Gojo swept the entire eastern sector clean in a very short time.
He eliminated the Cursed Spirits and the incarnated sorcerers.
He even handled the evacuation of the refugees, who outnumbered the Jujutsu Sorcerers assigned to support the operation.
"Satoru~."
By the time he reached the mansion from the far eastern edge, Geto came flying in from the west.
He was seated atop the head of a white oriental dragon-shaped Cursed Spirit, the Red Dragon.
Unlike Gojo, he could not fly under his own power.
"Oh, Suguru. You finished over there too?"
"Yeah. Looks like you wrapped things up too. You didn't go wild just because it was annoying, did you?"
"What am I, a kid? Besides, even if I wanted to cut loose, it'd be hard. My head's killing me."
Gojo pressed hard against his temples.
His eyes were the Six Eyes.
They were exhausting enough under normal circumstances, but right now Cursed Energy saturated everything around him.
Residual traces of every kind of Cursed Energy.
The workings of every kind of Cursed Technique.
The density of information flooding in was several times worse than usual, enough to make his head throb.
He could endure it, but it was deeply unpleasant.
Geto knew that too, and his expression softened with sympathy.
"Ah... because of the Six Eyes."
"Other than being a little irritating, there's no problem. More importantly, nothing happened on your end, right?"
"Happened? Kadoc handled most of what we were supposed to do, so if anything, I was bored."
Geto gave a faint snort of laughter and shook his head.
Even as a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer, he had seen very little action, but he had no complaints.
Someone else was doing the work in his place.
And the firepower and efficiency they brought to the field were overwhelming.
Gojo understood what he meant and relaxed.
He wasn't the type to volunteer for tedious work either.
"On one side you've got a hail of bullets, overhead the sea's crashing down, and in another corner lightning's falling. Feels like the end of the world out here."
"It does. We haven't run into a Special Grade Cursed Spirit yet, but this should be over soon."
"If things weren't this chaotic, I probably would've spotted the target for sure. There's too much Cursed Energy overflowing everywhere, so I can't pick out that bastard's Cursed Energy. If I'd at least seen him directly, maybe..."
Gojo muttered with clear regret.
The target he meant was Mahito.
"Yeah. With your Six Eyes..."
Geto trailed off and shut his mouth.
Gojo did the same.
A presence snagged against their senses, sharp and unpleasant.
A Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
"Suguru. This is a pain, so I'll finish it with my Domain right away. Cover me while my technique burns out."
"Got it. My Domain isn't much help in a situation like this anyway."
The two split roles instantly and moved.
Gojo used high-speed movement derived from [Lapse: Blue] to appear above the Special Grade Cursed Spirit's back.
Geto flew after him, tracing the wake he left behind.
"You...!"
The Special Grade Cursed Spirit noticed the presence too late and whipped around in a hurry.
Its skin was red.
Where its mouth should have been, octopus-like tendrils hung down like a beard.
It was Dagon. The Special Grade Cursed Spirit born from fear of the sea fired a torrent of water.
Water and shikigami were Dagon's means of attack.
"No way, this much water release in a place with no water around...?"
Gojo acted startled, then immediately formed a hand sign.
It was the mudra of Taishakuten.
[Domain Expansion]. [Unlimited Void].
In that instant, the world's time stopped.
Pure white flowed through space, then black, and at last it transformed into the cosmos itself.
[Unlimited Void]. A Domain so absolute it could only be called overwhelming descended upon Dagon.
The pressure of one Domain crushing another aside.
It allowed not even the slightest resistance.
"Uh... ngh..."
Dagon froze.
Its thoughts continued endlessly, but because they continued endlessly, it could not move so much as a finger.
An overwhelming volume of information poured into its brain.
It had been swept away in that violent flood.
"Normally I'd take my time with this, but I'm in a bad mood today. So I'm going to be very efficient."
Gojo walked slowly toward the immobilized Dagon.
With every step he took, Dagon's end drew closer.
Then, the moment Gojo's hand seized Dagon's head—
Dagon's life turned to ash and vanished.
Crunch!
Starting from the head, Dagon's entire body caved in, then caved in again.
When Dagon disappeared, the cosmos spread around them vanished as well.
Gojo's technique burned out temporarily too.
He would need several minutes for it to recover.
In one sense, it was a fatal opening, but for a sorcerer on Gojo's level, it hardly mattered.
Basic Cursed Energy manipulation.
Even with that alone, and the hand-to-hand combat it enabled, he was strong enough to overwhelm a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Even so, he had asked Geto to cover him just in case.
For the possibility of the unexpected.
And because Geto was a friend he could trust.
"Good work."
Geto, who had already landed on the ground, slowly approached Gojo.
The Cursed Spirits he had released in all directions were still spread across the battlefield.
"It was nothing. This was easier than going all the way to Kyushu for a parfait."
"So what now? Want to move again? Or slack off?"
"Everyone else is working hard. I can't exactly be the only one taking it easy. Let's catch our breath for a bit, then move. But from the air."
"Sounds good. Hop on."
Geto rose into the sky with Gojo aboard the Red Dragon.
The sky was their territory.
A space where enemies could hardly even reach for them, and where they would not be allowed to reach in the first place.
Gojo rested lazily atop the Red Dragon.
The moment his technique recovered, he loosened up with a few light movements.
The allies were completely dominating the battle.
There was no need to forcibly restore his technique by destroying and regenerating the part of his brain that governed it.
'They've all grown well.'
Kadoc's help had been enormous, but the Jujutsu Sorcerers following behind had grown well too.
Tokyo Jujutsu High. Kyoto Jujutsu High.
And even the independent sorcerers who had joined the operation—every one of them was excellent.
A path walked together with capable comrades.
