Three hours later, the meeting adjourned.
"Nanami, Yaga, and the students, stay behind," Gojo commanded. "Everyone else is dismissed!"
Although Gojo had only explicitly named seven people, Tengen and Yuki Tsukumo remained seated as well. The others filed out of the secret chamber through a barrier gate Tengen opened. Once the room cleared out, Gojo instantly collapsed back into his chair, his heavy, oppressive aura evaporating into a dramatic slouch.
He let out a long, exaggerated exhale. "Ahhh, I'm exhausted! Who knew running a meeting could be so draining? I swear I remember my old meetings being a breeze."
"That's because you literally never cared about the agenda before," Yuki teased, casually crossing her arms and resting her chin on the back of her hands. "Feeling the pressure now? How does playing savior suit you, Satoru?"
"Don't even mention it, the stress is literally crushing me," Gojo laughed brightly.
"Somehow, hearing you laugh makes the stress disappear entirely," Nanami remarked dryly. "And? Why did you hold us back?"
Kento Nanami was a tall, imposing man, though not overly muscular. Dressed sharply in a tailored suit and sporting his signature peculiar goggles, he stood at the absolute pinnacle of Grade 1 Sorcerers. His Innate Technique was the perfect catalyst for landing Black Flashes, and he was, in fact, the current record holder for consecutive Black Flash strikes. He specialized in toppling enemies far above his weight class, as his technique allowed him to inflict catastrophic damage in a single, precise strike.
However, he suffered from the same fatal flaw as every other non-Special Grade Sorcerer: extreme over-specialization.
His defense was lacking, his mobility was subpar, his grasp of general Jujutsu was merely average, and his Barrier Techniques were entirely basic. But when it came to raw offensive output, he possessed the lethal capacity to threaten—and even exorcise—Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
In the original timeline, Nanami was the very first Sorcerer Mahito encountered, and he nearly killed the Curse. Had it not been for the absurd, regenerative cheat code of Idle Transfiguration, Nanami would have ended Mahito's life right then and there.
"First up is Rice Shower. You're coming with me. I'm going to personally train you," Gojo announced nonchalantly. "Over these next two months, I'm going to hammer you into a genuine Special Grade Sorcerer... And you're not allowed to decline!"
"Huh?!" Rice Shower pointed at herself, her face a mask of sheer disbelief. "M-Me? But I'm just a total novice who enrolled less than half a year ago!"
"Don't sell yourself short," Gojo said seriously. "Mahito isn't the type to produce trash. Even if you were just a joke experiment to him, the Jujutsu talent he installed in you is terrifyingly rare. Whether it's Cursed Energy flow, raw capacity, your Cursed Energy Core, or manipulation... your sheer talent for Cursed Energy is second only to Yuta's. Yuta managed to climb from Grade 4 to Special Grade in six months, even after losing Rika. You can do the same."
*But I'm literally a spy! Why are you trusting me so much, Satoru-sensei?!* Rice Shower cried internally, forcing herself to nod.
But that was just the kind of person Satoru Gojo was. He genuinely had no intention of keeping his guard up against Rice Shower. Hell, in the original timeline, he never once suspected Yuji Itadori, even though the boy was the vessel for Ryomen Sukuna, the deadliest Curse in history.
Now, Rice Shower's latent potential was simply too valuable. Gojo had absolutely no reason to sideline her. If the skill ceilings for Toge Inumaki, Panda, and Nobara Kugisaki hadn't been so hard-capped, Gojo would have dragged them into the secret meeting too!
Rice Shower had truly, undeniably... stumbled her way directly into Satoru Gojo's most guarded inner circle.
"As for Maki, you're going with Tengen. She will sever the twin bond between you and Mai," Gojo said, shifting his focus to Maki. "With that, our side will gain our own Heavenly Tyrant. At the very least, Toji Fushiguro won't be able to easily blitz our squishy casters anymore."
Aside from Gojo himself, no one in the room could confidently claim they could survive a 24/7 assassination attempt from a Heavenly Tyrant. Adding one to their own roster would be a monumental tactical shift, which was precisely why Maki was kept behind.
