She had caused a sandstorm with a single strike, and this was merely the aftershock of the attack.
Is Mahito dead...?
Suddenly, Yuki Tsukumo's survival instinct was triggered.
A glimmer of silver light emerged from within the sandstorm, swimming like a playful silver marlin.
Yuki Tsukumo did not find it beautiful; she felt as if all the terror in the world had concentrated into one point and then exploded.
Mirokuji's Kirigiri, Tsukumogami Ability Release—New Line!
A massive slash sliced through the sandstorm.
Yuki Tsukumo dove to the side at the critical moment.
She saw the entirety of the slash.
A sandstorm wasn't a solid object; it was a natural disaster composed of wind and sand.
Yet, such a disaster was now split in two as if a painting had been cut by a paper cutter.
The silver light extended infinitely until it vanished into the distance.
Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted as she recognized this technique.
"High-speed compressed wind blades... that's Ama-no-Habakiri!" Yuki Tsukumo said in disbelief.
"That's Teruaki Zen'in's Innate Technique."
"Why can the King of Cursed Spirits use Teruaki Zen'in's technique?"
"No, more than that, even if Teruaki Zen'in used Ama-no-Habakiri himself, it would be impossible to actually cut through such a massive sandstorm."
"Is there another technique working in tandem with it?"
A combination of dual techniques?
Or is it a Fusion technique?
Is such a thing even possible?
Yuki Tsukumo felt her scalp tingle.
A sense of palpitations submerged her entire being, as if she were in the deep sea.
At the edge of the sandstorm, someone was slowly walking over.
He wore a black haori over a white kimono and a bamboo hat on his head.
In his hand, he held an unusually long straight-edged blade.
He walked leisurely, and as he approached Yuki Tsukumo, he reached out to tilt his hat up, revealing those heterochromatic eyes.
Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted because there wasn't a single scratch on him, and even his expensive clothes were undamaged.
He was clearly stepping through a desert, yet Yuki Tsukumo felt as if she were standing under the torii gate of a shrine, with cherry blossoms scattering from both sides of the gate and falling onto the steps, as the King of Curses stepped over the torii on the blossoms.
The surprise attack by Garuda hadn't even managed to get a grain of sand on the King of Curses' clothes.
He truly was a spirit like the rumors said, as elegant as an ukiyo-e painting.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Tsukumo," the King of Curses spoke.
"The Curse of humans toward humans, Mahito."
"Please be kind to me."
Yuki Tsukumo slowly stood up, spitting sand from her mouth and revealing a fierce smile.
"Same here, Mahito."
"Special Grade Sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo."
"Please be kind to me!"Gemini şunu dedi:
A week later, during the exchange event between the Tokyo and Kyoto schools.
Satoru Gojo was on a civilian fishing boat.
He lifted his blindfold, and the residual Cursed Energy was clearly reflected in his Six Eyes.
However, the owner of that residual energy was long gone.
In their place was a strange shikigami; it hadn't noticed Satoru Gojo and was just mechanically rowing the boat.
Satoru Gojo sighed.
"As expected, they came prepared."
"Tsukumo, this time even if I wanted to, I can't keep up with you."
He hadn't expected the Six Eyes to be countered like this; Satoru Gojo felt quite conflicted.
His strength was beyond question, and because of that, he never hid his abilities.
The whole world knew of his Six Eyes and Limitless, but how many people in the world dared to challenge him?
Since his debut, all who challenged him had died, including the fully armed Heavenly Restriction.
But today, his myth was shattered once again.
The first time it was shattered was during his student days, when he hadn't yet perfectly combined the Six Eyes with the Limitless and encountered the Heavenly Restriction; he almost truly died during that mission.
At that time, his brain and stomach were both destroyed.
The brain is where the Innate Technique resides, and the stomach is the location of the core that generates Cursed Energy.
Theoretically, he should have been as dead as could be.
But he still revived on the spot.
In that life-or-death battle, he bypassed the grind of experience and time.
In an instant, he perfectly fused the Six Eyes and Limitless, achieving the status of the world's strongest.
After that, he had a satisfying revenge by killing the Heavenly Restriction.
And now, this was the second time.
His Six Eyes' tracking ability was unparalleled in the world.
Even with spatial transfers, as long as the distance wasn't too great, he could still see the residual spatial traces with his naked eye and give chase immediately.
The Curse Users he targeted all died this way.
