Yuki Tsukumo explained, "Some people are born with a 'Noble Soul.' You might not understand what I mean by that, but you've definitely met someone like that."
"Me?" Satoru Gojo pointed at himself, completely lost. "I've met someone with a Noble Soul? Who?"
Yuki Tsukumo dropped a name: "Riko Amanai."
Gojo instinctively brought a hand to his blindfold. For a split second just now, his eyes had twitched with a phantom ache. Riko Amanai... the Star Plasma Vessel he had escorted during his high school days.
Tengen spoke slowly, "The term 'Noble Soul' is a collective designation for those whose souls possess an overwhelming, suppressive control over their physical bodies. A normal person's life is constantly swayed by their bodily hormones, especially when it comes to extreme emotions."
"But those with a 'Noble Soul' are naturally born with the ability to keep these emotions in check. It allows them to easily identify exactly what they want out of life and dedicate their entire existence to it."
Gojo shook his head, uncomprehending. "I don't get it."
"Star Plasma Vessels," Yuki Tsukumo revealed the ultimate secret. "Every Star Plasma Vessel possesses a 'Noble Soul.' Have you never stopped to wonder why Tengen absolutely *must* merge with a Star Plasma Vessel to maintain her human identity? What makes a Star Plasma Vessel so incredibly special?"
Yuki answered her own question:
"It is because a Star Plasma Vessel's soul naturally suppresses the mutations brought on by the flesh."
"This doesn't mean Star Plasma Vessels are inherently apathetic or cold. Quite the opposite—they experience emotional shifts far more acutely than normal people. But at the same time, they possess a crystal-clear understanding of what they truly want, allowing them to completely block out external temptations."
"You could even say—they have a far deeper comprehension of the Greater Good."
"Tengen, who has been merging with Star Plasma Vessels for a thousand years, now has nothing but the Greater Good remaining in her heart. As long as that Greater Good is preserved, she will remain eternally rational, eternally loyal to humanity. She becomes the true guardian deity of mankind. She becomes Tengen."
*[Listen up, Master Tengen is me! I am Master Tengen!]* The proud voice of a young girl flashed through Gojo's mind.
Gojo forced the corners of his mouth up into a smile. "I never realized I had the honor of guarding a 'Noble Soul.' How glorious."
Yuki shot him a deep look, seeing right through to the scars hidden in Gojo's heart. She considerately changed the subject. "I used to be a Star Plasma Vessel too, but I rejected Tengen. In a thousand years, I'm probably the only Vessel to ever refuse the merger."
"No, you aren't the only one," Gojo interjected suddenly. Yuki looked at him in surprise.
"Riko... right before she stepped into the Tombs of the Star, she chose to reject it." Gojo's voice was unnervingly calm. "She asked Suguru to take her away. Before she even made her choice, Suguru and I had already decided that if Riko chose not to merge, we would take her away—even if it meant making an enemy of Master Tengen."
But neither he nor Suguru Geto had managed to do it.
Yuki fell silent. She regretted opening this can of worms. She hadn't expected the usually flippant and callous Satoru Gojo to still care so deeply about that specific mission. Even now, he still hadn't moved past it... and perhaps, he never would.
That kind of heartache only grew sharper with time. Not even time could heal it.
"I give every Star Plasma Vessel ample time to regret their duty. Over the span of a thousand years, only two have ever rejected me. One was Yuki Tsukumo, and the other was Riko Amanai."
Tengen slowly stated, "Yuki Tsukumo rejected me through fierce rebellion. Riko Amanai was already inside the Tombs of the Star. I thought I was finally going to witness the very first Star Plasma Vessel come before me and reject me to my face. Unfortunately... she was destroyed by the Sorcerer Killer."
Tengen sighed, turning to Yuki. "You once said you wanted to contact other Star Plasma Vessels to rally them into rebelling against me. Honestly, there was no need. If a Vessel refuses, I would never force them."
Yuki stroked her long hair, looking a bit embarrassed. She had indeed spouted off about doing exactly that back in the day. No matter how much 'Greater Good' propaganda was spun around the Star Plasma Vessel merger, Yuki felt the whole concept reeked of something fundamentally sinister from the root up. She simply hadn't trusted Tengen.
