Those who can't produce a Black Flash will never know what a person feels the moment the [inspiration of the Black Flash] emerges from the inside out.
It is a sensation of transformation, flowing from the inside outward.
The soul seems to undergo a baptism, perception instantly spreading in every direction, the flow of Cursed Energy and Technique becoming as simple as breathing. Whether it is the mind's consciousness or one's combat perception, both ascend countless steps in an instant, fully entering the realm of 'selflessness.' Yes—no one can deliberately produce a Black Flash.
And never before has anyone, while keeping a Domain open and maintaining their Technique, been able to manipulate their own Domain and produce a Black Flash all at once.
So Kenjaku was stunned, and Satoru Gojo was stunned too.
The darkness that occupied half the sky came crashing down. This single Black Flash shattered the 'surface' of the outer layer of space, forming an immense shock that surged toward the Black Hole.
Fragments of space scattered across the heavens.
This sight could truly be called a single strike piercing through the firmament. Rumble, rumble—
The next second, the roar caused by the Black Flash, together with the crash of the air, turned into a raging gale that scattered across the wilds.
The giant's fist landed upon the Black Hole, denting that black circular region directly inward—the entire Black Hole was like a massive rubber ball, fiercely battered into a hollow.
But in truth, what Mahiru struck this time was still the 'surface' of space, not the Black Hole's actual body.
The girl had already discovered the reason she'd struggled so terribly before.
On one hand, it was indeed because the Black Hole was simply too powerful—her Cursed Energy output still wasn't enough to let her knead the Black Hole freely. But that was not the main reason.
In fact, after Mahiru opened her Domain and assimilated nearly ten thousand people, her Cursed Energy output had already become absurdly high—far surpassing her original level.
The real reason she still felt strained was that there was a flaw in her strategy.
By using a canvas of space to hold back the Black Hole, she was, in effect, actively scattering her own power across a vast expanse of space. So the Cursed Energy she had to expend rose by a squared factor.
This had been an unavoidable approach—after all, the Black Hole's time-slowing effect was simply too vexing.
But just as the girl felt utterly strained... a flash of inspiration suddenly struck her.
She seemed to have a better method.
The Black Hole's delay effect was troublesome, but she could also turn it around—exploiting the Black Hole's time-slowing trait to concentrate her power and beat the Black Hole into 'paralysis.'
The girl chose to put it into practice.
And so, she unleashed this Black Flash.
Heaven and earth changed color. Rumble, rumble—the enormous shockwave caused the air, which had been surging toward the Black Hole, to instead spread back outward in every direction.
The fist of the colossal deity clenched deep into the Black Hole, pounding it into a profound hollow and even battering it backward, step by step.
The deity drew back its fist, the black lightning leaving its lingering might across the sky.
The Black Flash's attack was already over.
But what shocked Yuji Itadori, Todo Aoi, and the others was that the Black Hole remained in the dented state into which it had been pounded—and its forward advance had come to a halt.
A single Black Flash punch from Mahiru... had battered the Black Hole into a hollow???
"What... what's going on??" Yuji Itadori's mouth fell open. "Didn't they say... attacks couldn't reach it?"
II
Didn't they say the Black Hole had a time-slowing effect, so attacks simply couldn't strike the Black Hole directly?
Then what did Mahiru's current situation mean?
A Black Hole that even Satoru Gojo couldn't so much as touch had now been dented by a single punch from Mahiru—like a caved-in ping-pong ball.
Was Mahiru... really this terrifying?
"That's right—time will still slow." Seeing that she'd succeeded, Mahiru let out a soft breath and laughed. "But that's actually turned into a good thing."
The Ushura Bullet sends out shockwaves by shattering space, and the Black Flash's 'power to the 2.5th degree' is, in essence, also an effect born of spatial distortion.
When these two effects—identical in principle—are stacked together, the resulting amplification is far stronger than a mere 2.5th-degree power.
So that Black Flash just now not only had its radiance cover the firmament—its power was astonishingly terrifying as well.
But Yuji Itadori was right too: no matter how great the power, it served no purpose.
Satoru Gojo had already tested this point with Hollow Technique: Purple.
So the target of Mahiru's massive attack this time was still the 'surface' of space.
She struck this earth-shattering attack against the surface of space before the Black Hole. Even though the Black Hole's gravity could continuously interfere with Urogi Kyoko's Technique, in the face of this Black Flash it was utterly powerless.
And so the Black Hole's space was battered into a hollow.
Its advancing steps were brought to a halt as well.
In fact, although Urogi Kyoko's Technique could distort space at will, once the space returned to normal, the things distorted along with it would fully revert to their original form.
The Black Hole should have been no exception.
Mahiru's heaven-shaking, ghost-weeping Black Flash struck the surface of space rather than truly striking the Black Hole's body—which, for the Black Hole, should have been a good thing.
What was greatly distorted was only the space surrounding the Black Hole.
Once the canvas of space returned to normal, the Black Hole could swiftly resume its movement.
But—the time around the Black Hole would become very, very slow.
Although Mahiru's punch just now looked like she was simply manipulating the monster to swing its fist and unleash Jujutsu, that wasn't actually the case. That giant monster was, in essence, also a Domain. So this strike, in fact, also carried the Domain's guaranteed-hit effect.