But Yuki Tsukumo had broken this rule.
Her method was so simple it made Satoru Gojo feel like laughing: she created a shikigami connected to her Cursed Energy, then concealed her own Cursed Energy fluctuations.
Even though Satoru Gojo knew her methods, he still ended up chasing her shikigami.
Other people's shikigami, no matter how you look at it, are not the Jujutsu Sorcerers themselves.
Their residual Cursed Energy is completely different from the Jujutsu Sorcerer's.
It's like Mei Mei's crow shikigami; even if the crow can share vision and energy with Mei Mei, it's useless.
A crow is a crow, and a person is a person.
It's clear as day before the Six Eyes.
But Yuki Tsukumo's was different.
Her shikigami could perfectly mimic her own residual Cursed Energy.
The degree of similarity was so high that the shikigami could even use her own Innate Technique.
This was Yuki Tsukumo's unique ultimate shikigami!
In the entire original timeline, this was something only Yuki Tsukumo could achieve, and it wasn't even dependent on her Innate Technique.
It was simply that her jujutsu skills were so advanced that others couldn't comprehend them.
One could say she was the strongest jujutsu master in the world; in terms of general jujutsu techniques, she was peerless.
"Now, I won't be able to protect you."
Satoru Gojo withdrew the smile from his face, put his blindfold back on, and whispered.
"Don't die, Tsukumo."
"As expected, he didn't catch up," Yuki Tsukumo sighed.
"Satoru, the downside of never hiding your abilities is being fully exposed."
"The result of everyone knowing everything is that everyone is studying how to counter you."
"Even if they can't counter you in combat, they'll use all sorts of divine abilities to escape from your hands."
Wasn't she doing exactly that?
This was supposed to be a trump card she'd use to resolve things if Satoru Gojo ever went mad like Suguru Geto, but at this moment, she had used it on herself.
Under a Binding Vow, she had indeed shaken off Satoru Gojo.
She didn't know whether to be proud or sad.
Deep in the Sahara Desert, in a place where no one could detect her, Yuki Tsukumo walked alone.
She wasn't worried about getting lost; the moment she stepped into the desert, she sensed a certain residual Cursed Energy guiding her like a beacon.
This was the battlefield chosen by the King of Cursed Spirits, and it was even less atmospheric than Yuki Tsukumo had imagined.
In Yuki Tsukumo's mind, a grand figure like the Lord of Curses should have chosen an ancient coliseum, a nameless island, or a more stylish place like the seaside.
No one would have expected him to choose the desert.
But Yuki Tsukumo strangely understood the King of Curses' thoughts.
'Let us have a hearty duel!'
Everything he did radiated this sentiment.
Because this was a deserted desert region.
If the battlefield were set in a coliseum, a nameless island, or the seaside, the collateral damage from the fight could harm innocents.
But here, there was no such worry.
Yuki Tsukumo gladly agreed.
Originally, her Cursed Technique wasn't suited for precise operations.
Once she fought with all her might, the scope of the impact was beyond even her own imagination.
Sinking Japan was definitely not just a joke.
But if it was here, she could act without any inhibitions.
Suddenly, she stopped advancing.
She stood in place and looked around, then raised her hand and reached forward.
At the point of contact, layer upon layer of barriers emerged, but these barriers did not reject her at all.
Yuki Tsukumo immediately realized that this was a barrier only she could enter.
She had arrived; Yuki Tsukumo had a moment of clarity.
She pushed her perception to the limit, doing her best to cover the entire barrier.
Her perception of Cursed Energy wasn't as outstanding as Satoru Gojo's.
If it were Satoru Gojo, he could surely do it easily, right?
Like in the original timeline, when Satoru Gojo was still in the car and could sense Jogo's ultra-long-range surprise attack, even stopping the car before Jogo attacked to go out and meet him alone.
But Yuki Tsukumo couldn't do that.
Even so, she could sense the people at each node of the barrier.
"One, two, three... there are seven Cursed Spirits in total," Yuki Tsukumo muttered to herself.
"Are these all the intelligent Cursed Spirits?"
"In other words, as long as I kill the Lord of Curses, these intelligent Cursed Spirits can be wiped out all at once."
A barrier requires a caster to release it.
This wasn't like Japan.
In Japan, because there is Master Tengen's barrier covering the entire country, using Barrier Techniques is much more convenient.
Even an auxiliary manager with only a little Cursed Energy and no combat power can perform simple Barrier Techniques.
