The air shifts.
Sukuna feels it before anyone else—a ripple in the cursed energy of the world. Ancient. Familiar. Dangerous. It moves like a whisper through the bones of the earth, like a memory trying to wake.
He pauses mid-step, eyes narrowing.
"He's returned."
The name comes unspoken. A memory etched in blood.
Raizan.
The only sorcerer who ever stood beside Sukuna as an equal—and once, as an enemy. A master of celestial techniques, Raizan wielded cursed energy like a blade of light. Their last battle carved a canyon into the earth and left the sky trembling for days.
Now, he walks again.
Reincarnated. Reforged. Wearing a new face, but carrying the same soul. The energy is unmistakable. It hums with precision. It burns with purpose.
Raizan appears in Kyoto, cloaked in silence. Sorcerers sense him and scatter. He speaks only once:
"I seek Sukuna."
Sukuna answers.
They meet in the ruins of the old temple—the one Sukuna burned centuries ago. The stones still remember the fire. The air still tastes of ash. The sky darkens. The wind dies. Even curses flee.
Raizan stands tall, his eyes glowing with celestial flame.
"You've grown darker."
Sukuna grins.
"You've grown slower."
They clash.
The battle is not just physical—it's mythic. Cursed energy tears through the landscape. Sukuna's Domain pulses with malevolence, a shrine of bone and scripture. Raizan counters with a technique that bends gravity and light, folding space around his strikes. Their movements are poetry written in destruction.
They trade blows that shatter mountains.
Sukuna summons blades from every direction. Raizan deflects them with radiant shields. Sukuna splits the earth. Raizan walks on air. The temple crumbles beneath them, rebuilt and destroyed in the same breath.
Yuji watches from afar, hidden, trembling.
"He's not just fighting," Gojo says beside him. "He's remembering."
The duel stretches into hours.
Raizan lands a blow—deep, precise. Sukuna bleeds. He laughs.
"You still know me."
Raizan doesn't smile.
"I know what you could've been."
Sukuna roars.
He unleashes his full Domain—Malevolent Shrine, perfected. The temple reforms in midair, its walls dripping with cursed scripture, its altars glowing with ancient rage. Raizan counters with his own Domain—Celestial Vault, a sphere of light and silence, where gravity bends and time slows.
The domains collide.
Reality bends.
The sky fractures. The ground vanishes. For a moment, the world forgets itself.
In the end, Sukuna stands victorious.
Raizan falls, his body fading, his soul unraveling. The light dims. The silence breaks.
"You win," he whispers. "But you've lost something."
Sukuna kneels beside him.
"I lost it long ago."
Raizan vanishes.
The wind returns.
Sukuna stands alone, bloodied but whole. The temple is gone. The sky clears. The earth exhales.
He looks to the horizon, where Yuji and Gojo watch in silence.
"One less ghost," he says. "One step closer."