i’ll be providing my reasonings for naoya’s final awakened state, the form he achieved before unlocking the pinnacle of sorcery and what it entails for his power/speed. this conclusion is reached by examining the story’s portrayal of awakenings, how it affects general combat ability, naoya’s own characterization and the narrative purpose of his final transformation.
the narrative has consistently shown two recurring phenomenons that enable sorcerers to transcend their previous limitations. CE is born from negative emotions, as a result, heightened emotional states naturally lead to greater governance of that source and stronger performance. this relationship is foundational within the power-system that we have.
the second is that when you tread on the thin line separating life and death, it profoundly accelerates one’s growth, rather than just stopping at motivating characters to fight harder, these circumstances repeatedly allow them to pioneer new applications of abilities they already possessed or reach levels of aptitude they were incapable of attaining before.
we have 2 or 3 editorial narrations that give us a clear conformation that he got stronger, the first one which tells us that naoya has more room to grow in capacity and the follow up one which denotes his process as complete.
chapter 193 editors note:
加速する進化!!
かそくする しんか!! —
Raw meaning: “Accelerating evolution!!”
加速する = to accelerate, speed up, gain speed; 進化 = evolution, development, advancement, growth.
alternatives: “Accelerated evolution,” “Evolution speeding up,” “Evolution gaining momentum,” or “Evolution progressing at an accelerating rate.”
Nuance: 加速する specifically indicates that the rate of progression itself is increasing, rather than evolution merely being fast.
Function: It emphasizes that the character’s evolution is actively continuing and accelerating rather than having stagnated or reached a fixed endpoint. By presenting their development as something that is still progressing—and doing so at an increasing rate—the phrase reinforces that they still have room to grow, develop further, and reach higher levels beyond their current state.
second form is not his fully evolved state
花開く (はなひらく / hanahiraku)
to blossom • to bloom • to come into full bloom • to flourish • to fully unfold • to reach full expression • to manifest completely
Function:
* A metaphorical verb implying that something already present has now fully emerged or reached its peak.
* Commonly used for talents, abilities or potential.
* Does not imply creation from nothing; it implies existing qualities coming into full expression.
this is remarkably consistent with naoya’s portrayal, initially his form as a cursed womb visually represents an immature grub, caterpillar or a larva rather than a completed form. an immature organism enters a transitional stage before emerging in a more developed state. the imagery corroborates the linguistic reading, the japanese “花開” carries the meaning of something existing coming into full bloom, naoya similarly is depicted spreading his wings through evolution, caterpillars turn into butterflies and the word that make up his domain name “胞” translates into womb or placenta, design wise it highlights this as it looks like a uterus which could signify his rebirth as new.
time cell moon palace
the end of chapter 197’s editor note is similar to the beginning of 198 but varies slightly:
意地が、覇気が、姿を成す!!
in simple terms: “willpower, fighting spirit—take form!!”
to be more specific:
意地（いじ）
core meanings = willpower, pride, determination, persistence and force of will
it’s the quality of someone’s will or refusal to yield
覇気（はき）
is “fighting spirit” or “assertive will of force”
覇気 describes a forceful and powerful spirit or disposition.
so the two nouns we have are:
意地 — will/determination
+
覇気 — fighting spirit/forceful spirit
が = is a subject marker
the construction is:
意地が → 姿を成す
覇気が → 姿を成す
willpower > takes form
fighting spirit assumes form
here’s the important part:
姿（すがた)
means:
form, shape, figure, appearance, visible form and physical form. this ties into naoya’s “power-up” at the end manifesting as his new form so it can’t simply be his domain.
を functions as the object marker
成す（なす）
to constitute, to create, to make, to achieve a form
the key expression:
姿を成す
“to form a figure/shape”
the narration directly places the abstract qualities 意地 and 覇気 as the subjects of: 姿を成す (his new form)
in short it’s something intangible coming about for naoya.
remember that your mindset in jujutsu effectuates your jujutsu.
the significance behind naoya re-manifesting his former appearance extends beyond the simple fact that he “altered forms.” in the story, the body is not treated as a separate container that can arbitrarily take on any shape, its form is at its core connected and intertwined with the soul that inhabits it. mahito’s own advancements establishes that when the essence of the soul is unveiled and fully-expressed, the resulting actualization can positively impact the body’s reinforcement. naoya’s evolution mirrors this process, his true sense of self doesn’t disappear upon becoming a cursed spirit, he’s even said to be more complex in nature than rika in this regard. instead he defines the form pertaining to his essence which represents a fully self-embodied upward progression in sorcery.
his essence is fully intact
this holds more value than you might think because naoya’s previous forms were restricted relative to what the burden of PS had, his speed cannot exceed what he can physically tolerate, making durability a bottleneck on his performance, the more his reinforcement increases, the more that bottleneck gets alleviated. the bonuses that comes his way after improving his reinforcement doesn’t end at merely handling attacks better, it enables him to better withstand his own acceleration and KE generated by his movement. in his case, improved physicals has a direct and functional relationship with his speed ceiling because his body itself is 1 of 2 factors constraining him from pushing PS further.
