One day ago, in the Tombs of the Star, Gojo sat down, lost in his own thoughts.
"Huff, Huff." Gojo breathed heavily after finishing a training session with Yuji. These past few days have been testing how far he can push his body. Since he had wanted to fight against different types of opponents, he has switched between Naohiro and Yuji.
The main problem with Naohiro is that he adapts to any situation that may arise in a fight. If there is someone who learns best through a fight, he is the prime example.
Yuji put his hands in his sleeves. "Dabura will likely become stronger throughout your battle. If he is on that level, at the highest level of sorcery, he should be able to figure out ways to counter you." He took a glance at Naohiro. "Maybe not as freakish as this guy, but someone who is naturally gifted enough to become that strong will definitely have techniques unknown to us."
It went unsaid that Dabura might have a way to bypass infinity without using a domain. Alien Jujutsu is unknown even to masters like Naohiro and Yuji.
Gojo looked down and clenched his hand into a fist. "As much as he is figuring me out, I'll be doing the same." His fist suddenly started to tremble. "But man, this shit sucks."
Instead of trembling due to excitement or fear, the trembling was involuntary. It was his body telling him he couldn't go any further.
Gojo shot up, stretched, and smiled. "Well, now that I've got my edge back and I can't fight anymore, it's time to chill out for a bit."
However, Yuji and Naohiro knew it was just an excuse to eat sweets. He could easily keep going if he really wanted to.
Before Yuji opened his mouth, Naohiro spoke. "No, we are going out. You need to get out every once in a while; you shut in." His statement caused Yuji to give him a deadpan expression.
Choso, Eso, and Kechizu all decided to join as well, making it a little party of sorts. They would stand out, but who cares?
-
Back to the present.
No matter how old he is, domain refinement will never deteriorate. In his case, Gojo's output would never deteriorate as well due to his Six Eyes. The problem is how his body handles the level of output Gojo can use.
His fists still have the same force that they had in his prime, but the issue is how his body reacts if he pushes it too far.
Newton's third law states that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If he hits someone with insane durability hard enough to knock them out, his body would feel the same force regardless of his reinforcement.
Cursed energy reinforcement should mitigate the force to practically zero, but an aged, more sensitive body can only mitigate so much before it starts to break down.
This was what Yuji reminded him of before Gojo launched his 150% Hollow Purple. Chanting and the attack, being the first he launched, kept it from instantly breaking his body, but it did have side effects.
He was in a pseudo-burnout, needing to limit his output so his body could catch up. It is also why Dabura easily dismantled his second hollow purple. The output of the second Hollow Purple was about the same level as one of Gojo's Reds.
Sure, launching a Domain Expansion right at the beginning of the fight could've ended it. Still, the problem was that he couldn't physically use Domain Expansion unless he wanted to strain his body too early in the fight after using such a devastating first strike.
But Gojo decided to do it anyway, to show Dabura his resolve as one of the strongest sorcerers to be born on Earth. It was a statement he needed to make, even if he limited himself at the beginning. He didn't want to disrespect Dabura as a sorcerer, giving it everything he had.
Gojo didn't see this as a death match. Not long into the fight, he started having fun, slowly leading and guiding Dabura. His instincts as a teacher kicked in, revealing more and more how infinity worked, pushing Dabura to learn Domain Expansion.
Dabura's jujutsu was basically primitive.
Teaching someone strong made Gojo excited. Throughout the fight, he hadn't lost his smile a single time.
"[Simple Domain]!" Gojo spoke as he shifted his stance.
Dabura smiled. "So you Earthlings even have counters for this technique." Instead of a mocking smile, Dabura's smile was genuine. "But even so, that won't let you escape."
Gojo grabbed the rod in his arm and pulled it out. Before it could start to bleed, his wound started to smoke. Not even a second later, the hole was completely gone.
Dabura's eyes widened as he saw Gojo heal his wound, baffled that he healed himself using cursed energy as a base for the reverse cursed technique.
Gojo smirked. "Escape? Nah, you got the wrong idea. I'm just glad that you were able to figure it out." Stretching his neck to the side, he continued. "Honestly, you definitely take Megumi's spot as Potential Man."
While still standing in his simple domain, he raised his hand. "Now then, let me teach you a bit about how domains work when two are laid out at the same time."
Immediately, Dabura jumped toward Gojo. He wasn't stupid, realizing that Gojo could use Domain Expansion as well. Dabura threw a punch, but his fist stopped in front of Gojo.
