Jujutsu Kaisen: Aspiring to Become an Immortal God

Naobito Zenin had already identified the ineffective approach—his twenty-four movements per second could definitely be seen by Mahito's naked eye. For Mahito as he was now, he could precisely grasp Naobito Zenin's trajectory.

Could anyone see twenty-four movements in one second with the naked eye? Though common sense told Naobito Zenin that was bullshit, there really were people like that in this world—and more than one. Toji Fushiguro, cast out by his clan, and Satoru Gojo, hailed as the strongest of the modern era, both possessed that ability.

So there was no need to be surprised by one more Mahito!

Therefore, no matter how he circled around, it was useless against Mahito. Mahito did not need to predict Naobito Zenin's high-speed movements at all. He could see Naobito Zenin circling with his own eyes, raise Mist Cutter, and wait for Naobito Zenin to crash into it.

Then all he had to do was not circle around, right?

It was not that he had to attack head-on. It was that he could only attack head-on. That was Naobito Zenin's true intention.

Since a frontal charge had been confirmed as necessary, what would Mahito, wielding Mist Cutter with All Things Severed, choose?

Only a massive diagonal slash encompassing all the space ahead was the optimal solution! Within that enormous diagonal cut, everything above, below, and directly ahead could be covered.

Naobito Zenin had preset his movements because he believed Mahito would definitely use a massive diagonal slash. If Mahito had not chosen the optimal solution—if he had used a broad horizontal slash that ignored attacks from above and below, or a clean, decisive Gatotsu—then Naobito Zenin, facing Mist Cutter's blade head-on, would certainly have died.

But Mahito had chosen exactly that: the massive diagonal slash, the optimal solution!

At that moment, Naobito Zenin's blood boiled. Every drop in his body seemed to ignite. It was not just because his prediction had been right. He imagined the deaths of his clan members, imagined the Zenin Clan's arrogance, imagined the family's decline after failure, imagined everything.

At last, he transformed all that anger and fear, arrogance and uncertainty, into cursed energy.

Resonance. Then he threw a punch. Black Flash appeared!

From the corner of his eye, Mahito saw cracks appear across Mist Cutter. The tsukumogami forged from an ancient blade had been grievously wounded by the direct Black Flash. Mahito decisively released it. Mist Cutter let out an unwilling whine and flew away with the force of the impact.

The unexpected Black Flash knocked Mist Cutter away, and Naobito Zenin finally reached Mahito's chest. His fist clenched tight. His entire body was taut, his muscles twitching from exertion, the veins on his forehead throbbing as though his whole body had been filled with power.

Mahito immediately used Soul Creation—Jiro Awasaka, Strength-Weakness Reversal!

The next instant, Naobito Zenin's fist slammed into Mahito's abdomen.

As long as it was not a Black Flash, even a full-powered punch could not hurt him. Then Mahito could kill Naobito Zenin in a single strike, just as he had killed Jinichi Zenin.

But black flames burned upon that fist.

—Black Flash! The second Black Flash!

With an explosive burst of air, Strength-Weakness Reversal was pierced without resistance. Mahito's abdominal cavity was blasted empty, yet the immense destructive force had not finished venting. It passed through his abdomen and spread outward, as though Mahito were a commoner in cloth garments struck by artillery from afar.

His body flew backward as it exploded apart. As the destructive force erupted, a powerful blast wave formed, sweeping Mahito away like a dead leaf caught in a storm.

The power of Black Flash grew alongside the growth of a jujutsu sorcerer. In terms of raw strength, even Naobito Zenin, the clan head, was far inferior to special grade sorcerer Jinichi Zenin. Jinichi Zenin could directly blast Mahito's flesh into pulp with a Black Flash, but Naobito Zenin could not.

While suspended in the air, Mahito wanted to use Soul Creation again. Naoya Zenin had attacked him earlier, and his body was already stained with Naobito Zenin's cursed energy. If he used Love Rendezvous now, he could immediately send Naobito Zenin flying.

But another fist appeared before his eyes.

Naobito Zenin caught up to the blasted-back Mahito. His speed had now surpassed the speed of sound. Cold light flickered in his eyes, while his heart burned like an erupting volcano. He concentrated tremendous strength into his fist, and upon that fist—

—black flames flashed for the third time.

