Chapter Text
“The crown jewel of the Zen’in clan…”
“So that’s Mahoraga.”
“Creepy…”
Everyone stares at Mahoraga with fear, fascination or both. But there is a question nobody’s asking, so Yuji will.
“So… how did Mahoraga already adapt to Gojo-sensei’s Infinite Void?” All eyes turn to him immediately and he shivers.
“What do you mean?” While Kashimo, Kusakabe, Mei Mei, Shoko, Choso, Higuruma, Angel, Yuta, Maki and Todo are already trying to figure out how that happened, Miwa, Momo, Hana, Panda, Inumaki, Kirara and Hakari are confused.
“Well, I don’t know what you guys saw, but I definitely saw Mahoraga’s blade-hand-thing pierce through the barrier.” The information shocks those who didn’t notice it.
While they talk and brainstorm, Sukuna and Gojo are having a conversation.
And the first words of it are what solved the mystery.
“Megumi’s soul!” From Gojo, is what makes all of them pause.
‘Megumi’s soul, Megumi’s… soul…’ Yuji repeats the phrase to himself, as if it will solve the mystery, just like Satoru did. Then it hits him. ‘Shit!’
“I think- I get it.” Yuji raises his hand. “If I’m correct, then the one that was taking the brunt of Infinite Void’s sure-hit effect was Megumi.” He pauses before continuing. “And I know for a fact that Sukuna must’ve had some trouble with fully possessing him, since I could tell during our fight he was unstable. My guess is he somehow forced Megumi to adapt using Mahoraga back then, and he did the same thing now…” He’s just rambling now.
But Yuji Itadori is right.
Sukuna forced Megumi to take the burden of Infinite Void, which forced Megumi to adapt using Mahoraga.
“What’s up?” Sukuna’s voice seems to mock everyone here. “You look like you have something on your mind.” Mahoraga disappears into his shadow as he says that.
“Not really. It just warms my heart to see you so desperate." Gojo taunts back. but it seems to fall flat.
“Kuku.. Look who’s talking. ‘Unlimited Void’... I figured that was going to be a real pain, so my first move was to take that out. While unable to use Domain Amplification inside the Domain, I had Fushiguro Megumi adapt to Infinite Void using his Ten Shadows. As a result, I couldn’t use anything else than the Technique imbued in my own Domain.” Well. I guess they got their explanation anyway.
“All he took on was ‘the process’, not ‘the result’.” Gojo raises his hand. “You haven't actually adapted Megumi's soul to ‘Infinite Void’. If I open my Domain now… Mahoraga won't be able to bail you out.” Satoru puts his hand into Infinite Void’s signature handsign. “I'll destroy it in one attack.”
But Sukuna just stands with his arms crossed, chuckling, the Divine General’s wheel above his head.
“You can no longer open your Domain.”
This is… certainly true, as Satoru starts to bleed heavily from his nose. Everyone is shocked, getting up from their seats and staring at the screens.
“What… what the hell just happened?!” Kusakabe yells out.
‘Could it be…’ Yuta has a suspicion.
“Using Reverse Cursed Technique on your brain… Looks like you’ve strained yourself quite a bit.” Unfortunately, Sukuna is right. Yuji noticed it earlier, and that should've given him enough hints to predict this, but Gojo-sensei’s right eye keeps twitching. And that probably is a sign of some brain damage. Judging by Yuta's expression, he noticed something too. “You've been continuously damaging your brain, and then healing it. You've reached a line completely separate from healing your flesh and bones. Even if you could expand your Domain, you'd perish the moment you did so. Not to mention you wouldn't even be able to nearly oppose me.”
What now? Is he going to explain his evil plan next?
“Now, I'll close the barrier of my Domain, so you have nowhere to run. And next, while I carve you to pieces, I'll even adapt to your Infinity.” And what do you know, he did explain his evil plan. Sukuna says as he points to the wheel above his head. “This is goodbye. You were born in an era without me and hailed ‘the Strongest’, but you turned out to be…” Yuji sucks in a breath. “Painfully ordinary.”
Silence.
“Domain Expansion.” The Shrine appears yet again and then-
It immediately breaks.
“Huh?!” “What just happened?!”
Sukuna is bleeding from his eyes and nose. Understanding washes over Yuta, Kusakabe, Kashimo, Yuji, Shoko, Choso and Mei Mei.
It hasn't been that long since Sukuna was directly hit with “Infinite Void”. He has sustained just as much damage as Gojo to his own brain.