And once she actually stepped into the Jujutsu world, she trusted her even less.
You could only say that the utterly toxic environment of Jujutsu society naturally made her distrustful. By association, Tengen looked like a monstrous, thousand-year-old conspirator in her eyes. It was only after making actual contact that she realized how dreadfully naive her past self had been.
Of course, even now, she hadn't entirely abandoned those feelings. She still felt the merger possessed an inherently sinister undercurrent, and she still held a prejudice against Tengen. But that prejudice wouldn't shake her resolve; she knew exactly what she was doing.
Tengen pulled the conversation back on track. "If we assume the Lord of Cursed Spirits possesses a 'Noble Soul,' it explains a great many things."
"It explains why, despite being a curse, he could suppress his innate nature through post-natal education. It explains why, even now, he hasn't actively sought to harm humans. And it explains how he can exhibit such pure, untainted benevolence."
"Because he is naturally immune to the twisted distortion of Curses."
"An ability that can interfere with the soul, paired with a Reverse Cursed Technique that can create souls. Just hearing about it lets you know how terrifying that power is. Combine that with his identity as a Cursed Spirit, and it immediately gives off an unshakable aura of pure evil."
"And he has indeed set about creating other intelligent Cursed Spirits besides himself."
"Normally, one would assume a person wielding this kind of ability would actively create monsters. I can easily imagine these monsters possessing various distinct abilities, and as their creator, he would be able to manipulate them completely—much like Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
*Hmm, the thousand-year-old sorcerer had gone down the wrong rabbit hole.* Whether it was the canon Mahito or the current Mahito, they both technically possessed that capability. But the canon Mahito had a few screws loose and aggressively locked horns with Yuji Itadori, completely failing to deeply explore that avenue. His most 'successful' creation was a moronic grasshopper curse. As for the current Mahito? He opted to just copy Cursed Techniques and play around with the Limitless instead.
*Creating monsters? Not his style.*
Tengen continued her analysis:
"Techniques like Suguru Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation or Yuta Okkotsu's Copy share a distinct characteristic: they can grow infinitely stronger, with no ceiling."
"This gives their users a severe path dependency. After all, it is just far too convenient. As long as you prepare thoroughly, you can adapt to any situation, break out of any corner, and never find yourself in a truly hopeless predicament. This is precisely why any sorcerer manifesting a similar technique is rapidly classified as Special Grade."
"Because it's far too versatile, making its potential utterly terrifying."
"Usually, once users of these techniques master Domain Expansion, the resulting Domain offers a similar outcome—the ability to utilize multiple distinct abilities simultaneously. It acts as an amplifier, allowing them to comfortably handle any potential Domain clashes."
Gojo thought of his student, Yuta Okkotsu. Yuta was a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer wielding the Copy technique, and his Domain Expansion operated exactly as Tengen described, granting him the freedom to comfortably utilize multiple abilities for synchronized combat.
*A thousand-year-old Jujutsu Sorcerer indeed. Her insight and experience are unquestionable.*
"The Lord of Cursed Spirits shares this same potential, and he has practically proven he can do exactly that. Yet, his Domain Expansion is not designed to let him comfortably wield multiple abilities. Instead, it is specifically designed to guarantee a 'revival' against his own potential death, ensuring he never falls into a hopeless situation. Why?"
Tengen asked, and then answered her own question:
"Because he knows exactly what it is he truly needs."
"He effortlessly suppressed the temptation of easily wielding multiple abilities."
"A Domain Expansion like that is incredibly strong, but against Satoru Gojo, it is utterly useless. Gojo's combination of the Six Eyes and Limitless doesn't fear a multitude of abilities; no matter what those abilities are, they won't work."
"Satoru Gojo is a once-in-a-millennium genius. He isn't just exceptionally powerful; his foundational skills are rock solid. When multiple abilities fail, Gojo can kill the Lord of Cursed Spirits relying purely on his overwhelming fundamental prowess."
"Therefore, based on the current disparity in strength between us, he chose the one ability he genuinely needed—Revival."
