*BOOM!*
Ryomen Sukuna crashed brutally into the white desert. But it wasn't over. The sandy terrain might have been good at absorbing impact, but even so, he didn't sink directly into it. Instead, like a flat stone skipped across a pond by a child, he violently bounced, slammed down, bounced, and slammed down again across the endless white dunes.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
The continuous, catastrophic impacts made it look as though the desert was being subjected to heavy artillery fire. Suddenly, Sukuna threw all four of his arms wide. Timing it perfectly, he dug his four arms and two legs viciously into the sand, gouging a massive trench into the desert floor like a fighter jet making an emergency landing on the ocean.
Sukuna felt the Cursed Energy inside his body ignite in a fraction of a second. The immense pressure forced him into maximum combat readiness instantly. He knew Gojo would retaliate, but even he hadn't anticipated the counterattack being *this* ferocious and terrifying. He had braced for impact, yet he still failed to completely block the strike!
Suddenly, the head of a monk's staff materialized right in front of his eyes.
"—!"
He didn't even have the time to grunt. The staff's head grazed past his cheek as he violently jerked his head to the side at the absolute last microsecond.
But in the next instant, his eyes blew wide open.
*BANG!*
Satoru Gojo's knee was already buried deep in his abdomen.
If it had been a normal Jujutsu Sorcerer, they would have been launched into the air again. With the sheer kinetic force behind Gojo's strike, they would have been turned right back into a skipping stone, helplessly bouncing across the desert until they were battered to death.
And that was assuming their body was tough enough to survive the initial impact. If not, that single knee strike would have ended the fight instantly.
But this time, Ryomen Sukuna wasn't launched. At the exact point of impact where Gojo's knee struck, a massive, grotesque mouth violently snapped shut, using an abnormal, biological mechanism to absorb and process the devastating kinetic energy of the knee strike. Sukuna's face was deeply deformed—half of a second face grew on the side of his head, giving him four eyes. But the mouth belonging to that second face... was located right on his stomach!
Ryomen Sukuna had caught Satoru Gojo's knee strike with the mouth on his abdomen.
"What an incredibly fascinating way to handle close-quarters combat, Sukuna!" Gojo roared with laughter.
"I could say the same to you. In a thousand years, you're the first sorcerer to willingly engage me in pure hand-to-hand combat."
"Didn't Mahito slaughter you multiple times when you were at your peak?"
"Hmph. He never fought me in a brawl!" Sukuna sneered.
Sukuna wasn't lying. During his encounters with Mahito, he hadn't experienced a single 'normal' fight. More often than not, he was slaughtered before his brain could even process what was happening. In other words, he was constantly on the receiving end of one-hit kills. That obviously didn't count as hand-to-hand combat.
*WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!*
The sound of tearing air heralded the arrival of Sukuna's four fists! Gojo didn't just rely on the Limitless to absorb the blows. He violently kicked backward, his Six Eyes flawlessly reading the trajectory of every single punch. He slipped out of range with less than a hair's breadth to spare, then viciously swung his staff, smashing the heavy metal head into one of Sukuna's incoming fists.
Sukuna yanked his hand back, refusing the collision and abruptly halting his assault.
Gojo gripped the tail end of the staff with both hands and, like a samurai executing a Karatake (downward split) slash, brought it crashing down toward Sukuna. Sukuna threw all four arms toward the sky in a cross-block. *CLANG!* The staff slammed into Sukuna's forearms. Sukuna felt as if an entire mountain had just been dropped on him.
Sukuna tried to use the momentary deadlock to step forward and close the distance. But Gojo, showing absolutely zero samurai honor, immediately retreated. He kicked off the ground continuously, backpedaling at terrifying speed. Sukuna chased after him, but couldn't close the gap.
Gojo used the distance to snap the staff back and swing it again.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!*
The staff blurred into a whirlwind of metal. Despite having four arms, Sukuna couldn't find a single opening through the relentless barrage. Both Gojo and Sukuna were incredibly tall men; even if there was a slight difference in their wingspan, it wasn't a decisive one. But Gojo, armed with the Khakkhara, was practically cheating. Sukuna, despite having four arms, couldn't land a single hit on the staff-wielding sorcerer.
In the past, Sukuna had faced countless warriors armed with weapons. Those fools would usually be pulverized by Sukuna's fists before they could even finish assuming their stances.
Ryomen Sukuna was overwhelmingly powerful. In terms of pure physical stats, not even Satoru Gojo could match him. And he wasn't a stranger to hard-fought battles; even during his deicide, Sukuna had been forced on the defensive. He wasn't just a bully who only knew how to crush weaklings.
