>!Having her as my meal 🤤😋!<

I just noticed that Akaza activated Compass 3 times during the entire ICA fight. Can we really say that at certain points he went back to the same state he was in during the beginning of his fight with Tanjiro? Or is this better explained by Compass stacking / him readjusting it?

I just noticed that Akaza activated Compass 3 times during the entire ICA fight. Can we really say that at certain points he went back to the same state he was in during the beginning of his fight with Tanjiro? Or is this better explained by Compass stacking / him readjusting it?

— Muzan is in his prime and absolutely serious

— The battle takes place in Shinjuku at night, with 3 hours remaining until sunrise. The Anti-Sukuna Squad(everyone included in the fight even Mei Mei, Shoko and etc.) must defeat Muzan before sunrise

— The Anti-Sukuna Squad has prior knowledge of Muzan's abilities(his flesh manipulation, electrical attacks, dangerous blood, whips, and his ability to create tornadoes using his whips), weaknesses, and regeneration lvl

— Muzan is restricted from using his Upper Moons, especially Nakime

— Muzan is given a basic amount of CE

— Gojo is not included in the group

— Yuta's Cursed Speech cannot directly force Muzan to kill himself or otherwise instantly incapacitate/defeat him

— Muzan's blood can disrupt the flow of CE, interfere with CT activation, and make RCT significantly more difficult, similar to Choso's blood and the toxic effects of the chlorine generated by Kashimo

— Highball, midball, and lowball scaling are allowed for both

For me, it has to be the "Akaza has the fastest hand/attack speed" mistranslation

1. "The Hollow Purples should have killed Sukuna!"

I love hearing this from the same people who keep insisting Hollow Purple is some kind of duraneg / existence erasure / dimensional attack or whatever else they can invent. None of that is actually supported. Even the fanbook never claims anything remotely close to that.

People love bringing up Purple piercing Toji and Hanami as if that proves anything. All it shows is good penetration power. But since when are those two some kind of durability benchmark? And why would you need 200% amp on an alleged "duraneg" attack just so it can "ignore durability even harder"? That already breaks the entire logic.

[Scan 1]

Anyway, let’s talk about Sukuna.

Sukuna took a Hollow Purple at the start of the fight that was above 120% output. He reinforced his arms and ended up losing them.

People immediately started screaming “plot armor” while conveniently forgetting that this is The character with the highest CE reserves in the verse, CE efficiency that is nearly on the level of the Six Eyes (still inferior, but remarkably close), and an output that, while not surpassing Gojo's(Gojo himself can keep up with Sukuna even when Sukuna uses DA to further enhance his output and etc.), is still absurdly high. His reinforcement is already leagues above anything Toji and Hanami have ever shown.

[Scan 2]

You can also argue that he deliberately sacrificed his arms in the process to protect the rest of his body (Hakari survived something similar with a binding vow). Sukuna never explicitly said he did that, so it’s just a possibility. Same with the idea that he used Domain Amplification to further boost his reinforcement at that moment. Speculation.

But the main point remains: Sukuna himself literally tells us what happened. He reinforced his arms. That’s it. Deal with it. Sukuna is fully capable of surviving Hollow Purple through reinforcement alone. And he’s already shown later that he can reduce HP damage with his own stats (chapters 235 and 263). There’s a chance he used DA, but the manga never confirms it 🤷‍♂️

[Scan 3]

Some people seriously try to argue that Sukuna would’ve died from the Purple in chapter 235 based on what he said in 234. Sukuna was talking about his current state at that moment, which he partially recovered from afterward thanks to Agito. It’s also just a character’s own assessment. Sukuna also claimed he killed Higuruma because he thought he had killed him. That was his opinion too.

[Scan 4]

2. "Gojo could’ve just ended the fight with a Domain Expansion!"

This argument is starting to sound desperate. People seriously claim that after Sukuna lost his hand, Gojo could’ve just opened his Domain and gotten a free win.

Maybe I’m fkng blind, but Sukuna had already regenerated the hand by that point.

But fine, let’s play along and pretend he hadn’t regenerated it yet and Gojo was about to open Unlimited Void. There’s a spark that signals a technique activating. The second Sukuna senses it, he can push his RCT to max output, regenerate his hand, and open his own Domain in response.

[Scan 5]

Let’s give them another freebie and assume Sukuna doesn’t have enough time to chant and form the hand sign. He still has Hollow Wicker Basket.

HWB neutralizes Unlimited Void’s sure-hit, and Sukuna can open his Domain right after. The hand sign isn’t even required to keep HWB active, it’s only needed for maximum output. The basket still works without it.

So no, in the short window while Sukuna releases his hands and forms the Enmaten sign, UV's sure-hit still won’t hit him, because the HWB barrier won’t have broken yet.

[Scan 6]

3. "Gojo could’ve pinned Sukuna down with Blue and used his Domain, but the plot couldn’t let the King die that stupidly"

One of the dumbest takes I’ve seen, and it honestly proves the person using it didn’t properly read the manga.

Yes, Gojo pinned Sukuna with Blue in chapter 224, but that happened while Sukuna wasn’t running increased Domain Amplification output. Technique output can be raised, and we see it happen throughout the fight. Sukuna first activates DA and keeps up with Gojo in close combat (224), then Gojo boosts Limitless(like in Shibya) so the previous DA level becomes less effective against Infinity. Later Sukuna’s higher DA output cuts straight through Infinity (227), and even later it partially negates Blue’s attraction (231).

