"Wait," Shohei muttered, holding out his hands. "Don't hurt her."

"It's funny you think you can boss me around," Mahito sighs with a polite chuckle, flexing his fingers around Eiko's neck. "Toss that floating little knife away and shut off your cursed energy while you're at it."

Shohei looked to Iguana Talon suspended at his side and tossed it to Mahito's bare feet. He also smothered his cursed energy as small as it would go, running all his, Gojo, and Itadori's energy training through his mind. Mahito did not seem to notice Shohei's cursed energy. The energy was ready to explode back to its full strength if Mahito tried anything.

Mahito stood behind Sho's mother several paces outside the storage vault, looking in at Shohei who was beside Hanami at the far end. Mahito was naked without his shawl and shoes, but had his furry leg covering himself. Shohei pondered if he could even make the leap to disarm Mahito with or without his cursed energy, but even if he could he didn't feel comfortable risking his mother's life.

"I caught this woman lingering behind, probably to see if you were alright," Mahito said, looking to the woman in his hand and back to Shohei. "Now isn't that so sweet. A helpless sheep like her sticking around as if she could do something to help. That's such a motherly thing to do, no? She wouldn't happen to be your mother, would she?"

Shohei kept his face the same as before Mahito started goading him, determined to not show weakness or a reaction like last time. His mother's life was on the line.

"I'm not so familiar with family ties and concepts, but surely no measly aunt or distant relative would risk their little lives to assure your well being," Mahito rationalized. "I'll tell you what. Getting out of that twisting force was a doozy, but luckily for me I can change my body. I condensed all my cursed energy into my head, leaving my body behind as a husk and eventually let the technique tear me apart. I could then regenerate from my head and catch this slippery fish." The curse jostled the woman like they were friends roughhousing.

"Congratulations," Shohei spat, impatient with the deranged curse. Shohei couldn't stand conversation with Mahito. He was infinitely more disturbing than Hanami, whom Shohei could have once chatted with for hours. Mahito's joyful demeanor was increasingly intimidating. "Let her go and I'll do whatever you say."

"Wow," Mahito gawked. "All you humans are such bad liars. That must mean she really is your mother if you're gonna lie through your teeth like that. How much do you value human life, and why?"

"What?" Shohei muttered, confused by the question.

"Answer the question," Mahito demanded, leaning into Eiko and squeezing her throat.

Eiko yelped and Shohei quickly stumbled, "I value it a lot!" Mahito rolled his hand for Shohei to elaborate and he continued. Shohei lowered his hands to ring out his shirt in anxiety and rocked on his heels as he thought of an answer.

"I was propped up on a pedestal at a young age by people I was supposed to call family. They put me in a position of power and on track for training to be great. All because I had a well known surname and a powerful technique I never wanted, I was stripped of my childhood," Shohei said, glancing at his mother, a little bitter at his own words.

"I had the smallest disregard for others and my own life because I had a small resentment toward everyone. I felt like I was wronged by people very close to me. Even after being straightened out by these two guys like my brothers, I had a small pocket of my heart to hold that bitterness. I would tap into it to draw out negative emotions for when I first began sorcery work. Even now I don't mind killing curse users or curses," Shohei said.

"That pocket was lessened and lessened when I came to Jujutsu High and was surrounded by friends my age. Not until recently did I discover what it was like to value the life of someone I had come to love intimately. That someone had a near death encounter with Hanami before I ever expressed my feelings to them. That scared me." Shohei locked eyes with his mother, the tension melting from her face as Shohei spoke.

"Other people have yet to express their love or potential for love to someone put in harm's way. I imagine the grief that would've plagued me or that plagues someone who never got to share their emotions as torture," Shohei said, speaking to his mother rather than Mahito. "That's why I feel the need to save lives. So love can be shown again and again between others," Shohei smiled at his mom, "or for the first time."

Silence of the room was shattered when Mahito, erupting in laughter, said, "You human's emotions are so cheap. When you sorcerers take the lives of us curses you feel nothing, or sometimes even disgust or pleasure. You condemn us curses for killing you, when you do the same. You hypocrites! We cursed share those intimate emotions between us all the same, so why should I care if I take a human life if you don't care at all!"

"Please," Shohei whispered to himself, scared of where Mahito was heading while his mom was at his disposal.

"Have you ever been tortured by that loss of love Shohei Gojo?" Mahito asked, suddenly calm and quiet.

"Please," Shohei whispered again. "No I haven't," Shohei replied. "Please don't hurt her."

