Mahito appeared on a stretch of highway. To the left of the road flowed a massive canal, its crashing waves churning up white spray against the banks. He could smell the moisture in the air. The canal's surface was pristine, shimmering with light, while to the right lay an endless expanse of rolling mountains draped in lush green vegetation, their emerald reflections mirrored perfectly on the water's surface.
He looked toward the end of the highway, where there was nothing but absolute darkness. He understood instantly: this was Yuki Tsukumo's afterlife space.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine echoed down the asphalt. Mahito turned toward the sound to see a motorcycle hurtling toward him at breakneck speed. The rider was, as expected, Yuki Tsukumo. She wore a motorcycle helmet, her blonde hair spilling out from the edges and whipping wildly in the wind.
Mahito stood by the edge of the road and stuck out his thumb like a hitchhiker.
With a piercing screech of tires, the motorcycle halted right in front of him. Yuki pulled off her helmet, letting her blonde hair cascade down her back.
Just then, a wave crashed against the canal bank, sending a mist over Yuki's face. For a fleeting moment, she looked almost ethereal. She smiled faintly. "I'm on a one-way trip to Hell. You can't hitch a ride on my bike."
She wasn't wearing her usual black tank top and dark cargo pants from the waking world. Instead, she sported a suede leather jacket draped over a black coat, paired with denim jeans. As she leaned her voluptuous figure against the parked bike, she gave a slight toss of her head, her long blonde hair dancing in the air.
She offered a slight nod. "I was just thinking it was about time you showed up. Sure enough, right before I enter the underworld, I really do get to see you."
"Are you certain you're actually seeing me?" Mahito asked.
"I couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but I've had this nagging feeling the entire ride. A strong premonition that once I ride this bike into that darkness, I'll completely cross over into the underworld. That's true death. But before that, I knew I'd see you."
Yuki turned to the canal, watching the spray of the crashing waves. "Mahito, what kind of women are your type?"
There it was. The classic Yuki Tsukumo interrogation—the very same greeting she'd passed down to her student, Aoi Todo!
"How strange. We exchanged greetings right as we started fighting; I figured you would have asked me then." Mahito chuckled.
Yuki laughed. "Looks like my signature intro is famous. Even you've heard of it."
"More than just famous," Mahito said, unable to hold back a grin. "Your student, Aoi Todo, has really carried the torch. He asks everyone he meets."
"That's great to hear!" Yuki declared loudly, completely unashamed.
"Back then, I just saw you as a simple Cursed Spirit. A mere Curse wasn't worth me getting to know," Yuki said, turning back to Mahito with a profound look in her eyes. "But things are different now. I see you as a human."
Something stirred in Mahito's chest. This was the first time anyone had truly acknowledged him as human. Up until now, no matter how much he insisted, his humanity was entirely self-proclaimed. Even Kenjaku, though he never said it out loud, likely didn't see him as one.
Only Yuki Tsukumo genuinely viewed him as human. Perhaps Naobito Zen'in could be counted too, but that old man had never explicitly called him human until the bitter end. Or perhaps, in Naobito's eyes, appearing in the afterlife space simply made it a given.
"I've never really thought about it," Mahito pondered. "If I had to choose... maybe someone a bit more traditional? I mean, you know, I really can't stand the whole multi-gender thing going on in America."
"I can't stand it either!" Yuki burst into roaring laughter.
Regaining her composure, she leveled a serious look at him. "The type of woman a man desires reflects his true character. Mahito, since you lean toward the traditional, it means your subconscious craves traditional glory. You definitely have a strong chauvinistic streak. To you, a woman should be quiet, pure, beautiful, and detached, while a man must bear the burden of a grand cause, pursue true benevolence, eradicate all darkness, and ensure everything good endures."
Mahito felt a swell of pride at the praise. He smiled. "Are you trying to pick me up with PUA tactics?"
"I'm insulting you," Yuki sneered.
"Insulting me?"
