Chapter 171 (Patreon)

His body has begun to collapse.

Gojo tried to reverse the collapse consuming his flesh, but nothing he did could slow it down.

He could not even delay it for a few seconds. Once the process began, it appeared to be completely irreversible.

Standing at the center of his domain, Sukuna curled his lips into a grin.

“Satoru Gojo, it seems your current state cannot withstand observation. The moment it is observed, your body begins to disintegrate and collapse.”

“Tch.”

To keep his body from breaking apart, Gojo raised his cursed-energy output to its limit, desperately resisting the domain’s attempt to observe his existence.

“Farewell, Satoru Gojo. I doubt I’ll ever forget you.”

Even now, Gojo refused to give up. He continued searching for a way to escape the state of quantum collapse.

“It’s still too early to say goodbye, Sukuna.”

Sukuna’s brow furrowed. He had no idea what Gojo was planning this time.

Gojo lowered his gaze to his collapsing body.

“Maybe you’re right. My current state can’t be observed. The moment it is, it collapses…”

Sukuna remained silent, watching him with renewed caution.

“So, naturally... I’ll do this!”

Gojo willingly lowered Infinity.

In that instant, countless slashes rained down and tore across his body.

Sukuna released a quiet breath.

“So you really have lost your mind. Fine. That saves me the trouble of dealing with you any longer.”

But the corner of Gojo’s mouth slowly curved upward.

The moment he released the Limitless technique, the disintegration spreading through his body began to fade. The violent collapse gradually subsided until his condition stabilized.

Sukuna gave a cold laugh.

“Even if lowering the Limitless keeps you from collapsing, what will you do about my next slash?”

Gojo had temporarily escaped disintegration, but without Infinity, Sukuna’s World-Cutting Slash and conceptual slashes could reach him once again.

“Nine Ropes. Polarized Light. Crow and Declaration. Between Front and Back.”

What?

That was the incantation required to activate his technique.

But when had Gojo begun preparing it?

Sukuna raised one hand and unleashed another conceptual slash.

A towering blade of pitch-black cursed energy raced toward Gojo with terrifying speed.

Without Infinity, there was no possibility of Gojo surviving a direct hit.

“You know, I’ve always considered myself rather lucky.”

Gojo stared at the Hollow Purple forming in his hand as he calmly faced the approaching conceptual slash.

When did he create that?

Sukuna knew that Hollow Purple could only be produced by combining Blue and Red.

Yet he had not detected the slightest fluctuation of cursed energy that would indicate Gojo had activated either technique.

At that moment, another light appeared in Gojo’s palm.

It was an iridescent beam no larger than a bullet.

Dust.

The cursed-energy fluctuation emitted by Dust was exceedingly faint. Unless someone devoted their full attention to detecting it, its presence was almost impossible to notice.

Whoosh!

Sukuna never noticed Dust.

All he saw was a sudden flash of light. In the next instant, his consciousness was dragged into Unlimited Void.

Damn it!

By the time Sukuna understood what had happened, he was already standing within the endless expanse of Gojo’s domain.

A limitless flood of useless information surged into his mind.

“SATORU GOJO!”

Sukuna’s conceptual slash had nearly reached Gojo when it suddenly lost its form, dissolving into scattered cursed energy before it could strike him.

“I told you... my luck has always been rather good.”

Gojo had begun preparing this technique the moment Sukuna dragged him into the triple-layered barrier.

He had secretly planted it within the domain and allowed Hollow Purple to develop there, absorbing Sukuna’s World-Cutting Slash, his conceptual slashes, and the power accumulated from nearly a hundred million other slashes.

The result was an entirely new technique.

An unparalleled technique born from circumstances that could never be replicated.

“Hollow Technique: Covenant of Uka!”

Gojo slowly released the unstable mass of cursed energy from his hand—a technique capable of reducing everything in its path to nothingness.

At that moment, the world became brighter...

And completely silent.

——————

“Blood Manipulation: Piercing Blood.”

Tengen—or rather, Kenjaku, who had taken possession of Tengen’s body—looked down at the stream of blood that had pierced straight through him.

“Suguru Geto...!”

Geto seized the crystal containing Yuta Okkotsu from Kenjaku’s hand.

“You shouldn’t trust people so easily, Kenjaku. With this, I’ve taken my revenge.”

Kenjaku pressed a hand against his shattered heart as blood spilled from his mouth.

“You truly hold a grudge, don’t you?”

Geto was referring to the moment, only shortly before, when Kenjaku had forcibly extracted his cursed technique.

“That’s right.”

Crack!

Geto crushed the crystal with one hand, freeing Yuta from within.

“G-Geto... Why are you the one saving me?”

Truthfully, even after learning that Geto had joined their side, Yuta had been unable to cast aside his resentment toward him.

But the situation was too urgent. There was no time for Yuta to settle their past grievances.

Even as Kenjaku held a hand over his wounded chest, a square cursed object appeared in his other hand.

The Prison Realm: Back Gate.

A moment later, the Back Gate vanished from Kenjaku’s grasp, transferred to an especially secure location.

Reverse Cursed Technique.

Kenjaku instantly restored his shattered heart, then struck Choso and sent him flying before he could launch another attack.

“How troublesome. Fighting on two fronts really was too much.”

Kenjaku rolled his shoulders and smiled.

“Now that I’m using only one brain, my thoughts feel remarkably clear.”

Geto frowned.

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing important. Tengen secluded themself for a thousand years and even forgot how to wield their own combat techniques. But now... I remember every last detail.”

Kenjaku formed a hand seal.

“All-Phenomena Synchronization: Cursed-Law Edict!”

Under Geto’s control, Choso activated Blood Manipulation once again.

“Supernova!”

Just before the blood reached Kenjaku, it abruptly broke apart.

The scattered blood was reduced to its most basic cursed-energy particles before instantly reconstructing itself as a crimson blade in Kenjaku’s hand.

“This is the supreme technique Tengen created through a thousand years of experience maintaining barriers.”

Kenjaku raised the blood-forged sword.

“It grants complete mastery over the disassembly and reconstruction of cursed-energy structures. Any attack composed of cursed energy can be broken down into its fundamental particles and rebuilt as a weapon for my own use.”

“Are you serious...?”

Yuta supported Geto and helped him back to his feet.

“I still don’t like you, but we don’t have another choice.”

Their opponent was Kenjaku, who had seized Tengen’s body and inherited the techniques engraved within it.

To defeat him, Suguru Geto and Yuta Okkotsu would have to fight together.

“Don’t move!”

Black Cursed Speech markings spread around the corners of Yuta’s mouth as his command thundered across the battlefield.

Kenjaku’s body immediately froze in place.

“Hurry!” Yuta shouted. “I can’t hold him for long!”

The cursed energy within Yuta’s body was draining at a terrifying rate as he used Cursed Speech to restrain Kenjaku.

“Five seconds. That’s my absolute limit.”

“Leave it to me.”

Geto gathered cursed energy into both fists and closed the distance between himself and Kenjaku.

Bang!

His fist struck Tengen’s body and sent it hurtling several meters away. Blood trickled from the corner of Kenjaku’s mouth.

“Cursed Speech... Petty trickery.”

Yuta’s command held Kenjaku for only two seconds before All-Phenomena Synchronization dismantled its cursed-energy structure.

“It’s no use,” Yuta warned. “My technique won’t work on him again.”

Geto moved to pursue Kenjaku, but the moment he tried to pull back, a hand suddenly clamped around his head.