Prison Realm, Gate Close

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Before Yuta could react, Itsuki shattered the stone beneath his foot and rushed out.

Boom!

Their knuckles collided. Only one-third of the Black Rope remained in Yuta's hand.

As Yuta struggled to defend through exhaustion, another sudden change erupted.

Rika, after her technique had been fully released, was being heavily injured again and again by the withered-tree-like cursed spirit.

Itsuki's scarlet eyes swept toward the depths of the platform.

With one thought, he lowered the condition of the partially unsealed Gedo Statue.

Its cursed energy output dropped to just enough to match the two shikigami.

Three against one, and the situation barely held in balance.

...

Reverse Cursed Technique worked at its limit, and Gojo's destroyed right hand rapidly regenerated.

Discarding unnecessary thoughts, he rose and prepared to charge back into the battlefield.

Thud.

A heavy object landed behind him.

Gojo instinctively looked down at the cube covered in cursed markings rolling to his feet.

"Prison Realm, Gate Open."

The familiar voice at his ear made Gojo stop.

The cube under his gaze began its final countdown.

Hiss. Hiss.

Cracks in the gaps between the cursed markings expanded with brittle sounds.

Then the cube unfolded its body in a sudden motion, transforming into a two-meter object wrapped in blood-red flesh and membrane.

It looked like a scarlet starfish spreading its legs and arms.

The exposed single eye at its center continuously shed red liquid.

Gojo stared at that blood-red eye, and an absurd unease rose inside him.

He was about to leave the eye's range when that familiar voice sounded again.

"Long time no see, Satoru."

Gojo's heel stopped as he withdrew.

His gaze moved uncontrollably beyond the single eye.

"Ha."

Looking at the face most familiar to him in this life, Gojo's blue eyes surged with emotions so complicated they nearly collapsed into one another.

One year ago, Itsuki Zenin had personally dealt with Suguru Geto.

After Gojo, Shoko, and the others confirmed the information that White Zetsu could possess bodies, they had already made certain guesses.

Suguru Geto's corpse might have become one of Itsuki's hidden cards.

Back at the school, Gojo had used the Six Eyes to recognize that White Zetsu had changed bodies. He had already prepared himself for that possibility.

Even Gojo's first reaction after seeing Suguru Geto was this:

White Zetsu was impersonating him.

But.

The information the Six Eyes fed back to him now...

The person before him was absolutely not White Zetsu in disguise.

Aside from the stitched scar on the forehead, both cursed energy and flesh...

It was Suguru Geto completely.

"Suguru?"

In that instant, memories of the three years Gojo had spent with Suguru Geto at Jujutsu High surged through his mind uncontrollably.

Exorcising cursed spirits together.

Defying Yaga together.

Teasing Utahime together.

Complaining about the rotten higher-ups together.

Too many moments together.

Too many memories.

Three years of youth.

Three years with his best friend.

In a single instant, three years of memories flooded his mind.

...

Special grade cursed object: Prison Realm.

A thousand years ago, perhaps even farther back, a sorcerer named Genshin awakened a barrier technique.

Throughout his life, he sealed countless curses inside his body. After death, that flesh became the Prison Realm.

A special creation capable of imprisoning the strongest sorcerer.

An absolute prison designed for Satoru Gojo.

It had three main effects.

Cursed energy lockdown.

Time disorder.

Absolute durability.

A sorcerer sealed inside the Prison Realm could not use cursed energy to escape, nor could they sense the passage of time outside.

A hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years...

Endless time could pass while the trapped sorcerer remained in that narrow space.

Aside from suicide, they could only wait passively for someone else to unseal them.

The effect was extraordinary, and the activation condition was equally strict.

The target had to remain within four meters of the Prison Realm's body for one minute.

But that minute did not refer to physical time.

It referred to one minute of time passing through the target's mind.

And Satoru Gojo...

In that single glance back, three years had passed through his head.

...

"Satoru, you really shouldn't let your mind wander during a battle."

Kenjaku's relaxed tone abruptly woke Gojo up.

When he came back to himself, layer after layer of muscle had already bound him firmly in place.

He could not sense cursed energy?

Half-crouched, Gojo's brows tightened hard.

Looking at the disgusting smile on his former best friend's face, Gojo shouted after a brief shock.

"Who are you?"

"You forgot me so quickly?"

Fake Geto folded his hands into his sleeves and looked down at Gojo with amusement.

"I am your one and only best friend, Suguru Geto."

Gojo glared at Suguru Geto's body.

"The information from my Six Eyes says you are Suguru Geto himself."

"But."

"My soul is rejecting that answer."

Gojo suddenly exerted strength, pulling the muscles binding him taut to the limit.

"Hurry up and tell me who the hell you are!"

...

"Gojo-sensei!"

Suguru Geto's sudden appearance.

Satoru Gojo suddenly restrained.

Yuta, forced back to the platform again and again, had tried countless times to break through Itsuki.

Every attempt failed.

Boom!

The Black Rope in his hand was nearly burned away, and Yuta's expression grew increasingly anxious.

"Why?!"

He erupted with an extreme burst of cursed energy and punched hard toward Itsuki's heart.

He did not expect to kill him.

He only needed Itsuki to dodge, to give him a chance to get near Gojo-sensei.

With the last of the Black Rope, Yuta could help Gojo escape.

Boom!

Itsuki stopped Yuta's fist in place with casual ease.

"Why did I betray Jujutsu High?"

Itsuki looked down at the furious Yuta and spoke calmly.

"I want to ask why too."

"Why can't all of you simply obey the arrangements of the strong and stop making meaningless resistance?"

Ever since the Goodwill Event several months earlier, the story Itsuki knew had begun to deviate on a massive scale.

That included Kinji Hakari and Yuta Okkotsu appearing in Shibuya alongside Gojo.

It forced Itsuki to revise the plan for his final goal again and again.

Now he could only stabilize the general direction and ensure Kenjaku safely absorbed Mahito, then summoned the sorcerers from a thousand years ago as soon as possible.

"Hollow Technique Extension: Tremor."

Itsuki kicked hard across Yuta's side, while his scarlet eyes focused into the darkness deeper in the station.

Visible ripples of vibration tore through the void.

Uraume and Kinji Hakari had just emerged from their shattered domain and had not yet seen the situation clearly.

Then a spreading terror surfaced in their hearts.

Boom!

Space tore open. A violent gale swept out.

The two had barely steadied themselves before they were blasted away again.

"Kenjaku, hurry up. I don't have the patience to listen to your ancient stories here."

Itsuki's impatient voice traveled across the platform as his body slowly rose into the air.

The Mangekyo had confirmed it.

The Black Rope in Yuta's hand had been completely destroyed.

As for whether there were more pieces hidden somewhere else, he could only have White Zetsu confirm it later.

"Yes, yes."

Kenjaku held a long needle and slowly stitched his opened skull closed again.

"Then we will continue our chat another time. That man's temper is not very good."

Kenjaku narrowed his eyes at Gojo and laughed softly.

"I wonder how long it will be before our next meeting."

"A hundred years? A thousand?"

"Hahahaha!"

Seeing Itsuki slowly approach, Kenjaku did not dare waste any more time.

If Itsuki intended to leave, Kenjaku naturally could not linger.

Yuta plus Hakari was not something Uraume could hold back alone.

"Prison Realm."

"Gate Close."

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