Tengen looked between Yuki Tsukumo and Satoru Gojo, her voice turning heavy. "He made the right choice. Right now, for instance, we have absolutely no countermeasure against it. Even knowing the Lord of Cursed Spirits' abilities only serves to increase the pressure on us."
"We cannot even afford to make this information public, as it would incite widespread panic and... greed."
"Right now, the side that has to enforce an information blackout isn't the Lord of Cursed Spirits—it's us. We've been put on the defensive."
Gojo understood Tengen's meaning perfectly, and he finally understood why Yuki Tsukumo had undergone such a massive shift in attitude.
A sovereign who remains eternally untainted by the mind-warping effects of Curses, who operates with supreme benevolence—that was indeed a ruler worth trusting.
Benevolence in the Jujutsu world was entirely different from benevolence in the mundane world. Because for a Jujutsu Sorcerer, hatred directly translated into tangible power!
Jujutsu Sorcerers are creatures that extract negative emotions from their hearts and convert them into very real, very lethal force. Hatred is the most direct and extreme of all negative emotions. Driven by sheer hatred, even a thoroughly average sorcerer can easily hit their limits, or even surpass them.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer who has surpassed their limits staring at you with pure, unadulterated malice. Terrifying, isn't it? Yet Mahito had spared the elderly and the weak of the Zen'in clan.
That fact alone was enough to make any sorcerer steeped in the Jujutsu world marvel at the sheer benevolence of the Lord of Cursed Spirits.
Furthermore, Yuki Tsukumo's reasoning was fundamentally different from Kinji Hakari's. Hakari had been utterly captivated by the Lord of Cursed Spirits' personal charisma. Yuki, however, was operating on cold rationality. She had judged, from a scholar's perspective, that the King of Curses was genuinely fit to rule the world.
No wonder even Yuki, who had previously maintained an absolute zero-tolerance policy toward Cursed Spirits, found her resolve wavering.
Gojo pondered for a moment before asking, "What about sealing him?"
"At this stage, our seals are purely physical containments," Tengen offered proactively. "Inside the seal, the sealed target remains conscious. And if he is conscious, he can commit suicide. The Lord of Cursed Spirits would simply revive in some other corner of the world."
After all, Mahito's Domain Expansion was deployed directly at the soul's final resting place—the space commonly known as the "Life flashing before one's eyes" dimension. No seal could reach that place. Just as Yuki Tsukumo had once roared at Mahito in disbelief:
*[This is the final destination of all souls, the ultimate sanctuary that nothing can violate!]*
Yuki spoke up, "It's too late to try and invent a Cursed Object capable of sealing consciousness on such short notice... I guarantee you, Mahito will not give us the time. He might even *want* us to waste time building such a Cursed Object, giving him more leisure to elevate himself. Time is not on our side."
Gojo let out a breath, completely discarding the idea of a seal.
In canon, Gojo was capable of accelerating his own body's internal time flow in an attempt to break out of the Prison Realm's sealing conditions. If a sorcerer could accelerate their physical time, committing suicide was obviously on the table too. Naturally, seals were originally designed for enemies that couldn't be killed or were extremely difficult to kill. If the target just kills themselves, whether the seal holds or not becomes entirely irrelevant.
"However, I cannot fathom exactly how he utilizes his Domain Expansion to touch upon 'death'," Tengen crossed her arms, deep in thought. "A Domain Expansion is a barrier born of imagination. In other words, to touch upon death, the Lord of Cursed Spirits must possess an intimate understanding of the 'Life flashing before one's eyes' space, having personally experienced it multiple times."
"Simultaneously, even without using Domain Expansion, he can achieve something remarkably close to resurrection, and he possesses absolute, unwavering faith in that fact."
"Finally... he must have personally experienced death."
The conditions were absurdly harsh. Even Tengen, with a thousand years of accumulated experience, couldn't believe anyone in the world could meet them. She herself was the entity closest to meeting those harsh criteria, yet even she hadn't truly touched upon death.
If even she couldn't imagine it, it was impossible for anyone else. The Lord of Cursed Spirits had shattered common sense. Why?
