"Dismantle."
The incoming wave of spikes instantly crumbled into thousands of tiny cubes as my invisible attack sliced through the air. My attack had also cut through the sides of the buildings around us. Off down the street, Overhaul stood in bewilderment as his golden eyes stared into my own.
[+65 SP]
[+35 SP]
[+15 SP]
[+45 SP]
[+55 SP]
"It can't be... you're alive?"
"Yup. Still alive and kicking." I grinned at the six-armed man and waved my newly healed right arm. "I even grew myself a new arm. Pretty neat, ain't it?"
[+35 SP]
"Impossible." Overhaul glared at me as he scanned my body. "How is this possible? Do you have some healing Quirk as well?!"
"Nope. It's called the Reverse Cursed Technique!" I motioned to my healed body, then pointed at my head with a crazed smile. "You should have chopped my head off or broken me down. Now, you're going to lose, Chisaki."
[+50 SP]
"I'm going to lose?" Chisaki looked offended at my use of his name and began walking toward me. "No, I'm going to obliterate you until there's not even a single atom of you left!"
Behind me, Himiko and Jin looked at me in shock and joy while Kaina stood in disbelief. Eri, who wasn't familiar with me, just stared at my back with surprise. Around Kaina's shoulders, Zaiko looked at me with relieved, derpy eyes. "Is that... really you, Sukuna-kun?" Himiko asked in a small, scared voice. As if afraid, she was currently hallucinating what she was seeing.
"It can't be," Kaina muttered as Jin rubbed his eyes. "I saw your body with my own eyes. You were dead!"
"S-Souta?" Jin asked.
"Yup, It's me. Sorry about that little scare back there." I said without turning around, my focus aimed at Chisaki. I swiped my hand behind me and sent a Dismantle at the large wall behind the four. My attack swiftly shattered the concrete wall into pieces, leaving them all room to escape unimpeded. "Now, you all need to get out of here. I'll handle things from here."
[+25 SP]
[+55 SP]
[+36 SP]
[+50 SP]
"You can't," Eri said as she made Kaina place her on the ground. Turning back, I looked at the small, scared girl with a tender smile. I had to struggle to hold my manic grin away so I wouldn't unsettle Eri. "He's too strong! You'll die! This is enough... I'll go back to him. I don't want any of you to die. Not for… someone like me."
"The girls, right," Chisaki said as he continued walking towards us. "Give her back, and I'll consider showing you all a modicum of merc-"
Slice!
Suddenly, the bottom half of Chisaki's body was cut in half.
With no lower body support, the Head of the Shie Hassaikai fell onto the ground in shock. Blood and organs splashing below him. The man gasped in pain as he looked down at his sliced body.
"Be quiet, trash." I ignored Chisaki and walked over to Eri. Kneeling down beside her and Kaina, I placed a comforting hand on Eri's head. "It's okay, Eri. I'm not going to die. We all came here to save you, which means we won't stop until you're safe and sound. Now, big sis Kaina here is going to take you somewhere safe, okay?"
"But-"
"No buts!" I smiled and brushed her uncombed hair back with a grin. Compelling the girl to look up at me with large, hopeful eyes. "Just leave this to your big brother, Souta!"
[+30 SP]
Rising up, I looked over to Kaina's expression and saw that she was in a state of disbelief and doubt. Reaching out, I placed a hand on her shoulder. Cementing the fact that I was indeed standing in front of her. "It's really me. Sorry about the scare back then. But right now isn't really the time for explanations." I turned back to watch as Chisaki finished restoring his lower body. "You all need to get out of here. Now."
[+15 SP]
"...okay." Kaina nodded and placed a hand over my own. "I'll hold you to that."
"We won't!" Himiko yelled as tears ran down her face. "I won't just leave you here to die! I can't... I can't go through that again."
Smiling at the blonde, I walked over to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry about scaring you, Himiko. But trust me, I won't lose. I'll never lose again."
Turning to Jin, I grinned at him before placing a finger on Himiko's forehead, much to her confusion. Using precise curse energy control, I painlessly knocked her out. Sliding my arms under her slumbering body, I handed her off to Jin, who struggled to carry her over his shoulder despite his broken arm.
"Don't worry, bro. I got this."