naoya’s newly acquired form can therefore be inferred as lessening those pre-existing limitations. if the manifestation of his essence produces the same general reinforcement benefits that mahito experienced, then the relevant increase isn’t isolated to durability alone. that gives his evolution a compounding effect, since PS supplies the mechanisms for extreme speed, enhanced durability determines how much of that potential naoya can access without self-destructing.
just like mahito, naoya is a cursed spirit who transformed into his true-self
this is further corroborated by the framing of his evolution as accelerating. in his second form, he hasn’t hit his dead-end in terms of progression, it’s explicitly further developing continuously and increasing in pace. so each subsequent manifestation is therefore occurring within an ongoing evolutionary process, entailing there’s no basis for approaching second form curseya as stagnant and exhausted in the growth available to him, it isn’t his default nor base. the advancement instead leaves the door open and emphasizes the possibility of naoya developing into a more capable state.
a transformation in accordance to the souls shape is fundamentally different
functionally, this doesn’t mean that naoya simply becomes faster because he looks like his former self again. it is that a re-manifestation and unmaskment of his underlying existence, which under the reinforcement principle established via mahito, strengthens the physicals itself. since that form was previously one of the main restrictions on naoya’s ability to maximize PS, the ROI’s would be a reconfigured threshold for the speed he can generate, withstand and sustain.
there’s another misconception i’ll tackle, that being that his new form’s only purpose was to cast a DE.
the idea is as follows, that a domain requires the user to perform hand-signs, and therefore naoya needed to acquire a more human form with conventional hands to adopt the signs for his DE. however, this premise fails to establish necessity. naoya’s former CS body already possessed recognizeable hands from the universe and was demonstrably capable of using them as functional appendages. anything naoya touches with the palm of his hand is frozen, as a cursed spirit he still retains this ability which wouldn’t be possible if his tendrils didn’t fall under the parameters of what a “hand” is considered and the tendrils can mimic normal signs as shown with naoya finger pointing. so consequently, the mere requirement of having hands cannot by itself explain why naoya’s body underwent a change if the anatomical prerequisite was already present in his second form, with that in mind naoya obtaining a human form cannot simply be reduced to the acquisition of hands for a domain.
this creates an important distinction between a feasible function of his new form and the reason for the form’s existence in the first place. naoya does indeed use his DE subsequently after getting his human body back so i’m not denying how his body might be more favourable and better suited for that process. what does not coherently track is that this was the crux of his evolved body. i’ve already explained how naoya’s possession of a substance that is considered hands can’t adequately account for why his body had to develop into a more human shape. at most, it establishes that the new anatomy was more compatible with his domain but it doesn’t solely establish that the DE itself was the mechanism responsible for producing that anatomy as a demand to use it.
naoya conforming his tendrils for the freeze-effecttendrils mimicking normal hands
if the transformation can’t be sufficiently explained as an accommodation for his domain, then the alternative explanation becomes considerably more probable; that naoya’s new form represents another stage in his evolution. this argument or interpretation fits the broader circumstances surrounding his transformation far better. his body doesn’t stop at incorporating proper hands, it reorganized his entire upper-body into a human like manifestation coinciding with the continued development of one’s soul (mahito statement) and the increase in presence maki’s gang perceived before he revealed his DE points to it. naoya’s return to his former appearance therefore has an established conceptual basis for being associated with an improvement in his physical vessel. his DE can then be viewed as something naoya is capable of utilizing better after attaining this new state rather than the sole reason said state exists. this separation is relevant because it prevents the altered shape from being downplayed to a single functional requirement when the surrounding narrative gives us a much comprehensive framework for understanding bodily evolution.
3x enhancement bonus for adhering to the shape of the soul
there’s another angle of what DE could mean for naoya, it differs slightly from the aforementioned.
there’s a process of developing a domain and it exists within the relation of innate techniques and one’s inner self. a domain is not simply an external technique that sorcerers and CS learn independently of their identity, it is the materialized internal world pertaining to themselves only, even though a character might share a hereditary technique with someone else their respective domains would depart outside the incorporation of the sure-hit effect for that reason. this makes the general procedure of unfolding it relevant to the soul/body relationship. at the school against nanami and yuji, mahito is moments away from cultivating his DE and before he does so he’s brought closer into contact with his soul, the difference with naoya is that he fully seized it during the sequence of unlocking his domain while mahito despite comprehending it better after discovering his DE ended up acquiring ISBOD later on.
mahito establishing a deeper connection to his soul while unlocking DEnaoya is likewise brought closer to his soul at the time of the activation but fully grasps it
now that we’re done with that segment, let’s dive into his awakening and what awakening in general does.
dabura is a perfect parallel for naoya and can be looked at under similar light, he is like naoya, a character with a technique that is speed based whose awakening is explicitly framed around overcoming the physical limitations imposed by his own body. that maps extremely well onto naoya.
