Chapter 33: Ōeyama Hyakki Yagyō

Chapter 33: Ōeyama Hyakki Yagyō

At 7:37 PM on the 24th, the legendary King of Hundred Ghosts, Shuten-dōji, appeared in Shinjuku, Tokyo, reincarnated in a materialized form.

Minamoto Naine—or rather, Shuten-dōji—after making her declaration, seemed to notice the blade piercing her chest. The flesh on both sides of her ribs began to squirm, then split open, extending two more arms. These then twisted at a strange angle behind her back to grasp the blade of Totsuka-no-Tsurugi.

Then, as if nothing had happened, she pulled it out. Shuten-dōji held Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, the very sword that had once slain her, and examined it closely. The wound on her chest and abdomen had healed at a visible rate. She then wiped the blood from the blade with her finger and brought it to her mouth.

Her five bizarre eyes showed what could be called a sense of nostalgia. "Descendants of the Minamoto Family…" Then, her somewhat unsettling eyes suddenly turned to the Curse Master who had revived her. "Human, as a reward for awakening me, state your demand!"

The Curse Master stiffened. The way she looked at him was not like someone honorable or trustworthy, but more like an old gourmand eyeing a delicious meal. The Curse Master braced himself and said, "I have no demands. We have now brought about the Hyakki Yagyō once more. You only need to enjoy yourself, my lord."

Then, amidst her gradually rising, unrestrained laughter, the Curse Master offered up the other two curse swords.

"I say, have you decided how you want to die?" Kamihara Hajime said with a smile, then walked over to the Curse Master.

Shuten-dōji's eyes suddenly looked in different directions, and then, without her active will, crimson flames suddenly erupted from her body.

This seemed to be a signal. As the terrifying flames ignited, Shuten-dōji suddenly saw the surrounding scenery instantly transform.

One of the two familiar swords offered by the ant-like figure had vanished, and the ant-like figure was still kneeling, but his head was gone from his neck.

The smile on her face vanished. Her many pupils darted around rapidly, quickly locking onto the young man holding the Onikiri she had just seen.

"Is it simply speed? No… it's the effect of his Technique. I didn't even react at all just now, and my defense was already triggered…"

Shuten-dōji held the blade with both hands, and her other two hands clasped together in front of her chest to form a seal. "Indeed, you Jujutsu Sorcerers are as annoying as ever!"

"Hyakki Yagyō!"

Kamihara Hajime, holding the stolen Onikiri, thought about the previous situation. When he activated his Technique, intending to test Shuten-dōji with an attack, he was forced back by the blood flames that automatically rose from her body.

Although it appeared as flames, that thing was actually a special offense-defense integrated method. It had a particularly efficient destructive means against Cursed Energy and even flesh.

Upon realizing that he might not be able to inflict very effective damage, Kamihara Hajime changed his target, instead seizing a weapon, and then used this Onikiri to slay the Curse Master.

Seeing Shuten-dōji use an unknown method, Kamihara Hajime immediately turned and shouted to the nearby Jujutsu Sorcerers, "Get away from here quickly!"

Seeing a large surge of black qi rising from Shuten-dōji, the nearby Jujutsu Sorcerers also knew that this was not something they could deal with, and they all retreated into the distance.

"Haha! Come, offer all of yourselves to me! The Oe Mountain Oni Domain shall descend once more!"

An astonishing scene followed. The Cursed Spirits closer to this location suddenly stopped fighting the Jujutsu Sorcerers and instead surged towards Shuten-dōji.

Before they could even get close to Shuten-dōji, these mostly fodder Cursed Spirits twisted and shattered into smoke in mid-air, then all merged into Shuten-dōji's open embrace.

Then, amidst a disturbance in the black qi around her, several figures emerged. The most striking among them was a beautiful woman with the lower half of her face covered by her sleeve. That half-face, seemingly full of smiles, looked increasingly inhuman the more one looked at it.

Then, a thick, sharp spear pierced through the black qi and impaled the ground. This was followed by several sharp whooshing sounds, and then several more black-gray "spears" rose from the ground, forming a thorny cage.

Then, a massive figure appeared from within, a grotesquely smiling, enormous face pushing away the surrounding black qi and looking down at everyone. What appeared next were its ferocious fangs and eight eyes distributed on its sides, revealing it to be a terrifying Cursed Spirit in the shape of a bizarre spider.

