"I'm throwing it now."
Shoko and Suguru simultaneously tossed an eraser and a pencil at Satoru Gojo. The eraser bonked him right on the head, but the pencil stopped dead in mid-air, suspended by the neutral Limitless.
Satoru caught the bouncing eraser with his left hand and plucked the pencil from the air with his right.
"Yeah, it works," Satoru declared.
"How does that even work?" As a non-combatant, Shoko didn't spend much time studying the intricacies of techniques. Satoru's recent maneuvers were beyond her.
"Automatic target selection?" Suguru guessed, his intuition hitting the mark immediately.
"Bingo. Well, technically, I'm the target of the technique." Satoru twirled the pencil between his fingers, launching into a lecture on his recent breakthroughs. "Think of it like moving from a manual transmission to an automatic."
"My driving instructor said automatics are for the disabled," Hasegumo chimed in while walking Hachi nearby.
"So, perfect for you then," Satoru shot back with an effortless jab. He tossed the eraser into the air and continued his explanation. "It doesn't just judge by cursed energy levels anymore. It can now differentiate danger based on mass, speed, and shape."
"If I could get it to filter out toxins, that would be ideal, but that's still proving difficult."
"With this, I can keep the neutral Limitless active almost indefinitely with minimal resource consumption."
Shoko frowned, looking concerned. "Keeping it active 24/7 is going to fry your brain."
"That's why I'm running Reverse Cursed Technique constantly to refresh myself." Satoru tapped his temple with the pencil. "I've got 'fresh-from-the-farm' brain matter being delivered to my skull every second."
"I've also perfected the shorthand for hand signs I was working on. Multiple, simultaneous activations of 'Red' and 'Blue' are also progressing smoothly."
"All that's left is Domain Expansion and long-range teleportation. If I can just get the school to pave a dedicated, obstacle-free runway starting from Jujutsu High, teleportation shouldn't be an issue."
Satoru went on detailing his god-like progression, but the only one who seemed truly affected was Suguru Geto. Satoru has become the "Strongest"...
The "Strongest Duo" had officially become Satoru Gojo: The Strongest.
A thought suddenly occurred to Hasegumo, and he called out to Satoru. "Hey, Satoru. If you're running on 'Automatic,' does that mean I can't even touch you anymore?"
Satoru, who was about to ask Shoko for some lab mice to test his RCT on, paused. "Well, if it's a very slow, non-threatening touch, it should be fine. The automatic selection filters things based on speed and perceived threat."
"Oh? Is that so?" Interest piqued, Hasegumo let Hachi wander off on his own and stepped up to Satoru. "Then can my Defensive Black Flash still hit you?"
"Try it and find out." Satoru, not knowing the answer himself, decided to be a bit unsportsmanlike and threw a punch straight at Hasegumo's gut. However, no Black Flash occurred.
"Why didn't you use it?" Satoru frowned. He'd heard Hasegumo's explanation of the move before, but since he couldn't pull it off himself, he didn't quite grasp the mechanics. He just knew it was incredibly difficult—something no normal human should be able to do.
"I couldn't. The moment of impact was separated by your technique," Hasegumo explained, rubbing his stomach. Luckily, Satoru hadn't put much force behind it. "The truth is, that move requires the opponent's cooperation. If you control your strength and pull back the instant you hit, I can't trigger the Black Flash because you haven't left me any room to counter-strike."
He mimicked the motions with his hands. "It's like someone with a sword hitting someone with a shield. Normally, after the blade hits the shield, there's a brief moment of 'clashing'—a struggle of force against force."
"Punching and getting punched is the same. It's fleeting, and most people can't exert outward force from the point where they're being hit, but that process exists. The principle of the Defensive Black Flash is to counter-attack during that exact moment of clashing. But your technique automatically separates that latter half of the process. There's only your output, with zero 'clash' between us."
"Yoshi! So basically, I can hit you, but you can't hit me," Satoru summarized, ignoring all the technical jargon. "Guess you won't be beating me again."
"Yeah, yeah. You're a Special Grade now, after all." Hasegumo shifted gears. "However, I've got one more trick. Want to see?"
"Bring it on. I'm the strongest," Satoru said dismissively, standing his ground as if to say, Hit me with your best shot.
Hasegumo stepped forward and slowly raised a fist. He swung it forward at a pace slower than an elderly man practicing Tai Chi in a park.
Against such a non-threatening fist, Satoru's automatic Limitless would undoubtedly let it through.
"What is this? You trying to kill me with boredom?" Satoru joked, but then he suddenly felt a chill. Despite the slow speed, he instinctively took a step back. "That slow-motion punch... why do I feel like it could actually kill me?"
"Haha." Hasegumo pulled back the punch and laughed. "Just testing you. You're pretty sharp, aren't you?"
"So what the hell was that?" Satoru could feel the power latent in the strike, but he couldn't understand it.
"It's called 'Relaxation'—it's similar to 'Dissipation of Force.' By completely relaxing the body, you can exert your full power without needing high velocity," Hasegumo explained. "Only those who have reached the pinnacle of martial arts can pull it off. But it's only useful against opponents with poor perception. Against someone with instincts like yours, it's almost impossible to actually land."
