Panda screamed with all his might: "EVAAADE—!" KABOOM!
Panda grabbed Toge Inumaki and Nobara Kugisaki, Maki Zen'in hoisted up Yuji Itadori, and Megumi Fushiguro reacted instantly, snatching up Rice Shower beside him. They evacuated the spot immediately. The next second, a detonation occurred. The massive shockwave crashed over them like a tempest.
"I feel like I just got dropped into a warzone!" Nobara roared from Panda's arms. "Bonito Flakes!" Inumaki said.
Even mid-flee, Panda didn't forget to translate: "Toge means we aren't quite at warzone levels yet, since the artillery shells haven't dropped directly on our heads."
Barely had he finished speaking when a massive concussive force slammed into Panda's back. Panda was blown into the sky like a ragdoll caught in a tornado. The two people in his arms flailed their limbs wildly, screaming incoherently in mid-air.
"WE LITERALLY JUST TOOK A DIRECT HIT FROM AN ARTILLERY SHELL, YOU IDIOT!" Nobara bellowed. "Salmon Roe!" Inumaki roared along with her.
Spinning violently through the air, Panda still steadfastly translated: "Toge says we're actually in *more* danger right now than in a warzone!" "YOU DIDN'T NEED TO TRANSLATE THAT ONE!" Nobara shrieked in despair.
Megumi shot a glance at the three airborne idiots and immediately chucked Rice Shower out of his hands. "Maki-senpai!"
Maki tossed aside the Yuji Itadori she was lugging around with perfect sync. Yuji let out a weird yelp in mid-air, but his freakish physical specs proved their worth. He stabilized his balance mid-flight, doing two flips before landing flawlessly on his feet.
"H-Help, help meee!" Rice Shower stammered incoherently, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.
Maki leaped into the air, arms wide open. Rice Shower crashed right into her embrace, causing a noticeable jiggle against Maki's chest as Rice Shower's face was buried in her cleavage. Maki caught her securely and landed gracefully, holding Rice Shower in a perfect princess carry.
Rice Shower was utterly dumbfounded. "Z-Zen'in-senpai."
Maki was wearing her non-prescription glasses. Caught in the direct glare of the sun, the lenses turned opaque, shining brightly. She looked down at Rice Shower and said coolly, "Call me Maki. I don't like being called Zen'in."
Rice Shower's face flushed bright red.
Megumi wove a hand sign, shouting loudly. Cursed Technique Release, Ten Shadows Technique!
The shadow at Megumi's feet rippled like ocean waves. A massive creature surfaced from within—a medium-sized Shikigami resembling a human-faced owl. The Shikigami let out a chilling cry and took to the skies from the shadow.
Still mid-air, Inumaki pulled down the high collar covering the lower half of his face. The distinctive Jujutsu markings framing his mouth were revealed. He opened his mouth and commanded: "Stop!"
Cursed Technique Release, Cursed Speech!
Visible ripples of Cursed Energy expanded outward from Inumaki's mouth, instantly enveloping the three of them mid-flight. They froze abruptly in the air, as if suspended in invisible amber.
Taking advantage of this, Nue grabbed one with its beak and the other two with its talons, slowly flying them down to safety.
Nobara didn't dare move an inch, grumbling through her teeth: "Where the hell is Gojo-sensei? Is he not gonna do anything about this? I swear, if we hadn't moved fast enough, just the shockwave alone would've put us in the ICU... No, scratch that, we wouldn't have even made it to the ICU. We'd just be buried outright!"
All the students sprinted outward until they reached the forest, finally pausing to catch their breath. Yet even out here, they could still feel the ground shuddering intermittently, like the aftershocks of an earthquake. It was hard to believe this level of destruction was caused by two human beings fighting. If someone had told the students this was a carpet bombing, they would've believed it.
Maki set the blushing Rice Shower down and pulled off her glasses, looking back. A colossal creature hovered in the sky—the giant dragon. Maki possessed excellent spatial calculation skills; just by eyeballing it, she could roughly estimate how massive the beast was.
Maki's eyes actually couldn't see Cursed Spirits. The non-prescription glasses she usually wore were cursed tools that allowed her to see them.
When she first saw Hakari's giant dragon, she assumed it was a Shikigami. But as Hakari clashed with Yuki, her sharp instincts told her something was off. Now, even after taking off her glasses, she could still see the giant dragon with her naked eyes. This proved the dragon wasn't just a simple Cursed Spirit or Shikigami.
*What is that thing?*
She muttered, "A fifty-meter behemoth flying around... Heh. I see. So this is what it means to be a 'Special Grade'."
