Timeskip 4 months.
Gojo POV:
"Hey Satoru, did you make any preparations for the tournament? I heard there are some strong fighters in the 3 big clans" My dearest friend Suguru asked.
'Did he seriously think I had to worry about this tournament? My victory was promised to me 1 year ago when the tournament was announced'
"C'mon the young sorcerers from the great clans are jokes, in this generation there are only 2 sorcerers with grade 1 capabilities, although I did hear the Kamo clan produced a strong set of twins"
"Yeah, Mei Mei told me about that. She went on a mission with them a while ago, apparently the kid achieved domain expansion. He even killed a special grade curse half a year ago"
"Obviously I know about the Kuroda Incident, my family was hassling me about it for a while. Still it was just a special grade curse, it shouldn't have been that strong."
"Regardless of whether he is strong or not, he has a domain. It's one of the only things that can actually get through your infinity, did you even try to figure out what the sure-hit is?"
"... Are you actually worrying for me Suguru, I'm touched you care so much"
"Tch, I'm done worrying about you, go ahead and get beat down in front of everyone"
"Are you two done with your lover's spat" As Suguru was falling for the ragebait, Shoko entered the room, immediately throwing a ludicrous allegation.
"We are not lovers"
"We are not lovers"
"Look at you two, perfectly in sync."
"... Whatever, just know you two don't have to worry about whether I am going to lose or win. Because Suguru and I are the ____ "
(Fill in the blank yourself)
__
Futago POV:
"Did everyone pack up? We will be staying at the Zenin estate for at least a week while the tournament is happening." Daizen asked. His voice boomed through the field, as we stood in front of a bus.
"Yes sir" We all responded.
"Make sure you show the strength of the Kamo clan's younger generation. They can't think we are weakened after the Kuroda Incident"
"Anyway, line up, get on the bus and let's get going." The elder finished, while motioning us to the bus. It was a yellow bus that reminded me a lot of my youth, where I took the school bus.
'This kinda feels like a school trip, except instead of going to a science museum we are going to a fighting tournament with super powers'
"Futago, Tomogui we have high expectations for you. Other than Satoru Gojo, and maybe Naoya Zenin you two should be [TitleCard]. As long as the matchups are good, and you two don't end up fighting them till the end you should be fine."
'These two kids, their cursed energy reserves are already boundless, but is it my imagination? I feel like their cursed energy reserves have grown… but that should be impossible. I must be imagining it'
'Not just that, they have grown quickly recently. Are they going through puberty, they were only 4 '11 recently and in just these 4 months they have grown 6 inches. Hopefully they don't go through that teenage angst phase, we need them to be at the peak mentally and physically.'
As the rest of us clumped into the bus, Daizen entered the driver's seat and began to drive to the Zenin Estate.
*Do you think he noticed the changes to our cursed energy reserves?* I asked Tomogui. The way the elders looked at us was full of confusion.
*Probably not. I mean our reserves are already so boundless, they can't accurately sense the changes we got from leveling up with the Holy Ichor* Tomogui responded while following with another statement.
*The only possible way for them to notice something odd would be to sense the cursed energy that wells up from the mark. Thankfully my control over cursed energy is pristine, no one will notice the clump of cursed energy that is forming on my chest*
It's true, while the Holy Ichor does add to our reserves it doesn't just add it all to the gut where cursed energy is typically stored. It creates a mark that stores that extra cursed energy.
Even though the mark didn't form on my body, I could still use the cursed energy that was stored in Tomogui's mark as my own.
Not just that, the Holy Ichor was strengthening our body like crazy. Although we didn't get bulky we clearly got stronger, our muscles became dense, and our bones got tougher. We even got taller, at the ripe age of 10 we have become 5 '6. At this rate we might be 6'5 by the time we are done with puberty.
*Even if a sorcerer does notice the abnormality of cursed energy concentrating on your shoulder, you could always just play it off. Blame a binding vow, or heavenly restriction.* I added, honestly even though I thought it important to hide the whole thing it wasn't a big deal if people sensed the cursed energy coming from the mark.
