CHAPTER 23: TOLD YOU, I'D WIN

The End of the World, and the Beginning of Another

The sky above Shinjuku was no longer red.

No longer bruised by cursed energy, nor cracked by battle.

It was blue.

Clear.

Alive.

Gojo Satoru floated down from the heavens, gently landing on a shattered rooftop—what was left of a city that had seen gods clash and monsters die. Blood still streaked his face, his uniform torn, his hands trembling.

But he laughed.

Oh, he laughed.

A wild, unhinged, and glorious laugh that echoed through the city, louder than all the screams and explosions that had come before.

He threw his arms wide open like he was welcoming the world.

"Told you I'd win!!" he howled, spinning around in place like a lunatic. "You all doubted me! Especially you! And you, Utahime! HA!"

He pointed randomly across the field.

Yuta blinked. Maki facepalmed. Nobara tried not to smile.

"I said I didn't have a plan," Gojo grinned, breathless, "but clearly, I had the plan! It was called 'just punch the King of Curses in the face enough times until he stops talking.' Worked like a charm."

Then he raised a finger to the sky dramatically.

"And now, I hereby declare the age of curses... over."

A quiet wind swept through.

Everyone—Itadori, Megumi, Yuta, Maki, Utahime, Mei mei, Hakari, Choso, even Panda—looked up.

And they all felt it.

The weight.

The ancient, suffocating weight of cursed energy in the air—disappearing.

Not just fading.

Vanishing.

The earth, for the first time in a thousand years, was free.

Gojo's knees finally gave out.

He collapsed to the ground, sitting cross-legged, head thrown back, still laughing.

Still making dumb jokes.

"I better get a national holiday named after me," he mumbled, barely coherent. "Or at least a statue. No, wait, two statues—one with me smirking and one with me shirtless. Obviously."

Utahime sighed but smiled.

Shoko walked up beside him and lit a cigarette, her hands still glowing faintly from earlier healing.

"Still the same clown," she said.

"Damn right," Gojo whispered, "Clown... who saved the damn world."

His laugh finally trailed off into quiet chuckles.

He closed his eyes, breathing in the air of a world without curses.

For the first time…

It smelled like peace.