By September, Tokyo had still not fully shaken off the heat. Harsh sunlight poured straight down over the empty training field, baking the rubber track until even the air seemed heavy.
At the center of the field, Kaede's figure looked strangely solitary in the waves of heat.
His feet were planted firmly on the ground, his body held in a stance ready to spring.
Centered on him, a half-transparent cursed energy barrier with a radius of about seven feet spread tightly over the grass like ripples across water. Inside that zone, the air warped slightly under the pressure. It was the clear sign of a Simple Domain in operation.
A deep cut, one that reached the bone, marked his right forearm. He had inflicted it on himself earlier while practicing high-pressure cursed energy collisions.
Even so, the wound was now giving off thin strands of pale white mist, glittering under the sun.
The flesh at the edge of the cut was slowly twitching and drawing inward at a pace so slow it was nearly impossible to see.
Gojo Satoru was sprawled without dignity across the high-jump mat off to one side, his long legs swinging idly.
He pushed the black blindfold up from his face just enough to reveal a pair of eyes like pale blue stars, both fixed on the activity at the center of the field with obvious amusement.
"Well now, it's only the tiniest little bit, but that definitely smells like positive energy."
Gojo hopped lightly down from the mat, his shoes making no sound as they touched the grass.
With his hands in his pockets, he wandered in a lazy circle around the rippling Simple Domain, his fingertip passing lightly through the air near its edge.
"To get that leaky reactor of yours running in just two months, Kaede, you're not secretly the type who hides under the covers and works yourself half to death while everyone else is sleeping, are you?
And your construction of the Simple Domain is stable too. It's not only canceling part of the interference from outside laws, it's also acting like a high-pressure environment for the 'multiplication' happening inside your body. That's actually a pretty smart approach."
Hearing that, Kaede could only feel speechless.
These last two months had been miserable.
Gojo really was fairly gentle with students in ordinary situations, but once training started, he became a completely different person.
Whether it was hand-to-hand combat or stabilizing the Simple Domain, Gojo had genuinely set the standard at, "If it won't kill you, hit harder."
Under that kind of training, not working hard had never really been an option.
Gojo stopped and turned toward the school buildings. The distant hills wavered in the heat, and the cicadas were deafening.
"Speaking of which, Yuji's side seems to be staying pretty busy. Nanami complains constantly, but once he's working, he gets way too serious.
That stitched-face curse is proving trickier than expected. They're probably playing hide-and-seek around that theater in Kawasaki right now."
Gojo looked away from the distant scenery and shifted his attention squarely back to Kaede.
Without warning, he raised one hand, hooked his finger slightly, and a faint but highly condensed glow of blue cursed energy flickered at his fingertip.
"Well then, since you've learned self-repair, you should be able to handle this level of 'interference,' right?"
Before the sentence had even fully ended, the streak of blue cursed energy had already torn through the air, aimed precisely at the cut on Kaede's arm that had only just begun to close.
The cursed blast struck the edge of the Simple Domain, and violent waves rippled across it like boiling oil splashed into cold water.
The blue beam shrieked through the air and crashed into the half-transparent barrier.
Two entirely different forces exploded against one another in an instant. The brilliant blue light and the water-like shield ground violently together, producing a shrill, teeth-grating screech.
The air above the field flashed hot, and white steam burst outward in every direction.
Blinding sunlight vanished behind the thick mist. The destructive beam was forced sideways by the slanted domain barrier, then slammed diagonally into the grass some distance away.
Dirt and shredded grass shot into the air. A deep crater with blackened edges was left behind.
And yet, though the rippling shield shook violently, the faint white glow of reverse energy inside it continued running in stable cycles.
"So far, there's no major problem. With more training, it should be ready for actual combat...
After that, I'll need to work on external output and technique reversal."
Those quiet words about "external output" and "technique reversal" drifted out through the steam.
The smile on Gojo's face slowly widened. He swept aside the hot vapor drifting toward him, his shoes brushing over grass already beginning to yellow in the heat.
His blue eyes, half-seen through the edge of the glasses, tracked every detail of the water-like barrier as it gradually settled.
"Externalizing reverse cursed technique? And on top of that, developing a reversed cursed technique?"
He sounded as though he had just heard the perfect joke, enough to make even his shoulders shake slightly.
One long finger rubbed lightly along his jaw as he stepped forward without the slightest politeness.
"Should I call that fearless ignorance, or just excessive confidence?"
Gojo stopped at the absolute edge of the domain. Infinity kept him untouched, perfectly isolating the last of the rolling heat.
"Releasing positive energy outside the body is not as simple as throwing a bowl of water into the air.
The instant positive energy leaves the high-pressure furnace of the body, it starts dissipating into the atmosphere.
Even Shoko, that precious treasure the higher-ups hoard, can only 'output' it because of her own naturally unusual physiology. And as for technique reversal..."
