Chapter Text
Many had called Satoru stupid for his gambit. Satoru would call them stupid for not seeing the bigger picture. His proposal to Sukuna wasn’t completely out of some blood-lust driven desire to have the best fight in history, which was what some of the higher ups were proposing. He had an actual plan. It was just an insane, very risky plan borne of many late night spent in the archives researching Limitless and binding vows.
Getting Sukuna to agree to a good old fashioned showdown on the 24th of December had been when the plan first formed, as the date would give him plenty of time to come up with strategies. It had been suspiciously easy to get his agreement as aside from a snarky comment from the fucking parasite, there was no push back. In fact, if Satoru didn’t have his own plans in motion he felt like he would have felt a little more concerned over it, but as it stands, it worked out quite well. It was actually more difficult to try and swing the higher ups over to his side, telling them that it was better to wait rather than drop kicking the King of Curses right out of the gate. He ended up having to bullshit about some super-secret Gojo technique that will let him train at increased efficiency and discover new heights of Limitless. Trying to maintain the facade was a pain, but explaining his true plan to the elders would be an even bigger pain in the ass and cause a lot of push back, so he was willing to put up with it. It turns out that the allure of an even more powerful Gojo was enough to sway most of the elders over to his side, but he still faced some warnings about his impudence. Old bastards. Death was too good for them, but at the rate things were progressing at, that might not even happen to them.
Satoru didn’t really get it. Sukuna was now at his peak, having absorbed the equivalent of all twenty fingers, and he wasn’t going anywhere and probably wasn’t going to go on any murderous rampages. Waiting gave Jujutsu society more time to plan, something that gave them more of an advantage than it did Sukuna, and they should know that. Their ignorance is something with which he decided to not to care about anymore though. His students, the ones suffering from it the most, would be able to handle them in his absence but he felt a sadness at not telling them his true intentions. Only Shoko knew the truth.
She had helped him iron out the details, and held him while he cried out his remaining emotions. Now all that remained was a numb sense of duty. While he may be a battle crazed maniac, he still had some strategy in him, and he did want to win this fight. Hence why his opening move was a sneak attack. Using a barrier to mask his cursed energy output and with both Utahime and the Old Man he launched his first attack. He focused on chanting the words for Hollow Purple, feeling the energy that his companions were amplifying, and then he tuned in on Sukuna’s location. Hollow Purple flashed across Shinjuku at two hundred percent.
He felt it hit. The King had managed to block it, but not before it took both of Sukuna’s arms and a large chunk of Shinjuku. Satoru teleported to his location with a smug grin on his face and hands tucked into his jacket’s sleeves.
“Looks like you’re the challenger here!”
“Gojo.” Sukuna rumbled. “So you haven’t turned tail after all. Though you still have yet to be put in your place.”
“Of course! I said that I would keep things interesting, didn’t I?” Satoru’s chipper attitude in situations like these confused people. He’d say it’s evidence of his indomitable will, and the reason why he wins so many impossible fights. “Besides, I don’t appreciate you breaking your promise to me. I thought that I was going to be the first person you kill when you get your own body, and yet you go after Megumi’s sister?”
“As interesting as you can, small fish that you are. Who I chose to kill and in what order is of no consequence to you.” Satoru threw his head back to laugh and then took up a fighting stance.
“Well, I suppose it’s too much to expect you to keep your promises. I’ll have to settle for what you’ll give me. As for being interesting... there’s only one way to find out. Right?” Sukuna matched Gojo’s manic grin, and suddenly he was in front of the sorcerer. Satoru didn’t particularly want to immediately open with a domain expansion, as whilst it was the best way to win a fight, domain clashes could be quite boring. Though something told him that the King of Curses had a few tricks up his sleeve for that sort of thing. The much better reason why he didn’t want to enter a domain clash was because, the binding vow he took takes effect upon opening his domain and requires Sukuna to be under the effect of Limitless to affect him. He wasn’t going to risk missing that one shot. They both shot forward and met with equal speed and viciousness.
