Jujutsu Kaisen: Nozomi no Sora

On the battlefield far away in Sendai, the appearance of Yuta Otsuku turned the magnificent palace into ruins in an instant.

Amidst the ruins, Wan, clad only in a thin veil, stood barefoot on a broken stone pillar. She looked at the gloomy young man standing before her, sword drawn, her face revealing undisguised anger.

"You wreak havoc on someone's home the moment you meet them! Who are you?"

"Yi Gu You Tai".

"Who?" Wan squinted. "I'm asking, who sent you?"

Yi Guyou held his sword horizontally in front of him, his voice calm.

"A friend of mine said that his relatives are with you."

Wan showed a look of sudden realization, then smiled contemptuously.

"Oh, those brats, right?" She tilted her head as if she'd heard a boring joke. "Where's Su Nuo? Didn't he say he was coming to find me? Why is it someone like you?"

She paused, then smiled with relief.

"Fine, after I kill you, I'll go ask him myself!"

Before she finished speaking, countless metal fragments emerged from her palm, like iron filings attracted by a magnet, quickly coalescing into a liquid wheel flowing with cold light.

Several sharp blades shot out from it, tearing through the air and emitting a sharp whistling sound!

Etoko Yuta swiftly swung his longsword, sparks flying as the blades clashed. Several streams of metal attacked from his side, but he dodged them, gathering high-density curse power into his blade during the gaps between the metal strikes.

With a loud bang, it swung out!

Wan retreated swiftly, the liquid metal expanding into a shield in front of her, blocking the attack before quickly disintegrating and coalescing beneath her feet. She stood on the solidified metal disc, gliding effortlessly up the broken wall as if walking on flat ground.

"Urika."

"Okay~"

A slightly languid girl's voice came from the sky.

Wan suddenly looked up.

A gigantic, illusory fist appeared above her head without her noticing, blotting out the sky and crashing down with terrifying magical power!

Her pupils contracted sharply as the fleeting, enormous phantom of the cursed spirit brought back a long-forgotten sense of the threat of death.

"What was that just now...? Was that this kid's shikigami?!"

In a mere moment of distraction, Yuuta Otsuko was charging towards them from afar. His long sword flew from his hand, whistling through the air as it transformed into a streak of light—

puff!

The long sword pierced Wan's shoulder, pinning her to the broken pillar behind her!

"I hope you'll cooperate." Yuta Otsuko approached step by step, his tone even bordering on gentle. "Hand over Fushiguro Miki, and I'll let you go."

"……asshole!"

Wan Gang was about to reach for his sword when he heard a soft whisper behind him.

"What are you doing?"

The enormous cursed spirit fully manifested, its two pale, massive arms reaching out from the shadows and pressing tightly against her shoulders. The force was so great that it seemed to crush her bones.

Yuta Otsuko's lips curled up slightly, revealing a gentle smile.

"Just playing around, Rika."

It's that vengeful spirit again!

Wan was horrified. She clearly felt the unimaginable, immense magical power behind her, as well as two pale arms that reached out from the void and gripped her shoulders tightly. The force was so great that it seemed to crush her bones and soul together.

The immense force prevented her from struggling, and even her fingertips trembled slightly.

Damn it.

—Damn it, damn it, damn it!

A sense of shame burned up in my chest like a raging fire.

She was actually driven to this point by a mere brat? Being manipulated like a toy by this kind of scoundrel?

Wan's eyes were bloodshot and red. The fear had faded, replaced by rage. She clenched her teeth and let out a low growl.

Construction Techniques —

Aside from special magical tools, Wan's "Construction Formula" can, through training, almost perfectly reproduce all matter that Wan himself recognizes. The tactics Wan, a sorcerer who has experienced numerous battles, has learned are:

Liquid metal that changes volume while maintaining the stability of an object's properties through semi-automatic control of magical power, and—the insect armor that combines the excellent functions of many organisms!

Dark, insect-like armor surged from beneath her skin like a tidal wave, instantly enveloping her entire body. Then, she actually managed to break free of Rika's restraints using only her physical strength!

"Snap!"

