"A faker, huh?" Sukuna grinned deviously.
"Mm." Hummed the mysterious man before adding, "Grit your teeth."
Sukuna eyes narrowed at the man's words, confused by them until he was suddenly bombarded by an onslaught of deep slashes and cuts.
A good number of chunks were taken out of his body before he activated his Reverse Curse Technique, healing as fast as he could, but doing little else to stop the multitude of attacks still pelting his body.
He quickly manifested a mouth on his back and bit off the man's arm. Despite having lost it, the man didn't react at all, only jumping forward and using his foot to push off Sukuna's face like a springboard, landing near Yuta and Yuji.
"That was..." Yuji muttered.
"Yeah, it was Sukuna's Cleave..." Yuta nodded before holding his katana towards the mysterious stranger that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Who are you?"
"No one you need to concern yourself with." The man replied, not taking his eyes away from Sukuna. "Just stay out of my way."
Before Yuta could reply, Sukuna's voice had rung out with an annoyed tone.
"That was my..." He muttered before he growled. "You... You're the one who ate my last finger..."
"Maybe. Who can say?"
The man didn't say anything more, leaving Sukuna to make up his own assumptions, but Yura and Yuji knew the truth.
Yuta had been the one that consumed the twentieth finger, not the stranger, so how in the world did was someone able to perfectly perform Cleave without it?
"Faker, huh?" Yuta muttered, remembering how the stranger introduced himself.
The term "Faker" could mean a lot of things. But in most cases, it usually means to be some sort copy of the original.
His face was strikingly similar to Fushiguro's.
His clothes were also familiar to how Sukuna dressed before taking on his true form. He wore a hoodie that was primarily white, but had black on the hood and strings. His pants were black and he had on white sneakers.
Everything about the man seemed to hint at him having some sort of Cursed Technique that allows him to copy the techniques of others, maybe even their appearance.
"Hey, Faker." Yuta called out.
"Not interested." The man replied instantly, already knowing what Yuta was going to say. "Just shut up and butt out."
The Faker blitzed towards Sukuna, appearing before him in a fraction of a second before slamming his knee into his chin.
The King of Curses went flying into the air, going through buildings before something suddenly latches onto his face. Reeling his arm back, Alcatraz threw Sukuna down into the street and plummeted straight down on top of him with both his feet.
"Dismantle."
Using his remaining arm, Alcatraz pointed his index and middle fingers at Sukuna and hittting him point blank with multiple Dismantles.
"Don't get ahead of yourself."
Sukuna's voice rung out from below and so did a surge of cursed energy.
Suddenly, cracks in the form of a spiderweb appeared in the ground before it collapsed. Alcatraz's eyes widened, but he quickly jumped away from the sinkhole as to not get caught by surprise by the King of Curses.
As he landed a couple dozen feet away, Alcatraz felt a presence flying above him and saw a black colored bird up above.
"The groomer..." He muttered as his eyes narrowed.
"Oh? Not particularly fond of the woman, huh?" Sukuna said as he walked out from the cloud of dust, looking perfectly fine.
"I don't particularly care." Alacatraz replied, looking back towards Sukuna with a bored expression.
"Good." Sukuna said before charging right towards him.
The two exchanged multiple devastating blows, the force of their punches even causing some structural damage to the buildings surrounding them.
Standing on a nearby rooftop, Yuta and Yuji stood and watched as this unknown man took on Sukuna with only one arm, and looked to be standing on equal footing with him.
"He isn't regenerating him arm?" Yuji asked.
"He might not be able to use Reverse Curse Technique." Yuta responded. "Either that, or..."
Hearing Yuta's voice trail off without explaining anything more, Yuji looked towards him and asked, "Or what?"
Back down below, Alcatraz landed a heavy roundhouse right to the side of Sukuna's head, launching him into another building.
Sukuna was embedded inside a concrete pillar, to which he pushed himself out of. But right as he did, he felt the ground beneath him crack and the entire building suddenly collapsed right on top of him.
Outside, Alcatraz's remaining hand was pressed against the ground, cracks in the form of a spiderweb formed underneath.
"He copied it?" Yuji asked, looking at the pattern underneath the man's hand.
Yuta's eyes narrowed a bit.
The way that this "Faker" had used Dismantle in the same manner was too clean and too precise to be a first time attempt after just witnessing it.
In fact, he could argue that it was actually a greater feat of control than Sukuna's. The way that the Dismantle spread out through the ground was only in the direction of the building, whilst Sukuna had it spread over the entire area.
And yet even though it was contained into one singular direction, it had significantly more power behind it.
He would need to continue watching, but with what had been shown off so far, this "Faker" was stronger, more precise with Sukuna's Cursed Technique than the man himself. Although, Sukuna still hadn't shown his true strength at all beforehand, so he shouldn't be too hasty with his assessment.
"Hey, Fushiguro Megumi." Alcatraz called out. "You can still hear me in there, right?"
As expected, Sukuna came out from underneath the rubble, still looking as though he wasn't even taking this seriously.
"Huh? What, you want to help the kid too?" Sukuna asked. "How disappointing."
"No." Alcatraz said simply. "I just wanted him to know that he'll be reunited with his sister soon."
After saying this, his hand formed and unfamiliar sign. His index and pinky finger pointed towards the sky whilst his thumbs, middle, and ring fingers all pointed towards the ground.
