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As Yuta Okkotsu arrived, every instinct Hanami possessed screamed at them to get away from him.
Being a Special Grade Curse, Hanami prided themselves on being stronger than most creatures in the world. Other Special Grade curses were there in their group who were on par with them, but even from them, Hanami didn't get this creepy feeling. {A/N: Yuta Okkotsu, the king of creeps.}
Still, there were some plus sides to this situation as well.
Hanami had finally found the strong sorcerer Geto had warned them about. If cursed energy alone were taken into consideration, then the sorcerer in front of them would probably be the strongest being out there.
Yet despite that, the title of strongest still belonged to either Satoru Gojo or Naoya Zenin, meaning that the child in front of them probably fell short somewhere.
Hanami's lone arm moved towards the covered side.
[It seems like I can't take things lightly now.]
Hanami uncovered their hidden black arm with a closed flower on their shoulder.
As the arm was unveiled, a wave of CE flowed out of Hanami, sending an even more ominous aura in the surroundings.
The rest of them instinctively got into their fighting stances.
"Okkotsu! Will you be fine, or do you need us to step in as well? This is a specially strong Special Grade curse."
Maki asked seriously.
She didn't want to doubt Yuta, but the feeling they were getting from Hanami was just that dangerous.
"For now, let me test the waters. I wouldn't want anyone getting caught up in my attacks."
With that, Yuta unsheathed his katana and coated it with Rika's CE.
Hanami and Yuta stared each other down while everyone else wisely created distance.
Getting caught up between the two special grades was the last thing they wanted.
A wave of roots shot out of the ground and headed straight towards Yuta.
Yuta simply jumped up with his CE-reinforced strength and easily vaulted over the sea of roots.
Seeing the boy in the air, Hanami shot out multiple wooden spheres in the air that surrounded Yuta before a spear-like vine shot out of them.
Yuta simply sliced the air with his sword as an intense burst of wind blasted the spheres and vines away, destroying them in the process.
Seeing their attacks being swatted away so easily, Hanami was momentarily stunned.
Yuta, though, didn't plan on halting and was heading towards Hanami.
A moment later, Hanami snapped out of their trance and realised that Yuta was about to strike them.
With not enough time to dodge, Hanami raised their arms to protect themselves.
"Agh!"
A heavy blow landed on them.
Yuta's physique was nothing special at all, but the CE reinforcement raised his strength exponentially.
"Rika-chan"
Yuta calmly called out the cursed spirit as a sickly pale white arm emerged out of space and punched Hanami's defenceless side.
"GHH!!!"
Now that hurts a lot.
Hanami found their body flying through the air as a deep dent formed in their abdomen.
Yuta jumped after Hanami and placed the sword back in his sheath before opening his palm wide and manifesting a microphone.
[Blast Away!]
A familiar yet far stronger force struck Hanami and sent her blasting through the forest.
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[Copy]
That was the name of Yuta Okkotsu's/Rika's cursed technique{A/N:Right now, it is still not theorised that Yuta had a technique and that [Copy] belongs to Rika since the CT is stored within her.}.
As the name implied, the technique allowed Yuta to copy cursed techniques whose cursed energy signatures had been thoroughly analysed by either him or Rika.
{A/N: Before you all started ranting that he should not have this limitation, I just want to say that I believe that this restriction was there on him from the start. The Zero era Yuta only showed using [Cursed Speech] as the only non-body part eating copy. Before that, he had time to interact with Hakari, Kirara, and the Kyoto students from the Goodwill event. No matter how much Rika steamrolled the other side, I am not willing to believe that Todo would have been one-shot by Rika. If just seeing a technique once was a condition, he should also have the third year's, and most importantly, Geto's technique as well. He, too, came to declare war on Jujutsu High and showcased his technique there, and did the same in their battle as well.
