Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 8

After five domain expansions, Sukuna has achieved the unthinkable and turned back Unlimited Void. Gojo still trusts the win is within reach, right up until he suffers the backlash of pushing beyond limits that bind even the strongest.

Mahoraga, destruction made flesh, descends onto the duel of the strongest. Mei Mei identifies the shikigami as the hidden treasure of the Zenin clan, and Choso recalls its talent for adaptation, while Yuji marvels that it has even adjusted to Unlimited Void. Sukuna comes to, mends the wound in his chest, and lets the shikigami slip back into his shadow. Back during his clash with Yorozu, Sukuna had absorbed Mahoraga's adaptation process into his own body so as to overcome the Construction technique she wielded. Over the five domain collisions, Gojo's sure-hit struck everything inside the domain while Sukuna's spared only him, so the effect of Unlimited Void touched Sukuna five times, though he was not really the one it hit.

Baffled, Gojo races to work out how the shikigami could have adjusted to Unlimited Void within a tenth of a second, then concludes that is impossible and that Megumi's soul was the one bearing the effect for Mahoraga to adjust. His puzzled look amuses Sukuna, who asks what is on his rival's mind; Gojo needles him for trying so hard, only for the jab to be flipped back. Sukuna explains he meant to handle Unlimited Void first through domain amplification while Megumi shouldered the adaptation, a plan that barred his own innate techniques yet ultimately paid off. Gojo points out that Megumi's soul carried the process but Mahoraga, not Sukuna, was the one that adapted, and believes a fresh domain will end things since he can destroy Mahoraga in one blow. But his expansion fails and blood spills from his nose, confirming the dread Yuta has carried since learning his teacher could somehow recover a spent technique through reverse cursed technique. Sukuna discloses that Gojo has been injuring the region of his own brain that holds the imprint of his innate technique, then mending that same spot via reverse cursed technique to manage the trick, a revelation that stuns Gojo's allies, who can scarcely believe he is alive after such recklessness. Deliberately harming his brain five times has finally pushed even Gojo to his ceiling. Sukuna conjures Mahoraga's wheel overhead and threatens to seal the barrier while adapting to Infinity, sneering that Gojo earned the title of strongest for one reason alone: his lifetime happened to fall in a span when no King of Curses walked the world. Malevolent Shrine activates, but the domain crumbles at once as Sukuna bleeds from his nose and eyes too; that under-ten-second hit from the final clash damaged his brain, blocking his domain as well. Reenergized, Gojo laughs that they are now in the same boat, stresses that Unlimited Void worked after all, and tells Sukuna he intends to keep showing off for his watching students before yanking him in with Blue for a brutal right hook. The exchange stirs in Sukuna a recollection of what Yorozu once said: that unrivaled power carries loneliness, and that someone exists who could teach him about love.

Gege Akutami numbered this Jujutsu Kaisen chapter two hundred thirty, and it belongs to the Shinjuku Showdown Arc. It saw print in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 35 of 2023 on July 31, was compiled in Volume 26, and runs nineteen pages. Akutami's note explains that Shoko's awareness of Gojo healing his own brain is covered in the Past Arc.