Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 98 - Jogo's First Battle: Total Domination!

The summer heat festered deep in the mountain forest.

Naoya Zenin was bare-chested, his muscles flushed red as a boiled shrimp.

He clenched his teeth hard enough to crack them. The veins on his forehead looked ready to burst. Dense Cursed Energy churned with the raw heat radiating off his body, forming a vortex around him.

Almost there.

Just a little more.

Naoya was screaming in his head.

Break through the second gate, the Gate of Rest, and that pink-haired gorilla Yuji would be eating his dust for good.

Toji Fushiguro leaned against a tree trunk not far off, wearing that same green spandex he'd had on since the dawn of time. A stalk of dogtail grass dangled from his mouth.

"Your breathing's a mess. Drop that pampered young master act. Use your muscles to drive the blood and qi. Stop thinking about it."

He didn't bother softening it.

Yuji Itadori was squatting on a nearby rock, working through a slice of watermelon with the serious dedication of a man with nowhere to be. "Naoya's been eating even less than me lately," he said between bites. "Says carbs hurt muscle density. Guy really grinds."

Megumi Fushiguro had his hands in his pockets. He gave the world a slow, dead-fish stare.

These idiots.

Blazing summer. Air conditioning back in the dorms. And they were out here playing at being wild animals.

500 meters from the clearing, something lurked inside the dense canopy.

A single bloodshot eye.

Jogo had been crouching there for 3 full days, waiting until they left Jujutsu High for special training. Finally.

He seethed.

Kenjaku was a coward hiding in the shadows, scared out of his mind by a few monkeys who'd cracked open their physical gates. 3 days of watching had told Jogo everything he needed to know: that green-skinned gorilla carried not even a trace of Cursed Energy residue. Not a flicker.

Just a regular human.

Slamming Ryomen Sukuna into the dirt had to be some filthy sealing Cursed Tool. A trap. There was no other explanation.

Today, he'd show these monkeys what a real natural disaster looked like.

"Oh?" Jogo's single eye locked onto Naoya. Blood and qi cresting at the crown. Weakest point of defense.

The corner of his mouth split into something cruel.

"Perfect."

Back in the clearing.

Naoya's eyes snapped open. Both were completely bloodshot.

"Second Gate. Gate of Rest. OPEN!"

BOOM!

A shockwave twice as powerful as anything before it erupted from Naoya's body. The rock under his feet shattered on contact.

He'd done it.

He'd actually done it.

Naoya's whole body lit up with pure, disbelieving joy. Right now he felt like he could kill an elephant with one punch.

He was about to turn and show Toji when the air above his head warped without warning.

The heat hit first, a flash of scorching temperature that sucked the oxygen clean out of the surrounding air.

What?

The joy on Naoya's face locked up and died.

A fireball covered in magma-veined patterns materialized from nothing, carrying a heat wave that could melt steel, driving straight at his face. It moved so fast there wasn't even an afterimage.

No dodging that.

That Cursed Energy signature. That level of power.

Special Grade.

That was the only thought left in Naoya's head.

Then a green blur tore the air open.

THUD!

Toji's kick connected with Naoya's side. The impact launched him sideways, 30 meters, maybe more, and he crashed headfirst into the distant undergrowth.

Jogo stepped out of the tree line, the volcanic crater on his head venting a thick coil of smoke. He let out a warped, delighted laugh.

"Quick reflexes." He looked at where Toji now hung in the air. "But that's exactly what I wanted, monkey."

The fireball had been a feint.

To save Naoya, Toji had thrown himself into midair, and now he was suspended there, body unable to brace against anything, unable to generate any force at all.

A perfect dead angle.

The massive crimson vortex Jogo had been building behind him unloaded everything, point-blank, directly into Toji's face.

"Turn to ash."

BOOM!

The explosion tore through the entire mountain. A small, dark red mushroom cloud punched into the sky. The shockwave rolled outward in every direction, 2,000 degrees of heat riding on top of it like a tsunami.

Trees. Rock. Soil. Everything within 500 meters was carbonized in under 3 seconds.

The dense forest became scorched black nothing.

Sulfur and char flooded the air with a stench that burned the back of the throat.

The blast wave caught Yuji and sent him flying over 10 meters. He slammed into a blackened tree trunk. He didn't wait for the pain to process — he scrambled upright.

"Master —" His eyes went red. The word came out raw and torn.

Naoya clawed his way out of a pile of burning ash, half his face painted in blood. He stared at the center of the blast, eyelids jumping.

That man. That invincible, impossible man. Hit head-on. By fire at that scale.

"Quit yelling."

The voice was steady. Almost too steady.

Megumi was brushing soot off his clothes, staring expressionlessly at the smoke.

Yuji spun toward him. "Fushiguro. Master, he —"

"Don't waste your concern on that idiot." Megumi's jaw twitched once.

Because in the instant of the explosion, he'd seen it clearly. That delinquent excuse for a father had ridden the shockwave and simply laid down on the ground. No defensive posture. No bracing. Nothing.

Playing dead.

Absolutely playing dead.

This bastard dad had staged the whole thing to test his disciples' real combat ability.

And grab a nap while he was at it.

"HAHAHAHA." Harsh, manic laughter rolled out of the smoke.

Jogo walked across the scorched earth, one eye blazing with sick excitement.

