Chapter 150: Tengen Assimilation Failure
At the bottom of the crater, smoke rolled in thick waves.
The sharp stench of burning flesh mixed with the metallic reek of blood, spreading through the ruined depths of the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
"Cough… cough…"
A weak cough came from the charred rubble, thin enough that it sounded like it might be the last breath of a dying man.
Toji Fushiguro lay sprawled on his back at the bottom of the pit.
The body that had once stood at the peak of human flesh, a body even Special Grade Cursed Spirits could not easily tear apart, now looked horrific.
A deep wound stretched from his left shoulder all the way down to his right abdomen. It had nearly split him in two.
Worse than the cut itself was the state of the wound.
The edges were blackened.
Carbonized.
The lingering heat of the Crimson Blade clung to his flesh like poison, devouring every cell around the injury and sealing off the monstrous recovery ability Toji took pride in.
"What a…"
Toji struggled to open his remaining good eye.
He looked up at the damaged dome above, where fragments of stone were still falling, and pulled his mouth into a self-mocking smile.
"...complete defeat."
He tried to move a finger.
Nothing happened.
His nerves felt as if they had been severed by that last slash. His body, which had always obeyed him better than any weapon, no longer listened.
Plop.
A soft footstep sounded at the edge of the crater.
Yami walked down the collapsed slope, holding Shiranui in his hand.
The Special Grade Cursed Tool had already returned to its original jet-black color. The scarlet glow had faded, but the pressure surrounding the blade had not disappeared.
He stopped less than three meters away from Toji.
The tip of Shiranui hung low.
Yet it was aimed precisely at Toji's throat.
With one small movement of Yami's wrist, the Sorcerer Killer who had once made the underground black market tremble would vanish from the world completely.
The Inventory Curse still wrapped around Toji's body seemed to sense absolute suppression from something far above it in the food chain. It shrank into a trembling lump of flesh and did not dare make a sound.
"It's over, Toji Fushiguro."
Yami looked down at him.
His tone was calm, as if he were simply stating a fact.
Toji did not argue.
He did not beg.
He only stared back at Yami with one eye. The beastlike ferocity in his gaze had dimmed, but the arrogance carved into his bones had not disappeared.
"Yeah."
Toji pulled the corner of his mouth and revealed bloodstained teeth.
"It's over."
He coughed once, then gave a low laugh.
"The winner takes everything. The loser becomes the villain. That's the iron rule of the black market."
His eyelid lowered slightly.
"I lost. So do it."
His voice was rough, but there was no fear in it.
"Being killed by a monster like you is better than dying under the hands of those disgusting sorcerers."
Toji slowly closed his eye.
He waited for death.
For a soul like his, one that had long rotted in the mud, perhaps death truly was a kind of release.
But just as he thought the cold blade would pierce his throat, a violent fluctuation erupted from the deepest part of the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
Boom!
Behind the massive stone door leading to Master Tengen's main hall, a vast surge of Cursed Energy rolled outward.
It was grand.
Ancient.
And strangely unsettling.
The sensation was like an enormous creature sighing in its sleep, shaking the entire underground space beneath Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Immediately afterward, the barrier light inside the Tomb of the Star Corridor began flickering wildly.
Then it changed.
The once-stable glow took on an ominous dark purple hue.
"That is…"
In the distance, Suguru Geto struggled to prop himself up.
His face was deathly pale as he stared toward the main hall.
His pupils shrank.
"Master Tengen's assimilation failed?"
Yes.
It had failed.
Because of Toji Fushiguro's interference and Yami's intervention, Riko Amanai had not sacrificed herself before that door.
The best time for assimilation had been missed during the earth-shaking battle.
That eerie Cursed Energy fluctuation was the first sign that Master Tengen had begun evolving after failing to reset his body in time, gradually moving toward some indescribable higher existence closer to a Cursed Spirit.
This tiny deviation was like a pebble jammed into the gears of fate.
And more than ten years later, it would become a fatal opening in a conspiracy that had yet to reveal itself.
Riko stared blankly at the tightly shut stone door.
She felt the terrifying fluctuation coming from beyond it.
