"Kira. It's been a while."
Sukuna clawed at the back of his own skull, scratching incessantly. Sharp, razor-edged nails carved groove after groove into the nape—deep enough to expose bone.
His four eyes narrowed to slits. His mouth split into a thoroughly delighted grin.
"You really are interesting."
"Dipshit."
Kira removed his necktie, tore it into a thin strip, and wound it around his nail clipper in tight loops. Without looking up, he murmured:
"Overtime. Again."
Storm winds poured through the gaping hole in the wall, drenching them both. The entire compound felt as though it had plunged to the bottom of a ten-thousand-meter trench. The insects burrowed underground, the squirrels frozen mid-leap between branches, the little creatures beneath the brickwork prying up stones—every living thing had gone silent, curled into trembling balls in whatever corner they could find.
"Kira. Only one person can stand at the summit of an era."
Sukuna raised his chin, lowering his gaze to Kira with innate arrogance and madness.
"And that can only be—"
"Then by all means. I concede."
Kira raised both hands in sincere surrender. "As of today, you are the king of the world."
"May I leave now? I'd like to clock out."
"The crown is yours, Ryomen Sukuna. I'm clocking out."
He checked his watch, shrugged, and spoke flatly: "I despise conflict."
"I love conflict. Because conflict is the most interesting thing in the world."
"Those Cursed Spirits played you, you know."
"After I kill you, they're next."
"What a shame."
BOOM!
The earth shattered. Broken stone erupted into the air. Red Cursed Energy and black Cursed Energy collided, blazing with light that disturbed the wind, churned the rain, and made even the thunder flinch. That savage power seemed ready to tear the entire rainy night to shreds.
"Dismantle!"
Dense slashes propagated along the ceiling. Everything in their path—flying debris, scattered raindrops—was bisected cleanly. In a single heartbeat, the wave of cuts reached Kira.
"Killer Queen."
Killer Queen stepped in front of Kira, but the slashes seemed capable of striking the soul itself. They carved along the shikigami's limbs, leaving gash after gash deep to the bone.
Because of Killer Queen's nature—damage to the shikigami manifested on the master—a single exchange left Kira's body riddled with wounds.
He drew a long breath. Expression still calm. Eyes still on Sukuna. His left foot shifted.
Boom.
Cracks spiderwebbed behind him. Black Cursed Energy coiled around his leg, and Kira launched forward like an arrow leaving the string, cutting through the air with a sharp crack.
"Dismantle."
Sukuna pressed his palms together. Freezing slashes bore down on Kira, pressing right up against him. The icy aura seemed to seep through his very skin.
Sukuna's slashes had length. And anything with length can be read as a line.
Black Cursed Energy surged. Kira shifted stance without slowing, the silver blade tracing a fluid arc through the air, meeting the leading edge of the slashes head-on—and sweeping clean through.
One slash after another was severed, shattered. Along with the raindrops bisected in the crossfire.
Through the rising mist of rain, Kira glimpsed Sukuna's face. Glimpsed his manic grin.
Killer Queen drove straight for that face.
BOOM—
Sukuna stepped back half a pace, tilted aside, dodged. He watched Kira, smiling. Deep crimson Cursed Energy began gathering in his palm.
"No matter what the target—my technique creates a flaw at the 7:3 ratio."
Revealing One's Hand.
"Its name is Ratio Technique: Collapse."
Kira's left hand rose high. He shattered the curtain of rain and stepped inside Sukuna's guard. The blade was almost entirely sheathed in wrapping—only the smallest sliver of tip peeked out, gleaming cold.
BOOM!
Two monstrous waves of Cursed Energy collided like twin bolts of lightning crashing in the sky. The impact rang out—a piercing, hollow tone—scattering the clouds, shredding the fog, cracking the vault of the sky. The world itself seemed to flip.
The night swallowed their silhouettes.
Only three colors remained, darting, entangling—on the summit, across rooftops, through the sky.
They painted a vivid ink-wash across the heavens. Black as ink was Kira's brushstroke—his Cursed Energy deep and razor-edged. Every blow, every line drove through the canvas, threatening to puncture the canvas of sky itself.
The splashes of pale pink were like countless small flowers blooming across the firmament—Killer Queen's detonations.
And with Kira's high-speed movement, Killer Queen was finally unshackled from its range limit. It leapt through the night sky freely, vibrantly—every footfall birthing a new blossom.
Last, that vivid blood-red—Sukuna's trail. Brilliant. Indelible. His brushstroke swept across everything in its path—mountain stone, trees, eaves—shattering all, splitting all.
Red intertwined with the other two. Every encounter was a sky-shattering collision. Every meeting erupted in richer, deeper color.
The earth groaned. The storm wept. Corpses in the hall lay in rivers of blood. The three colors wove together—
Painting an absurd and beautiful apocalypse.
Boom.
After the final clash, Kira and Sukuna separated, each crashing to earth, kicking up clouds of dust.
Click.
Mid-fall, Kira pressed the switch. Half of Sukuna's body instantly dissolved into plumes of blood mist—and the detonation continued spreading across his flesh.
"Reverse Cursed Technique."
Flesh regenerated instantly. But by then, Sheer Heart Attack had already landed on Sukuna's face. Slashes flickered through the surrounding air, falling on the blue tank one after another, leaving ring after ring of score marks—but none could halt its advance.
Boom.
Half of Sukuna's skull was caved in. He slammed into the earth, punching through the roofs of three full stories.
Before his head had finished regenerating, Killer Queen burst through the smoke, right hand rising, pressing down firmly on Sukuna's crown.
Boom.
Another silent detonation. Sukuna disintegrated into fragments, vanishing into the rain.
Kira staggered to his feet atop the rubble. He checked his watch.
Nine o'clock sharp.
The last trains had probably stopped running. He'd have to—
"Domain Expansion. Malevolent Shrine."
Kira's arm separated from his body.
It tumbled through the rainy night.