But it's not that convenient abroad.
This meant that all the intelligent Cursed Spirits possessed high-level Barrier Technique abilities.
Aside from the Lord of Curses, the other Cursed Spirits were putting all their effort into maintaining this massive barrier.
However, she didn't sense any residual Cursed Energy from humans.
Yuki Tsukumo could accurately distinguish between the residual Cursed Energy of Cursed Spirits and humans.
Therefore, she was certain that only intelligent Cursed Spirits were present, with no humans.
In other words, Ashiya is not here?
Yuki Tsukumo pondered.
How intelligent Cursed Spirits were born had become the most noteworthy question in the current Jujutsu World.
After all, this was the first instance in a thousand years, and every Jujutsu Sorcerer was completely baffled by it.
Master Tengen believed that even the intelligent Cursed Spirits themselves were likely not very clear about it.
Only Ashiya, who taught them, would know the truth.
Thus, for the Jujutsu World, killing the Lord of Curses and capturing Ashiya were of equal importance.
But now Ashiya wasn't here... where was he?
"...Oh well, that's not my mission then."
Yuki Tsukumo took a deep breath and casually tossed aside the white cloth cloak she was wearing.
She was still in a black tank top, revealing her navel and arms.
The tank top clung to her skin, tracing her graceful figure.
She stood tall and gave a long stretch, her body's curves like a roaring wave.
She thought about the information on the King of Curses and the words she heard when she questioned the elderly and weak survivors of the Zen'in Clan:
'On that night, the wind and rain blew against the doors, and thunder flashed in the sky.'
'All those deemed to have no combat power were hidden in the underground training ground.'
'They didn't know what was happening, but everyone was silent because a certain invisible pressure was weighing down on them.'
'Some children began to cry, but their mothers covered their mouths, not daring to let even a sound escape.'
'Until a world-shaking voice pierced through the ground.'
'Someone was announcing their arrival, coming to kill!'
'The King of Curses gave a divine proclamation to the world:'
'—A Curse of humans upon humans, Mahito, has arrived!'
Yuki Tsukumo felt as if she were seeing a swordsman walking out of the Heian Era.
She could even imagine the Lord of Curses dressed in samurai attire, with a long blade hanging from his waist and a bamboo hat on his head, walking through a rainy night, accompanied by the wind, the rain, and the thunder.
How elegant.
Yuki Tsukumo thought to herself.
Just by thinking about it, she could tell what an elegant man he must be.
He must be covered in glory, carrying the weight of all living beings' deaths.
If this were any other time, I would certainly want to get to know such a person.
—Provided that it was a human, and not a Cursed Spirit.
Announcing one's name with dignity and striking from outside the gates of heaven?
Let me show you then, O Lord of Curses.
Yuki Tsukumo's lips curled into a smile.
It wasn't a beautiful smile, but one as fierce as a bloodthirsty wolf.
She let out one final voice in her heart:
How a Jujutsu Sorcerer fights in this era!
A snake-like shikigami was coiled around Yuki Tsukumo's body.
This shikigami floated weightlessly until she reached out her hand, at which point the shikigami slithered down from her body.
It curled into a ball and was lifted by Yuki Tsukumo.
This was Yuki Tsukumo's highest-grade Cursed Tool shikigami, and it was also the prototype for the companion spirit of the external Cursed Energy circulation organ that Mahito created for Kinji Hakari.
Shikigami Cursed Tool: Garuda.
Garuda possessed an ability unique among shikigami created by other Jujutsu Sorcerers.
It could connect with the Jujutsu Sorcerer's own Cursed Energy and serve as a target for Yuki Tsukumo's Cursed Technique other than herself.
It was created by Yuki Tsukumo's Cursed Technique.
Put that way, it might be a bit hard to understand, so let's be more direct—
—This Cursed Tool shikigami can synchronize with Yuki Tsukumo's use of Star Rage.
"Technique Release," Yuki Tsukumo exhaled slowly, holding Garuda high before tossing it gently upward, much like a soccer player starting a play.
"Star Rage."
Bang!
Yuki Tsukumo kicked Garuda.
In the next instant, Garuda shattered the barrier in front of it, extending infinitely like a cannonball.
The desert terrain it passed through billowed outward due to the rotation of its immense power, much like a plane crash-landing on the surface of the sea.
In the original timeline, something similar had happened.
Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna had agreed on a fight, setting a time and place.
