"Mahito, you bastard!"
Kokichi Muta trembled with rage, roaring loudly.
Swish.
Kogane turned off the recording.
Then, Kogane made a ding-dong lottery sound and hopped up and down happily, saying:
"Master, Master, your account has an extra 200 million points. Would you like to use them now?"
"Use them!"
Kokichi Muta had already begun thinking about how to deal with Ryomen Sukuna.
Fortunately, before contacting Mahito, he had carefully searched for information on Ryomen Sukuna. He was fairly calm, having a good idea of what Ryomen Sukuna could do.
"Restore my physical body from the Heavenly Restriction!"
"Master, there are two versions," Kogane said matter-of-factly.
"The basic version is simple healing. This treatment will perfectly restore Master's physical body, but the Heavenly Restriction will disappear. Heaven will take back your Cursed Energy range and output."
"The deluxe version restores Master's physical body while maintaining the buffs granted by the Heavenly Restriction."
"The former costs 20 million points, and the latter costs 200 million points."
"Kogane suggests choosing the former because—"
"Use the deluxe version!"
Kokichi Muta interrupted.
Normally, he would carefully examine the differences between the basic and deluxe versions and look at other options to seek the best value for money.
Perhaps he would have ultimately accepted Kogane's suggestion and chosen the basic version.
But now was different.
Ryomen Sukuna was about to arrive, and he didn't have that time.
He had to restore his mobility and combat power as quickly as possible to face Ryomen Sukuna's onslaught.
"Swish, swish, used," Kogane said.
Splash!
Kokichi Muta's hand suddenly grabbed the edge of the life-support device.
That hand, which originally had no skin, was producing smooth, white skin at an incredible speed.
Kokichi Muta felt almost no pain, and even the itching was minimal.
He slowly stood up as the leg that had been taken away by heaven regrew.
He reached out to unwrap the bandages on his face.
The skinless face had completely finished growing in less than two seconds.
There wasn't a single scar on his face; it was as clean and white as porcelain.
Kokichi Muta stood up abruptly from the life-support device.
He was naked, and the pain that had tortured him every moment had unknowingly disappeared.
For a moment, there was a void in his heart.
He immediately realized it was because his body was now whole, and the power heaven had given him was being taken away in sync.
However, his power did not decrease!
Mahito hadn't lied.
Although heaven had taken back the Cursed Energy range and output that compensated for his disability, his body still maintained its original talent, as if he were still in a state of Heavenly Restriction.
Kokichi Muta had an epiphany.
This must be because Mahito used Idle Transfiguration to completely copy his Cursed Energy extraction, circulation, and diffusion organs from the Heavenly Restriction state.
Then, Mahito perfectly replicated those physical talents into this new body, so that even though the Heavenly Restriction was lifted, his talent remained.
Idle Transfiguration was too powerful.
Kokichi Muta verified this immense power with his own body.
Kokichi Muta clenched his fists and stomped his feet.
Although he had been lying in a life-support device since birth and had never left, the way he clenched his fists and stomped his feet was so natural, just like a normal seventeen-year-old boy.
Mahito fulfilled his promise.
From this moment on, Kokichi Muta was reborn.
Kokichi Muta was so moved he almost cried—
Provided Ryomen Sukuna didn't come!
Rumble!
A massive creation was slowly standing up.
Kokichi Muta kicked away the life-support device.
Beneath it was a Kyoto student uniform.
He had worn that uniform countless times with his fake body while using Ultimate Mechamaru, and now he skillfully began to put it on.
The puppets covering the streets were slowly waking up.
Kokichi Muta released his Puppet Manipulation Technique to connect these puppets.
These puppets lined up according to Kokichi Muta's will, and in a short time, all the puppets were in their respective positions.
No!
Kokichi Muta had a second thought.
He couldn't use a large number of Ultimate Mechamarus and other auxiliary puppets, because that would cause Ryomen Sukuna to directly use Domain Expansion or another Fire Technique.
Whether it was Ryomen Sukuna using Domain Expansion or an unknown Fire Technique, this massive army would be swallowed up instantly, and he himself would die.
Kokichi Muta immediately ordered the massive Mechamaru army to scatter and not gather together, while he himself climbed into the cockpit of the giant mechanical construct.
Kokichi Muta knew in his heart that in terms of true strength, he was no match for Ryomen Sukuna.
To defeat Sukuna, the only way was to exploit Ryomen Sukuna's arrogance and carelessness.
So, he couldn't use his full strength from the start.
He had to play mind games with Ryomen Sukuna and then use maximum output for a certain victory.
Yes, victory.
He had to win!
He had just been reborn; he didn't want to die at the hands of Ryomen Sukuna like this.