[+40 SP]
Jin stared at my face for several seconds before nodding. "Okay. You better win, then. Otherwise, Toga-chan will bring you back just so she can kill you herself."
"Don't worry, I know." I nodded as I walked away from the four of them.
With nothing more to be said, Kaina picked Eri up, and the four of them began speeding down the street. As they fled, Chisaki and I restarted our little staring contest before I gave the man a grin.
"Sorry about the hold-up. That was really considerate of you to give my friends and me time to talk."
Chisaki glowered at me as he flexed his arms. "Consider it a parting gift. Once I'm done with you, I'll find them and kill them all before taking Eri back."
"Is that so?" I rubbed the back of my head and gave him an amused look. "Well then, let's get started. Shall we?"
Dashing toward him, I slammed a fist straight into his stomach with incredible power. Chisaki's eyes bulged out of his head as he flew back through one of the buildings behind him with a loud crack. Sending rubble and dust all around him.
Woah! That wasn't even a full-powered strike!
"Not bad! Is this what one can do with such large reserves of cursed energy!" I looked down at my hands and laughed. "How incredible!"
Jumping back, I avoided several pillars of concrete from crushing me. The apartment building beside me shattered into chunks before reconstructing into a massive fist with spikes for knuckles. The first flew through the air and smashed into me, sending me flying through the air.
Impressive. With this level of reinforcement, an attack like that is laughable.
From below, Chisaki shot out of the roof of a business building using a quickly rising pillar beneath him. Raising one of his arms, he tried to use Deidoro's Quirk, Sloshed, on me. Only to watch as his arm flew off him with a clean cut.
"Geh!" Chisaki groaned.
"Hurts, doesn't it?!"
[+25 SP]
I grinned and moved to the side as he tried to grab me. Swiping my left arm, I watched as a large cut appeared on his chest. Sending blood through the air. With an application of his Quirk, Chisaki healed his injuries and combined all three of his right arms into one massive appendage. With a wide swing, he tried to punch me down to the ground with a heavy punch.
Spinning in mid-air, I watched as his large fist flew past me in slow motion. Using a punch of my own, I knocked his large arm away and sent a volley of Dismantles all over his body. Blood and flesh flew around Chisaki as he was sliced to shreds. The ground, buildings, cars, and whatever else was below us ended up being torn to shreds as well.
"Such power," I muttered with a euphoric smile.
[+10 SP]
"You bastard!" Chisaki roared as he put his body back together just before he slammed into a building. Destroying the structure. From below the wreckage, Chisaki made an expression of pure rage as he placed all four of his hands on the floor.
After landing on the ruined ground, I sent several slashes toward the massive incoming waves of jagged spikes. Effectively destroying them in one move. Before I could sprint after him, Chisaki erupted a large barrier around me in an effort to trap me.
"How amusing."
I looked around me as the streets and buildings all began to twist and warp like a tornado around me. Trapping me within its urban structure. I grinned at the sight as the solid whirlwind erupted spikes from the inside. It was at that moment the barrier that was supposedly keeping me contained disappeared, and the tornado of death shrank, ready to slice me to shreds like a giant blender.
Sliding my hands in my pockets, I commanded several hundred Dismantle slashes to dance around me in a speeding circle to act as my own impromptu barrier. Cutting and slicing all the spikes that spun around me before they ever had a chance of getting near me. Smiling, I swiped both of my arms to the side and watched as the solid concrete tornado split in two.
As both halves fell with an earth-shaking crash, I looked out and saw Chisaki staring at me in disbelief.
"Why won't you die?!" He yelled before using a pillar to launch himself at me.
Standing in place, I aimed my left hand at him as my right hand rested over my forearm.
Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!
Chisaki and everything behind him were all instantly destroyed into chunks, slabs, and debris as my onslaught of Dismatles obliterated everything within half a block.
Flying in mid-air, Chisaki's decapitated head flipped around, and his scattered body parts flew all around him. With a low, monstrous roar, he somehow pulled his entire being back together into one.
"SUKUNA!" Chisaki's scream pierced through the sky as his voice reverberated everywhere around us. "What are you?!"
"Me?" I answered with a grin. "I'm your executioner."
