Chapter 165 (Patreon)

“It looks like we’re a step too late.”

Rika Orimoto surveyed the Zenin clan estate. Bodies lay scattered across the grounds, with no sign that anyone had been left alive.

“There’s a huge opening here. It doesn’t look man-made.”

Megumi Fushiguro approached the massive section of wall that had been torn apart by Yamata-no-Orochi. He crouched beside it and ran his fingers across the broken edge.

“There’s still cursed energy lingering here... Special grade?”

Faint traces of purple cursed energy clung to the wall. Even after all this time, it continued to seethe with resentment, bloodlust, and sheer malice.

“Did you find anything, senpai?” Megumi asked.

“Yes. The wounds on these bodies are incredibly clean. It looks like they were killed in a single strike by something sharp.”

Megumi walked over and examined one of the corpses. He carefully touched the edge of the fatal wound.

The cut was perfectly smooth.

“To slice through a human body this cleanly... It could have been a cursed technique. But if it was, Sukuna is the only one in the jujutsu world capable of something like this.”

“Sukuna... No. There’s nothing in the Zenin clan worth bringing him here personally. The only other possibility is Maki-senpai.”

Megumi drew a deep breath.

“Maki-senpai told us before that she hated the Zenin clan. But was that really enough to make her wipe out the entire clan?”

Rika rose to her feet and looked around the corpse-filled estate one last time.

“Then there must be more to this than we know.”

“You’re right.”

Megumi followed Rika outside.

“We haven’t found Maki-senpai’s body. At the very least, that means she didn’t die here. For now, we should—”

Rika suddenly sensed something.

Her expression changed at once, twisting into something so frightening that Megumi fell silent.

“What is it, senpai?”

It was the first time Megumi had ever seen such a terrifying look on Rika’s face.

“It’s nothing. Megumi, keep searching for Maki. There’s something I need to deal with myself.”

“All right. If you have something to take care of, go ahead. I’ll handle things here.”

Cursed energy surged around Rika’s body. Seeing that, Megumi did not try to stop her.

“I’ll leave it to you, Megumi.”

Rika’s shikigami manifested in its complete form. A moment later, it flowed over her body and fused with her skin, covering her like a suit of living armor.

“I’ll make you pay for this!”

Boom!

Rika kicked off the ground and shot into the sky, leaving a violent current of air in her wake. Under Megumi’s stunned gaze, she accelerated and disappeared toward the horizon.

“Th-this is a special-grade sorcerer... She’s practically superhuman.”

Once he had regained his composure, Megumi’s resolve hardened.

He could no longer afford to delay taming Mahoraga.

He had originally planned to challenge it only after making every possible preparation. However, the current situation was becoming more dangerous by the moment.

Everyone else was already putting their lives on the line. Megumi needed to become stronger as well. When the final battle against Sukuna came, he wanted to be able to play his part.

“Well, well. I didn’t expect to find you here. You’re Toji Fushiguro’s son, aren’t you? Your name was... Megumi Fushiguro, right?”

Megumi spun toward the voice, only for his eyes to widen at the impossible sight before him.

“You... How are you here?!”

His hands immediately formed a seal. The shadows behind him began to churn, ready to release his shikigami at any moment.

“Easy. There’s no need to be so hasty. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. Isn’t that right?”

The figure standing within the shadows raised both hands, as though to show that he meant no harm.

Megumi did not lower his guard.

“How did you get out? Answer me, Kenjaku!”

“Heh...”

An unsettling smile spread across Kenjaku’s face.

“Who knows? Perhaps even the Prison Realm grew tired of keeping me locked away.”

For once, Kenjaku was telling the truth.

Even he did not know why he had been released from the Prison Realm. However, none of that mattered now.

Megumi answered by summoning one of the shikigami he had already tamed.

“Divine Dog: Totality!”

With a fierce snarl, Divine Dog sank its fangs into Kenjaku’s arm.

The attack barely seemed to hurt him.

Kenjaku seized Divine Dog and tore it away from his arm. With a heavy crash, he slammed it into the ground, reducing it to a pool of shadow.

“Rabbit Escape!”

A swarm of rabbits erupted from Megumi’s shadow and flooded the area, swallowing both of them from sight. Using the brief cover they provided, Megumi searched for an opening in Kenjaku’s defence.

“A smokescreen?”

Kenjaku glanced at the rabbits swarming around him and raised one hand.

Gravity crashed down.

A vast number of rabbits were instantly crushed and dissolved back into shadow.

Now!

“Piercing Ox!”

Megumi’s shadow raced across the ground toward Kenjaku. A massive ox burst from it mid-charge and thundered straight ahead.

Boom!

Kenjaku did not even lift a finger. An invisible force stopped Piercing Ox directly in front of him, preventing it from advancing another step no matter how fiercely it charged.

“Damn it. Even Piercing Ox couldn’t break through.”

Among the shikigami Megumi had tamed, Piercing Ox possessed the greatest charging power—excluding Mahoraga.

“Not bad.”

Kenjaku lightly clapped his hands.

In the next instant, he appeared directly behind Megumi.

“You did well. Now you can die.”

Megumi’s eyes widened.

When did he get behind me?

Megumi had not sensed his presence at all.

Bang!

Megumi was slammed face-first into the ground. He coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth.

“What... Gravity?”

Kenjaku had increased the gravity around him, crushing Megumi against the ground.

“Nue...”

With great difficulty, Megumi summoned Nue.

The winged shikigami swooped down, seized his ankle with its talons, and dragged him out of the area affected by the crushing gravity.

“Oh? You managed to escape.”

Still hanging from Nue, Megumi allowed it to carry him a safe distance away before slowly lowering him to the ground.

“Round Deer.”

Round Deer emerged from his shadow. Positive energy flowed from its body and washed over Megumi, healing his injuries through Reverse Cursed Technique.

“Reverse Cursed Technique? No... That shikigami can use it to heal someone else. How interesting.”

“Great Serpent!”

Great Serpent surged from Megumi’s shadow and coiled tightly around Kenjaku’s body.

“What a boring shikigami.”

Kenjaku began tearing himself free from its coils.

At that exact moment, an enormous elephant came crashing down from the sky.

Boom!

“You called it boring. What about this?”

Megumi did not have enough cursed energy to keep Max Elephant fully manifested for long. The moment it struck Kenjaku, he immediately dismissed it.

“N-not bad. If this had been the old me, that might actually have killed me.”

“How is that possible?!”

Before Megumi’s eyes, Kenjaku’s mangled body completely restored itself.

“Is that... all?”

Megumi clenched his teeth and brought his hands together in a seal.

“Domain Expansion!”

His cursed energy erupted.

“Chimera Shadow Garden!”

Pitch-black cursed energy flooded the surroundings, dragging Kenjaku into Megumi’s domain.

Countless shadows rose from every direction and transformed into attacks that converged upon him.

“Cursed Technique Lapse: Antigravity System.”

“A world of shadows...”

Kenjaku smiled faintly.

“Let me show you what a true domain looks like.”

He formed his hand seal.

“Domain Expansion: Womb Profusion!”

The moment the two domains collided, Chimera Shadow Garden was torn apart.

Crushing gravity descended upon Megumi’s body.

“Guh!”