The Two boys had split up to assist the priests protect the separate sides of the monastery. Oddly, the number of enemy forces was much weaker on one side than it was on the other. Usually in a fortress invasion, it was wise to focus all your power on one side, or spread it out evenly, so this strategy seemed strange.
'What is going on?'
Akumu go to the more difficult side as he was stronger than Hagone, to which he gladly agree.d
**
Hagone was taught to fight with cursed tools by his grandmother, yet for some reason he stuck with a mass-produced grade 3 demon dagger. His grandmother always said,
'If you can't even handle a low grade weapon like this, how do you expect me to trust you with a special grade one??'
Hagone wasn't just a veteran at wielding cursed tools, but he had also been born with one of the zenin clan's inherited techniques, projection sorcery. This allowed him to create a predetermined path split into 24 frames, that he can follow in a single second making him one of the fastest sorcerers in Jujutsu High. However, he could only attack at the end of the predetermined path, other wise if he strays off that path, or his movements breaks the laws of physics, he will be frozen for 1 second instead.
Additionally, Hagone can also apply this technique to others, forcing them to move at 24 frames per second, otherwise they will also be frozen for a whole second. Hagone uses this to slice apart foes before they can move again.
After killing half a dozen of the enemies, he quickly targeted what appeared to be the invader's leader. Similarly, he was also dressed like Okiko's assailant however, he was much different. He wore much lighter amounts of robes along with an Oni mask that hid his face. He also possessed a katana that rested on his side which radiated a decent amount of energy for a grade 1 cursed tool.
'That curse tool seems stronger than mine, and they also seem experienced too. I'll kill them quickly.'
He then tried to speak,
"Are you the one who killed 4th armed Su?"
Hagone disregarded what they said, and used his cursed technique to instantly move behind behind the cult executive. Moments before he could do anything, the enemy quickly opened up a simple domain, and performed a slash which Hagone desperately backed away from. The blade was only millimeters away from his face.
A small cut spread across his right cheek.
The enemy forces on the Hagone's side were almost wiped out, leaving the only remaining invader to be another one of the cults executives. They were winning but, this single person would cause a lot of problems if they got through Hagone.
'Annoying.'
Hagone went on the offensive, this time not activating his cursed technique, and instead relying on his pure power. If the enemy used simple domain while his technique was active, getting close to them while not getting interrupted in movement would be too dangerous.
Hagone couldn't use simple domain, so parrying the attacks from the executive was extremely difficult, but he was extremely skilled in reading the way weapons were used which allowed him to hold his own.
The two clashed blades several times, with Hagone sustaining more and more minor wounds as time went on. The only way he could win, was if he found an opening so that he could force his cursed technique on the executive, and take him out swiftly.
And very quickly that opportunity came.
Hagone extended out his hand to try and touch the executive, but the enemy suddenly grabbed his arm and threw him into the air, before slamming him into the ground.
'He read my move!?'
They then planted their sword into the ground, millimeters away from his neck. It was only then that Hagone noticed the trail of cultist bodies that led into the forest. This person.. had killed many of their own men.
"Who exactly are you?"
The executive then moved to remove their mask.
**
On the west side of the monastery, many of the priests had already died and the only one continuing the fight now was Akumu. He fought valiantly and protected himself with his Black Palace Simple Domain, but there was a limit as too how long he could keep it out, if he wanted to conserve his Cursed Energy,
That was when he noticed something peculiar, the monastery monks were attacking him as well, yet that wasn't it. The bodies of both dead priests and cultists alike were getting back up to attack him.
Feeling overwhelmed by the mass of enemies, he hurriedly jumped onto the monastery wall to avoid getting swarmed. That was when a red liquid reaching the speed of sound quickly zipped towards him, with Akumu barley blocking it.
The attack pushed him back while brutally scarring his right arm, punching a terrible hole in it that leaked blood.
That's when he saw it, a man wearing heavier shades of robes than any of the other invaders hiding amongst the corpse-like creatures. He too jumped onto the wall of the building to attempt a one-on-one conversation with the injured Akumu, while all the moving corpses stopped, and then looked up silently. He took off his hood which revealed a disgusting burn scar from the time in which he lived amongst the public.
"You! Your Shinji Kamo!?"
The man smiled,
"That was my name once wasn't it? Sometimes I do miss the benefits that name granted me, but they couldn't keep up with my standards."
This was the person Akumu was meant to kill. Even if he was stronger, would he be able to do it? Would he be able to take another life?
"They couldn't keep up with your standards? Is that why you ran away from the Jujutsu world?"
"Ran away? Oh! I never ran away.. I just.. changed employers? You see, I have a knack for killing, but those people looked at me with disgust whenever I did.
Wretch. Filth. Scoundrel. Despite being of the main family, I was called all these things, all because I was just a little bit less loose. So I left, I didn't need them."
