Chapter 46: NO. 46 - Sukuna vs. Overhaul

Chapter 46: NO. 46 - Sukuna vs. Overhaul

[General POV]

Pillars of jagged concrete ripped through the twisting and warping hallway in an attempt to crush both Jin and Twice-Clone Sukuna. Despite the rolling environment, the two were somehow able to run away from the incoming pillars.

"Show yourself, you damn coward! We just want to say hello!" Jin yelled.

With incredible intensity, TC Sukuna's eyes scanned the ceiling, walls, and floors. His focused expression remained as he flipped over two rising boulders that jutted out in his path. As he spun in the air, TC Sukuna noticed a small, almost unnoticeable crack in the ceiling.

'There!' TC Sukuna thought as he landed on the warping ground. Flexing his muscles, the clone used the warping environment to his advantage to quickly close the distance between himself and Irinaka Jōi.

"Shit! He found me!" Jōi yelled as TC Sukuna was now only a few centimeters away.

CRACK!

Everything around TC Sukuna, Jin, and Jōi violently shook without warning. Knocking the Bullet out of the shattering ceiling and sending TC Sukuna and Jin onto the floor. Jin tried to push himself up when he noticed an incoming wave of spikes erecting from the walls, ceiling, and floor toward them in the now motionless hallway.

Being the closest to the incoming wave of death, Jōi's body was skewered from head to toe. The man wasn't even capable of screaming out in pain as a concrete spike shot out of his mouth.

"Jin!"

Turning his head, Jin watched as TC Sukuna dashed toward him.

In an instant, the spikes reached Jin's position.

x x x

With his large body crashing and shattering the walls around him, Katsukame Rikiya continued running toward Overhaul's location.

Rikiya is a large, tall, and very muscular man. He wears a black tank top with a stand-by symbol in the middle. A pair of blue socks and orange sneakers adorned his feet as massive gauntlets and knuckledusters rested over his fists. Finally, like the rest of his fellow Bullets, a black plague mask sat over his face.

"I'm coming, Boss!" Rikiya yelled as he smashed through an entire wall.

With a tackle, the large man exploded out of two more concrete walls to arrive at a long hallway. Turning his head, Rikiya saw his boss and Sukuna down the hall.

Before he could rush toward his leader, Rikiya saw Overhaul inject himself with the Trigger drug.

"...this can't be good," Rikiya said as everything around him exploded.

"Ragh!" Roaring in pain, Rikiya was stabbed with several sharp spikes that erupted from all around him.

"Ah... Katsukame." Rikiya heard Overhaul say through the chaos and bellowing destruction. "I need your strength as well... thank you for your sacrifice."

Before he could question what he meant, Rikiya looked down as a large, flesh-like arm stabbed through his chest. From within, Rikiya felt hundreds of tendrils shoot through his body. Sending unimaginable pain through him.

As he released a silent scream, Rikiya's consciousness vanished as his body was broken down.

x x x

Throughout the battered and ruined Shie Hassaikai compound, several flesh-like tendrils with hands on the ends slithered throughout the building. It resembles an expanding bloodstream or root system below a large tree.

Quickly, the hand tendrils found the corpses of Kendo, Hekiji, Deidoro, and Jōi. Instantly, their bodies were broken down and absorbed into the tendrils.

With their jobs done, the flesh tendrils returned to their main body.

Kai's body.

x x x

"Must go faster! Must go faster!"

Himiko screamed as she looked back at the incoming wave of spikes. Reaching the top of the stairs, she finally found a window leading outside. Without pause, Himiko covered Eri's head and leaped out of the glass. Shattering the window.

Bracing herself, Himiko fell down two stories with a roll just as spikes exploded out of the hallway she was once in. Wincing in pain, she quickly looked over at Eri. Seeing that the girl was safe, Himiko ran again despite her aching ankle.

"W-wait! We can't leave him! H-he'll die!" Eri said with fear on her face as she watched the building that once trapped her explode into hundreds of pieces with giant jutting spikes rising high into the sky.

"Don't worry! Sukuna-kun is strong! He won't die here! He can't!" Himiko yelled as she ran toward the single hidden exit point on the surrounding wooden wall around the compound.

