It's Just a Big Fish! - The Honored One's Life in Another World [Re:Zero]

Subaru sat perfectly upright, his fingers steepled in front of his face.

He leaned forward just enough to command the space, his gaze heavy and fixed.

There was a new fire in his eyes as he faced the woman before him.

Across from him, Crusch Karsten sat like a commander, flanked by Wilhelm and a curiously stood Felix.

"I propose an alliance between the Emilia, Satoru and Crusch camps..."

Subaru said, his voice dropping into a calm, authoritative register.

"Equal terms. Mutual benefit."

Crusch's brows knit together, her eyes narrowing as she searched for the catch.

"...What?"

"I don't expect a seat at the table for free..."

Subaru continued, unfazed.

"I've brought the missing piece of your puzzle: the exact time and location of the White Whale."

The atmosphere in the room didn't just change——it curdled.

Wilhelm's entire demeanor transformed. His jaw stiffened, and his gloved fists clinched until the leather screamed under the pressure.

A cold, jagged bloodlust began to radiate from the old man's shoulders like a tangible weight.

"...The White Whale."

"Scary bloodlust, old man~"

Satoru Gojo was suddenly there. He hadn't walked in; he was simply present, his hands resting comfortably on the back of Subaru's chair. His sunglasses caught the light, and that old sneer was plastered across his face.

"GAHK——! Can you stop doing that?!" Subaru jolted, nearly falling out of his seat. "My heart is actually going to stop!"

Gojo tilted his head, his white hair catching the sun.

"Doing what?" He smirked wider. "You're imagining things, Subaru. I've been here for, like, five minutes."

Crusch cleared her throat, her piercing stare cutting through the banter to divert the flow.

"Your point being, Natsuki Subaru? We've already been preparing the White Whale's enslavement. In fact... we've been cooperating with Gojo-san already."

Subaru's head snapped toward his teacher.

"Eh?! Since when—?!"

Gojo waved a hand dismissively. "Hey, you were busy being a bit of a loser at the Crusch Estate, alright? Don't give me that look——I'm not the sort to betray my only student."

His tone lost its playfulness for a heartbeat as he looked to Crusch.

"Yeah. We've been talking for some time, Subaru, remember what I said at the Royal Selection?"

"That you were gonna take it down solo?" Subaru murmured.

Gojo nodded, shrugging.

"Well, yeah, until I realized how much this camp was itching for a fight. I'm the strongest, certainly, but I'm not such a clout-chaser that I'd overlook an old man's burning desire for revenge just to play the single hero. That would be in horrible taste, wouldn't it?"

"You sure it's not because you just want to watch the fireworks?" Subaru whispered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

Gojo chuckled, then glanced at Crusch with a more focused intensity.

"We've got the firepower and the prep——but no confirmed window. Not even I can sniff out exactly when that big sushi roll decides to breach."

Subaru lifted a hand, seizing the spotlight.

"And that's the most important part... this alliance is crucial. I offer the 'when,' you provide the 'how,' and we stay united until the White Whale is dead."

He halted, locking eyes with Crusch.

"I know I'm asking for a lot. But I don't make assertions I can't back up."

Crusch didn't blink. Her critical glance darted from Subaru to Gojo, then back again.

"My concern isn't dishonesty... my concern is whether your information is actually... accurate."

Subaru grinned thinly. He reached inside his tracksuit pocket and placed his flip-phone onto the table.

Crusch and Felix leaned in, puzzled by the unusual, metallic object.

"It's a meteor of sorts... and it will tell me the exact moment and coordinate the whale will appear."

Gojo's brow twitched. He leaned over Subaru's shoulder, staring at the claimed 'metia' with a knowing grin in his eyes.

So, he's hiding the source. Using 'the truth' of the phone to disguise the 'why.' Clever. Since he believes the phone will tell him, Crusch's lie detector won't trip. I guess I'll play along for now...

Crusch picked up the phone carefully.

"...I find that difficult to believe. But, you are not lying."

Subaru tilted his head.

"Sure you want to trust me so easily?"

Gojo bent down, beaming next to Subaru's ear.

