The battlefield was still bending under the weight of overlapping techniques.
Infinite Void had not fully dissipated.
Hollow Purple residue still lingered like reality had been scorched at the concept level.
And Sukuna was still inside it.
Watching.
Calculating.
Yuji was barely standing at the edge of the ruined space.
"…I can't… keep up…"
Nobara grabbed him before he fell fully.
"…Stay awake, idiot!"
Megumi's eyes were locked forward.
"…This is escalating again…"
Gojo had already moved closer to the barrier line, his expression no longer playful at all.
"…Okay."
A pause.
"…Now I need to actually step in."
Inside the chaos—
Sukuna moved first.
A single motion.
Simple.
Clean.
Cleave.
The attack wasn't aimed at killing Yuji.
It wasn't even aimed at finishing anything.
It was aimed at something worse.
The connection.
Yuji felt it immediately.
Not physical damage.
But internal disruption.
Like something inside his cursed energy had been sliced cleanly in half.
Yuji coughed violently.
"…T-That wasn't—"
But before he could finish—
the pressure changed.
The air behind him collapsed.
Takeru's presence snapped into focus.
Not calm.
Not analytical.
Not balanced.
Rage.
Megumi's eyes widened instantly.
"…Takeru—stop!"
Nobara stepped back.
"…Oh no… that's NOT control…"
Gojo's expression tightened sharply.
"…That's emotional output spike…"
Takeru didn't look at Yuji.
He looked past him.
At Sukuna.
"…You touched him."
Sukuna tilted his head slightly inside Yuji's body, smiling faintly.
"…So what if I did?"
That was the trigger.
Something inside Takeru broke.
Not stability.
Not technique.
Constraint.
"…Mahoraga."
The shikigami hesitated.
For the first time.
Then—
Takeru's voice sharpened.
"…Unsummon."
Mahoraga vanished instantly.
Not destroyed.
Not adapted.
Removed.
Yuji's eyes widened.
"…He just—what?!"
Megumi:
"…He's abandoning adaptation entirely…"
Gojo's eyes narrowed slightly.
"…So he's choosing offense."
And then—
Takeru spoke again.
Cold.
Absolute.
"…Domain Expansion."
The space inverted violently.
"…Malevolent Shrine."
Sukuna's expression shifted instantly.
Not fear.
But attention sharpened into something far more serious.
"…Ah."
Gojo whispered under his breath.
"…Okay. That's a problem."
Inside the domain—
reality became cutting law again.
But this time—
it was unstable.
Anger-driven.
Controlled only by intent, not balance.
Takeru moved first.
Cleave.
Not Sukuna's.
His.
A copied, refined execution strike.
Then—
Dismantle.
Then—
Fuga.
The furnace ignited instantly, burning through layered cursed structures.
Yuji staggered.
"…He's using EVERYTHING…"
Nobara shouted.
"…THIS IS NOT A FIGHT ANYMORE!"
Megumi's voice was tight.
"…He's emptying his entire copied arsenal in sequence…"
Gojo's eyes narrowed.
"…No."
A pause.
"…He's not sequencing."
"…He's overriding cooldown logic."
Sukuna finally moved.
Barely.
Blocking.
Deflecting.
Adjusting.
But for the first time—
he was reacting instead of controlling.
"…Interesting."
His voice was lower now.
"…You're burning through everything at once."
Takeru didn't respond.
Hollow Purple.
The beam erupted again.
Closer.
More unstable.
More violent.
Sukuna's expression sharpened further.
"…That one again…"
He dodged barely.
Not cleanly.
Not comfortably.
Yuji's eyes widened.
"…He's actually making Sukuna move back…"
Gojo murmured.
"…That's not supposed to happen."
And then—
Takeru advanced again.
Cleave.
Cleave.
Cleave.
Not one.
Not two.
Twenty rapid executions of spatial slicing layered across Sukuna's position.
Nobara screamed.
"…HOW IS HE DOING THAT MANY?!"
Megumi:
"…He's bypassing output stabilization entirely…"
Sukuna finally clicked his tongue.
"…Now that's annoying."
And then—
Takeru spoke.
Low.
Shaking.
Focused.
"…World."
A pause.
"…Cutting Slash."
Sukuna's eyes widened slightly.
For the first time—
real awareness of danger.
He shifted—
but not fully in time.
The slash carved through space itself.
Not just targeting body.
Targeting presence.
Sukuna staggered slightly.
Not injured severely—
but forced to acknowledge impact.
"…Hah…"
A faint exhale.
"…You learned that too quickly."
Gojo stepped forward again, voice sharper now.
"…Okay, I'm actually intervening now—"
But before he could move—
Takeru spoke again.
Final escalation.
"…BLACK FLASH!"
And the air broke.
A distortion spike of cursed energy detonated at the exact moment of impact timing alignment.
The strike hit Sukuna directly.
Silence.
Yuji whispered.
"…Did that just—"
Nobara:
"…He hit BLACK FLASH on Sukuna…"
Megumi didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Sukuna stood still for a moment.
Then slowly smiled.
But now—
it wasn't amused.
It was evaluating.
"…Now that…"
A pause.
"…is worth remembering."
Gojo's expression had completely changed.
No smile.
No sarcasm.
Just focus.
"…He's adapting too fast."
And for the first time—
Sukuna looked slightly less certain than before.
Not defeated.
Not even close.
But no longer comfortably in control of the pacing.
The domain still burned.
The fight still hadn't ended.
And Takeru—
was still moving forward.