"To think we don't even qualify to be spectators," Panda sighed. "Salmon," Inumaki agreed somberly.
Panda hurriedly translated: "Toge means, 'Yeah'."
"We didn't need a translation for that one, we get it," Nobara snarked.
Yuji Itadori suddenly spoke up. "Man, so that's the goal we're aiming for!"
Everyone's eyes zeroed in on Yuji. There wasn't a single shred of defeat in his gaze. Quite the opposite—he was brimming with confidence and aspiration. He firmly believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he could reach that level one day.
He slammed his fists together, producing a dull thud, and laughed brightly. "It's an honor! Getting to see Special Grades fight up close like this."
"Honestly, for a while after enrolling, I was feeling pretty lost. Everyone knows I only got into this school because my execution was suspended after becoming Ryomen Sukuna's vessel. But right now, I'm genuinely interested in this Jujutsu world! This is insanely fun, isn't it?"
Nobara lost it. "In what universe is this 'fun'?! Can you seriously imagine being like them? Causing an earthquake with a single stomp and reducing a whole plaza to rubble with a casual punch?"
Yuji blinked in genuine confusion. "Why not?"
Nobara was stunned. "Are you serious?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Yuji furrowed his brow, looking as if he couldn't comprehend why Nobara would even think otherwise. "Since we already have two examples right in front of us, why can't we be the third? I admit it might be hard. But as long as we work hard—!"
*Can 'hard work' even get you to that freakish level?!* Nobara lacked the energy to even retort.
Maki suddenly chimed in. "Yuji's right. There's no point in stressing over it. What we just witnessed is the absolute pinnacle of this world. There's no need to force ourselves to keep up with them right this second."
"It might sound a bit sickening to say, but... aren't all of us the ones Gojo-sensei recognized as having limitless potential? As long as we take it step by step, eventually, we'll catch up to them and make our own mark."
It wasn't about believing in themselves; it was about believing in the frivolous man who had gathered them all here. Believing in Satoru Gojo. Those words seemed to inject strength into everyone, sweeping away the heavy atmosphere from moments ago.
Nobara cracked a smile too. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry guys, I was just—"
Megumi stated flatly from the side: "Before he even became a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Itadori could run a 50-meter dash in 3 seconds flat. And that was just him jogging casually without breaking a sweat. His PE teacher chased him down, saying his current speeds alone could shatter modern world sprinting records."
"And after all the Cursed Energy training these past few days, his physical specs have evolved even further. We haven't properly tested it, but running a 100-meter dash in around 2 seconds shouldn't be hard for him now."
"...So the meathead was already a meathead before he even enrolled. No wonder he's so damn confident!" Nobara immediately lost her confidence again. It truly wasn't a lack of ambition on her part; it was just that anyone watching that clash of titans would find it impossible to believe they could ever replicate it. She even suspected that if you dropped those two into a genuine warzone, they could beat both armies into submission bare-handed without getting a single speck of dirt on their clothes.
Nobara's intuition was entirely correct. In the original timeline, when the US military deployed special forces against Kenjaku, they were effortlessly annihilated. It was then that Kenjaku claimed he could conquer the United States single-handedly if he wanted to.
Rice Shower finally snapped out of her daze. She stole a secret glance at Maki, and seeing the mood lighten, took the opportunity to ask, "Who do you guys think will win? Hakari-senpai or Master Yuki?"
Before Hakari's arrival, Satoru Gojo had proudly introduced this upperclassman, claiming that when Hakari was on a roll, he could even defeat one or two Special Grades. Having returned from his journey, he could only have gotten stronger. Perhaps he had truly stepped into the domain of Special Grade.
Yeah, Gojo had claimed Hakari's suspension was just him going off to 'gain experience,' entirely omitting the fact that he was a wanted fugitive.
The students didn't know much about Yuki Tsukumo, but she was a veteran Special Grade whose seniority surpassed even Gojo's. Her experience and power were unquestionable. Furthermore, Hakari was the challenger, which implied he was facing psychological pressure fighting Yuki.
Weighing everything, Panda voiced the consensus: "Probably Master Yuki. I mean, Hakari-senpai is super strong, but age is a factor. Experience-wise, Master Yuki should be vastly superior."
"Nope, Hakari won," a sudden voice chimed in.
Everyone's eyes snapped over. Satoru Gojo was suddenly standing right beside them, beaming. He raised a hand in greeting. "Yo. You kiddos did great! Escaping to a safe zone without me needing to babysit you proves my teaching methods are top-tier."