Nanami Kento removed his tie and wrapped it around his hand, staring at Shuten-dōji's face as cold as an Arctic iceberg. Kamihara Hajime called out to him, "Nanami-senpai, Minamoto Naine is temporarily still alive due to the special nature of her Technique. What we need to do next is exorcise this Cursed Spirit. I'll handle it. That big guy, I'll trouble Nanami-senpai with it…"

Nanami Kento's expression relaxed slightly upon hearing this. He looked at the other Cursed Spirits still surging towards them and said in a deep voice, "We need to resolve this quickly. It seems to be able to absorb those Cursed Spirits and transform them into more powerful Curses…"

"Yes, let's go…"

Before he finished speaking, Kamihara Hajime's figure appeared in front of Shuten-dōji with a piercing bang. The blood flames burning on the latter's body had been torn open in several places by something.

Kamihara Hajime, who had appeared, had his right hand, which was holding the sword, scorched black. The intense pain caused his arm to twitch involuntarily. He had just forcefully broken through Shuten-dōji's layer of flame defense, and at the same time, the backlash attack had attached itself to his hand.

Then, Kamihara Hajime activated Technique Reversal to restore his right hand to its original state. Shuten-dōji's eyes flickered, and she then looked down at the several wounds that had opened on her body.

Just for this little brat to break through her defense and leave wounds on the "Oni King's Body" was already remarkable, not to mention that Onikiri… if she remembered correctly, that sword seemed to have targeted destructive power against "flesh."

And the way the opponent had just recovered… was it Reverse Cursed Technique? No, not quite. These Jujutsu Sorcerers… they were troublesome like stones before, and they are now! There are always those difficult characters, and the commotion over there…

Shuten-dōji also noticed the huge commotion on the other side of the battlefield just now. A very large Cursed Spirit was instantly exterminated by an attack, and the aftermath even shattered all the glass in the surrounding buildings, raining down a "shower" from the sky.

"Need to finish this quickly!"

This thought flashed through Shuten-dōji's and Kamihara Hajime's minds simultaneously. The opponent didn't know, but how could Kamihara Hajime not know? It was clearly Gojo-sensei who had acted just now.

Thinking back to how he had frantically called him and Panda, and then quickly sent them away, the current situation only had one possibility: something was wrong at Jujutsu High.

Could it be… Suguru Geto's target is Rika? Is the information about his Technique wrong? Very likely. He hadn't publicly revealed his Technique either, so it was reasonable for Suguru Geto to have a hidden card. This means he can absorb Cursed Spirits that already have Binding Vows…

Moreover, the Shuten-dōji in front of him also seemed capable of achieving an effect similar to Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Not only could she transform absorbed Cursed Spirits into more powerful Curses, but she could also use this to strengthen herself!

Shuten-dōji stared at Kamihara Hajime, her mouth almost stretching to her ears. Then she pointed her hand at a car by the roadside, and blood-colored Cursed Energy spread from her arm into the air, then climbed onto the entire car.

The entire steel frame of the car instantly melted, and other miscellaneous items like plastic and rubber were completely burned away.

In a flash, molten iron, churning in the blood flames, extended a metal handle under her control.

Shuten-dōji gripped it, the high temperature on it seemingly non-existent, only distorting the surrounding air.

Shuten-dōji exerted force with her hand, then pulled out a ferocious "beast" from it. The cylindrical club body was covered in fang-like spikes, haphazardly distributed, simply looking at it felt like it would leap up and tear at you the next moment.

Shuten-dōji held a sword in one hand, a club in the other, and her other two hands were already prepared to grab Kamihara Hajime, tear him apart, and extract his blood.

"First, test with an area attack…"

Shuten-dōji swung the spiked club in her hand and slammed it fiercely onto the ground. This ground, even if it were a thick steel plate, would probably be shattered into pieces by this blow.

Kamihara Hajime once again entered Time Null State, preparing to see if he could injure Shuten-dōji again or seize Totsuka-no-Tsurugi. With the latter's powerful defense-breaking ability, it might have a miraculous effect in breaking through Shuten-dōji's defense.

