The December night split with screams and explosions as curses poured across the city like a tide of shadows.
The Tokyo branch sorcerers were scattered in battle, the ground shaking beneath the weight of clashing energies.
Inside the shattered courtyard of Jujutsu High, a different war raged.
Suguru Geto stood tall, his black and blue robes billowing with cursed energy, his eyes fixed on the young sorcerers who had dared stand in his way.
Around him, his "family" of spirits writhed like loyal dogs, ready to devour at his command.
Opposite him, Yuta Okkotsu planted his feet, sword in hand, Rika looming protectively behind him, her monstrous form fully revealed.
At his side were Maki, Panda, and Toge, bloodied, bruised, but unyielding.
The clash had been brutal already.
Geto's mastery over curses overwhelmed them from every angle.
Maki's spear strikes had been deflected and shattered.
Panda's body, even in Gorilla Mode, was battered and cracked.
Toge had collapsed to one knee after overusing his Cursed Speech, his throat bleeding from the strain.
Geto's lips curled in disdain as he surveyed the three of them.
"You should know your place,"
He said coldly, his tone carrying both contempt and disappointment.
"You're far too weak to even share the same battlefield as me. Tools without lineage, without talent, without purpose… you'll never amount to anything in the world of jujutsu."
The words dug deep.
Maki gritted her teeth, forcing herself upright despite the blood dripping down her face.
Panda clenched his massive fists, fury burning in his eyes.
Even Toge tried to rasp out a command, only for his voice to crack into silence.
"Pathetic,"
Geto muttered, shaking his head as though they were beneath even his scorn.
But before he could press forward, Yuta's voice rang out, sharp and furious.
"Shut your mouth!"
The courtyard fell quiet for a breath.
Yuta's face, usually soft with doubt, was twisted now with anger.
His grip tightened on his katana until his knuckles whitened, his cursed energy surging violently around him.
"You don't get to insult my friends,"
He snapped.
"Not after everything they've risked to stand here with me. If you're going to fight anyone, fight me!"
Geto tilted his head, amused by the defiance.
"Ah… so you finally found some spirit."
His smile widened.
"Good. Show me, Yuta Okkotsu. Show me what you and your cursed bride are truly capable of."
Rika's monstrous form let out a guttural, echoing roar, her claws clenching into the earth as her cursed energy poured into Yuta's blade.
The ground beneath them cracked and splintered under the pressure.
But Geto didn't flinch.
Instead, he stretched his hand outward, summoning the amassed power of hundreds of spirits he had collected.
His aura flared like a storm, black and endless, his voice booming across the battlefield.
"Maximum Uzumaki."
The curses fused into a spiraling sphere of writhing energy, grotesque and immense, radiating raw destruction.
The sight alone made the students' knees buckle, it was a force designed to obliterate everything in its path.
Yuta's jaw tightened, his heart pounding.
He looked back at Maki, Panda, and Toge, all three on the verge of collapse.
They had given everything they had for him to stand here now.
He couldn't, no.
He wouldn't let Geto's words be the truth.
He turned back to the enemy, lifting his sword high.
Rika surged forward, her massive claws wrapping around him as her voice, childlike yet distorted, echoed in his ears.
"Together, Yuta."
Cursed energy roared into his blade, the steel glowing with a blinding, radiant light.
Yuta bellowed, his resolve tearing from his chest like fire.
"Rika!!"
The two of them unleashed their power in unison, a devastating beam of light and cursed energy bursting forth to meet Geto's spiraling Uzumaki.
The clash lit up the night, swallowing the courtyard in a torrent of colliding forces, the shockwaves splitting stone and tearing air apart.
And in that frozen instant, the war between Yuta Okkotsu and Suguru Geto reached its climax.