Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 5

To the sorcerers observing, the bout between Gojo and Sukuna keeps breaking through whatever limit either man had honored until now. Whenever one earns an edge, a counterforce immediately answers it, and the stalemate holds until Gojo wagers on a move none of the onlookers expected.

Yuta and Kusakabe remain stunned that Gojo, by way of reverse cursed technique, somehow revived an innate technique he had already burned out. Yuta likens a drained innate technique to an engine running too hot, something that only cools with rest, so mending raw physical injury ought to be a wholly separate matter; he frets that his grasp of reverse cursed technique is lacking, or worse, that his teacher is forcing his way past every safe boundary. When Gojo asks whether the Shrine's reach can grow even larger, Sukuna obliges and pushes Malevolent Shrine to its outermost span. Gojo answers by reopening his domain and, to his allies' surprise, flips the conditions of the barrier so it now resists assault from outside rather than within, leaving Kusakabe baffled at how easily he swaps those settings. The two fall into a hand-to-hand exchange, and Gojo is caught when Sukuna stacks domain amplification onto a strike, normally forbidden, but allowed because the technique was already bound into the domain; unimpressed, Gojo lands a hard counter to the ribs.

Sukuna recovers fast, twists around to Gojo's back, and seizes his leg, and Gojo realizes the Shrine's sure-hit has been switched off. Having felt how Unlimited Void operates from his time within Yuji, Sukuna knows it cannot harm him while he keeps contact with Gojo. Through a binding vow he boosts the domain's power beyond Gojo's barrier by surrendering the interior sure-hit and pulling in its range, so Gojo's barrier buckles again and a storm of slashes rains down. Watching the grim turn, Kashimo reminds Hakari that, should their teacher fall, the next one sent in will be him. Gojo startles Sukuna by triggering Falling Blossom Emotion, parrying the blades with cursed energy and reducing the wounds to shallow ones, a secret art only Kusakabe recognizes. Choso argues its output still cannot match a real domain, while Shoko counters that it earns Gojo time to mend his exhausted technique. Gojo opens his domain again, this time stretching it far enough to rival Sukuna's maximum range, alarming his allies as the quality drops and the outer shell starts to fracture. Then the domain begins contracting, shrinking until it is barely as large as a sports ball.

Gege Akutami numbered this Jujutsu Kaisen installment two hundred twenty-seven, and it falls within the Shinjuku Showdown Arc and was carried in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 31 of 2023, dated July 3. It was later compiled in Volume 25 and spans twenty-two pages. Beyond the duel, the chapter introduces Falling Blossom Emotion to most of the assembled sorcerers and ends on Gojo's bewildering decision to crush his own domain into a sphere.