Jujutsu Kaisen: Aspiring to Become an Immortal God

This was not even a black sea, but something with a solid theoretical basis: an Innate Domain.

This was a concept first proposed by Ryomen Sukuna in the manga—the deepest part of a person's psyche. At the time, Ryomen Sukuna had existed only as a cursed object, yet he could still manifest an Innate Domain and even invade Yuji Itadori's mental world.

An ordinary tsukumogami naturally could not possess an Innate Domain, but Mahito's Idle Transfiguration could overturn that notion.

It had not been as difficult as he had imagined. In fact, when he created the second-generation intelligent cursed spirits during his soul modifications, he had already touched upon this crucial point.

Now, though limited to the spiritual realm, Mirokuji Kirigiri was truly alive. She possessed spirituality equal to that of a human and could use cursed techniques on her own.

That also meant she could—use Black Flash.

Black flames rose from Mist Cutter's hilt. At the same time, black flames began burning from the tip of Mist Cutter's blade.

There had never been a true Fusion Black Flash in this world, because Black Flash itself required the resonance between a sorcerer's physical strike and cursed energy strike. No matter how deeply two people understood each other, at most they could achieve a scene like Yuji Itadori and Aoi Todo using Black Flash together in the original story—a peerless spectacle that came once in a century.

But now, at this very moment, the first Fusion Black Flash in the history of Jujutsu Society appeared. The tsukumogami and its wielder were of one mind, their cursed energy linked, triggering Black Flash at the same time!

Mahito suddenly paused. His Simple Domain had contracted to a radius of 2.25 meters, the most standard form of Simple Domain. Within Yuki Tsukumo's Domain Expansion, the Simple Domain should have borne immense pressure, making its structure highly unstable. Yet now, at this very moment, its construction was incomparably smooth, silently blending into the world.

Mahito had used the most primitive Simple Domain.

A thousand years ago, when facing Domain Expansions that ordinary sorcerers could never hope to reach, the Simple Domain created by Ashiya Sadatsuna had been their only choice. Under those circumstances, the core philosophy of the New Shadow Style founded by Ashiya Sadatsuna became widely known:

—With no other choice, charge forward without hesitation!

But now Mahito personally altered that philosophy, overwriting it with his own belief. He told himself:

—Only with a mind free of distraction can one transcend mortality and enter sainthood.

The Simulated Black Hole in the sky was finally hurled down by Yuki Tsukumo. The entire Domain Expansion, Sumeru Vajra Karmic Wheel, bowed before that mass and density beyond common sense. Yuki Tsukumo should never have used this ability, because even a Domain Expansion could not withstand such overwhelming pressure.

But she could not refrain from using it.

If she wanted a truly exhilarating battle with Mahito, she had to use it! And she firmly believed Mahito would not evade it.

He would confront it, surpass it, break through it. If he could not, then he would die. —Come, Mahito. Let me witness it here—whether you fall here or transcend here!

The ripples of gravity across the earth finally failed to withstand the enormous pressure. Countless thin, unknown black lines surged upward from the ground like torrential rain falling toward the sky. Their final destination was the Simulated Black Hole, and that immense pressure forced the entire barrier to disintegrate.

Mahito breathed in and out, gripping the hilt with his right hand.

He closed his eyes. Though earth-shattering pressure was slowly bearing down upon him, his heart was as tranquil as an ocean, as unchanging as the ages. His breathing resonated with his Cursed Energy Core, and the Mist Cutter in his hand began to tremble as well. Yet this was not a physical vibration. Some kind of spiritual stirring was taking shape.

Breath, cursed energy, Mist Cutter. Resonance.

Mahito swung Mist Cutter.

Though black flames had enveloped Mahito's entire body before he swung, all of them went out the instant he moved. Every flow of cursed energy concentrated upon Mist Cutter's blade, and a streak of black, ghostly light covered it.

—Divine Sword: Immaculate Emptiness.

The Divine Sword was a legendary sword technique recorded in the New Shadow Style's catalog of real-world swordsmanship. The book said that this sword communed with the divine. Immaculate represented absolute purity, while Emptiness represented freedom from thought and desire.

Divine Sword: Immaculate Emptiness was a godly slash delivered from the state of selflessness.

This slash transcended time, pierced through the mortal world, crossed three thousand crows, and pronounced life and death. —It could slay gods!

The unprecedented Fusion Black Flash detached from Mist Cutter's blade. The violently warped space condensed into a black slash. The Simulated Black Hole appeared as a pitch-black void, and suddenly all pressure vanished. The disintegrating Domain Expansion, the fanatical Yuki Tsukumo, and Mahito in the midst of his swing all froze in place.

At the very center of the Simulated Black Hole, a flash of blade-light cut through.

