Chapter 184

Cut off from Hakari at the start of the colony, Panda has no clear plan and must figure out how to be useful on his own. The moment he resolves to stop hiding and act like the fighter he is, fate hands him the worst possible introduction in the form of Hajime Kashimo.

Perched on a shipping crate at the seaside dock, Panda tells himself he is a harmless toy for now rather than a combatant. The reek of blood and several dismembered bodies tells him a deliberate, skilled sorcerer passed through and masked the residuals on purpose. He resents being the tracker while Hakari was supposed to handle the violence, and he resents even more that the two were split apart instantly. Embarrassed by his own caution, he rolls down to ground level just as Kashimo strolls into view and mistakes the bear for a zoo escapee.

Kashimo's Kogane confirms Panda is a registered participant, which startles Panda, who never realized the shikigami could flag other players. Before he can recover, Kashimo crosses the gap and drives a fist straight through his torso, jolting him with an electric current and then launching him into a container with a swing of the staff. Recognizing that the electric quality of his foe's cursed energy makes every blow impossible to block, Panda switches to Gorilla Mode and answers with his own unguardable strike. Kashimo simply soaks it, tears Panda's arm clean off, and dismisses him as merely average.

A thrown arm becomes a feint that fools Panda into swinging the wrong way, after which Kashimo pummels him with quick punches and a palm thrust into another crate. Demoting his earlier insult to super weak, Kashimo asks where Sukuna is. Panda denies any knowledge to shield Yuji, but the hesitation alone tells Kashimo he is hiding something.

Refusing the offer to be spared for information, Panda swaps into the form of his timid Triceratops big sister, but Kashimo strikes before that core can show its strength. He splits the charges of his energy, marks Panda with the positive while discharging the negative as a true bolt of lightning that cannot miss outside of a domain. The strike blows apart the upper right of Panda's body and leaves him defeated, as Kashimo coldly repeats his question over the spreading blood. This chapter marks the debut of Panda's sister core.