[Scan 7]

Chapter 229 gives another example: Blue’s output was only enough to pull Sukuna’s back toward the ground so Gojo could attack from that position, yet Sukuna still blocked the hit while under the effect of Blue.

[Scan 8]

So even if we pretend Gojo somehow pins Sukuna against a surface with Blue and then tries to open his Domain, Sukuna has an obvious answer. The moment he senses the DE activating, he just raises DA output and responds with his own Domain. His hands aren’t permanently locked by Blue(229), and we’ve already seen him increase DA enough to partially negate Gojo’s Blue(231). And once again, nothing stops the Hollow Wicker Basket scenario from the previous point either.

4. "Gojo was dominating Sukuna, so Sukuna shouldn't have been able to keep up"

I’ll admit it, out of all the arguments, this is one of the dumbest takes I’ve seen in my scaling career.

People look at scenes where Gojo is beating on Sukuna and act like Sukuna can’t do anything back, then inflate those moments into some massive hand-to-hand superiority narrative while ignoring one very important detail: Gojo had Infinity.

Of course Gojo was landing more hits when Sukuna wasn’t constantly running Domain Amplification. That’s literally the entire point. And the manga already explains why Sukuna wasn’t keeping DA up the whole time. He deliberately minimized it so Mahoraga’s adaptation to Unlimited Void (and later to Neutral Limitless) wouldn’t get interrupted.

Yet somehow this gets turned into “Gojo is massively superior in H2H.” Based on what? Whenever Sukuna actually used DA, the dynamic completely changed. He could fight Gojo directly, bypass Infinity, and exchange blows on equal terms.

People also forget that later on Sukuna was carrying Mahoraga’s weight while being restricted from freely using DA. Taking moments where Sukuna was intentionally limiting one of his strongest tools and using them as proof of overwhelming martial superiority is just nonsense.

[Scans 9-10]

And then Gojo awakened and started landing Black Flashes one after another, with each Black Flash amplifying the impact of the hit to the 2.5th power. On top of that, Gojo was operating at roughly 120% of his potential, further enhancing his overall performance and allowing him to recover through RCT much faster than the regeneration Agito was providing Sukuna.

[Scan 11]

And unlike Yuji, whose physical performance is naturally exceptional because of his unique body, Megumi’s body doesn't impose the same kind of physical limitation on Sukuna. So what exactly is so impressive about Gojo beating up a heavily restricted Sukuna while Gojo himself was stacking Black Flash boosts?

[Scan 12]

5. "Mahoraga was Sukuna’s only win condition, and how convenient that he had the Ten Shadows"

I’m not going to dig deep into this one since I already made a separate post about it. Link’s here ->

https://www.reddit.com/r/JujutsuPowerScalers/s/N7HYiyg0tO

Short version: Sukuna was deliberately holding back because he wanted Mahoraga to adapt. During the Domain clashes, that meant giving up Domain Amplification and taking damage he could’ve otherwise mitigated. And Mahoraga’s adaptation itself was still using Sukuna’s resources, meaning he couldn’t simply fight at his full physical output while maintaining it. That matters because output directly affects his physical performance, so maintaining Mahoraga’s adaptation effectively reduced his physical performance. That’s why Sukuna was getting overpowered by Gojo in the moments where he wasn’t using DA. He was basically choosing to take this handicap from Mahoraga’s adaptation rather than interrupt it with DA everytime. And that extra damage is exactly what eventually caused his Domain to collapse faster.

[Scan 13]

By the end of the fourth clash, Sukuna suffered from both technique burnout and serious injuries to his face and body. Because of this, he had to heal his physical wounds first before restoring his burnout technique. This recovery process caused the infamous 0.01-second delay, which ultimately forced him into the same desperate state as Gojo.

Remove that delay and the whole sequence changes. Gojo dies against a fresh Sukuna whose Malevolent Shrine never got forced to collapse at the three-minute mark.

6. "Sukuna couldn’t have summoned Mahoraga because Unlimited Void doesn’t let you think!"

No, the opposite is true. We already have examples of beings affected by Unlimited Void still being able to think. Jogo is the clearest case, and Sukuna himself shows it later. Throughout the manga UV is mainly described as flooding the target with information and stopping them from moving, not as completely shutting off consciousness.

This is where people start turning Gege’s comments into absolute laws. They claim Sukuna thinking the Mahoraga ritual and summoning it internally is impossible, even though the author himself pointed out the difference between humans and cursed spirits -> brain structure. Sukuna is classified as a human, but the series repeatedly shows that sorcerers’ brains work differently from normal people’s. That distinction matters when talking about how UV affects them.

The manga even gives a pretty clear indication. After the first 0.01-second exposure to UV, Sukuna was still able to fight for around 2 minutes and 40 seconds before his Domain collapsed. Then he got hit by UV again for several pages, which was a much longer exposure. In other words, he recovered from that initial hit a lot faster than the cursed spirits did in Shibuya. (There’s also a time skip between Gojo’s punch to the chest and the Domain collapsing.)

[Scan 14]

7. "UV should have affected every part of Sukuna’s brain equally"

Very short one. Why exactly would flooding the brain with infinite information mean that every single part of it has to be damaged equally? Nothing in the manga says that. In fact, Gojo himself suggests the damage was focused on the area related to barrier techniques, which is why Sukuna could still use Domain Amplification.

