I Sealed Sukuna’s Finger#447+448: So It Was You, You Mutt, Boring Performance? Then Die

Two seconds—by the time Bokue Keikain reappeared, he'd brought along a tea table, four tea chairs, two men, one woman, and a certain Sukuna jinchūriki being held by the scruff.

Yuji Itadori, being carried by his collar, was still flailing about trying to struggle free.

"Nani?? Wait... where is this place? And why is there a tree growing a human head?"

One second sitting in a Kyoto tea house, the next second dumped in a forest before a tree sprouting a human head—Yuji Itadori let out a wail worthy of Happy from Fairy Tail.

"Wake up. That's not a 'human head tree.' He has his own body—his head's just here at the moment."

Bokue's voice came from behind, offering this reminder.

"Now hurry up and bring out that cursed freak inside you. Time to swap drivers."

"Swap... you want him to release Sukuna here??"

The entire process happened so suddenly that Megumi Fushiguro—standing to the side—only now realized their surroundings had completely changed. Especially after hearing the young man's words, his face showed shock as he leaped from his chair and rushed forward demanding answers.

"So what's going on? Why did you bring us here? Who's that head hanging on the tree? Why do you want Sukuna from inside Yuji to fight him? Explain yourself right..."

"Alright, alright, no need to rush."

The one offering reassurance wasn't Bokue, but Gojo Satoru—still seated in his chair.

Unlike the tea house's flat floor, the mountain forest's ground was uneven, making it impossible to set chairs normally. All the furniture brought along had been lifted by Bokue's magnetic field power to float mid-air.

And a certain silver-haired overgrown youth currently sat leisurely in his floating chair, holding a cup of hot tea. He took an affected elegant sip with a smile.

"Bokue-kun and I haven't seen each other in so long. For him to bring us to a place like this the moment we meet again, there must be some reason, right?"

"Oh, there's no particular reason. Just a whim on my part."

Bokue spread his hands without giving face, then pointed at the head embedded in the tree.

"Incidentally, the head you're looking at right now is the legendary founder of Onmyōji from a thousand years ago—Abe no Seimei."

"...Eh?"

Gojo's eyebrow twitched, the hand holding his teacup trembling slightly.

Though he'd guessed Bokue might throw them something major, he hadn't expected it to be this heavyweight.

They hadn't even dealt with Sukuna yet, and now they had Abe no Seimei added to the mix. This was...

"So is he just a head right now, or what? Is he about to break his seal and burst out?"

Megumi pointed at Abe no Seimei in the tree, turning to ask.

"No."

Bokue shrugged.

"Like I said, only his head is here. As for his body—I found him rather uncooperative, so I temporarily removed it."

"?"

This time Megumi didn't even have a question, just put out a clean, crisp question mark.

What did "temporarily removed" mean? Like it could be reattached later? When did humans evolve hot-swappable heads?

Shouldn't that be DIO's exclusive ability...

"So Abe no Seimei really did resurrect?"

Nobara Kugisaki's face showed amazement.

"No wonder Sukuna inside Yuji kept making a fuss about going to fight Abe no Seimei. We were drinking tea at the tea house when he got so loud we couldn't stand it. Finally had no choice but to slap a bandage on Yuji's face to cover his mouth."

"Well, yeah..."

Yuji glanced down at the bandage stuck to his face.

"But that guy kept making noise even after the bandage went on, didn't stop until that super huge baby in the sky shattered. Then he went completely silent and hasn't said anything since."

"Oh?"

Guessing at a certain possibility, Bokue reached toward the bandage on Yuji's face.

"Then I'm taking it off."

He gave fair warning, then gently pulled.

The bandage came off cleanly, revealing beneath it a miniature face with a layout eerily similar to Plankton from SpongeBob.

Pfft...

One glance and Bokue couldn't hold back his laughter.

It really was Plankton.

Like during the Ninja War in Naruto when Madara Uchiha had Hashirama Senju's face on his chest—except Sukuna had moved his face onto Yuji Itadori's cheek, with only one eye and one mouth.

Yet even from this crude face, Bokue could read incredibly complex emotions.

Hatred, fear, rage, humiliation...

Not directed at him, but at a certain founder of Onmyōji currently embedded in the tree.

"Yo, we meet again."

Bokue offered a greeting.

"Come to think of it, the first time we met, I mentioned Abe no Seimei's name. You had this same expression then too. Looks like you got beaten pretty badly back then? But now your chance for revenge is right in front of you. Not going to take a shot?"

"Alright, swap over."

