"Waaaah—waaaah—waaaah—!"
In the gap left by the clone's fall, the giant baby's crying grew increasingly sharp and piercing.
Like a beast driven to a dead end letting out its final howl.
"Why... I just wanted to be cared about... I just... just envied you all so much... envied your talents... envied your handsome looks... I just wanted someone who could love and care for me..."
"Why... what right do people like you have..."
The moment the Tyrannosaurus-shaped clone fell, it suddenly began to melt like liquid.
Its pitch-black scales, including the thick bones and torn muscles inside, caved in the moment they touched the ground, turning into pools of viscous, dark red flesh.
Yuji suddenly felt a strong gravitational pull, and a fierce hurricane whipped up around the clone.
Centered around the remains of this Tyrannosaurus, the clones previously pinned to the ground by Yuji's blood-colored crystals also began to melt simultaneously. Including the clone defeated by Choso's group earlier, pieces of flesh scattered throughout the school ruins began to wriggle toward the same direction, as if called by some invisible force.
Countless chunks of flesh converged, forming a whirlpool-like spectacle.
"Why were you born with a normal body, a normal family, and normal friends? Why do people like you have those willing to risk their lives for you? Why could that sea urchin head and that blond man throw themselves in front of you without hesitation? They were clearly heavily injured, yet they were still willing to risk their lives for you...?"
"And what could I do? Who could I trust? My mother would only tell me to strive for success, but she never wanted to listen to what I had to say."
"My sister clearly had everything, yet she still acted so sensible in front of me. My classmates would only burn me with cigarette butts, kick me, and make me run errands for them. My father would only smash teacups on my head and call me a piece of trash."
The whirlpool began to collapse toward the center. All the minced meat was ultimately compressed into a giant sphere. Its surface was covered in writhing, dark red patterns—like countless blood vessels throbbing beneath the skin.
"How was your week? Are you tired? Are you getting used to living at school?"
"It's alright, Dad," the tall boy opened the car door. He clearly looked happy, but his tone was somewhat impatient because of the other's nagging. "Seriously—I'm not a kid anymore. I don't need you checking up on me."
"Of course I have to check on you. You're the only son in our family. How are things with that girl from the class next door? I'm still waiting to hold my grandchild."
The tall boy blushed slightly. "We'll talk about it at home. Let's go."
That day, he followed behind the boy he envied, watching the scene of him getting along harmoniously with his father.
At that time, he only felt an uncontrollable, agonizing pain in his heart.
And the current Yuji gave him that exact same feeling.
"How could someone like you possibly understand my pain? What right do you have to stand here and judge me? Someone like you..."
"Why do you get to have everything I ever wanted!!!"
CRACK—!
The sphere split open.
When its outer shell peeled away, a humanoid creature appeared in Yuji's line of sight.
It had a robust build and was entirely covered in dark red armor. However, unlike Yuji, the surface of this armor was covered in dark red blood vessels. Yuji's blood armor was made of solidified blood, while its exterior was a product of flesh and blood. Not only that—its size was also a full notch larger than Yuji.
Dark red mist continuously seeped out from the gaps in the armor, as if the creature was breathing.
"..."
Yuji looked up, his amber pupils staring through the slits of his faceplate at this creature with an appearance similar to his own.
The young man watched his opponent calmly.
"You turned into this because you envied me?"
Yuji could clearly feel that the opponent's form was produced by imitating his Maximum technique.
However, this also meant that the opponent was at its wit's end.
In close combat, Yuji held an absolute advantage. To reverse this disadvantage, the flesh baby curse had to rely on its cursed technique to drag Yuji into a dream, and then inflict heavy damage on him while he struggled to break free.
But its cursed technique had a half-minute cooldown.
For Yuji, half a minute was enough.
In this half minute, he would tear this curse limb from limb.
Yuji's gaze passed through the clone curse, looking at the ruins behind it. A baby with limbs as thin as dry twigs caught his eye.
The main body had lost all its cursed energy. The flesh baby was no longer bloated. The tiny baby curled up on the ground was less than half a meter long.
The clone walked silently up to it, bent down, picked up the baby at its feet, opened its mouth, and swallowed it down its throat.
GULP.
To protect the main body—which had lost most of its cursed energy due to splitting—the clone chose to swallow it into its own body.
"You swallowed it? This must be your final form then."
Every split required the main body to pay a certain price—something Yuji had noticed earlier.
The flesh baby, which was originally as massive as a mountain, was now reduced to a frail torso. It must have reached its limit.
In other words, he only needed to defeat the guy in front of him.
And this mission would come to a successful end.
Outside the barrier.
"Ijichi, I'm leaving these two boys to you."
