Vajra is the legendary indestructible metal of Buddhism, said to be eternal, immortal, and impossible to destroy.
The meaning behind this Maximum Technique could not have been clearer.
Yuta Okkotsu let out a roar.
His Cursed Energy exploded almost instantly.
The Immortal Technique began operating at astonishing speed.
His body underwent—
changes that even he himself could not control.
The changes to his body simultaneously altered the information contained within his Cursed Energy.
He was about to evolve into a higher form of life—
right at this moment.
A hand suddenly appeared before him.
Mahito had somehow arrived in front of him without anyone noticing.
"I'll admit it."
"The current you could indeed defeat—or even kill—mirokuji kirigiri."
Mahito spoke slowly.
"As expected of a Special Grade Sorcerer."
"You truly managed to turn the tables in a desperate situation and obtain a body even more terrifying than the one you possessed only moments ago."
Yuta Okkotsu subconsciously reached for his blade, but his body completely refused to respond at this moment.
His body was compressing and deforming.
"A body that won't be affected by Cursed Energy; hands that can restrain infinitely generated Cursed Energy; a body that will never die." Mahito smiled. "Do you think that, after obtaining such a body, you are still human?"
Yuta Okkotsu suddenly thought of the Kenjaku that Geto Suguru had absorbed.
Even if he could now fully unleash all the power of his original body, there was one thing he could never escape—
he was inside the Dream Walk Migration.
When his Soul was still human, it naturally wasn't an issue.
But once his Soul evolved into a lifeform somewhere between a god and a human, that status would change.
This was—
a Pseudo-Cursed Spirit.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
Mahito suddenly clenched his hand.
Yuta Okkotsu was uncontrollably compressed into a small sphere, slowly floating above Mahito's palm.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Mahito lightly applauded the battle between Gojo Satoru and Ryomen Sukuna.
"After Mahoraga appeared, I genuinely thought your luck had run out, Satoru," Mahito praised. "But in the end, you still emerged from that desperate situation and presented me with a magnificent battle."
Gojo Satoru lightly smoothed his robes, like a gentleman adjusting his evening attire.
Despite having just fought a brutal deathmatch against Ryomen Sukuna, not a single part of his robes had been torn.
This proved that Ryomen Sukuna had never truly landed a decisive blow from beginning to end. Gojo Satoru had even had enough composure to protect his clothing during the battle.
Ryomen Sukuna was unquestionably the ceiling of power in the original work, and even the original Gojo Satoru ultimately died at his hands.
But now, Gojo Satoru's rate of growth had exceeded Ryomen Sukuna's expectations.
The moment Ryomen Sukuna viewed Gojo Satoru with the same assumptions as before, it meant he had never truly regarded this battle seriously.
From beginning to end, Ryomen Sukuna's target had always been Mahito, the King of Curses.
The true target of futsu no mitama had always been Mahito as well.
In Sukuna's eyes, Gojo Satoru was merely an ordinary man who could be defeated with a little extra effort.
Ryomen Sukuna died in exactly the same way as the original Gojo Satoru—
because of his own arrogance.
"The same goes for you."
Gojo Satoru looked at Mahito.
"I didn't expect you to deal with Suguru and Yuta so easily."
Mahito slowly walked forward, with mirokuji kirigiri following half a step behind him.
At this moment, mirokuji kirigiri still maintained the appearance of a bunny-eared maid, holding the straight-edged greatsword that was taller than herself.
That was her true form.
Because Geto Suguru and Yuta Okkotsu had been defeated so quickly, Mahito had already spent quite some time watching the battle between Gojo Satoru and Ryomen Sukuna.
Objectively speaking, Ryomen Sukuna had actually lost rather unfairly.
The current Ryomen Sukuna was vastly stronger than his counterpart in the original work.
If both sides had possessed equal information, the current Ryomen Sukuna could at least have fought Gojo Satoru on even footing.
Furthermore, as the battle progressed, Sukuna's superior experience with Binding Vows might even have allowed him to turn the tables.
But Gojo Satoru never gave him that opportunity.
The futsu no mitama that Sukuna had prepared specifically for Mahito was reduced to nothing more than a cold weapon used to clash against Six Degrees East Crossing.
His hidden Copy Technique remained hidden until his death, never serving as the surprise attack it was meant to be.
The Ten Shadows Technique became nothing more than a launcher for Eleven Lives and Mahoraga.
His other Shikigami never even had a chance to appear.
His proud Malevolent Shrine only displayed its slashing abilities.
Its fire technique never appeared at all.
The World-Splitting Slash was indeed an unavoidable killing move.
Yet Gojo Satoru neutralized it from the very beginning.
Three attempts.
Three complete failures.
Out of ten parts of Sukuna's strength, perhaps not even three had truly been displayed.
What did that signify?
It proved just how composed Gojo Satoru had been.
His true strength had already surpassed the current Ryomen Sukuna.
He defeated Sukuna purely through his skills as a Jujutsu Sorcerer—
without even using Domain Expansion.
There was a long-standing discussion among JoJo fans in my previous life.
If Kujo Jotaro had never slacked off, had continued training both his body and his Stand, and had remained vigilant in Stand battles, would Pucci still have had a chance to defeat him?
The current Gojo Satoru provided the answer from another perspective.
No complacency.
No arrogance.
Constant vigilance.
And overwhelming superiority that killed the opponent who was originally destined to kill him.
He had truly surpassed his former self.
He had surpassed his original destiny.
"Yuta Okkotsu made the same mistake as every Sorcerer blessed with overwhelming defensive and survival abilities," Mahito said slowly.
