Chapter 49

Yuji's first Black Flash tears Hanami's arms apart, and the impact leaves Yuji himself stunned at the texture of his own cursed energy. Aoi likens his partner to a cook who has been clumsily handling unfamiliar ingredients until now, observing that the breakthrough has finally taught Yuji to command his power and lifted him a full tier above where he stood moments earlier. Hanami, who had been told that Sukuna's vessel was a second-rate sorcerer, is left confused and wary, his cursed energy visibly unsteady as the two friends square up to resume the fight.

Impressed by his opponents, Hanami sheds his robe to expose a blackened arm sprouting from a rosebud on his shoulder, then floods the field with branches the pair barely slip past. Aoi explains that the spirit pays for such range by surrendering speed and force. Hanami fires Cursed Buds from his fingertips and the sorcerers dodge, countering with a paired straight that cracks his guard, only for their footing to vanish. The branches were never being manipulated at all; they were jujutsu constructs that dissolve at once, leaving Hanami balanced on a wooden sphere while the two fall and kick off each other to escape the spikes jutting from it.

Hanami catches himself enjoying the battle and recalls Mahito urging him to surrender to his instincts as a curse, promising that doing so would make him stronger. He pins the duo with a field of flowers and chases it with another rush of branches, privately admitting he is having fun. Aoi checks on his student and concludes the moment has come to unveil his own cursed technique. The chapter sits within the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, references Boogie Woogie and the Reverse Cursed Technique, and adapts into Episode 19.