12 The Peak of Jujutsu

Inumaki Kotone is a genius. 

That is something his clan has told him almost every day since he was four, when the Inherited Technique of his Inumaki clan manifested in him.

A genius they called him.

By the time he became an adult, he was already considered a top class Grade One Sorcerer, and more than that, he was called the greatest Inumaki to ever be born.

None of his line before him have ever been able to match him in talent and ability, so it is only natural that he became the clan head shortly after graduating the Onmyōji school in the capital.

The elders of the clan hoped that his talent would allow him to bring the clan into higher standing than its long standing minor piece of nobility.

A genius.

That word used to mean something.

If he was born a century ago, he might have been the most powerful Sorcerer of his generation. A leading figure to the entire world of Onmyōdō.

However in this insane Age of Sorcery, that is not the case.

He wasn't even the most impressive Sorcerer of his generation. Didn't even make it into the top five.

Not because he is weak. He could fight multiple average Grade One Sorcerers by himself and win with ease.

No, he is not weak.

It is just that everyone else is too strong.

It all started with that old man Sugawara, according to his elders.

But now he has to live in a world where people like Abe no Seimei exist. A teenager who has already earned national fame with his moniker of 'The Most Deadly Sorcerer Ever Born' thanks to his disgustingly overpowered Innate Technique.

Though, one should keep in mind that his moniker is strictly in reference to being deadly against non-Sorcerers, as well as people with generally low levels of Cursed Energy. Because these people he can kill simply by looking at them.

He's not quite as certainly lethal against other Sorcerers. That title goes to yet another abnormal teenager. 'The Most Lethal Sorcerer Ever Born'. A similar title, but with a very different meaning.

Seriously, what is with all the absurd Cursed Techniques these days?

The point is that despite being a true, genuine once in a lifetime genius, Kotone doesn't really stand out much.

The world is just going insane.

As if he needed further proof of his thoughts, he feels a drastic spike of Cursed Energy come from the mansion in front of him, great enough that the Curtain around it shatters like glass.

Not a moment later, the main building abruptly falls apart. A million lines appear across the building as it is cut into too many pieces to count between one blink and the next.

Then, as if enough isn't enough, another surge of Cursed Energy, equalling the first in volume, bathes over the area.

The Windows around him all collapse to the ground as the weight of two Special Grade Sorcerer's presences presses on them like an unstoppable force.

Even Kotone feels his bones creak under the pressure, though he does not buckle.

It just further proves his feelings true.

What does it matter that he is a genius, when monsters like this keep popping up?

For a moment, he feels doubt about the mission that was given to him.

Two Special Grades certainly don't need any kind of supervisor looking out for them, after all.

The only reason he is here, is because the higher ups believed that there was a chance the Curse present had some kind of innate domain as a part of its Cursed Technique.

The idea is that they want Sukuna dealt with. It has only been that Kamo's interference that has prevented Sukuna from getting an execution order already.

But the higher ups were willing to accept it if it meant getting a Special Grade they can use against the growing number of Curses.

However, now that there is another, more appealing Special Grade, some have started to wonder if it's even worth keeping Sukuna around.

However, they made an agreement that they would leave the boy alone unless he becomes too much of an out of control threat.

No one has outright said it, but they all know that they are talking about domains.

So long as the boy cannot properly counter one, they will always have a way to deal with him if he becomes a problem.

So, knowing what they did about the Curse present today, they sent Kotone to 'supervise'. In reality, he is merely there to wait until Sukuna can catch a glimpse of a domain, so that they have an excuse to execute him immediately.

Which is why they sent him. Because they need a domain that can kill in an instant, before the little monster can figure out how to counter it.

They need a domain like his.

So now, all he has to do is kill the brat, and his clan is guaranteed to rise in the Imperial Court.

Simple, right?

///

Sukuna

///

The light of the evening sun illuminates the remains of the once illustrious home of a named Samurai.

For a brief moment, there is a peaceful silence, only the gently blowing winds causing any noise. 

