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CHAPTER START---
"So, is there anything I should know?" Taiyo asks, standing in the middle of his backyard wearing track pants, running shoes, and a black t-shirt.
Across from him is Satoru Gojo, smiling at the boy while his hands are still in his pockets.
Standing closer to the house, watching the duo, are Principals Gakuganji and Yaga, along with the woman with crows and the nervous-looking man from outside.
"Well, the most obvious thing is that when two Jujutsu Sorcerers fight, death is always a possibility," Gojo says.
"And?"
"Well, you won't die since I'm here, but, do you even understand how to fight with Cursed Energy?" Gojo asks.
"I fought just about two dozen monsters here last night," Taiyo says.
"Yes, but this entire valley has a barrier around it."
"Barrier?"
Everyone looks surprised at that. "Can you really not sense it?" Gojo asks.
"Should I be able to?"
"It's a pretty big barrier, so yeah," Gojo says as he frowns. "Wait a minute, could you sense me before we knocked on your door?"
"No, why?"
"Tch," Gojo sighs and rubs the back of his head, then crosses his arms. "I intentionally kept my Cursed Energy easy to detect, so you'd know we were coming and not panic when we showed up, but if you couldn't sense me, then that's not good."
"How bad is it?"
"The better you are at sensing Cursed Energy, the more efficient your usage of Cursed Energy generally is," Gojo says with a shrug. "The fact that you couldn't sense me or the Barrier is troubling."
"That's something I can work on at the school, but the barrier…"
"Ah, that," Gojo points at the sky. "It's an invisible barrier so without my eyes it can't be seen, but it repels Cursed Spirits and uninvited humans, which is why it's virtually impossible for a regular human to accidentally stumble into this valley.
It also means the Cursed Spirits you lured here by temporarily unsealing the finger. We're probably Semi-Grade 2."
"Semi-Grade 2?"
"It's the halfway point to be promoted to Grade 1," Gojo says. "Everything has four grades. Grade 4 is the weakest, Grade 1 is the strongest, and above that is Special Grade, like me."
"I see, so now you know how much to hold back so I don't die," Taiyo says. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, what's your Innate Technique?" Gojo asks.
Taiyo raises a brow at that. "I'm not stupid. Everyone knows to keep cards up their sleeve, I've played video games before."
"Nonono," Gojo waves his hands in surrender. "Jujutsu is counterintuitive about this kind of stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"It's called 'The Pact Of Revealing Your Hand', which means while in combat with another user of Cursed Energy, the more they know and understand about your Innate Technique, the more effective it is against them. But obviously, if the downsides are too big, it's better to keep it a secret."
"Ha, you seriously expect me to believe that?"
"You'll learn more about it later on, but for now, all you need to know is that Jujutsu is always fair," Gojo says. "I'll show you."
Taiyo relaxes as the man begins to explain.
"I was born with a genetic mutation called the Six Eyes. They allow me to see Jujutsu at an atomic level, which makes it easier to understand and use Cursed Energy.
But my Innate Technique, is called The Limitless. It allows me to tap into the Infinity that exists all around us. Allowing me to create singularities in space, or reverse them to create points that repel everything around them. I can bring the Infinity around us into reality."
Taiyo gives him a confused look, "So, you make black holes, make white holes, and…Infinity?"
"It makes anything that's trying to reach me move slower the closer it gets, to infinity, so nothing can ever touch me without my permission. Try it, throw a rock at me."
Taiyo gives him a curious look, but picks up a pebble from at his feet and throws it at Gojo's chest, only for it to seemingly freeze in the air.
"So a force field."
"Nope, it's not solid, just appears like that," Gojo says. "And now that you know some of how my technique works, it's slightly better at hurting and stopping you."
"Right, so I guess it's my turn, right?"
"We're all waiting," Gojo says.
"My Innate Technique is nothing so complex, just fire," Taiyo says as he creates a small flame in his hand and shrugs. "I'm also immune to extreme temperatures."
The spectators look slightly disappointed, having expected much more after being told by Master Tengen that this boy was to be a Special Grade.
But Gojo immediately lowers his blindfold, leaving it around his neck as he stares at the fire.
"Are you lying, or are you wrong?" Gojo asks.
"What?"
"Ah, so you just don't know," Gojo says. "Your inability to sense most Cursed Energy is reflected by that terrible efficiency in your Innate Technique, and the fact that you don't even know what it really does."
Taiyo dispels the fire, "So, what does it do?"
"Well, the first thing it does is eat away at your energy, at about five to eight times the rate it should be draining it."
"That much?"
"Mhm, in comparison to me, you have a lot more Cursed Energy, but while I can fight forever because my Six Eyes makes my use of Cursed Energy so efficient that I naturally recover it faster than I spend it, you'd be passed out after fighting one or two dozen Grade 1 Cursed Spirits."
"So I'm weak," Taiyo says.
"Not exactly 'weak', but inexperienced," Gojo says. "Your efficiency can be fixed with training, but first you need to adjust to what your Innate Technique really does."
"So it's not fire?"
"Nope, it's heat," Gojo says. "You visualize it as fire because humans won't naturally visualize heat itself. We just merged the two to simplify it in our brain, but Jujutsu demands specifics if you want to be strong.