The third Black Flash. Boom.

Naobito Zenin's fist smashed into the side of Mahito's face. The spatial distortion carried by Black Flash immediately tore Mahito's face apart. Bone and flesh were pulverized together by black lightning, and half of Mahito's face was blown to pieces.

Too fast! So fast that Mahito had no ability to fight back. This speed exceeded Mahito's imagination. Was Naobito Zenin really this powerful? All the cursed energy Mahito extracted was devoted to Idle Transfiguration. He had evolved many times in this battle, and his Idle Transfiguration had reached an unprecedented level, yet even now, he still could not keep up with the speed at which he was being destroyed.

Too slow! His cursed energy circulation was too slow to keep up with this final battle!

Mahito had no time to use Soul Creation. He could only use Idle Transfiguration with all his might to preserve the integrity of his soul, regenerating his body at high speed. At this moment, he keenly felt the sluggishness of the flesh. Idle Transfiguration was perfectly compatible with him; even the cursed energy disruption of Black Flash could not stop it from being used.

In fact, Mahito had never feared Black Flash in the original story. He had been struck repeatedly by Black Flash, yet his body had remained remarkably intact. As long as he continued using Idle Transfiguration to preserve his soul's integrity, Black Flash was utterly ineffective against him.

His resistance in this regard was even greater than Satoru Gojo's and Ryomen Sukuna's! In the original final battle, even Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna suffered severe aftereffects after being struck by Black Flash.

But Cursed Technique Reversal: Soul Creation, obtained through the "negative plus negative equals positive" nature of a half-cursed spirit, was holding him back.

Clearly, Soul Creation had become increasingly smooth while fighting the Kukuru Unit and Hei, almost without any sense of stuttering. Yet compared to the perfectly compatible Idle Transfiguration now, it was unbearably sluggish.

Mahito immediately realized it. The time had come.

Cast aside this incompatible body. Construct a body that fit perfectly. Transcend common sense and reach rebirth—now was the moment!

Naobito Zenin's face suddenly appeared before Mahito. The man was wrapped in cursed energy, as though wearing a suit of burning armor. He stepped forward, spread his fingers, covered Mahito's face with his palm, then slammed down with all his strength!

The fourth Black Flash!

Grade 1 sorcerer Kento Nanami had once said, "Using Black Flash consecutively is nothing remarkable. If you have used it more than twice, it is actually harder not to use it consecutively or on the same day.

"Whether the first Black Flash comes from luck or skill, once it is used, the sorcerer temporarily enters what athletes call a state of 'awakening.' Cursed energy that normally requires careful control flows as naturally as breathing. It feels as though everything around you revolves around you, producing something like a sense of omnipotence."

In other words, once Black Flash had been used more than twice in succession, the remaining Black Flashes could practically be used without limit. Other than cursed energy, there was only one restriction on their number—

—the target had to have enough flesh!

The entire corridor began to collapse. The immense destructive force caused the ground to cave in, and the spreading shockwave shook the whole Zenin Clan compound. The corridor collapsed, half the reception hall crumbled, and the Zenin residence was forcibly reduced to ruins. Thunder boomed again amid the torrential rain, and lightning flashed overhead, illuminating Naobito Zenin's twisted face.

"What's wrong, King of Curses?" Naobito Zenin shouted mockingly. "Didn't you say you'd be the Zenin Clan's executioner?! Get up. We're continuing!"

Naobito Zenin believed Mahito would not die so easily. Through his shikigami's eyes, he had watched every battle within the Zenin Clan compound. He clearly knew that Mahito possessed a nearly immortal body. Even if reduced to pulp, he could fully regenerate. In Naoya Zenin's eyes, there was only one way to kill him—

—wear him down!

Even an immortal body had limits to its cursed energy. Healing Black Flash wounds would consume even more cursed energy. Whatever Mahito's resurrection technique was, the most basic laws of cursed techniques still applied. Just as even the finest sports car could not run without fuel, no matter how terrifying Mahito's revival might be, once his cursed energy was depleted, he would die!

