Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

Two hours ago.

Tokyo High School of Curses.

It was only a short time since dawn, and the mist in the mountains had not yet completely dissipated.

Carrying a large water bottle borrowed from a school staff member, Xuan Yi followed their directions, bypassing the training ground and an open space behind the teaching building, and finally found the place that Gojo Satoru had mentioned, the one where "remember to water my flowers."

Then--

What he saw was a pool of water that was neither too big nor too small.

"Lotus flowers?"

A woman's voice, carrying a hint of intellect, came from beside me.

Xuan Yi scratched his head, smiled awkwardly, and looked down at the water bottle in his hand.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Yoshino... I can't let you meet with Junpei, and I still have to make you join in my antics..."

"Not at all." Yoshino Nagi smiled and waved her hand, revealing the gauze wrapped around her arm after being scratched by a cursed spirit the night before.

"Xuan Yi saved my life! And Yu Jin, Yu Jin is a really nice guy too! You two are classmates, right?"

Xuan nodded.

"Although I can't understand those strange things at all... I'm sure everyone wants to help Shunpei!" she said, giving a warm smile. "Thank you all."

Xuan Yi responded softly, but his heart was filled with indescribable complex emotions.

When he rescued the person last night, he didn't even notify Ijichi because he was afraid of alerting the enemy. Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't know if he did the right thing.

He knew that Shunping was standing at the most critical crossroads in his life—on one side was the hatred incited by the real man, and on the other side was the redemption brought by Tiger Stick.

If things had calmed down after that, Shunpei might have truly chosen to stay away from revenge and violence.

However, this is contingent on the real person deciding to give them up.

The cursed spirits of real people are born from human hatred and fear of each other. That pure evil can never disappear until it is completely exorcised.

Ultimately, he's like a childish and mischievous kid. Getting him to willingly give up his toy is impossible, unless he's already destroyed it himself.

"I'm going out for a bit." Xuan Yi put down the kettle.

"Mrs. Yoshino, why don't you rest at the vocational high school for a while? I'll have Junpei pick you up around noon..."

Let's go back to this moment.

In the shadows beneath the teaching building, Xuan Yi stood there, his right hand tightly gripping the black pendant.

His eyes were so cold they were almost frightening.

"How scary."

The real person, leaning against the edge of the rooftop, made an exaggerated expression, but the next second, that expression was replaced by a nauseating smile.

"So, you've come to see me?...Aren't you going to say anything? You don't even want to tell me your name?"

Xuan Yi had no intention of saying anything to a cursed spirit.

The curse power surged into the pendant, and the next second, a thick black mist surged out, condensing into a huge, pitch-black scythe in his hand.

"Can't we just have a proper chat for a while?" Zhenren seemed a little disappointed.

"Then let me ask you, what happened to Shunpei's mother, and what happened to Nanami, were all your doing, right?"

Xuan Yi's tone was icy.

Upon hearing this, Zhenren blinked, his expression even appearing somewhat innocent.

"Shunping's mother can't blame me, can she? After all, it wasn't me who ate her."

Xuan Yi remained silent.

"Nanami?" The real man drew out his words as if he were thinking, but the corners of his mouth slowly turned up. "Oh, you mean that three-seven split sorcerer?"

The man stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly revealed a sinister smile.

"I did it!"

The next second, the real person braced himself with both hands, flipped over the railing, and jumped off the rooftop, which was twenty or thirty meters high!

He spread his limbs, and his body began to expand violently. His bones, muscles, and skin were all twisted and stretched in an instant, turning into a huge ball of flesh that slammed down on Xuan Yi with astonishing weight!

Xuan Yi's pupils contracted, and he quickly retreated!

boom--!

The real person crashed to the ground.

A large section of the ground collapsed instantly, and shattered rocks and dust were violently thrown outwards.

Xuan Yi raised his hand to shield himself from the dust that was blowing in his face, and took another half step back.

Amidst the smoke and dust, the real person's spherical body swayed gently, then emitted a sound tinged with laughter.

"Huh? You dodged it!"

It seems that because of its large size, its descent speed has actually slowed down...