[Scan 15]

8. "If Megumi’s body wasn’t involved, Gojo would’ve just used Hollow Purple and killed Sukuna"

Yes, the plan was to save Megumi, but Gojo himself made it clear he wasn’t going to hold back against Sukuna. After the fifth Domain clash he even says he wants to leave Sukuna in a condition worse than Yuji after the detention center, basically on the brink of death. So where does this idea that Gojo was secretly holding back even come from?

This is also where the “why didn’t Gojo just use Hollow Purple?” argument falls apart. Their actual objective was still to save Megumi, so obviously Gojo couldn’t just "obliterate" Sukuna without considering what that would do to the body.

But even if we completely ignore that and assume Gojo is going for the kill, there’s still no guarantee Purple ends the fight. While Gojo is casting it, Sukuna can simply summon Mahoraga the same way he did in the manga, break the Domain, and send Gojo into burnout. Gojo isn’t getting a Purple off in that short window, especially not a fully chanted one.

And even if we give the hypothetical where Gojo somehow lands it, Sukuna still has options. We’ve already seen him survive Purple through reinforcement. He could also use Domain Amplification to mitigate the damage. Body reinforcement doesn’t require movements either, so even while standing still Sukuna could still think -> reinforce his torso, and tank it (not without consequences, but still).

There’s another possibility too: Sukuna could potentially drop into the shadows under himself and avoid the hit entirely. He’s shown shadow movement multiple times, and unlike Gojo’s teleportation, no limitations on it have ever been stated. So that option is still on the table.

[Scan 16]

9. "How convenient that Sukuna could summon Mahoraga after being knocked unconscious"

This one should be pretty simple.

Sukuna didn’t necessarily have to recite the summoning incantation while unconscious. In chapter 230 we see him hide Mahoraga in his shadow and keep carrying it around while fighting. Then Gojo knocks him out, and Mahoraga comes out of the shadows and interrupts him.

So instead of immediately screaming “plot save,” there are a couple of perfectly reasonable explanations.

Mahoraga is later shown acting as an essentially autonomous shikigami. Sukuna gives it commands, but he doesn’t micromanage every single movement like a puppet. It could have simply emerged on its own once Sukuna was down. Or Sukuna could have given it a standing order beforehand.

Either way, it’s not some miraculous unconscious summoning.

[Scan 17]

10. “Sukuna pulled a binding vow out of nowhere to instantly cast WCS without his hands!”

You can already tell the person making this argument doesn’t really understand how the technique was obtained in the first place.

Sukuna didn’t randomly invent World Cutting Slash. Mahoraga showed him a model for bypassing Infinity, and Sukuna replicated it through his own understanding of jujutsu. We’ve already seen him reproduce techniques or applications through his own interpretation. In chapter 212 he turned his finger into a cursed object in a way comparable to Kenjaku’s method, just using his own approach.

The idea that expanding the technique’s target is somehow unprecedented also isn’t convincing. The manga already showed techniques being extended beyond their normal application: Naoya with Projection Sorcery in chapter 193, and Nanami way back in chapter 23.

So the argument basically boils down to “I don’t remember Sukuna using this before, therefore binding vow asspull.” That’s the same logic people used when they claimed Hollow Wicker Basket was an asspull simply because we hadn’t seen it yet.

Then we get to chapter 255, where the actual conditions of the binding vow are explained. Nowhere does it say anything about an instantaneous slash. It also doesn't say Sukuna suddenly gained the ability to cast WCS without any hand sign.

And Gege specifically emphasizes that Sukuna only had one hand left at this point. That leaves open the obvious possibility that Sukuna could still use his remaining hand to direct the WCS toward Gojo. The binding vow then imposed additional requirements on all subsequent uses: he would have to DIRECT THE SLASH WITH HIS HAND, form the Enmaten sign, and chant.

Gojo may simply not have considered Sukuna’s hand movement a serious threat. We’ve already seen Sukuna point his finger at Gojo before launching a regular Dismantle in chapter 224. So if Gojo noticed the remaining hand being directed toward him, he had every reason to assume Infinity would stop the slash as usual.

[Scan 18]

When Gojo’s death is explained, nothing establishes that the slash itself is instantaneous. It still has trajectory and speed. What changed was the target, allowing it to bypass Infinity. Gege’s own comments also point more toward Gojo having lowered his guard than some magical “Six Eyes forgot to work” situation.

And this is where people massively overhype the Six Eyes. They aren’t precognition. They don’t let Gojo see the future, and there’s no rule that they give him some reaction amp that guarantees he dodges everything he perceives. At most he could sense the technique activating (spark) and its CE signature. That doesn’t automatically tell him "this particular slash has changed," especially when Sukuna had already used regular slashes against him.

Gojo could register the attack and simply not treat it as a real threat because Infinity was still up. We’ve even seen him react to Sukuna’s ranged slash before, so the attack itself isn’t some inherently unperceivable phenomenon. Seeing an activation and understanding that its properties have fundamentally changed are two different things.

[Scan 19]

Conclusion

In the end, I don’t see a single one of these moments that actually requires “plot armor” to explain. Purple can be survived through reinforcement, Unlimited Void doesn’t completely erase the ability to think, Mahoraga’s appearances have plausible explanations, and WCS wasn’t some random and instantaneous shit.