Squeezing through it, Himiko left the compound's premises and began running down the empty streets. Raising her arm, she waved it around wildly. Sending a message to their overwatch.

KABLAM!

Hearing Eri gasp loudly, Himiko turned around and saw a giant monstrosity with several arms standing on two thick legs explode out of the compound.

Jutting out of its back and arms were long, jagged bone spikes. On its thick neck was a massive bird-like head filled with razor-sharp teeth. However, inside the mouth was a shirtless, six-armed man with brown hair. His red and black skin seemed to pulse with barely restrained power.

"It's him..." Eri muttered in pure terror as Himiko stepped back in shock at the enormous 15-meter tall Kaiju standing over the compound.

"Is that... Overhaul?"

x x x

Off in her sniper's nest, Kaina blinked in bewilderment as a giant monster exploded out from the compound alongside several large spikes.

"What is... that?"

Refocusing her attention, Kaina noticed Himiko waving at her from outside the wooden perimeter. Zooming in, she saw that the blond now had their objective in her arms. Smiling, Kaina leveled her scope around Himiko as she ran off with the child. Seeing no sign of Jin, Kaina frowned and assumed the worst despite herself.

"Souta-san, Bubaigawara-san... you two better be alright," Kaina whispered as she watched over Himiko and Eri.

x x x

Shaking his head, Jin blinked blearily as he awoke from his sleep. Looking around, he noticed he was hanging from one of his measuring tapes. The tape itself was tied to one of his katanas, and the sword itself was stabbed deep into one of the spikes that was jutting out of the ceiling.

"Souta..." Jin muttered as he remembered what the TC Sukuna did to save him...

Moving quickly, TC Sukuna grabbed Jin and pulled out his katana. Before he could ask what was going on, Jin was thrown over TC Sukuna's shoulder. From there, the clone moved in and out of the way from the onslaught of spikes with precision and skill.

Despite his fast speed, they were both still sliced and stabbed by the passing spears of death, with TC Sukuna taking the brunt of it, causing his body to begin melting.

Feeling his death come close, TC Sukuna made one last ditch effort and pulled one of Jin's measuring tapes to tie to the katana's grip. With a roar, he stabbed it into one of the unmoving spikes just as he was stabbed through the chest.

Due to the suddenness of the move, Jin's head and arm were knocked against a low-hanging pillar of stone from their earlier battle with Jōi, knocking him out cold.

Back in the present, Jin ignored his injuries and released his measuring tape, causing him to fall down onto the ground in a heap. Luckily, there was a wide enough gap of space where he landed. Saving him from being skewered by the spikes lining the floor.

Squinting, I saw Kaina use Jello to slow her fall from the falling rooftop.

[+20 SP]

"You damn, Brat!" Overhaul spun to me and stomped one of his thick feet onto the ground. Using his Quirk, Overhaul sent dozens of massive spikes that tried to skewer me. "I don't have time for this!"

With CE-enhanced speed, I managed to evade the majority of the incoming spikes, but one of them managed to snag me on my side.

This isn't working! Nothing I'm doing is having any effect! If I don't stop him soon, I'll run out of CE!

"He may be able to fix any of the damage I do to him, but how about if I freeze him into a block of ice instead?! Switch!" I said as I exchanged Disaster Plants for Ice Formation. "This better work!"

Seeing as how I wasn't reduced into a bloodied mess from his attack, Overhaul growled and stomped towards me with his six large arms ready to smash me to paste.

Raising both of my palms in front of my mouth, I blew out a large gust of ice.

"Maximum Output: Ice Age Prison!"

The air around us became unbelievably cold, resulting in the floor beneath us frosting over. From all around Overhaul's large Kaiju body, enormous chunks of ice came into existence and quickly expanded all over his body.

[+30 SP]

Growling, he continued to fight his way towards me despite his growing ice prison.

Finally, the large building-sized ice formation enveloped all of Overhaul's Kaiju body, leaving him frozen in place just in time as his right hand was only a few meters away from my position.

