(Pov Satoshi)
9:50 pm
We clashed, but this time it was in my favor. The Inverted Spear of Heaven stabbed right through Sukuna's slashes and pierced his hand when he tried to stop the blade. His hand landed on my face, but nothing happened, and the shock of it was clear on his face. I used the distraction to land a kick, knocking Sukuna down and smashing him into the street. The Inverted Spear could not only deactivate any technique it came into contact with, but also, if it made contact with the person, their technique wouldn't function until the blade was removed.
This gave me something of a safety net in close range, as now I wouldn't need to worry so much about cleaving, though that still required stabbing or slicing him whenever he touched me. It was a risk, but it was also my best chance in hand-to-hand combat.
It didn't take long for Sukuna to emerge from where he had landed, his face still held that smile, but now he seemed even more excited, if that was even possible. I couldn't tell if that attack had wounded him; his reinforcement meant that hitting him felt like hitting a steel bulkhead, not to mention his RCT. If I wanted to defeat him, I had to either overpower his healing by hitting him hard enough that he loses the fight for control, and Yuji wakes back up.
"What an interesting weapon, it can interfere with cursed techniques." Sukuna suddenly said with his lower eyes now trained on the blade. I had hoped he wouldn't figure it out so quickly, but whatever else he was, Ryomen Sukuna was also a master at understanding Jujutsu. It didn't matter; even if he knew what the Inverted could do, he couldn't stop the effect, though he might now become more cautious.
The next moment his hand flew up, and I was facing a wall of dismantles, each of which crossed the others like a large net. This was an attack I recognized well, as by lining up his dismantles in this fashion, Sukuna could create a massive wave with no space to dodge. He had originally used similar attacks on Mahoraga and Kashimo, and now he was sending one towards me, but I still had the spear.
I let out more of the chain and began swinging the spear forward like a sling. The moment the spear made contact with the net, it began to cut through them, but unlike before, instead of dissolving, the dismantles split and kept moving. Now, though, there was a tear in the net large enough for me to slide through unscathed. Squeezing through the opening proved to be a bad decision, as I noticed even more dismantles coming my way halfway through.
I just barely managed to bring up the Inverted Spear in time to block some of the attacks, but some still got through, leaving behind cuts along my arms and sides. For some reason, though, the damage was limited, and the cuts were shallower than they had been earlier. I didn't have time to consider this as Sukuna was once again on the move.
We clashed once more, a blur of fists and blade as each of us tried to gain some advantage over the other. The buildings around us began to crumble as Sukuna's dismantling flew in every direction during his attacks, but I was noticing something new about the Inverted Spear. I had always known it could directly negate cursed techniques, but previously, I thought it was only through direct contact. Now, though it seemed that the spear could emit a small field of this nullifying effect, it wasn't as strong as direct blade contact, but it's what reduced the power of the attacks I couldn't block.
We fought through the street, each attack landing like a truck. My fists had started growing numb from the feeling. I had managed a few good cuts, but unlike the Soul Split Katan, he could heal from these wounds easily, but he also couldn't land any lethal hits on me. The Inverted Spear was dampening his technique enough that when he got close enough to use cleave, it had barely a fraction of the power needed to do actual damage.
"Kenjaku was right about you in all my time. I've never seen anyone like you strip away the very essence of Jujutsu and have no cursed energy; it's extraordinary!" Sukuna said suddenly. "Your very existence is at war with the premise of sorcery, and this battle is to determine which will be victorious!"
"I wouldn't say that, but I suppose that's where we differ, you ancient freak," I say back before our fists connect, pressing against each other. His next attack landed, striking across my jaw, and it nearly knocked me down, but I was able to recover before he could follow up. I grabbed his extended arm and swung him around with it, throwing him through a building.
"For the first time, I have been put into a role that I didn't choose, the role of a representative!" Sukuna said, bursting back out with a wide smile on his face before launching more dismantles my way. I charged through them, but when I got close enough, his fist flew towards me, and at the last moment, I noticed the black sparks surrounding it. I only had a moment to block the strike before the impact came crashing into me.
"Black Flash!"
The impact was stronger than anything I had felt before; the force was enough that, even though I was blocking the attack, I could feel a few ribs break. Somehow, my arms survived the punch, and after it landed, I flew back across the street and through a building and then another. By the time I landed back on solid ground, I was seeing spots, but still I got up. The moment I did, though, I saw Sukuna standing on a lamppost with his hands held together, his fingers sticking up.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
I didn't have time to think, so I grabbed the Inverted Spear and began swinging it, but this time, instead of a target, I spun it around myself at a consistent and fast speed. My inverted domain was my only hope to survive this. Usually, I didn't have to worry about a domain. Still, Sukuna's slashes didn't just target those with cursed energy, as the dismantles cut up inanimate objects, which I would count as.