"That'd be thanks to a handy little cheat code. Crusch here is a human lie detector. She perceives the 'wind' around people's words."

Subaru blinked.

"Right... you did say something about that back during the Royal Selection..."

Crusch's eyes narrowed at Gojo.

"And how exactly do you know the nature of my Protection? I have never provided its specifics to you."

Gojo winked, running a finger down the side of his glasses to reveal a sliver of dazzling, crystalline blue.

"Same reason I called you and Reinhard the best lie detectors in the room back at the Selection... I've got reaaaaally good eyes. I see everything, Crusch-san. The wind, the mana... even the stuff you attempt to hide."

Subaru let out a big, theatrical sigh and waved Gojo off.

"Alright, alright! Enough with the flexing, Sensei! You're wrecking the 'cool negotiator' image I had going!"

Subaru stood up, extended a hand across the table.

"So? Do we have a deal?"

Crusch didn't move for a long second. Then, a genuine, gentle smile graced her lips.

"I'm impressed. Not simply by your information, but by the fact that you deduced we were already chasing the whale."

"That part is... actually a little freaky..."

Gojo mumbled, seeming legitimately impressed.

Crusch rose, meeting Subaru's hand with a solid, forceful grip.

"I have questions——many of them. But... I choose to trust the weight in your eyes. They tell of a resolve that has already paid a heavy price."

Gojo clasped his hands together and grinned.

"Woo! Consider this alliance... allianced! I'll supply the munchies, you guys bring the army!"

Subaru deadpanned.

"Please stop talking dude."

———————————————

Gojo lay sprawled on the rooftop of the Karsten mansion, the wind plucking at the silver-white strands of his hair.

With his fingers clasped behind his head, he peered lazily into the blue abyss of the sky——sunlight sifting through high, thin clouds, warm and entirely unconcerned to the carnage gathering below.

The air was quiet. Deceptively so.

The White Whale...

His sunglasses glinted, but the eyes hidden beneath them were miles away, studying data that didn't exist in any book.

Outside of that guy Reinhard——who frankly bends the whole concept of authority just by breathing... I've got no standard for "strong" in this world....

His fingers tapped a rhythmic beat against his cranium.

Will it make me break a sweat? Will it genuinely make me think? Will it be fun?

He scowled, a rare flicker of self-reproach crossing his face.

Should I even consider it fun? After what had happened with Wilhelm's wife? After what it's done to this world?

The thought stayed. Gojo wasn't oblivious. He'd seen the iron in Wilhelm's gaze——a man who had spent decades refining his soul into a single, vengeful point.

To Wilhelm, this wasn't a 'boss battle.' It was a funeral that was forty years overdue.

"I'll fight it... because it's a stain on the world."

His lopsided grin reappeared, sharper this time.

"But if it tries anything fancy... I'm going to enjoy tearing it apart."

The roofing creaked. A distinct, frenetic weight.

"Yo," Gojo murmured lazily, not moving an inch. "You're gonna get wrinkles before you hit twenty looking all nervous, y'know."

Subaru halted a few paces away, arms folded tightly over his tracksuit.

"Kind of hard to walk light when we're heading into a death match with a flying apocalypse, Gojo-sensei."

Gojo opened open one eye, turning his head just enough to observe the boy. Subaru seemed terribly fatigued, the mental type.

He sat down near Gojo, drawing his knees to his chest.

For a long minute, neither spoke. The sky extended above them, huge and unaffected by the blood that was about to be poured.

"Do you ever get scared?" Subaru broke the silence, his voice small.

Gojo didn't answer immediately. He glanced back up at the sun, letting the question hang in the air like a soap bubble.

"Hmm..." he hummed. "In all honesty? Not really."

Subaru blinked, gazing across.

"——Seriously? Not even a little?"

Gojo chuckled dryly.

"Back home, from the moment I was born, I was... untouchable. I never bled. I never bruised. I was a prodigy born a head and shoulders above the rest of the world. It sounds wonderful on paper, but it means I never actually had to try for anything."

"Sounds like a reaaal tragedy." Subaru expressed with a touch of sarcasm.

"I know, right!~ Truly the saddest narrative ever told!"

Gojo chirped, before his tone calmed out.