"He believed I had no means of dealing with him, so he deliberately allowed me to approach."
"And as a result..."
"...I killed him in a single strike."
The Maximum Technique: Vajra never appeared in the original work.
Nor had Yuta Okkotsu ever displayed it during the Dream Walk Migration.
Mahito genuinely lacked any prior information about it.
However...
Yuta Okkotsu likewise never imagined that Mahito would suddenly produce Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
More accurately, Yuta Okkotsu never realized that, after using Maximum Technique: Vajra, his body would become so close to that of a Cursed Spirit.
He had even lost the ability to distinguish between humans and Cursed Spirits.
Yuta Okkotsu's talent as a Sorcerer was undoubtedly exceptional.
But he was still someone who had entered the jujutsu world relatively late.
Even now, his total experience as a Jujutsu Sorcerer had not exceeded two years.
His accumulation of jujutsu knowledge was simply insufficient.
As a result, he was trapped by the limits of his own understanding.
"...It's my responsibility."
Gojo Satoru sighed.
"Yuta's combat experience is actually more than sufficient."
"What he should have spent these past two months improving was his fundamental knowledge of jujutsu."
"But we never realized that."
"We should have had him systematically study jujutsu theory instead of making him spar with me."
"That would've been impossible."
Mahito stopped less than five meters away from Gojo Satoru.
"You wanted to eliminate me too badly."
"Because of that, someone like Yuta Okkotsu, who was destined to stand upon the final battlefield, was inevitably going to receive intensive combat training rather than theoretical instruction."
"That decision reflected the goal in your hearts."
Gojo Satoru sighed again.
He knew Mahito was right.
Knowledge of the jujutsu world is important—
yet sometimes it isn't.
The clearest example is Takaba Fumihiko.
When Takaba first awakened his Innate Technique, Comedian, Kenjaku's internal monologue in the original work explicitly stated that Takaba's technique overturned a thousand years of accumulated jujutsu knowledge, rendering all of Kenjaku's experience meaningless.
Takaba Fumihiko was both an exception—
and not an exception.
He was simply the most extreme example.
Other cases were less exaggerated but still completely overturned the traditional knowledge inherited by the jujutsu world.
Kinji Hakari's Domain Expansion was the most famous example.
Because of it, Hakari was rejected by the conservative jujutsu establishment.
Even Gojo Satoru, despite being a Special Grade Sorcerer, couldn't fully protect him and could only allow him to hide underground as the owner of an illegal fight club.
Therefore...
it was only natural that Yuta Okkotsu failed to realize he would be regarded as a Pseudo-Cursed Spirit after activating Maximum Technique: Vajra.
Not to mention he didn't know Mahito possessed Cursed Spirit Manipulation—
even if he had known, he still wouldn't have considered the possibility.
He was a textbook example of an orthodox Jujutsu Sorcerer.
He lacked information.
And because he lacked information—
he died.
"I already had a premonition about Suguru's death."
"But Yuta shouldn't actually be dead, right?"
Gojo Satoru asked.
Mahito raised one hand.
A sphere of condensed Cursed Energy floated above his palm.
Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes instantly perceived its true nature.
Yuta Okkotsu...
had become that sphere of Cursed Energy.
"The intermediate absorption state of Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
Gojo Satoru nodded.
"I've watched Suguru use this countless times."
"If it's a low-level Cursed Spirit, it can immediately be compressed into a sphere and swallowed."
"If it's a high-level Cursed Spirit, it first has to be beaten into a weakened state before being transformed into a sphere."
"The fact that you transformed Yuta directly into a Cursed Energy sphere without even fighting him proves only one thing."
"The gap in Cursed Energy between you and Yuta..."
"...is even greater than the gap between a Special Grade Sorcerer and a Grade 3 Cursed Spirit."
Even as he said it, Gojo Satoru suppressed the shock in his heart.
Yuta Okkotsu possessed even more Cursed Energy than Gojo himself.
Yuta was hailed as the Sorcerer with the greatest amount of Cursed Energy in the modern era.
Had Ryomen Sukuna not suddenly appeared, Yuta's reserves would likely have ranked first throughout the entire history of the jujutsu world.
Even in the original work, Ryomen Sukuna once used Yuta Okkotsu as a benchmark when discussing Cursed Energy.
The terrifying aspect of Cursed Spirit Manipulation lies in the fact that it ignores the target's abilities and characteristics.
As long as the gap in Cursed Energy is sufficient, the target can simply be absorbed.
Yet even Kenjaku at his peak couldn't absorb the Disaster Curses from the original work.
Only after Mahito had been beaten nearly to death by Itadori Yuji, leaving him almost completely depleted of Cursed Energy, was Kenjaku finally able to absorb him.
Yuta Okkotsu possessed even more Cursed Energy than that Mahito.
Yet the current Mahito absorbed Yuta effortlessly.
What did that mean?
The difference between them was no longer merely one of levels—
it was a difference in dimensions.
This truly...
Gojo Satoru thought he would feel nervous.
Instead—
he felt the blood in his veins ignite.
His Cursed Energy began circulating freely almost instantly.
He became excited—
an excitement he couldn't suppress.
Ryomen Sukuna had never given him this feeling until the very end of their battle, when Black Flash finally appeared.
Yet the instant he saw Mahito—
the instant he realized Mahito could casually absorb Yuta Okkotsu—
his entire body responded with exhilaration.
That's right...
This is exactly how it should be.
This...
is the final battle I've been waiting for.
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Next Bonus Chapter at 700 Powerstones.