Kento Nanami carried the unconscious Megumi and Junpei and laid them down next to Kiyotaka Ijichi's parked car.
"Take them to the nearest hospital."
"Nanami-san, what about you..."
"I'm fine. The rest is a long story. Just save them first."
"Understood!"
Kiyotaka Ijichi pulled the two boys into his backseat and then drove away.
Kento Nanami watched Kiyotaka Ijichi leave, then immediately rushed back into the barrier without stopping.
Entering the barrier, Choso was standing at the school gate with his arms crossed, waiting for him. One after the other, they walked through the roads that had been rendered unrecognizable by the battle, the surroundings already littered with building wreckage.
"..."
Kento Nanami suddenly stopped in his tracks.
In the ruins at the corner of a school building, Kento Nanami saw an arm sticking out from under a pile of rubble. He stepped forward, crouched down, cleared away the crushed stones, and found an unconscious blond man lying in the ruins.
"Who is this...?"
He looked very young. His black haori was torn to shreds, and he was covered in dirt and blood.
Naoya Zenin.
"Why is this guy here?"
Kento Nanami frowned. Just as he was about to drag Naoya Zenin out from the rubble, Choso's flat voice came from behind him.
"I beat him up."
"...What?"
"Shortly after entering the school, I found him near the gymnasium. He was probably coming to cause trouble for Yuji, so I conveniently dealt with him," Choso said in a nonchalant tone.
"I didn't expect him to still be lying here. He was probably caught up in the battle, or maybe swept over by Yuji's sea of blood."
"To think he hasn't died yet. What a lucky guy."
SWISH—!
Yuji made the first move.
The armor-clad youth arrived in front of the clone in an instant. Yuji's right hand, constructed of solidified blood, transformed into a long sword.
The young man raised the sword and slashed at the clone's neck.
CLANG—!
When the blade was less than half a meter away from the clone's neck, it was firmly caught by the opponent's palm.
The blade cut into the armor on the palm, but got stuck after cutting less than an inch deep. The clone's five fingers gripped the blade tightly.
Yuji was taken aback, but the young man didn't hesitate. The moment his right hand was controlled, he had already raised his left fist—azure cursed energy condensing.
Pitch-black lightning flashed by, aiming straight for the clone's face.
"Black Flash!"
BANG—!
The clone raised its other hand, forcibly blocking the punch with the back of its hand. Yuji's fist sank slightly into the clone's flesh, but the damage it caused was still negligible.
His attacks were continuously blocked, but Yuji didn't pause for a moment. Using his grabbed right hand as leverage, the young man leaped into the air and kicked at the clone's neck—
BANG!
Black Flash!
Pitch-black lightning flashed by. The clone's neck was kicked to the side by the youth, but it still tanked Yuji's Black Flash head-on.
Not only that, but it took advantage of the moment Yuji was mid-air to grab the youth's ankle and flung him away like a ragdoll. Yuji's body flipped several times in the air. The clone didn't pursue—it merely raised its right palm, aiming at Yuji, who was still in the air.
Dark red cursed energy gathered in its palm.
BOOM—!
A blast of cursed energy shot straight at Yuji.
Yuji barely managed to adjust his posture in the air, then raised his crossed arms to defend. The blood-colored beam of cursed energy quickly slammed into his arms. The powerful impact pushed him backward continuously until he smashed through the wall of a school building behind him.
SWISH—!
While Yuji was struggling to deal with the cursed energy blast in front of him, the young man suddenly looked up, as if sensing something. At some unknown point, the clone had stealthily arrived right above his head.
Its fist—larger than the youth's head—gradually enlarged in Yuji's field of vision.
BANG!
With no time to dodge, the clone's fist landed solidly on Yuji's face, smashing the young man into the ground below.
BOOM—!
Yuji's body crashed heavily into the ruins below. The moment his body touched the ground, a crater over ten meters in diameter was smashed open.
Smoke and dust filled the air. Yuji lay flat on his back amidst the countless pieces of rubble, his amber eyes looking calmly up at the night sky through the slits in his faceplate.
I see...
Although he had anticipated this, this curse's close-combat capabilities had already caught up to his level.
Due to its special constitution, this guy's cursed energy could form overlapping buffer zones within its body for defense. Compared to ordinary sorcerers, it was more capable of utilizing the maximum amount of cursed energy to reinforce its physical body.
Hitting it with an ordinary fist felt like hitting hundreds of layers of thick quilts stacked together. The force would be exhausted before it could penetrate to its vitals.
Coupled with its cursed energy capacity comparable to Jogo's, this resulted in the effect just now.
Yuji stood up from the bottom of the crater, dusted himself off, and looked up at the robust clone not far away.
I did it... I really did it!
