Suddenly, on the massive AMC screen, the high-speed kinetic energy of the battle vanished, replaced by a chilling, static tension.
"No, wait!"
Leo Vance, playing the teenage Gojo Satoru, gasped. His "Six Eyes" dilated as he seemed to recall a critical detail. "That guy's target... it isn't me. It's Riko!"
Gojo spun around with a desperate urgency, looking toward the tomb entrance where Riko and Suguru Geto had disappeared. But in that exact microsecond, a bad feeling washed over him like a cold tide. He started to look back, but his intuition was a heartbeat too slow.
Andrew Stone's Toji Fushiguro, moving like a ghost that had stepped out of a nightmare, had already raised his blade. He lunged from the shadows of Gojo's blind spot.
In cinemas across the country, tens of millions of viewers watched this scene. The popcorn in their mouths was forgotten; even their breathing seemed to stop.
"Your intuition is sharp enough to detect me even when my hands are empty," Toji's gravelly voice-over analyzed inwardly. The camera tracked the gleaming edge of the Inverted Spear of Heaven. "And you possess the Six Eyes, so it's impossible for you to miss a physical strike... but the peculiar, jagged cursed energy seeping from this tool of mine... you didn't account for a blade that can nullify the Infinite."
The struggle between them underwent a hundred shifts in their respective minds, but to the audience, it happened in the blink of an eye.
The jagged blade of the Special Grade Cursed Tool pierced directly through Gojo Satoru's throat.
A fountain of crimson blood erupted, spraying across Gojo's silver hair and white school uniform.
"Whoosh!"
Andrew Stone's Toji was swift and decisive. He didn't just stab; he slid the blade downward from the neck, through the chest, all the way to the lower body, ending at the thigh.
He pulled the blade out with a sickening squelch and followed up by fiercely stabbing the thigh several more times, his movements robotic and lethal.
This scene, like a bolt from the blue, exploded in the cinema halls. The collective silence was shattered by a wave of pure, unadulterated shock.
AMC Universal CityWalk. Industry VIP Row.
A roar instantly erupted in the viewing hall! Even though the cast of Succession of Power were highly disciplined professionals, the sheer brutality of the scene forced a tremendous uproar.
"Holy crap!!!"
"Gojo Satoru is dead? No way! This is impossible!"
"What's going on?! Leo Vance just killed the protagonist?! But he's the lead in Season One! Did he win a resurrection match? Is there a Dragon Ball scenario here?"
"This is too brutal! I just counted, Andrew Stone cut him nine times!" Garrett shouted, his face pale. "That's not an action scene; that's a public execution! He's a monster!"
"Exactly," Sienna whispered, her eyes wide. "In a great film, the villain and the protagonist complement each other. But Toji Fushiguro is too ruthless... he says almost nothing and just does the work. We've never seen a villain like this in a domestic production. He's terrifyingly cool."
"I want my money back!" a fan in the back rows screamed, half-sobbing. "You can't kill Gojo! He's the 'Strongest'!"
While the audience believed Gojo Satoru wouldn't stay dead, logic dictated he had to appear in the "Future" timeline of Season One, the sheer cruelty of the scene gave them genuine psychological trauma.
In the lobby, the young manager who had been so excited to meet Leo earlier heard the commotion. She thought there was an earthquake or a fire. She rushed into the theater, only to see her idol, Leo Vance, lying in a pool of blood on the screen, his throat mangled.
She stood frozen in the aisle, her mouth agape. As a loyal Gojo-simp, her mind simply stopped working. Her legs felt like they were filled with lead. She didn't even notice the hundreds of people around her; she was trapped in the image of the silver-haired god being dismantled by a man in a black T-shirt.
On the screen, the cruelty reached its peak.
Gojo Satoru was already a bloody mess, gasping for air that wouldn't come.
"Bang!"
Toji Fushiguro retracted his blade and delivered a heavy leg sweep, knocking the semi-conscious Gojo to the ground.
"Pfft!"
Another stab. Toji raised the soul-eating blade and drove it through Gojo's forehead, directly into the brain.
"Special Grade Cursed Tool: The Inverted Spear of Heaven," Toji said grimly, flicking the blade so the blood slid off the steel. "Its effect is to forcibly deactivate any active technique. Even the Infinity is just air in front of this."
Toji looked down at the unmoving body, a shadow crossing his face. "I've... found my touch again."
The camera pulled back into a wide, high-angle shot. On the pristine academy grounds, Gojo Satoru's body was riddled with wounds. The blood pooled into a dark, shimmering puddle beneath his head.
The camera then zoomed in for a lingering close-up of Gojo's face. His eyes were wide open, looking toward the sky as if he had died with a thousand grievances. His silver hair was matted with red, scattered across his brow. Even as a "corpse," he resembled a beautiful, broken statue.
"I don't believe it! He can't die!" Lydia covered her mouth, tears brimming in her eyes. Her brain was having a civil war: her eyes said he was dead, but her logic said the story couldn't exist without him.
"Andrew Stone's portrayal of this character is flawless," Harrison Ford said, breaking his long silence. "That sense of absolute oppression... he is a professional killer. Gojo Satoru was ultimately too young and too careless."
Harrison Ford frowned slightly, his voice dropping into a more critical tone. "However, as it stands... although Leo Vance is the protagonist, the spotlight has been completely stolen by the villain. Andrew Stone is eating the frame. If Leo doesn't have a massive reversal soon, his acting is going to be seen as 'suppressed' by the senior."
Upon hearing this, the other actors pondered the statement. It was a common industry pitfall: if a protagonist isn't strong enough, a charismatic villain can rise to prominence and absorb the lead's popularity.
Everyone shook their heads, feeling a sense of pity. Leo Vance was the director; he had personally created a monster that was now stepping over his "corpse" to become the fan favorite.
"Sir Harrison," Robert Sterling (Suguru Geto) finally spoke up. His voice was calm, but his lips were twitching in a way that was hard to suppress. "I think we should 'let the bullets fly' for a while. Don't jump to conclusions just yet."
Harrison Ford didn't take offense at the rebuttal. He merely offered a small, master-like smile and remained silent. To him, the scene was over. The hero was dead.
However, seeing that silent, knowing smile from the veteran, the rest of the cast became even more convinced that Leo had been "overshadowed" by Andrew Stone's raw masculinity.
Robert Sterling looked back at the screen, his heart hammering against his ribs. He was the only one in the room who had seen the "Honored One" takes. He was the only one who knew that Leo Vance had intentionally let Andrew Stone reach a 100% "Villain Peak" just so the "Heroic Rebirth" would hit like a nuclear bomb.
Just you wait, Robert thought, his eyes gleaming with a manic anticipation. When Leo stands in the sky and calls himself the Honored One... you're all going to realize that Toji Fushiguro was just the appetizer.
The scene shifted. Toji Fushiguro was now walking toward the inner sanctum. The hunt for Riko and Suguru Geto was on.
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