Immortality and invincibility did not exist. A thousand years ago, hadn't Yamata no Orochi, said to be eternal and undying, still been slain by the legendary Ryomen Sukuna? There was no invincible cursed technique in this world. If he could not understand its principles in a short time, then he would not try to understand them. He would use violence! He would forcefully break it apart!

If one Black Flash could not kill him, then ten! If ten could not, then a hundred!

The current record holder for consecutive Black Flashes in Jujutsu Society was Kento Nanami, who had used four in a single battle. Now Naobito Zenin intended to challenge that record. The number he could chain did not depend on Naobito Zenin himself, but on the King of Curses—on how many he could endure!

In fact, his judgment was correct. How had Mahito died in the original story? He died because his cursed energy ran out! Even right up until the second before Kenjaku absorbed him, Mahito's body had remained perfectly intact. Other than depleted cursed energy, he had not a single wound.

Suddenly, a muffled voice rose from underground. "As you wish."

Naobito Zenin sharply sensed the ground trembling. It was not the abrupt shaking caused by his earlier slam, but a rolling vibration like waves surging across the sea. A fish was swimming beneath a pond's surface, causing ripples to spread across the water. The ground now rippled in just that way.

But how was that possible? How could the earth ripple like the surface of water?

A great creature broke through the earth's restraint and surged into the sky from underground. Naobito Zenin leaped away from where he stood and looked up at it. His twisted, savage expression turned blank. The unimaginable creature stood before him.

The entire earth was split with cracks. Amid those enormous fissures stood the creature before Naobito Zenin. It was a dragon. Upon its enormous head gleamed one gold and one blue dragon eye, lowered to look down at Naobito Zenin. Its claws curled loosely, five talons glaringly sharp beneath the rain. Layer upon layer of dragon scales rose and fell as though breathing. Its lower body remained underground, while its upper body seemed to reach the sky, blotting out heaven and earth.

—Maximum: Advent.

Myth descended once more. The divine dragon appeared!

Naobito Zenin forcibly made the corners of his mouth rise into a smile.

"Good. Now this is more like it," he said. The next instant, the dragon claw descended from the sky!

Heaven and Earth Resounded, Tai Sui Appeared

Naobito Zenin turned and ran!—Projection Sorcery!

Naobito Zenin gave it everything he had. He was still in the state brought on by Black Flash, and everything around him seemed to aid him. His senses expanded to their limit. He could even hear screams from the Zenin Clan's underground training ground. That had originally been an absolutely safe place; nothing on the surface could trouble the elderly and weak underground. But now the earth's tremors had triggered a chain reaction, and the underground training ground was on the verge of collapse.

They could not fight here anymore! Naobito Zenin realized.

His feet moved like the wind. Projection Sorcery seemed to advance even further. He kept his body extremely low as he ran, his forehead nearly brushing the ground. The air currents raised by his swinging arms were like a storm. He had never run so quickly before. He was like a bolt of lightning.

And a bolt of lightning indeed flashed through the sky, followed by rolling thunder. The dragon appeared above him.

The dragon pulled its lower body from beneath the earth. This mythical creature climbed into the sky as though weightless, casting a deeper shadow from within the night. Lightning flashed, meant to illuminate all things in the darkness, but the divine dragon's shadow blocked its light, making the night sky darker, the abyss deeper, and the world sink into absolute darkness.

The divine dragon's claw lightly touched the ground. With a roar that shook heaven and earth, the entire ground seemed to rise. Behind Naobito Zenin, the once-level Zenin estate had become ruins. Massive stones flew freely through the sky. Decorative rockeries and trees were swept up like scraps of cloth. A water-filled bamboo fountain gently knocked in midair from the changing pressure, but its elegant sound would never emerge, because heaven and earth were roaring beneath the divine dragon's fury.

The King of Curses, born once in a thousand years, descended upon the world with a presence that seemed only natural.

Naobito Zenin ran with all his might, faster and faster! In the past, once his speed surpassed a certain limit, he would stop using Projection Sorcery, because his reflexes and calculating ability could no longer keep up with the acceleration. But now he controlled it with ease. The transcendent state granted by Black Flash pushed his Projection Sorcery to heights he had never reached before.

