The battlefield had already become a graveyard of shattered concrete, earthy rubbles and the torn sky above.
The air now tasted like iron and burned ozone as curses screamed in distant echoed over and over through his ears.
It was over.
Sakuna had won, and yet...
Satoru Gojo smiled.
There was nothing like bravado or denial written on his face, there was only acceptance.
"So this is how it ends," he murmured as warm blood trickled down his lips.
He raised his head one more time to look at the King of Curses, Sakuna, all monstrous spreading his arms out as he revalled in the chaos about him.
Gojo's lips spread wider.
Never could he have believed his infinity, his divine distance that had separated him from all harm, would one day fail him.
But it had.
For the first time in his existence, it had.
He could feel the slash that tore through him burn the more.
There was a lot of pain coursing through him, from pain in more ways than one.
... For more reasons than the slash, he felt pain, and then...
There wasn't.
His body seemed to fall, his vision dimmed and he watched Sakuna stare at him from where he stood.
But his smile remained.
Even in death, he refused to look small.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered all the times he looked at others and said; "Yowai mon" (You're weak).
Now as darkness swallowed him whole, he thought;
"Yowakunai." (I'm not weak)
-----------------------
There was no... tunnel of light, no ancestral voices, no heaven, just...
... A vast, endless void.
No, it was not black; it was the very absence of color itself.
Nothing was around anywhere, and time seemed to stop.
But right there in the middle of it all, Gojo was floating.
Opening his eyes, he looked about him, noticing the void.
Calmly, he looked down and flexed his right fingers experimentally, watching them move when he did.
"Well," he said lightly into the... 'infinite quiet:,
"This is anticlimactic."
Suddenly a voice rumbled, "Your arrogance has broken the balance."
Gojo blinked, looking around him.
He didn't need to turn around to know that the voice hadn't come from above or below.
It had come from everywhere at once.
A normal person would paused or waited, or gotten scared out of there wits in fright.
But not Goto wasn't in any way normal so...
"Oh? That sounds serious."
He tilted his head, as though listening to a lecture from an overly dramatic principal.
"Balance of what? Fashion? I can promise you, my blindfold was iconic."
There was silence at his words for a few seconds, then------
The void began to ripple, churning and turning almost like a transparent balloon till right in front of him, a presence formed.
It had no clear shape, no face and...
Gojo cocked his head a bit.
... no way for him to tell if it was a male or female.
It looked like fractured space of air trying to imitate or take the shape of a body.
"You were a fixed constant in your world," the being said then.
"You were the strongest. An absolute in your world. A being with six eyes."
Perhaps he sensed the strange being was about to speak of his death, because the tiniest twitch appeared on his lips.
Then Gojo shoved his hands into his pockets instinctively, only to realize he wasn't wearing anything... tangible.
However he wasn't too concerned about it and simply stared at the being's form, tipping his head back.
"I do have a reputation."
"YOU DESTABILIZED FATE!!!!!" The being bellowed harshly.
"Your death has created fractures beyond your origin."
Gojo's smile widened faintly, "So I'm still causing problems even after dying? That's impressive."
The being's voice lowered, sounding annoyed at his response.
"You must choose; you may disappear into nothingness."
"Or become a variable in a collapsing universe," The being continued, spread its hands as the void began to constrict.
Gojo narrowed his eyes.
Disappear.
Or continue in another world.
That was what he was being made to decide on; death or something else.
Gojo considered it seriously, for all of two seconds.
"Does the new place have interesting people?" he asked.
The being's form distorted, it seemed to be pissed by the question.
"Choose Satoru Gojo. Do you prefer the second option?"
He grinned, though his eyes had a slight glaze in them.
"Tanoshimi da na." (It will be fun.)
The being pulsed once, "So be it."
Instantly the void cracked and dissolved, and without warning the being turned into a blinding light, enveloping Gojo entirely.