Maki slid her glasses back on and looked at Gojo. "Gojo-sensei, you're saying Hakari-senpai won? I know he has immortality, but that immortality has a time limit, right? As long as she seizes the exact moment it ends, Master Yuki should be able to land a one-hit kill."
This was precisely how Hajime Kashimo fought Kinji Hakari in the original canon, nearly killing him. It required absolute perfect timing, because Hakari's subsequent Domain Expansion flawlessly aligned with the end of his immortality buff. Unless the opponent capitalized on that microsecond opening, Hakari could infinitely chain his immortality.
As a veteran, Yuki wouldn't miss such an opening. On paper, her win rate was higher.
Gojo laced his fingers behind his head and sighed. "Hakari is showing off absolutely everything he's got. But Yuki... that woman isn't playing fair. She's holding back."
"Bonito Flakes?!" Inumaki exclaimed in shock.
"Toge means, 'How is that possible?!'" Panda translated.
"The Yuki Tsukumo I know possesses the only Cursed Tool Shikigami in the entire world. Her combat style isn't strictly limited to hand-to-hand brawling. She skillfully employs her Cursed Tool Shikigami while supplementing it with Barrier Techniques."
Gojo said with a hint of regret: "But what else have you seen her use besides fundamental Jujutsu combat? She hasn't even fully unleashed her Cursed Technique... She's treating this entire fight as a mere probing exercise. She isn't showing her true colors."
"That's... kinda messed up," Yuji mumbled softly. "Hakari-senpai is literally laying everything on the line."
"That's the adult world for you," Gojo said lightly. "Yuki's objective was never to go all-out against Hakari. Her mission was to extract intel regarding the Lord of Cursed Spirits... and she succeeded. She's undoubtedly figured out the true nature of that giant dragon by now."
The dragon was Hakari's Companion Spirit. Mei Mei had reported this to the Jujutsu Headquarters, even detailing its operational principles. But even so, *how* exactly this external Cursed Energy filtration organ operated remained a mystery to Jujutsu society.
But now, its mechanics were glaringly obvious.
Just as Mahito had told Mei Mei back then: *This giant dragon IS Kinji Hakari!*
Every time Hakari cast Domain Expansion, his physical parameters spiked. This was because his infinite Cursed Energy continually elevated his upper limits. As long as his body could withstand the output, his Cursed Energy was truly limitless. However, the fundamental constraint that he was still a human being could never be changed.
Mei Mei had once stated: *For a Jujutsu Sorcerer, both Cursed Energy and the physical body have their limits.* This law was both invalid and valid for Kinji Hakari.
It was invalid because his infinite Cursed Energy granted him limitless growth potential. Naturally, the 'human limit' didn't apply to his ceiling. However, it was valid because...
Hakari was still in his growing phase. He wasn't even 20 years old yet. He was still strengthening at a pace that seemed to have no end. But eventually, there would come a day when he aged. His overflowing Cursed Energy output would drop as his physical vessel deteriorated. He would, inevitably, be robbed of his power by the passage of time.
But the appearance of the 'Companion Spirit' giant dragon radically altered his future. The Companion Spirit granted Kinji Hakari immortality!
The giant dragon natively did not possess the ability to enlarge itself. Just as Mahito had said, it was simply an external organ used to circulate atmospheric Cursed Energy—no different from a human's arms or legs. But just as human skin possesses elasticity, the dragon had some capacity to stretch.
For a normal Sorcerer—even Satoru Gojo—a Companion Spirit would literally just be a small pet. Even with elasticity, it would at best grow from the size of a kitten to an adult cat. It could never metamorphose into a colossal dragon like that. But Hakari was different. He possessed infinite Cursed Energy. His growth ceiling did not exist!
To reiterate: the Companion Spirit was Hakari's external organ; it *was* Hakari himself.
This was the truth behind the dragon's infinite expansion. Because Hakari's Cursed Energy continuously pushed his limits, allowing endless growth, that boundless potential allowed the dragon—which otherwise only had finite stretchability—to expand and gain mass infinitely.
The dragon's breath was merely the equivalent of a Sorcerer firing a standard Cursed Energy blast. Yet, projected from the dragon's maw, it became a literal artillery shell of Cursed Energy!
Even more terrifying: as time went on, untethered by the chains of aging, Hakari would only grow stronger and stronger, without limit! The dragon's maximum length and weight would become increasingly absurd, increasingly monstrous...
Its potential could eventually rival that of a true cosmic leviathan! Just as Gojo had murmured to himself at the start of the fight: *Kinji Hakari really has gotten stronger.*
Strong enough to proudly call himself a Special Grade!