Tengen nodded. "We have two months until the end of October. That's more than enough time for me to sever the bond and for Maki to acclimatize to the physical specs of a Heavenly Tyrant. For the next two months, leave Maki Zen'in to me."
"I'm in your care, Master Tengen," Maki bowed slightly.
Tengen returned a curt nod.
"Todo, you're following Yuki," Gojo grinned. "Yuki, this is your prized pupil we're talking about. Make sure he doesn't end up losing to some newly-spawned intelligent Curse."
Yuki looked utterly insulted. "Do you honestly think a student I hand-picked would be some kind of mediocrity?"
Aoi Todo was a hulking, heavily muscled behemoth of a man. With a vicious scar tearing down his face and a perpetually aggressive scowl, his sheer physical presence radiated danger. He kept his long hair neatly tied back in a topknot shaped like a spider lily.
Among the students at Kyoto Jujutsu High, he was the undisputed apex predator. Yet, he was never satisfied with his current plateau. In the original timeline, he was brimming with enough confidence to challenge Yuta Okkotsu directly. Though officially ranked as a Grade 1 Sorcerer, his combat parameters were outrageously over-tuned. During the final showdown in the original timeline, he was one of the exceedingly few Sorcerers capable of going toe-to-toe in a brutal melee brawl against Ryomen Sukuna.
The spatial displacement technique Mahito currently utilized within his Limitless array was, in fact, Todo's Innate Technique: Boogie Woogie.
[Author's Note:
Anti-piracy warning. Please join the original QQ release group: 1-04022.8906
If you are already in the WeChat group, no need to add.
Updates and 200+ dimensional fanfictions are all inside!]
Todo's expression perfectly mirrored his mentor's arrogant confidence. "I'll personally crush the Lord of Cursed Spirits' armored vanguard, Jogo!"
"Love the ambition!" Gojo clapped.
Then, his tone took a razor-sharp pivot. "But the way you are right now, you'd fail miserably. You can't even use Domain Expansion. Against Jogo, you'd be reduced to a pile of ash in seconds."
"I can use Simple Domain."
"Jogo's Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain continuously infinitely scales in temperature. I was only inside it for less than fifteen minutes, and the ambient heat had already spiked past 6,000 degrees—the surface temperature of the sun. If my calculations are correct, Coffin of the Iron Mountain's maximum output reaches the core temperature of a nuclear fusion reaction. That's 150 million degrees."
Gojo smiled thinly. "Aoi Todo. Can your Simple Domain tank that?"
Todo was struck speechless.
"Pride is a good thing. Pride pushes the strong forward, infinitely. A true warrior needs pride," Gojo said, his voice dropping to a freezing chill. "But recognizing your own limits is also the mark of the strong. Aoi Todo, as you are right now, you are not even remotely a match for Jogo... Go train with your master. Before you start running your mouth, boost your actual stats! A brat who can't even pop a Domain Expansion shouldn't be embarrassing himself here!"
Todo's eyes practically bulged out of his skull as if he'd been physically punched, glaring venomously at Gojo.
Yuki Tsukumo watched her seething student and let out a booming laugh. "Not bad, Satoru! You certainly know how to light a fire under my boy."
"We're all arrogant monsters here. Obviously, cheap provocation works wonders on us," Gojo replied breezily. "The finish line is right in front of him. I believe Todo can cross it. What do you say, Aoi-chan?"
"I'll prove it," Todo practically growled. "Not for you, but for my own path. I will manifest my Domain Expansion within these two months. I heard you couldn't even use a Domain during your second year of high school? Perfect. That's my starting line. I'm going to surpass you!"
It was true; Gojo hadn't mastered Domain Expansion during his second year. That was because the Satoru Gojo of that era hadn't yet experienced the agonizing crucible of true defeat. He had been arrogant, coasting through life believing he was untouchable—until the disastrous Riko Amanai escort mission. Only after that brutal reality check did he violently push his limits, mastering a 24/7 automated Six Eyes and Limitless array within a year, followed closely by his Domain Expansion.
