30 seconds till punishment
The moment I saw Kuroda vanish I immediately sensed where he was going to travel, but instead of trying to block him, or counter attack. I used my Chiral Manipulation, and used the rotation ability I copied from him to rotate him away from me.
With his new output, I can't make any contact. His attacks are strong enough to actually break bones, and cause significant damage.
I sensed Kuroda teleport again and that's when I realized it, earlier Kuroda made a binding vow to activate his cursed technique quicker than normal. If I want to keep him away from me then I would have to make a binding vow of my own.
'I'll temporarily make a vow, to make the time between my technique activation shorter in exchange for taking more cursed energy. The cursed energy taken doesn't really matter to me, I have more than enough cursed energy to spare.'
Still even with that, my techniques activation isn't as fast as his. Plus this arm of mine, after it got destroyed, my output dropped. I can't tank his attacks again, and eventually he will get me when my technique isn't available.
Kuroda teleported again right in front of me, this time my technique was on cooldown, and Kuroda didn't hesitate to ram into my ribs, my body ragdolled and bounced off the floor as I was thrown into the center of his domain again.
Unknown to me, a small crack appeared on what should have been a pristine domain barrier.
It's not just his speed, I still have to defend against the sure-hit effect of his domain, but when I activate Chiral Blossom Emotions I can't move.
Meaning that Kuroda essentially gets a free hit, where I can't defend at all.
'Am I going to … lose'
'I never thought my first fight to the death would be this hard'
2 seconds till punishment
Do I try to activate Chiral Blossom Emotion?
If I do it then he will attack me, and I won't be able to rotate him away.
If I don't I'll lose 5% of my cursed energy. Losing 5% isn't much in the grand scheme but if I keep letting the punishments happen I might not be able to keep up. I have already gone through 15% of my cursed energy during this fight.
'I'll do it … I'll …'
Activate Chiral Blossom Emotion
The moment I made that decision I got into stance and shrouded myself in cursed energy. I felt the punishment activate and be neutralized. Before I could get ready to block Kuroda, I felt him slam into my ribs, a few of them cracked as I began spitting blood. I got launched to another edge of the domain, but this time instead of getting up I laid there, and coughed out some more blood.
"Hah … hah." Breathing is getting hard, and my vision is getting blurry.
"Hahaha look at you, spitting blood, laying flat on the ground this is the feeling I was itching for, once I kill you, it's the rest of the Kamo clan. Then that 'homeless' man Toji"
I'm going to die, but oddly enough I am not scared.
I'm angry that I won't be able to explore jujutsu more.
I'm angry that I am getting completely destroyed by this failure.
I'm angry that this new life of mine is going to be wasted, all because of some pathetic bastard.
"Crack" Interrupting my thoughts a loud crack sounded, at first I was a little concerned that Kuroda was getting rid of another rule for more output.
That's when I realized it though, the domain itself was starting to crack.
'I-it must be because Kuroda altered a domain that was already opened. He changed the effect imbued into his domain while his barrier was still open. That caused the barrier to be unable to properly contain his technique.'
Before Kuroda could attack me again, I took an opportunity to swing with all the strength I could muster at the already half-shattered barrier.
The moment my fist made impact with the domain's barrier, it shattered, and if his domain shattered then …
'Kuroda must have entered burnout! He can't use his technique; now is my only chance, I have to kill him now. '
Scrounging up all the power I could, I got up and forced myself to run at Kuroda. Kuroda at this point, seemed somewhat stunned that his domain had been destroyed.
My first punch landed, and I caused a crack to appear on one of the 9 faces of his rubik's cube body.
'My strength definitely did weaken, the fact that my punch merely cracked his body is proof, but if I want to survive I have to scrounge up more power' My thoughts were getting more and more in sync with the movements of my body, as veins started to appear all over.
Kuroda, incapable of using his cursed technique, tried to rotate his entire body as a substitute for a punch. I jumped to reach the top of his body, and slammed my fist as hard as I could on the small head-like structure of his body.
Immediately, another crack formed on his head, and since he couldn't teleport around, his mobility was severely limited.
