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CHAPTER START---
"Idiot!" Principal Yaga yells as he enters the infirmary.
He sees Gojo already dressed in a pair of black slacks and a button-up white shirt, eyes covered in a new blindfold as he enjoys some ice cream.
Beside him, Shoko scrolls idly on her phone, already bored of this entire circus.
"Huh, what'd I do?" Gojo asks playfully. "Everyone had fun, right?"
Yaga slams the door behind him and stomps over to Gojo, glaring down at him. "That last hit could have killed him! And I told you to hold back far more than you did. What the hell is wrong with you!?"
"Me?" Gojo drops his ice cream, keeping it floating beside him as he feigns innocence. "Blame Kusakabe. He's the one who trained up the kid. Honestly, I was keeping this super casual, but I had to keep escalating just to match his pace.
Little brat might actually beat me in a few years…" Gojo scoffs, folding his arms as both Yaga and Shoko are shocked to hear this. "But that Black Flash wasn't intentional, obviously. It just kind of happened, I didn't mean to hit him that hard."
"Tch," Yaga walks to the window, looking out at the Kyoto campus. "You still should have held back more. But at least you didn't use red, then I would have had to really scold you."
"Reversal Red, Hollow Purple, and my Maximum Technique," Gojo says as he continues eating his snack. "I still kept those in my back pocket since, for now, Taiyo only needs the basics to be beaten.
But damn, that kid really is a little monster. I wish I got to see his Domain Expansion, I'm sure it would have been something strong…"
Shoko and Yaga turn to look at Gojo, confused expressions on their faces.
"What do you mean?" Yaga asks.
"Weren't you inside his Domain Expansion?" Shoko sits up in her chair, putting her phone aside.
"Nah. He did some trick to cancel my sure hit but keep his. Honestly, felt like he was cheating. But he must have made some serious Binding Vow for that to work. His skill with Barrier Techniques is pretty intense too."
Yaga frowns. "As expected from a student of Kusakabe. But the Binding Vow aspect is concerning. I hope the boy didn't sacrifice his life for a chance at glory."
"He's not stupid. Well, aside from fighting this idiot," she nods toward Gojo. "He chose to figure out the New Shadow Style instead of sacrificing some of his life-force to the grandmaster of the school. Making a Binding Vow that does something similar doesn't fit his personality. But we don't need to worry about that, I'm sure Kusakabe will handle it."
"Then that just leaves one problem," Yaga says, already feeling an oncoming headache. "How will Jujutsu Society react to this battle? After all, for the first time to the public knowledge, they've seen Satoru Gojo bleed…"
"We should discuss that back at Tokyo Campus," Gojo says. "These walls have ears. Besides, I have a guest."
Utahime opens the door not a second later, glaring daggers at Satoru Gojo.
And both Shoko and Principal Yaga take this as their signal to leave.
Meanwhile, a few rooms away, Atsuya Kusakabe sits beside an infirmary bed, carefully observing the sleeping Taiyo Daburu.
The boy was now dressed in his spare clothes, lying atop the blanket, already stirring in his sleep as the effect of Unlimited Void fade.
Moments later, Taiyo jolts awake, gasping for air as he sits up in bed, Cursed Energy flaring up and startling Kusakabe.
"Ngh!" Taiyo raises his arms to block a punch that's not coming, and beside him, Kusakabe's eyes widen in surprise.
"You're in the Kyoto Infirmary," he says, helping the boy relax. "Settle down before you immolate the building."
Taiyo takes a few deep breaths while looking around, haunted by the pounding in his head as memories come flowing back.
"What was the last thing you remember?" Kusakabe asks.
"Why are you yelling?"
"I'm not," he says, lowering his voice. "What do you remember?"
"Uh…" Taiyo squeezes his eyes shut, focusing on anything he can recall, then everything rushes back to him. "Gojo hit me with a Black Flash, damn," he holds his stomach, still feeling lingering pain.
"Then?"
"The Black Flash restored his Innate Technique. He got the Limitless back. Then…a second Domain Expansion. Two in one day, so it is possible after all."
"For Satoru Gojo, yes," Kusakabe nudges Taiyo, pulling his attention to the glass of water in his hand, and gives it to him. "Sugar water, drink lots of it. After a fight like that, your brain needs all the energy it can get."
Taiyo chugs the entire glass and hands it back to his teacher before flopping back into bed. "Damn, he really was super strong. Even stronger than I'd hoped. This is going to be awesome."
Kusakabe quirks a brow, watching Taiyo's idiotic smile. "You're the only person in the world excited about getting hit by Gojo…of course Yaga would stick me with you."
"I just prefer it this way. I don't have much competition at the top, so at least the person I'm challenging is miles ahead, right?"
"Yeah, 'special' is definitely how I'd describe you people," Kusakabe mutters. "How does your body feel?"
"My body is healthy, but, the pain is still there. Not sure how exactly."
"That's because of the difference in Cursed Energy refinement between you and Gojo. His Cursed Energy bombards your system on impact, even more so with a Black Flash. Honestly, if his control weren't so precise, he wouldn't have been able to pull that punch at the last moment. And, you'd be dead."
"Yeah, I noticed that too. I put everything into that fight, months of planning. And he played around with both hands behind his back." Taiyo's smile shines even brighter. "I can't wait to see what it takes for me to beat him."
Kusakabe rolls his eyes. "Enough about your future hospital visits. I need to talk to you about some things."
