Chapter 163: Don't Come Near Me, Aaaahhh!
No, or rather, after Gojo Satoru—it was unclear if he was settling a private grudge or if he truly just wanted to give Suguru Geto a few rounds of beatings—slapped Kenjaku hard several times, things changed.
Those attacked by the Stand ability of [Pseudo-Whitesnake]... no, even those attacked by the real [Whitesnake], usually wake up very quickly. After all, compared to the ability that, once it successfully hits a target, can directly manufacture and extract the target's spirit as a DISC, the other application of this Stand—dissolving the mind to erode the target's spirit—is characterized by being stealthy and slow.
This is especially true when the target of the attack is mental. Just as a person sleeping can be startled awake by the body's instinctive reactions—like the bladder being unable to withstand pressure, which reflects into the dream as a need to use the bathroom—the same applies here. Under human extrasensory perception, it would be one thing if Kenjaku's spirit were continuously being eroded by [Pseudo-Whitesnake]. But once his physical body suffers damage, the survival instinct automatically starts sounding the alarm.
In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 6, the reason Jolyne Cujoh and Jotaro Kujo were able to break free from [Whitesnake]'s ability was by utilizing this instinctive reaction warning. If Emiya Shirou hadn't used the Stand ability of [Pseudo-Atum] to seize Kenjaku's soul and disrupt part of his brain function beforehand—causing Kenjaku's instinctive reaction to partially fail—Kenjaku likely would have woken up the moment Gojo Satoru started beating him.
However, although Emiya Shirou suppressed Kenjaku's soul, Kenjaku wasn't the only soul inside that body. In the original Jujutsu Kaisen story, the soul of Suguru Geto, hidden within the body occupied by Kenjaku, was briefly awakened by Gojo Satoru. It is not a rare occurrence for two souls to share the burden of such a mental attack.
Thinking of this, Emiya Shirou stared intently at Gojo Satoru. "Gojo, you don't want Suguru Geto's body to continue being exploited by someone else, do you?"
"Fine, fine, I'll stop," Gojo Satoru said, withdrawing his hand helplessly under Shirou's gaze.
Undoubtedly, Gojo Satoru and Suguru Geto were best friends. This wasn't just because they were once classmates, but because they were both "one-of-a-kind" genius sorcerers—unique in talent, cursed energy, and technique mechanics. They shared too much common ground.
But precisely because they were best friends, Gojo Satoru could not accept or forgive Geto's betrayal. At the time, the shock was too great, preventing him from properly beating Geto a few times to vent his frustration. Now that the opportunity had finally arrived, he was forced to stop due to various restrictions.
It was truly difficult for Gojo Satoru; with a look of regret, he asked Emiya Shirou, "By the way, can I know what you did to Suguru... er, no, I mean, what did you do to this guy?
If Suguru's soul really does remain in this body, will it affect him?" Gojo asked in a tone full of concern. Of course, it would have been better if he could hide the expression of schadenfreude and anticipation on his face.
"Well, it's not a big deal," Emiya Shirou said. "If you really want to know, I have no reason to hide it from you.
Simply put, I constructed an illusion controlled by me for Kenjaku—the guy who stole Suguru Geto's body, whether he's a cursed spirit or a sorcerer. Right now, he is actually immersed in this 'beautiful dream'."
"Mm-hmm, I see," Gojo Satoru nodded. "So that's why you wanted to prevent me from waking him up."
No wonder Kenjaku remained frozen in place even after the release of [Unlimited Void]. It turned out he wasn't just suffering from the control of [Unlimited Void], but was also being restrained by Emiya Shirou's ability.
But... how did Emiya Shirou do it?
Setting everything else aside, Gojo Satoru was very clear about the effects of his own Domain Expansion, [Unlimited Void]. Just 0.2 seconds of [Unlimited Void] can forcibly transmit roughly half a year's worth of information into the brains of living targets within the domain. Based on that calculation, after Gojo maintained the domain for several minutes, the bombardment of information had basically made Kenjaku "omniscient." It was just that Kenjaku's backward brain couldn't process that information, and his backward physical reaction speed couldn't turn that omniscience into omnipotence.
But with so much information implanted, any ordinary illusion would seem full of flaws to Kenjaku. Unless Kenjaku actively chose to indulge in the illusion and refused to wake up? Could Emiya Shirou really be broadcasting some kind of "beautiful dream" to him?
As if seeing Gojo's doubt, Emiya Shirou simply continued: "—[Gold Experience Requiem]."
Obviously, these were words that left Gojo Satoru looking completely bewildered.
"Don't worry, Gojo." Emiya Shirou didn't explain further, only saying confidently: "Don't be fooled by Kenjaku's current expressionless face. In the illusion I specifically created for him, he is already screaming for me not to come over, telling me not to get near him, and so on."
Emiya Shirou had never forgotten that Kenjaku was a mastermind who had lived for over a thousand years. His trump cards were such that even in the original story—where Okkotsu Yuta and the others killed him in a sneak attack and, having learned from Geto's case, surely wouldn't have forgotten to dispose of the corpse—they still couldn't prevent Kenjaku's eventual resurrection.
Therefore, was simply dissolving Kenjaku's spirit and turning it into a DISC enough? Completely insufficient!
When facing things like ordinary sorcerers who, even after death, have a chance to resurrect as cursed spirits, Emiya Shirou's countermeasure for Kenjaku had always been to use [Pseudo-Atum]'s ability to seize his soul.
That being the case, what could Emiya Shirou do to make Kenjaku—who had lived for over a millennium, seen and gained too much, and thus never believed he would lose (even feeling only surprise after guessing Shirou's time-stop ability)—feel a total sense of defeat?
Because [Pseudo-Atum]'s mechanism was powerful enough to take effect with only a brief admission of defeat—allowing for the seizure of part of the soul without waiting for a total surrender—how could he make this mastermind feel that crushing frustration?
It was simple. In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 5, Giorno Giovanna had already used his Stand ability to do the same thing to Diavolo—another mastermind who believed himself to be the emperor of the world, aided by great luck.
Emiya Shirou was now simply using [Pseudo-Whitesnake] to replicate that process for Kenjaku.
"My eyes can see this scene..."
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