Chapter 57: Aoi Todo Crashes In
"Todo..."
Still sprawled on the ground, Kamo Noritoshi looked up at the towering figure that had just arrived. For the first time since this disaster began, a sliver of hope flickered in his eyes, only to be smothered by helplessness a second later.
He despised Aoi Todo.
He despised his recklessness, his refusal to follow orders, his endless talk about taste in women and idols, and the way he treated everything like a personal stage.
But in this moment of utter defeat, Kamo had no choice but to admit the truth.
Aoi Todo was the only hope Kyoto Jujutsu High had left.
As a Grade 1 sorcerer, Todo's strength was beyond question. During last year's Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, he had reportedly exorcised five Grade 1 cursed spirits and one Special Grade by himself.
If it was him, then maybe...
"Shut up, Kamo."
Todo did not even glance in his direction. His eyes were fixed entirely on Yami.
That gaze was fanatical, but not in any vulgar sense. It was the gaze of a warrior who had finally found someone standing on the same peak as himself.
Or perhaps someone even higher.
"You useless lot," Todo said, cracking his neck as he stepped forward. "Not one of you was able to make my sworn friend draw his blade properly?"
"How pathetic."
"When we get back, I'm going to retrain every last one of you so you understand what real strength looks like."
He ignored Principal Gakuganji's assassination order. He ignored his battered teammates lying all over the field.
At this moment, only one person existed in his world.
Yami.
"Yami!"
Todo slammed one fist into his palm and took a fighting stance. Blue cursed energy burned around his body like living fire, making the surrounding air feel thick and heavy.
"Come!"
"Let me see how much stronger you've gotten!"
"Don't use your sword!"
"Talk to me with your fists like a man!"
"Only when flesh and bone collide can two warriors truly understand each other's souls!"
Yami looked at the overexcited muscle idiot standing before him and let out a soft sigh.
They had only met a handful of times, yet Todo had already unilaterally decided they were kindred spirits. The rumor had spread all over Tokyo Jujutsu High. Even Panda had started asking weird questions, implying there was some deep and mysterious bond between them.
Annoying.
Ridiculous.
But somehow, not unpleasant.
In this world full of schemes, curses, and rotten intentions, someone as straightforward as Todo, someone who fought only to become stronger and live more honestly, felt bizarrely refreshing.
"Since you insist," Yami said at last.
He slowly slid Shiranui back into its sheath. The clear sound of metal locking into place rang through the scorched clearing.
Then he unbuttoned the top of his uniform jacket, shrugged it off, and tossed it onto a nearby branch.
Beneath it, his white shirt clung lightly to his frame. He was not built like Todo, nor did he have that overwhelming bulk, but the lines of his body were smooth, tight, and tempered by battle. Strength without waste. A blade hidden beneath cloth.
"Then let's do this, Todo."
Yami lowered his center of gravity and raised his hands.
Not a sword stance.
A pure martial stance.
Though Tsugikuni Yoriichi's greatest talent had been the sword, his command of close combat was also monstrous. The Breathing Techniques strengthened more than steel. They forged the body itself into a weapon.
"Good! Great! Excellent!"
Todo roared so loudly his voice shook the branches overhead.
"As expected of my sworn friend!"
The ground beneath his feet exploded as he launched forward like a cannonball.
"This punch carries my love for you, brother!"
Boom!
His fist came straight for Yami's face, wrapped in cursed energy and monstrous force. There was no trick to it, no flourish. Just speed, weight, and destruction. The power behind that blow was enough to crumple steel plate.
Yami's eyes sharpened.
"Too big."
He was not talking about the fist itself, but the movement.
Todo's attacks were brutally effective, but to Yami's eyes, every burst of force came with openings. Too much motion. Too much commitment. Too much emotion written into muscle.
Just before the fist could reach him, Yami tilted his head.
The wind from the punch brushed past his cheek, sending his dark hair fluttering and making his skin sting.
At the same time, Yami's right hand shot out and caught Todo by the wrist.
Then he turned.
A perfect shoulder throw.
The movement was seamless, natural, fluid. No wasted effort, no unnecessary power. Todo's overwhelming strength was redirected in one flowing motion and sent crashing straight into the earth.
Boom!
A crater burst open beneath him, dust exploding outward in a ring.
