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After the two Special Grades were done with their discussion, they sat cross-legged on the ground.
"So, how is it gonna be? I can now go through your infinity. Do you still want to fight?" asked Naoya seriously. He didn't want to needlessly hurt Satoru.
Satoru knew what Naoya was implying as well, heck his cheeks were still hurting because of the slaps he got from Naoya. He knew very well how physically strong Naoya was, and now that he didn't have the insurance of [Infinity], he could not effectively stop the physical attacks.
But when has a problem ever stopped him from trying to kick Naoya's ass?
"What the hell are you on. I can still beat you quite easily. I am Satoru Gojo, the strongest sorcerer alive. There is no way we are stopping now!" declared Satoru and stood up, and moved his hand for Naoya to stand up as well.
"Huh? You strongest? When I am sitting right in front of you? Looks like I need to knock some sense into you. Don't complain later," replied Naoya and took Satoru's hand to get back on his feet.
The two of them smirked at each other.
"Now give me my sunglasses."
"Huh? Finders keepers."
"What finders! You stole it!"
"Sounds like a skill issue to me."
"This bastard! Give it back! You are ruining my style!"
The two started arguing once again, and in the end, Naoya decided to give back the glasses. Not because he gave up, though.
He was starting to feel hungry and wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
Both of them took some distance from each other and then looked towards the barrier above them.
"Give the start signal again!"
Hearing the request, the higher-ups finally gave a relieved sigh. The problem children were finally going to fight.
"START!!!"
The moment the announcement came, Satoru pumped in his cursed energy reinforcement and started running around.
From Naoya's explanation, [CTR: Frame Drop] skipped the process and manifested only the result. If Satoru kept changing positions unpredictably, he could reduce the chance of Naoya locking onto a precise endpoint.
It was a good plan, since Naoya couldn't actually predict where Satoru was going to move and just appear there and strike him.
It just has a teeny tiny flaw.
Naoya didn't just have a single technique.
"Where are you going, son?" asked Naoya, running right beside Satoru with nothing but pure speed.
Satoru looked at Naoya, who had already caught upto him and failed to notice the [Solid Shadow] wall that appeared in front of him, making him almost crash into the wall. Though that small pause was all it took for Naoya to activate [CTR: Frame Drop] and land a solid punch on Satoru, sending him flying.
Satoru winced in pain and glared at Naoya.
Naoya, though, was not going to give any more chances to Saotoru.
Before Satoru could get in control of his body, Naoya appeared directly above him and landed a kick, sending him crashing to the ground, making a small crater.
Satoru stopped the extra impact with him infinty but Naoya was already in front of him once again and touched him with his [Projection Sorcery] active trapping the Gojo heir in a frame.
He then proceeded to partially summon [Nue] and fly up with his projection sorcery's enhanced speed, and once he was at a considerable height. He activated [Projection Sorcery] again to launch back towards Satoru and, with all the momentum in him, struck the frame, though he still decided not to use Cursed energy reinforcement on Satoru. It would have been too much.
Inside the frame, Satoru was completely defenseless and once the frame shattered, he was shot out with his entire body screaming in pain.
Satoru gritted his teeth through the pain and pushed Naoya away with his [Infinity] and appeared directly above Naoya and started to push him against the ground with his [Infinity] just like he did to Yuki.
Naoya, though, was far more durable than Yuki and had enough strength not to immediately get crushed by the space.
He looked at Satoru, who was already starting to look quite battered up and used [Frame Drop] once again to land a punch on Satoru, once again sending him flying.
"What part of me not going through space, do you not understand?" asked Naoya and used RCT to heal the injuries he received from Satoru's [Infinity] press. The bastard used far more force on him than he used on Yuki.
Naoya suddenly felt his body being pulled and saw Satoru already stabilising his body mid-air.
Satoru looked at Naoya with excitement and used his cured technique.
[Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue]
With a hand raised, he manifested a [Blue] above him that started to pull everything towards itself.
"Come closer, Naoya!"
"You think a Blue can stop me!"
[Frame Drop]
Naoya vanished from his spot once again and appeared beside Satoru, and punched him once again.
He looked at Blue and was about to run away once again, but suddenly he felt a pull once again.
"The thing is. This [Blue] is not for you. It is for me!" replied Satoru, who did not get blown away this time thanks to the attractive power of [Blue].
He looked at Naoya with crazed eyes and used a blue-infused punch to reel in the Zenin Special Grade.
"Take this!" yelled Gojo and struck Naoya's gut with full force while making sure that he couldn't dodge and even receive extra damage from the Blue-infused punch.
"Gah!"
Air rushed out of Naoya as Satoru's attack landed cleanly on him.
"Not yet!"
Seeing that he finally got an opportunity, Satoru went in for another punch.
Though this time Naoya activated his cursed energy reinfocement and and combined it with [Frame Drop] to slam Satoru to the ground and used [Solid Shadows] to crush the [Blue].
Satoru spat out as the punch cracked some of his ribs. The pain was something he was not very familiar with. He immediately tried to use RCT, but as usual, he failed to transform his cursed energy into positive energy.
While he was trying to change the nature of his energy, he gave Naoya enough opening to trap him in a frame.
Naoya was already up in the air once again, directly above Satoru.
[Solid Shadow: Shadow-Shadow Cannon]
A massive fist made of shadows shot out of Naoya's palm and headed straight towards the frozen Special Grade.
