Gojo Satoru: Makima Is Different from Other Curses / Ryomen Sukuna: I'm Going to Beat the Herrscher of Rebirth? I'll Win!

Ultimately, only by winning could he ensure the safety of the civilians above the subway station.

Yet this strike, packed with immense cursed energy, was neutralized by a golden cursed-energy barrier Makima released before it could even touch her, without raising the slightest ripple.

The power of restraint again?

Seeing this, Gojo Satoru did not stop moving. Several streams of blue cursed energy condensed within the cramped space.

Using Blue's pull, Gojo Satoru moved at incredible speed to evade the golden chains Makima unleashed, while also attempting to use Blue's suction to disrupt Makima's movements from afar.

But just like Red earlier, even after its suction erupted, Blue's power vanished completely upon touching the golden barrier around Makima's body. It could not pull anything at all.

Even when Gojo Satoru poured in more cursed energy to operate his technique, using the blue cursed energy like millstones to pulverize the floor and walls, hurling countless chunks of rubble and steel reinforcement at Makima, those stones and steel bars dropped straight to the ground the instant they touched the golden barrier, as if they had lost all inertia.

"What an overbearing technique. It's practically as if no force can break through it."

Faced with that near-absolute golden cursed-energy barrier, Gojo Satoru grinned and raised a hand into a gesture.

Since neither Blue nor Red could have any substantial effect on Makima, Gojo Satoru could only try another method.

Hollow Technique: Purple? That was obviously impossible. If he used that move here, at least half the civilians trapped within the barrier would die.

In that case, there was only Domain Expansion.

Fortunately, the entire subway station was empty now. Although it was somewhat surprising that Makima, a curse, had set up a barrier in advance to clear out the bystanders in the station and prevent their battle from affecting civilians, it had also created the conditions Gojo Satoru needed to deploy his Domain.

"Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void!"

A pitch-black, void-like landscape resembling a black hole enveloped them both. Amid the interweaving light and darkness, massive amounts of useless information flooded toward Makima, attempting to make every living thing within the Domain except Gojo Satoru stop thinking.

Yet Makima seemed prepared for this. She slowly extended both hands and formed a gesture as well.

The next second, a golden world replaced the original scenery, shrouding everything around them.

"Domain Expansion: Restraint Barrier."

That familiar sensation of weakness washed over his entire body again. Gojo Satoru's Domain was suppressed in an instant, so quickly that the side effects of his technique burning out had not even occurred before his physical strength and cursed energy vanished beneath Makima's Domain.

Fortunately, Makima's Domain lasted an extremely short time, less than even a second before she dismissed it herself.

After all, even when compressed to the absolute limit with Domain techniques, the Restraint Barrier still had a diameter of five hundred meters, including both the upper and lower directions.

Even Special Grade sorcerers could not last more than a few seconds within the Restraint Barrier before losing consciousness, much less ordinary people. Therefore, to avoid killing all the civilians on the upper level with a single Domain Expansion, Makima suppressed the Restraint Barrier's output to its lowest level while replicating Gojo Satoru's maneuver from the original work: a 0.2-second Domain Expansion.

This created another problem. With the Restraint Barrier at minimum output and deployed for only 0.2 seconds, it apparently was not enough to instantly strip Gojo Satoru of all combat ability. Once the Domain vanished, the cursed-energy barrier that had been surrounding Makima also disappeared.

Seeing this, Gojo Satoru, whose strength had returned, naturally would not let this chance slip away. Blue's suction operated at maximum output, and in the blink of an eye, Gojo Satoru arrived before Makima, the dark-red Red condensed in his hand already primed to strike.

Facing Gojo Satoru's attack, golden cursed energy gathered in Makima's hand and formed a sharp sword, but Gojo Satoru did not care in the slightest.

At this distance, even if Makima wanted to block, she was clearly too late. His attack would hit her first and defeat her.

So this battle was his victory!

Under Gojo Satoru's confident gaze, Makima was exactly as he had predicted. She had no time to draw her sword to block and merely moved her lips, seemingly saying something.

But at a moment like this, what meaning could words possibly have?

That was the only flicker of doubt that crossed Gojo Satoru's mind.

PS: Seeing the sword in Makima's hand, you can probably all guess what will happen next chapter.

Gojo Satoru: Makima Was Different From Other Curses

In a world resembling a vacation resort, Gojo Satoru suddenly woke with a start, then immediately sat up and surveyed his surroundings.

"Yo, you're awake, Satoru."

Beside Gojo Satoru sat a figure he knew all too well, smiling as he greeted him.

It was Geto Suguru, dressed in his high school uniform. When he saw Gojo Satoru arrive, there was a hint of regret in his eyes, but even more relief.