When the time drew near, Ryomen Sukuna waited at the spot, just as Mahito was doing now.
Satoru Gojo did not go there immediately.
He had his senior, Utahime, perform a dance that could comprehensively increase his own Cursed Energy output.
Afterward, from two kilometers away, he aimed at the waiting Ryomen Sukuna and used a maximum output Hollow Technique: Purple, a blatant pre-battle sneak attack.
Just like Yuki Tsukumo was doing now!
"Remember this with your life," Yuki Tsukumo grinned and laughed loudly.
"This is... how a modern Jujutsu Sorcerer fights!"
Star Rage granted her strength beyond human imagination.
The storm stirred up by that immense power destroyed everything in its path, like a low-flying mad dragon sweeping across the world with unparalleled divine might.
Boom, boom, boom, boom—!
Garuda hit the ground, but the sound it made wasn't just one; it was a continuous series of explosions.
This was because the excess power from the overflowing airwaves alone was enough to trigger secondary explosions, followed by a third and a fourth!
The entire desert seemed to shake.
Countless grains of sand were flung hundreds of meters into the air from the ground.
As the explosive airwaves spread outward, the gale whipped the sand into moving waterspouts, and ring after ring of shockwaves expanded outward.
Then a backdraft phenomenon occurred, and everything rushed toward the center of the explosion.
This caused the sand that had just dispersed to collide in the sky.
The heavy sand began to fall and slowly contract, forming a giant mushroom.
A massive mushroom cloud slowly took shape and did not disappear for a long time.
Yuki Tsukumo stood in place, covering her eyes with her hand as the gale lashed at her.
Her Cursed Energy protected her like armor, but even so, the sand still struck her from all directions like blades.
She had to continue strengthening her body, as the world before her eyes had turned into a blur.
She had caused a sandstorm with a single strike, and this was merely the aftershock of the attack.
Is Mahito dead...?
Suddenly, Yuki Tsukumo's survival instinct was triggered.
A glimmer of silver light emerged from within the sandstorm, swimming like a playful silver marlin.
Yuki Tsukumo did not find it beautiful; she felt as if all the terror in the world had concentrated into one point and then exploded.
Mirokuji's Kirigiri, Tsukumogami Ability Release—New Line!
A massive slash sliced through the sandstorm.
Yuki Tsukumo dove to the side at the critical moment.
She saw the entirety of the slash.
A sandstorm wasn't a solid object; it was a natural disaster composed of wind and sand.
Yet, such a disaster was now split in two as if a painting had been cut by a paper cutter.
The silver light extended infinitely until it vanished into the distance.
Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted as she recognized this technique.
"High-speed compressed wind blades... that's Ama-no-Habakiri!" Yuki Tsukumo said in disbelief.
"That's Teruaki Zen'in's Innate Technique."
"Why can the King of Cursed Spirits use Teruaki Zen'in's technique?"
"No, more than that, even if Teruaki Zen'in used Ama-no-Habakiri himself, it would be impossible to actually cut through such a massive sandstorm."
"Is there another technique working in tandem with it?"
A combination of dual techniques?
Or is it a Fusion technique?
Is such a thing even possible?
Yuki Tsukumo felt her scalp tingle.
A sense of palpitations submerged her entire being, as if she were in the deep sea.
At the edge of the sandstorm, someone was slowly walking over.
He wore a black haori over a white kimono and a bamboo hat on his head.
In his hand, he held an unusually long straight-edged blade.
He walked leisurely, and as he approached Yuki Tsukumo, he reached out to tilt his hat up, revealing those heterochromatic eyes.
Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted because there wasn't a single scratch on him, and even his expensive clothes were undamaged.
He was clearly stepping through a desert, yet Yuki Tsukumo felt as if she were standing under the torii gate of a shrine, with cherry blossoms scattering from both sides of the gate and falling onto the steps, as the King of Curses stepped over the torii on the blossoms.
The surprise attack by Garuda hadn't even managed to get a grain of sand on the King of Curses' clothes.
He truly was a spirit like the rumors said, as elegant as an ukiyo-e painting.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Tsukumo," the King of Curses spoke.
"The Curse of humans toward humans, Mahito."
"Please be kind to me."
Yuki Tsukumo slowly stood up, spitting sand from her mouth and revealing a fierce smile.
"Same here, Mahito."
"Special Grade Sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo."
"Please be kind to me!"