Because of this, I believe that the condition for his old [Copy] was analysing the CE signature that a particular technique gives out, and he got [Cursed Speech] after being in constant presence of the technique from Inumaki.}
The techniques themselves were stored within Rika, but Yuta could access them anytime he wanted.
For now, the techniques he had at hand were:
1) Cursed Speech - Toge Inumaki
2) Straw Doll Technique - Nobara Kugisaki
3) Limitless - Satoru Gojo
For better or worse, his fellow students didn't possess many techniques.
By the time Yuta realised that he could copy techniques like this, the third year was gone, and the only other person aside from the above two who had a technique for him to copy a signature from was Megumi with [Ten Shadows].
However, the technique was a bit problematic to copy as Megumi didn't have the full set of Shikigami unlocked, and without that, Yuta couldn't copy the complete signature.
The [Limitless] was also useless, as without the [Six Eyes], Yuta couldn't do the atomic-level calculations required to use this technique efficiently, and even if he could somehow perform that, the technique's efficiency was worse than Mai's [Construction], making it impossible to use it even once properly.
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Coming back to the fight at hand:
Hanami's body was blasted through the forest as a huge chunk of their body was destroyed by Yuta's attack.
'What is this power?'
Hanami thought as their body began forming, recovering from the damage they had just received.
Yuta was walking towards Hanami with his sword in one hand and the microphone in the other.
Hanami felt the creepy feeling that they felt from Yuta return, and looked up with difficulty to see him walking towards them.
'...Mahito...Jogo...Dagon...maybe it's over for me...'
Hanami thought to themselves.
For Cursed Spirits, there was a standard rule that determined their ranks. The amount of CE.
And the human in front of them had the most CE that they had ever felt from anyone.
It was so much that it was oozing out uncontrollably.
'...Wait...'
Hanami suddenly realised something.
They looked at Yuta once again and tried to feel their energy.
'Maybe...'
Hanami used their technique, and immediately, a large area around them got filled with flowers, turning the destroyed field into a large flower bed.
"Huh..."
Yuta's fighting spirit vanished all of a sudden as his entire body and mind fell into peace.
"sO nIcE, sO bEaUtIfUl!!" Rika spoke out loud as she felt happy.
"Yes~ So pretty~" Yuta agreed with Rika.
However, that momentary peace suddenly vanished as Yuta felt his body in pain.
Yuta and Rika looked at Yuta's torso, which had a cursed bud sprouting out of it.
The bud started to grow as the roots dug deeper into Yuta's body.
"YuTa!!!!"
Rika screamed in panic and manifested fully.
Hanami was already healed at this point and looked intently at Rika.
[One of us is so worried about a human?]
Rika didn't listen to Hanami and tried her best to pull out the cursed buds growing out of Yuta; the more she tried to pull harder, the louder Yuta screamed.
Hanami wasn't surprised by the outcome.
The buds that were attached to Yuta were a part of their technique.
The buds fed on CE, and the higher the CE the target uses to block them, the harder they hit, and the deeper the roots dug in the target's body.
Yuta Okkotsu might have astronomical levels of CE, but because he had so much CE, his body constantly oozed it out, making it almost impossible to retract it back into his body. Making him a perfect target for the cursed buds.
Yuta was already using RCT to heal himself, while Rika was pulling out the buds from his body.
Hanami saw that as well and crouched down.
They didn't have much time. They need to finish this before the Creepy Child can recover.
The blackened hand touched the ground and started to absorb the life force from the earth and the nearby plants.
The flower on their arm started growing and glowing as a bright light started to form over Hanami's flower.
"R-Rika-chan!"
Rika pulled out the final bud from Yuta's body, who immediately healed himself to get back into the fight.
[Pure Lo-]
Rika started gathering CE as well to fight back.
[Flower Field of Tranquillity]
The flower field surrounded them once again, making Yuta and Rika drop their guard and feel calm.
Hanami immediately dashed forward at max speed and, with a point-blank range, fired the stored cursed energy at Yuta and Rika.
