Chapter 258

Yuji and the King of Curses alike feel Black Flash crank up the voltage. Sukuna gets back an old dependable weapon as Yuji and those beside him reveal fresh techniques, and at last the engine behind Yuji's swift development as a sorcerer is laid bare.

Following two Black Flashes, Gojo had once wired a custom reverse cursed technique circuit that scattered the strain across his brain to bring his output back. Sukuna reaches for the same trick to regrow his hands, yet a run of seven Black Flashes from Yuji, every one landing on the boundary between his soul and Megumi's, keeps shutting him out. Leaning on regions of his mind Unlimited Void never touched and inventing binding vows on the fly, Sukuna rides his Black Flash awakening to revive Malevolent Shrine at undiminished reach and power. The domain's lethal effect sweeps over Shinjuku, toppling buildings and grinding every living thing inside it into dust.

The planning session returns in flashback. Hakari held that only those with reverse cursed technique or a domain answer belonged in the fight, Maki being the single exception. Choso floated the idea that he and Yuji could pick up reverse cursed technique, and Shoko spelled out that its users turn cursed energy into blood yet falter at healing others because of compatibility. Choso then noted that his makeup as a Death Painting Womb lets him convert energy into blood with ease, a gift Yuji would inherit once he absorbed the leftover paintings, sparing them the steep energy toll. Ui Ui outlined his spatial transference, able to teleport people or trade the souls of marked targets without disturbing their bodies, comparing bodies to boxes and souls to what fills them. Kusakabe pointed out that Yuji's progress traces back to muscle memory left behind by Sukuna's jujutsu, so a soul swap during replacement training would let Yuji's body hold onto energy basics and Simple Domain. Ui Ui warned that anyone can be soul-swapped no more than twice in a month.

In the present, Yuji throws up Simple Domain against the incoming slashes, and spotting blood leaking from the demonic figure, judges the domain unfinished and braces to outlast it. His read holds, since Sukuna cannot sustain the open-barrier, high-output domain past ninety-nine seconds. Ino and Choso ride it out behind their own Simple Domains while Miwa's guards Maki. Moments before the domain falls, Yuji's Simple Domain is torn off and slashes lop away his left foot, which he mends with Blood Manipulation. Glad his allies endured, Yuji then watches flame pour out of Sukuna's open palm while the curse intones a call for Divine Flame to open.

Collected in Volume 29, this chapter ran in the combined issue 22-23 of 2024. It brings Malevolent Shrine back in incomplete form and details the replacement training and soul-swap rules driving Yuji's quickened growth. A large cast appears in flashback, among them Hakari, Yuta, Shoko, Mei Mei, and Ui Ui.