Yuta Okkotsu vs. Takako Uro vs. Ryu Ishigori is three-way battle fought by second year Tokyo Jujutsu High student, Yuta Okkotsu against incarnated Culling Game players, Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori. It takes place in the Sendai Colony after Yuta eliminates Kurourushi from the Culling Game, but the cockroach curse reappears and briefly participates this battle as well.
Prologue
As Ryu and Uro observe him from a distance, Yuta battles Kurourushi soon after dispatching Dhruv Lakdawalla. Aware he's being watched, Yuta tries to avoid displaying his true power but Kurourushi is stronger than expected. Yuta is forced to showcase more of his strength than he would have liked in order to exorcise it.
With Kurourushi out of the way, Uro makes her move on Yuta. She sneaks up behind him and reveals herself by commenting on his usage of his reverse cursed technique, one of the abilities Yuta wanted to conceal.[1]
Battle
Uro ready to counter a counterattack.
Uro creates a wave of destruction that hits Yuta several meters away. He lands on his feet while protecting the back of his neck where the surprise attack came from. Uro closes the distance and throws a right punch at his head. Yuta moves out of the way and Uro's punch only grazes his shoulder. He throws a right hook of his own at the same time but the former assassin is ready for it. She uses her innate technique to distort the space around Yuta's arm, changing its shape.
His arm appears elongated and sinuous, confusing Yuta while he takes Uro's elbow to his jaw. She follows up by breaking the space in front of Yuta, which he tries to block but the force emitted by the broken space blasts him backward. Yuta maintains his balance and lands on his feet again but he's having a hard time understanding how Uro's attacks keep getting past his defenses.
Uro distorts the appearance of Yuta's arm.
Yuta's arm returns to normal and it doesn't cause him any discomfort. He figures that his opponent's technique must control space without harming anyone caught within it, comparing it to how a lens creates distortion. Aware her opponent is analyzing her anyway, Uro divulges her innate technique, explaining that it allows her to manipulate the sky by treating it as a surface.
Having shown her hand and received an increase in power, Uro grabs onto the empty space next to her and makes it tangible, tugging on it as if it was a large curtain. Given Uro's explanation, Yuta discerns that there must be a trick to the application of her technique if a surface managed to blow past his guard. Finished with her explanation, Uro impatiently waits for Yuta to make the next move so she can counter it. Yuta decides to open a dialogue instead and attempts to understand why Uro would act so desperately in the Culling Game to service herself. He doesn't come close to reaching an understanding and only serves to irritate Uro. She also figures out he's a descendant of the Fujiwara clan and directs her fury associated with the group she used to serve at him.
Granite Blast!
Ryu interrupts their conversation and inserts himself into the fight by firing Granite Blast, a wide-ranged blast of cursed energy. Both sorcerers turn around to face the beam as it decimates the area around them. Uro avoids damage by manipulating the space around her while Yuta is forced to tank the destructive force of the attack and heal himself.
Ryu's assault gives away his location and he's also shown his opponents his broad attack range. He's a threat to the civilians being protected by Rika nearby and Uro doesn't need to consider Kurourushi, so both sorcerers decide it's best to deal with Ryu first. Yuta makes the first move and dashes straight for the roof where Ryu is.
Ryu's volley of energy beams appear to overpower Yuta.
Excited by the prospect of countering Yuta's direct approach, Ryu responds with a volley of cursed energy beams fired directly from his pompadour. Yuta increases his speed and uses his agility to spin around obstacles and avoid the barrage of blasts. However, he's caught off by Ryu;s continuous firing and appears to get shot by numerous blastwaves. Ryu expected more out of Yuta and expresses disappointment until he realizes his opponent avoided the beams altogether. Yuta slipped through the hole Rika created during their skirmish with Kurorushi's cockroaches, allowing him to complete his approach and reach the rooftop.
Yuta attacks Ryu and tries to hit him with an elbow but the latter parries Yuta's forearm with a burst of cursed energy from his palm. Ryu's cursed energy output slightly marks even Yuta's reinforced body. Yuta tells Ryu its time to bring the fight in close and while smoke rises from his hand, Ryu replies by asking Yuta if that will satisfy "the hunger".[2]
"Lets bring this in close."