Yuki Tsukumo still maintained the pose of throwing the Simulated Black Hole. She slowly lowered her head. She wore a black tank top that exposed her navel, and now—

A diagonal bloody wound had silently appeared across her navel. If her cursed energy had not suddenly been cut off, Yuki Tsukumo might not even have noticed it.

"I see." Yuki Tsukumo smiled. "I lost."

The massive Simulated Black Hole began to contract. Once that immense density had begun forming, it could not be stopped. But before the Simulated Black Hole could fully form, the blade-light had already cut it in half. Even so, it could not halt the gravitational pull of that colossal mass. All matter within the Domain was compressed, drawn in, and ultimately crushed.

But its power would never be able to expand to its maximum.

As Yuki Tsukumo's cursed energy was severed, the space-warping slash released by the Fusion Black Flash shattered the Simulated Black Hole, and the entire barrier was torn apart.

The dark-red cosmic space evaporated like fragments. A blazing sun appeared through the shattered ceiling of the Domain Expansion. Mahito slowly sheathed his sword, straightened, and began walking forward. As he advanced, the barrier of the Domain Expansion shattered and vanished like a dream, revealing the original desert.

Yuki Tsukumo took two steps forward, then suddenly fell to her knees. Her shikigami dropped to the ground.

The slash had struck her abdomen, precisely where the Cursed Energy Core was located. A sorcerer's Cursed Energy Core was the organ used to extract cursed energy. Once it was destroyed, she could no longer draw out cursed energy.

But that alone would not have mattered, because Reverse Cursed Technique relied on the brain. As long as her brain remained intact, Yuki Tsukumo still had the ability to revive herself with Reverse Cursed Technique.

But she had just exhausted every last bit of cursed energy in her body to create the Simulated Black Hole. Not a trace of cursed energy flowed within her now. With her Cursed Energy Core destroyed, she could no longer extract cursed energy. She no longer even had a chance to use Reverse Cursed Technique.

Mahito walked up to her and looked down at her.

"Well done, Mahito." Yuki Tsukumo praised him softly. "You truly followed the ancient path, using Simple Domain to break through my Domain Expansion head-on."

A massive spray of blood suddenly burst from Yuki Tsukumo's abdomen. Her upper and lower body slowly separated. Her upper half collapsed into the desert, while her lower half remained kneeling motionlessly. Blood spilled across the sand like ink dropped into still water.

Yuki Tsukumo, dead...?

Mahito reached out and gently stroked Mirokuji Kirigiri. Using Construction, he created a scabbard that fit her perfectly. The long blade slid into its sheath with a crisp sound. Then, maintaining that posture, he planted the sheathed Mist Cutter between himself and Yuki Tsukumo's corpse.

He had used Black Flash twice in succession, one of them a Fusion Black Flash with Mist Cutter. His condition had already surpassed its limits. If it was now, at this very moment, then he could easily do it.

He sighed softly. "Domain Expansion—"

He formed a hand seal. Though his voice was only a sigh, it rang like an evening bell: "—Dharma Realm Rebirth Nirvana Domain."

Mahito appeared on a highway. To the left of the road was a canal, its enormous waves crashing against the banks and spraying foam. Mahito could smell the moisture in the air. The canal water was clean and clear, shimmering in the light. To the right stretched endless mountain ranges, green vegetation draped over them, while green trees reflected upon the canal's surface.

Mahito looked toward the end of the highway. There was only darkness there. He understood—this was Yuki Tsukumo's space after death.

Suddenly, a roar sounded down the highway. Mahito turned toward it. A motorcycle was speeding toward him, and the rider was indeed Yuki Tsukumo. She wore a motorcycle helmet, golden hair spilling from beneath its edges and streaming behind her in the wind.

Mahito stood by the roadside and gave her a thumbs-up.

The motorcycle screeched to a stop in front of him. Yuki Tsukumo took off her helmet, and her golden hair fell over her back.

At that moment, the canal waves crashed against the bank, and mist drifted across Yuki Tsukumo's face. For a moment, she looked almost dreamlike. She smiled. "This is my passage to hell. You can't hitch a ride on my bike."

She was no longer dressed as she had been outside, in a black tank top and dark military pants. She wore a deerskin jacket with a black coat draped over it, and jeans below. When she parked the motorcycle by the roadside and leaned against it, her voluptuous figure was fully revealed. She gave her head a slight toss, and her long golden hair floated through the air.

She nodded lightly. "I was thinking you should be here too. Sure enough, before I finally enter the Yellow Springs, I really can see you. Are you sure you can see me?"

"I can't be one hundred percent sure, but on this road to the Yellow Springs, I've always vaguely had this feeling. I can sense it strongly: when I ride my motorcycle into that darkness for real, I will completely enter the Yellow Springs. That should be true death. Before then, I would see you."

Yuki Tsukumo turned toward the canal and watched the waves splash. "Mahito, what kind of woman do you like?"