"I am a new-age woman," Yuki said flatly. "I strive for progress and want my destiny in my own hands. I don't care about tradition, and I despise the prejudice against traditional women. A man like you could never be interested in a woman like me. Everything I just said was a polite way of calling you out, but it's a shame you didn't catch the drift."
Mahito stood utterly deadpan.
Yuki pushed off the guardrail and leaned back against her bike, casually shifting the topic as if nothing had happened. "Mahito, what do you think is the difference between a normal human and a Sorcerer?"
Why the sudden change of subject?
Mahito thought for a moment. "It should be physiological differences from birth, right? The organ that extracts Cursed Energy is in the Sorcerer's gut, and the organ for an Innate Technique is in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Normal humans don't have those."
"That's been the common sense for a thousand years," Yuki said, leaning on her bike as the canal water splashed nearby. She smiled. "But my theory is a little different."
"Oh?"
"It's the soul," Yuki stated calmly. "A Jujutsu Sorcerer's soul is fundamentally different from a normal person's. The Jujutsu world got it backwards. It's not that having an Innate Technique gives you a special soul; rather, it is the possession of a special soul that allows a Jujutsu Sorcerer to be born."
This was definitely a concept never mentioned in the original manga.
Mahito suddenly realized that in the original story, Yuki Tsukumo was practically the foremost expert on souls. In the entire Jujutsu world, she was likely the only one bold enough to call herself a master of the soul. Before her, no one had researched it with such depth.
Her dream was to eradicate Cursed Spirits. On the surface, her research seemed entirely disconnected from that goal... so why study the soul?
Mahito looked thoughtful. "Now that you mention it, I've heard that if a Cursed Object infects a vessel's body for long enough, the vessel will eventually be able to use the Cursed Object's abilities, even if the Object is exorcised and the vessel is freed."
Satoru Gojo had said this in the original story. After seeing Yuji Itadori act as a vessel for Ryomen Sukuna, Gojo deduced that over time, Yuji would inevitably gain Sukuna's Innate Technique.
At the time, the specific, unique relationship between Yuji Itadori and Ryomen Sukuna hadn't been fully established in the lore, and Gojo shouldn't have known about it. Yet, Gojo made that judgment anyway, which meant the theory itself was fundamentally sound.
Yuki sighed in admiration. "As expected of the Lord of Cursed Spirits, possessing the power of evolution. You're well-versed in even this level of advanced theory."
Was it really that advanced?
Actually, it was! Mahito suffered from the curse of knowledge. Because he possessed eyes that could directly perceive the soul, and because he could manipulate flesh by altering the soul, his understanding of the theory was profound and unquestioned.
But the vast majority of Sorcerers lacked this ability. Even a veteran Grade 1 Sorcerer like Kento Nanami didn't know how to protect his soul. He had only survived a round of attacks from the original Mahito thanks to the automatic subconscious defense of his Cursed Energy. Any other Sorcerer would have been transfigured on the very first strike.
There were only a handful of people in the entire world who could study the soul to this degree. Satoru Gojo was one, and Yuki Tsukumo standing before him was another. They were true experts—not relying purely on an innate ability, but accumulating knowledge through experience and theory like seasoned scholars.
"Mahito, the relationship between the soul and Cursed Energy is deeper than you imagine," Yuki said slowly. "Through my extensive observation and experimentation, I found that Cursed Energy is tied far more closely to the soul than to the flesh. Cursed Energy doesn't grow as the body matures... it grows as the soul matures."
"What made you connect Cursed Energy to the soul?" Mahito asked. "Generally speaking, since people found the organ for Cursed Energy in the gut and the organ for Innate Techniques in the brain, most assumed they'd discovered the absolute truth of Cursed Energy."
Yuki pointed her index finger at Mahito and smiled. "From Cursed Spirits."
Mahito blinked. "From Cursed Spirits??"
Yuki nodded lightly. "Curses are beings made of pure Cursed Energy without a physical body. We know they are born from the leaked negative emotions of humanity. They don't have physiological structures, yet they use Innate Techniques just fine. Naturally, my hypothesis turned to the soul."
