toji had long since slipped into Sukuna's shadow.

Every single one of Megumi's provocations, riddled with openings, had been laid as groundwork for this one moment.

Megumi had gambled that when faced with an ambush they couldn't locate, Sukuna would instinctively leap skyward, to gain the widest field of vision and the safest evasion space.

And the moment Sukuna went airborne, feet leaving the ground, foothold gone,

in this sky with nothing to push off from, this was precisely when the Sorcerer Killer moved best.

"Nue!"

In the instant where life and death crossed, Sukuna understood, and immediately moved to form hand seals, to summon the only noble airborne unit among the Ten Shadows.

A foothold in the air. Forcibly alter this lethal trajectory.

But the speed at which the hand seals formed was far exceeded by the distance Toji closed from the shadow at Sukuna's feet to directly beneath the groin.

And on the ground far below,

Megumi added his own voice to this earth-shaking strike:

"In the air, no summoning!"

The Split Soul Katana tore through the air, ripping a sharp sonic crack, and completely pierced through Sukuna's,

groin!

"This slash is for Satoru Gojo!"

Every time Megumi thought about how Satoru Gojo had endured Malevolent Shrine from every direction with no blind spots, a phantom pain shot through him.

And now.

At this moment.

Megumi would return that pain a hundredfold.

What the Split Soul Katana severed was not merely flesh. Not merely the simple concept of an organ.

It was a severance from the very roots of the soul, the connection, cut clean through.

The King of Curses felt a pain not tasted in a thousand years.

BOOM!

The King of Curses plummeted. Dropped straight from the sky and slammed into the earth, punching clean through the ground of the Shinjuku ruins.

Tons of dust and debris erupted skyward.

Within the suffocating center of that dust cloud, the wretched figure began to stir.

"I didn't think you could go this far, Megumi Fushiguro!"

Sukuna let out a savage roar, fury that looked ready to tear Megumi apart and swallow him whole.

It earned only Megumi's playful, goading reply:

"No need to be so loud, Ryomen Sukuna."

"I, can, hear, you,"

➤ Next: Furuhe Yurayura