Jujutsu Kaisen: Yearning to Become an Immortal God

Only then did Zenin Ranta confirm that Mahito was truly dead. Relieved, he shut down Kamui and let out a breath. "Finally... it's over."

Jinichi Zenin roared, "Ranta, don't deactivate Kamui!" Thud.

Zenin Ranta blankly looked down.

At some point, a hand had pierced through his chest, its fingers clenched together in a knife-hand strike.

"Got... you... Zenin Ranta." Someone breathed softly into Zenin Ranta's ear, their breath carrying the fragrance of orchids. The hand abruptly withdrew. Clutching his chest, Zenin Ranta instinctively staggered two steps forward. He blankly stared at the hole through his chest, then blankly—

—looked ahead. One of his eyes had already been blinded by the backlash of his Cursed Technique, while the other was bloodshot, leaving his vision blurry. He could only see someone running toward him, but before that person reached his side, he dropped to both knees, his head smashing into the ground.

Zenin Ranta, dead.

Jinichi Zenin tightly embraced Zenin Ranta's corpse. Raindrops fell upon the corners of his eyes, and his entire body trembled, nearly beyond his control. A figure slowly yet resolutely emerged from the night.

Bones, blood vessels, nerves, organs, muscles, fat, skin. One by one—Idle Transfiguration.

Undershirt, kimono, hakama. One by one—Construction.

A hand rose, and a conical hat appeared in it. Mahito opened his mismatched eyes and placed the final hat on his head. Torrential rain poured down, raindrops striking the hat and dripping from its brim, veiling the face beneath in a curtain of rain. Only those faintly glowing mismatched eyes stood out, like ghostly flames among graves.

The original Mahito had once sustained a similar injury. It was during his first battle with a Jujutsu Sorcerer, a sorcerer named Kento Nanami.

He had been an experienced and powerful sorcerer. The inexperienced original Mahito had let Kento Nanami seize an opening and sever his lower leg. After that, Kento Nanami directly used his Cursed Technique to blow apart the entire terrain. Their battlefield had been a vast sewer, and hundreds of tons of rubble and boulders had fallen from above, crushing the original Mahito to pieces.

Yet the original Mahito had still regenerated without a scratch. Mahito had explained it long ago:

[As long as an attack cannot damage the soul, even if I am smashed to pieces so completely that not even a single cell remains, I can regenerate unharmed by keeping my soul unchanged.]

The destructive power of Black Flash was beyond doubt, but Black Flash... could not attack the soul. As long as it could not attack the soul, Mahito would not truly be hurt!

"Feel honored, Jinichi Zenin," Mahito said softly. "That Black Flash... almost... killed me." Jinichi Zenin erupted, his furious roar drowning out the night's downpour and the thunder in the sky. "Mahito!"

Mahito raised a hand and slightly lowered his conical hat. The sun-and-moon ornaments on its brim chimed crisply. His lips curved into a smile. "That wasn't easy. You finally decided... to call me by my name?"

"AAAAAH!" Jinichi Zenin surged forward. His foot stomped down, power boiling throughout his body. Cursed Energy raced through him at high speed, wrapping him in what seemed like a storm. Having just landed Black Flash, his power now flowed smoothly beyond its limits. His muscles coordinated with the circulation of Cursed Energy, driving him forward in enormous strides. In his rampage, he bent his arm, his body like a massive bow. Only after the bow had drawn to its limit did he take his first step.

With a single step, explosive Cursed Energy propelled him to Mahito's side as though he had teleported.

Mahito was about to move when a black shadow suddenly appeared beneath his feet. Cursed Technique Release: Shadow Crocodile!

This was a Cursed Technique that had never appeared in the original work. There had been ten members of Hei in the original work, but only four appeared during the clan massacre. The other six were merely described in later text as having been hunted down, confirming Hei's complete annihilation. But things were completely different now. Since they knew Mahito was coming, all ten members of Hei had gathered here.

"Though I'm far inferior to Ranta, controlling you for an instant will be enough!" the user of Shadow Crocodile shouted.