Yuta Okkotsu was another prime example. When he transferred to Tokyo High, he had no idea what a Domain was. But after surviving the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, he pushed himself relentlessly, successfully manifesting a fully realized Domain Expansion by his second year—one he deployed against Ryomen Sukuna in the original timeline's climax.
Todo, who had only ever looked down from the peak while constantly challenging himself against formidable foes, felt a burning, unprecedented humiliation ignite an inferno in his gut. He was going to forge his own Domain Expansion!
"I look forward to it," Gojo smiled.
Yaga internally sighed. Gojo had truly changed. Before this, Gojo had never resorted to psychological manipulation or tactical provocation. To Gojo, honesty and overwhelming personal strength had always been enough. He had openly flipped off Jujutsu Headquarters to their faces and casually demanded a violent revolution.
It wasn't that using tactics was inherently bad. What ruler in history ever achieved greatness through sheer, blinding honesty alone? Even the wisest emperors played the game of political balancing. But they played that game because they knew that a united coalition of vassals could usurp the throne. Gojo, however, had previously been entirely confident that he could single-handedly steamroll the entire planet. He had never *needed* to play politics.
The fact that he was doing it now meant only one thing:
Satoru Gojo was genuinely feeling the crushing weight of reality. On the surface, he acted the same, but to those who knew him, the cracks in his armor were glaringly obvious. It wasn't just anxiety...
...He was actively preparing contingency plans for his own defeat.
"Megumi," Gojo called out.
"Yes." Megumi gave a stiff nod. "I understand what you're asking. Over these next two months, I will finalize my Domain Expansion and subjugate Mahoraga."
During the Yasohachi Bridge incident, Megumi had deployed an incomplete Domain Expansion. Ironically, in the original timeline, he never managed to complete it, whereas the late-blooming Yuji Itadori actually surpassed him, manifesting his own Domain in the final battle.
"Feeling confident?" Gojo asked.
"Not at all," Megumi replied flatly. "But I'll do it regardless of my confidence. This is my responsibility. I have to protect my sister, Tsumiki."
Gojo clapped enthusiastically. "High marks for that answer, Megumi-chan!"
Megumi ignored the praise.
"Five hundred years ago, the Gojo clan produced a Sorcerer with both the Six Eyes and the Limitless, just like me. He fought a deathmatch against the head of the Zen'in clan. Care to guess how it ended?" Gojo asked with a smirk.
Before Megumi could respond, Gojo answered his own question. "Mutual destruction."
"The Zen'in head used Mahoraga to take the Gojo head down with him. That proves that Mahoraga's latent potential rivals my own Six Eyes and Limitless. If you can finalize your Domain Expansion and tame Mahoraga within these two months... I guarantee you'll have the power to step into the crossfire of my battle against Mahito. That is my expectation of you."
Megumi took a deep breath, feeling a suffocating pressure bearing down on his spine. He knew Gojo was telling the truth. He was absolutely certain that if he tamed Mahoraga and mastered his Domain, he would possess the right to stand on that apocalyptic battlefield. The sheer weight of that expectation was briefly paralyzing.
It was an immense, compound pressure. Megumi was used to running away. But this time, he refused to run.
"Even if it's just for Tsumiki's sake... I will accomplish this," Megumi swore.
"Still lack confidence?" Gojo pressed.
"Confidence has nothing to do with it," Megumi's resolve hardened. "It's just something I *must* do."
"Excellent!" Gojo nodded vigorously, then turned. "Tengen, I'm leaving him to you. Is that alright?"
Despite having already been assigned Maki, Tengen's expression didn't shift at having another student dumped in her lap. "Leave him to me."
Whether it was guiding the structural logic of a Domain Expansion or providing tactical advice for taming Mahoraga, Tengen was overqualified. This was the overwhelming confidence of a millennium-old being.
The current circumstances were radically different from the original timeline. Tengen was alive. Gojo was alive. Having these two absolute pinnacle barrier masters drop everything to personally instruct Megumi drastically skyrocketed his chances of mastering his Domain and subjugating Mahoraga.