But this fight was completely different!
The analytical boost the Six Eyes provided in weapon combat was simply too massive. Even though Sukuna had four arms, each attacking from a completely different angle, the Six Eyes effortlessly deciphered every single trajectory. The range advantage provided by the monk's staff meant Sukuna couldn't even touch Gojo, while Gojo freely bludgeoned him with the heavy metal head.
Let's not forget, Satoru Gojo was nearly two meters tall! His natural reach, combined with the length of the staff, meant Sukuna was completely locked out. It felt like he was trying to punch through a solid steel wall!
Gojo couldn't help but laugh out loud. "So this is what it feels like! This is exactly how Mahito felt when he was hacking away at me with 'Shinmyoken'! Having a weapon is fucking awesome!"
*YOU! FUCKING! BASTARD!*
The idea of having to worry about 'attack range' during a high-level jujutsu battle seemed absurd, but Gojo's Limitless made it an absolute necessity. To a Limitless user, any long-range attack was utterly meaningless. The only viable way to harm them was through close-quarters combat.
The countermeasure Sukuna was employing was [Domain Amplification].
The essence of Domain Amplification was to project a miniature, fluid Domain around one's body, like wearing a hazmat suit woven from Domain energy. Its core principle was simple: by deploying a highly concentrated, targeted mini-Domain, it could interfere with or completely neutralize the opponent's Cursed Technique upon contact.
It was a universal jujutsu technique that hard-countered defensive techniques. In the original timeline, both Jogo and Sukuna had utilized it specifically to bypass the Limitless.
But this technique came with one fatal flaw: while Domain Amplification was active, the user could not simultaneously use their Innate Technique offensively. They had to rely entirely on physical strikes to touch their opponent!
And right now, that flaw was crippling Sukuna.
Even though he had a method to bypass the Limitless, he literally couldn't reach Gojo to apply it! In the original timeline, Gojo had at least fought him bare-handed. When Sukuna used Domain Amplification, Gojo had to brace himself for physical impacts.
Because of that, the original Sukuna had been patient, fighting without a shred of frustration, knowing that if he eventually landed a hit, Gojo would die. He just had to wait for the right opening and work for it.
But now? Now Satoru Gojo had picked up a fucking staff! *Shit!*
"What's wrong, Lord Sukuna?" Gojo continuously swung the staff, forcing Sukuna to constantly reposition, all while launching a barrage of psychological warfare. "Didn't you say you were going to kill me and then go kill Mahito? From where I'm standing, it doesn't look like you can even get past step one!"
*BOOM!*
Sukuna suddenly unleashed a Dismantle directly into the ground beneath them. The devastating power instantly pulverized the terrain. White sand exploded outward in every direction. The deafening roar of the blast, combined with the violently displaced sand, turned the entire world white. A massive, localized sandstorm erupted in a matter of seconds.
Gojo's Six Eyes possessed the ability to see through such physical obstructions. But right now, all he saw was a blinding, chaotic mass of Cursed Energy.
In the original timeline, Sukuna had used a similar tactic. He had used Dismantle to cleanly sever a skyscraper in half and physically hurled it at Gojo. As the falling building crashed down, Sukuna used the distraction to close the distance. Why?
Because once Gojo's physical vision was blocked, Sukuna could radically spike his own Cursed Energy output, creating a blinding 'flare' that prevented Gojo from cleanly tracking his movements. It was identical to how Yuta Okkotsu had fought Yuji Itadori during their first encounter. Yuta constantly emitted such a colossal, overwhelming aura of Cursed Energy that Yuji's standard Cursed Energy sensory abilities were completely jammed, making it impossible to predict Yuta's attacks.
The logic was brutally simple: if the opponent's Six Eyes can precisely read any flow of Cursed Energy, just flood their vision with an absolute tsunami of it!
Yuta had used that tactic against Yuji, and now, Sukuna was using it against Gojo.
Sukuna formed one hand sign with two of his hands, and a completely different hand sign with his other two.
—Innate Technique Release.
—Ten Shadows Technique: Rabbit Escape, Piercing Ox.
Whenever Megumi Fushiguro used the Ten Shadows, he could only summon one Shikigami at a time. To summon another, he had to form a new hand sign. This limitation applied not just to him, but to every Ten Shadows user in history. But Ryomen Sukuna was different. With four arms, he could simultaneously form two distinct hand signs, drastically expanding the combat application of the Ten Shadows Technique.
Just like right now!
