"I am Kazehaya Kaede, the strongest sorcerer," he declared confidently as he jumped out of the building, landing near the professor-student duo.
"Itadori? What is he doing?" wondered Megumi.
"Hehe, it's not Itadori..." his student's words were contradicted. "Kaede, right? What are you doing with my student's body? Please, return it."
"Hmm, I'm afraid that's not possible. I made a pact with him, and until it's fulfilled, I have free rein to act... more or less," Kaede explained while starting to stretch his limbs. "If you don't mind, please, do not interfere."
With that, he rushed towards the recovered curse, pulling his fist back to strike. The curse dodged at the last moment but still felt a powerful blow behind its back.
"Hehe, I'm going to have fun with you. That last Black Flash drained this body quite a bit; but I want to use the heavy artillery," he said as a rift appeared in front of Kaede, passing through his hand. Another identical rift appeared in front of the curse, allowing Kaede's hand to grab its head.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Spatial Ripple."
Suddenly, Kaede's hand holding the curse's head started to vibrate, and in no time, a wave of energy sent the curse flying again, almost killing it.
"Huh? You survived that? Wow, I should applaud you. Good job," Kaede said, clapping. The curse tried to stand up with clear rage in its eyes.
"Oh? Did I hurt your feelings? My apologies," Kaede continued mocking the curse.
"AAAHH!" With a scream, the curse broke into a sprint, charging all its energy into its fist and striking.
But surprisingly, instead of hitting Kaede, it struck the ground beneath him without Kaede making any move.
"Come on, keep trying... I'm getting bored," Kaede spoke this time with a serious tone. "If you keep boring me... I'll kill you."
"!!!" Frightened by the monster's words in front of him, the curse started hitting him non-stop, but its hands just passed through him. Changing strategy, it jumped back and began charging cursed energy in its mouth.
"That's new. FINE, this time I'll let you hit me; you better make it more than just flashy colors," Kaede, opening his arms, waited for the attack to charge.
"Should we intervene? It's going to seriously injure Itadori's body," Megumi wanted to step in to prevent the potential disaster he was about to witness.
"Haha, don't worry, Megumi. Instead, go help Nobara; she's injured and there's an unconscious kid with her," Gojo responded, with no intention of stopping the fight. "I'll keep an eye on our friend."
"... Alright," with that, Megumi headed towards the building.
The curse finished charging its energy and released it at Kaede, hitting him fully and causing a massive explosion, destroying everything in its path.
"Hehehe," believing it had finished off its enemy, the curse began to prepare its next move.
"Wow, that wasn't as disappointing as I thought... Still, it was disappointing," once the smoke cleared, Kaede stood there with his clothes completely destroyed and some wounds that were healing quickly. "I'll show you what a real attack looks like," he raised two fingers pointing them at the curse that started fleeing desperately.
Around Kaede, small rifts appeared, growing larger, beginning to converge at his raised fingers, forming a completely black sphere.
"Hollow Technique: Dimensional Rift."
With that, the sphere was released toward the curse, destroying everything in its path. When it reached its target, it exploded, consuming almost the entire area around it. The curse was annihilated along with the terrain.
"Wow... I think I overdid it a bit haha... Phew," an exhausted Kaede laughed at the situation. "I'm really weakened; I overused that technique... Anyway."
Fiu* "You really showed off there, buddy," Gojo whistled, arriving with Nobara and Megumi, the latter carrying the kid. "But... isn't it counterproductive to show us your cards? After all... you already defeated the curse, why hasn't Itadori returned?" Gojo finished speaking, this time completely serious.
"... Hehe... Goodbye," out of nowhere, a rift consumed Kaede instantly, so quickly that no one noticed, only Gojo felt the spatial distortion.
"Sensei, he escaped!" shouted Megumi, alarmed.
"I'm not blind, Megumi. You two take care of the kid, I'll see where our potential friend went," and with that, he also disappeared in an instant.
"... Is appearing and disappearing normal for sorcerers?" Nobara asked Megumi.
"Those types of techniques aren't unusual... although I'm starting to think otherwise," a tired Fushiguro responded to the situation. "Let's wait until he recovers from the energy hit he took, then we'll ask where he lives."
We return to Kaede, who was making several spatial jumps to reach his destination.
"Cough Cough... Gods, this is hard," Kaede found himself almost out of energy from continuously using his technique.
"I didn't think I'd be so weak... Hey Sukuna, did what you did to your soul affect me too?" he asked the air.
After a while, a mouth emerged on the cheek of the vessel. "That's right. From what I can see, your soul, like mine, has fragmented. So, if you want to be at your best again, you'd have to consume my fingers... And right where you're headed, there's one nearby. If you can, consume it; it will restore some of your energy," he recommended to the current possessor of the body.
"... Yeah, I'll go find it; I don't want to be humiliated so quickly, hehe."
"So you know he's tracking you, right? ... Don't embarrass us," Sukuna finished speaking before disappearing.
"Tell the kid not to worry, hehe."
Finally, after more jumps, Kaede reached his destination, Kyoto, but before going where he wanted, he began to search for the finger containing another fragment of his soul.
"There you are," it was in a small shrine, but before he could take a step, something interrupted him.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A robotic voice stopped him; it was a tall robot, brown in color, with green eyes. "I sense cursed energy in you... but I doubt you're a sorcerer. I'm going to have to report this to-"
Not letting it finish speaking, Kaede raised three fingers, creating a rift above and below the robot. Closing his fingers, he made the rifts converge, crushing the robot.
"I don't have time to play, sorry," he said, grabbing the small box and unwrapping the object, revealing one of Sukuna's fingers. He quickly consumed it.
Gulp*
Feeling a large amount of cursed energy filling up his almost empty reserves.
"Ugh, much better. Well, now to the main task," taking another jump, he resumed his journey.
...
"Wow..." Gojo had arrived at the scene shortly after, seeing the crushed robot. "This is going to cause problems."