Mahito's left hand came forward before Yuji could make it halfway to him. The fingers opened with a flick and the shape he'd been concealing in his palm was revealed. A small transfigured soul that had been the trap card he hid up a sleeve for this exact moment.
"Body Repel"
The transfigured soul warped into a mass of flesh that began to expand outward, stretching across the entire corridor like a living curtain. Faces had also emerged from the undulating wall with their mouths open in silent agony. Yuji's didn't let the wall deter him however, since his fist was already cocked back and ready to smite down the wall. But Yuji had made the mistake of locking eyes with one of the faces among the mass.
It's eyes were wide with tears streaming down before its lips muttered a "help me" to Yuji. Yuji slammed the brakes on his own body, shoes skidding with his fist inches from impact. His knuckles trembled as his arm hovered uselessly and his eyelids were squeezed shut. Yuji's breath was suspended and so was his heart but Mahito allowed no reprieve, the fleshy wall sprouted clusters of spikes that shot forward, eager to impale the sorcerer.
SLAM!
The spikes collided brutally against Yuji's forearms, scraping skin and sparking pain but his defense held firm. With a shout Yuji snapped his arms open, shattering the spikes into a rain of fragments and sinew that showered around him. That wasn't all, Mahito's trap was layered and before Yuji could reset Mahito's warped grin flashed before his eyes.
"Body Repel!" In a horrifying instant the wall twisted inward and spiraled, transforming into a massive yawning mouth lined with rows of gnashing teeth.
The mouth lunged forward toward Yuji like a monstrous serpent tunneling through the corridor. The monstrous maw overtook him in a blink of an eye with a deafening roar while pushing him across the station. But from the depths of that hideous throat Mahito emerged with his fist cocked back. Yuji had only a split second to register the attack but Mahito's knuckles connected brutally against his face and snapping his head backwards. The world blurred as he was hurled through the air, tumbling violently.
CRACK!
The concrete fractured around a support pillar where Yuji caught himself at the last possible moment. As Yuji adjusted himself a line of pain carved itself between Yuji's brows as blood welled, flowing from a deep gash left by Mahito's punch. Just as his visioned focused the monstrous mouth serpent came barreling toward him at a terrifying speed once again.
BOOM!
Yuji launched himself off the pillar just as the mouth snapped through where he'd been but even as he landed back on the floor there was no time to catch his breath. Flesh and muscle exploded out the side of the serpent from none other than Mahito who was now twisted sideways. His hand had already morphed into a blade aimed straight for Yuji's head so Yuji ducked low to the ground and Mahito shot past him.
CLANG! SHATTER!
The blade that formed in Mahito's hand cracked then shattered into fragments that hit floor. Yuji rose but staggered slightly as he pressed a palm onto one of his knees for balance. Although when he pushed up from his position even more blood seeped from the gash on his face.
"How..." Yuji's voice trembled with anger.
"Just how can you do any of this? Toying with people's lives over and over again. Doesn't it mean anything to you?" Yuji's fist clenched.
Mahito meanwhile had stopped his momentum and was still hanging from the side of the fleshy serpent calmly. He tilted his head curiously with amusement flickering behind his cold sinister eyes.
"How? Well I don't know. Should I count them off for you?" He raised one hand lazily, fingers splaying wide
"One innocent life... two innocent lives... oh wait, I've lost count already!" He chuckled softly then shrugged but Yuji stayed silent.
"Fine fine you win. I'll give you a simple answer since you're such a simple guy" Yuji turned around only to see Mahito's hand suddenly reshape into a sickening hand puppet.
It formed into the hauntingly familiar face of Junpei which caused Yuji's eyes to widened as a pain stabbed him deep. Mahito who was still grinning viciously lifted his other finger to let it sharpen into a short blade. He then stabbed the small replica of Junpei's head, skewering the imitation with casual cruelty.
"You are me get it? So quit getting so angry. It's just a curse spouting nonsense right?" A silence stretched out before Mahito withdrew the blade slowly.
"However..." Mahito began to step down onto the tiles.
"Until you're willing to accept that fact. You'll never be able to beat me" Mahito turned just enough to glance over his shoulder.
"You just don't shut up do you? Always going on and on..." His voice trailed off.
"Don't waste your strength on rage. Nanami would never do something like that" Yuji closed his eyes briefly
"I am..." As the words left his lips, he felt and heard Nanami's voice echoing in perfect harmony within him
"You are..." Mahito's smile wavered just slightly, sensing something had shifted.
"A Jujutsu Sorcerer" Yuji's fists burned with blue cursed energy.
Across from him, Mahito placed a single palm flat against the flesh formed serpent next to him still grinning that maddening smile. The cursed mass shuddered then rose until It stretched vertically like a living wall with sinew and bone unfurling upward. A grotesque wet tearing sound followed as arms sprouted grotesquely from the other side of it with the palms slapping against the adjacent wall.
The cursed mass began to push itself towards them and slowly but surely the space between Yuji and Mahito was shrinking. The wide corridor they'd had a brief scuffle in just moments before was now closing into a coffin but neither of them ran and without speaking, both Yuji and Mahito began to walk forward. The ground beneath them trembled faintly with each step, their convictions and cursed energy acting like an invisible weight.