Ryu compares the thrill of battle to dining on fine delicacies. He explains that throughout his life, he's been figuratively plagued with a hunger that's never been satisfied by a plentiful desert. Yuta readies himself for an offensive by the end of their talk and Ryu attacks with a right hook empowered by his explosive cursed energy output. This locks them in a rapid exchange of blows and parries that allow the fighters to analyze each other's close combat capabilities. At the end of this exchange, both fighters have their backs to each other and are turning around to attack. Suddenly, Ryu unleashes a burst of cursed energy from his back with incredible destructive force, blasting Yuta in the back and sending him flying across the city.
Ryu's explosive cursed energy output overpowers even Yuta.
Yuta crashes through the top of a building before tumbling across the roof of another and gaining his balance. He doesn't have a moment's rest as Ryu pursued him from the street below. Ryu fires a smaller version of Granite Blast while performing a cartwheel but Yuta blocks it with his bare hands. Yuta quickly goes on the offensive with a diving punch that nearly smashes Ryu into the pavement. However, Ryu uses another blast of cursed energy from his pompadour to block Yuta's fist, splitting the beam out in several directions. The force of Yuta's punch forces Ryu's back into the ground but the former is ultimately knocked away by the blast.
Uro takes the opportunity to attack Yuta while he's defenseless and flying through the air. She doesn't hit him with her technique directly because the trick is for Uro to hit the surface of the sky around him. Uro breaks the surface of the sky like thin ice and hits Yuta with it, sending him crashing into a building with a move she calls Thin Ice Breaker. Annoyed by her interference, Ryu calls Uro a pile of vomit and shoots Granite Blast at her. Uro warps the space around herself several times to spin the beam back at its source. Ryu suffers a direct hit from his own attack from the first time and also gets blasted into a building.
Uro sends Ryu's blast back at him.
Yuta climbs back out onto the battlefield and receives a backhanded compliment from Uro for being so tough. Ryu notices that despite Yuta's immense reserves of cursed energy, even he can be depleted from repeated usage of his reverse cursed technique. Cornered by elite opponents, Yuta decides that it's time to go all out. He wanted to put more distance between the battle and the civilians before calling Rika away, but now he's left without a choice. Ready to put his all toward victory, Yuta calls Rika to his side and asks her to give him everything.[3]
Rika appears next to Yuta, completely manifested, and at full power. Uro and Ryu are shocked because they didn't know Yuta was holding back before and now they can feel his cursed energy refilling. While connected to Rika through Orimoto's ring, Yuta is able to fully manifest the cursed spirit and access its storage of cursed energy and cursed tools. Rika opens her chest cavity to reveal an arsenal of cursed tools she asks Yuta to pick from. He selects a metal arm casing to reinforce his punches which Rika equips to his right arm.
"Come Rika. Give me everything."
Yuta and Rika begin their assault by focusing on Uro first. Rika rushes toward her and the former assassin prepares a surface to counter. However, Rika's approach is a diversion that allows Yuta to apply the Snake Eyes and Fangs sigil of the Inumkai clan to his mouth and activate cursed speech. Uro recognizes the emblem and attempts to cover her ears but it's too late, as she's completely immobilized by Yuta's command not to move. This leaves Uro defenseless and at the mercy of a brutal barrage of rapid-fire punches from Yuta and Rika on both sides of her.
Yuta and Rika pummel Uro after immobilizing her with cursed speech.
While Uro is getting pummeled, Ryu charges up a Granite Blast and intervenes by firing it. Rika propels Yuta off her arms to pursue Uro and quickly turns around to notice the beam coming at them. She blocks Ryu's blast with a single hand, surprising Ryu, who commends the curse for being even tougher than her master.
Angered by the injury to her hand, Rika blitzes Ryu with a rage-fueled punch that smashes the side of his face, sending him flying. Rika attempts to follow up by intercepting the point where Ryu is going to crash and throwing a second punch. Ryu recovers quicker than she expected and delivers a powerful punch of his own while still rolling on the ground. It sends Rika crashing into the building across from Ryu, who expresses his excitement at the building intensity of the battle by declaring that he's still got an appetite that calls for an extra large helping.
Rika punches Ryu for shooting her.
Meanwhile, Yuta pursues Uro on top of another building. He takes out some strands of his hair and uses them as mediums for shikigami that resemble Rika's head with wings. Uro warps the space around one of the shikigami and sends it to the ground before crushing it with a stomp of her foot. She's unaware the trajectory of the other flying shikigami circling her are projecting a domain, resulting in several slashes across her body. Once she's been hit, Uro recognizes the ability and realizes that Yuta has copied Dhruv Lakdawalla's innate technique.