"There's no real need for hostages," Mahito muttered, looking at Eiko as if she were a shiny bottle cap. "You can't hurt me, but I can hurt you." Mahito looked deep into Shohei's eyes as a flare of cursed energy swelled in his hand.

"Wait!" Shohei cried, leaping forward, too late.

Eiko Gojo was suddenly mutilated and deformed in Mahito's hand. Her skull swelled into an obtrusive bulb shape before she could cry out. The woman's limbs turned long and gangly, her skin turned a ghastly shade of purple, and her cursed energy twisted and resembled Mahito's in how it looked misshapen.

Shohei skidded in his tracks, stumbling onto his back and fleeing from the creature that was now his mother. Shohei looked around him for an escape from the woman and now truly saw the corpses of the humans he killed in the storage vault. They all must have been humans Mahito reshaped into curse like creatures. They bled red like humans rather than purple like curses.

"Aww," Mahito cooed. "Don't you love your mother anymore? Is it because she looks different?"

The former Eiko was stumbling towards Shohei with her long arms outstretched. She muttered senselessly, "L-l-l-l-l-l-l."

"I promise her brain was still intact for the whole transformation," Mahito assured. "It's an agonizing process of being twisted, torn, and shuffled back together. I'm sure she could use your support."

Shohei cried out, "No!" as he flung her aside and pinned her to the wall. He couldn't kill her. She was still alive. She was still his mother.

Mahito lunged upon Shohei who had one hand occupied pinning the woman. Shohei called Shooting Star into his hand to ward off Mahito with a swing, but Mahito back stepped the one handed swipe.

Mahito reeled back a punch, and as the strike was fully reared, Mahito's arm quadrupled in size. The club like fist rocketed forward, but Shohei performed a split and ducked the strike.

Shohei, his arm still up positioned to restrain his mother, swung his legs forward. Shohei released Shooting Star and performed a leg sweep on Mahito mixed with a breakdance flare move on his free hand.

Mahito's feet slipped from under him as his massive hand reverted to normal in his slow motion free fall. Shohei slipped to his feet with the flow spin and was looming over Mahito in a blur.

Shohei had Shooting Star back in his hand and was bringing it down with the lethality and force of a guillotine, hoping to maim Mahito worse than one. The kanabo crashed into Mahito's chest, bashing a hole open in his sternum, purple blood splattering onto himself and Shohei.

Despite having his chest split open by such a great bludgeoning force, Mahito was unphased, reaching out to grab Shohei's wrist with a manic glint in his eyes. When searching Mahito's eyes for any sign of suffering or pain, Shohei was shocked by the crazed look and withdrew his club.

Shohei leapt back a pace and was intercepted by Hanami, back on their feet. Shohei spun with his occupied hand dancing over his head to face his mother and Shooting Star swung towards Hanami. Hanami's gaping eye wounds hadn't even closed, but despite its diminished strength, Hanami parried the sloppy swing and counterattacked. Hanami released a meek combination of blows onto Shohei, stunning him briefly.

Mahito joined the fray, and suddenly pressured with a half strength Hanami, a perfectly lethal Mahito, and one arm indisposed, Shohei was forced to fully relinquish offensive control of Gravity Conductor.

"Gravity Conductor: Stockade," Shohei chanted, weaving a hand sign. A sudden downward force of gravity so strong Shohei couldn't move under it if he was fully reinforced pinned Eiko Gojo. Her long arms and bulbous head was smothered to the ground, unflinching.

Shohei ducked the punch from Hanami and leapt aside from Mahito's attempt on grabbing him. Shohei took off, exiting the storage vault and floated in the air.

Shohei attempted to gather his thoughts after being so shaken up. With his mother's mangled body out of sight, slowing his racing mind was slightly easier. Watching both Hanami and Mahito walk out of the vault, Shohei decided the first step to surviving this fight was to piece together Mahito's technique, preferably before he revealed it.

Shaping things was too simple of a technique, and it wasn't just anything Mahito changed. The curse had changed his body and the body of someone else, but nothing inanimate. Was it impossible, taxing, or too difficult to change something inanimate shape for the curse? The fleshy attack Body Repel Shohei dodged led him to believe it was mostly living flesh of others that was able to be changed, otherwise Mahito might have led the fight by changing the air or ground.

Shohei also gathered that if Mahito was the same type of curse like Hanami, one born from a fear from a natural force like the forest, due to his appearance he might be the fear of something like humans themselves. Techniques derived from such a fear could be very powerful, and would explain how he was able to change the appearance of Shohei's mother and the other molded humans and suddenly control them.

