Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi — Chapter 29 - Black Flash and Firelight (Patreon)

Mahoraga's Adaptation information gap, specifically against slashing attacks.

It should have been one of Megumi Fushiguro's guaranteed reserve cards.

If the battle hadn't grown this desperate, he never would have played it.

But right now, the Ten Shadows Technique's output was insufficient.

Reverse Cursed Technique was still beyond his reach.

The Split Soul Katana had already begun to be adapted to.

He had no choice. The Adaptation card had to come out now.

The moment Mahoraga's Adaptation card hit the table, it meant one thing: for the rest of this fight, Megumi had no information gaps left to exploit.

Long before he'd ever set foot on this rubble-strewn Shinjuku battlefield, Megumi had mapped out exactly three moments where a successful ambush on Sukuna was possible.

The first.

At the very start of the battle. Using a blind spot in the sightlines, with Hana Kurusu's Jacob's Ladder — that column of fire capable of burning through the heavens themselves, as cover, he'd forcibly stretched his shadow's maximum attack range to its absolute limit and completed an assassination strike across four kilometers.

The second.

Exploiting Sukuna's blind spot regarding what shadow space could contain. He'd concealed Toji Fushiguro inside it in advance, Toji equipped with a portable oxygen tank, hidden directly beneath Sukuna's own feet. A dead-angle ambush, formed in midair.

With Sukuna's attention fixed on the Megumi directly in front of him, Megumi had seized an overwhelming close-range advantage through the mechanical bonuses of Tyrant Possession and both special-grade cursed tools.

No matter how massive the muscles, they still feared a blade from behind.

Sukuna had noticed. He'd been controlling the distance between them ever since.

The hidden-father tactic would only work once. Megumi had no other means of getting close enough to strike.

So the condition for a third ambush,

Was to create bait that Sukuna could not refuse!

Make Sukuna drop his guard. Draw him in on his own. Then use the positional gap to land a kill shot at close range.

That was why the insane spectacle from moments ago had been necessary, the one that had shattered every onlooker's nerve.

Releasing Tyrant Possession. Then using Mahoraga's Adaptation information gap. Sukuna had voluntarily surrendered the opening closest in range to Megumi across their entire duel.

Right now, the distance between them was nothing more than the single arm's length of Sukuna's hand pressed against Megumi's abdomen.

This was the best chance Megumi would get.

He aimed directly at Sukuna's waist.

"Heart. Cursed core. Then the cursed energy center."

Not a trace of fear showed in Megumi's pitch-black eyes.

His gaze locked onto Sukuna's completely unguarded side.

"Vital signs, pain perception, and cursed energy reversal."

"After taking three consecutive heavy blows — can your condition still keep up with me?"

"King of Curses!"

Just as Sukuna was plunged into extreme shock by the nullification of Dismantle.

At the absolute limit of that single instant, his body unable to cancel the post-cast lag.

Black possession markings.

Surged wildly upward from beneath Megumi's feet in a reverse torrent.

This time, Tyrant Possession did not cover his entire body.

Every ounce of power was compressed to its absolute extreme, concentrated completely, and manifested solely on his right arm.

A cold gleam.

Erupted from the surging tide of shadows seething at his feet and drove itself into Megumi's palm.

His five fingers snapped shut.

He gripped the heavy weapon that had just cleared its sheath, threading every ounce of force from his core and abdomen through each joint and into his right arm.

He was going to swing the third crushing blow of this god-hunt, the one that would change the shape of the fight.

Flash,

To keep this strike from accelerating Mahoraga's Adaptation to Sukuna any further, Megumi reached into the shadow tide and drew out another cursed tool, one that had belonged to Toji Fushiguro.

Violent radiance, black and red intertwined, erupted fully from the shadows.

Three segments of extraordinarily heavy metal rods joined into a single unconventional weapon, like a reverse-flying meteor punching through the sky, and dropped firmly into Megumi's grip.

The special-grade cursed tool, Playful Cloud, reappeared upon these ruins soaked through with curses.

"Those wounds that reached your very soul — how much have you recovered?"

"Thirty percent? Fifty percent?"

Megumi gripped Playful Cloud's rod and swung it through the air with both hands, the motion roaring with momentum.

The heavy rod carved out a series of ear-splitting sonic booms.

"Or is it that... restoring a soul is far slower than you ever imagined?!"

The exchange between them looked like the end of the world. In reality it had lasted only a few short, rapid rounds.

Megumi fixed his gaze on the King of Curses' chest, that massive gaping wound driven through by the Split Soul Katana.

Still a savage, grotesque tear of flesh that refused to close.

"Though it's far from enough to kill you..."

He knew that. He'd always known. This level of damage couldn't cripple Sukuna outright, and a quick kill had never been the plan.

All along, Megumi's objective had been one thing: drive the King of Curses into a diminished state first.

The rod body carried ferocious, unstoppable momentum.

Swung like a dragon!

A black-and-red dragon tumbling from the depths of a dark abyss.

Carrying the force to crush all things, it drove straight at Sukuna's completely unguarded flank.

In the instant of that all-out swing, an image flashed through Megumi's mind, unbidden, uncontrollable. Like a scroll painted with scenes of hell.

Satoru Gojo, suspended high.

Against the broken, ruined sky of Shinjuku.

That brutal sight.

In this moment, every last piece of it converted into pure, absolute destructive rage.

The cursed energy that had been flowing calmly within him instantly went berserk under the force of that emotion, surging higher, burning hotter.

In that instant it perfectly chased and aligned with the terrifying physical momentum of Playful Cloud's swing.

Soul. Body. Cursed energy. Rage.

Absolute unity.

It added to that tearing afterimage one more flash of crimson-dark radiance, enough to make even a god of curses tremble.

"Black Flash!"

The second Black Flash. Inscribed upon Shinjuku by Megumi with utter dominance.

Playful Cloud had no sharp edge. Yet through the Tyrant's overwhelming force, the cursed energy amplification, and the crimson-dark light of Black Flash tearing space apart,

It cut into Sukuna's waist like a blade.

Sukuna's form stiffened. Nearly bisected at the waist, and even Megumi, whose cursed energy control was far from refined, could feel it: the King of Curses before him, with his cursed energy center damaged, was lagging. The cursed energy circulation had stalled.

Yet not a trace of panic showed on Sukuna's face.

Instead, he curled his knuckles into a stance Megumi knew all too well.

"Then at this distance..." Sukuna's lips pressed into a faint smirk. "Can you take this technique of mine?"

The incantation pierced into Megumi's ears.

Open.

The closed distance had become the perfect opening for Sukuna's counterattack.

Flames blazed skyward and consumed Megumi's entire field of vision.

Sukuna didn't retreat from the wound at his abdomen. He pressed closer.

Crimson four-eyed gaze locked against pitch-black eyes.

Between them, Playful Cloud's assault and an all-consuming inferno, mirror images of each other.

"Can you dodge it, little monk?"

Sukuna murmured softly. His knuckles eased open.

➤ Next: Binding Vow Domain