Wouldn't that mean he lived for nothing?
Kokichi Muta highly suspected this wasn't intentional on Mahito's part—since he was no longer useful, he specifically sent Sukuna to kill him.
He couldn't die!
Absolutely, absolutely could not die!
(At this time, Kokichi Muta didn't know that resurrection inside Dream Walk Migration only costs 100 points.)
It's just a one-finger Ryomen Sukuna!
He had been suppressed for seventeen years, and now that happy times were within reach, how could he give up?
How could he give up!
Kogane suddenly sounded an air raid alarm.
"Master, Master, powerful Cursed Energy approaching! Powerful Cursed Energy approaching!"
A roar like thunder suddenly exploded.
"Mahito—! I'm going to fucking slaughter you—!!!"
Ryomen Sukuna fell from the sky.
In the clouds, Mahito, wearing the Dragon God Armor, loomed faintly high in the air, slowly sheathing Kirigiri into its scabbard.
That white armor reflected the sunlight with a divine glow.
He looked down at the falling Ryomen Sukuna and spoke with a heavy voice like a funeral bell.
He slowly said to Sukuna:
"The current you is still too weak, so weak that I'm not interested."
"I will cast your fingers into the Dream Walk Migration barrier."
"Go and gnaw on your own fingers like a stray dog..."
"I look forward to you appearing before me again."
"At that time, I will grant you the qualification to kneel before me."
"Don't disappoint me, Sukuna."
"Mahito—!"
Ryomen Sukuna let out a heart-wrenching roar.
"I'm going to fucking slaughter you—!!!"
But this roar would never reach Mahito's ears.
As Ryomen Sukuna fell, Mahito's figure vanished into the sunlight as if melting.
Ryomen Sukuna only felt the anger in his heart like an erupting volcano.
Immense rage erupted from all over his body.
He was so angry he trembled, and even the Cursed Energy reinforcement covering his body flickered like a violently burning fireball.
Since Ryomen Sukuna was born, he had never suffered such intense humiliation.
Thinking back, the most recent humiliation came from Gojo Satoru.
At that time, he had only the power of one finger.
He surfaced his consciousness from the vessel and was then beaten wildly by Gojo Satoru.
He had sworn then to kill Gojo Satoru for that unprecedented humiliation of a thousand years.
But the humiliation Gojo Satoru gave him was not even one percent of what Mahito gave him.
Gojo Satoru was truly testing the power of the one-fingered Ryomen Sukuna at that time, but this bastard Mahito...
...was devouring his power and treating him like a fun toy, humiliating him at will!
Just thinking about those high-and-mighty heterochromatic eyes made the anger in Ryomen Sukuna's heart surge uncontrollably.
Ryomen Sukuna roared loudly, his voice spreading throughout the Sakurajima Barrier.
Everyone could hear this massive shout, as poisonous as a thousand-year-old monster crawling from the underworld into the world of the living.
That Cursed Energy, carrying curses, spread endlessly in all directions, and the wind announced the arrival of the King of Curses like a blade.
Finally, Sukuna crashed into an apartment building.
Boom!
Ryomen Sukuna smashed into the side of the apartment.
The huge impact almost snapped the building in half.
Ryomen Sukuna lay within the half-ruined apartment building caused by his fall.
The anger in his heart slowly dissipated, and his calm mind began to replay the battle with Mahito just now.
Mahito, wearing the Dragon God Armor, had physical capabilities that even exceeded Sukuna's peak state.
At the same time, that god-slaying sword made him afraid to touch it with any of his four arms.
Even imitating Gojo Satoru by striking the blade to indirectly avoid the Cutting Line was impossible; Kirigiri covered by Limitless had even overcome this weakness.
The immense mass granted by Star Rage increased the Dragon God's defense to an extremely exaggerated level.
On top of that, using Inverse made conventional attacks completely unable to penetrate the Dragon God's defense.
Ryomen Sukuna had tried using Cleave more than once, but the Dragon God didn't even need to dodge.
Even if he opened Malevolent Shrine, the Dragon God could kill him within 0.002 seconds.
In terms of mobility, the Dragon God, who possessed Boogie Woogie and Instant Movement, was someone Ryomen Sukuna could not keep up with no matter what.
Because the mobility of both sides was so far apart, the initiative to fight or leave was in the Dragon God's hands, leaving Ryomen Sukuna with power but nowhere to use it.
The trouble didn't stop there.
Limitless gave the Dragon God nearly invincible offense and defense as well as extraordinary mobility.
Divine Might could prevent Ryomen Sukuna from using Binding Vows at critical moments, causing his adaptability and margin for error to drop significantly, almost to zero.
There were even the eyes that stood at the very top of these Cursed Techniques:
The Six Eyes.