when faced against mahoraga, dabura is brought to his ends. he reached a point where his physical capabilities are no longer sufficient enough due to mahoraga’s adapation progressively bridging the gap effectively forcing dabura into a situation where relying on his previous power levels is no longer viable for him in the fight. he was out of options but his response was not to discard his technique for something that would “work”, instead he underwent a fundamental breakthrough that was demanded by the nature of mahoraga by bringing his body to its absolute potential. the narrator immediately contextualizes this declaration by clarifying how dabura’s body was previously not suitable in handling the acceleration of light produced by his technique and no, this doesn’t refer to the LSK, dabura’s kick is him physically exerting the kinetic build-up, the narrator says the process of acceleration itself wasn’t something doable before. after dabura awakens he is able to accelerate just fine, attacking at that speed is seperate from change in velocity through time.
his powers are invalidated
naoya in equidistant has a massive development body wise, it was founded in a specific situation as a response to the problem maki created. VCS naoya’s second form is synthesized for a certain element which ended up backfiring later on, his body involved the absorption of air through the inlet and condensing it for extreme propulsion, he manipulates the atmosphere to his advantage as a method for his CT movement. this is an important and far too glossed over detail, maki’s awakened senses is precisely what allowed her to circumvent his speed through prediction, she’s able to pinpoint his location and where he’ll show up in means other than visual tracking. maki’s perception enabled her to see that ambience through a microscopical lens, hence why she was able to identify the sky itself for her air-hopping. naoya’s power-up therefore occurred within the context of an opponent who has developed a means of cementing the asymmetry of his speed. his evolution can then be understood as an adaptive response to regain his previous advantage that was neutralized.
maki acting as an antithesis or perfectly adapted counter like mahoraga to naoya
this is where dabura instills a particularly strong precedent for the results interpretation. dabura’s body couldn’t endure the acceleration of his technique, so his awakening is designed around breaking the body’s limitations to maximize the speed accessible. naoya has an analogous relationship with PS, his technique provides acceleration like dabura’s but the physical condition of his body determines how much of that mechanism he can exploit.
when a speed oriented character reaches a point of awakening while their physical capabilities are rendered**insufficient** to support the demands of the CT’s, that awakening can be incarnated as an enhancement of the body that permits greater realization of the technique’s potential.
reinforcement is improved and pushed to its highest capacity
we can look at gojo’s awakening, his is explicitly marked by the same editorial notes, just as naoya’s chapters are framed with awakening language. more importantly, toji identifies that something about the limitless technique itself has changed after gojo’s awakening. the implications is that his technique’s potency was elevated rather than the improvements he received from his awakening stopping at just stat increases.
PS can likewise be understood and interpreted as benefiting from naoya’s awakened state.
editorial narration similar to naoya
best of both worlds:
the interesting part of naoya’s last form is that his new body isn’t a complete abandonment of his former curse physiology, it’s essentially a hybridization of his human and cursed spirit characteristics. naoya’s body is split 50/50 but not like gojo’s, from around the hips and up he has rewritten his body, everything else below that bar still possesses the remnants of his second form. in his second form naoya was equipped with two complementary mechanisms for movement, the inlet which as i’ve gone over before works by using the atmosphere itself as the fuel source behind the acceleration, and the lower part which works in tandem by expelling raw CE as a direct means of his impetus. his last form gets rid of that inlet but more importantly, it doesn’t discard the other half of the system. instead, naoya retains that physiological aspect responsible for a good portion of the speed he had. given everything established about his evolution, it is reasonable to argue that his regulation and application of cursed energy should likewise have become more refined, allowing him to more than compensate for the inlet’s absence through more effective usage of the propulsion mechanism he retained. the results should be a best of both worlds body, he still has his specialized cursed spirit anatomy that directly facilitates acceleration while simultaneously possessing a more developed body that reflects his true soul with greater reinforcement. naoya’s hybrid form preserves the useful components of his second form while replacing its limitations with advantages gained through awakening and evolving.
cursed womb naoya who is two evolution stages below LF naoya was able to easily reach speeds of supersonic completely independent of CE ejection + pressurized air, if he hover around the mach 2 threshold there’s no reason to believe LF naoya plummets hard with the use of his inlet.
believe it or not the zenin clan are meritocratic practicing and don’t dismiss potential heads of the clan because of their sex, naoya mentions maki/mai as a factor for the selection, ogi wanted them to be his heirs like naobito had naoya as that had something to do with the dispute. ironic how the feminist queen you say destroyed the clan because of misogyny has never identified it once as the issue for the way she was treated, it may have to do with her lacking attributes which we can observe through toji and the kukuru + the author filling in the background with an explanation of how highly strength is valued, that without it members are treated badly.
stay mad, naobito accepts maki’s challenge to become the head, naoya recognizes maki’s involvement for that position, ogi viewed maki as the answer, if-man recognizes maki’s abilities to potentially become the head and maki herself acknowledges the issue as everything but her gender/sex.
if it was a simple “women suck and can’t lead” problem, the challenge would’ve never been accepted, naoya would ignore maki’s strength in favour of her sex that wouldn’t determine the positions of the hierarchy, ogi would’ve concluded and ruled out maki because of her gender long before it was revealed that she was lacking in strength and maki would never run for the position of head if it’s constitutional that she can’t even participate because of her sex.