His tone suggested he was earnestly summarizing his experience.

"What about this move?"

The next moment, countless sharp protrusions suddenly bulged up on the surface of that huge spherical body.

In the blink of an eye, the real person transformed into a giant sea urchin. Countless sharp spikes suddenly sprang from the surface of that fleshy ball, and the next second, they rained down on Xuan Yi!

The True Man's Technique: Transformation Through Non-Action.

By touching the "soul" and manipulating its shape, one can freely modify the object's physical shape and structure.

When a true master applies the transformation of non-action to themselves, they can instantly transform any part of their body into a weapon or special form, achieving an extremely high degree of freedom in combat.

Xuan Yi lowered his body and quickly moved through the rain of spikes. Several spikes grazed his shoulder and cheek, causing a slight stinging sensation.

Before the real person's massive and cumbersome form could change, he suddenly circled behind him, gripped the scythe handle tightly with both hands, and unleashed a black, cursed blade.

laugh--!

Two huge slits were instantly torn open on the real person's enormous spherical body.

The next second, the real person's body deflated like a punctured balloon, making strange popping sounds, spinning in place, and then wobbling and floating into the air.

Real laughter echoed in the air.

"Unfortunately, your attack did not harm me at all!"

As long as my soul isn't directly injured, I can infinitely reshape my body using my magical power.

"You can't kill me without a direct attack on my soul!"

The next second, countless thin and sharp tentacles, like blades, suddenly lashed out from the crack!

Using their spinning momentum, they traced extremely dangerous trajectories, moving at speeds that sent chills down one's spine.

Xuan Yi retreated swiftly, dodging several slashes. But facing one of the tentacles that was already upon him, he could only raise his scythe to block it!

Clang—!

The sharp tentacles scraped against the sickle handle, bursting into a string of dazzling sparks.

However, the tentacle didn't resemble a knife; it was more like an excessively flexible whip. Even though it was blocked from the front, the tip of the whip still wound around to his back and lashed out at Xuan Yi!

Xuan Yi staggered from the blow, his uniform was torn in half, and blood splattered everywhere.

He gritted his teeth and stubbornly refused to collapse from the pain on the spot.

The real man had now returned to human form, but he had a pair of bird-like wings on his back, which were flapping incessantly, allowing him to float in mid-air.

The real man looked down at Xuan Yi, who was already bleeding on the ground, and a smug and satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"A remarkably excellent form of curse power."

However, they lack combat experience.

Like me, they are still growing.

However, it seems that I currently have the advantage in terms of surgical techniques.

Thinking of this, the real person laughed even more happily.

The next second, the two arms transformed into a giant cannon barrel, its dark muzzle aimed directly at Xuan Yi below.

The real person smiled and tilted their head slightly.

"How was that move?"

boom!

A huge cannonball suddenly shot out!

Xuan Yi took a deep breath.

"Tsukumogami Technique - Kamatari-dan!"

The jet-black scythe, imbued with magical power, swung, sending an invisible wind blade flying towards the cannonball, slicing it in two just before it hit Xuan Yi.

"Huh? So you also have ranged attack capabilities!"

The person in question seemed somewhat excited.

He began to move rapidly, his feet transforming into a horseshoe shape, and his speed increased dramatically in an instant. Taking advantage of his increased speed, he fired several more cannonballs at Xuan Yi.

Xuan Yi quickly rolled to the side to dodge. The shell grazed his body and exploded on the ground with a loud bang, sending rubble and dirt flying everywhere.

But as soon as he landed, his vision suddenly blurred.

The real person has disappeared.

No, it didn't disappear—

It had already appeared in front of him!

The face, marred by crisscrossing stitches, was inches away, a nauseating grin spreading across its lips. At the same time, one of its arms transformed into a massive blade in mid-air, slashing down fiercely at Xuan Yi!

Xuan Yi's entire body tensed instantly, and he almost instinctively raised his scythe to block.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Within seconds, their weapons clashed several times.

The black scythe and the deformed blade collided repeatedly, causing Xuan Yi's hands to go numb and his arms to tremble slightly.