She gripped the hilt of the knife that pierced her body, pulled it out fiercely, blood spurting out. The insect armor on her back spread its wings, and she flew into the sky like a giant wasp, looking down at Yi Gu You Tai and the cursed spirit below.

"That state didn't allow your shikigami to fully manifest?" Wan's voice was filled with rage at being humiliated. "Looks like I've been underestimated, Otokoyata!"

Suddenly, she sensed the cursed power rapidly approaching from behind.

Suddenly turned around—

clang!!

The pitch-black scythe clashed violently with the insect armor, sparks flying everywhere!

Xuan Yi's figure appeared in mid-air, pushed backward by the huge recoil force. He shook his numb wrist and frowned slightly.

"Another stranger!" Wan's voice was shrill with anger. "Where's Su Nuo? Tell him to come see me!"

Xuan Yi did not answer. He felt the terrifying pressure that had just come from the hilt of the sword—if he were to fight head-on with brute force, this insect armor was indeed not something he could confront directly.

Although he really wanted to defeat the guy in front of him in one move, Wan's speed after putting on the insect armor made it a problem to ensure the spell hit.

His gaze had already fallen on Yuta's hands, which were not far away.

On Yi Gu's left hand, a ring had slowly been put on.

That was a signal they had agreed upon beforehand.

The original plan was for Genichi to be responsible for evacuating the crowd and finding Fushiguro Miki. If he successfully rescued her, Genichi would use his scythe in the air to signal a retreat; if he failed to find her, he would rendezvous with Otsuko and capture Man alive.

The ring is the signal to use "that move".

On that day in Kyoto's domain, Xuan Yi dragged everyone into the domain and temporarily obtained spells with the help of the domain's effects. However, because the outer layer of magical power was used entirely for constructing the domain's analysis when it was deployed, those spells were not engraved into Xuan Yi's body after everyone left the domain.

Therefore, Yi Gu You Tai specially had Xuan Yi inscribe that technique again at the foot of the mountain.

But there was no time to hesitate.

Xuan Yi suddenly clutched his throat, his magical power gathering and compressing at his vocal cords—

"Don't move!"

The incantation, imbued with magical power, exploded like thunder!

Wan's figure suddenly froze in mid-air, and as the flapping of her wings stopped, her body quickly crashed down.

What no one present expected was...

The figures of Yuta Otsuki and Rika were frozen in the same instant.

Yi Gu You Tai was startled.

"Oh no, the range and target of incantations aren't so easy to control! Without Dogroll's guidance, there are so many things I don't know..."

Because the power of the spells from Yuta and Rika was too great, the moment Genichi uttered the words "Don't move," the backlash of the spell followed the trajectory of the spell and crushed down. Genichi felt as if his throat was being cut by countless red-hot blunt knives at the same time, and his vocal cords were torn apart in an instant.

"puff--!"

He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his vision blurred, and he staggered backward, clutching his throat.

"No way..." Genichi's voice was hoarse as he looked incredulously at Otsukoshi and Rika, who were also frozen in place. "How... how did you two get caught in this too?"

Just a second later, Wan, who had regained her mobility, was furious. Liquid metal spun around her and turned into countless sharp blades, which shot out towards Xuan Yi, who was flying backwards in mid-air, coughing up blood!

At the critical moment, Yuuta Otsukoshi, who had also regained his mobility, didn't care about anything else.

During the five minutes he was connected with Rika, he could use any spell he had previously imitated.

"Don't move!"

The second burst of power of words.

Wan's figure froze again, and the metal blade that was aimed at Xuan Yi turned into a parabola and swept past his eyes as Wan's curse power stopped.

Xuan Yi, who was in mid-air, was also affected by the curse.

Yuta Ekiku stared at Genichi, who was being held up by a scythe and whose expression was ferocious but who remained motionless, and remained silent for a second.

"...I think I'm the same way."

In the distance, Kugisaki Nobara, who had just dealt with several armored soldiers, looked up towards the attic.

"What are those two doing? They've been telling us not to move since just now, are they playing statues?"

The next second, she saw the enormous cursed spirit behind Yuta Ekiku, now fully manifested, slam the fly-like thing in front of her into the ground...