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“So this means…”
“Yeah.
Satoru Gojo won.”
It’s the sentiment shared among all the sorcerers currently watching the fight from inside Jujutsu HQ, and it’s the sentiment shared between the two sorcerers standing across from each other in the hollowed-out hellscape that was once known as Makyo Shinjuku.
“Feeling the heat, old man?” Satoru Gojo yells out; loud, cocky, boastful, fanning out his arms. It’s a stupid move, he knows. Stupid and arrogant, and if he’s unlucky enough that the King of Curses has another ace up his sleeve, it’s a move that might well get him killed.
But Gojo’s pretty confident he doesn’t. And besides, what fun is it to beat the strongest sorcerer in history if he doesn’t get to show off a little? He allows himself the crack of a grin as he imagines the kick his students’ll get out of this– disapproving or not.
Ryomen Sukuna says nothing in return. Instead, he fixes Gojo with a narrow-eyed look. Weirdo, Gojo thinks to himself. He rests one arm on his hip, while another hand languidly rises to palm a glowing orb of Blue.
His Six Eyes are telling him that Sukuna’s focused on something. Malevolent cursed energy spikes from the sorcerer’s battered body – likely the last he has – and Gojo racks his brains quickly for what he knows; is there anything Sukuna could still do that poses a threat? He goes through his options– Mahoraga is dead. Sukuna’s cursed technique should still be burnt out from the constant domain clashes, and his body’s way too injured to put up a fight with domain amplification. Gojo smiles to himself. No. I’m safe.
“Hello–o? Sukuna?” He asks teasingly, now doubly assured of his victory. “You still there, or did my Hollow Purple blow your ears off? If so, that’s my–”
Gojo pauses. Warning signs are suddenly blaring across his senses like a slap across the face as unfamiliar cursed energy readings flood the battlefield.
What–? That doesn’t make sense. Sukuna doesn’t have enough left in him to muster up such an overwhelming surge of power, and Gojo knows this. The matching expression of shock across the other man’s face only confirms that. Then who else? Okkotsu Yuta and Hajime Kashimo should still be at HQ, and Gojo doesn’t know anyone else with this much cursed energy.
Just to be safe, he teleports a stretch of space backwards using the spot of Blue he’d created earlier–
–Just before a beam of light like an orbital strike comes down on the space he’d just inhabited.
Gojo’s brain accelerates to mach speed in an instant, his Six Eyes already breaking down the technique in front of him as he zips to a new spot a couple meters away, and then again. Keep on the move. Don’t get caught. With the black flashes he’d landed on Sukuna replenishing his cursed energy reserves, it’s not an issue to abuse Blue for constant teleportation.
It’s not a cursed technique he recognises. This, he realises quickly. Incredibly high output, and fast. No, he corrects himself. Not just fast. It’s damn near instant. If he hadn’t felt the cursed energy pooling – or had his Infinity protecting him, he supposes – he wouldn’t even have had the hope of surviving. He looks across the field at his original opponent, and finds him climbing his way up the building he’d been standing in front of. But more importantly– unharmed. So that means the attack was meant for Gojo, then, without question.
“Oi oi oi!” He yells, scanning the skies for the sorcerer responsible, but the new cursed energy in the air is vast, and he can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. “Tag-teaming? Seriously? I never took you for a coward, Sukuna!” He hurls the insult lazily, almost half-heartedly, not expecting it to catch, let alone elicit a response.
But Satoru Gojo is in for a surprise.
Because right as Sukuna reaches the top of the building, blazing beams of white-gold light cut into it, narrowly missing the sorcerer and bringing the office tower crashing into the ground.
“You think this is one of mine?!” Sukuna’s voice echoes from the ensuing smoke and dust, and from the sounds of it he’s already on the move again, same as Gojo.
But, that doesn’t make sense. If this new sorcerer isn’t an ally of Sukuna’s, then–
Sukuna laughs, an exhilarated, off-kilter sound that echoes across the city. “A new challenger has entered Shinjuku!”
