Jujutsu Kaisen: Aspiring to Become an Immortal God

The Dragon rolled over. He shifted his steps sideways, changing his footing with the turn. The Dragon raised its scales, and he leaped, vaulting over them.

The Dragon curled its body like a snake, and he kept running along its coiled form. At last, the Dragon's head appeared before him.

Those heterochromatic eyes were like two enormous searchlights. As Naobito Zenin stared into them, he felt like a fugitive caught beneath the prison wall's lights. An immense sense of danger spread wildly from the depths of his heart. His spine went cold, his heart nearly leaped from his chest, and his mouth was dry enough that even swallowing felt difficult.

Countless warnings screamed at him at once, telling him to run, run, run! Yet he did not flee. He smiled instead.

Following his predetermined movements, he launched himself high into the air. This body's potential had been fully excavated, yet cursed energy continued replenishing him without end, as though all the cursed energy in the world were converging upon him. He was growing stronger every moment.

He had surpassed his limits and ascended to a new level. Now, he would slay a god!

The Dragon's mismatched eyes suddenly vanished. A massive maw that seemed capable of devouring all creation appeared before Naobito Zenin. Deep within its throat rolled an ultra-high-density cursed energy shell—Dragon Breath—ready to fire.

Ah, so the Dragon's head really was a trap. Naoya Zenin thought.

Then he thought again—just as I expected!

Power beyond all else gathered in Naoya Zenin's fist. He retained only the minimum cursed energy protection necessary to avoid dying in midair. Every last bit of his remaining cursed energy was concentrated and building up. His limbs and bones creaked under the strain, as the excessively rapid flow of cursed energy began tearing his body apart. A thread of blood spurted from the corner of his eye, streaking through the air.

With every ounce of strength, throw this punch. Black—! Flash—!

Use Black Flash to push Dragon Breath back! Was that possible? Perhaps Dragon Breath would explode before it could be forced back, leaving both sides badly wounded. Or perhaps there was no Dragon Breath at all, and the Dragon would simply ram him with its horns. Even if he broke the horns and heavily injured the Dragon's head, it would be meaningless; the Dragon's regeneration could heal those wounds in an instant.

Or worse, what if the Dragon simply slowed down and dove from the sky to the ground?

One wrong step, and the predetermined Projection Sorcery would send Naobito Zenin straight to hell. But once again, he had won.

He had calculated the Dragon's pride. Just as the Dragon disdained using the old and weak to bind his hands and feet, he believed the Dragon surely desired one final one-on-one battle. Once he took the initiative and went into the sky, the Dragon would certainly settle the matter with him there.

Before he reached the Dragon's head, it would surely unleash the strongest possible Dragon Breath against him, just as he believed the Dragon had also judged that he would use Black Flash to strike back.

Two warriors lowered their bodies in an open field at the same time, gently resting their hands on their sword hilts. Was there any possibility other than both of them drawing and slashing at once? No. There was no other possibility. This was a man's romance!

So now, at this very moment—! The! Fi! Nal! Blow!

Naobito Zenin's Black Flash and the Dragon's breath were unleashed at the same time!

Naobito Zenin was stunned, because the ultra-high-density cursed energy shell deep in the Dragon's throat was not its usual color. The breath's color—was suddenly ignited with black flames.

Under normal circumstances, Naobito Zenin would never have understood this phenomenon. But now, he instantly understood why the high-density cursed energy shell had been ignited by black flames.

The Black Flash phenomenon was caused by physical force and cursed energy together. In other words, both physical force and cursed energy had to exist simultaneously to use Black Flash. That was why Black Flash could be used while wielding a weapon, but ordinary cursed technique attacks could not produce it.

A purely cursed energy attack could not produce Black Flash. That was why Naobito Zenin had never considered the possibility that Dragon Breath could unleash one.

But what if this was not merely a high-density cursed energy shell? What if there was air inside it as well?

Black Flash was a spatial distortion produced when the discrepancy between a physical strike and a cursed energy impact was within 0.000001 seconds. In other words, as long as those conditions were met at once, anything could potentially create a Black Flash.

