The next day.
Jogo marched forward with massive, furious strides. Hanami and Dagon followed closely behind. He was seething with rage, desperately trying to suppress the volcanic fury bubbling in his gut.
He hadn't been by Mahito's side recently because Mahito had dispatched him, Hanami, and Dagon on a separate mission. Jogo had assumed that even in his absence, Mahito would be perfectly safe with Kenjaku and Kinji Hakari guarding him. But he had barely been gone for a single day, and Mahito had somehow managed to pick another fight!
And against a Special Grade Sorcerer, no less!
Even Kinji Hakari, with his infinite Cursed Energy, wasn't officially classified as a Special Grade. Jogo couldn't even begin to fathom the monstrous power an actual Special Grade possessed! According to his own calculations, Mahito was absolutely not ready to challenge an opponent of that caliber. It was suicidal.
He had to stop Mahito, no matter the cost. That was Jogo's absolute resolve.
"Mahi—" Jogo opened his mouth to roar, but a large hand clamped over his face. It was Hanami.
Hanami silently stepped forward and sealed Jogo's mouth. Jogo immediately swallowed his words. Anyone with eyes could see that Mahito was in the middle of a critical moment. Everyone, including the three Disaster Curses, stood perfectly still, their expressions completely serious.
Mahito stood with his head bowed and eyes closed, a bamboo sword resting lightly at his waist. His hand was gently draped over the hilt, perfectly holding an Iaijutsu stance. His Cursed Energy wasn't violently erupting outward; instead, it burned in a slow, suffocatingly dense aura around his body, resembling the surface of a perfectly still, bottomless lake. Only when the wind brushed against him did faint ripples disturb the aura.
Standing directly opposite him was an old man.
Ashiya Sadatsuna mirrored Mahito's exact Iaijutsu stance. But unlike Mahito, the Cursed Energy radiating from the old man was practically imperceptible. His ferociously untamed Cursed Energy had been hyper-compressed into a flawless, perfectly tailored suit that clung to his flesh without a single microscopic fluctuation. When the wind blew, only the fabric of his clothes fluttered; his Cursed Energy remained as immovable as a mountain.
A single leaf drifted between them. Without warning, the leaf split perfectly in two.
In that exact microsecond, Mahito and the old man simultaneously drew their bamboo swords. The sudden vacuum violently cleaved the wind in half. Their Cursed Energy erupted simultaneously, like two raging dragons tearing out from the depths of a lake and roaring at the heavens! A cataclysmic surge of Cursed Energy swept across the arc of their blades.
The resulting shockwave was so violent everyone instinctively clamped their eyes shut as the pressure blasted outward!
But the clash lasted for only a single microsecond.
A microsecond later, the sharp crack of bamboo violently striking bamboo echoed across the training ground.
Supersonic Iaijutsu! In that fleeting instant, the velocity of their draw had completely shattered the sound barrier. All their kinetic force and killing intent was compressed entirely into that single microsecond. By all laws of physics, the fragile bamboo swords should have instantly atomized against the air resistance. But they survived. The Cursed Energy tightly bound to the blades protected the wood, requiring absolute, god-like microscopic control over Cursed Energy output as the blade accelerated through the draw.
But it wasn't over!
The bamboo swords violently collided over and over. Mahito and Ashiya advanced simultaneously. Amidst the deafening clatter of high-speed strikes, they relentlessly hunted for microscopic openings, their raw kinetic force igniting the Cursed Energy around their blades into roaring flames.
Mahito was the absolute aggressor. Every swing of his bamboo sword generated a devastating pressure wave, blasting outward like a tsunami. Even from the sidelines, his raw, apocalyptic physical strength was glaringly obvious. Yet none of that force leaked uselessly into the environment; every single ounce was perfectly condensed into the bamboo edge.
Ashiya was purely on the defensive. His bamboo sword didn't display a single trace of raw power, because he was perfectly absorbing every ounce of Mahito's kinetic force. He refused to meet Mahito's strikes with brute force. Instead, he flowed like water, constantly sliding into Mahito's blind spots. Every movement lasted a fraction of a second, vanishing and reappearing like a ghost.