An endless tide of rabbits erupted from Sukuna's shadow, their sheer numbers piling up into a literal mountain of fur! While Rabbit Escape lacked offensive power, its infinite numbers meant they were perfect cannon fodder. Furthermore, every single rabbit carried a trace of the summoner's Cursed Energy. To Gojo's Six Eyes, it looked like the entire world was suddenly painted with Sukuna's Cursed Energy.
It effectively blinded Gojo's supernatural vision.
And further back, the Piercing Ox had already been summoned. The Piercing Ox was a Shikigami whose destructive power scaled infinitely with the distance it charged. However, it could only charge in a straight line, making it notoriously difficult to land a hit. But right now, Gojo was completely submerged in a sea of rabbits, his vision entirely jammed. This provided the perfect setup for the Piercing Ox to maximize its power and deliver a guaranteed one-hit kill!
Gojo was indeed engulfed by the swarm of rabbits. But he didn't even bother raising his guard. The rabbits crashed into him, but failed to exert any force. His Limitless was fully active, rendering the infinite swarm completely harmless. On the contrary, Gojo simply took a casual step forward. The rabbits directly in his path were instantly crushed, as if pulverized by an invisible hydraulic press.
In the original timeline, Gojo had used this exact application against Hanami. By adjusting the parameters of his Limitless, he could project it outward as crushing, localized gravity. Gojo didn't even need to attack; he simply had to walk forward, step by step, and the pressure would obliterate anything in his way.
But in the next instant, without Gojo doing a thing, a straight line of rabbits was violently blasted apart. The Piercing Ox was already hurtling toward him like a runaway freight train.
Gojo barely spared it a glance.
*BANG!*
The Ox's horns slammed dead-center into Gojo's chest. But it wasn't Gojo who shattered—it was the Ox's horns! The sheer, ungodly momentum of the charge had nowhere to go. Unable to stop, the Ox was violently pulverized, inch by inch, against the impenetrable wall of Infinity.
In less than a second, like a sports car ramming headfirst into a battleship's hull at top speed, the Piercing Ox was utterly annihilated by its own kinetic force, dissolving back into inky black shadows.
But before Gojo could take another step, the sky above him went black.
He looked up. A massive elephant was plummeting straight toward him.
—Ten Shadows Technique: Max Elephant!
*CRASH!*
Max Elephant slammed into the ground, its immense weight and terminal velocity causing the entire white desert to shudder violently. Behind the endless swarm of rabbits, the hand signs formed by Sukuna's four arms shifted once more. But this time, the sign he formed did not belong to the Ten Shadows.
—Ten Shadows Technique: Great Serpent!
—Shrine: Cleave!
A gargantuan serpent violently erupted from the sand directly beneath Gojo's feet. Its massive jaws opened to their absolute limit, swallowing Gojo whole in an instant. Normally, according to the hand signs, the slashing technique would be unleashed right now for a guaranteed kill. But Sukuna held back. He knew that a standard Cleave wouldn't even scratch Gojo as long as he had the Limitless.
So, both of his mouths began to chant the incantation simultaneously.
"Scale of the Dragon," his upper mouth chanted.
"Recoil," his stomach mouth chanted.
"Twin Meteors," his upper mouth chanted.
"—Cleave!"
The final word was punctuated by the mouth on his abdomen.
The incantation consisted of four phrases, but by utilizing both mouths, Sukuna completed it in the time it took to speak two. It was a feat completely impossible for any normal Jujutsu Sorcerer. When a sorcerer executes a technique using both hand signs and incantations—achieving its absolute, 'perfect' state—the resulting power is exponentially amplified.
This was the Binding Vow Sukuna had forged to unleash an attack that transcended logic.
By executing every single condition flawlessly—hand signs and incantations—Sukuna gained the ability to launch a ranged slash capable of cleanly severing the Limitless.
Target of Technique Extension: Space.
This was—
—[The Slash that Divides the World]!
*BANG!*
Before Sukuna could even finish the second phrase, Gojo casually expanded his Limitless, violently detonating the Great Serpent from the inside out. But Sukuna had perfectly calculated this exact timing. He had launched the attack in the infinitesimally small window where Gojo physically could not dodge.
The catastrophic, world-ending vertical slash slammed directly into Gojo. Because his vision was obscured by the rabbits, and because he had just been inside the serpent's mouth, even with the Six Eyes' godlike perception, Gojo couldn't predict or evade the strike. Unexpectedly, yet inevitably, the slash made contact!
Just like in the original timeline, Gojo was about to be cleanly bisected by Sukuna's ultimate technique...