He was like a lone runner, with natural disasters endlessly pursuing him from behind, yet never catching up. In an instant, he had left the Zenin residence far behind. Now Naobito Zenin worried about only one thing—

—at this speed, even if the King of Curses transformed into a divine dragon, he could not reach me. Would he change tactics and use the elderly and weak in the underground training ground to threaten me, forcing me to hold back while fighting him?

With that concern, he deliberately included a movement to turn his head back in Projection Sorcery's preset actions, so that if the divine dragon turned back, he could immediately react rather than fail to keep up because of his preset movements.

Then he saw a pair of enormous heterochromatic eyes flickering in the nighttime downpour. Those mismatched eyes stared fixedly at him. A dense mass of cursed energy was gathering in the dragon's mouth. It was a breath attack. Light already flickered deep in its throat, yet the dragon did not release it. The dragon was predicting his preset movements. The moment it figured them out, the breath attack would descend from above and kill him in one blow with its wide-area destruction.

There was no weakness in those heterochromatic eyes. Using the elderly and weak to force him to restrain himself in battle? What a joke! What those eyes spoke of was dominance—the dominance of holding heaven and earth in its grasp and looking down upon the world! The dragon did not even possess the word "threat" in its heart, because for such a great creature, the very idea of threatening someone was weakness!

Yes, how could a creature so great harbor such a weak thought? Naobito Zenin's cursed energy and blood boiled together. Was the dragon here simply to wipe out the Zenin Clan? No. This was a trial, and a declaration. A trial to overcome oneself, a declaration of sudden emergence. Born once in a thousand years, it should naturally overawe the world.

Never before had Naobito Zenin understood the dragon so deeply—understood its thoughts and pride, understood its solemnity and holiness.

Naobito Zenin's heart suddenly pounded fiercely. He unconsciously exhaled, and a wave of heat escaped his mouth. No, it was not heat. It was cursed energy. Cursed energy circulated through his limbs and bones at high speed, heating his body until visible flames nearly ignited across it. His blood and cursed energy burned together.

Good. Perfect. This is how it should be. It has to be this way! Naobito Zenin thought. This is what makes it exciting! Wait? Did I say that out loud?

Suddenly, an imposing light flashed through the night. Dragon's Breath! A shell of high-density cursed energy erupted from deep within the dragon's throat. The torrential rain between heaven and earth instantly evaporated upon touching the light. Even lightning's brilliance paled beneath it. The enormous beam fell before Naobito Zenin and crashed down!

"—" In that instant, all sound vanished.

Boundless light filled the entire world. The shockwave formed by the light spread outward without end. A semicircular ring of light slowly rose from the earth, and because of its excessive power, another ring of air burst above its rising dome of light, like a halo atop an angel fallen to the ground, imbuing heaven and earth with sanctity.

The dragon had predicted the direction of Naobito Zenin's Projection Sorcery and released its long-charged breath without hesitation. This breath far surpassed the one used against Kinji Hakari. Terrain spanning more than two kilometers was permanently destroyed, while its destructive reach extended a full ten kilometers. It was as if a thousand suns had risen from the ground, forcing all gods to bow their heads.

But the dragon did not believe Naobito Zenin had died just like that!

The dragon believed even more strongly than Naobito Zenin that he had not died. How could a man who had used Black Flash four times in a row die here? How could a man known as the fastest in the world aside from Satoru Gojo fail to evade it?

Then where was he? Where was Naobito Zenin?

"Right here!" A furious roar exploded from the sky above the dragon. The dragon looked up. There, amid the clouds, was Naobito Zenin. He descended through the clouds, accompanied by wind and rain, lightning, and immense cursed energy.

Before the breath attack, he had leaped with all his might, reaching a height of over a hundred meters! Under normal circumstances, he could never have done this, but now he had barely even considered whether he could. Projection Sorcery had already completed his preset movement. He had naturally executed it as easily as breathing, and now he was already more than a hundred meters in the air.

Then he dove!—Projection Sorcery!

Even the dragon's eyes could barely see him, because this was not speed from falling under gravity. It was movement completed by Projection Sorcery within one second. Projection Sorcery stacked repeatedly had become so fast that he seemed like a beam of light, a Cursed Energy Meteor crashing down!

The dragon twisted and swept its tail. The immense wind pressure rolled up all the rain, like a moving waterspout sweeping everything away at high speed. Yet while falling, Naobito Zenin drew his fist back to his waist. Before the dragon tail could strike him, the fist at his waist suddenly shot forward—

—of course, it was Black Flash! The fifth one!

