CHAPTER 6: PRICE OF POWER

The hallway was red.

Not with lights—but with blood.

Yuji Itadori gritted his teeth as he clutched the stump where his right wrist had once been. The pain was blinding, but he stood. Still ready to fight.

The White Curse loomed over him—completely unfazed by their attacks. Its claws dripped with cursed energy, its demonic face grinning in pleasure.

Yuji looked back at Megumi.

"Run."

"What?" Megumi was already battered, panting.

"I'm gonna bring him out."

Megumi's eyes widened. "You don't mean—"

Yuji winced in pain, his voice raw. "Do it. Get Nobara and run. As far as you can."

Megumi hesitated—then nodded. "Don't die."

Megumi darted down the ruined corridor. His cursed energy flared as he leapt past falling debris and crawling spirits. He could feel the tremors building behind him.

Far down the hall, Nobara was screaming as a fleshy curse tried to swallow her whole.

"Megumi!" she shouted, pinned under rubble.

He didn't stop.

With one final sprint, he tackled the curse off her, unleashing Toad Shikigami to grab the beast by its throat.

Nobara gasped. "You're a mess…"

"You're worse," Megumi muttered, helping her up.

They both turned back—toward the vibrations in the walls.

"That idiot," Nobara whispered. "He really brought him out, didn't he?"

Back in the cursed corridor—

Yuji's head dropped forward.

Then—

He lifted it again.

But it wasn't Yuji anymore.

Sukuna grinned.

The shift in energy was immediate. The very air twisted, the walls groaned, and curses hiding in the shadows disintegrated from the pressure alone.

"Now then…" Sukuna said, stretching, cracking his neck.

He looked at the White Curse, who took a step back instinctively.

Sukuna licked his lips. "You dare hurt my vessel?"

He raised his hand and unleashed a single vertical slash with invisible cursed energy.

The White Curse didn't even get to scream. It was obliterated. Severed into thin flakes of meat and mist in an instant.

In the carnage, something shiny rolled across the floor.

Sukuna caught it before it even hit the ground.

Another of his fingers.

He looked at it with amusement—and casually swallowed it.

"Delicious," he sneered.

He waited.

Nothing happened.

No forced shift. No suppression. No Yuji.

"Huh…" Sukuna whispered.

Then, he smirked.

"Well now…"

He turned to the dark corridor, away from where Megumi and Nobara had fled.

"…Let's see how long I get to play."

To be continued...