Then a small portion the rubble begins to shift until it suddenly explodes away in a burst of invisible force, revealing the unharmed form of Sukuna, standing with his clothes undirtied and his pink hair unruffled.

The only change in his appearance now to how he usually looks is the wide, savage grin on his face. The expression of a man ready to unleash hell upon everyone around him, all for no particular reason at all.

However, before he can leave to do so, a hand extends from another spot of rubble, drawing his attention, and his smile only widens when Narauko pulls himself out of the shadows to stand atop the rubble, equally as unruffled as Sukuna.

The two men straighten their backs and meet one another's gazes, each adopting the same casual pose, with their arms tucked into their sleeves, seemingly not preparing for battle at all, even as their auras crash into each other like a pair of tsunamis, equal in force and opposite in nature.

"Well," Narauko sighs while tilting his neck to the side until it cracks. "That was rather rude of you, don't you think?"

"You don't seem upset," Sukuna returns, making Narauko's grin only grow.

"Haha, I suppose you're right," Narauko agrees with good humour. At the same time, he reaches a hand up and grabs the front of his scarf, pulling it off of his neck and dropping it into his shadow. "I honestly don't know how to explain what I'm feeling, Sukuna. I just... I feel so happy right now."

Sukuna's grin grows a fraction at Narauko's words, and both of their Cursed Energy levels continue to grow in tandem, neither able to overpower the other, even as everything around them starts to crack and shatter to pieces under the weight of their presence.

"I'm going to kill you," Sukuna says, speaking as if he is making a simple observation. 'The sky is blue, grass is green, and you are going to die'.

"Hah!" Narauko barks a laugh in response. "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm actually immortal right now. I haven't felt enough satisfaction to die yet."

"Hmph," Sukuna scoffs, starting to scowl at Narauko, scorn filling his tone as he continues, "As if you could survive while restricting yourself so much."

"Hahaha!" Narauko laughs again, knowing exactly what Sukuna is hinting at but choosing to ignore it, as he has done for many years now.

Instead, his head tilts back slightly so that he can look down on Sukuna through more than just elevation as he whispers a single word, soaked so thoroughly in a contradictory shade of affectionate mockery as to be almost physically felt.

"Hypocrite~."

Sukuna's frown twitches and he immediately swings an arm forward in response, swiping an arc in Narauko's direction.

"Dismantle."

Narauko instantly raises a hand, causing a wall of black to follow his gesture and rise in front of him, just in time for the invisible line of Sukuna's Cursed Technique to reach it.

And as if Narauko's barrier was but air, a large gash opens through it, not slowing Sukuna's technique in the slightest. Yet, through the cut wall, Narauko's form is no longer visible.

Sukuna doesn't even get to think his question before it is answered when Narauko comes flying out of his shadow behind him, attempting to spear a hand through his heart.

But he is far too slow and Sukuna is more than fast enough to react in time, leaning to the side to dodge and following with a spinning punch of his own that meets Narauko's hastily crossed arms.

The punch launches him backwards, but Sukuna dashes ahead of his trajectory and throws a kick to connect with his back, only for Narauko to spin in the air and catch the kick with both hands on Sukuna's shin, using it as a platform to flip past Sukuna and onto his feet.

Spinning around, both of them face each other at the same time, and Narauko claps his hands together and spreads them apart at the same time that Sukuna sends another Dismantle his way.

However, between Narauko's hands his shadow grows and a small portion of Reflective Tortoise's shell is manifested, shining like a diamond mirror, just in time to catch Sukuna's technique, reflecting it right back at him.

Sukuna's grin returns as he ducks under his own Dismantle and dashes forward, moving faster than Narauko can bring his arms back down to defend, and in less than a blink, Sukuna's palm slaps against Narauko's gut, a sound that echoes clearer than it should.

"Cleave."

A lattice of cuts appear on Narauko's torso before the force of Sukuna's palm strike can send the man crashing into and through one of the compound's side buildings' walls.

The whole exchange didn't even take a minute, but Sukuna is pleased with it.

