Jujutsu Kaisen: Yearning to Become an Immortal God

Tsumiki Fushiguro seemed thoughtful. She slowly said, "Understanding of techniques, and feeling."

Mahito nodded and smiled. "Kenjaku once told me that you said the most important thing about Construction was feeling. As long as the feeling is right, all you need is a passable theory to create substances that do not exist in this world. I remember your Perfect Sphere was like that, wasn't it?"

Tsumiki Fushiguro nodded. "Yes. The Perfect Sphere is a legendary existence. It possesses infinite pressure. In theory, nothing in the material world can touch it. Combined with my Domain Expansion, as long as there is no means of neutralizing it, no matter who the opponent is, they are certain to die."

Unfortunately, Ryomen Sukuna adapted to it beforehand and destroyed it using Mahoraga.

It had to be said that Mahoraga truly was the most broken shikigami in all of Jujutsu Society. Hundreds of years ago, it could perish together with a Gojo ancestor who also possessed the Limitless and Six Eyes combination. Hundreds of years later, in the modern era, it could still adapt to space itself. After expanding the technique, it allowed Ryomen Sukuna to use the unprecedented World-Cutting Slash and kill Satoru Gojo in a single strike.

"My Human Transmutation is the same." Mahito smiled. "You think it isn't jujutsu, isn't scientific, and cannot be understood. That is only because you cannot perceive it. Once you do, you can easily change your attitude."

Tsumiki Fushiguro fell silent.

After a while, she hesitantly asked, "Are there any anime where swords turn into people? I want to watch them." Mahito smiled. "Leave it to me!"

"Also." Tsumiki Fushiguro asked seriously, "How far has Kamen Rider gotten now? I want to watch it. Oh, right, I remember there was also Bio-Booster Armor Guyver... I vaguely remember some Beast God being able to use a Simulated Black Hole?"

Mahito went blank. Were you trying to undergo super evolution?

The blazing sun over a sea of sand, a nuclear blast descending from the heavens!

One week later, during the exchange event between the Tokyo and Kyoto schools.

Satoru Gojo stood on a civilian fishing boat. He lifted his blindfold, and the traces of cursed energy reflected clearly in his Six Eyes. Yet the owner of those traces was no longer here. In her place was a strange shikigami. The shikigami had not noticed Satoru Gojo and merely rowed mechanically.

Satoru Gojo sighed. "So she really came prepared. Yuki, even if I wanted to, I can't keep up with you now." He had not expected the Six Eyes to be countered like this, and his feelings were rather complicated.

His strength was beyond dispute, and because of that, he had never concealed his abilities. The entire world knew about his Six Eyes and Limitless. But how many people in the world dared challenge him? Since his debut, everyone who had challenged him had died, including the fully armed Heavenly Tyrant.

But today, his legend had been broken once again.

The first time had been during his student years. Back then, he had not yet been able to properly combine the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique when he encountered the Heavenly Tyrant. He had almost truly died during that mission.

At the time, both his brain and abdomen had been destroyed. His brain was where his Innate Technique resided, while his abdomen was where the Cursed Energy Core that generated cursed energy was located. Theoretically, he could not have been more dead.

Yet he revived on the spot.

In that desperate battle, he crossed the gulf of experience and time. In an instant, he perfectly fused the Six Eyes and Limitless, attaining the position of the strongest in the world.

After that, he carried out a thoroughly satisfying revenge, killing the Heavenly Tyrant. And now, this was the second time.

The tracking ability of his Six Eyes was unmatched. Even with spatial transfer, as long as the distance was not too great, he could still see the traces left in space with his naked eyes and immediately pursue them. The curse users targeted by him had all died this way.

But Yuki Tsukumo had broken that rule.

Her method was so simple that Satoru Gojo found it laughable. She created a shikigami linked to her cursed energy, then concealed the fluctuations of her own cursed energy. Even though Satoru Gojo knew her method in advance, he still pursued her shikigami instead.

Other people's shikigami, no matter what, were not the sorcerers themselves. Their cursed energy traces were entirely different from those of their sorcerers. It was like Momo Nishimiya's crow shikigami. Even if the crow could share Momo's vision and cursed energy, it did not matter. A crow was a crow, and a human was a human. Before the Six Eyes, the difference was obvious at a glance.

But Yuki Tsukumo's was different. Her shikigami could perfectly reproduce her own cursed energy traces. The resemblance was so complete that the shikigami could even use her Innate Technique.

This was Yuki Tsukumo's unique ultimate shikigami!

In the entire original work, this was something only Yuki Tsukumo could do. And it was not even due to her Innate Technique. Her jujutsu was simply so advanced that no one else could understand it. It could be said that she was the strongest jujutsu master in the entire world. In terms of general jujutsu techniques, she had no equal.