You don’t have to argue that Sukuna was stronger than Gojo just to reject the plot-armor narrative. The manga already gives enough mechanics and context to explain how Sukuna survived and won.

>!Ah, ah... shh... i-i-it's Bumanai 🔥❤️‍🩹🌺🌹❗💯💯🙏!<

A breakdown of Gojo’s “teleportation”, how it relates to Blue, what conditions it may require, and why not every instance of Gojo’s instant movement should be treated as teleportation.

The main point of this post is to show that Gojo couldn’t just reliably escape Sukuna’s domain, especially while being pressured by both Sukuna’s attacks and the domain itself. I also don’t think Sukuna would just let Gojo calmly do the signs on the ground so he could teleport away. And some people treat the moment where Gojo suddenly grabbed Sukuna as a teleport, when it was just Blue pulling him in.

1. Sukuna’s experience & muscle memory

Megumi’s body was used by Sukuna extensively and at an extremely high level. Sukuna spent a long time fighting through it, pushing both Ten Shadows and the body’s physical capabilities to their limits. Even after transforming into his true form, Sukuna still retained Megumi’s body.

This gives Megumi a reasonable basis for potentially retaining some of the experience and muscle memory gained during the possession. With enough training, that could translate into significantly better CE control and efficiency. In practice, this would show up as stronger body reinforcement (boosting durability and physical stats) and a higher maximum output (which can be reasonably explained by the fact that Sukuna forcibly pushed and released large volumes of CE through Megumi’s body -> this process effectively reconstructed and permanently widened Megumi's CE pathways). This would also raise his overall physical characteristics and the power of his techniques. That, in turn, could allow Megumi’s shikigami to reach the same kind of strength Sukuna achieved with them.

[Scan 1]

2. Barrier Techniques

Megumi already had the foundation for a Domain, and with prolonged training he could potentially refine his barrier skills to a very high level. We saw with Yuta that barrier mastery can improve drastically through training, so Megumi could learn to manipulate his Domain’s conditions -> open or closed barriers, changing the barrier’s properties, adjusting its radius.

He could also potentially master Hollow Wicker Basket, giving him a reliable way to neutralize sure-hits. Even though Domain Amplification isn’t strictly a barrier technique, it’s still worth mentioning. It would likely be easier for Megumi to learn, and it would add another layer of versatility: sacrificing his CT to neutralize an opponent’s technique while also boosting his own CE output both during and outside of domain clashes.

[Scan 2]

3. RCT

Yuji was able to learn RCT through the body swap with Yuta, so the same could potentially apply to Megumi. On top of that, Megumi would likely have better control over it, since Sukuna was able to restore a burnt-out technique and overall showed a high level of RCT execution. Add Megumi’s natural resistance to poisons as Sukuna’s vessel, and it becomes another solid advantage.

[Scans 3-4]

4. Ten Shadows mastery

This is where things get crazy. Megumi could potentially make use of Sukuna’s experience with Ten Shadows, including more efficient combinations (for example, big Nue with the snake’s tail, or Agito). He could learn to use the shikigami’s abilities without fully summoning them, and summon them by chanting the incantation in his mind the same way Sukuna did. He’d also have a realistic path toward creating Agito and eventually taming Mahoraga cuz he already saw its weaknesses, and under DE he could use his full arsenal to try and subdue it. In the end he could even put the adaptation wheel on himself.

Additionally, Megumi could adopt Sukuna’s method of not giving shikigami fully stable forms. This expands their effective range and makes them much harder to completely destroy. He could use this approach situationally, for example for reconnaissance or prolonged pressure. However, fully compensating for the loss of independent action and offensive power the way Sukuna did would be difficult, since Megumi’s cursed energy volume and output are still lower.

[Scan 5-6]

5. Shrine

Yuji eventually awakened Shrine after carrying Sukuna for an extended period, so there’s at least precedent for Sukuna’s vessel developing access to his innate technique.

If Megumi were to awaken Shrine as well, his potential arsenal could include Dismantle, Cleave, and Fuga, along with the possibility of eventually learning World Cutting Slash. The latter is obviously much more speculative, but Sukuna repeatedly used WCS while possessing Megumi’s body, meaning Megumi had prolonged exposure to both the technique and its activation process.

[Scan 7-8]

6. A Completed Chimera Shadow Garden

A fully realized CSG would massively increase Megumi’s pressure. In canon the incomplete version already pushes the Ten Shadows Technique to 120% of its potential. A completed Domain should keep (or even improve) that boost while adding a proper barrier and sure-hit.

The opponent would still have to constantly reinforce their legs with CE just to avoid sinking into the shadows. Meanwhile Megumi could spam amplified Ten Shadows techniques -> summon multiple shikigami, create clones, and attack through the shadows themselves. With sufficiently advanced barrier manipulation, he could potentially choose which technique to imbue into the Domain’s sure-hit at the moment of activation, similar to how Kenjaku selects from his available cursed techniques. Rather than switching mid-combat, he would decide before each expansion whether to use a Ten Shadows-based sure-hit or guaranteed Dismantle/Cleave from Shrine, depending on the situation.

If he managed to integrate Sukuna’s slashes into the sure-hit, things get even more ridiculous. He could run an open Domain with a much larger radius and set conditions that prevent non-living matter from freely entering or leaving, letting him continuously shred everything inside with Dismantle/Cleave. After preparing the environment through Shrine, he could then finish with Fuga from his hands, similar to how Sukuna uses it with Malevolent Shrine.