The corridor grew darker with every passing second until the remnants of normal light where taken and only two colors remain. Mahito's purple cursed energy and Yuji's blue cursed energy, two colors fighting for the right to exist. The flesh wall closed tighter and tighter which forced Yuji and Mahito to turn their bodies sideways.
At last when the gap between them narrowed to barely a breath Mahito moved first. With a lazy smirk he sent a jab toward Yuji with his fist coated in his purple cursed energy. The punch wasn't fast but it carried a sharp and repulsive wave of purple force meant to blast Yuji point blank but Yuji was already gone.Yuji had dropped low with his palms planted onto the floor and in a smooth motion.
His body twisted violently at the hips to deliver a brutal kick that smashed square into Mahito's face, snapping his head back with a sickening crack. Mahito reeled from the unexpected attack becoming dazed so Yuji didn't hesitate to rush him as he pushed off the ground with raw strength. He then tucked in both legs in before he slammed them into Mahito's gut with enough force to drive him backward.
SLAM!
Mahito stumbled but Yuji was already mid-spin in the air before he twisted his body sharply again, preparing for another kick but this time he slammed his leg into the flesh wall. The wall shuddered and rippled as it got pushed back slightly by the force of the impact, giving just enough breathing room to fight more freely.
Yuji landed steady, his knuckles clenched tighter with the blue blaze of cursed energy roaring back to life around him. Mahito stumbled back and wiped a line of blood from his mouth, he was dazed but grinning wider as he slammed one palm hard against the grotesque breathing wall beside him.
The flesh wall rippled violently as it reshaped to form three spinning bone saws from the cursed mass. Their sharp edges hissed as they rapidly rotated straight toward Yuji. Yuji's heart slammed into overdrive and with barely a breath of space between death and survival, he pressed his back flush against the cold concrete wall behind him, lifted his feet, and planted them hard against the fleshy opposite side.
The saws barreled toward him with each one slightly offset from one another so Yuji adjusted by flattening his body and angling himself to an almost impossible angle. The first saw shrieked past his chest, the second missed his head by inches, and the third blade almost nicked his legs before spinning off harmlessly.
Before Mahito could prepare another assault Yuji had already replanted himself before slamming his fists furiously into the cursed wall in rapid succession. Each punch rippled and deformed the cursed wall made it recoil more and more under his assault.
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM
Mahito recovered then immediately extended his arms in the air while wrapping them around each other to form spiked whips. He lashed these whips along the confined space and causing sparks to fly due to them scraping against the wall. Yuji pushed towards Mahito at the same time, bypassing the lethal extensions by becoming flush with the flesh wall that he pushed back just enough in order to squeeze through.
Mahito decided to match Yuji so he ditched the spiked whips and instead opted in for a spiked mace on his left arm. Multiple hands came out of the fleshy wall to help Mahito ascend before he slammed the grotesque mace into the ground where Yuji would have been if it wasn't for him jumping into the air just in time. Mahito looked up to see Yuji bringing down a stomp attack but it was interrupted by a hand that shot out of the flesh wall to catch it.
WHAM!!
Two more hands shot out in the form of fists which slammed right into the side of Yuji's face. At the same time Yuji managed to use his other leg to stomp Mahito's face with enough force to send it into the tile below. With Mahito momentarily taken out Yuji imbued his right hand with cursed energy and chopped off the hand that caught his foot earlier.
Once released Yuji tries using the falling momentum to try the same attack mid air stomp attack but he began to slow down. What he didn't notice right away was the fact that Mahito had his hand placed on the flesh wall which made the already tight space engulfed the both of them in seconds.
BOOM! BOOM!
Moments later Yuji and Mahito both made an exit from within the confines of their imprisonment. Walking out at the same time along with the same pace while they stared each other down while the blood and guts followed.
"Impressive but let's keep going Itadori. It's time for round two!"
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[Act 12: Dimorphous Display, Part 1]
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VWHAM!
Mahito had formed another spiked whip and lashed laterally across the platform in a sweeping motion. The weapon whistled through the air as it tore through the space between them. Yuji's hands hands had found the top of the Dogenzaka ticket gates and he vaulted over them in a single motion that carried his body above the whips arc.
The same couldn't be said for the what was beneath him, the grotesque weapon sheared through the metal of the front panel of the gates with a screech that sent sparks scattering. Yuji on the other hand or in this case foot, hit the ground running with Mahito already chasing him. His hands were working as he moved and Yuji could see the fingers on the right hand reshaping the left one into what resembled an arm cannon.
Mahito fired multiple shots, shattering the glass railing that separated them but Yuji had his head on a swivel making sure to dodge each one. Mahito soon ditched his assault and instead went for a different approach with the arm cannon. He focused on one high powered shot that was aimed in front of Yuji rather than directly at him.
BOOM! WOOSH! CRACK!
What it shot was a transfigured soul that had imbedded itself into a pillar that was connected to a low wall. Yuji halted for a moment due to the sudden impact of the fast moving object causing his heart to jump in his throat but he couldn't help but think.