Sukuna's eyes narrowed at the hand sign. After all, It was an inversion of his own.
"Domain Expansion... Sword Hill..."
The surrounding area was suddenly flooded in a white smoke before it transformed into a barren and bloodied battlefield. There were large cogs floating in the sky, looking as though they were held up by nothing.
"What's this?" Sukuna hummed with interest as he looked around before seeing two figures standing behind his opponent. "You pulled in those brats?"
Yuta and Yuji stood behind Alcatraz, their expressions bewildered. They should've been outside the range of a Domain Expansion.
"Don't worry about them." Alcatraz said simply.
Sukuna smiled and was about to retort before he suddenly felt something jagged pierce him in his back. He turned and looked behind him, seeing a broken and rusted sword buried up to the hilt in his back.
"I'd pay more attention to these." Alcatraz said as hundreds upon hundreds of swords suddenly erupted from the ground.
Yuta's eyes widened a bit in shock at the surrounding area. After all, this battlefield looked similar to his own domain.
But this felt different... strange... almost as if...
The swords that had erupted from the ground suddenly flew at break neck speeds towards the King of Curses, causing his eyes to widen at the sheer number of blades.
Sukuna jumped into the air to dodge the oncoming blades, but his eyes widened as they suddenly changed direction and flew towards him.
"They seek me out?!" He said through gritted teeth as he pointed down and broke the swords apart with his Dismantle.
That was until he suddenly felt a sword impale his chest.
"You better pay attention to all sides."
Alcatraz's voice range out in his ear and he looked up to see that he was surrounded in all directions. He couldn't even blink before every sword came crashing down onto him, turning him into a living, breathing pin cushion.
Blood came pouring out of Sukuna's mouth as he smiled at down at Alcatraz.
"You got... one annoying domain..." He smirked wickedly.
As simple as it was, a domain that seemingly had unlimited swords that sought out its opponents at high, near incomprehensible speeds was very annoying.
Annoying, but not all that difficult.
"You should've tried cutting my head off first, brat..." Sukuna says as he links his fingers together and extends his arms out.
A spherical, basket-like shield suddenly manifests around him, preventing anymore swords from reaching him.
Usually, Hollow Wicker Basket wouldn't have been a very effective shield against a Domain such as this. But that is where the issue lies.
This Domain was incomplete.
At least that's what everybody thought.
"So that's how you do it..." Alcatraz muttered before suddenly dispersing the domain. "A simple domain is better, but that still has its uses... barely..."
The area around them shattered like glass, pieces of reality falling to the ground before disappearing as if they were never really there.
"Huh?" Yuji tilted his head at the sudden change of pace. "Why did he--"
"It was a fake..." Yuta muttered in realization. "That wasn't his real domain..."
He knew that the domain felt strange. It felt as though the entire domain felt held no actual weight behind its creation, instead being something that could be compared to a hastily drawn image.
But why?
Creating a real domain costs a good amount of Cursed Energy as it is, and it's even more of a waste considering the fact that most fake domains are completely useless compared to the actual domain.
Why would he create a fake domain if he could've just used a real domain expansion?
"What your game, faker? You used all that cursed energy for a fake domain, and for what?" Sukuna asked.
"You don't need to know." Alcatraz replied with complete disinterest before he suddenly disappeared from sight.
Before the three could even react, Alcatraz suddenly reappeared in front of Sukuna's eyes and grabbed hold on his face, slamming him down into the concrete.
____________________
"So this is where you are, Fushiguro." Alcatraz says as he walks towards the child who was currently lying ground, curled in the fetal position.
"Leave... Go away..."
Hearing the broken murmurs of the child sitting at his feet, Alcatraz could only shake his head.
"Such a shame..."
The fact that Fushiguro could even speak was itself a miracle. Although, that only meant that he was still aware in spite of all the suffering that he went through.
Alcatraz couldn't blame him for retreating into himself.
A person could only take so much.
Especially a child.
"You have a lot of nerve coming here, brat."
Alcatraz glanced over his shoulder, seeing Sukuna sitting on his Malevolent Shrine, looking down on his from above.
The moment he had touched his face, he forced his way deep into the depths of Megumi's soul.
"Here's what's going to happen." Alcatraz said, turning his gaze away from the Fraud of Curses. "I'm going to absorb you. And then I'm going to break you."
Sukuna's eyes narrowed at this boy, who looked as though he barely stopped suckling milk from his mother, suddenly threatening him. Without saying a word, he sent a Dismantle towards the kid's back, but he suddenly turned and deflected it by only using his hand.
Sukuna's eye widened, a small bit of shock running through him.
"You can see my technique." Sukuna realized, a deranged smile making its way onto his face.
Alcatraz didn't even acknowledge the claim, looking at Sukuna as if he was nothing but an annoyance.
"Let me educate you on something, oh, mighty King of Curses." He said as he slowly started to walk towards the shrine.
"Educate me?" Sukuna said with a bit of bothe interest and annoyance.
After all, what could a brat like him have to educate him on?
"When two people have the same technique fight, such as what's happening right now, a very interesting thing happens. And that is..."
The King's eyes narrowed for a brief moment before suddenly widening when he felt his lower body get sliced from his top half.