Jujutsu Kaisen: Yearning to Become an Immortal God

"Enjoy your youth properly, you idiot disciples!"

"I have to admit, Satoru Gojo has a terrible personality, but he really is a good teacher," Mahito sighed.

"Peeking into Tokyo Jujutsu High again?" Kenjaku said enviously. "Even I wouldn't dare spy on it casually. After all, part of Tengen's sanctuary is there. If I went, I'd be discovered for sure. You've made good use of Satoru Gojo's fussiness, Mahito."

That was right. Not only had Mahito not forgotten Miyoku, he attached great importance to her.

After all, she was someone who could come into direct contact with Satoru Gojo. Before this, it had been extremely difficult for Kenjaku to monitor Satoru Gojo. Although he had indeed corrupted some of Jujutsu Headquarters' higher-ups and could use various coincidences to keep Satoru Gojo from noticing him for the time being, he had never dared to monitor him directly.

Kenjaku was confident of one thing: if he encountered Satoru Gojo in battle, he would undoubtedly die.

As long as Mahito could see Satoru Gojo through Miyoku's eyes, he felt immensely reassured, and Kenjaku could make trouble without concern. Everyone liked Miyoku very much.

"Miyoku, you completed your assignment very well. Everyone is grateful to you!" Then Mahito looked up at the building he was about to enter. A hospital.

Kenjaku smiled. "That's right. This is the place."

After a pause, he said, "The Incarnation vessel of the ancient sorcerer Yorozu is here. If you want to restore your Mist Cutter within a week, we can only ask her for help... Of course, that depends on whether she agrees. I'm sure you understand the price involved."

Mahito nodded with a smile. "Yes. Yorozu deeply loves Ryomen Sukuna. If I want Yorozu to work for me, reviving Ryomen Sukuna is necessary... I'm prepared for that."

She had no idea that she had already been turned into Mahito's duplicate. Everything she thought, saw, and heard had long since fallen entirely under Mahito's control. If Mahito wished, he did not need her to send him information at all; he could simply peer directly into her mind and obtain it.

She had thought Mahito's faction had already taken shape and that she had long been forgotten.

Yuji Itadori suddenly asked, "I remember Hakari-senpai saying that if Mahito can't deal with Gojo-sensei, then Ryomen Sukuna will be revived from inside my body?"

Now everyone knew that the Lord of Curses was named Mahito.

In other words, if even the Lord of Curses could not handle Satoru Gojo, the alliance of curses and sorcerers seeking to overturn Jujutsu Society would not hesitate to revive the strongest sorcerer in history from a thousand years ago: Ryomen Sukuna.

And Yuji Itadori was the sacrificial vessel chosen for that revival.

A dangerous thought arose in Yuji Itadori's heart: What if I died now, just as Jujutsu Headquarters wanted...?

Satoru Gojo could tell at a glance what Yuji Itadori was thinking. He slapped Yuji hard across the back, making him cry out in pain... Satoru Gojo's slap was genuinely heavy.

"What are you worrying about? You can listen to rumors about the King of Curses, but you don't need to face him at all. That's my responsibility."

Satoru Gojo looked around at all the students, his usual frivolous smile on his face. He said:

"As for you all—"

"Enjoy your youth properly, you idiot disciples!"

"I have to admit, Satoru Gojo has a terrible personality, but he really is a good teacher," Mahito sighed.

"Peeking into Tokyo Jujutsu High again?" Kenjaku said enviously. "Even I wouldn't dare spy on it casually. After all, part of Tengen's sanctuary is there. If I went, I'd be discovered for sure. You've made good use of Satoru Gojo's fussiness, Mahito."

That was right. Not only had Mahito not forgotten Miyoku, he attached great importance to her.

After all, she was someone who could come into direct contact with Satoru Gojo. Before this, it had been extremely difficult for Kenjaku to monitor Satoru Gojo. Although he had indeed corrupted some of Jujutsu Headquarters' higher-ups and could use various coincidences to keep Satoru Gojo from noticing him for the time being, he had never dared to monitor him directly.