"He missed?" Yuji couldn't think about it any further since the compressed body unfolded in a delayed activation.
The small shape expanded, the flesh splitting and reforming into a cluster of bone spikes that shot downward from it's perch. In turn Yuji reacted immediately by throwing himself to the right and narrowly dodging all 3 spike before swinging himself over the low wall.
Upon clearing it he dropped into a stairwell that led to the Hattorimon Line. Yuji managed to catch himself despite landing at an awkward angle on the stairs then immediately got back up due to an over sized hand breaking through the low wall he just jumped over.
Before it could slam down to crush him Yuji poured cursed energy into fist and punched it, obliterating part of it instantly. During this act Mahito had severed himself from it as to not allow Yuji's attack to harm his soul and at the same time whatever was left of the obliterated arm shifted again.
Four mall legs sprouted from the sides of the leftover arm while forming a new hand that acted like a head for it. Using it's newly grown legs the amalgamation ran toward its owner by using it's surroundings.
"That was close. One bad gamble and I'll be toast. I can't forget that Itadori isn't the same person he was when we first fought" Mahito thought as the free moving abomination latched onto his torso before sinking back into it.
"I'll just stick to transfigured humans for now instead of using my own body. But yet again... maybe I can do both" Mahito then managed to round a corner just as Yuji made it to the top of the staircase, only catching a brief glimpse of his enemy.
"Running instead of fighting. He did the same back then but this is different. He hasn't been damaged nearly enough so why?" Yuji slowed as he looked in the direction Mahito went.
"It might have something to do with me being able to harm him directly or He might've ran out of those things he's been using and is trying to get more" Yuji resumed his stride by bolting in Mahito's direction, eventually rounding the same corner Mahito did.
Soon after, two figures came into view from a connecting passage that led to yet another staircase that was also an exit. They looked as though they had no idea of anything that had been happening in Shibuya until now. Yuji slowed down again and caught the attention of both of the civilians.
"A student?"
"Hey, come this way! Its dangerous with all those monsters"
"What?! Where's Mahito?" Yuji thought as his eyes landed on the staircase beyond the two civilians.
"There..." Yuji muttered as he continued walking, about to pass the two stragglers.
"I'm sorry but no whe-" Yuji stopped himself because none of this made any sense.
Time narrowed as Yuji began to put the pieces together. Mahito wasn't the type to just run past non-sorcerers plus if he did run past them they would've said something about it. Not only that but considering the fact that he transfigured someone to look like Junpei earlier can only mean one thing.
"This is a trap!"
WHOOSH!
The transfigured non-sorcerer to his left suddenly convulsed and reshaped before a fist shot out of it's mouth. While the fist pierced through air Yuji disappears form its sight by performing knee release. It's an ancient martial arts technique that eliminates starting movement.
Yuji not only releases his knees, but his hips and shoulders too. So instead of falling down, this guides him to Mahito's feet. From this lower position he utilizes momentum to strike with a Taido Martial Arts...
"Manji Kick!" Yuji shouted internally.
The impact of the Manji Kick completely stunned it and Yuji was already in the process of performing his next move. Using the momentum of the kick he was able to swing himself around to get to his feet. He was going to continue his assault but was instead interrupted by the second one to his right, forcing him to move backwards to avoid it.
Following this action, the arm retracted and the so called transfigured human unraveled to reveal Mahito who was hiding inside of it like a costume. He steps out of it with a frown on his face as he then places a hand on the other untouched puppet in order to reshape it into into a horrific sword.
"So you figured it out. I suppose that imagination of yours is working properly" Mahito said as he pointed the sword at Yuji.
"That Junpei clone from earlier plus these two right now were just the beginning. Luckily I had Dagon save some for me in order for me to break the walls in Yuji's mind. And there's one last thing I have planned for later" Earlier in the night Mahito had cloned himself to find Yuji faster during his competition with Jogo.
The sword uttered a helpless plea which didn't fall on deaf ears because Yuji was deeply pained, knowing that it was still a person. He wanted to be mad at Mahito or even said something to him whether that be telling him to stop, that it wasn't or isn't right, but he knew that in the end it wouldn't even matter.
"Whatever you've seen tonight. Whatever you've done and whatever was done through you while you couldn't stop it..."
"It does not get to define you, got it?"
"I'm trying..." He whispered.
"Trying to what Yuji? Play the martyr? Pretend you're some shining knight?" He spread his arms.
"You're flesh and nerves, nothing more. Heroes are nothing but make believe!" The sword-shaped civilian then screamed one final time before Mahito closed the distance and swung it.
Yuji ducked beneath the arc with a flinch that cost him a half-second he couldn't spare. Mahito was already following through from the momentum of the swing carrying him into a spinning backhand that Yuji barely caught on his forearms. The impact of it drove him back three steps.
Yuji didn't allow himself to retreat further so he instead planted his feet and drove himself forward, ducking inside the follow-up swing before Mahito could reset his range. His elbow slammed into the curse's midsection then he wrapped both arms around his waist and performed a suplex.
SSLLAAAAAAAAM!!
