Chapter 35
Shinjuku Battlefield
The rhythm of the fight was a drumbeat of flesh and steel. Shin and Maki were a blur of violence, overwhelming the King of Curses with a volley of bludgeoning strikes and soul-rending cuts. For a fleeting second, Sukuna was on the back foot, forced to block rather than attack.
But then, the air pressure dropped.
Maki sensed it first—the unnatural chill. Shin realized it a split second later when he noticed Sukuna's four eyes shift away from them, looking past his own shoulder.
Whoosh.
A massive glacier of cursed ice, sharp as jagged glass, surged toward them from the east. The duo was forced to break formation, leaping backward to avoid being frozen instantly.
Shin landed in a crouch, turning his head toward the source. High atop a floating chunk of debris, Uraume stood, one hand extended toward Sukuna while keeping Kinji Hakari at bay with the other.
Shin bared his teeth, screaming across the battlefield.
Shin: "Hakari! Do something about that ice cube! The hell are you doing?!"
From the distance, Hakari's voice boomed back, manic and unbothered by the frost covering his arm.
Hakari: "Shut up! The fever is just heating up! Don't ruin my roll!"
Maki: "Shin! Focus front!"
It was too late.
In the fraction of a second Shin had spent shouting at Hakari, a corrupted, suffocating presence materialized right beside him. Shin didn't feel the approach. He only felt the heavy, clawed hand of Ryomen Sukuna clamp down on his left bicep. The grip was iron.
Sukuna: "You really think you can look away?"
Sukuna smiled, his tattoos shifting as his muscles flexed.
Sukuna: "Cleave."
There was no sound of cutting. Just the wet thud of separation.
A sharp, blinding surge of agony erased Shin's vision. His left arm, from the shoulder down, simply detached. Blood sprayed in a violent, high-pressure arc, painting Sukuna's face crimson.
Shin didn't scream—he gasped, the air knocked out of him by the shock. He tried to kick Sukuna away, but his balance was gone.
Sukuna laughed brazenly, twirling the severed arm in his hand before tossing it aside like trash. He raised a hand to decapitate Shin, but a silver flash intercepted him. Maki swung the Split Soul Katana downward, forcing Sukuna to retreat.
Maki: "Back off! Get it treated! I'll hold him!"
Shin didn't argue. He stumbled backward, clutching the gushing stump of his shoulder, his face pale as death.
He ran.
He ducked into the skeletal remains of a commercial district, the sound of Maki and Sukuna's clashes echoing behind him like thunder. His vision was tunneling. He was losing blood too fast.
Shin: (Internal) Need... pressure. Need heat.
He crashed through the shattered glass of a convenience store. It was looted, destroyed. He scanned the aisles frantically. No bandages. No medical kit.
He fell to his knees, his strength evaporating. He grabbed a bottle of high-proof spirits from the floor and a cheap plastic lighter from the counter display.
Shin: "This is going to suck."
He doused the raw, spurting meat of his shoulder with the alcohol. Then, biting down on a piece of wood debris so hard his teeth cracked, he flicked the lighter.
FWOOSH.
The fire caught. The smell of burning alcohol mixed instantly with the sickening scent of searing meat. Shin screamed through his gritted teeth, his body convulsing as he forcefully cauterized his own amputation.
He slumped against the counter, panting, sweat pooling around him. The bleeding had stopped.
He looked at his right hand. He was down to one arm.
Shin: "What do I do? I can't use Playful Cloud effectively with one hand. It relies on leverage..."
He needed a weapon. Something lethal. Something that didn't require two hands to manipulate.
His eyes scanned the rubble outside. He remembered Hiromi Higuruma falling. He remembered the confiscation failing.
Shin: "Wait... the confiscation took his tool."
Shin forced himself up, stumbling back toward the site where Higuruma had fallen. He scanned the debris field.
There.
Glinting in the dust was a strange, short weapon. It looked like a vajra—a ritualistic dagger with a golden sheen.
Special Grade Cursed Tool: Kamutoke.
