Hunger

[Author Note]

Disc: HrPrTeam

Is Miwa stronger in Shinjuku because of training, or is she weaker due to her binding vow?

Vote Below.

Stronger due to training/timeskip:

Weaker due to binding vow in Shibuya:

__________

Sendai

As both sides stared each other down, Ryu moved first.

Quickly, he turned toward Yuta.

Ryu spoke with a smile. "[Granite Blast]."

*BTZ PHEW*

Maki moved to protect Yuta, but it was too fast.

Since Yuta no longer had Rika protecting him, eliminating him before she could be fully manifested would put him ahead and make it a one-on-one fight between him and Maki.

Yuta reacted and put both his hands in front of his face.

*SKR BOOM*

He caught it.

...

*Sizzle*

Yuta looked at his hands in shock and saw they were only slightly burned.

*kick*

Maki threw a kick to the side of his head, but it was blocked by his forearm.

Ryu had a wide smile. "That wasn't bad!"

She brought her leg down and spun into a sword strike.

Ryu Ishigori is known for his immense durability. Even Sukuna commented on it, needing cleave to kill him when he was at 15 Fingers. Maki noticed this, so switching to a durability negation sword would be the most efficient way to kill him.

*WOOSH*

His eyes widened as he barely ducked under the strike.

Ryu had a thought. 'That sword could pierce 'that thing' (Rika). Getting hit by it would be nasty.'

Yuta stood still in shock as Maki swapped hands with Ryu.

Ryu is an expert at hand-to-hand combat, and his durability makes him a tough opponent to take head-on. He could unmanifest a partially manifested Shikigami Rika with a single punch that was stated to be too much if she was at full power.

So, even if Maki can land more destructive hits, it doesn't mean much if he can handle them.

He smiled as he was directly in front of Maki. "[Granite Blast]!"

She crossed her arms in an X formation.

*Sizzle*

It chars her arms, but she swings back.

*BAM*

She punches him in the face.

Maki looked irritated as she noticed Yuta wasn't doing anything.

However...

That blast felt familiar to Yuta.

He whispered. "So it was you."

Ryu pushed Maki's hand up, avoiding another strike, but he had someone else to worry about.

He turned as he saw a train door in front of his face.

*BAM*

Yuta reinforced the train door, held on to it as a makeshift weapon, and slapped him across the face.

A bruise appeared on Ryu's face.

Using the moment to strike, Maki suddenly found herself behind him.

*Kick*

She kicked him in the back. However, Ryu focused on the person in front of him. 

*BAM*

Ryu smiled as he punched Yuta across the face, but he noticed something was wrong.

Yuta barely flinched as Ryu thought to himself. 'His body is reinforced like crazy.'

At this moment, Ryu realized that while Rika was unmanifested, she was feeding him her boundless cursed energy.

Yuta raised the door as Ryu arrived in front of him.

*BAM*

He slammed him down to the ground with the train door.

Maki arrived above him and swung the split soul sword straight down to decapitate Ryu.

He spoke while still face-down in the rubble. "[Domain Expansion: Celestial Sanctuary]."

A black barrier forms around everyone as the entire space turns white.

At the last second, Ryu rolled away from Maki's strike.

*slice*

He didn't avoid everything, as he lost his right arm.

Ryu speaks with a crazy smile. "YOU BOTH TRULY ARE A DESSERT! [Granite Missile]!"

Blasts of cursed energy explode from his body and shoot towards Yuta.

Since Ryu's cursed technique relies solely on cursed energy discharge, aiming them can be problematic. So, inside his domain, everyone trapped within becomes a target, as he can blast multiple attacks that act as homing missiles.

Ryu turns towards Maki. "[Granite Blast]."

He fires off a blast as he notices Maki isn't targeted by his can't-miss attacks. 'She has no cursed energy to lock onto.'

*SKR*

She blocks it with the soul splitter.

*BTZ*

Ryu smiles as he charges up another granite blast to shoot at Maki. "Now that Okkotsu is done wit-"

*Grab*

Yuta jumps out of the smoke and grabs his hair as it fizzles.

Ryu's eyes widen as Yuta speaks in a somber tone. "Rika."

*SPLAT*

...

...

...

*Crack*

*Shatter*

Ryu's domain shatters as he sees a massive claw through his stomach.

He slowly grins as he speaks, with blood coming out of his mouth. "Thanks, kid, you filled my hunger."

His eyes lose life as he goes limp, with Rika's arm being the only thing holding him up.

Kogane speaks. "You have earned 50 Points!"

Yuta speaks with burn marks, teared-up uniform, and blood all over his body. "Rika, you can come out now."

After those words, the massive creature instantly bursts out from his shadow and starts crying, not after tasting some of his blood to add a cursed technique to his arsenal. "*WAH* Yuta, you are hurt!"

While he was able to kill Ryu, he took three of Ryu's [Granite Missiles]. Even with Rika's cursed energy reinforcement, he still took hits that could've killed him.

Maki spoke. "That will never, not get weird. In any case, use your points to create some rules."

Yuta nods. "Kogane, make a rule that allows players to leave the Culling Games if they sacrifice 100 points."

Kogane gives an announcement. "A player may leave the Culling Games if they sacrifice 100 Points."

He turns towards Maki. "I need to see Shoko. I might die if I continue like this."

Rika started sweating, but Maki nodded. "I'll continue on. There are still a few players here that I'll need to take care of."

Yuta turns toward Rika and smiles. "Let's go back, Rika."

She rapidly nods. "I'll go wherever you do, dear!"

Yuta thought to himself and sighed. '*Sigh* It's not like you have a choice...'

*smack*

Maki slapped his back. "You weren't bad today. Even though Rika did a lot of the heavy lifting, you didn't complain too much."

Yuta raised an eyebrow. "Thanks?"

With that, Maki waved and left Yuta. "See ya."

Rika gave him the side eye but went back into his shadow.

...

Elsewhere in Sendai

A woman spoke, injured from her previous fight. "*Huff* *Huff* What an annoying technique. I can make a rule now that I have over a hundred points. Dhruv wasn't easy to kill."

Looking down, she saw cuts and bruises.

She spoke up. "Kogane, make a rule that allows players to heal their body after gaining more than 50 points at a time, including points earned before the rule was made."

Kogane halted for a moment, seemingly thinking, before nodding. "The game master has approved the rule."

She fell down as her body started to visibly heal, as if she was using reverse cursed technique.

Takako Uro.

An assassin from the Heian era. She uses Sky Manipulation to bend the space around her. Similarly to Ryu, she wants to excel in the Culling Games even if it means she must kill innocents.

She rested her head back on a wall and spoke. "Kogane, show me the players with the highest points in Sendai."

...

Maki Zenin (Picture): 25 Points

Takako Uro (Picture): 10 Points

Kasumi Miwa (Picture): 5 Points

...

Her eyes widened. "Ryu Ishigori was killed!?"

According to the previous rankings, she assumed that she would have to fight Ryu at some point after killing Dhruv, but someone else got to him first.

She thought to herself. 'Who killed him? Two others have a few points, but they could've created a rule. If that's the case, it's most likely that Kasumi Miwa was the one who did it since she's in the top scorer list and has the least points, which makes sense after spending 100 points to create a rule.'

Takako Uro couldn't help but start sweating when she thought of the strength someone would have to kill Ryu.

Uro doubted that she could kill Ryu in a head-on fight.

She narrowed her eyes. "What am I even thinking? I don't care if she killed Ryu. I'm going to rip her apart."

After sitting down for a few more moments, she stood up.

...

Stretching her arms, she spoke up. "Kasumi Miwa, I'm coming for you."