Overseas.
After casually dealing with a special grade curse, Satoru Gojo was teleporting back to Jujutsu High at full speed.
Dealing with the special grade curse had taken less time than the round trip.
Not long after instantly killing the cursed spirit, Satoru Gojo received Ijichi's report.
Shortly after he left the country, the first-years had coincidentally been assigned a special grade incident they couldn't handle.
Jiahao, the strongest among them, had also just happened to be sent to Kansai to deal with a curse.
There was nothing coincidental about it. Those old bastards at Jujutsu Headquarters were clearly taking deliberate revenge.
The higher-ups feared that Sukuna would completely take over his vessel's body and unleash the greatest chaos in history, so they wanted Itadori executed outright.
Satoru Gojo had ignored their orders and forcibly kept Itadori alive.
Afraid that Satoru Gojo would come back looking for trouble, they had even arranged a mission so Itadori could die a respectable death through official channels.
"Maybe I should just kill them all!"
Satoru Gojo murmured to himself, a flicker of killing intent flashing through his eyes.
He hadn't even had time to buy any local specialties abroad. That alone showed just how pissed off he was.
Just as Satoru Gojo was racing back at full speed to settle the score, his phone received a follow-up report from Fushiguro.
Itadori had released Sukuna, who instantly killed the special grade curse at the Juvenile Detention Center.
Sukuna had swallowed a third finger and suppressed Itadori's consciousness.
Sukuna had been about to go on a killing spree when Obito Uchiha Hao swooped in with Kamui to save the day.
What did he mean, Sukuna had used Domain Expansion... and Jiahao still hadn't gone all out?
What did he mean, Itadori was fine, except Jiahao had twisted off both his arms with the Sharingan?
As Satoru Gojo read the messages on his phone, his expression grew increasingly stunned and bewildered.
"A scam text?"
Meanwhile, in Jujutsu High's infirmary.
With a Lady Cigarette between her lips, Shoko Ieiri frowned at Itadori, who sat in a chair.
He looked dejected and lost, with nothing where his two arms should have been.
Fushiguro stepped forward and asked, "Miss Ieiri, is Itadori..."
Shoko discarded her half-smoked cigarette and said bluntly, "You brought him in too late, and you didn't bring back the severed portions of his arms, either."
"Unless he can awaken Reverse Cursed Technique himself and use it to regenerate them, there may be no chance of a full recovery."
Not everyone who knew Reverse Cursed Technique was a top-tier fighter, but every top-tier fighter knew Reverse Cursed Technique.
And when it came to proficiency with Reverse Cursed Technique, not even Satoru Gojo could match Shoko Ieiri in all of Jujutsu High.
At Shoko's words, Itadori's expression grew even gloomier.
"Don't look so down!"
Kugisaki stepped forward and patted Itadori's shoulder. "Didn't she say you still have a chance if you awaken Reverse Cursed Technique? Cheer up!"
Lighting another cigarette, Shoko rubbed salt in the wound. "If you're going to take the self-healing route, you'll need to hurry. Once the wounds at the severed ends heal completely, you won't be able to grow new arms even if you learn Reverse Cursed Technique."
Kugisaki backed away awkwardly.
Clinging to a sliver of hope, Fushiguro asked, "How long will it take for them to heal completely?"
Shoko exhaled a thin wisp of smoke. "When they're about to heal, you can cut them open a few more times with a knife. But even then, you'll have a month at most."
"And Sukuna's vessel has an unusually strong constitution. They might heal completely in just two or three days."
Fushiguro backed away awkwardly.
Someone who hadn't even mastered his own cursed energy yet would have to learn Reverse Cursed Technique from scratch, with only two or three days...
If Itadori actually managed it, his talent for cursed techniques would probably surpass even Satoru Gojo's.
Just as the mood grew heavier and no one knew how to comfort him, rhythmic footsteps sounded from the hallway, like drumbeats marching along to some background music.
The door swung open, and a black leather shoe stepped inside first.
He wore a jet-black cape, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck.
His hair was black and white like a Taiji symbol, and a vicious-looking wound had been drawn on his face with colored markers, running diagonally from the right side of his forehead to the left side of his jaw.
"What's wrong? Why the long faces?"
Dressed as an underground doctor, Jiahao made a show of surveying their exasperated faces before his gaze settled on Itadori. He strode forward. "Is this the patient? Let me take a look!"