Shin scrambled over the rocks and snatched it up with his remaining hand. It was light, perfectly balanced.
Shin: "Found it."
He turned back toward the fight, desperation fueling him. He swung the weapon, mimicking the motion Sukuna used to summon lightning.
Swish.
Nothing happened.
He swung it again, harder.
Swish.
No sparks. No thunder. Just a piece of cold metal cutting the air.
Shin froze. The realization hit him harder than the loss of his arm. Kamutoke wasn't a battery; it was a conduit. It required the user to pour Cursed Energy into it to generate the lightning.
He had Zero Cursed Energy.
To Shin, this legendary weapon of the King of Curses was nothing more than a glorified paperweight.
Shin: "Shit... It works off Cursed Energy."
Frustrated, terrified, and armed with nothing but a useless artifact, Shin threw Kamutoke into the dirt.
Shin: "Useless garbage!"
He turned, ready to rush back to Maki's side with just his fists if necessary. He would bite Sukuna if he had to.
BOOM.
The wall next to him exploded inward.
Dust and masonry showered him as a body plowed through the brickwork, skidding across the floor and coming to a stop at his feet.
It was Maki.
Her body was limp. Smoke rose from her torso, marking the impact point of a Black Flash. She wasn't moving.
Shin: "Maki?!"
He looked out through the broken wall.
Floating above the street, Ryomen Sukuna looked down at them. He wasn't even winded. He was smiling—a terrifying, satisfied grin of a predator who had finished playing with his food.
A cold sense of despair, heavier than gravity, settled in Shin's gut. They had thrown everything at him. Gojo. Kashimo. Higuruma. Yuta. Yuji. Maki.
And he was still standing.
Shin: "It's over..."
Suddenly, space warped.
A small figure in a blue suit appeared between Shin and Maki. He moved with robotic efficiency.
Ui Ui.
He didn't speak. He grabbed Maki by the collar with one hand and reached for Shin with the other.
Ui Ui: "We are leaving."
Shin's eyes widened. He realized they were retreating. His eyes darted to the rubble nearby.
Playful Cloud.
He couldn't leave it. It was the only thing that could hurt Sukuna.
As the teleportation technique activated, wrapping them in a veil of cloth, Shin lunged. Since he had no left arm and Ui Ui was holding his right, he snapped his jaw forward.
He bit down on the central chain of Playful Cloud.
Metal ground against his teeth. He clenched his jaw with the force of a pitbull.
ZIP.
The ruins of Shinjuku vanished.
The Triage
The Makeshift Hospital – Shoko's Lab
The sterile smell of antiseptic replaced the smell of burning flesh.
Ui Ui materialized in the center of the room, dropping his cargo. Maki hit the gurney with a heavy thud. Shin stumbled, dropping Playful Cloud from his mouth as he collapsed onto the floor, his vision finally fading to black.
They were alive. But the battle was far from won.
The smell of antiseptic and stale cigarette smoke stung Shin's nose.
He blinked his eyes open, instinctively trying to push himself up with his left hand. He fell back onto the cot with a grunt of confusion. His left hand wasn't there. Just a cauterized, bandaged stump.
The phantom pain was excruciating—his brain was still trying to send signals to fingers that were currently rotting in the rubble of Shinjuku.
Shin:'Right. It's gone. I'm crippled.'
He sat up, his vision swimming. Across the room, Shoko Ieiri was wiping blood off her hands, looking more exhausted than he had ever seen her.
Near the exit, two figures stood ready.
Yuji Itadori and Choso.
Yuji looked different. The panic and grief he usually carried were gone. His eyes were cold, focused, and terrifyingly calm. He was tightening the straps on his Cursed Tool gauntlets.
Ui Ui was stepping forward to teleport them.
Shin forced himself off the cot, his boots scraping against the tile.
Shin: "Hey... wait."
Yuji and Choso stopped, turning back.
Shin kicked the heavy red staff, Playful Cloud, toward them. With his remaining hand, he pulled the golden dagger, Kamutoke, from his belt.