Japanese folklore spoke of a yokai that lurked beneath the sea's surface and devoured sailors' shadows. Anyone whose shadow was stolen would surely die. If a boatman whose shadow had been eaten killed the Shadow Crocodile, then even while walking on the road, he would be impaled to death by Shadow Crocodile bones suddenly shooting up from underground.

True to its name, Shadow Crocodile could attack through the medium of shadows. Before Mahito could act, countless pitch-black blades burst forth from his shadow.

Those blades, shaped from shadows, effortlessly pierced his calves and pinned him firmly in place. One blade was especially long, stabbing toward Mahito's throat like a spear! Mahito reached out and gripped the shadow blade. With a slight exertion of strength, it scattered like cherry blossoms.

Mahito immediately grasped the strengths and weaknesses of this Cursed Technique. The shadow blades were incomparably sharp, yet fragile as porcelain. Their range depended entirely on the area of the shadow. It was night now, and the greatest shadow on this planet covered the entire world. This was Shadow Crocodile's strongest period!

I came to the right place. Mahito thought. Compared to Innate Technique users whom he could never find outside, the Big Three Families were full of them. "This time, I'll blast you apart until not even scraps remain. Prepare yourself!" Jinichi Zenin roared.

Jinichi Zenin had crossed all distance with only a single step, arriving before Mahito. Mahito had just been restrained when he violently broke free of the Shadow Stitching Cursed Technique. As expected, its binding power was far inferior to Zenin Ranta's Kamui, but an instant was enough.

Jinichi Zenin's fist had already come down!

Thud. Jinichi Zenin's fist struck Mahito squarely in the face—

—Mahito did not move an inch, utterly unscathed. Soul Creation switched: Jiro Awasaka. Cursed Technique Release: Strength-Weakness Reversal!

Jinichi Zenin felt as though he had punched a metal wall. The recoil shattered his finger bones, turning his knuckles into a bloody mess. The unexpected result left him completely unprepared.

The next instant, Mahito's fist pierced his heart.

"How... can this be?" Jinichi Zenin coughed up blood, unable to believe it.

Before Jinichi Zenin could breathe his last, Mahito's hand was already on his head. Then his five fingers tightened. He gripped Jinichi Zenin's head and violently twisted it, wrenching it from his neck like a screw being unscrewed. He tossed the severed head to the ground. The torrential rain continued to fall, obscuring Jinichi Zenin's disbelieving face.

Jinichi Zenin, dead.

Mahito fiercely kicked Jinichi Zenin's headless corpse to the ground, crushing every shadow blade piercing his calves. One foot rested atop the man built like a brown bear. His mismatched eyes shone like those of a demon god, lightning and thunder in the downpour framing him from behind.

"Come," he said. "Let's... continue."

Arrogant Talent, Fury Unleashed

Jinichi Zenin's death finally ignited the rage of every remaining squad member. The Zenin Clan had only four Special Grade 1 Sorcerers: the clan head, the captain of Hei, Jinichi Zenin, and Ogi Zenin. Yet Mahito had erased half that number before their very eyes. To the Zenin Clan, this was equivalent to breaking one of the clan's pillars. From this moment on, the Zenin Clan's position within Jujutsu Society was in peril.

Every squad member roared like madmen, yet none attacked recklessly. They began running, circling Mahito! Mahito stepped over Jinichi Zenin's corpse and entered the center of the Zenin compound. The remaining squad members surrounded him, but cautiously refrained from approaching. Everyone was waiting for an opportunity—an opportunity to kill him with one blow.

Every squad member began recalling Mahito's intelligence. Though furious, they had not lost their heads. On the contrary, they carried the lives of the dead upon their backs. The weight of those lives pressed them to think desperately, to think of how to kill Mahito!

Mahito hid half his face beneath his conical hat, listening to the squad members' shouts. Yet he did not look at them. Instead, he focused all his attention on the person standing at the entrance to the Zenin residence's passageway.

"Naoya Zenin, aren't you coming over?" Mahito asked.

"So you truly know all our intelligence." The person at the entrance muttered, his voice vicious. "Who exactly dared to use your hands to cripple the Zenin Clan?"