"And finally, Yuji-chan," Gojo said, turning to Yuji.
Yuji nervously leaped to his feet. "Yes, sir! What can I do?"
"How much do you actually know about the Sukuna currently residing inside you?" Gojo asked.
Yuji stood there looking blank, his eyes drifting upward as he thought hard. He hesitated. "Uh... he was a really famous Curse User?"
"Principal Yaga, you're slacking on your duties," Gojo teased.
Yaga replied flatly, "Do you have any idea how recently Yuji enrolled? We haven't even finished teaching him the fundamental mechanics of Jujutsu, let alone the historical biography of Ryomen Sukuna. The fact that he vaguely knows Sukuna was a Curse User and not a Cursed Spirit proves he's been studying hard."
Yuji scratched his pink hair awkwardly.
This was vastly different from the original timeline. Originally, almost every single one of Sukuna's fingers that Yuji consumed was intentionally placed in his path by Kenjaku. The finger at the detention center, the finger with Junpei Yoshino, the finger at Yasohachi Bridge—all of them were planted by Kenjaku to force Yuji to consume them right under their noses.
This constant exposure constantly forced Yuji to learn more about Sukuna, especially since Sukuna frequently bypassed Yuji's will to assert dominance.
But the current timeline was different.
Because Mahito was dominating the board, Kenjaku never had the breathing room to orchestrate his intricate plots around Yuji. Kenjaku had even realized that Sukuna wasn't necessary—Mahito alone possessed enough momentum to bulldoze the entire era and crush Satoru Gojo.
As a result, Yuji had only ingested exactly three of Sukuna's fingers.
One he ate before enrolling; one he was forced to swallow to delay his execution; and one from the Yasohachi Bridge Curse. The detention center and Junpei fingers had never been consumed.
"Yuji, I believe your potential is easily on par with the rest of ours," Gojo said seriously. "Your body can seamlessly contain Ryomen Sukuna. That alone proves you possess a baseline potential identical to the King of Curses. You are destined to stand at my side in the future... but right now, we need to violently accelerate your growth."
Yuji took a deep breath. "I understand, Gojo-sensei. Just tell me what to do."
"For the next two months, you only have one objective," Gojo's lips curled into a smirk. "I want you to learn Ryomen Sukuna's Innate Technique!"
"HUH—?!"
"When a Cursed Object incarnates, its Cursed Energy inevitably bleeds into the vessel's flesh, eventually etching the object's original Innate Technique into the host's body. There is historical precedent for this," Gojo stated matter-of-factly. "Principal Yaga, you're the leading expert in this field, aren't you?"
Masamichi Yaga was Satoru Gojo's former mentor.
He wore dark sunglasses, possessed a heavily built frame, and was dressed in the standard black uniform of a Jujutsu High faculty member. His face was perpetually stern, looking like an eternally frozen glacier. His Innate Technique was Cursed Corpse Manipulation—a technique fundamentally similar to Kokichi Muta's Puppet Manipulation. Panda, currently running around the Tokyo campus, was his ultimate masterpiece.
In the original story, Yaga was the *only* Sorcerer to truly and authentically breach the domain of creating artificial souls.
Even if it was discovered by sheer coincidence, he had undeniably stepped into the realm of soul creation. In this entire world, he was likely the *only* person capable of fast-tracking the process of etching Sukuna's technique into Yuji's body.
When it came to the metaphysical link between the soul and the flesh, Yaga was the undisputed authority!
In fact, in the original story, Yaga used a Cursed Corpse to perfectly simulate the soul of a deceased person. As to whether the simulated soul was *actually* the deceased person's real soul... well, Yaga claimed it wasn't. But given the incredibly specific, intimate tics and phrasing the Cursed Corpse used—details only family members would know—Yaga's claim of it being a mere 'imitation' was highly suspect.
As the foremost expert on souls, Yaga was the absolute perfect instructor for Yuji's crash course.
