Chapter 22

Down in the tunnels under Kawasaki City, Kento Nanami and Mahito start exchanging blows. At street level overhead, an initial meeting takes place between Yuji Itadori and Junpei Yoshino.

Nanami compares Mahito to Satoru Gojo, both wearing a careless surface over a deep, dark reserve of power. As Mahito strikes with hands sheathed in cursed energy, Nanami knocks them aside, kicks him back, winds up his blunt blade, and exposes the curse's weak points, hacking through most of an arm. Mahito asks if that is the sorcerer's cursed technique, and Nanami, wanting a read on the curse's wit, keeps talking; he suspects a link to the unregistered special grade Gojo had met. Mahito then asks whether flesh or soul came first, claiming the soul precedes and shapes the body. He proves it by mending his arm not through ordinary curse healing but via his technique, Idle Transfiguration, which reworks the soul and so the body, his own or another's. Pulling out warped humans, he molds one into a curse-like giant and muses about testing a powerful sorcerer. Unmoved, Nanami checks his watch and notes he must clock out within the half hour to dodge overtime.

Across town, Junpei meets a teacher named Sotomura, who jabs at him for missing his friends' funerals. As Junpei readies a cursed technique, Yuji breaks in to halt the cursed spirit Kiyotaka Ijichi had set loose to test Junpei's perception, Ijichi having fumbled the timing. To shake off the meddling Sotomura, Yuji grabs the man's trousers and bolts, then returns to talk with Junpei alone, having sensed his dislike of the teacher. Underground again, Mahito needles a lightly wounded Nanami, only for the sorcerer's cursed energy to surge as he declares overtime has begun.

This nineteen-page chapter appeared August 6, 2018 across issues 36 and 37, sitting in the Vs. Mahito Arc and collected in Volume 3, with Satoru Gojo and Mahito sharing the cover. Sotomura makes his debut, and the chapter's events reach the screen in Episode 10. The clash between Nanami and Mahito opens here, presenting Idle Transfiguration alongside Nanami's Ratio Technique.