"Even now, you have not turned your gaze toward me. That is the Zenin Clan's arrogance," Mahito said indifferently.

"You are merely a Shell Spirit. Why should Zenin lower its gaze to you?" Naoya Zenin said coldly. "Though our losses are severe, if we earn the achievement of killing the legendary Lord of Curses, the Zenin Clan will not decline. You dared enter the Zenin Clan's gates alone... King of Curses, do not misunderstand. You are the arrogant one!"

Naoya Zenin suddenly swung his hand!

The torrential weather abruptly changed, turning completely black. Shadow Crocodile! An enormous shadow began expanding without limit, spreading in the blink of an eye to cover the entire courtyard. Every squad member lurked deep within the darkness. The user of Shadow Crocodile knew Mahito could reflect direct offensive Cursed Techniques, so he did not use shadow blades directly. Instead, he spread the shadow completely, turning the other squad members into assassins hidden in darkness.

Mahito's vision was utterly consumed by darkness. Feeling the vibrations of raindrops striking his conical hat, he strolled leisurely through the empty blackness. He imagined what kind of attack would emerge from the darkness, utterly fearless.

Suddenly, his spine was forced downward against his will. Enormous force descended from above, as if a mountain had fallen upon him. Pressure! Mahito desperately tried to straighten himself, but he could not. Every muscle and bone in his body creaked. Every second felt as though an uncontrollable mad Dragon was rampaging within him, trying to force him to kneel!

Darkness. Pressure. And finally, the killing blow!

The wind and rain suddenly froze for an instant, then the atmosphere began compressing amid violent tremors. Mahito could clearly feel heaven and earth crying out. Something was taking shape. The downpour could not stop it, and lightning between the black clouds shrieked. The infinitely compressed atmosphere formed an invisible blade together with the curtain of rain—a direct offensive Cursed Technique, Ame-no-Habakiri!

Darkness concealed Mahito's eyes, but at this moment, his senses surpassed his vision and detected that terrifying thing taking shape. The invisible blade, carrying immense wind and rain, rushed straight at him. Mahito felt as if a colossal giant reaching the heavens was swinging a massive blade, its tip nearly touching the sky and its base deeply embedded in the earth. The whole world was covered by that blade.

Ame-no-Habakiri was a sword from Japanese legend. Now, the Cursed Technique bearing its name displayed legendary power as well. Mahito faced this strike carrying wind and rain head-on: a high-speed compressed wind blade nearly thirty meters wide!

The tyrannical blade surged ahead, slicing apart everything in its path. Mahito could not help smiling as he shouted, "This is the true Jujutsu Kaisen!"

Though at the most dangerous moment, Mahito inexplicably felt his spirits soar. Before this, he had never known that he possessed the traits of a battle maniac. He raised his hand. Tsukumogami Manipulation! A flash of bright silver suddenly gleamed in the darkness as Mirokuji Kirigiri returned to his hand. Though he bore the crushing Pressure, he slowly stood upright. He straightened his body like a towering pine.

Ame-no-Habakiri came head-on. At the final moment, Mahito swung Mist Cutter. Severing Line!

A sharp, piercing sound flashed past. A conspicuous Severing Line appeared upon the enormous invisible blade formed from compressed atmosphere. Mirokuji Kirigiri had finally "completed" herself. She had carved a tangible line upon something intangible. At this moment, nothing could stop her. She could carve her own new lines upon all creation, again and again.

Though facing an invisible blade, Mahito clearly felt that he had cut something solid when he swung Mist Cutter. It did not feel like cutting a sword or blade, but rather a wall. He felt a burst of sparks when Mist Cutter collided with Ame-no-Habakiri. He had truly used Mist Cutter to split the invisible blade apart, then used the recoil to launch himself away from his original position and escape the range of Pressure.

Only then did he realize those were not sparks, but rainwater within the shattering invisible blade. The scattered blade exploded violently, sending enormous amounts of rainwater outward, as if several tons of fireworks had suddenly detonated. Fireworks exploded in flame, while the invisible blade exploded in water.

