Chapter 120 (Patreon)

“If you kill Kechizu, I won’t deactivate Decay!”

Eso shouted the threat, convinced it would force the two first-years to stop.

“Would you just shut up already? You’re getting on my nerves!”

Nobara Kugisaki raised her hammer. At that moment, she felt it—something within her had shifted, as though her understanding of cursed energy had suddenly deepened.

At the same time, Yuji Itadori drove his fist toward Kechizu.

Black sparks erupted around his knuckles.

Black Flash.

Nobara’s hammer descended at almost the exact same instant.

A second distortion of cursed energy tore through the air.

Black Flash.

Their attacks struck simultaneously.

In the next instant, Kechizu’s body exploded into a cloud of blood and torn flesh.

Eso stared at the crimson mist that had once been his younger brother, his eyes widening as something inside him shattered.

No...

Kechizu.

His little brother was dead.

“Don’t worry,” Nobara said coldly. “You’ll be joining him soon enough.”

Ragnar Kagenou watched Eso collapse beneath the weight of his grief and clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Even calling you a rabid dog would be giving you too much credit. You’re lower than garbage.”

Ragnar had originally thought that witnessing his brother’s death might awaken something within Eso—that his grief and rage might force him to surpass his limits.

But this was all he had?

And he was supposed to be one of the Special Grade Cursed Womb: Death Paintings?

What a pathetic excuse for one.

“I won’t deactivate the technique!” Eso screamed, his expression twisting with hatred. “You’ll be buried alongside my brother!”

Golden ripples immediately spread through the air in front of Yuji and Nobara.

A strangely shaped golden dagger slowly emerged from one of them.

Nobara stared at the weapon.

“What is that?”

Yuji tilted his head as he examined its unusual design.

“That’s a dagger? It looks more like some kind of artwork.”

“Pick it up,” Ragnar said. “Then stab yourselves with it.”

Nobara took hold of the dagger known as Rule Breaker and stared at Ragnar in disbelief.

Was he serious?

He was not planning to give them a painless death before the technique killed them, was he?

Yuji recoiled dramatically.

“No way! I refuse to die here without anyone even knowing what happened to me!”

Nobara immediately rounded on him.

“That’s what you’re worried about right now?!”

Ragnar watched the two of them begin arguing and fell silent for a moment.

“Just stab yourselves. You won’t die.”

Since Ragnar had said so, Nobara reluctantly pressed Rule Breaker against her arm and drove the blade into her flesh.

“Huh?”

She blinked.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“Seriously?!”

Yuji watched as the dagger sank into her arm. Just as she had said, there was no blood, nor was there any visible wound.

Drip.

The black rose-shaped markings covering Nobara’s body peeled away and fell to the ground like drops of thick liquid.

The most shocked person was not Yuji or Nobara.

It was Eso.

He stared at them in disbelief.

“That’s impossible! Our technique... It was broken?”

Once Nobara was free from Decay, Yuji took Rule Breaker and stabbed himself as well.

His eyes immediately lit up.

“You’re right! It doesn’t hurt at all! This thing is incredible!”

Ragnar smiled faintly.

Rule Breaker dissolved into countless golden particles before returning to the Gate of Babylon.

“Now, Eso... you’re the only one left.”

Eso understood that escape was impossible.

With a Special Grade Sorcerer watching him, there was no chance he could get away.

Yuji and Nobara remained where they were, silently waiting for Ragnar’s decision.

“For incarnated Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, the two of you were remarkably disappointing.”

Ragnar looked down at Eso, who had already lost the will to struggle despite having nowhere left to run.

Whatever patience Ragnar had possessed disappeared completely.

“Accept your death.”

Golden ripples illuminated the night sky.

One after another, hundreds of portals belonging to the Gate of Babylon opened above them, filling the darkness with brilliant golden light.

Nobara looked up at the spectacle.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still beautiful. It doesn’t have that suffocating, disgusting feeling cursed energy usually gives off.”

“Yeah,” Yuji agreed. “It’s not just beautiful. It’s completely unfair. That ability is practically cheating.”

A moment later, countless Noble Phantasms descended from the sky.