—
A new challenger?!
Gojo makes a small tsk as he moves. Much as it is fun having his strength tested, Gojo has to admit that he’s got his hands full with Sukuna, and if all the things he’s seen thus far are any indicator, this new guy’s not exactly a pushover.
Another blast of light sees him diving forwards and rolling across the ground, but not before just barely grazing Gojo, leaving the tip of his left shoe sizzling, and he can’t help but click his tongue again. So this technique hits through infinity, too. Oh, this just keeps getting better.
But in the end, Satoru Gojo is no weakling himself, and the Six Eyes are uncontested in their abilities of perception. It doesn’t take long for him to locate the mysterious new sorcerer atop one of the still-standing buildings in the area.
The man is tall, taller than Gojo himself, sporting short dark blue hair and strange markings all across his bare upper half. But it’s the rest of him that strikes Gojo as odd, even in the realm of Jujutsu– a pair of giant curved horns, an extra oversized eye in the center of his forehead, and earlobes that stretch down to his chest.
“The hell?” Gojo snarks, not bothering to try and hide his disgust. “You look like some kinda alien, dude. Might wanna work on the whole–” He gestures to his own face. “God knows I wouldn’t dare go outside if I looked like that.”
“I am indeed an alien,” The sorcerer replies calmly, which is– unexpected. But Gojo can roll with the punches. “My name is Dabura Karaba, and I am here to prepare this planet for Rumelian takeover. You and your partner must die.” He says it in a way that Gojo recognises as strictly rehearsed– like it’s something he’s been trained to say, rather than something he wants to, or even believes.
But he doesn’t mention any of that. “Partner?!” He shouts indignantly instead, jerking a thumb in the direction of Ryomen Sukuna, who his Six Eyes tell him has just joined them on the rooftop. Surprisingly quickly, considering the state he’s in, really. “This guy?!” He shakes his head, and tilts his head towards Sukuna. “Oi, Sukuna! Do we really look like partners?”
“Absolutely not,” Sukuna replies. It looks like he’s managed to recover the hand and foot he’d lost to Hollow Purple, but his cursed energy reserves are looking lower than he’s ever seen them. In fact, Gojo would liken Sukuna’s current cursed energy amounts to someone like Nanami, over – well – the King of Curses. “I would never be romantically affiliated with someone as insufferable as you, no matter how strong you may be.”
“...I’m pretty sure he meant, like, battle partners, but whatever.” Gojo spins theatrically back towards the strange alien sorcerer man. “Point is, we are not partners!”
Dabura nods politely. “Understood. I apologise for the misunderstanding.” He says in a completely different voice from when he’d announced his intentions; something that Satoru Gojo would have in any other situation deemed as friendly. “Nonetheless, I must kill you both.”
“It’s pretty bold of you to think you can, y’know. We’re pretty strong, isn’t that right, Sukuna?”
To Gojo’s dismay, Sukuna doesn’t deign to reply, instead fixing Dabura with a narrow-eyed glare, not dissimilar to how he was looking at Gojo himself not long ago. He crouches down into a battle ready stance.
“Earth is not yours to conquer,” Sukuna says simply.
And without further warning, several shallow cuts embed themselves in Dabura’s skin.
Gojo’s jaw falls slack. “Haaaah?! You’re helping me?!” He squawks at Sukuna as the two dart in opposite directions to avoid a beam of white-gold light.
“Don’t misunderstand, Satoru Gojo.” The other sorcerer growls, twisting out of the way as he shoots out a flurry of cuts that Dabura summarily weaves away from. “My fight is with you. I’m simply removing external factors.”
“Okay, sure, no problem with me.” Gojo shrugs. “But weren’t you just sounding all-excited about a new challenger?”
Sukuna grins at that, the kind you’d see described on a supervillain in a story book, and Gojo thinks that’s not far off, to be fair. “Oh, I am. But regrettably, I must save some strength to kill you, so it won’t do for me to face this alien alone.”
Gojo laughs.
