Chapter 7: Blocking "Playful Cloud" With Your Head?
"Oh? Haven't seen you in years—so your wings got hard now?"
Zenin Jinsuke looked genuinely surprised.
This brat had been a sorcerer killer for a few years and forgot his own place?
All of this was stuff Jinsuke had already played with back then.
"Come on—let me see how capable you are."
Zenin Jinsuke stepped back and crooked his finger at Toji.
If gentle didn't work, then it was time for force. He wanted to see where this dumb little brother got the nerve to say that.
"Heh. Fine—don't blame me for not giving you face."
Toji had resentment toward the brother who'd vanished for years. Between men, some conflicts can't be settled without a fight.
Today, he was going to test whether the brother who used to keep him underfoot could still beat him now.
Toji's eyes turned razor-sharp. He reached into the mouth of the cursed spirit wrapped around his body and pulled out a red three-section staff.
A special-grade cursed tool said to be worth five hundred million: Playful Cloud.
Gripping Playful Cloud with both hands, Toji bent his knees slightly and showed a feral grin.
"Don't lose too ugly!"
Boom!
In the next second, Toji became a blur, swinging Playful Cloud in a sideways smash toward Zenin Jinsuke. The crimson staff howled through the air.
Zenin Jinsuke's body paused slightly. A wave of heat rolled off him, his muscles swelling as veins rose across his skin.
Crack!
He thrust out one hand and caught the incoming Playful Cloud.
A tremendous force traveled into his arm, and Zenin Jinsuke felt his whole arm go numb.
As the only special-grade cursed tool with no innate technique effect, Playful Cloud possessed brutally overwhelming raw power.
The stronger the user, the stronger it became—this was a weapon meant for the strong.
In Toji's hands, Playful Cloud could unleash power enough to hunt down most special-grade cursed spirits.
Even though Zenin Jinsuke's arm went numb from the impact, his expression didn't change.
He suddenly exerted force. A terrifying strength surged back through Playful Cloud into Toji's hands. In an instant, Zenin Jinsuke ripped the weapon away and laughed.
"This is mine now."
He loved weapons like this—pure, violent force.
"Hmph!"
Toji snorted, clearly irritated. He reached into the cursed spirit again and pulled out a broad-bladed dragon-whisker greatsword.
Another special-grade cursed tool: the Soul-Splitting Blade.
It ignored physical defense and cursed energy defense, striking directly at the soul—and wounds it inflicted could not be healed.
…
For a moment they stared at each other in silence. Zenin Jinsuke swallowed when he saw what Toji was holding.
All good stuff. Every last bit of it going to Toji—what a waste.
Toji tightened his grip and became a blur again, launching another assault.
Zenin Jinsuke swung Playful Cloud one-handed, perfectly drawing out its strength. A three-section staff against a greatsword—easy.
Clang! Clang!!
Like a stroll in the garden, Zenin Jinsuke casually parried every strike.
"Toji, your attack patterns are still that easy to read."
He raised Playful Cloud and smashed it down at the charging Toji.
Toji's eyes tightened. He lifted the Soul-Splitting Blade to block.
Bang!
But Toji, his brain filled with resentment, forgot the structure of Playful Cloud.
He blocked the second section—then the third section, carried by momentum, snapped straight into Toji's head.
The violent impact made his skull ring.
Hiss—
Seeing blood run down Toji's head, even Zenin Jinsuke sucked in a sharp breath.
Using your head to tank a special-grade cursed tool… he'd call Toji a real warrior.
Toji staggered two steps, his vision swimming.
Thud!
In the next moment, he collapsed—knocked out cold.
"This…"
Zenin Jinsuke's eyes flashed with helplessness. He could only step forward and haul Toji up.
He knew this brother of his far too well. Toji looked calm and methodical, careful and steady.
But when certain things happened, he could lose his head and overlook a lot.
Like being too desperate to beat Jinsuke and losing his composure.
Or facing the newly awakened Gojo Satoru and letting pride push him into the same trap again.
"He's kind of like me back then."
Zenin Jinsuke smiled and shook his head.
Wasn't he the same kind of idiot back then? How could he even mock Toji?
Supporting Toji, Zenin Jinsuke hadn't gone far before an unwelcome visitor appeared.
"Yo. Long time no see~ So there are two of you now?"
Gojo Satoru, covered in blood, appeared in front of Zenin Jinsuke.
…
Zenin Jinsuke looked at Gojo Satoru and felt speechless.
Couldn't he have waited until they left?
Even if they left, Gojo probably would've found them anyway.
"You've got the wrong person."
Zenin Jinsuke pretended not to know him, while Toji beside him began to regain consciousness.
The powerful body and recovery granted by Heavenly Restriction meant that even after taking a full hit from Playful Cloud to the head, Toji could recover in a short time.
"It's you? How is that possible?"
Toji shoved Zenin Jinsuke aside, disbelief in his eyes.
How could a dead man appear again?
"Real as it gets. I feel great right now."
Gojo Satoru brushed his hair back. A cut on his forehead was already healing.
"Reverse Cursed Technique?"
"Correct!"
A look of obsession spread across Gojo Satoru's face. He spread his arms and lifted his head toward the sky.
The moment his throat was pierced, he abandoned all defense and focused entirely on attempting Reverse Cursed Technique.
Cursed energy was a mass of negative energy. No matter how strong, it couldn't regenerate flesh. Reverse Cursed Technique used the idea of negative times negative makes positive—turning cursed energy into positive energy and restoring the body.
In the razor-thin space between life and death, Gojo Satoru "leveled up," grasping the core of jujutsu: Reverse Cursed Technique.
Gojo Satoru floated in midair under the setting sun, intoxicated as he explained how he awakened it.
Toji, however, had run out of patience. Shaking his head, he pulled the Inverted Spear of Heaven from the cursed spirit's mouth and became a blur as he lunged to assassinate Gojo.
But Gojo dodged easily, still drunk on that strange state.
A counter-slash came—dodged again.
Gojo Satoru reclined in the air, eyes empty, as if he'd entered some kind of saintly state.
He had a feeling now…
No matter what happened, nothing could shake his emotions.
This world felt unbelievably exhilarating.
He even felt…
Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am supreme.
"Reverse Cursed Technique—Red!"
Hanging upside down, Gojo Satoru formed a blade-like gesture with two fingers. A compressed red sphere of cursed energy blasted toward Toji, and a terrifying repulsive force slammed into the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
An attack with at least twice the power of Blue hurled Toji into the ruins.
Toji climbed out without hesitation. From the cursed spirit's mouth came a chain, which he fastened to the spear's handle.
Swinging the Chain of a Thousand Miles, he spun the Inverted Spear of Heaven rapidly over his head.
Toji bared a savage grin. Looking at the man before him, intense fighting spirit surged in his chest—so much that even his resentment toward Jinsuke began to fade.
He knew it clearly: the man in front of him had very likely become the strongest sorcerer alive.
Now he had only one thought—defeat him.
Make everyone who ever mocked the brothers watch as the strongest sorcerer of the era was killed by a monkey with no cursed energy.
He would make them regret everything they'd done.
The inherent suppression of Limitless didn't affect him.
The attraction of Blue could be blocked at range with cursed tools, or simply avoided.
The repulsion of Red could be blocked with the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
Everything was under his control.
"Enough."
Zenin Jinsuke stepped between the two.
Knowing everything about Gojo Satoru, there was no way he would let Toji keep charging in to trade blows.
This fight had no need to continue at all.