A/N: So here we go with the last chapter. I will be publishing this same time as the Epilogue so you can check that out after this.
The problem with an open domain was that without a barrier to keep your opponents trapped, they could just escape your domain expansion and then you'd have no choice but to close the very expensive domain (in terms of cursed energy reserves), deal with burnout, and then fight your enemies with a handicap. Sukuna circumvented this weakness in two ways. For one, he could just repair his brain—whether with Reverse Cursed Technique, or with Takaba's technique. The other way he circumvented this domain was by the domain itself extending two hundred metres in all directions with an attack that would kill most opponents in seconds.
That was why I had opened my own domain though—to buy the others the seconds they needed. Sukuna kicked my arse something fierce in my domain. Only the two of us without either of our sure hits meant we had to fight hand to hand, and it was clear from the first second that he was my better. His punches hit nearly as hard as Gojo's, he was nearly as fast in combat, and he could anticipate my moves just as well.
In short, he was better than me. But I didn't need to be better than him. I just needed to buy a few seconds. When my domain fell and I was about to be torn to shreds, I found myself somewhere else. I fell to my knees instantly.
"Shit, you got your ass kicked," Hakari said, looking down at my body even as I began to cycle Round Deer's positive energy to fix it.
"So it worked then?" I asked the others.
"Yeah. Once your domain was open, his stopped working and Todo was able to get all of us out of there," Itadori said.
"Thank you, Todo," I said to the muscular man. He just nodded, gaze in the distance. Sukuna was exchanging blows with Mahoraga now. The Divine General had adapted to Sukuna's slashing attacks so the domain was doing no harm to him. He would have to drop the domain eventually to end the drain to his cursed energy and we would pounce on him again.
When I had fully recovered, I rose to my feet once more and stared out in the distance from the bottom floor of a building whose top half had been torn away at some point. Probably a casualty of the battle between Gojo and Sukuna. I watched as Sukuna and Mahoraga danced across the ground in the distance. Sukuna was a monster when it came to physicality, but Mahoraga had fought Gojo, he had fought Itadori, myself, and Kenjaku. His offence had adapted to the level where he was more than holding his own.
The longer the fight went on with Sukuna, the closer he came to winning. Sukuna knew this though. We had robbed him of the chance to use his cleave or dismantle to end the fight, with Todo's boogie woogie giving Mahoraga enough time being hit to adapt to the techniques. So that meant he had only one choice. He had to use that fire arrow once more.
He stopped still for a second and Mahoraga pursued. I barely caught the glint of a smirk on his face with the distance, and then my eyes were seared by the explosion that decimated the area already mostly destroyed by his domain and my iceberg attack even further. He smirked as the smoke began to clear, clearly looking over in our direction. But unfortunately for him, Mahoraga had adapted to fire.
The smoke revealed the form of the Divine General, steaming but entirely unharmed. Sukuna's most powerful attack and he had just taken it head on.
"Leave the rest to me," I told everyone, and Todo's technique ferried me over. Clap. He hadn't even asked any questions. That man. He probably felt I knew what I was doing and trusted me to be right. Well, either that, or he figured that I was strong enough that I would either win or drain Sukuna even further to let the others have a greater chance of victory.
"Going to say Uncle now?" I asked the King of Curses as I charged. Mahoraga kept his onslaught on even as Kashimo rose from my shadow, transforming from shadow to phenomena as he did so.
Now that it was clear that we had him pressed against the wall, I knew that he would use his final trump cards soon. But this was Jujutsu Kaisen for a reason and I was not going to give him that chance.
"Domain Expansion: Dance of a Thousand Shadows." His face froze as my domain surrounded us in its barrier. I had maybe one more domain expansion left in me before my brain just flat out refused to be healed any further. But that didn't matter because Sukuna had a grand total of zero.
The others had estimated that he couldn't open his domain any more. Even one domain expansion would have drained him something fierce. Using fuga on top of that to create that thermobaric explosion was probably the final straw. But then why would he have done that just to take out Mahoraga knowing the rest of us were still waiting in the wings? Did he just think so little of the rest of us?
Two of his hands came together—the bottom ones—as he used Hollow Wicker Basket to protect himself from the sure hit, but it didn't matter as Mahoraga and Kashimo began to wail on him in concert. I fingered the phone in my pocket.
A standard domain would not let you make a phone call, but as I had made the barrier and I could set the conditions, I made it so I could make phone calls from within. Of course doing that in combat did not make sense in most situations. I dialled 1, activating the speed dial function and calling the only number other than Ui-Ui's saved into this damn thing. The call ended a second later.
That was fine. I didn't need her to pick up. She knew her role. So I knelt once and began to chant.
"Endless.
Dark.
Shadow.
Self.
Deny.
Accept.
Consume. Umbral Communion."