In the original timeline, Yaga was executed by Jujutsu Headquarters shortly after Gojo was sealed. But here, he was alive and well, and the Higher-ups wouldn't dare breathe in his direction. This Gojo was completely unhinged compared to his original self. The original Gojo tolerated the Higher-ups buzzing around him like flies; this Gojo would slaughter them the second they stepped out of line.
When a loaded gun is pressed firmly to the Higher-ups' foreheads, they tend to act as docile as rabbits.
However, there was a glaring issue.
"It's too soon," Yaga said frankly. "It's not that I don't want to help Yuji, but his physical body hasn't sufficiently acclimated to Ryomen Sukuna's soul. In my estimation, Yuji needs a baseline of at least ten fingers soaking in his system before we can safely guide the technique etching process. Right now, he only has three. He is severely under the threshold."
Yaga's assessment was pinpoint accurate. In the original timeline, Yuji didn't begin manifesting Sukuna's slashing techniques until after he had ingested over ten fingers, and even then, he only fully unlocked the technique during the final arc. Before that, Yuji was essentially a completely blank-slate Sorcerer who fought purely with his fists—functionally identical to the Zen'in clan's Kukuru Unit.
"Yuji is a special case," Gojo insisted, refusing to back down. "After my brawl with Mahito, I felt my Six Eyes undergo a distinct evolution. I can clearly perceive the bizarre, intrinsic connection between Yuji Itadori and Ryomen Sukuna. I strongly suspect Yuji's body was synthetically engineered from the ground up. Only a bespoke vessel could perfectly contain the soul and overwhelming malice of the King of Curses."
Yaga frowned. "Synthetically engineered? Since when can vessels for Cursed Objects be purpose-built?"
Yaga's confusion wasn't due to ignorance; it was because this was entirely unprecedented. Out of all the Cursed Objects in history, not a single one required a 'purpose-built' vessel—except for Ryomen Sukuna's fingers. In the realm of Cursed Objects, Sukuna's fingers were completely and utterly anomalous.
Look at the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings. In the original timeline, Mahito and Kenjaku grabbed random civilians off the street and shoved the objects down their throats. The Cursed Object autonomously rewrote the host's biology, overlaid its own consciousness, and completely overwrote the original human's identity.
That was how normal Cursed Object incarnation worked.
But Sukuna's fingers were uniquely lethal. Because Sukuna was the undisputed King of Curses, the sheer toxicity of his Cursed Energy was unmatched. No human physiology could survive the violent biological rewrite. Thus, Sukuna's fingers were the *only* Cursed Objects incapable of standard incarnation.
Until Yuji Itadori was born.
Gojo pointed squarely at Yuji, speaking with absolute certainty. "Yuji Itadori... you definitely share a bloodline connection with the Ryomen Sukuna from a thousand years ago!"
"HUH?!" Yuji practically fell backward.
Gojo wasn't lying; he had literally just figured this out.
It was likely a side effect of overly synchronizing with the *Six Perfections' Eastward Journey*. His Six Eyes had leveled up, allowing him to perceive specific esoteric connections. To put it in scientific terms: his old Six Eyes could perceive matter at an atomic level. His new Six Eyes could perceive the fundamental forces holding those atoms together.
One was a matter of precision; the other was a matter of intrinsic connection.
His new Six Eyes could literally see the threads of fate!
While this didn't provide a direct buff to his raw damage output, it was the exact prerequisite required to read the emotional states of the *Six Perfections' Eastward Journey*. And right now, those eyes were perfectly tracing the genetic tether between Yuji Itadori and Ryomen Sukuna's fingers.
Unlike the original timeline, where Sukuna instantly recognized the connection the moment Yuji swallowed his first finger (and only bothered to mention it to Uraume right before the final battle), no one else—not Gojo, not Tengen—knew about it except Kenjaku. But now, thanks to his evolved Six Eyes, Gojo had violently cracked the secret wide open.
Tengen looked thoughtful. "I see. That perfectly explains why a viable vessel for Ryomen Sukuna's fingers—something that has never existed in history—suddenly appeared in this era. This must be Kenjaku's handiwork. Kenjaku was likely plotting a way to deal with Satoru Gojo long before Mahito even spawned, and Sukuna was his ultimate trump card."