Their first few blows could only be described as love taps. True, Satoru did throw Sukuna into an office block, but it hurt the building more than it hurt Sukuna. And it was more of a prelude to the fight as the falling rumble provided cover for them to make the appropriate signs, allowing them to be able to keep each other in the dark to which technique they were using. Sukuna had launched a powerful Cleave, while Satoru had responded with an exceedingly powerful Red which had distorted the path of the Cleave and destroyed the half of the building they were inhabiting. Neither attack had truly hit their opponent, but they had done enough damage to the building for it to start crumbling in on itself.
Both combatants flew out of the dissolving structure, taking advantage of the many holes and collapsing walls, but Sukuna was slightly faster than Satoru. And in the minimal amount of time he had bought, Sukuna had managed to summon Mahoraga.
“Bringing in back up?” Satoru teased, “here I thought you wanted me all to yourself.”
“Worry not Gojo, you are still mine. Mahoraga is merely here to assist me in something.” Mahoraga closed in and took over Sukuna’s job as close quarters fighter whilst Sukuna sent slashes at a distance, slowly ramping up the intensity until, it happened. Sukuna got serious.
“Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine.” The air became oppressive as the shrine opened, and Satoru opened a simple domain just in time to defend against a flurry of cuts that would have diced him. Mahoraga knocked him out of it a second later, stabbing him with a blade that would have obliterated him had he been a curse. Instead, it shattered his arm.
Satoru used a powerful Blue to pull Mahoraga away and through two buildings, destroying them on impact, and used the opportunity to go after Sukuna. He had to break the man’s domain, and the only way to do that was to deal enough damage to the curse himself. But Sukuna kept moving backwards, as he clearly had no reason to stick close to Satoru in this situation, and it was the only reason he had enough time to react to Satoru sending a Red straight at him.
“Aw, running away Sukuna? Are you scared?” Satoru taunted, using the blind spot created by the flying Red to summon another and have it boomerang back to him from behind Sukuna.
“You’ll never scare me Gojo. I’m merely backing away from an overly enthusiastic puppy.”
“Puppy?” Satoru paused, blinking. “No one’s ever called me that before-” And just then, taking advantage of his momentary confusion, Mahoraga came back around and attacked one again. Satoru moved out of the way and this time used Red to launch it into the air. Then in the same movement he summoned a Blue to pull another building onto Sukuna. The King of Curses sliced the building apart before it even got close to hitting him, but in doing so missed the Red that was speeding towards his back.
Malevolent Shrine broke and Sukuna rocketed towards one of the remaining buildings with a significant chunk of flesh missing from his back. Satoru grinned and turned his attention to the next obstacle in his path. As Sukuna was recovering from that Satoru attempted to try and deal with Mahoraga. The unfortunate thing was that it was adapting very quickly to his cursed technique, so he had to pull out a very destructive one shot move otherwise it might survive and kill him. Instead of hounding it with Limitless, he used pure physical strength to try and put it in a more advantageous place. Sukuna used the break that this gave him to get to a better position and close the distance between them from Satoru’s blind spot, getting as close as he could whilst Infinity was active.
“Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine.” And then he felt Sukuna reach past the point where infinity would otherwise stop him, and brush against the nape of Satoru’s neck. His grip tightened in white hair as he spoke.
“Dismantle.” Satoru barely had enough time to wrap himself in Falling Blossom Emotion, the usually fatal attack merely leaving a bloody patchwork on his skin instead. Sukuna maintained his hold on Satoru and it only took him a second to understand why. Not only was it to keep him in place but also it was a counter to one of Satoru’s possible moves. Everything but Satoru and anything touching him would be affected by his domain, which meant that in a domain clash where their can’t miss effects cancel each other out, his domain would stop affecting Sukuna. It would essentially mean that Sukuna’s can’t miss effect would start working again despite the fact that both domains would be active. At least it would be that way usually.