I executed my technique with a chant for the first time and my shadow thickened and connected with Sukuna's. While my sure-hit was counteracted by Hollow Wicker Basket, there was nothing stopping me from using the technique myself.
Our shadows stitched together and I felt Sukuna's reserves. He had even less than I expected. I commanded his hands to drop, and it said something about him that it was not until I felt his body jolt from Nobara using Resonance with that last finger that I managed to make his body do my will. Mahoraga stabbed the Sword of Extermination straight through his heart, and I felt the boundary between his soul and Takaba.
Takaba. My technique gave me the power to distinguish between souls and I could feel the comedian. He had been fighting Sukuna's soul from within. Fuck. That was why things had managed to go so smoothly. To think that even with less cursed energy than we'd thought, and while fighting an internal battle to suppress his host, he had still been able to be such a challenge.
*Help me, Takaba,* I said to his soul, and the man responded. His soul pushed Sukuna's out of the body and I felt it begin to flow into my shadow.
Sukuna fought more than anyone else had under the influence of my shadow. But it didn't matter. My domain's sure hit had added to my already formed technique and I would not be denied. The King of Curses did not die in a massive conflagration. He died like most people fell asleep. Slowly, quietly, and alone.
I ignored the improvements in my reserves and output as I approached Takaba's form. His body had returned to normal.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," I replied. It was impressive that he was managing to speak with a blade buried in his chest, but there was no way he was surviving this.
"Say a joke for me," he said.
"Do you know what I used to do before this?" I asked.
He shook his head slowly, barely managing to do so twice.
"I used to be a baker. But I couldn't make enough dough," I said, and to my surprise he began to laugh at the terrible joke.
He laughed until his eyes fell closed. I buried the urge to absorb him with my technique. He deserved more than that. Takaba died laughing with my hand in his.
XXXXXX – TWO WEEKS LATER
Mai squeezed my hand in hers as I prepared to step up to the podium. The wake yesterday had been brutal. It was supposed to have been an evening of mourning, but the Gojo clan was shameless. Way too shameless for my comfort. Gojo-sensei was dead and they were already preparing to name a new Clan Head. The various factions used the wake as an excuse to push their agendas. I would have just ignored it if I could, but as the Zenin Clan Head and the child he raised for so long, people seemed to think that my backing would give them the weight they needed to ignore all the others.
Annoyingly enough, they were probably right. I knew without a doubt that I now occupied the position Gojo-sensei once did. I was the strongest. The jujutsu world had seen me trap Sukuna in my domain and come out with Takaba's dead body. It was clear what had happened. No one cared that I wasn't truly Sukuna's equal. I probably wasn't even Gojo-sensei's yet. I was not the strongest. Just the one who managed to survive.
I squeezed her hand back before releasing it from my grip. I walked forwards, the suit I wore draped over me comfortably as I stepped up and took my place next to the priest. There had been a small dispute about who should have been the Chief Mourner. I wasn't even related to Gojo-sensei by blood. No one in his clan was volunteering for the duty, however. Okkotsu, who had narrowly survived being cleaved near in half by the King of Curses, had been a strong candidate. He was distantly related to the Gojo clan as well. But considering Gojo-sensei himself had willed all his personal property to me, his wishes were somewhat clear.
"Satoru was a good man. He did not know this all the time. He did not particularly even care whether he was most of the time, and I think that made him special when compared to most others. Some people are good because they have no other choice than to be. Satoru was strong enough to do whatever he wanted. Even now, were he to rise from that casket, none of us could stop him from doing whatever he wanted. And what did he do in the end? He taught so many of us. He protected those who had no one to stand for them. He was the shield to the weak even though he had been born with so much power that he had as much in common with us as we ourselves do with the ants on the ground. Satoru Gojo was a good man despite the fact that he was a great one. Thank you for coming to say goodbye to the man who was the only father I ever truly knew. Thank you," I said, and then bowed at my waist. I remained there for a minute before I rose. I looked at the closed casket and walked over to open it.
Shoko had done a good job. Sukuna's domain had not been clean about it. But looking at him now, one would be forgiven for thinking that he had died in his sleep. I stretched out a hand and a bouquet of white chrysanthemums I'd stored within my shadow rose from the ground. I placed it right above his head before I took out the cursed glasses from my pocket. Formerly cursed glasses, rather. Removing the curse on them had taken days of study and hours of effort, but I felt it all to be worth it as I unfolded them and placed them on his face.
"Goodbye, Sensei," I said, and stepped back. Okkotsu was next, holding flowers of his own. And behind him in a long line were those he had touched the most. Itadori, Nobara, Hakari, Maki and Mai, Panda, Inumaki, and so on.
A/N: And that's the end of this story. Click on for the epilogue. My next story might still be set in this universe, but should be a longer one exploring a different sort of character.