*You seem to be in a better mood you were pretty pissed for an entire month after the cursed tool made from Jason's Holy Ichor was completed* Tomogui was quick to change the subject and … wow he hit a sensitive spot.
*Why aren't you mad? There were so many abilities I would have loved to have stolen from Jason, his immortality, his ability to mark people with a weakness effect, his untraceable cursed energy. Guess what we fucking got, a nerfed version of his cursed energy trait*
We chose a mask to use for the cursed tool creation, and the ability we ended up getting when making it a special grade tool was … disappointing to say the least.
It indeed granted the user the invisible cursed energy trait, and it made whatever cursed tools you were wielding invisible as well.
But unlike Jason's trait which was completely untraceable/invisible. The trait from the mask was just hard to see.
Tomogui and most normal sorcerers couldn't sense it. But sorcerers with unique tracing abilities like me (Heterochromatic eyes) and Gojo (Six Eyes) could see the cursed energy.
Not just that, because it wasn't a completely untraceable domain sure-hits could still target the person using the mask.
*If only I had a spare memory slot when we met Jason, I would have copied Jason's immortality ability and been a God. Who could have stopped me with a resurrection ability, and my near boundless cursed energy*
*Just because it doesn't let us avoid sure-hits doesn't mean much. We already have Chiral Blossom Emotions to deal with domain sure-hits. We finally learned to move while using the ability. As for not being able to copy Jason's resurrection … that does suck*
"Everyone we are here" Interrupting our internal chat, Daizen's voice boomed throughout the bus. The other kids who were talking promptly got quiet before we lined up and exited the bus.
"Wow, this is the Zenin clan. A clan on par with our Kamo clan" I heard whispers from Daichi and Tenken.
'Honestly comparing the Kamo clan and Zenin clan as equals is somewhat insulting to the Zenin. Even though we do have 4 grade 1s, they are old and incompetent compared to the grade 1's from the Zenin clan'
'Screw Naobito, even teenager Naoya could probably wipe out the Kamo clan … with the sole exception us twins of course'
*Did you seriously do the narrator glaze for yourself? Didn't know you were that narcissistic* Tomogui wasn't going to let that statement slide unquestioned.
*Poking into my head like that is rude, I'm just glazing myself before the tournament. Gotta farm some aura points before I get mogged by Gojo*
"You all must be members of the Kamo clan. Wait at the tournament arena, the rules of the tournament will be explained and the brackets will be announced promptly" An women from the Zenin clan arrived and … wow.
The lady looked around 50, her hair was thinning, she had a limp to her walk, and the look in her eyes were dull, blank. If that wasn't enough I'm fairly confident I could see bruising on her cheek like she got hit recently.
'I mean in the Kamo clan I have seen women who looked depressed and over with life but wow, if this was the average women in the Zenin clan, maybe the Kamo weren't so bad'
'Still, not my problem. No point interfering in what makes the Zenin clan the Zenin clan'
While I was having these internal thoughts the lady guided our group to the tournament center. It was a glorious and massive circular dome, with seats for the people who wanted to watch. It was a plain land with a single tree ground on one edge.
'This is pretty much the Naruto Chunin exam final tournament ground.'
'At least it's big, otherwise there would be no way to dodge Gojo spamming his blue.'
Across the stadium where the Zenin tournament participants were grouped up I could see a Zenin clan elder seemingly instructing them.
None of them were familiar to me except for one.
Naoya Zenin: Age 15
Naoya seemed to notice my gaze and waved over at me, he had a sinister smirk on his face while doing it. Even with that evil gaze it didn't seem to make him ugly, just gave him a different type of attractiveness.
I nodded and waved back a little before turning to where the Gojo clan participants were.
I was a little shocked to notice that all of them had white hair.
'Is that the genetics of the Gojo clan, they all have white hair. They don't have blue eyes though, that's from the six eyes which no one else should have.'
