July 5th, 10:03 PM. Six hours before Yuji began his mission.
Inside a training ground at Jujutsu High.
"Yuji, Fushiguro—I didn't expect you two to specifically seek me out for training."
The training ground was a Japanese-style dojo with wooden dummies scattered around. Satoru Gojo looked at the two students in front of him with great interest.
"Yeah. It just so happens you're free, Gojo-sensei, so I wanted to ask you a few questions," Yuji said.
"Oh? Yuji actually has a difficult problem he needs to consult me about?" Satoru Gojo raised an eyebrow. "Tell me. As long as it's within my power as your teacher."
Hearing this, Yuji nodded.
Sixty-eight years after the Shinjuku Showdown ended, although he had developed his Blood Manipulation—creating skills like homing Piercing Blood...
After confirming that he had surpassed Sukuna and Satoru Gojo, Yuji didn't train as diligently. After all, he was already the strongest in history. And because he used Shrine more frequently than Blood Manipulation, the development of Blood Manipulation was put on hold.
After all, at that time, he could casually fire off a seven-kilometer Dismantle.
Now, Yuji wanted to fully unlock the potential of this cursed technique once again.
"Gojo-sensei, can you help me get the Kamo clan's secret manuals on Blood Manipulation?"
Yuji asked Satoru Gojo, treating it as an attempt to see what was possible. He hadn't studied Blood Manipulation deeply, so he wanted to try drawing inspiration from the experiences of his predecessors.
"They exist, but I can't get ready-made ones," Satoru Gojo said after thinking for a moment.
"Can't get ready-made ones?" Yuji was puzzled.
"That's right. The Gojo clan's library actually has the Kamo clan's secret manuals. Over a hundred years ago, the Kamo clan and the Gojo clan had a huge fight. Our Gojo clan won that time, so we 'took over' some of the Kamo clan's property."
"Heh heh. Although they are old things from over a hundred years ago, if you want to read them, Yuji, your teacher can get them for you." Satoru Gojo rubbed his nose and said confidently. "After all, I am the head of the Gojo clan."
"Really? That's great!" Yuji was overjoyed.
"By the way, Megumi—why do you want to train with me? This is rare."
Hearing Satoru Gojo's words, Megumi shook his head.
"During the exchange event, I deeply realized my own weakness, so I don't want to continue like this. Gojo-sensei, I want to become stronger."
How many minutes had passed?
It seemed there wasn't much left of the ten minutes set at the beginning.
He wondered how things were going on Kento Nanami's side.
"That guy Kenjaku is really risking his life to hinder me," Yuji said coldly.
Another battle of attrition...
It was the same during the exchange event. He wasn't the Sukuna from the Shinjuku Showdown. Finishing off one batch only for another to arrive—endlessly.
Was this deliberately prepared to consume my cursed energy? It seems Kenjaku knows my weaknesses like the back of his hand.
No wonder Mechamaru said Kenjaku's operation this time was specifically arranged to target him.
Now, Yuji possessed strength far exceeding that of an ordinary Grade 1 sorcerer. He originally thought that teaming up with Kento Nanami would be enough to handle most troubles. After all, Kento Nanami was also very strong, and he himself had even mastered outputting the Reverse Cursed Technique.
However, Kento Nanami disappeared the moment he stepped onto the campus, and Special Grade curses appeared one after another.
The situation far exceeded his expectations.
To be able to abduct Kento Nanami silently, Yuji judged that the strength of the final Special Grade curse might not be beneath the Dagon in front of him.
"Kenjaku? Who is that?" Dagon was confused.
"Kenjaku is Suguru Geto. That guy wants to use you all to start the Culling Game," Yuji answered. Anyway, he couldn't let Dagon go back alive, so there was no harm in telling it.
"...I obviously know about that kind of thing. We and Suguru Geto are just mutually using each other. Trying to sow discord is useless."
"Is that so? It seems you are willingly throwing your life away," Yuji said.
"Don't be too arrogant!" Dagon suddenly became agitated. "A guy like you who can't even use Domain Expansion—what gives you the right to say that! I will avenge Hanami. Die! Yuji Itadori!"
SPLASH—!
Before it finished speaking, the sea level in front of Yuji exploded.
A giant shark tens of meters long leaped out of the sea, opening its blood-soaked mouth filled with sharp teeth, and rushed toward Yuji—
BOOM—!
The giant shark swallowed Yuji along with the golden sand beneath his feet in one gulp, crashing heavily onto the beach and causing the ground to tremble.