These eyes of gods and Buddhas could maximize the limits of Cursed Techniques.
The combination of any Cursed Technique with the Six Eyes could cause a qualitative change in the technique.
Before this, the entire Jujutsu World had never seen a chemical reaction between the Six Eyes and any technique other than Limitless.
But now, these chemical reactions were happening countless times within the Dragon God.
Ryomen Sukuna had to admit that no matter how he thought about it, facing the Dragon God with only his own Cursed Techniques left him with only one path:
Defeat.
"First, I must restore my strength," Sukuna muttered quietly to himself.
"Then, I must find a physical body that can rival that so-called Limitless Cursed Technique and use..."
"...my consciousness to take over that person's body and use my experience to defeat Mahito."
Although Ryomen Sukuna was arrogant, he wasn't stubborn.
In the original work, after facing Gojo Satoru for the first time, he keenly realized the terrifying nature of Limitless.
Later, during the Juvenile Detention Center incident, he saw Fushiguro Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique and immediately decided to seize Fushiguro Megumi's body to use the Ten Shadows Technique against Gojo Satoru.
This plotline ran through the entirety of Jujutsu Kaisen, and it wasn't until Gojo Satoru was killed by the World Slash that this foreshadowing was completely fulfilled.
It was the same now.
Facing Mahito clad in the Dragon God Armor, he knew that he could never win by relying solely on his own Cursed Techniques, so he immediately thought of seizing a physical body that could compete with the Dragon God.
And his choice was—
Yuta Okkotsu.
"Although the Zenin Family's Ten Shadows Technique is also extremely outstanding, if it were to deal with Gojo Satoru, that kid's body would be enough."
"But it won't work against Mahito."
"Mahito, who holds the Limitless Cursed Technique, has too great an advantage against Mahoraga unless..."
"...the battle duration is stretched to months or even years."
"Only then would it be possible for Mahoraga to completely adapt to all of Mahito's techniques."
"But that's too slow."
"It absolutely won't work."
Unlike the original work, the original Itadori Yuji had no idea about the specific details regarding Yuta Okkotsu.
By the time Itadori Yuji learned that Yuta Okkotsu's Cursed Technique was Copy, Ryomen Sukuna had already transferred himself into Fushiguro Megumi's body.
After that, Kenjaku met up with Ryomen Sukuna, and Sukuna missed every opportunity to learn about Yuta Okkotsu's Cursed Technique.
No—even if he clearly knew that Yuta Okkotsu was stronger than Fushiguro Megumi, the Ryomen Sukuna of the original work would not have chosen Yuta Okkotsu.
It wasn't that Ryomen Sukuna lacked the confidence to suppress Yuta Okkotsu's consciousness, but simply that he would have felt it was unnecessary.
As long as he killed Gojo Satoru, he would be invincible in the world, and to kill Gojo Satoru, Fushiguro Megumi's body was enough...
In the original work, Ryomen Sukuna would certainly have held such arrogant beliefs.
But the current Ryomen Sukuna had been suppressed and killed nineteen times by Mahito.
With only the power of one finger remaining, he was thrown into the Sakurajima Barrier.
No matter how arrogant he was, he had to wake up to reality.
"Next, I'll use the body with the Copy Technique to devour those techniques that can counter Mahito."
"Especially that god-slayer sword—it's too dangerous."
"I must find a way to rival that weapon."
"Hmm... what's this?"
"The answer is right in front of me."
"I remember Yorozu has already awakened. If it's her, she should easily be able to create a Cursed Tool comparable to Mirokuji Kirigiri."
Tsumiki Fushiguro had once followed Kenjaku in an attack on Tokyo Jujutsu High and had met Itadori Yuji.
Although Ryomen Sukuna had not appeared at that time, he had now recognized that Tsumiki Fushiguro was the ancient Sorcerer Yorozu who once followed him.
As for whether Yorozu would create a Cursed Tool for him, he didn't doubt it for a moment.
If it was Yorozu, she would surely dedicate herself heart and soul to him.
Ryomen Sukuna had no doubt about this at all.
Ryomen Sukuna's mind worked at high speed.
In this brief moment, he calmly laid out the path to defeating Mahito before him.
Just as he had started thinking about how to defeat Gojo Satoru after their first contact, he immediately found the path upon seeing the Ten Shadows Technique and began planning for it.
For this, he was even willing to enter into a Binding Vow with a piece of "low-grade food" (Itadori Yuji) and take the initiative to yield a step in negotiations.
Because killing a strong enemy was Ryomen Sukuna's ultimate pleasure!
"Very well!"
Ryomen Sukuna slowly stood up.
"Then first, I shall go and collect my fingers."
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