"I researched it thoroughly." Yuki pointed her thumb at herself, speaking with fierce pride. "Ever since the ultimate sinner Noritoshi Kamo found a woman capable of bearing Cursed Spirit children centuries ago and forced her to birth the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, Jujutsu Headquarters banned all research into the composition of Cursed Spirits. But their bans mean nothing to me. I pursued the research anyway."
Mahito muttered, "You really are crazy."
He was no longer a total novice in the Jujutsu world. He finally understood why Jujutsu Headquarters deemed Noritoshi Kamo—the vessel Kenjaku hijacked over a century ago—the greatest sinner in history.
As established, a Grade 1 Sorcerer was a pillar of the Jujutsu world. Special Grades defied categorization entirely, and there hadn't even been a hundred officially recognized Special Grade Sorcerers in all of recorded history.
But what about the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings?
If all nine of them had fully matured, all nine could have claimed the title of Special Grade Sorcerer!
Nine Special Grade Curse Users harboring deep malice toward humanity... Imagine nine Curse Users, only a step below Suguru Geto, steamrolling the entire world at once. That was a terrifying prospect.
It didn't matter that Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki had killed the first two brothers to awaken. That didn't make the Death Paintings weak. On the contrary, they were incredibly strong—it was just that Yuji and Nobara managed to land Black Flashes for an instant kill!
Furthermore, it was a terrible matchup. The narrator in that fight explicitly stated that because Yuji was the vessel for the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna, he was highly resistant to poison. And the Death Painting brothers' Innate Technique relied entirely on poison.
While the manga depicted it as a desperate, blood-pumping clash of life and death, Yuji was never in truly grave danger. The only one actually at risk was Nobara.
Even in the worst-case scenario, Yuji would have killed both brothers and Nobara would have died. Yuji was simply a hard counter to them.
Standing on the side of humanity, even Mahito had to admit that Jujutsu Headquarters had done at least one thing right by banning that research.
As for why Kenjaku didn't care about the Death Paintings... he didn't even care about Yuta Okkotsu. That showed just how impossibly high his standards were. Kenjaku couldn't be evaluated as a normal Sorcerer; his vision was so vast he couldn't be bothered with a mere nine Special Grade Curse Users.
(Ironically, the original Kenjaku was eventually killed by the very Yuta Okkotsu he looked down upon.)
Yuki stated flatly, "You have to be crazy to want to eradicate Cursed Spirits."
Mahito was left speechless.
He sighed. "No wonder you said you were going to Hell. Heaven wouldn't know what to do with you."
"All Jujutsu Sorcerers belong in Hell. There's no difference between a Sorcerer and a Curse User," Yuki laughed. "Mahito, you're genuinely too kind. So kind that you're blind to the darkness inherent in Sorcerers."
Mahito pointed to himself. "Me? Kind?"
*Let me tell you why I refuse to trust you,* she seemed to imply. *Even though I know your acquired education suppresses your innate nature, and even though your charisma and capacity are enough to stabilize the entire world—I still won't trust you.*
Yuki turned to fully face him, her blonde hair fluttering alongside the spray from the canal. She pressed a hand against her hair and let out a bright, ringing laugh.
"Listen closely, Mahito. Every living creature that wields Cursed Energy, be they a Jujutsu Sorcerer or a Cursed Spirit, is a lunatic. The more powerful the entity, the deeper the madness. It has nothing to do with what the person actually thinks."
"I'm not talking about the shallow logic that powerful Sorcerers are prone to extremism when using Cursed Energy. In fact, even that logic is backwards."
"The correct answer is the soul."
"Some souls are simply predisposed to generating negative emotions—anger, sorrow, fear, irritation, or jealousy. You can't see it when they're young, but as the soul matures, their thoughts inevitably drift toward darker waters. That is the fundamental instinct that makes someone a Sorcerer."
"Just think about it. If being a Sorcerer relied entirely on genetics, how was the very first Sorcerer born? The Special Grade Sorcerer Suguru Geto's parents were ordinary humans. How was he born?"
"It comes entirely from a mutation of the soul."