What you do is use Cursed Energy to raise the heat, and your 'fire', was you actively burning the air itself, not manifesting a flame."
"I see," Taiyo makes another small flame in his hand, then snuffs it out as he closes his hand and shuts his eyes.
Instead of a flame, he imagines his hand, heating up, ripples of red flowing through it like water. He visualizes the cells like ping-pong balls shaking and slamming into each other as they begin glowing red.
And when he opens his eyes, his hand is glowing blood red.
Turning to the side, he faces the lake behind his house and aims his fist at it, firing a thin blood-red laser of pure heat that slams into the surface and evaporates some of the water.
"Wow!" Gojo claps his hands. "You fixed that super fast. If you were a dozen times more talented, you'd be just like me!" he says jokingly.
"Heat," Taiyo mutters as he turns back to face Gojo, but looks down at his hand as it returns to normal. "Heat is a sub-atomic phenomenon, that means I can push through Infinity, right? Since even you probably need to breathe still."
"Eight years ago, yes, that would have been enough to kill me," Gojo says. "And even now my neutral application of Infinity which is on passively even as I sleep, it won't defend me from something like that. But the moment my body senses the heat or the Six Eyes detects Cursed Energy closing in, then I'd just focus a little and block your heat.
It's about a hundred times more difficult with natural heat and light, but for that I can just stop the air and make a gap to protect myself. But since yours is generating heat via Cursed Energy, it's a lot easier to block," Gojo shrugs.
"But Infinity can't be really unbreachable, right?" Taiyo asks. "Because, like you said, 'Jujutsu is fair', unless you were lying."
"There are ways around it, but I can always adjust it to counter even those, and I try not to make it a habit to blab about that kind of stuff," Gojo says.
"Well, since you're invincible, you won't mind if I try, then, right?"
"Go ahead," Gojo shrugs, putting his hands in his pockets.
Surprising everyone, instead of firing a laser at Gojo, Taiyo simply closes the dozen meters between them until he's standing in front of Gojo.
"They look normal," he says, while looking up into Gojo's eyes.
"Liar, they're impossibly beautiful," Gojo says. "Why didn't you try your technique?"
Taiyo takes a step back and raises his hand, then slowly pushes forward until he feels Infinity stopping him in place, or more accurately, slowing him.
"Because yesterday, while I was fighting, I did things that were impossible. When monsters chased me I ran faster, when I threw punches I hit harder, when I got hurt, my body healed."
"Healed?" Gojo asks while casually looking at the boy, who was pushing against Infinity with all his might. "You're more talented than we thought, but, Jujutsu is fair, so there are likely downsides for being that capable at the start."
"Problems for later," Taiyo grits his teeth as he pushes against Infinity with both hands, flowing neutral Cursed Energy into them.
Everyone sees this, and most of the spectators are already getting bored. Expected yet another person who'd never be able to touch Gojo.
Except, Principal Yaga and Satoru Gojo noticed something.
Principal Yaga senses it, having studied and artificially created something similar to this.
And Satoru Gojo can quite literally see it, after studying Principal Yaga's creation for years.
Both the souls within Taiyo Daburu, like two orbs of Cursed Energy, are impossibly close together but forever unable to merge, as a fundamental rule that not even Taiyo Daburu would be able to break is that whole souls can never fully fuse.
But as Principal Yaga, Satoru Gojo, and the principal's creation know, souls can resonate.
So both men are surprised when, as if seeing the desire and will of his soul, the second soul in his body resonates with it.
Sparks of Cursed Energy fires between them, causing them both to glow and pulse.
And Taiyo's hands are shrouded in pale blueish-green Cursed Energy as he clashes against the Infinity.
Moving an inch closer, pushing through it as he makes his way toward Gojo.
The Cursed Energy of Infinity and Taiyo's Cursed Energy collide, causing everyone to look at him in shock, while Satoru Gojo leans forward to bring his face closer to the boy's hands, observing curiously.
Even without putting more effort into his neutral Infinity, he could tell the boy was so sloppy and inefficient that he'd run out of Cursed Energy before ever touching him.
"Ok, that's enough," Gojo says, and the boy immediately stops and takes a few steps back.
"I can't believe that worked," Taiyo says, honestly.
Watching the boy laugh, Gojo can't help but join him. "You're such a freak. I can't believe you pulled that off!"
"You're one to talk!" Principal Yaga yells from the sidelines.
"Don't have a stroke sensei," Gojo says. "Now, Taiyo, try to replicate that. Go on."
"Sure," Taiyo steps forward and raises both his hands, but this time it takes far longer to manifest the same feat, and he's barely able to sustain it for three seconds before he's forced to stop. "So it wasn't a fluke, but, this time you increased your power."
"Nope," Gojo says. "I didn't change anything. You're the one who changed."
"Hmm," Taiyo taps his chin as he takes a moment to consider what Gojo said, and to catch his breath. "After the first time I healed, it became a lot harder too…"
"I'll explain why back at the school," Gojo says as he cracks his knuckles. "Now, how about we get this started?"
Taiyo smiles, "Sure, now show me why you're the strongest…"
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]