CH 48: MY NAME IS… (1)
Since the first day of training with Unohana, two more days have passed.
At least this was what Isane told him.
Gojo had to admit that his own sense of time had become a little blurry recently.
Holding his sword, his breathing rough and his vision hazy, Gojo faced Unohana once again.
He had long forgotten how many times he had seemingly been killed. He had fought against her again and again.
Being mortally wounded one second then healed the next.
Gojo did not mind such abuse.
When he was alive, he had learned a Reverse cursed technique to heal himself for the simple reason that keeping Limitless active literally fried his brain. This was why he had to constantly heal himself.
Thankfully, thanks to the Rikugan his energy control was flawless.
In conclusion, every day, every hour of his life had been lived in pain. So much that he had become numb to it.
Physical pain was not the problem.
What really bothered him more than anything was his powerlessness.
He hated that feeling so much.
Every time he failed to keep track of her sword. Every time he gained back consciousness after being brought near death. Every time he was healed.
She was not even using her Shikai nor Bankai.
He was being crushed by pure strength and skills.
Again and again, his pride was wounded, insulted, battered, shattered until nothing was left of it.
He had lived all his life as the strongest. He had always stood at the pinnacle.
If he wasn’t the strongest. Then, what was he? What worth did he have?
But was he really always the strongest?
His memory took him to a distant past. A time where he was still a high school kid and fought alongside his best friend.
Those times were fun.
He wasn’t the strongest alone. But with Suguru at his side, he had never felt weak.
He had someone he could see as an equal, someone to share his worry with. Someone who could understand him.
Everything changed when after a failed mission, he managed to awaken the full potential of his power.
From then on, even though he had tried to slow down, no one could catch up to him.
He continued to climb faster and faster on the ladder until he stood alone on the peak of the Jujutsu world.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt like giving up.
Why was he even trying to fight now? He had nothing to gain. He wasn’t even in his own world anymore.
He already died after saving the world, shouldn’t he be allowed to rest?
Just as he was about to lower his sword in defeat, he remembered a sentence, a question his best friend and the only man he had ever considered as a partner once uttered.
[Are you the strongest because you are Satoru Gojo, or are you Satoru Gojo because you are strongest?]
It was like a jolt that swept away all his negative feelings.
‘What the fuck I was about to do?’
“Hahaha. Oh my fucking god. What a sorry sight I am.”
He laughed out loud while avoiding a slash from Unohana that should have been would have increased his number of deaths.
‘Is he alright?’
Surprised at his sudden laugh, Unohana couldn’t help but ask herself if she had gone a little too far and broke him.
Gojo ignored Unohana and continued to laugh.
He laughed at his own foolishness. He laughed at this stupid pride of his that had no reason to exist.
He laughed at the fact that he had forgotten a simple truth.
Even in the Jujutsu world, he hadn’t always been the strongest. He had trained, failed, fought, won some, lost some.
He did not stand at the peak from the very start.
But even then, even when he was but a child who could be killed at any moment.
He had neither doubted one thing. One truth.
“I am strong.”
How could he have ever doubted such a simple truth?
And since this Zanpakuto was part of him, then it was nothing more than another aspect of his strength.
Suguru used Curses, but did this mean he wasn’t strong?
Megumi used Shikigami.
Even Toji Fushiguro only managed to nearly kill him thanks to using special cursed tools.
But so what?
Strength was strength.
As such,
‘Why did I even reject my own power?’
The moment this realization hits him, his vision blurred.
----
[Inner world]
When his vision went back to normal, he looked around him and remarked that he wasn’t in the cold and damp cave anymore.
He was standing in a white space filled with clouds as far as the eyes could see.
It was a white void. A limitless and boundless space.
“Is this my inner world?”
Gojo was used to the concept of Inner worlds. After all, domain expansion was the expression of the inner world into reality.
But his world wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“Now then, what do I do?”
Since there was no direction, he simply chose one without thinking and began to walk.
How long had he been walking?
How far he walked?
Did he even move a step?
It was when he was asking himself those questions that he saw it.
A throne so tall that it looked like a tower supporting the heavens of this world.
At the vision of such a throne, one would expect that the one sitting on it would be equally tall.
But this wasn’t the case.
The one sitting on the throne was a girl.
A silver-haired girl entirely clad in black and white, from her black shirt to her short black skirt and black stockings. Her clothes, reminiscent of a military school uniform.
On her back, she wore a black haori etched with golden threads.
But her beauty and her uniform aside, what really caught his attention was the black blindfold covering the upper half of her face.
“Who are you?”
Even though he had a hunch, Gojo still asked,
Crossing her legs, the girl answered,
“My name is ------”
“...What?”
“*Sigh* So I still can’t reach you? Well, I am not surprised.”
Uncrossing her legs, she stood up from her throne and began walking toward him.
Once she stopped, just a few centimeters away from him, Gojo marveled at how short she was.
She shouldn’t be taller than 160 cm.
Raising her head, she put her hands on her hips and spoke with a haughty tone.
“Since you refuse to hear my name. Let’s just say that I am you. Born from your soul, I am in a way, your alter ego. Just cuter, smarter, and more than anything….Way stronger.”
Looking at her smug face as she uttered those words, Gojo only had one thought,
‘Ah–I really want to punch her.’