Yuki watched the waves, a distant look in her eyes.
"I was stunned when I first realized it. The evidence is everywhere, but very few bother to study it. And even those who do refuse to accept it."
"The soul is engraved with human cognition and memories."
"That's why a soul summoned back via Séance Technique perfectly remembers who it is. And once it invades a body, it can even use its Innate Technique. This is because the soul alters the flesh upon entry. Its Cursed Energy Residuals match the deceased soul, and its Innate Technique is carved right into the body."
"I even suspect that if the Innate Technique is compatible, the soul itself could wield Cursed Energy directly."
"So, do you understand now? Jujutsu Sorcerers are born madmen!"
"It's a distortion of the soul itself. No Sorcerer can escape it."
"You think those of us in the Jujutsu world are sane? That's only because there are even more deranged, monstrous Curse Users keeping us in check."
"You really should look at how horrific the past was before Satoru Gojo was born. Curse Users ran rampant, Sorcerers were constantly exhausted, the Higher-ups monopolized Cursed Energy, and the Big Three Families still operate on Heian Era rules to this day!"
"And then there's Satoru Gojo."
Yuki paused, letting out a cold sneer.
"He's the biggest lunatic of them all... He actually wants to bring fairness to the Jujutsu world. If he were a child, I wouldn't say anything. I'd just think it was cute. But the man is twenty-eight years old and still harbors those delusions?"
"What a joke! Does he think this is playing house? That whatever he says goes?"
"In the Jujutsu world, the strong *should* have privileges, because this is a world where individual strength trumps everything."
"When a man has enough power to casually steamroll the entire world without needing a single social connection, you're asking him to work a nine-to-five, pull overtime until nine or ten at night, drag himself home to shower, collapse into bed without even eating dinner, and live a life more exhausting than a dog's."
"Do you honestly think that's possible?"
"I'll spell it out for you: Satoru Gojo is a man-child!"
"Except this man-child has just enough self-awareness to realize he can't rule the Jujutsu world alone. So he became a teacher, gathering students with potential in a delusional attempt to overthrow an order that has maintained stability for a thousand years."
This was exactly why Yuki Tsukumo had always looked down on Satoru Gojo. She fundamentally believed he had gone completely insane, beyond all comprehension.
It wasn't that fairness was a bad concept. Human society advocated for fairness, didn't it? Whether they achieved it or not, that was the propaganda. But that was *normal* human society!
No matter how hard a normal human trained, a single bullet was enough to kill them. That fragility made ordinary humans crave fairness from the bottom of their hearts. They knew that despite individual differences, they were fundamentally equal and vulnerable.
But the Sorcerer society was an entirely different beast!
A Sorcerer like Yuki Tsukumo could slaughter the entire global population single-handedly. She was highly proficient in Reverse Cursed Technique, rendering bullets and artillery utterly useless against her. Even if they dropped a nuclear bomb on her, she could drag the entire world down with her before she died.
You want to force someone like that to be a corporate wage slave? Even if she agreed, ask the bosses if they'd dare hire her!
That was why Yuki concluded that Gojo was truly, terrifyingly insane.
Mahito chuckled. "You really ought to share that critique with Gojo. I imagine he'd find it highly entertaining."
"I would never tell him," Yuki said calmly. "There's no point talking to a madman like him. Even if I did, he'd just laugh in my face and ask if it isn't more fun to have a little idealism."
Mahito thought about Gojo's behavior in the original story and had to admit Yuki was a stellar judge of character. That was exactly what Satoru Gojo would say.
"Do you get it now?" Yuki looked at Mahito, twirling a strand of blonde hair around her finger. "Sorcerers may be crazy, but at least we have physical bodies that generate Positive Energy to neutralize our extreme emotions."
"But even so, before Gojo started purging the Jujutsu world, Sorcerers descending into Curse Users was a daily occurrence. It's not that they don't appear anymore; it's just that Gojo kills them the moment they do. It's pure survivorship bias."
"The people sitting at the top of Jujutsu Headquarters right now? They were infinitely worse in the past. Worse than you can imagine. You have no idea how low their rock bottom goes."