"Geto, you bastard..."

Realizing where he was now, Gojo Satoru clenched his fists. Then he let out a long sigh and flopped back down.

"How did it feel? That Miss Makima's strength."

Geto Suguru asked with a smile.

"Terrifyingly strong. I couldn't find a single weakness in her technique."

Gojo Satoru answered gloomily.

"Although I didn't go all out because I was worried about the civilians, I could tell she held back even more. Even if both of us fought with everything we had, she probably still would have won."

"If I hadn't been worried that my Domain would kill civilians, perhaps the battle would have ended the instant my Unlimited Void clashed with her Domain."

Even Geto Suguru could not help feeling surprised by that.

"I never thought there would come a day when you said something like that. She really left a deep impression on you."

Recalling every detail of his battle with Makima and her various actions, Gojo Satoru raised both hands and clenched them.

"Makima is different from other curses. Before this, I'd never seen a curse more human than her. In my opinion, many humans aren't even as human as Miss Makima."

"For one moment, I even genuinely felt that handing the Jujutsu World over to a more humane curse like Makima might be better than handing it over to those higher-ups."

Before this, Gojo Satoru's attitude toward curses had always been that they were not worth listening to. Such a drastic change was enough to show how deeply this battle had affected him.

Geto Suguru did not comment on that.

"Satoru, are you leaving?"

"Yeah. I didn't sense any killing intent during the battle, so she most likely won't kill me."

"It's just... when I wake up, I'll probably forget all of this, just like she said at the beginning."

Gojo Satoru gave a bitter laugh, his body gradually fading beneath Geto Suguru's gaze.

"What the future of the Jujutsu World becomes has completely stopped being my concern. From now on, I'll truly become a bystander."

"Geto, when I come back next time, if I really can't remember this, remember to tell me about it again."

"Well... we'll see. Don't expect me to wait around here just for you."

In reality, crimson blood dripped onto the floor. Gojo Satoru's lower body remained standing in place, while his upper body lay sprawled in a pool of blood. His unfocused eyes barely regained a trace of clarity as he looked at Makima before him.

"That ability just now... was it also your technique?"

Makima dispersed the weapon condensed from cursed energy in her hand and nodded slightly.

"Word Spirit Technique. You can think of it as an ability similar to Cursed Speech, one that forcibly controls others through words."

"Unlike the permanent control of a normal Dominator technique, the Word Spirit Technique can only temporarily control other targets. In exchange, techniques cast through Word Spirits have control far stronger than ordinary domination, and their conditions for control are much easier to meet."

Just now, when Gojo Satoru rushed before her, Makima had used the Word Spirit Technique to force him to halt before launching her attack.

Thus, the situation became what it was now.

Gojo Satoru, forcibly controlled by the Word Spirit Technique, had no ability to resist at all. Makima's condensed cursed energy sliced him in half at the waist, recreating that famous scene.

As for why Makima did not use the Chains of Restraint to strip Gojo Satoru of his ability to resist and dominate him directly after the Word Spirit Technique had already forcibly controlled him, instead going out of her way to attack?

Do not forget that Makima possessed both all of An Xiu's memories and all the memories of her corresponding original character. As a bad woman, Makima had a small bit of her own wicked sense of humor.

"Delightful, Mr. Gojo Satoru. Please sleep here for a while now."

Using the Dominator Devil's authority to bring Gojo Satoru under her control, Makima made him fall unconscious while also causing him to forget the memories of this period.

In Gojo Satoru's memories, he would only remember being ambushed after entering the subway station. Every detail and process would be completely blank, and he would be unable to recall them again by any means.

After taking out her phone, snapping a photo of Gojo Satoru, and sending it to An Xiu, Makima took out a ball of Power of Creation she had prepared beforehand and tossed it onto Gojo Satoru. At the same time, she issued an order to the cursed spirits that had long been lurking outside the barrier.

"Everyone, begin the operation."

Outside, a group of sorcerers had gathered beyond the barrier, anxiously observing the situation within.

Just moments ago, a powerful burst of energy had erupted inside the barrier. Most of the sorcerers present were experienced veterans, and there were also two Special Grades, Tsukumo Yuki and Okkotsu Yuta. Thus, despite the barrier separating them, everyone immediately recognized the signs of a Domain Expansion.

Clearly, Gojo Satoru was fighting someone inside the barrier. Yet the burst of cursed energy had lasted less than a second before disappearing, so they had no idea what the situation inside was now.

"Gojo Satoru probably won, right? After all, his strength is the only thing about him that puts people at ease."

Meimei said uncertainly.