The curse felt its brand-new shell, a surge of satisfaction welling up in its heart.
Ecstasy.
In its twenty-plus years of life, it had never experienced such a feeling.
It was no longer that piece of trash cowering in the corner of the dormitory, burned by cigarette butts, punched, and kicked.
It was no longer that outsider at the school gate, watching other fathers and sons get along harmoniously while it could only clench its fists, turn, and leave.
It stood up—standing before the person who made it mad with jealousy, wearing the same armor as him, as powerful as him!
What person with a strong heart won't commit evil... what only those with flawed personalities act so pretentiously... It's all bullshit! I have talent too!
The curse roared in its heart. It raised its right palm, aiming straight at Yuji, who had just stood up from the bottom of the crater.
A crimson cursed energy blast gathered in its palm.
I can prove it! I am much stronger than this guy!
I can win!
BOOM—!
The dark red beam surged from its palm, blasting straight toward Yuji. Yuji had just stood up from the bottom of the crater and had no time to dodge. The young man had no choice but to raise his arms and cross them in front of him to block—
BOOM—!
The beam slammed into his arms, the impact pushing him continuously sliding backward.
Suppress him!
I can do it! I can do this!
I can...
The curse's thoughts came to an abrupt halt at this moment.
The instant this thought arose in its mind, a very faint crisp sound suddenly came from the ground beneath its feet.
CRACK—
The curse instinctively looked down. Right at that moment, several blood-colored crystals broke through the ruins beneath its feet—so fast that it couldn't react at all.
SQUELCH!
The tips of the countless crystals accurately pierced its entire face, and one of the blood crystals pierced straight through its eyeball.
"URGHHH—!"
The curse let out a hoarse howl of agony, its massive body stumbling backward. Its hands flailed uselessly in the air, trying to grab the crystal that had plunged half of its vision into darkness. However, the crystal disintegrated on its own after piercing its head, turning into fine blood-colored powder that dissipated into the air—leaving it with nothing to grasp.
Its consciousness became somewhat hazy. The curse regained its senses, intending to shift its focus back to Yuji—
The young man's voice rang out.
"I won't be defeated by the same move twice."
Yuji's voice came from in front of it. The curse jerked its head up, only to be met with Yuji's right fist—
BANG—!
Pitch-black lightning struck head-on, violently knocking its head to the side. The curse spat out blood, but it didn't fall because of it. The curse quickly righted its head, its right fist breaking the air and smashing fiercely toward Yuji.
"Don't get cocky!"
It roared as their two fists collided in mid-air.
BOOM—!
A tyrannical shockwave exploded outward, centered on the point where their fists met, causing the ruins beneath their feet to sink.
"Do you know why you can't beat me?"
The clone didn't answer—simply throwing another punch.
Yuji tilted his head to dodge. The wind from the punch brushed past his faceplate and shattered the ruins behind him.
The young man's counterattack followed closely, a heavy punch slamming into the clone's ribs—
BANG—!
"Ugh!"
The curse let out a muffled groan.
"I have reliable comrades: Choso, Nanami-san, Fushiguro, Junpei. They are all willing to risk their lives for me. But that's not because of how likable my appearance is or how outstanding my talent is."
"It's because I am also willing to risk my life for them—to give my all for them!"
BANG!
Their fists collided in the air once again!
BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
"And what about you? You have nothing. You are just a giant crying baby. This is obviously not because you lack talent, not because your mother didn't love you enough or your father looked down on you, but because you have never given anything for anyone."
BANG!
"You only know how to resent! Resent your mother for not caring enough about you, resent your sister for taking what belonged to you, resent your classmates for bullying you, resent your father for belittling you!"
Yuji seized the opening in its punches and threw another punch at its face!
BANG!
The curse's head tilted to the side, spitting out a mouthful of blood foam. It roared:
"The battle isn't decided yet! Don't jump to conclusions too early!"
As the clone spoke, a blinding dark red light suddenly lit up on its chest. Cursed energy gathered there into a continuously expanding sphere of light.
In the next second, a blast of cursed energy surged from the sphere of light, shooting straight toward Yuji.
BOOM—!
Yuji leaned forward and dodged diagonally. The beam brushed past his shoulder. While dodging the beam and circling to the curse's back, Yuji raised his sword and slashed at the curse's side, leaving a long, narrow scar on its body.
"Your splitting comes with a price. Your cursed energy can't withstand such massive consumption. You should be just about at your limit now!"
"It's not over yet!"
The curse spun around with a roar, its right fist wrapped in its final bit of cursed energy smashing toward Yuji.
SWISH—!
However, this punch was still dodged by Yuji lowering his head. Yuji slightly bent his knees and swung his right wrist blade upward—
SQUELCH!