[Life Sacrifice Blast]
The massive CE blast engulfed Yuta and Rika and blasted them away.
The massive beam of CE light blasted through the forest.
The students saw the beam, and the Tokyo students immediately got worried.
This attack didn't belong to Yuta. They knew that.
All of them rushed towards the spot where the attack died down.
Yuta Okkotsu was standing there breathing heavily, with his body bruised and burnt, though healing rapidly thanks to [RCT].
The attack was strong and took a lot out of Yuta and Rika; there was no doubt about that, but both Rika and Yuta were highly durable beings thanks to the massive CE always reinforcing them.
"Damn...this curse is stronger than I expected."
Yuta mumbled and took deep breaths to calm himself a bit.
"KILL!!! I wILl KiLl tHaT tHiNg!!!!"
Rika was super angry at Hanami for hurting Yuta, and had decided to end its life.
Yuta didn't correct Rika. He, too, was a bit pissed at the cursed spirit.
Hanami saw their attack die down, and Yuta and Rika survived even that.
'They really are the strongest foe I have faced....and I am enjoying this fight...' thought Hanami.
Hanami's instincts as a cursed spirit were growing stronger the longer they fought. They were mostly the calm ones of the disaster curses, but right now, they were starting to understand the thrill of battling.
Yuta was done healing himself and got ready for round 2.
Hanami was moving towards Yuta at full speed.
Seeing them running towards them, Yuta and Rika got ready themselves as well, and both of them blasted forward as well.
"Huh?"
However, the moment they shifted their focus to Hanami, a branch sprouted out of the ground and wrapped around Yuta's leg.
"YuTa!"
Rika noticed that Yuta was nowhere near her and immediately panicked.
She turned around and saw Yuta's body swaying around the branch.
Rika immediately headed to free Yuta, which was what Hanami was planning.
The roots wrapped around Yuta's leg suddenly sprouted cursed buds, and all the buds immediately shot forward and struck Rika like bullets.
As a mass of Pure CE, the buds immediately sprouted deep roots that penetrated Rika's body quite badly!
"AH!!! HuRtS! YUTA!!! iT hUrTs!"
"Rika-chan!"
The cursed buds were super lethal for curses, so much so that the vengeful cursed spirit, Rika Orimoto, was suffering from the pain.
Yuta immediately held the microphone against his mouth and used the [Cursed Speech]
[Wither Away!]
The buds on Rika's body and the branch holding him immediately dried up and were destroyed.
"You alright, Rika-chan?!"
"YuTa! mY hEro! yUtA sAvEd RiKA!!!"
Freed from the buds and the pain, Rika immediately healed herself and floated beside Yuta and started praising him.
"..."
'That CT is annoying.'
Hanami thought to themselves and prepared for another attack.
[Piercing Blood!]
However, from their blind spot, a pressurised blood jet struck Hanami's helmet and chipped it off.
Hanami turned towards the attacker and saw Noritoshi pointing his hand at them.
[Bad and Weak children should not interfe-]
[Divine Dogs: Totality!]
The werewolf shikigami blitzed past Hanami and struck Hanami's arm, chipping it a bit.
[Now even the other children are acting like this?]
Hanami snorted and started healing their injuries.
However, a sudden CE surge alerted them.
They looked up and saw a familiar black-haired boy falling towards them with a katana in hand.
Megumi Fushiguro was trying the dive slash once again.
Hanami wasn't going to fall for the same trick again.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!!!"
Maki ran up to Hanami with both her swords in hand and with all her strength struck Hanami on their shoulders, planting them deeper into the crater, and even slashing a bit deeper this time with the attack.
"Nishimiya!!!"
Maki called out loud as the "Doom Broom" flew past Maki, who grabbed the broom and got away from Hanami.
Hanami, whose body was temporarily stuck in a spot, was a tad too late to dodge Megumi, who put as much CE as he could in the katana and struck Hanami.
Hanami raised their hand to block Megumi.