Shin: "Hey Yuji, Choso. You guys need some curse tools?"
He held up the golden vajra.
Shin: "I stole this back from Sukuna while he was busy cutting my arm off. It's useless to me without Cursed Energy. And the staff..."
Shin looked down at the three-section staff on the floor.
Shin: "Playful Cloud requires two hands to generate the centrifugal force needed to hurt Sukuna. With one arm... I'm just swinging a stick. I'm retired."
He tossed Kamutoke to Yuji.
Yuji caught the weapon. He looked at the tool that had cost Higuruma his life to confiscate.
Yuji: "I won't need it."
Yuji tossed the Kamutoke back to Shin. Then, Yuji looked at Playful Cloud. He didn't pick it up.
Yuji: "Keep the staff."
Shin: "I told you, I can't—"
Yuji looked Shin dead in the eye.
Yuji: "You're not done yet. We're going to lower his output. We're going to strip his control over Megumi. When he's weak enough, a one-armed hit might be all we need to finish him."
Choso stepped forward, placing a hand on Yuji's shoulder.
Choso: "We're leaving. Don't die of blood loss, Zenin. My little brother needs all the help he can get."
Ui Ui threw the sheet over them.
ZIP.
They vanished.
Shin was left alone in the silence, staring at the red staff on the floor. He clenched his single fist.
Shin: "Not done yet, huh?"
The room was silent except for the hum of the ventilation system and the rhythmic beeping of heart monitors.
Shin sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the empty space where his left arm used to be. The adrenaline had faded, leaving only a dull, throbbing ache and a crushing sense of inadequacy.
A lighter flicked.
Shoko Ieiri walked over, a cigarette dangling from her lips. She didn't offer sympathy. She looked tired, her eyes dark with bags that hadn't gone away in ten years.
Shoko: "Stop looking at it. It won't grow back."
Shin: "I know. I just... I feel light. Off-balance."
Shoko exhaled a plume of smoke, checking the vitals on a nearby monitor.
Shoko: "You're alive. Considering you fought the King of Curses and the Ice Urame, losing an arm is a cheap price. Kusakabe is out there fighting alone right now. Yuji just went back. Are you staying here?"
Shin looked at his single hand. He clenched it.
Shin: "I can't use Playful Cloud. It's a three-section staff. You need two hands to control the links, to generate the leverage. With one arm, it's just a flail. I'll hit myself before I hit Sukuna."
Suddenly, a groan came from the floor.
Maki Zenin didn't wake up slowly. She gasped, her body jerking upright as her Heavenly Restriction forced her system to reboot. She coughed, spitting out a glob of blood onto the sterile tile.
Shin: "Maki?"
Maki wiped her mouth, her eyes darting around the room until they landed on Shin. She saw the bandages. She saw the missing arm.
Her expression didn't soften. If anything, it hardened.
Maki: "He took it?"
Shin: "Yeah. Cleave."
Maki stood up. She swayed for a second, stabilizing herself. Her durability was monstrous; even a Black Flash couldn't keep her down for long. She walked over to where Playful Cloud lay on the floor.
She picked it up.
Maki: "Then we switch."
Shin: "What?"
Maki tossed the heavy, special-grade staff from her right hand to her left, testing the weight.
Maki: "I have two hands. I can use Playful Cloud to its full potential. I can generate the force needed to smash through his reinforcement."
She walked over to the corner of the room where her own weapon, the Split Soul Katana, was leaning against the wall. She picked it up and held it out to Shin.
Maki: "This sword ignores durability. It cuts the soul directly. You don't need leverage or two-handed force to use it. You just need speed and precision."
Shin looked at the katana. It was lighter. Faster. A weapon meant for an assassin, not a brawler.
Maki: "You lost an arm, Shin. So stop trying to fight like a brawler. Fight like a ghost. Can you do that?"
Shin stood up. He grabbed the handle of the Split Soul Katana. It felt strange in his hand—light, sharp, dangerous.
Shin: "Yeah. I can do that."