"Looks like I need to recalibrate the automatic filter," Satoru mused. "If I set it to block any body part that could potentially cause damage regardless of speed, then I won't have to worry about attacks like that."
"Thinking of a counter-measure that fast? Never change, Satoru." Hasegumo turned toward Suguru. "Speaking of which, Suguru, what about you? When is your Special Grade promotion coming through?"
Satoru completes all his missions alone now. Shoko never goes on dangerous missions anyway—at most, she tags along with Gumo to collect the bonuses for Grade 1 and 2 missions. Naturally, the time I spend alone has increased...
Suguru, who had been lost in his own world, snapped out of it. "Huh?"
"Special Grade! What are you daydreaming about? I asked when your promotion is coming. That way, our year will have two Special Grades." Hasegumo tried to throw an arm around Suguru's neck, but due to the height difference, he ended up awkwardly hugging the man's waist.
"That... should be in the next few days." Suguru felt the posture was a bit too "intimate" and gently pushed him away. "Doing stuff like this leads to misunderstandings."
"We'll have two Special Grades, and you won't be one of them. Poor Senpai," Satoru teased from the sidelines, fanning the flames.
Hasegumo had always been envious of cool moves like Domain Expansion. "What can I do? I only know how to punch people. I can't even use a Domain Expansion."
He sat down on the nearby stairs and sighed. "Being a Special Grade means facing more and stronger enemies. You have to be able to hold your own against anyone. My flaws are too obvious, and I still haven't recovered my Reverse Cursed Technique. The higher-ups wouldn't dream of making someone like me a Special Grade. Besides, I haven't found a way to improve lately."
"I can't use a Domain Expansion either, and I still got made a Special Grade. Just let that stuff happen when it happens."
"Besides, the higher-ups? Just a bunch of old geezers with one foot in the grave." Satoru walked over and sat down beside him. "In a few years, they'll probably all be dead. By then, Yaga-sensei will be the big boss. Won't Special Grade promotions be up to us?" He patted his chest confidently. "You'll definitely be the first Special Grade after us."
"That is some dangerous rhetoric," Suguru said as he sat down too, his eyes clouded with an unshakable fatigue. "Satoru, you've been slacking too much lately. The number of curses Gumo and I have exorcised this month is almost as much as we did all of last year."
"Is that so?" Satoru decided to play dumb. "I'll buy you some somen later to make up for it."
Shoko, who had been playing with Hachi, looked up at the three of them. Hasegumo was sitting in the middle, flanked by Suguru and Satoru, who both towered over him.
"Hehe. You guys look like a little family of three." Her quiet mumble didn't escape their ears.
Baby Hasegumo was the first to complain: "These two definitely grew up eating super-fertilizer."
"Then I'm definitely the handsome father," the narcissistic Satoru Gojo declared.
"I like women," Suguru added, having no desire to be part of a "BL" dynamic.
"Speaking of women, you guys probably don't know," Shoko said, her voice dropping into a mysterious "gossip mode." "Gumo here has a super pretty girlfriend. Great body, and she's tall, too."
"! Tell us everything." Satoru immediately betrayed the trio, "teleporting" over to sit next to Shoko like a well-behaved student ready for a lecture.
Suguru maintained a stoic expression, appearing to be deep in thought, but he had secretly sharpened his hearing to catch every word.
"A few months ago, I tagged along with Gumo to grab a free meal. We ran into this girl at a hotpot place in Kyoto. Her name was Hisazakuro Nagasawa."
Shoko clearly knew how to tell a story, cutting straight to the juicy bits. "That girl definitely has a thing for him. Her eyes were sparkling when she looked at him. She came over to say hi, and Gumo didn't even recognize her. He thought he was a big-shot celebrity and tried to give her an autograph like an idiot."
"I told you, we're just friends!" Hasegumo's face heated up as his secrets were spilled. "That was only the second time we'd met."
"Shut up! x3" Even Suguru told him to be quiet. Hasegumo could only turn away huffily to play with Hachi.
"And then?"
"The girl is a sorcerer, too. She's at Kyoto Jujutsu High, one year below us. We were supposed to see her at the Goodwill Event this year."
"It's all your fault, Satoru," Suguru said, shifting his aim. "If you hadn't been slacking off and letting the curses run wild, the Goodwill Event wouldn't have been canceled for lack of time."
A guilty Satoru tried to change the subject. "Got a photo?"
Shoko pulled out her phone and showed the two of them.
"You call a photo like this 'just friends'?" Suguru's hands gripped Hasegumo's shoulders. He had clearly forgotten his existential dread from moments ago; now, he only wanted to punish his teammate for "sneaking out" on them.
"She's a rare beauty," Satoru added, leaning in. He felt the situation was absurd. "A blockhead like you actually found a girlfriend while I'm still single? The world is truly ending."
"I TOLD YOU, WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!"
Hasegumo, now sporting a face beaten into a "pig head" shape, cried out in vain. "Shoko! You've completely failed me!"
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