[+50 SP]

"Finally... heh, I was worried I was going to have to summon Mahoraga for a second there."

Falling to a knee, I felt my low reserves of CE catch up with me. As low as they were, I was unable to summon Round Deer to heal myself. I looked down at my stomach, where the tip of a concrete spear was stabbing through me. Reaching over at the flowing blood from my wound, I grimaced while I debated whether to take it out or not.

"Souta!" A bloodied and injured Jin limped out from around a large chunk of rubble. He then roared out in a panicked voice. "MOVE!"

Without hesitation, I forced my body to move, but it was too late.

A muscled arm shot out from a small crack in the ice formation that encased Overhaul's kaiju arm from right in front of me. The arm bulged and swelled before it stretched out toward me. In a flash, the arm's hand grabbed onto my right wrist.

"Die." Overhaul said with a large grin from within the ice.

My eyes grew wide as I felt something very wrong begin to spread from my wrist up my arm. Gritting my teeth, I coated my left hand with CE and sliced off my arm from the bicep down. Leaping back, I watched as my bisected arm exploded from within Overhaul's hand.

[+15 SP]

Fuck! That was close!

Sliding to a stop, I looked over at my bleeding stump of an arm and winced. Using my binding vow, I switched out Disaster Flames for Blood Manipulation in order to stop the blood.

Down to two techniques...

Breaking out of his ice prison, a much smaller Overhaul landed on the ground with a crack.

Standing at a height of 396 centimeters, Overhaul's once lanky body was lined with large, powerful muscles. Much like his Kaiju form, he now had reddish-black skin with three arms on each side of his torso. Over his shoulders and his back were several large pair of eyes that stared at me with rage. Jutting out of his elbows, knees, and back were large, sharp bone spikes.

"You sacrificed your own arm for your survival." Overhaul said through his moving plague mask. As he spoke, it sounded as if several different people were speaking at once. "You're only prolonging your inevitable death."

I remained silent as I glared at him. "This is far from enough to stop me, you child-abusing piece of shit."

[+5 SP]

"What I did to Eri was all in the name of progress." Overhaul lifted his arms up with an excited expression. "Once I rid this world of the decease known as Quirks, we can all return to how things once were."

"You're a madman." I spat out, feeling lightheaded. "I'm going to kill you for everything you've done to Eri. I'll make you suffer a hundredfold."

"Please," Overhaul scoffed. "I can see that you're barely able to stand on your feet."

He noticed.

"By the way..." I could practically feel the grin on Overhaul's face as his many eyes looked over to a worried and injured Jin. The man was leaning heavily against a chunk of rock as the tip of a spike stuck out of his thigh. "I think I should return the favor from when you took out my subordinates, don't you think? Souta."

Kneeling down, Overhaul placed one of his hands on the ground. Bombarding out of the floor, several large spikes sprang toward the masked man.

Shit! Fuck! Shit!

Throwing all of my remaining CE into Projection Sorcery, I glitched towards Jin. Each new appearance of mine accelerated my speed even further.

Be faster! Save him! No matter what!

Using my remaining arm, I all but launched Jin across the ruins of the compound.

Shnk!

"...n-no," Jin muttered as he pushed himself up, tears pooled around his eyes. "NOOOO!"

Grinning, I gave my friend a weak thumbs up.

Below me, several sharp spikes penetrated throughout my body. Locations such as the side of my neck, my left shoulder, my chest, and my left knee were all stabbed with a thick concrete spike.

Against my will, I felt my eyelids force themselves close over my eyes as my body began to grow cold. From around my shoulders, Zaiko groaned and wrapped itself tightly around me as if to comfort me.

"...run, Jin... Get out of here..."

[+999 SP]

x x x

[General POV]

Tired and covered in sweat, Himiko paused in her run, the sudden feeling of dread spread over her chest. Holding Eri closer to herself, Himiko turned around and heard a faint yell behind her that sounded like Jin.

Hearing the far-off yell as well, Eri whimpered and buried her head into Himiko's neck.

"This is all my fault," Eri whispered.

"...Sukuna-kun?" Himiko uttered, her gaze focused on the disappearing veil in the distance.