As for the weight issue, in canon any heavy objects dropped into the Domain become a burden on the user. A properly trained Megumi with Sukuna’s experience, better CE control and stronger body reinforcement would handle that drawback far better than the version we saw in the Culling Game.

[Scan 9]

Overall, CSG in this Megumi’s hands would be significantly more dangerous and stable than what we saw in canon.

Conclusion

I don’t know about you, but a Megumi with all of the above would be a completely different beast. With Sukuna’s experience and muscle memory, improved CE efficiency and output, solid RCT, advanced barrier techniques, a much more complete CSG, and proper mastery of Ten Shadows (including the potential for Agito and even Mahoraga), he would comfortably sit in the high elite / low top tier.

In my view, this version of Megumi would be able to beat Yuta and go easily toe-to-toe with the other special grades. With the right conditions, he could even push Gojo or Sukuna to an extreme diff and potentially take the win, especially with WCS giving him a genuine win condition against both of them, alongside his other abilities and Sukuna's experience.

>!As he should. Bro is the GOAT 🔥!<

Not bait. Just takes I genuinely think are terrible

If your answer is yes, wouldn’t that also imply that Rengoku was equal to compass amped Akaza, who can reasonably be argued to scale around/above Marked Giyu? In other words, would that mean Rengoku was already on the level of a marked Hashira who had also completed the Hashira Training?

The timeframe between Mugen Train and Infinity Castle also isn’t very large, so it’s hard to argue that Akaza became significantly stronger in that short period.

I’m not trying to push any agenda here. But if they truly were equals, one possible explanation for why Rengoku burned out so quickly is that fighting an opponent on your own level is just far more exhausting than overwhelming a weaker one.

Yuta has some of the best barrier technique feats in the series. After training while body-swapped with Gojo and watching his fight against Sukuna, he significantly improved. He’s shown the ability to change his domain’s coordinates, alter both the internal and external conditions of the barrier, adjust its size, and even exclude specific targets from the sure-hit effect. These are advanced applications that very few sorcerers can pull off, which puts Yuta among the most skilled barrier users we’ve seen.

[Scan 1]

As for Kenjaku, he was straight-up stated to be second only to Tengen(or equal) in barrier techniques. That puts him in a similar tier. He could almost certainly use something like a synchronized filter, adjust the radius, and even close an open domain if he wanted to(like Sukuna). And since he already has an open domain himself, that would also give him a strong advantage in breaking domains that rely on barriers.

[Scan 2]

For this hypothetical, only Rika is removed. Yuta still has his own immense CE reserves (though they're still below Sukuna's) and his katana.

Rika is treated purely as Yuta's shikigami. She normally acts as his combat partner and serves as a storage for CE, cursed tools, and copied techniques. While Copy is performed through Rika, this scenario does not remove Yuta's innate technique. He will still be able to use copied techniques inside his Domain Expansion, just as he did before. The only thing he loses is Rika herself and some techniques.

Scenario:

Naoya has:

—RCT

—DE

—Technique Extension that allows him to use Projection Sorcery in the air

—A cursed tool (something like a dagger)

Assume he is fully capable of using these abilities effectively. Everyone is in character and has standard knowledge. How far does he get through the Sendai Colony?

Alright, let’s settle this properly.

To keep things fair, we’ll assume both Gojo and Sukuna go into the fight completely blind. No prior knowledge, no prep, both going all-out from the jump.

People keep saying Gojo would just overwhelm Sukuna before the domain clashes even start. That really doesn’t line up with what we actually saw.

1. Domain Amplification Was Sukuna’s Greatest Asset

Yeah, Meguna is physically weaker than Gojo. But Domain Amplification (DA) completely changes the close-quarters dynamic. Sukuna can’t use Cleave or Dismantle while it’s active, sure, but in exchange he can just walk through Infinity and heavily reduce how effective Gojo’s techniques are. Infinity stops being this untouchable wall, Blue loses a ton of its control, and Red becomes way less threatening. Suddenly it’s a straight H2H fight instead of an impossible matchup. That’s exactly why Sukuna leaned on DA whenever Mahoraga’s adaptation wasn’t the priority.

[Scan 1]

Something people sleep on is that DA seems to have adjustable output. Every cursed technique has output, and DA shouldn’t be any different. Chapter 224 shows this pretty clearly. At first Sukuna can trade blows with Gojo fine, but when he actually tries to push through Infinity, he can’t. Reason’s simple: Gojo boosted Infinity’s output the same way he did in Shibuya, making it harder for DA to neutralize.

Then literally moments later Sukuna is bypassing Infinity again and noticeably weakening Blue’s attraction. Most natural explanation? He just raised the output of his DA to match Gojo’s boosted Infinity. Explains why Infinity suddenly becomes manageable again without Gojo changing anything on his end.

[Scan 2]

Some people argue Gojo could’ve just ended it with Red or Hollow Purple before any of this mattered.

Red isn’t that convincing against someone constantly running DA. Sukuna tanks a point-blank Red to the face, gets blasted straight through the center of Malevolent Shrine, and the shrine is still standing right after. Later he takes another Red during the fourth domain clash (the facial burns point to it pretty hard), then another point-blank Red after the domain battles, and then one more from behind. Yeah, the later ones weren’t full output, but the point still stands: Red just isn’t a reliable fight-ender against a Sukuna who’s actively maintaining DA.