A special organ expelled a physically tangible "air cannon," with an ultra-high-density mass of cursed energy condensed inside it. That perfectly met the conditions of both a physical strike and a cursed energy strike! The rest was simple, just like how Kento Nanami used Black Flash with his blunt blade, or how Nobara Kugisaki used Black Flash with a hammer and nails.

Before the air cannon was fired, a space-warping Black Flash gathered directly within the Dragon's mouth. Then it was expelled in one breath alongside the spatial distortion it had created.

That was the unprecedented technique born in the history of the entire jujutsu world—Black! Flash! Breath!

A pillar of absolute darkness stretched from the Dragon's breath into the sky. The rain-soaked black clouds were swept aside by it, as though the Dragon had spat out a pitch-black blade. That blade shot straight into the heavens, cleaving the clouds apart. The rain vanished. The lightning vanished. It continued upward, stretching infinitely, spreading infinitely, until at last—

The black sword split the silver moon, dividing the moonlight in two. Wind, rain, and thunder came to an end.

Naoya Zenin, dead.

"Haha, hahahaha, I lost. Ah, I really lost!" Naobito Zenin laughed loudly as he casually grabbed a flask from beside him and poured the alcohol into his mouth in one gulp.

He drank for a full two or three seconds before lowering the flask and letting out a drunken burp.

He sat beneath a cherry blossom tree. A sheet of pristine white cloth lay beneath him, with two shallow sake cups before him and a flask beside them. Yet he did not even look at the cups, simply grabbing the flask directly. He still wore his kimono half-open, exposing half his bare body. His white slicked-back hair was neatly combed, and his curled English-style mustache bounced as he drank.

Suddenly, he asked, "Hey, what path are you planning to take from here?"

"You're already dead, yet you're still thinking about that?" Mahito limped slowly out from behind the cherry blossom tree. "Aren't you tired, old man?" "What nonsense are you talking about? What is wrong with a Zenin Clan head caring about such things?" Naobito Zenin shouted impatiently. "Stop rambling and tell me already!"

Mahito now fully understood why Maki Zenin had been so annoyed by this old man in the original story. Even though the old man had been the Zenin Clan's last shred of conscience, Mahito found him annoying too!

Mahito sat across from Naobito Zenin. Naobito Zenin lifted the flask and poured him a drink, filling one of the shallow cups. Mahito picked it up just as a cherry blossom fell into it, rippling the calm sake.

Mahito could not help saying, "How elegant, old man. Seeing your slicked-back hair and trimmed curled mustache, I thought you were some rebellious old geezer. I never expected the final space you imagined after death to be a cherry tree, two shallow sake cups, and an enemy who could meet you one last time."

Naobito Zenin mocked himself. "Who hasn't been young? Can you imagine it? In the Zenin Clan, there was a rule for women, whether they had talent or not: when walking alongside a man, they had to remain three steps behind him. It was already 2018, you know? The twenty-first century! What kind of joke was that? The Zenin Clan lived as if it were still the Heian Era!"

"Sounds like you were dissatisfied," Mahito said. "But you were already the Zenin Clan head. You had the power to change all that."

"Of course I could change it." Naobito Zenin's voice suddenly turned cold. "But even if I changed this generation, the next generation would return to the old rules... Unfortunately, my son is exactly the sort who strictly follows Zenin Clan rules. Once I died and he took over, nothing would change. Nothing could change."

"Then you failed in your education," Mahito said.

"Unfortunately, the Zenin Clan used centralized education. I had no right to interfere. In fact, it was already a miracle that the Zenin Clan produced an oddity like me. Fortunately, my talent was strong enough to beat every opponent into the ICU. Otherwise, I could not even have held onto the position of clan head."

Naobito Zenin gritted his teeth. "But even so, I could not massacre them all unless I cut myself off from Jujutsu Society and became a curse user. But how could a curse user remain clan head?"

"When I was young, I always imagined what I would do once I became clan head. But after I truly became one, it felt as though countless chains had bound me—binding my limbs, binding my mind, binding my heart, binding my ideals and will."

Mahito said mildly, "You do not need to worry now. Everyone in your family who could make decisions is dead."

