Chapter 24: Overturning the Sixth Heaven (Part 2)

A sudden surge of Cursed energy shattered the concrete structures beneath me, and I rushed towards Yuji's location by the shortest path — straight down, breaking through every floor and ceiling that stood "beneath me." With each new level, I shook the building more intensely, getting closer to Sukuna. At a certain point, I fell into a room where I heard the splash of water instead of the familiar crash of metal beams and stone blocks.

"I was hoping for another lad to show up," Yuji, with tattoos on his face, tilted his head to the side and said.

"Disappointed?" I asked, scanning the surroundings and noticing the remnants of the Curse that the first-year students were supposed to exorcise.

"One more Sorcerer, one less, isn't that just a mortal bore?" Sukuna yawned.

"Too much honor for such a weak you," I retorted with equal provocation. 

"Well, now one finger more," Sukuna smirked broadly, tossing a shriveled finger into his mouth.

"Before I beat all the nonsense out of you, I have a question," I ignored Sukuna's sharp surge of Cursed energy.

"For a little flea, you have a surprisingly long tongue."

"What's so special about Itadori Yuji?"

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Sukuna stared at me discontentedly.

"He seems like a regular guy, non-Sorcerer, yet he can still contain the King of Curses… Isn't that funny?"

"Why should I know? You Sorcerers keep coming up with new ways to amuse me, and I just smirk at you like mongrels," the "Four-Eyes" chuckled in response.

So, does he really not know Yuji's secret, or is he just pretending? From my memories, Sukuna is not just acquainted with Kenjaku; they are clearly in a close relationship, so I can't believe that the King of Curses, a being of immense experience and knowledge, would be unaware of this situation. In that case, he either doesn't want to tell me about it, or he hasn't yet figured out Kenjaku's connection to Yuji... And that should work to my advantage.

"You know, I have a question for you too," Sukuna said, ripping Yuji's school jacket and pushing his hair back. "You were there too when that freak ate the first finger. Why were you hiding behind the 'Six-Eyes'?"

I didn't expect anything less from the Legendary Sorcerer and the King of Curses, so I wasn't surprised when I realized he had noticed me.

"Life becomes much simpler when there's someone to dump all the responsibility on," I chuckled mirthfully.

"An interesting thought," Sukuna nodded with a smile on his face. "Maybe then, I'll pin the death of this scumbag on you."

Right after these words, Sukuna raised his hand, clearly intending to cause me trouble, specifically to rip out Yuji's heart!

"I didn't come here for your pathetic ego to continue doing whatever it pleases," this thought flashed through my mind as I lunged towards the King of Curses.

Using Cursed energy, I got close to him faster than this bastard's nails could penetrate Yuji's chest. A swift strike with my left hand landed precisely on Sukuna's ribs, who couldn't defend himself because his right hand was busy with "self-destruction" at that moment. Sukuna's body flew sideways, smashing through one of the pillars like a cannonball.

"Now this I like," Sukuna laughed, emerging from the pile of stone and cracking his neck. "I've finally made it out, so let's make the most of this opportunity."

Before the sound of his last words reached me, Sukuna was already beside me. His swift left strike passed under my arm and aimed at my jaw, but instead of dodging, I responded with an elbow strike under his breath.

The water beneath us rippled as the sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed around. Then, Sukuna and I flew off in opposite directions. Tucking in mid-air, I softly landed on the ceiling, then pushed off it so powerfully that my jump completely destroyed it. But that didn't matter to me, as I swung again at Sukuna.

Blocked left side strike, quick sweep, dodge from a knee strike, grabbing the arm, and a throw over the hip. In a split second, I set up a block, which was immediately hit by a hefty kick, powerful enough to send me flying and demolishing the two remaining supports.

"Bravo!" Sukuna addressed me, surveying the gradually collapsing room. "But it's a bit cramped here, don't you think?"

My response was the "One Minute"!

Even when I shifted to the Sixth Sequence, the peculiarity of my "Enhancement" remained unchanged. This seemed odd because I had previously thought that this minute was meant to "ignite the flame" in my body. Hence, with the temperature of my Cursed energy increasing in the Sixth Sequence, this phase should have at least halved. However, nothing of the sort happened. The time I could enhance my body extended to nearly half an hour, and the process became more refined, but those "sixty seconds" remained constant, as if they were a certain condition...

Exactly sixty seconds ago, when I began breaking my way to Sukuna, "Enhancement" was activated, and it was time to dish out a beating to the King of Curses himself.