"But it makes me wonder what it's like to be normal. To have a fight that needs everything you have——and then a bit more... simply to survive."

Subaru's eyes narrowed. A flash of a memory—one he shouldn't have, yet couldn't forget—hit him. He saw Gojo thrown aside, a shower of red, half a torso missing. He watched the arm torn away in the snow. Both times, the "Strongest" had bled because he was protecting him.

Subaru scowled, his hands gripping so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Regulus Corneas...

A burst of wind blew across the roof, whipping Gojo's coat and Subaru's hair.

"A lot of people died to that whale." Subaru said.

Gojo sat up finally, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked at Subaru——not as a teacher to a student, but as a genuine equal.

"Then let's make sure it breathes its last today. Together, right?"

Subaru looked up, catching that piercing blue stare.

"Yeah. Together."

Gojo's grin grew into its normal, high-energy mask.

"Alright then! After this whale is sushi, I suggest we take a week off. Hot springs! A vacation! Maybe a date——wait, no, that's crazy... definitely not a date."

Subaru gave an expression of absolute disgust.

"What is actually wrong with you?"

"Too much~" Gojo murmured, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "And absolutely nothing at the same time!"

They both laughed. The tension didn't evaporate, but it moved. It became a weight they were bearing together.

"Oh, crap! I absolutely forgot why I came up here!" Subaru rushed to his feet. "Crusch is about to start her big speech! The army's waiting!"

Gojo rolled onto his feet with natural elegance.

"Ah, sounds lame. Speeches are just a lot of words meaning 'don't die,' aren't they?"

"Just move it, Sensei!"

———————————————

Dozens of warriors thundered across the broad plain, their ground dragons churning up enormous clouds of dust.

Metal clanked with a rhythmic, warlike intensity, armor glinting under the midday heat.

The formation surged as a single, swelling wave of steel racing toward the horizon.

Among them, Satoru Gojo sat upright on his saddle, appearing utterly out of place.

His posture was deceptively casual, hands resting loosely on the reins. It was a weird sight—magic, muscle, and medieval battle.

It was like someone had torn a page out of a high-fantasy epic and plopped him right into the heart of it all.

A familiar duo pulled up beside him, the thunder of their mount's claws announcing their arrival.

Subaru, sat atop a sleek, jet-black ground dragon that moved with a predatory, unnatural ease, flashed a sneer. Rem sat behind him, her arms wrapped securely around his waist, her expression a peaceful contrast to the high-speed march.

Gojo narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses, giving the black dragon a long, appraising look.

"How the hell did you, of all people, end up with the coolest ground dragon of the lot?"

Gojo asked.

"That thing looks like it eats nightmares for breakfast."

Subaru's grin become insufferably smug.

"One could call it fate. Or chemistry. Maybe even love at first sight. Patrasche and I? We just speak the same language."

"Yeah, or it's dumb luck. You probably tripped onto its tail and it imprinted on you out of pity..."

Gojo replied coldly. To emphasise a point, he abruptly rose up on his dragon's saddle, balancing perfectly as the beast rushed. He folded his arms, posturing like he was on the cover of a fashion magazine.

"Betcha can't do this, though. Zero cursed energy required."

"OH, IS THAT A CHALLENGE?!"

Gojo swore he saw Subaru's dragon, Patrasche, clearly roll her eyes as the youngster began to rise—shakily—onto the saddle.

"See? Easy. I'm a natural at——"

Gravity reclaimed its prize. Subaru's foot slipped, and he fell sliding backward into the dust.

Or he would have, if Rem hadn't casually reached out, snagged the back of his tracksuit mid-air. She hauled him back into the seat with the easy strength of an Oni, barely stopping her pace.

"BAHAHAHAHA!" Gojo cackled like a mad-man.

"Subaru-kun... you shouldn't fall for such obvious baits..." she whispered softly, though there was a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Right? Especially when he's built like a wet noodle!" Gojo added, grinning like a wolf from his standing position.

Subaru pouted, adjusting his jacket.

"You two are a nightmare together. I'm surrounded by bullies."

The humor faded as swiftly as it had arrived.