"Black Jack?"
Shoko had heard about this first-year oddball with his grandiose words and deeds, but this was her first time meeting him. He certainly left an impression.
Seeing Jiahao take out his stethoscope and prepare to get to work, Fushiguro hurriedly tugged on his black cape and lowered his voice. "Hey, read the room before you start joking around!"
Both of Itadori's arms have been severed, and you're still cosplaying Black Jack!
"Let go, Fushiguro!"
As though she had suddenly remembered something, Kugisaki's voice turned excited. "God-Jiahao, you have a way, don't you?"
When Kugisaki had been seriously injured and Ijichi was driving her to the hospital, Jiahao had healed her injuries himself.
"The left hand represents rebirth, and the right symbolizes death..."
Fushiguro suddenly remembered the Trial of Hao in the park, too. His eyes fixed on Jiahao's bandaged left hand. "Jiahao, you can heal Itadori?!"
At those words, even the despondent Itadori looked at Jiahao with hope in his eyes.
Jiahao shook his head, and the light in Itadori's eyes immediately went out.
"I'm not Jiahao. Right now, my name is Black Jack Hao."
"But I do have a way to restore Itadori's arms."
At that, Itadori's eyes lit up again like light bulbs that had just been switched back on.
Beside him, Kugisaki quietly ground her teeth, fighting the urge to draw her hammer.
Fushiguro clenched his fists, then relaxed them. If he could beat Jiahao, he would have loved to punch him a couple of times.
"Oh? You can treat his injuries?"
Shoko stared at Jiahao, who appeared to be having a psychotic episode, and her voice lowered. "You've already mastered Reverse Cursed Technique at such a young age? If you can, then please do show me what Black Jack Hao can do!"
She had just said she couldn't treat him, and a Black Jack had popped up immediately afterward.
It was hard not to suspect that he was deliberately provoking her.
Jiahao was doing it deliberately, but not to provoke her. He just wanted to stock up on a few more Hao points.
Besides, his earlier fight with Sukuna really had consumed quite a bit of his cursed energy.
Black Jack Hao pulled the bandages off his right hand, revealing a diamond-shaped rune infused with cursed energy over his knuckles.
The next second, the fingernail-sized rune spread like growing vines across Jiahao's entire right arm.
Jiahao pressed his palm against the stump of Itadori's arm, and green light blazed.
After a while, fresh flesh grew where Itadori's missing arms had been.
Fushiguro, Kugisaki, and Ijichi watched dumbfounded, their mouths hanging slightly open the entire time.
Only when the cigarette's ember burned her fingertips did Shoko snap out of her daze.
Shoko stepped forward and felt Itadori's new arms. A moment later, she turned to stare at Jiahao's left hand. "I can't make sense of this, but it doesn't look like Reverse Cursed Technique?"
Maintaining a doctor's solemn expression, Jiahao wound the loose bandages back around his left hand. "To be precise, it's the result of using a cursed technique together with Reverse Cursed Technique."
"Have you watched Naruto? Do you know Tsunade?"
"This is another one of my cursed techniques, the Strength of a Hundred Technique."
"Nani?!"
Ijichi cried out!
Shoko frowned, while Fushiguro and Kugisaki were even more shocked.
Itadori, who had only just entered Jujutsu Society, didn't understand, but the others were hardly novices when it came to jujutsu.
Most cursed techniques were innate abilities. They couldn't be acquired through training at all.
More importantly, an awakened jujutsu sorcerer could only possess a single cursed technique. That was common knowledge in Jujutsu Society.
Glancing at the others frozen in place, Jiahao shook his head and turned away.
"Your Hao levels are too low. You still can't comprehend my current state."
"Keep working to get stronger, everyone. At least get strong enough that I don't leave you too far behind."
This time, it wasn't just Fushiguro. Even Shoko couldn't help clenching her fists.
"Fuck, I can't take this anymore!"
Kugisaki pulled out her hammer and attacked. After a moment's hesitation, Fushiguro joined the fray.
His lost arms restored, Itadori watched the one-sided battle before him with mixed feelings.
Although he ought to have been thanking Jiahao through tears right now... he had been putting up with those grandiose proclamations for a long time, too!
"Pink-haired gorilla, what are you standing around for?!"
Sent flying by a scalpel strike, Kugisaki shouted from midair, and Itadori charged into the fight with a grin.
"Coming!"
Before you continue