Whilst the physical touch wouldn’t be much of an issue, he needed to force Sukuna to drop his domain again, and he couldn’t use his in order to do so. As Sukuna was still within punching distance, Satoru punched him. Landing a black flash with the constant swirl of curse energy that was trying to tear him apart was not exactly possible, but he could still use his own technique to simulate it slightly and manage to get a solid hit on the curse. Sukuna let go of his hair with a grunt and as soon as he was freed from the curse’s grip he started moving, weaving in and out of the slashes he could see, avoiding the worst of them and buying enough time for him to charge up his next attack.
“Phase. Paramita. Pillar of Light. Reverse Curse Technique: Red.” Red light dyed the surrounding area in crimson as it shot towards Sukuna, distorting the space and slashes around it as it moved. It didn’t hit Sukuna directly, the curse figured out that it would be less trouble to dodge and did so, but also in moving he left himself open to more of Satoru’s attacks.
“Phase. Twilight. Eyes of Wisdom. Curse Technique: Blue.” Red had yet to detonate, and it was pushing everything around it away. And maybe it was the fact that the King of Curses was still too preoccupied with trying to deal with Red that he hadn’t initially spotted Satoru charging up a blue. Whilst Red pushed everything away, Blue drew everything in which made it a much harder technique to avoid. Sukuna seemed at least mildly prepared though, he allowed himself to be taken by the technique briefly before skirting around the edge of it and using the momentum he gained to launch at Satoru. It briefly reminded him of the method some satellites and probes used to travel so far out into the solar system. But Sukuna wasn’t preparing for Satoru’s next attack. Hell, it was the first time he was trying it so he couldn’t really blame the curse. Both Red and Blue combined behind Sukuna, and he barely noticed in time to swear and block. Mahoraga was less lucky.
“Nine Ropes. Polarized Light. Crow and Declaration. Between Back and Front. Imaginary Curse Technique: Hollow Purple.” An impressive explosion of purple light encompassed the area, erasing it and Mahoraga from existence. Air rushed into the vacuum that Hollow Purple had created, pulling the surrounding rubble into the evacuated space. The only thing left standing was Sukuna. While Sukuna had managed to block most of the attack, he did lose his arm in the crossfire, and that meant that he couldn’t expand his domain in the brief amount of time it would take for him to regrow it. Satoru’s excited expression fell into one of melancholy. He acted without hesitation, but from here on, it would be up to everyone left behind.
“Domain Expansion: Infinite Void.” Galaxies expanded around them, stars shooting past as though they were traversing the universe. Sukuna growled and launched himself the rest of the way towards Satoru, latching onto the sorcerer, but it didn’t matter.
“What... Did you do?” He ground out, still understandably confused on what had just happened, and already coming under the effects of Limitless. Satoru was also in a similar boat however, and it made gathering his thoughts to explain things difficult, but he still managed to scrape together some coherence.
“Made a binding vow. Domain change... Separate our souls from our bodies and trap us in the Limitless.” Satoru barely managed to gasp out the next statement. “My body the cost.” Six eyes were taking in everything, more so than what would normally be forced upon him in this state, and it was overwhelming him faster than it would affect Sukuna. The curse only stared at him, and continued to do so as Satoru collapsed, eyes darting around trying to find something to focus on and failing. Images of pasts and futures all entwining with his mind. And then he started to laugh. Started to laugh hard.
“I see! What a lowly trick little sorcerer. You’ve robbed me of our fated fight. Do not worry though, I developed a technique for you that will serve me well here.” Then Satoru felt the space around them distort. “I developed it thanks to Mahoraga. To cut the world. The fabric of reality itself. Something capable of bypassing Infinity.” Sukuna’s expression was nothing short of malevolent. “Our fight has yet to finish Satoru Gojo. When we emerge, I expect a true rematch.” And then the world went white.