[Scan 3]

Purple isn’t much better.

Even though Meguna is weaker physically, he’s still more than capable of constantly pressuring Gojo up close. On top of that, Sukuna can sense the “spark” before big techniques go off. So Gojo can’t just stand there, do the hand signs, and fire a standard Hollow Purple without giving Sukuna a window to interrupt.

That’s probably why Gojo ended up using the improvised omnidirectional HP. Not necessarily faster than the normal one, but way harder to stop because it skipped the usual setup.

[Scan 4]

Point isn’t that Gojo’s techniques suddenly become useless. Point is that DA strips away the overwhelming advantage they normally give him. As long as Sukuna commits to DA, Gojo doesn’t have a clean or reliable win condition before the domain clashes even begin.

2. The Domain Clashes Were Decided by Mahoraga’s Adaptation

A lot of people say Sukuna only survived because of Mahoraga. I’d argue the opposite cuz Mahoraga is actually the reason he took so much damage in the first place.

After the first domain clash Sukuna committed to Mahoraga’s adaptation, but that came with a huge trade-off. Whenever he wanted the adaptation, he had to drop DA. Without it, Infinity couldn’t be neutralized anymore, Blue got way harder to deal with, and Red became a lot more dangerous. Basically Sukuna voluntarily gave up his best defensive tool for a long-term win condition. That decision is what let Gojo keep stacking damage during the following clashes.

By the third and fourth clashes Sukuna had already taken way more damage than he would have if he’d just stayed on DA the whole time. That accumulated damage is what eventually let Gojo destroy MS inside the three-minute window and that’s where the whole fight flips.

[Scan 5]

If Sukuna sticks to DA instead of chasing Mahoraga, he walks into those same domain clashes in much better shape. Less damage from Blue, less from Red, less punishment in close combat. Suddenly Gojo has a much harder time dealing enough damage to break Shrine before Unlimited Void collapses first. If Shrine doesn’t go down within those three minutes, UV gets destroyed again, forcing Gojo to keep restoring his burnt-out technique. The brain damage keeps piling up on Gojo’s side exactly like in the manga and the only difference is Sukuna never reaches the same level of physical damage.

[Scan 6]

In the original fight Sukuna got delayed by roughly 0.01 seconds after being heavily damaged, which gave Gojo the opening for UV. From that point both of them were dealing with the same brain burnout and the domain battle was basically over. Remove that accumulated damage and that opening probably never shows up.

[Scan 7]

That’s why I don’t think Mahoraga was Sukuna’s only (or even best) win condition. Constantly maintaining DA and forcing repeated domain clashes looks like the safer play. Instead of sacrificing defense for adaptation, Sukuna minimizes the damage he takes while steadily pushing Gojo toward the limit of repeatedly restoring his burnt-out technique.

And if we’re talking True Form Sukuna this strategy gets even stronger. With no reason to chase Mahoraga’s adaptation he can keep DA up the entire fight while fully using his superior body, four arms and hand signs. Now Gojo is fighting someone who’s fully locked in on winning every single domain clash.

By this point Gojo has already lost the ability to expand UV. His RCT and overall output have dropped considerably. Sukuna’s next move is clear: close the barrier of MS and finish Gojo inside it. A closed barrier removes Gojo’s easiest escape options and forces him to stay inside the domain.

[Scan 8]

Some people say Gojo could just teleport out. But Gege himself said Gojo’s teleportation only works under specific conditions, and the series never shows him teleporting out of a closed domain. Gojo even admitted once he couldn’t simply teleport to Yuji because he was too far away and fired HP instead. That alone shows his teleportation isn’t some unrestricted “get out of jail free” card. Assuming he could just casually escape a closed Shrine while getting hit by its sure-hit and Sukuna’s own attacks the whole time is absurd.

[Scan 9]

Even if Gojo falls back on Falling Blossom Emotion to survive the sure-hit, that only deals with the domain itself. It does nothing to stop a fresh Sukuna from actively pressuring him in close combat with DA. We already saw against Dagon that Falling Blossom Emotion can eventually get overwhelmed through continuous pressure. A healthy Sukuna running DA would be in an even better position to do exactly that. At that point it just becomes a matter of time before Gojo gets overwhelmed.

[Scan 10]

3. Fuga Was Another Legitimate Win Condition

Even if someone rejects everything above, Sukuna still had another legitimate way to end the fight: Fuga.

Important reminder. We’re working under the assumption that both fighters are completely blind to each other’s abilities. Gojo has no idea that Sukuna’s domain is the open-barrier type, and he definitely doesn’t know about Fuga.

In canon, right after the first domain clash, Sukuna’s plan was to expand Malevolent Shrine’s range. That already makes perfect sense if he intended to use Fuga. He only dropped the idea because Gojo started changing the barrier conditions. Chapter 259 straight up explains why Sukuna sealed the Flame Arrow: the radius wasn’t sufficient for the flame to build proper power. He was forced to keep reducing the range and constantly adjusting his domain conditions. Nowhere does it say Gojo could just interrupt or swat Fuga away.

