Chapter 92 — Defeat!
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Blood ran down Sukuna's face as his laughter split the ruined sky. His eyes were wide—wild with exhilaration.
"Come on! Keep going! Don't stop now!"
It had been far too long since he'd felt this alive.
No sorcerer in centuries—not one—had ever made him feel pain without teaming up or relying on trickery.
This… this was pure battle.
Cursed energy surged through him endlessly, roaring like an inferno beneath his skin.
When the air pressure around him finally thinned, he swiftly formed new hand seals.
His fingers drew back like a bowstring, condensing cursed energy into a flame-tipped arrow that shimmered gold-red in the dark.
"Fire!"
The arrow burst forth like a meteor, trailing a blazing tail across the battlefield.
The heat was so intense that even the space around it began to warp.
---
"ROAR!!"
Shinsuke's fist cracked the air again. Another compressed shockwave cannon exploded forward, obliterating the flame arrow and the space between them.
Riding the vacuum left behind, he rocketed toward Sukuna—
both arms blurring into afterimages as he unleashed a storm of air cannons in every direction, tearing through Sukuna's slashes.
The King of Curses' smirk faltered.
If Shinsuke closed the distance, this would be over.
---
"Dismantle!"
Sukuna's arms snapped open.
A grid-like web of slashes erupted from his hands—so dense and sharp that anything crossing through would be shredded to dust.
But Shinsuke only grinned, that feral, predatory grin spreading wider across his bloodstained face.
BOOM!
He stepped on air—then vanished.
An instant later, he was behind Sukuna.
Even if he had to take a few cuts, it didn't matter.
This fight would end now.
---
Sukuna blinked.
The space in front of him was suddenly empty.
His heart skipped.
He turned instinctively—
—and found himself staring into Shinsuke's eyes.
They burned crimson with raw, primal fury.
The man's body twisted mid-air, arm cocked back—
"BAM!!"
A fully-charged explosive elbow strike smashed straight into Sukuna's skull.
---
"Wha—!?"
The world imploded.
Sukuna felt the impact before he registered the pain—so immense it bent space itself.
The blow distorted reality.
BOOOOOOM!
His body shot away like a meteor, ripping through building after building, before crashing into the ground miles away.
The shockwave flattened everything between them.
A massive crater—human-shaped—smoked at the center of Shibuya.
---
Meanwhile, at the city's edge, Kusakabe and the others were watching from afar, nerves fraying.
"What the hell is going on up there!?"
One moment there was laughter, the next a tiger's roar—then silence.
Even Kusakabe, cowardly as he was, was tempted to peek.
"That pressure just now… that was Sukuna's domain expansion, right?"
"What about Zen'in-sensei?" someone asked.
"His domain's special," Nanami said calmly. "It shouldn't be able to trap him."
---
"EVERYONE, MOVE!"
Riko Amanai shouted from above, lowering her rifle and leaping from her perch.
"What—?"
BOOM!
Something blasted through the high-rises like a bullet—
and slammed into the ground right beside them.
"Holy shit!!"
Kusakabe barely had time to dive aside before Sukuna's mangled body struck earth, missing him by inches.
Dust erupted. The bridge trembled.
When it cleared, there was a man-shaped crater at their feet.
---
"G-Gulp…"
"Is that… Itadori?"
"No… it's Sukuna!"
The figure's skull was caved in slightly, blood pooling beneath him.
The sight sent shivers crawling up every spine present.
Everyone scrambled backward, putting dozens of meters between them and the fallen king.
---
Then—
CRACK… CRACK…
The sound of bone snapping back into place.
Sukuna's limbs pressed against the ground as he forced himself upright, head wound knitting slowly back together.
And then came the laugh again.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
"Damn… that almost killed me!"
He spat blood, grinning madly.
It hurt like hell—but he was alive.
Reverse Cursed Technique pulsed through his veins, mending the shattered bone and ruptured flesh.
Pain was irrelevant. He was still the King of Curses.
---
"I don't believe… you can still fight."
He chuckled darkly, voice low and trembling with both pain and excitement.
His opponent had to be spent. Bleeding that much, no human could last long.
---
"...Did Zen'in-sensei lose?"
Kusakabe's brow furrowed. His fingers drifted to his sword hilt.