Suddenly, someone silently appeared beside Mahito, a fist viciously smashing toward him. Mahito raised Mist Cutter and slashed fiercely, but the person vanished before the blade arrived. Mahito only felt a heavy blow strike his back, and the tremendous force sent him flying forward.

Cursed Technique Release: Utsusemi Leap!

Utsusemi was a traditional Japanese ninja art that used misdirection to achieve something resembling teleportation. The Cursed Technique named after it could accomplish something even more exaggerated than traditional ninjas. The sorcerer could freely set a starting point and endpoint, transferring through space between them before an attack struck. The Utsusemi sorcerer had used this principle to appear at Mahito's side, then abruptly reappear behind him and mercilessly strike Mahito's back.

Mahito stomped the ground to halt his movement. His Cursed Energy perception expanded without limit. Darkness still covered his eyes, but at this moment, he completely grasped everyone's movement paths. The instant the Utsusemi user appeared beside him, Mist Cutter slashed diagonally toward him. Yet the Utsusemi user vanished once more before that could happen. He repeated the same trick, but Mahito did not fall for it this time. He had not used his full strength in that swing. Following the force of it, he changed direction and slashed again!

The current Mahito could even see the trajectory of spatial movement!

"Got... you..." A sweet female voice suddenly spoke. Mahito's slashing motion froze.

Thread after thread appeared out of nowhere, winding around Mahito's forearm, upper arm, and fingers. Even the hilt of Mist Cutter he had been swinging was wrapped in layers of thread. Mahito's senses had expanded to their limit. He could almost feel every raindrop in the downpour. Even within darkness, he could clearly identify everyone's location and movements. When serious, not even squad members with Utsusemi Leap could hide from him. Yet he had failed to notice the threads wrapped around his body!

The darkness finally receded. This meant everyone in the Zenin Clan believed the outcome had been decided. A beautiful woman appeared beyond the Zenin Clan's gates, in an absolutely safe location. Standing amid the corpses of the Kukuru Unit, she smiled at Mahito.

"Cursed Technique Release: Life-Binding Jorogumo Silk." The woman exhaled like an orchid. "Anything entangled by my spider silk—Jujutsu Sorcerer, Cursed Spirit, or anything else—will dissolve in venom like the men caught by the legendary Jorogumo. Those bound can only watch helplessly as their bodies melt away, leaving not even scraps behind... Lord of Curses, even if you can come back from death, under the binding of my Life-Binding Jorogumo Silk, you will still cross into the Yellow Springs."

Mahito indeed felt that his fingers could no longer exert strength. Then he realized that not only his sword arm, but his waist, neck, forehead, cheeks, chest, hips, legs, and feet were all wrapped in layers of spider silk. The first thing to melt was not his flesh, but his clothes. His conical hat silently fell away, dissolving into ash in midair before it could reach the ground.

Mahito could not help praising them. "Shadow control capable of forming shadow blades or concealing vision over a vast area; Pressure sufficient to crush the human body; compressed atmosphere forming a giant invisible blade; spatial movement with freely controlled travel paths; and spider silk so concealed that even I, at my peak condition, could not detect it, silk capable of dissolving all things.

"Along with Earth and Stone Manipulation, possessing a broad attack range and extremely fast activation; Flame Technique released through Iai in combination with the Big Three Families' deeply cultivated secret art, Falling Blossom Emotion; and Cursed Technique Fist Combat, capable of tearing apart the earth with one strike and unleashing uninterrupted consecutive attacks that leave enemies unable to retaliate, only to be beaten to death.

"And finally, your captain possesses Projection Sorcery, the same Cursed Technique as the Zenin Clan head, hailed as the fastest technique besides Satoru Gojo's." Mahito smiled. "As expected of Hei, the elite Jujutsu Sorcerer force of the famed Zenin Clan."

The woman's smile gradually vanished, and she frowned deeply. "Your organs should already have completely dissolved before the external spider silk even shows signs of it, as my threads have already seeped into your flesh, organs, and bones. Why can you still speak with such strength? You should... be unable to even breathe."