They exchanged dozens of blistering, high-speed strikes. Suddenly, as if by prior agreement, both simultaneously leaped backward, disengaging.
Mahito smiled brightly. "I yield. You win, Instructor Ashiya."
Ashiya tried to maintain a stoic, dignified expression, but upon hearing Mahito's words, his face twisted in deep frustration.
"The total volume of Cursed Energy is truly an absolute, insurmountable wall for a Sorcerer. My microscopic control over Cursed Energy vastly eclipses yours, yet my blade was the first to give out! And this was merely a spar with bamboo. If we had crossed real steel, I wouldn't have lasted a single exchange. The very second our blades met, both my sword and my body would have been violently cleaved in half!"
Hakari, watching from the sidelines, was entirely lost. "Wait, that's it? I thought the old man was defending perfectly."
Kenjaku chuckled and pointed a finger at the bamboo sword in Ashiya's hand. "Look closer."
Hakari squinted at Ashiya's blade. He suddenly noticed several jagged splinters bursting out from the bamboo casing.
Comprehension dawned on Hakari. "They were using identical bamboo swords, but the old man's is already structurally failing. The entire spar lasted barely thirty seconds. If they kept going, his sword would have shattered completely. Since it's not a material defect, the only explanation is the difference in Cursed Energy reinforcement allocation between offense and defense. The old man's Cursed Energy output simply couldn't keep up."
Ashiya looked deeply anxious. "I still have an ocean of techniques to teach you, but I can no longer instruct you through direct combat! My physical vessel simply cannot keep up with my curriculum! Mahito, you are far too brilliant. You are so exceptionally talented that I am physically incapable of passing on my complete legacy to you."
"No, you've already taught me more than enough, Instructor Ashiya," Mahito said, sheathing his bamboo sword. He spoke with genuine sincerity. "Sarutobi, Sarumawashi, Yamakage, Tsukikage, Ukifune... I have etched every single technique flawlessly into my eyes."
"Simply seeing them is entirely insufficient! You must experience the kinetic flow firsthand to truly master them!" Ashiya groaned in pure frustration. "I... I am reliving the exact same suffocating despair I felt a thousand years ago when I faced Ryomen Sukuna. I'm honestly beginning to doubt if the techniques I've taught you will actually be of any use in real combat."
"If you wish, Instructor Ashiya, I can restore your body to its absolute physical prime," Mahito offered.
Mahito wasn't lying. He was no longer the confused transmigrator who had first awakened in this world. Having ruthlessly experimented on countless Jujutsu Sorcerers, his anatomical understanding of the human body was absolute. He could even use Construction to forge entirely new, perfectly synchronized biological vessels for incarnations! With his current mastery, Mahito merely needed to brush his fingers against someone's flesh to instantly reconstruct their body to match the exact bone age and cellular density of their prime.
The deeper he explored the true potential of Idle Transfiguration, the more he realized the canonical Mahito had walked down a completely idiotic path.
The canonical Mahito treated Idle Transfiguration like a cheap shapeshifting gimmick, thoughtlessly mangling his own flesh and the bodies of his victims. While he achieved some success—most notably his final evolution, *Idle Transfiguration: Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing*—that was merely scratching the absolute surface of the technique's potential.
The canonical Mahito had actually discovered the ultimate truth: he explicitly stated that Idle Transfiguration granted him eyes that could perfectly perceive the human soul. He could freely modify the soul, and he saw that the fragments shedding from a soul were literal manifestations of human emotion. He could read joy, anger, sorrow, and fear with absolute clarity.
If he could read and physically rewrite the soul, and thereby rewrite emotions... couldn't he mathematically control human psychology? Couldn't he perfectly brainwash anyone? But the canonical Mahito never bothered to explore that path. The current Mahito, however, had weaponized it to terrifying effect, creating techniques like 'Emotional Projection Sight', 'Thought Imprint', and 'Purification of the Six Roots'.
Furthermore, if he could casually rewrite the soul to reconstruct the physical body, couldn't he manually 'correct' anatomical flaws? Couldn't he artificially graft any physical talent onto himself? Mahito was absolutely certain that if he ever managed to perfectly clone Satoru Gojo's biology, he could surgically implant the Six Eyes into his own skull with zero rejection rate.