"Now, I can't protect you." Satoru Gojo withdrew the smile from his face, put his blindfold back on, and said softly, "Don't die, Yuki."

"So he really didn't catch up." Yuki Tsukumo sighed. "Gojo, the downside of never hiding your abilities is completely exposed now. When everyone knows about them, everyone studies how to counter you. Even if they cannot counter you in battle, they each display their own tricks when it comes to escaping your hands."

Wasn't she the same? This had originally been a contingency plan for when Satoru Gojo went mad like Suguru Geto, allowing her to deal with him. Yet now it had backfired on her. Under the Binding Vow, she had truly shaken off Satoru Gojo.

She truly did not know whether she should feel proud or sorrowful.

Deep within the Sahara Desert, in a place no one could detect, Yuki Tsukumo walked alone. She was not worried about getting lost. The instant she entered the desert, she sensed a certain trace of cursed energy guiding her like a marker.

This was the battlefield chosen by the King of Curses, and it had even less atmosphere than Yuki Tsukumo had imagined.

In Yuki Tsukumo's mind, a major figure like the King of Curses should have chosen a place with more style, such as an ancient arena, an unnamed island, or the seaside. Yet no one would have expected him to choose the desert.

But Yuki Tsukumo understood the King of Curses' thoughts in an unbelievable way.

Let us have an utterly satisfying duel! Everything he did conveyed those words.

This was a deserted region of the desert. If the battlefield had been set in an arena, on an unnamed island, or by the sea, the battle's range of impact might injure innocents. But there was no need to worry about that here.

Yuki Tsukumo gladly agreed.

Her technique had never been suited for precise control. Once she fought at full strength, even she could not imagine how wide the affected area would be. Sinking Japan into the earth was absolutely not just a joke.

But here, she could fight without restraint.

Suddenly, she stopped walking. She stood in place and looked around, raising her hand before reaching it forward. Layer after layer of barriers appeared where her hand touched, yet none of them rejected her.

Yuki Tsukumo immediately realized that this was a barrier only she could enter. She had arrived.

She expanded her senses to the limit and did everything she could to cover the entire barrier. Her cursed energy perception was not as outstanding as Satoru Gojo's. If it were him, he would definitely be able to do this easily, right? Just as in the original work, Satoru Gojo could detect Jogo's extremely long-range ambush while he was still in the car. He even had the car stop before Jogo attacked, got out, and faced him alone. But Yuki Tsukumo could not do that.

Even so, she could sense the people at every node of the barrier.

"One, two, three... There are seven cursed spirits in total." Yuki Tsukumo muttered to herself. "Are these all the intelligent cursed spirits? In other words, as long as I kill the Lord of Curses, these intelligent cursed spirits can all be wiped out in one go."

Barriers required the casters who deployed them. This was not Japan. In Japan, because of the Great Barrier covering the entire country, using barrier techniques was far more convenient. Even assistant supervisors who had only a little cursed energy and no combat ability could use simple barrier techniques. But overseas, it was not nearly so convenient.

This meant that every intelligent cursed spirit possessed high-level barrier technique ability. Aside from the Lord of Curses, the other cursed spirits were maintaining the barrier with all their strength to create this enormous barrier.

Yet she could not sense any traces of human cursed energy.

To Yuki Tsukumo, the cursed energy traces of cursed spirits and humans were distinguishable with precision. Thus, she was certain that only intelligent cursed spirits had arrived here, with no humans present.

So Ashiya Sadatsuna was not here? Yuki Tsukumo pondered.

How intelligent cursed spirits had been born had become the matter most worthy of attention in modern Jujutsu Society. After all, this was the first case in a thousand years, and every jujutsu sorcerer was completely baffled.

Tengen believed that even the intelligent cursed spirits themselves probably did not understand it clearly. Only Ashiya Sadatsuna, who had taught them, could know the truth. Therefore, to Jujutsu Society, killing the Lord of Curses and capturing Ashiya Sadatsuna were equally important.

But Ashiya Sadatsuna was not here... Where was he?

"...Fine. That isn't my mission." Yuki Tsukumo took a deep breath and casually threw away the white cloak draped over her. She still wore a black tank top that exposed her navel and arms. The top clung tightly to her skin, outlining her graceful figure. She straightened up and stretched lazily, her body's curves resembling roaring waves.

She thought of the information on the King of Curses and the words she had heard after asking the surviving elderly and weak members of the Zenin Clan:

[That night, wind and rain battered the gates, while lightning flashed through the sky. Everyone considered incapable of fighting hid in the underground training grounds. They did not know what was happening, but all of them remained silent because an invisible pressure weighed down on them. Some children began to cry, but their mothers covered their mouths, not daring to let even a sound escape.