There it was, Yuki Tsukumo's classic question. She had even passed this greeting style down to her disciple, Aoi Todo!

"How strange. We exchanged greetings when we fought too. I thought you'd ask me this question then." Yuki Tsukumo smiled. "Looks like my greeting style is famous enough that even you've heard of it."

"More than famous." Mahito could not help laughing. "Your disciple Aoi Todo has truly carried your greeting forward. He asks everyone he meets."

"Then that's great." Rather than feeling ashamed, Yuki Tsukumo praised him loudly.

"Back then, I considered you a mere cursed spirit. A mere cursed spirit was beneath my notice." Yuki Tsukumo turned back toward Mahito and spoke meaningfully. "But now it's different. I see you as a human."

Mahito's heart stirred slightly. This was the first time anyone had acknowledged him as human. Before this, no matter how much he insisted on it, humanity was merely something he claimed for himself. Even if Kenjaku never said it aloud, he might not have truly regarded Mahito as human in his heart.

Only Yuki Tsukumo truly saw him as human. Perhaps Naobito Zenin should be included as well, but even at the end, that old man had never called him human. Perhaps in that man's eyes, since Mahito had appeared in this space after death, it was only natural to regard him as one.

"I've never considered that question." Mahito thought for a moment. "If I had to say... someone more traditional? You know, I really can't stand the multiple-gender women over in the United States."

"I can't stand them either." Yuki Tsukumo burst into laughter.

Yuki Tsukumo grew serious. "The kind of woman a man desires reflects his true personality. Mahito, since you say you prefer traditional women, that means your subconscious seeks traditional glory. You must have a strong sense of male chauvinism. Women should be quiet, pure, beautiful, and detached. Men should shoulder great righteousness, pursue true benevolence, sweep away all darkness, and preserve all beauty."

Mahito felt a touch of pride at the praise. He smiled. "Are you trying to manipulate me?"

"I'm insulting you." Yuki Tsukumo sneered.

"Insulting me?"

"I'm a woman of the new era," Yuki Tsukumo said flatly. "I seek self-improvement and want my fate in my own hands. I don't care about tradition. You are full of prejudice toward traditional women. A man like you could never be interested in a woman like me. Everything I just said was a roundabout way of insulting you. Shame you couldn't understand it."

Mahito went blank.

Yuki Tsukumo stood up from the guardrail and leaned back against her motorcycle. As if nothing had happened, she started a new topic. "Mahito, what do you think is the difference between ordinary people and sorcerers?"

Why had she suddenly brought this up?

Mahito thought about it and said, "Their physiology should be different from birth, right? The organ that extracts cursed energy is located in a jujutsu sorcerer's abdomen, while the organ that allows them to use Innate Techniques is in the frontal lobe. Ordinary people don't have these organs."

"That has been common knowledge for a thousand years." Yuki Tsukumo leaned against the motorcycle as canal spray scattered around her. She smiled. "But my understanding is a little different."

"Oh?"

"The soul," Yuki Tsukumo said calmly. "The soul of a jujutsu sorcerer is fundamentally different from that of an ordinary person. Jujutsu Society got one thing wrong. It isn't that possessing a cursed technique gives you a special soul. It's the other way around: only those with special souls can become jujutsu sorcerers."

This was indeed something never explained in the original work.

Mahito suddenly recalled that Yuki Tsukumo seemed to be an expert in the field of souls in the original story. In all of Jujutsu Society, she seemed to be the only one who dared call herself a master of souls. Before her, no one in Jujutsu Society had studied souls so deeply.

Her ideal was to eradicate cursed spirits. On the surface, that seemed far removed from her research... Why did she study souls?

Mahito mused, "That reminds me, I've heard that if a cursed object contaminates a vessel's body for a long time, then even after the cursed object is expelled and the vessel is freed, the vessel can still use the same abilities as the cursed object."

Satoru Gojo had said this in the original story. After seeing Yuji Itadori contain Ryomen Sukuna, he concluded that as time passed, Yuji Itadori would eventually be able to use the same cursed technique as Ryomen Sukuna.

At the time, the setting of Yuji Itadori's special relationship with Sukuna had not yet appeared, so Satoru Gojo should not have known this. Yet he still made such a judgment, proving that at least in theory, it was true.

Yuki Tsukumo sighed. "As expected of the Lord of Cursed Spirits, who possesses the power to make others evolve. You even understand knowledge that can be considered quite profound."

Was that really so profound?

It truly was! Mahito had a blind spot born of his own knowledge. Because he possessed eyes that could directly see souls, he could determine the outlines of human souls. He could even guide the body by reshaping the soul, so he understood this theory deeply and had never doubted it.