[Scan 11]

And Fuga itself isn’t some slow technique either. There’s no real reason to treat it like a move Gojo could casually interrupt mid-cast. Once Sukuna releases the flames, they only need to ignite the pulverized debris already filling the domain. That’s what triggers the chain reaction. So how exactly is Gojo supposed to interrupt it? The flames are literally coming straight from Sukuna’s hand. Unless you argue that shaping the fire into an arrow is some mandatory activation requirement, there’s no reason to assume that visual flourish is what makes the technique work. The long dramatic charge-up in the anime is just for presentation.

[Scan 12]

Here’s the key point. Gojo only began modifying his barrier after he understood the nature of Sukuna’s domain. In the first domain clash itself, nothing suggests he would immediately pull out the basketball domain or any similar adjustment. He simply didn’t have the information yet.

[Scan 13]

Scenario A (after the first domain clash)

Sukuna expands the radius and applies the same type of filter he used in chapter 259: non-CE objects cannot enter or leave, but living beings with cursed energy still can.

[Scan 14]

Gojo has no way of knowing this filter exists. While Shrine is actively shredding him, Sukuna presses with H2H attacks and slashes on top of it. Then Fuga detonates as a chain reaction across the entire domain.

Some people will say Gojo could just raise his output and tank it the same way Hakari resisted Kashimo’s electricity. That comparison doesn’t really hold. Kashimo’s trait is a concentrated lightning attack. Furnace is a thermobaric explosion that uses the entire accumulated debris as fuel and spreads as a chain reaction. It’s a completely different type of force. Expecting Gojo to just tank that while simultaneously getting carved up by the domain and Sukuna is extremely optimistic. In this scenario he turns into charcoal.

[Scan 15]

And no, teleporting out isn’t a clean answer either. Especially while you’re being continuously shredded.

Scenario B (later in the fight)

This is the version that lines up with the earlier scaling. After repeated domain clashes where Sukuna stayed on DA, Gojo is already heavily drained. His output and RCT are significantly reduced. At this point Sukuna can simply close the barrier entirely and expand the radius. No special filter needed, because the barrier is fully closed, forcing all the dust and debris to stay trapped inside the domain.

With weakened output and RCT, Gojo is not tanking a fully charged Furnace to the face 😹. At best he ends up in catastrophic condition. At worst he dies on the spot.

Also, using Choso as proof that someone can survive Furnace is pretty flawed. Choso only lasted as long as he did because of a Binding Vow that sacrificed his own life. That’s not a standard durability feat.

[Scan 16]

Fuga isn’t some last-resort gimmick. It’s a legitimate finishing tool that becomes available as soon as Sukuna stabilizes the domain conditions. Something he was already planning to do from the very beginning.

Conclusion

The idea that "Sukuna only won because of Mahoraga" falls apart once you actually look at the mechanics of the fight. Domain Amplification, repeated domain clashes, and even Furnace all provide legitimate paths to victory. Mahoraga wasn't a necessity, it was simply Sukuna's chosen strategy.

This post isn't about glazing Naoya. It's about reading what Gege actually wrote instead of scaling every blitz to MHS+/FTL. Before anyone brings it up, yep, Dabura is already established as the fastest character there, and nothing in this post argues otherwise. This thread is strictly about the original JJK manga.

The manga consistently treats Cursed Spirit Naoya as the only character whose speed explicitly reaches Mach 3, while nearly every argument for higher speeds relies on assumptions rather than direct statements. I'll also be addressing the most common counterarguments used to push the verse above Mach 3 and explain why I don't think they hold up.

1. Naoya is the only confirmed Mach 3 character

Naoya's entire cursed spirit evolution revolves around acceleration. He doesn't instantly move at Mach 3; he repeatedly activates Projection Sorcery, builds momentum, and only then reaches that speed. Gege literally makes this the climax of his transformation.

[Scan 1]

So I'm supposed to believe Gege carefully wrote an entire power progression around gradually reaching Mach 3, only for half the cast to casually perform the same level of movement in a single burst without a single statement or any narrative emphasis? That completely undermines Naoya's entire gimmick.

2. Gege himself singles Naoya out as the speed benchmark

The Volume 22 extras reinforce this even further. Gege explicitly states that one of the things he wanted to do with Naoya this time was depict a sonic boom by having him shatter the surrounding glass. In other words, the Mach 3 sequence wasn't just a random number, it was a deliberate showcase of Naoya's speed.

[Scan 2]

He also explains that maintaining projection sorcery allows Naoya's speed to continuously build, eventually reaching its peak. Before becoming a Cursed Spirit, Naoya had already pushed his human body to subsonic speeds, while his cursed spirit evolution allowed him to accelerate even further until reaching Mach 3.

[Scan 3]

If characters like Toji, Maki, Sukuna or Mahoraga were already comfortably operating above Mach 3, then Gege's emphasis on Naoya's acceleration, sonic boom, and breaking the sound barrier loses much of its narrative significance. Naoya's entire evolution is built around achieving a speed that the story treats as exceptional, not ordinary.

3. "Fastest" isn't empty hype

People dismiss Naobito's title by saying he was only "considered" the fastest. But if that title meant nothing, why would Gege immediately follow it with Naoya's evolution centered around surpassing previous speed limits? The narrative consistently treats Projection Sorcery as the pinnacle of movement speed.

[Scan 4]

People also like to point out that Gojo is excluded from Naobito's title. But that doesn't contradict anything. Gojo's exceptional mobility comes from blue, which allows him to instantly reposition himself over long distances => teleportation isn't the same thing as raw movement speed.