The vision Gojo had set as his guiding principle was unfolding before him in reality.
"All right. Shall we get going?"
Gojo smiled and floated up into the empty air.
It was time to do his job as a senior.
White bobbed hair. A kimono.
The instant Shuten-douji saw her target, she bared her teeth and lunged.
No matter what technique the target used.
No matter what kind of attack came at her, she intended to smash through it with an oni's durability and magecraft that neutralized Cursed Energy.
But—
She had not expected an ally to appear behind her target.
[Domain Expansion]. [Idle Death Gamble].
A man forming the mudra of Benzaiten-ten opened his Domain in a single motion.
It was Hakari Kinji, a third-year at Tokyo Jujutsu High.
"Huhhh?"
Hakari was deeply flustered the moment he expanded his Domain, but only for an instant.
He remembered that Shuten-douji was an ally.
Right before they had set out after getting off the bus, he had seen her standing beside Kadoc and waving.
"Oh? You're that kid who likes gambling. I was wondering what the hell this was."
Shuten-douji also confirmed that Hakari was on her side.
Inside the Domain, which looked like a scene straight out of a manga, she moved at once.
Panels floated up like character cards from a game.
Structures rose around them like a subway station.
All of it was unfamiliar, but Shuten-douji did not care in the slightest.
All she had to do was tear her target apart.
"Kh...!"
The white-haired woman frowned, thrown off.
She too had been about to expand her Domain, but her surprise made her a step too slow.
[Ice Formation Cursed Technique], Frost Calm.
Instead, she immediately deployed her own technique.
Her technique was ice.
A dangerous art that could freeze in many ways, or drive solid ice directly into the enemy.
"Oh my. So you use freezing tricks like that princess and queen, do you? How fun."
Within the torrent of freezing breath, Shuten-douji laughed and closed the distance in one burst.
The breath that would freeze anything it touched was neutralized by magecraft.
It scattered without effect.
And Shuten-douji's arm did not miss the fatal opening that created.
"Kuh-hk...!"
Her slender but powerful arm and hand pierced straight through the woman's heart.
Then, after piercing it, she crushed it thoroughly.
The woman coughed up blood and trembled violently from head to toe.
With an arm lodged through her chest, she could not even use [Reverse Cursed Technique].
"Did I open my Domain for nothing?"
Hakari muttered as he looked at the cards lined up behind Shuten-douji.
Three matching cards. A reach.
His Domain drew cards.
And if all three matched, it granted him infinite Cursed Energy and automatic [Reverse Cursed Technique] for four minutes and eleven seconds.
Also, the instant he hit a reach, Hakari's Domain automatically disappeared.
As the Domain faded, Shuten-douji's eyes widened as if she had just remembered something.
"Ah! Now I remember. You're that bitch who's Sukuna's little underling. Uraume, was it?"
"You... how do you know that...?"
The woman's eyes went wide.
She had not expected her identity to be exposed at a glance despite not standing out.
Uraume was a powerhouse from the Heian era.
She was not someone who should have died this pointlessly.
Even in Jujutsu Kaisen, she had only lost after fighting Hakari...
Because Hakari himself was a monster.
But Shuten-douji was an even greater monster than Hakari.
She was an oni by nature.
And when that oni came at her wrapped in magecraft that neutralized Cursed Energy, there was simply no way to withstand it.
Specs. Combat experience.
In every category, the gap was overwhelming.
"You've got one of Sukuna's fingers on you, don't you? Guess I'll have to check your chest."
"Even that... ?"
"There's nothing we don't know. And once we catch that bastard Mahito, it's over."
Shuten-douji smiled sweetly as she searched through Uraume's chest area.
Sukuna's finger.
If someone was carrying it, there was a high chance it would be this woman.
The Cursed Spirits and Uraume alike would be aiming for Sukuna's resurrection.
And Uraume, Sukuna's loyal retainer, would never entrust a finger to something as lowly as a Cursed Spirit.
"Ah, there it is. Good thing my guess was right."
She laughed as she toyed with Uraume in a way that felt almost mocking.
Inside Uraume's robes, she found the scroll that carefully stored the treasured finger.
After pulling out the scroll, Shuten-douji waited for Uraume's breathing to stop.
She had no intention of giving her even the slightest chance to use [Reverse Cursed Technique].
"Hey, you with the permed hair. Go somewhere else and help your boy. I'll finish this girl off myself."
"Uh, uh...? Yeah. Yeah."
Hakari nodded, repeating himself like an idiot.
She looked like a cute little girl, not a monster, which made it awkward to refuse her.
In terms of strength, and in terms of basic human instinct.
It just felt like one of those situations where you were supposed to go along with what she said.
BRASIL!
So even in a daze, he immediately left the area.
The intense background music of the Hakari dance blared around him.
'Lord Sukuna...'
Uraume tried to flee.
She suppressed her Cursed Energy as much as possible and aimed only for directions where there were no Jujutsu Sorcerers.
The situation had already made failure obvious.
There was no reason to stake her life on a fight she could not win.
And yet, through sheer rotten luck,
one single mistake in choosing her route had cost her life.
She had not even managed to truly fight.
She used her technique once, only to have it broken through and her heart pierced.
At last, Uraume's eyes closed.
Blood streamed from the gaping hole in her chest.
After confirming that her breathing had stopped, Shuten-douji pulled her arm free.
Sticky red blood clung to the pale, slender arm.
Shuten-douji stared at the crimson-smeared limb, then touched it with her tongue.
And licked the blood from her arm.
"It's spoiled."
Shuten-douji's brow furrowed.
By her standards, it was blood with a truly awful taste.
She had thought that, for once, after so long, she might get to savor human blood again...
Her disappointment was immense.