Chapter 163: Dattian (墮天)-3

Gojo Satoru.

The one who had been freed from the Prison Realm had returned.

"Teacher!"

"Gojo!"

"Oh, yeah. Hey? Or should I say, not hey? Kusakabe, you’re still here too, huh. "

Joking around as he descended from the air, Gojo headed toward the students.

The fact that he was cracking pointless jokes meant this was the usual Gojo Satoru.

He had really been released, and returned to their side.

"Tch, you all look like hell."

"Teacher...."

As Gojo looked around, his eyes met those of the four first-years.

"Oh."

Waving in delight, Gojo soon sensed the changes in them.

With his Six Eyes, he could tell that the aura around all of them had grown by a ridiculous amount compared to Shibuya.

Especially....

"Teacher..."

Junpei.

This was surprising.

"What the hell happened?"

"To explain it...would take a while..."

"Really? Then I’ll hear it later...I should praise you first."

Looking at it, Junpei had clearly played a major role in carrying this situation to the end.

A satisfied smile slowly spread across Gojo’s lips.

"You did well."

"....!"

A small, casual word of encouragement.

Why did that alone make his emotions surge so violently?

All the hardships he had gone through while Gojo was gone flashed through Junpei’s mind.

It’s really...really Teacher Gojo.

The teacher came back.

"You were way too late..."

In the end, Junpei couldn’t hold it in, and his shoulders began to shake.

Having to stand in for his place while he was gone had been far too heavy a burden for Junpei, who had only just risen to the rank.

It felt like the price of that was only now being acknowledged.

"Don’t cry."

"That’s...a Slam Dunk rip-off..."

"I wanted to try it once."

Gojo lightly tapped his head a few times, then slowly straightened up.

It was nice to have an emotional reunion, but there was still work to do.

"Leave the cleanup to me."

His icy blue eyes, fixed on Kenjaku and Sukuna, filled with killing intent.

"You two."

An outright declaration of war.

At a time like this, they had to face a fully recovered Gojo Satoru. There was no disaster greater than that.

Sukuna’s mouth twisted, and cold sweat ran down Kenjaku’s forehead.

Everyone knew it.

The man before them was unquestionably the strongest.

"I suppose you’ll have to take responsibility for turning my students into this mess."

Just when they thought the worst crisis had arrived,

"Kogane. Change the rules under the administrator’s authority."

Sukuna chose the last resort he had not wanted to use.

"What are you doing...."

"Until the day before the restriction period when technique removal takes place in the second Culling Game,"

-hostile acts against "Kurusu Hana" and "Geto Suguru" are forbidden.

"Teacher!"

When the students cried out in alarm, Gojo was already forming hand signs.

Cursed energy surged around his body, and the foundation of a barrier spread out.

Domain Expansion.

"Unlimited Vo..."

But Sukuna’s rule change went through faster than the Domain could unfold.

"Anyone who violates the above will have their technique removed."

"!"

He’d been had.

Gojo, frozen in the state just before his Domain fully expanded, had no choice but to stop his attack.

His normally cold, expressionless face grew even colder.

"Now then, what’ll you do?"

Sukuna spread his arms wide as if to show off, baring his teeth in a grin.

"Are you prepared to sacrifice your life for the greater good?"

The administrator’s authority allowed near-unlimited modification of the Culling Game’s rules.

However, any rule that interfered with the Culling Game’s permanence would be rejected by the system.

Just before Gojo’s attack came flying in, Sukuna found a possibility in that.

‘So banning combat...is only possible when there’s a day left.’

By default, the Culling Game’s permanence assumes endless battles between players.

The administrator is also a player, so unless he completely leaves the game forever, he can’t escape that rule.

And if he left the Culling Game, he would lose administrator authority, so that was impossible too.

What he had realized was that Gojo Satoru also entered the Culling Game’s barrier and was treated as a player.

No matter how strong he was, the fact that he had entered here meant he still had to follow the game’s rules.

Faced with crisis, Sukuna chose to buy time rather than fight head-on, and the system barely approved his request.

‘This is impossible right now.’

It stung his pride a little that it felt like he was running away, but he couldn’t fight Gojo Satoru here.

He had already burned through all his cursed energy, and with the Angel still not fully digested, Domain Expansion was impossible.

If he used his trump-card recovery method, there might be a chance, but the fact that the number of fingers he had absorbed was still incomplete was also a concern.

"Damn fool."

As expected, Gojo was in a pretty bad mood.

He had finally come all this way to fight, and the King of Curses pulled a cowardly stunt like this?

The heated atmosphere seemed to cool all at once.

"Are you that scared to fight me?"

"I’m not in peak condition right now. You wouldn’t want to fight me when I’ve already used up all my strength either."

"Ah~ yeah, yeah~ sure you wouldn’t. Not wrong, but you know it looks ugly, right?"

Sukuna’s brow twitched slightly.

"I couldn’t care less what the others think. I only do what I want."

"You can dress it up however you want, but that just means you’re not confident you can beat me right now. Using that girl’s life as a hostage like a coward."