Yuta, Uro, and Ryu all use domain expansion.
With his opponent stunned, Yuta capitalizes with a punch reinforced by his cursed tool that hits her back to the area where Ryu and Rika are. Yuta attempts to hit her with another strike Uro blocks it and destroys the metal casing around his arm by breaking a surface in front of his fist. While his punch has been halted by Uro, Yuta tells her that regardless of what his ancestors did to her, living selfishly will only get her so far. This enrages Uro but Ryu interrupts her tirade with a surge of cursed energy that Yuta also takes note of. Ryu believes words are pointless at this stage and conveys that it's time for the climax. Cognizant of what's most likely to transpire next, all three sorcerers activate Domain Expansion at the same time![4]
Yuta kicks Uro while she's hyperfocused on Kurourushi.
Overlapping domains cancel out each other's guaranteed-hit function. In order to prevent Yuta from gaining the initiative, Uro and Ryu focus on constructing their barriers quickly to keep Rika out of them. Rika has already been knocked far enough away by Ryu that nothing particular needs to happen to achieve this. Rika can't accept being unable to protect Yuta and ramps her strength to the next level, reflected by the opening of her cycloptic eye. However, instead of Rika intruding on the three-way domain expansion, Kururousuhi unexpectedly reappears and infiltrates it. Before the deadlock was broken by Yuta, Kurourushi reproduced and its cursed energy was inherited by the offspring. It uses a swarm of cockroaches to keep Rika at bay outside the barrier while it invades the struggle between the sorcerers.
Three overlapping domains are even more unstable than two, resulting in them all coming apart before they're fully formed. The conflicting conditions set on them and the unexpected intrusion also compromised the integrity of the barriers. As the spherical barrier containing the four fighters shatters into pieces, the four of them descend back to the ground, poised to clash again at any moment.
Kurourushi severs Uro's arm.
Yuta notices that Uro is mainly concerned with the reappearance of Kurourushi, whom she considers an unfavorable opponent. Yuta takes advantage of this distraction and kicks Uro from behind, sending her crashing down toward the cockroach curse. Uro stays on her feet and prepares for an attack from Kurourushi by grabbing a surface from the space around her. However, it burns away because cursed techniques are highly difficult to use after casting domain expansion. This leaves Uro vulnerable to Kurorushi's assault, who slashes her arm off with its Festering Life Sword in a grotesque fashion. Rika devours Uro's severed arm, impressing Ryu because he doubts Uro can create an entirely new one even if she can use reverse cursed technique. Further enraged, Uro targets her anger at Yuta again, only for Ryu to tell her that's enough.
Ryu takes Uro and Kurourushi out of the fight.
Unimpressed with the limits of Kurourushi and Uro, Ryu declares he hasn't invited them to his final course and hits them both with Granite Blast. Ryu can still output high levels of cursed energy regardless of whether or not his innate technique is active. Both Uro and Kurourushi are heavily injured by Granite Blast and effectively removed from the battle. Uro is down and unconscious while half of Kurorurushi's body has been burned away. Yuta effortlessly finishes off Kurourushi with a blast of reverse cursed energy from his palm to its head, leaving only him and Ryu. The table has been set for the chance to have the dessert Ryu has longed for. He charges up a blast of cursed energy as he takes aim at Yuta and Rika. They respond by building up cursed energy for a powerful beam of their own.[5]
Yuta indulges Ryu's desire for a proper clash.
Yuta's innate technique hasn't replenished but he can fire a directed blast of cursed energy while Rika is fully manifested. However, even at full power, Yuta's beam is inferior to Ryu's Granite Blast. Yuta's best option is to charge his laser and release it before Ryu reaches full power. However, Yuta's heart is swayed by Ryu's gaze, which communicates four hundred years of desire for a proper clash. Yuta finds no personal fulfillment in fighting but he empathizes with Ryu and indulges his request just this once. Both fighters charge their attacks to the maximum and release them into a dazzling cursed energy beam struggle.
Yuta uses Uro's technique to divert Granite Blast.
Yuta's beam is ultimately overpowered and it appears as if he and Rika were both blasted into a wall. Ryu finds this epic exchange exceeding gratifying and expresses his joy by calling it sweet. He notices a swell of cursed energy coming from his surviving opponent and suggests they clash beams again. Rika suddenly appears from the smoke and fires a cursed energy blast at Ryu, with Yuta rushing toward him simultaneously. While it initially looked like Yuta was hit, he evaded the beam and used the explosion to propel himself forward.
