Chapter 106: Prison Realm, Open
"Prison Realm, open."
With that quiet command, the cube at Satoru Gojo's feet unfolded.
It did not open like a box.
It peeled apart.
Layer after layer, eye after eye, the cursed object spread outward like the flesh of some rotten fruit being stripped away. Beneath its surface was no mechanism, no hollow core, no ordinary darkness.
Only a thick, viscous blackness.
Something deeper than shadow.
Something that did not belong in the world of the living.
The moment it opened, an invisible binding force locked onto Gojo's body.
"What…"
Gojo's pupils narrowed.
For the first time that night, his Six Eyes failed to give him an answer he liked.
No.
It was not that he could not read it.
The structure, the cursed energy flow, the binding formula, the compressed barrier technique buried inside it, all of it flooded into his brain in an instant.
That was precisely why he felt disgust.
This thing was not merely a cursed object.
It was a prison made from the remains of something holy that had been twisted into absolute confinement.
A cage designed for the impossible.
A cage prepared for him.
"Hi, Satoru."
A voice drifted out from the depths of the tunnel.
"Long time no see."
Footsteps echoed across the blood-streaked platform.
A man in a black kasaya walked out of the dark, his long hair tied back, his face wearing that familiar gentle smile.
That smile.
Gojo knew it better than almost anyone.
It belonged to his classmate.
His closest friend.
The man who once stood beside him and called themselves the strongest.
The man he had killed with his own hands.
"Suguru… Geto?"
For one instant, Satoru Gojo's mind went blank.
Then the memories came.
A blue sky over Jujutsu High.
Two boys walking shoulder to shoulder beneath the summer sun.
Cheap soda from a vending machine.
Laughter after a mission.
Blood on the ground.
A body in an alley.
His own hand ending everything.
"How…"
Gojo's lips barely moved.
"I killed you."
His Six Eyes screamed the truth at him.
The cursed energy residue was Geto Suguru's.
The body structure was Geto Suguru's.
The movements, the posture, the faint habits carved into muscle memory, every detail belonged to Geto Suguru.
His eyes told him this was Suguru.
His soul rejected it with every fiber of his being.
That thing was not Suguru.
"Don't look at me like that," Geto said with a smile. "You'll make me blush."
It lasted less than a breath.
A single moment of contradiction.
A single heartbeat in which Gojo's mind, forced to process the impossible, stalled.
For an ordinary person, that hesitation would mean nothing.
For the Prison Realm, it was enough.
One minute had passed inside Gojo Satoru's mind.
The condition had been fulfilled.
The Prison Realm pulsed.
Black restraints burst from the open cube, thick and fleshy, wrapping around Gojo's arms, legs, torso, and throat.
"What the hell?"
Gojo tried to move.
His body did not respond.
Cursed energy would not circulate.
The Limitless fell silent.
His body, which had stood above the world, was dragged toward the cube inch by inch.
"This is a Special Grade cursed object created specifically for you," the thing wearing Suguru Geto's face said calmly. "The Prison Realm. It was made from the remains of the monk Genshin."
He stepped closer, hands tucked inside his sleeves.
"Once caught within it, even you cannot use cursed energy."
His smile deepened.
"Good night, Satoru Gojo."
Those blue eyes lifted.
The confusion had vanished.
So had the shock.
What remained was cold, bottomless fury.
"Who…"
Gojo stared at the man before him.
"…are you?"
The false Geto seemed to enjoy the question.
He reached up, fingers hooking along his scalp.
Then he lifted the top of his skull.
Wet flesh parted.
Inside the open head sat a brain with a mouth.
"You may call me whatever you like," it said.
The voice remained calm.
"But for now, I am Suguru Geto."
The brain's mouth curved.
"At least this body is."
Gojo understood.
Suguru had not returned.
This thing had taken his corpse.
It had used his best friend's body, his voice, his memories, and his face, as a tool.
The air around Gojo went still.
"I'm going to kill you."
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
"Even if I'm sealed."
His gaze burned into the monster before him.
"I will kill you."
Then Gojo raised his head.
His Six Eyes did not look at Kenjaku.
They looked deeper.
Past the stitched forehead.
Past the stolen flesh.
Toward whatever fragment of will still remained inside that body.
"Suguru!"
His voice tore through the underground station.
"How long are you going to let this disgusting thing use you?"
The command thundered through the barrier.
"Wake up!"
For a second, nothing happened.
Then.
Snap.
Kenjaku's right hand shot up.
Without warning, it clamped around his own throat.
The grip was brutal.
The bones in his neck creaked.
"Ghk…"
Kenjaku's smug expression shattered.
His eyes widened.
For the first time, genuine shock twisted that stolen face.
"What…?"
His voice came out strangled.
"This body is resisting me?"
His hand tightened further.
"Impossible. I severed the connection between body and soul completely."
He grabbed at his wrist with his other hand, trying to pry it away.
It would not move.
That hand held his throat like iron.
Deep inside the body he had stolen, a will that should have been silent was stirring.
Not alive.
Not conscious in the ordinary sense.
But furious.
A remnant.
A curse.
An obsession.
A final refusal.
Gojo laughed.
Bound by the Prison Realm, dragged toward the cube, he laughed with absolute arrogance.
"See?"
Blood and exhaustion did nothing to dull the wild curve of his grin.
"I knew it."
His eyes gleamed.
"There's no way you'd lose that easily to a gutter rat."
Kenjaku's face darkened.
He forced cursed energy through the body, suppressing the rogue hand inch by inch.
"The body is the soul, and the soul is the body…"
His breathing was rough, but his eyes sharpened again.
"So that is your answer, Suguru Geto?"
He gave a low laugh.
"What a ridiculous obsession."
The hand trembled.
It still resisted.
But under Kenjaku's control, it slowly loosened.
"Still," Kenjaku whispered, "this ends here."
The Prison Realm's pull intensified.
Gojo's body slid closer to the open cube.
The darkness inside it stared back at him.
"Time to say goodbye, Strongest."
Gojo's smile did not fade.
"Hey."
Kenjaku paused.
Gojo lifted his head with difficulty and looked toward the ceiling of the tunnel, beyond the concrete, beyond the layers of earth and steel.
As if he could see a crimson star falling from the sky.
"I don't know who you really are."
His grin turned sharp.
"But you forgot one thing."
Kenjaku's expression stiffened.
"What?"
"Among my students…"
Gojo's eyes gleamed.
"…there's a monster even more unreasonable than me."
Rumble!
The ceiling of Shibuya Station exploded.
Concrete, rebar, tiles, and dust burst inward as a crimson blade light tore down from above.
It descended like a meteor falling from heaven.
A slash wrapped in blazing heat.
A line of fire capable of burning away filth, curses, flesh, and schemes.
Kenjaku's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Every instinct in his stolen body screamed.
"Who?!"
The red light answered.
Yami fell through the ruined ceiling, black uniform whipping in the heat, Shiranui drawn in his hand.
His eyes were colder than the steel he carried.
The blade had already begun its descent.
The slash aimed straight for Kenjaku's neck.
But at that same moment, in Gojo's stunned gaze, the Prison Realm finished closing.
The lid shut.
The world vanished.
And everything fell into darkness.
.....
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