Yuji pointed at himself, utterly bewildered. "M-Me?"
Tengen turned to Yaga. "Satoru Gojo's theory holds water. Even with only three fingers, if a direct genetic link exists, Yuji Itadori is undeniably capable of wielding Sukuna's slashing technique. And perhaps it goes even deeper than that... Yuji might be capable of inheriting everything entirely."
"You're all being far too naïve!" A raspy, violently malicious voice suddenly cut off Tengen.
An eye and a mouth grotesquely split open on the side of Yuji's face. The mouth twisted into a vicious sneer. "Whether the brat inherits my Cleave and Dismantle depends entirely on *my* permission. Did you fools honestly think I was like those pathetic, inanimate Cursed Objects? Did you think you could just manipulate me however you please?"
Ryomen Sukuna had finally graced them with his presence.
Even though Sukuna hadn't made a single physically aggressive movement, almost everyone in the room felt a sharp chill violently rake down their spines, as if a blast of freezing wind had cut straight to their bones.
The King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna, had awakened.
"So you finally deign to speak to us, King of Curses," Tengen said slowly, glaring at the mouth on Yuji's cheek. "It seems the pressure from the Lord of Cursed Spirits is making you panic as well."
"Don't make me laugh, Tengen. Has your brain rotted after a thousand years?" Sukuna drawled lazily. "This so-called 'Lord of Cursed Spirits' is nothing more than an amateur who wasn't lucky enough to be born in my era. He might be a headache for you weaklings to deal with, but to me, he's just an oversized flea."
Those words hit Gojo exactly where he lived. He clapped his hands together loudly. "Well said, Sukuna! That is *exactly* what I've been saying!"
Sukuna sounded genuinely baffled. "Are you too stupid to realize I was mocking you?"
"Oh, I heard it clearly," Gojo replied with a maddening, slow drawl. "Which is why I said it resonated with me..."
"...Because historically speaking, *I'm* the one who usually gets to say that line to *you*. Now doesn't that just resonate perfectly?"
Sukuna completely froze for a split second, and then a volcanic rage erupted from him. "Satoru Gojo, you motherf—!"
*SMACK!*
Yuji ruthlessly slapped his own cheek, violently silencing Sukuna's string of profanities and shoving him back into the depths of his soul. By the time Yuji lowered his hand, Sukuna had completely vanished from his face.
Yuki Tsukumo couldn't help but shoot up from her chair, staring at the side of Yuji's face in sheer disbelief. "...I see. So this is Sukuna's vessel. Absolutely incredible. That is the universally acknowledged King of Curses, the strongest Sorcerer in history, Ryomen Sukuna... and he was literally just forced into submission by his vessel's raw physical dominance. How on earth is this scientifically possible?"
"Hey, hey! The strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer in history is standing right here! Who the hell is Sukuna?!" Gojo bellowed indignantly.
Yuji awkwardly shifted his weight. "Even if you ask me... I don't really know either."
"If this were an academic seminar, I'd happily debate the mechanics of it with you," Gojo shrugged dismissively. "But let's put the academic anomalies on the back burner for now."
Gojo turned his gaze back to Masamichi Yaga. "And there you have it. Yaga, are you confident you can forcefully extract Sukuna's slashing technique for Yuji within two months?"
Now having personally witnessed the bizarre, overriding connection between them, Yaga nodded grimly. "Very well. Yuji, you will follow me. I will find a way to make you master Sukuna's technique."
"Oh! I'll give it everything I've got!" Yuji shouted enthusiastically.
"And finally, Nanami-chan," Gojo cooed with a sickly sweet voice.
Nanami maintained his stoic, entirely unamused poker face. "Speak."
"Have you ever considered experimenting with a 'Fusion Black Flash'?" Gojo asked with a wicked grin.
Nanami slowly took off his peculiar goggles, revealing eyes wide with utter bewilderment.
"...Excuse me?"