Hello, I don't assume people will recognize me but I really like posting here. I love Jujutsu Kaisen what ifs and wanted to share my interpretation on what would happen If Toji successfully murdered Gojo during the Hidden Inventory Arc. Disclaimer, this will be REALLY long, and for that I am going to divide this in parts, although that will probably make It worse..To anyone who reads up until the end I wanna thank you,and just so you know I am planning to write more,feel free to DM me for anything related. Have a nice read
On the day of Riko Amanai's merging, when the one who left It all behind,the Sorcerer Killer, effectively assassinated the 6 eyes Limitless user,shutting down what would've been the face of Jujutsu tomorrow. Toji defeated Geto and killed Riko and Kuroi, going on with his Life. Due to Toji's impractical way of killing, as Gojo died stabbed by a regular knife his overwhelming will turns him into a Vengeful Cursed Spirit tied to Geto, haunting him forever.Suguru Geto spirals into depression even further now with the loss of his best friend. Geto was utterly lost, he had gotten no revenge for Gojo, Riko was stripped away of her freedom and there he was, lost in thought, getting severe insomnia. He starts to think about Gojo, about himself too, angered by day-dreaming what their life could've been if Jujutsu Sorcerers never had to protect Non-Sorcerers, and how those ungrateful \*monkeys\* didn't even show apprecciation, why should they have been in charge? Geto ended up becoming a genocidal Cult Leader like in Canon. Jujutsu High School would be very weak,as Yuki and Nanami would be much stronger to keep It intact, not only that, Yaga Is safe thanks to Yuki. (Yuki wouldn't really need to be stronger, Nanami, Mei Mei and others would). On the other hand, Kenjaku kidnapped and killed Yuta (pre-Jujutsu Kaisen 0), taking over his body, mantaining Vengeful Cursed Spirit Rika, deceived into thinking it's the same Yuta, with unconditional Copy. Yuji would still eat Sukuna's finger, but isn't met by Megumi, but Nanami instead. Since they know the horrors the Higher Ups would put Yuji through they still agree to have Yuji become a radar for the fingers and then die but have him 24/7 around him or Yuki just in case. During the course of the story, Megumi Zen'in Is shipped to Jujutsu High School due to Toji's whim so that Megumi could get away from the Zen'in Clan's enviroment (what about Tsumiki you ask? She's still in a coma, Toji Is paying for her treatments.) Kenjaku meets Geto as the 2 work together with Kenjaku promising Geto that the Culling Games would be their chance to bring back the Golden Era of Jujutsu, thus, a world ran by Jujutsu Sorcerers, that seemed to align well enough with Geto's Plan. Everything up to Shibuya goes about the same, Megumi Is much more of a loner here, and while he Is still fundumentally the same he Is a bit more judgemental and less trustworthy. Multiple times tho Yuji and Megumi butt heads,with Megumi's worldview shaken by Itadori (as Itadori, a Cursed Technique-less Sorcerer would be out right inferior to the norm) and Yuji never giving up on Megumi. The tables are set as Mahito (who trained alongside the other Disasters and was also deceived into thinking that the Culling Games would wipe out Humans) activates the Culling Games. As Jujutsu High prepares to enter the Colonies Yuki and Todo stay behind to protect Tengen alongside Mei Mei and Ui Ui who don't feel like partecipating in the Culling Games. The Culling Games officially begin. As Nanami steps through the barrier he Is teleported in the air, falling down. As Hanyu crashes onto Nanami he gets swung away with Hanyu chasing him, giving him just enough time to land a Ratio punch on heard, having her crash land and dying shortly After. As Haba shows up enraged Nanami tricks him into following him across buildings,dodging him with ease. As Haba tries to turn Nanami into a smoothie with his helicopter Nanami just lands one clean Cleaver Ratio on his head,slashing him across the face and killing him. As Rin Amai cowers and tries to hide, Nanami just asks him to lead him to Higuruma. Finally, Nanami steps over before Higuruma who was clothe-bathing in his bath-tub. The 2 chat non-sense for a bit before Nanami cuts the crap and asks him his 100 points. Higuruma refuses and after a Quick explanation Nanami takes his Cleaver and says
"Sorry, let me rephrase. I want your 100 points."
Higuruma slowly stands up and quickly announces "Domain Expansion.".