Mahito hit the floor with enough to crack the tile which in turn knocked away the transfigured sword from his grasp and seemingly became stunned. Yuji quickly got to his feet, raised ahis right leg to stomp Mahito but he hit nothing as Mahito rolled away last second.
Mahito came up from the roll in a low crouch and the transfigured sword that had skittered from his grip melted back into his forearm before it finished sliding across the tile. The flesh reabsorbed it, the blade dissolving into the mass of his arm and leaving nothing behind but the stitched skin and the grin.
"Suplexes now? You're just full of surprises " Mahito said as he rolled his shoulder.
"I'm just getting started" Yuji responded sharply before he moved in on Mahito.
He came in behind a jab that Mahito slipped then a cross that the curse caught on a forearm hardened to the density of stone. Yuji decided to shift his footing and spin around the block and with a closed fist he backhanded Mahito's head. Mahito stumbled forward but he caught himself then turned his arms into tendrils that shot back at Yuji.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The sorcerer dodged left then right before grabbing onto them as they retracted. Yuji was lifted off his feet so he spun sideways to tangle up the arms and just before he reached Mahito he extended a lag to slam right into his head but Mahito had other ideas. He retracted his head like a turtle, making Yuji shoot right over him instead.
The tendrils then untangled themselves causing Yuji to spin uncontrollably until he hit the floor in a roll. Yuji controlled his rolled before stopping with a skid but by the time he got back up Mahito was already on him. His left arm reshaped into an oversized blunt weapon, forcing Yuji to kick off the floor to dodge it in time.
He jumped back into the fray with a spin kick imbued with cursed energy since Mahito couldn't get his arm up to block in time. However, Mahito thought quickly to turn his arm back to normal to quickly block the attack by reshaping it into a shield.
"Divergent Kick!" The divergent kick snapped the shield back into Mahito's face.
Yuji then grabbed the shield like appendage and ripped it sideways and out of the way and entered Mahito's space with a knee aimed at the gut but Mahito's midsection softened on contact. The knee sank into tissue that gave like wet clay, absorbing the force and robbing the strike of everything behind it.
Yuji felt his own momentum die in the curse's gut and for a half-second he was overextended with one leg up. Mahito took the opening to slam a fist of his own into Yuji's face causing him to spin before sweeping his legs. Yuji managed to catch himself on his hands before his face met the tile and kicked backward blindly.
CRUNCH!
Yuji rolled out of range until he came up facing the curse but he wasn't stopping. Yuji stepped back into the Thunderdome with a low kick but it was a feint that Mahito dropped his guard to check. But the kick never landed, instead It pulled up short and Yuji's weight shifted and the real strike was a spinning elbow that caught Mahito flush across the jaw.
"This isn't getting me anywhere! He's adapting to me which is far from normal. I need to think of something and fast" Mahito's eyes flicked toward the stairwell Yuji thought he went up earlier.
Being off balance and stumbling sideways with his guard scattered Yuji jab a fist straight to the gut that Mahito couldn't soften in time, folding him forward. He grabbed Mahito's head a second later to deliver a knee that met the descending face.
The knee snapped Mahito's head back but the curse turned the recoil into a weapon. His neck elongated as it whipped backward, gaining a foot of length, and then it whipped forward again into Yuji's face like a wrecking ball on a chain.
"I think it's time we changed the venue Itadori" Mahito created a tendril from one of his arms and knocked Yuji away before making a break for the stairs.
WHAM!
"He's seriously running away again?!" Yuji placed a well timed block but was still sent into a wall before having to catch himself on the floor.
Yuji scrambled to his feet then chased Mahito up the stairs, skipping the first two steps before bouncing off the side wall to skip the rest. He continued to sprint up the rest as fast as he could but upon reaching the top he couldn't have expected Mahito slam the same tendril into him but this time it was skewered with people.
Their combined weight plus the momentum that drove into his chest caused him to be launched with them. The tendril retracted, leading to two of the civilians to break off and hit the floor but Yuji still held on to one of them. Yuji held until the both of them came to a stop which lead Yuji to check on the man to see ig he was ok.
"I've got you! Are you o-" The man turned around and his head inflated, he had already been transfigured.
"Another delayed activation?!" Yuji was barley able to get into a crouched position when trying to get up.
BOOM!
The flesh split and bloomed outward in the same instant from the resulting implosion. Blood and matter sprayed Yuji directly in the face while also splashing into his eyes which was what Mahito had been hoping for.
"Shit!" Yuji was wide open but during this Mahito had ran around him.
"I'll admit it. I didn't expect the fight to go this long. You've gotten so much better that It's almost a shame.." The sound of tissue reshaping reached Yuji's ears.
Yuji turned toward the voice but his vision was a smear of red and grey and the vague suggestion of shapes that might have been walls or might have been nothing at all.
"That it has to end with you like this!" Mahito's arm had become a mace the he raised it and Yuji couldn't see it coming.
[Dogenzaka Koji - Nobara Kugisaki]
Nobara stood perfectly still while her eyes were darting around her surroundings, scanning everything within the narrow side street. Three nails nestled firmly between her fingers while her other hand gripped her hammer, ready to strike at the smallest movement.
