"If only everyone thought like you," Satoru Gojo sighed deeply, his words betraying a rare vulnerability.
Gojo had gone to great lengths to save Yuji Itadori from execution, seeing in him a possibility for change. Gojo himself harbored a desire to reform the jujutsu world. Despite his unparalleled power, he had yet to fully commit to revolutionizing it. Instead, he opted to teach, nurturing students who could become the future force of change.
Had Daniel known Gojo's hesitations, he would have found them overly cautious. In a world where personal strength could rival armies, such trepidation seemed unnecessary. Gojo, with his overwhelming abilities, could easily dominate the system or take a position of power to drive reform.
By not securing a higher authority, he left himself vulnerable to political machinations. This was evident in the recent mission involving Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki, which nearly resulted in disaster. Had Gojo held a commanding role, such schemes would never have taken root.
"What about Sukuna? Do you have any way to deal with him?" Gojo asked, shifting to a more pressing concern.
Sukuna, the King of Curses from a thousand years ago, was a persistent menace. Even after death, his cursed objects—his twenty fingers—remained indestructible. Not even Gojo, with his unrivaled power, could destroy them.
"I'd need to examine one of his fingers first," Daniel replied cautiously. While confident in his abilities, he preferred to assess the situation thoroughly.
In the jujutsu world, cursed energy application could be highly specialized. Despite being the strongest, Gojo himself was powerless against certain cursed objects like Sukuna's fingers or the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings. This limitation stemmed from a binding concept known as cursed restrictions.
Sukuna's fingers were bound by such restrictions, which made them impervious to destruction. The choice of preserving his fingers—not other body parts like toes or organs—was intentional and reinforced by these bindings.
Under normal circumstances, these bindings were nearly impossible to break. Itadori's unique situation, however, offered a loophole. By consuming Sukuna's fingers, Itadori effectively disrupted the restrictions. This anomaly was why the higher-ups sought to kill him—doing so would permanently erase the fingers he had consumed.
However, Itadori's case was exceptional. Most people couldn't consume even a single finger without dying, let alone absorb Sukuna's power. The cursed spirit they encountered earlier only utilized a fraction of the cursed energy stored in one finger, far from fully integrating its power.
This dynamic mirrored the relationship between a jinchuriki and a tailed beast from another world. Sukuna was the beast, and Itadori the vessel. But unlike cooperative jinchuriki and tailed beasts, Sukuna and Itadori were in constant conflict. Sukuna sought to seize control of Itadori's body, while Itadori sought to harness Sukuna's power.
"If it's a finger you need, I can arrange it," Gojo offered. Jujutsu High possessed six of Sukuna's fingers. Gojo preferred a gradual approach, feeding Itadori one finger at a time to allow him to adjust.
The higher-ups, however, favored a more drastic plan: collecting all the fingers, forcing Itadori to consume them at once, and then killing him to eliminate Sukuna permanently.
"I can deal with Sukuna for you, but there will be a price," Daniel said.
"What do you want?"
"Two conditions: access to your jujutsu techniques and related materials, and permission to study your Limitless Cursed Technique. I promise I won't harm you in the process."
Curses were humanity's enemy, and Daniel was inclined to help as long as it aligned with his goals. Additionally, Gojo's Limitless had sparked Daniel's curiosity, presenting new possibilities for his own understanding of spatial mechanics.
"Agreed." After a brief pause, Gojo nodded. Jujutsu training methods weren't closely guarded secrets; they were widely known, though few could effectively utilize them due to innate talent. Trading such knowledge for a solution to Sukuna was a bargain.
As for letting Daniel study his Limitless technique, Gojo didn't see it as a risk. The technique was innate to his lineage and impossible for others to replicate.
Cursed energy was fundamentally derived from negative human emotions, and jujutsu sorcerers refined this energy for combat. In essence, they shared similarities with curses themselves. Most humans had some level of cursed energy, even if it was negligible.
Children rumored to possess "spiritual sight" or "yin-yang eyes" often had higher-than-average levels of cursed energy. Negative emotions were universal, and Daniel was no exception. Though his rationality kept such emotions in check, they still existed within him.
Jujutsu sorcerers, like Gojo, utilized this energy creatively. For Daniel, it represented a new avenue to explore.
Gojo, true to his word, quickly provided Daniel with extensive material on cursed energy and techniques. As for Sukuna's fingers, there was no immediate rush. The recent mission had tempered the higher-ups' aggression, giving them pause in targeting Itadori and his companions.
"Cursed energy can manifest domains. That's quite impressive," Daniel remarked after delving into the materials. Initially, he hadn't thought much of cursed energy. But learning about its ability to create Domain Expansions piqued his interest.
He also noted a critical weakness in Gojo's Limitless: domains could bypass it. Domain Expansions ensured guaranteed hits within their field, nullifying Gojo's spatial barrier. Unfortunately, Gojo's own domain, Unlimited Void, was vastly superior to others, maintaining his position as the strongest.
Unlimited Void dragged opponents into a realm of infinite information, overwhelming their brains with useless data until they were incapacitated. It was akin to crashing a computer by flooding it with garbage files.
Even Daniel suspected he might experience a brief lapse in concentration if caught within it.
"Cursed energy is intriguing, but it's a pity I lack a technique to use it," Daniel mused. While cultivating cursed energy wasn't difficult for him, utilizing it effectively required a technique.
Gojo explained that cursed energy was akin to electricity, while techniques were like appliances. Without a technique, Daniel could only use crude applications like reinforcing his body with cursed energy—similar to chakra or qi reinforcement.
Despite this limitation, Daniel's exploration of cursed energy wasn't fruitless. The concept of extracting power from human emotions offered unique insights.
"It's fortunate curses can't create everything people imagine. Otherwise, this world would be as dangerous as a certain world of monsters," Daniel thought.
If curses could materialize every terrifying entity from human imagination, this world's dangers would escalate to catastrophic levels. Cities would fall to nightmarish creatures.
Even so, this world was perilous, especially for ordinary people. Accidents, murders, and disasters often stemmed from curses rather than human actions. With curses far outnumbering sorcerers, only the most dangerous ones received attention.
Under Gojo's guidance, Daniel captured three low-level curses at a high school. Their bizarre forms reflected the negative emotions lingering in such places. Schools, hospitals, suicide sites, and haunted locations were hotspots for curses, regularly monitored by jujutsu sorcerers.
"Too bad there aren't any Special Grade curses around," Daniel remarked.
"Special Grades aren't something you want to encounter often. Each one leaves a trail of devastation," Gojo replied.
Special Grade curses posed such threats that their appearances often resulted in heavy casualties among sorcerers. Daniel's interest stemmed from their innate techniques, which made them formidable opponents.
"This is the finger you wanted," Gojo said, tossing a sealed wooden box to Daniel before leaving. As the strongest sorcerer, Gojo's duties kept him perpetually busy, especially with his peers shirking their responsibilities.
"Yikes, Sukuna's fingers look like cursed cookies. Hard to believe Yuji eats these," Daniel muttered, inspecting the heavily sealed finger. Returning to the villa Gojo had arranged for him, Daniel began his experiments.
As expected, Sukuna's finger resisted all attempts at destruction, from raw force to elemental attacks like fire and ice. Its resilience, bound by cursed restrictions, wasn't surprising.
"If this finger contains part of Sukuna's soul, could alchemy work on it?" Daniel wondered.
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I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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