He's You, Karna!

"Let's get this done!" After yelling that, I made a seal, though it wasn't a simple one. My right index and middle fingers were crossed, with the middle finger behind the index. That red-black aura exploded from my body, fully engulfing it, like if I were on fire. I'd done it...! I was ready! I felt so... strong... stronger than I'd ever felt before! But I also noticed cursed energy leaving my body rapidly. The more I master my control over cursed energy, the more I'll be able to absorb it from my surroundings...!

So this is what being a vessel means! I then gazed at Sukuna, who returned my gaze... but he had an unreadable face. Was he reminiscing about the past? He had that look. "What? Too blown away by my talent?" With a roll of his eyes, he quickly grinned. "I'll hand you that, brat, you've got talent." "I kno-" "But not the experience; you're missing out on the whole picture." Not even letting me bask in my own greatness. "...Tch." "Don't "tch" me, punk. Now, come at me...!" He roared, with one hand in his pocket now.

Tsunade-sama... one of the Sannin... was easily outclassed by this guy I'm about to fight. Hehe...! I don't know why, but I cracked a grin. "Let's get this ball rolling...!" I was already in front of Sukuna, ready to knee him in the face, yelling that. But what surprised me was that he smirked as he received my knee to his face, and I instinctively flickered back, feeling he was plotting something.

He didn't even bother to rub the spot where I struck him, smirking all the while. "You've got the speed, too... but for me...? Too slow!" He immediately vanished. I felt anxious... scanning all over as I tried to detect him. Suddenly, a fist struck me across the face... with the force of an entire house. I was launched into the air, puking blood.

...I'm not sure how long or how far I flew until I was able to calm down in the air. I flipped in the air, landing my foot on the ground. I touched the spot where I'd been hit... dammit, that shit hurt. I then heard chuckling, I looked up to see Sukuna with his arms folded, a broad grin on his face. "How did my low-level punch feel like...? Didn't seem to hurt all that much, did it...?" I mock chuckled... this dickhead... his words were dripping with sarcasm!

"...They sure as heck didn't. You know..." I spat blood out. "...You're not the only one putting the other to the test." I was there in front of Sukuna before he could react in any manner. I arched my right leg and fired it towards Sukuna's midriff at speeds faster than before... the pinkhead's eyes widened somewhat. He moved slightly off his stance, but it was enough for me. It was a positive step forward. Suddenly, something else caught my attention.

My leg wasn't covered in a layer of cursed energy... but now it is! With the same red-black aura on my leg, I shoved Sukuna even further off, finally breaking that pinkhead's footing! I did a flip and jumped back. I then deduced something and came to a conclusion. A time lag! I used a thin coating of cursed energy on my leg to strike. But then, unknowingly, I did something else. I then released a second wave of cursed energy, possibly making two strikes with one blow!

"...This "technique" of yours..." Sukuna himself was taken aback. "This... technique of yours is based on the cursed energy flow left over from your intrinsic superhuman reflexes... This is quite a technique." Should I come up with a name for this technique I just created...? "..."Divergent Style" comes to mind. It does seem to fit... don't it?" I smirked back at the man who'd just read my mind. "Yeah... it fits nicely." I raised my hands, channelling cursed energy into them as well as my legs. "Round 2! Now let's get started!"

...

We sparred for almost an hour and a half. I'd been beaten up pretty badly. Like a walking corpse with a mountain piled on top of it... yep, that horrible. Sukuna... he only had a few scrapes and bruises on him that I was able to gain on him... purely by accident. This fight was very eye-opening for me... I considered myself to be... a prodigy. A one-of-a-kind prodigy.

A genius like no other. That's what Ji-chan used to call me. Being called that by my grandfather... the person I admire the most, made me very proud. "Heh." I mockedly chuckled at myself... I'm such a dumbass...! But...! But this is only the beginning! I'll go hard...! Harder than anyone has ever gone before! That moniker, "God of Shinobi," will soon be mine. Sukuna then approached me without a smirk on his face, which was... very unsettling.

He then extended his hand toward me, and a yellow-bright shield appeared over my body... I felt warm all of a sudden... I felt like I was healing... wait, what?! He was healing me! "Can cursed energy be used to heal others?! Like how we shinobi use chakra to perform medical jutsu...?!" Naturally, I was ecstatic. If I can gain control of cursed energy at the atomic level, I'll have an infinite supply of it, which means I'll be able to heal myself and others indefinitely!