Idle Transfiguration activated silently. The spider silk had indeed dissolved Mahito's organs, but as they dissolved, Idle Transfiguration simultaneously stitched them back together. Mahito had another advantage over Jujutsu Sorcerers: he was a Half-Cursed Spirit. He was human, but also a Cursed Spirit. If a human's organs dissolved, even healing would leave grave hidden dangers. But not for him. Humans could not dissolve and heal themselves at the same time. He could!

"You should not have withdrawn the darkness so soon. Nor should you have smugly declared victory the moment you saw the spider silk completely bind me," Mahito said calmly. "If you wanted to kill me, you should have waited until the spider silk had completely dissolved me, until not even the slightest trace remained, before declaring victory."

The woman's expression changed drastically. "No, your organs have not dissolved at all—!" "You noticed too late." Mahito smiled.

Soul Creation: Kirara Hoshi: Love Rendezvous.

Shadow Crocodile, Pressure, Ame-no-Habakiri, Utsusemi Leap, Life-Binding Jorogumo Silk—exactly five. Mahito had completely taken all these attacks, recording all their Cursed Energy. Then—

—Cursed Technique Release!

The spider silk wound around Mahito suddenly shattered. Every strand burst outward from within his body. The threads containing the woman's Cursed Energy vanished from Mahito's body in an instant, all sharing one target: their caster!

But the woman was not flustered. She said coldly, "It's useless."

The spider silk silently vanished in midair. It would have been different if she did not know, but now that she knew Mahito could reflect direct offensive Cursed Energy, the woman had naturally prepared for it. Her preparation took effect at this moment. Before the reflected silk could reach her, she controlled it to dissolve itself. This was something only she could do.

Mahito suddenly recalled Ame-no-Habakiri's outcome. That huge high-speed compressed wind blade had seemingly not remained unchanged at the final moment. It had exploded at the end. This meant the sorcerer had prepared for Ame-no-Habakiri to self-destruct the moment he released it. If Mahito had truly reflected Ame-no-Habakiri directly with Love Rendezvous, the sorcerer would likely have detonated the Cursed Technique in time, forcing him to endure the explosion at close range.

...These people really have been carefully observing me and studying me.

"Since you are using Cursed Technique Reversal, you cannot use any other abilities, can you? That ability which made Jinichi-sama's punch ineffective—can you no longer use it either?" A squad member suddenly said coldly. "We have already learned... everything about you! Cursed Spirit, now you have nowhere left to run!"

A crisp stomp sounded beside Mahito. It was the Utsusemi user. This time, he did not use his fists. He drew a ninja short blade from the sleeve of his kimono. The instant he appeared, the short blade had already thrust out!

Mahito abruptly turned, and Mist Cutter had already swung before he completed the turn. But no one stood before him. Utsusemi Leap! Before Mahito could turn, that elusive sorcerer had already vanished. A ninja short blade suddenly pierced Mahito's back.

"Just as I thought, you can only use one Cursed Technique at a time." The Utsusemi sorcerer loudly declared his analysis. "If you could still use Tsukumogami Manipulation, the Tsukumogami in your hand would have blocked that strike. If you still possessed the defensive Cursed Technique that defended against Jinichi-sama, this strike could not have pierced your body. But you must now maintain Cursed Technique Reversal to prevent Life-Binding Jorogumo Silk from binding you again."

The next instant, the Utsusemi sorcerer vanished from behind Mahito and returned to stand before him. He lifted his eyes to Mahito, arrogance on his face as though a god looking down upon mortals.

"The victor has been decided," he coldly declared, determining the outcome of this battle.

The Zenin Clan's remaining squad members looked at Mahito with icy eyes, their hands forming signs in unison, ready to attack at any moment.

Mahito took a deep breath. As he breathed, the wound piercing his back completely healed at a visible rate. He slowly lowered his body, drawing all his sensory power back around himself. He set Mist Cutter at his waist. One hand loosely gripped her blade as though it were covered by a scabbard, while the other gently rested on her hilt. His grip was so loose that Mist Cutter's tip had to touch the ground to support her weight.

