Turbulence

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"Showing your tail this early?"

Gojo threw another full-force punch, needling Itsuki even as he attacked.

"I thought you would hide longer."

Their fists collided again.

Blue cursed energy flared across their knuckles, twisting together as the shockwave rolled outward.

"Tch. That phasing of yours is seriously annoying."

Gojo pulled back with a complaint.

"Your Infinity is troublesome too," Itsuki replied.

The cursed energy coating their bodies was not an ordinary Simple Domain.

It was Falling Blossom Emotion, a secret art of the Big Three Families. Rather than neutralizing a technique outright, it answered contact with an automatic burst of cursed energy, making it especially useful in a direct exchange.

Compared with a normal Simple Domain, it was narrower, faster, and more precise.

Its cursed energy cost was also much higher.

"Yuji's birth. Special grade cursed spirits forming little alliances. The student spy you mentioned."

Gojo flexed his fingers.

"Mind answering those honestly?"

He smiled.

"If I accidentally kill you, I will have to waste time investigating slowly. And my adorable student might resent me."

"You mean Maki?"

Itsuki rolled his neck.

"Do not worry."

His voice remained calm.

"If you want to kill me, you cannot."

"Is that so?"

Mad delight flashed across Gojo's face.

He vanished.

Black and red sparks surged.

The blazing impact of Black Flash rode Gojo's fist straight toward Itsuki's stomach.

Scarlet eyes flickered.

With his Mangekyo Sharingan's dynamic vision and predictive power, even Gojo's teleportation could not escape Itsuki's sight.

He raised a knee to block and drove his right fist toward Gojo's head.

Two bursts of black lightning bloomed beneath the clouds.

The roar shook the battlefield.

The two figures were hurled down one after the other like falling meteors, smashing craters into the earth and throwing stone and dust into the air.

At the entrance to the grounds, Nanami, Mei Mei, Utahime, and Gakuganji stared at Gojo in disbelief.

The wound on his forehead healed the instant he landed.

But two or three drops of blood slid down his cheek.

That was enough for all four to understand.

Satoru Gojo, the man recognized by the jujutsu world as the strongest, the man who could kill special grade cursed spirits while smiling like it was nothing...

Had been injured.

"Interesting. Really interesting."

Gojo's grin widened.

He ignored the people around him, crouched, and launched himself forward.

The ground exploded under his feet.

The delayed gust whipped through the four behind him, tugging at their clothes and hair.

None of them spoke.

The shock in their eyes lingered.

Gojo flashed through the competition grounds, his mind moving at high speed.

Ordinary Blue and Red without chants could not break Fake Smile's phasing.

Purple took too long to prepare, and that special cursed tool could reflect it.

That was why he had chosen Falling Blossom Emotion and close combat.

But why had Fake Smile still not used the Ten Shadows Technique?

Even if shikigami could not break through Infinity, they could block vision and obstruct attack routes.

And that special grade cursed spirit.

Wasn't it supposed to be on Fake Smile's side?

Why had he killed it?

Gojo rushed closer with those questions in mind.

In the fallen forest, Itsuki's lips curved faintly.

Why did he not summon shikigami to take blows for him?

Why insist on close combat?

A quiet crack sounded inside the shadows.

The wheel of the strongest shikigami was already turning.

It was not that he had abandoned the Ten Shadows Technique.

He had been using it from the beginning.

Mahoraga had adapted to Unlimited Void years ago.

Now, through fist-to-fist combat, it was adapting to the neutral inviolability of Infinity.

That would cut off Gojo's final path.

Itsuki had landed not far from the students.

Everyone stared at him, stunned.

The clash in the sky had looked almost even.

Even if Gojo had not used his full strength, Itsuki had not used his technique either.

"Itsuki..."

Maki and Mai's faces were complicated.

Kyoto's students looked wary.

There was no time to respond.

The roaring wind was already closing in.

Cursed energy rose.

Itsuki's black hair stirred without wind, and the scarlet light in his eyes carried clear killing intent.

In the next instant, both fists struck.

"Black Flash!"

Red-black lightning exploded as their blows collided.

The shockwave swept outward like a collapsing mountain.

Panda turned, clutching White Zetsu against his chest and using his body to shield him.

The students fled backward before they even had time to marvel.

No matter whose side they stood on, stepping into a collision like that meant death.

"Fake Smile," Gojo asked from inches away, staring into those blood-red eyes, "where is your Ten Shadows Technique?"

Cursed energy surged, and the blue flame over his fist grew brighter.

Itsuki saw the blue-white mist inside the Six Eyes and smiled without answering.

The space between them detonated into a crater.

They stood facing each other again.

"It has been a long time since I had this much fun. You're pretty good, kid."

Gojo greeted him like an elder.

He was, after all, six or seven years older.

Itsuki's eyes cooled.

"You are a fool being used by someone else. What exactly are you proud of?"

If he and Gojo tore each other apart here, Kenjaku would be the one who benefited.

Jujutsu High's conservatives and Gojo were both pieces Kenjaku had placed on the board.

Itsuki was confident he could kill Gojo here.

But if he showed too much and frightened Kenjaku, the man might abandon the plan and flee overseas.

That would be the real problem.

Itsuki's scarlet gaze deepened.

At Jujutsu High, inside a hidden shrine entrance, four sorcerers in school uniforms lay collapsed in pools of blood.

Mahito stepped out, carrying a gray cloth bag.

"You were already here. Why didn't you go in?"

Suguru Geto's body emerged from the shadows in a monk's robe, smiling.

"Sorry, Mahito."

Kenjaku's eyes narrowed.

"If I enter the Tombs of the Star Corridor myself, Tengen may notice me. Until Satoru Gojo is sealed, it would be best if Jujutsu High does not see my face."

Mahito yawned behind one hand.

"Then Uraume and I could have come. You didn't do anything anyway."

Reflected in the blood near the entrance was another small figure.

Uraume stood in black-and-white monk-like robes, watching the bag in Mahito's hand with cool eyes.

Inside were Sukuna's fingers.

"Since we leaked information to Satoru Gojo, the entrance to the Tombs should have been reinforced," Kenjaku said. "Just in case, I came with Uraume."

He looked down at the bodies.

"We were lucky. The guards at the entrance were not troublesome."

He smiled.

"Let's go back and wait for good news."

The three slipped through the shadows, avoiding every camera and returning to the cursed spirits' base.

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