Even more terrifying: a human's Innate Technique was biologically anchored in the prefrontal cortex. That meant he could theoretically copy techniques directly! Even without utilizing Reverse Cursed Technique, he could simply physically engrave someone else's Innate Technique into his own brain! The Cursed Energy Core functioned identically. It was physically located in the lower abdomen. By precisely replicating that core, Mahito could perfectly clone a Sorcerer's innate Cursed Energy output.
Then there was the concept of multi-soul fusions. The canonical Mahito successfully forced multiple human souls to perfectly fuse into a single entity—a feat Yuki Tsukumo's personal research notes explicitly declared to be theoretically impossible. Yet Mahito achieved it effortlessly. This proved his authority over soul manipulation fundamentally transcended the established laws of Jujutsu science.
If he could fuse humans, why couldn't he fuse himself? Was temporarily merging multiple souls into his own vessel really that difficult? Wouldn't the resulting power multiplier be astronomically higher than some generic flesh amalgamation?
Later in the canon, Mahito learned to create literal clones by copying his soul into another vessel. Aside from lacking Idle Transfiguration, the clone possessed his exact consciousness and shared a linked hive-mind. If he pushed that evolution further, generating an entire Zerg-like swarm of perfectly synchronized clones was entirely within the realm of possibility.
Finally, there was the modification of Cursed Spirits.
The original canon never explicitly confirmed it, but it heavily implied that the sudden, inexplicable surge in undocumented Special Grade Curses was Mahito's doing.
The Locust Curse was a prime example. It was already displaying the foundational traits of a highly intelligent Cursed Spirit. If Mahito had continued to nurture it, he could have easily engineered an intelligent Curse on par with himself, Jogo, Hanami, and Dagon.
But the canonical Mahito refused to do any of this!
He pigeonholed himself into a cheap shapeshifter. He solely researched Cursed Spirits and normal humans. He never once bothered to dissect and study a fellow Curse User! And after suffering his first defeat to Yuji Itadori, he lost his damn mind and became pathologically obsessed with him, completely ignoring every other Sorcerer on the planet.
Ultimately, while the canonical Mahito was officially designated as highly intelligent by the author, his lack of worldly experience severely crippled his operational IQ. Furthermore, he had the malicious Kenjaku constantly manipulating him from the shadows, treating Mahito like a disposable puppet. Mahito genuinely believed he was completely free, never realizing his every move danced perfectly to Kenjaku's strings, leaving him absolutely zero room to resist.
Unsurprisingly, Ashiya rejected the offer. "No. I refuse. If we had an abundance of time, I would gladly return to my youth. But right now, we are out of time. My sword and my body require extensive synchronization. Reverting to my prime now would leave me no time to continue instructing you. At the very least, until your decisive battle with Yuki Tsukumo concludes, I must remain in this state. I need to impart as much technical theory to you as physically possible."
Swordsmanship was a hyper-precision art. Even ignoring the massive shock of violently reverting an aged body to its prime, simply changing the length or weight of a katana required intense recalibration. Ashiya was completely confident he could perfectly adapt to a youthful body given a few weeks. The problem was, they didn't have a few weeks.
Jogo finally saw an opening to speak and roared at the top of his lungs, "Mahito!"
"Jogo, Hanami, Dagon. Welcome back." Mahito opened his arms wide. "Did the mission go smoothly?"
"We'll discuss the mission later," Jogo waved his hand dismissively, his voice tight with rage. "Mahito! You're actively throwing your life away again! You actually dared to challenge a Special Grade Sorcerer?!"
Mahito chuckled. "That doesn't sound like you at all. I thought you'd proudly declare, 'Go get 'em, Mahito! I'll hold down the fort while you're gone!'"
"This is not a joke, Mahito," Jogo growled, the miniature volcano on his head erupting with real fire. "I thought you perfectly understood the sheer, apocalyptic terror of a Special Grade Sorcerer! Look at the guy standing right next to you! When you fought a purely physical brawler like Hakari, you meticulously gathered intel and only engaged when you were absolutely certain you could win. But you know literally nothing about Yuki Tsukumo's combat profile! Why in God's name would you challenge her?!"