Naobito Zenin froze, then suddenly laughed. "That's right. I do not need to worry anymore. The Zenin Clan will never return to what it once was!" Mahito found that strange. He asked, "You do not seem to hate me that much, even though I nearly wiped out the Zenin Clan."

Naobito Zenin smiled. "Let me guess. Though you appear calm, you do not fully understand the state you and I are in right now?" "I once heard that when sorcerers fought life-and-death battles, they occasionally entered a state where they could truly understand one another. But that only happened in extremely rare cases. Most of the time, death was simply death, and nothing happened," Mahito said.

Naobito Zenin took a drink from the flask. "Then let me tell you a more elegant explanation." "I'm all ears."

"Legend says that after death, people enter the River of Souls and are reincarnated. We sorcerers can resist the torrent of that river better than ordinary people. Before death, we can temporarily create a space for one final 'flashback.' Within that space, a sorcerer can clearly judge themselves, cast away everything worldly, and enter their final reincarnation."

Mahito nodded thoughtfully. He recalled that something like this had indeed happened in the original story. Important characters often experienced such flashbacks after death, and some of those flashbacks felt so real that it was as though they had never died at all.

The clearest example was when Satoru Gojo died. He created a train platform and sat on one of its benches, where people who had long since died appeared beside him.

After Mahito died in the original story, he would come here too. Yet he did not answer the River of Souls. He remained beside it, waiting, until Ryomen Sukuna also died at the original story's end. Then Mahito encountered Ryomen Sukuna, and they even spoke.

This was probably real. Yet sorcerers had no way of confirming whether it was true. They had only observed such extreme exceptional cases, which was why they could only uncertainly call it an "elegant" explanation.

"And then, if a sorcerer happened to be fighting another sorcerer to the death before dying, and their cursed energies intertwined until even their hearts could understand one another, then within that flashback, they could meet their mortal enemy before moving on to reincarnation."

Naobito Zenin smiled at Mahito. "Though we have exchanged barely any words and never truly understood one another, it is very strange... I believe in you. Right now, I believe in you more than anyone."

"King of Spirits, Mahito." Naobito Zenin spoke solemnly. "If it is you—if it is the one who killed me—who decides to change Jujutsu Society, then I believe you can do it. No one in this world can stop you. Not the Zenin Clan, not the other Big Three Families, not even Satoru Gojo!"

Mahito was stunned. "Even I do not have that confidence."

"You simply have not noticed your own confidence." Naobito Zenin said calmly, "The moment you came to the Zenin Clan wearing a haori, kimono, hakama, and a straw hat, you had already made your choice."

"You cannot imagine how terrified the Zenin Clan members were of you, or how much they admired you. You never considered that the entire Zenin Clan had been swallowed by the wind, rain, and lightning you brought."

"Didn't you notice? Everyone who opposed you introduced themselves without being prompted. Solemnly and gravely, as though they were the final warriors in a sword-fighting film, staring down the worthiest opponent of their lives on a rainy night."

Mahito said quietly, "I thought all prestigious righteous clans were like that."

Naobito Zenin burst out laughing. "Let me say it again—it was already 2018! Who still played by those ancient rules? Even the Zenin Clan did not! If victory was the goal, you could not imagine how despicable we could be!"

Mahito suddenly recalled Satoru Gojo's final battle against Ryomen Sukuna in the original story. When Gojo fell into a disadvantage, everyone discussed how to help him.

The emotionally unstable ones were the first to stand and want to help Gojo, but an ancient resurrected sorcerer stopped them. The others rationally persuaded the agitated person as well. The modern sorcerers concluded through analysis that allowing Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna to continue fighting alone was still the optimal solution.

But the ancient sorcerer dismissed all their analysis. He merely said, "Are modern sorcerers all this pathetic? Listen carefully. This is a battle between Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna. No one else is allowed to interfere."

Ancient and modern ways of thinking were worlds apart. Their pursuits of honor were entirely different. Mahito smiled as well. "So that was it. I had misunderstood."

Naobito Zenin took another drink. "But the moment you came to our door, you changed the Zenin Clan. Every clan member longed to fight you. They could not wait to announce their names, concealing the excitement in their hearts."