I landed a barrage of punches with all that I had, each one causing a crack on his body. Every punch forced my ribs further out of place, cartilage tearing, bones rearranging themselves in ways they shouldn't.
For now, though, I have to ignore that though, and kill him.
'If only I had some finishing ability.'
'Speaking of abilities, though, I should try this one.' I immediately tried using the teleporting ability that Kuroda was using.
I couldn't use the technique safely before for a few reasons.
Kuroda's teleportation worked based on him turning certain nodes on/off and filling the 'on' node with his mass. I worried that if I were to try and copy that teleportation, we might both be sent into the same node, and I might be crushed.
But now that his technique is in burn out, I'll be the one teleporting around using the grid and nodes he set up.
I proceeded to teleport behind Kuroda and slam my fist into him. With the my maximum speed accumulated by this teleportation, I managed to actually break off 6 of the 9 rubik's squares, on his front side.
One more teleportation to the front and I actually broke a third of his cube apart, I could see the way his rubik's mechanic was struggling to twist.
'I can win!'
Suddenly, the middle column of his body rotated upward, and my perspective was the sky.
'He recovered from his burnout? He'll open his domain, and I'll die.'
'Wait … he can't open his domain, I shattered the right column of his rubik's body which means he can't make the configuration needed for his domain, until he heals.'
Ignoring the growing pain in my ribs, and my increasingly blurry vision, I charged towards Kuroda. This desperate battle between us, it ends here and now.
"Hey kid, you must be thinking I am going to run to heal, then open my domain again, right?" For the first time since his domain shattered, Kuroda spoke; his voice wasn't warped; it felt oddly calm despite our situation.
"Thank you for everything. I wouldn't have been able to learn so much about myself if it weren't for you. As a thank you, I'll show you my newest creation."
That's when I felt it, usually when Kuroda teleports, he keeps everything node inactive except for the one that he currently occupies.
'However just now … he made 20 nodes active, and based on the way that his cursed technique works …'
I immediately came to the realization, and quickly exited the node that I was in, the small 2x2x2 volume, and watched as everything in that node was pulled toward the center with immense force.
The way the ground, the air, everything was pulled into the center and compressed into a small ball.
It wasn't just this node, there were 19 other nodes where the same phenomena occurred, everything being crushed into a small ball at the center.
'If I got caught in that I would have been crushed into a little ball, but for a maximum technique…'
'Was… that it?'
"You're wondering if that was it huh? You know I expected someone as smart as you to have caught on to it. Maybe those injuries aren't letting you think clearly" Kuroda remarked, he didn't seem as bitter and distasteful as before. Was it a result of the black flash?
"When something of extremely high pressure meets a container of lower pressure, it travels towards the lower pressure container"
"Now then …what do you think will happen when I release my technique compressing everything"
My face got a little pale as I felt Kuroda turn all those nodes from active to inactive.
I could hear it, sound cracking, and all the debris that was compressed being sent out like shrapnel.
This attack, maybe if I weren't already half dead, I could survive, but in my current state.
My ribs completely broke, poking into places it shouldn't
My left arm bent in ways that should be normal
I'll die
'If I want to survive I have to try 'it' huh'
Tomogui POV:
The forest was trembling long before we reached the center.
I had joined the exorcism unit for this cursed spirit that suddenly birthed itself in the clan forest.
At least the clan thinks that, they don't seem to understand that this cursed spirit is actually a vengeful cursed spirit.
Birds had already fled.
The ground pulsed in uneven intervals.
Cursed energy saturated the air so thickly that even breathing felt heavy.
One of the younger Kamo sorcerers gagged.
"What the hell are those vulgar cursed energies, what is happening there?"
Another muttered under his breath.
"This isn't a cursed spirit… this is a monster."
"It has without a question reached special grade, we must exorcise it" A clan elder repeated while we continued rushing forward.
I said nothing.
Futago, and Kuroda who came back as a vengeful cursed spirit.
Their output didn't surprise me much.
It couldn't.
I could also output that much, the memories I am getting let me know how serious this was.