However, upon approaching Shuten-dōji, he realized that her previous attack was essentially slamming Cursed Energy around herself. This meant that once Kamihara Hajime approached, he would once again trigger that blood-colored flame.

It wasn't that Kamihara Hajime would be burned by the blood flames when his Technique was activated, but rather that as soon as he approached Shuten-dōji, he would inevitably be tainted by this special Cursed Energy, and once he exited Time Null State, this Cursed Energy would resume its burning state.

So Kamihara Hajime then changed his target, looking at Nanami Kento's two opponents: the bizarrely beautiful woman and the large spider.

At this moment, the enchanting beauty of the woman had vanished, because her left hand, which had been hidden in her sleeve, was now fully revealed, and it was a terrifying, greenish-black oni hand.

It formed a stark contrast with her beautiful face. However, as the battle progressed, her right hand, which had been covering her face, also dropped, and the revealed half of her face further distorted her beautiful features.

The lower half of her face was as grotesque as a demon from a storybook, with beast-like fangs that would only send shivers down one's spine.

The female demon-like Cursed Spirit and the large spider, cooperating with each other, were making Nanami Kento somewhat hard-pressed. Kamihara Hajime decided to deal with one first, and then figure out how to deal with Shuten-dōji.

He easily severed her head with Onikiri, then Kamihara Hajime further cut off her limbs and then pierced her through the heart.

Nanami Kento saw the Cursed Spirit in front of him suddenly drop its head with a startled expression, the entire body losing connection with its limbs like a block figure, and a spray of blood simultaneously gushing from its chest.

Then he shifted his body, cleaved the bizarre head flying in mid-air with a single strike, and charged directly towards the large spider.

Ten Lines Technique!

The spider Cursed Spirit's hard, weapon-like legs were precisely divided into ten parts in Nanami Kento's eyes.

His Technique allowed him to deal "critical" damage when attacking a target at the seven-to-three point of its length, and it could also stack with Black Flash… Coincidentally, Nanami Kento had also experienced Black Flash.

When Nanami Kento's shining black light struck the spider Cursed Spirit's legs, those steel-hard legs snapped like sugarcane, cleaved in half.

Seizing the moment when the opponent lost balance, Nanami Kento continued to strike, two consecutive Black Flash-infused blows severing most of the spider Cursed Spirit's legs.

Black Flash Triple Combo!

Then Nanami Kento stepped on its collapsing body and leaped up, dividing its head into ten parts from left to right in his eyes. Then, a thunderous strike descended from the sky, a wild black dragon tearing apart everything in its path. As blood splattered from the clean wounds, the spider Cursed Spirit's massive body also collapsed.

Black Flash Quadruple Combo!

Nanami Kento turned his head to look at Kamihara Hajime's side, but only saw Shuten-dōji enveloped in blood-colored flames, while Kamihara Hajime's figure flickered around Shuten-dōji's body like a skipping frame.

Each appearance would cause large bursts of blood flames to explode in the air. Shuten-dōji, relying on her powerful body, laughed wildly as she endured the slashes that were too fast for her to react to, then swung the iron club in her hand, unleashing violent gusts of wind.

Occasionally, Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and Spider Cutter in her hands would alternate, splashing out sword light like flowing water in the air, but most of the time, they missed, serving more to try and restrict Kamihara Hajime's offensive.

"This recovery rate is abnormal!"

Shuten-dōji thought rapidly. Every time this little brat recovered from injuries, his Cursed Energy and other states also recovered. These Cursed Energy-intensive attacks had been going on for a long time, not to mention the consumption of dispelling her oni flames.

The battle on the other side was almost over. That terrifying Jujutsu Sorcerer could attack at any moment. She couldn't delay any longer!

Then Shuten-dōji plunged the ferocious spiked club in her hand into the ground, and a wave of fire rose from the ground and rolled outwards. After forcing Kamihara Hajime and Nanami Kento back, many Cursed Spirits, like moths to a flame, plunged into the fire wave, creating ripples.

Shuten-dōji held a curse sword in each hand, then her other two hands clasped together, her sharp-nailed thumbs and pinkies touching, and an immense surge of Cursed Energy erupted.

"Domain Expansion: Ōeyama Hyakki Yagyō!"

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