Satoru laughs.
“Hahahaha! Looks like it's hitting you pretty damn hard!” He points vaguely to one of the crows. “My students are watching, you know.” Yuji, Yuta, Hakari, Maki, Kirara, Inumaki and Panda all smile. “I'm gonna go ahead and keep showing off!” Gojo-sensei smiles as he lands a punch on Sukuna.
“Who here has been seriously punched by Gojo?” Kusakabe asks.
“I've seriously punched him before.” Maki, Panda, Inumaki and Yuji say.
“If by ‘seriously punched’ you mean taken a hit from his Limitless Technique, then I have.” Yuta raises his hand.
“So have I.” Hakari raises his hand.
“Oh! Now that I think about it, I have too!” Yuji slaps his palm with his fist.
“…How did it feel?”
“It… it made me throw up.” Yuta and Hakari admit.
“Um.. I didn't throw up, but… erm, my stomach felt like it got all rearranged. I had to lay down and cry.” Yuji also admits, a faint blush on his cheeks. It was one of his top ten most embarrassing moments.
Kusakabe sighs.
“What I'm trying to say is… I have no idea what Gojo is doing from here on out. I have faith some of you will manage though.” He particularly means Yuji, Yuta, Kashimo, Maki and Hakari.
Meanwhile on the screen, Gojo is ramming Sukuna through walls, buildings, roofs, floors, windows and anything else in his way. Then he lets go and clenches his fist, crushing Sukuna in the rubble.
Sukuna just cleaves it apart and rushes at Gojo.
They squabble for a second.
The wheel above Sukuna turns black, as if covered in shadow. He axe kicks and Satoru dodges.
“Afterimages?!”
Yup. Satoru created afterimages of himself and tries to punch Sukuna, who catches it in his hand.
“Gotcha.”
“Whoopsie!~★”
“Two grown fuckin’ men…” Maki mutters under her breath.
Yuji honestly wants to laugh. And he can tell some others (Hakari, Kirara and Kechizu) want to as well.
Sukuna punches Satoru away, and he lands on a traffic light.
The wheel is back to its normal color as it turns once.
“The wheel turned!” “Did he adapt?”
“Most likely no. If I'm not wrong, then the Divine General completes its adaptation after a couple of turns.” Angels' echoing voice calms them down.
“I'd say it's about four turns.” Shoko makes her guess. “Satoru expanded his Domain a total of five times, and the fifth time Mahoraga was summoned and immediately destroyed Infinite Void, which would suggest he had already adapted, but at the same time if it adapted earlier I see no reason for Sukuna to not use it.”
“So then-”
Crash!
Panda is interrupted by Sukuna throwing the traffic lights Gojo was previously standing on at said person, but they just halt as soon as they get close to Satoru.
They jump off the highway to some lower street.
“Ya payin’ attention?” That felt like this question was directed specifically at the people watching. “You need four spins total, yeah? That leaves three more until you adapt to my Infinity.”
“Looks like you were right, Shoko.”
“Kukuku…” Sukuna chuckles again. “Looks like we got ourselves a countdown until that smirk gets wiped off your face.”
“Right back at ya!” Gojo smiles wider. “I'll beat you dead before you even hit three spins!” He declares.
“He.. he hasn't forgotten about Megumi, has he?..” Hana hesitantly asks.
“Honestly? He might have.” Yuji sweatdrops and sighs.
“…It's fine. Let ‘im forget.” Another reason why Yuji doesn't like Kashimo.
Gojo uses blue to slam Sukuna into a building and the wheel turns.
“There’s the second one!”
“Only two more until it adapts to his Infinity!”
“Hurry it up Gojo!”
Satoru uses multiple Blues to get Sukuna into position, and as Sukuna jumps off the pillar he was on, Gojo uses his momentum to elbow Sukuna in the face and kicks him away.
The wheel turns.
“The third spin!”
“One more left!”
Sukuna and Gojo burst through the wall to an open area.
“...Is it ‘time’ needed for adaptation, or ‘experience’?” This has been bothering Yuji for a while. From what he’s seen it could really be either, though he thinks ‘experience’ is more likely.
“Huh?..” A noise of confusion.
“…Oh, I see. You're asking if it takes a) a hit from something, takes time to understand it, and then it adapts, or b) takes multiple hits and adapts off of that.” Kusakabe got what Yuji meant, but at this rate it won't even matter anymore.
“Either option is possible. That's all there is to it.” Kashimo is right.