"You probably don't know this, but Jujutsu Headquarters once threatened Masamichi Yaga with execution if he didn't surrender his unique new technique. You might not know Yaga, but he was Gojo's teacher! Now he's the principal of Tokyo Jujutsu High. I swear to god, the second Gojo slips up, Yaga is the first one they'll kill."
"And those are the Sorcerers... but you. You're a Cursed Spirit."
Yuki stared at Mahito and spoke softly. "A Curse is the physical manifestation of a curse. No matter how normal you act now, no matter how benevolent and righteous you appear, I cannot bring myself to trust you."
"The kinder you are, the more you display the charisma and temperament of a sovereign ruler, the less I can let you go."
"Because when you finally snap, the madness will be apocalyptic."
"I can't even fathom what kind of calamity you would unleash upon this world if you truly took the throne."
This time, Mahito completely understood. In fact, before Yuki even explained this theory, he had said something remarkably similar to Kokichi Muta.
He simply hadn't realized that Sorcerers didn't become extremists *because* they used Cursed Energy, but rather that their souls were twisted and extreme from the very beginning, and *that* was what allowed them to become Sorcerers.
His understanding had been too shallow.
He finally understood why the original Jogo was so utterly convinced that humanity's core was deceit and betrayal, merely wrapped in a thin veneer of kindness and honor.
Jogo had only ever interacted with Sorcerers. Though the streets were filled with ordinary people, he never bothered to understand them. Since his entire frame of reference was Sorcerers, it was no wonder he drew that conclusion.
Jogo may not have been the brightest, but his intuition regarding the essence of Sorcerers was terrifyingly sharp.
Mahito smiled. "And here I thought you were just prejudiced."
"I am prejudiced," Yuki admitted freely. "I don't even like Jujutsu Sorcerers."
"Even if you were a human Sorcerer, I'd still beat the crap out of you. Because from the bottom of my heart, I believe that any living creature holding Cursed Energy—no matter what they are—is completely unfit to rule the world. That is prejudice. Genuine, unfiltered prejudice."
Mahito spoke with absolute pride. "I am different."
Yuki looked deeply into his eyes and nodded slowly. "Yes. You are different."
Mahito blinked, stunned.
Yuki smiled faintly. "Did you think I was just being sarcastic?"
"You were literally just being sarcastic a minute ago."
"That wasn't sarcasm; I was stating the findings of my research. It's objective reality," Yuki laughed. "You thought I was being sarcastic because you empathized with the people I was insulting. But strip away your subjective feelings and look at it objectively: tell me, was a single word I said wrong?"
"Are Sorcerers not madmen? Is Satoru Gojo not a man-child? Are the Higher-ups not a catastrophic ruling body? Are these not facts?"
Mahito broke out in a cold sweat. Was this what dealing with an elderly scholar in the Jujutsu world was like? Her insults were impeccably reasoned and fact-checked, just short of quoting historical figures to back up her points.
No, wait. Yuki Tsukumo *was* the foremost authority on soul research. Anything she said *was* a famous quote! This was truly...
Mahito made an utterly indescribable expression.
"Remember what I just said? Because a Sorcerer's soul is twisted from the start, they develop the organ to extract Cursed Energy and the prefrontal cortex to wield an Innate Technique. That's why the bond between Cursed Energy and the soul is so profound."
Yuki spoke slowly. "Take your example about Cursed Objects and vessels. A soul can indeed alter the flesh, but how could a twisted soul ever create a normal body? I used to fiercely believe that any creature with Cursed Energy was fundamentally, incurably insane."
"Used to?" Mahito asked.
"Until I saw you," Yuki said with grave sincerity. "Mahito, you possess a noble soul. A soul so noble it suppresses the corruption of Cursed Energy, allowing you to remain completely sane."
Mahito was floored.
"I'm not joking." Yuki stood up, stepping right in front of him. She looked directly into his heterochromatic eyes with fierce intensity. "I don't know if you were born this way or if it's a byproduct of your Innate Technique, but your soul remains almost entirely untouched by Cursed Energy."