“Alright, then. Show us your strength, Dabura Karaba!”
—
It takes all of a minute for Satoru Gojo to understand that Dabura is strong. His cursed energy reserves, control, technique, speed, strength, all of it is unquestionably Special Grade caliber. In fact, Gojo doubts that anyone other than Sukuna and himself could keep up with Dabura.
And even as is, it’s not as if the two earthen sorcerers are winning. They’re definitely not losing, sure, and it’s not as if Gojo is exactly giving it his all, but Dabura seems perfectly content to dance around both Gojo and Sukuna’s attacks from as far away as he can manage, while raining down beams of light upon them that they’re forced to dodge.
“His range is annoying,” Sukuna finally says after a five minute span that reduces Shinjuku to nothing more than a flattened wasteland, and Gojo has to agree. His own range is far from poor, but it’s always been easier to control Blue from a medium range or closer, whereas Dabura is clearly comfortable fighting from so far away that they can barely even see him. And as for Sukuna, well– Cleave can only be used if he’s touching his target, so Gojo thinks that says all it needs to, really.
They need to change tactics.
“Sukuna!” Gojo shouts, and the man’s head snaps up to attention. “I’m going to teleport myself behind him, and when I do, you’re going to close the distance as quickly as you can. Let’s see how well he deals with being pincered.”
For a brief moment, Sukuna’s eye twitches, and it looks very much like he’s fighting the urge to say something scathing. Gojo can’t help but chuckle when he realises why. You’re not very used to being ordered around, are you? But for a sorcerer of his ego, Sukuna acquiesces easily enough, giving a curt nod, and Gojo takes that as his cue to leave.
Between one moment and the next, he appears behind Dabura, blasting forward a beam of Red as soon as he does.
To Dabura’s credit, he reacts – much like his technique – near instantly, spinning back to reduce the damage to a burnt shoulder instead of a missing arm, and immediately shooting out a burst of hundreds of specks of light that Gojo is forced to teleport to avoid.
Even so, a few particles manage to hit their mark, and Gojo hisses as he uses Reverse Cursed Technique to heal away the holes dotting his skin. More in frustration than pain, really, because how is he bypassing Infinity? Not even Sukuna’s cursed technique could accomplish such a thing.
Six Eyes continue to observe and analyze as Gojo stalls, waiting for Sukuna to catch up in his weakened form, and–
Ah. Gojo thinks he gets it now.
As far as he can see, Dabura’s technique does not just mimic light– it truly is, for all intents and purposes, light. The Six Eyes tell him that the beams Dabura has been sending his way are rays of light that have been imbued with something akin to ‘the intent to kill’, so to speak. And even as powerful as Infinity is, it can’t block out something as simple and essential to living as light. Thus, unfortunately, leaving Gojo as vulnerable to Dabura’s attacks as the King of Curses. The rapidly approaching King of Curses.
Speak of the devil.
Gojo grins as Sukuna lands a Cleave clean across Dabura’s back, and the alien is left reeling. The hit doesn’t cut through Dabura as it would have done to a lesser sorcerer, but Gojo didn’t expect it to, in any case. He follows up with a Blue infused punch to Dabura’s gut that draws blood, but his next swing catches nothing but air as the alien rolls away with blinding speed, and raises a hand in Sukuna’s direction.
Sukuna’s eyes widen; blow wide in an uncharacteristic show of shock, and he shatters the block of rubble he’s standing on in an attempt to weasel away.
But Dabura is faster.
And in an instant, the strongest sorcerer in history is enveloped in a cascade of brilliant white and gold.
—
This fucking hurts. Sukuna can’t help but cry out in pain as the light sears his skin, first burning like an open flame but then in the next moment melting straight through his body like it’s plastic. Maybe it’s because he’s already on his last legs, or maybe because this guy really is something else, but Sukuna can’t recall anything Satoru Gojo doing that hurt quite this much.
Sukuna clamps his jaw down, steeling his mind before he actually does die, and grits out three words.