Staring at the building he knocked Narauko in, Sukuna knows that Narauko is still alive, and that thought makes his blood sing in his veins.

Trees, bugs, monkeys, there has never been a difference when it comes to his technique. Everything he has cut as parted as easily as the last. It was all so boring.

But he felt it when he landed his Cleave on Narauko. That he survived.

It's exciting. The idea that he might have met someone who can actually keep up with him. 

So far, the only people who have been capable of fighting him as equals have had years of experience over him. Narauko however, is the same age as him, and actually able to match him.

He's certain that he hasn't seen everything the other boy has yet either. In his mind, it's perfect.

Today is the day that he will no longer need to behold himself to any rules or higher ups, so having a good, proper fight to start this new period of his life seems fitting.

Plus, he really wants to kill Narauko.

His Cursed Energy just pisses him off.

///

Narauko

///

Owww.

Lying on my back, I don't have the wherewithal to account my surroundings, all too focused on the feelings of my organs falling apart in real time.

Focusing inwards, I apply positive energy to just my entire torso and let out a wet gasp as my wounds rapidly fix themselves.

Sitting up, I turn to the side and spit out a globule of blood and wipe my mouth with a sleeve.

"Haha," I feel the chuckle leave me without control, a grin growing on my face as I remember the feel of Sukuna's technique cutting through my body.

It's so interesting. Simple but effective. I like it.

"Still though," I mutter as I climb to my feet and start walking back the way I came, "He's so fast."

That thought only makes my grin grow even wider as I reach the hole in the wall and take in the sight of Sukuna.

From the feel of his Cursed Energy, I know he's feeling the same. 

This excitement, this joy at finally being able to stretch without restraint. It's a feeling I didn't know I wanted to experience so badly until just now.

Guess I'll just have to give it everything I've got, I think to myself.

"Hey Sukuna!" I call out to him. "Wanna make a bet?"

He raises a brow at me, still matching my smile. "What kind of bet?"

"The only one that matters of course~," I answer with glee. "Everything. Winner takes all."

Sukuna laughs. A full, hearty laugh from the gut. "Very well then!"

My grin turns into a smirk at his agreement, and without breaking eye contact, I bring one of my feet up to my waist and pull of my geta before doing the same with the other, placing my bare feet on the ground.

It's honestly been a while since I've been outside without wearing them, so I take a moment to enjoy the feel of the earth on my soles. I specifically wear one toothed geta for the sake of honing my balance, so taking them off should boost my capabilities a fraction.

But that's not really the main form of training I use.

Crouching down, my hand makes contact with my shadow and extends it hundreds of metres behind me, like a giant void has opened in the earth.

From that void, dozens, then hundreds of boulders and rocks of varying size rise up into the world. My weights that I carry around, pressing down on me everywhere I go.

The moment they are out of my shadow, I feel so light like I'm going to start floating into the sky. It feels good.

Apparently tired of waiting for me, Sukuna appears in front of me, throwing a hand at my throat. Except this time, I'm faster than him.

I tilt to the side and grab his wrist, pulling him down while bringing a knee up to meet him, but he copies my earlier move and uses my knee as a platform with hie free hand to flip behind me.

I barely manage to sense the activation of his technique before my hand holding his wrist is removed in a clean cut and I have to drop low to avoid being bisected next.

Spinning around, I use my momentum to throw a kick into his side, but he steps back to avoid it and I fall into my shadow to avoid his counter attack.

Inside of my shadow, I move to put some distance between us so that I can summon my Shikigami-

"Cleave."

-But I am forced back into the world when the entire grounds of the compound is cut into innumerable tiny pieces.

"Reflective Tortoise!" I intone, even making the hand sign to speed up the summoning, and in the span of seconds, a giant gem of a tortoise, the size of a building, appears from my shadow in front of me, just in time to reflect a dozen slashes back at Sukuna.

However, this Shikigami has a pretty obvious weakness that Sukuna takes no time to exploit, dashing around the slow moving beast and pointing at me almost with a finger gun, except some very real, very deadly slashes come from it.