Rem leaned forward, her tone altering, her eyes intensifying as they surveyed the treeline in the distance.

"Satoru-sama... Subaru believes that once the Whale is dealt with, the Witch's Cult will immediately target Arlam village and the mansion."

Gojo blinked, the humour wiped clean from his face. He leaped back down into a seated position, his gaze latching onto Subaru.

"…And you forgot to mention that little detail during the war meeting?"

Subaru stared down, his grip on the reins tightening till his knuckles grew white. The light in his eyes waned, replaced by a terrible shadow of guilt.

"It's because of Emilia... and the choice I made. If we don't move fast enough, the mansion becomes a grave."

The air grew heavier, the sound of the marching army suddenly feeling like a ticking clock.

"…Right. Fanatics. Witch-obsessed lunatics who don't know when to quit."

Gojo's voice was quieter now, a deadly edge vibrating in his throat.

"Annoying. Right now, we've got a mountain-sized fish to transform into sashimi. But after that?"

He adjusted his glasses, a spark of blue visible for a short second.

"They'll regret the decision to cross us."

——————————————

The huge tree loomed overhead, its titanic branches piercing the clouds as if trying to strangle the skies.

Satoru Gojo stood at its base, neck craned, his sunglasses reflecting the silver glow of the moon.

He let out a low, approving whistle.

"Now that is one hell of a tree..."

He wasn't easily impressed. Back on Earth, he'd seen the architectural wonders of the contemporary world, but this?

A natural-formed tower that overshadowed mountains and redefined the horizon?

Even he had to acknowledge that amazement was the only reasonable response.

His eyes wandered lower. The troops of the Crusch camp were placed in disciplined lines, motionless and steadfast atop their restless ground dragons. The air was dense, overflowing with the static energy of impending slaughter.

Gojo was the only one on foot, hands deep in his pockets, leaning against the oak bark as if he were waiting for a bus.

Then——

A harsh, computerised ringtone pierced through the silence. Subaru's phone. The signal.

Crusch's eyes sharpened into flint.

"Men, on guard!"

A ripple of unrest swept through the ranks. Nervous eyes swept the velvet sky.

"I—I don't see it!" One soldier called out.

Gojo inclined his head, a tiny, predatory grin curving at his lips.

"There it is…"

High above, outlined perfectly against the full moon, a gigantic shape glided silently.

Then——

A bellow unlike anything natural tore through the darkness. It was the sound of a god's throat being shredded. The White Whale has arrived.

It descended like a fallen stronghold, the wind wailing in its wake.

Gojo chuckled. "Fast for a literal flying fish."

"Let 'em have it!!"

Subaru shouted, rising in his saddle as Patrasche rushed at full speed.

Beside him, Rem's hands shimmered with mana——spears of jagged ice flew skyward, sinking themselves into the whale's underbelly.

It howled, more furious than harmed.

Crusch Karsten kept back, her stare piercing.

"Fire it at once!"

From the rear of the formation, a disguised monolithic gun showed itself.

A beam of dazzling light tore over the sky, changing night into a false, beautiful day.

Gojo's mouth slackened. "…What the hell was that?"

"The Night Banisher." Crusch responded coolly.

"Yeah, I figured that part out..." Gojo murmured, straining his shoulders till they popped. "Suppose this is where I clock in. Ciao~!"

Space ripples. Gojo faded, reality folding around him before he vanished.

He reappeared mid-charge, floating just ahead of Subaru and Rem's speeding dragon.

"S-Sensei?!"

Gojo waved nonchalantly.

"Yo. You weren't kidding about being a Witchbeast magnet, huh?"

The creature's jaws unfurled, preparing to engulf the entire vanguard. Gojo didn't flinch.

At the last possible minute, he vaulted——a single, seamless movement into the air.

His heel crashed upon the whale's skull. A shockwave burst outward, cracking the air and smashing the earth beneath the beast's immense weight. The whale was pushed into the dirt, cutting a trench of broken stone for fifty meters.

Gojo landed lightly, dust blowing around his clothing.

"Not bad, Crusch Karsten!"

A deep, unseen wind-gash had split the beast's flesh a moment later.

"That wind blade of hers packs a decent punch..."

But his smile deepened as he glanced at the beast. It was already rising.

"Still only took off about 1HP. Guess I'll have to try a bit harder."

Gojo reached up, took his sunglasses from his face, and placed them into his pocket with a faint click. Without their shade, the Six Eyes shimmered with a vast, celestial brightness.

He watched as Wilhelm Astrea landed before the beast, his blade drawn in a whirl of steel.

"I have dreamed of nothing but this day... FOR THE PAST FOURTEEN YEARS——!!"

Wilhelm lurched. He was a ghost of war, flipping across the sky in a master's spiral.

The blade pierced the whale's cranium. Blood poured like a torrent, painting Wilhelm's face crimson. He didn't relent; he rushed across the beast's back as if it were solid ground, his blade carving a seam through the white hide.

When he was flung off, he didn't panic. He trusted the white-haired boy beneath him him.

Gojo blurred through the air, grinning with the joy of the pursuit.

Gojo's strike landed like a lightning strike, but the whale proved robust. It shuddered, plummeting faster. Gojo hovered, feet planted on nothing, palm raised.

"Who said your turn was up? Go get 'em!"

A flip of his wrist. "——Blue!"

Gravity warped. Wilhelm was caught in a spatial tether and hurled upward——back into the air like a human bullet.

"Thank you… Satoru!"

The struggle became a symphony of violence. Crusch's wind blades tore through the hide; a bombardment of Al Goa fire magic from the mages cooked the whale's blood.

A tremendous explosion devoured the creature in a stream of flames. But through the smoke, the whale emerged, eyes blazing with primordial wrath.

Gojo sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Even tougher than it looks. All that... and we've maybe taken off a quarter of its health."

He cracked his knuckles. "Guess I'll wait a little longer before I really let loose. Oi——old dude, batter up!"

Gojo jumped, soaring over Wilhelm in an arc with his arm stretched backwards.

"Aaaand——UP WE GO!"

With a snap of action, Blue distorted space, snatching Wilhelm and hurling him with explosive force toward the whale's head.

"——HYAAAHHH!!"

Wilhelm's sword sank deep. He thrust the blade sideways, cleaving through the whale's huge golden eyelid.

A howl of agony emerged as the whale's eye was torn from its socket, dropping to the earth and making a crater. Wilhelm stood over the falling eye, bathed in gore, sword poised like judgment itself.

Even Subaru could only look in astonishment.

Gojo landed alongside him with a smirk. "Now that was badass. But I'm betting that didn't even dent his hunger for vengeance."

The air abruptly altered. The whale freed its jaw and roared——a sound that shattered the atmosphere.

A tidal wave of Fog of Elimination poured from the whale's body, engulfing the field.

Visibility plummeted to zero.

"This stuff's thick... it's dulling even my senses..." Gojo mumbled, his eyes scanning the white void. "Subaru? Wilhelm?"

His instincts yelled.

A bolt of concentrated mist crashed against him. The ground underneath him disappeared, but Gojo stood uninjured.

"Alright. That could've been disastrous... Not going keep it on the whole time. No fun bullying a whale."

He sensed Subaru's tainted energy and tore through the mist like a missile.

He materialized beside the black dragon. "——Yo!"

"Argh! Gojo-sensei??! How do you always jumpscare me in a warzone?!" Subaru yelled.

The whale's tail smacked into the land nearby.

Gojo's brows furrowed. "...It's adjusting. It's trying to predict me. Pretty cool!"

The ground beneath Gojo exploded. He flipped, landing on a flying fragment of stone, balancing effortlessly. "This mist is getting real old though..."

He weighed his choices. Should he just kill it? Should he let Wilhelm finish it?

Suddenly, a gigantic tail slashed through the fog like a guillotine.

It crashed into Gojo mid-thought, sending him hurtling like a comet across the battlefield. He hit the trunk of Flugel's Tree with a resounding bang in the distance.

Gojo remained stuck in the trunk, half-buried in the wood. He coughed, a thin trail of blood dripping from his forehead.

"I've gotta stop letting my guard down..."

———————————————

From the shifting curtain of the Fog of Elimination, a flash of white and blue—the whale's tail, a mountain-sized guillotine of muscle—smashed right into Gojo's side.

The crash sounded like two continents colliding.

"SENSEI——!!" Subaru's lungs felt like they had imploded.

Gojo was launched like a stray bullet from a railgun. He was a swirl of violet light rocketing through the mist, dissolving into the charcoal heavens above. And then——nothing. No sarcastic laugh. No cocky quip about his dry cleaning. Just the hollow, whistling wind.

He can't be dead. He's the Strongest. He's a cheat code... he's fine!

Subaru's fists tightened so tightly his skin tore. Cursed energy—black, jagged, and fuelled by desperation—flared about him. He didn't think. He didn't plan. He merely stood atop Patrasche's racing back, balanced by pure, unmitigated hate.

And suddenly he leaped forth.

A purple comet of amateurish but dangerous energy rushed through the air toward the whale's blood-colored eye.

His fist smashed forward with a horrible squish, sinking itself in the gelatinous sphere.

Right opposite him, Wilhelm Astrea erupted from the mist like an angry apparition, his sword digging deep into the surrounding socket. Their eyes locked for a micro-second——a moment of mutual, frenzied recognition.

Shock. Respect. And the shared understanding that they were both insane.

The whale shrieked, a sound of maddened, primal misery. It ignored the Sword Demon completely, its jaw unhinging like a portal to hell as it pounced at Subaru with a vicious, solitary desire.

Subaru dove aside, feeling the heat of the beast's breath as it thundered past.

The earth erupted where he had been standing a heartbeat before.

From the clouds, Rem plummeted while her horn shining with a light that pushed back the gloom.

Her iron mace hummed through the air.

The spiked weight embedded into the whale's back. Using the chain as a pivot, she swung herself forward, smashing both feet right into the eye Subaru had just pulverized.

The beast struggled like a mountain attempting to shake off ants.

Subaru gave her a thumbs-up mid-air as he plummeted back toward Patrasche.

They gathered for a heartbeat, the dragon's claws shooting sparkles across the stone. "Do I really smell that good?!" Subaru yelled over the roar.

Rem didn't lose a beat as she swung her flail.

"No, it's awful, Subaru-kun!"

"...Ouch. You didn't have to be that honest!"

High above, a silhouette stood on the whale's spine.

Wilhelm, bathed in gore, appeared like a statue of war. "You ignore me, monster?" He yelled, his voice cracking with fourteen years of restrained wrath. "After all this time?!"

His blade drove deep——but the whale banked hard, climbing with a tremendous rush that sent the old man plummeting toward the merciless earth.

Wilhelm hit the ground hard, slipping on one knee. He was startled, his breath gone. he whale turned mid-air, its immense bulk descending like a falling star to destroy him.

Subaru's heart hammered against his ribs.

He won't make it. He's going to die without witnessing it end!

Subaru suddenly moved, on instinct——

Cursed energy surged beneath his boots as he raced forward, his form gleaming with a deep, furious violet. His lips moved before his brain could veto the risk.

"I can return by—GHHK!!"

The unseen Witch's Hand tightened on his heart, but the power erupted anyway.

The energy twisted——darker, sharper, breaching the bounds of his physical frame.

He was on the other side of the battlefield in a blur.

Wilhelm was in his arms, the old man blinking in absolute bewilderment.

"S-Subaru...!?"

Subaru let him down, his own hands quivering but raised in a guard.

"No time for the 'thank you' speech, old guy! Hey, whale! You know how nice I smell?! Come have a taste of the main meal!"

The whale roared, the mist whirling in its wake. Subaru laughed—a wild, defiant sound that was a perfect, jagged echo of his teacher.

"——Let's dance!"

He leapt, sending himself through the air. Mimicking Gojo's somersault to a lesser degree, his hands pried into the whale's raw flesh like vices.

The beast shouted in annoyance, tilting upward to fly higher, dragging Subaru into the stratosphere.

Then——something changed.

Subaru looked down. He noticed two shapes below... hovering. Waiting. A sudden, blinding burst of blue exploded from the center of the cloud. A singularity of cursed energy that sucked the fog into itself, splitting the mist apart in an instant.