Under the endless bombardment, Eso’s body was pulverized into blood and dust.

——————

At the same time, Choso—the eldest of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings—sat playing chess with Mahito and Kenjaku.

Without warning, his hand stopped above the board.

He had felt it.

The deaths of his younger brothers.

Kenjaku noticed the change in his expression.

“What happened?”

Choso’s fingers tightened around the chess piece in his hand.

Crack.

The piece shattered between his fingers.

“My brothers are dead.”

Mahito looked down at the broken piece with an almost wounded expression.

“You didn’t have to break it.”

Kenjaku, however, appeared far more interested in Choso’s statement.

“You were able to sense their deaths?”

Choso’s expression remained rigid.

“I refuse to believe they could have lost to a Finger Bearer carrying only one of Sukuna’s fingers.”

Mahito showed little concern as he muttered to himself.

“Honestly... it’s not as though we have any replacements left.”

Kenjaku took out his phone and contacted the informants he had planted within Tokyo Jujutsu High.

Before long, a report arrived.

“I have the details,” Kenjaku said. “Kechizu was killed by two first-year students from Jujutsu High—Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki.”

He paused as he read the rest of the report.

“Eso was killed by Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer Ragnar Kagenou.”

The moment Mahito heard that name, his expression slowly twisted.

Kenjaku turned toward Choso.

“Ragnar Kagenou is not an ordinary Special Grade. Even if all of us attacked him together, we would still have little chance of defeating him.”

Mahito looked at him in disbelief.

“Seriously? He’s that strong?”

“It makes no difference,” Choso answered flatly. “I’ll kill them regardless.”

Kenjaku smiled.

“I look forward to seeing you try.”

Boom!

Without warning, a section of the hideout’s wall exploded inward.

Dust and fragments of debris filled the room.

Mahito immediately turned toward the cloud of smoke.

“Who’s there?”

Choso remained silent.

Kenjaku narrowed his eyes.

“So it’s you two.”

Swish!

A silver-white slash tore through the smoke.

All three of them rose from their seats at once as the attack sliced cleanly through the sofa and chess table they had been sitting around.

“This is quite the hiding place.”

“You Cursed Spirits certainly made us search for you.”

As the dust gradually cleared, Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Orimoto appeared before them.

A hideous smile spread across Mahito’s face.

“Rika Orimoto!”

His memory of the beating Rika had given him remained painfully clear, and the resentment he had nurtured since then had only grown stronger.

Yuta glanced toward her.

“Rika, do you have some kind of grudge against that Cursed Spirit?”

Rika tapped a finger against her forehead as she tried to remember.

“I think so. All I really remember is beating him up.”

“I see.”

Yuta drew his katana, its silver blade gleaming beneath the moonlight entering through the shattered wall.

“Then that Cursed Spirit is yours. I’ll deal with the other two.”

“All right. Since that’s what Yuta wants, I’ll concentrate on him.”

A towering shikigami manifested behind Rika.

She extended her left hand while resting her right hand against her waist.

“Henshin!”

At her command, the shikigami transformed into light.

The radiance wrapped itself around Rika’s body, gradually forming a suit of armor.

Over-Cursed Vengeful Spirit Body.

Mahito’s eyes lit up the moment he saw her transformed appearance.

“That form... How wonderful!”

His gaze moved across the armor and the figure beneath it with twisted fascination.

“Those captivating curves... It’s practically the perfect evolution of life!”

Mahito produced two miniature transfigured humans and activated Idle Transfiguration, warping them into weapons.

Bang!

The transformed weapons slammed into Rika.

However, such a weak attack could not even scratch her armor.

“These little tricks won’t work against me.”

Mahito brought his hands together, forming a hand seal.

“In that case, come!”

Cursed energy surged violently around him.

“Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection!”

Kenjaku stepped between Yuta and the expanding Domain.

“She’s dead. Once someone is trapped inside Mahito’s Domain, no one can defeat him.”

Yuta’s expression remained completely calm.

“Rika will win.”

“Is that so?” Kenjaku replied. “Then I’ll teach you what it means to fear death.”

Yuta did not waste another word.

Gripping his katana, he charged straight toward Kenjaku.