The Lord of Cursed Spirits had truly bestowed everything upon Hakari. Even if the Lord of Cursed Spirits wasn't human... No, even if it *was* a Cursed Spirit, a destroyer of world order destined to wage a race war, its sheer magnanimity proved it was absolutely worthy of Hakari's fealty.
It was simply too generous, placing far too much trust in Hakari. *When a lord trusts his vassal, why shouldn't the vassal lay down his life for his lord?*
It was only at this exact moment that Satoru Gojo entirely abandoned any thought of swaying Hakari back.
Hakari had indeed unleashed his absolute maximum potential and combat prowess. He had absolutely zero intention of hiding anything from Yuki Tsukumo; he was delivering genuine, unadulterated maximum firepower.
Between two Sorcerers of the same Special Grade tier: one was going all out, even surpassing his limits; the other was putting on an act, pulling her punches. Who would emerge victorious was blatantly obvious.
"The Lord of Cursed Spirits..." Maki murmured under her breath.
Everyone was thinking about this anomalous Cursed Spirit that had abruptly appeared out of nowhere. Among them, Rice Shower's mind was in the greatest turmoil. After all, she was the spy Mahito had planted here...
Even though this spy hadn't transmitted a single piece of intel, and she even suspected Mahito had completely forgotten about her.
She didn't know she had already been modified into a clone of Mahito. Right now, every thought in her head, everything she saw and heard, was already completely grasped by Mahito. If Mahito wanted to, she didn't even need to actively transmit anything; he could peek directly into her brain and extract the intel.
She had thought that since Mahito's faction was already established, she had been left in the dust.
Yuji Itadori suddenly asked: "I remember Hakari-senpai saying... if 'Mahito' couldn't handle Gojo-sensei, they would resurrect Ryomen Sukuna from inside my body?"
Everyone now knew that the Lord of Cursed Spirits was named Mahito.
In other words, if the Lord of Cursed Spirits failed to deal with Satoru Gojo, the allied faction of Cursed Spirits and Curse Users seeking to overthrow Jujutsu society would not hesitate to resurrect the strongest Sorcerer in history from a thousand years ago—Ryomen Sukuna.
And Yuji Itadori was their chosen sacrificial vessel for this resurrection.
A dangerous thought took root in Yuji's mind: *If I just die right now, exactly as the Jujutsu Headquarters wanted...*
Gojo took one glance and immediately knew exactly what was going on in Yuji's head. He slapped Yuji hard on the back, drawing a pained yelp from the boy... Gojo's slaps hit like a truck!
"What are you blindly worrying over? Just take news about the King of Curses as background noise. It's not your job to face him. That's my responsibility."
Gojo surveyed his students, flashing his usual frivolous grin. He declared:
"As for you lot—"
"Just focus on enjoying your youth, you idiot disciples of mine!"
"I have to say, even though Satoru Gojo's personality is totally warped, he really is a good teacher," Mahito mused.
"Peeking in on Tokyo Jujutsu High again?" Kenjaku said enviously. "Even I wouldn't dare pry around there so casually. Tengen's shrines are scattered everywhere. If I went poking around, I'd be discovered immediately. You've made excellent use of Gojo's soft spot, Mahito."
Indeed, Mahito hadn't forgotten about Rice Shower at all. In fact, he valued her immensely.
After all, she was someone with direct, first-hand access to Satoru Gojo. Before this, monitoring Gojo was an agonizingly difficult task for Kenjaku. Even though he had corrupted several higher-ups in Jujutsu Headquarters and manipulated coincidences to stay off Gojo's radar, he had never dared to attempt direct surveillance.
Kenjaku was absolutely confident in one thing: in a random encounter with Satoru Gojo, he would die without question.
As long as Mahito could monitor Gojo through Rice Shower's eyes, he felt entirely at ease, and Kenjaku could scheme without looking over his shoulder. Everyone loved Rice Shower.
*Rice Shower, you've done a fantastic job fulfilling your duties as a spy. We're all extremely grateful!*
"So, it's here?" Mahito looked up at the building they were about to enter. A hospital.
Kenjaku smiled. "Yes, this is the place."
He paused, then added: "The incarnated vessel of the ancient Sorcerer, Yorozu, is right here. If you want to repair your 'Kirigiri' within a week, we have no choice but to ask her... Of course, that's assuming she's willing. I imagine you're well aware of the price she'll demand."
Mahito nodded, smiling faintly. "Yeah. Yorozu is deeply in love with Ryomen Sukuna. If I want her to work for me, then resurrecting Ryomen Sukuna is an absolute requirement... I'm already prepared for that."