[Scan 5]

4. Mahoraga doesn't prove massively hypersonic scaling

One of the most common arguments is that Shinjuku Mahoraga is suddenly supersonic simply because nearby windows shatter. That's an enormous leap in logic. Broken windows alone are not evidence of a sonic boom.

[Scan 6]

It also ignores the conservation of momentum. The damage caused by a moving object depends on the momentum it carries. Simply pointing to shattered windows without demonstrating that Mahoraga himself produced a sonic boom doesn't prove Mach-level movement. Environmental destruction by itself isn't a speed feat.

Mahoraga's best clean speed feat remains forcing 16F Sukuna to block at close range. That's impressive, but it doesn't require a Mach 3+ interpretation.

[Scan 7]

5. Maki dodging Naoya doesn't make her Mach 3

This argument gets repeated constantly. Dodging an attack is not the same as matching the attack's travel speed. Maki sidesteps Naoya through prediction, aim-dodging, and reading his movements rather than outrunning him. By the time Naoya changes direction or loses acceleration, avoiding his path doesn't suddenly scale her to his maximum speed. Reaction speed and movement speed are not the same thing.

[Scan 8]

This is also consistent with Maki's second awakening. By then, Maki had already reached physical parity with Toji. Her second awakening focused on enhancing her perception, senses, and ability to read her surroundings, not her raw movement speed. Only after Naoya's defeat does the narrator explicitly establish Maki and Toji as equals. So if you're claiming this perception upgrade suddenly pushed Maki (and by extension Toji) beyond Human Naoya's established subsonic speed, that's a burden of proof you have to meet, not one I have to massively disprove.

6. The 24 FPS feat is misunderstood

People use Maki's "immunity" to Projection Sorcery as proof that she massively outscales Naoya. But resisting the freezing effect simply means she can properly move within the 24-frame rule. It is not a statement that she can replicate Naoya's raw movement speed. If it doesn't even prove she scales to Human Naoya's subsonic speed, then claiming it automatically puts her on the level of his fully accelerated Mach 3 state is an even bigger stretch.

[Scan 9]

7. The Toji arguments don't prove anything

Two of the most common speed arguments revolve around Toji, yet neither actually proves he scales above Naoya.

First, Toji never blitzed Young Gojo through raw speed. His victory relied on preparation, stealth, Gojo being exhausted after keeping Limitless active for days and the fact that Toji has no cursed energy to detect. Even after Toji's initial burst, an exhausted Gojo was still able to notice and react to him😔

[Scan 10]

Likewise, the claim that "Toji is faster than 3F Sukuna" is heavily overstated. Megumi's initial remark was made while he was exhausted and overwhelmed by Toji's physical ability. Despite that, he consistently reacted to Toji throughout the fight and later even states that Toji is equal to the Sukuna he encountered back then, not faster.

[Scan 11]

Another commonly cited feat is Toji running across water. However, this isn't evidence of Mach 1 or higher. Running on water depends on factors like contact time, force, weight distribution, and momentum, not on breaking the sound barrier.

[Scan 12]

8. Sukuna vs Choso doesn't prove supersonic movement

A common argument for supersonic Sukuna comes from Choso's Piercing Blood. However, this feat is often overstated. Sukuna dodges Piercing Blood, but by the time Choso realizes he's no longer there, the projectile has already traveled a considerable distance. Sukuna certainly blitzes Choso, but the manga never explicitly shows him physically outrunning Piercing Blood itself.

More importantly, the scene lacks the usual emphasis Gege gives to sound-barrier-breaking movement. There's no sonic boom, no explicit indication of breaking the sound barrier, and no notable onomatopoeia highlighting such a feat. That's especially odd considering Choso spent plenty of time charging the attack.

[Scan 13]

Some also argue that Choso must have supersonic reactions because Piercing Blood is supersonic. That conclusion doesn't necessarily follow. By the time Choso realizes Sukuna has disappeared, Piercing Blood has already traveled a considerable distance. That's very different from reacting to a point-blank Mach attack. It also clashes with other feats, where Choso is overwhelmed by a not fully accelerated Naoya during the Execution Arc.

[Scan 14]

9. Kashimo doesn't suddenly make Sukuna massively faster

Kashimo is another character whose feats are frequently exaggerated.

People often point to True Form Sukuna blocking Kashimo's attacks as proof of massively hypersonic movement. The problem is that they're mixing combat speed with movement speed. Blocking an incoming strike with your arms doesn't automatically mean your entire body can move at that same speed.

[Scan 15]

On top of that, Kashimo's abilities grant him extraordinary perception through his electrical properties, yet he still struggles to keep up with Sukuna's close-range attacks. Most of his successful reactions happen at the last possible moment while desperately defending himself, not because he's casually matching Sukuna's speed.

[Scan 16]

Even if you argue that True Form Sukuna is significantly faster than his previous incarnations, that doesn't automatically scale every earlier version into the same speed tier. There's a clear distinction between Shibuya Sukuna, the heavily weakened post Gojo Meguna, and his fully incarnated body. Treating them as if they all possess identical speed ignores the context of each stage.

Conclusion

Until Gege provides equally explicit evidence for another character, Cursed Spirit Naoya remains the benchmark for raw movement speed in the original JJK.