"They thought they were carrying out a righteous encirclement against a curse spirit, but they were not. In that moment, they all returned to ancient times, when people pursued benevolence, righteousness, and honor. It was as if they themselves were such warriors, fighting the final battle against the enemy of their lives. Even death would have been worthwhile. How could I possibly hate you for that?"

Mahito said mockingly, "But not everyone announced themselves. Before I fought your son, I was surrounded and attacked for quite a while." "Then they were all trash, incapable of using Black Flash for their entire lives," Naobito Zenin said coldly.

Only Naobito Zenin could so casually call the members of the Zenin Clan's elite sorcerer group—first-grade sorcerers—trash.

But Mahito knew Naobito Zenin was right.

During the battle with the Zenin Clan, everyone who announced their name was clearly stronger than the others. The difference was not merely cursed energy; it was a purer difference—the difference in their hearts.

"When I fought Ogi Zenin and Jinichi Zenin, people still interfered," Mahito said.

Naobito Zenin said impatiently, "Then they were trash too. Especially Ogi. As a sorcerer who had devoted himself to iaijutsu, he could not even maintain zanshin. He deserved to be ambushed and killed by you."

"Incidentally, if Ranta Zenin had still been safe and had not fought to the death, Jinichi would never have used Black Flash before he died, because he simply could not achieve a mind free of distractions."

Mahito suddenly thought of Yuji Itadori, the original story's protagonist. The narration had once said that a person with a sincere heart like Yuji Itadori was a sorcerer deeply loved by Black Flash. Other sorcerers, including Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna, could only use Black Flash when the battle reached its fiercest point or their emotions peaked.

Only Yuji Itadori could use Black Flash whenever he wanted. A mind free of distractions, huh?

Mahito smiled. "I see. You broke through." Naobito Zenin said smugly, "You noticed?"

Naobito Zenin continued proudly, "That's right. During our final battle, I immersed myself completely in fighting you. Hatred, fear, and anger were all cast aside. I did not forget those feelings; I integrated them."

"I unified all those emotions. My heart became as clear as a still lake. Thus, having surpassed everything, I entered the realm of Black Flash. Whenever I wanted to throw a Black Flash, I could. I surpassed every state I had ever reached and arrived at a completely new self."

Naobito Zenin sighed regretfully. "If I had survived, or if I could have fought you a little longer, I am confident I could have constructed a Domain Expansion that very day. After that, I might even have tried challenging special-grade sorcerer status."

That was what sorcerers were. No matter what kind of sorcerer they were, only through mortal combat could their talent truly blossom. That was the answer Mahito had come to understand.

Do not run away. Face fear head-on. Surpass yourself through fear. Whether curse spirit or sorcerer, that was the proper path to strength. Hiding one's light and biding one's time was an utterly crooked path in Jujutsu Society!

Only now had Mahito truly stepped onto the "proper path."

In fact, that was how Mahito had grown in the original story. His Domain Expansion had broken through amid fear of death, and his Idle Transfiguration: Self-Embodiment of Perfection had likewise been comprehended in battle. The reason original Mahito could progress so far in half a year was greatly tied to his proactive search for battle.

Conversely, when Mahito was first born, he never took the initiative to fight. He cautiously faced every opponent and endlessly planned before battle. Unless he thoroughly understood an enemy's information, he would never fight them.

It was not until the Zenin Clan provoked him that he finally understood. He came alone to the Zenin Clan and began the battle to exterminate the clan. "So, back to the first topic." Naoya Zenin asked seriously, "Have you decided how you will proceed from here?"

Mahito considered it, then said, "Next, I plan to test Satoru Gojo's abilities." Naobito Zenin was shocked. "Are you serious? With your current strength?"

"Hey, hey, which old man just said that not even Satoru Gojo could stop me?" Mahito sighed. "I mean, if I want to change Jujutsu Society, Satoru Gojo is an obstacle I have to overcome no matter what. Since he is a destined enemy, isn't it only natural to test him while our information has not been fully exposed?"