The blade slid all the way from the clone's abdomen to its chest, cleanly severing all those still-beating dark red blood vessels. Black bodily fluid poured from the wound like a waterfall, splashing onto Yuji's armor.
The clone stumbled half a step backward, but it still didn't fall. The curse's right arm trembled as it raised it once more, throwing a punch at the enemy before it.
However, before its fist could hit the enemy, Yuji's figure flashed and disappeared from its line of sight.
Dodged...? So fast...
The clone hastily looked around. At the same time, it sensed a fluctuation of cursed energy coming from above. But right at the moment it looked up—
A sky full of blood-colored crystals had formed in the air, pouring down like a torrential rainstorm.
The crystals pierced its shoulders, arms, chest, and abdomen, pinning its massive body to the ground. And one of the crystals pierced straight through its lone remaining left eye.
"GYAAAAAAHHHHH—!"
The curse let out a heart-wrenching howl. Its legs could finally no longer support its weight, and it fell to its knees.
Yuji landed from the air. The pink-haired young man was also panting heavily. The faceplate had been mostly dispelled, revealing his sweat-soaked face underneath.
The Maximum technique could compress solid blood to its absolute limit, but maintaining such a form consumed an extreme amount of cursed energy. Its consumption was equivalent to continuously running the Reverse Cursed Technique at high speed while fighting.
The curse knelt on the ground, holding its blinded eyes with both hands. Black bodily fluid fell to the ground drop by drop like tears.
It raised its head.
"I won't accept this... Why do you have everything I ever wanted... Why does even Suguru Geto value you so much... Is it simply because your talent for jujutsu is stronger than mine... If it weren't for cursed energy and background... why are you favored by everyone..."
"And I am just a wretched soul swept along by fate... without your talent... without your looks..."
It raised its hand. The flesh and blood in its palm churned, ultimately forming a dark red warhammer in its hand.
"Enough. Stop telling me your disgusting rhetoric."
Yuji was already sick of it.
The clone stumbled to its feet, used the last ounce of strength in its body to raise the warhammer, and smashed it toward Yuji.
Yuji stepped aside. The warhammer brushed past his shoulder and smashed into the ground, creating a deep crater. He took advantage of the momentum to spin around, his wrist blade cutting into the curse's torso.
SQUELCH!
"GYAAAAAAHHHHH—!"
The curse let out a cry of pain. Because it had concentrated all its weight on its right hand just now, its attack was easily dodged by Yuji.
This clone's torso was the product of compressed flesh and blood. The reason it was able to withstand Yuji's stacked Black Flash attacks was that its cursed energy capacity was extremely massive.
If cursed techniques were likened to electrical appliances, then cursed energy was the generator.
High-frequency use of a generator would cause it to overheat.
And because this clone had just released a cursed energy blast from its chest, the cursed energy used to protect its physical body there would be depleted for a short period of time.
So now, its chest was its weak point.
Yuji had already realized this.
No... he dodged it...
However, I've timed it... The cursed technique cooldown only has one second left! As long as I wait for this second to pass, I can smash this guy into minced meat alive...
0.9 seconds left.
Yuji had already sliced open the curse's torso with a single strike. The young man turned around.
0.7 seconds left.
0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2... Not good. It's too late!
Yuji spread his five fingers, forming a claw.
"You are someone who has nothing but this pool of cursed energy—"
0.1 seconds left.
"Isn't that you yourself?!"
SQUELCH—!
Yuji struck out with a palm strike. His fingertips pierced the skin on the curse's chest, broke through its ribs, and plunged straight into its chest cavity.
The young man's fingers touched a slightly trembling creature. He grabbed this creature and forcefully pulled his hand back—
A baby, as thin as a rake, was pulled out by Yuji.
"Wahhh—! Wahhh—! Wahhh—!"
The baby didn't stop crying, but its cries had grown increasingly faint.
Yuji raised his hand, clenching his five fingers into a fist, intending to deal it the final blow.
However, right as Yuji's fist was about to land on the baby's face, the young man stopped his movement.
"..."
The baby had stopped crying. Its chest no longer rising and falling.
It had gained power because the Binding Vow had drained its lifespan and potential. Its body had become so bloated and deformed because of the Binding Vow.
In the end, the heavily injured curse could no longer withstand the consumption of the Binding Vow. Before Yuji could finish it off, it had already lost its life.
"..."
Yuji was silent for a moment, then released his hand, letting the baby fall to the ground.
THUD—
Truly unpleasant.
I will probably forget you very soon.
"..."
Was Kenjaku watching?
Yuji looked up and began scanning his surroundings, but the young man didn't catch any trace of Mechamaru's miniature cameras or Kenjaku's cursed spirits.
The battle was over.
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