But most sorcerers lacked that ability. Didn't even an experienced Grade 1 sorcerer like Kento Nanami fail to understand how to defend his soul? He had only survived a round of attacks from the original Mahito because cursed energy protected him automatically. Any other sorcerer would have been transformed by the original Mahito on the first strike.

There were only a handful of people in the entire world who could study souls to this degree. Satoru Gojo was one, and Yuki Tsukumo before him was another. They were the true experts—not through relying on ability, but through experience and theory like old scholars, through accumulated knowledge.

"Mahito, the relationship between souls and cursed energy runs deeper than you imagine," Yuki Tsukumo said slowly. "After extensive observation and experimentation, I discovered that cursed energy has a deeper connection to the soul than to the body. And cursed energy does not grow along with the body... it grows along with the soul."

"How did you come to associate cursed energy with the soul?" Mahito asked. "Generally speaking, once people find the organ that produces cursed energy in the body's physiology and the organ that produces cursed techniques in the brain, most believe they have found the true nature of cursed energy."

Yuki Tsukumo raised an index finger and pointed at Mahito, smiling. "From cursed spirits." Mahito froze. "Cursed spirits?"

Yuki Tsukumo nodded lightly. "Cursed spirits are pure cursed-energy lifeforms without physical bodies. We have already confirmed that they are born from the curses humans release. Cursed spirits have no physiological structure, yet they can still use cursed techniques normally. Naturally, I began to speculate about the soul."

"I seriously researched it." Yuki Tsukumo pointed her thumb at herself and declared proudly, "Ever since the great criminal Noritoshi Kamo found a woman capable of bearing cursed spirit children several centuries ago and forced her to give birth to the Death Paintings, Jujutsu Society has forbidden all jujutsu sorcerers from studying the composition of cursed spirits. But Jujutsu Headquarters' ban means nothing to me. I began this research."

Mahito murmured, "You're truly insane."

He was no longer a novice in jujutsu. He truly understood why Jujutsu Headquarters had designated that Kenjaku incarnation from a century ago, Noritoshi Kamo, as the greatest criminal in history.

It had been emphasized before: Grade 1 jujutsu sorcerers were already the pillars of Jujutsu Society. As for Special Grades, they lay beyond ordinary discussion. Across the entire history of Jujutsu Society, fewer than a hundred people had been recognized as Special Grade sorcerers.

What about the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings?

If all of them could grow normally, every one of them could call themselves a Special Grade sorcerer!

Nine Special Grade curse users filled with hatred for humanity... Imagine nine curse users only slightly weaker than Suguru Geto sweeping through the entire world together, and one could understand how terrifying that would be.

Just because the two younger brothers who appeared first were defeated by Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki did not mean they were unworthy of their name. On the contrary, they were strong. It was simply that Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki had used Black Flash at just the right time, killing them in a single blow!

There was also the issue of compatibility. The narrator had said during that battle that because Yuji Itadori was the vessel of Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, he was naturally immune to poison. Yet the techniques of the Death Paintings' younger brothers relied on poison.

One could say that while the battle was depicted in the manga as passionate and bloody, with everyone fighting desperately for life and death, Yuji Itadori had not actually been in much danger from the very beginning. The only one truly at risk had been Nobara Kugisaki.

Even in the worst outcome, Yuji Itadori would have killed both brothers while Nobara Kugisaki died. Yuji Itadori countered the two Death Paintings too perfectly.

From humanity's perspective, even Mahito had to admit that Jujutsu Headquarters had done something right in this matter.

As for why Kenjaku looked down on the Death Paintings... he even looked down on Yuta Okkotsu. That showed how high his standards were. He could not be judged as an ordinary jujutsu sorcerer at all. His sights were so high that he did not care about nine mere Special Grade sorcerers.

Incidentally, in the original story, he was killed by the Yuta Okkotsu he had looked down upon. Yuki Tsukumo said calmly, "To eradicate cursed spirits, you can't do it without being insane." Mahito fell silent.

He sighed. "No wonder you said you were going to hell. Heaven truly has no place for you."

"All jujutsu sorcerers should go to hell, whether they are jujutsu sorcerers or curse users," Yuki Tsukumo said with a smile. "Mahito, you are truly kind. So kind that you cannot see the darkness belonging to jujutsu sorcerers."

Mahito pointed at himself. "Me? Kind?"

Then let me tell you why I refused to believe in you no matter what. Even knowing that your acquired education had overwhelmed your innate nature, even knowing that your capacity and charisma were enough to stabilize the world, I still refused.

Yuki Tsukumo turned around. Her golden hair drifted softly in the wind alongside the spray rising from the canal. She pressed down her hair with one hand and laughed brightly.

"Listen carefully, Mahito. Every creature that uses cursed energy, whether a jujutsu sorcerer or a cursed spirit, is insane. The stronger one is, the madder they are. It has nothing to do with what they themselves may think."