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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."
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