The 'purely physical brawler,' Kinji Hakari, scowled and shouted, "Hey! Volcano Head! Are you asking for another beating?!"
Jogo completely ignored Hakari, keeping his eye locked intensely on Mahito.
Hanami sighed softly, turning to Ashiya Sadatsuna. She asked gently, [Pardon me, but who might you be?]
"How utterly fascinating. I cannot comprehend the auditory language, yet the meaning seamlessly manifests in my mind. To think such an entity exists among intelligent Curses... I could never have imagined this," the old man marveled. He straightened his posture and introduced himself formally. "I am Ashiya Sadatsuna, founder of the New Shadow Style. At the request of Mahito, the King of Curses, I currently offer him my services."
[The founder of the New Shadow Style? Then you must be a figure from a millennium ago.] Hanami expressed profound awe. [Your allegiance is equivalent to gaining the strength of a hundred elite Sorcerers.]
"You flatter me..." Ashiya instantly slipped back into his arrogant, ancient persona, completely discarding the screaming, cursing madman he had been yesterday. He switched his pronoun back from 'I' to the archaic 'this old master.' "Encountering intelligent Curses aside from Mahito has truly broadened this old master's horizons. Hanami-dono, you exude absolutely none of the foul malice typical of Cursed Spirits. Instead, you radiate the pure fragrance of a primeval forest. It is this old master's distinct honor to make your acquaintance."
[The honor is entirely mine...] Hanami replied politely.
Jogo violently interrupted. "Hold on, Hanami. You know this fossil? What the hell is the New Shadow Style?"
Ashiya deadpanned, turning to Mahito. "Now *that* explosive temper perfectly aligns with my preconceived stereotypes of Cursed Spirits. You and Hanami are truly bizarre anomalies, aren't you?"
He had instantly dropped the 'old master' act and reverted back to 'I'.
Mahito couldn't help but sigh. When it came to the sheer art of flexing, modern youth absolutely could not compete with these thousand-year-old ghosts.
Hanami sighed again. [The New Shadow Style is an absolutely massive faction within the Jujutsu world. Virtually every Sorcerer lacking an Innate Technique relies heavily on their teachings. It is no exaggeration to say the New Shadow Style single-handedly saved the lives of every talentless Sorcerer in history... Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of Jujutsu society knows of them.]
"Huh?" Jogo looked genuinely bewildered. "Why haven't I heard of them?"
*Excellent. Jogo is performing flawlessly, as always. Good to know some things never change,* Mahito thought.
Dagon hopped past Jogo and Hanami, launching himself directly at Mahito. Mahito caught him in a warm embrace, gently patting his head.
"Good boy, Dagon. Very good boy," Mahito smiled softly. Dagon bounced excitedly, blinking his massive, innocent eyes.
Mahito nodded, his smile widening. "I see. So the mission was a complete success. You did phenomenally well, Dagon."
"I didn't understand a single word of that exchange," Ashiya said blankly.
"You don't need to understand the words. Just looking at their demeanors is enough to confirm the mission was a success," Kenjaku laughed heartily. "It seems we will be welcoming new comrades into our ranks very soon."
Gathering raw materials to forge new intelligent Cursed Spirits—that was the mission Mahito had assigned them. It was his ultimate project to complete the canonical Mahito's unfinished work.
He refused to settle for mass-producing mentally deficient grunts like the Locust Curse. He wanted to engineer genuine, fully sentient Cursed Spirits exactly like himself and his family! The logic was simple: rather than churning out ten thousand braindead failures, it was infinitely more valuable to successfully engineer a single Jogo.
Mahito was absolutely certain that one Jogo could slaughter ten thousand Locust Curses without breaking a sweat!
Even if a newly birthed intelligent Curse was initially weaker than a standard monster, their true sentience guaranteed explosive growth. With proper training, they would rapidly and stably evolve into Special Grade Curses. Because they possessed high-level human intellect, their actual combat lethality would astronomically eclipse the Jujutsu Headquarters' baseline metrics for 'Special Grade.'
If Mahito personally trained them, even if they never reached Jogo's apocalyptic output, they would easily match a Domain-less Dagon.
And Mahito would be perfectly satisfied with that baseline.