"You," Shohei muttered, his exposed eyes landing on Mahito as he stood beside Hanami on the ground. "You're a curse born from the fear of humans. You can change and control other people and somehow yourself. By touch specifically, since you want to get so close to me and changed my mother with your hand on her."

"So you admit she was your mother," Mahito cheered, clapping his hands like he figured out a crossword puzzle. "I knew it, but yes. You beat me to the punch. I am a curse born from the fear of humans, but my technique isn't so simple."

"Explain it," Shohei demanded, his gaze sharpening on the curse.

"Still so bold of you to command anything from us," Hanami scoffed, disappointed. Their eye wounds had closed, small stumps struggling to sprout further from their skull.

"No," Mahito assured, holding a hand out to Hanami. "You both are right. No child can force me to do anything, but you're not one to be taken lightly Shohei Gojo," the curse acknowledged.

"I don't want your recognition, you bastard," Shohei grunted, spitting at the curse. The spit soared through the air and landed on the patchwork curse's cheek.

"Who has that kind of accuracy?" Mahito gawked, wiping the spit from his face. Disgusted and amazed, but entirely unphased by Shohei's attempts to belittle and intimidate him.

"You will come to regret that," Hanami bellowed in their reserved voice, echoing through the night.

"You'll both regret stepping into my home tonight!" Shohei declared to the night.

"Do you want to hear my technique or not?" Mahito interjected, like a child waiting in line.

Shohei responded with silence, waiting for the curse to continue.

"It is called Idle Transfiguration," Mahito explained with a smile, getting his way. "Every being has a soul. Curse, human, and sorcerer. The soul correlates to the body, as the body does to the soul. I can see and reshape the soul at a touch, thus changing the body. For humans and sorcerers, it is rather lethal. For myself, I can heal my wounds as long as I have cursed energy, change my body to great degrees, and cannot be killed unless my soul can be seen and touched."

"That is more complicated than I thought," Shohei thought to himself, trying to commit the knowledge to memory. "He might as well be invincible with all that energy to reshape himself, but it's all his technique. He can get hit in a Domain, but he surely must have his own. He's as strong, if not stronger, than Hanami, who has their own Domain which I still haven't seen."

"Too much to handle pea brain?" Mahito chortled, examining Shohei in the air, silently in his thoughts.

Shohei did not respond and simply continued to think, "I can't have my Domain losing a clash or be overwhelmed after already being cast, and being stuck with less than half my reserves and only Simple Domains to deal with these two. Worst case scenario I lose a Domain clash, survive it till it lowers, and then the other curse raises their own. Then I'm a sitting duck."

Shohei examined Hanami's cursed energy reserves. After their exchange and that brutal attack on their eye trees, Hanami didn't have enough cursed energy left to cast many big attacks. However, they didn't need to rely on their own reserves due to their flower bud and the nature around them. Hanami saw first hand how little their Wooden Balls and Cursed Buds did too, so they wouldn't waste their energy on those anymore. They would prefer to cast a Domain or fight hand to hand with Shohei due to his lack of ranged attacks now and Mahito by their side to overwhelm him.

Mahito looked almost unphased. Shohei had to look deep into his well of energy to see that he had any impact on them at all. Shohei was finally more than an adequate fighter after the weekends spent with Gojo, but could he damage Mahito enough to burn away his reserves, let alone avoid being touched by his hands even once. He could tear away at his energy if he had access to Gravity Conductor attacks, but he couldn't bring himself to face his mother. Shohei would have to cast a Domain to beat Mahito.

This would be a battle of endurance, and Shohei couldn't burn away his energy by simultaneously using Gravity Conductor to pin his mother and Stygian Void to defend from the curses. Stygian Void could only absorb about two dozen attacks after Shohei hadn't had his reserves shaved off already, also assuming all the attacks aren't absurdly powerful like Maximum Techniques.

Gravity Conductor's Maximum Technique would assuredly kill either of the curses, but it wasn't worth wasting on Hanami, who was on their last leg. Shohei also had to wonder if he would have enough energy to defend himself from Hanami's Domain with his own if he used the technique on Mahito. Stygian Void's Maximum Technique is his trump card of trump cards, but he would only waste that if he was assuredly gonna die, and despite all his worries, Shohei still saw a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

A Domain was the answer to many of Shohei's problems, but before he resorted to it, he would fight tooth and nail. Shohei flung his arms outward, calling Shooting Star and Iguana Talon to him. The special-grade and second-grade cursed tools soared from the vault and flew to Shohei's hands. Shohei retired Iguana Talon in his belt sheath behind his back, and readied Shooting Star in both hands.