Naobito Zenin was speechless. "Fine. As expected of the man who dared come alone, sword in hand, to the Zenin Clan. You have guts."

After a pause, he shouted, "Honestly, what you said just now shocked me so much that you completely derailed my topic! That will not do, absolutely not! Mahito, I was not asking about your next plan. Things like that do not matter... What I wanted to ask was, what path do you want to take?"

Mahito frowned. "A path?"

"Yes. A path." Naobito Zenin asked, "I told you, did I not? I believe more than anyone that you can change Jujutsu Society. That is what I am asking... Where do you intend to lead Jujutsu Society?"

If Mahito were facing Jogo, he would tell him without hesitation:

"I want curse spirits to walk openly in the streets. I want to create a future shared by humans and curse spirits. I will become a true god, the shared god of humans and curse spirits. While maintaining modern human civilization, I will establish curse spirits above humanity. From then on, curse spirits will become New Humans, true divine messengers."

If he were facing Junpei Yoshino, Mahito would tell her earnestly:

"I want to maintain fairness and justice in human society. I want curse spirits to become agents of justice. Every person will be invisibly monitored by curse spirits, but those curse spirits will never interfere with the operation of human society. They will report what they encounter to me through the Great Barrier. I will punish according to the law, correct the flaws of human society, and ensure no one has privilege. From then on, humanity will live within the framework I establish, forever."

If he were facing Kenjaku, Mahito would cheerfully tell him:

"I will explore the potential of humans and curse spirits as much as possible. I will actively conduct certain specialized modifications. Perhaps I will allow every human to awaken their own Innate Technique. Perhaps humans of the future will no longer need firearms, and anyone who wishes to do something will use their own Innate Technique. Curse spirits will become my experimental subjects as well."

"I will raise the intelligence and social nature of curse spirits as much as possible. Perhaps this will spark another racial war? I do not know, but would you not want to see such a future?"

If he were facing Kinji Hakari, Kokichi Muta, Mei Mei, or even Satoru Gojo, he had his own set of words ready. He could guarantee they would be enthralled and excited.

But facing this man, who insisted on having an honest conversation with him after death, he could not refuse to reveal his true thoughts. He said frankly, "I don't know."

The flask in Naobito Zenin's hand trembled slightly. He asked blankly, "You don't know?"

Mahito smiled. "How long do you think I have existed? By human standards, I am not even half a year old. My original idea was to hide my strength and improve myself. As for the road ahead, I would walk it as I watched."

"Only after learning enough knowledge and seeing enough scenery can I reach a definite conclusion and truly begin changing the world. Isn't that the correct view? Or would you rather I, newly born and with less than a year of experience, act recklessly?"

Mahito was not lying. Although he was a transmigrator with memories of a past life, this world was different from his previous one. He could not simply apply old knowledge and easily reach conclusions. To say nothing else, his previous world had been entirely mundane, but this world possessed genuine supernatural abilities. Could they possibly be treated as the same?

To transform this world, he had to adapt to local conditions. He had lived in this world for less than a year; what right did he have to boast that he could transform it?

Since "changing the world" was such an enormous topic, he had to be able to answer to his own conscience and bring peace to all.

If he could not, then he would use the knowledge of his past life and his newly acquired power to play as wildly as he pleased! So long as he did not ruin the foundation he had already built. It was like a string of code: if it ran, do not touch it. The most frightening people were those arrogant fools who changed some unknown line of code and made the entire system collapse.

Besides, he was not even sure how to survive until the original story's ending. How could he possibly be thinking about changing the world?

Naobito Zenin was shaken. He had never expected Mahito to be so young. When Mahito arrived at the Zenin Clan, Naobito Zenin had truly believed that this curse spirit had existed for at least ten years. Mahito spoke naturally, thought logically, and possessed a clear sense of good and evil—if an ordinary curse spirit had come to massacre them, it would never have spared the Zenin Clan's old and weak.

But Mahito had spared them. That meant he possessed a mature worldview, something a curse spirit with limited experience could never possess.

Though he did not say it aloud, Naobito Zenin had to admit that it was precisely because Mahito spared the old and weak that he could believe in him so wholeheartedly—believe in him even unto death.