With that, Bokue snapped his fingers lightly.

Accompanying the snap, Yuji Itadori—who'd been about to say something more—slowly closed his eyes. Even the miniature Sukuna face on his cheek faded away.

A few seconds later, when he reopened his eyes, his entire aura had changed.

Surging cursed energy whipped up his short bangs. Violent, cold killing intent practically materialized, making the air throughout the entire forest humid and viscous.

"Abe... no Seimeiiii!!"

He roared, swinging his hand to launch a full-power slash at Abe no Seimei still embedded in the tree trunk.

But the next second, an arrow filled with highly compressed spiritual power pierced through Sukuna's arm.

Bokue had somehow already pulled over Abe no Seimei's body, dug the head out of the tree trunk, and pressed it back onto the body.

There wasn't even a healing process—everything fit together seamlessly.

Right now, Abe no Seimei was being held by Bokue beside him—one hand gripping the head, one hand supporting the body. His right arm extended forward, index finger pointing at Sukuna before them.

That spiritual power arrow had been shot from his fingertip.

"Ew, why's he naked?"

Nobara took one look and made a disgusted sound.

Meanwhile, having confirmed Abe no Seimei's head and body were successfully reconnected, Bokue moved to Sukuna's side next. With a light touch of soul power, he delved into the latter's interior.

At the same moment, Sukuna seemed to sense something too. He could feel roughly ten threads being pulled and extended from within his body, like elastic spider silk summoning him toward various locations.

This was... the locations of all his scattered fingers?

Familiar energy signatures let Sukuna instantly understand what this sensation meant.

"Since it's a one-on-one, both sides should obviously be at full strength to be fair."

Bokue closed his eyes as he spoke.

"Alright, I've found all the fingers. Though there's still one missing, I've supplemented it for you... here we go."

As his words fell, the soul threads pulled taut.

The next moment, like the gathering of Dragon Balls, accompanied by over ten streaks of light cutting across the sky, all of Sukuna's fingers converged from all directions toward their current position. After reaching the airspace above, they rapidly descended, merging precisely into Sukuna's body all at once.

"Oh? This feeling... it seems vaguely familiar..."

Watching as all the soul fragments returned completely into the body before him, the cursed energy rising like a rocket for the sorcerer hailed as the strongest in history, the founder of Onmyōji slightly raised his face. The golden six-pointed stars in his eyes—symbolizing the supreme powerhouse of an entire era—slowly rotated.

"So it was you, you mutt."

<><><><><><><><>

Scene change—

Bokue had already brought the five people high into the air.

No need to construct a stage. There was one ready-made.

Specifically, the sky baby that Hagoromo-Gitsune had formed from demonic power when activating the rebirth ritual.

It had shattered due to Abe no Seimei's awakening. Now only a bare portion of the base still floated in the sky.

That was originally the sky baby's back. Now it had become a massive floating plaza—relatively flat overall but still carrying slight curvature.

The feeling was just like the battleground with Velkhana in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

Using it now for Sukuna and Abe no Seimei's duel across a thousand years happened to be perfectly suitable.

Atop the floating base in the sky, Bokue took the seat Yuji had vacated at the tea table.

He lightly clenched in the air, using matter reconstruction to create a brand new small teacup. Picking up the teapot, he filled it, then raised his cup toward the two confronting each other nearby.

"The curtain rises. The stage is prepared. Shall you two begin?"

"..."

"..."

No answer needed. The next moment, Abe no Seimei and Sukuna vanished simultaneously.

"...They just disappeared."

After waiting two seconds without hearing any commotion, Nobara muttered quietly.

They hadn't disappeared.

Bokue leisurely sipped his tea without acknowledging her.

This was just the ultra-high-speed battle between the two exceeding the limits of what normal eyes could capture, so it looked like they'd vanished.

Though the speed really was fast, admittedly.

In that single blink, Abe no Seimei and Sukuna had already reached a hundred meters away.

Sukuna raised his hand, summoning countless slashes toward the founder of Onmyōji in the sky. But Abe no Seimei merely had the six-pointed stars in his eyes rotate slowly to completely block the offensive.

"Destroy."

Abe no Seimei pointed lightly at the King of Curses who'd already charged before him. The single-word true name that had once terrified countless Great Demons during the Heian period slowly left his mouth. The golden six-pointed star rose from his eyes and expanded.

Then—

BOOOOM!!!!

A violent roar like Tendo Pain going all-out with Super Shinra Tensei rang out above the sky plaza.