"Raagh!" Chisaki yelled as he forced his body to transform back into the Kaiju form from before. However, unlike before, he was much smaller. Seeing this, he stretched several flesh tendrils into the ground and fused the concrete, metal pipes, and whatever else he could grab into himself in the act of desperation. Increasing his size and power. Doing this caused Chisaki to roar in pain.
"Getting desperate, are we?" I mocked as I leaped over the crumbling city streets.
With an ear-splicing crack, Chisaki's disfigured Kaiju form dug into the road below and lifted an entire street above his head.
With a heave, he launched it at breakneck speeds at me despite the large size of the structure. Just as it was about to slam into me, I pointed a double-finger gun at the side of the structure.
"Scale of the dragon. Recoil. Twin meteors." I chanted with a small smile. "Dismantle!!"
SLASH!!
Chisake stood in shock as the massive chunk of concrete, asphalt, rock, and dirt was split cleanly in half.
The young Yakuza Head was unprepared when my attack continued onward and sliced him and everything behind and around him in two. My empowered Dismantle continued onward, causing all the buildings within half a city block to split in two. Causing the structures to collapse and shatter from the stress.
To think this is only around half of what Sukuna was capable of. How frightening.
[+85 SP]
Screaming in pain, Chisaki grabbed his bisected kaiju body and forced himself back together.
Falling to his knees, Chisaki panted as his thrown projectile crashed back onto the ground, releasing a loud explosion through the streets and sending shockwaves everywhere. This resulted in the buildings surrounding me still intact and the windows behind me shattering.
"It hurts... it hurts so much!" Chisaki groaned as he held his real body from within his kaiju's mouth. "I can't keep putting myself back together! My mind-my mind… will shatter!"
"I told you, didn't I?" I said as I landed on the large pile of rubble from the thrown upheaved street. "I told you I was going to make you suffer a hundredfold for what you did to Eri... I should make good on my promise."
Grinning madly at Chisaki, I raised my hands and made the Enma palm sign.
"Domain Expansion... Malevolent Shrine."
Rising from behind me, a disfeatured demonic Buddhist shrine came to life. Several bovine skulls emerged from nothing at the base of the shrine. The hip-and-gable rooftop quickly grew out, jutting horns, two smaller and closed mouths in each gable, and human skulls that hung down from them.
The shrine had four entrances, each designed as large, grotesque mouths that featured human-like teeth and tongues. Between the two layers of the roof was a smaller mouth filled with sharp teeth. Additionally, at each corner of the shrine stood four short, tree-like stumps with gnarled branches.
Upon its creation, a wave of darkness and crimson spread out from the shrine. Encompassing a 100-meter radius. Bathing everything caught within it in a hellish landscape.
Malevolent Shrine.
Unlike other Domains, It does not cut out a separate space with a barrier.
Manifesting a Domain without a barrier was like painting in the air without a canvas.
It is a truly divine feat.
To top it off, by adding a pact to allow its victims a path of escape. It vastly increases the range of its guaranteed sure-hit effect to a maximum of 200-meter radius.
Though out of consideration for the still occupied homes, businesses, and schools in the distance. I restrained the effect to a 100-meter radius limited to the surface.
As soon as my Domain appeared, thousands upon thousands of nonstop Cleaves and Dismantles ripped Chisaki, and everything caught within the Domain's 100-meter radius into pieces, slices, chunks, and ribbons. All up to the point, nothing remained.
As I watched the relentless destruction with my hands pressed together, I laughed as Chisaki continued to rebuild himself after being torn to shreds in a repeating cycle of pain and violence.
The reason his body had managed to hold out for so long was that I was restricting the output of my Domain where he stood. Ensuring he would get caught in a nonstop cycle of pain and agony.
[…]
[+50 SP]
[+90 SP]
[+120 SP]
[+145 SP]
[…]
Hooh… look at all those points.
Chisaki screamed a silent scream as his mind was all but shattered at this point. It was only due to his body's biological need to survive that he continued to rebuild himself again and again unconsciously.
"Not bad, Chisaki," I said as I released the hand sign and made several pacts with myself to ensure the effects of my next move were similar to the real Sukuna's. Holding my hands in front of me, I watched with a grin as powerful flames sprang to life all around me. Scorching and liquefying my surroundings in their intense heat.