Ryu takes out Rika.
Rika's beam is a diversion meant to draw out Ryu's Granite Blast so Yuta can overpower him at close range. While Ryu didn't initially expect Rika to be able to fire on her own, he adjusts and blocks her beam with his hand instead of firing his own blast. He declares that he can do whatever Yuta can and notes that Rika's blast wasn't as powerful as before. Believing he's thwarted Yuta's last desperate approach, Ryu takes aim and prepares to end the fight, unleashing Granite Blast.
Yuta unexpectedly redirects the blast into the sky using Uro's innate technique. His own technique has already replenished from domain expansion and Ryu realizes that it's the ability to copy other cursed techniques. He figures Yuta likely fulfilled a condition for copying Uro's technique when Rika consumed her arm. With his big move diverted, Ryu is left open to Yuta's counterattack. Yuta uses Thin Ice Breaker to hit Ryu in the gut with a powerful right straight punch that draws blood from the latter's mouth. Rika follows up with a punch to the head that makes Ryu bleed from there as well.
Yuta giving Ryu the fight he's always desired.
Rika suddenly reverts to her partial form after the five-minute time limit expires. Ryu doesn't miss his opportunity and hits Rika with a supercharged punch so strong that it would've been too much for the curse even while she was completely manifested. Rika is sent flying into the side of a building, splattering her across the debris. Due to the extensive damage, Rika reaches her limit and disappears.
Yuta defeats Ryu with his own attack.
Despite losing Rika's aid, Yuta stands strong and delivers a flurry of kicks that Ryu barely manages to block. The two of them engage in a purely hand-to-hand exchange of blows, hitting each other with combinations of punches and backhands to the head and body. Ryu admits he never thought there would be more action even after the two of them used every last drop of energy. Ecstatic with Yuta's persistence and performance, Ryu expresses that he's finally reached the moment he's been waiting for, a proper, plentiful dessert.
Yuta gets the better of Ryu by grabbing onto his coat and forcing all of their weight down into one spot. He declares that the fight is over and Ryu looks down, confused by Yuta's declaration. While Ryu is distracted by the crater created by Yuta's move, the blast of cursed energy he shot early comes crashing down on him with all the same incredible force he fired it with, blasting him into the ground.
Ryu survives the impact but he's utterly defeated and unable to fight any further. He realized too late that Yuta used Uro's ability to manipulate space to redirect the Granite Blast instead of discarding it. After diverting the blast into the sky, Yuta sent it back down at the same time Rika punched Ryu in the head. Grateful for having finished dessert after four hundred years, Ryu thanks Yuta and proudly declares that his stomach is now full.[6]
Aftermath
"Thank you. My stomach's now full!!!"
Yuta is victorious without needing to kill his opponents, allowing him to ask for their points. He gets Uro's but she tells Yuta that he's going to reach his limit because calamities like Sukuna transcend his strength. Ryu doesn't praise Yuta for sparing him and calls him soft for it. Yuta sits next to Ryu and stares up at the birds more than he listens to Ryu's comments. He replies by saying Uro expressed a similar sentiment. Ryu is surprised that Uro survived his last attack and assumes his blasts were weakened after domain expansion.
Ryu sits up and asks Yuta about the repeated conversations between him and Uro throughout the battle. He compares it to a lover's quarrel and tells Yuta to stop acting like it's a nuisance when he plays along. Yuta explains there isn't anything that could've been said that wouldn't have led to more conflict. He believes the reason for this is that he's blessed as an individual. Ryu doesn't quite understand what Yuta means, but he respects it.
Yuta spares Ryu and Uro.
Following their short conversation, Yuta stands up and tells Ryu to give him his points. Ryu is confused until his Kogane reveals to him that players can transfer points between one another. Once Ryu figures out what's going on, he smirks and asks Yuta if this is the reason their lives were spared. Yuta stretches and neither confirms nor denies this. He simply tells Ryu to be grateful to his comrades.
Yuta totals 190 points in the Culling Game after the point transfers, also including points gained from eliminating Dhruv and Kurourushi.[7]
References
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 175 (p. 8-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 176 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 177 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 178 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 178 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 180 (p. 2-19).
- ↑ Jujutsu Kaisen Manga: Chapter 181 (p. 5-9).