"Yo," Mahito greeted Gojo Satoru.
"Ugh!" Gojo Satoru made a gagging sound. "Are you kidding me? This is terrible."
Mahito and Gojo Satoru were sitting together in an airport waiting lounge. Their armor had vanished. Mahito wore a white shirt, his heterochromatic eyes—one gold and one blue—shining with curious light as he casually scanned the lounge. Gojo Satoru wore his Tokyo Jujutsu High student uniform. He was dressed entirely in black, even wearing the round sunglasses from his Tokyo Jujutsu High days.
"Your afterlife is actually an airport waiting lounge," Mahito remarked. "I thought I could change your mind... I didn't expect it to be the same as the original work."
In the original work, Gojo Satoru's afterlife was indeed an airport waiting lounge. He sat with his best friend, Geto Suguru, both wearing their Tokyo Jujutsu High student uniforms, chatting idly. The people from Gojo Satoru's life appeared one by one, talking with him casually. But now, Geto Suguru had been resurrected, Yaga Masamichi had not died, and Nanami Kento was still alive. The person sitting closest to Gojo Satoru had become Mahito.
"What the hell is the 'original work'?" Gojo Satoru clicked his tongue.
Mahito suddenly turned serious.
"Satoru, do you believe you are living in a manga?"
"If I lived in a manga, I'd surely be the protagonist," Gojo Satoru said casually. "I'm a natural-born protagonist. According to destiny, my innate destiny value is the highest in the world; no one can compare to me."
Mahito could tell that although Gojo Satoru said this casually, he was serious. He didn't even refute the possibility that he lived in a manga. He simply accepted his fate as a character written by some author, while stubbornly believing he was the protagonist of that author's story.
Mahito burst out laughing.
"Unfortunately, you're not."
"Huh?!" Gojo Satoru's mouth twitched. He reached up and tilted his round sunglasses slightly, revealing Six Eyes as cerulean as the far reaches of the sky.
He glared at Mahito with his Six Eyes, grumbling indignantly, "If not me, then who else could be the protagonist? Could it be you?"
"No, I play the role of a clown," Mahito paused, then smiled. "The ending was quite tragic."
Gojo Satoru believed him instantly and burst into laughter.
Mahito complained, "It's very rude to laugh like that, Satoru."
Gojo Satoru patted his head and said offhandedly, "So, the protagonist should be Itadori Yuji, right?"
Mahito was stunned.
Gojo Satoru observed Mahito's expression and nodded slightly.
"So it really is him."
"How did you figure it out?" Mahito asked with interest.
"Naruto has the Nine-Tails, Ichigo has White Ichigo, and even Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit turned into the Nika Fruit. Yuji has Ryomen Sukuna hidden inside him. Isn't he a perfect fit?"
"For a protagonist, there has to be a story about growing from weak to strong to make it worth writing. I haven't encountered any setbacks since I was a kid. As a protagonist, I'd be too boring. Of course, I don't rule out that some authors like writing invincible characters like me, but whether they can write an invincible protagonist like me in an interesting way is another matter. Few authors could probably handle a character like mine, right?"
Gojo Satoru looked thoroughly pleased with himself, without the slightest embarrassment.
Suddenly, a cup of water flew over.
Gojo Satoru reached out and caught it, even having the presence of mind to dodge the splashing water.
"You dare say you've had no setbacks?!" a young woman's voice said. "From where I'm standing, you look pretty miserable."
Gojo Satoru looked up.
On the other side of the lounge, sitting at a dining table, was a young girl in a sailor uniform. Beside her sat a middle-aged woman in a white sweater, who smiled and nodded at Gojo Satoru.
Gojo Satoru couldn't help but smile.
"You haven't reincarnated yet, Riko, Kuroi."
Mahito also looked toward them.
Amanai Riko was the target of the escort mission that became the greatest turning point in the lives of Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru. She was Tengen's Star Plasma Vessel, and it was during the mission to escort her that Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru encountered the greatest setback of their lives. Amanai Riko's death became a pain that accompanied both of them throughout their lives.
Kuroi Misato was Amanai Riko's caretaker. She looked after Amanai Riko throughout her life, devoting everything to her until the very end. It was also Kuroi Misato's intentional and unintentional words that led Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru to resolve to betray Tengen.
Amanai Riko and Kuroi Misato were killed by Fushiguro Toji at the final moment, never even seeing Tengen's face. In particular, Amanai Riko died right before Geto Suguru's eyes. Moments earlier, Amanai Riko had cried to Geto Suguru, saying she did not want to merge with Tengen, and Geto Suguru had smiled and promised to protect her.