I do my best to dodge them all, but I still lose the arm of the hand I just finished regenerating by the time I'm able to move to put the Shikigami between us again, hardly even noticing how I've figured out proper regeneration with Reverse Cursed Technique.

It's like when you're running from a fight in school and you just keep running around a desk, I bemusedly think to myself as I make the shadowgraphic for Divine Dog: Totality.

"Rabbit Escape," I intone, and I manage to catch a glimpse of Sukuna's pink hair before my sight is engulfed by the white fur of my endlessly cloning Shikigami.

At the same time, my dog manifests in my shadow and starts travelling through the shadows of my rabbits, ready to strike.

I honestly didn't know I could summon two Shikigami at the same time using Subtraction. I had never even thought to try it until just now.

Still, it worked.

But I don't want to let Sukuna see the dog yet. He might be able to figure out that it's a combination of a deceased Shikigami and an alive one. From there, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that my lion still lives on somehow, and I don't want him to think about that until it's too late.

My cheeks start to hurt from all my smiling, and unbidden a soft laugh leaves my throat.

I feel like if I make a mistake I'm genuinely going to die, and even though that should should terrify me, hell, it does terrify me, I don't want to die, but I just can't stop smiling!

An enormous slash cuts through my swarm of rabbits and I only avoid it by dropping into a split and pushing my back against the floor.

The slash hits my tortoise and shatters into a thousand individual smaller slashes that fly all over the place, cutting down yet more of my rabbits but giving me an idea in the process.

Sensing Sukuna approaching me, I keep Divine Dog close to him but hidden away, and I push more Cursed Energy into Rabbit Escape, causing a new surge of rabbits to fill the space between us.

They are killed almost immediately, but it's enough time to get back to my feet and meet Sukuna's opening right with a forearm.

That was a mistake on my part, I recognise, as my arm falls to pieces, but I don't let it distract me from throwing a punch of my own, even as I pump Positive Energy into my arm.

Sukuna blocks my punch but isn't fast enough to properly take the hit, so I end up punching past his arm and into his chest anyway, a burst of raw Cursed Energy following the impact and blowing a small hole in his chest while mangling my fist at the same time.

Blood spurts out of his mouth as he is knocked backwards, sending more slashes at me while healing himself at the same time, but instead of pursuing him, I leap backwards into my tortoise that melts into ink right before I touch it.

At the same time, the horde of rabbits disperse into shadows, drawing Sukuna's eye right as I command Divine Dog: Totality to attack.

His instincts are too sharp for me to land a killing blow like that, but it does manage to carve a line through Sukuna's flank as he spins around my Shikigami's claws.

His retaliatory Dismantle hits nothing as my Shikigami dissolves into ink, but even as he counter attacks, I have one hand raised up to my eye, making a shadowgraphic of a fox, my thumb and middle finger connecting to make the shape of a the fox's head while keeping Sukuna visible within the gap.

He must have felt my Cursed Energy moving, because his head snaps my way one second too late.

"Kon."

Like it's something from photoshop, between one instant and the next, an enormous fox's head appears, pure white fur covered in eyes that glare like angry suns, and chomps right down on Sukuna.

Blood spurts into the air and coats the teeth of Kon, my Shikigami that was born when the corpse of Lion's Pride fused with Trickster Fox.

Unfortunately, I make the mistake of letting my guard down for just a moment, and pay for it when my body is cut in half at the waist.

Even as I'm catching my legs and running enough Positive Energy to fix myself back together, my eyes are snapping past Kon and staring with joyful surprise at the form of Sukuna falling through the air with his own legs rapidly regenerating.

"Haha! You're not dead!" I gleefully exclaim, feeling my joy suffusing me even as I resummon my dog with a gesture and have it join Kon in chasing down Sukuna.

Kon can tank Sukuna's Dismantle to an extent, helped by the simple fact that it is about as large as the Samurai's late home, but Divine Dog can't, but it is fast enough to dodge so it should be fine.

Looking at the fight for a moment, I can tell instantly that Sukuna is going to win, but my Shikigami can maybe buy me a few seconds.

