Chapter 130: Photo Booth

STEP STEP STEP.

Aimless footsteps echoed through a destroyed subway station, Yuji Itadori descended concrete stairs with madness in his eyes. The disturbing acts Sukuna committed while in control of Yuji's body had clearly taken a toll on him. The flickering subway lights cast an ominous glimmer as Yuji's gaze snapped toward a photo booth down the hall. 

Surrounded by hundreds of mangled corpses, Yuji's rage intensified as he spotted a figure inside the booth. Strutting towards it angrily. While a maniacal laugh emerged from the pinkish booth.

"Ah, Yuji Itadori. You're late to the party. Missed all the fun," Mahito taunted, stepping out with an evil grin that went ear to ear. In his hand, he held a stack of printed photos from the booth. With a flick of his wrist, he flung the photos, sending them flying up into the air around them.

Yuji's eyes tracked the falling photos until he could finally make out the photographs and what he saw made his blood boil with unprecedented anger. The photos, were several varieties of Mahito and Junpei crudely morphed onto Mahito's right hand. 

"How about we take some more photos after I end you? A nice one with your lifeless body. You and Junpei can be together again," Mahito sneered.

This single comment, made Yuji snap, as his body flickered and reappeared next to Mahito right when the falling photos touched the ground. Mahito stared at Yuji shocked by his intense speed, while Yuji through a lightning-fast punch. That narrowly missed Mahito, who oddly morphed his body and slithered out of the way of the punch. 

The missed punch slammed into the photo booth, crushing it, until a delayed impact, slammed into the photo booth again this time cracking the brick wall behind it. Rubble started to fall down from the subway roof, as the subway grew increasingly unstable, the rubble bounced off Mahito and Yuji's body, as Yuji said a single thing. 

" I will kill you. "

" Blah, how boring, you couldn't come up with something more original. You just sound like a boring action hero, I will kill you. How scary. " Taunted Mahito while he dashed back from Yuji mockingly waving his hands. 

Yuji let out a frustrated grunt as he sprinted towards the escaping Mahito, his heavy footsteps cracking the white tiles beneath him. In a swift motion, Mahito's right arm transformed into a gun, shooting out transfigured humans towards Yuji. Forcing him to change direction, Yuji quickly took cover behind a lone stone pillar.

As bullets whizzed past the pillar, Yuji maintained a cold stare ahead, pondering a strategy to close the gap between him and Mahito. Suddenly, a realization struck him, and he forcefully stomped his foot on the ground, causing tiles to shoot up into the air. The incoming bullets collided with the floating tiles, disintegrating them into dust.

The disintegrated tiles created a makeshift smoke screen, obscuring Mahito's vision. However, Mahito remained unfazed, relying on his ability to sense Yuji's curse energy. He ceased firing and patiently waited for Yuji's approach. After only a few seconds, the smoke cloud's natural movements changed as a figure filled with curse energy hurled towards Mahito.

Who preemptively transformed his arm into a blade and swung it toward the approaching figure. But to his astonishment, a single red shoe flew beneath his arm, catching him off guard. Mahito stared in disbelief at the shoe before in the corner of his eye, he watched as a surge of curse energy-covered knuckles collided with his chin, sending him hurtling backward until he crashed into a nearby elevator.

Mahito lay on the elevator floor, blood trickling from his nose. He watched Yuji slipping his shoe back on just before the doors closed, and the elevator began its descent to a lower level of the subway station. Motionless, Mahito laid there for a moment before he began muttering to himself.

"His punches still pose a threat. I must maintain my distance and gradually wear him down. And I can use that woman as insurance... CRACK."

Before Mahito could complete his strategic thoughts, the trap door above the elevator was forcefully torn off, revealing a pair of eyes that bore into the depths of Mahito's soul...

During the intense battle between Mahito and Yuji, Nobara unexpectedly encountered Mahito's clone. She stared at him with a mischievous grin and taunted him, "Are you going to run away like Mute?"

 "Mute ran away from you? And here I thought he was strong." Nobara sneered and mocked him,

"Tsk, at least he has won fights, unlike you. You're just a loser." Her words were filled with disdain. As tension rose, veins started bulging out of Mahito's forehead. He swiftly lunged towards Nobara, transforming his right arm into a whip with glass protruding from it.

Mahito swung the whip wildly, narrowly missing Nobara as she skillfully ducked under it. Seizing the opportunity, she tossed a nail into the air and swiftly struck it with her hammer, sending it hurtling towards Mahito. However, Mahito effortlessly leaned to the right, evading the nail.

The nail pierced into a wall before suddenly, the wall behind Mahito exploded, causing a cascade of debris to plummet toward him. Shocked, Mahito quickly dashed to the right, narrowly avoiding the falling rubble. The debris crashed onto the ground with a loud thud. Undeterred, Nobara unleashed a barrage of nails at Mahito, who skillfully contorted his body to dodge each one.

With a cocky tone, Mahito remarked, "Did Gojo teach you anything?"

Mahito then lunged towards Nobara, launching a relentless onslaught of attacks, transforming his body into various weapons. Overwhelmed by the sheer variety, Nobara narrowly evaded the barrage, until she ducked under a sword and seized an opportunity to grab onto Mahito's left shoulder, using it as leverage to somersault into the air. Her hair blew wildly in the wind while she grinned wildly and spoke with confidence.

" Resonance "...

Blood spewed out of Mahito's mouth, as black spikes protruded out of his chest, Yuji stared at the spikes before he instantly thought of Nobara with a grin on his face. Yuji quickly slammed a powerful overhand into Mahito's chin, sending him crashing into a pillar.

Yuji dashed towards the stunned Mahito with a grin on his face, while he thought to himself. 

" Thank you Nobara, you made me realize that I'm not fighting alone. "...