The real person took half a step back.

Then, as if he had forced something up his throat, his Adam's apple moved strangely.

Xuan Yi's pupils contracted slightly, alarm bells rang in his mind, and he was about to back away when he suddenly realized that he couldn't move his feet.

He suddenly lowered his head.

Before he knew it, a distorted humanoid monster had crawled to his feet, its deformed, elongated arms tightly gripping his legs. Its face bore a bizarre expression that seemed to be both crying and laughing, and it made incoherent sounds.

"Want to... play with me...?"

Xuan Yi's heart sank suddenly.

It was that shell from just now—

No, that wasn't a simple cannonball at all; it was a cyborg compressed to the extreme before being launched!

hateful.

He clearly knew most of the real person's attack methods and knew how to deal with them.

However, when the actual fighting began, their lack of combat experience became too obvious.

The next second, the real man opened his mouth, and a large number of cyborgs were spat out of his throat. The twisted souls stood up unsteadily and quickly surrounded Xuan Yi in the center.

"Don't they look a little familiar?" The real person grinned. "These are all human beings, you know."

Xuan Yi remained silent.

Upon seeing this, the real person smiled as if somewhat helpless.

"My method of life is 'transformation through non-action'."

I can see souls, and I can also touch them.

Once I have the soul in my grasp, the body can disregard its original mass, volume, and physiological structure, thus forcibly twisting it into all sorts of incredible shapes.

However, once modified, the body can never return to its original state, and will ultimately die in a distorted form.

Xuan Yi remained silent, slowly raising the scythe in his hand.

"Don't believe me?" The real person revealed a cruel smile. "Human hearts don't exist!"

"The soul exists prior to the body!"

Your human joys, sorrows, pains, happiness, anger...

Ultimately, it's just something produced by the metabolism of the soul.

The man smiled and continued his incessant explanation.

"Therefore, what you consider to be a valuable life is nothing but an illusion, a counterfeit!"

Your human lives have absolutely no value.

The next second, Xuan Yi suddenly raised his head, and the scythe in his hand swept out with a black arc of light!

Sizzle—!

The cyborgs at the very front didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly cleaved in two.

Xuan Yi didn't even pause for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, he wiped out the several behind him.

For the first time, the smile on his face froze for a moment.

He originally thought that after hearing these words, Xuan Yi would at least hesitate, waver, and show even the slightest wavering when facing these monsters who "were once human".

After all, the other person looked to be just a sixteen or seventeen-year-old high school student!

Xuan Yi brushed the blood and filth off his sickle. His voice was slightly hoarse from his injuries and panting, but he remained unwavering.

"What are you saying? I don't understand at all."

He raised his eyes, looked at the real person, and spoke each word clearly.

"Whether it's sadness, anger, pain, or hope... those things that keep people alive and make them struggle desperately are real. What can you cursed spirits possibly understand about these?"

Oh, I see!

Ultimately, claims like "human hearts don't exist; they're just the metabolic byproducts of some kind of soul" are merely explanations forcibly imposed on you when you were born. Without these far-fetched arguments, you wouldn't have been able to survive!

Xuan Yi's tone suddenly carried a hint of sarcasm.

"Such a fragile existence dares to deny our hearts? You're the ones who are the fakes!"

The air was silent for half a second.

The smile on Zhenren's face gradually faded away.

"I'll kill you!"

Those heterochromatic eyes revealed madness as they stared intently at the boy before them.

This boy.

His soul is completely different from his appearance.

Although it doesn't seem tough, and could even be described as somewhat immature, the outline of its soul is exceptionally clear, as if it will not easily collapse no matter how much it is squeezed.

...That's really interesting.

He spat out three lumps of meat the size of olives from his mouth.

The thing was wriggling, and you could even vaguely see the outline of a human face compressed to the extreme on its surface, like three deformed lives forcibly kneaded together.

His lips curled up again, but the pure playfulness in his eyes was gone.

"A mere counterfeit—"

"You really dare to say that!"

With a gentle toss, the three compressed cyborgs were launched into the air.

"Multiple Souls!"