Void Style

A Hollow Technique was the fusion of Technique Lapse and Technique Reversal, combining possibility with its opposite to create something impossible.

Within the Limitless Technique, the positive infinite attraction and negative infinite repulsion fused together. The union of Azure and Red, the illusory mass born from attraction and repulsion—a technique that emerged from their combination.

Whether one could use a Hollow Technique was closely tied to both the sorcerer's imagination and the capabilities of their technique.

Two mutually exclusive powers became one, producing a phenomenon within illusion—light and shadow melding together, existing simultaneously within a single space, until they finally intertwined into chaos.

"New Moon and Full Moon."

"Twilight."

"Gray and White Wedge."

"Gap Between Light and Shadow."

"Hollow Technique: Chaos."

The light of Technique Reversal shot toward the twisted mass of Technique Lapse: Shadow before Hajime Kashimo even had time to react. The instant the two combined, Hajime Kashimo was swallowed within the attack's range by chaos.

Storm-like light and shadow swept past Hajime Kashimo's eyes, dragging him into chaos.

Technique Lapse: Shadow formed clumps of black shadow by releasing cursed energy, dragging its target inside for a continuous shredding attack.

Technique Reversal: Light retained its rule of being "unable to harm people." Once it struck a target, it stretched out their consciousness, making them experience several months within a single second.

Hollow Technique: Chaos.

Hajime Kashimo landed in a world where black and white intertwined. Reflected in his eyes was something neither black nor white, a radiance that belonged to no color—no, it did not even seem to be radiance.

Neither light nor shadow, neither black nor white. Hajime Kashimo closed his eyes, yet he could still sense that strange presence.

Oppression, adhesion—the sensation on his body was neither dry nor sticky. He braced a hand above himself, touching something that was neither tangible nor void.

Before long, Hajime Kashimo was left dizzy in this place without space, time, or direction. He opened his mouth—but could not even make a sound. He tried to activate his cursed energy, but received no response.

He felt that both his mind and soul had been struck. Though his body bore no injuries, every part of him had already lost its sense of "self."

Compared to Purple, Hollow Technique: Chaos did not damage the body. It damaged the mind and soul.

It dragged the enemy into a "non-reality" space, making them exist within chaos for a hundred years during a single second in reality, unable to truly set foot on the ground, unable to think clearly, unable to feel clearly.

Moreover, the longer the enemy existed within chaos, the longer this effect would last.

Bang!

As dust rose, Hajime Kashimo emerged from chaos and fell face-first to the ground, his eyes vacant.

Xuan stepped forward and pressed his palm against the back of the unconscious Hajime Kashimo.

Leaning on his long staff, Hajime Kashimo sat at a table and chair atop a mountain, his unfocused eyes gazing at the distant horizon.

Beyond the endless mountain forests lay the city where Hajime Kashimo had once lived.

After awakening his technique of "self," Hajime Kashimo had embarked on the path of "becoming stronger."

In his mind, weakness meant being killed by outsiders who invaded. Weakness meant being unable to eat the best food.

Amid flashes of lightning and fists, Hajime Kashimo made a name for himself. After his frame gradually grew leaner, a peculiar challenger came looking for him.

"Were you strong from the start, or did you become strong later?"

That day, Hajime Kashimo spared the "challenger's" life, and throughout the rest of his life, he repeatedly turned those words over in his mind.

Who was born strong, and who became strong afterward?

He had not been strong from the beginning. He had grown up in his mother's arms, raised by familiar townsfolk.

Until one day, he realized that the way his neighbors looked at him was no longer the way they looked at the old "Hajime Kashimo."

Those gazes mixed with fear, admiration, and awe made Hajime Kashimo think of that question once again.

"Were you strong from the start, or did you become strong later?"

Before defeating every strong opponent, Hajime Kashimo would ask that question, hoping to receive their answer.

In Hajime Kashimo's eyes, the neighbors around him had, from some point onward, become like withered trees.

Just like every tree in the endless mountain forest when he looked out from the mountains—though their appearances differed, in essence, they were all weak creatures.

"During these ten years, have you ever spent time with anyone again?"

That person came to find him once more. Rather than answering Hajime Kashimo's question, he posed another question in return.

Hajime Kashimo killed him. Looking at the smiling corpse whose waist and abdomen had been pierced by lightning, Hajime Kashimo sat quietly atop the mountain, seated in that chair.

Hajime Kashimo wandered once more through the alleys where he had played in the past. The eyes of his childhood friends no longer looked at him with the same "sincerity" as before. Like everyone else, they held fear and awe.

So that was it.

Strength was lonely.

Hajime Kashimo wanted to invite his friends for drinks himself—but he merely carried the Ruyi Staff and stood before a door that had not opened for him in a long time. Having gone so long without speaking to anyone, he had forgotten how to interact with others as equals.

No—perhaps he had even forgotten how to interact with people at all.

His friend was gone.

They had been the same age. When Hajime Kashimo defeated the invading cursed spirit, the man who had once drunk with him, guided him, and helped him see the path he had walked was killed by the cursed spirit's technique.

Hajime Kashimo sat at the head of the crude funeral, feeling the heavy gloom around him, yet not a single tear fell.

So that's how it is...

Because the strong were always alone.

Everyone around him was like clumps of dirt—something that could be crushed to death with the slightest squeeze.

Friends, family—no one understood Hajime Kashimo.

And so, Hajime Kashimo left the village.

For reasons even he did not know, Hajime Kashimo challenged every "strong person" he could find, fighting without end, again and again.

After battle upon battle, Hajime Kashimo kept searching for the answer to his questions.

Was strength loneliness?

Did strength come with being impossible to understand?

Was the pursuit of greater strength a curse upon the strong?

But until the very end, Hajime Kashimo never found an answer.

Until that man appeared.

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

The black-haired man stood behind his aged, frail body. After he had fought the other strong man this man had introduced him to, the man appeared once more, inviting him in a teasing tone to go to the future and fight the strongest jujutsu sorcerer in history.

"Kenjaku, we should fight after all, shouldn't we?"

"Give me a break. I'd still like to leave you an intact corpse to turn into a cursed object."

Feeling the powerful cursed energy behind him, Hajime Kashimo opened his mouth in his final moments.

"I accept your earlier proposal... Let me fight Sukuna in the future."

November 3, 2018, morning.

When Hajime Kashimo woke up in bed, he saw Xuan before him, along with the Reverse Cursed Technique still lingering in Xuan's hand.