The cursed mist erupted from Yuji's dagger like a volcanic blast.
Sukuna's echo, half formed but brimming with ancient malice, towered above the field. His laughter was low and cruel.
"You've gotten soft, boy," he said to Yuji, before turning to Sung Jin-Woo.
"And you... You reek of kingship. But I wonder can you bleed?"
Without warning, Sukuna lunged.
In a heartbeat, Gojo, Megumi, Maki, and Panda jumped into formation. The battlefield erupted with cursed techniques and domain flares. Blades, shadows, and cursed energy clashed.
But none of it mattered.
Jin-Woo didn't move.
He simply raised his hand.
"Arise."
The ground cracked as Igris shot forth, intercepting Sukuna mid-air. The blow should've shattered any other soldier, but Igris parried with blinding precision, sword locking against the cursed king's claws.
Sukuna snarled. "What is this thing?!"
Yuji rushed in with Black Flash. Maki followed with blinding speed, aiming for Jin-Woo's back. Megumi summoned a dozen shikigami at once.
For a moment, it seemed coordinated, overwhelming.
But then
Jin-Woo vanished.
A breath later, Yuji was slammed into the earth by an unseen force.
Maki's blades shattered as Jin-Woo appeared behind her, catching her attack mid-swing with two fingers.
She dropped, unconscious.
Panda leapt and was immediately wrapped in shadows and bound immobile.
Megumi's Domain shattered before it even fully formed.
Gojo, the last one standing, grinned. "Okay. That's new."
He released his Limitless Cursed Technique at full power, layering it with the Six Eyes' precision.
Jin-Woo stepped forward. Time itself seemed to hesitate.
And then
Everything Gojo saw disappeared.
He blinked.
They were alone, inside a blank world of shadows.
Jin-Woo spoke softly, but the weight of galaxies hung on his words.
"Your strength means nothing here. I don't fight battles… I end them."
Gojo released his Domain.
A brilliant surge of Limitless… clashed with Infinite Shadow.
The result?
Silence.
When the world returned, Gojo was kneeling, breathing heavily, arms shaking.
Sukuna's fragment had already been impaled by Igris and ironbound by Beru, writhing and cursing as his form dissolved.
Yuji watched, barely conscious.
They were completely outmatched.
Sung Jin-Woo stood amidst the chaos, untouched.
He looked down at Yuji.
"Now do you believe me?"
Jin-Woo stood still unmoving, unbothered as Sukuna's echo dissolved into black mist, screaming obscenities that echoed into nothingness.
Yuji, gasping from the shock, clenched his fists. His instincts screamed "run", but something deeper a sorcerer's pride screamed "fight."
He looked up at Jin-Woo, his eyes bloodshot.
"We're not done."
Gojo wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, eyes narrowed beneath the blindfold.
Megumi stepped beside him, summoning Mahoraga's wheel, grinding slowly behind him.
Maki reemerged from the rubble, battered but furious, and Panda's body sparked with reinforcement energy.
Yuji shouted:
"All of us NOW!"
They charged.
In a blur of motion, the Jujutsu elite hit Jin-Woo with everything they had.
Yuji struck first with Black Flash, chaining hits faster than thought. Gojo followed, unleashing Blue and Red in rapid succession, merging them into Hollow Purple. Maki's strikes aimed for vital spots. Megumi released Mahoraga with everything he had, betting it all.
And for a moment, the battlefield exploded with light, force, and cursed fury.
It felt like they had caught him.
Dust filled the air. Tremors cracked the earth.
Then
A wave of silence.
As the dust cleared, a voice broke through the quiet:
"You still don't understand."
Jin-Woo stood at the center.
Untouched.
Not a single hit had landed.
Yuji blinked in disbelief. Mahoraga lay collapsed, dismantled without a sound. Maki was on one knee, her blade shattered again. Gojo was behind a veil of shadow, suspended in time, stunned into stillness.
"You're not weak," Jin-Woo said calmly. "You're just not ready."
He raised a single finger and the battlefield froze.
Shadow soldiers emerged in perfect formation hundreds. Igris. Beru. Tank. Tusk. Bellion. Iron. All surrounded them like titans of war.
Yuji staggered. "H-How…?"
Jin-Woo stepped closer.
"I am the Monarch of Shadows. Your cursed energy is a ripple."
"I am the ocean."
Yuji dropped to his knees, breathing heavily.
The others, too, one by one, began to realize: they weren't facing a man.
They were facing a force.
And that force had chosen not to kill them.
Yet.
The battlefield raged.
Cursed energy flashed in blinding bursts Yuji, Gojo, Megumi, Maki, and Panda surrounded Jin-Woo from all sides.
The air trembled.
Yuji's Black Flash connected or so he thought.
But his fist passed through a shadow clone, which vanished in black smoke.
"Too slow," a voice whispered behind him.
Yuji barely turned before a boot swept his legs, sending him skidding across the dirt.
Gojo dashed in, hands glowing. Blue surged forward but the instant it hit Jin-Woo's cloak, the pressure was swallowed whole by a shadow.
Gojo smirked. "A technique eater, huh?"
Jin-Woo raised an eyebrow. "No."
He raised his hand.
Gojo's Red suddenly exploded in his own face, redirected by a portal behind him.
"You threw that too carelessly," Jin-Woo said with a mocking shrug.
From the left, Maki and Panda rushed him.
Jin-Woo casually stepped aside, letting Maki's strike miss by inches and slapped the flat of her blade, sending her spinning uncontrollably through the air.
Panda leapt in bear form only to get grabbed by the face mid-flight and slammed into the ground.
Jin-Woo didn't even glance at him.
Megumi summoned his Domain Chimera Shadow Garden only for it to collapse seconds later under the weight of Jin-Woo's presence alone.
"I see," Jin-Woo mused aloud, circling slowly as the sorcerers regrouped, exhausted. "You're strong. Trained. Determined."
He smiled not cruelly, but like a father watching children try to wrestle a lion.
"But you mistake me for an enemy you can beat."
He raised his hand.
"Igris."
The black knight burst forward, sword clashing with Gojo's Limitless. The sorcerer gritted his teeth, trying to analyze the knight's patterns but they kept changing.
Yuji went after Jin-Woo again, yelling, pouring every ounce of cursed energy into a final strike.
This time Jin-Woo caught it.
Bare-handed.
Yuji's eyes widened in horror.
"You fought bravely," Jin-Woo said. "So let me return the gesture."
The ground shook.
All around them hundreds of shadows rose.
Bellion hovered above them, Beru screeched from the sky, and the field was filled with monstrous silhouettes each more terrifying than the last.
They weren't attacking.
They were watching.
Because this had never been a battle.
It had always been a lesson.
And they had just been students.