Gojo instantly obliterated the Lower Half with a single blast of Blue.
Kaito probed his cursed energy and confirmed he could still summon him at any time for the subjugation ritual.
It operated on the exact same logic as the Ten Shadows Technique.
He didn’t share this with anyone.
According to his story, when he traveled through time, both his original ‘Fraud Shikigami’ and his human body were destroyed, so his soul had to hide in the Suku-Blob that survived.
Of course, Kaito couldn’t let anyone know he was still working out how his own technique really worked.
But talking about things like coming back to life in a strange way with Gojo was no problem.
In Kaito’s made-up story, this was his first time as a Suku-Blob, so it made sense for him to have some gaps in his knowledge.
Anyway, Kaito had finished his test and earned their trust for now.
Next, he needed to share more information to build that trust even further.
After that…
He hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Everything had happened so fast that he barely had time to think.
Right now, making long-term plans just wasn’t possible.
‘Whatever, I just need to figure out how to get stronger,’ Kaito thought.
That was the only foolproof strategy.
Power might be insufficient, but it never betrays you.
“KAITO!” Yuji jogged over, his eyes sparkling with shonen excitement.
“Do I have a Devil Fruit power like that too? Can I learn that move—I mean, technique? Do I have other powers?!”
At this point, Yuji knew absolutely nothing about the Jujutsu world.
He was still overflowing with curiosity and anticipation.
He reached out to take Kaito from Gojo’s palm so he could ask him directly.
Kaito didn’t mind.
If there were two people in the entire Jujutsu Kaisen universe you could feel completely safe around, it was Satoru Gojo and Yuji Itadori.
It was just a shame that Yuji had Sukuna inside him…
Wait?!
Sukuna!!
Time seemed to grind to a halt.
Kaito’s vision had never been so hyper-focused.
Every single groove, pore, and line on Yuji’s approaching hand rendered in terrifying high definition.
Including the mouth that had suddenly split wide open on his palm!
The tongue inside whipped out to its absolute limit, lunging straight for Kaito!
It was mere millimeters away.
Sukuna was trying to reabsorb him directly!
His past twenty years flashed through Kaito’s mind in a violent surge.
A carefree childhood.
A happy youth.
A dull adolescence.
A lost adulthood.
It was only a fraction of a millisecond, but it contained Kaito’s entire life.
However, there was no Prison Realm here.
This life flashing before his eyes wasn’t the prelude to his death.
It was the desperate, frantic struggle of his survival instinct, digging through his newest, most profound memories to find an escape route!
At this range, a simple Dismantle wouldn’t save him!
The complete combat experience, cursed energy manipulation, and technique mastery of Ryomen Sukuna engraved within the blob’s flesh surged to life, ignited by Kaito’s sheer will to survive.
It sparked a blinding flash of inspiration!
A 0.2-second Domain Expansion + the 120% technique buff inside the Domain + dumping his entire cursed energy pool into a 50-centimeter radius + compressing that radius down to a mere 10 centimeters to push the technique’s lethal output to its absolute maximum limit!
He molded a tentacle into a crude but functional hand shape.
The Enmaten hand sign was formed.
One-thousandth of a second to review his life.
One-hundredth of a second to calculate the solution.
One-tenth of a second to execute it!
“Domain Expansion—”
“—[Malevolent Shrine!!]”
The slashes cascaded down like a waterfall!
Between Gojo’s palm holding him and Yuji’s hand reaching for him, the tongue extending from the mouth on Yuji’s palm had just barely brushed Kaito’s body, attempting to drag him in.
Every single piece of it was caught within the hyper-compressed, 10-centimeter radius filled with an infinite barrage of slashes!
The ringing sound of a master swordsman’s blade?
No, it wasn’t anything that elegant.
It was the deafening, high-frequency screech of countless slashes erupting in 0.2 seconds!
Blood was diced apart before it could even splatter.
Flesh dissolved before the pain could even register.
Hard bone became the cheapest, most fragile whetstone.
The 0.2 seconds ended in a flash.
“…” Yuji blinked in total bewilderment, staring at his severed hand—now missing more than half of its mass.
The pain hit him a second later.
“HSSSSSSSS—!!!”
Gojo’s hand remained perfectly intact.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t taken damage—his Reverse Cursed Technique was just so efficient that it healed instantly.
He was basically just washing his hands inside Malevolent Shrine.
Gojo knew exactly why Kaito had violently expanded his Domain, so he hadn’t counterattacked.
Truth be told, if Gojo hadn’t been distracted—outwardly aloof but internally analyzing Kaito and Yuji’s sudden appearance—Sukuna would never have gotten that close.
Simply put, Gojo got careless and didn’t dodge!
Looking at the completely drained, deflated blob in his hand, Gojo felt a tiny prick of guilt.
If Kaito really was a junior sorcerer from the future who sacrificed his own body to save them, only to almost get eaten because Gojo wasn’t paying attention…
that was a pretty bad look.
Kaito felt completely hollowed out.
He was so exhausted he could barely keep his single eye open.
But seeing Yuji clutching his bleeding stump and hissing in pain, he weakly muttered:
“Hold on, Itadori… Let me recover a bit of cursed energy, and I’ll heal you.”
Gojo could use Reverse Cursed Technique, but he couldn’t output it to heal others.
Being able to output positive energy wasn’t something you could just learn—it depended entirely on whether the innate nature of your cursed energy caused a rejection response in another person’s body.
In the story, only three characters had ever mastered RCT output.
Sukuna was one of them.
Obviously, possessing Sukuna’s vessel meant Kaito could do it too.
“Not bad.”
A single eye and mouth manifested on Yuji’s face as he crouched in pain.
Sukuna’s tone lacked the fury of a failed ambush.
In fact, he seemed to have completely forgotten their previous trash-talking session.
Sukuna spoke with a bizarre, twisted sense of encouragement: “To wield my power to this extent… Though you remain frail, your execution was exceptional.”
“STAND PROUD. YOU ARE STRONG.”
“Now, continue your desperate death throes!” Sukuna laughed sadistically.
“Just like before—like a dying old cat screeching in futility. Before I carve you into nothingness, provide me with a little more of this hilarious comedy, hahahahahaha…”
“Heh…” Kaito struggled to prop up his flaccid, exhausted body.
He flashed a smug grin—the kind you’d see on a manga cover.
“Next time, I’m going to punch my fist straight into that mouth on your stomach and tickle your throat! I really need to study that freaky second mouth of yours. Is it connected to your intestines? Will a gag reflex make you barf up shit?”
Sukuna stopped laughing.
“Hmph! A brat who only knows how to run his mouth!”
Leaving those parting words, the King of Curses vanished back into Yuji’s skin.