He deliberately dragged out the final words. The gaze of the Six Eyes pierced through the thinning curtain of water and fixed on the body made of water and cursed energy before him.
"Your technique is Rainfall. If reversed, what would that even be? Drought? Or maybe water extraction?"
Gojo suddenly laughed out loud. He slid both hands back into his pockets and leaned forward slightly.
"If that's the case, wouldn't your body, which is literally built out of cursed energy and flowing water, dry itself out before the technique even finished activating?
That's a lethal paradox so ugly even I'd call it a headache."
The sparks of cursed energy still drifting in the air had not yet fully gone out. Gojo shed a little of his usual casualness, though the dangerous curve of his mouth remained.
He raised his right hand, his knuckles distinct, and closed his fingers slowly in empty air. The surrounding atmosphere let out a strained cry.
"Well, since you've got this much energy to spare, we can skip the warm-up part of practical training.
Neutralizing one casually thrown chunk of cursed energy isn't anything impressive.
If you want to be ready for real combat, try surviving this first."
"Oh, come on, not again!"
Kaede barely had time to mutter it before he focused completely, preparing for the next round of live training.
Gojo's figure blurred briefly in the air, almost as if physical distance had stopped mattering, and then he was suddenly standing directly in front of him.
It was a perfectly plain straight punch, but one carrying enough force to crush the air itself.
At the instant the fist was about to connect, a transparent glow like flowing water flared up.
"Domain Amplification!"
The impact exploded over the field like a thunderclap.
The glow of amplification rippled violently the moment it touched that inhuman force, splashing outward like shattered glass made of water.
Even with the buffering effect of amplification, the overwhelming impact could not be completely dispersed.
Kaede was blown backward like a dead leaf caught in a hurricane. He carved a trench over thirty feet long across the grass before finally stopping, dirt and grass flying everywhere.
But the rhythm of the fight did not break.
As he flew, the pressure in the air dropped sharply.
Dark clouds gathered with impossible speed, swallowing the final trace of sunlight in an instant.
The entire field dimmed into something like premature dusk.
Then the rain came crashing down.
Cold drops slammed into the muddy earth, kicking up pale mist.
This was no ordinary rain. Every drop carried thick, massive cursed energy, and under the laws of the domain, each one possessed an unavoidable guaranteed-hit property.
Gojo remained standing exactly where he was, but he tilted his head slightly up, the Six Eyes looking straight through the glasses.
The rain that should have halted inches from his body was now hurling itself against Infinity over and over.
The air filled with dense sizzling sounds, like corrosive acid eating into metal. That perfectly suspended space around him was being forcibly stripped away and neutralized under the endless assault.
Then, deep within the curtain of rain, something shifted again.
The scattered rainwater all around was suddenly dragged inward by some violent magnetic pull, compressing toward a single point in midair.
With a deafening sonic crack, a tiny column of water compressed to its absolute limit tore through the storm.
That water beam looked like a solid laser carving through space itself, carrying enough penetrative power to pierce steel, and it shot directly for Gojo's forehead.
At the final instant, Gojo twisted his neck sideways at an angle that should not have been possible.
The high-pressure water beam grazed past his white eyelashes, trailing a cutting wind like a blade.
Then it continued on, punching through a concrete defensive wall a hundred yards away, leaving behind a deep hole with edges as smooth as polished glass. Several strands of cut white hair drifted down through the rain.
Gojo reached up with his thumb and lightly wiped away the thin red line the passing wind had sliced into his cheek.
The Infinity barrier around him had become like the last flame of a candle in a storm under the rain's neutralization, but the smile on his face only grew more intense, almost feverishly delighted.
"That's an impressive string of attacks.
Not only did you force yourself to absorb my punch with amplification, you also managed to construct a complete innate domain while flying backward."
He flexed one wrist, letting the rain that neutralized techniques strike his expensive shirt, while his blue eyes gleamed brilliantly in the dim rain.
"You used the domain's guaranteed-hit effect to give the rainwater a technique-neutralizing property and forcibly strip Infinity away.
Then you borrowed the compression principle of the Kamo clan's Blood Manipulation and compressed your own water into a piercing strike...
To get this far in just two months, your battle instincts really are sharp."
Slowly, Gojo raised his right hand. His index and middle fingers came together, and a vast, unnerving mass of cursed energy began gathering and rotating madly at his fingertips.
The rain around him vanished into nothing the instant it touched that power.
"But in the end, a clash between domains comes down to one thing: raw cursed energy reserves and the completeness of the barrier crushing against each other.
And since you've built such a lovely stage, wouldn't it be rude of me not to answer with something real?"
"So he's getting serious now? Is it Blue?"
Kaede's thoughts flashed rapidly.
And with that, the real sparring match against Gojo Satoru finally began.