Unable to make sense of it, Yuki temporarily shifted the subject:
"He possesses the ability to interfere with souls. This must be the Cursed Technique Lapse of his Innate Technique. Ever since he was born as a Cursed Spirit, he's been able to freely manipulate souls. As long as he wills it, he can maintain his 'Noble Soul' without it changing. Perhaps this is why he remains so astoundingly lucid."
Tengen hesitated, then rejected the idea. "That should be innate, but theoretically, it's impossible. No matter how special the King of Curses is, it... he... he is still a Cursed Spirit. And Cursed Spirits are the physical manifestation of curses. He ought to be more purely evil than any curse in existence. His ability to interfere with souls should only serve to make his evil nature utterly immutable, sustaining it for eternity."
That was common sense.
And Tengen was right on the money. The canon Mahito was exactly like that.
Hanami possessed a natural aversion to cursing others. She once stated that she didn't kill to harm humans, but rather for the sake of the Earth's future—a Greater Good.
Yet the canon Mahito had casually persuaded Hanami during a chat, *[As a Cursed Spirit]*, to abandon that Greater Good. He wanted to erase Hanami's Greater Good, urging her to harm humans purely as a curse should.
The soul-manipulating ability took effect the moment Mahito was born, applying to both the canon Mahito and the current Mahito, functioning in a way that even its owner couldn't detect.
Its external manifestation was maintaining the user's current personality in eternal stasis, rendering their mental state utterly immortal.
Yuki Tsukumo and Tengen locked eyes, speaking in unison: "Unless... he wasn't a Cursed Spirit to begin with!"
Realization dawned on Gojo. "He's a reincarnator? He used to be human... a Star Plasma Vessel with a 'Noble Soul'?!"
Gojo very naturally began referring to him with a human pronoun, pondering out loud: "He reincarnated as a Cursed Spirit, and this Cursed Spirit just so happened to possess a soul-manipulation technique. From birth, he used his soul manipulation to keep his soul static, allowing his Noble Soul to permanently stabilize."
He turned to look at Yuki. "You don't have a Noble Soul anymore? All Star Plasma Vessels have Noble Souls, and you used to be one."
Yuki nodded slowly. "Cursed Energy can infect the soul. It's just like how a vessel for a Cursed Object might eventually learn to use the Cursed Object's technique even after it's been exorcised from their body. There are countless examples. Even if I used to have a Noble Soul, it's completely gone now."
She looked at Gojo, emphasizing her point. "That is exactly why I said Mahito is an absolutely unique, singular anomaly in the entire Jujutsu world. Aside from him, the moment a Star Plasma Vessel utilizes Cursed Energy, they inevitably lose their Noble Soul."
This was also why Tengen had to merge with a Star Plasma Vessel periodically. Otherwise, given Tengen's peerless understanding of Jujutsu, simply merging once would have been enough to glean every last secret a Star Plasma Vessel held, rendering subsequent mergers unnecessary.
But even Tengen couldn't stabilize a Noble Soul indefinitely. She, too, had to use Cursed Energy.
Because the duration a Star Plasma Vessel could be maintained was limited, she had to initiate a new merger before the previous Vessel's Noble Soul dissipated. That was the true reason she had to merge on a set schedule.
Without the suppressing will of a Star Plasma Vessel keeping her flesh in check, not even Tengen could stop her physical body from continuously mutating toward a "Divine" state. The inevitable result was that, regardless of her own desires, her body would ceaselessly evolve toward a higher lifeform.
"Are there any male Star Plasma Vessels?" Gojo asked curiously.
"I am female, so even when merging with a Star Plasma Vessel, they must be human females," Tengen explained. "Furthermore, before I became 'Tengen,' I was also a Star Plasma Vessel. The Vessels I can resonate with and locate will always be female. So, as to whether males exist, I genuinely do not know. Even if there were, I wouldn't be surprised."
Gojo understood. This meant that if an undiscovered male Star Plasma Vessel reincarnated into a Cursed Spirit, and that Cursed Spirit coincidentally possessed soul manipulation, he could indeed become the Mahito they faced today.
But his brows furrowed again. "But his current behavior doesn't resemble a reincarnator in the slightest. Quite the opposite—his growth is fully documented, laid out plainly right in front of us. And his sense of honor belongs to the ancient era, which is why you were able to confirm his teacher was Ashiya Sadatsuna."