"Even though you wield Cursed Energy flawlessly, your soul hasn't been warped by it. By all common sense, that's impossible. But I saw it during our fight. I felt it, deeply."
She reached out, placing her palm gently against Mahito's chest. Yuki spoke with quiet reverence.
"In our final clash, I saw your pristine soul. I felt the immense pride in your heart. You used sheer willpower to crush the distortion of your soul, hanging your perfect benevolence and righteousness high in the sky for all to see. You are the only sane person in the entire Jujutsu world."
"You possess the innate talent to rule the world. You are a born... King."
Mahito suddenly recalled what Naobito Zen'in had told him in the afterlife space. Though the topic was different, Naobito had told Mahito to his face that he believed in him absolutely.
That belief bordered on blind faith. The old man had declared that if Mahito wanted to change the world, no one could stop him—not the Zen'in clan, not the Big Three Families, not even Satoru Gojo!
Only now did Mahito realize it hadn't been flattery. It was genuine, deep-seated conviction. Naobito must have felt the exact same thing Yuki did. In that brutal deathmatch of clashing Cursed Energy, they had both witnessed the true shape of Mahito's soul.
A sane person in the Jujutsu world. That was the real reason they placed such absolute faith in him.
In the Jujutsu world, a "sane person" truly was a born king!
Not because "sane" meant ordinary—were the streets not teeming with ordinary, sane humans? It was because, within the realm of Jujutsu, a "sane Sorcerer" was fundamentally impossible to birth. So when Mahito emerged, they instantly recognized his profound anomaly.
In Yuki Tsukumo's words, Mahito possessed a noble soul.
Yuki suddenly stepped back. She threw a leg over her motorcycle and scooped up her helmet.
"It's a bit convoluted, but I think I've made myself perfectly clear." Holding her helmet, Yuki offered a brilliant smile by the canal. Her blonde hair danced in the wind, the canal water sprayed wildly, and the emerald mountains reflected perfectly on the surface. She was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Mahito, from now on, you never need to doubt yourself simply because you are a Cursed Spirit. I am the highest authority on the soul in the Jujutsu world. Even though I can never publicly vouch for you due to my death, right here, right now—"
"I swear on my honor: Mahito, you possess a noble soul unmatched by any creature that wields Cursed Energy."
"You are more fit to be King than anyone in the Jujutsu world, more fit than any twisted soul brimming with Cursed Energy."
"May your ideals become absolute reality."
"May you bring down an earth-shattering storm upon this world."
Mahito chuckled. *So that's how it is.*
Naobito Zen'in had taught him the philosophy of ruling the world in the space of death, and now Yuki Tsukumo was reinforcing his resolve in the same space.
*These people... they really believe in me.*
Suddenly, Mahito reached out and grabbed the wrist of the hand Yuki was using to put on her helmet.
Yuki froze, then smiled gently. "Don't be sad to see me go."
Without warning, the darkness at the end of the highway was swallowed by white sand. The canal bed began producing the same white sand, and even the mountains with their lush vegetation were buried beneath it. The white sand surged from all directions like a biblical flood, instantly shattering all boundaries and burying the entire world.
Yuki felt a sudden, massive palpitation in her chest, as if something transcending terror itself was taking form. She whipped her head toward the sky.
The white clouds and sunlight were now encircled by a colossal, draconic creature.
The pure white, god-like dragon inhaled the clouds into its massive maw and slowly exhaled, breathing out mist. This majestic, mythical beast was swallowing the clouds and spitting out the fog.
It then coiled toward the sunlight, twisting into a halo-like ring, its head chasing its tail in the shape of an Ouroboros.
Only when the white sand washed over her boots did Yuki realize what was happening. She stared at Mahito and screamed in sheer disbelief:
"You overwrote my dying vision with a Domain Expansion?!"
*How is that possible?! This is the world after death! Forget Cursed Energy, even physics don't exist here! This is the ultimate destination for all souls, an absolutely inviolable, sacred sanctuary!*
In a flash, she remembered Mahito's technique. The rumored ability. The power to *induce evolution*.
