Chapter Thirty-Nine: Call Me the Great One!
『RYON』
Enjoy~~~
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Time stopped. Or at least, that was how it seemed in the instant when two auras that did not belong to this world collided.
At the heart of the destroyed corridor of the Juvenile Detention Center, Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses revived within a human vessel, was gripping Yukihara Ren's wrist with a force strong enough to crush steel. The smile on Sukuna's face was not a simple expression of joy—it was a grotesque distortion, reflecting madness and a bloodthirsty desire that a thousand-year imprisonment had failed to quench.
"You have good eyes…" Sukuna whispered, his voice sounding as if it rose from the depths of hell. "But does your body have the strength to support that arrogance?"
Ren did not answer with words.
His aura answered instead.
BOOOOM!
Cursed energy erupted from both of their bodies at the same time.
Sukuna's aura was blood-red—dense and heavy, so thick it looked like a viscous liquid drowning the surroundings. It carried the mark of "absolute evil," ancient and concentrated demonic energy, born from only three fingers (the number Yuji had consumed so far). Yet the quality of this energy, combined with Sukuna's indomitable soul, made its pressure heavier than mountains.
In contrast, Ren's aura was chaotic and terrifyingly beautiful. Pitch-black cursed energy, raw and violent, was streaked with flashes of crimson red, emerald green, and sparks of golden lightning.
KRAAACK!
The concrete floor beneath their feet began to crack and crumble—not from weight, but from spiritual pressure. Gravity in the room multiplied tenfold. Small stones floated into the air, then turned to dust the moment they touched the edges of the colliding auras.
Sukuna possessed a demonic presence—the aura of the King of Curses who had lived a thousand years ago.
And Ren matched him with the sheer force of his chaotic aura, along with his overwhelming, seemingly limitless cursed energy.
Ren glanced at the hand crushing his wrist, and instead of pain, his smile widened to mirror Sukuna's madness.
"Let go of my hand… old man."
"Make me… brat."
---
Outside the curtain, beyond the barrier surrounding the detention center.
The sky was covered in dark clouds, and the air grew unnaturally cold.
Ijichi (the assistant manager) trembled behind the steering wheel, sweat pouring down his forehead despite the chill. "W-What is this feeling? The curtain is shaking… the measuring devices are about to explode!"
Beside the car stood Fushiguro Megumi and Kugisaki Nobara. Nobara had a white bandage wrapped around her blood-stained head and leaned against the car for support, her face pale as a corpse.
"H-Hey… Fushiguro…" Nobara said with a trembling voice, her eyes fixed on the dome of darkness covering the facility. "What is that aura? It's… it makes me want to throw up from the pressure alone. Is this a special-grade curse?"
Megumi swallowed hard. His instincts as a jujutsu sorcerer were screaming at him to run.
"No…" Megumi whispered, his eyes wide with fear. "A special-grade curse was terrifying… but this? This is something else entirely. That disgusting red aura… it's the same feeling I had that night…"
He remembered the moment Yuji had eaten the first finger.
"It's Ryomen Sukuna."
Nobara gasped. "Sukuna?! You mean Itadori lost control during the fight?!"
"But there's another aura…" Megumi continued, focusing harder, trying to cut through the terrifying noise of cursed energy. "A black, chaotic aura—like a storm. It's clashing with Sukuna head-on. It's not retreating… it's pushing back!"
Megumi's eyes widened as he realized the impossible truth.
"It's Ren. Zenin Ren is fighting Sukuna right now!"
Megumi took a step forward, his hands forming signs to summon his shikigami, Divine Dog. "I have to go back. Ren is strong, but he's facing the King of Curses! This is suicide!"
"Stop!"
Nobara grabbed Megumi by the collar and yanked him back despite her injuries.
"Are you stupid?!" she shouted, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes from the overwhelming pressure pouring out of the facility. "Can't you feel that pressure? If we go in there now, we'll just get in the way! We'll die the moment we step between them!"
"But—!"
"Get in the car!" Nobara yelled, shoving him toward the back seat. "We have to inform Gojo-sensei! Or any first-grade sorcerer! Ijichi-san, drive! Now! Ren is buying time for us—don't waste his sacrifice!"
Ijichi slammed his trembling foot on the accelerator, and the car sped away from the detention center, leaving behind a storm of cursed energy that began tearing the sky itself apart.
Megumi looked back through the rear window and saw the black curtain ripping open from above, with two beams of light—one red, one black—shooting into the heavens.
"Ren… don't die."
---
Back inside the detention center.
The scene returned to the heart of the storm.
The surrounding walls were gone, and the ceiling had evaporated, leaving the two of them under the pale moonlight, which seemed to watch in fear.
Ren stepped back—and Sukuna did the same—as if they were two beasts preparing to pounce.
"Heh… I haven't felt this excited since the Heian era," Sukuna said as he tore away what remained of Yuji's shirt, revealing a chest covered in tattoos. "You're not just a jujutsu sorcerer, are you? Your techniques are strange. Your movements… they resemble those of ancient swordsmen."
Ren slowly raised his right hand and took a deep breath.
It was not an ordinary breath.
Inside his mind, the memories of Ron surged like a waterfall—the years spent imitating Yoriichi, training beneath waterfalls, merging cursed energy into every cell of his body.
[Sun Breathing, Cursed Technique: Release!]
