Rumble—!!!
Invisible slashes were unleashed from Ryomen Sukuna's hand, carving massive gashes into the ground, walls, and surrounding buildings as they tore forward with terrifying momentum toward Black Seele.
Yet in the face of Sukuna's attack, Black Seele neither dodged nor evaded—rather, she couldn't even be bothered to.
All of the slashes vanished soundlessly the moment they entered the half-meter radius around her body, dissolving into nothing upon contact with the black-and-crimson cursed energy overflowing from her.
This wasn't quantumization.
It was simply the passive effect of cursed energy imbued with the power of decay.
Because the power of decay possessed the ability to decompose and erase, so long as Black Seele willed it, anything that touched this power—whether matter or energy—would be completely wiped out in an instant. Thus, against technique-based attacks like Sukuna's slashes, Black Seele needed nothing more than the cursed energy surrounding her body. The opponent's attacks would collapse on their own.
After all, in the world of jujutsu, no matter how a technique manifested, its underlying logic always depended on the circulation of cursed energy. Once the cursed energy sustaining a technique was erased, the technique itself became a paper tiger.
Defensive techniques would lose all meaning before the power of decay, while offensive techniques simply could not break through the cursed energy barrier enveloping Black Seele's body.
It could be said that in this world, the power of decay was even more unsolvable than Seele's quantumization.
After all, the authority of the Herrscher of Life and Death far surpassed quantumization in scale. Aside from being slightly inferior in mobility, the power of decay was far more shameless in both offense and defense—especially when the opponent was weaker than its user.
"Did my slashes… disappear?"
Watching his attacks vanish before Black Seele, Sukuna began speculating inwardly.
"Some kind of defensive technique? Something that nullifies attacks?"
The slashes had vanished the instant they touched her cursed energy. Was it because the power of a single strike wasn't enough? Did he need to overwhelm her with continuous force?
"Well, whatever. I'll figure it out after trying a few more times."
"Don't die too easily—try a little harder, yeah?"
A crazed, arrogant grin spread across Sukuna's face as his figure blurred, charging straight at Black Seele at extreme speed.
"At this distance, can you still block it?"
Carrying violent shockwaves, Sukuna closed the gap in an instant and raised his arm, preparing to unleash slashes at point-blank range.
But the moment his right hand swung—
Sukuna's expression changed.
If his earlier slashes had vanished upon touching her cursed energy, then this time, the slash hadn't even had a chance to be released.
Because the instant his arm brushed against that black-and-crimson cursed energy—
His entire right arm, along with the yet-unreleased slash, silently melted away.
There was no sound. No resistance.
Neither his technique nor his arm caused even the slightest ripple within that cursed energy, as if they'd been erased from existence—like a drawing wiped clean from a board.
It happened so fast that Sukuna didn't even feel it. His body remained frozen in the posture of having just swung his arm.
"Heh."
Passively taking hits clearly wasn't Black Seele's style.
Seeing Sukuna essentially throw himself at her, she immediately acted. With a thought, a black-and-crimson tentacle condensed from cursed energy lashed out violently.
Bang!
With no time to dodge, Sukuna was sent flying, smashed straight into the ground below and carving out a deep crater.
"D-Damn it!"
Gritting his teeth, Sukuna crawled back to his feet, pain twisting his face.
The good news: her attack hadn't carried that bizarre erasure effect. Aside from his right arm, the rest of his body hadn't disappeared.
The bad news: after taking just that single hit, Sukuna discovered that nearly half of his cursed energy had vanished in an instant.
He was Ryomen Sukuna.
Even with only the power of three fingers, the amount of cursed energy he could wield was nearly ten times that of an ordinary Special Grade cursed spirit.
Yet a single attack from her had erased nearly half of it.
If he took a few more hits like that, even he would be reduced to an empty shell—out of cursed energy, completely at her mercy.
That meant one thing:
He absolutely could not let her attacks hit him again.
And he absolutely could not get close to her.
Regenerating his missing right arm, Sukuna immediately retreated, widening the distance between them.
"Weren't you acting so high and mighty just a moment ago?"
Seeing Sukuna back off, the sneer on Black Seele's lips deepened.
"And now you don't even dare come near me?"
"If it weren't for the fact that killing you outright would also destroy the original owner of this body, you'd already be dead from that one strike just now."
"Be grateful, King of Curses. You picked up your life again."
"Hmph. A curse like you—tamed into obedience…" Sukuna scoffed.
"To be honest, I'm a little curious. And besides—don't tell me you think you've already won?"
This time, Sukuna didn't bother testing the waters.
He went all out.
Dozens—hundreds—of slashes erupted from all directions, surging endlessly toward Black Seele from every conceivable angle.
Yet without exception, every single slash vanished the instant it touched the cursed energy surrounding her body.
Whip! Whip! Whip!
Several black-and-crimson tentacles formed from cursed energy burst from the ground, lashing toward Sukuna and forcing him to abandon his assault and focus entirely on dodging.
Having already experienced how merely brushing against these tentacles for a moment could evaporate vast amounts of cursed energy, Sukuna didn't dare let them touch him at all. His body twisted and weaved desperately between the attacks, barely holding on.
Then—
In the next instant, Black Seele appeared directly in front of him.
A black-and-crimson claw manifested out of thin air and slammed him straight into the ground.
RUMBLE—!!!
The impact was so violent that the entire juvenile detention center seemed to shake. Sukuna felt as if his whole body were screaming in agony.
But it wasn't over.
As the claw dissipated, the tentacles Black Seele had formed resumed their relentless assault. Each time Sukuna was struck, he could feel his cursed energy plummet dramatically.
"Damn you!"
Realizing that he would truly lose if this continued, Sukuna threw caution to the wind. With what little cursed energy he had left, he forcefully formed a hand sign.
"Then let me show you… what a true curse is—"
"Domain Expansion — Malevolent Shrine!"
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