Meanwhile the two fighters find themselves on the opposite sides of a pillar and Gojo uses Red.
He shoots it off, but to everyone's surprise Sukuna seems to have predicted this, as he protected himself using Domain Amplification. It still damages him though.
“Shit!”
“At this rate…”
“…It'll adapt!”
Gojo uses Blue to blindsight Sukuna with some rubble.
“Such sloppiness. Lost your cool after your hand was read?” Or it could be that.
“Ya know…” Satoru begins. “…that Red just now…” Yuji, Kashimo and Todo’s eyes widen. “…still hasn't exploded.” And as he says that Sukuna gets launched forward by an explosion from the back right into-
“Black Flash..” Yuji instinctively already knows. The focus, the stance, the mindset.
-a clean Black Flash, just like Yuji predicted. The impact was so powerful, Sukuna's eyes rolled back and he bled from his mouth, or in simpler terms; he got knocked the fuck out.
The wheel falls.
But then-
It turns.
“You're kidding.”
“Sensei!” Yuji, Yuta and Hakari scream out.
And from the shadows, Mahoraga comes out, his sword already swinging at Gojo, who didn't dodge in time and got slashed across the chest.
“Damnit!”
“He's not done yet, but he's slowly approaching his limit.” Shoko deduces. “His wounds have slowed in healing and his output is dropping. The only good thing is that the same thing is most likely happening to Sukuna.” At least it's something.
‘But on the other hand… from what Gojo-sensei told me, he wouldn't really be upset, just regretful that we’d have to fight Sukuna.’
‘And remember what he told you before, little bro!’
The loneliness that comes with absolute strength.
I'd bet Satoru Gojo is satisfied with the fight Ryoumen Sukuna is giving him.
But back to the fight.
Gojo combo’s Mahoraga, punching him twice in the face and throwing it backwards.
“Phase. Pāramitā. Pillars of light.”
“He's restoring his CE output by chanting… smart.” Kashimo thinks out loud.
“Cursed Technique Reversal” Gojo puts two of his fingers up.
He aims at Mahoraga, and then a mass of white bunnies bursts out from the shadows.
“Looks like the Black Flash worked like a charm. How much longer ‘you gonna rest for?” Cocky as always.
“What exactly is Sukuna doing?” Panda asks, confused.
Red shoots off, destroying a part of the building and forcing the fighters to move away.
“Well, Mahoraga has adapted to Infinity, so it's on the offense, and Gojo is probably trying to destroy Mahoraga, so…” Kusakabe starts up, but doesn't end his thought, confusing a couple of people.
So Todo explains.
“Sukuna is most likely recovering and at the same time making openings for Mahoraga.”
Then, Sukuna throws a fire extinguisher to blind Gojo and jumps up.
And he claps his hands into a familiar stance.
“Piercing Blood?!” Yuji and Choso stand up. ‘Shit. I shouldn't really be surprised by this, should I?’ Yuji thinks. After all he knows his… hm.
A stream of water shoots out, damaging Satoru in the arm.
Now Sukuna's role here is more clear.
When Mahoraga erases Gojo's Infinity, Sukuna uses that chance to attack.
But he clearly doesn't intend on going with the 2-on-1, which technically should be to his advantage, but nope.
He summons something else entirely.
“Fusion beast Agito.” Whatever the hell that is.
“This is a 3-on-1.”
“Dude, you look like a lost little alien boy.”
Sukuna doesn't react to the ragebait and just continues smiling.
And then it begins.
Sukuna, Agito and Mahoraga attack Gojo, but he just redirects, blocks or deflects their attacks until he charges up a Red again and shoots it at Mahoraga, however…
The attack barely does anything.
There's only one option left.
“Hollow Purple…”
“Yeah, at this point it seems to be the only option.”
A moment of silence, where everyone has some time to think for a second.
“I'm going out there.” Yuta gets up from his seat, grabbing his katana.
“Get back here.” Kashimo sounds really pissed off “Don't you even dare interrupt. You'll just get in the way.” Yuji hates to agree, but Kashimo's right. Unfortunately with what Gojo-sensei’s probably planning, Okkotsu-senpai would just get in the way. “Regardless, you're not even the next in line.”
That is also true.
“Cool it, Okkotsu. Kashimo's right.” Hakari telling someone to chill? That's unheard of. “Unless he's weakened to the point where one of us heavy hitters could take him on, Gojo-san told us to hold off.”
Gojo-sensei did say that.