Kenjaku was confident of one thing: if he encountered Satoru Gojo in battle, he would undoubtedly die.

As long as Mahito could see Satoru Gojo through Miyoku's eyes, he felt immensely reassured, and Kenjaku could make trouble without concern. Everyone liked Miyoku very much.

"Miyoku, you completed your assignment very well. Everyone is grateful to you!" Then Mahito looked up at the building he was about to enter. A hospital.

Kenjaku smiled. "That's right. This is the place."

After a pause, he said, "The Incarnation vessel of the ancient sorcerer Yorozu is here. If you want to restore your Mist Cutter within a week, we can only ask her for help... Of course, that depends on whether she agrees. I'm sure you understand the price involved."

Mahito nodded with a smile. "Yes. Yorozu deeply loves Ryomen Sukuna. If I want Yorozu to work for me, reviving Ryomen Sukuna is necessary... I'm prepared for that."

Tsumiki Fushiguro

Mahito stared at the woman before him.

She lay on the hospital bed with her eyes tightly shut, her long black hair spread across the pillow. It was noon, and sunlight from outside the window shone over her face. That face seemed frozen in time. She had still been a high school student when she lost consciousness. Three years had passed, yet her face remained exactly as it had been in high school.

Mahito lowered his head and glanced at the medical chart. A name was written on it: [Tsumiki Fushiguro].

Kenjaku looked at her and smiled. "Good. It seems the Incarnation ritual I set up was not interfered with... Naturally. Other than Tengen personally taking action, I doubt anyone in this world could have discovered it."

"A barrier has been placed on her. Someone should be protecting her remotely. If we remove it, the caster will immediately learn that something has happened here. I don't know who set this barrier, but the worst-case scenario is that Satoru Gojo set it himself."

"Considering Satoru Gojo's fussy personality, it's possible he personally established a barrier to reassure his disciple." Kenjaku explained with a smile. He stretched out his hand and gently brushed the woman's forehead, where a curse mark appeared.

"My task is complete." Kenjaku made a welcoming gesture. "Mahito, the rest is up to you."

Mahito lightly touched Tsumiki Fushiguro's forehead and activated his technique—Idle Transfiguration.

Suddenly, Tsumiki Fushiguro's eyelids began to tremble. The heart monitor beside her began beeping rapidly. Kenjaku casually touched it, and a silent surge of cursed energy swept through it. The sound vanished.

The curse mark on Tsumiki Fushiguro's forehead dispersed like smoke.

Kenjaku's eyes widened slightly as he watched the scene before him without blinking. This was the ability he had been waiting for.

To restore an Incarnation vessel to perfect life was something even Kenjaku himself could not accomplish. In the original story, only Mahito possessed this ability. Before then, Incarnation vessels could only be selected and continuously altered over three years. Only after Kenjaku betrayed Mahito and absorbed his ability could all the souls within the Incarnation vessels awaken at once.

And now, Mahito possessed an Idle Transfiguration even stronger than in the original story. He would only do better.

Tsumiki Fushiguro slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly ahead. Mahito withdrew his hand, frowning in thought.

Kenjaku impatiently stepped forward. Looking at Tsumiki Fushiguro, who had yet to speak, he greeted her. "Should I call you Miss Fushiguro now, or Miss Yorozu?"

Only then did Tsumiki Fushiguro come back to herself. She tilted her head toward Kenjaku, remained silent for two or three seconds, then slowly said, "So it's you, Kenjaku."

"You kept our Binding Vow and revived me in the future." Kenjaku's pupils contracted as he smiled. "So it is Miss Yorozu."

Tsumiki Fushiguro smiled. "Since I have been revived in the modern era, call me Fushiguro."

"As expected." Kenjaku sighed. "I was just thinking that if you truly were Yorozu herself, who had come from ancient times into the modern era, your first words should not have been to greet me. You should have been impatiently asking about Sukuna-sama... Mahito, your Idle Transfiguration is a little too perfect."

