CRASH!!!
After tearing away the wings of the Wing King, Souma Gojo delivered a devastating roundhouse kick that sent Kenjaku hurtling through the air. The ancient sorcerer's body smashed through several concrete structures, leaving a trail of pulverised brick and twisted rebar.
A moment later, Kenjaku rose from the rubble. His eyes were shot through with crimson veins, his expression bordering on manic.
"You forced my hand!" he shrieked, his fingers weaving into a complex, frantic seal. He threw his head back and roared: "Domain Expans—"
THUD!!!
The words died in his throat as a spray of blood erupted from his mouth. Kenjaku's eyes rolled back in his head. A single, indignant thought flashed through his mind: Why didn't he wait for me to finish my line?
Souma stood over him, his leg still extended from the Black Flash that had just reduced Kenjaku to a near-death state. "Who made the rule that I have to stand still and wait while the enemy charges up their ultimate move?"
Kenjaku: "..."
Wasn't that just common courtesy in the world of sorcery?
Seeing Souma charging forward again, a purple orb of destructive light coalescing in his palm, Kenjaku felt his skin crawl with primal terror. While his reinforced body and Reverse Cursed Technique had allowed him to survive a physical beating, he knew with absolute certainty that he wouldn't survive a direct hit from Hollow Purple.
"Damn it all!"
Kenjaku turned and bolted, abandoning every scrap of his carefully laid plan. He had stalled long enough; surely Mahito had succeeded by now.
Survival was the only priority.
But as he looked over his shoulder, he saw Souma's face appearing inches from his own, haunting and ethereal like a ghost. Their eyes met at a distance of mere centimeters.
"!!!"
Kenjaku's heart nearly stopped. Without a second thought, he slammed his palm against his own chest. Black runes instantly swarmed across his skin, and his current vessel—the body of Kaori Itadori—began to bloat and distort as cursed energy leaked out in violent, unstable waves.
"A self-destruction?!"
Souma hadn't expected Kenjaku to be this decisive. If a sorcerer of this caliber detonated, the entire Jujutsu High campus would be leveled, and the students would be caught in the blast.
Souma lunged forward, using his own cursed energy to suppress Kaori's expanding form, slowing the detonation by mere seconds as he weaved a seal.
"Domain Expansion: Land of Pristine Silence!"
As Souma focused on containing the blast, Kaori's skull suddenly split open with a sickening squelch. A grotesque, living brain with a mouth sprouted from the cavity and flew into the air, fleeing toward the horizon.
Souma's eye twitched. But he was pinned, forced to deal with the volatile meat-bomb in his hands, unable to pursue the retreating brain.
The next moment, Kaori's body was dragged into the void of the Domain. Within the Land of Pristine Silence, all cursed energy was stripped away. The grotesquely swollen form shriveled back to its original state, though the opened skull remained a gruesome sight.
Souma sighed, stepping forward to close the lid of the skull before using Reverse Cursed Technique to seal the wound and preserve the vessel.
Outside the domain, the sound of shattering glass echoed as the Veil dissolved into nothingness. Satoru Gojo streaked into the arena, hovering high in the sky. He pulled down his blindfold, his Six Eyes scanning the battlefield.
"Hm? Cursed energy spiked several levels in such a short time? Yuji's doing great!" Satoru grinned, watching his student stand tall beside Todo. "Oh? Brother opened his Domain? Guess he doesn't need my help. In that case..."
Elsewhere, Juzo Kumiya and Gakuganji were locked in a stalemate.
"Damn it! Why am I stuck with an old fossil?" Juzo shouted. "Where are the Gojo brothers? I want to turn them into coat racks!"
A figure appeared directly in front of Juzo. The white hair and piercing blue eyes told him exactly who his visitor was.
Juzo's face lit up with sadistic joy. "Aha! Finally!"
"Don't kill him!" Gakuganji yelled.
SHING!
Before Juzo could even register a movement, his limbs were severed in a clean, circular arc. He spiraled through the air in a spray of blood. Satoru then glanced into the distance. "Teleporting would take a second. Let's just be a bit excessive."
"Hollow Purple!"
The Cemetery
Yuji Itadori stood with a heavy heart as his mother's remains were lowered into the earth. Strictly speaking, Kaori Itadori had died long before he was born; she wasn't his biological mother in the traditional sense—Kenjaku was.
Yet, as the soil fell, Yuji felt an inexplicable, hollow grief. He closed his eyes, pressing his palms together. "Rest in peace, Mom."
Behind him, the others watched in silence. Even Todo refrained from speaking. A boy needs to walk through the fire alone sometimes to become a man.
In the crowd, Megumi glanced at Yuji's back, then quietly turned to leave. A hand landed on his shoulder.
"Gojo-sensei?"
Satoru wore his blindfold, but it couldn't hide his goofy, knowing grin. "What's up, Megumi-chan? You look like someone stole your lunch."
"It's nothing."
Satoru stayed silent, waiting. Sure enough, after a long pause, Megumi spoke. "Gojo-sensei... over the break, would you give me some special training?"
Satoru's smile softened. "Of course."
Was it the crisis of seeing his peers advance so quickly? No. It was likely the crushing weight of watching his friends bleed while he stood powerless to help. In the drizzling rain, the two figures walked away.
A Hidden Underground Vault
Mahito and Jogo hobbled forward, supporting Hanami, who was missing half her body.
"Kenjaku? Kenjaku! Where the hell are you? Get out here!" Jogo barked.
"I'm here, I'm here."
From the shadows emerged a young man with blonde hair tied in a ponytail, his clothes stained with blood.
Jogo blinked. "Haruta Shigemo?"
Mahito shook his head, his eyes narrowing. "No. The soul is different. It's Kenjaku, right?"
"Haruta" smiled thinly, brushing aside his bangs to reveal the jagged, stitched seam across his forehead.
Jogo's lip curled in disgust. "Stealing the body of your own ally? You really are a piece of work."
Kenjaku shrugged. "Haruta died at Souma's hands. I'm just making use of the leftovers. Besides, I nearly died back there. Could I get a little sympathy?"
Kenjaku looked at Mahito, who reached into his cloak and produced a box. Inside lay five of Sukuna's fingers.
Mahito shrugged. "The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings seemed to have been moved ahead of time. I couldn't find them."
"Those failures don't matter," Kenjaku said, though he frowned as he took the box. "But why were there only five fingers at the school?"
Kenjaku had been meticulously tracking the fingers for years, now possessing thirteen. By his count, the school should have held seven more. Where were the last two?
Mahito rubbed his chin. "Maybe they're still out in the wild?"
Kenjaku narrowed his eyes. He had scoured the jujutsu world for centuries. There shouldn't have been any stones left unturned.
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