Footsteps echoed faintly so her eyes narrowed with each approaching step. Then all at once the chaos erupted after Mahito leapt from the darkness with his right hand reshaped 3 times bigger. Nobara reacted instantly by whipping her wrist and firing all three nails at blinding speed.
Mahito twisted mid jump with one nail narrowly scraping his cheek while the others plunged harmlessly into the wall behind him. He swung his enlarged hand downward, slamming it violently into the ground where Nobara stood just a moment earlier. Nobara had backpedaled, dodging the devastating attack just into and landing into a crouch.
Thinking on her feet she reached into her back pouch and grabbed a fistful of nails and with a casual toss disguised as ger being slumsy she scattered them across the floor just as Mahito's arm exploded into a mass of flesh tendrils.
"Clumsy you~" Mahito thought she slipped up.
"Not so confident now are you!" Mahito laughed as his fleshy tentacles surged forward relentlessly.
Nobara immediately broke off into a sprint, making sure to weave between them as they tore chunks from the surrounding pavement. She cut it close a couple times but managed to escape into a side alley, using the kicked up dust to hide her escape. The moment the last tendril recoiled back to Mahito the alley erupted in a cloud of choking dust and debris.
Mahito stood perfectly still, tilting his head as he listened for any stir. It was in that precious silence that Nobara seized her chance to scale up to the roof of one of the side shops. Using her new found high ground Nobara braced her hammer along with a nail between her finger.
Mahito's form below remained still while he continued to wait for the dust to clear. Then before he even had time to react Nobara let the nail loose. It soared through the haze like a bullet, finding its mark square in the center of Mahito's forehead.
CRACK!
The nail embedded deep but Nobara allowed no reprieve, lobbing out two more nails that caused Mahito's hand to reflexively shoot up and form a shield. He staggered backward into the nails Nobara had threw onto the floor mere moments ago just as she hoped he would. So acting on this golden opportunity Nobara grabbed a single nail and aimed for the ground beside Mahito.
"What's she doing? Why jump down?" Mahito stared at what he though was a whiffed shot before looking back at her.
"Hairpin..." She muttered
SNAP!
Every nail she'd scattered moments earlier pivoted as one as the cursed energy within them made the metal stand upright like a bed of iron thorns. The blue energy sparked across the ground, lengthening the nails into spear‑points that lunged towards Mahito.
SHUNK SHUNK SHUNK!!!
"She didn't drop those nails like an idiot like I previously thought. It was actually part of her plan..." Each spike punched through every inch of Mahito's body at once.
She dropped the final meter in a controlled free fall and stomped onto his arms, pinning them to the pavement. Mahito's fingers strained desperately to reach her skin to use his technique but she shifted her weight, grinding down until the joints creaked in protest.
"Hands to yourself freak sack!" She hissed and with her hammer in her hand she produced a single nail from the other, kissed the tip, and drove it straight into the center of Mahito's forehead.
"I've been thinking about your technique and sure it's good. But I got a feeling that mine will wipe the grin off that ugly mug of yours" Nobara's grin spread to equal parts triumph and sadistic.
"Huh?" Mahito was confused.
"Resonance!!" A seismic chord of cursed energy thundered through the alley.
The nail in Mahito's skull became a tuning fork, vibrating with lethal harmony but It wasn't only the sound but the vibration in the very fabric of his soul. His body convulsed violently as somewhere nearby his real body was stopped dead in it's tracks.
Nobara backed off the clone a stood a few feet away with nails already at the ready. Mahito's clone continued to convulse even as it flipped itself onto it's palms. Blood pooled steadily beneath him all while his smile was flickering uncertainly between amusement and panic.
"No way. No way... Yuji Itadori isn't my only natural enemy?!" His thoughts raced erratically before he slowly raised his gaze.
"Well that odd. I could've sworn I felt my cursed energy detonate somewhere else just now" She took a step forward
"Now that's got me thinking. Why you weren't reaching out and trying to touch me earlier? Back when you first ran into Yuji and Nanami at that school they warned me about you, said you warp flesh with just a single touch. Yet you never tried it" She paused
"Which can only mean... You're just a double, aren't ya? A pathetic fake!" Nobara taunted, voice dripping with scornful amusement.
Mahito's clone wrapped its fingers around the nail in his skull and slowly, almost reverently drew it out. Bone grated as more blood oozed down his brow before dribbling into the corner of his mouth.
"I sure am~" He licked the blood with a languid swipe of the tongue and let a sickly giggle slip between cracked teeth.
"He shouldn't be able to fire off too many attacks now" she thought as she felt the lingering hum of Resonance.
"This where the real fight begins, round two!" Nobara immediately dropped into a stance.
Yeah.. let's finish this" Mahito's clone straightened and for a moment he got into his own posture but then he spun on his heel and bolted...
"...Eh?" Nobara was utterly flabbergasted as the curse sprinted down the alley.
"HEY!! Get back here you glorified meat sock! We just agreed that this was round two!" She shouted but Mahito's clone didn't slow, if anything he ran faster.
