Epitaph.
One of the two major abilities of the Stand King Crimson.
When activated, it allowed its user to predict what would happen dozens of seconds into the future.
In the anime, every time Epitaph activated, it projected images of the future onto Diavolo’s bangs.
But in truth, that was something the anime deliberately did to make Epitaph’s ability easier to show.
Epitaph did not need anything to project onto.
Each time it activated, future images appeared before the user’s eyes.
However, Epitaph was not invincible.
Even though it allowed the Stand user to predict a brief future, it had one flaw: the future King Crimson predicted could not be changed.
Just like what Makoto had foreseen not long ago.
He would be sent flying by Toji Fushiguro.
Dozens of seconds later, he was indeed sent flying.
Even though he knew the future in advance and made changes, the future was fixed.
No matter how he struggled, what was meant to happen would still happen and could not be altered.
Whether by accident or by human intervention, in short, the future predicted by Epitaph would inevitably appear.
Any attempt to change it would only invite all kinds of accidents, and the final result would still return to what had originally been seen.
If he wanted to break that future, he had to comprehend King Crimson’s other ability.
Time Erasure.
King Crimson’s ability was praised by many as the most perfect Stand ability.
Because the future predicted by Epitaph could only be modified by King Crimson’s Time Erasure.
In Part 5, Golden Wind, Diavolo used Epitaph many times to predict the future, then relied on Time Erasure to avoid everything unfavorable to him and escape unscathed.
Epitaph and King Crimson’s two abilities formed a perfect closed loop.
Always able to foresee factors unfavorable to oneself.
Always able to use Time Erasure to modify the result.
Standing undefeated from the very beginning.
But right now, Makoto still could not find the direction for awakening Time Erasure.
Even Epitaph had awakened suddenly.
“Is it my mental state, my physical state, or both?” Makoto had lost.
Once again, Toji Fushiguro had beaten him down to the ground.
But what he was thinking about now was no longer how to defeat Toji Fushiguro.
It was how to awaken King Crimson’s other ability and complete that perfect closed loop.
“Done already?” Toji Fushiguro walked over carrying the Split Soul Katana.
Seeing Makoto lying there staring up at the sky, he found it amusing.
So this kid could get discouraged too?
Interesting.
Of course, Makoto was not discouraged.
He had simply sunk deep into thought.
Drawing his mind back, he asked, “What grade?” “Huh?
What grade?” “My combat strength.
Compared to those jujutsu sorcerers, what grade sorcerer would it equal?” “Oh, that…” Only then did Toji Fushiguro react.
He scratched his nose, looking as if he had only just remembered.
“Can’t really compare.
That guy was too weak.
Just like you, he didn’t last long before I dealt with him.” Then at best, he was only at the level of a Grade 2 sorcerer.
Makoto said nothing more.
Seeing that there was no more entertainment to be had, Toji Fushiguro spread his hands, stuck them in his pockets, and left directly.
Before leaving, he did not forget to say, “Don’t look so disappointed.
You hadn’t done even a bit of training before this, right?
Reaching this level in just one month means the ones who should be disappointed are them.” Makoto watched him leave.
He did not stay there long either.
After resting for a while, he climbed up and walked back to the Fushiguro house.
The next day, Makoto began training as usual.
Since Toji Fushiguro would not always help him train, he thought of a method.
He would throw a giant rock into the air, then drive King Crimson to smash it apart so all the fragments fell toward him.
What Makoto had to do was dodge every piece of shattered stone that came at him.
When he grew tired, he would open the books he had asked Toji Fushiguro for.
They recorded events that had occurred in the jujutsu world over the past thousand years.
Although the records were incomplete, Makoto believed there were no books in the world more detailed than these.
Because Toji Fushiguro’s family, the Zenin clan, was one of Tokyo’s oldest and longest-standing jujutsu families.
The number of secrets that clan held was beyond imagination.
“The Gojo clan, the Kamo clan, and the Zenin clan.” These three clans were the jujutsu families known in the jujutsu world as the Three Great Families.
The history of the three clans could be traced back to Japan’s Heian period, between roughly 700 and 1200.
At the same time, the books clearly recorded the inherited techniques of the Three Great Families.
Sorcerers from these three families had always been very active.
Their inherited cursed techniques were hardly secrets.
The Zenin clan’s Ten Shadows Technique, the Kamo clan’s Blood Manipulation, and the Gojo clan’s Limitless.
Among the techniques of these three clans, the Gojo clan’s Limitless was the most difficult to awaken.
That was because this technique was extremely complex.
Even the most talented sorcerers of the Gojo clan could not master it without the Six Eyes.
Judging from that, if this trend continued, then even among the Three Great Families, the Gojo clan should have been the weakest in terms of influence.
But that was not entirely right.
Makoto had once asked Toji Fushiguro about the Gojo clan’s Limitless and the Six Eyes.
The answer he received was this: “The calculations required for the Gojo clan’s Limitless technique are extremely complicated.
It’s like a formula human effort can’t solve, one that needs a supercomputer to run.
A Six Eyes sorcerer, born only once every few centuries, is the supercomputer that solves the Gojo clan’s Limitless technique.” “Strong?” “Very strong.” Those were the exact words exchanged between Toji Fushiguro and Makoto at the time.
Anyone who could make Toji Fushiguro call them very strong would not be simple.
Because of that, Makoto found himself paying attention to the Gojo clan.
In this generation, someone in the Gojo clan had successfully awakened both the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique.
Satoru Gojo.
Born in 1989.
Judging by the timeline, he should be around the same age as Makoto.
They belonged to the same generation.
Yet Satoru Gojo, only sixteen years old, had already unknowingly caused the status of the Three Great Families to quietly shift.
Because the power of the Limitless and Six Eyes was so great that one person alone could preserve the Gojo clan’s prosperity for decades.
Makoto could not imagine just how powerful that clan’s technique was.
Even the Zenin clan and Kamo clan, fellow members of the Three Great Families, and even Toji Fushiguro, who was as strong as a monster, were deeply wary of it.
He was hailed as the sorcerer most likely to become the strongest of the modern era.
“Satoru Gojo…”