Yes, when he was in front of people who did not fanatically worship Ryomen Sukuna, Kenjaku casually called him Ryomen Sukuna or Sukuna. Yet whenever he encountered someone who sincerely believed in Ryomen Sukuna, he immediately changed his form of address to Sukuna-sama.

"I never expected your so-called Incarnation vessels to work like this." Mahito spoke slowly. "So all the Incarnation vessels you prepared... were reincarnations."

Over the past thousand years, Kenjaku had formed Binding Vows with many outstanding sorcerers to revive them in the future. Most of them found it unbelievable. Although they had stood at the pinnacle of their eras, "revival" remained a distant concept. Forget Kenjaku—even Mahito, whose ability fundamentally interfered with souls, could not revive the dead.

So how exactly did Kenjaku's revival work?

Yuji Itadori's case in the original story had actually hinted at Kenjaku's method.

Yuji Itadori's past life had been the brother devoured by Ryomen Sukuna. Ryomen Sukuna could even directly use his brother's Innate Technique, the Flame Arrow Technique he used during his battle with Jogo in the original story. This meant that, within their souls, Ryomen Sukuna and his brother had essentially merged into one. That was also why Ryomen Sukuna could use Yuji Itadori as a vessel.

Kenjaku had done the same thing to the other ancient sorcerers.

He found the reincarnations of those ancient sorcerers in the modern era and awakened them one after another through special rituals. Although they possessed the same souls, after passing through reincarnation, the world recognized them as different people who were merely exceedingly similar. They therefore needed adjustments.

That was the true reason Tsumiki Fushiguro had slept without waking.

This also explained why Yorozu said in the original story that she could receive Tsumiki Fushiguro's memories and feelings from her brain without any side effects. If she wished, she could even live as Tsumiki Fushiguro without the slightest incongruity.

Because they had always been the same person!

Mahito's original plan had been to revive the ancient sorcerer Yorozu in a half-curse spirit form. In other words, he would extract her from Tsumiki Fushiguro's body, then create another body for her to use, just as Mahito himself now did.

Compared to using an Incarnation vessel, Mahito believed this was true revival and more perfect than the so-called revival through Incarnation. No matter how compatible an Incarnation vessel was, it could never be truly flawless. In the original story's final battle, even Ryomen Sukuna's methods had failed to completely digest Megumi Fushiguro. So-called Incarnation vessels could never achieve truly perfect revival.

But when Mahito actually did it himself, he discovered the truth about Incarnation vessels. Honestly, he was stunned.

An Incarnation vessel was a reincarnation... What a genius idea. Just as Kenjaku had promised, this truly was "perfect revival," perfect beyond perfection!

Because their souls were actually one, even when Megumi Fushiguro sought help from Satoru Gojo, and Satoru Gojo did everything he could to save her, Tsumiki Fushiguro still could not wake up... Fundamentally, she was not ill at all. She had merely recalled ancient memories, and as those memories awakened, her body likewise recovered the physique she had possessed in ancient times.

Just as sleep was the fastest way to recover from injury, Tsumiki Fushiguro had used sleep as her means of recovery.

Mahito had once discussed Incarnation vessels with Kenjaku. At the time, he truly believed that Kenjaku's method of adjusting them involved making minute alterations over countless years, correcting the vessels so that ancient sorcerers could be perfectly revived. Only at this moment did Mahito realize how naïve he had been.

All he could say was that Kenjaku truly deserved his reputation. Mahito had no choice but to admire him.

Mahito had not expected this, so when he used Idle Transfiguration, he did not find Yorozu's soul and realized something was wrong. Then he faced a choice:

He could erase Tsumiki Fushiguro's will as in the original story, then graft Yorozu's will onto her and achieve the ancient sorcerer's revival; or he could erase the will of the ancient sorcerer Yorozu, eliminate her memories and feelings as impurities, and awaken Tsumiki Fushiguro from her slumber.

Mahito chose a third option:

Yorozu's ancient memories would awaken completely, and she would perfectly inherit Tsumiki Fushiguro's emotions and will.

The advantage was that Tsumiki Fushiguro would be easier to get along with and not as insane as Yorozu. At the same time, she could perfectly inherit Yorozu's level of thought, and her use of Construction could perfectly reproduce Yorozu's skills. She was almost identical to Yorozu herself.