Behind Sukuna, a large Shinto shrine manifested, with a wide-open maw at its center and skulls of varying sizes surrounding it. All around me, the street and everything on it began to fall apart as waves of dismantlers cut everything down, and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught was reduced to nothing as well. My inverted domain was holding, though, and the attacks were being stopped. I could only hope nobody from the school had been caught in the domain's radius.
"This is supposed to be your ultimate technique? Doesn't feel all that special for the so-called King of Curses." I taunted, but Sukuna just kept smiling as the world collapsed around us. Once more, though, he brought his hands together, but this time he separated them, and a gout of flame connected them. He manipulated it, forming it into the shape of an arrow in his hand, then pulled it back with his other hand.
Sukuna's technique was Shrine, known to have two components: Dismantle and Cleave. Dismantle was a ranged slashing attack that could be fired with varying degrees of power depending on the amount of cursed energy put into it. Cleave, on the other hand, was a close-range attack where, by making contact with it, the same kind of slashing would happen, but this kind could automatically adjust to the target's durability and cut them down in one attack. There was a third part to this technique, though the Divine Flame, which was only used after the first two, allowing Sukuna to launch a highly destructive flaming arrow.
It was similar, in a way, to how a chef cooks in a kitchen: first, he cuts the food, then he opens the oven and cooks it. Sukuna used dismantle and cleave to cut up his opponents, then cooked them with the flames of his arrow.
As he prepared the arrow, I saw his mouth move, but I couldn't hear what he said. The second part was clear. "Open." He said, and his hand let go; the arrow flew at incredible speed right at me, and as it went, the surrounding wreckage burst into flames. Sukuna had increased the power of this attack by using his domain, so that what it cut became extremely flammable. If the arrow landed, it would create a massive explosion, one that would be large enough to leave a massive hole in Shibuya.
I had one shot to stop this, and if it failed, I was going to die in the following explosion. I allowed the chain to extend farther and wrap around me, redirecting the Inverted Spear's blade. The moment the spear stopped protecting me, I felt as if dozens of slashes began striking me, each cut worse than the last, and I felt a sharp pain in my left eye, but I couldn't stop now. Finally, I launched the blade forward, and it clashed with the arrow halfway between the two of us, and soon after, the flaming arrow split in two. The two halves swelled and exploded, sending a wall of fire rushing towards me. All I could see was orange, and I could feel the heat as if I were standing on the sun.
(Pov Sukuna)
What an annoying guy, he must have known something like this would happen eventually. That brat had found some way to counter just about everything I could use. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. He even managed to cut my divine flame down before it could reach full potential.
Still, that explosion should be enough to finish him, not to mention the slashes he got in that moment between stopping the arrow and keeping up that spinning of his. I have to say I haven't been pushed that far in a long time, and all without a cursed technique or any cursed energy.
Now, while I still had some time, I was going to kill as many of Yuji's little school friends as I could. I began to leave when I felt a sudden pain in my back; something had just cut me across my entire back, and my reverse-cursed technique wasn't working for some reason.
I turned, and there he was, Gojo Satoshi. How did he survive? His body was heavily damaged. There wasn't a part of him that wasn't covered in cuts or blood, apart from his arms, both of which were smoking and had clear burns on them, and his left eye had a massive cut running across it, while the lid remained closed. In his hand was that katana he had been using at first. Kenjaku had warned me about it, that the cursed tool could cut the soul itself, which must have been why I couldn't heal this wound.
Despite the wounds littering his body, there was a smile on his face. "You said I put you into a role you didn't choose." He said before his fist flew forward into my gut as he dropped the sword. I couldn't fight back fully while my technique was still burnt out from opening my domain.
"You did the same thing." He continued, punching his fists, moving faster than I could follow, and all I could do was try to block them. "You said I stand against the very nature of Jujutsu, but you're wrong! I may not have cursed energy, but I'm a sorcerer and don't ever forget that, you bastard!"
He broke my guard and struck my chin with an uppercut, and afterward, everything went black.
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Ok it's finally done the fight with Sukuna is now over that took so long. I don't know if it was burn out or writers block, but this part was so hard for me to write not matter what I tried but hopefully the next parts will be easier. I don't know when the next chapter is coming but I'm going to try to do a chapter every week so see you next Monday hopefully.