A true reincarnator should already possess a mature, established system of cultivation; otherwise, achieving reincarnation itself would be impossible. And one's core sense of honor represents a reincarnator's fundamental personality—something they wouldn't just discard.
Mahito's progression had been clearly traceable ever since he first appeared, meaning he completely lacked his own pre-existing cultivation system. He was grinding it out step-by-step post-reincarnation. This directly ruled out the possibility of him being a sorcerer who reincarnated via Jujutsu, not to mention his archaic sense of honor, which no modern person could possibly teach him.
*Hmm, the possibility of a modern layman transmigrating directly into Mahito's body, like in an Isekai web novel, hadn't even crossed the minds of anyone present.*
*Are you kidding?! How could an ordinary human soul possess the body of a Cursed Spirit? Get real!*
*Alas, none of them had been baptized by the brain-rot of modern Isekai tropes; their minds simply didn't contain the conceptual framework for it.*
In truth, the fact that they managed to logically deduce things this far purely through reasoning already proved that these three were undeniably the absolute apex of intellect in this world. What they lacked wasn't theoretical knowledge, but rather the sheer, unhinged imagination of a borderline psychotic.
Yuki probed tentatively, "Perhaps he lost all his memories?"
"He possesses the ability to manipulate souls; it's impossible for him to lose his memories," Tengen refuted after a brief hesitation.
Gojo finally snapped under the suffocating academic atmosphere, complaining loudly, "We aren't conducting a university research panel here! Properly analyze the Lord of Cursed Spirits' actual combat abilities, stop throwing this theoretical junk at me! I don't understand it!"
Yuki sighed. "Fine. Regardless of whether he is a reincarnator or not, it doesn't affect our strategy against him. All we can confirm is that his soul is genuinely clean and pure, making him someone who can be trusted. Unfortunately, this trustworthy individual has already firmly resolved to completely revolutionize the Jujutsu world, rendering him our undeniable enemy."
Gojo laughed. "He's preparing for his final showdown with me. Now that he holds the ultimate trump card of infinite revivals, you could say he's fully matured. He could come to test the waters with me at any moment."
Tengen suddenly spoke up. "Satoru Gojo, your student is looking for you."
Gojo blinked. "Huh? Who?"
"Yuta Okkotsu."
"Him?" Gojo scrunched up his eyebrows. "I thought he was ordered to go guard those old geezers... Did something go wrong on the higher-ups' end?"
Tengen fell silent for a moment, communicating telepathically over a long distance.
After a pause, Tengen spoke with a thoroughly bizarre tone. "He says... your future wife has been kidnapped."
Gojo patted his blindfold, utterly bewildered. "Me? I have a fiancée? Why didn't anyone tell me? Who is it?"
"Utahime Iori," Tengen stated.
Gojo froze, then shrieked at the top of his lungs, "WHO?! That ghost shrine maiden?! My future wife?! Even if I die, even if I hurl myself straight off your Sunyata Barrier, I would never marry that woman! Was Yuta's brain caved in by the old geezers using an ashtray?!"
"She was kidnapped by the Lord of Cursed Spirits," Tengen dropped the final bombshell. "He was also the one who leaked the claim that Utahime Iori is your future wife."
Gojo was dumbfounded. "...Huh?"
He violently scratched his hair, turning to loudly mock Yuki Tsukumo. "*This* is the guy you just called trustworthy?! He's resorting to kidnapping, and he's even spreading vile rumors about me!"
Yuki burst into roaring laughter. "Isn't it fascinating?"
"There is absolutely nothing fascinating about this!" Gojo complained bitterly.
Such an audaciously public kidnapping ironically proved that Utahime Iori was in absolutely no danger. Therefore, nobody was actually worried about her safety. Coupled with the fact that their preceding discussion had firmly established Mahito was biologically incapable of casual murder, the trio still had the leisure to ruthlessly crack jokes about the situation.
But the jokes were merely a facade. They all knew exactly what this meant.
Tengen's voice dropped, grave and heavy. "You need to be careful, Satoru Gojo. The Lord of Cursed Spirits... is coming for you."