The Kamo clan was one of the 2 great clans, and Shinji had possessed the inherited technique of the family, blood manipulation. This made him the Kamo clan's next heir, and he soon would've changed his first name to Noritoshi as per the traditions.
However, Shinji had very murderous tendencies that the family would try to cover up, and at the same time they would try to desperately steer Shinji away from that path. All their attempts failed, resulting in the Shinji of today.
"Just how many people have you killed?"
"What kind of a question is that? Do you remember every ant you've crushed?"
From that moment on, all doubts in Akumu's mind had been cleared. He immediately shot one of his thicker dark whips toward the opposing Shinji, to which he swiftly dodged.
'Convergence...'
Droplets of blood from the corpses that surrounded them began to rise, and flow towards Shinji as they converged into a single point. They were all compressed into a single drop. before Shinji clasped his hands around it, and aimed at Akumu.
'Piercing blood!'
The blood was then fired through a concentrated point, as the sound of an object breaking the sound barrier echoed across the monastery. Akumu felt an intense sense of danger, so he quickly tried to dodge this one too, however he wasn't as lucky.
The blood attack pierced through his abdomen right as he tried to jump down. Despite being critically hit, he kept running away at full speed, eventually hiding in-between buildings.
Shinji just kept firing the attack, predicting where Akumu would be, but he was unsuccessful.
Akumu breathing heavily, began to panic. He was too injured to fight Shinji head on again, so he needed to fix himself first. He didn't know how to use Reverse cursed technique, so instead, he summoned some dark whips, and wrapped it around his mangled arm which snapped it in place. Not without some pain though.
Next, he summoned even more, this time around his torso to fix his abdomen. Although the bleeding stopped, every bit of movement cause him pain, and he was even losing cursed energy constantly. The second he ran out, all his injuries would open again.
'Think think think. Hagone should be finished soon.. no.. will I even survive till then? This guy is definitely grade 1!"
Thinking back, he tried to use the strategy he would use when confronting stronger sorcerers. He knew Shinji was a Kamo, and their signature was blood manipulation, but this guy.. he used convergence in a weird way.
Blood manipulation let one manipulate their blood, but Shinji didn't use his own.
'He uses the blood of corpses???'
This would explain why the monastery priests were fighting each other. The ones that died had their bodies puppeted by Shinji.
As time passed, the same technique could change when used by a user from a different era. Blood Manipulation was unchanging for the longest time, but in this generation, it seems to have undergone an unexpected evolution.
Was it because of Shinji's nature? Most likely, but now the biggest weakness of blood manipulation was gone, which was Anemia.
'No.. it still has a weakness.'
Akumu hadn't given up yet.
**
Shinji was stunted. He tried to sense for Akumu's residuals, but it was excruciatingly difficult and very scarce. He didn't know it, but that was because Akumu didn't use regular Jujutsu, but instead relied on the nature of his cursed energy.
He just sighed, as that meant it was time for him to do something drastic.
"Dyed sea, Cane of Hali, Gather and rectify."
All the corpses withing a certain radius, belonging to both friend and foe started to rapidly convulse, before all of their blood began to seep out of them from exposed wounds. Rather than flowing towards Shinji like usual, the blood went up high into the sky, condensing into several hundred drops of convergence.
"Blood Manipulation: Dead Sky."
It was as if the apocalypse fore told in the bible had begun. Drops of blood began to descend from the heavens, little at first, but then a whole swarm followed soon afterwards.
Despite how small and innocent the looked, they carried with them terrifying force as they mercilessly tore through buildings, walls and even the corpses they originated from, creating a land of death, destruction and chaos where ever they landed.
The only thing that was spared from that chaos was Shinji himself.
Once it was all over, roughly a third of the monastery was gone in only a couple moments.
"No way he could've gotten far with those injuries. He is most certainly dead."
And yet, he lived.
A burst of cursed energy erupted from behind him which scared the man. Once he looked, Akumu was already sprinting up to him with rage in his eyes.
Quickly he tried to use convergence, but the process took much more time then it should've.
'Slicing excorsim!'
He threw the orb of blood at Akumu, which transformed and fired three long streams of blood. Akumu manifested his black gauntlet, and easily smashed them aside, which greatly scared Shinji.
The only difference between Shinji's blood manipulation, and every users before him, was that Shinji could use the blood in corpses, but not his own. Blood Manipulation struggled to control blood that had less oxygen. This normally wasn't an issue as they used fresh blood from themselves, or stored it in blood bags, but the blood in corpses would lose that oxygen as time passed. This meant that blood grew harder to control, the longer it was outside a living body for Shinji.
And now it had grown weak enough so that Akumu could handle it.
'Enough time has passed!'
Akumu charged his right fist full of cursed energy, as he released everything he had into this one single moment.
He smashed his left arm right into Shinji's head, as the sparks of a black flash erupted from the impact, sending Shinji flying across the monastery as he crashed into the main building.