"This may be overkill... but I don't care. I want to watch it all burn."
Holding my hands out, I collected my flames into a large flaming arrow at my side. Due to the effects of my flames, everything within the Domain began to heat up and burn to extreme levels. Melting and distorting solid steel and rock into liquid.
Raising my fire arrow, I aimed at Chisaki's repeatedly rebuilding body, which had been reduced to his normal human state due to all the lost biomass.
"...Open."
x x x
[General POV]
"What the hell is going on over there?!"
"I don't know! Let's hurry!"
Dashing through the streets, several pro heroes who had answered the police calls for help dashed as fast as they could down the abandoned city streets. As they all ran, the loud sounds of destruction and explosions resounded out in front of them. The nonstop tremors that rocked the ground below them caused them to struggle to remain on their feet.
"Hey... what the hell is that?" One of the heroes, a woman with sea-green hair that reaches just past her shoulders and a short fringe with splayed ends held down by an orange bandanna, said with wide eyes. This was the Pro Hero, Fukukado Emi, otherwise known as Ms. Joke.
At her remark, all the assembled heroes paused and gazed up at the sky as orange and red light spread across the horizon. Suddenly, the distant ruins of the destroyed city several meters ahead ignited in bright, scalding flames, followed by a massive pillar of fire that shot up into the heavens. Simultaneously, a powerful tremor shook the ground around them as if a mighty earthquake had struck, sending them all sprawling to the ground.
Burning streams of fire danced around the pillar of flames as if celebrating its very creation. The pro heroes could do nothing but watch in frozen terror until the divine pillar slowly faded, leaving behind several columns of dark smoke in its destructive wake.
"...l-lets go! S-someone might need help!" It was only due to her many years as a pro that Ms. Joke was able to break out of her stupor. Despite her shaking legs, she forced herself to run forward.
Seeing Ms. Joke move, the rest of the heroes nodded shakily and followed after her. Running as fast as they could, the heroes all quickly reached the source of the flames.
"...h-hey?" One of the heroes, a man dressed in a yellow and black costume, muttered. "W-wasn't there... several buildings right here?"
No one had the courage to respond as the heroes looked around the expansive, empty area in front of them.
There was nothing left within the 100-meter lot of space. Nothing but charred rock and bellowing pillars of smoke. Off in the background, ruined buildings lay in tatters with long cut-like gouges strewn across their surfaces. The level of destruction was on a completely different scale that no one present had ever seen outside a natural disaster. It wasn't far off to say that the scene before the heroes resembled that of an apocalyptic war zone.
"Hold on!" Ms. Joke yelled as she spotted a figure somehow standing in the center of the destruction. "You there! Are you okay?!"
Standing behind several pillars of smoke, a shirtless figure turned to them with a grin. Due to the distance, the pros weren't able to make out any details other than the white, bloody, baggy martial arts pants and the several black tattoos covering his body.
"...hold on, tattoos? Isn't that!?" A hero dressed as a firefighter, sporting a long yellow jacket with high-visibility lines running down the center along his sleeve cuffs, hem, and high collar, as well as a red fireman hat said. This was the pro hero, Backdraft. "Is that… Sukuna!?"
At his statement, the far-off figure grinned and turned around. Seeing Sukuna trying to escape, all the pro heroes moved in.
"Stop him!"
"Don't let him get away!"
"Hold it right there!"
As fast as they could, they all reached Sukuna's position. However, when they arrived, they quickly found that no one was there. Looking around in a panic, they all searched for the man they suspected to be responsible for the catastrophic attack.
"Find him! Don't let him get away!" Backdraft yelled as he searched everywhere, but the pillars of smoke made it hard to see anything within the radius of the destruction. "Come back here, you Villian!"
Off above a rooftop several dozen meters away, Sukuna watched the heroes run around wildly in search of him.
With nothing more to do, Sukuna turned around and vanished.
-
AN:
And with that, the Shie Hassaikai arc has come to an end.
Personally, I listened to the Malevolent Shrine and Thunderclap OST while writing this. Hopefully, you all read this while listening to the OST. It makes it more immersive.
Please leave me plenty of comments on today's chapter!
Until next time!