Taiyo turns his head to look at Kusakabe, seeing the man completely serious. "Yeah?"
"I figured you'd reverse engineer it eventually, so I won't hold the fact that you know the New Shadow Style against you, but I need you to promise not to teach it to anyone else. A Binding Vow won't really work for this since I don't have anything to risk, but—"
"The New Shadow Style school is important to you, so…sure. I won't teach it to anyone. After all, I wouldn't have gotten this far without you, sensei."
Kusakabe smiles for a moment, then frowns. "And about the Binding Vows you made to perform like you did. I won't ask about the details, but, did you risk any life force? Or anything like that?"
"Nope, I'm not interested in deals like that. That's why I didn't join the New Shadow Style school, remember?"
Kusakabe finally relaxes. "That's a relief. I just had to make sure you didn't form a suicide pact for some silly exhibition match."
"Nothing that serious," Taiyo says, hoping he was right.
And after a short discussion, Kusakabe left to go speak to Principal Yaga and Gakuganji about the impact his student now had on Jujutsu Society, leaving Taiyo in his bed to contemplate his Binding Vows.
Taiyo made many Binding Vows, ensuring to stack them all against himself as that was the only way to not only guarantee the outcome he desired, but to protect himself against Jujutsu's wrath.
As trying to undercut Jujutsu was an easy way to be punished by it.
The first of which took effect before the match began.
In exchange for being limited to 50% of his total Cursed Energy for the three days before this match, he would be given access to 120% of his Cursed Energy during his battle against Satoru Gojo.
A variation of Kento Nanami's Overtime Binding Vow, although far more extreme against Taiyo, but he did this to ensure it wouldn't backfire.
After all, 20% of his Cursed Energy was many times more than Kento Nanami's total Cursed Energy.
The second Binding Vow was activated when they both activated Domain Expansion.
In exchange for only being able to use his Domain Expansion simultaneously with Satoru Gojo during the match, and having it sealed otherwise until the end of the match, he gained a slight boost in the strength of the Barrier formed to combat Gojo's.
A minor advantage for a major risk, as this effectively removed his Domain Expansion as a trump card, which it most certainly would be against most people.
However, he needed every bit of help he could get, because the next Binding Vow was the key to everything.
By spending weeks focusing on his Domain Expansion Barrier and Domain Amplification, Taiyo was able to mix his Barrier with Satoru Gojo's.
Effectively placing a wall of Domain Amplification between Gojo's Barrier and the battle, blocking the Limitless.
The result of this was that Gojo's Limitless would flow into Taiyo's Barrier, and since Taiyo cannot use it, nobody could.
Taiyo was also able to keep his Innate Technique, Immolation, allowing him to use it to combat Gojo during the Domain Expansion.
This gave him an incredible opportunity to attack Satoru Gojo without worrying about Infinity, which he took full advantage of, winning that round of combat.
Until the Domain Expansions broke, then the next part of his Binding Vow took place.
In exchange for the modification to his Domain Expansion, Taiyo traded the absolute sealing of his Innate Technique, Immolation, for 30 days.
For 6 minutes of combat within the Domain Expansion, he gave up his Innate Technique for 30 days, an absurd trade, but one needed to combat Satoru Gojo to the extent he did.
However, this part of the Binding Vow also provided a benefit.
By making such an extreme Binding Vow with Jujutsu, Taiyo temporarily blocked his Innate Technique from his Cursed Energy Circuit.
Allowing him to use his vast instincts and talent as a Special Grade to dominate Flowing Cursed Energy, which, before now, would always have someone like Atsuya Kusakabe at the top.
Since having an Innate Technique destroys your chances of ever learning it.
And now, with his ability to intuitively learn Jujutsu and then reverse engineer it, Taiyo would spend the next month mastering this, becoming the undisputed greatest at it before his Innate Technique returns.
And even then, he would stand at the summit of Flowing Cursed Energy.
All of these Binding Vows, months of training with Mei Mei and researching Simple Domain, developing his unique Simple Domain, and sharpening his skills as best he could.
And yet, while against most people, he would have absolutely crushed them.
Against Satoru Gojo, he finds himself lying in bed, feeling his bones still aching from his recent defeat.
All while Satoru Gojo opens the door to his room, eating a candy bar while walking inside and closing the door behind him.
"Yo, how are you feeling?"
"Like I got run over by a bullet train."
"Oh, then maybe next time I should put my back into it," Gojo chuckles, and Taiyo smiles back at him. "You were great. I hope you learned a lot from the fight."
"I did. You're a pretty great teacher, assuming they can survive fighting you."
"Well, if teaching is this fun…maybe I'll consider it."
"You showed me a lot, seriously, thank you. Now I know for a fact people can do multiple Domain Expansions in one day, I just need to refine my control."
"There is a long list of things you have to do, but sure, that's a start. Anyway, we'll be leaving for Tokyo in the morning. Don't talk to anyone but Kusakabe, Yaga, and me about this fight. We'll have a full debrief back at our campus."
"I figured as much."
"Get some sleep." Gojo turns around to leave, but as he's about to exit, Taiyo calls out to him.
"Gojo," he says, and the man looks back over his shoulder at the boy. "Be honest with me. How much of your power did you really use in that fight?"
Gojo thinks about it for a moment, then smiles. "The important thing is to keep moving forward. Just keep training, and eventually you'll reach me."
"Damn, that little?"
Gojo shrugs. "Yeah, well, I'm The Strongest after all…"
END CHAPTER---
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