Clapping my hands together, I focus inwards on Reflective Tortoise and Rabbit Escape and bring both of them forward, like when I summoned two Shikigami at the same time earlier.

Except instead of trying for two summoning's, I combine them into one.

"Extension Technique: Endless Reflections."

From my shadow a thousand rabbits rise. Each has fur that glistens like diamonds under the sun, and they have tiny shells on their backs, a sight that brings me a smile.

At least, until a dozen rays of light shine directly into my eye and I realise the technique might have a downside.

Fuck it, whatever, lets fight under a disco.

Sukuna notices the new Shikigami, it would be impossible not to and he laughs, clearly enjoying himself just as much as I am.

I feel his Cursed Energy surge and send Divine Dog down into the shadows just in time for dozens, and then hundreds of slashes as long as I am tall to rain down on everything between Sukuna and I.

But my combination Shikigami scatter everywhere, reflecting cuts all over the place, completely annihilating what was left of the Samurai's compound around us, but allowing me to charge forward unhindered.

As I do so, I have Divine Dog move behind him. That Shikigami has better piercing power than I do, so I'll punch Sukuna into its claws.

Every time he tries to move from his spot Kon blocks him, and every time he tries to cut Kon one of my diamond rabbits reflects the cut away. If my brain was a supercomputer I'd probably be able to make sure all the reflected blades bounce around right back to Sukuna, but there's thousands of them by this point and I'm struggling to keep up as is.

In terms of raw power, he easily outstrips me, but as they say, a Jack of all trades is better than a master of one.

I'm gonna win, I feel the thought come unbidden as I get close enough to lunge at him, moving faster than I ever have before, fast enough that the world around me feels like it is move in slow motion, my blood singing in my veins and filling me with euphoria.

Divine Dog erupts from a shadow behind him, claws poised for centre mass as I get closer, inch by inch, my fist reaching for him, when Sukuna's smile changes.

The enjoyment we were both feeling amplifies tenfold to an insane, manic degree. Sadistic, malicious joy filling his gaze as his hands come together in what feels like stopped time.

The sign he makes is like a prayer, except his pointer and pinkie fingers are bent against each other, and as his Cursed Energy pulses around me, I realise what's happening.

He figured it out already? I think to myself, feeling my own gaze become even more affectionate even under the weight of his malice. You really are just so beautiful, Sukuna.

"Domain Expansion-

I immediately drop everything and push all of my Cursed Energy that I can into my shadow, extending it in a circle around me in a poor imitation of what I remember the Curse doing-

"Malevo-

"Domain expansion: The Final Command."

The budding barrier of Sukuna's domain shatters like glass as a foreign voice interrupts, and both of our heads snap to the side at the same time, only now noticing Inumaki Kotone standing there, a mere ten metres away from us, his hands held together in what looks like a bird whistle.

My body comes to a stop next to Sukuna without any input on my part as the world around us disappears until we are standing in a void of pure white nothing.

All that exists is myself, Sukuna by my side, the Inumaki and an uncountable number of wooden wind chimes floating on nothing all around us, above us, even below us, seemingly infinitely.

It seems my Shikigami fell apart when I pushed everything into my shadow. I can feel them bubbling in my shadow, my own mood riling them up like sharks smelling blood.

No wind blows, but the chimes still fill the silence with soft tinkling anyway.

"Inumaki-san?" I ask, caught completely poleaxed by what is going on. Are we in trouble for fighting?

The Inumaki's eyes meet my own dismissively before turning to Sukuna, and then he speaks a single word.

"Die."

My shadow holds out for only a moment before rippling and tearing apart, and then..

We die.

///

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Another cliffhanger!!! Muahaha! (jk, double chap ;))

I hope the fight wasn't disappointing, I wasn't really feeling it at the start so idk if it lives up to what I wanted for a fight between Sukuna and Narauko :/

Lmk what you think.

(Edit: Me from the future. I am actually pretty happy with this chap now, I just have a habit of hating almost everything I write immediately after I finish writing it lol)