"Fuuuuuh…"
Thick white steam poured from Ren's mouth, and his body temperature skyrocketed. The black cursed energy around his fist ignited, transforming into blazing crimson flames that coiled around his arm like a raging dragon.
"Me?" Ren replied with an arrogant smile, his emerald eyes shining with golden light. "You may call me the Supreme King Ren… or the Great One!"
Sukuna felt the scorching heat and narrowed his eyes with interest. "Flames? No… this isn't ordinary fire. A technique based on breathing? Interesting!"
Sukuna didn't wait any longer. He compressed his cursed energy into his fist. He wasn't using a complex technique—just raw, concentrated power so dense that the space around his hand began to warp.
"Show me what you've got!"
They charged at the same time.
The distance between them vanished.
Ren's flame-wreathed fist met Sukuna's blood-red aura-covered punch.
And a fraction of a second before impact…
The world froze.
Color vanished. Everything turned into shades of gray and white. Blood droplets hanging in the air stopped. Dust was suspended in the void.
Ren felt his focus reach its absolute peak. Cursed energy and breathing flow aligned perfectly, reaching the point of detonation in less than a millionth of a second.
And in that instant, black sparks appeared.
[Black Flash!]
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Their fists collided.
It wasn't a sound—it was the erasure of sound. A massive beam of black and red energy erupted, engulfing the entire detention center and piercing the sky like a pillar of destruction.
Space itself trembled. The building they stood in wasn't merely destroyed—it was erased from existence. Concrete turned to vapor. Steel melted into liquid.
Their bodies were hurled backward by the explosion.
Sukuna crashed into a pile of rubble hundreds of meters away, his body smoking, his right arm twisted at an unnatural angle, the flesh completely burned.
"Hahahaha!" Sukuna laughed as he rose from the debris. A soft white aura wrapped around his arm.
[Reverse Cursed Technique!]
In the blink of an eye, bone fused, flesh regenerated, and skin returned to normal. Sukuna brushed the dust off his shoulder as if nothing had happened. "Nice punch. I felt that Black Flash sting."
On the other side, Ren stood in the center of a molten crater, clutching his right arm, which hung limply, blood dripping from his lips.
"Damn it…" Ren spat blood mixed with fragments of his lung (damaged by the pressure). "Instant regeneration… what a cheat."
Ren closed his eyes and focused. He had not fully mastered Reverse Cursed Technique yet, so he couldn't heal as easily as Sukuna. However, thanks to the Player's Body, which enhanced vitality, his cells began dividing and regenerating at a terrifying—though painful—speed.
Crack… crack…
His arm bones returned to place, wounds sealed, leaving Ren breathing heavily but intact.
"I'm still slow at healing compared to you," Ren said, wiping the blood from his chin as a feral smile returned to his face. "But that's fine. Pain reminds me I'm alive."
They locked eyes—Sukuna with his demonic smile that promised hell, and Ren with his arrogant grin that challenged kings.
"The first round was just a greeting," Sukuna said.
"I agree," Ren replied. "Let's start the real fight."
"Come then!"
Whoosh!
Both of them vanished.
The naked eye could no longer follow them. Gaps tore through the air at random points around the battlefield, caused by movements faster than sound.
Sukuna tried to create distance to use his cutting techniques, but Ren didn't give him the chance.
Using [Sun Breathing: First Form], Ren moved along a strange trajectory, leaving afterimages of fire behind him.
"You won't escape!"
Ren appeared directly in front of Sukuna, his fist ablaze.
BOOM!
Sukuna raised his arms to block, but the force of the punch—enhanced by explosive cursed energy—sent him skidding backward, his feet tearing through the ground.
"Annoying brat!"
Sukuna waved his hand, activating his innate technique.
[Dissect (Kai)!]
Invisible cutting lines appeared in the air, rushing toward Ren to slice him apart.
But Ren, his emerald eyes glowing with [Transparent World], saw the ripples of cursed energy in the air.
"I can see them!"
Ren bent his body backward at an impossible angle, letting the dissection blades pass mere millimeters above his nose, slicing off strands of his black hair.
While still bent backward, Ren kicked Sukuna's chin with a flame-wreathed foot.
BAM!
Sukuna's head snapped back, but he recovered midair and grabbed Ren's leg.
"Got you."
Sukuna smiled as energy gathered in his hand, ready to tear Ren's leg apart.
"Not quite!"
Ren summoned Igris from storage with his free hand while upside down, pointing the crimson blade toward Sukuna's neck.
"Die!"
Sukuna was forced to release Ren's leg and retreat to avoid the giant blade that cleaved through the air where he had stood a moment earlier.
Ren landed on his feet, his sword dripping red and black energy, while Sukuna stood several meters away, licking a small drop of blood from a shallow cut on his cheek caused by the sword's tip.
"Hahahaha!" Sukuna laughed loudly, staring at the blood on his finger. "Good! Very good! Zenin Ren! You are worthy of being killed seriously!"
Ren smiled and raised his sword into a combat stance. "I don't need your praise, fallen king. I need your head."
The wind howled as their auras collided once more, declaring that what had just happened was only the beginning.
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End of Chapter 39
To be continued in the next chapter: Ren vs. Sukuna… Domain Expansion?!
Finally, I can write action… I'm excited 🔥😂
Tell me your ideas in the comments.