The shadowy fist's speed was even boosted further with [Projection Sorcery], making the massive fist strike the frame with even greater force and making a giant hole through the ground and planting Satoru inside.
Naoya deactivated his [Solid Shadow] and looked intently at the hole.
"Satoru you alive?" asked Naoya, now feeling that he did a bit too much for the poor guy.
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Inside the crater, Satoru lay on his back. He could feel pain. Too much pain all over his body. Blood was trickling down his face as he coughed up even more.
He tried to move, but the pain made it quite a difficult endeavour for him.
"Satoru you alive?"
Hearing the familiar voice of his friend Satoru's mind became a bit clearer, and his thoughts started to shift from the pain.
'Me? Alive? After that hit....Well, I am still alive.....but why?' thought Satoru. His thoughts started to drift away from the pain.
'I am alive, so what? With this much damage, I won't be able to fight now. Not well at least....' thought Satoru.
"Satoru!!! You okay!!! If you are, then give me a signal!!! Don't be playing pranks on me right now!! I am genuinely worried I did too much!!!!" came Naoya's slightly panicked voice.
'Did too much on me.....yet you look totally fine. Not at all looking battered up at all.....am I that weak for you....' thought Satoru.
His eyes started to close, and a series of memories started to play like a movie in his mind.
How he was treated with respect since he was born. How he proved that he was better than everyone. How he started to get isolated in his own clan because of the difference between him and his peers.
How he randomly met an amusing boy at the Zenin clan and how the two became friends.
He still remembered that when they met, and for a long time after that, he was the stronger one of the two, but slowly, the other boy started to catch up. The boy who was weak-willed and did all he could to avoid a fight slowly started to change as he got stronger. He thought that the boy was finally understanding how fun it was to make a ruckus, but it seemed like the change in the boy was not because of that realisation. It was because the boy got confident in his strength. The strength that he built step by step throughout his life.
'And now the same kid is up there worrying about me.....when did you get so strong Naoya..... no..... the real question is.....why did I become so weak.....why did I continue to grow so slowly.....Am I not the strongest.....the chosen one.....looks like I am not...but am I content with not being the chosen one.....' thought Satoru.
While these thoughts were going through his mind, the cursed energy within Satoru's body started to.....settle. It got calmer and calmer.
He didn't know yet, but Satoru's wounds started to heal, the bleeding stopped, and the cracked bones and torn ligaments started get fixed rapidly.
His body started to float up with Satoru looking at the sky, no, at the world in a trance.
His body continued to float up, and Naoya, who was about to enter the hole to check on Satoru, stopped seeing the Gojo heir looking....high?
"Satoru?" called Naoya.
But Satoru didn't respond. His brain was going through something, and the entire world, the cursed energy within him, his technique, everything was making him feel calm. He heard Naoya's voice, but right now, he was enjoying this amazing sensation that he was feeling.
'Did I hit him too hard?' thought Naoya and looked at Satoru in worry, and was about to stop him from floating further, but suddenly he stopped as he noticed something.
'His wounds.....they are healed,' thought Naoya.
He knew how much power his attack packed, and he was not going to believe that it did not cause any damage to Satoru.
'Did he manage to learn RCT?'
Naoya narrowed his eyes. Fighting Satoru just got even more annoying.
"Naoya."
Hearing his name being called, Naoya snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Satoru.
"What?"
"Since I was a kid. I thought that I was better than all sorcerers. The strongest sorcerer of all, a chosen one....but recently I started to doubt that claim....seeing your strength, I started to doubt whether I am the chosen one or not...." said Satoru.
'Yup. Hit him too hard and now his screws are loose.'
"....and it might be true, I may not be the chosen one.....but you know. I am seeing this world around me.....the heavens are looking at me, the earth is raising me.....It finally made me realise....." continued the trance Satoru.
Naoya blinked. He was having a gut feeling, and he immediately took out his phone.
Satoru's floating body finally stopped going higher, and the man looked down at Naoya with a trance-like look.
"Throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the Honoured One," said Satoru and struck a pose.
Naoya felt glad that he listened to his gut and recorded the chunni Gojo in front of him. He put the phone back in his shadow, but suddenly his surroundings glowed red.
"Let's end the fight..." said Satoru with a crazed expression.
"Are you doing a Goku and undergoing a power-up mid-battle?" asked Naoya and stared at Satoru.
[Cursed Technique Reversal - Red]
A small red orb formed at Satoru's fingertips, and he pointed it towards Naoya.
Naoya simply stared at him, more specifically at the orb. He could feel the power that the orb was giving off.
"It would be in your best interest to dodge it," said Satoru and fired the orb at Naoya.
Naoya simply raised his hand and opened his palm as shadows swirled on top of it. The moment the orb came closer, the shadows spread out and encircled the orb.
The repulsive force of the orb immediately started pushing away the shadows, but Naoya simply pumped more energy into the shadows, making them trap the [Red] and devour it before sending it straight into the shadow realm.
Seeing his attack getting neutralised, Satoru's crazed look wavered a bit.
Naoya looked at the shocked boy and smirked at him before he vanished from Satoru's line of sight.
"Don't teach your father how to f*ck!" replied Naoya as a straight jab landed on Satoru, sending him straight towards the barrier's ceiling.
*CRASH!!!*
"Still want to continue? Mr Honoured One?" asked Naoya with a smirk.
Satoru, already healing himself with RCT, looked back at Naoya with an equally wide smirk.
Both of them knew the answer to that question very well.