"Ready to stop staring at us like you're brain dead?" Mahito jabbed, readying himself with open palms and a competent stance.

"Come," Hanami merely said, taking a stance once again.

Shohei rocketed toward the curses, his kanabo streaking through the black night, accumulating energy till it was decorated with white flashes of power. Shohei was among the curses in a blink.

Shohei bashed Mahito with a swing, sending him tumbling across the courtyard, and kicked Hanami with a spinning kick. Hanami folded over from the momentum of the crash and swing.

Rather than take advantage of the close and open Hanami, Shohei pursued Mahito. Shohei trailed the still tumbling Mahito, Shooting Star looming over Shohei's head, gathering force. Shohei jetted over to Mahito, bringing down the club like a crashing waterfall. The impact exploded with cursed energy again.

Like being stuck from above before, Mahito reached out to snatch Shohei in hand. Shohei knew the weasel of a curse would seek this predictable counter attack. Shohei darted back to Hanami before Maito could finish his swipe.

Hanami back on their feet and guard raised, fell to the ground again with a devastating leg kick to the knee. The curse's knee contorted with a crunch, dislocated. Shohei had reinforced his kick with a burst of cursed energy to thoroughly cripple the curse before resuming his attack. Shohei zoomed back to Mahito, bashing his chin in with the accumulated club.

Shohei repeated his back and forth assault on each curse, one at a time. Shohei had shut off his reinforcement, conserving every drop of energy he could. He relied on Gravity Conductor to aid his speed and momentum in flying back and forth, turning to a blur as he bounced to and fro.

Shohei used the back and forth dash to gather significant energy for Shooting Star, reserving the club strikes for Mahito. Shohei reinforced his strikes the moment before contact with Hanami, chipping away at the curse, but sure to briefly stun it before returning to Mahihto to chip and stun him as well.

Hanami was scraping the bottom of the barrel of their cursed energy to try and defend from Shohei kicking it in the branch nubs and legs over and over. Shohei had finally made some progress in waning Mahito's reserves with his endless Shooting Star strikes, but all good things had to come to an end.

Mahito received a monstrous blow to the stomach and was left to his own devices with his chunky vomit while Shohei rushed to stomp on Hanami's ankle. Shohei failed to notice in his burst of speed that the chunks in the curse's bile had cursed energy signatures of their own, and when Shohei returned with another strike, Mahito scooped up several transfigured humans in hand and flung them at Shohei.

"What the…" Shohei gasped as he was enshrouded by unfolding masses of discolored flesh and agonized faces no longer even reminiscent of a human.

Shohei rushed the wide swing of Shooting Star and batted aside several humans, but he was swarmed by more, continuously reshaped from Mahito's puke. Shohei stumbled backwards further and further, but was mounted by no less than a dozen misshapen humans, but for all he could tell there were twice that number.

Shohei was beaten across the face, had his hair pulled, his arms torn at by claws or pulled askew, and legs pulled from under him. No strike was powerful enough to even stun Shohei, but the force of being pulled and pushed every which way overwhelmed him.

"I have to get out of this," Shohei thought, knowing Mahito's hand could plunge in the dog pile at any moment.

Shohei pulled his legs from whatever pair of claws were restraining them and stomped at what direction he thought was downard. With his feet planted on something as solid as the ground he thrust himself to sit forward, throwing two or three bodies askew.

Now in a manageable position, Shohei released Shooting Star and pulled out Iguana Talon. He hacked and slashed wildly until adequate red blood painted the blade. Shohei blasted upward from the pile and enshrouded himself with his Gravity Field. Immediately, Shohei crashed down from the sky, Gravity Field spinning at its maximum speed around his body.

Shohei steeled his resolve as he fought amongst the clamoring bodies of the transfigured humans muttering indistinct cries of nonsense, pleads for help, or requests of mercy/death. Shohei closed his ears to the cries and slashed away with Iguana Talon. With Gravity Field spinning at such wild speeds, Shohei's strikes sent bodies flying askew at a strike or tore flesh from bone as he grabbed mangled limbs, necks, and skulls.

Blood flowed in streams like a series of sprinklers erupted from the ground and doused the surroundings in thick, hot, red water. Odd bodies littered the ground around Shohei, limp or twitching with blood steaming in the cold night air. The spinning force of Gravity Field had sucked up the blood rather than deflected it and bathed Shohei in it, almost suffocating him at one point.