"But if he had won, the barrier should have been lifted by now."

Zenin Naobito's expression was grim. As the head of the Zenin family, a Grade 1 sorcerer, and one of the few Jujutsu World higher-ups willing to fight on the front lines, his insight and experience were undoubtedly extensive.

Therefore, faced with such an eerie situation, he already felt a faint sense of unease.

Could it be that Gojo Satoru was the one who lost? No, no, the cursed-energy eruption only lasted an instant. As the current head of the Gojo family, a Special Grade sorcerer, and inheritor of the Six Eyes, how could Gojo Satoru possibly be defeated so quickly? Perhaps there was some other reason...

Suddenly, every sorcerer present sharply turned to look around.

"Be careful! A massive number of cursed-energy signatures are approaching!"

Moments later, countless cursed spirits could be seen weaving through the city. At some point, they had already surrounded everyone.

Sukuna: If I Fight the Herrscher of Life and Death? I'd Win!

"Damn it! How did so many cursed spirits suddenly appear?"

Looking at the dense army of cursed spirits surrounding them, all the sorcerers present wore grave expressions.

"This many cursed spirits could never have gathered naturally. Someone must be controlling them from the shadows."

"To control such an enormous number of cursed spirits, could it be Cursed Spirit Manipulation?"

Just then, an especially enormous cursed-energy signature appeared in the air. Everyone looked up to see a gigantic bird-shaped cursed spirit flying over from afar, with five figures standing atop it.

Without exception, each of the five figures possessed cursed energy far exceeding that of ordinary Special Grade cursed spirits. The leader in particular made many of the sorcerers below reveal expressions of disbelief.

"Geto Suguru? Shouldn't he already be dead?!"

Ignoring everyone's astonishment, Geto Suguru immediately locked onto three targets in the crowd.

Tsukumo Yuki, Okkotsu Yuta, and most importantly, Itadori Yuji.

"I'll deal with Tsukumo Yuki. Mahito, Hanami, and Dagon, hold back Okkotsu Yuta. Leaking Pot, capture Sukuna's vessel and make him swallow the fingers."

After speaking to the four Disaster Cursed Spirits beside him, Geto Suguru jumped down directly. Leaking Pot, Mahito, Hanami, and Dagon, who had fully developed from his cursed womb, followed close behind.

At the same time, the army of cursed spirits around them surged toward the sorcerers.

In an instant, the entire battlefield fell into chaos. Everywhere, sorcerers and cursed spirits fought bitterly.

Following the plan, Geto Suguru and the four Disaster Cursed Spirits each found their opponents. Leaking Pot, carrying the most important mission, locked onto his target the instant he landed.

Itadori Yuji, who had been brawling with an unknown cursed spirit, suddenly felt a chill spread through his body. Before he could react, a powerful force struck his back.

Bang!

As the strongest of the four Disaster Cursed Spirits, powerful enough to make even Geto Suguru wary, Leaking Pot sent Itadori Yuji flying from the battlefield with a single strike, successfully separating him from his companions.

"Not good!"

Seeing this, the students of Jujutsu High immediately sensed trouble. However, the many cursed spirits before them left them no room to break away.

Boom!!!

Scorching flames mixed with surging heat waves rushed at Itadori Yuji. Leaking Pot did not care what damage such an attack might cause Sukuna's vessel. As long as Sukuna, a curse, emerged, he could easily recover from such injuries.

Against Leaking Pot's merciless attacks, Itadori Yuji could not hold out for long. Leaking Pot soon seized an opening and beat him until he lost the ability to fight.

Quickly stepping before Itadori Yuji, Leaking Pot took out seventeen Sukuna's fingers from his robes and swiftly fed them all to him.

Although Itadori Yuji, as a perfect vessel, could freely suppress Sukuna's consciousness under normal circumstances, he was not only unconscious now but had also been fed a large number of Sukuna's fingers at once. His body had no time to adapt.

In other words, barring any surprises, Itadori Yuji would be unable to contend with Sukuna for control of his body for quite some time.

Sensing Sukuna's consciousness about to awaken, Leaking Pot, having accomplished his goal, did not dare delay and immediately retreated.

Geto Suguru and the other three Disaster Cursed Spirits also abandoned their respective opponents and rapidly withdrew from the battlefield. Even the army of cursed spirits surrounding the sorcerers began retreating in an orderly manner.

"What happened?"

Seeing this, some sorcerers who had been too immersed in battle to keep track of the situation were confused. A few sorcerers, along with the two Special Grade sorcerers Tsukumo Yuki and Okkotsu Yuta, turned grave gazes toward Itadori Yuji, who lay outside the battlefield.