"Yes. I'm currently healing you with a "Reverse Cursed Technique." I was ready to ask him to teach me that when... "...This is something you're not quite ready to learn... yet. Let's just say you'll have to... end up dead... and come right back... in order to put it to use for the first time." Wow, that's some deep crap. "Come on, I've already healed you. Let's go at it again. I'm still waiting for you to right that mistake." Wasn't he supposed to tell me about that mistake...?

Let's leave it at that. I was back in front of the same man who had beaten me to a pulp an hour or two ago. Cursed energy had engulfed my legs and arms. I noticed Sukuna scowling at me... ooh, jealous of my talent, pinky? He's got to be! Even so, that guy always has either a scowl or a smirk on his tatted face. He immediately vanished from his previous site…! I tried not to be too alarmed... I tried to detect his presence... here... there... the- right in front of me!

I put my hands up, bracing myself, as a fist flew in front of me. I skidded back... and boy, this guy strikes hard! My hands had gone numb, and if it hadn't been for the cursed energy covering them, they'd have gone completely numb!

...

Miyuki surged towards the pinkhead, leaping to deliver him a strong roundhouse kick in the face. Sukuna immediately grabbed his foot as it drew closer to his face, wheeling around to slam him to the ground. Miyuki finally screeched to a halt as he rolled around on the ground, splashing that mystery liquid everywhere... it wasn't even leaving him wet. He lunged at the pinkhead again, shaking his head.

The redhead was in front of Sukuna. He shot to his feet with a simple touch on the ground, bending his leg back as he moved to kick the pinkhead in the jaw. Sukuna stepped back just in time, but when he peered in front of him... Miyuki had vanished! He suddenly felt something above him. Miyuki. Heading straight for him, an axe-kick on the brink of smashing his face. Sukuna, unexpectedly, didn't even move away this time.

He received the kick square in the face, along with the more devastating second hit from the second release of cursed energy... but then! Sukuna vanished, and the redhead's head was grasped before being rammed down by the mighty curse before he could even register what had just happened. 'He didn't even flinch as the second flow of cursed energy hit him?!' All Miyuki could think before being catapulted into the air by the pinkhead.

Miyuki flipped his body in the air a few times, but before he could even think of a way to land, he was knocked down on the ground by an unwanted force. A powerful shockwave swept through the Cursed Domain as Miyuki came crashing down, penetrating the surface and revealing the reddish soil with brilliant purple streaks beneath. Sukuna stared intently at his appearing lifeless body on the ground... the weird liquid encircling and gradually swallowing him.

His body emerged a few moments later... and Sukuna frowned. "He wasn't devoured by the "Bermuda"...? It seems that person is in serious need of his serenity..." Sukuna muttered, his eyes squinted. "The Bermuda devours everything... but my very own existence..." Those were his words. After I brought him here, I was surprised that the Bermuda didn't devour him whole. He was even walking upon it...! And even when I knocked him down, the Bermuda... instead of devouring him, it brought him up...?!"

"Those that somehow make it to the Cursed Domain are devoured by the Bermuda... being undeserving. It was all a ruse... no one could see us curses! Hmph! A decade!? Only his own existence, he claimed, would be able to see us and wade across the dreadful waters of the Bermuda. What a fool I was! That boy is undoubtedly him...! I was just a fool not to perceive him as that man's chosen one..." Sukuna muttered to himself before he noticed Miyuki's body vanish from its spot.

...Appearing directly above him. Sukuna smirked as he whirled around to receive the redhead's kick that was heading straight for his face, but as he did so... Miyuki vanished! Behind Sukuna, the redhead reappeared, poised to plant his feet onto the pinkhead's spine. Sukuna welcomed the kick with a peculiar broad grin on his face, a kick that would normally have shattered a jounin's spine with ease. His grin only widened as he was blasted to the ground... because...

'Hehehehahaha...! He's the one...! Miyuki Shirogane is the one you've chosen...! Even I had my doubts at first... but he is the honoured one...! The one who will tip the scales of this miserable world!'

'Karna Otsutsuki...!'

'He's... you!'