"Damn," Mahito sighed with minor care across the courtyard, fully recovered. "I should've stocked up on more Transfigured Humans or at least made some use out of your clan. That's almost all of them."

"Kill yourself," Shohei growled, his face painted red and his hair caked with blood and flesh. He dropped the field and his eyes pierced Mahito's own. "You toss away human lives to use as tools. You're the most disgusting of curses."

"I couldn't care less," Mahito scoffed with a grin. The same abominable grin that struck the few passionate cords in Shohei's heart.

Shohei took a step from the pile of bodies to walk down the curse, but was distracted by the hate seething in his heart. Shohei was taken by surprise by the curse he hadn't accounted for. Hanami appeared behind him and trapped him in a headlock, their thick arms curled around Shohei's throat and squeezed. Shohei pulled at the curse's arm with all his strength as his vision blurred, the only thing keeping his neck and throat from being crushed.

"Mahito!" Hanami called out to their fellow curse. Mahito understood and began a jolting dash across the courtyard to Shohei.

Shohei was going to be transfigured unless he moved. He attempted to take off in flight, but Hanami's had conjured thick roots from the earth below the tiled ground to snake up Shohei's legs. Shohei tried to tear his arms downward from Hanami's grasp, but their strength had returned in the time it took Shohei to kill the humans.

Mahito was two strides from shoving his hand to Sho's chest and ending the fight right there, but Shohei had to win. He reached deep into his memories and recalled his grappling training.

Shohei stopped trying to brute force the stronger curse's whole arm and reached for its fingers. Shohei found them and grabbed them. He tore them down and away from his neck, breaking two. Shohei leaned forward, almost touching Mahito's hand. Shohei reached behind him and stabbed wildly with Iguana Talon, but struck where he wanted. Shohei gouged Hanami in the tree and was released from their grasp.

Shohei leapt backwards with all his strength, fleeing from Mahito's grasp and slamming into Hanami. Shohei and the large curse tumbled backwards. Shohei rolled to his feet, ready for Mahito who stopped his advance.

"Soul Multiplicity: Body Repel!" Mahito cried at almost point blank, two shriveled humans still covered in stomach bile merging together.

Shohei quickly called for Shooting Star as he suspended Iguana Talon beside him, and as it soared into his hands, the fleshy attack crashed into him. Shohei parried it aside with the club, sliding back gradually as the attack extended and extended.

Before the attack even came to its completion, Mahito was appearing beside Shohei. A rigged club replaced the curse's arm and came crashing into Shohei's cheek. Shohei was sent spinning away from the parried attack and was greeted by a black and white fist rising to meet his chin. Hanami was back on their feet and uppercutted Shohei.

Shohei leapt in the air and over the wall of flesh Body Repel provided to recover briefly. Mahito was no sooner making a hole in the merged bodies of flesh to fire a second Body Repel.

Shohei pivoted to the side, dodging, but was intercepted by Hanami again. Shohei performed a sudden back bridge to duck the large hook and finished the tumble to flip back to standing.

Hanami spun to face Shohei who positioned himself behind them, but was greeted by an elbow to the partially restored eye tree.

Mahito leapt over the crossed masses of flesh and engaged Shohei. Mahito and Hanami began to overwhelm Shohei as he feared. Shohei backed further and further back, but was greeted again with another point blank Body Repel when he was off balance from being body slammed by Hanami.

Shohei swung his arms in front of himself, blocking the attack with his club as best he could. He was dragged across the entire stone courtyard before coming to a stop. Shohei's shirt hung in taters and his back was shredded, small areas even revealing dark red muscle.

Shohei rolled to his feet, flinching in pain as his own blood dripped from his back. Both Hanami and Mahito were upon Shohei, a grasping hand rising to grab his face and a hammering fist ready to crush his skull.

Shohei knew he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. If he did not move that instant, he was going to have his head smashed, reshaped into a sponge, or both. Shohei only had one viable move in mind to pull out.

Shohei activated Tunnel Vision, his heart already dedicated to eliminating the curses, but now his mind and body as well. Shohei lashed his arm back with a burst of speed, grasping Hanami's large bicep. Shohei pulled himself back, using the curse like a handlebar in a jungle gym. Shohei spun on the curse, dangling from its shoulders and back, clinging to it like a spider.

Hanami tried to throw Shohei off, but Shohei vaulted from the curse's wide back like a platform, leaping through the air. Shohei flipped once through the air and landed on his feet, crouching like a suddenly spry wild cat.

Shohei stood up again, abandoning Shooting Star for Iguana Talon. He stood with the blade in hand, unwavering in the face the two curses once again.