On the wall monitor, the camera feed showed the battle. Miguel and Larue were stalling Sukuna. Yuji had just landed a Black Flash. The King's output was dropping.
Maki grinned, a savage, scarred look.
Maki: "Ui Ui! We're going back in."
The small boy sighed, stepping away from the wall.
Ui Ui: "You people have a death wish. My sister will charge you double for a second trip."
Shin checked the edge of the blade.
Shin: "Put it on Gojo's tab."
The Jump
Shinjuku Battlefield – The Center of the Storm
The air was vibrating. It wasn't just the wind; the atmosphere itself was trembling under the impact of Yuji Itadori's fists.
BOOM. Flash. BOOM. Flash.
Black sparks danced like fireflies around Yuji. He was in "The Zone." His eyes were white, devoid of thought, acting purely on martial instinct. Every strike he landed on Sukuna distorted the space between the King's soul and Megumi Fushiguro's body, dropping Sukuna's Cursed Energy output lower and lower.
Sukuna was snarling. He had two lower arms occupied blocking Yuji's barrage, and his upper right arm was busy parrying Takuma Ino.
Ino, wearing his ski mask and wielding Nanami's dull cleaver, shouted.
Ino: "Don't underestimate the golden ratio! Ryu!"
A spectral dragon surged from Ino's technique, forcing Sukuna to swipe it away with a web of Dismantle slashes.
It was chaotic. It was messy. It was perfect.
ZIP.
Ui Ui dropped his cargo directly above the fray.
Shin and Maki fell from the sky like two meteors.
Maki didn't bother with stealth. She screamed, gripping Playful Cloud with both hands. The three-section staff, now wielded by someone with the raw physical strength to maximize its potential, glowed crimson red from the friction of the air.
Maki: "RAAAAAH!"
Sukuna looked up. He expected a slash from a sword. He raised his remaining upper arm to catch the blade—a tactic that had worked before.
But it wasn't a blade. It was a blunt instrument of mass destruction.
CRACK.
Maki slammed the central link of Playful Cloud down onto Sukuna's blocking arm. The impact sound was sickening. The sheer kinetic force bypassed Sukuna's reinforcement, smashing his forearm downward and forcing him to buckle.
Sukuna:'The staff? She switched?'
The impact sent Sukuna sliding backward, his heels carving deep trenches in the asphalt.
He barely had time to stabilize before his senses screamed. Not his Cursed Energy sensing—that was useless against the Heavenly Restriction. His instincts screamed.
There was a gap in the air to his left. A blind spot created by Maki's massive entrance.
Shin was there.
He moved differently now. Without the heavy staff, and missing the counter-weight of his left arm, he moved like smoke. He didn't stomp; he glided.
He held the Split Soul Katana in his single right hand, the blade trailing behind him.
Shin: 'Don't overpower him. You can't. Just cut the line.'
Sukuna's eyes snapped to the side, but he was a fraction of a second too slow. His output was lowered by Yuji. His balance was broken by Maki. His attention was split by Ino.
Shin stepped inside Sukuna's guard.
SHK.
The grey steel of the Soul Katana passed through Sukuna's lower left thigh.
There was no resistance. The sword ignored the durability of Sukuna's diamond-hard skin and cut directly through the soul information of the limb.
Sukuna's leg gave out. The muscle wasn't cut physically, but the soul commanding the leg was severed.
Sukuna stumbled, dropping to one knee.
Shin didn't get greedy. He spun away instantly, dodging a retaliatory Cleave that would have taken his head off.
Shin: "Yuji! Now!"
Yuji didn't need to be told. He was already airborne, his fist cocked back, wreathed in black lightning.
Sukuna looked up, his face contorted in a mix of rage and exhilaration. He was surrounded.
To his front, the Monster (Yuji). To his left, the Ghost (Shin). To his right, the Demon (Maki). And behind him, the Sorcerer (Ino).
Yuji's fist connected with Sukuna's face.
BLACK FLASH.
The shockwave leveled the surrounding city block.