Until an earth-shaking voice pierced through the underground. Someone announced his name and came to kill them at their doorstep! The King of Curses declared to the world:

—The curse of humans upon humans, Mahito, has arrived!]

Yuki Tsukumo seemed to see a swordsman walking out of the Heian Era. She could even imagine the Lord of Curses dressed in samurai robes, a long sword at his waist and a bamboo hat on his head. He walked through the rainy night, accompanied by wind, rain, and thunder.

How elegant. Yuki Tsukumo thought. Just imagining it was enough to know what an elegant man he was. He must have been covered in glory, bearing the deaths of countless beings. If this were any other time, I would definitely want to get to know such a person properly.

—Provided he was human rather than a cursed spirit.

Announcing his name openly and charging in from beyond the gates?

Let me tell you, King of Curses. Yuki Tsukumo's lips curled into a smile. It was not a dazzling smile, but one as ferocious as a bloodthirsty wolf's. In her heart, she uttered her final words:

How jujutsu sorcerers fought in this era!

A serpent-like shikigami coiled around Yuki Tsukumo's body. The shikigami floated weightlessly until she extended her hand, whereupon it shed itself from her body.

It curled into a ball and was lifted by Yuki Tsukumo. This was Yuki Tsukumo's highest-grade cursed tool shikigami, as well as the prototype for the external cursed energy circulation organ's companion spirit Mahito created for Kinji Hakari.

Cursed tool shikigami: Garuda.

Garuda possessed an ability no other sorcerer-created shikigami had. It could link with the sorcerer's own cursed energy and serve as a technique target for Yuki Tsukumo's technique besides herself. It was created by Yuki Tsukumo's technique. That might be difficult to understand, so to put it simply—

—This cursed tool shikigami could use Star Rage in synchronization with Yuki Tsukumo.

"Technique release." Yuki Tsukumo slowly exhaled, raising Garuda high before lightly tossing it upward like a soccer player serving a ball. "Star Rage."

Bang! Yuki Tsukumo kicked Garuda.

The next instant, Garuda shattered the barrier before it and extended infinitely like a cannonball. The immense force caused it to spin, rolling the desert terrain along its path outward in every direction, like an airplane making an emergency landing on the ocean.

In the original work, something similar had happened.

Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna had arranged a duel, agreeing on a time and place. As the time approached, Ryomen Sukuna waited in place just as Mahito was doing now.

But Satoru Gojo did not go over immediately. He had his senior perform a dance that increased his cursed energy output in every aspect. Then, from two kilometers away, he aimed at Ryomen Sukuna standing still and unleashed Hollow Technique at maximum output, openly launching a pre-battle ambush.

Just like Yuki Tsukumo now!

"Remember this with your life." Yuki Tsukumo split her lips in a wide grin and laughed loudly. "This is... how modern jujutsu sorcerers fight!"

The power granted by Star Rage surpassed ordinary imagination. The storm stirred by that enormous force destroyed everything along its path, like a low-flying mad dragon carrying incomparable Kamui as it bulldozed through the world.

Rumble rumble rumble—!

Garuda struck the ground, but the sound it made was not a single impact. It was a continuous series of explosions. That was because merely the overflowing shockwaves of this excessive force were enough to trigger secondary explosions, followed by a third and fourth!

The entire desert seemed to shake. Countless grains of sand were hurled hundreds of meters into the sky, and the explosive shockwaves spread outward. Gale winds swept up the sand and moved it like watery tornadoes, while ring after ring of shockwaves expanded outward.

Then a reverse wind phenomenon occurred, and everything rushed toward the very center of the explosion. This caused the sand that had just spread out to collide in the sky. Heavy grains began to fall and slowly contract, forming an enormous mushroom.

A massive mushroom cloud slowly took shape and did not dissipate for a long time.

Yuki Tsukumo stood in place. When the gale struck her, she covered her eyes with one hand. Cursed energy protected her like armor, but even so, sand assaulted her from all directions like blades. She had no choice but to further reinforce her body. The world before her had become a vast blur.

She had created a sandstorm with a single strike, and this was merely the aftermath of the attack.

Was Mahito already dead...?

Suddenly, Yuki Tsukumo's instinctive sense of danger erupted. A streak of silver emerged from the sandstorm, like a playful silver sailfish swimming through the air. Yuki Tsukumo felt no beauty from it. She only felt all the terror in the world gather together before exploding.

Maitreya-class Mist Cutter, cursed tool spirit ability release—New Line!

A massive strike cleaved the sandstorm apart. At the critical moment, Yuki Tsukumo pounced to the side like a cat and saw the slash in its entirety. The sandstorm had never been a solid object. It was a Natural Disaster formed from gale winds and sand. Yet such a disaster was now split wholly in two, like a picture cut apart by a paper cutter. The silver light extended endlessly until it vanished into the unseen distance.

Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted as she recognized the technique.

"A high-speed compressed wind blade, this is Ame-no-Habakiri!" Yuki Tsukumo said in disbelief. "This is Zenin Yaohui's Innate Technique. Why can the King of Curses use Zenin Yaohui's technique? No, it is more than that. Even Ame-no-Habakiri used by Zenin Yaohui himself could not possibly cut apart such an enormous sandstorm. Is another technique cooperating with it?"

The cooperation of two techniques?

Or was it a fused technique? Could that even be done?

Yuki Tsukumo felt her scalp go numb. A sense of palpitations flooded her whole body, as if she were submerged in the deep sea.

At the end of the sandstorm, a person slowly approached. He wore a black haori, a white kimono, and a bamboo hat. In his hand was an abnormally long straight-bladed sword. He strolled leisurely, and when he neared Yuki Tsukumo, he raised a hand to lift his bamboo hat, revealing those heterochromatic eyes.

Yuki Tsukumo's pupils contracted. There was not a single wound on his body, and even his expensive clothes were undamaged. He clearly stood in the desert, yet Yuki Tsukumo felt as though she were beneath a shrine torii gate. It was as if cherry blossoms scattered on either side of the torii and drifted down onto the steps while the King of Curses crossed beneath the gate, stepping on the petals.

Garuda's ambush had not even managed to stain the King of Curses' clothes with sand. He truly was as refined as the rumors said, elegant as an ukiyo-e painting.

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Yuki." The King of Curses spoke. "The curse of humans upon humans, Mahito. Please treat me kindly."

Yuki Tsukumo slowly rose to her feet, spat sand from her mouth, and revealed a vicious smile. "Likewise, Mr. Mahito—

"Special-grade jujutsu sorcerer, Yuki Tsukumo. Please treat me kindly!"

Dignified and open, Domain Expansion!

"I thought we would at least meet, exchange a few words, and only then begin fighting." Mahito said regretfully. "I did not expect you to attack immediately, and with such blazing violence, like ten thousand suns."

Yuki Tsukumo understood the implication. She lightly brushed through her long hair and smiled. "I never expected the King of Curses to be in the mood to read the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata."

The Mahabharata described wars in ancient times. One passage was written like this: [A single projectile contained all the destructive force in the universe.

[A pillar of blazing smoke and fire rose into the sky, bright as ten thousand suns.

[It was a weapon unknown to anyone, a thunderbolt of steel, a messenger of death. It reduced the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas to ashes.

[Their bodies were burned beyond recognition, leaving only hair and nails scattered nearby. Pottery shattered for no reason, bird feathers turned deathly white, and after nightfall, all crops were afflicted.]

This book was written around 1500 BC, approximately three thousand five hundred years ago. The war it described closely resembled humanity's nuclear warfare. But that was not the important point. The important point was this:

Yuki Tsukumo slowly said, "You were educated very well, Mahito. You had a patient teacher who taught you everything, whether it was techniques, swordsmanship, literature, or etiquette.

"That means he did not simply regard you as a pawn to overthrow Jujutsu Society. He sincerely saw you as his disciple, his legacy." Mahito smiled. "I am a child who has been loved. I appreciate all the beauty in this world."

Mahito was not lying. He truly felt loved. Jogo and Hanami were powerful, yet they were willing to put him first and offer everything to him. Dagon understood nothing, but as long as Mahito spoke, he would obey.

Kinji Hakari had a foul mouth, but ultimately cared for him in his own awkward way. The newly joined Ashiya Sadatsuna regarded him as an inheritor and held nothing back.

His interactions with the newly awakened Tsumiki Fushiguro had also been very pleasant. Even in the face of his willfulness, she was willing to patiently accompany him. Finally, the five newborn intelligent cursed spirits he had personally created viewed him as their master and father.

In other words, aside from Kenjaku, all those gathered around Mahito sincerely believed Mahito was someone they could entrust themselves to. Quite a few of them believed that if Mahito ruled the world, he truly could change the current old world and create a brand-new one.

Mahito could even be certain that there were almost no Thought Seals involved. The reason it was only almost was because a Thought Seal could guarantee that someone would not betray him, but not that they would get along happily with him. Otherwise, their thoughts would become the tragic conclusion that they did not betray Mahito only because they sacrificed themselves for some greater cause. Kenjaku was that exception. Though he had been branded with a Thought Seal, his idea was to squeeze everything out of Mahito. Before that, he might as well play along with him.

Therefore, even now, Mahito's thoughts about Kenjaku had never changed—he would kill him sooner or later!

Just as Kinji Hakari had told Satoru Gojo: this world was already rotten beyond measure, and change was about to arrive. Why not take a gamble?