“But those are special circumstances. Right now, Sukuna can't use his Domain. Rika-chan and I can handle the two shikigami to relieve some pressure.” Yuta argues.
“If anyone's going out, it's me.” “Screw you!” Everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that Kashimo was supposed to go after Gojo. “Yuta, don’t forget your role. If you go down, we lose a good chunk of our insurance.” Maki reminds Yuta of his task.
“Hold it, hold it. You damn kids don't understand anything. Come on.” Kusakabe rubs his face as he leans back.
“What he means is, Gojo’s conditions to victory are different from Sukuna's. Gojo only needs to beat Sukuna, cause if we all band together we can beat Kenjaku. It's completely different for Sukuna, because he'll need to fight all of us afterwards without a second of rest.” Todo explains to everyone the difference.
“And Sukuna definitely has an ace up his sleeve. If you go out now, Okkotsu-senpai, then he might be forced to use it.” Yuji adds.
“And let's not forget about Uraume, who's likely just lurking somewhere nearby.” Hakari reminds them of that individual. They're dangerous too.
But that's not the point Yuji has in mind.
“Are all modern Sorcerers this dense?” Kashimo got pissed off again. “You’re all missing the point.”
Exactly. This-
“-is Gojo Satoru's battle. No matter what happens, it wouldn't be right for any of us to jump in.” And that is exactly what Yuji thought. Interrupting this battle would feel like disrespect to Gojo-sensei. At least to him.
Meanwhile, Satoru is still getting jumped. Though that's not really the case, since he's fighting back quite well.
What some notice is that Agito is lagging behind the others.
Mahoraga and Agito keep the pressure on, but Gojo is effortlessly keeping them at bay.
But where is Sukuna?
Doesn't matter right now.
“You're nothin’ but a one-trick pony!”
Sukuna's plan is probably to pressure Gojo, so he doesn't have an opening to fire off Hollow Purple.
But something's off.
Mahoraga and Agito continue to try and beat Satoru, until-
The wheel turns.
A slash.
Gojo's arm goes flying.
A building has a massive cut on it.
“What- what the fuck just happened?!”
“Mahoraga used Sukuna's slash!?”
“He struck from range!”
“This is bad! Satoru's healing ability is dropping!”
Sukuna joins the battle again, and the trio starts to beat down on Gojo.
And then Agito tries punching him in the head from the back.
“Ya know…” Satoru's remaining hand is engulfed in Blue. “I've been thinking. You just don't fit in with the crowd!”
Agito is slammed into the building.
“Maximum Output: Blue!”
The Blue consumes Agito and almost does the same to Sukuna and Mahoraga, but they dodge.
It flies into the sky and stops. It stays there.
Satoru regenerates his arm.
Sukuna looks… uneasy, which makes Yuji smile.
Gojo teleports to Mahoraga, and again-
“Black Flash.”
Then, he runs over to Sukuna and grabs him by the arm, slamming him into Mahoraga.
And again-
“Black Flash, again.”
Now, Sukuna and Mahoraga are inside the building, while Gojo gets ready to perform Red outside.
“Phase.”
The moment is filled with tension and uncertainty.
“Pāramitā.”
Sukuna just stands there.
“Pillars of light.”
Gojo points his fingers at Sukuna-
“Cursed Technique Reversal:”
-and then immediately points to the sky.
“Red!”
“Mahoraga!” Sukuna screams, and it leaps through floors and walls to get to the dormant Blue that is still laying in wait.
Satoru travels at high speeds and appears between Mahoraga and the Blue, striking it away.
Sukuna emerges from the shadows on Mahoraga in the familiar stance for Piercing Blood.
It shoots out, while Gojo punches Sukuna, but he's-
“Too late.”
“Phase. Twilight. The eyes of Prajñā.”
The beam of water gets redirected and swallowed by the Blue, instead of piercing the Red.
And now…
“Nine ropes.”
“Here it comes…”
“Polarized light.”
Mahoraga and Sukuna can only watch, as the Blue and Red slowly start to get closer and closer.
“Crow and Shōmyō.”
Satoru spreads his arms.
“The gap within and without.”
“Kusakabe-san… I apologize. I really would've just been a burden.”
“Imaginary Technique:”
“No worries kid.”
“Hollow Purple.”
Everything lights up in purple. Some of the screens go blank, however it doesn't really matter as nothing can be seen anyway.
Then, the screens slowly go back to normal, displaying a limping, barely alive Sukuna and a victorious Gojo.
And just like that…
“Gojo Satoru won.”