"Ngh...!"
Then, from the dust.
"Hahahaha! That hurt!"
Todo sprang out of the crater as though nothing had happened, slapping dirt off his shoulder. Not a trace of anger showed on his face. If anything, he looked more delighted than before.
"As expected! Not only is your swordsmanship incredible, but your martial arts are perfect too!"
"Again!"
This time, he did not rush in blindly.
Instead, he clapped.
Clap.
Boogie Woogie.
In an instant, his position swapped with a rock behind Yami. Without the slightest warning, his fist smashed toward the back of Yami's head.
This was Aoi Todo's cursed technique.
Simple. Crude. Absurdly effective.
As long as there was cursed energy involved, he could swap the positions of living beings or objects with a single clap. In real combat, it was an infuriating ability, one that made reading him far more difficult than his brutish style suggested.
But Yami moved before the punch landed.
Without even turning around, he lowered his body slightly and drove a backward kick into Todo's wrist.
Bang!
The impact burst out in a ring of compressed air.
Todo jumped back using the recoil, his eyes wide with shock.
He had made no sound. The switch had been instantaneous. Yet Yami reacted as though he had known exactly where he would appear.
"How?"
Todo's voice was full of honest astonishment.
Yami straightened slowly and glanced over his shoulder.
"I told you. Your movements are too big."
Then he added, "And your heartbeat is loud."
Under Total Concentration, Yami's hearing had long since gone beyond ordinary limits. Todo's excited heartbeat was like a war drum in his ears. Between that, the clap, the cursed energy fluctuations, and Todo's own murderous enthusiasm, there was no such thing as a real blind spot.
For someone like Yami, every attack announced itself before it arrived.
Todo froze for half a second.
Then he burst into wild laughter again.
"Hahahaha! So that's it! So that's how it is!"
"You can hear heartbeats too? Amazing!"
"Then no more tricks!"
He spread his arms wide and grinned like a madman.
"Let's settle it head on!"
"No cursed technique!"
"No cleverness!"
"Just fists!"
"Come on, brother!"
For the next several minutes, the forest became a battlefield of raw violence.
Todo attacked like a storm given human form. Every punch carried enough cursed energy to shatter boulders. Every kick churned up dirt and split trunks. He fought with the ferocity of a beast and the instinct of a seasoned predator.
Yami met him without backing down.
He flowed.
He slipped through gaps that should not have existed, intercepted strikes by the smallest margins, redirected force with perfect efficiency, and countered with blows that looked light but landed like iron hammers.
Fist met palm.
Elbow met shoulder.
Knee met ribs.
The dull, vicious sounds of body against body echoed through the woods again and again.
Trees were snapped in half.
The ground cratered under their feet.
The Kyoto students, still collapsed nearby, could only stare in numb disbelief.
Was this still a fight between humans?
Neither of them used weapons. Neither of them unleashed some grand technique.
And yet every exchange between them felt more violent than the rampage of a Grade 1 cursed spirit.
Finally, after one last collision that shook the clearing, both of them slid back several steps.
Todo stood there breathing hard, one eye swollen, the corner of his mouth bleeding, bruises blooming across his massive frame.
Yami's condition was only slightly better. His shirt was wrinkled and dusty, a few buttons had been torn loose, and his breathing had grown noticeably heavier.
Continuous high intensity combat was not free.
He had already fought Mechamaru. He had already broken Kamo Noritoshi's Piercing Blood. He had switched breathing styles over and over while suppressing his own destructive power enough to avoid maiming everyone. Even for him, that exacting level of control cost energy.
And Todo really was strong.
Absurdly strong.
Among the students, he was not just Grade 1 in title. He was a genuine monster.
"Refreshing!"
Todo wiped the blood from his mouth and laughed toward the sky.
"Good! This is what I wanted!"
"This is what it means to be alive!"
He looked at Yami with pure admiration blazing in his eyes.
"Yami, you truly are my one and only..."
"Brother!"
Yami looked at him and, despite himself, the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
In this insane, cursed world, meeting an idiot this genuine was not the worst thing.
"Don't call me brother."
"Call me Yami."
"Got it, brother!"
"..."
Yami closed his eyes for a second.
Then he opened them again and said, in a tone completely flat, "You're hopeless."
Todo only laughed louder.
.....
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