If anything I was more concerned by how violently Futago's cursed energy was fluctuating.
Ahead of them, the cursed energy emanating from the cursed spirit spiked. It was reaching its maximum state.
The air is distorted.
Tomogui slowed slightly.
'Kuroda's maximum technique'
The Kamo clan sorcerers around me didn't understand what was happening.
They only felt it.
An oppressive pressure pressed outward, from where those two monstrous cursed energies were clashing.
One of the elders stopped.
"Everyone reinforce your bodies— NOW!"
It detonated.
A circular shockwave tore through the forest.
Trees were uprooted, and shattered as the shockwave propagated. It wasn't just a shockwave, first and rocks were sent out like shrapnel, from where that shockwave originated.
Soil blasted skyward.
The Kamo sorcerers were thrown off their feet as their reinforcement failed to fully protect them.
Several coughed blood.
Several were pierced by stray shrapnel.
Some were implanted into the ground, from the immense power.
Silence followed.
Ringing.
Dust filled the horizon.
While the rest of the Kamo clan sorcerers were quiet an elder roared out.
"O-only the cursed spirit's energy is remaining; he must be in a weakened state now. Whoever he was fighting is dead, but we must finish off this spirit now!"
I kept staring forward.
No.
Your cursed energy is indeed gone, but the memories I'm getting haven't faded, they haven't stopped coming to me.
"You didn't die right?"
For a split second everything went still.
Before a second explosion occurred even stronger than the first.
Kuroda POV:
He is finally dead, I finally got rid of him huh.
'This feeling, it's better then anything I felt in my human life, the feeling of surpassing myself.'
One of my 3 obsessions after becoming a vengeful spirit has finally been completed.
Now it's time to complete the second task, I will slaughter the Kamo clan sorcerers, I can feel that a large number of them have entered the forest.
So that's why the brat wasn't worried at first, he probably was going to stall until they got here. Thankfully, I changed my domain to hurt him. Even if it did make the barrier holding it up unstable, I managed to kill the kid before reinforcements came.
I'm too injured to fight the rest of the Kamo clan right now. I still got caught up in the radius of my maximum technique. Even though sorcerers and curses have some innate resistance to their own cursed energy, that attack, combined with everything else the kid did to me left me half dead.
I'll have to heal a bit, then I can use my maximum technique again and kill them all, or maybe I should try my domain again.
No against the man with no cursed energy, my domain is useless, I should practice with my maximum technique some mo–
While Kuroda was in the middle of theorizing future paths to grow. He didn't realize the nodes of his that were all off after his maximum suddenly turned on.
The way everything was pulled in with extreme force in all of the nodes, it was terrifying witnessing the effects especially when.
I didn't do it …
'Why is my maximum happening again, did I make a mistake when using it or –'
That's when I felt it, I didn't see him but there is no way I would forget the cursed energy of the one who pushed me this far.
'You bastard'
Before he could even finish that thought each of the 20 nodes finished their compression once more, and became inactive again.
Everything that was compressed into that center began to escape and…
BOOOOOOOM!
Narrator POV:
The ultimate technique of Kuroda God's Number: Lagrangian Collapse (20) is based on the maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik's cube. It is a technique with two stages to its devastating power.
The first stage turns the last 20 nodes used to active, all at once.
However, since it was defined that only one active node can contain Kuroda, the other nodes all pull things in with tremendous amounts of pressure, to fill the area with lacking mass.
Once fully pulled into the center of the node, they are compressed into a small sphere with 100 Gigapascals worth of pressure.
This is the first stage of God's Number
The second stage is far more ferocious.
Once everything within the node has been compressed to the maximum pressure, the technique stops and turns all the nodes back to inactive.
By the basics of pressure gradience (High Pressure->Low Pressure) all that which was compressed into the center of the node immediately tries to escape, outside to normalize the pressure.
The sudden change from pressure causes a shockwave to be sent out from each of the 20 nodes. When released simultaneously, the resulting shockwaves were sufficient to erase an entire city-block from existence.
It was truly a divine feat for a newly formed curse.
A Maximum technique conceived under the enlightenment of a black flash.