The rift

"Huh?"

Satoru Gojo was baffled. What did he mean, seeing his friend again?

Had this guy gone mad?

Kamo Xu turned his head toward Satoru Gojo, hoping to see a spectacular reaction, but all he saw was a blank, stupid look. He couldn't help finding it dull.

Turning his body toward Satoru Gojo, he stretched out his curled, wounded frame again and smiled at the man who was still staring blankly. "Hey, Gojo."

At his voice, Satoru Gojo looked at his friend with the blood-red eyes...

"I have to get stronger, become an incredible jujutsu sorcerer..."

What?

"I have to find a really good girl, marry her, and eat her cooking every day..."

What is he talking about...

"And then, I have to be happy."

A curse!?

Listening to Kamo Xu's muttering, Satoru Gojo suddenly understood what those words meant.

Kamo Xu was talking about the things he carried, the things he himself considered curses!

These... were probably Aunt Kamo's dying words. But with Aunt Kamo's cursed energy... or rather, with her body, how could she possibly have made the man before him become so...

So Kamo Xu had cursed himself.

Satoru Gojo opened his mouth, wanting to say something, just as he had earlier about Yuta Okkotsu unconsciously cursing someone else and keeping Rika trapped for so long...

I have to say something. I have to!

But... what?

Tell him to let go of his hatred?

Tell him not to curse himself?

Tell him to ignore Kamo Kimie's dying words?

He couldn't get any of it out...

All he could do was remain silent.

"Hey, The Strongest..."

Satoru Gojo raised his head and found Kamo Xu's eyes fixed directly on him.

A cursed eye glowing red and a heaven-bestowed pair of Six Eyes met beneath the night sky.

Kamo Xu's gaze was calm, even resolute.

Yet Satoru Gojo didn't dare meet it... He forced himself to look at the man who was so far beyond his reach.

"How am I supposed to reach your level?"

"There's not much time left. I don't have years to train my cursed energy reserves, or time to find some way to strengthen my cursed technique."

"Maximum Technique, Reverse Cursed Technique, Cursed Technique Reversal, incantations, Domain Expansion... I can use all of those now, so how am I supposed to get stronger, even stronger!"

"Strong enough to make people shudder, strong enough to terrify them, strong enough to make them recoil at the sight of me!"

"Strong enough to kill curses easily whenever I want, to kill until they're scared, until they're terrified, until they don't dare show themselves at the mere sound of my name!"

"I'm going to kill every last cursed spirit!!!"

His depleted cursed energy suddenly surged, startling both Kamo Xu and Satoru Gojo.

That was cursed energy stirred up by an explosion of emotion...

Negative energy in its purest form!

Kamo Xu smiled, but Satoru Gojo's face darkened.

The crazed man suddenly sat up, clutching his head with both hands as he looked excitedly at Satoru Gojo:

"Ah... hahaha, right! If other people curse me, couldn't I... All I have to do is kill..."

"Kamo Xu!" The roar cut Kamo Xu off immediately. Satoru Gojo would never allow another of his friends to follow Suguru Geto's path!

"You'd better think carefully about what you're about to say. You've already seen how Suguru Geto ended up!"

"You'd better not force me to..."

He stopped. Kamo Xu tilted his head and finished the sentence for him with keen interest.

"Not force you to act, to kill another Suguru Geto?"

"Shut up! We're talking about you right now. He's already..." Satoru Gojo gritted his teeth. Only after a long moment did he force out the words: "He's dead!"

"Yes. You killed him. Just now. With those hands, watching with your own eyes."

The darkness in the night sky gradually dispersed, and moonlight began spilling down in a silver glow.

That blessing fell upon Kamo Xu alone, forgetting Satoru Gojo and leaving him submerged in darkness.

Silence...

The two stared into each other's eyes without a word.

Kamo Xu's smile remained on his face, but his curse-reddened eye shone with a savage crimson light.

Buried in shadow, Satoru Gojo's expression was impossible to read, but radiance swirled within his azure Six Eyes.

Satoru Gojo broke the silence, putting one final question to the man before him.

"Does it have to be this way?"

His voice was cool, betraying no emotion.

Smiling, Kamo Xu glanced aside toward the Prison Realm in the crater.

He said, "Of course not. I'm not as extreme as Geto..."

"Then look me in the eyes and say what you just said one more fucking time!"

Kamo Xu finally failed to maintain his smile. He lowered his head, trying to bring it back...

But when he raised his head again, only a savage grimace remained!

Domain Expansion-Desire-Sloth Truth-Seeking Vortex!

Domain Expansion-Unlimited Void!

Without any warning... both unleashed their domains at the same time.

A sealed, pitch-black universe instantly enveloped the surging sea of blood...

"Where did Gojo-sensei go? That explosion just now came from here, right?"

Yuta Okkotsu followed the direction Satoru Gojo had left in and soon reached the site of Kamo Xu's battle with the Three Special Grade Cursed Spirits.

The boy rounded a bend in the road. The moment he emerged from behind the wall blocking his view, he froze in shock.

Only devastation met his eyes...

Everything had been overturned. First came ruined walls, then the charred frames of buildings, and finally...

Nothing at all.

The once-familiar campus looked like a tub of ice cream with a round scoop taken out of it. An enormous chunk was missing, leaving a horrifying crater!

Like an abyss, it exuded an aura called death.

"What... happened here?"

Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and Panda arrived and rounded the wall, witnessing the same scene.

They immediately went on guard.

"Are there still enemies here?" Panda took out his gloves and put them on, but his face showed unprecedented terror.

Cold sweat rolled down through his fur. All he felt was fear.

Could I really withstand an enemy who could unleash an attack like this so easily?

"Kelp!" Toge Inumaki suddenly called out. Though no one understood what he was saying, the boy extended a finger toward a distant spot at the edge of the crater.

There... a hemisphere stood incongruously.

Pitch-black and silent, but without a doubt, anyone could easily recognize what it was.

-A domain.

"A domain? Gojo-sensei's!?" Though Maki Zenin couldn't see cursed spirits, she could still see the physical changes brought about by human jujutsu.

"Who could force Gojo-sensei to use his domain? Aren't there supposed to be only four special grades?" Panda looked at Yuta Okkotsu, also thinking of Suguru Geto, whom they had just driven off.

This panda's stumped. Who the hell is fighting Gojo-sensei?

Fuck, did Yuki Tsukumo come here to pick a fight?