Satoru Gojo had already experienced firsthand that a Domain's guaranteed-hit effect would be affected by the time-slowing effect.
This effect 'took hold slowly' and 'ended' even more slowly, so when Satoru Gojo tried to dismantle the Domain through an intricate series of steps, each step was prolonged, with the whole stretched out to three days.
Mahiru's punch was the same.
Under a normal timeline, a punch like Mahiru's would distort space over a wide area, and after a few breaths, the space would still return to normal.
But with the Black Hole's time-delay effect, the time it took for space to return to normal would be drawn out to an extreme degree.
What's more, Mahiru's Black Flash was extremely powerful, striking to a position even deeper than Satoru Gojo's Domain guaranteed-hit effect, so the time effect would be stronger still.
As things stood, after taking this Black Flash, the Black Hole would maintain this deformed state for a very, very long time. Throughout this period, it would remain stalled in midair, unable to advance.
Even the Black Hole's gravity, because of this deformation, collapsed inward and thus weakened by half.
The raging wind weakened; the gravity declined.
It was as if... the Black Hole had been punched into 'paralysis.'
"...So it really is true." At Jujutsu High, Masamichi Yaga removed his sunglasses, his eyes full of astonishment. "That Cursed Spirit... really could pull it off."
Thump.
Farther off, Miwa—who had been helping evacuate people—saw the Black Hole come to a stop, and the stone in her heart finally settled.
Her legs went weak, her nose stinging.
The string that had been taut in her heart slackened, and the girl simply slumped to the ground, her legs so weak they trembled faintly.
"Boo-hoo..." Then the girl covered her face and let out a sound of emotion she could no longer hold back. "We actually survived..."
All across the city, people beheld the scene over by the distant Black Hole. Countless people stood frozen in place, not yet grasping that they had been saved; countless others wept with joy, falling to their knees and crying aloud.
The raging wind died down somewhat, and the earthquakes across the nation ceased to occur as well—there was truly a sense of 'after the Black Flash, calm and tranquility.'
Of course, things weren't over yet—the Black Hole still needed Satoru Gojo to dismantle it. But essentially, it was no longer much of a problem.
Mahiru had slapped the Black Hole into a crippled state with one blow, and this crippling would likely hold for about a week.
During this time, the Black Hole was essentially harmless, and even if Kenjaku wanted to make use of this Black Hole, he couldn't.
Because the Black Hole's time-delay effect left Kenjaku without a single trick.
"Ha..." Mahiru relaxed and sat down right where she was.
That bizarre deity, too, began to bend down and disassemble itself.
Satoru Gojo landed beside the girl.
"I'll leave the rest to you, okay?" Mahiru exhaled and said.
"Good work." Satoru Gojo smiled. "Leave the rest to me."
Mahiru's Domain dissolved completely, and countless unconscious people settled onto the ground, waiting to come to. Satoru Gojo rose into the sky after her, came before the Black Hole—now dented and deformed beyond recognition—and unfolded his own Domain. A black barrier enveloped the Black Hole, the raging wind furled its banners and fell silent, and the sky became utterly clear.
Mahiru relaxed her body and lay down.
Yuji Itadori and Todo Aoi likewise eased their bodies and sat on either side of Mahiru.
Completely at ease.
"Not bad at all," Todo Aoi said with a grin. "I have a feeling today will be the most unforgettable day of my life."
"What time is it now? Should we go for a victory feast later?" Yuji Itadori showed a relaxed smile too. "We'll make Gojo-sensei foot the bill."
The implication was, apparently, that they meant to drag Mahiru along to the victory feast.
Mahiru gave a helpless smile.
The girl raised her hand toward the blue sky, gazing at her own fingers. In truth, she was still turning over another problem in her mind.
Although she'd just told Satoru Gojo that 'everything from here on is up to you, Gojo,' in reality there was still something left for Mahiru to do.
As mentioned before, the Black Hole had a 'body' and a 'soul.' The 'body' was mass, while the 'soul' was the Technique—and that was where Yuki Tsukumo resided.
Was there any great connection between Yuki Tsukumo and Mahiru? Not really—Tenkangetsu.
But she was a very important character.
Mahiru couldn't bear to let such an important character die so easily.
So she was still set on rescuing Yuki Tsukumo.
And to save Yuki Tsukumo, the first step required Satoru Gojo to slowly take his time using his Domain to disassemble the Black Hole.
The second step was for Mahiru, at the very instant the Black Hole came apart, to push against the Black Hole's gravity, enter its core, and use 'Idle Transfiguration' to pluck Yuki Tsukumo out.
So she was still deliberating—how to accomplish this.
That is, how to break free from the influence of the Black Hole's gravity.
"An anti-gravity Technique, huh..." the girl murmured.
"Hm?" Hearing Mahiru mumbling something, Yuji Itadori poked his head over curiously. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying... um... I want to ask you a question, but it feels a little impolite." Mahiru turned her head and met Yuji Itadori's eyes. "So... I'll go ahead and ask, all right...?"
"Ask away?"
"Itadori, your mother..." Mahiru cleared her throat slightly. "...where is she buried?"
Yuji Itadori went blank. "Huh?"
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone