The Shibuya Incident, Part 40

The struggle within Shibuya Station carries on, with Mahito relying on transfigured humans rather than gambling his own soul. What escapes Yuji is that the curse had divided himself earlier in the incident, and the other half is presently cornering Nobara in a nearby alley. Mahito means to turn her into the weapon that finally breaks his rival.

Mahito attempts a slash at a ticket gate, but Yuji springs over it. The curse follows up with a delayed transfiguration and a punch from a bulky enhanced arm coiled around his torso. The moment Yuji catches that blow, Mahito reads the threat at once, lops off his own arm, fits it with legs so both pieces can flee, and rejoins it after reaching a safe distance. Yuji observes that the curse has gained some new tricks. Mahito then drops from sight and burrows into two civilians who try to warn Yuji off; his arm tears out of one mouth to sucker-punch Yuji, after which he peels free as though shedding skin and converts the second civilian into a sword. He goads Yuji to exercise his imagination, hoping to shatter him, and teases one final card still to play.

A flashback reveals that almost two hours earlier on a lower station floor, Dagon had swallowed many civilians. That moment coincided with the start of the curse-side hunt for Yuji, undertaken by Jogo, Choso, and Mahito together. To beat them to their quarry, Mahito had split in two and walled off his rivals. In the present, his second self runs into Nobara in an alley. She knows him from Yuji's reports and waves off his fame as the reputation of a coward who flees. Entertained, Mahito resolves to end her life, and Nobara stands her ground because she has nothing yet to show for the incident, straining to reach the core of cursed energy behind Black Flash. Over a quick exchange she outmaneuvers him with detonating pins and the surrounding terrain, though he doubts her strikes can truly wound him and intends to drag her corpse to Yuji.

This chapter opens the joint battle of Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki against Mahito. It corresponds to Episode 42 of the anime and ran in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 42 of 2020. The reveal that Mahito had been operating as two selves recontextualizes the curse-side hunt for Yuji earlier in the incident.