“True Form: Reveal.”
Aaaaah. It’s good to be back.
Sukuna smiles– really smiles for the first time in centuries, both mouths and all four eyes sharp and bloodthirsty.
“Sukuna?!” The white haired gnat yelps, making a comically stunned expression. “You had a second life? Seriously!? No fair!”
Sukuna doesn’t reply. It’s more convenient for him if the Six Eyes believes that he never had a chance to win, even if it’s not quite true. After all, without the Divine General, Sukuna has no true way of breaching Infinity. Aside from the cut that targets the world.
But now’s not the time to think about that. Surviving the attack and subsequently turning into a whole different person clearly threw Dabura off, but even now the confusion in his eyes is giving way to cold indifference, and the sorcerer raises his arms once more.
Light spills out of Dabura’s palms like discs, arcing dangerously towards both his opponents. Sukuna sees Gojo from the corner of his eye brazenly teleport forwards, and he puts on a burst of speed.
Sukuna shoots a flurry of Dismantles at a rapidly approaching disc, but it stays wholly unaffected, charging forth to bisect his outstretched arm down the middle. He clicks his tongue, but now in his True Form, it’s no trouble regenerating it and dodging the rest.
Before he reaches Dabura, Gojo has already landed another hit of Blue, this time straight to the man’s face, and it’s clearly felt; not just in the way Dabura’s eyes scatter in a brief loss of consciousness, but in the way that a shockwave extends some twenty meters across the battlefield, cracking concrete and shattering glass.
Sukuna steps forwards, pressing a palm to Dabura’s chest that rips into him with Cleaves. Dabura swings, throwing out a wide swath of light, but it’s slower, clumsier; trivial to sidestep. A fact that all three sorcerers notice.
And it’s then that Sukuna realizes something. This alien… he’s not healing himself. Against his will, he locks eyes with Satoru Gojo, and in an instant he can tell the other man has come to the same resolution.
He doesn’t know Reverse Cursed Technique.
It’s easy from there. Sukuna and Gojo take turns whaling on Dabura Karaba, occasionally twisting out of the way of any attacks he is still able to send out.
Blue. Cleave. Red. Dismantle. Blue. Dismantle. A devastating chop that nearly rips Dabura’s shoulder clean off. Another punch to the head. Blue. Cleave. Red. Dismantle. Blue. Cleave. Red. Dismantle. Blue. Cleave. Red. Dismantle. Blue. Cleave. Red. Dismantle.
By the end of it, Dabura is unrecognizable– barely more than a crater of blood and gore on the ground. Sukuna stands over it, two hands on his hips, two hands folded over his chest, both mouths stretched in a thin grim line.
“Well,” Satoru Gojo starts from beside him in an affable tone, like he’s talking about lunch or the weather. “That was–”
“Disappointing.”
“Oh. I was gonna say unexpected, but yeah, I guess a little disappointing, too.” Gojo concedes.
“Not a little. Very. Disappointing.” Sukuna states. “To interrupt a battle between the strongest and barely provide a challenge is unforgivable.”
“Ehhh, he tried his best,” Gojo shrugs. “His cursed energy output was insane. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s just too bad aliens don’t know what positive energy is, apparently.”
Sukuna fixes the other man with a flat look.
“What? Something on my beautiful face?”
“Nothing.” Sukuna says, but it’s not really nothing, it’s just– it suddenly struck him, like a lightning bolt, that he’s working with and sharing conversation with the man he’d been trying to kill not even twenty minutes ago. How strange.
Gojo peers at him for a moment, Six Eyes flashing, and Sukuna understands that he’s checking to see if Sukuna’s up to anything. But of course, he finds nothing, and shrugs again.
“Alright, whatever you say.” He steps back from the fresh alien corpse, and for a stretch of time, he’s silent.
“Anyways. Back to our regularly scheduled death battle?”
Sukuna chuckles despite himself. “Yeah. Sure.”
And without any further preamble, the Strongest of Today and the Strongest in History charge at each other once more.