In his domain, he assumed all strikes could land, since his technique reached Gojo, but domains don't cancel out a user's cursed technique.
The only reason Sukuna could fight against Gojo with his fists in his domain was that Sukuna was able to use Domain Amplification and Domain Expansion at the same time.
Crossing his fingers, he spoke. "When two Domain Expansions are laid out at the same time, the more refined one will dominate the space."
As his fingers touched, a white space exploded from Gojo's feet. "[Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void]."
Dabura was strong.
His initial domain refinement could even be called astonishing, but that doesn't matter against someone like Gojo, who's had decades of experience with near-perfect refinement.
Without years of training, Dabura would never be able to defeat Gojo in a domain clash.
The white infinite space instantly overwhelmed Dabura's block-like structure, causing Dabura to freeze in place as the sure-hit of Unlimited Void landed.
Thoughts were racing in Dabura's head. "What...what...what is this? Where am I? Who am I?" His eyes were darting back and forward, but they weren't seeing anything in front of him. "This space...this world. What am I seeing?"
Gojo dropped his simple domain and put his hands in his pockets. Contrary to many expectations, Gojo stood in front of Dabura with his shit-eating grin. "Now then, how are you going to get out of this one?"
To Gojo's surprise, Dabura started crying, but his tears were bloody. "I see now. This world...is so beautiful. I can see it. Everything. Was I fighting? Why was I fighting? Who was I fighting?"
It wasn't even a few seconds after Unlimited Void landed that Dabura was contemplating his entire existence, and who he was.
Gojo's smirk turned into a genuine smile. "It was fun, Dabura. To show my respect, I'll show you everything I have." Then, Gojo raised both his arms in preparation to use his ultimate technique.
Elsewhere, Yuji felt something was off. In his Domain, he had access to everything transpiring within it, including Gojo's Unlimited Void.
His eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "Gojo...don't do it, you idiot. You just used a domain!"
As Yuji started to panic, inside the domain...
Gojo spoke. "[Maximum: Voi-]"
Crack
...
Shatter
Unlimited Void suddenly broke out of nowhere. Two bodies appeared as they violently crashed to the ground.
One of them slowly got on his knees.
"Cough...BLEH." Gojo, on his knees, threw up blood as he took the recoil of his techniques.
Everyone in the viewing tent gasped as they saw the man leading the entire fight throw up blood, as if he had lost inside the domain.
A few seconds later, Dabura stood up with great difficulty, the man still having various injuries on his body and new blood marks running down all three eyes.
Slowly walking toward Gojo on the ground, with bloodshot eyes, he raised his hand at the downed sorcerer. "That was a fantastic performance, and it's unfortunate that this is how our fight has to end, but I have something I can't afford to lose."
Without another word, Dabura activated his technique. "[Light]."
But the only thing that happened was a tiny discharge of cursed energy before vanishing.
Pushing his hand again, he spoke. "[Light]!" Like before, nothing happened except a small discharge.
A smirk made its way on Gojo's face as he turned toward Dabura. "Domain burnout. After using a Domain Expansion, one's technique is unstable and difficult to use."
Dabura's eyes twitched. "Difficult to use...I guess that means your energy field is down, too. I figured your technique would be weaker after being injured like that." After those words, he moved, attempting to run toward the downed Gojo, however...
Boof
Dabura tripped and fell on his face.
The only thing that was keeping Dabura standing was adrenaline. The effects of Unlimited Void had now shown their aftereffects.
Slowly, Dabura tried pulling himself up with his fist, but had trouble, collapsing a few times. Eventually, Gojo pulled himself up to his feet.
Gojo wiped the bottom of his mouth to clear the blood. "If you think I'm going down like that, you're outta your mind." His words made Dabura look up at the now-standing Gojo.
Dabura's eyes slowly closed before snapping open and standing up. "As I said before, I have something I can't lose."
The two sorcerers both moved into their respective fighting styles, both with small smiles.
However, Dabura's body began to smoke as his injuries started healing at a visible rate.
"Not bad, you figured it out after seeing it a single time." Gojo huffed a laugh.
He took a deep breath. "This whole old man limits thing is pissing me off, so I've just gotta finish this quickly." His blue eyes glinted. "And all I've got to do is surpass my current limits."
Btz
It was barely noticeable, but Gojo's right hand sparkled black.
The Tokyo showdown reaches its conclusion!