Jujutsu Kaisen — Chapter 100 - Jogo: I've Learned My Lesson

No way.

Megumi's mind went blank.

His old man was a monster who could grind Ryomen Sukuna into the dirt. How could he possibly lose to a broken teapot like that?

Had the meteorite been laced with some kind of unblockable lethal cursed venom?

"Dad!" Megumi's voice cracked. He scrambled toward the edge of the crater.

Toji's head snapped up. He threw it back and let out a soul-shredding howl at the open sky.

"BASTARD—!"

He grabbed the tattered scraps of cloth at his chest, eyes gone bloodshot. "My high-end custom! Breathable, sweat-wicking, anti-static, limited-edition green spandex battle suit! It still! Didn't make it!"

A million yen. Custom-ordered. Gone.

Megumi's sprinting feet screeched to a dead stop.

He looked at the green rags hanging off Toji's body, burned down to nothing but two shoulder straps. Then he looked at Toji's absolutely devastated face.

A wave of hot blood rushed straight to the top of his skull.

Mmp...

I was actually worried about this idiot's life just now.

"Sensei is so cool!" Nearby, Itadori was pumping his fists like a maniac, tears flying from the corners of his eyes. "Even battle-damaged he looks this good! Invincible! Sensei is invincible!"

Naoya dropped to his knees, face full of solemn reverence. "Destroying your clothes to achieve the supreme fleshly body. This is the true spirit of martial arts. I have been enlightened."

Toji, heartbroken, tore off the last shreds of cloth and stood up bare-chested.

He had a stomach full of rage and nowhere to put it.

Not far away, Jogo lay at the bottom of the crater like a piece of charred coal, twitching.

The volcanic peak on his head had been flattened. Half the bones in his body were shattered. His Cursed Energy had scattered so badly he couldn't even hold a humanoid shape.

"Alright. Quit playing dead."

Toji cracked his knuckles, joints popping one by one, and walked toward the wreckage. "You destroyed my clothes. I'm taking your skull as payment. The principal can use it as a teapot."

Just as his hand was about to close around Jogo's head.

CLICK!

On the scorched earth, without any warning, an enormous white flower bud split open from the ground.

It unfurled in an instant. Thick vines burst through the soil like venomous snakes and coiled tight around Jogo's shattered remains.

Then a Cursed Energy pressure hit, dense with the smell of deep forest and old wood, crashing down like a wave.

A figure rose slowly from the earth. Bandages wrapped from head to toe. Where its eyes should have been, two tree branches grew instead.

Hanami.

Itadori and Naoya's cheers cut off mid-breath.

The excitement on their faces hardened and cracked, replaced by raw, wide-eyed terror.

"There's more?!" Itadori's voice broke on the shout.

Naoya bit down, jaw tight, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.

That colossal Cursed Energy reading, another Special Grade, no question about it. Are these monsters running in a party?!

Toji stopped walking. One eyebrow went up.

"Oh?" The corner of his mouth pulled slowly into a savage grin. "Looks like today's practical combat lesson isn't over yet."

Hanami said nothing.

Its existence alone was the will of nature given form.

It knew exactly how terrifying the man standing across from it was, the one with zero Cursed Energy.

Jogo's condition was proof enough. A direct fight meant death.

Hanami raised both hands, palms facing each other.

The scorched earth around them erupted into a dazzling sea of flowers.

Pink, white, and purple blossoms exploded outward in every direction. A sickeningly sweet pollen flooded the air, thick enough to make the world tilt and spin.

Jujutsu: Sea of Flowers.

A hallucinogenic technique. Designed to forcibly strip an enemy of their will to fight and drag them into a state of total, helpless relaxation.

Toji frowned.

He had no Cursed Energy. That didn't matter here. The pollen's effect on his body was completely, undeniably physical.

His muscles slackened for a fraction of a second.

That fraction of a second was all Hanami needed.

The vines beneath its feet contracted hard. In an instant, Hanami and what was left of Jogo vanished into the earth.

By the time Toji waved the pollen from his eyes, nothing remained but a massive hole in the ground. Not even a trace of residual cursed energy.

"They actually ran."

He scratched the back of his head. He looked at his three disciples sprawled across the ground and let out a long, slow sigh.

"Fine. Let's call it here for today. Still need to figure out how to get the principal to reimburse me for the clothes."

Sunlight. White sand. The soft roll of ocean waves.

Inside Dagon's Innate Domain, it looked exactly like a Hawaiian vacation resort.

On the beach, Mahito was barefoot, kicking a charred volcanic head back and forth across the sand like a soccer ball.

"Pass it! Pass it!" He laughed as he ran.

Jogo, reduced to nothing but a bald, bare head, tumbled across the sand and collected a full face of grit.

Kenjaku sat beneath a beach umbrella in that loose, oversized monk's robe, a glass of chilled juice in hand, watching it all in quiet silence.

Hanami stood behind him and said nothing.

Mahito got bored, walked over, and kicked Jogo's head to Kenjaku's feet.

"Too tragic, too tragic." He crouched down and poked at the charcoal patches on Jogo's face. "A mighty Special Grade, and you got beaten down to a ball by a monkey with zero Cursed Energy. Jogo, the 'Special' in your Special Grade is looking a little thin."

"Shut up!" Jogo was so furious it looked like smoke might actually start pouring out of him. "That man is no monkey! He's a monster! His fists hit harder than Maximum: Meteor! Kenjaku, why didn't you warn me he was that strong?!"

Kenjaku took a slow sip of his juice and sighed.

"I did warn you. You didn't listen."

Jogo refused to accept that.

"I have eighty percent of Sukuna's power! How could I possibly lose to that monkey!"

"Ryomen Sukuna is called the King of Curses." Kenjaku held up four fingers and moved them slowly in front of Jogo's face. "He has two faces. And four hands."

The beach went dead silent.

Jogo's single eye began to tremble.

Four hands.

That meant Ryomen Sukuna's total finger count was not ten. Not twenty.

If his power was divided by the number of fingers, then Jogo's so-called "seven or eight fingers' worth of strength" wouldn't even reach half of Sukuna at full power.

And what made it worse, far worse, was that the man named Toji Fushiguro could beat a monster at that level into the ground.

A bone-deep chill moved through Jogo.

He had always believed he stood at the top of the food chain. One of the new humans. Apex.

He had just realized he was a slightly larger grasshopper, one that could be stomped flat at any moment.

"Understand now?" Kenjaku settled back into his reclining chair and picked up his juice. "In a straight fight, all of you together wouldn't be enough for that man to warm up on. That's exactly why I'm using an indirect approach."

Jogo went quiet.

The volcanic vent on top of his head stopped smoking. His entire head drooped like a frost-killed eggplant.

"I get it." His voice had gone dry and hollow, every trace of arrogance scraped out of it.

He asked, plainly and without pride: "What do we do next?"

"Grow." Kenjaku looked out at the ocean, light shimmering across the surface, and the corner of his mouth curved into a smile that gave nothing away.

"The combat power at Jujutsu High has exceeded expectations. But as long as they're human, they have weaknesses. And as long as there is society, there are rules."

"From here on out — watch closely. Learn well."

➤ Next: Two Simultaneous Special Grade Alerts!