If Sukuna was still standing, they were next.
"Impossible!"
Maki's voice cut through the air, trembling but resolute.
"My master… would never lose!"
---
"Either way," Yaga said, adjusting his glasses, "prepare yourselves. If we move together, we might still stand a chance."
He glanced toward Shoko Ieiri and her medics.
"Two of you stay behind. Protect the doctor, no matter what happens."
---
Sukuna straightened, blood dripping from his chin.
He glanced once toward the group of sorcerers nearby… then dismissed them entirely.
They weren't worth his attention.
His focus remained fixed on the horizon—
where somewhere, amidst the smoke and silence,
Zen'in Shinsuke was surely still standing.
Or dying.
And the King of Curses intended to find out which.
Whoosh—
A sharp sound tore through the air, like a fighter jet grazing their heads.
Every sorcerer instinctively looked up, nerves tightening.
Sukuna's eyes narrowed.
"…It's not over yet?"
Impossible.
That man had lost liters of blood. Without Reverse Cursed Technique, no human could stay standing this long.
Even with such monstrous strength, the body should have already collapsed—starved of blood, deprived of oxygen, strangled by its own limits.
And yet—
Something was still coming.
Cursed energy flared around Sukuna's legs. He retreated fast, instincts screaming at him to move—
---
BOOOOOOM!!
Before he could even take a full step back, a shadow plummeted from the sky like a meteor—
crashing directly onto the spot where Sukuna had just been standing.
The collision detonated with apocalyptic force.
The ground within a hundred-meter radius caved inward, swallowed by the impact.
A crater bloomed in an instant—
a miniature meteor strike, sending debris and molten stone flying outward in a blazing ring.
Buildings in every direction shattered under the shockwave,
their frames folding like paper in a storm.
Even hundreds of meters away, the onlookers were forced to raise their cursed energy barriers just to survive the burning air.
---
"Sensei!!"
Maki's voice broke through the roar.
She stared, wide-eyed, at the figure standing in the smoldering crater—
his clothes torn to ribbons, his body drenched in blood.
Zen'in Shinsuke.
---
"Fall back!" shouted Kusakabe, panic lacing his tone.
"This isn't a fight we can join!"
He didn't need telling twice—
the sheer aftershocks of their battle could kill them.
Even this far away, his knees trembled.
Yaga gave a terse nod.
"Move. Now. Don't distract Zen'in-sensei."
The team retreated, keeping as much distance as they could.
---
At the center of the battlefield, Sukuna had been blasted off his feet.
He tumbled across broken concrete, body screaming in pain.
He barely managed to catch his balance—
but before he could react further, a shadow flashed in front of him.
Shinsuke.
The man appeared without sound, faster than thought,
and clamped a bloodstained hand around Sukuna's ankle.
---
"You've lost."
The words came out low—almost gentle.
But the grin that split his blood-smeared face was nothing short of demonic.
With crimson skin, glowing veins, and that monstrous smile, he looked less like a man and more like something that had crawled out of hell itself.
Sukuna's pupils shrank.
Oh no.
A berserker that close—this was suicide.
---
The world spun violently.
Before Sukuna could even curse, Shinsuke heaved.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
He slammed the King of Curses into the ground again and again—each impact shaking the earth.
Every strike left another crater, another shockwave that split the air.
Right now, Sukuna—the feared King of Curses—was nothing but a ragdoll in Shinsuke's grasp.
All he could do was cross his arms over his head and hope to minimize the damage.
Crack… crack… crack…
Bone splintered. Flesh tore. The ground beneath them turned into molten rubble.
Sukuna's vision began to fade.
Even with all his cursed energy focused on defense, his body couldn't keep up.
---
"Damn you…"
His voice rasped through the dust.
"Zen'in… Shinsuke…"
Every word came with blood. His consciousness slipped.
"...I'll remember this."
He spat another mouthful of red, his fury burning even as his body gave way.
"The next time we meet…"
"...you'll face me at full power."
---
And with that vow, Sukuna's body fell still—
his laughter finally swallowed by the silence of a broken city.
The King of Curses had been defeated.
But standing amidst the crater, his skin cracking, blood pouring from every pore,
Zen'in Shinsuke barely seemed human anymore—
only a beast still standing by sheer defiance.