"I thought he was supposed to be something." He was still laughing, leaning into it. "Can't even survive one of my attacks. Worthless trash." He shook his head in real amusement. "Kenjaku, that idiot. Scared out of his mind by garbage like this."

He turned, looking down at the three of them from a comfortable height.

"Some tyrant. Some strongest combat power Jujutsu High has to offer. Look at you."

His voice dripped contempt. "Now it's your turn, kids. Ready to get roasted well-done?"

"You..." Yuji's teeth ground together, loud enough to hear.

A wall of rage detonated in his chest.

Toji was brutal. Toji was relentless. Toji put them through training that didn't belong in the same universe as the word human. But everything he did, he did because he actually gave a damn about teaching them.

"Gate of Opening. OPEN!"

Yuji hit the ground like a rhinoceros and charged at Jogo head-on.

"Me too." Naoya spat a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva into the dirt.

Without Toji's kick, there'd be nothing left of him but smoke. If he didn't make Jogo pay for that, he'd rather drive his own skull into the nearest rock.

"Second Gate. Gate of Rest. Open." The muscles in Naoya's legs swelled. He came in from the flank, fast enough to edge out even Yuji's speed by a hair.

Megumi exhaled.

These two idiots. Did they genuinely think their current level was enough to take down a Special Grade?

But his old man had clearly decided he wanted to watch the show. And as his son, Megumi wasn't going to just stand here and let these two idiots burn.

"Jade Hounds." He ran through the hand seals. Two giant wolves, one black and one white, tore out of the shadows.

Yuji closed the distance in an instant. His punch broke the sound barrier going in, aimed straight at Jogo's volcanic skull.

"Too slow." Jogo smiled.

BOOM!

No seals. Just a casual wave.

A fireball compressed to a dense, vicious point exploded directly on Yuji's chest. He grunted and went flying. The spandex over his chest burned away completely. Beneath it, his skin was scorched black.

Naoya was already coming in from the back. His whip kick carried the full weight of his Taijutsu behind it, blade-edge aimed at Jogo's throat.

"Die, monster." He roared it.

"Monkey tricks."

Jogo didn't turn around.

His back split open. Two mouths, spewing twin columns of violet-red fire that tore through Naoya's leg defense on both sides simultaneously.

"AHHHH —" Naoya's scream ripped out of him as he crashed into the ground. Both legs. Extensive burns. The pain hit in waves so severe his body started to seize.

The Second Gate collapsed in an instant.

"Bite him." Megumi's voice came from above.

Both Jade Hounds were already moving, blood-red maws open, driving in from the left and right at Jogo's arms.

"Flies." Jogo barely bothered.

SIZZLE!

The moment their teeth touched his skin, 2,000 degrees dissolved them. Both shikigami let out a fading whimper and melted into shadow.

Before Megumi could begin the next set of seals, Jogo was in front of him.

He didn't see it happen. Just a smear of motion, and then a scalding hand clamped around his throat and hoisted him into the air.

The heat cooked the oxygen out of his lungs. His vision started going gray at the edges.

1 minute.

Less than 1 minute.

Three of Jujutsu High's most promising geniuses were scattered across the scorched earth.

The gap wasn't a gap. It was a cliff face. No amount of burning spirit and first-and-second-gate willpower was going to close it.

Jogo tossed Megumi aside like an empty wrapper.

He stood over the three of them, head swiveling slowly, taking in what he'd made.

"That's really it?" He nudged Yuji with his foot. Yuji was gasping, barely moving.

"Jujutsu High. New hope of the jujutsu world." Jogo's voice was sweet with contempt. "A bunch of trash that can't take a single hit."

He tipped his head back and laughed at the open sky.

"Your precious master is barbecue by now. I'll send you down to keep him company."

Yuji was grinding his teeth, fighting to push himself up. His muscles weren't answering. The heat damage had gone too deep.

Naoya had his fists locked tight, jaw set, eyes burning with everything he couldn't do.

Megumi lay where he'd been thrown, pulling air into his lungs in slow, ragged pulls. His eyes tracked toward the large crater still buried in thick smoke.

Old man. If you don't get up right now, your son is actually going to be burned to nothing.

Jogo raised his hand.

The final strike. Enough to erase all three of them.

And then a sound drifted out of the smoke behind him.

A sigh. Long, put-upon, completely unhurried.

"...Haah."

Jogo's hand stopped moving.

The voice behind it was full and clear. Not a scratch of weakness in it. Not a trace of hoarseness.

"I tell you to train properly every single day. Do a few more sets of squats. But that's too much to ask, apparently." Footsteps. Slow and even. "Now you know what pain feels like, huh?"

The smoke peeled back on its own, pushed apart by an invisible pressure that had nothing to do with Cursed Energy and everything to do with raw physical force.

"Three of you against one broken teapot, and you couldn't close it out. You've completely embarrassed me."

Jogo spun around.

At the edge of the scorched crater.

Toji Fushiguro was rolling his neck. The bones cracked audibly, one after another.

Never mind serious injury.

The green spandex on his body didn't have a single thread singed.

He brushed the ash off his shoulder, lifted his eyes to Jogo, and smiled.

It was not a nice smile.

Jogo stumbled back half a step like he'd been shoved. Every hair on what passed for his body stood on end.

"Impossible." His voice cracked on the word. "Absolutely impossible!"

➤ Next: This Punch, Is Going To Be Damn Cool