"I'm not letting you pull a Scooby-Doo exit on me! So stand still so I can exorcise you, you cowardly knock off!" She chased after him.
Nobara kept the fleeing clone in sight as he darted from the side street and into Shibuya's open streets. They both ran for a couple of minutes before Mahito spotted a low wall shielding a sunken staircase. So without any effort he scaled over it and hopped into the subway below.
"The subway? This is perfect. I'll exorcise it here and continue heading for floor B5" She soon reached the low wall herself and without slowing she jumped down after him, coat snapping behind her.
SHUNK SHUNK SHUNK!!!
Yuji finally managed to clear his vision just enough to see the impossible sight before him. Mahito was momentarily helpless, frozen in pain he had not caused. Yuji's eyes widened with realization and in that instant he felt a familiar echo of cursed energy he knew all too well
"Kugisaki?.." A determined smile slowly spread across his face, clenching his fists with renewed strength burning through his veins.
Yuji didn't hesitate, his body exploded forward almost on it's own which caused the very air around him shoot outward with the force of his movement.
For a brief moment his eyes burned red, glowing like embers stoked by vengeance, fury, and the flame of every soul that was lost on this night. His right fist connected with Mahito's chest in a thunderous impact that warped the cursed spirit's ribs and lifted him clean off his feet.
CRACK!
Mahito was lifted into the air by the force of the impact with his expression twisted with confusion and lingering agony from Nobara's Resonance. He barely had time to register before Yuji was already under him, shifting his stance before closed the gap before Mahito could even land.
WHAM! CRACK!
A vicious left hook to the jaw snapped his head sideways while a right hook followed into his jaw, making the jawbone pop audibly. Mahito hit the ground but Yuji was already there with four punches that hammered into each rib, solar plexus, and throat in a blur of carnage.
BAM BAM BAM BAM!!
"Why...why won't my body move?!" Mahito was in disbelief.
"It has to be her damn technique!" Stars exploded behind Mahito's eyes.
Mahito folded over the punches before another right hook rocked his head, picking him up off his feet yet again. Yuji did not and would not allow him to recoup so he grabbed Mahito, pivoted sharply, and threw him against a pillar before driving a roundhouse kick into Mahito's face.
Mahito launched backwards in a tumble until his spine smashed brutally into a different subway pillar, causing the entire length of it as well as the floor around it to crack. Yuji switched up his stance once more then became a flash of motion as he blitzed towards Mahito at break neck speed.
"Thank you, Kugisaki" Yuji became a flash of motion
KR-THOOM!
The collision cratered the pillar and cracked floor tiles in a ten-meter ring. Shockwaves rippled up the walls, fluorescent tubes overhead stuttered then flickered violently as glass rained onto the battered platform. He had plunged both fists into Mahito's gut so hard that blood seeped from his eyes and through gritted teeth as pain surged from him.
"I know I've let a lot of people down.. and i couldn't save anyone if i tried and wasted everyone's efforts" Yuji cocked his fist back cursed energy flaring once again.
"But despite all that.." his cursed energy ignited along his arm with a violent, crackling surge that lit up the entire battered station like a second sun.
BOOM!!!
He drove the punch forward, full body behind it, his entire existence condensed into a single, meteoric blow. The air warped around his knuckles, cursed energy collapsing into a sharp, blinding shockwave. The impact cratered the pillar even more, the pressure behind the blow was sent in multiple directions and cracked the floor even more.
"Thank you for showing me that I'm not alone!" A smile formed on Yuji's face, grateful that he still had someone he cared about fighting along with him.
At the same time Mahito's body crumpled against the mangled pillar but Yuji didn't give him even a moment to recover. A kick smashed into Mahito's face, snapping his head backwards so hard that pieces of shattered teeth flew from his mouth.
THWAM!
Another brutal kick snapped into Mahito's stomach and Yuji kept swinging. A straight punch to the temple, savage hammer fist to the top of Mahito's skull and then a merciless elbow into his throat. Each blow landed with the sickening thump of flesh meeting stone again and again, hammering Mahito deeper into the cratered pillar like a nail driven into wood.
"I'm going to end this! Here and now!" Yuji lifted his blood slicked fist again, prepared to hit Mahito with divergent fist but it didn't land.
Mahito's body came apart ahead of the incoming Divergent Fist. The pillar took the blow and what had been one battered curse folded into itself and then unfolded into six short and round disfigured versions of Mahito. Yuji then turned to see that they scattered across the platform in a loose ring.
"Damn! Which one's real?" For a split second, the world seemed to slow and then he felt it.
"Split the difference" One of them said or maybe it was two of them that said it at once. The voice came from more than one direction and Yuji couldn't where it originated from.
"Eventually analyzing became like a sixth sense in a way. I did it without even thinking about it a lot of the time and it ended up becoming one of my tools in and out of fights." Yuji remembered Izuku's words.
"When a cursed technique is used it leaves traces behind. That's what residuals are but residuals are much fainter than cursed spirits. So focus your vision and look closely" Nanami's teaching in the movie theater called out to him as well.