...Right?
*CHIIIIIIIME!!!*
It sounded like a massive, ancient bronze bell being struck in a distant mountaintop temple. A profound, sacred chime echoed directly into Sukuna's ears. The absolute confidence radiating from his face slowly hardened into a mask of pure disbelief. The slash that had torn through the earth and struck Gojo directly should have split him in two. At the very least, a surprise attack of this magnitude should have completely shattered Gojo's rhythm, forcing him into a desperate, bloody retreat.
But nothing happened.
Satoru Gojo had simply raised his hand, bringing the monk's staff defensively across his body. The moment [The Slash that Divides the World] made contact with the staff, the weapon released that ancient, resonant Buddhist chime, and the slash... simply vanished.
Yuji Itadori knew about the staff Gojo wielded. He even knew its name. Gojo had never hidden it from him. Consequently, Sukuna, residing within Yuji, also knew of its existence.
But Sukuna had no idea what the staff actually *did*.
The only people Gojo had sparred with recently were Yuta Okkotsu, Yuki Tsukumo, Utahime Iori, and Tengen (Referencing Vol. 4, Ch. 4). They were the only four beings in the world who knew the true capabilities of Satoru Gojo's weapon. Yuji Itadori was completely in the dark. Thus, Sukuna—who had learned everything about Gojo through Yuji's eyes—was now, for the very first time, bearing witness to a fraction of the staff's divine power.
"...Impossible," Sukuna muttered instinctively.
[The Slash that Divides the World] was the single most devastating attack in the original narrative. Exactly as the name implied, Sukuna had used Mahoraga to continuously analyze the Limitless. However, he hadn't ordered Mahoraga to adapt to the Limitless *technique* itself; he ordered it to adapt to what the Limitless *represented*.
The Limitless was the ultimate domination over space. Whether it was compressing space, expanding space, distorting space, or simultaneously applying both compression and expansion to generate the cataclysmic destructive power of the Hollow Technique... the Limitless controlled it all.
Therefore, once Mahoraga adapted to the ultimate domination of space, anything that existed *within* that space—matter, energy, Cursed Energy, anything housed within reality, no matter how ethereal, even abstract concepts—would be cleanly severed by [The Slash that Divides the World]!
Wherever the slash traveled, existence itself ceased to be. That was the absolute truth Sukuna believed in after finalizing the Binding Vow.
Yet now, right before his very eyes, Satoru Gojo had effortlessly neutralized the slash using nothing but a monk's staff. No, 'neutralized' wasn't the right word. Sukuna's Cursed Energy sensory capabilities were unparalleled. He could clearly feel his slash simply... dissipating the moment it touched the staff. It wasn't a violent collision of opposing forces. It was far more delicate, far more profound.
It was as if the slash had simply erased *itself*.
Gojo gently rested the base of the staff against the white sand. He abandoned his usual slouching, arrogant posture. Instead, he stood perfectly straight, radiating solemnity and grace. Holding the staff in one hand, he raised his other hand in a single-handed prayer, speaking with the serene cadence of a holy monk.
"Once upon a time, a Japanese monk deeply admired the Buddhist teachings of the great empire to the West. He sought to journey there to seek their guidance. But in that era, the journey was perilous, fraught with deadly storms and impossible trials. Not a single disciple was willing to risk the voyage to Japan. Amidst the deafening silence, only one monk stepped forward."
"*'It is for the sake of the Dharma. Why should I cherish my own life?'*"
"His Dharma name was Jianzhen. He is the protagonist of the historical epic known as the 'Six Perfections' Eastward Journey'."
Gojo lifted the staff and brought it down against the sand once more.
*CHIIIIIIIME!*
The Buddhist chime rang out again. It was deep, tranquil, and eternal. A visible shockwave of sound rippled outward, washing over Sukuna. As the chime resonated through his very core, he felt no malice, no violence. It felt as if a divine voice was whispering directly into his soul, forcibly soothing the raging bloodlust in his heart.
"Khakkhara: [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. This is a genuine, bona fide [Divine Artifact]." Gojo smiled softly. "Its ability... is [Purification]."
*CHIIIIIIIME.*
The third chime rang out. Three chimes to cleanse the world.
Gojo offered a deep, respectful Buddhist bow, his face illuminated by the serene smile of a Buddha achieving enlightenment. His voice carried a divine resonance as he spoke:
"Instructor at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. Head of the Gojo Clan. Officially certified Special Grade Sorcerer by Jujutsu Headquarters."
"Satoru Gojo."
"Namu San... Amitabha!"