Since he possessed the technical ability to achieve it, he was determined to pursue it. Mahito's thirst for knowledge and Jujutsu engineering was a bottomless abyss. Since his own personal power level had temporarily plateaued, his logical next step was to artificially manufacture powerful allies to support him.
However, not just any Cursed Spirit could be forcibly evolved into a highly intelligent entity. According to Mahito's research, the vast majority of Curses physically lacked the potential. Aside from requiring a massive reservoir of Cursed Energy, the absolute most critical prerequisite was that the Curse had to be born from a 'Legend' or 'Myth'.
The exact scientific reason remained unclear. Kenjaku theorized that Curses rooted in collective human mythology were fundamentally better conduits for absorbing ambient, leaked Cursed Energy from the masses. But that was just a working hypothesis. Even Kenjaku couldn't definitively prove the underlying mechanics; unraveling it would require decades of dedicated research.
But they were out of time. So they ruthlessly discarded theoretical science and fully embraced practical, trial-and-error engineering.
When the Wright Brothers first achieved flight, the theoretical physics of aerodynamics were entirely incomplete. That didn't stop them from using practical engineering to touch the sky.
Jogo scowled darkly. "Tracking down an Imaginary Vengeful Spirit... was significantly harder than I anticipated."
He paused, unable to hold back his anxiety any longer. "Mahito, do you absolutely have to fight Yuki Tsukumo right now? You haven't reached your final evolution yet. You can just lay low and wait. Right now, time is our greatest ally."
"This is the absolute best opportunity we will ever get," Mahito stated frankly. "To be perfectly honest, Yuki Tsukumo's sudden appearance completely derailed my itinerary. Following the Zen'in massacre, I originally planned to vanish, focus purely on training and consolidating my power, and then lead the three of you in a coordinated strike against Satoru Gojo. But Yuki Tsukumo's aggressive intervention shattered that timeline. She forced my hand. I have to eliminate her first."
Kenjaku sighed heavily. "Do not blame Mahito. This is entirely my fault. I severely miscalculated the Jujutsu Headquarters' reaction speed... In fact, it's not just Yuki Tsukumo. Yuta Okkotsu has also been officially recalled to Japan. The three actively operating Special Grade Sorcerers are currently assembled at the Jujutsu Headquarters as we speak."
Jogo clenched his fists, a wave of dizzying vertigo crashing over him.
Satoru Gojo alone was enough of a living nightmare to drive them insane. Now they had added two more monsters to the board. The situation had deteriorated to absolute zero.
Jogo's voice trembled slightly as he asked, "I remember you telling us that Tengen's final evolution is scheduled to complete by the end of this year... Do we actually have the firepower to kill Tengen within that timeframe now?"
"Which is exactly why we must eliminate Yuki Tsukumo immediately," Mahito replied coldly. "I am fully aware our timeline is suffocatingly tight. But if we retreat from this duel, the next time we engage, we will very likely be facing all three Special Grade Sorcerers simultaneously... If that happens, our survival rate drops to zero."
Jogo was completely silenced.
Hanami suddenly asked, [Are we absolutely certain Yuki Tsukumo is arriving alone?]
"I forced her to swear a Binding Vow confirming it," Mahito said. "But I have zero faith she won't attempt to exploit a loophole. My primary concern is Satoru Gojo stealthily tailing her... We may need to devise a strategy to physically lock Gojo down."
Jogo stared at him with desperate expectation. "Do you have a plan?"
"Hmm..." Kenjaku rubbed his chin, smiling pleasantly. "I'm currently brainstorming."
"Are you messing with me?!" Jogo exploded in fury.
Suddenly, a phone rang. Hakari pulled his phone from his pocket. His pupils contracted violently.
Mahito instantly noticed the microscopic shift. "Who is it?" he asked.
"It's Gojo-sensei." Hakari took a deep, shuddering breath. "He's... calling me directly."
[Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. I have been suffering from severe insomnia for over a month now, constantly reversing my day/night cycle and experiencing memory degradation. I didn't stop writing—I actually have about 10 chapters backlogged. I literally just forgot to hit the upload button. I usually post exactly at 19:00. If I miss that window, it's strictly because I forgot, just like today. I am so, so sorry.]