When Nobara could see clearly again, she only saw a black silhouette in the distant sky crashing down at a forty-five-degree angle like a cannonball, slamming heavily into the base. It kicked up massive debris while momentum continued pushing it backward, carving a red chasm hundreds of meters long across the base's surface. It finally skidded to a stop about ten meters away, parallel to the tea table.

"That's..."

One glance and Megumi's pupils contracted.

Without question, the one knocked back to the ground in one hit was Sukuna. The clothes Yuji had been wearing had long since been ground away during the earlier slide, along with thinning Sukuna's entire body by half.

This was still the result after Sukuna frantically used Reverse Cursed Technique to heal. Yet even so, his recovery speed couldn't remotely keep pace with the rate his flesh was being worn away.

"Damn... it..."

Sukuna shakily climbed to his feet, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

He could barely stabilize his form, going all-out with Reverse Cursed Technique to repair his near-death body.

But at the same time, Abe no Seimei had already reached him once more. Just like how Bokue could teleport with a golden flash, Abe no Seimei appeared via the same method diagonally above the freshly-recovered Sukuna. The six-pointed stars in his eyes—more dazzling than the sun—rotated slowly. His golden, wavy long hair danced behind him in the wind, like a deity gazing down upon an insect on the ground.

"Do your best, King of Curses."

Bokue smiled, raising his cup from afar in encouragement.

"Your entire soul is here now. If you die, you're really dead. So make absolutely sure you don't kick the bucket."

"Shut... up!"

Sukuna practically squeezed that sentence through his bloody teeth.

If he died this time, he'd really be done for. He understood the truth of that statement better than Bokue.

Unlike before when a bunch of fingers were still scattered outside, the current Sukuna had gathered all nineteen fingers existing in this era. If he got killed in this state, his soul would directly enter the reincarnation cycle. And he'd have no chance to do what he did a thousand years ago—split his soul into twenty fingers, turn them into cursed objects, and circulate them for another millennium.

So why the hell did this have to happen??

Sukuna's mentality had completely collapsed.

He was still the same as a thousand years ago—giving his all yet still unable to let his proud claws touch the other party even slightly. Instead, he was being beaten like a mutt!

To this day, Sukuna still remembered that ancient humiliation. He'd been invited to the capital as the only hope possibly capable of dealing with Abe no Seimei after the latter betrayed into demonic ways. In the capital, he'd received worship and offerings before heading off to subjugate Abe no Seimei.

The result? His initial confidence had been beaten down to roadside trash. In the end, he'd only managed to survive because the other party simply didn't care—fleeing back to the capital like a stray dog.

After that, doubts about him never stopped. Everyone questioned whether he could actually handle Abe no Seimei.

Fortunately, Sukuna himself was ruthless enough. He killed everyone who dared mention Abe no Seimei before him, until finally no one dared bring it up anymore.

Yet even so, people's doubts hadn't dissolved—they'd only grown larger, eventually transforming into vicious curses.

Sukuna knew very well he could never defeat Abe no Seimei in this lifetime. To escape, he'd ultimately chosen to fake an early death—splitting his soul into twenty parts and infusing them into fingers, waiting for revival a thousand years later.

Yes, he'd successfully revived. And his strength as King of Curses—even in this era a thousand years later—remained the strongest existence among all Onmyōji and Jujutsu Sorcerers.

But what Sukuna hadn't expected was that damned Abe no Seimei had made the same decision, finding alternate methods to transfer himself to the world a thousand years later.

What shit-tier fate!

And then there was that monster called Bokue Keikain.

So why, why, why... why the hell did this have to happen??

Finally recognizing his current predicament, Sukuna's pride completely crumbled.

Once, he'd felt anger at Abe no Seimei's dismissiveness. But now he actually hoped Abe no Seimei would be dismissive.

Banking on the gamble that Abe no Seimei simply didn't care enough to stop him from deploying his Domain, the nearly-despairing Sukuna clasped his hands together with final hope.

"Domain Expansion..."

This was his only path to victory. As long as he could successfully deploy his Domain, he'd still have one last thread of—

SLASH!

Like a blade piercing flesh, Sukuna—who'd just finished healing his body—suddenly lurched forward slightly. Dark red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Looking down, he saw a broad-bladed sword had pierced through his chest, its bloodied tip breaking through his sternum and exposed to open air.

At the same time, a young man's indifferent voice came from behind.

"Originally thought both of you at full strength should be somewhat entertaining. Didn't expect your final trump card to be this. Forget it then."

"Not really interesting to watch. You can die now."