Dagon hovered in the air, narrowing its eyes, coldly watching the giant shark it was controlling below.
"Hmph. Overestimating your capabilities. It seems this is all you amount to..."
BOOM—!
Just as Dagon was muttering to itself, the giant shark's body suddenly exploded like a balloon. Flesh and blood flew everywhere. Fragments of its torso scattered. Purple blood instantly dyed the beach a different color.
Yuji stood on the shark's remains, looking up at Dagon above. Pitch-black lightning still lingered on his raised right fist.
"..."
Dagon was silent for a moment.
"It's not over yet!"
It raised its arm and waved it in Yuji's direction.
Countless piranhas leaped out from under the sea. They were densely packed, their teeth as sharp as knives. They gathered into a swarm, sweeping toward Yuji like a colorful torrent.
Falling Blossom Emotion was only effective against attacks from the Domain's sure-hit effect. As for Dagon manually controlling these piranhas, Yuji needed to block them manually.
Yuji took a deep breath, his feet violently kicking off the ground, and shot into the air like a cannonball.
He raised his right fist, scarlet blood condensing into a blood armor on the surface of his fist, while azure cursed energy flared up.
However, right at the moment he was about to throw a punch to clear these obstacles, Yuji suddenly felt something strange.
POP—!
The eyes of the piranhas around him suddenly exploded.
Black bodily fluids sprayed out from their eye sockets, forming a dense black mist in the air that completely enveloped Yuji.
BUZZ—
Yuji's vision blurred.
A strong wave of dizziness washed over him like a tide, and his vision began to distort.
In his daze, Yuji saw a dormitory room.
Six bunk beds were lined up against the wall. Sunlight streamed in through the window, shining on the wooden floor. A chubby boy wearing glasses sat on the bed near the door, his head lowered, holding a torn textbook in his hands.
"Hey. Fill a cup of water for me. The water dispenser is at the end of the corridor," a tall and muscular boy suddenly spoke.
"Um... can't you fill it yourself?"
"You're so fat—you need some exercise."
"..."
Yuji looked at the scene before him and instantly understood what was going on.
Is this the illusion Fushiguro and Junpei mentioned earlier?
I see. No wonder this guy is so confident.
Those eyeballs were the same as the ones Yuji, Megumi, and the others had seen in the dormitory building earlier. They were left behind by that Special Grade curse.
In other words, the current situation was not a one-on-one at all, but a two-on-one.
Although that Special Grade curse still hadn't shown itself, it was secretly helping Dagon.
This is an attack on the mental level, so can physical wounds... awaken the consciousness?
There was no time to hesitate. Yuji raised his right hand. With a thought, scarlet blood seeped from his palm and formed blood armor. He shaped his hand like a knife and then slashed at his own neck!
SLASH!
Blood splattered, and the environment in front of him began to distort.
"..."
Yuji violently opened his eyes. The moment his consciousness returned to reality, a burst of intense pain hit him. He looked down and found that the densely packed piranhas had crawled all over his body. Their sharp teeth dug into Yuji's skin, covering his entire body, and blood poured out from the wounds.
Because his consciousness had been trapped in the illusion just now, Yuji's Falling Blossom Emotion was forcefully deactivated.
Battles between the strong often only needed an instant to determine the victor.
Yuji mobilized his cursed energy to shake off these piranhas, but Dagon didn't give him the chance. As the pink-haired young man struggled, a high-pressure water pillar slammed into Yuji's chest in the blink of an eye.
BOOM—!
The water pillar smashed the piranhas on his chest into powder, but it also solidly sent the pink-haired young man flying. Even though Yuji managed to quickly mobilize his cursed energy to protect his torso, he still coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Pfft!"
He then flew backward and crashed into the sea level below.
SPLASH—!
A huge splash rose several meters high. The waves surged to the sides. Yuji sank to the bottom of the sea.
"..."
This can't go on.
Yuji suddenly opened his eyes. Seawater rushed in from all directions, pouring into the young man's mouth and nose. He activated Falling Blossom Emotion again and used cursed energy to repel all the piranhas on his body.
This curse's ability to manipulate seawater perfectly counters my Blood Manipulation. It's practically my natural enemy.
Blood Manipulation was a cursed technique effective at both close and long range, with almost no weaknesses. However, because the blood controlled by Blood Manipulation was the user's actual blood, it was also subject to physical limitations.