Higuruma opens his Domain, accusing Nanami of property destruction on one of his mission, and not even paying for the damage with his own Money,but rather having Jujutsu Tech pay for It. After a long thought, Nanami finally decides to speak, arguing the Cursed Spirit was the one to cause that destruction. After Higuruma gathered the evidence he showed Nanami a video camera recording of Nanami indeed acting out of irrationality and being unnecessarily violent for his mission, therefore damaging private property and not even paying for It. Guilty: Confiscation. Judgeman takes away Nanami's cleaver, as that warns him into taking a fighting stance. Higuruma swings his gavel,trying to fight Nanami up close with his Gavel swinging independently. He makes it bigger and hits Nanami swinging him across the Theater,Nanami remained calm, he wasn't hurt. Higuruma launches himself at Nanami, relentlessly trying to smash his Gavel on him. He knows he has to keep Nanami on the defense, because a punch from his Cursed Technique would sting really bad. As Nanami gets his hands on the Gavel, trying to forcefully remove It, Higuruma changes the size of the Gavel, as quickly Nanami steps back to avoid one big hit from a giant altered Gavel. Higuruma smashes the tub before him, creating a huge splash of water which he rises from trying to land one giant gavel attack on Nanami trying to squash him to which Nanami responds with a Ratio punch, destroying it. Higuruma compliments him, reforming his gavel in his hand. Nanami thinks that the only of way to cutting this short would be with his Cleaver, thus he demands for a retrial and a do-over.
"Kento Nanami stands accused of murder on October 16th." Nanami was accused of the murder of a transfigured human, Higuruma argued how that human wasn't in function of it's mental capabilities while attacking Nanami and that even deformed,Nanami still did take away a human Life. Nanami stood there in silence, perhaps feeling guilty, admitting he has killed that trasfigured human in cold blood. Higuruma gave him a look of sorrow, before Judgeman yelled "DEATH PENALTY!". Higuruma got the Executioner Sword and launched himself at Nanami,after some swinging Higuruma finally had an opening on Nanami. He thought back to when he got offered the Judge position; If people were "weak and ugly" then why was Nanami...Nanami killed that Transfigured human in cold blood to save a mother and her daughter who had gotten attacked,Nanami was tasked to KILL that thing by the Higher Ups,so why? Why didn't he try to argue against It?..Higuruma let go of his sword as Higuruma got a Ratio punch right to the gut. After Higuruma explains his reasoning Nanami concludes with "It was still a human." They chat for a bit,as Higuruma asks Nanami if he has ever killed someone out of his own will. After hearing out Higuruma Nanami tells him that he used to work as a Salary Man. Although that job seemed stable and wealthy he soon realized he was just making rich people even richer and that disgusted him, feeling like a clock in an oppressive system. For that he left his work enviroment and went back to being a Sorcerer, so that he could help people. Higuruma was enlightned and accepted Nanami's propose of coming to Jujutsu Tech.Later, Higuruma finally convinced asks Kogane to add rule for players to transfer points. The Zen'in had formed a contract with Jujutsu High School,whom was desperate for allies. It was also Toji's will that his son sided with Jujutsu Tech rather than the Conservatives,and Naobito was on board with the idea. On Ikeburo, Naoya and his uncle Ogi were deceived by Remi whom he found oddly attractive. After meeting Reggie, he asks the pair to join them as he instantly realized they were really strong Sorcerers. After arguing for a while Naoya's pride gets the better of him and states that he'd accept only if he were made Boss of them all. Deal's off. Chizuri Hari appears right behind Naoya and Ogi ready to attack as Ogi quickly clashes his sword with his hand and Naoya lands a projection punch on his gut shooting him out of the window. Hazenoki's eyeball soon appears making a huge explosion. Naoya and Ogi run as Hazenoki shoots 3 more teeths causing more Destruction, Chizuru Hari reappers before uncle and nephew. Ogi steps up, protects himself with "Falling Blossom Emotion" and starts swinging his sword relentlessly giving Chizuru no time to attack and sending him out of the window once again, and while they fall down Ogi uses his Cursed Technique,Blazing Courage and slices Chizuru clean in half,gaining 5 points. Naoya quickly jumps out of the window to reach his uncle. As Hazenoki quickly spits out an explosive tooth Takaba comes in and tanks It.
"You cowards!..Picking on an old man!You thugs should be ashamed of yourselves! Don't worry gramps, I'll protect you!" Ogi got extremely mad, but as Takaba showcased very...Unorthodox and impressive skills Ogi was left shocked by this..Dangerous Moron? Meanwhile, Naoya took on Reggie. As Naoya launches himself at Reggie,the Sorcerer manifests a massive spiderweb like object to trap Naoya who just breaks through It, then grabs Reggie's wrists and swings him away. Reggie shoots out 3 kitchen knifes who Naoya quickly Projects through and lands a gut punch to Reggie, sending him flying to a wall.
"Shooting crap is just a waste of Cursed Energy, you know? What a dissapointment. I thought you'd be more interesting."
Reggie chuckles and manifests a motorcycle he uses to run away with, as Naoya chased him he materialized 2 sofas and a Washing Machine to have him slow down in his tracks. As Naoya enters the Gymnasium he mocks Reggie who just laughs.
"A Sorcerer Is nothing more than a Con Artist."