Megumi struggled with Hanami for a bit before he gritted his teeth and changed the sword's trajectory.
The sword passed through, but the only thing that he was able to cut was one singular finger.
'Just how durable is this shitty curse?!?!'
Megumi immediately jumped into his shadows to not get caught in what was about to happen.
"Mai nee-san! Mechamaru-san!"
Mai and Mechamaru got their signal.
Mechamaru's body started making noises as it started to transform.
Mai took out her lighter and used her technique to extract hydrogen from the air.
[Ultimate Mechamaru: Mode-Albatross]
CE started gathering in Mechamaru's blasters.
Mai's fireball started getting bigger and bigger as the air continued to compress in.
The surrounding temperature was starting to heat up to insane degrees.
'...This is bad.'
Hanami immediately concluded.
The weak children were starting to turn troublesome.
"Oh, I would like to join in on the fun."
Yuta added as he and Rika started to charge their blast attack as well.
'...'
The situation just got way worse than it actually was.
'I need to take them down before they fin-'
But as those thoughts crossed Hanami's head, a sudden yet massive pain struck their entire being.
"Now now, ain't it rude to not let our senpai complete their attack?!"
Nobara Kugisaki and Arata Nitta were present on the scene as well, and right now, Nobara had struck the straw doll with Hanami's finger that was cut off by Megumi.
[Resonance!!!!]
With the massive pain, Hanami was unable to move in time.
[Mode Albatross: Ultimate Cannon!]
[Extinction Flame!]
[Pure Love Blast!]
Mechamaru, Mai, and Yuta fired their blasts in unison.
Hanami saw the whole world around them light up and heat up.
The attacks engulfed Hanami's entire body and caused a massive explosion on the spot.
The students shielded their eyes from the intense explosion and tried their best not to get blown away by the blast's aftermath.
As the explosion started to die down, all of them held their breaths.
'Did we win?!'
All of them had the same thought.
They were on standby, waiting to jump on the curse if it were somehow surviving.
The smoke, steam, and dust started to clear up, and once everything was in view, their eyes widened in surprise.
The majority of Hanami's body was destroyed. Hanami had managed to erect a thick wall of plants before the attacks landed, though their bodies were not entirely covered, and only a partial torso, head, and one of their arms remained now.
"Seriously, what the heck is this curse?! It still didn't disintegrate after that attack?!" Mai complained.
She was totally drained after that massive attack, as she put in all she could in that. It was an attack that could level a city block, but Hanami survived.
No one said anything.
Everyone acknowledged Hanami's durability. Though all of them knew that the battle was over now, with Hanami's current state, they could now exorcise it with their next attack.
All of them turned to Yuta.
"...On it."
Yuta understood what everyone was telling him to do.
Yuta looked at Rika, and the two of them started approaching Hanami.
Hanami's entire body was hurting.
They didn't know such a kind of pain, yet the thrill of the battle they had just had made it hurt just a bit less than it would have actually hurt.
'...I enjoyed it...Fighting....to kill humans....I enjoyed fighting just for the sake of killing....'
Hanami saw Yuta and Rika standing in front of them.
[You really were the strong one he mentioned you to be.]
Hanami's voice echoed in Yuta's head.
"Hm? Thank you? Well, anyway, I will be ending you now."
Yuta held the [Cursed Speech Microphone] in his hand and got ready to end Hanami.
'...So strong...yet so young...he will be a huge issue for all curses in the future.'
Hanami thought deeply as everything that Yuta showed him today replayed in their mind.
'...I am going to die...no reason to stop now...'
Hanami's CE surged, alerting everyone once again.
Yuta took a deep breath to speak into the microphone.
[Flower Field of Tranquillity]
A massive and beautiful flower field filled the area, and once again, everyone dropped their guards.
Hanami focused entirely on regenerating their destroyed arm, and the moment it formed, they struck a hand sign.
[Domain Expansion: Shining Sea of Flowers]