Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 6

The onlookers remain dumbfounded as Gojo and Sukuna's contest defies every expectation. After clawing out a genuine edge in the open, Gojo cannot shake the suspicion that his rival is sitting on something far worse than anything shown so far.

The spectators debate Gojo's shrunken barrier. Maki points out that a domain's visible shell never reflects the true interior, which is partly why escape is so hard, but Kusakabe counters that a precise mental image is required to cast one, and picturing two fighters sealed in a space they could never physically fit should make the barrier fail entirely. Choso recalls Gojo's stint inside the Prison Realm, and Kusakabe realizes that captivity gave him the image he needed. The tiny barrier withstands Sukuna's outside slashes, so Sukuna trades range for cutting power. When both domains shatter at the same instant, Hakari leaps up, recognizing that Sukuna broke Gojo's shell from outside while Gojo had already damaged Sukuna badly enough to drop Malevolent Shrine.

Mei Mei clocks the miniature domain at exactly three minutes. With both innate techniques seemingly spent, Maki reads it as Gojo's advantage, but the Angel warns that letting Sukuna witness the reverse cursed technique repair means Sukuna can now copy it, the same precision that once let him split his soul into cursed objects a thousand years ago. Sukuna flees to a bridge, but Gojo levitates beneath it and punches up through the platform, then surfaces and closes with Blue, knocking the King of Curses back. Despite his lead, Gojo frets over why Sukuna avoided his innate techniques outside the domain and never summoned Mahoraga during those three minutes. Far away, Mahoraga's wheel turns in darkness while Gojo abruptly suffers a nosebleed.

This is the two hundred twenty-eighth chapter of Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen, part of the Shinjuku Showdown Arc. It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 32 of 2023, dated July 10, was collected in Volume 26, and spans nineteen pages. Mahoraga's adaptation is foreshadowed here through the spinning wheel and Gojo's sudden bleeding, planting the threat that pays off in later chapters.