Mahito did not use Tsukumogami Manipulation. He adopted an Iai stance entirely through his own understanding.

Just as the Utsusemi sorcerer had said, he now had to use Soul Creation to employ other Cursed Techniques. Though switching between those techniques had become increasingly proficient during this battle, no matter how skilled he became, the rule that he could only use one Cursed Technique at a time still existed. He had not yet broken through that limit.

They had seen through this point.

They pressed forward step by step. Though they had sacrificed the entire Kukuru Unit, then two Special Grade 1 Sorcerers and one Grade 1 Sorcerer, ordinary soldiers would have collapsed long ago. But they did not collapse. Fury quietly burned in their hearts, yet it did not cloud their minds. They advanced over their comrades' corpses, utterly fearless.

It was time to retreat. Any rational person would have thought so. But Mahito did not.

At this moment, he immersed himself completely in this Jujutsu Kaisen. His blood boiled, yet the lake of his heart remained calm, like magma buried beneath the sea.

Of course, he still had a chance of winning.

He had never explained Love Rendezvous's true function to anyone. In everyone's eyes, Love Rendezvous simply reflected direct offensive Cursed Techniques. He had done that deliberately. Love Rendezvous had five kinds of marks, and after accepting every other sorcerer's attacks with his body, he had naturally marked all of them.

That meant these people could no longer cooperate.

The reason he had not marked himself was simple—from now on, he could fight anyone one-on-one! Was this a one-versus-five battle?

No. This was five one-versus-one battles!

Mahito suddenly recalled how he had felt when he first transmigrated into Mahito. When he opened his eyes, he had been in a sewer. Filthy water flowed beneath his feet, and his nostrils were filled with the stench of feces. He turned to examine his surroundings. Black grime ran down the sewer walls. A rat crawled through the depths of darkness, while unknown mosquitoes endlessly flew above the sewage, making irritating buzzing sounds.

He had been born from absolute filth.

And now, he was finally about to break free from that sewer.

Come, Zenin Clan. With your blood, tell the entire world—

—I am not filth for you to manipulate at will. I am human!

Mahito slowly closed his eyes. The sound of torrential rain grew weaker and weaker, eventually fading away at the end of time. He fell into absolute darkness. A faint blue core suddenly floated upon the lake of his heart. Jujutsu Sorcerers truly possessed something like an organ called a Cursed Energy Core. Generally, it grew in the human dantian. Every Jujutsu Sorcerer drew Cursed Energy through their Cursed Energy Core. Only when a Cursed Energy Core Resonated with a Jujutsu Sorcerer's spiritual world could the sorcerer unleash the legendary Black Flash.

And now, as a "Half-Cursed Spirit," Mahito was finally able to see this legendary Cursed Energy Core.

It floated in Mahito's dark spiritual world, radiating a dim light. Mahito began adjusting his breathing. Every time the Cursed Energy Core stirred like a fetus, he took a breath. At first, Mahito forcibly made his breaths match the Core's movements. But without realizing it, the Cursed Energy Core's movements began matching Mahito's breathing instead.

At the instant his breathing completely synchronized with the Cursed Energy Core's movement—Mahito moved.

Mirokuji Kirigiri always made a crisp sound when she swung. Usually quiet as a maiden, she roared like a tiger in the mountains when practicing her cuts upon all creation. Yet at this moment, she made no sound at all. An almost imperceptible silver gleam appeared in the curtain of rain.

Someone suddenly appeared before that nearly imperceptible silver light. The ninja short blade the Utsusemi sorcerer was preparing for a sneak attack was still inside his sleeve. His body silently split into two halves, the cut running from his left shoulder to his right waist.

"Falling Blossom... Emotion?" The Utsusemi sorcerer blankly uttered the final words of his life.

Half his body fell onto the rain-covered floor, while his lower half remained kneeling before finally collapsing.

"How is that possible?! That is Ogi-sama's Automatic Counter Iai Slash!" The Ame-no-Habakiri sorcerer was stunned, roaring in disbelief. "He learned it after seeing it only once?!"