Then, as if the burden that had pressed down on her shoulders for fourteen years had finally been removed, she collapsed weakly to the ground.
"I…"
Her hands covered her face.
"I really don't have to die…"
Tears flowed through her fingers.
They were tears of joy.
Tears of rebirth.
Yami turned his head slightly and looked toward the anomaly in the depths of the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
A complicated look passed through his eyes.
But it only lasted for an instant.
He soon withdrew his gaze and returned his attention to Toji Fushiguro.
Toji expected the blade to fall.
But Yami did not swing.
Clang.
With a clear sound, Yami sheathed Shiranui right in front of him.
The blade stained with the Sorcerer Killer's blood disappeared into its scabbard.
Toji's eye opened sharply.
For the first time, astonishment and confusion appeared in his gaze.
"What are you doing?"
For a killer, sparing someone who had tried to kill you was idiotic.
Toji did not believe the man standing in front of him was some saint shackled by cheap mercy.
Yami did not answer.
He raised his hand toward the broken wall in the distance.
A burst of force pulled the shattered hilt of the Inverted Spear of Heaven from where it had embedded itself deep in stone, sending it flying into his palm.
Yami looked at the remains of the cursed tool.
Only a cracked hilt was left.
A thoughtful glint passed through his eyes.
Then he walked closer to Toji, slowly crouched down, and pointed at the Inventory Curse trying to disguise itself as a rock beside him.
"This bug."
Yami's tone was casual.
"The storage space inside it seems pretty large, right?"
He looked like a customer inspecting a decent item at a market.
"Lend it to me for a few days."
As soon as he finished speaking, he very naturally stuffed the broken hilt of the Inverted Spear of Heaven into the Inventory Curse's constantly opening and closing mouth.
"Huh?"
Toji froze.
He had imagined Yami torturing him.
Or forcing him to reveal the employer behind the assassination.
Or cutting off his limbs one by one to make sure he would never crawl back up.
But after beating him half to death, the first thing this man did was borrow his storage Cursed Spirit?
What was this?
Confiscating war spoils?
"Do whatever you want."
Toji sneered and turned his head away.
"I'm dying anyway. Roast that disgusting ball of flesh and eat it for all I care."
"Who said you were dying?"
Yami stood up and took out a neatly folded paper from inside his clothes.
It was a bearer check he had taken earlier from the Star Religious Group's stronghold. The amount written on it was enough to drive any assassin in the underground black market insane.
Snap.
Yami casually tossed the check onto Toji's bloodstained face.
Toji glanced at the line of zeroes.
His pupil tightened slightly.
"What does this mean?"
"I bought your life."
Yami looked down at him.
His voice allowed no argument.
"From today onward, stop that self-destructive nonsense of yours. Don't take those rotten jobs where you act like someone else's dog for a few scraps of money."
Toji's expression darkened.
Yami paused.
Then his eyes sharpened.
"As for your son."
Toji's dead gaze shifted.
"Megumi."
The moment that name appeared, Toji's eye trembled violently.
Yami continued, voice quiet but heavy.
"The Zenin Family won't touch a single hair on his head."
Every word struck Toji's chest like thunder.
"That child has the innate talent for the Ten Shadows Technique. I'll teach him myself."
Yami looked straight into Toji's eye.
"I'll turn him into someone even you, the Sorcerer Killer, can only look up to."
Silence fell.
The crater remained still for a long time.
Toji Fushiguro stared at Yami.
The expression on his scarred face shifted again and again.
Shock.
Suspicion.
Unwillingness.
And a sliver of hope even he refused to acknowledge.
This monster knew Megumi's name.
He knew Megumi's potential.
More importantly, he dared to say right in front of Toji that he would take Megumi away from the Zenin Family.
"You…"
Toji opened his mouth.
His throat was so dry that the word barely came out.
The proud Sorcerer Killer had not wavered even when facing death.
Yet when he heard his son's name, when he heard that someone was willing to drag the child he had treated as a burden but still could not fully abandon from the Zenin Family's filthy pit, his gaze finally shook beyond his control.
This deal…
Could he really refuse?
....
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