"Don’t get the wrong idea. I haven’t forgotten my promise to kill you yet."

And then,

"If anything, isn’t it me who’s giving you time to pull yourselves together?"

Even if he couldn’t beat Gojo in his battered state, he could take one or two of the people lying over there with him.

No matter how Gojo Satoru looked at it, he couldn’t fight while protecting everyone.

"Nope. If you’d expanded your Domain, you’d all just die together, including that trash over there."

Even though he said that, Gojo also knew the Jujutsu High side was in a pretty bad state.

‘Sure enough, if we’d just fought without holding back, someone would’ve gotten caught up and died.’

There was no way Sukuna had burned through all his cursed energy without a plan.

He definitely had another move hidden away.

"In any case, you can’t kill me either. Without the Angel, you won’t be able to end the Culling Game, so you were probably planning to suppress me while keeping me barely alive, huh. Heh heh heh."

"I know you can come back to life even if your heart is gone. I was planning to kill you once and think about the rest after that."

"What the hell are you talking about!"

"We have to save Miss Kurusu!"

"Do you plan to live inside the Culling Game forever?!"

As Gojo absentmindedly picked at his ear and tossed out irresponsible remarks, the first-years watching from behind screamed in outrage.

"I said I know."

"Doesn’t seem like you do..."

The doubtful voice still came, but he ignored it.

Tired of the dragging conversation, Sukuna’s voice rose slightly.

"Talking to you about worthless things is getting annoying. Hurry up and decide what you’re going to do."

Either sacrifice someone’s life right now to kill me and find another way to end the Culling Game,

or obey my demand.

"Ha....."

Gojo scratched his head irritably and let out a sigh.

"Fine. I’ll fight you when you want it."

"Heh. I knew it."

"Just remember this one thing."

-You’ve already basically lost to me once.

By then, the usual shameless smile was already back on Gojo’s face.

Not the expression of battle frenzy, but the easy confidence of a winner.

Having no further rebuttal, Sukuna turned his head away.

"How arrogant..."

"See you in nineteen days."

Spreading his wings, he grabbed Kenjaku’s hand and took off into the air.

Behind them as they receded into the distance came Gojo’s cackling sneer.

"Wow, what a handsome couple. Nice to look at."

"Shut that loose mouth of yours."

"Nope. What can you even do...hey, I’m not done talking yet! Hey! Sukuna!"

Soon, they vanished far into the distance.

Clicking his tongue, Gojo turned around and headed toward where his allies were.

"Damn it all...."

"This was our chance...."

The Jujutsu High side was devastated that the perfect opportunity had slipped away.

Sukuna couldn’t use his Domain, had already burned through all his cursed energy, and had only eaten fourteen fingers.

There had never been a better time to deal with Sukuna than now.

Could they really face a fully recovered Sukuna after he finished regrouping and regained his complete power?

"Don’t worry so much."

"How are we supposed to not worry?"

"I’m here, aren’t I?"

When Gojo said it so casually, they seemed a little relieved.

Indeed, the name "Gojo Satoru" carried something that inspired trust just by hearing it.

He might not usually seem reliable, but when it came to battle, there was no one more trustworthy than him.

"For now...let’s go back."

Grinning, Gojo helped each of the fallen one by one to their feet.

Everyone was a little unsteady from the aftereffects of their injuries, but no one was so badly off that they couldn’t stand.

Slowly, at a measured pace, the sorcerers began to move.

"Go back, rest up, and let’s share the joy of our unfinished reunion."

"Haha....."

Especially the first-years and Okkotsu, who had been close to Gojo, let out strained laughs at that.

Gojo swept his students with a gentle gaze, then said what he had wanted to tell them.

"I missed you all a lot, kids. You all did well without me."

He meant it.

No matter how much of a battle-crazed freak he was, he still had people he cared about.

He had no idea how much he had worried while trapped in the Prison Realm.

"....We missed you too."

"If you knew what we went through while you were gone, you’d be shocked."

"Now I want to hear that. What did you all eat, and where, to get this strong?"

Teacher and students.

For the first time in a long while, a warm, cheerful atmosphere passed between them.

For the moment, they forgot about Sukuna and Kenjaku waiting for them...

They just wanted to laugh, talk, and escape the pain for even a little while.

"Teacher..."

And among them was one person who couldn’t truly smile.

He was the only one who had fought Sukuna at full power, so he knew the fear.

His eyes, fixed on Gojo, were filled with deep worry.

"Will we be okay?"

"About what?"

"Sukuna."

"I’m here, you’re here, and Yuta’s here too. Don’t worry."

"It’s not something you can just say so easily. That guy is...."

Sukuna was a monster.

Less a human being than chaos wearing a human shell, a calamity that cared about nothing but itself.

That fear could only truly be understood by someone who had faced him directly.

"Ah—sure, if Sukuna’s regained all his power, he might be a bit of a handful."

"And you still plan to win?"

After thinking for a moment, Gojo grinned.

With a face so very Gojo-like.

That smile could only be described one way.

"I will."

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