Before those words of promise had even settled, a bullet pierced Amanai Riko's brain.
One can imagine how deeply witnessing Amanai Riko's death affected Geto Suguru.
And now, the deceased Amanai Riko and Kuroi Misato appeared before Gojo Satoru once more.
Amanai Riko sat in the distance, mocking him loudly.
"Hey, you! Didn't you always say you were invincible? How did you end up here? You're not that great after all!"
This familiar sarcasm made Gojo Satoru burst into laughter once again.
He clutched his stomach and laughed, as if all the memories of his life were blending together. Everything from the past drifted before his eyes and vanished like smoke. He laughed until tears nearly came to his eyes.
Gojo Satoru pointed at Amanai Riko and laughed loudly at Mahito.
"Look at her! Aside from that face, she's practically useless. To think I was sad over her for more than a decade—don't you think that's hilarious?"
"Hey—!" Amanai Riko roared.
Mahito also started laughing.
This guy... he's even interesting in death, making one marvel that he is indeed Gojo Satoru.
Mahito suddenly asked, "Is this enough?"
Gojo Satoru said indifferently, "There's no such thing as enough or not enough. To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with handing this world over to you. I dare say anyone who knows you would sincerely believe that leaving the world to you is a better choice than leaving it to those high-and-mighty politicians. I don't have any particular thoughts on that. The reason I am your enemy is simply because I am human; I cannot tolerate another race existing above humanity. It has nothing to do with whether you are a Cursed Spirit or not."
It wasn't out of justice, but out of his position. Gojo Satoru summarized why he had to fight Mahito.
"If I were to say there's a regret, it's not that there isn't one," Gojo Satoru said as he looked down at his own fist.
"The body I've trained, the techniques I've mastered, the improvised imagination, and my explosive power—I have already used them all. But even though I exerted all my skills, I could still sense your composure when we truly clashed. In fact, I could say that when my God-Slaying Sword failed to cut you in two at that critical moment, I had a premonition that I had already failed. Any struggle after that was just to see if I could make the failure look beautiful."
Gojo Satoru sighed.
"You... didn't use your full strength, did you?"
"You did have a chance of winning," Mahito said frankly. "I'm not talking about that God-Slaying Sword, but your Domain Expansion. You refined and evolved your Domain Expansion, didn't you? If you could have utilized your Domain Expansion effectively, it truly could have posed a threat to me."
"Only worthy of being a 'threat' to you, huh?"
"After all, my Binding Vow to become a god has already reached the heavens. From now on, no matter what you do, as long as you cannot cut through this Binding Vow, you will never be able to threaten me. I thought you already knew this from Ryomen Sukuna's mouth," Mahito said.
"That's exactly it!" Gojo Satoru complained loudly. "I believed my God-Slaying Sword was precise enough, yet you still dodged it! Why did you suddenly decide to use Strength Reversal then? Even if you had used my Limitless, I was confident I could kill you directly, but that most critical strike still missed!"
"Because I [knew] everything," Mahito laughed triumphantly.
"Knew?"
Mahito nodded and reached out a hand, gently pointing at Gojo Satoru's chest.
Suddenly, Gojo Satoru sensed something. He looked down abruptly, and a window appeared on his chest. As time passed, something like a manga panel emerged on his chest.
"This Cursed Technique comes from a manga artist. His technique can imprint manga panels on the target's chest like this. From then on, by maintaining Cursed Energy, one can begin to see the target's future through this manga window. Of course, without the Six Eyes, that was all he could achieve. Because he himself wasn't strong, even knowing the future, he would sometimes still fail due to the difference in strength," Mahito said.
This was a Cursed Technique that appeared in the original work. The manga artist's opponent was Kinji Hakari. At that time, the manga artist could already predict all of Kinji Hakari's movements through the manga, yet he still failed. This was because Kinji Hakari's own strength far exceeded the manga artist's. Even though the manga window predicted every one of Kinji Hakari's attacks, he still lost due to the difference in strength.
But that was because the gap between the two sides was too vast. Now, the one using this technique was Mahito. There was no existence in this world stronger than Mahito. With his strength, the manga prediction could cover anyone, including, of course, Gojo Satoru.
Gojo Satoru's pupils contracted.
"Was this technique also on the Wish List?"
"Of course it was, but this technique isn't as useful for ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerers as you might think." Mahito laughed calmly. "This is a technique that can gain massive amplification along with the Jujutsu Sorcerer's own understanding and growth. It might not be outstanding in combat, but as a predictive ability, its potential is enough to reach the level of a god."
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