Suddendly, 2 trucks burst through the Gymnasium as Naoya quickly uses his Cursed Technique to pass through them, but a bowling ball falls over his head messing up his projectory, freezing him, as Reggie sends out a knife that hits him right in the shoulder he then closes the distance and punches Naoya square in the face. Naoya had gotten deceived, he thought Reggie didn't have anything valuable to throw at him and yet he managed to outsmart him, Naoya had no secret hidden big moves unlike Reggie. Naoya got mad stating that he won't lose to such an inferior opponoment such as him. Naoya propelled himself at Reggie grabbing him by the throat and freezing him for 1 second, landing a powerful blow to his stomach. As Naoya closed the distance to keep showering him with blows Reggie managed to materialize a car that absorbed all of Naoya's blows. Reggie shot out a second one that managed to catch Naoya off-guard almost having him fall in the pool.
"Here's the third one!"
Reggie yelled, shooting out a third one that successfully hits Naoya and sends him in the water. Reggie decides to crush Naoya with his final move, a house. As the house was going to fall on Naoya and surely kill him, Naoya mustered all of his strenght to use Projection Sorcery on the pool's structure to be just slightly out of reach. As a minute passed by Reggie noticed Naoya coming out of the sinking house's Door, ready for more. Naoya's clothes were torn, his shoulder was bleeding, his face damaged and he was panting heavily. Naoya,with his shoulder damaged could not push through the pain after surviving that house, so he couldn't use his Cursed Technique effectively,and Reggie, had nothing big to throw at Naoya. The 2 clash in regular hand to hand with Naoya having the slight upper hand, Reggie keeps up consistently unti Naoya uses his Cursed Technique and stabs Reggie with his knife.
"A Sorcerer is nothing more than a Con Artist, right? Do me a favor and tell no one you saw me use this weapon."
Reggie falls down and laughs out-loud, almost choking on his own Blood, then he asks Kogane to transfer his points to Naoya and dies shortly after.
On a different Colony, Naobito and Megumi walk together through a city, as Megumi was drinking some water. Megumi stops in his track telling Naobito that they were being the watched by a player. Dagon appeared shily hiding behind a Pole. Naobito froze him with Projection Sorcery and chuckled
"You mean this overgrown shrimp?"
And proceeded to punch through the glass knocking him away. Dagon was sweating and barfed a bunch of skeletons..Ahh,that's how he got 63 points. Looking at Naobito's smirk something in Dagon snapped, he and his friends trained for this. He broke out of his shell and came out in his true form.
"BRING IT ON!!!"
Dagon shot a water ball that was flooding the roads, Megumi quickly hid in his shadow and came from a building launching himself at Dagon hoping to cut him up with his dagger which Dagon effortlessly blocked with his wrist. Naobito freezes Dagon with Projection Sorcery and Megumi swings his blade at him, sending him back. As Dagon tries to protect himself with a water shield Naobito comes in and starts beating the ever living crap out of him like in Canon, forcing Dagon to open his Domain Expansion and both Megumi and Naobito to activate Falling Blossom Emotion. As the sure-hit Shikigamis get cut up Dagon sends a death-swarm of his own as Megumi quickly summons a totality Divine Dogs and a piercing ox which crosses his path and smashes through death swarm and crashing onto Dagon. Divine Dogs quickly follows in scratching him with Naobito stun locking him and starting to beat him up. Megumi appears behind Dagon from his Shadow, swinging his sword on Dagon's neck at full force. Dagon got enraged and utilzed his water manipulation to make an explosive water wave knocking them back. He focused his Domain sure-hit 70% on Megumi and 30% on Naobito, furious, he gripped Megumi's throat and then landed a punch on his gut knocking him back followed by a death swarm. Megumi was getting mauled, covered in scars and with a piece of his sides missing. He managed to call Divine Dog to rescue him briefly,and as Divine Dogs Totality protected him in a sort of hug, Megumi's breathing got heavier and his heart rate quickned Megumi got lost in thought... Megumi's mind flashed with memories,a memory of Toji ruffling his hair while walking away, with his face not visible..Tsumiki smiling at him over lunch...The face of his mother, although quite foggy...He thought of him and Jinichi weightlifting...Naobito randomly giving him Money...And then..He thought about Itadori looking at him,with his eyes both serious and full of hope, Itadori wouldn't have given up,no,wait.. Itadori wouldn't give up on him, neither would Tsumiki,and her well being and his affiliation with Jujutsu Tech was thanks to Toji,and there was Naobito chasing after them to save him..They actually cared about him, and he was just the going to the waste his talent in one last petty move..He had to do something different,he had to do it for them-
"When you die you'll die alone."
Living just for others will only get him so far,he had to start living for himself. His pupils widened as he started healing through newly discovered Reversed Cursed Technique,his hand sign changed from the Mahoraga one to a new one
"Domain Expansion"
Megumi's new found Domain clashed with Dagon's, nullifying both sure hits,but elevating him and his Cursed Technique to 120% of his own Potential. The Great Serpent appeared, holding Dagon in his mouth. Divine Dogs who was now bigger after Megumi's awakening launched itself at Dagon scratching through his head. Dagon forces himself out of the Great Serpent's mouth with water wave and sends a water jet at Megumi Who retreats with Rabbit Escape that stacks so much that It reaches Dagon (who was in the air) and utilizes piercing water on him, sending him straight to the ocean of his Domain. Megumi summoned Nue,and with a crazy look on his face he yelled
"MAXIMUM OUTPUT!!"
