As we mentioned last time, Satoru Gojo entered a state where his life began to flash before his eyes for the first time.
Since his birth, Satoru had been the man who single-handedly shifted the balance of the entire jujutsu world. He could count the number of opponents capable of giving him a real fight on one hand; the last person to put this much pressure on him was Toji Fushiguro, who is currently in the afterlife awaiting a Reanimation Jutsu.
However, the truly strong only grow more excited when faced with a desperate situation. He wasn't about to stop thinking just because defeat might be a second away.
Watching the faint image of a Guanyin Bodhisattva manifest behind Hasegumo, a fully materialized golden palm was already sweeping toward him.
Something's wrong, Satoru thought. Even in this precious, slowed-down moment of life flashing before him, he was still analyzing his opponent's moves. He hasn't deactivated Domain Amplification. How is he using a technique?
Wait, isn't his technique supposed to be Cursed Energy manipulation?
"Move!" Satoru's body responded to the desperate roar of his inner will.
Thwack!
The sound of a fist piercing flesh echoed through the field. Relying on absolute power and speed, Hasegumo had punched a hole straight through Satoru Gojo's left chest.
Zzt—
In that split second, Satoru acted as if he hadn't even seen the golden palm. His straight punch shifted slightly downward, finally grazing Hasegumo's right elbow.
Two distinct sounds rang out simultaneously. As Satoru was sent spiraling away, Hasegumo's golden arm swung upward like a volleyball player's bump, intercepting the Red that was hurtling toward him. Under the weight of the massive collision, the deep crimson orb of Reverse Cursed Energy was knocked straight into the sky.
"You're ruthless, you know that?" Satoru landed and hopped twice, limbering up his body. He could feel his Cursed Energy surging with vitality after triggering a Black Flash. He activated his Reverse Cursed Technique again, sealing the hole in his heart instantly.
"You actually figured it out?" Hasegumo was still reflecting on that last exchange. His arm, manifested from Positive Energy, shouldn't have been able to bypass the Limitless. Satoru had clearly seen through the trick—the only thing that was truly a threat was Hasegumo's own fist.
Still, Hasegumo had come out ahead in that trade. He had only taken a single Black Flash to the right arm, resulting in a slight twist of the bone. With a quick support from his left hand and a surge of Positive Energy, it was healed in an instant.
"By the way, why aren't you using Black Flash?" Satoru asked. He was genuinely curious; Hasegumo was a monster who could use a defensive Black Flash back in their first year. It was impossible for someone like him to simply fail to trigger it by mistake.
In their brief but violent clash, Hasegumo had landed three solid hits. Though each one had pierced Satoru's body through sheer force and Cursed Energy, not a single one had triggered a Black Flash.
Hasegumo wasn't one to hide his secrets, especially since this wasn't a fight to the death. He explained loudly, "The phenomenon known as Black Flash can only be triggered by Cursed Energy—negative energy. I don't possess that anymore. However, through basic Cursed Energy and physical strength alone, my attacks are objectively more powerful than your Black Flash."
"I see... so that presence you have, so different from a normal sorcerer, is because you've completely discarded Cursed Energy born from negative emotions?" Satoru accepted the premise easily. He also frankly admitted his inferiority in close-quarters combat, shouting, "I acknowledge you! In terms of pure Taijutsu, I, Gojo Satoru, declare you the strongest!"
"Is that so? Then the real battle starts now." Having received the acknowledgment, Hasegumo was ready to really start "dancing."
"Is this... what it means to be Special Grade?" Maki asked. At this point, she hadn't yet awakened as the second 'Heavenly Tyrant.' Her physical strength was only slightly above that of an average sorcerer. Born without a technique and possessing an incomplete Heavenly Restriction, her fierce pride drove her toward the goal of becoming a powerful sorcerer.
She had always had confidence in her martial arts, but the performance of the two men on the field was currently grinding her self-esteem into the dirt. A sense of crushing powerlessness rose in her heart. Hasegumo's last sentence was the straw that broke the camel's back—it was hard to fathom that such speed and power still weren't their full strength.
"What Gojo-senpai meant was that he's already shown everything he's capable of in a melee," Yu Haibara answered her. As a fellow practitioner of Shingen-ryu and a Grade 1 sorcerer, he had enough perspective to comment on the exchange.
In his eyes, Hasegumo was clearly the one with the advantage. "As for Gumo-senpai... he hasn't moved a single step from where he started."
The spectators were visibly shaken by that realization.
The two combatants were well aware of the situation. As the challenger, Satoru Gojo had used a combination of techniques and melee but still couldn't force Hasegumo to move an inch. The close-quarters engagement had reached its limit; what followed would be a battle between sorcerers.
Their exchange of words carried a silent signal, reaching a tacit understanding.
The moment the words fell, Hasegumo leaped high into the air.
"He's jumping?" Haibara's confused shout was echoed by Satoru's own voice.
Hasegumo had no ability to fly. By leaping up like that, he was essentially making himself a sitting duck.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!" Satoru didn't care if Hasegumo had a lapse in judgment; he fired a maximum output Red directly at him.