Evolution... What was the ultimate endgame for humanity and Cursed Spirits?
Coincidentally, Yuki Tsukumo was one of the few who knew the exact answer.
Within the Jujutsu world, there was a Sorcerer who had lived for a thousand years. She hadn't conducted any horrific experiments; she simply achieved immortality naturally, enjoying the ultimate prize sought by countless emperors and kings from birth.
Her Innate Technique was 'Immortality.' She could live forever!
But while her technique granted eternal life, her human body was a liability. A human body could never truly be immortal. To sustain her endless life, the automatic operation of her Innate Technique was forcing her to evolve into a higher form of existence.
That higher lifeform was known as... a God.
"Please don't misunderstand, I haven't become a 'God' yet," Mahito said, still gripping her wrist. Yuki was so emotionally overloaded by shock that she didn't even notice her helmet slipping from her grasp. Mahito smiled.
"My Domain Expansion is called: Dharmadhatu Transmigration: Nirvana Realm."
"Exactly as the name implies, this is the transitional plane for all souls, the final site of Nirvana before entering the cycle of reincarnation."
"By tracing a person's Cursed Energy Residuals up the river of souls, I can locate their soul. As long as that person hasn't yet reincarnated, I can grab their soul and pull it directly into my Domain Expansion. And then—"
"—I can resurrect them."
The corners of Mahito's mouth curled up into a smile.
"Yuki, you guessed wrong. You didn't pull me into your dying vision."
"I came looking for you."
"And right now, your resurrection protocol has already begun."
Yuki was utterly dumbfounded.
She opened her mouth to scream, to speak, but the sound that tore from her throat was a hoarse groan. Since the dawn of the Jujutsu world, there had never been a true resurrection. This was the undisputed territory of God, because reversing death was the ultimate divine authority! And now, right before her eyes, that divine authority was being deployed.
Dharmadhatu was a Buddhist term specifically referring to the realm of truth, an absolutely solemn and sacred domain. Transmigration was the cycle of reincarnation, viewed by Buddhism as the ultimate karmic cycle—all causes lay in past lives, all effects in the present. And finally, Nirvana meant transcending life and death itself.
All of these profound concepts were deeply tied to the soul. Whether it was reincarnation, transcending death, or the realm of absolute truth, the soul was the hidden core of it all.
Yuki fully comprehended the weight of the Domain's name:
This was the realm of absolute truth for the soul's past, present, and future. Every meaning associated with the soul existed here.
What a phenomenally arrogant name!
Soul Creation was the ability to fabricate a soul.
Conversely, the Cursed Technique Reversal of Mahito's power had to be an ability that interfered with the soul.
And now, he had finally stepped into the ultimate echelon of soul manipulation.
—Resurrection.
The arrogant name finally matched the peerless ability. This was—Dharmadhatu Transmigration: Nirvana Realm.
*If you can resurrect others... doesn't that mean you can resurrect yourself? What in this world could possibly kill you?*
She found herself asking, "Mahito, and you... you still say you aren't a God?"
"Yuki, let's make a Binding Vow," Mahito said, letting go of her wrist and interlacing his fingers into a steeple. "I will resurrect you, but you must completely conceal the truth of this battle. Naturally, I will allow you to return with the rest of your memories intact. I need you to buy me time."
Yuki finally snapped back to reality. Her head spinning, she asked, "Time?"
"Time to prepare for my war against Satoru Gojo," Mahito replied.
Yuki sobered instantly. "You actually plan to fight Gojo? Despite how much I despise him, his sheer power is undeniably real. Why do you think a man-child like him can hold the entire world hostage? It's exactly because of that peerless strength."
"Isn't that a given?" Mahito asked in return. "Did you think taking the throne of the world was something you could negotiate? Peace never wins the world; it can only be seized through overwhelming violence! I hold no personal malice toward Gojo, but since he stands in my way—"
"—he has to die."
Yuki stared deeply at him. In a move that surprised even herself, she answered:
"I agree."