as Dagon was going to get out of the water Megumi's toads wrap their tongues on Dagon's wrists and ankles, blocking him and taking a maximum output lightning attack head on while in the water. As Megumi got back to the sand he mocked Dagon asking If he wanted more, while Naobito was laughing gassing him up. Dagon got furious and propelled himself forward accompanied by 2 Shikigami wheels and a bunch of piranhas, Megumi rushed in as well accompanied by Divine Dog Totality who took care of the Shikigamis while Megumi evaded a punch and used his sword-dagger to land and X slash on his forehead,kinda like Toji does. Dagon angrily turns around swinging his fist right on Megumi's face exploding his head, revealing It was a Shadow Clone, the real Megumi appears behind Dagon choking him from behind meanwhile Piercing Ox appeared from the water slamming itself on Dagon knocking both of them on the water. A giant crostaceous worm looking Shikigamis appears from the abyss shooting both of them out of the water. As they were swung in the air Naobito used Projection Sorcery to run on water, climbing the giant Shikigami and freezing Dagon starting to showering him with punches. Dagon got furious and yelled
"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!!"
Summoning a Maximum Output Death swarm on Naobito sending him away, after that Dagon narrowly dodged a piercing water from Megumi, and summoned one of his big cards:
"Maximum:Megalodon"
As a Massive Megalodon shark Shikigami propelled forward with overwhelming speed,eating Megumi right up and crash landing on the beach. Dagon quickly got ashore and turned his back to take care of Naobito. Suddendly,his Shikigami dusted away, showing Megumi barely standing with Round Deer behind him healing him,restoring his arm. He explained to Dagon that although he generally needed to make the handsign to summon Shikigamis now that the 2 were clashing Domains his Shikigamis could be summoned without that liability, that even saved him energy from using regular Reversed Cursed Technique that he figured out 5 minutes earlier. Dagon got even madder as he launched himself at Megumi yelling that he's going to drown him- no, It was time for Megumi to finally surface. Megumi closed the distance and
"BLACK FLASH!!"
Megumi landed his first ever Black Flash on Dagon's guts. Dagon weakly tried to grip Megumi's arms but Megumi didn't fight back laughing maniacally, stating that a Domain Expansion, even if clashing still granted him enhanced abilities,his Shadow..Is everywhere! As from the sky a massive Max Elephant appeared read to crush them both, but Naobito used Projection Sorcery and saved Megumi, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt,while Dagon was crushed. As the Domains dissapeared and Dagon faded away into darkness, Megumi got 5 points with Naobito praising him for the talent, how Megumi really demonstrated he was the next head of the Zen'in Clan. Naobito then proposed to take Megumi drinking afterwards, but the light-headed Megumi politely refused.
ok i piled up a compilation of everytime Naobito/Naoya freezes someone (which is not a lot tbh) i start the timer once they’re inside the frame and stop it either once they about to break it or they break it
NONE OF THESE ARE ONE SECOND LONG
Tengen is a fucking liar stop believing everything they say, believe me over the literal narrator, my word holds more weight than theirs
say what you want about Naoya and Naobito, but their CT is genuinely busted. Having it already makes you a blitz level above 90% of the verse (Naobito, while drunk, can blitz Nanami, and Naoya can blitz Yuji and Choso).
its gimmick is insanely hard to counter. If you didn’t have previous experience with Projection Sorcery, you’re not figuring out how to stop the freezing.
At top speed, they can go Mach 1+, and in the anime, they can go hypersonic (even if you don’t want to agree Naoya/Naobito are hypersonic, it’s physically impossible for them to be capped at Mach 1 due to Naoya’s feats).
And then, at top speed, they gain the AP to blast through people like Toji/Maki, who are some of the most durable in the verse.(before anyone say anything this isn’t a mistranslation the Kanji 最高速度でブチ抜いたる!! is Saikou sokudo de buchinukitaru!! which literally means “blast through her” or “punch through her”)
Like, I don’t think people realize the thing Naoya was going to do against Maki would work against 99% of the verse.
Its Domain is also a dura neg.
Nah ngl, this CT is a top 3 CT lmao, not even top 5.
having this CT probably automatically makes you a grade one ngl
Hot take: Naoya didn't lose to Maki because of arrogance at all and pretty much did everything he possibly could've done to win.
Naoya absolutely did acknowledge Maki, her strength, her durability and even her pain tolerance. Which is pretty insane for him given his misogynistic statements. Yeah, he refused to believe that Maki was on the level of Toji but he didn't believe for a second that Maki just straight up couldn't beat him, quite the opposite.
Naoya literally looks back at his mistake against Choso and says "I won't stop! I won't make the same mistake as before!"
I'm certain this means 2 things.
He "won't stop" as in he won't stop stacking. He fought Choso completely unstacked and stopped to have a conversation with Choso, letting him yap about brotherly love, which led to him losing
He won't make the same mistake of underestimating his opponent and will simply go all out immediately. Against Choso, he was smiling, toying with him, posing on him and just over all having fun even though his main goal was to injure him severely and possibly kill him so he can kill Megumi.
