Chap 103: Rabbit escape & Tranquil deer
With five of the Ten Shadows Shikigami in his hand, the next one is more like a tricky puzzle than something he can outright brute force. Well he might be able to just snowball his way if he played it right.
Rabbit Escape is a Shikigami where if he won't eliminate all of them at once, then it would be for nothing. As they can just make clones endlessly, a better technique than what he has to use to control multiple bodies.
Wolves ? Not fast and have a long enough range. Same problem with Toad and Max elephant as well, they provide an assist but not a clear method.
The only two he thinks it's useful are Great Serpent and Nue. It took a few tries, but he managed to get it done after a month of training and testing out his Shikigami.
"Nue and Great Serpent." Quickly summoning both Shikigami, he makes sure to add a high amount of curse energy to give them a boost.
The sky above him darkened like there was a thundercloud. Then feathers fall down, looking up. Takumi sees beyond the changes, besides the increase in Nue's size, not as big as when Sukuna summons it. His Nue is more of a car sized bird, nothing's wrong with it. He notices more about the much more powerful lighting crackling from its wing.
"Yep, this should do it." He turns to the Great Serpent, "get into formation now."
It nodded and then stretched itself in a circle, lapping twice to make a closed area. Satisfied with his setup, he put both hands to make a rabbit shadow.
What he had anticipated came to be, there isn't one rabbit that came out but a dozen. They kept on multiplying by the hundreds, swarming everywhere they could, like water pouring through a dam, but were forced back by the coiling body of the Great Serpent.
And like he had prepared, the thunderous strike came down from above. The sky roars as a pillar of purple electricity burns everything where it hits. Rendering most of the rabbits to be fried to ashes, anyone that survives is picked off easily by Divine Dogs Takumi summons afterward.
"The practice pays off, huh."
"Of course, don't you have faith in me ?"
"Yes, yes, you are very smart. Now take a seat. Let's have some lunch first before you take on the next one."
On a wide, open field — or what used to be one. The grass has been scorched and churned to dark soil in wide patches, the aftermath of Takumi’s recent battle.
Takumi and Tojiko sat on a slightly dusty picnic blanket, a basket at their side, beneath a pale, cooling sky.
"You made a hell of a mess for a rabbit." Tojiko said, with an unimpressed tone. Tossing a small rock up and down in one hand.
"well, it's either i take it out in one shot or it will able to keep multiplying nonstop. at that point, I'll lose." Eating a sandwich with one hand, his other hand? It's being held by Tojiko.
At first, she intended to hug him whole. But that idea was shot down, Takumi needed to be focused. But some skinship is also nice, so he agrees to just hold hands.
"Here, say ahh~," Tojiko said, hand-feeding him.
"You don't need to-*gulp* feed me."
"I know, I just wanted to. Another bite ?" Tojiko wasn't a good woman, but she wanted to be for him. To be in this place, it mattered little to her how beautiful the view was because all she wanted to see was right in front of her. She can touch him, hold him, kiss him. But that could be left for later.
In such scenery, she was contemptuous of spending moments like these.
"Now, onto the sixth." Finally getting up, Takumi gets right back to work. His right hand formed the horn and his left for its snout and head. "Tranquil deer."
Out came a two-meter-tall deer with long growing horns and four eyes, it stared at him. Making no sudden movement right away.
"You seemed like a real challenge, wanna have a go at me ?"
The deer does not respond, just keeps its eyes on him. Takumi already knew it won't attack, he was just testing the water.
Tranquil deer, the Shikigami has reverse curse technique as its ability. So that means attack from afar is a no-go.
He remembers it being shown in the manga, but everything from this one to the last, Takumi is lacking in knowledge.
'I can't use Nue, so let's start with the basics." He summons the wolves, Shirane and Kurona both dive with their fang, ready to take a bite.
Only to get kicked in the face, the deer having its back hooves kick in and started jumping away.
"Fascinating, you're not a fighter, but that doesn't mean you can't fight." He chases after him, summoning Nue to him.
Two feathery wings came from his back, and then two talons picked him up by the shoulder. Sukuna doesn't use it much in the manga but lets it heal him, so he doesn't know that it can move this fast.
Forming a new hand sign as he follows the deer around, he tries to launch some lighting to no effect. All of them being dissolved by the reverse technique, disperse into the empty air.
"Nue, drop me." The talons on his shoulders were released, and Takumi fell onto the Tranquil deer.
Franticly, it tries to buck him off. Grabbing onto one of its many deer horns, Takumi throws a mean punch infused with curse energy. Which did little than make it angrier, tipping itself on the front legs; it was getting more drastic with the way it tried.
"Okay, i feel mean for doing this. But you leave me no choice." His hand straightened flat, and he jabbed it directly into its eyes. Driving the deer to cry out in pain. At the same time, Nue landed and did a body slam charged with electricity.
"Max Elephant." Above them, a loud trumpet call splits the air. From the churning darkness bursts forth a giant pink Elephant. Its Towering size casts a vast shadow over the creature. And slams down with earth-shaking force.
The ground explodes beneath its feet. The deer didn't manage to heal in time as its body was flattened beneath tons of crushing weight, its form breaking apart in a spray of cursed energy and purple ichor.
The Shikigami fades into nothingness, adding another in his shadow. Takumi lowers his hands, exhaling slowly.
“Done.” he exhaled.
Max Elephant gives one final trumpet, then dissolves back into his shadow.