When red blood cells in the blood are exposed to water, changes in osmotic pressure cause them to swell and their cell membranes to rupture. This would lead to losing control over the blood cells that make up 45% of the blood, making it impossible for him to use Convergence and other blood operations.
If it were only capable of manipulating seawater and shikigami, it would still be manageable.
But crucially, Dagon could also levitate in the air—rendering Yuji's normally usable Flowing Red Scale and Black Flash almost entirely useless.
With blood outside the body losing control, ranged attack methods like Piercing Blood couldn't be used, and close combat capabilities were practically ineffective.
Not to mention there was another Special Grade curse that could plunge Yuji into an illusion at critical moments.
Dagon was undeniably Yuji's natural enemy.
Currently, the only skill Yuji could utilize was solidifying blood into an "armor."
But clearly, simply solidifying blood was not enough to defeat Dagon.
His cursed energy reserves were still not at the level of a Grade 1 sorcerer, so he would still face cursed energy shortages during battle. Using Falling Blossom Emotion for a long period to block the sure-hit effect would massively consume his cursed energy, and the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for him.
Under these circumstances, where defeating Dagon through normal combat was nearly impossible...
"..."
Yuji closed his eyes, feeling the flow of every drop of blood in his veins. The seawater squeezed his body from all directions. The young man's short hair floated with the current. Yuji began to clear his mind, as if merging with the surrounding seawater.
Six hours ago, Yuji had obtained the Kamo clan's secret manual from Satoru Gojo. Now, he was going to combine the experience he had accumulated over the years—born from a jujutsu sorcerer's imagination—with the wisdom of his predecessors obtained from the manual.
For a thousand years, no user of Blood Manipulation had ever been able to push the technique to such a realm.
Yuji opened his amber eyes.
"Maximum: Blood Manipulation."
"..."
An unknown amount of time passed.
When Dagon finally regained its senses, it found itself sitting cross-legged in a pure white space.
Its initially scattered consciousness gradually awakened. Dagon looked around in surprise and found a pale, humanoid curse with branches replacing its eye sockets standing next to it.
"Huh?"
Dagon's eyes widened. Its face covered in cold sweat.
Where the hell was I sent to?
"Yo, Dagon."
Hanami smiled, raising a hand to greet Dagon.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"What's wrong, Dagon? Giving me that look the moment you see me."
Hanami's gentle voice rang in Dagon's ears.
"I promised Mahito that I would kill Yuji Itadori with my own hands!"
Dagon stood up excitedly, but after a brief and intense emotional fluctuation, the curse quickly realized the fact that it was already dead.
"...If only all this were just my delusion."
Dagon closed its eyes and let out a long sigh.
"Whatever it is, it's fine. Our strength wasn't particularly overwhelming anyway. Since we are already dead, let's entrust the remaining hope to Mahito and Jogo," Hanami said.
"What's fine about it? I am... forget it."
Dagon shook its head.
Hanami glanced at it, then asked, "So? How was Sukuna's vessel?"
"..."
Dagon was silent for a moment, then spoke:
"Extremely strong. And I feel like Yuji Itadori didn't even use his full strength."
"...To think he could make you say that."
Although it lacked facial features and couldn't show human-like expressions, Hanami's tone was relieved.
"After all, it is that guy. I suppose it's normal."
"Hanami, I had dropped harsh words to Yuji Itadori, saying I would definitely kill him, and I even had the help of another Special Grade curse. But in the end, I died without even seeing Sukuna. I feel sorry that I couldn't fight alongside Mahito and Jogo until the very end..."
Dagon lowered its head.
Hanami smiled and patted its shoulder.
"It's alright. As long as you did your best. After all, the opponent was Sukuna's vessel."
"Hah... Hah... Hah..."
The Domain shattered the moment Dagon died, turning into pitch-black fragments that scattered in the air.
Yuji panted heavily. His school uniform was torn beyond recognition, revealing skin covered in bruises and densely packed wounds beneath.
The young man stood in the center of the falling fragments, holding Dagon's head in his hand. The eyes of that octopus head had lost their light. Its tentacles hung limply in mid-air. Blood constantly oozed from the severed neck.
CRACK—CRACK—
The blood armor on his torso began to shatter as the user actively dispelled it, finally turning into little specks that fell to the ground.
Even though he had quickly resolved the battle with Dagon, Yuji understood that this mission was far from over.
There were still two Special Grade curses waiting for him to exorcise.
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