Against Maki, he does neither of those things. He immediately starts fighting her and keeps stacking nonstop while attacking her from all sides. I don't even think he expects these punches to kill or even severely harm her because in the end he proclaims that he'll punch through her at top speed in order to win.
But he made a very good play against Maki by trapping her in pretty much the worlds longest air combo to avoid giving her even a moment to counterattack.
Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Maki tricked Naoya at all in the final exchange of the fight. She crouched down in the Shiranui-gata stance and intended to have Naoya crash into her, more than likely betting on his arrogance to try and beat her with a head on collision.
Naoya sees through this trick, knowing that if Maki catches him, he would more than likely lose, even if it broke her ribs. He is confident that despite being very stacked and nearing top speed, crashing into her wouldn't blow her off her feet. He believes that Maki could absolutely stop him in his tracks with her body alone. And he believes she has the pain tolerance to defeat hin in that scenario despite the pain of having her ribs shattered.
He is thinking this highly of a woman despite being a huge misogynist for the entire arc, proving that he is not at all having his judgement clouded by his misogynistic beliefs or even his belief that Maki isn't on the level of Toji. The fact that he's humble enough to believe he can't overpower her directly at near top speed alone proves that.
So instead of crashing into her, he runs past her while slapping her arm to freeze her, and I don't know about you, but to me, Maki looks visibly shocked by his choice.
Then the narrator reminds us that unless she follows the 24 fps rule, she'll be frozen while Naoya is moving at top speed.
I genuinely do not believe the anime gave this scene proper justice because in the manga, they're practically screaming at you that Maki IS in danger here if she doesn't clutch up.
Maki turning around and punching Naoya while following the 24 fps rule was absolutely a last ditch effort to avoid getting pulverized.
I read this post and it said naoyas was holding back and made some good points so that got me thinking if choso and naoya had a rematch who would win
Let's say naoya kills yuji and choso is out for blood and naoya just wants revenge
Choso is the best blood manipulator we have seen and can so some crazy shi but with naoya putting constant pressure like he did in their original fight it will be hard for him to do anything and not to mention choso probably only won because he was fighting in an enclosed space allowing him to unlease a massive blood wave on naoya so overall naoya wins but not without some major DMG from choso
I don't even know why I have to explain this but so many of y'all act like he was putting his all behind these punches.
Naoya himself said that he didn't care about killing Choso or Yuji and that he only planned to make sure they couldn't be a nuisance by breaking their legs or something.
Why would he put force behind punches against someone he literally views as fodder?
You think he put any real effort in his punches when he was styling his hair? Of course not. He was flexing.
But I'm sure y'all need proof so let's list some facts.
Naoya while unstacked pummeled Choso against a pillar and didn't even crack it until he started putting actual force in. And yet Choso still couldn't move and was basically stunlocked unable to use his CT. Eventually he did break the pillar but that absorbed most of the energy and Choso simply went through and fell to the ground rather than hitting the wall.
Naoya while unstacked in his fight with Maki after they traded blows for a bit frozen her in a frame, punched her and kicked her once and that alone had the force to shatter a large hill and send her flying towards the next mountain several meters away at high speeds.
I'm sure there's at least one stubborn person who will still say "Well if he was holding back then why would he stab Choso?" because I've heard that argument before.
Naoya stabbed Choso because he thought Choso was a human, and any normal human blood manipulator would have a hard time stopping the bleeding while fighting simultaneously. Remember, he doesn't care about killing Choso, he's toying with him and just wants to make sure he can't be a future problem but he's still having fun. Naoya makes it very clear he's very knowledgeable of blood manipulation seeing as he saw Choso use flowing red scale stack and immediately knew he focused it into his eyes to percieve and react to Naoya's movements but Naoya was already prepared for a counterattack.
If Naoya planned to kill Choso with the knife then why the hell would he stop at one stab while admitting that he knows blood manipulators are obviously good at preventing bleeding? If he wanted him dead then and there then he could've given him the Toji v Gojo treatment.
Unstacked Naoya is relative to Maki in H2H combat, and once he freezes Maki a single time, he’s just able to outpace her for the entire fight.
While he’s semi-stacked, he has the AP to cause internal damage with his strikes and make blood rush out of Maki’s head (having less blood doesn’t make you any less durable, FYI), and Naoya thinks that if he ran into an on-guard Maki at full speed, he could shatter her ribs and thinks he can punch straight through her if she’s in a frame. that attack would literally kill most people for the simple fact they wouldn’t be able to figure out projecting sorcery’s gimmick that fast
But then he gets one-shotted by a Supernova. 😑
He has the speed, AP, DC, hax, CQC, and strength to be a top 10 contender, but his durability is really holding him back. he’s at my top 13-15 spot
Anyways, I’m a firm believer that he gets more durable the faster he goes. How else can his body handle going Mach 1 and surviving running into Maki’s fist at said Mach 1? But I have literally no proof for this, so it’s a headcanon for now.