Since Hasegumo only used Positive Energy—which countered regular Cursed Energy—using Blue would be easy for him to neutralize with his golden palms. Only Red had a chance of breaking through his defenses.
"Heh, you still lack imagination," Hasegumo chuckled. He clasped his hands in prayer.
In the next instant, a golden hand appeared beneath his feet. It grabbed his ankle and flung him diagonally downward, dodging the Red while hurtling him toward Satoru.
"Eat my Buddha's Palm!"
The strike carried both Hasegumo's own power and the massive momentum from his descent. Satoru had no intention of tanking that hit. Though the flying speed was slower than a punch, he had plenty of time to react. In a flash, he teleported to the other side of the arena.
Seeing Satoru teleport, Hasegumo adjusted his stance in mid-air and kicked off again. A golden hand appeared beneath his feet to provide a boost, launching him like a cannonball once more.
"This is basically a Dead-End Shun Goku Satsu," Satoru quipped. Hasegumo's speed increased with every change in direction. If he kept dodging, the momentum would eventually reach a point where he couldn't react.
A "bouncing" maneuver like this could greatly enhance the force of an attack, but it required two things to be viable:
1. The user's body must be able to withstand the air resistance and the accumulating G-force from the changes in direction.
2. The user's reaction speed must be faster than the opponent's. If the speed exceeds one's own reaction limit, the user loses track of their own position, and the attack becomes impossible.
Fortunately, Hasegumo met both criteria.
"That could be troublesome..." Satoru's mind whirred, and he quickly came up with a brilliant counter-plan.
"Blue!" He left a blue orb of attraction at his previous position and teleported again—this time much further away, buying himself more time to maneuver.
Hasegumo adjusted his trajectory, but the pull of the Blue caused his speed to dip slightly.
"Phase. Paramita. Pillar of Light."
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!" Just as Hasegumo reached him, Satoru finished his incantation. Unlike a simple release of Cursed Energy, the act of "Chanting" provided a massive boost to the technique's output.
This Red was not only incredibly powerful but fired at point-blank range. At such high speeds, even Hasegumo couldn't dodge by changing direction again.
"Not being able to dodge doesn't mean I'm out of options." Hasegumo kept it simple. He clasped his hands and threw a punch straight into the crimson orb of Red. Materialized Positive Energy condensed into a golden palm, and a massive shockwave erupted between the two.
"Still not quite enough."
After all, it was a chanted Red. With Hasegumo's current level of remote Cursed Energy manipulation, he couldn't completely redirect it. In the collision, the angle of the Red was shifted; instead of hitting his chest, it tore downward. In its wake, Hasegumo's left leg vanished.
"Fortunately... my healing is top-tier too." One second his leg was gone; the next, it had regrown completely. His unscathed right leg simultaneously launched a counterattack.
They were inches apart. Though Satoru managed to block with his arms, the monstrous force of the kick sent him crashing into the ground below.
"Shit!" Seeing the redirected Red hurtling toward the spectators, Yu Haibara immediately activated his technique, Kai (Release). Unlike before, he no longer needed to chant; he could switch states freely. He grabbed Panda with his left hand and tucked Inumaki under his right arm, blurring dozens of meters away in a heartbeat.
The others showed off their own tricks. Mei Mei and Nanami relied on their raw speed to reach safety, while Principal Yaga used his technique to command a muscle-bound cursed corpse to punch him away, using the impact to clear the blast zone.
"They're completely out of control, these two." Naobito Zen'in, the strongest sorcerer in the stands, realized the Red was going to hit the stands the moment Hasegumo punched it. He activated his Projection Sorcery, and not only was he fine, but he made two round trips to relocate Megumi Fushiguro, Maki, Kusakabe, and Gakuganji to a new observation spot.
This sudden surge of Red served as a quick litmus test for the spectating sorcerers—the strong had time to save others, while the weak struggled just to save themselves.
Regardless, this was just a minor interlude in the battle of the two titans.
Hasegumo didn't use the momentum to charge down. Instead, he allowed gravity to pull him slowly toward the ground.
The dust kicked up from Satoru being slammed into the earth obscured his vision. Without a convenient ability like the Six Eyes, Hasegumo could only wait for the physical obstruction to clear.
"Hollow Technique: Purple!" The moment he hit the ground, Satoru realized he had a chance for a sneak attack. He didn't even heal his broken arms first; lying in the dirt, he unleashed the technique.
A purple orb of destruction tore through the smoke, reaching Hasegumo's chest in the blink of an eye.
Compared to Blue, which relied on attraction, and Red, which relied on repulsion, the Hollow Purple launched with imaginary mass was undeniably Satoru Gojo's ultimate killing move.
The combination of forward and reverse motion—the physical impact generated by infinite mass at extreme speed and the unique nature of the Cursed Energy—meant Hasegumo could not influence this strike through simple energy manipulation.
Facing an attack that could very well kill him, Hasegumo simply clasped his hands together once more.
In the next instant, a golden divine statue fully manifested behind him.
"Domain Expansion: 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva."