Chapter 3: The Strongest vs. the Strongest (Pseudo)
Use it.
The command fell silently in Yami's mind.
Boom!
An ancient, vast, searing presence erupted from his body in an instant.
If the Yami from before had been nothing more than a fragile spark, then the one standing here now was a rising sun.
Dark red markings spread across the left side of his forehead like burning flames. The bent, rusted iron bar in his hand trembled violently, letting out a sharp hum as though it could barely endure the power now flowing through it.
Then something unbelievable happened.
The iron bar glowed red hot in an instant, as if it had just been pulled from the heart of a furnace.
Crimson Blade, pseudo form.
Even though it had been forcibly manifested through nothing more than a common piece of scrap iron, it still carried a fragment of the true Crimson Blade's nature.
It burned everything.
The smile on Satoru Gojo's face deepened.
He could clearly feel it. The boy standing in front of him had changed.
He was no longer that wary high schooler gripping a metal bar in desperate self defense.
Now, he felt like a swordsman who had stepped through blood and battle, someone who had polished his skill at the edge of life and death.
"Oh?"
Gojo leaned forward slightly, hands still in his pockets, amusement flickering across his face.
"Now this is getting interesting."
"Then let's see what you've got."
The moment the words left his mouth, Gojo vanished.
No warning.
No transition.
One second he was there, the next he had disappeared from sight.
It was movement driven by Blue, compressing space and turning speed into something close to teleportation.
Almost at the same instant, a slender hand appeared right in front of Yami's face, carrying enough Cursed Energy to shatter stone like brittle glass.
Fast.
Far too fast for the naked eye to follow.
But in Yami's vision, the world had already changed.
Transparent World.
Gojo Satoru was no longer a simple human silhouette.
In Yami's eyes, he had become a living structure of muscles, blood vessels, bones, and surging flows of energy. Every contraction, every shift in weight, every movement of cursed energy through his body was exposed with terrifying clarity.
"I see it."
Yami moved at the last possible moment.
There were no wasted motions.
No flashy dodge.
Just a single step, a slight turn of the body.
Gojo's hand, loaded with overwhelming destructive force, brushed past Yami's nose by a hair.
He had dodged it.
A flash of surprise flickered through Gojo's visible eye.
That was not ordinary reaction speed.
It was prediction.
Before Gojo could fully shift into his next move, Yami's counterattack was already there.
[Sun Breathing, First Form: Dance]
The pseudo Crimson Blade carved a blazing arc through the air, carrying with it enough force to sever everything in its path as it slashed straight for Gojo's neck.
Clang!
A crisp metallic sound rang out.
The red hot iron bar stopped just centimeters away from Gojo's skin.
Infinity.
An unreachable gap.
An endless distance inserted between attacker and target, absolute and untouchable.
And yet
"Hm?"
Gojo's brow twitched ever so slightly.
He felt it.
The heat coating the blade had actually passed through Infinity and reached him, leaving behind the faintest trace of burning sensation on his skin.
It had not broken through his defense.
But the fact that a physical phenomenon could slip past Infinity at all was enough to make his interest sharpen instantly.
"To manage this without cursed energy..."
The blue in Gojo's eye brightened.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
A tremendous force of attraction erupted between them.
Yami's body was dragged toward Gojo uncontrollably, his feet leaving the ground as the pull distorted space itself.
No leverage.
No footing.
No way to stabilize himself midair.
At least, that should have been the case.
But Yami moved again.
[Sun Breathing, Fourth Form: Burning Bones, Summer Sun]
His body twisted strangely in midair, spinning with impossible precision. The movement created a vivid afterimage, a visual deception born from speed and rotational control.
Gojo's grasp caught nothing but the illusion.
The real Yami had already slipped past him, appearing at his flank and then behind him in the same breath.
[Sun Breathing, Ninth Form: Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance]
The blazing slash twisted into a whirling vortex of fire, devouring everything in its path as it crashed down toward Gojo.
This strike was powerful enough to cleave through steel.
Gojo did not even bother to turn fully.
He simply pointed behind himself.
"Heh."
Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.
The crimson shockwave erupted once more, slamming head on into Yami's flaming slash.
Rumble!!!
The entire abandoned construction site gave out at last.
Concrete shattered.
Steel supports screamed.
The structure collapsed in full, and a storm of smoke and dust swallowed everything.
Within the chaos, the two figures crossed paths.
Then they separated.
Yami landed hard, breathing raggedly.
The iron bar in his hand had finally reached its limit. Unable to endure the heat of the pseudo Crimson Blade and the force of the collision, it softened, warped, and began to melt completely, dripping molten metal from his hand to the broken ground below.
The red markings on his forehead gradually faded.
At the same time, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion crashed over him like a flood. His muscles screamed. His lungs burned. Every bone in his body felt hollowed out.
The trial card had ended.
Ten minutes of duration.
But in truth, the exchange had lasted less than thirty seconds.
Even so, Yami felt as if everything inside him had been wrung dry.
As the smoke slowly dispersed, Gojo was still standing where he had been.
Unruffled.
Untouched.
Not even a strand of silver hair was out of place.
But the way he looked at Yami had changed completely.
Gone was the casual curiosity he had worn before, as though examining some strange new creature.
Now, his gaze was fixed on Yami the way someone might look at an uncut gem just pulled from the dirt.
"Amazing. Seriously amazing."
Gojo clapped his hands like an excited child and strolled forward.
"No cursed energy, but that weird breathing method and your swordsmanship can actually keep up with my rhythm."
His grin widened.
"And those eyes of yours, the way they read my movements... plus that blade that can burn through cursed energy?"
Gojo leaned in closer, clearly delighted now.
"Hey, kid."
"What's your name?"
Yami forced himself to straighten up despite the exhaustion dragging at every inch of his body.
"Yami."
"Yami, huh..."
Gojo nodded, then casually pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of him.
"Good. Yami."
"Starting today, you're a first year at Tokyo Jujutsu High."
"Huh?"
Yami blinked, caught off guard.
"There's no entrance exam? No test or anything?"
"Test?"
Gojo pointed lazily at the ruins around them, then at the remains of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Yami had killed earlier.
"You survived a Special Grade Cursed Spirit."
"Then you traded blows with the strongest sorcerer alive."
He threw an arm around Yami's shoulder as naturally as if they were old friends.
"That's a better test than anything the school could come up with."
"Come on. I'll introduce you to your new classmates."
Gojo's grin turned even more amused.
"I've got a feeling you're going to be an even bigger problem child than I was."
Then his voice dropped, just slightly, carrying a private note of laughter.
"But that's what makes this fun."
That night, because of the appearance of a boy with no cursed energy, the history of the jujutsu world quietly began to shift.