"Yukino, this time, let's fight side by side."
As soon as Hayashizaki said that, the grin on Ryoumen Sukuna's face immediately froze.
He'd thought this guy would be arrogant enough to demand a one-on-one fight. He didn't expect him to suddenly change the rules.
While the King of Curses was caught off guard, Yukinoshita Yukino put her hands together, and her figure instantly disappeared from Sukuna's sight.
His four pupils shrank sharply. He turned around and threw a punch behind him.
The fist stalled for a moment mid-air, then continued straight toward the face of the black-haired girl who had appeared behind him.
He had narrowed the domain around himself and used the domain's sure-hit effect to cancel out the neutral Limitless barrier.
That was one of the ways to counter the Limitless Technique without fully deploying a domain.
The upside: it didn't drain tons of cursed energy like a full domain would.
The downside: while expanding the domain like that, he couldn't use his innate technique—he could only fight with hand-to-hand combat.
But when it came to close combat, Yukinoshita Yukino didn't think she'd lose.
She reacted fast. The moment the Limitless barrier was broken through, she raised one arm and redirected Sukuna's punch from the inside. At the same time, her other hand shot forward in a punch enhanced with Cursed Technique: Blue.
A strike that both dodged and hit at once.
But the King of Curses—alive for over a thousand years—wasn't a pushover. He blocked the punch with ease.
However, a surge of cursed energy from Hayashizaki was already closing in fast from behind.
Ryoumen Sukuna quickly turned around, ready to block Hayashizaki's attack, but to his surprise, the black-haired man rushed right past him—heading straight for the white-haired bob-cut girl behind him.
The dark, heavy-looking battle spear moved like it was weightless in Hayashizaki's hands, swinging as smoothly as an extension of his own arm.
With a powerful sweep, the spear stirred up the air, cutting across toward Uraume at high speed.
An ice wall rose at Uraume's side, but the spear smashed through it like it was nothing. The sharp axe-like blade glinted coldly as it kept going, slashing toward her waist.
Uraume used the brief delay caused by the ice wall to leap backward, but the blade still managed to cut a bloody line across her waist.
Bright red blood spread across her shrine maiden outfit. Although the wound was healed with reversed cursed energy, the cut in her clothes revealed a patch of pale skin.
"Tch!" Uraume clicked her tongue in frustration. As she was forced back, the dark spear easily shattered the ice that had frozen Todo Aoi in place.
Todo reacted quickly too, realizing that Hayato was completely out of his depth in a fight like this.
He grabbed a handful of broken stones from the ground and threw them in a direction away from the battlefield. Then, he clapped his hands several times, using his Boogie Woogie technique to swap himself, Kugisaki Nobara, the badly injured Yoshino Junpei who had crashed into a building, and the unconscious Itadori Yuji to a safer place.
Hayashizaki looked at the small stones that landed near his feet and grinned.
With nothing holding him back anymore, it was time to really get started.
Just as Ryoumen Sukuna tried to turn and face Hayashizaki, he exposed his back to Yukinoshita Yukino—who hit him with a powerful "Hollow" blast that sent him flying.
She spun lightly on her feet like a lotus and returned to Hayashizaki's side.
Sukuna barely managed to stop himself in mid-air, landing right in front of the white-haired bob-cut girl.
A line of blood dripped from the corner of the Cursed King's mouth.
Even though both sides had the same number of people, the difference in power was huge.
Uraume knew she couldn't do much in a fight at this level. She bit her lip hard, her face full of frustration.
Sukuna obviously understood that too. He brought both hands together in front of him, forming a fist.
"Oh?"
Hayashizaki raised an eyebrow.
A large shadow spread out beneath Sukuna's feet, and a massive white figure slowly emerged from it.
"You really sure you wanna bring that thing out?"
Hayashizaki asked with a meaningful smile.
Then, the thousand-year-old King of Curses saw two more identical white shikigami appear behind that couple. They were just as big, with the exact same toothy grins full of perfect white teeth.
"You little brat..."
Sukuna was smiling, but he was clenching his jaw so hard it looked like his back teeth might break.
Now it was no longer two against two—it had become four against three, and they were even outnumbered.
Sukuna formed more hand signs, and another huge shikigami appeared beside him, the same size as Mahoraga. He merged the remaining shikigami together to form it.
Ten Shadows Technique: Expanded Form — Chimera Beast: Jaw Spit!
Now the numbers were even again.
"Alright, this'll do," Hayashizaki said with a small smile. He didn't bother making another shikigami of his own.
He stepped forward, and the ground under his feet cracked in layers. In the next instant, he shot forward like an arrow straight at Sukuna.
Sukuna didn't dodge—instead, he charged too, grinning wildly.
"Bring it on, you fake!"
He had his full strength back now, while the other guy was just copying his techniques and cursed energy. There was no way he should lose.
Hayashizaki swung the black battle spear in a full arc, but Sukuna caught it with one hand.
The moment the weapon and his palm clashed, a shockwave burst out, spreading in all directions from where the two stood.
The sharp axe blade that could easily slice Uraume in half couldn't even cut through his palm.
A crack split across the axe head, and seeing this, Ryoumen Sukuna showed a wild grin.
Hayashizaki returned a playful smile. With a sudden burst of strength, he gripped his halberd tighter—the axe blade shattered completely. He let go of the weapon, clenched his fist, and threw a punch straight at the King of Curses' face.
The broken axe fragments flew past Sukuna in midair, then suddenly turned back into shadows. They gathered into thin needles and stabbed into Sukuna's head, making it look like a cactus.
The sharp pain made him freeze for just a moment, and in that instant, Hayashizaki's curse-filled punch landed right on his face, sending him flying.
At that moment, both sides' shikigami leapt over their masters and clashed fiercely, each blow landing with full force.
Meanwhile, Yukinoshita Yukino launched a glowing blue orb from her hand. It arced through the night sky and shot toward the white-haired girl with the bouncy bob cut.
She raised an ice wall to block it, but it shattered instantly. The orb hit her directly, and the explosion of cursed energy blasted her away. Blood sprayed through the air.
Just one exchange—and the King of Curses' side was already pushed back.
...
End of Chapter
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