The fog disappeared in an instant, revealing the moonlit plain in all its terrible grandeur.

Subaru's eyes expanded. There was only one person he knew who could do something like that.

"——Gojo-sensei!"

High above, one hand extended, floated Satoru Gojo. His clothing was ragged, and a thin trail of blood flowed over one eye, but he looked like a god who had just woken up from a nap.

His smug, white-toothed grin sliced through the darkness.

"Sorry I'm late," Gojo cried out, his voice echoing flawlessly over the clearing. "The view from up there was great, but I think I'm ready to finish my chores."

——————————————

"Sorry I'm late, Subaru..."

Though the roar of the wind and the distance between them made speaking impossible, they didn't need words.

The minute their eyes locked——a wordless understanding flowed between them.

Subaru simply nodded and smiled.

Slowly, agonizingly, Subaru stood tall atop the very edge of the whale's nose. He was a mote of dust on the nose of a titan, but he stood nonetheless.

Gojo looked through the Six Eyes, his view of the world slowing to a crawl.

That's my student, alright. Mad enough to be a sorcerer, I'd say it's about time to close this up.

Their gazes locked one last time across the battlefield——and Subaru jumped, hurtling himself backward into the abyss, arms stretched wide as if embracing the sky.

The beast followed. It didn't care about the army or the Sword Demon anymore. It was pulled by that scent——the heavy, miasmic odour of the Witch that clung around Subaru like a garment. It lunged, a mound of flesh tumbling through the air with malicious intent.

Subaru only grinned as he plummeted. "...Let's see how much you like surprises."

High above, Gojo focused his eyes toward the towering pinnacle of Flugel's Tree.

He vanished, reappearing at the very peak where the branches were as thick as houses.

Gojo's fist destroyed the base of the branch in a singular blue-infused punch. Then, with a rapid intake of breath and a sneer that threatened absolute annihilation, he braced his feet against the wood.

Every ounce of cursed force in his stupidly overpowering form flooded into his shoulders.

He didn't just drop it. He flung it. "Now... EAT THIS TREE, YOU STUPID FISH!"

It screamed into the air like a huge javelin, a flurry of splintering wood and displaced atmosphere.

Below, Subaru continued to plummet, grinning like a lunatic with the whale's maw just meters from his boots.

The branch speared right through the beast's flank, the sharp tip exploding out the other side in an astounding spray of blood.

The White Whale's howl of pain was muted as it was nailed to the physics of the world.

It swirled uncontrolled, a fallen deity carried down by a limb, before smashing onto the plains below.

The earth split. A mushroom cloud of dust and pulverized stone burst skyward, the shockwave flattening the surrounding vegetation for miles. The titanic figure ripped a furrow into the battlefield, finally coming to a dead, heavy halt.

Silence ensued. A ringing, crushing silence.

Subaru was still falling, the ground coming up to meet him at terminal velocity——

"——Wait wait wait!"

The air thickened. A pocket of Blue appeared beneath him, acting as a spatial cushion that decelerated his descent in a heartbeat.

He hit the grass with a quiet thud, his legs giving up immediately.

Rem reached him first, her blue maid uniform dishevelled, her eyes frenzied with a mixture of horror and relief.

"Subaru-kun!! Are you hurt?! Can you hear me?!"

Subaru coughed, his lungs scorching, his eyesight swimming. He looked up, forced a thin, trembling smile.

"... Never been better, Rem. Just... gathering my breath."

A shadow fell over them.

Gojo stood there, his coat tattered and his face splattered with a mix of blood and soot.

He looked like he'd been through a thresher, yet he was nonchalantly wiping his sunglasses with a piece of his shirt.

"Yo~."

Subaru peered at him, his voice a raspy rasp.

"Cutting it a little... close, don't you think... Sensei?"

Gojo pushed the spectacles back over the bridge of his nose before wiping a stray speck of blood from his cheek.

Then, he flashed a grin so dazzling it felt like the sun was rising early.

"Close is stylish, Subaru. It keeps the audience on their toes."

He came forward, giving a hand to haul his student up.

"And besides... the hero's always fashionably late, right?"