At that moment, the water around my ankles began to boil and evaporate. Before Sukuna could react to this change, I was beside him. Slightly bending my knees, I delivered a "right uppercut" that not even Mike Tyson in his prime could dream of. A visible pulse radiated from the point where my fist met his chin, and Sukuna's body shot upward like a rocket.

Crouching and pushing off with all my might, I flew up after Sukuna. Mid-air, I found myself next to the King of Curses, allowing me to drive my heel into his stomach with a spin. Despite the kinetic potential from my first strike that Sukuna's body possessed, after the second hit, the four-eyed was smashed into the ground with such force that it completely destroyed the building where we had been fighting.

"Summer rain, surely a harbinger of a scumbag like you," I said, watching as the raindrops falling on me instantly evaporated.

From beneath the rubble, there came a laugh mad in its essence.

"Impressive, very impressive," Sukuna emerged from the cloud of dust that rose tens of meters high. "What a special enhancement of Cursed energy."

"It'll be stronger than yours," I boldly smiled at the King of Curses.

"But does it really matter," Sukuna just shrugged. "After all, in any era, worms seem to crawl out from everywhere... Strong or weak, does it make any difference?"

Following his words, Sukuna swung his hand horizontally. The sense of danger, which had mostly been silent until now, howled like a siren.

This was the moment I had been waiting for! During this battle, I had three objectives: prevent the exposure of my Territory, save Yuji, and master Sukuna's Cursed Technique. I had handled the first two well, and it was time for the third!

Unlike almost everyone else in this world, I knew that Sukuna's "Slashing Attacks" were divided into two types: "Dismantle" – for dealing with inanimate objects, and "Cleave" – an additional slashing attack that adapts to the cursed energy and the enemy's durability to slice them in one strike. Thus, I had already devised a very interesting, yet equally risky plan.

In an instant, everything around me came to a standstill. Thanks to years of experience and numerous battles, I was adept at instantly activating Spiritual Vision and focusing on my [Heightened Senses], but this time I attempted something truly insane — splitting my brain into two parts. One for Spiritual Vision and the other for maximally sharpened sight. Waves of nausea swept through my body as if something was twisting me from the inside, and the scene before my eyes changed at breakneck speed. It got so bad that at one point I thought I had blacked out from information overload, but it was at that moment that the "Reverse Technique," which I instinctively activated sensing imminent danger, came to my rescue.

Calmness ensued in a flash. The world split into two similar yet different scenes. My left eye saw the Spiritual world, and my right – the real one. The right hemisphere of my brain was responsible for imagination, for the Spiritual world, and the left for logic, for the real world. What an interesting discovery. A strange "glass" line, halfway from Sukuna to me, sobered me up from extraneous thoughts. Interestingly, although I saw the reflection of the attack in the Spiritual world only after noticing a strange shift in the air masses in the real world, I paid attention to this shift only because there was an empty furrow in the Spiritual world at that spot. As insane as the plan was, so was the result.

As they say: "Every technique has a weakness, and the weakness of this technique is my existence!" The world around me returned to its usual flow of time. I deftly jumped up and straightened horizontally in flight, following Sukuna's "Slashing Attack" with my eyes.

"It's refreshing," I took a deep breath, looking around with my new vision.

"How?" A stunned Sukuna froze.

I didn't bother answering such foolish questions and burst from my spot in a wild dash. Even without "Reinforcement," I was equal to Sukuna with one or two fingers, but with it, I tossed and beat him around like a stray dog.

The moment my hand almost touched the face of the King of Curses, I had to shift my balance higher to jump again and dodge Sukuna's "Slashing Attack." But this time, there were three of them — thrown crosswise in a star formation. A sharp spin in mid-air, and I slammed my shin into the King of Curses' head. Then, I immediately leapt to the side, performing a "back handspring" and evading two more of Sukuna's attacks.

Explosion. Sending a mental command, I sent a pulse to the spot where I had stood less than a second ago. In the next instant, there was a small explosion, after which I lunged back into the attack.

"Not bad, scumbag, not bad at all," Sukuna smiled, standing opposite me.

"I didn't even use my technique, so what do you mean by 'not bad'?" I used [Provocation] to irritate the King of Curses more... Petty? Absolutely!

"I think this era will provide me plenty of amusement," Sukuna was clearly thinking ahead. "Consider this a winner's reward."

In the next moment, the vessel of the King of Curses completely healed from all the wounds that still remained on him. Then the tattoos disappeared, and Yuji collapsed unconscious on the ground.

"Why did you have to act like a decent guy in the end?" I spoke to myself, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from my pocket. "I know you're still a scum... Now, what to do with the body?"