That wasn't all, when I looked more deeply I could see Satoru Gojo talking to someone.
'... Suguru Geto, and Shoko? Did he invite them to watch the tournament'
'Suguru Geto. One of the biggest potential man's in the series, second only to Megumi Fushigro of course. His Cursed spirit Manipulation is key to Kenjaku's plan to start the merger/culling games.'
'If I want to stop Kenjaku and his plan, the smart thing would be to make sure Geto doesn't turn to evil. That way Gojo would still protect him, and Kenjaku wouldn't have a chance to steal his body.'
'... No, even if Geto doesn't become evil, Kenjaku will hunt and kill him. He will find a time where Gojo isn't with him, honestly trying to stop Kenjaku seems like an impossible endeavor.'
'I don't particularly care about the evil Kenjaku does; rather I am scared of the Merger and Sukuna going wild after Kenjaku frees him. The Culling Games actually seems like it would be fun, too bad the merger would promptly follow'
While my internal thoughts were coming to a close the Elder began to explain the rules of the tournament.
"Hello everyone, firstly we should let out a round of applause to the 18 participants. They are the stars of the young generation for the three great clans and we are happy to see them all perform today." The elder held a microphone and spoke into it. His voice traveled across the field.
[Author Note: In an earlier chapter I wrote 20 participants total, but the bracketing becomes hard if we do 20 people. So it will be retconned to 18 people in the tournament. 6 from each clan. Sorry]
A loud applause rose up from the crowd, since the tournament is taking place in the Zenin estate. All of the crowd are from the Zenin except for the ones invited like Suguru and Shoko.
'Just get on with the rules and stop wasting time'
"To start this is a double elimination tournament, meaning that even if you lose once you can still enter the loser's bracket. Once you get to the Quarter finals you can't enter the Loser's bracket. Before the Quarter Finals the Loser's bracket will announce a champion and they will be allowed into the main tournament again."
"Any Questions?"
"..." Everyone was silent.
"I'll take your silence as understanding, now then we will reveal it. The brackets and Matchups for this tournament"
'Please don't get Gojo. Please don't get Gojo' I put my hands together in a prayer and began to ask the lords for a chance.
As my prayers were being sent a screen was displayed in front of us, with the bracket's matchups, and the tournament layout.
[Image]
As we all viewed the brackets it got quiet quickly.
"..." All the other participants from the Kamo clan took a good look at me, but stayed silent.
"I-Impossible" Daizen seemed shocked, his grand plan of watching me and Tomogui dominate began to slip.
*HAHA, this is what you get for trying to do that narrator shit earlier.* Tomogui didn't even seem sad. Then again there was a loser's bracket.
"Just my Damn luck" I muttered
The Announcer's voice promptly followed, and began to speak.
"It looks like we are in for a Grand first match. Two sorcerers who both are contenders to take the entire thing. Sorcerer's whose talent have been praised amongst the 3 Great Clans"
"The first Six Eyes + Limitless Wielder in centuries Satoru Gojo versus the Greatest genius of the Kamo clan Today Futago Kamo. Will both Contestants enter the arena!"
As Gojo and I entered the field, I heard him click his tongue before he began to speak.
"To think I would be beating up a kid first thing today. Not like I'm against beating on the weak though"
"... Do you think I'm weak? I am grade 1, y'know. Plus, I killed 2 special grade curses, 1 of them was by myself."
"You aren't weak in general; you are weak by comparison. You are strong, but I-no Suguru and I are 'The Strongest'"
'...' Even though I knew he would probably look down on me. It's starting to tick me off.
"Anybody who has to keep proclaiming themselves as 'The Strongest' is not the strongest. But don't worry, I will show you."
"I'll show you who the real 'Strongest' is." While making a proclamation of strength, I pointed my thumb towards myself
Unconsciously, Futago made a pose. A pose known by any DBZ fan. A pose that would always make the result of an unknown battle certain.
[Image]