The disadvantage was—

For Mahito, there was no disadvantage.

When he awakened Tsumiki Fushiguro, he had already implanted a [Thought Seal]. Since he had used the Thought Seal before she woke up, even Tsumiki Fushiguro herself had not noticed it.

Of course, for Kenjaku, who wanted another card in his hand, the disadvantage was enormous.

Kenjaku sighed. "This is troublesome. Miss Yorozu... no, Miss Fushiguro, will you still be fanatical about Sukuna-sama now? Or have your feelings for Sukuna-sama faded to the point that you no longer wish for him to be revived in the modern era?"

"I'm not sure." Tsumiki Fushiguro slightly raised a hand and looked at her palm as she slowly said, "To me, Yorozu's life feels like an immersive film. I can empathize with everything Yorozu felt, and I can understand why Yorozu was so obsessed with Sukuna-sama."

"When you ask whether Sukuna-sama should be revived, Yorozu screams in my ear like a ghost. But my rationality tells me that if Sukuna-sama is revived in this era, he will only bring disaster."

Kenjaku stared blankly at Tsumiki Fushiguro and said helplessly, "Perfect. Too perfect. Mahito, the strength of your ability exceeds my imagination. You can connect souls from the past and future and achieve time travel. Even I could never have imagined such a thing. How exactly did you do it?"

"It wasn't as difficult as you imagine. I merely organized the information within the soul." Mahito said, "It was simpler than I expected. That is probably because my ability to make fine adjustments to souls has become sufficiently outstanding."

Mahito was not lying. This really had only been an application of his fine-tuning ability. He even suspected that, in the original story, if Mahito rather than Kenjaku had initiated the resurrection of ancient sorcerers, he could have accomplished the same thing.

After Yuki Tsukumo died in the original story, the other sorcerers found a handwritten book on soul research among her belongings. It was Yuki Tsukumo's compilation of her soul research. The book stated with certainty that even if human souls were forcibly fused, residue would inevitably remain. No two souls could ever be perfectly merged.

Yuki Tsukumo's research was correct. After all, even Ryomen Sukuna could not perfectly merge with Megumi Fushiguro. It was even more impossible for anyone else.

But Mahito had broken that conclusion. His ability was the only ability in the entire work capable of perfectly merging souls.

In terms of difficulty, sorting an ancient soul into a modern soul was clearly less difficult than perfectly merging souls in defiance of the world's natural laws. Therefore, it really was not difficult for Mahito to reorganize the souls of the ancient sorcerer Yorozu and the modern high school student Tsumiki Fushiguro.

"I need your help, Miss Fushiguro." Mahito smiled. "My sword was severely injured due to my improper use, and I need the world's finest doctor to heal her. That is why I brought you from ancient times into the modern era."

"Her?" Tsumiki Fushiguro mused. "Calling a sword a girl is quite rare in the modern era. You must have had an ancient teacher... Let me think who it might have been..."

Kenjaku pointed a thumb at himself, his face full of pride. "It was me."

Tsumiki Fushiguro glanced at him, thought for a moment, and asked, "Could it be Ashiya the Swordmaster?"

Kenjaku's face darkened. "Why can't it be me?"

"You know Ashiya-sensei too?" Mahito asked in surprise. "I heard that Ashiya-sensei once joined Ryomen Sukuna's subjugation force to fight Sukuna, while Miss Fushiguro should have been on Ryomen Sukuna's side."

Tsumiki Fushiguro smiled. "So it really was Ashiya the Swordmaster. The sword he held when he went to subjugate Sukuna-sama was provided by me." Mahito froze.

Tsumiki Fushiguro said calmly, "From the bottom of my heart, I believed Sukuna-sama was lonely. Though invincible under heaven, no one could understand him. Everyone's feelings toward him were either fear or fanaticism. There was no one who could treat him as an equal."

"I once loved him deeply. Looking back, that was probably not romantic love, but compassionate love. I wanted to enter his heart. So first of all... I naturally had to find Sukuna-sama an equal opponent. Ashiya the Swordmaster was one of the people I selected."

"Of course, back then I did not yet possess Insect Armor or Liquid Metal. I had not yet forged my own path. Because of that, I despaired of ever keeping pace with Sukuna-sama, so I was willing to invest in opponents everywhere."

"In fact, I personally sent many sorcerers before Sukuna-sama."

"But after I found my own path, I would not allow anyone else to touch Sukuna-sama." After a pause, Tsumiki Fushiguro revealed a cruel smile, sharp as a blade.

"From the bottom of my heart, I believe the only one who can kill Sukuna-sama is me... and only Sukuna-sama can kill me. Beyond that, there is no room for anyone else to interfere in our relationship. If anyone dares challenge Sukuna-sama again, I will kill them myself."

Heavy. So incredibly heavy. Was this the love the legendary ancient sorcerer Yorozu held for her beloved? What kind of thought process was that? Mahito's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

No wonder she had unhesitatingly made a Binding Vow wager with Ryomen Sukuna in the original story: either kill me or marry me. She was a genuine lunatic!

Mahito sincerely rejoiced that he had not chosen to revive Yorozu. If that woman had truly been revived now, who knew what kind of chaos she would have caused? This was better. The current Tsumiki Fushiguro possessed neither the madness of the ancient sorcerer Yorozu nor her own excessive kindness. She stood somewhere in the middle.

As time passed, Mahito believed she would eventually develop an entirely different personality.

"I understand. If it is Ashiya the Swordmaster, I am willing to trust you." Tsumiki Fushiguro glanced at Kenjaku. "I will follow you for the time being. I cannot fully accept Yorozu's emotions yet, nor can I return to Tsumiki's everyday life... I need time to adjust."

Kenjaku could not help himself. "Am I not worthy of trust?"

"Kenjaku, I cannot see through you. I have been unable to see through you since a thousand years ago." Tsumiki Fushiguro stared at Kenjaku. "But back then, I followed Sukuna-sama. I gave everything I had to Sukuna-sama, so I did not care what you were thinking... Looking back, that was my dereliction of duty. I should have removed you before you ever came into contact with Sukuna-sama. You are too dangerous."

"Hey, hey, I made Binding Vows to revive all of you in the future!" Kenjaku complained.

"Then why exactly did you revive us?" Tsumiki Fushiguro said coldly. "You even used Sukuna-sama. Even now, I do not know your true purpose. How am I supposed to trust you?"

What courage. Mahito could not help admiring her. She had only just awakened, and her physical condition was so poor that even walking was difficult. Yet the way she looked at Kenjaku did not waver in the slightest. It was as if, should Kenjaku's answer fail to satisfy her, she would casually kill him.

It was an arrogance born from the soul. In her eyes, no one besides Ryomen Sukuna was worth taking seriously. Conversely, once she took someone seriously, no one under heaven other than Ryomen Sukuna could possibly be her opponent.

Kenjaku was no exception!

She showed none of the fear one might expect from someone who had just awakened facing Kenjaku, who had lived for a thousand years. Quite the opposite—she sincerely believed that even though she had just awakened and possessed only a hundred years of combat experience, she would still hold an overwhelming advantage against Kenjaku, who possessed a thousand years of experience.

Kenjaku looked deeply at her, then raised his hands in surrender without a shred of a strong person's dignity.

"Scary, scary... That wasn't exploitation, you know? I sincerely believed that an extraordinary man like Sukuna-sama should not simply disappear into history. I promised Sukuna-sama that one day in the future, I would revive you perfectly. There was not a trace of selfishness in it."

Kenjaku had admitted defeat!

Tsumiki Fushiguro looked away. "An extraordinary man... I never expected someone to regard Sukuna-sama as a 'man.' Kenjaku, I see you in a new light." Mahito asked curiously, "If not a man, then what is he?"

"A god," Tsumiki Fushiguro said. "People call him a god. Why do you think Sukuna-sama is called Ryomen Sukuna? Because that is what a god is."