Everything slowed to a crawl as Yuji began to analyze all of them before focusing his vision. Once he did the color of the world dimmed and their footprints became visible from faintly glowing dark purple. The only issue now was finding out which out of the six clones were the real deal, Yuji didn't have much time so he'd have to make a choice quickly.
"I bet if I can focus hard enough then the original's residual trace should be brighter than the rest" After having this revelation he focused more intently and soon the results began showing.
But before those results could be shown, one of the six clones to his left just barely flared with a spike of cursed energy. It was subtle but quick enough for Yuji's instincts to snap into motion, making him think he had pulled off his idea. So without thinking or doubting it he bolted and closed the gap in a flash with his foot smashing into the clone's back and slamming it into the base of a wall.
SPLAT!
The clones body had barely any resistance it gave immediately, folding around the strike like stomping on a ketchup packet. Although before Yuji could confirm if he made the correct choice a laugh was heard to his right. Yuji whipped his head toward the sound and he saw the true Mahito reforming mid sprint with the other five remaining clones absorbing back into him on a disgusting fusion.
"Haha! good instincts, Yuji! But you're not the only one who's learning~!" Mahito taunted
"It was bait..." He gritted his teeth but he couldn't dwell on it. He punched the wall to air out his frustrations before chasing after Mahito for the third time.
The corridor ahead stretched on for what seemed like forever before curving out of sight toward the connecting passage to the platforms. Mahito was unnaturally fast and Yuji could barely keep up but as long as he still had sight of him he wouldn't stop running.
What become apparent to Yuji was the fact that him and Mahito were nearing a dead end that had a staircase to the right that went up to an exit floor but its what he saw next that was gave his brain pause. Jumping down from the staircase was another Mahito but that couldn't be right after all, the only clones he saw were the ones down here.
"Another clone? Was that one running around up top this whole time?" The clone landed clumsily at the foot of the stairs and immediately sprinted his way.
The real Mahito and the clone began converging on each other which made Yuji believe that they were going to merge in order to heal. It made sense in the half second he had to think about it considering Nobara's Resonance had torn through him and if the clone carried any real connection back to Mahito's core, reabsorbing it might undo the damage.
"I can't allo-" The thought was cut short soon.
Mahito and his double crossed paths in the center of the corridor and kept going, neither one slowing and neither one reaching for the other. They continued on their separate trajectories as if the other hadn't been there at all. Yuji didn't understand at first but then it became clear as day the second another person had jumped down the stairs.
Nobara had dropped down the last flight of concrete stairs, nearly dropping to one knee but she caught herself. She was breathing hard but her eyes were locked onto the direction the clone had fled. Yuji's eyes moved between the two curses that only to see that they were both grinning at each other and then it clicked.
"They aren't trying to merge..." He muttered as the pieces snapped together with the sick clarity of a puzzle he wished he hadn't solved.
"Yuji?" Nobara muttered as she had finally found her friend.
"He's still fighting" For a fleeting moment the world around her faded but then she saw Mahito running towards Yuji's direction then the one running towards her.
"Wait, if that's the one I was chasing just now. Then who's?..." Her brow creased just as her brain snapped back into motion.
"KUGISAKI MOVE!!" Yuji's shout was like a gunshot and her stomach dropped.
In front of her was the real Mahito who was charging full speed with an arm reaching out and this one was able to use it's technique. Nobara's heart skipped a beat, Mahito was nearly upon her and suddenly the world went dark.
There was this sort of room in the back of Nobara's mind that no one had ever been invited into. She had built it a while ago, perhaps back in the village, though she wouldn't have called it building at the time. It had felt more like survival you could say.
The room was small and plain and it held a handful of chairs arranged in a loose circle and the rule of the room was simple. Only the people who mattered got a seat and everyone else could stand outside the door and shout all they wanted. She'd needed the room because the village had none, because in that village there were no walls between people not really anyways.
Everyone knew everyone's business and treated that knowing as a right. When a girl had her period for the first time the whole village practically celebrated it out loud. They passed the news around like a dish at a festival and the girl herself was given no say in whether her own body became public.
Privacy was treated as selfishness with boundaries treated as rudeness. To keep something to yourself was to insult the people who felt entitled to it. Nobara had watched what the village did to people who didn't fold themselves into its shape. A girl named Saori had been one of those unlucky few it broke.
Saori was someone who came from the city, spoke differently, and carried herself like someone who believed she was allowed to be her own person as anyone should. The village thought differently however and decided she was a problem before she ever did anything wrong. It closed around her when it didn't recognize and it squeezed until she left and Nobara never forgot the shape of that cruelty.
So as a result this chair filled room was made. A place where she got to choose. A place where influence had to be earned and consent was the price of admission. The people outside the door could scream about harmony and belonging or about the way things were done but on the inside she would sit with only the ones she'd decided were worth listening to.
There was a strange irony that she'd carried the village's weapon out with her. Her technique reached into another person and forced a connection, a link that ran both ways and delivered pain alongside it. She'd never let herself think about that too hard though.
Now that she was in this room again there were more seats filled than there used to be. Gojo sat in one looking careless while grinning, his legs kicked out in front of him like he owned the room and every room adjacent to it. He'd never asked for the seat he'd just taken it and the worst part was that she'd let him because for all his nonsense he had looked at a girl from nowhere and seen a sorcerer worth teaching.