Bang! The Black Flash fist punched a ten-meter-wide tunnel through the waterspout, with the dragon tail at the tunnel's end. Black Flash collided head-on with the dragon tail. Amid the tremendous force, black lightning flashed between heaven and earth—spatial distortion made manifest. The sound of their colossal powers spread outward, layer after layer of sound waves shredding the rain, circle after circle of sonic blasts expanding.

The dragon tail had not been shattered! Dragon scales poured down like rain, and dragon blood sprayed across Naobito Zenin's half-bare body, staining the other half of his kimono through the gaps in his muscles. His eyes were bloodshot, because he saw new scales rapidly growing from the exposed muscle beneath the dragon's scales. He had merely knocked away the scales. He could not truly harm the dragon's body.

There was no need to hesitate. Projection Sorcery activated again!

The dragon danced wildly through the sky, and the man ran across the dragon's body. Naobito Zenin was gambling with his life! The principle of Projection Sorcery was presetting and acting, but it had one prerequisite: he had to perform the exact movement he had preset. If he failed to do so, he himself would be frozen for one second by the technique's backlash. In a battle at this speed, one second was enough to die a hundred times.

But every one of his judgments was correct!

His brain seemed to be burning too. Five consecutive Black Flashes had brought him into an unprecedented state of omnipotence. He could sense every breath of the dragon, every muscle movement, every flow of blood, every circulation of cursed energy, and every rise and fall of its scales. He immediately understood why the dragon scales could withstand Black Flash.

Because there was an invisible space between the dragon scales and the dragon's body, filled with cursed energy. The scales were not pressed tightly against the body like fish scales. Instead, like an insect's shell, they had a layer of cushioning space.

This also offered another advantage. If an attack could neither be resisted nor buffered, the scales could automatically fall away. Even with the destructive force of Black Flash, once its power was spent breaking the scales and cushioning layer, it could not inflict a more lethal force upon the dragon's body. It could only wound it; it could not sever its tail.

But even the cushioning scales had limits. Hadn't Black Flash broken through both the scales and the buffer layer? It was simply that this Black Flash had not exceeded the upper limit of what they could endure.

Seeing through that, Naobito Zenin immediately abandoned the idea of continuing to strike the dragon's body. With the dragon's regenerative power, no amount of wounding its body would matter. The dragon scales' growth rate and the dragon's regeneration meant that no matter how many Black Flashes he threw, it would be useless. If this continued, he would be the first to be worn down.

He had to precisely estimate both sides' cursed energy reserves, minimize his own consumption as much as possible, and increase the dragon's expenditure. Only then could he wear down this great creature according to his original plan.

A fatal wound! Only a fatal wound would do!

He could not attack places covered by dragon scales. Only places the scales could not cover were the dragon's true weak points. But the dragon's body was covered in scales. Only its eyes and nostrils were uncovered. Yet its eyes and nostrils were surely the areas the dragon guarded most heavily, not places he could approach easily.

No. With such an ingenious design for the scales, it was hard to believe the dragon's eyes and nostrils lacked other defenses. Perhaps those were deliberately exposed organs meant to lure overconfident hunters into a trap.

But besides the eyes and nose, was there not another place where he could directly attack the dragon's interior?

Naobito Zenin was startled by his own insane idea, but before reason could stop him, his body acted first.

What the hell! I've already fought this far. As the head of the Zenin Clan, do I have any other way out? Kill the King of Curses, wash away the Zenin Clan's shame. At this moment, I will surpass myself—right now, right here!

The heat in his chest made Naobito Zenin roar aloud. He began using his own field of vision to preset his next actions. As he continued accelerating, he seemed to transcend everything in the world. His brain was beginning to suffer damage from excessive calculation. He could not use Reverse Cursed Technique, and if this continued, he could suffer permanent brain damage. But he did not care. Driven by his mad will, he had never felt so exhilarated.

The final Projection Sorcery!

Time seemed to slow, dozens of times slower. The dragon still danced wildly, every scale standing upright like a blade. Naobito Zenin's preset movements were complete. Now he began his final charge.