Megumi sat in another with his arms crossed and scowling at nothing, pretending he didn't want to be there. He always pretended that but she knew better. He'd shown up enough times that the pretending had stopped meaning anything. Then there was Yuji who had a seat now too and she couldn't quite pinpoint the moment he'd earned it. There had been no ceremony or decision she remembered making he'd just kept showing up.
He kept being that loud idiot who cared too much about everyone and would hurt openly if he lost them. So somewhere along the way the door had opened for him without her signing off on it. She should have been annoyed by that but she wasn't. That was the thing about the room she'd never expected.
Every person who'd ended up with a chair was in some way an outcast to a degree. A person the world had looked at and decided didn't fit. The strongest sorcerer alive who was too much for anyone to stand beside. A boy that seemed to push everyone away and remain distant. Another boy who was a death sentence dressed up as a student and finally there was her, the girl from the village who'd left because she refused to be owned by it.
But Saori on the other hand didn't have a seat and maybe that's because she never truly had one. Nobara had thought about that more than she'd ever admit and by any honest accounting Saori had shaped her in a weird way so perhaps that was exactly why.
Saori belonged to the person Nobara had been before the room existed. Saori was the reason for the room not a resident of it which made sense to her in a strange way. In the end. Nobara had found her spot in this room
"KUGISAKI!! MOVE!!" Yuji's voice started to reach her and before the room faded out of view as her eyes lingered on the three closest people she had.
"Y'know, maybe this whole Jujutsu Sorcerer thing wasn't so bad after all" She thought solemnly.
"Even if it ends like this... I'm glad I met them" A small smile formed at the corner of her lips.
The room was ripped from her view as a hand touched her face and Nobara's eyes widened but suddenly her world lurched sideways from her body flung clear of Mahito's reach. She hit the floor in a haze of shock and adrenaline, after that split second of disorientation her gaze snapped forward to see Izuku Midoriya. His body had taken her place and Mahito's hand was now pressed against Izuku's face instead.
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To be continued...
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Aoi Todo walked through Shibuya like a man taking a stroll through a park he'd been meaning to visit. Beneath his calm exterior was something pulling him to his destination. He couldn't have explained how he knew since there were no coordinates or cursed energy to follow across a district this size.
As a matter if fact it was much simpler and far dumber than that. Somewhere across this district was his brother who was fighting for his life and Todo could just feel it. Nothing would stop him from reaching him although if there were one thing and one thing only to stop his march it would be Takada-chan.
That's when his phone buzzed in his pocket so he immediately stopped. His hand shot to the device with a speed that would have impressed anyone watching and his entire demeanor transformed the instant he saw the screen. The grim set of his jaw dissolved before his eyes went wide and bright. A notification glowed up at him like a beacon from heaven itself.
TAKADA-CHAN - LIVE NOW!!
"A-A livestream? She's streaming In the middle of all this... she's out there bringing light to the world..." It could make a grown man cry. His thumb stabbed the notification then a loading circle spun and it spun...then it spun some more...
"Come on..." Todo whispered.
The loading circle stuttered for a second then finally a single frame of Takada-chan's smiling face flickered onto the screen for a quarter of a second before the connection collapsed entirely and the whole thing dissolved into a grey error message.
Connection lost. Please check your network and try again.
"...The communication blackout..." Todo stared at it with a darkened expression. The muscles in his massive arms tensed which made the phone creaked faintly in his grip.
He'd forgotten that Shibuya's networks had been crap since the incident began, veils and interference layered over the entire district. No signal was getting in or out of this place tonight and that included the single most important broadcast in human history.
"It's fine I'll just catch the replay. Takada-chan would want me to stay focused on the mission. She'd understand" He pocketed the phone slowly then drew a deep breath and exhaled with the patience of a monk who had trained his whole life for exactly this test of restraint.
He looked to the sky as if Takada would appear to grant him strength from across the stars but that's when he saw the mushroom cloud. The residual pressure rolled off the cloud in slow waves that reached him and pressed against his skin but something in his chest answered it.
"Now that's cursed energy! Whatever managed to leave a scar like that on this night has got my blood pumping! Now that sounds like a festival!" His pulse climbed with an accompanying grin that spread across his face.
"Alright listen up out there!! To all the newcomers and old friends you better prepare yourselves!" He plants a foot forward and makes himself an intro.
"The names Aoi Todo! Grade one superstar, lover of tall women with big behinds, and the undisputed powerhouse of Kyoto is on his way to smash this little party!!!" Todo reached down to pick up a few lingering pieces of pavement then imbued one of them with cursed energy.
"Yuji my brother. Do you feel it? Because the hype I'm feelin right now..." He grins turned unhinged as he throw the piece of pavement into the distance.
"It's God-tier"
CLAP!
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Authors Note:
A shorter chapter this time, also I'm sorry for the chapters taking so long to come out. I've been dealing with some severe fatigue over the past few months so that's kinda why they've been taking so long. I've been feeling better as of late at least so I'm going to try and push out the next chapter as quickly as possible!